6.0 Predictions: Will it be Garlemald, Sharlayan, or Meracydia?

[Rymi64]

Yes, we're a fragment of hero from a race with arguably godlike powers compared to normal people. A fragment that is also much closer to being whole than the fragmented people we interact with. A fragment of a person who's memory lives on as a god to the Au Ra and a god of the Twelve and who knows what else, so I think it's fair to consider our character on a level beyond everything we interact with.
As for toning down power, I already gave a solution. In cleaning up the Ascian problem and Zodiark once and for all we could sacrifice whatever power it is that makes us the best at everything. As someone mentioned above, people could already accept us being relatively more normal during Heavensward. The only thing making it worse is continuing the DragonBallZ-esque villain structure we've been using.
Regardless, if you like it how it is, that's fine. These are my own complaints and I'm not saying they're any more valid than your own. Just that there are options available if they wanted to travel that path and that I would personally prefer it.

We didn't do those things though it was azem. We ourselves are not azem we just happen to have their soul.

The thing is though we dont really have a power that makes us best at everything we just have natural talent. Like Zenos we are just naturally good at learning things and you can't just take that away from someone. Plus we are not the best at everything since if we were we would not need the scions to do anything at all. We are not a aetherologist we are not a master strategist and even some crafters we are not the best at it.

[Rymi64]

I didn't hate these parts since they made our character feel more grounded. Ironically, I remember quite a lot of complaining in the places I frequent regarding "jobbing" to Zenos and later Ranjit. I can partly agree in a sense. Zenos makes sense to me why he could be near our level, but Ranjit doesn't stand out to me as someone who would stand toe to toe against us. I get he's been fighting sin eaters for ages, but I don't buy it. It would have made more sense if our character was closer in power to Thancred.

Combat experience beats out natural talent. He's spent years and years fighting an essentially unkillable enemy. Plus we didn't really lose by that much to him since unlike zenos we actually got his hp bar down low he just used a move that stunned us. Also considering that thancred beat ranjit without the ability to manipulate aether i'd consider Thancred strong in his own right.

My personal headcanon with Ranjit is that he caught us off guard, we realized how the move works and were ready to counter it (explaining why it was a joke later), and then we got outnumbered to where Thancred and the Exarch helped us make a hasty retreat.

This is actually pretty much what happened. Plus the main mission was to get Ryne out of eulmores hands not to defeat their general.

[Kesey]

My personal headcanon with Ranjit is that he caught us off guard, we realized how the move works and were ready to counter it (explaining why it was a joke later), and then we got outnumbered to where Thancred and the Exarch helped us make a hasty retreat.

I have to agree here because, in the fight between the WOL and Ranjit in Eulmore, the WOL seems to have the upper hand and easily trounces him. All of the previous encounters have Ranjit facing Scions without the echo or utilizing surprise. Ranjit wasn't really presented as a master tactician but the trait seems to be there.

[Kesey]

We didn't do those things though it was azem. We ourselves are not azem we just happen to have their soul.

The thing is though we dont really have a power that makes us best at everything we just have natural talent. Like Zenos we are just naturally good at learning things and you can't just take that away from someone. Plus we are not the best at everything since if we were we would not need the scions to do anything at all. We are not a aetherologist we are not a master strategist and even some crafters we are not the best at it.

This makes sense when you consider Azem, but you're looking at it in the wrong direction. Its not important that the WOL becomes Azem reborn or repossess his talent, but the missing Ancient plot holes revolve around the WOL remembering what Azem did--so as to inform the WOL on what to do now.

I can't be the only one who finds it suspicious that Azem refused to side with the Hydaelyn faction and the Zodiark faction, yet somehow has been reincarnated as the champion of Hydaelyn? Furthermore, is the "blessing of light" just code for the WOL is tempered to Hydaelyn?

[Seraphor]

This makes sense when you consider Azem, but you're looking at it in the wrong direction. Its not important that the WOL becomes Azem reborn or repossess his talent, but the missing Ancient plot holes revolve around the WOL remembering what Azem did--so as to inform the WOL on what to do now.

I can't be the only one who finds it suspicious that Azem refused to side with the Hydaelyn faction and the Zodiark faction, yet somehow has been reincarnated as the champion of Hydaelyn? Furthermore, is the "blessing of light" just code for the WOL is tempered to Hydaelyn?

