About Zenos Avatar, just a crazy Theory

[Aneshda]

I have a crazy theory about Zenos and his Avatar

What if Zenos was actually a good man, until that fateful day when Elidibus and Emet Selch found Azem on the 13th shard?
They took her soul to save her. Maybe they even had help from Lahabrea.

They brought her Soul to the Source and took Zenos body and put Azem's soul in Zeno's body.
Now 1 body had 2 souls. What if Zenos fought it?
Over time, he became so depressed because he saw no way out to be himself again.
He always dreamed of Amaurot, the burning sky... what if those were Azem's dreams and not his?
Maybe she wanted to show him her past?
Perhaps those two souls were so intertwined that he thought her dreams would be his own.

The avatar we saw in Endwalker could have been Azem's soul intertwined with Zenos soul?
All these people he killed, what if it was the only way to keep her alive?
He said "While I await you, I shall drink a sea of souls and gorge myself upon the darkened moon"
He said "But in these fleeting moments, there is...a spark. Blinding, brilliant... Gone...too soon... What of you, my mirror?
The Light is maybe (Azem's Soul) or the Light in us, maybe both?
To die was the only solution to have his own Soul back.

There was a moment on the Moon after we had the Fight with Zodiark. The Martyr Cutscene 6 where I think the Avatar speaks to us and not Zenos yae Galvus / Zenos viator Galvus.
Cause in that moment it is only Zenos, when he says "No. I'll find no fulfillment in a contest with you this Day." The next moment he is normal again, his Avatar gone and he speaks to us as Zenos yae Galvus.

[Kranel_San]

I don't think many will like a form of redemption for Zenos, not to say the idea isn't interesting. There's something about him we don't know yet (His extraordinary strength and dreams of the final day).

[Cilia]

Zenos couldn't be redeemed, because he didn't care about redemption or whatever.

His freakish strength is implied to be a product of his being Emet-Selch's great-grandson, and perhaps some experiments performed on him (like the Resonance procedure).

The dreams of the Final Days remain unaccounted for, but he had them since childhood.

Might pick this apart more later. Maybe. Rather be playing.

[Lyth]

According to the EE vol. 1 p.213, the original Flood of Darkness that created the Void arose from a one-sided battle between Igeyorhm and the inexperienced Warrior of Light on that shard. In a way, it's the mirror image of the fight between Ardbert and the Ascian Prime (Mitron and Loghrif) that took place on the First and which caused the corresponding Flood of Light. From what we've heard so far, it sounds like Elidibus really only became directly involved with the people of the Thirteenth after Igeyorhm botched the job. So I don't think that explanation fits.

It's also worth noting from the Eden's Promise raid series that the Ascians view individual shards of even their sundered allies as largely expendable (Lv.80 'Shadows of the Past'). Mitron explains that he was left by Emet in a locked-in, semi-conscious state for 100 years after the Flood of Light corrupted him into Eden, being able to do nothing more than feebly whisper out to Loghrif's soul for help. When questioned why he was abandoned in such a horrific state, Mitron explains that restoring the aetheric balance to free him would set back the Ascians plan, and Emet could simply find another fragment of his soul at any point to replace him. Azem's fragment on the Thirteenth holds no sentimental value when there are thirteen other copies out there that could function equally well if ever required. That's why Emet is happily willing to watch the player character transform into a sin eater if it means finally being able to achieve his bigger ambition of a rejoining on the First.

Now there's more to the Flood of Darkness than the fight with Igeyorhm, of course. Based on Unukalhai's accounts, the aetheric corruption on the Thirteenth resulted from the use of auracite to contain primal energies, which then leaked from the stones to corrupt their bearers. This is a recurring theme of sorts. Ivalice and Bozja are the obvious examples with the Lucavi, but we see something similar with even the synthetic auracite used in the Weapons project.

As an aside, a part of me wonders if Thordan's Ascalon is also made out of auracite, given both its capacity to destroy Lahabrea as well as the fact that it still seems to contain the primal's essence during the Endwalker Caster Role quests even after Nidhogg's eyes were taken out of the picture. Either way, it's hard to tell the exact sequence of events leading up to the Flood of Darkness, but it seems like the Warrior of Light's defeat on the Thirteenth was the final straw. If the avatar is the same individual who lost that war, that's probably why they sound so disheartened.

The one thing that I've been wondering with regards to Zenos' avatar is what the rules are around Void pacts. The bodyswap in Garlemald during the Endwalker MSQ doesn't seem to have a story purpose on its own, but it does strike me as Chekhov's gun. Zenos wasn't the only occupant - the avatar was in there as well. I wonder if that gives us a common link of sorts. It'll be interesting to see if something comes of this.

[Cilia]

Well the special site got updated today, with one screenshot showing the PC seemingly conversing with Zenos' contracted voidsent.

Still not sold on the idea it's an Azem fragment, but it's clearly going to have a role to have some role to play... in 6.2, at least.

[KageTokage]

I'm kind of hoping it doesn't turn out to be a villain and rather ends up being more of an ally by helping us to navigate the void in exchange for aiding with something on their end (Perhaps the Golbez business?).

[Cilia]

Well given that "Golbez?" is seemingly being set up as an antagonist (if I had to wager I'd say IV's Four Fiends will be the 6.X Trials, with "Golbez?" plausibly taking the place of one as the final) I could see it helping us. If nothing else I'm all but certain it'll be informing us of what's going on in some fashion.

I mean, other than searching for Azdaja and a likely conflict with "Golbez?" we still don't know where the story's gonna go.

[Lyth]

I was hoping that they would release the Magus Sisters and/or Anima as Ex Trials and perhaps let the Fiend fights simmer into next expansion in order to build up anticipation. There's always a possibility of a follow-up fight against Geryon once they've done all the fiend fights, although I'm not sure if that's considered canon. Either way, there's a lot of great encounters that they can introduce out of this, and hopefully they're not relegated to dungeon only.