What aligments would future calamities even have had?

[Alien_Gamer]

My impression was there wouldn't be further rejoinings after this one. The ascians stated a few times that this was the final calamity to weaken Hydaelyn enough to allow Zodiark to escape his prison and take back control of the world. Given he had already rewritten the rules of the world before to save them from Meteion's influence, once Hydaelyn is gone then he'd just erase the shards and remake the world as the ascians wanted without having to go through the trouble of a rejoining.

[Iscah]

My impression was there wouldn't be further rejoinings after this one. The ascians stated a few times that this was the final calamity to weaken Hydaelyn enough to allow Zodiark to escape his prison and take back control of the world.

Do you have sources for those claims? I don't think it has ever been an in-game statement, just a vague promotional thing the devs said pre-Shadowbringers about it dealing with the "eighth and final calamity", which fans came up with all sorts of theories over – and it was never touched on within the game itself as to why it would have been the last.

Unless you have direct quotes, this sounds like a case of fan theories getting disconnected from their origins and passed around until people think they're true.

[Alien_Gamer]

Do you have sources for those claims? I don't think it has ever been an in-game statement, just a vague promotional thing the devs said pre-Shadowbringers about it dealing with the "eighth and final calamity", which fans came up with all sorts of theories over – and it was never touched on within the game itself as to why it would have been the last.

Unless you have direct quotes, this sounds like a case of fan theories getting disconnected from their origins and passed around until people think they're true.

I honestly have no idea what fan theories are out there, its not something I follow. I get all my info from the game and live letters but I don't keep clips saved on my computer.

[Cleretic]

I honestly have no idea what fan theories are out there, its not something I follow. I get all my info from the game and live letters but I don't keep clips saved on my computer.

Then can you provide where you think you got that?

This has come up a few times recently, and there's only two things we could find that look like anything resembling direct evidence:
1. Shadowbringers pre-release stuff that called the Eighth Calamity 'the final Calamity', but provided no real context or explanation, and never came back, so we really have absolutely no idea whatsoever what they were trying to get at (or even if they were trying to get at anything at all). Maybe related to G'raha's future, possibly?
2. The post-Antitower scene with Minfilia-Hydaelyn, where she explains the reasoning behind the Calamities; she tells us to stop the Eighth, and begins to say 'this is my final--' before being cut off; there's no indication what she would've ended her sentence with, but it's the sort of thing where a lot of people trick themselves into thinking she did finish that sentence.

You might recognize that neither of these sources are Ascians, so either you've got something we don't, or you're misremembering something. Understandable in both cases, it's a big game and there's a lot of stuff in it, sometimes we either forget a scene that happened or misremember a factoid until it becomes a scene that didn't. But when we hit things like that, it's in everyone's best interests to figure out what exactly we're dealing with and dig up whatever evidence there is. So if an Ascian did say it, we'd love to hear it, but if one didn't, then it's just as important to recognize that.

Seraphor's hit the nail on the head for why this theory probably got pretty common and had a few different breeds, though: reasonably speaking, there would have been a point where the Ascian plan changes, either because Zodiark becomes usable or because natural forces shift. If one then agrees this is an inevitability, then... well, why wouldn't the Eighth be that turning point? It's just as arbitrary and justifiable as any other number, but it also makes that 'point of no return' pretty soon, which is nice and dramatic.

[Heroman3003]

Do you have sources for those claims? I don't think it has ever been an in-game statement, just a vague promotional thing the devs said pre-Shadowbringers about it dealing with the "eighth and final calamity", which fans came up with all sorts of theories over – and it was never touched on within the game itself as to why it would have been the last.

Unless you have direct quotes, this sounds like a case of fan theories getting disconnected from their origins and passed around until people think they're true.

IIRC in the cutscene where Exarch explains history of Calamities and how they happen, he mentions that once amount of rejoined shards is more than unrejoined, the balance will tip and all the rest will rapidly devolve into rejoining as well. As there are fourteen shards, 7 is as many as you can go without tipping the scale, hence why 8th would be the final one. Which conviniently fits into elemental alignments - 6 main elements; plus two greater alignments- Astral and Umbral. 8 calamities, all thats needed for restoration of the world and returning Zodiark to his full strength. And that's why averting that is so important beyond just saving First or preventing 8th Umbral Calamity on the Source (which we know our character survives).

[Iscah]

IIRC in the cutscene where Exarch explains history of Calamities and how they happen, he mentions that once amount of rejoined shards is more than unrejoined, the balance will tip and all the rest will rapidly devolve into rejoining as well.

I don't recall anything being said to that effect. I suspect you are getting confused with the explanation of an individual Rejoining starting as a trickle of aether to the Source before the triggering event for the associated calamity cracks it fully open.

[Heroman3003]

I don't recall anything being said to that effect. I suspect you are getting confused with the explanation of an individual Rejoining starting as a trickle of aether to the Source before the triggering event for the associated calamity cracks it fully open.

I will have to rewatch ShB expository cutscenes to find where but I do distinctly remember something by someone being said about the balance of sundered and rejoined shards being tipped in favour of rejoined being enough to finish the process. I definitely did not consume any fan content related to ShB for a long time either, all while still being firmly sure of that, so it couldn't have come from that.

[Cleretic]

I will have to rewatch ShB expository cutscenes to find where but I do distinctly remember something by someone being said about the balance of sundered and rejoined shards being tipped in favour of rejoined being enough to finish the process. I definitely did not consume any fan content related to ShB for a long time either, all while still being firmly sure of that, so it couldn't have come from that.

You don't recall this correctly, you've editorialized in your own mind to the point you misremember it. Normally I'd quote the relevant section (I do have this scene recorded), but in this case I actually can't, because it's very long and literally NONE of it describes anything like this. Gamer Escape's got the whole scene transcribed, though.

You also claimed we survived the Eighth Calamity, but we very explicitly did not. Our death is described very directly, right down to showing our corpse. We died to Black Rose pretty early.

[Naraku_Diabolos]

I don't recall anything being said to that effect. I suspect you are getting confused with the explanation of an individual Rejoining starting as a trickle of aether to the Source before the triggering event for the associated calamity cracks it fully open.

This is correct as the Umbral charge of Light on the First would have trickled into the Source, where everyone and everything would have been affected by Black Rose. That’s also why Darkness was Astral charged on the First, why canceled everything out to make it balanced and healthy once again.