Have we seen the last of them?

[WhiteArchmage]

That's why I'm torn on Gaius offing Altima and Deudalaphon. On the one hand, Emet outright tells us Ascians have gotten killed before our time, and I can accept that, let Gaius have his revenge over getting chumped by Ascians not once but twice (with the whole, "Garlemald was built to create chaos and bring forth a calamity by design" thing...).

On the other, I feel bad because Altima could've been an interesting character thanks to her namesake, and Deudalaphon got a super raw deal in that he wasn't even mentioned in the game proper (He and Nabriales are absent from Emet's explanation of the Convocation and their roles, we only know he existed because that's the one missing name from XII), and his demise wasn't even confirmed in-game but by Yoshi-P!

[Heroman3003]

My personal hope is that one of 2-4 remaining Ascians will kinda show up to be an ally of some sort. Likelyhood of that is high IF an ascian is in the story again. Either that or as neutral force. I definitely do not want to see them as antagonists again, but I would really be interested in seeing the "well, weve seen what Fandaniel got up to using his newfound true freedom from the higher ups, what about the others?"

It would be really funny if next expansion is on Meracydia and we just run into remaining Ascians huddled in some corner, trying to live a peaceful life of decadence and they're all "Holy shit, we moved to another continent to escape Ascian-slayer and find peace and he/she found us even here, what are you" and we/our squad are like "wait what, youre Ascians?"

[Lyth]

There were some Endwalker interviews that hinted that Gaia/Loghrif would have a role to play in the future. I'm sure that there are other former Convocation members out there who were just living out their lives normally without causing trouble for anyone else. I'd like to meet Altima out of a sense of nostalgia for Ivalice, but I'm not really holding out a lot of hope for this.

The trouble with the Ascian storyline is that we currently trace back all our current problems back to their actions. It's the reason why Garlemald and Allag feel ultimately unsatisfying as opponents in comparison. If you want to draw more stories from the Ancient world, you need something that contrasts with Amaurot and can exist in parallel without being overshadowed by it. As an example, how would a society of people who had virtually no aetherical density fare in Ancient times? What if the same qualities that disadvantaged them in earlier time periods benefit them in the current era? Could they learn to manipulate Dynamis?

It's also one of the reasons why I feel a bit unsatisfied with the description of Summoning as 'derivative' Creation Magic. Summoning is an act of faith. What if the true nature of Summoning was actually rooted in Dynamis, rather than Aether?