Thread: About *that* mysterious being in 6.1 (spoilers)

My theory on Zenos' avatar is that it's somehow what remains of Azdaja.

I have no evidence for this beyond 'they're both mysteries existing in the same sideplot', but frankly, things that seemed even less plausible at the outset of a story have proven true by its close in this game.

I just wanna note that I love the design of the model.

According to Y'shtola's explanation, summoning a Voidsent is very similar to the Scions' journey to the First (or Elidibus' partial summoning acts as the Warrior of Light). Their soul travels to the Source, where it needs to find a suitable vessel or host.

In Zenos' case, his body would have been the vessel for the Avatar's soul while enshrouded. When he died in Ultima Thule, the contract would be broken, severing the connection to the Source and forcing the Avatar back to the Thirteenth. Hence the 'And thus I am returned' line (there's probably a bit of the Mandela effect at work in how people remember this line, but this is the actual quote in both scenes).

There are still a couple of outstanding Ex trials still needing to be done, including Anima and the Magus Sisters. I'm sure that we'll get to fight the Four Fiends at some point, but if we fight them too early there won't be any opportunity to develop their characters properly. I think it's fine for them to throw out plot hooks and let them simmer for an expansion or two. I'd rather not retrospectively learn how cool or interesting they were only after we've killed them off. Also, Rubicante needs to heal your party as part of his encounter. His ethical fiendishness has always amused me as contrast to Scarmiglione's deviousness.

I think that Shard travel in general has a lot of potential, but doesn't necessarily need to be done in a structured fashion (i.e. this expansion will be about the Fifth). I think I'd appreciate it more if we started rift jumping to access other parts of the Source, encountering continents on other shards organically along the way. For example, what if an alternative to crossing the seas is to travel to a Shard where it's just landmass instead and to walk across? And given that the Source affects all the reflections (i.e. if the Source is destroyed, so too are its reflections), could you deliberately alter something about the Source to beneficially alter the reflections?

...Yeah, the mandela effect kicked in hard there for some reason and now I feel stupid.

Anyhow, I find it a little odd that the only significant difference between the avatar's "new" appearance and its original one with Zenos is that you can actually see its eyes now.

I still get the vibe that its circumstances were somehow different from that of a typical reaper avatar.

I'm almost certain that the voidsent we see in the stinger scene is one of the "champions" of the Thirteenth, although it may not be a shard of ours (or anyone we know). We've already met Cu Chulainn in Void Ark as another example, and this one seems more inclined to angst about its existence, much like Ardbert did during his hundred-year purgatory.

I'm curious if the covered eyes is symbolic of anything. It's an obvious "See No Evil" sign, which immediately makes me come up with a speculative backstory that involves the "champion" deciding to ignore some evil being done (perhaps the corruption of their comrades?), and their current form with the covered eyes is an expression of their regret.

Originally Posted by Lyth

There are still a couple of outstanding Ex trials still needing to be done, including Anima and the Magus Sisters. I'm sure that we'll get to fight the Four Fiends at some point, but if we fight them too early there won't be any opportunity to develop their characters properly. I think it's fine for them to throw out plot hooks and let them simmer for an expansion or two. I'd rather not retrospectively learn how cool or interesting they were only after we've killed them off. Also, Rubicante needs to heal your party as part of his encounter. His ethical fiendishness has always amused me as contrast to Scarmiglione's deviousness.

If the patches go the same way as the previous expansions (not a given, since 6.1 to 6.5 is all supposed to be build-up to 7.0, rather than the usual of x.1 to x.3 being the clean-up ending of the x.0 expansion), there will be three Trial fights for the Trial series, plus one solo duty. It's possible for one of the Four Fiends to be fought in a dungeon (eg with Stormblood's Four Lords and Genbu), but given the "one dungeon per patch" we're going by now, I doubt the devs will do a full dungeon for non-MSQ. Unless, of course, that dungeon is in 6.2 and the MSQ introduction to the Four Fiends Trial series...

In any case, with the three EX Trials of the Four Fiends (hypothetically), and the three existing EX Trials of Zodiark, Hydaelyn, and Endsinger, that would be six EX Trials, leaving one more Trial plus EX version for the usual full set. This could be an Anima rematch, or a Magus Sisters rematch, but not likely to be both. Or maybe we'll fight all four Fiends as Trials, or we'll have more Trials that don't give EX mounts, but that would be far too different a workflow for the devs, I would imagine. Reworking dungeon bosses into EX Trials would be very weird, and not done since Ultima Weapon (Ascian cameos in Hades EX aside).

(Personally I think the last remaining Trial would be from MSQ, possibly the voidsent avatar this topic is about, but that's just blind speculation.)

What I am confused about is: 6.1 is supposed to take place several months after the events of 6.0 (as said in an interview) but the avatar seemed to have *just* returned to the void? Wouldn't that have actually happened several months ago when Zenos died or are we seeing a flashback? The cutscene did say "Meanwhile, in the Thirteenth" and nothing to signify that it was a flashback. I suspect we'll learn more about this pact between Zenos & this avatar especially since Yoshi P said there was a reason he became a reaper in the first place. I wonder if this will make up a lot of the 6.x storyline with 7.0 maybe being more void stuff and/or Meracydia.

Makes me wonder if this has anything to do with voidsent being merely an "essence" controlled by the reaper and not the actual being, the being still existing in the Thirteenth even while its avatar is summoned to our world. "The Nullstone, which says it was used to destroy a voidsent's vessel and nullify any pacts made with it, severing all ties to the corporeal realm." Why was the avatar returned *now* and not after Zenos's death in 6.0. Did it have some unfinished business with Zenos first?

The avatar's design is super interesting too!

Originally Posted by Garnix

Unlike previous expansions, 6.3 likely won't end a story arc.
So I don't expect a trial to be tied to the MSQ this time around as they were previously included in order to provide us with a spectacular closing.
I actually believe each of the 4 fiends will be a trial. What I am more curious about is Golbez himself. Maybe he will stick around until 7.X...
Also worth mentioning: we have no confirmation yet regarding what the deep dungeon is, neither on what/if we will get new exploration content in this expansion.

Regarding Anima and the Magus, I agree I can't imagine them being left as those easy encounters only. My expectation is to see them again in the criterion dungeons. Or maybe those will actually be tied to the four fiends....




Time really has really no relevance in that.
As Shadowbringers established, time doesn't flow the same way in each shard. It is possible that months on the Source is just a minute on the 13th.
Also, we have no idea how long it would take to travel from Ultima Thule (wherever/whatever that is) to the Void.

Ah right, that must explain it then.

They stated in one of the post-Endwalker interviews that there was going to be a " detailed complementary story" with ties to the Endwalker MSQ that is not Omega or any of others that were explicitly mentioned as patch content, so I'm thinking this whole void storyline is what they were referring to and that it's going to meet its resolution sooner then later.