Thread: The Patch 5.2 Discussion Thread! (Spoilers)

Originally Posted by ApprenticeSmithy

Anyway, I think the mosaic image is indeed depicting Hydalyn, perhaps a more physical form rather than an elemental form as shown in the art in Qitana Ravel.

My only reluctance with saying it's Hydaelyn (although I do think it resembles her anyway, due to the form the High Seraph bears for her upper body), is that the insect part is a better fit with the lower body of the High Seraph. Still, there's no context to go with it, so I am eager to see when and why it's going to pop up. As for the number of Ascians, because the Esper names and sigils are purely a hat tip to XII, it allows them to keep the 14th's identity secret for now. I am sure the Ascians have elevated someone to this office in the meantime, possibly even a fragment of the WoL's Amaurotine self, although that may come down to how tempering works (i.e. did the WoL's ancient soul summon Hydaelyn, and if so, were they tempered, and would this endure beyond the point of being sundered?) With only 13 Espers but 14 Convocation members, they have free reign to keep the gender, sigil and office a bit vague for now, and map some attributes to your character.

Originally Posted by Lauront

My only reluctance with saying it's Hydaelyn (although I do think it resembles her anyway, due to the form the High Seraph bears for her upper body), is that the insect part is a better fit with the lower body of the High Seraph. Still, there's no context to go with it, so I am eager to see when and why it's going to pop up. As for the number of Ascians, because the Esper names and sigils are purely a hat tip to XII, it allows them to keep the 14th's identity secret for now. I am sure the Ascians have elevated someone to this office in the meantime, possibly even a fragment of the WoL's Amaurotine self, although that may come down to how tempering works (i.e. did the WoL's ancient soul summon Hydaelyn, and if so, were they tempered, and would this endure beyond the point of being sundered?) With only 13 Espers but 14 Convocation members, they have free reign to keep the gender, sigil and office a bit vague for now, and map some attributes to your character.

Hm... I don't think the Ascians have elevated a 14th member. Remember, each of the 13 Convocation Members who summoned Zodiark were tempered, and then sundered. Those 13 are Zodiark's key followers, and Elidibus/Lahabrea/Emet uplifted a fragment of the other 9 sundered Ascians. The uplifted fragments are probably sympathetic to the cause, as they are tempered.

The hypothetical 14th Convocation Member/WoL was never tempered by Zodiark, and is not sympathetic to his cause. The 14th's/WoLs have the Blessing of Light. If anything, it seems like the Ascians would want to kill the 14th/WoL for being the biggest pain in the ass in the history of ever, fighting them and sabotaging their plan to resurrect the people of Amaurot for millennia across 14 worlds. So far, it seems only Emet had an inkling as to WoL's true identity, and he was only willing to tolerate the WoL because he was his friend long ago.

Also, if you look at the Chrysalis, there are only 12 seats (with Elidibus standing in the middle).

Originally Posted by MoofiaBossVal

Hm... I don't think the Ascians have elevated a 14th member. Remember, each of the 13 Convocation Members who summoned Zodiark were tempered, and then sundered. Those 13 are Zodiark's key followers, and Elidibus/Lahabrea/Emet uplifted a fragment of the other 9 sundered Ascians. The uplifted fragments are probably sympathetic to the cause, as they are tempered.

The hypothetical 14th Convocation Member/WoL was never tempered by Zodiark, and is not sympathetic to his cause. The 14th's/WoLs have the Blessing of Light. If anything, it seems like the Ascians would want to kill the 14th/WoL for being the biggest pain in the ass in the history of ever, fighting them and sabotaging their plan to resurrect the people of Amaurot for millennia across 14 worlds. So far, it seems only Emet had an inkling as to WoL's true identity, and he was only willing to tolerate the WoL because he was his friend long ago.

Also, if you look at the Chrysalis, there are only 12 seats (with Elidibus standing in the middle).

I counted 7 per side, which with Elidibus would make it 15. Thus it was that for years people thought that he was not counted in the total, which made sense given his function of Emissary, and that there was one Ascian per shard, with Lahabrea (who takes up the empty seat in that screenshot) taking charge over the Source. Of course, we now know it's all a bit different to that. I reckon that scene may in part be the reason for SE now bringing in this "Oracle of Darkness".

10 of them were sundered, and 3 were not. It's not entirely clear whether the tempering survived the sundering, although Emet-Selch gave some indication it would given their affinity to Zodiark, so I'll grant that it's a reasonable assumption although to my memory it's not outright confirmed. Nonetheless, it's how I read it too.

All that being said, there is nothing stopping them from elevating someone else to the 14th office given that, as Emet-Selch said, whilst they have a preference for the fragments of the original members of the Convocation, because they have an affinity to Zodiark and also out of a respect to them, it does not have to be one of them.

Without firm data on whether the WoL's own soul and all its fragments are tempered, or not, and whether, even so, they could somehow substitute this with Zodiark's own tempering (in order to restore to them the powers of their office), I'd say it is certainly within the realm of possibility that one of the character's shards could be elevated to their ranks. Pre-existing tempering would not be necessary for it and could be taken care of once they assent to join them, as the tempered can spread it to others themselves. Whether or not this has happened is not material to the office itself, though.

That is because someone vacating the office would not mean that the office itself - which predated said individual and was separate from them - ceased to be a part of the Convocation. So in my view it is an open possibility that they may have elevated someone to this office.

Originally Posted by ObsidianFire

We have no idea what happened with the Heart of Sabik after the Preatorium. That said, the last person we do know of in the area with the Heart of Sabik is Gaius himself. And he has been somehow killing Ascians without being able to manipulate aether himself. Given that the Heart of Sabik can absorb aether like no one's business, its been speculated in some areas of the fandom that Gaius has the Heart of Sabik still and is using it to kill Ascians.

It's possible, but it's also worth recalling he's accompanied by two mages. Sundered Overlords, whilst powerful, aren't on the same level as the unsundered, and I guess we don't really know whether he has truly killed them or not. I'm hoping we do get some follow up about the Heart of Sabik in the future and they indicated it'd be coming eventually here... but threw in a "maybe". Guess we'll see if 5.2 covers it.