*Spoilers* The Past and After the Endwalker MSQ End

[LystAP]

So what's keeping us from pulling a G'raha Tia and going back to the past to helped the Venat that helped us avert the Final Days for that timeline?

The loop is closed on our end. Whatever happens in the past should not impact our timeline, as nothing seemed to have impacted Raha's original timeline per the Tales from the Shadow story "An Unpromised Tomorrow". Raha was sent back into the past, but nothing happened to the residents of his timeline when the tower sent to the First - their timeline continued onwards.

We have the answer that Hermes was looking for.

Venat was convinced that he would react negatively to learning what happened at Ktisis Hyperboreia, but we have additional information now that should convince him to help the Ancients. And it would allow Venat to get the Convocation's help, instead of keeping them in the dark.


Moreover, we can still consistently go to the past - to Elpis. More than few of the quests that can take place after finishing the MSQ seem to imply that this is a dependable ability to do so for reason. We're still going back to help Themis with Pandemonium.

It doesn't feel like we would just leave things as they are. As is mentioned throughout the story - "To ignore the plight of those one might conceivably save is not wisdom─it is indolence." It doesn't feel like it would matter whether or not our aid would change anything, it just feels like a loose end to be taken care of. What would be the lore reason for us not to follow up - as heroes?

I also kind of want to see Amaurot at its zenith.

[AlysanneVrannai]

snip

We only go back to Elpis with the help of the Memory Crystal, and not by the normal means, its not even explained yet how we do so. It is also the case that the Elpis we go to is not a different timeline but just further back in OUR timeline. Changing it is impossible, or something we dont want to do because we have no clue what the consequences are. G'raha and the Ironworks/Omega moonshot timeleap with the Crystal Tower was some real insane shit that took generations to complete.

I write all the above without even addressing a giant red flag: we have no idea if timelines already exist or if the action of timetravelling CREATES A NEW ONE. If it does, that means you are essentially creating a problem to solve if thats the case.

In short: Its a can of worms that is not worth opening, trust me.

[Veloran]

In short: Its a can of worms that is not worth opening, trust me.

Future Ironworks would beg to disagree.

[LystAP]

Future Ironworks would beg to disagree.

Pretty much. It's been done before. There's no in-game reason not to as of yet. Some of the Studium quests also imply an ability to travel back in time independent of either the original travel facilitated by Elidibus or the memory crystal. Studium quests can take place either during or after the MSQ.

[Kordarion]

Future Ironworks would beg to disagree.

Yes and in my opinion it was a stupid one, they should have left time travel as closed loops like they already did with Alexander as whenever you open up the possibility of changing the past, doing anything else becomes redundant when you can simply solve the problem by going back and ensuring it never became a problem to begin with. It also means you can't have a story where you time travel without changing the past because then people will, admittedly understandably, complain about us not saving the past.

[AlysanneVrannai]

Future Ironworks would beg to disagree.

To be fair their world was VERY miserable and they were so desperate for a better world they were willing to potentially completely destroy their current timeline to achieve a better world for someone else, not exactly a state of desperation we want to duplicate. And my point still stands, we have no idea if our timeline even existed until they yeeted G'raha back.

[Cilia]

The thing is that we don't know whether or not meaningfully changing the past will cut us off from returning to the (relative) present. G'raha never tried, so there's no guarantee.

That a risk you'd be willing to take?

[Kordarion]

Except that if you look at the following dialogue options we are given both outright state that that isn't the case at all. One says that it wasn't there all along and the other says we made it together, which I presume has something to do with the scions as Meteion says this in relation to having used her powers to feel the player characters emotions.

[Vexander]

So what's keeping us from pulling a G'raha Tia and going back to the past to helped the Venat that helped us avert the Final Days for that timeline?

Honestly? We have no idea how changing the past of the Unsundered World will affect our world. We know that altering the pasts of different shards created different timelines, but the Unsundered world is incredibly dense in aether, to the point it's original inhabitants were outright immune to the effects of Dynamis, while people living in the shards will be transformed by it and be completely lost.

What we did in Elpis was a closed loop of events. Altering the events drastically, as in preventing the sundering of the world, could invariable destroy our timeline and that of the shards, and there's no way of knowing for sure because the Unsundered World's aetheric density is so much higher than ours.

[Veloran]

The thing is that we don't know whether or not meaningfully changing the past will cut us off from returning to the (relative) present. G'raha never tried, so there's no guarantee.

That a risk you'd be willing to take?

Yes. G'raha took that same chance.