Thread: Revelations from Patch 5.2

Very minor thing from the opening of the beast tribe, just putting it here because little trivia like this interests me.

Qiqirn/Qitari are nearly fully grown at 3 years old, and 20 is so old that they're lucky to reach it.

Thoughts...

MSQ

Oh boy... where to start. Guess I'll start with the Echo which is the easiest. And very, very weird to the point of being suspicious. For starters, not everyone who sees the Starshower gets the Echo. Which makes everyone on the plaza hearing Hydaelyn's voice very odd just by itself. And speaking of Hydaelyn's voice, why are they even hearing it? Hydaelyn hasn't talked to us since 3.4 at the latest, and even then she needed Minfillia as an intermediary. The last time we actually heard Hydaelyn herself was back in 3.0 briefly. And even then there was a lot of "static" in the way. It boggles the mind that a bunch of random nobodies would hear Hydaelyn's "Hear, Feel, Think" mantra and we wouldn't. I am very suspicions that visual illusions aren't the only kind of illusions Elidibus can make and that he somehow made everyone hear Hydaelyn's famous catchphrase. Except the one person who knows exactly what Hydaelyn really does sound like since when Hydaelyn could talk, she wouldn't stop talking to us (or trying to talk to us in 3.x).

As for why Elidibus would want to wake the Echo up in people... The Ascians have been having issues with getting killed recently. Between us, Ardbert and Gaius, they're down a bunch of members and anyone that does get made into an Ascian needs to have the Echo. Widening the pool of people they can raise up into Ascians is probably something that needs to happen at this point. It also directly attacks the Scions' base on the Source by depriving it of manpower.

The revelation that Hydaelyn and Zoidark both had hearts that were essentially people is interesting. Makes me wonder what the difference is between that and the Guardian Force Quetzalcoatl we fought in the Academia. Another interesting thing is that the 14th Convocation member who left the Convocation is directly referred to as a defector here, but they apparently were not part of Hydaelyn's summoning. At least... not at this point. There's a lot of food for thought here, but not much by way of answers. I do think there is enough information to know that both Hydaelyn and Zoidark are very, very sophisticated primals compared to what we are used to dealing with.

Other random things... The WoL figuring out Ardbert is Elidibus by giving Ardbert the cue to fist-bump them and Elidibus having no idea what to do is adorable. Cylla's reaction to finding out that Arbert is possessed is... really fun to watch.

Eden

This felt like the ending of Eden, Part 1. All the basic elements were restored to the Empty and where the story goes from here feels rather... nebulous. Not the least in that we still have no idea who Gaia really is. Sure, she has some connection to the Darkness, but we have no idea what kind of connection it really is. There was also a massive spoiler for the 5.3 or 5.4 MSQ as Urianger and Thancred say they are leaving the project. I just feel like we have no good hints about what comes next to really warrant looking forwards to the final tier of the raid in 5.4

This also is the most frustrated I have been with Urianger, Thancred and Ryne. In a way, it kinda shows how ridiculous this whole raid series has felt. Who in their right minds goes around summoning primals on purpose? Why does Ryne try to control Shiva? Gaia is less stupid, but still frustrating for other reasons. Although her reasons at least make more sense. By this point, we all know how messed up Eulmore was and thinking about what growing up there would have been like... Finding out what the real world outside Eulmore is like would be frustrating enough even without the memory loss.

The single most interesting thing for me out of Eden, was the shape of the Idol of Darkness (3rd boss). It looks exactly like the platform all the Zoidark statues are standing in front of, just with a crystal between the two "horns" instead of a Zoidark statue. So what is up with that?

Werlyt

If the MSQ and Eden were rather light on angst this patch... this story is going to be making up for that in heaps. Go figure. Out of all the Garleans we've run into, Gaius is really the only this kind of story could have worked with. And it's really interesting seeing his tenancies of caring more about who people are (rather then where they're from) get turned around on him. Only Gaius is who he is and he knows the Weapon project has to go down no matter that it's his kids who are manning it. Cue the angst since you're pretty much the guy who killed their sister in Ruby Weapon (and are probably going to end up killing all of them at this rate).

On the flip side, it looks like Cid has at least sorted out something in his head about Gaius. Namely that Gaius was a better dad to him than Midas was. This probably says more about how much Midas neglected Cid than anything else. But I get the feeling we'll be learning a lot more about Midas when we get to Bozja.

Gaius having a different relationship with Severa vs Valdeaulin has the potential to go a lot of places. Severa seems to be loyal enough to Gaius that he trusts her, but Valdeaulin... heh. Raubahn isn't the only one who doesn't want Gaius going back to Garlemald. I really wonder how the three of them got to the point where they went Ascian hunting together.

