The Exarch and Zodiark

[Crushnight]

So a few things are bothering me about this;
-Calamities happen as the shard is being rejoined with its aether being shoved back into the source
-Zodiark is said to only need 1 more rejoining/calamity to have enough power to free itself from its bindings
-The Exarch is from a future where the 8th Calamity/rejoining happened
-This future is far ahead of when the 8th calamity took place
-Emet-Selch said they were going to use the existing life on the source to bring back the Amourtines that sacrificed themselves to save their world.

So i have to ask ;

1. Why does The Exarch have no recollection of Zodiark who should have been freed?
2. Why was life allowed to carry on? (since Ironworks were very much still going)
3. Are the Acians being outright lied to by Zodiark? they are tempered after all
4. Has Zodiark gained a will of its own beyond it's original purpose?
5. Are more rejoinings actually needed beyond the 8th?

[Edax]

-Zodiark is said to only need 1 more rejoining/calamity to have enough power to free itself from its bindings

Who said this?

[Ardox]

Who said this?

No one. That's a therory that got traction because Elidibus said they were about to get the "final key" to free their god. Some speculated it was one last rejoining, but there's absolutely no proof other than this single mention

[Absimiliard]

It would make very little sense for Zodiark to be "freed" after one more rejoining anyway. Wasn't he what Hydaelyn actually sundered? The act of splitting him, the will of the planet, then split the world itself into so many shards.

To the OP:

1.) The Exarch likely never even heard of Zodiark until coming into contact with Emet-Selch.
2.) Life continued because Zodiark was still sundered and bound.
3.) There's no telling, but I suppose it's possible. It's equally possible that the Ascians have been drawing their own conclusions this entire time.
4.) We don't know. If other primals are indications, probably not. The only primal known to have achieved a will of its own is Odin, and even he is still constrained by his original purpose. He merely turned from utter destruction to seeking his own destruction through honorable combat.
5.) More rejoinings are definitely needed. Part of the Ascians' plan also involves restoring their sundered compatriots to their original selves. This would require reintegration of as many shards as possible. Not really sure how they plan to get around the mess they made of the void, though.

[Erendis]

No one. That's a therory that got traction because Elidibus said they were about to get the "final key" to free their god. Some speculated it was one last rejoining, but there's absolutely no proof other than this single mention

I definitely remember someone saying 1 more rejoining is needed to free Zodiark, but can't remember who or when...

[Iscah]

1.) The Exarch likely never even heard of Zodiark until coming into contact with Emet-Selch.

There's a good chance he would be aware of Zodiark, and the cosmology as we understand it.

Even before all the CT and time travel business, G'raha Tia is from the Students of Baldesion, an organisation sharing research with the Scions. We certainly have some concept of the Ascians referencing their "one true god" at the stage in post-ARR pre-CT where he would have been still with them, so may have heard of it then. He is certainly aware of Hydaelyn.

If not, in the future he's working with the descendants of the Ironworks team, who presumably passed down that knowledge.

I definitely remember someone saying 1 more rejoining is needed to free Zodiark, but can't remember who or when...

We were told that the eighth Calamity would be the last, and I think that's all that it's coming from, but there are lots of ways to read that.

It could be the tipping point that frees Zodiark.

It could be to do with the bad future, where the Ascians may have done their job too well and irreversibly destroyed civilisation and life itself on the Source.

It could be we will face one last Calamity in the game, whether it comes to pass or is halted by our actions, before we put a stop to the cycle entirely.

[MrThinker]

We were told that the eighth Calamity would be the last, and I think that's all that it's coming from, but there are lots of ways to read that.

It could be the tipping point that frees Zodiark.

It could be to do with the bad future, where the Ascians may have done their job too well and irreversibly destroyed civilisation and life itself on the Source.

It could be we will face one last Calamity in the game, whether it comes to pass or is halted by our actions, before we put a stop to the cycle entirely.

To be as precise as possible, yoshi-p told us st either the eu or jp fanfest, and it was written in a slide. If someone could find said slide, it would help a lot.

[RyuDragnier]

Why was life allowed to carry on? (since Ironworks were very much still going)

The answer to this is simple...time. The 8th Umbral Calamity, the most powerful of them all, merely tipped the scales in Zodiark's favor, so there would no longer be a need for the Ascians to intervene. They are immortal, so they have all the time in the world to wait for their master to absorb the rest of the shards (which were probably slowly getting reabsorbed into the Source at this point), so life was allowed to carry on merely because it would eventually cease from all the unavoidable Rejoinings that would occur from then on.

[RenewalXVII]

To be as precise as possible, yoshi-p told us st either the eu or jp fanfest, and it was written in a slide. If someone could find said slide, it would help a lot.

It began with the 2018 NA Fanfest, with the original Shadowbringers announcement at the Keynote--the phrasing "Eighth and Final Umbral Era" is used, as seen in this rip. Obviously, that's informed our understanding of Shadowbringers' plot from the beginning, even if it's not really ever specifically clarified by ShB itself.

[MrThinker]

It began with the 2018 NA Fanfest, with the original Shadowbringers announcement at the Keynote--the phrasing "Eighth and Final Umbral Era" is used, as seen in this rip. Obviously, that's informed our understanding of Shadowbringers' plot from the beginning, even if it's not really ever specifically clarified by ShB itself.

Okay it was NA, I stand corrected.