It could be that they simply disagreed with summoning another primal. Look what the first one did.

[Rosenstrauch]

On a note related to tempering: I may be off about this, as my memory of 5.4's MSQ is just a little hazy right now, but I got the impression that the "cure" for tempering involves some degree of retrograde amnesia. The Kobold Priest seemed to have no recollection of what he was doing while tempered once he was cured. Even if this was attributed to the strength of his tempering and the length of time he was tempered—what would that mean for the WoL in the event that they really are tempered? As I understand, they've had Hydaelyn's Blessing from the very beginning of A Realm Reborn, if not even earlier for 1.0 players. If the WoL is tempered, and removing their tempering required rolling back their memories, just where would the buck stop?

And for that matter, how hard would it be to reconcile the WoL having any degree of amnesia with the fact that they're as much a self-insert for the player as they are their own character? It's not like we're going to forget, for example, who the Scions of the Seventh Dawn are.

[RyuDragnier]

On a note related to tempering: I may be off about this, as my memory of 5.4's MSQ is just a little hazy right now, but I got the impression that the "cure" for tempering involves some degree of retrograde amnesia. The Kobold Priest seemed to have no recollection of what he was doing while tempered once he was cured. Even if this was attributed to the strength of his tempering and the length of time he was tempered—what would that mean for the WoL in the event that they really are tempered? As I understand, they've had Hydaelyn's Blessing from the very beginning of A Realm Reborn, if not even earlier for 1.0 players. If the WoL is tempered, and removing their tempering required rolling back their memories, just where would the buck stop?

And for that matter, how hard would it be to reconcile the WoL having any degree of amnesia with the fact that they're as much a self-insert for the player as they are their own character? It's not like we're going to forget, for example, who the Scions of the Seventh Dawn are.

I think it's not retrograde amnesia so much as it's forcing another personality onto the individual that takes control and prevents the original personality from ever knowing what is going on (should their will not be strong enough). Removing the tempering is essentially strengthening the original personality to be stronger, overriding and forcing out the tempered one. Such a technique wouldn't likely work on people whose original personality was weak enough to be completely shattered by the tempering, or on people who had strong enough personalities to not be effected as much by the tempering process (such as Emet-Selch).

Hyadelyn could have simply chosen Azem's soul to be her Champion knowing full well it was the soul of the one whose job was to protect the world itself from the beginning. Plus being one of the most powerful people on the planet and formerly one of the Convocation, it makes perfect sense to make said person also the Champion to defeat the other Convocation members.

[Crushnight]

I think Hyadelyn just hit the proverbial jackpot when she gave us the blessing, and wasn't someone soul she specifically went out her way to try and give it too. Having it be a coincidence would be better than her actively choosing and falls in line with what Elidibus said in 5.2 that she is always calling out for anyone who listen, we just happen to have Azem's soul just like Ardbert did.

Now all this talk has me wanting to ask Venat/Hyadelyn another question, did she want us to kill the Ascians or just stop them?

[Kesey]

I think Hyadelyn just hit the proverbial jackpot when she gave us the blessing, and wasn't someone soul she specifically went out her way to try and give it too. Having it be a coincidence would be better than her actively choosing and falls in line with what Elidibus said in 5.2 that she is always calling out for anyone who listen, we just happen to have Azem's soul just like Ardbert did.

Now all this talk has me wanting to ask Venat/Hyadelyn another question, did she want us to kill the Ascians or just stop them?

I'm sure she wants them gone. No more Ascians, no more summoning Zodiark? But that then puts situations like Gaia's where she is an Ascian at risk, (running around with Hydaelyn's oracle too nonetheless) and even if Gaia possess no threat, should she be eliminated?

See its issues like this that Hydaelyn's duplicity comes to the forefront. Why not tell us the whole story about the Ancients? Those bits of information have lead us to dialogue questions if putting Emet and Elidibus to the sword was the right thing to do. Hydaelyn can't be okay with the WOL saying those kinds of things.

[Kesey]

It could be that they simply disagreed with summoning another primal. Look what the first one did.

Which is fine, but still doesn't connect how Azem's reincarnation was choosen as Hydaelyn's champion. If the WOL has the echo and is forced to confront the Ascians who were their former friends at some point Hydaelyn is gambling the WOL remembers and changes their mind.