Quote Originally Posted by Jemachu View Post
What is the source for this? Which cutscene/dialogue specifically, because I do not recall ever coming across this plan regarding the Thirteenth.
So, this one's really complicated in terms of finding actual proof for this, I apologize for the ensuing wall of text.

Potential evidence for this one is scattered... about as far as it's possible to get for this game. Potential information could be in the Heavensward MSQ, it could be in incidental quest dialog in Shadowbringers, it could be in live letter Q&As, it could be in convention Q&As. And frustratingly, since the most details on the Ascians' plan was in Shadowbringers, we don't have an Encyclopedia Eorzea to refer to, which is disappointing because this is exactly the kinda stuff the Encyclopedias Eorzea tend to clear up. So here's everything I could glean from talking to multiple people and checking some old topics both here and on Reddit:

The actual details of the Ascians' plan for the Thirteenth have never been discussed. In the ShB role quest capstone it was said that 'a world of darkness needs a mirror of pure light', but given that was specifically said by an Ascian to a survivor of the Thirteenth we can't really take it as evidence; it could easily be a complete lie, given that Elidibus' explanation given to Ardbert's crew was also a complete lie. However, we do know that they have a plan to make something of it, because their overall mission statement doesn't make sense if they don't. They can't return the world back to how it was if the Thirteenth is completely unsalvageable, therefore they must see the Thirteenth as salvageable.

So then comes the question of how, and the 'how' is the big enigma. We know that there comes a point where Zodiark is strong enough that he can be awakened and used for this; Hydaelyn in the post-Antitower scene implies this point is after the Eighth Umbral Calamity, but we know that explanation was a bit fuzzy, and the Tales from the Shadows short story doesn't suggest that the Ascians are active in G'raha's future. That might mean that they still had to do more Rejoinings and it's just that the Eighth was the last chance to stop them, or it could mean that they're just off doing something else that Omega isn't privvy to in that story--perhaps that getting Zodiark functional requires a few more steps, maybe something like 'he needs more sacrifices and there ain't enough on the Source, let's go drain the Fourth'. No matter what, Zodiark is eventually an active factor. We know from the Void quests in Shadowbringers' patches that fixing the Thirteenth is possible but slow; that sounds exactly like something you get Zodiark to shortcut, but it also might possibly not be necessary for them to fix it in the first place. We do know that we've never seen any evidence of them trying to fix it though, which lends credence to the theories of either 'they can't right now' or 'they don't want to'.

So in short, we know that the general structure of the Ascians' plan is 'step one is get Zodiark together, step two is ???, step three is Amaurot'. And we know that the Thirteenth isn't an insurmountable barrier. The overall theories I've seen basically fall into two categories:
1. Zodiark fixes the Thirteenth by basically speedrunning the technique Unukalhai landed on, then they do the Rejoining proper.
2. Zodiark just forces all the Rejoinings anyway, and then fixes the consequences of one of those shards being a little bit wack.

And of course either way, we know that Zodiark is powered by sacrifices, so some of those are happening either way.

So in short: Apologies for jumping the gun a bit on this, it turns out this is among the most complicated questions to answer unless Natsuko Ishikawa's office is down the hall from yours. However, all evidence does suggest that whatever their plan was, it is either somehow hinging on 'sacrifice lives to Zodiark', or by slim chance the explanation given to Cylva by the Ascians actually was accurate, which would... still require a huge amount of death anyway.

This is complicated, and it's possible that one of the people I asked for confirmation might still be able to pull up a Gamescom Q&A or something, but it looks like it's less in the category of 'this is confirmed somewhere' and more 'all evidence trends towards something like this'. At the very least, the immediately present evidence leans so far towards 'their plan is Zodiark' that an argument otherwise would need to find some pretty convincing evidence, and to my knowledge that definitely doesn't exist.