Sundering stuff established in the Q&A

[Rannie]

I'd love to see recordings of the convocation's meetings with Venat and her followers or any type of crystal recordings like what we got in the second Anyder but not as choppy >.<

[Cleretic]

My question is, after all the rage and disagreement with us getting a biased telling of events in ShB from Emet…why do the exact same with Venat? What does that really show lol, or add. Especially when we know said memories can be malleable. Why didn’t we get a pic from someone like say, Elidibus who was trying to play mediator at that point.

Because the point wasn't to give us 'the truth', the point was to give us 'the counterpoint'. We see the opposing sides, and are given room to decide which one was right in the moment--while recognizing that 'the moment' was twelve thousand years ago and that we stand in a very different context. The point is that neither side was objectively in the right, but was internally making the correct decisions by their own views.

...also, Elidibus is the worst example you could've given, as the heart of Zodiark he was the literal most biased person on the planet. He was never actually playing mediator, he only pretended to twelve thousand years afterwards to build up controlled opposition.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Because the point wasn't to give us 'the truth', the point was to give us 'the counterpoint'. We see the opposing sides, and are given room to decide which one was right in the moment--while recognizing that 'the moment' was twelve thousand years ago and that we stand in a very different context. The point is that neither side was objectively in the right, but was internally making the correct decisions by their own views.

...also, Elidibus is the worst example you could've given, as the heart of Zodiark he was the literal most biased person on the planet. He was never actually playing mediator, he only pretended to twelve thousand years afterwards to build up controlled opposition.

But it literally adds nothing new is my point lol. It doesn’t make Venat look any better. What they probably should have done was show us the sundering itself. Let’s see how people react when they see people being literally torn apart. As for Elidibus how is that the worst example? He says he left Zodiark to try to appease both sides of the conflict. If we saw things through his PoV we’d get to see what both sides were probably actually doing rather then the he said she said nonsense we constantly have gotten.

[Rosenstrauch]

Venat: Glad you could make it, Hades.

Emet-Selch: Watch your tone with me, Venat. We may be friends, but I'm still a member of the Convocation.

Venat: As if I could forget. Listen, Hades, there's something about the Final Days you should know. Oh no. It's too late. These people are all depressed. They may look fine now, but it's a matter of time before they destroy themselves.

Emet-Selch: What?

Venat: This entire world must be purged.

Emet-Selch: How can you even consider that? There's got to be some other way!

Venat: Damn it, Hades. As your future Goddess, I order you to purge this world.

Emet-Selch: You are not my Goddess yet, Venat. Nor would I obey that command if you were!

Venat: Then I must consider this an act of treason.

Emet-Selch: Treason? Have you lost your mind, Venat?

Venat: Have I? Emet-Selch, by my right of succession and the sovereignty of my will, I hereby relieve you from your duty and suspend the Convocation from service.

Azem: Venat, you can't just...

Venat: It's done! Those of you who have the will to save this land, follow me. The rest of you... get out of my sight.

Emet-Selch: You've just crossed a terrible threshold, Venat.

Venat: Azem?

Azem: I'm sorry, Venat. I can't watch you do this.

This is nothing more than a shitpost. Don't take it seriously. And anyways, goodbye Lore forum.

[Theodric]

If Venat's ideology resonates with you and enriches your perspective of life and inspires you to live more fully, that's great, and I'm happy the character and the expansion works so well for you. At the same time, I do hope you can have some level of understanding why a fair number of people, who may be struggling with their own experiences with specific levels of trauma or disability, would find an ideology that amounts to, in the context of coping with extreme suffering, "the strong triumph and survive and the weak are doomed and die; those who choose to be strong pass a test demonstrating they have the right to live, the weak who succumb to temptation have failed it" extremely troubling.

Like I've said, I don't actually think this was the actual intent of the writers in terms of theme as a whole; I think that this was largely a "whoops!" in regards to Venat's character specifically because they were attempting to juggle so, so many balls with her. But it's still what has wound up, in its final form, emerging from her text. People have a right to interrogate this, you know? And hope that the writers of a story they've loved and been invested in for a long time recognize what's happened, and address it in some way.

