Where do black masked Ascians fit in now?

[JeanneOrnitier]

The lesser Ascians in black masks have kind of gone by the wayside (I cant remember seeing any since like, Heavensward), but they definitely existed. You fight one before meeting your first Scion at the start of the leveling experience, and they were also pretty prominent in the ARR SMN questline.

But with what we learned of Ascians, where do the black masked ones fit in? Are they sundered Ancients who were not part of the Convocation? Are they just people who awakened the Echo and sided with the Ascians? Do you think Square has thought about them at all, or forgotten them entirely?

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

They're sundered wimps who haven't been elevated to a station yet, I guess.

[Stepjam]

They are smalltime at this point

[Lium]

Lesser Ascians aren't even on the level of a primal. The WoL solos like five of them if you play as a summoner.

[Anonymoose]

The Ascian in the SMN story arc mentioned that they were "raised unto greatness by Lahabrea himself", which suggests that they're sundered recently-ex-mortal mooks on a power trip. Tristan was probably well on his way. We did get a pretty strong hint that one of the leftovers was wandering around Sui-no-Sato, though. And I'm not sure if Travanchet ever got ganked. Makes you wonder how many are in the wind.

[Iscah]

Lesser Ascians aren't even on the level of a primal. The WoL solos like five of them if you play as a summoner.

You do need Dreadwyrm Trance to do that successfully.

We took one down solo back at the start of the game though (shortly after they freaked out about how someone could possibly be strong enough to defeat their Lv9 golem...)

[Enkidoh]

Elidibus also sacrificed quite a few to the Warrior of Light's blade as a test in Western Thanalan when he first appeared in 2.1's story. But yeah, I'm with Moose, who knows how many the Ascians have waiting to be called up to do their dirty work?