Theory: We are Azem

[Eisi]

Yo, my theory is that we will one day travel back in time as completed beings and become Azem.

Evidence: We have the same gender as Azem unlike Ardbert neccessarily who is always male, yet still a soul fragment of Azem's.

That means there is no reason for Azem to have our gender at all, since Ardbert would also share it if it was a requirement for shards to have the same gender as their originals.

Maybe Azem is us from a different timeline in which the Ascians succeeded in merging all the shards, so they traveled back in time and created the timeline we are now in.

[Elissar]

We won't take our original form back. Yoshi P said that we will never see how Azem looked like. We are supposed to assume that he/she looked like our characters.

When an Ascian soul is sundered, they scatter in multiple fragments ("shards"). Gender doens't matter, they made it dynamic to increase our immersion. In our world, Tenzen was one previous reincarnation of our current character. On Ardbert's world, he was our old shard. To recover our form we would need to reunite all of our shards (i guess). FFXIV development time won't last that long lol

[Eisi]

We won't take our original form back. Yoshi P said that we will never see how Azem looked like. We are supposed to assume that he/she looked like our characters.

But why would they look like our characters?

When an Ascian soul is sundered, they scatter in multiple fragments ("shards"). Gender doens't matter, they made it dynamic to increase our immersion. In our world, Tenzen was one previous reincarnation of our current character. On Ardbert's world, he was our old shard. To recover our form we would need to reunite all of our shards (i guess). FFXIV development time won't last that long lol

If gender didn't matter, why does Azem share our gender, but not the other shards'?



I like how you didn't disagree with my theory at all, I see what you did there ♥

[Elissar]

But why would they look like our characters?
If gender didn't matter, why does Azem share our gender, but not the other shards'?
I like how you didn't disagree with my theory at all, I see what you did there ♥

I don't disagree with your theory because i thought the same thing for a few days! Last week a dear friend of mine asked the same thing. For some reason, FFXIV writing mess with our heads in the same way lol

1 - Just because the authors want it. This is the easiest answer. Even if Azem appears, he would appear as a shade just like happened in the end of 5.0. HOWEVER, you may find some clues about how his mask used to look like:


2 - Our gender matters because you are the protagonist. Other shards has their own lives, mostly of the time they don't know what is happening, just like Ardbert. An Ascian shard compose your soul but it's not your whole soul, you have your own memories and life. If you see it like DNA and heritage, is the same concept. You are who you are, you are not your parents, however, you share a little of both.

Plus: in Stormblood, an old lady tells you about a prophecy.
https://youtu.be/xF7DP62JYAs?t=11764
So...as you see.. gender belongs to the physical realm. It's irrelevant to the tale.

[Iscah]

HOWEVER, you may find some clues about how his mask used to look like:

This has always felt like such a stretch. Why should Tataru have any idea what Azem's mask looked like, or that we should wear it? And the lines drawn over the spell circle seem only weakly connected to the pattern that is actually there, though it's harder to tell when they didn't provide an unaltered version to actually see what's there.

[RyuDragnier]

This has always felt like such a stretch. Why should Tataru have any idea what Azem's mask looked like, or that we should wear it? And the lines drawn over the spell circle seem only weakly connected to the pattern that is actually there, though it's harder to tell when they didn't provide an unaltered version to actually see what's there.

Because Tataru is Altima, the patron of the arts. /headcanon

[Kranel_San]

In our world, Tenzen was one previous reincarnation of our current character.

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.

[SannaR]

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.

The line at least how I remember it is where they say our aether feels like Tenzen's. Instead of how it gets worded by Ancients for the most part. Where to me I always took it to mean that our aether feels similar cause we both are/were WoL's. Since none of the four lords get all old friend in their verbiage. Versus how most ancients treat us.

Kind of how Windwaker Link isn't an reincarnation of Twilight Link, but they're both Links for their times and thusly end up doing similar stuff.

[RyuDragnier]

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.

That's actually a throwback line to the end of Final Fantasy Tactics, where Altima says that exact like to Ramza. But if we're a direct descendant of anybody in that case, we'd be a descendant of Alma's. Meaning our character is ironically distantly related to the current days Ramza and Alma. Doubly funny if you're a Hrothgar, since that means he's related to one of the "vile beasts" he complained about early on.

[Cleretic]

The Ascians rejoining the shards would by necessity lead to whatever 'Azem' that results not being us by any worthwhile metrics, because them doing so would've taken more than enough time for any playable race, including viera, to die of old age even if we survived any of the Calamities. (Which we wouldn't have, we did die in the Eighth Calamity.)

So at that point it just feels like an extra twist for twists' sake, what does this do if 'an Azem from an aborted far future that isn't literally exactly us' is true that 'Azem is our many-years-before predecessor that also isn't literally exactly us' doesn't?