Rampant Speculation

MSQ

We're told that Elidibus is the Heart of Zodiark; and the game immediately goes out of its way to say that there aren't two Elidibuses (Elidibii?), with the name only a title. My guess is the original gave up his body to Zodiark; and what's left is his spirit ... i.e., quite possibly the first Ascian.
I agree with everyone above that Zenos's white-robed friend is Venat - there aren't really any other possibilities that make sense at this point, other than "another new character". Considering what Zenos plans to *do* to Zodiark, it makes all the sense in the world that the 'Emissary of Hydaelyn' might be helping Zenos out; even if against current expectation she turns out to be good after all. (And there's a reasonable chance that that is Asahi's body; but that's no more significant than us seeing "Ardbert's" earlier.)

Eden

Not a whole lot to say here; though that final quest after the MSQ seems ... out of place? Thancred and Urianger *aren't* able to leave for the Source yet.
I also noticed that the crystal we wound up fighting looks a *lot* like Hydaelyn. Which makes a hell of a lot of sense, considering who Ryne is. Expecting to see (well, hear about) more of that in Savage.
... the fight itself actually reminded me a hell of a lot of the Lich King; what with the Ice Motif, and an OP hammer-wielding NPC saving our ass at the end, the last 10% of the boss's life being a free kill. I wonder if that was intentional?

Werlyt

We're getting the Sapphire Weapon next. Given that the X.3 trial is usually the MSQ, while these side stories are normally a solo instance ... who wants to bet that, just as in FF7, the Sapphire Weapon gets taken out via cutscene?
Seeing Nael pop up was really something. Presumably the others are going to have the spirit of a famous Garlean warrior ... but who? Regula seems a reasonable choice; and they explicitly name-dropped Livia in the cutscene. But if those are the three ... then SE opened with by far the most powerful and relevant, which seems off from a story perspective. Cid, Nero, and Gaius himself spring to mind; which would make some interesting reactions. They definitely would have had access to Varis's DNA, since he was running the project; and there are all those clone "Solus" bodies that still haven't paid off. And then there's probably their strongest warrior ... Zenos...

Originally Posted by Jennah

Rampant Speculation

Eden

Not a whole lot to say here; though that final quest after the MSQ seems ... out of place? Thancred and Urianger *aren't* able to leave for the Source yet.

You're the 2nd person I just saw mention that, glad to see I'm not alone haha.

It really does feel out of place. Thancred and Urianger leaving Ryne and going back to the Source very much feels like it belongs in the MSQ (and will undoubtedly be a big part of the 5.3 MSQ finale), and 5.3 is 3.5 months away. That doesn't necessarily translate to 3.5 months in-game, but you're right, they can't go back to the Source yet so it feels very...out of nowhere to have this farewell. I'm honestly not even 100% sure what the necessity of the quest is, maybe just them laying the groundwork really far in advance that the third wing of Eden won't have Urianger and Thancred?

Ruby Weapon/Sorrow of Werlyt

I didn't go in thinking much of this; I figured I'd probably enjoy it more than the Four Lords series, but otherwise didn't have any expectations. But when Nael emerged I was absolutely sucked in Got some awesome Dalamud screenshots too.. I'm desperate to know what's going on with this Weapons project now, and the personal touch of having Gaius's kids involved lets us see that fatherly side of his we've always heard about but never really seen. I'm definitely hooked now.

WoL compared the Nael battle data thing to soul crystals, but I don't think it's that apt a comparison? Nael seemed to actually take over the pilot's consciousness. I don't recall a soul crystal ever doing that.

More MSQ Stuff

I don't think the white-robed figure talking to Zenos can be Venat. The figure says his knowledge of the Final Days of Amarot is mostly second-hand. That really doesn't match up with Venat being around for Zodiark's summoning which was in the Last Days. I also have a hard time seeing Hydaelyn's summoner referring to that time period as "the world's end" since the entire point of Hydaelyn was to keep the world from not ending.

If I had to take a guess who Venat ended up becoming, I'd say Minfillia is a way better guess. Minfillia is repeatedly said to have been the most attuned to Hydaelyn's thoughts and voice out of all the Echo users and Minfilia literally became Hydaeyn's voice. She directly calls herself Hydaelyn's Emissary at one point even. She's very much a counterpart to Elidibus in that both of them claim to speak for their various gods instead of themselves.

It's worth noting that while the 14th Convocation member wasn't a part of Hydaelyn's summoning initially, there's nothing preventing them from joining her side later. Which could actually be more evidence for the 14th Convocation member being tempered by Hydaeyn. If they didn't die while summoning her, then I can't think of any reason she wouldn't be able to temper them same as Zoidark did to the Ascians if she wanted to.