What was it like after hours on old Etheirys?

[Iscah]

I know this is said in jest, but I think it's closer to the truth than "Wow, that man's such an arse he tried to foist murder machines on children!". The Amaurot we see in Shadowbringers is an elaborate stage. What appear to be flesh and blood Ancients are really just props playing out an illusion of life. And as a few characters in this stretch of the story note, any attempt to push these props out of their intended behavior accomplishes very little.

I must have just missed seeing this post when I wrote my second one earlier.

And yes, definitely all that we see in Amaurot, or at least the vast majority of it (minus one accidentally-sentient "new old friend" and any other similar slip-ups) has to be planned by Emet. It's just about a meta thing where he in-universe would have gone about it in much the way the game creators did: place a person here, give them a role and some fixed lines of exposition to repeat: NPCs with the illusion of sentience until you attempt to go off-script.

I have a side theory that the shadowy faceless forms we see in Amaurot and in the recordings at Anyder are a sort of anonymising effect they used in their recordings originally, and Emet used it for his recreated shades so they're not representing particular people. (And then he chose to manifest as one at the Seat of Sacrifice for... reasons.) That's my best shot at rationalising why they look like that instead of the real people we now know them to be.

[Rannie]

Hmm I wonder how that would work with the souls trapped in Zodiark that we see on the moon

[SannaR]

I do wonder what they did do during their off time as from what we see it's almost all work and no relaxation. Yes, they take breaks and share meals with each other but then it's straight back to work. If the hot springs in Kugane, Camp Bronze Lake or even the one in Lakeland somehow existed in some form in the pre-sundered world did anyone go to them and take a relaxing dip in them? Did they go to the beach and bury their friends in the sand or go swimming? Or did they not do these things cause they only wore their robes? Did those who worked at Pandeamonium even get time off or were they more like the researchers in Labrynthos that got sworn to secrecy and not allowed to leave?

[Rufalus]

Probably use the creation magic in some way to pleasure themselves. Need nothing more than a good imagination.

[Enkidoh]

Well we know they definetely had theater and plays/drama at least, so there was forms of entertainment that existed even then (besides the references to acting and "bit parts" by Emet and Hythlodaeus, a sidequest in Elpis mentioned a researcher wanting to send a flower he created as a present to his girlfriend back in Amaurot who was a playwright and hoped it would inspire her when writing. There is also a poet found in Elpis at the Mourning Dew who actually recites poetry if you speak to her (for the added kicker she's named Sappho, clearly referencing the real life ancient Greek poet of the same name, some of whose writings were, scandalous at the time due to being um... risque to say the least).

Hythlodaeus was also a bard, and Venat knew dance, so music and dance were also clearly important back then culturally.

And, Altima's seat on the Convocation of Fourteen specifically dealt with the arts, although whether that was acting as a kind of censor/culture police or simply assisting with art's promotion in Ancient society is unclear (it would kind of explain why Altima kind of ended up forgotten among the Ascians after her single appearence back in ARR, her speciality in art wouldn't really be too much help in trying to set up Rejoinings after all ).

[Alleluia]

I know this is said in jest, but I think it's closer to the truth than "Wow, that man's such an arse he tried to foist murder machines on children!". The Amaurot we see in Shadowbringers is an elaborate stage. What appear to be flesh and blood Ancients are really just props playing out an illusion of life. And as a few characters in this stretch of the story note, any attempt to push these props out of their intended behavior accomplishes very little.

I believe this quest was there to highlight the necessity of Amaurot's bureaucratic methods and the dangers creation magic could pose even when used benignly, but also to showcase a moment of glamour failure by having one of the illusions Emet-Selch crafted push the boundaries of what he expected it to do.

Alternate origin theory for Emet including the blobs in his recreation: a stray memory of Hyth telling him about a disastrous day at work where some scatterbrained fellow decided to try out his untested creations inside the building.

And, Altima's seat on the Convocation of Fourteen specifically dealt with the arts, although whether that was acting as a kind of censor/culture police or simply assisting with art's promotion in Ancient society is unclear (it would kind of explain why Altima kind of ended up forgotten among the Ascians after her single appearence back in ARR, her speciality in art wouldn't really be too much help in trying to set up Rejoinings after all ).

Now I'm picturing her promoting a plan to facilitate a Rejoining by promoting bad art memes. lol

"Trust me, bad art destroys the soul. It'll totally work, guys! ...Guys? Where are you going?!"


EDIT: Altima's Rejoining Plan: NFTs!

[Alleluia]

I know this is said in jest, but I think it's closer to the truth than "Wow, that man's such an arse he tried to foist murder machines on children!". The Amaurot we see in Shadowbringers is an elaborate stage. What appear to be flesh and blood Ancients are really just props playing out an illusion of life. And as a few characters in this stretch of the story note, any attempt to push these props out of their intended behavior accomplishes very little.

I believe this quest was there to highlight the necessity of Amaurot's bureaucratic methods and the dangers creation magic could pose even when used benignly, but also to showcase a moment of glamour failure by having one of the illusions Emet-Selch crafted push the boundaries of what he expected it to do.

I must have just missed seeing this post when I wrote my second one earlier.

And yes, definitely all that we see in Amaurot, or at least the vast majority of it (minus one accidentally-sentient "new old friend" and any other similar slip-ups) has to be planned by Emet. It's just about a meta thing where he in-universe would have gone about it in much the way the game creators did: place a person here, give them a role and some fixed lines of exposition to repeat: NPCs with the illusion of sentience until you attempt to go off-script.

I have a side theory that the shadowy faceless forms we see in Amaurot and in the recordings at Anyder are a sort of anonymising effect they used in their recordings originally, and Emet used it for his recreated shades so they're not representing particular people. (And then he chose to manifest as one at the Seat of Sacrifice for... reasons.) That's my best shot at rationalising why they look like that instead of the real people we now know them to be.

I took it as Hades either not knowing their faces (all the people he generally didn't know and were just kinda there as placeholders for Amaurotines) or not wanting to think about their faces too hard (ppl he actually interacted with; Hythlodeaus). The latter b/c its both too painful and also b/c of shame. As he said in Elpis, he considers the glamour in the Tempest to be disrespectful to their memory; and he likely still does, even as his loneliness drives him to do it anyway.

Same with the actual souls on the moon being hazy, half-there and resulting in that form; though there it was due to the passage of time, the fugue state Hyth mentions, and also probably from Zodiark having chomped their (both corporeal and memetic?) aether to work his magic.

Hades in Seat of Sacrifice was summoned via Azem's magic, technically, so maybe it was our lack of skill with that magic, lack of knowledge of his ancient self's form, and the fact that it was a summoning call made out of pure desperation (and presumably done unconsciously) that resulted in him appearing like that?

[Iscah]

EDIT: Altima's Rejoining Plan: NFTs!

So that would be the Calamity of Lightning, then?

[PogueX]

It's a boring, stagnant, hubris-filled civilization. The kind of civilizations that would fall to depression and nihilism if not for the sundering.

Well, the whole impending doom and end of days certainly living things up a bit

[Ayche]

10 000 gil on the bet that they played illegal back alley, anything goes Pokemon. "My creation can beat your creation".

It is so obvious, it had to have happened.