Ascians... How powerful are they?

[Absimiliard]

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.

I dunno. I feel like Emet-Selch might have been able to light Athena up if she didn't somehow prevent him from casting. He had that whole being "beloved by the underworld" (i.e. truly monstrous levels of aether) thing going for him. It evidently made his magic oppressively powerful even by ancient standards. Venat, on the other hand, had the benefit of being ludicrously skilled with a sword. I doubt she'd have been a slouch in the aether department either considering the fight she put up as Hydaelyn despite at that point having only her own supply left.

[Elissar]

Actually, Hythlodaeus and Ktsis answer that question.
Each one of them is specialized in different arts (that is the reason why they are elected for different chairs). There is no one specialized in everything. Emet for example was exceptional in aether manipulation but Hermes was way more academic and innovation-oriented person. Hyth was specialized in vision but awful in manipulation. Venat was a master of weaponized combat. We can only guess about others.

[thegreatonemal]

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.

Yea just didn't feel like looking up her name.

I don't know about Athena's power though. Lahabrea was able to kill her after all(though she may have just wanted him to.) Emet's probably the strongest but this isn't saying much. There's was a mostly peaceful society, I'd just say whoever held the seat of Azem was the strongest since their job was going out into the world and that would require dealing with any threats to themselves out there.