Lifespan/age of different races?

[RyuDragnier]

I may be blind but where are the heavy implications at that the kid is our soul shard from the 13th?

The mere fact that Elidibus saved the kid to begin with. It makes no sense for an Ascian to save the soul of a Warrior of Hydaelyn who isn't old enough to fight, who isn't savvy enough to manipulate people, and who doesn't have enough power to force the elemental balance to something they want. He also placed the kid in our care and hasn't taken him back, and the kid hasn't been doing anything to manipulate events or whatnot, even wanting us to fight back against the Ascians. None of this makes sense at all unless you were to assume the child is our shard.

[Iscah]

The mere fact that Elidibus saved the kid to begin with. ... None of this makes sense at all unless you were to assume the child is our shard.

Why does he need to be our shard? Why not just because he has the Echo and/or Blessing of Light?

It would carry more weight if we hadn't learned about Cylva as well.

[purgatori]

The OP thread's subject has been derailed.

I fear that I may be partly/largely responsible for that, sorry. :P

Somewhat more on-topic: the lifespan of the dragons, as brought up by SannaR, has me wondering what the lifespan of humans who turn into dragons might be. I always though that the source of the dragon's longevity was their peculiar means of accruing massive stores of aether in their eyes—not unlike primals with respect to their entire forms. But if humans can cross the human/draconic divide, does this somehow grant them the same ability, thus indefinitely extending the years they have in front of them?

[RyuDragnier]

Why does he need to be our shard? Why not just because he has the Echo and/or Blessing of Light?

It would carry more weight if we hadn't learned about Cylva as well.

Cylva I feel they can't use as our shard, simply because of the part she has in the final ShB role quest and the atonement she must do for what she helped do to the First. The kid however was only there for the Warring Triad, and has no part to play outside of it, so he could easily be used. That's of course assuming they don't throw ANOTHER person from the 13th at us.

[Enkidoh]

Cylva I feel they can't use as our shard, simply because of the part she has in the final ShB role quest and the atonement she must do for what she helped do to the First. The kid however was only there for the Warring Triad, and has no part to play outside of it, so he could easily be used. That's of course assuming they don't throw ANOTHER person from the 13th at us.

Cylva is also based directly on another of 'Derplander's' (aka Source!Ardbert, aka the player character's FMV standin) friends from the 1.0 opening (which is naturally set on the Source), she's the wildwood elezen GLA fighting the malboro in Mor Dhona when he has his Echo jaunt back to the Battle of Silvertear Skies. So it's pretty clear she isn't meant to be another part of our original soul, but just another adventurer from another world.

[Rannie]

I also highly doubt Iscah was implying that the elezen chick (I gave up even trying to spell her name) was our soul shard from the 13th more pointing out that basing that kid on being our soul shard just by Elidibus "rescuing" him before the void was created is dubious at best due to him saving the elezen woman and possibly a few others as well. If my memory serves me correctly that kid warned us of others that were from th 13th that was saved as well as him. Which the C chick was one of them.

Also remember how we were introduced to that kid as well. He was sent here to help us stop the Warring Triad and that's all hes done since. Now putting something's together from him revealing himself at the end of those fights. Makes it more clear that the Ascians are more than willing to even use people who have the echo for their own means to create Ardors. I mean hell the kid watched his world get destroyed by the Champions (Ie other Echo Users) by constantly summoning primals. Elidibus is more than definitely using that to his advantage to help Calamities happen on our world by more and bigger primals being summoned. Throw in that kid in the mix and bam! Instant success.

[LineageRazor]

Also remember how we were introduced to that kid as well. He was sent here to help us stop the Warring Triad and that's all hes done since. Now putting something's together from him revealing himself at the end of those fights. Makes it more clear that the Ascians are more than willing to even use people who have the echo for their own means to create Ardors. I mean hell the kid watched his world get destroyed by the Champions (Ie other Echo Users) by constantly summoning primals. Elidibus is more than definitely using that to his advantage to help Calamities happen on our world by more and bigger primals being summoned. Throw in that kid in the mix and bam! Instant success.

I'm a bit puzzled as to why Elidibus WANTED us to stop the Warring Triad. Powerful Primals running amok sounds like just the kind of recipe for Chaos the Ascians crave - especially since the First was pretty close to primed and ready for a Rejoining. A great time for a Warring Triad-inspired Calamity to strike! Back then, Elidibus was all vague and secretive, so it could be assumed that it all played into his "maintaining the balance" or whatever his mysterious agenda was. Since then, though, it's become pretty clear that he's just as gung-ho about the Rejoining as anyone, so it's really odd that he used one of his pawns in this way.

I suppose Unhulkai might STILL be a pawn, and that the whole goal was to insert him as a trusted ally in our group to exploit us from within later on - but if Unhulkai is conscious of this, he's REALLY good at hiding it.

[TheCount]

I'm a bit puzzled as to why Elidibus WANTED us to stop the Warring Triad. Powerful Primals running amok sounds like just the kind of recipe for Chaos the Ascians crave - especially since the First was pretty close to primed and ready for a Rejoining. A great time for a Warring Triad-inspired Calamity to strike! Back then, Elidibus was all vague and secretive, so it could be assumed that it all played into his "maintaining the balance" or whatever his mysterious agenda was. Since then, though, it's become pretty clear that he's just as gung-ho about the Rejoining as anyone, so it's really odd that he used one of his pawns in this way.

I suppose Unhulkai might STILL be a pawn, and that the whole goal was to insert him as a trusted ally in our group to exploit us from within later on - but if Unhulkai is conscious of this, he's REALLY good at hiding it.

He was more measured back then because he still believed that things could be kept more in balance, but since then we have only escalated things in favor of the light. Perhaps he thought he could get us to see his way of things, and to do so he had to extend the hand of diplomacy.

It's also known that rejoinings can be done wrong, and entire shards lost. Perhaps they weren't quite ready yet or working on setting things up to be perfect elsewhere, and this would have interfered too much.

[RyuDragnier]

He was more measured back then because he still believed that things could be kept more in balance, but since then we have only escalated things in favor of the light. Perhaps he thought he could get us to see his way of things, and to do so he had to extend the hand of diplomacy.

It's also known that rejoinings can be done wrong, and entire shards lost. Perhaps they weren't quite ready yet or working on setting things up to be perfect elsewhere, and this would have interfered too much.

That logic would also explain why he was trying to kill us at the end of 4.55, we had things at such an imbalance that the 8th rejoining would destroy the Source or make it so inhospitable that Zodiark would be unable to come back.

[Iscah]

That logic would also explain why he was trying to kill us at the end of 4.55, we had things at such an imbalance that the 8th rejoining would destroy the Source or make it so inhospitable that Zodiark would be unable to come back.

That exact detail depends whether he was listening in to our conversations - not unlikely, but less likely than it was when they seemed to be some kind of omniscient demigods.

He won't be inherently aware of what happened during the Eighth Calamity, because it hasn't happened yet. And presumably in the other timeline it seemed like a good idea, if not right up until Black Rose was activated, then certainly until it was too late to halt the plan.

(Then again, Emet probably didn't tell him the plan in the first place, and was waiting to smugly announce that he'd single-handedly succeeded where multiple others had made a mess of things...)

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The definite point where Elidibus switches from "observe the WoL" to "they're threatening the balance and need to die" happens in post-Heavensward - at the end of Dragonsong if I remember correctly.