Amaurot: Why there? (Spoilers ShB and EW)

[Mikita]

[SPOILERS for Shadowbringers and Endwalker]

Apologies if this has been discussed already. And if so, could someone please point me to the discussion?

Why did Emet Selch recreate Amaurot in the Tempest on the First instead of somewhere hidden on the Source/Etheirys where it would have been originally?

[MikkoAkure]

[SPOILERS for Shadowbringers and Endwalker]

Apologies if this has been discussed already. And if so, could someone please point me to the discussion?

Why did Emet Selch recreate Amaurot in the Tempest on the First instead of somewhere hidden on the Source/Etheirys where it would have been originally?

He recreated it on the First because both him and the WoL happened to be on the First for the whole ShB storyline when he shot the Exarch, kidnapped him, and then went under the sea to mope while waiting for us.

All of the Shards have the exact same geography and the ruins of Amaurot would have been copied to every Shard.

Another thing to note too is that it was mentioned that the ruins probably don’t exist on the Source anymore and were probably destroyed by repeated Calamities. Emet-Selch’s “recreation” is just a shiny, magical veneer over the existing ruins and Thancred mentions trying to get through a window that looks normal but underneath, the actual window is encrusted with marine junk and won’t open.

[Iscah]

There seem to have been a couple of factors.

Firstly the genuine ruins are there, while apparently they may no longer exist in the Source due to extra disturbance from the various calamities. If he's going to hide out somewhere in the First, it might as well be "home".

Additionally, it's noted that he can't afford to flee into the rift while he holds the Exarch captive, so he does have to stay in the First for now.

And of course the First is also where the WoL is right now, and the whole illusion is for their benefit – and he wants the WoL to unleash all that Light energy back into the First if they can't control it, so there's no point sending them elsewhere.

I also don't think, at a story level, we're really supposed to be able to freely teleport between worlds. Aside of the specific dialogue explaining why we can still teleport (which may simply be for gameplay's sake, as they can't functionally hold up our access to other parts of the game), everything else points to us being semi-permanently in the First once summoned: we send messages back via Feo Ul rather than visiting for ourselves, we are transported back via the magic mirror at the end, and there is talk of the Exarch using his spell to summon us again when we are needed. In 5.3 we again use the mirror to return to the Source, and Ryne mentions the tower becoming a symbol of our link to their world, suggesting we continue to have to travel through it rather than simply warping in.

[Iscah]

Thancred mentions trying to get through a window that looks normal but underneath, the actual window is encrusted with marine junk and won’t open.

He just says the window doesn't work, and the magic might not extend to making it actually function, but doesn't say anything about why. It's just as possible that it's a solid wall (decorated with fake windows) created where the real underlying one is in ruins.

[Alenore]

I also don't think, at a story level, we're really supposed to be able to freely teleport between worlds. Aside of the specific dialogue explaining why we can still teleport, everything else points to us being semi-permanently in the First once summoned: we send messages back via Feo Ul rather than visiting for ourselves, we are transported back via the magic mirror at the end, and there is talk of the Exarch using his spell to summon us again when we are needed. In 5.3 we again use the mirror to return to the Source, and Ryne mentions the tower becoming a symbol of our link to their world, suggesting we continue to have to travel through it rather than simply warping in.

If that was the case, we wouldn't need to ask Lyna for the keys to the Ocular, since we would appear in it.

[Mikita]

Thank you both!

I think I'm missing some plot points about why Emet Selch was on the First in the first place.
He was in Garlemald a bit prior, instigating various events in the Empire. But I had it in my mind that he just followed the WoL to the First and could more or less travel between the shards freely. I guess I need to review the points about the Exarch and Emet Selch.

[Enkidoh]

Emet went to the First originally to tip it towards the 8th Umbral Calamity/Rejoining (this was initially pointed at the end of SB where he realized that Black Rose was already aspected to Light and light aether was already flowing to the Source from the First, and so that Light would interact with Black Rose easily, allowing it to be Rejoined, so he quickly departed from the Source, outright telling Varis that "they will never meet again" - insinuiating that Varis would soon be dead due to the impending Calamity he was about to unleash).

He didn't expect however for the WoL and the Archons to end up there as well however, not to mention the sudden appearence of the Crystal Tower from the Source, led by a mysterious figure whose identity he could not determine, but as his MO, he quickly adjusted his plans to take advantage of it, making a giant glamour of Amaurot in it's final days over the ruins.

Really ShB's whole storyline is basically Emet playing Xanatos speed chess with the WoL, the Crystal Exarch and the Archons. He ultimately loses though because one of the players he initially outplayed and regarded as lost ages ago teamed up with the WoL and outplayed him. And his Amaurot reconstruction was all just one of many tools he made for that plan.

[Iscah]

If that was the case, we wouldn't need to ask Lyna for the keys to the Ocular, since we would appear in it.

We don't need to ask Lyna for the keys to the Ocular – the gate guard shows us in and out.

Lyna has the key to the inner side chamber, the Umbilicus, which is not part of the no-teleport world crossing route.

[Alenore]

We don't need to ask Lyna for the keys to the Ocular – the gate guard shows us in and out.

Lyna has the key to the inner side chamber, the Umbilicus, which is not part of the no-teleport world crossing route.

Ah, you're right. My bad

[Cleretic]

Honestly, the quesiton of 'why make Fake Amaurot on the First' hits a puzzling point because we don't actually know when he made it, and the potential answers to that question vary immensely based on when.

It's entirely possible he made that thing ten minutes before we got there; there's no real indication of when it was made. If he made it for us, obviously he'd bait the hook and then put it where he's guiding us, because he wants us to hear and cry about the story and feel bad for him and his extremely dead people. If it's there because we're there, why would it be anywhere else?

However, that might not be what happened; it might be that he made Fake Amaurot down there yonks ago to hang out in it by himself, and we happened to wind up in the First where it was by coincidence. As mentioned, its physical location in the Tempest is no coincidence, that's where it was actually located, so then the question is 'why'd he put it in the First?' If he wasn't making it to be showy and theatrical like we saw it, then the Source would've been the worst place to put it, since the people working against the Ascians would've been most likely to find it there and get some sabotage going. After that, we hit the natural storytelling answer: if he can't put it on the Source, but the protagonists are meant to find it, then obviously he put it in the place it can be that the protagonists do go--so, the First.