Actual Telophoroi Members?

[Theozilla]

So besides Zenos and Fandaniel, were there actually any individuals who were voluntarily part of the Telophoroi (i.e. not tempered, or lunar Primals, etc.)?

Or was Telophoroi basically just a fancy plural noun that made for better/more convenient dialogue flow than having to regularly say “Zenos and Fandaniel and their minions/forces”?

[Enkidoh]

EW spoilers ahead

The Telophori were basically just Garlean forces (or anyone else really) tempered by

Anima/the Tower of Babil and it's tempering towers like the Tower of Zot

, so it's definetely the later - just a fancy word to describe Zenos and Fandaniel's collective tempered minions.

They were not an actual independent organized force per se (after all, anyone tempered by

Anima including the Telophori endlessly droned on "Glory be to Garlemald!" not say "the Empire!"), but were pretty much just a thralldom taking advantage of the Empire's pre-existing cult of personality around the late Emperor Varis (hence why the towers each include a piece of Varis's dismembered corpse within them) created to power up the Tower of Babil

. Cetainly there were never any shown voluntary members, because, why would there be? The towers',

aka Anima's

tempering waves virtually eliminate any possibility of volunteers throwing their support to the Telophori by tempering them to ensure obedience anyway.

[Vyrerus]

Man, that term did kind of just get hard dropped, didn't it? No word on the remaining sundered Ascians still, either. Hmm.

[Theozilla]

EW spoilers ahead

The Telophori were basically just Garlean forces (or anyone else really) tempered by

Anima/the Tower of Babil and it's tempering towers like the Tower of Zot

, so it's definetely the later - just a fancy word to describe Zenos and Fandaniel's collective tempered minions.

They were not an actual independent organized force per se (after all, anyone tempered by

Anima including the Telophori endlessly droned on "Glory be to Garlemald!" not say "the Empire!"), but were pretty much just a thralldom taking advantage of the Empire's pre-existing cult of personality around the late Emperor Varis (hence why the towers each include a piece of Varis's dismembered corpse within them) created to power up the Tower of Babil

. Cetainly there were never any shown voluntary members, because, why would there be? The towers',

aka Anima's

tempering waves virtually eliminate any possibility of volunteers throwing their support to the Telophori by tempering them to ensure obedience anyway.

Oh I am well aware of all of that. It’s just funny that while it functions as fancy/convenient descriptive plural noun, when other characters reference the Telophoroi in conversation, like when Alphinaud pleads with his father in 5.55 and/or the first half of Thavnair when chatting with Thancred, Urianger, and Estinien at the Great Work, they refer to the desire to destroy the world and then die, as the Telophoroi’s desires, which grammatically/sentence flow-wise makes it sound like it’s some collective cult desire many people came to a consensus on, despite it actually just being Fandaniel’s desire that he’s getting others to carry out by means of force/magical brainwashing. So I just wanted to double-check that I understood the meaning despite the counterintuitive grammar/sentence construction.

[Rosenstrauch]

There's one character whose status is a little ambiguous.

Dr. Lugae, the scientist fought in the Tower of Babil, seemed fairly lucid compared to the tempered thralls making up the vast majority of the Telophoroi. And when he does express loyalty to anyone, it's specifically to Zenos.

On the other hand, the form he's fought in is a direct reference to the Lugae fight in FFIV, in which Dr. Lugae turned himself into a machine zombie thing. It's possible that the same holds true for his XIV counterpart, in which case a primal's influence would be a likely candidate for him suddenly being... well, that. It would be a pretty hasty transformation if so, but then the same was true for Gunnhildr's Blades in Delubrum Reginae.

[ElizanderNorisse]

I expected to see the sundered Ascians to be honest.

[Cleretic]

There's one character whose status is a little ambiguous.

Dr. Lugae, the scientist fought in the Tower of Babil, seemed fairly lucid compared to the tempered thralls making up the vast majority of the Telophoroi. And when he does express loyalty to anyone, it's specifically to Zenos.

On the other hand, the form he's fought in is a direct reference to the Lugae fight in FFIV, in which Dr. Lugae turned himself into a machine zombie thing. It's possible that the same holds true for his XIV counterpart, in which case a primal's influence would be a likely candidate for him suddenly being... well, that. It would be a pretty hasty transformation if so, but then the same was true for Gunnhildr's Blades in Delubrum Reginae.

Ooh, you're right.

In retrospect he was a pretty quick and curious falloff; he's definitely far more 'himself' than anyone in/around the Tower beyond Fandanie and Zenos, though. I guess he was just easy to forget about because he was a brief comic relief character.

[Denishia]

Will the other Sundered Ascians and their black-masked lackeys be the black-robed variant of the Lambs of Dalamud now, appearing in a dungeon and zone FATE? Visually they were never far off, and story-wise the similarities of a cult worshippers unmoored from their purpose are even more apparent.

Honestly, that there was never a tie in between the Telophoroi and Lambs of Dalamud, or even the Lambs and Final Days with red skies, feels like a wasted opportunity.