Is the place where people just go crazy? Well... your self-styled detective is here if you would indulge him after all the flak he gives everyone else. I need to do this, lest I lose the opportunity to say "Well, I sure hope someone picks up that phone." like I did with not saying that Zodiark is the moon.

1. Ilberd is the Griffin
-I'm not looking at hacked models. His MO and personality fit Ilberd's situation, though.

2. Ilberd The Griffin will be, ironically, what mends our hostile relationship with Garlemald
-He's gonna get Omega up and running with Nidhogg's eyes and force us to work with Garlemald to take it down. Relations will improve (or at least hostilities will cease) as a result.

3. The Twelve are based on the Ascians
-If I remember right, there was a legend that an old incarnation of Rhalgr, or a Warrior of Light from a bygone era, eventually joined the Ascians. Maybe people had it the other way around; time tends to distort history. Perhaps, back when light and dark were in harmony, mortals walked alongside the Ascians, but Zodiark's seizing of power and Hydaelyn's subsequent banishment of Him, along with Her use of us as tools to keep Him locked away and the world in a state that "should not be," they now despise us instead. They're largely unseen in history, and so history has distorted their memory into the Twelve - our deities. "Knowledge colors expectation, and expectation colors perception" - we have forgotten their true forms, their status as "deities," and so created deities to give their abilities to. 12 gods, 12 Ascians... hmm.

Absolutely crazy!

4. Midgardsormr can't die because his aether is too alien to fully integrate into Hydaelyn's lifestream
-Like a voidsent. This explains the First Brood's infamous durability, but having been born and raised on Hydaelyn, they've integrated enough of Her aether to be vulnerable to death - it just takes a damn lot. Remember: the aether of dead things returns to the land, and if Midgardsormr's can't... well. Or maybe it's just a part of his pact with Hydaelyn.

My SAN would have to be eroded to say much more, because I'm very logical and dispassionate.