Are the Ascians truly wrong?

[Adonan]

I haven't played in a few months, so my memory is a bit fuzzy. If I remember correctly, the Ascians are trying to cause an event known as the Rejoining which is suppose to fuse each individual realm back into one. From our perspective, that is to say the PC's, the Rejoining would destroy our home and take innumerable lives. However, I think we're missing the bigger picture here.

Keep in mind, I've only made it as far as the Rak'Tika Greatwood portion of the story, and my memory is fuzzy as previously stated. Wouldn't the Rejoining possibly bring about a whole, and thus possibly more stable, world for whatever creatures take up residence on the new world? That alone could mean so much more, like less hostile flora and fauna, a greater abundance of food, greater population growth, etc. This is just conjecture on my part, but I always try to look at things without bias.

In Skyrim, Alduin was to eat the world so the next could be born. While Alduin himself is a douche, that isn't because of his title as World Eater. In WoW, Sargeras wanted to wipe out all the planets because there was no way to know which planets had been corrupted by the Void Lords. However, he knew another universe would be born soon after the destruction of the current one. I'm sure there are other games with similar stories that I haven't thought of, but you get the point.

So let's discuss this shall we, in a civil manner please. Are the Ascians wrong for wanting to bring about the Rejoining?

[KagatoAC]

Was Thanos?

[Tyssyn]

I am torn. I do actually empathize to some extent with Emet and the Ascians. But I also can't agree destroying so many lives to smoosh everything back together is a good thing either. Nowhere does it say the shards are unstable. All the calamities that have happened have been caused by the Ascians' manipulations to bring about the Rejoinings. The reason the Ascians are doing this is that they think if they bring Zodiark back, he will restore their lost people, not make a more stable world.

[RitsukoSonoda]

Much of the conflicts in our own history don't really illustrate who was right. It just illustrated who was left.

[Adonan]

I don't know much about Zodiark, but I know he's basically...the aspect of darkness, for lack of a better way of describing him, just as Hydaelyn is the aspect of light. When it comes to dark and light, we all know a balance of both is healthier than one overtaking the other. I suspect the return of Zodiark would bring about more darkness, and thus, balance. A more balanced world is a stable world, as far as I know. Perhaps I missed something, but I don't remember ever learn what the world was like before the, "prime realm" (I don't remember all the names, so sue me) was split. Also, given what we're doing during the events of Shadowbringers, we've learned that darkness is only evil if one chooses to use it as such. Overall, we've only ever seen the return of Zodiark from Hydaelyn's point of view, and have no idea if his return, and the Rejoining, would really make the world a lot worse.

[Adonan]

Much of the conflicts in our own history don't really illustrate who was right. It just illustrated who was left.

That was bloody beautiful.

[Adonan]

Was Thanos?

I actually haven't seen Infinity War or Endgame, but from what I've heard Thanos is one of those morally ambigious, sympathetic villains.

[frostmagemari]

The Opening Post

The Ascians are not wrong for wanting to bring about the rejoining. However, unlike a creature like Alduin, who was created for the sole purpose of devouring the world of Nirn to bring about the birth of a new world; The Ascians charged themselves with bringing back the old world that they lost.
Is their want to bring back their old world wrong? No, not at all; however, they knowingly and purposefully create chaos, hatred and suffering. They also fully acknowledge that the being that are left after the final rejoining occurs will be used as fuel for Zodiark to bring back their world.
Additionally, as others have said, the remaining shards are not unstable and not in any inherent danger of falling to one Aether element that they have to do any of this for anyone's own good; Each of the shifts to one kind of Aether have been from their meddling in the shards.

So, I can sympathize with the want, and perhaps need to bring back a world that you were the only survivor(s) from; but not their methods. If there was a way to rejoin the worlds without the massive loss of life, then sure.. but even that isn't part of the plan; they don't want any of the fake people who inhabit the source and shards to survive, as they're nothing but a mockery of who they used to be.

I actually haven't seen Infinity War or Endgame, but from what I've heard Thanos is one of those morally ambigious, sympathetic villains.

Eh.. he's really not. I mean, he's a little sympathetic and probably one of the better villains we'll get in a super hero movie... but he's not morally ambiguous. He knows full well the pain and suffering he's causing, and employs creatures who's only purpose in existence is to painfully rend their prey asunder in what would probably be the most painful deaths possible to create a future that he then intends to fully remove himself from (as he did by retiring to a farm on a deserted planet) and hope(at best) that the people left after his crusade can pick up the pieces. People talk Thanos up a lot, but he's not as deep or as thoughtful as people rave about when you take more than a 5sec look at the character and his actions.

[Enkidoh]

Spoilers abound.

They might be more sympathetic now, but their actions are still entirelly unjustifiable

(and even among the Ancients that manner of thinking was considered objectionable too - it's why the 14th member of the Convocation resigned in disgust, a person strongly hinted to be us, and the one responsible for summoning Hydaelyn as a counterweight in response).

The Ascians just come across as being stuck somewhere between Denial and Bargaining on the Five Stages of Grief (grief over the loss of their original world) - they stubbornly refuse to accept their world and loved ones are gone, and are doing everything they can to try and get it back, even at the cost of sacrificing others in the process.

We however are at the final stage of grief: Acceptance, we accepted the old world is over, that a new one has risen from the ashes, and are defending the right for the 'new' life that formed on this new world after the Terminus to exist in peace and with freedom of will to choose their own path, life that is destroyed constantly every time a Rejoining happens (when a Shard is sacrificed to the Source), and which all life would eventually be sacrificed once the Final Shard is Rejoined to allow Zodiark to be fully reborn.

The Ascians are stuck living in memories of a long-gone past that can never return (look at Emet's self-indulgent reconstruction of Amaurot, a reconstruction he outright admitted he went overboard with in the details). The world however has moved on and thus this world now belongs to the new life, which we represent and, as the Warrior of Light, protect and defend. Life that the Ascians don't even regard as 'life' (witness Emet's little racist rant about the residents of the First being "mere halfmen" (to use his words), and that although "we tower over our lesser kin", we're still just a convinent tool to further his own ends at best and an empty shell at worst to him - hence his attempts to turn us into an 'instrument of destruction' by allowing us to be turned into a sineater simply to put the 8th Calamity/Rejoining back on track.

So again, although they are not without sympathy, they are still however the enemy of life. Their actions result in the loss of countless lives and their plan threatens the very existence of Hydaelyn as we know it. So they will remain the enemy of life, the enemy of our star. And thus we will have to resist them, every single time.

[Theodric]

It's ultimately a matter of perspective. I'll be vague to avoid spoilers since you haven't finished Shadowbringers yet but you'll get a lot of the answers you're looking for and it's left to the player to make up their own minds on the matter. The game lacks meaningful factions, so obviously we can't side with them, though we certainly understand their point of view.