Thoughts on the Ascians so far?

[Iscah]

I kinda wish the Tiamat story would progress with her breaking free of the guilt and depression and bindings to go make amends and do positive things, help us destroy ascians if you're so upset that they tricked you into summoning bahamut.

That would be great. I think it needs to happen at a climax point for something - maybe for the finale of 5.0 or beyond. Sometime when we’re ready to strike a major blow against the Ascians, or maybe need rescuing from them. (And magic dragon telepathy can pick up the distress signal and decide it's time...)

[Zephanoa]

I think we are long overdue for a look in to who they are and what they are up to. I am glad that the liberation arcs are completely done and we are moving on to something else. We need to better understand the the rejoining and the calamities and what strings they like to pull.

[ChaoticCrimson]

The thing with the Ascians, for me anyway, is that while we have learned a fair amount about them and their schemes, there's still a lot more that seems like we don't know. We don't know specifically what pertains to the resurrection of Zodiark, beyond the fact that it involves weakening Hydaelyn to initiate the "Rejoinings" by sowing the seeds of strife and chaos, primarily behind the scenes. This could "break the boundaries" that have apparently imprisoned Zodiark, certainly, but I think there's a lot more to it than that, as well as to what the true plans of the Ascians are. That said, i have a feeling these last couple patches of the current expansion are going to see the Ascians come into more prominence in the scope of the story, and I suspect they will finally be putting into action all the pieces on the board they've been carefully placing all this time.

As for completely destroying an Ascian, that remains a very difficult and potentially costly endeavor. The ones we already destroyed were careless and underestimated their opponents, which was a factor in their demise. We lost Moenbryda to finish off Nabrieles with her device that uses tremendous reserves of aether, and we got lucky to have appropriate tools in the form of Nidhogg's eyes in our/Thordan's possession to dispose of Igeyorhm and Lahabrea. I doubt that Elidibus and the remaining higher-ranking Ascians are going to be so reckless, and will be far more dangerous to deal with once they enact their plans in earnest.

[MetalSnakeXI1]

The thing with the Ascians, for me anyway, is that while we have learned a fair amount about them and their schemes, there's still a lot more that seems like we don't know. We don't know specifically what pertains to the resurrection of Zodiark, beyond the fact that it involves weakening Hydaelyn to initiate the "Rejoinings" by sowing the seeds of strife and chaos, primarily behind the scenes. This could "break the boundaries" that have apparently imprisoned Zodiark, certainly, but I think there's a lot more to it than that, as well as to what the true plans of the Ascians are. That said, i have a feeling these last couple patches of the current expansion are going to see the Ascians come into more prominence in the scope of the story, and I suspect they will finally be putting into action all the pieces on the board they've been carefully placing all this time.

As for completely destroying an Ascian, that remains a very difficult and potentially costly endeavor. The ones we already destroyed were careless and underestimated their opponents, which was a factor in their demise. We lost Moenbryda to finish off Nabrieles with her device that uses tremendous reserves of aether, and we got lucky to have appropriate tools in the form of Nidhogg's eyes in our/Thordan's possession to dispose of Igeyorhm and Lahabrea. I doubt that Elidibus and the remaining higher-ranking Ascians are going to be so reckless, and will be far more dangerous to deal with once they enact their plans in earnest.

I'm sure by now the other Ascians won't fall so easily for the Auracite trick again(and it's kinda ironic that Lahabrea was killed by the very thing he instructs people to summon....a primal xD)

So unless they're willing to make more sacrifices like what poor Moenbryda did,they gotta find another way to kill the ascians for good which is easier said than done cuz Thordan had to be both a primal and in possession of Nidhogg's eye to kill Lahabrea and that's already a ginormous amount of aether being in use here

[Kallera]

I'm sure by now the other Ascians won't fall so easily for the Auracite trick again(and it's kinda ironic that Lahabrea was killed by the very thing he instructs people to summon....a primal xD)

So unless they're willing to make more sacrifices like what poor Moenbryda did,they gotta find another way to kill the ascians for good which is easier said than done cuz Thordan had to be both a primal and in possession of Nidhogg's eye to kill Lahabrea and that's already a ginormous amount of aether being in use here

"Initiate Soul Extraction! HA! Success!"



I'd be cool if that was involved in some manner of slaying one by extracting it and putting it in something lethal.

[ObsidianFire]

There are different levels of Ascians and they take different amounts of aether to kill for good. You end up killing several black mask Ascians in the SMN quests with nothing but Deathflare, for instance (and by having them be away from dead bodies they can flee too.).

But the red mask Ascians are on another level, so...

[Ryaz]

The Ascians in my mind are overly melodramatic and hammy. That is all. The emperor was right in saying they're overly fond of their own voices.

But as others have said, I think a lot of people have just grown weary of them. They're playing the long game, which is fine, but there's so little variation in their characters that they get boring. There's only so many arrogant speeches you can take. It begins to feel really dragged out.

[Tizzy_Tormentor]

I want to take the Ascians seriously, but at the rate we just kick their asses over and over again, I would say they are about as threatening as Team Rocket, as in they show up, only to be smacked around a bit and leave, rinse and repeat.

Maybe they will go into them as much more of a threat in the coming story, but right now they just kind of seem like big bad wannabes.

[MistakeNot]

I want to take the Ascians seriously, but at the rate we just kick their asses over and over again, I would say they are about as threatening as Team Rocket, as in they show up, only to be smacked around a bit and leave, rinse and repeat.

Maybe they will go into them as much more of a threat in the coming story, but right now they just kind of seem like big bad wannabes.

Big bad wannabes who are behind most of the threats and problems we face....
Most of the primals in the game can be traced back to an Ascian teaching someone how to summon the primal. Including Bahamut himself, and thus by extension both the Fourth and Seventh Umbral Calamity.
Were we to look carefully I am sure we would find them to have been involved with many of the wars and disasters of the past.
In short, without the Ascians' meddling the story in the game would be very, very different.

The Ascians are a major threat, we just don't see much of what they do - only the results.

[Iscah]

Just a reminder that the original poster is only up to post-Heavensward and things we learned in 4.4 should only be talked about vaguely.