The Ascian Theory

[HeroLogarin]

Let us say there's someone that hates the world and wants it destroyed without faltering on that desire.

This was just a thought of the darkest desire possible, a hypothetical . when I add it to the Theory I'll make sure to change it so its a little more clear. Was looking for dark desires, thoughts, and wishes that would be a catalyst for the spell/incantation/magic that he would use to turn those that would be worthy in his eye's to fight for him while he's imprisoned.

[Belhi]

There is a specific number of Overseers for a reason though it would be spoilery to discuss why. Elidibus is a special case because he is an Emissary. Again, from later MSQ I get the feeling this role has a specific purpose. Both Zodiark and Hydaelyn have 'rules' they have to work by. They have to generally work through their respective agents.

We do learn from the SMN quest that lesser Ascians are individuals who have been 'raised up' by Ascian Overlords. We also learn that lesser Ascians don't have the complete set of abilities their masters have.

I feel this will again come back to the Echo. We honestly have no idea what the world was like before the first Era. We barely know anything about that period of time. Even where the MSQ is there is a lot not known and many things that have been revealed raise more questions. For the Ascians though, regardless of their age, I think originally they were individuals like the WoL with the Echo who for some reason or another chose to follow Zodiark. Likewise I suspect that realistically many of their abilities come as much from having a much greater mastery over than any on team Hydaelyn seem to have.

[HeroLogarin]

Hmm interesting.

it's looking like I'll need to play through the MSQ and the side quests to get more info. Thank you guys for helping me and letting me know what's known right now, this will help tremendously

[HeroLogarin]

Here is a good question that i don't know how much it will affect what I will find in the game. When the game was remade as Realm Reborn, did it keep everything from the 1.0 version of the game or were there quests that got scrapped that would have Ascian lore in them?

[myahele]

Here is a good question that i don't know how much it will affect what I will find in the game. When the game was remade as Realm Reborn, did it keep everything from the 1.0 version of the game or were there quests that got scrapped that would have Ascian lore in them?

There is atleast one plot point from 1.0 that had ascien involvement that we see a continuation later in the game

[Keever]

[...]

Quests that existed in 1.0 are no longer available. Events in 1.0 happened 5+ years in Eorzea's past from our current perspective. I mean, a big chunk of the population died or was relocated, and the landscape was significantly altered during the Calamity.

Some of the job-specific questlines and the like were semi-retooled and reused to fit in as the 2.0 job quests, but the main scenario, which features some Ascian involvement, is no longer accessible except through watching Youtube recordings.

[Keramory]

As a 1.0 player since Alpha, I can't really say there was much to go on aside a really...reallly cool cutscene. If lore is your pleasure you can easily look up the tid bits from 1.0 on the subject for reference.

Speaking of lore in general and without spoiling anything...it drives me nuts how this game handles lore. Some things they'll shoot volumes out for small unimportant aspects that are a single patch worthy, and then on others...like say the whole bloody story with our main enemies, next to nothing considering the years its been. I just pray they dont have a blab all about origin moment before the conclusion like they seem to do with recent events.

[MikeWW]

The Ascians were given fetch quests by Zodiark, and they are getting 4k gil and some xp for each of the fetch quests they do. They don't like grinding all the fetch quests, but they have to do it if they want to access beast tribe quests to level up their crafters.

[Enkidoh]

Here is a good question that i don't know how much it will affect what I will find in the game. When the game was remade as Realm Reborn, did it keep everything from the 1.0 version of the game or were there quests that got scrapped that would have Ascian lore in them?

The Ascian appearances in 1.0 were... so few you could count them on several fingers of one hand. There was firstly one named Travanchet in the original 1.0 Limsa storyline who was visibly walking around in the form of an elezen man, but he was easily identified as an Ascian because he had the Ascian theme music (Without Shadow), muttered arrogant comments along the lines of "power such as this does not belong in the hands of your kind") and used the gloomy darkness-vortex type magic Lahabrea and his ilk would later use in ARR.

The second occurrence of Ascians where they were actually identified as such was during the Path of the Twelve storyline in Thanalan where the player and their Path Companion, after interfering in an Ixal-amalj'aa confrontation over crystals, encountered a wraith-like 'bestial' Ascian, which did little but screech evilly and hover in the background ominously for a few seconds before disappearing. An npc with the player at the time actually identified them as an Ascian and some sylphs who were also present said "These ones are much evil! These ones have much power!" And yet it was so easily fooled by a simple sylph invisible spell.

Interestingly the model used for the 'bestial' Ascian in this scene has since been recycled as the 'Ascian Prime' form in the Aetherochemical Research Facility battle in Heavensward, although I don't take that to mean anything more than just simple pragmatic recycling of graphic models and not hints at something deeper (Ferne stated at the first Fanfest that Travanchet and his storyline were retconned and are no longer canon at least).

Either way, as far as I was aware that was the sum total of Ascian appearances in 1.0, although I have heard that there was a possible sighting of another during the Ul'dah storyline, but I am unsure about this (there were no appearances of Ascians in the Gridanian storyline which is where I started in 1.0 so I have no idea if that is true or not).

[HeroLogarin]

Wow! This is great info! I'll start searching this weekend for the videos and see what I can find. I'm also going to add the points that you guys mentioned into the doc as bullets so I can organize it properly with more info that I find in gameplay and videos.

Thank you so much for all your help!