Are the actual Ascians all but defeated?

[Morningstar1337]

People have noticed that the moon is getting bigger:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...ly_got_bigger/

And that reddit thread is already seeing the deja vu.

[CyrilLucifer]

I'm keeping my hopes down for Lahabrea. I want him to come back, so I don't want to be disappointed if he doesn't return.

However, the little glimmer of hope remains, refusing to be extinguished. I'm just a whole bunch of internal contradictions regarding the best character in the game. Yep.

[Nalien]

Lahabrea went through the dragon's eye, and is currently terrorizing Pelamar. If this is not canon, I'm making it canon.

As for the other Ascians. I doubt we'll see them for a while... The last... Three? To come at us have all ended up dead, despite their belief that death is off the table for them. Add to that the group we Akh Morn'd and yeah, I don't think they're going to want to stand toe to toe with us for a while... We are clearly dangerous, I think they're going to go back to working in the shadows rather than getting directly involved. Props to any of them that still have the balls to go up against us directly, but it was already stupid enough having the Twelfth Chalice go "Did you think this was over when you killed Lahabrea?!" to "How could you possibly defeat me after I acknowledged that you bested Lahabrea?! Oh... Right... I'm an idiot...", I really hope that kind of crap doesn't happen in the Main Scenario... It's fine for the bumbling Saturday morning cartoon villains that Job quests seem to draw, but if Altima comes rocking about in 3.2, all overconfident in her supposed immortality, only to act shocked when we kill her, I'm going to be somewhat peeved... They should be much less aggressive in their tactics now that we can clearly kill them...

Lahabrea is the only one I want to see make a comeback, because he clearly had some other goal in mind... He seemed to consider himself above his peers, granted they all do, but Nabrialis was speeding on the next Rejoining so he could be Zodiarks right hand, he still considered Zodiark greater than himself... Lahabrea gave a few subtle hints that he considered himself above even Zodiark. I mean, his area of interest was gifting people the ability to summon Primals unto themselves, I can totally see his endgame being to become Zodiark, rather than to revive him, which is the goal of the rest of the Ascians. Plus, if he has become Nidhoggs eye floater, we have the perfect chance to bring Shinryu into the game; Lahabrea compels Nidhogg to fight fire with fire. Thordan VII summoned a Primal unto himself, so lets have Nidhogg summon one too. The Primal Shinryu comes into being through Nidhogg, Omega reactivates to fulfill its tradition of hunting down Shinryu (Allag made it to best Bahamut here of course, but Shinryu and Bahamut would both be Celestial Dragon Primals, not a lot of differences when you think about it), in the chaos Lahabrea slips away to prepare our 3.5 encounter with Zodiark. We beat Lahadiark, rest of the Ascians finally give up, 4.0 can be something refreshing.

[SuperFlorinjin]

As for the other Ascians. I doubt we'll see them for a while... The last... Three? To come at us have all ended up dead, despite their belief that death is off the table for them. Add to that the group we Akh Morn'd and yeah, I don't think they're going to want to stand toe to toe with us for a while... We are clearly dangerous, I think they're going to go back to working in the shadows rather than getting directly involved. Props to any of them that still have the balls to go up against us directly

I always thought it a little strange how calmly they took the death of Nabrialis. If I was the Ascians, I wouldn't have just shrugged it off with a "maybe we should pick up the pace a bit". I would have assembled as many Ascians and any allies I could and stomped the WoL into a puddle. Instead they sat around until we got the Blessing of Light back and could lolnope one of their trump cards.

[WhiteArchmage]

Or maybe *darksteelfoil hat on* the other Ascians KNEW Nabri's plan was doomed to fail and only thought we'd kill his physical form and he'd get a scolding for acting too rashly. When we actually destroyed him, they were worried but thinking "at least he took care of our annoying little brother" and scrambled to their respective areas. Maybe different ascians are tasked with different areas of Hydaelin, and Nabriales just butted into Eorzea when we foiled Lahabrea, with Elidibus trying to "convert" us.

Oooor, most likely, the devs didn't want to use all the Ascians just yet, making it so we off one or two per x-pac...

[myahele]

Or maybe *darksteelfoil hat on* the other Ascians KNEW Nabri's plan was doomed to fail and only thought we'd kill his physical form and he'd get a scolding for acting too rashly. When we actually destroyed him, they were worried but thinking "at least he took care of our annoying little brother" and scrambled to their respective areas. Maybe different ascians are tasked with different areas of Hydaelin, and Nabriales just butted into Eorzea when we foiled Lahabrea, with Elidibus trying to "convert" us.

That's what I think. Somebody must have taught the tribes in Othard how to Summon primals. I'm pretty sure that an Ascien helped give rise to Garlemald via showing Midas(?) allagan magitek to reverse engineer.

Heck, maybe an Ascien is involved in convincing the rest of Sharlayan to remain neutral and leave Eorzea.

[Morningstar1337]

Heck, maybe an Ascien is involved in convincing the rest of Sharlayan to remain neutral and leave Eorzea.

That would means that an Ascian would have hired Sylvestre to assassinate Leveva's father. The thought is amusing, yet possible

[CyrilLucifer]

Or maybe *darksteelfoil hat on* the other Ascians KNEW Nabri's plan was doomed to fail and only thought we'd kill his physical form and he'd get a scolding for acting too rashly. When we actually destroyed him, they were worried but thinking "at least he took care of our annoying little brother" and scrambled to their respective areas. Maybe different ascians are tasked with different areas of Hydaelin, and Nabriales just butted into Eorzea when we foiled Lahabrea, with Elidibus trying to "convert" us.

Oooor, most likely, the devs didn't want to use all the Ascians just yet, making it so we off one or two per x-pac...

I can almost guarantee the bolded is true, however, what we also know is that Nabriales was aiding in the mortal-Primal pet project on Eorzea for some time. And he hated it. So he might have come to Eorzea because he had to, not because he necessarily wanted to. Nabriales is the funniest. He's so spiteful to everyone in every conversation and he's so casual about his spite; I love it. During the scene with him and Elidibus in 2.1, I really got the feeling Elidibus was something of the local Ascian babysitter, slapping hands when necessary and putting the others to bed when they've been bad, while offering just enough freedom to stop the tantrums.

I'm also betting the latter is true, about SE "saving" the Ascians to use them over time. I'm saying this every other thread, but we still have Pashtarot MIA. He's coming in 3.X guys, I swear. Guys? . . .Guys? I have other theories about why they are "saving" the Ascians, but most of them depend on how SE decides to handle Elidibus. I don't really want to derail the thread again, but I'm confident Elidibus isn't the end-all big-bad.

[Dalvy]

Just going solely based on general Ivalice lore... I think either Emet-Selch or Altima will be built up to be Elidibus' opponents. We know the Ascians all disagree with how best to bring Zodiark back, so there might be factions.

[Saiah]

After the loss of Lahabrea, Nabriales, Igeyorhm and possibly the unnamed Ascian that the Warriors of Darkness killed, it seems that the rest of the Ascians would be thrown into chaos, after suddenly losing so many of their allies so suddenly. It also kinda feels like Elidibus is no longer working to the same goal as the rest of them (if he ever was), he could even possibly be actively working against them.

There is a possibilty that Elidibus is not who he says he is. But I agree, the ascians have been suffering a string of crippling defeats. Mostly caused by poor organisation among themselves. (Lahabrea being rebellious, and Nabriales getting cocky and reckless) So its sensible to wonder what theyve got left. But im certain they got plenty of tricks left up their sleeves. But as I said before, I get the feeling Elidibus is working his own agenda at the moment, being as pragmatic as ever.