Theory: We are Azem

[Kesey]

And as I think on this more, Azem could just appear in the typical Ancient robes and mask for everyone really making the appearance and race point, well pointless.

[Enkidoh]

During the Elpis and Pandaemonium quests Azem is always referred to by the same gender pronouns as your character, but this is more clearer if you're playing a female character.

Additionally, unless you're playing as a lalafell, hrothgar or roegadyn (in other words, a more 'human' looking race), you're outright stated as being in "Azem's spitting image" (paraphrasing none other than Emet) - of course viera and miq'ote's animal ears are convienently ignored in that regard.

So it's pretty clear that Azem's canon appearence is truly meant to resemble your character, but naturally behind the scenes during development this means the 'true' default appearence of them would be a male midlander hyur (to resemble 'Derplander'/Ardbert) however.

Woaw...

So yes, but not completely, only 2/14 of her/his soul.

And it's still not the same person.

It's like how a person can be different depending on their experience. But it's still not quite the same person.
___
Ps: Is the reincarnation of a person the same person?

The process of reincarnation in the Lifestream ensures that when a soul is reborn their memories of their previous life are meant to be lost, but, some fragments can still linger, and we saw this with none other than Fandaniel - his last mortal form before his 'ascension' as the Ascian Fandaniel was the Allagan scientist Amon who, as the reincarnation of Hermes, inadvertently created a snake familiar with the same name as one Hermes did pre Sundering, without even knowing it (although he probably realized this belatedly after Emet raised him back to his office as an Ascian in the dying days of the Allag and thus restored his memories - arguably this is why Fandaniel ended up so unhinged).

After Fandaniel destroys himself and Zodiark his soul returns to the Lifestream, but it resets his very personality back to Amon (and he gleefully admits "of all the faces (he's), worn, this is his favourite!" just before fighting him as a spirit at the end of the Aitiascope), showing that a soul seems to accumulate memories with each reincarnation, and that it can affect the next incarnation in ways not known.

And on that particular point, is Azem's sense of altruism and wanderlust very much influenced the WoL's motives and drive even now, and even Emet basically tells the WoL to be more like his old friend and continue to explore the world, study other cultures and help people with their problems.... ironically pretty much what an adventurer does anyway.

[Naoki34]

During the Elpis and Pandaemonium quests Azem is always referred to by the same gender pronouns as your character, but this is more clearer if you're playing a female character.

Additionally, unless you're playing as a lalafell, hrothgar or roegadyn (in other words, a more 'human' looking race), you're outright stated as being in "Azem's spitting image" (paraphrasing none other than Emet) - of course viera and miq'ote's animal ears are convienently ignored in that regard.

So it's pretty clear that Azem's canon appearence is truly meant to resemble your character, but naturally behind the scenes during development this means the 'true' default appearence of them would be a male midlander hyur (to resemble 'Derplander'/Ardbert) however.



The process of reincarnation in the Lifestream ensures that when a soul is reborn their memories of their previous life are meant to be lost, but, some fragments can still linger, and we saw this with none other than Fandaniel - his last mortal form before his 'ascension' as the Ascian Fandaniel was the Allagan scientist Amon who, as the reincarnation of Hermes, inadvertently created a snake familiar with the same name as one Hermes did pre Sundering, without even knowing it (although he probably realized this belatedly after Emet raised him back to his office as an Ascian in the dying days of the Allag and thus restored his memories - arguably this is why Fandaniel ended up so unhinged).

After Fandaniel destroys himself and Zodiark his soul returns to the Lifestream, but it resets his very personality back to Amon (and he gleefully admits "of all the faces (he's), worn, this is his favourite!" just before fighting him as a spirit at the end of the Aitiascope), showing that a soul seems to accumulate memories with each reincarnation, and that it can affect the next incarnation in ways not known.

And on that particular point, is Azem's sense of altruism and wanderlust very much influenced the WoL's motives and drive even now, and even Emet basically tells the WoL to be more like his old friend and continue to explore the world, study other cultures and help people with their problems.... ironically pretty much what an adventurer does anyway.

It's still sad to be reincarnated as a potato for a human from the old world.
It's like I'm getting as big as my toe.

[Lyth]

I think that it is unlikely that we will formally 'become Azem' from a soul density perspective, for a couple of reasons. The first is that accumulating soul fragments to merge with requires each of the current bearers of those soul fragments to die. It also requires that the shard in question is either destroyed, or that we travel there in person to find the soul of the Azem who died (as was the case with Ardbert and the First). The other reason is that adding more soul density may make us paradoxically weaker due to Dynamis.

The main questions around Azem are historical ones. Where was Azem during the Final Days, and why were they 'missing' at the time of Emet's Amaurot? What is their backstory - where was their birthplace, how did they encounter the various members of the Convocation, and how were they chosen to be Venat's successor? How did they leave - did they just pack up and head off, or did the Convocation formally revoke their post first - were the rumors that we got from the general public accurate, or was there more to the story? There's mention of Azem having being previously censured by the Convocation during the short stories, and it doesn't sound like the departure was on very good terms, given that Emet had to create the corresponding soulstone in secret.

Some of these may just be subjects for the 'Tales' sidestories, but it's possible that we may have some answers from Pandaemonium and Myths.

[Yuella]

My guess is Azem knew he/she needed to be sundered in order for everything to come to pass. Maybe Venat told him/her everything about our visit.

[Alleluia]

I am not sure we are Azem themselves ( though I consider it technically possible right now), but I know we must have something to do with them. The gender thing, begun in the Hyth convo in Amaurot, is one thing. Azem is their own character, like Ardbert. Them getting a different gender based on ours makes no sense unless we have something to do with that choice directly.

Second, in EW, the fight with Venat in Elpis implied something to me. She makes a point of linking suffering and strength in her conversation with us. She basically says we are as strong as we are bc we must have experienced a lot of trials. Then she mentions Azem and how, tho s/he was half her age when they met, they were immensely strong. If suffering=strength, well we come from a world where harrowing experiences have followed us and suffering loss is normal. What’s Azem’s excuse? The ancients are all fairly certain they live in a utopia. In fact, that was part of the problem, apparently. So how’d Azem get the experience needed to match venat’s strength at half her age, before even becoming the Traveler? It would make sense if they also came from a world where suffering was normal. Or were somehow influenced by someone who did.

The idea of us being in a giant time loop or something is weird at present, and I can’t say I love the idea yet, but it does seem to be possible.

[rxantos]

1/13th of Azem soul to be more precise. So was the warrior of darkness. We still yet to find the other 11 pieces.

[MikkoAkure]

I know this is probably from the four lords questline but do you know where specifically? Because I feel like I have missed the party where they said this.

All I know about the WoL (The player) is that they're a descendant of Ramza (Either a previous reincarnation of the WoL or a literal ancestor) based on Ultima, the high seraph's dialogue at the start of the final phase.

We can’t be a reincarnation of Ramza because his soul never passed on.

I was under the impression that like Tenzen, Ramza was another WoL, but not necessarily our WoL. There have been many Warriors of Light, including all of Ardbert’s party, but not every Warrior of Light is a shard of Azem.

I don’t remember it being said that Tenzen or Ramza are our past selves, just that they’re other WoLs.

1/13th of Azem soul to be more precise. So was the warrior of darkness. We still yet to find the other 11 pieces.

We are more than that because at this point 7 shards have rejoined, reuniting those pieces to us.