Tales from the Shadows

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

I don't know why I made this, but for some reason the line about Emet-Selch waking up in Garlemald and immediately scowling made me laugh.

[ChaoticCrimson]

I don't know why I made this, but for some reason the line about Emet-Selch waking up in Garlemald and immediately scowling made me laugh.

Well now I need to save this image for reaction purposes lol

[Valenth]

...It may be significant, that in contemporary times the idea of creating a Soul doesn't seem to be that big a deal (the Heavensward Relic being one example), whereas the Ancients considered it to be flat-out impossible. This may be due to the way that the current Lifestream is constantly dispersing and assembling souls - soulstuff may simply be more malleable now?

What I think this points out is something else. When it came to creation magic they definitely were only considering instant results. And why wouldn't they? If you can create anything why settle for anything you have to put effort in, aka raising someone/thing? I think we may see some more insights into this mentality, or their hubris if you will, the Ancients might have had. And perhaps the insights the Ascians gained as the world sundered and they had to live for millennia like we do now. Maybe they got an appreciation for it? Maybe they understand better how a soul can come to be (see Alpha and Omega)? Or perhaps we'll see they even hate things and the current situation even more.

[Alleo]

It is interesting to know Hades was the last to be apart of the convocation of the fourteen, meaning our original self already held a prominent position within Amaurotian society before Emet-Selch seat was filled, wonder what we were in charge of and what our seat name was too.

.

Well we do know from ingame informations that the positions do get free from time to time and since we dont know when this was happening it could be that we were not part of it. Like Scintilla said, why would we need to be informed if we are already part of it?

Anyway: I really liked this story. I really hope that we get more such things ingame in some ways, because it saddens me that such informations are right now only found outside the game. And its really interesting how those few sentences already made me like Hythlo. I thought of him as more of a serious person after the talk ingame but he seems to be a nice and funny guy, while Hades seemingly always was a bit moody.

I guess the underworld is just their name for the lifestream? But if the cycle of death and rebirth is quite known to them and some can even see the departed souls flying around until they get to the underworld...why could they not accept the sacrifices? I always thought that death simply was not something common to them and such a big amount might have been too much to bear but seemingly they die just like us, but are probably getting a lot older. So why their reaction after the willing sacrifices?

Also its good to know that most of their creations were without souls. This at least shows why they just grind the monsters back into crystals in that one quest.

Edit: Its a bit sad that the past!us (even if he/she is not us) was not shown in any way in this. They are not us directly anyways so I see no harm in them giving the person a bit of character.

[Alleluia]

Ok, so I want Hades back. I didn't before, but I do now. Minus the Zodiark tempering. Let him help fix things for real now, instead of just going thru with a plan that is only truly gonna serve a primal.

So, did Hades basically perform a sending on the soul trapped within the fire bird? Is Hades a grumpy, tsundere Yuna? Is that what we have here? lol Also, I guess this shows that not just any old ascian could have plucked Y'shtola from the lifestream. We're lucky it was Hades, specifically, who we were dealing with at the time. Catgirl has nine lives.

I am just so happy we got characterization of past!Hades. I see what Hythlodaeus meant about him being earnest. Interesting that he basically "blames" Hythlodaeus for his promotion to the Convocation here. Its funny to think that he didn't really want the responsibility back then.

Also, the whole musing about his son and his grandson ("this body's grandson" ) was sad and also made me want to slap him. Which... basically sums up the two feelings Hades always has me vacillating between so good job, writers.

Finally: "Consumed by the fear of death, it thrashes blindly about. It will know only pain and suffering and inflict the same upon others. A pitiful existence." Ouch.

Edit: Its a bit sad that the past!us (even if he/she is not us) was not shown in any way in this. They are not us directly anyways so I see no harm in them giving the person a bit of character.

I'm curious about why they don't do that. I understand why they don't want to characterize the Warrior of Light, namely they don't want to step on players' toes and want us all to be able to apply the story to our WoL. But they seem to be using that same logic about the Amaurotine precursor, right down to the gender of them somehow changing depending on our present WoL, and that just doesn't make sense to me. Are our current character choices going to impact that precursor somehow? Is time a circle or something? Seriously, what is with making the precursor's details dependent on a fragment of their future self instead of being their own established character? Don't get me wrong; I absolutely loved that we got a mention at all and got to see Hades' reaction to it. I'm just confused, cus the writing this expac is so good and yet this nonsensical story choice is happening.

[Anonymoose]

Whew! A wild ride. I've updated the OP and am still catching up on the conversation, but what questions do we have lingering from this year's stories?

[Alleluia]

but what questions do we have lingering from this year's stories?

Why are there only four? T_T

[Gula]

Whew! A wild ride. I've updated the OP and am still catching up on the conversation, but what questions do we have lingering from this year's stories?

*big inhale*

Honestly I'm a sucker for the glory of the past and it's little details that have me foaming at the mouth over everything Amaurot. Emet holds disdain over how people never learn and petty feuds, but in his age gossip spread as did negative emotions. A soul that passed with regret, what- during that time, could have cause that? Also his own negativity. The Ancients lived in a Eutopia, but how were issues resolved when there's still room for something deviating from absolute positivity?

What were other cities/people doing? Could there have been strife that he genuinely did not know about? Or did everyone hold hands, sing songs and never act on violence?

[TinyRedLeaf]

Personally, I'm most happy to have the final piece to complete my headcanon for how my character came to summon demi-Phoenix.

(It continues to disappoint me that the "official" WoL has an apparent aversion to taking on spellcasting jobs. The summoner remains, in my mind, one of the strongest contenders for the WoL's actual canonical discipline, given its many links to the MSQ and game lore.)

Other than that, it was a huge bonus to learn more about Amaurot, and the society of the Ancients. I would easily rank this the best of the four Tales from the Shadows.

[ObsidianFire]

Yes... I am very happy that my WoL now has a place other then Coils to have gotten Phoenix from... Thumbing through the back-catalog of concepts in Aldyner and finding one that looks very familiar and figuring out how to make use of it by the last Hades fight feels a lot more in line with what the WoL would do rather then make use of a Primal the Scions didn't want anyone to know about...