Is Minfilia always useless ?

[Rannie]

Log in and head to Syrcus Trench. Talk to the Ironworks npc holding onto the beacon. Enjoy your trip to the Ocular. Not the Aetheryte.

I have done that before you do realize that was done so if someone screwed up and teleported back to the source before they could attune to an aetheryte they had a way to not be locked out of the story. That is a case of story and game play segregation. Per story we teleport via our telportation like normal back to the first after attunement to the aetheryte except for the end when that crystal mirror sends us back home. Not the device .

Btw that device is just a macguffin

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MacGuffin

[Riastrad]

I have done that before you do realize that was done so if someone screwed up and teleported back to the source before they could attune to an aetheryte they had a way to not be locked out of the story. That is a case of story and game play segregation. Per story we teleport via our telportation like normal back to the first after attunement to the aetheryte except for the end when that crystal mirror sends us back home. Not the device .

And I don't subscribe to that segregation at all. Don't add details if you can't explain it in lore. That is shoddy story telling.

[Rannie]

And I don't subscribe to that segregation at all. Don't add details if you can't explain it in lore. That is shoddy story telling.

That' may be what you think but it doesn't change the fact that it is what it is the device was nothing more than a macguffin a one time story use device


https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MacGuffin

You can't just change facts because you don't "subscribe" to them.

[Rannie]

So where is your fact that it is still used throughout the story? Give me the quest and details exactly when it's mentioned again in the MSQ that we are using the device to travel back and forth outside od the end of 4.55 when we are asked to find it and after the first time we head to the first? I'll wait since I have to leave for work soon

[Riastrad]

So where is your fact that it is still used throughout the story? Give me the quest and details exactly when it's mentioned again in the MSQ that we are using the device to travel back and forth outside od the end of 4.55 when we are asked to find it and after the first time we head to the first? I'll wait since I have to leave for work soon

I'm not saying we are using it all the time. Iscah mentioned that canonically it is how the WoD travels between the Source and the First. Not me.

In fact, narratively (as opposed to what we can do for gameplay convenience) it seems like we don't really travel back and forth anyway, and when we do we use the Ironworks device and the mirror portal in the Ocular. We return to the Source through the mirror at the end of 5.0, and I think 5.3 as well. And IIRC it's specifically said that the Crystal Tower becomes known as the way that the Warrior of Light comes back and forth to visit.

I am saying that it is still possible without anyone other than ourselves activating it. Because, as I am sure you are aware, that particular G'raha Tia is dead. He's not doing much of anything anymore. Paplyamo showed us that magics dissipate after death. This one is still going strong.

[Iscah]

The stones were created to ascend certain individuals to the Seats of the Convocation. Azem had the ability to summon friends and allies in times of need (some take this to play into the lore behind duty finder among other things.) Each stone bestows its gifts and authorities to the user. These are the signature spells and skills innate to the original wielder. The stone only helps define what we already knew. We have always been able to use these skills, now we know why.

This is mostly the same statement I'd already argued against in the post you quoted.

Even assuming we did already possess Azem's power to call our friends to our location, that says nothing about us having the ability to go to them.

Doubly so if we don't even know they exist for us to warp to them, or that we need to do so.


I'm also dubious that we are already using Azem's power prior to 5.3. We just conveniently have friends in strange places if you believe the handwaving excuses as to why they are there, and we have never been shown to use the summoning circle to call on them before. They just turn up, or are possibly organised in advance (before it became too ridiculous to excuse) and in Shadowbringers we canonically have the Scions instead.

Also if we already knew we could summon our friends at will, we wouldn't have had to trek all over Norvrandt to find the Scions in the first place.

I am saying that it is still possible without anyone other than ourselves activating it. Because, as I am sure you are aware, that particular G'raha Tia is dead. He's not doing much of anything anymore. Paplyamo showed us that magics dissipate after death. This one is still going strong.

Firstly, it's possible to activate the beacon ourself now after the Exarch created the initial connection. That doesn't mean we could use it without any idea of what it was or where we could go with it. (We also would have had no idea it was there until the Exarch made first contact and told us to search for it.)

Secondly, it's debatable whether the Exarch is "dead" in the way that would cause the connection to dissipate. Remember that Papalymo's spell outlasted his physical form and only failed when the aetherial cocoon was destroyed. By the same logic, the Exarch's crystallised body – and therefore the connection – remains in place indefinitely.

Thirdly, you could alternately suppose that the entity responsible for maintaining the connection is not the Exarch but the Tower, which likewise should be able to keep the connection open indefinitely once it is set.



Also, relocating some comments I had previously spliced into an old post because I hit my limit earlier:

Being mute and never sharing our other experiences is getting people killed for no reason.

We never share information or ideas and it is becoming impossible to not address this issue.

What specific information do you think we're not sharing?

If you're so certain we knew we could travel the rift whenever we felt like it, when and how do you think we learned this?

Edit to add: Also we are clearly not mute within the story – we are shown talking to the other characters even if our actual dialogue goes unrecorded. I don't see a reason to assume that we are not telling the other Scions what we know, and if I went looking there would probably be times when they comment on the information they've gained from us. We certainly told them about meeting the Word of the Mother, which started Urianger on his plan to send her to save the First.

---

When we go to the Thirteenth (which is a strange shell of a ruined world and it's not quite clear if the normal rules apply) we go through a portal designed by the Allagans specifically to tunnel into that non-world and nowhere else. Regardless of the mechanics, it's not of our own making.

When we go to the Chrysalis, it's a rift created by Nabriales – again, not of our own making.

And the working Crystal Tower TARDIS is apparently drawing on the combined mechanisms of the voidgate device (rift access creation) and Omega's ability to navigate the rift. From memory, this is covered in the Twinning datalogs – simply creating an entry to the rift is not enough to find your way through safely to the other side.

[Riastrad]

Sorry. I'm starting to see that I cannot succinctly express what I am trying to say here. Repeatedly iterating the point has no obvious effect and I doubt that trying again will help.

Just ignore me.