Post-Shadowbringers Speculation

[LineageRazor]

A McGuffin for story telling. Having asked us to remember them in his huge form would not have the same impact

It's not out-of-nowhere. Emet-Selch mentions (I think during the scene where he's thanking Varis for all the clones) that he CAN fashion a body for himself at will, but the clones are much more convenient.

As you say, it's likely that he assumes human form at the end in order to evoke a bit of empathy (both in the WoL and in the players of the game), but it's a power he's known to possess.

[Iscah]

So... rewatching the scene, the normal mechanism with auracite is that they trap the Ascian soul inside it, then destroy the entire thing.

Hades wasn't sucked into it, and pulled out the shards - this may or may not have been deliberate on the Scions' part if they changed their approach and were trying to immobilise him rather than capture him.

He's pulled out all the auracite shards by the time we hit him with the blade of light.

So whatever has happened exactly, it's not the same as it was with Nabriales and Igeyorhm - whether it means he partly survived somehow, or just that he could hold together long enough for those parting words.


Edit: there's also a curious "glittering" effect right at the end of the scene as everyone walks off, that isn't too different from Hades' dissolving soul... whatever exactly we could read into that. Still alive, or free at last?

[EledriOnline]

I believe that future content will include a Garlean civil war, and that we'll join forces with members of the Populares forces to liberate colonies and drive the Garleans into their own national borders. Meanwhile we'll also have to deal with Zenos trying to pick the Scions off in his attempt to continue his hunt. I believe that the hardline Garleans will team with Elidibus' new Warriors of Light and attempt to restart the Black Rose project.

I also believe that before all is said and done, Zenos will be helping us defeat Elidibus' plot, but only if we agree to an ultimate fight to the death after it's done. I think that throughout the story, we'll have encounters with Zenos, that we'll find ways to either delay or escape, and his frustration will lead to this final bargain.

[YianKutku]

It's textually said that the illusions Emet-Selch have created would vanish with time during the last few cutscenes. Basically, he wasn't powering his illusions directlyt

ten characters

Which ties into something I've been wondering: specifically, what is going on with Akadaemia Anyder?

Is Emet-Selch recreating a disaster that occurred within the Akadaemia back in "his time", ie the escape of dangerous fauna and flora? Or is this a sort of emergent behaviour from the philosophical zombies of current Amaurot? When the Amaurotine at the end summons Quetzalcoatl, is it an actual Amaurotine pouring their aether into summoning an actual Guardian Force, or is it a bit of Emet-Selch's creation magick aether simulating the summoning of a Guardian Force that also happens to be Emet-Selch's aether taking another shape?

And the escape of Archaeotania: is it an actual dangerous beast, or Emet-Selch's aether doing its own thing?

It's not out-of-nowhere. Emet-Selch mentions (I think during the scene where he's thanking Varis for all the clones) that he CAN fashion a body for himself at will, but the clones are much more convenient.

As you say, it's likely that he assumes human form at the end in order to evoke a bit of empathy (both in the WoL and in the players of the game), but it's a power he's known to possess.

Yeah, Emet-Selch chose that particular form to show us for some reason, since he took over some unfortunate person from the First (adding one more murder to his list) and shaped their body to his own.

[LineageRazor]

Which ties into something I've been wondering: specifically, what is going on with Akadaemia Anyder?

Is Emet-Selch recreating a disaster that occurred within the Akadaemia back in "his time", ie the escape of dangerous fauna and flora? Or is this a sort of emergent behaviour from the philosophical zombies of current Amaurot? When the Amaurotine at the end summons Quetzalcoatl, is it an actual Amaurotine pouring their aether into summoning an actual Guardian Force, or is it a bit of Emet-Selch's creation magick aether simulating the summoning of a Guardian Force that also happens to be Emet-Selch's aether taking another shape?

And the escape of Archaeotania: is it an actual dangerous beast, or Emet-Selch's aether doing its own thing?

