Post-Palace Questions (SPOILERS)

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

So ends the tragic tale of Edda Pureheart. But her parting words raised a few flags that got me thinking:

Based on what we know/understand so far:

People like Louisoix, Ysale, Thordan, and the Heavensward prove that the line between mortal and primal existence is pretty thin. Strong enough will or emotion, with the proper catalysts can allow someone to willingly become a primal.

Edd mentions meeting "a robed figure" moments after cheating death back in Tam Tara. While that makes for a long list of suspects, the only robed figures we know with notably dark intent and the ability to cheat death are the Ascians.

On floor 50, given her size/altered appearance and demeanor, plus what we know of her broken dreams, is is safe to assume Edda Blackbosom was effectively a primal? And that the Ascians are capable of/would even try to manipulate the dead/dying against us?

[myahele]

I'd rather it not be Ascien involvement, but it does seem likely since we don't have a big list of robed figures offering up power to individuals with the express purpose of destruction and/or killing us. There's always lambs of Dalamud cultists due to their association of reviving the dead, dealing with Voidsent and Gelmorran/Amdapori ruins. They also wear robes.

That being said, Asciens (Lahabreas underlings?) did manipulate Lady Amandine into doing the things she did to preserve her beauty ... and turning into a Succubus in the end. Maybe was more of a success?

I don't think she's a primal though. We see her ghost (not sure if we can after beating this) in town. Perhaps a "shade" living off the aether of adventurers trapped there? One thing to keep in mind though is that there are other dead NPCs we've met that we kill throughout the dungeon, so she just might simply be the most powerful of them all?

It does seem that there's a bigger bad out there that's responsible for creating PotD.

[Anonymoose]

So far, I've taken it as a reference to a black masked underling just messing around trying to cause general discord. Plenty of off-screen black mask machinations haven't really amounted to anything big. Lady Amandine's killing spree, the kids in Little Ala Mhigo trying to summon Rhalgr, and wasn't there also talk of them visiting the other camps in Thanalan? That would explain why the Alacran summoned voidsent, and why the Corpse Brigade have been behaving strangely. For all we know, there are dozens of times a black mask has just wandered in and nudged someone in a direction that they were considering, but would otherwise have abandoned as too evil, too dark, too risky, too just plain wrong.

EDITI went back and made sure to bold/red the "so far", lol. This isn't a very strong inkling, just my first impression. Robed figures and masked men often turn out to be Ascians, but when that's all you have to go on, how hard is it for that to be a red herring? (Well, that and the Darkness, obv.) The robed figure could simply mean "The Mage" (and "The Mage" could also refer to an Ascian! /crosseyed). We'll see where it goes from Floor 50 to 100!

[MilesSaintboroguh]

For Edda to even be a primal, someone or something would have to wish it into reality and there would have to be aether/crystals involved. I don't see any of that.

[kuma_aus]

I'm guessing the robed figure behind Deep Dungeon Edda is Paiyo Reiyo. After his failure at Tam Tara I'm sure he started to turn evil. Getting kidnapped by Edda probably sped up his plans as he had a host to control for his evil purposes. I'm still working on this theory but the #1 reason this is most likely the case is that he's a Lalafell and therefore 99.9% certain to be evil.

[Rocl]

Lalafell racism aside, my immediate thought was Paiyo Reiyo (after Ascian) but then him showing up in the post-Palace quest made me reconsider.

[Nestama]

Hmmm. The more I think about it, the less likely it seems to be an Ascian. The fact that Edda said 'robed' instead of 'hooded' is what's throwing me off a little. Someone in another thread mentioned that Edda says Wizard/Warlock in French.

This lead me to think of Galvanth the Dominator, the King of Gelmorra (or maybe Ak-Inik and/or Ak-Mena, whoever they were).

[kuma_aus]

Lalafell racism aside, my immediate thought was Paiyo Reiyo (after Ascian) but then him showing up in the post-Palace quest made me reconsider.

Well I think everything about Paiyo is meant to throw us off into thinking it isn't him. We're so used to "It was Ascians" all along, that is what most people think about. We don't 100% know what happened to him after the failure at Tam Tara normal, but after your very livelihood is taken away from you, I think you can turn a little sour. Who's to say he wasn't studying void magic or something to do with what's going on in Deep Dungeon?

Also in the final quest, Paiyo specifically mentions seeing the Avera's head voidsent creature. "Every night when I close my eyes I can still see them. Edda with her ghastly grin... And that abomination she dared to call Avere." is what he says. Where did he see Avere's head voidsent? In hard mode, after you free him, he runs away to go "outside". That's just his words but if he really ran away from the dungeon, he shouldn't really have seen the head unless he got a sideways glance at it while escaping. If he really was terrified, I don't think he would waste time just looking around to see what was happening, if it were me I would just assume the worst and any second left in the place could result in my death which I only just narrowly avoided.

What does he say when he sees Edda's ghost in the final of Tam Tara hard? He says that he's sorry. What is he so sorry about? That he wasn't a good enough friend? I think he's just guilty over what kind of things he did to Edda after she fell.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

What if the WOL simply told him about the freaky head? I'm sure the WOL explained what happened after the events of Tam Tara Deepcroft before Edda's ghost shows up.

[kuma_aus]

What if the WOL simply told him about the freaky head? I'm sure the WOL explained what happened after the events of Tam Tara Deepcroft before Edda's ghost shows up.

Every night he "can still see them". He knows what the head looks like. If Paiyo isn't the one behind Deep Dungeon Edda, then he could have caught a glance while escaping. But if he is the one behind it then it can be possible since there is a gap between the second last boss and the last boss of Tam Tara Hard for Paiyo to try out what ever plan he had on Edda.