Quote Originally Posted by WhiteArchmage View Post
I'll put it in the simplest terms possible

"How many people will your plan kill?"
Ascians: "All of them? That's kind of the point. I mean, we don't even really consider them people."
Ironworks: "I mean, ideally? None. In fact, given that the plan is saving everyone, the only true 'casualties' would be theoretically new souls born after the Calamity in case we change the Past and that eliminates the Future." (Which is a time paradox and I'm glad they went the "diverging timeline" route instead).

The short story you yourself mentioned deals about how Cid's plan started as: "Go back in time and prevent the Calamity", which made most people peace out. When the plan changed to "Go back in time and save the WoL" literally everyone rushed in to help. The Namazu, the Sky Pirates, the Four Lords, friggin' Hraesvelgr swoops in to help while being all tsundere about it. (Fun thing: Given that Seigetsu the Enlightened claims the TRUE timeline is the one where the WoL lives, it gives an extra incentive to the Ironworks' plan).


(Ok, not TRUE timeline, necessarily, but certainly A timeline where the WoL survives and the world is saved.)

Also, uhhh... what? with the "Sundering made the world unstable" thing... because... uh... the thing was "End Days made the world unstable, Convocation creates Zodiark by sacrificing half their people. Convocation decides they will sacrifice all the newborn life to Zodiark. Another Faction doesn't like that plan and creates Hydaelin. SOMETHING happens and then Hydaelin Sunders Zodiark and the world (we don't know if it was willingly or accidentally), Ascians plan to destroy each one of those worlds to bring back Zodiark AND THEN go back to original plan of killing everyone to bring back the Ancients."
The sundering did make the world unstable, the lore devs themselves have stated that in an interview. They paint it and the sundering as very bad things specifically. Again though, yes they decided to go save the wol by meddling with the past without knowing if they’re all going to get erased or not or what any of the repercussions are. Yet they then push the message of people shouldn’t mess with the past and should instead work with what they have. So it kind of contradicts itself in the grand scheme of thingsThe diverging timeline is honestly just plot convenience but i digress.