Something about the new Ascian lore

[Kreyd]

"Good" and "evil" are probably the wrong terms to describe Zodiark and Hydaelyn, because they are too relative.

Like I said, I think that Zodiark was created with the purpose of bringing the world into its old state and, as an allmighty ruler, keep it like this forever.
So that was what he started to do. Ruling and stagnating the world. And probably the best way of doing so, was by tempering the people. This is totally fine, if you are on the "everything should for ever be as it was!" fraction. But for people who thought different and then just got tempered, this doesn't sound very nice.

Hydaelyn probably could temper us all and rule over the world too, but she doesn't, because it's not her purpose she was summoned with. She wasn't summoned to be a ruling goddess, because swaping one allmighty god that rules you, with another one, didn't make sense. She was summoned to "free" the world from Zodiarks reign and give people the chance of going their own paths again.

Rather, I think the core conceptual difference is something closer to this:

Zodiark: We will survive and prevail, by ANY means necessary.

Hydaelyn: We should treasure tomorrow over today or yesterday, even if this means stepping down or fading away.

This plays into the overall themes of Shadowbringers very well. Not sacrificing what we have now (Ryne) for what we once had (Minfillia). Letting the world move forward, rather than trying to keep it the way it is (Vauthry) or going back to the past (the Ascians). That there's a difference between giving up and letting go.

Good point, I didn't even recognize that. ^^"

All in all, Hydaelyn vs. Zodiark, us vs. the Ascians, is less "good" vs "evil". It's more like "one way" vs. "another other way". "Looking forward" vs. "Looking backwards"

Oh of course we still have our own will and personality. We are not truly the 14th member right now and maybe we wont ever be it. (Wrote it a bit bad there sry) But I do find it interesting that if we are the reincarnation of that person that we still hold fast to the same principles. Seemingly the 14th left because they did not agree with the plan, maybe just like us they might have even had one that did not need sacrifice. Maybe it would have united the people and give them hope thus stoping the creation of these monsters out of their fear. The 14th also might have had their hands in creating Hydaelyn but even if they did not, he/she might have been an inspiration for those that did.

I think this is pretty clear if you take in account what Seto and the one Aumarotan said. Seto stated, that our and Adberts souls are very much alike. Yet we are different persons, due to it's not the soul alone that defines one person. It's their memories, their experiences and their feelings that do. The soul is just something like a core, everything else is build around. And the one Aumarotan stated, that our souls are clearly the shards of one person he used to know.
So our and Arberts (and probably the souls of a lot of heroes over the shards and ages) are part of the souls of one Aumarotan, probably the 14th council member Emet-Selch saw in us for a brief Moment.

I think this is are also the reasons a lot of people (me included) started to feel for the Ascians, especially for Emet-Selch, especially in his last moment when he asks us to at least "remember that they were here" to "look at those who walked before" and that in a world where things would've turned out different, we could've been friends. Because probably...we were...