Ascians... How powerful are they?

[ArmaDragkun]

Only recently finished the main story quests and been wondering. So we've had semi clear indications of how strong the big three were but your "general" Ascian do we have any clear idea how strong / powerful they are?

SPOILERS AHEAD

For example the latest Ascian. Mr Fandaniel, seems to be causing a fair amount of chaos seemingly by himself, now I'm not a 100% sure if he built the towers that are mind controlling any who get close and spawning the primals left right and centre or if they were built ages ago by garleans and he either repurposed them and then caused them to rise or just caused them to rise from the ground.

Basically if it came down to a fight between us and Fandaniel would we just bat him aside like an annoying fly or would he pose a challenge?

[lezard21]

How powerful are they?

Just as much as the plot demands

[Cilia]

Well...

In plot terms, Emet-Selch was about as powerful as one could possibly get - an unsundered Ancient with very little to no power loss due to body-hopping, either born or trained to be one of if not the most powerful sorcerer even among the Ancients. Danny Boy... is an elevated soul fragment of his former self (maybe), so he's probably not as powerful. No Ascian can be swat aside like a fly, but if it came down to a straight fight I doubt he'd be as much trouble as Emet was.

For what it's worth, we already know he's not the final boss of Endwalker, so... make of that what you will.

[Cleretic]

I think Fancy Daniel's strength isn't exactly in raw power, but in what he does with it. He's using relatively little to ends that he knows he can manage, which is extremely dangerous.

[Navytroy]

Elidibus was the most powerful ascian, he was selected the Heart of Zodiark for a reason.
-He released himself from a binding spell from Hesperos and Lahabrea very easly while Emet-Selch struggled with someone like Hermes, which is less powerful than Lahabrea himself.
-He could manipulate light and dark magics easly.
-He defeated the WoL twice, one on Ghimlyt Dark and the other one in The Seat of Sacrifice, the WoL was defeated but saved by Estinien and Emet-Slech/Graha'Tia respectively.

[Enkidoh]

Emet only struggled against Hermes because Hermes was outright cheating, having deployed a magic-dampening field over Ktsis Hyperboreia, which greatly reduced magic potency within it. Otherwise, Emet would have utterly curbstomped Hermes who hadn't even been selected for the seat of Fandaniel at that point.

[Vyrerus]

Emet only struggled against Hermes because Hermes was outright cheating, having deployed a magic-dampening field over Ktsis Hyperboreia, which greatly reduced magic potency within it. Otherwise, Emet would have utterly curbstomped Hermes who hadn't even been selected for the seat of Fandaniel at that point.

I'll add that Elidibus didn't defeat the WoL in Ghimlyt Dark. G'raha Tia defeated the WoL in Ghimlyt Dark with his failed Calling spell incapacitating the WoL. Estinien saved WoL from being killed while incapacitated.

[thegreatonemal]

Elidibus was the most powerful ascian, he was selected the Heart of Zodiark for a reason.
-He released himself from a binding spell from Hesperos and Lahabrea very easly while Emet-Selch struggled with someone like Hermes, which is less powerful than Lahabrea himself.
-He could manipulate light and dark magics easly.
-He defeated the WoL twice, one on Ghimlyt Dark and the other one in The Seat of Sacrifice, the WoL was defeated but saved by Estinien and Emet-Slech/Graha'Tia respectively.

He wasn't selected. Somebody else on the convocation was. He basically begged for the role instead.
Okay? This isn't anything special light and dark are just two elements on the magic wheel.
He doesn't win that either. He even says he doesn't have the power to strike us down, so he tries to trow us into the rift instead.

[Zero-ELEC]

I'll add that Elidibus didn't defeat the WoL in Ghimlyt Dark. G'raha Tia defeated the WoL in Ghimlyt Dark with his failed Calling spell incapacitating the WoL. Estinien saved WoL from being killed while incapacitated.

We also kinda see a version of the events where that didn't happen in the CG trailer for Shadowbringers, where the CG Warrior of Light downed Lahabrea in Zenos' body.

Power level debates are asinine regardless.

[Cleretic]

He wasn't selected. Somebody else on the convocation was. He basically begged for the role instead.\

Loghrif, specifically. (Who probably would've done a better job, but that's a separate discussion.) I want to say it was Mitron that convinced her to step down, but I don't remember where that was said.

If we're talking about raw Dragon Ball Z power-level measuring, the strongest Ascian by pure, no-frills shows of strength is Emet-Selch; guy conjured up a whole fake city, and then fake-destroyed it, and wasn't even tired afterwards. However, Zero-ELEC is right that this sort of argument is worthless, and it's especially worthless in discussions about the Ascians, who almost all died to explicitly less powerful people than themselves; I'd argue the only one that wasn't killed by a David Vs. Goliath situation there was Fandaniel, and he used that something stronger than him to kill himself.

They're not even the strongest Ancients; I'd put good money on Athena being able to overpower any one of them in straight combat, and Venat was a better fighter than most of them. But that's in large part because Amaurot actually wasn't a kraterocracy, and most of their government were hardly selected for combat ability.