The impression I got from the Main Scenario is that Amaurot and everything in it, including the two dungeons, are Emet-Selch's creations. There's no actual Amaurotians involved, just simulacra shaped like them. They're real enough to be an actual, lethal threat, but they're not real - and now that Emet-Selch is gone, the faux-Amaurot will fade away over time (but a long enough time that it will always be there for gameplay purposes).

The summoning of Quetzacoatl in Amaurot features a simulated Amaurotian sacrificing his simulated life to create a simulated GF. It was likely Emet-Selch's goal to showcase the kind of selfless sacrifices his people made in the pre-Sundering days. Perhaps he had planned to show us that dungeon while he was still alive, but the opportunity never presented itself - so instead, we wound up investigating it after his death.

Yeah, Emet-Selch chose that particular form to show us for some reason, since he took over some unfortunate person from the First (adding one more murder to his list) and shaped their body to his own.

Emet-Selch explicitly does not need to take over a person in order to have a physical body. He does it with the clones on the Source because it's easier and more convenient. Did he do so on the First? That is never made clear. Certainly, he does not hold the lives of the First's residents in high regard - but he WAS trying to curry favor with the Warrior of Light and his allies. That could well be worth spending the extra effort to create a solid body from Aether (as the Scions themselves did), rather than co-opt some shmuck. Or some shmuck's corpse.

He might have killed someone for his current body, but there's a lot of reasons why he might not have. And whether he did or not, the body he presented to us in his dying scene probably WAS created from nothing (or might not even have been a solid body at all), given that he cast off his flesh during the fight. Seems like a waste of effort to put it back on again, if it was even in any condition to be put on again!

[YianKutku]

Emet-Selch explicitly does not need to take over a person in order to have a physical body. He does it with the clones on the Source because it's easier and more convenient. Did he do so on the First? That is never made clear. Certainly, he does not hold the lives of the First's residents in high regard - but he WAS trying to curry favor with the Warrior of Light and his allies. That could well be worth spending the extra effort to create a solid body from Aether (as the Scions themselves did), rather than co-opt some shmuck. Or some shmuck's corpse.

He might have killed someone for his current body, but there's a lot of reasons why he might not have. And whether he did or not, the body he presented to us in his dying scene probably WAS created from nothing (or might not even have been a solid body at all), given that he cast off his flesh during the fight. Seems like a waste of effort to put it back on again, if it was even in any condition to be put on again!

He took over a person and shaped their body into his own.

[EdwinLi]

I believe that future content will include a Garlean civil war, and that we'll join forces with members of the Populares forces to liberate colonies and drive the Garleans into their own national borders. Meanwhile we'll also have to deal with Zenos trying to pick the Scions off in his attempt to continue his hunt. I believe that the hardline Garleans will team with Elidibus' new Warriors of Light and attempt to restart the Black Rose project.

I also believe that before all is said and done, Zenos will be helping us defeat Elidibus' plot, but only if we agree to an ultimate fight to the death after it's done. I think that throughout the story, we'll have encounters with Zenos, that we'll find ways to either delay or escape, and his frustration will lead to this final bargain.

I don't expect Zenos to appear until the FInale of 6.0 after we defeat Zodiark with Hydaelyn's help.

At that moment when both are at their weakest, Zenos may consume both of them this setting up the True Finale in 6.3 and one heck of a super long cutscene for the storyline's finale that may result in both Zodiark and Hydaelyn's death to make certain Zenos does not have a chance to return ever again.

The consequences for this result is still out of my knowledge but if the battle with Zenos result in a Epic battle that causes a Great Calamity that force all Shards to fuse into the Source just to prevent the World from imploding and/or exploding, I expect 6.4 and beyond may involve a New World that has no memories of Zodiark, Ascians, Hydaelyn, and Warrior of Light thus WoL continues living in a New World that still maintains all lands we know current but a bunch of new Continents been due to the New World adding all lands from all Shards that fused with the Source creating much larger World but now WoL is in that position where no one remembers the old world nor him or her just like how Emit was when the Sundering happened. However, the books that record the WoL's adventures survived but are considered Fictional Stories the "authors" came up with.

