Ok, after being done with the MSQ (still towards 5.0)

Figures my wild guess about the Ascians being involved in the empire since Solus' time was spot on, although I figured Solus would have an ascian ADVISOR rather than being one himself; not just that, the way he said "it's not Allag but it's fine" means this Ascian's been around this the time of Allag, if they were not responsible for Allag itself.

This is...unexpected but it does open some possibilities come 5.0; I used to believe we'd face an Ascian-possesed Varis at the end of 5.0 but this opens the possibility of an ALLIANCE with Varis. He's obviously not happy with the shadow men running HIS country as if he wasn't the Emperor but a figurehead, which at this point he IS. It's really making me think Varis will offer us a grudging alliance to take HIS empire back from the Ascians, perhaps we're seeing Solus as a main-antagonist-preview as much as Zenos and Thordan were. I for one can't WAIT to kick their aether in.

Little side-note: Wonder WHO is the Ascian calling himself Solus. They tend to be named after the Scions of Light from XII and so far I think we only have Lahabrea, Nabriales, Altima, Emet-Selch and Igeyorhm, with Elidibus being a not-quite outlier being named after Zodiark's Host/Summoner in Tactics


About MSQ itself
Was pleasantly not surprised when Sui-no-Sato and Hingashi refused to join the Alliance, the first being an isolationist state that keeps itself safe underwater while the 2nd has its own policies about keeping its independence, joining the Domans and the Steppe would send a very powerful mesage to the Empire and Thavnair that the first wouldn't be too happy about (we don't know enough about Thavnair to know if they'd CARE). I'm STILL waiting for the Embassies in Kugane to become plot-relevant.

More Magnai and Sadu is always welcome, while I'm not a fan of "hatred turned into love" I do find myself ocasionally thinking "just <kupo> already!" whenever they're having one of their fights.

About the Patch image, I felt lied to; was so sure we'd run into Alphi and the group after The Burn but I guess it does make sense we completely missed them. Pretty much every person in that poster was missing until the stinger, and Maxima wasn't even there!

About the voice...part of me wants to believe it's Arbert, another wants to believe it's Zodiark


Little thing about The Burn
First time I ran it, everyone was puzzled about wth Allagan ruins were doing there, my response basically boiled down to: "It's always Allag"