What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[Ryaz]

If Meteion was introduced in an earlier expansion, I would have liked EW’s story a bit more. As it is, it’s been my least favorite story of all of FFXIV since 2.0. That opinion has not gone off well with a couple of friends, not that I particularly care in the long run. I can see how they rushed a bit with this expansion, and I understand why, but that doesn’t change how I felt about the story. It didn’t suck, but it wasn’t the best.

While Meteion herself wasn't introduced, the noise causing the Final Days was introduced in a previous expac. We just didn't know what was causing it until EW.

And honestly, while Meteion may have been the physical body of the end villain, she wasn't actually the villain herself. We were fighting instead against a concept, the thought that life is meaningless, worthless and that there is no point to living. FIghting against the despair, anger and anguish of who knows how many dead and dying worlds. Meteion was just kind of a vessel for that.

As for the other posts about Venat, we really don't know what she did between the time we left and the time she and her followers created Hydalaen. We have to infer things from what we learned in ShB and from what her personality was like in 6.0. I know for some, it sucks having to fill in the gaps, but it's also what makes the story intriguing. We have huge gaps in our own history on why certain events happened and history that's been changed through the years by stories being twisted. Not knowing what happened allows us to draw our own conclusions.

For me, given Venat's personality, I'd think she'd do almost everything in her power to prevent the Final Days from happening, but not knowing how the future up to that plays out or what events might lead to them, it makes it difficult for her to move much. For all she knew, telling the Convocation may have been the very thing that caused the Final Days. It's one of the traps of time travel. There are no easy answers and why she probably felt she needed to keep it close to the vest. But she did have her supporters, some of whom I'm sure she brought into the fold. I feel she thought the Sundering was the only option left to make sure life continued as she just believed the Ancients would repeat the same folly over and over until they were all dead. She herself said it would some extremely powerful reason for her to become Hydalaen. I'd say the belief that your race is driving headlong towards the destruction of all life on the planet is a pretty big motivator.