Interpreting the Rising Poem

[Nalien]

Hmm... I took the pillars thing an entirely different way, granted I only had the one translation to work off and these things usually have multiple meanings anyway...

I took the Pillar of Strife to be Garlemald, with Ala Mhigo despairing underneath their heel...
Then I took the Pillar of Eddying Life (The Circle of Life?) to reference the rise of Primals... Specifically Garuda, given the mention of gales and the upcoming new dungeons... Basically, we live to die, and thus we struggle (tying back to strife) and ultimately pray for some form of salvation, allowing Primals to rise from that faith...

I still very much see the story going down the "Ascians want a world without death!" route (with that also likely being how things once were), and that bias is definitely showing with this interpretation... The Circle of Life makes bad things?! Gasp! If only we could have a world without conflict and death! Everything would be better, right? Right?!

[Fenral]

I still very much see the story going down the "Ascians want a world without death!" route (with that also likely being how things once were), and that bias is definitely showing with this interpretation... The Circle of Life makes bad things?! Gasp! If only we could have a world without conflict and death! Everything would be better, right? Right?!

I'm going to say you have it backwards, and that the Ascians simply want to end all mortal life. There's nothing to indicate the Ascians give a single flying [kupo] about us, neither individually nor as a whole, so why give us immortality when, already, the only thing that can kill them is fighting us to accomplish their objective? Eldibus is not that noble, and Lahabrea certainly wasn't.

I think it'll be more like, "You're all going to die anyway, so should you not die willingly so the original order can be restored?" It's the logical extreme of Louisoix and the Scions' ideology, and would present a conflict that someone might actually have to think about for more than two minutes.

Not that a world without suffering and death can't become some other faction's objective down the line. My money's on the Allagans.
(Also, Bleach ended last week, and, uh, yeah. We can now say that Tite Kubo did it. That's not a good thing.)

[PArcher]

I'm going to say you have it backwards, and that the Ascians simply want to end all mortal life

Well, its also possible that, to them, these are the same. Death exists because mortals do, so eliminating mortals = no more death! Is that the truth? Can't say at this point (I mean, Ramuh mused about Light and Dark splitting when man was created...he was wrong, but still)

[Alaltus]

I'm going to say you have it backwards, and that the Ascians simply want to end all mortal life. There's nothing to indicate the Ascians give a single flying [kupo] about us, neither individually nor as a whole, so why give us immortality when, already, the only thing that can kill them is fighting us to accomplish their objective? Eldibus is not that noble, and Lahabrea certainly wasn't.[/SIZE]

I think the Ascians have the same plan as FFIX Garland and Zodiark is Hydaelyn's counterpart like Terra was Gaia's. They pretty much spend all their time starting wars and trying to wipe out every living thing. So long as Hydaelyn and it's inhabitants thrive Zodiark will never be more than a husk of it's former self. Hydaelyn took Zodiark's souls/life so they are justified in any and all means. Or something like that.

[Cilia]

I think the Ascians have the same plan as FFIX Garland and Zodiark is Hydaelyn's counterpart like Terra was Gaia's. They pretty much spend all their time starting wars and trying to wipe out every living thing. So long as Hydaelyn and it's inhabitants thrive Zodiark will never be more than a husk of it's former self. Hydaelyn took Zodiark's souls/life so they are justified in any and all means. Or something like that.

That's... actually not dissimilar to my current hypothesis on the matter, which is that Zodiark (the moon) was once its own thriving world full of life and splendor until He became power-hungry and Hydaelyn banished Him.

Actually a bit supported by the ruined Zodiark statue up there and the Word of the Mother outright saying that Zodiark is the moon. Makes quite a bit of sense if you follow a certain logical pathway. (Hydaelyn = Goddess = Crystal = Celestial Body (Planet). Zodiark = [Dead] God = Crystal = [Dead] Celestial Body (Moon?). Yes, this is how I figured it out like a year and a half ago, long before Minfilia the Word of the Mother told us so.)

[Nalien]

I'm going to say you have it backwards, and that the Ascians simply want to end all mortal life.

Same thing, that's kinda what I meant. I'm not saying the Ascians want to make everyone immortal, I'm saying mortality is a error Hydaelyn created and they'd very much like to undo it to get back to the good old days... I'm sure I've explained this much better in the past, summer heat is not the best time for braining though... Hydaelyn created a cycle of death, thus facilitating life as we know it. Like you touched on, it perhaps explains why they can justify the Calamities/Rejoinings; "You're all going to die anyway, so why not die in a way that furthers our goals?"

Where it gets interesting is whether we're mortal or not... Since 2.2 it's seemed clear to me that the end point of the Echo (or at least a significant milestone in developing it) is immortality... I would expect Derplander to be here to go into that... They could be the Warriors of Light from Hydaelyn Dimension C-137, where sh*t hit the fan... Everyone died but them, and now Hydaelyn seems stupid while Elidibus seems compelling...

I'm certain I've likened this to Final Fantasy VIs ultimate plot in the past... Kefka went on a small rant about how stupid it is to live and rebuild, only knowing we'd die eventually... I expect something very similar out of Elidibus and Derplander... Not sure who'd give the cheesy "Death is OK because... Love!" rebuttal though... The cast we have all pretty much struggled with death at this point, but I'm not sure any have come to terms with it as a concept... They seem more likely to lean towards Elidibus' narrative IMO... I kind of hope they all do... Then we can have Garlemald steps in with "HERPDERP CONFLICT IS GREAT! MAKES US STRONGER! WE ACTUALLY LEARNED SOMETHING FROM THE ALLAGAN FALLING AND DON'T WANT TO LIVE FOREVER!", and then we nod with a meta "MMOs without conflict are boring!", and then Alphinaud is like "WTF is a MMO? Nevermind, you're right! If there was no conflict we'd never even have met Ysayle!", and then we friendship-punch Elidibus back to the moon...