Yeah, it's unfortunate that Venat's world view is essentially a form of eugenics and genocide thrust upon her own people without their consent or knowledge. I don't think the writers really thought about how that would be taken by many players - and it's strange that they've consistently downplayed the implications of her actions and reasoning despite every other form of eugenics in the setting being portrayed in a much more negative light.

I don't believe such a misstep was intentional. Instead, it seems like every possible plot device was pulled out in order to try and make the character 'work' to the point where it unintentionally came across as a parody.

It is what it is, I suppose. I just hope that future stories in FFXIV make less use of concepts such as time travel and memory wipes. I'm tentatively looking forward to our character returning to being an adventurer. I think it'd be refreshing for the story to dial things back to a more humble place for a while.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Venat: Glad you could make it, Hades.

Emet-Selch: Watch your tone with me, Venat. We may be friends, but I'm still a member of the Convocation.

Venat: As if I could forget. Listen, Hades, there's something about the Final Days you should know. Oh no. It's too late. These people are all depressed. They may look fine now, but it's a matter of time before they destroy themselves.

Emet-Selch: What?

Venat: This entire world must be purged.

Emet-Selch: How can you even consider that? There's got to be some other way!

Venat: Damn it, Hades. As your future Goddess, I order you to purge this world.

Emet-Selch: You are not my Goddess yet, Venat. Nor would I obey that command if you were!

Venat: Then I must consider this an act of treason.

Emet-Selch: Treason? Have you lost your mind, Venat?

Venat: Have I? Emet-Selch, by my right of succession and the sovereignty of my will, I hereby relieve you from your duty and suspend the Convocation from service.

Azem: Venat, you can't just...

Venat: It's done! Those of you who have the will to save this land, follow me. The rest of you... get out of my sight.

Emet-Selch: You've just crossed a terrible threshold, Venat.

Venat: Azem?

Azem: I'm sorry, Venat. I can't watch you do this.

This is nothing more than a shitpost. Don't take it seriously. And anyways, goodbye Lore forum.

A lot of us will miss you :c I think we’ll be seeing less from more people now considering how the story went and left many unsatisfied. Wish you the best and stay safe!

[Theodric]

A lot of us will miss you :c I think we’ll be seeing less from more people now considering how the story went and left many unsatisfied. Wish you the best and stay safe!

Yeah. I'd like to echo this. As someone who primarily played for the story I'm now getting my storytelling fix elsewhere from games with more, uh, game. If it wasn't for my house and my eagerness to embrace having my character become an adventurer again, I'd be inclined to take a lengthy break from FFXIV.

I hope FFXIV can reverse its current course. Before I played FFXIV, I played WoW and many of the red flags in terms of retcons and awkward/hasty resolutions to major plot points are unfortunately happening here as well. I don't think the development team here has quite the same level of callous disregard for the story, though I do think there's some important feedback raised here and within other threads that needs to be taken into account moving forward.

At the end of the day, the story is the main thing that FFXIV has going for it since it chose that as its primary focus and the bulk of content is always tied to the MSQ's.

[Rulakir]

It's the focus on FFXIV becoming a solo friendly MMO that's got my attention, it's something I've wanted for years. Prior to that, I was considering if I wanted to continue with the game since EW killed my desire to play for several weeks. I have zero confidence in the story going forward and the Q&A took the wind out of my sails when it comes to discussing lore. I wish I could be excited about returning to an adventurer, but I'm concerned between the finale and no major plot lures we're going to go back to an ARR slow burn (I hated ARR). I guess I'll do what I always do, make alts and hope things improve. :P

[Kozh]

He was never actually playing mediator, he only pretended to twelve thousand years afterwards to build up controlled opposition.

In your headcanon maybe, but not in the game. Why would he talked about this when he's dying otherwise.

[Lauront]

Yeah, it was all about "controlled opposition".

I've noticed some posters appear to struggle to distinguish the characters pre-sundering from what they are 12k years later...