the soul of Azem

[LeonKeyh]

I feel crazy; Am I the only one that has no idea what the OP is trying to say?

I have a conspiracy theory...
Maybe wait after 6.1, it's either spoiler or wrong

Azem didn't split it 14 with the sundering.
They split themself in 12 instead ; that's why at the start of the game you get a affinity with one ot the 12th ; that's your fragment of Azem

Oh, that's a nice theory.

He still could have been split into 14 though; The 12 + You + ??? I don't think that (if (s)he was sundered) that (s)he wasn't sundered into 14.

[Iscah]

I have a conspiracy theory...
Maybe wait after 6.1, it's either spoiler or wrong

Azem didn't split it 14 with the sundering.
They split themself in 12 instead ; that's why at the start of the game you get a affinity with one ot the 12th ; that's your fragment of Azem

The Twelve aren't fragments of Azem, though, whatever they actually are. We're Azem, soul-wise, or more exactly nine-fourteenths of Azem. Azem's fragments can't be the Twelve if they're in us.

[LeonKeyh]

The Twelve aren't fragments of Azem, though, whatever they actually are. We're Azem, soul-wise, or more exactly nine-fourteenths of Azem. Azem's fragments can't be the Twelve if they're in us.

Why not though? We haven't seen them. Typically, religions are founded on "gods" that haven't been seen "in a very long time." It's certainly possible that some of the fragments that we rejoined with were actually once worshiped as gods, but then eventually disappeared (were rejoined, or just left).

It's still a valid theory. I would agree with you if there were ever actual proof of "sightings" of the 12 after the rejoinings.

[Iscah]

It's certainly possible that some of the fragments that we rejoined with were actually once worshiped as gods, but then eventually disappeared (were rejoined, or just left).

The Sundering sent a fragment of each soul into each shard. There was never a point where all the fragments of a single soul would have been together in one place.

[Axious]

Theory I enjoy. The WoL is a paradox. With the ability to travel across dimensions and time travel. The current WoL was fragmented to gain better access to dynamis in order to defeat the end of days. Eventually.

Now that WoL is fragmented and slowly gathering pieces of themself. My guess is eventually when the WoL is completely whole, they will travel through time and become the Azem once again.

[KageTokage]

Theory I enjoy. The WoL is a paradox. With the ability to travel across dimensions and time travel. The current WoL was fragmented to gain better access to dynamis in order to defeat the end of days. Eventually.

Now that WoL is fragmented and slowly gathering pieces of themself. My guess is eventually when the WoL is completely whole, they will travel through time and become the Azem once again.

I think my "perfect" ending to XIV would be that our fully-rejoined self is forced to return to the star/Lifestream in order to save the world (Again), and that we're finally able to answer the question posed to us by Venat and later Zenos.

By necessity, we'd eventually be revived, but weird as it probably sounds, I'd honestly want to actually be dead temporarily just to see the impact it has on everyone. We've touched the lives of so many people at this point I could reasonably see them just willing us back into existence with memories intact, but perhaps without Azem's soul so we can truly exist just as ourselves.

[Iscah]

perhaps without Azem's soul so we can truly exist just as ourselves.

I don't think that's a thing that can exist. Azem's soul is our soul, not a thing added onto it. Remove it and you're left with a body but no soul to drive it.

It's already basically a plot point that it doesn't matter who your soul used to be, because you are still you regardless.

The simplest way to sort it out, probably, is that the story already differentiates between soul and memories. So it seems that the soul is what powers us and drives our personality but the memories are independent and not passed on unless they're so powerful they imprint on the soul and remain entangled in it, and even then they may only manifest as dreams or not at all until triggered.

So Azem's memories in their lifetime were what made them an individual, and their soul passed to us but we have our own memories. We're not the same person. We never were.

There's nothing in the story that actually binds us to Azem's identity anyway. It has no tangible impact on anything except Hades' sentimentality and our gaining command of the summoning spell from the crystal.

[Gemina]

There's nothing in the story that actually binds us to Azem's identity anyway. It has no tangible impact on anything except Hades' sentimentality and our gaining command of the summoning spell from the crystal.

Gra'ha does have speculations that certain characteristics are also transferable. Hermes' many incarnations all exhibited an affinity with the celestial, instability, and psychosis. Souls also have hues/colors that are recognizable by certain aether sensitive individuals like Hythlodeaus, Hades, and to a much lesser extent, Y'shtola. In the case of Azem, it's not just the color of their soul and appearance (if playing a Hyur) that is recognizable by Emet, but also the behaviour. Sure, Emet is a sentimental guy underneath his cold exterior, and overlapping behavioral traits does very little to link incarnations of a soul; but this anecdotal evidence still carries a lot of weight due to the additional factors involved.

Even though there is no concrete proof that the soul possesses distinctive traits, it's also one of those things that there is also nothing to prove that it isn't true. I think it is better and more accurate to say that memories is what separates the incarnations of a soul from each other. However, this alone is enough to give each lifespan their own identity.

[Iscah]

Gra'ha does have speculations that certain characteristics are also transferable.

Sure, but even if that's the case then it doesn't make our character "dictated by our history as Azem and needing to break free of them to be truly ourself". If inherent traits have transferred from Azem, they're our traits now, and that aspect of Azem is inseparable from who our character is.

[KageTokage]

There's nothing in the story that actually binds us to Azem's identity anyway. It has no tangible impact on anything except Hades' sentimentality and our gaining command of the summoning spell from the crystal.

I was operating under the assumption that there was some greater purpose that Azem was trying to fulfill that led them to avoid taking sides in the Hydaelyn/Zodiark conflict and the burden of that duty is going to end up falling upon us eventually.

It may have not influenced much so far, but that won't necessarily continue to hold true pushing into the future.