Then 6.55 may end it with WoL preparing to go on a new Adventure by joining a Expedition into the New Continents setup by the Adventurer Guild and Eorzean Alliance after going through 6.4 and 6.5 MSQ to accept his or her position in the New World thus setting up Season 2 storyline to be a "New Adventure" for 7.0+ contents (aka lvl 91+ contents).

[KageTokage]

snip

Honestly, I'm expecting/hoping Zenos is going to be the "fake" finale to 6.0 at best (Like Innocence was) where narrative wise, everyone thinks the conflict is going to be over but then some other problem rears its ugly head.

Hopefully something set in motion by Elidibus so he can give the whole Ascian story arc its proper closure.

Zodiark's destruction really does seem like the only way the Ascian threat can be truly nullified, though, since even if Elidibus falls, there are still countless sundered Ascians who'd be laboring towards his revival regardless. I think the biggest question is how we're going to get rid of him when he's still incomplete and the notion of a complete rejoining actually happening seems a little absurd, especially when it would basically nullify everything we labored towards in ShB (Unless they come up with a way for it to happen that won't result in the destruction of the worlds/lives in the shards).

[EdwinLi]

Honestly, I'm expecting/hoping Zenos is going to be the "fake" finale to 6.0 at best (Like Innocence was) where narrative wise, everyone thinks the conflict is going to be over but then some other problem rears its ugly head.

Hopefully something set in motion by Elidibus so he can give the whole Ascian story arc its proper closure.

Zodiark's destruction really does seem like the only way the Ascian threat can be truly nullified, though, since even if Elidibus falls, there are still countless unsundered Ascians who'd be laboring towards his revival regardless. I think the biggest question is how we're going to get rid of him when he's still incomplete and the notion of a complete rejoining actually happening seems a little absurd, especially when it would basically nullify everything we labored towards in ShB (Unless they come up with a way for it to happen that won't result in the destruction of the worlds/lives in the shards).

I suspect there is a way to rejoin all Shards without causing a Calamity but the Ascians cannot see it because of Zodiark's Temper prevents them from seeing it as Emit did admit all Ascians are Temper by Zodiark when he was summoned even himself.

We already know Temper people tend to only focus on actions that will only benefit their "God" and for Ascians, the Calamity benefit their God by both rejoining the shards and weakening Hydaelyn.

A method to rejoin the Shard to the source without a Calamity most likely will not harm Hydaelyn and keep her strong enough to Guarantee Zodiark's defeat this time without casuing another Sundering.

[ObsidianFire]

The problem is that we've never seen a Rejoining happen that doesn't involve an entire world's worth of beings being killed. The problem with Rejoinings are not the Calamities. The lives lost in a Calamity are small potatoes compared to the lives lost when a Shard's aether is collapsed into the aether of the source. We've also seen that Hydaelyn views the lives on the Shards as being as precious to her as lives on the Source are. The entire reason Solus is viewed as being wrong is ShB is that the WoL and the Scions view all life as being worth saving, no matter how "partial" that life is. A Rejoining fundamentally results in life being destroyed.

As a side note, the Shards are not like... other Continents that can just be grafted onto the Source. They are exact replicas of the Source that occupy the same "space" as the Source does, just at a different "dimentional frequency". When a Rejoining happens, the Shard still occupies the same space as the Source does, but as aether on the same "dimensional frequency" of the Source. The very reason why the Source is called the Source is that it is the original dimension everything else is based on and therefor is never destroyed when a Rejoining happens. The other Shards always are.

We also don't know if Hydaelyn really is the one keeping the Shards sepprate from the Source. It could very well be the case that killing Hydaelyn would not change how the Shards and Source function.