How can Venat be the previous Azem?

[arrowrl201]

I was debating this one with a friend for a short time, because the timeline of events of Endwalker doesn't seem to match up with what Hythlodaeus tells us in Shadowbringers.

Hythlodaeus (Shadowbringers): The Final Days. What began as isolated incidents soon swelled into a world-spanning threat...

Hythlodaeus (Shadowbringers): The Convocation of Fourteen - well, it was Thirteen at the time - endeavoured to create a will for our star. They would repair the fundamental laws of order and halt the spread of destruction.

The timeline of events as I understand them, however, are:

1. Meteion's influence hits Etheriys, causing the Convocation to begin to wonder how to combat it.
2. The Seat of Azem is created
3. The Final Days hits Amaurot proper
4. Zodiark is summoned
5. Zodiark is about to receive another half of the unsundered ancients
6. Venat steps in, becomes Hydaelyn, and splits the world

If this is the case, and the seat of Azem was created a relatively short time ago, how is it that Venat was the previous Azem? When we meet for (chronologically) the first time on Elpis, Venat seems to be treated as though she were in the position for a lot longer than it should have existed before.

[KageTokage]

The Convocation only had thirteen members at that time because the current Azem opposed Zodiark's summoning which had them branded as a traitor and removed.

[Kuroka]

No the seat of Azem was always there, that is confirmed with the side stories.... at those were pre soundering.

They always were 14 - Venat retires and our old self takes the seat for some time, dealing with emet and the others too, as said in the side story - the final days hit - "we" go ??? and dont side with either side and leave, letting our seat empty - they summon Zodiark - Venat gathers followers (maybe already before that) and at a later point she becomes hydaelyn and splits the world.

[EdwinLi]

No the seat of Azem was always there, that is confirmed with the side stories.... at those were pre soundering.

They always were 14 - Venat retires and our old self takes the seat for some time, dealing with emet and the others too, as said in the side story - the final days hit - "we" go ??? and dont side with either side and leave, letting our seat empty - they summon Zodiark - Venat gathers followers (maybe already before that) and at a later point she becomes hydaelyn and splits the world.

Speaking of Azem going MIA without siding with anyone, I feel this plot is going to be important if not THE source of Season 2 events and Season 2 Antagonists.

The whole Azem going MIA and being a big mystery during events of Hydaelyn/Zodiark struggle even before the Final Days is rather strange and suspicious.

[Ryaz]

Speaking of Azem going MIA without siding with anyone, I feel this plot is going to be important if not THE source of Season 2 events and Season 2 Antagonists.

The whole Azem going MIA and being a big mystery during events of Hydaelyn/Zodiark struggle even before the Final Days is rather strange and suspicious.

I'm guessing Azem knew of the Final Days before it happened as well. Venat probably told them. It would explain how he/she knew that we'd be coming to help Elidibus with Pandaemonium.

[TaleraRistain]

I'm guessing Azem knew of the Final Days before it happened as well. Venat probably told them. It would explain how he/she knew that we'd be coming to help Elidibus with Pandaemonium.

Whether told by Venat or not, there does seem to be some evidence Azem knew. Hydaelyn gives you the words of the former crystal bearer and they're awfully on point. And then Azem knows to tell Themis to look for the falling star. I wonder if Azem has some sort of foresight.

[Ryaz]

Whether told by Venat or not, there does seem to be some evidence Azem knew. Hydaelyn gives you the words of the former crystal bearer and they're awfully on point. And then Azem knows to tell Themis to look for the falling star. I wonder if Azem has some sort of foresight.

Possibly. I hope that as we start going on new, smaller adventures that they don't drop the Azem story completely. I'd like to learn more about their past and their reasons for being against both Zodiark and Hydalaen, despite possibly having some knowledge of what's to come. Maybe they tried finding a third option and failed? Or has some other, larger plan that we haven't been privy to?

[RyuDragnier]

Speaking of Azem going MIA without siding with anyone, I feel this plot is going to be important if not THE source of Season 2 events and Season 2 Antagonists.

The whole Azem going MIA and being a big mystery during events of Hydaelyn/Zodiark struggle even before the Final Days is rather strange and suspicious.

There's also the fact that we have missing pieces of the puzzle here that may have to do with Azem. We have not dealt with the "roar from within the earth" that caused the transformations into Terminus back in the pre-Sundering days...a sound that was confirmed to be heard at Radz-at-Han when the transformations began. I have a feeling that's going to deal with our next big journey, and possibly with what Azem was doing. Zodiark dealt with the imbalance of aether, Hydaelyn sealed him to prevent more sacrifices and so the imbalance wouldn't return...so what caused the original imbalance, where did it come from?

[Iscah]

We have not dealt with the "roar from within the earth" that caused the transformations into Terminus back in the pre-Sundering days...a sound that was confirmed to be heard at Radz-at-Han when the transformations began.

That depends whether the writers intend for it to be a separate phenomenon or a strange effect of Meteion's call.

The primary mystery with Azem right now is how they knew to tell Themis to expect us.

That may get entirely resolved within the raid story, and all plotlines regarding the ancients wrapped up within this patch cycle, but we'll have to wait and see.

[EdwinLi]

That depends whether the writers intend for it to be a separate phenomenon or a strange effect of Meteion's call.

The primary mystery with Azem right now is how they knew to tell Themis to expect us.

That may get entirely resolved within the raid story, and all plotlines regarding the ancients wrapped up within this patch cycle, but we'll have to wait and see.

I honestly will not be surprised if the Roar is revealed to be caused by the final boss of the 6.0 Raid storyline. This kind of plot will end up resulting in the classic time travel plot of "the roar" was always going to happen even if WoL did not travel back in time to become involved with Pandemonium.

If not then it maybe explained in Season 2 storyline.

Either way, I suspect while Meteion caused the instability in the Ancient's powers that lead to the Final Days, the roar was the cause of their emotional breakdown that lead to them losing control due to paranoia.

However, I suspect there maybe more to the story involving Dynamis to begin with since 6.0 only introduced to us the concept and that there are people researching Dynamis both during Ancient times and current time in the Source but SE did not go into details about what those research involved.

If understanding Dynamis ends up being involved as a key factor for Season 2 then we should expect that there could be a civilization in the unknown regions that have a better understanding of Dynamis as well. After all Emet did warn us in advance the civilizations beyond Eorzea and the regions we have gone to that are located in the Unknown regions may surprise us with how they developed both technology, magic, and theme wise.

There could even more more technology based civilizations in the unknown regions thus we may get a actual modern day civilization or future tech theme civilization that is located in the unknown regions along with the expect more pure magic based civilizations as well.

After all, Season 1 only covered Eorzea and locations that do make contact with Eorzea which is only 25% to 40% of the planet. We still got 75% to 60% of the planet left unexplored and we know Season 2 is about exploring those unknown regions as Emet spoiled to us.