Where did the dark crystal go?

[Absimiliard]

I almost wonder if Zodiark's fragments are somehow responsible for (read as: being used for) keeping the shards separated or something. Unlike everything else, he was sundered into literal pieces instead of split into multiple reflections. This means there's at least one small piece of him on (or rather in) the moon of every shard. That can't be accidental. Plus we've got Endwalker confirming the fate of the Source being shared with its shards, meaning all of them are still inextricably connected.

[RyuDragnier]

I almost wonder if Zodiark's fragments are somehow responsible for (read as: being used for) keeping the shards separated or something. Unlike everything else, he was sundered into literal pieces instead of split into multiple reflections. This means there's at least one small piece of him on (or rather in) the moon of every shard. That can't be accidental. Plus we've got Endwalker confirming the fate of the Source being shared with its shards, meaning all of them are still inextricably connected.

Or perhaps keeping the aether on each shard regulated into its own circle. Because what is going to happen to all the aether now that there's nothing keeping it flowing like it had been for millenia? We're about to see some serious fallback from this, forcing us into shard hopping I wager.

[Lyth]

Or perhaps keeping the aether on each shard regulated into its own circle. Because what is going to happen to all the aether now that there's nothing keeping it flowing like it had been for millenia? We're about to see some serious fallback from this, forcing us into shard hopping I wager.

If the moon is present on every shard, I'd be curious to know if that's also still true of the 13th.

[Cleretic]

If the moon is present on every shard, I'd be curious to know if that's also still true of the 13th.

I don't think we saw one... granted, that's not exactly a smoking gun; being generous, we were there for maybe a few hours, and there's rather a number of 'few hour' chunks of time where I can look outside into our own sky and not see our moon.

I actually think that the most interesting thing about the 'Fathercrystal' (if it needs a name, I'll grant that's a pretty good one) is that it's a relic of what I believe is one of only to confirmed retcons across the entire history of the game. While there's a lot of things that we can reasonably assume to have been retconned at one stage but don't actually have clear proof (whatever Silvertear Lake's deal was probably isn't a thing anymore, the 'we got astral and umbral backwards' reveal was probably a retcon), there are two times that the writers have come out and said they changed something from their initial plans:

1. Nerva's gender
2. The Ascians' original concept, as confirmed in a chat between Yoshi-P and Thancred's Japanese VA

We don't know when exactly that concept changed, but we can reason that it was sometime between 2.0 (when Thancred was first voiced) and 3.2 (the patch with the Antitower and Unukalhai's backstory, which hindsight says were the first intentional clues of their new concept). My guess is the new course was set by 3.0, but that's just gut feel.

Still, it means that the Fathercrystal is the biggest, clearest thing we can point to and say 'this is from the original Ascian concept'. Which means that the question of 'what was its deal' actually has two answers: what it was in the original concept (where it was presumably a big deal), and what it is in the current one (where, going by the fact we haven't seen the thing in nine years, it probably isn't).

[Anvaire]

If the moon is present on every shard, I'd be curious to know if that's also still true of the 13th.

We actually have confirmation that it does, as its or something that appears to be the moon is visible in the world of Darkness.

[Cleretic]

We actually have confirmation that it does, as its or something that appears to be the moon is visible in the world of Darkness.

If you're talking about the big red orb, that's actually the Cloud of Darkness, you can confirm it by backtracking after defeating her and seeing it's not in the sky anymore.

[JeanneOrnitier]

Or perhaps keeping the aether on each shard regulated into its own circle. Because what is going to happen to all the aether now that there's nothing keeping it flowing like it had been for millenia? We're about to see some serious fallback from this, forcing us into shard hopping I wager.

The FSH quests in Sharlayan actually touch on this a little bit, albeit only in the affects it's having on the tides and sealife. But presumably the change in the aether flow's 12,000 year status quo is going to have bigger repercussions than causing a delirious whale to show up in Scholar's Harbor.

But if Zodiark's pieces still exist in the shards' moons, maybe those shards won't have the aether shifting the Source is experiencing.