During the media tour for Dawntrail Yoshida mentioned these lore bits

[diamondedge83]

In the context of a visually flashy "modern" city, there's nothing strange about seeing the same neon billboard image multiple times. It could just be the tournament logo or something.

Right? Besides, it's clearly Gilgamesh...I mean Greg.

[Cleretic]

Here's my crazy, cracked-pot thoughts:
What if we NEED the Ascians and their expertise to fight the next big, bad threat? What if we sought out existing Ascians, or MADE NEW ONES in order to figure out how to solve current issues?

And it gets even crazier....
What if we needed to regather the entire Convocation of the 14 in order to deal with whatever nightmare has been unleashed? Maybe focus on one or 2 Ascians per expac then spend time towards the end summoning the unsundered that we "killed." I would love to play out that scenario.

I can't even count the ways in which this would be a terrible idea on several levels.

[MikkoAkure]

In the context of a visually flashy "modern" city, there's nothing strange about seeing the same neon billboard image multiple times. It could just be the tournament logo or something.

The symbol shows up more inside of Arcadion itself and is obviously a logo, but it must be more than just random brush strokes.

The first enemy shown according to google translate is "Black Cat" and the proto-alphabet signs around the ring all said "Black Cat" as well so that doesn't really help us much there.

[SannaR]

Oh I think we'll be dealing with Pashtarot if not a follower. If you look at the Enigmatic Maiden's picture she has an upright symbol for Belias. At least the top half and how it's shown in XII. While Pashtarot's that but upside-down.

[MikkoAkure]

Oh I think we'll be dealing with Pashtarot if not a follower. If you look at the Enigmatic Maiden's picture she has an upright symbol for Belias. At least the top half and how it's shown in XII. While Pashtarot's that but upside-down.

Belias is tied to Loghrif, not Pashtarot. Pashtarot is tied to Zeromus. We already see Gaia with Belias' upside-down glyph as her Ascian glyph and while it does look similar to the device on the Enigmatic Maiden's hip, Gaia/Loghrif are tied to a separate storyline unless they make it mandatory and I don't know if they'd bring back her Ascian past for a second storyline when there's other Ascians not completely accounted for.

[SannaR]

Belias is tied to Loghrif, not Pashtarot. Pashtarot is tied to Zeromus. We already see Gaia with Belias' upside-down glyph as her Ascian glyph and while it does look similar to the device on the Enigmatic Maiden's hip, Gaia/Loghrif are tied to a separate storyline unless they make it mandatory and I don't know if they'd bring back her Ascian past for a second storyline when there's other Ascians not completely accounted for.

Ahh I must have found a wrongfully labeled picture. I too hope we're not dealing with more Loghrif. Not that I don't like Gia. Still when I saw that badge/device on her hip I went wait that looks very similar. We do know that the convocation seats had "followers" in the Words of so she could still be a Word of.

[Cleretic]

That thing looks absolutely nothing like Belias or Zermous' glyphs, anyway. Y'all need to get your apophenic tendencies under control.

[MikkoAkure]

Going back to Yoshi-P's comments about Myths of the Realm, I wonder if the Enigmatic Maiden is similar to the Twelve or the Watcher as a being created by Hydaelyn for some purpose and propped up via the prayer of her people. The "Golden City" inhabitants never age, never die, and don't experience hardship or conflict so it's possible Solution Nine contains its population like the Matrix or the followers of the Warring Triad, either to keep her going or she's protecting them or both.

As for the Ascians, Yoshi-P specifically stated that Gaius had Altima and Deudalaphon's masks but reiterated that whether or not they're truly dead could be up in the air and for us to consider what it takes to actually kill one.

The unaccounted for Ascians are so far:
- Altima - Mask held by Gaius. Seat of the Composer - Advocate of aesthetics and the myriad arts. Interestingly, Ultima and Zodiark are the only FFXII espers not associated with a light reflection (where FFXIV sourced the Ascian names/Convocation titles). Zodiark's place in the esper line up was given to Elidibus who we now know is the heart of Zodiark so I wonder if Altima may have anything to do with that Ultima. Though not having Athena take that seat was a loss if Altima the Ascian never shows up.
- Deudalaphon - Mask held by Gaius. Seat of the Innovator - Appraiser of architecture and patron of invention.
- Pashtarot - The Arbiter - Conservator of order and the collective will.
- Halmarut - The Sower - Cultivator of botanical and mycological (fungal) creations.

Similar to the Allagan and Garlean Empires, Solution Nine features anachronistic technology and if the trailer is anything to go by, they serve as antagonists as well. Allag and Garlemald were both set up by Ascians, Solution Nine features the Ancient alphabet, and Yoshi-P asked us to remember the Convocation seats. Unless you are sticking your head in the sand about the whole thing I think it's not reasonable to doubt Solution Nine has nothing at all to do with the Ascians. There's still a question of "to what extent?" but I'm still of the mind that Altima's corrupted glyph appears as the logo of Arcadion and nothing except for playing the game through will convince me otherwise at this point. I'm also suspicious of Enigmatic Maiden possibly being Altima due to similar color palette and combination of "old style dress + technology" as FFXII's Ultima.

That thing looks absolutely nothing like Belias or Zermous' glyphs, anyway. Y'all need to get your apophenic tendencies under control.

People are trying to come up with fun possible theories based on next to no information pulled from pictures with basically no context. Let us have fun, jeez. This is the only time we have to come up with wild and crazy ideas for the expansion that are in the realm of possibility before the mystery is revealed.

And for the record, while I don't believe it's connected, Loghrif's glyph does have similar criss-cross/heart pattern (though I think it's a partially obscured infinity symbol) on top of elements that could resemble wings that stick out at similar angles as the Maiden's device and then a pointy bit at the bottom so I can see where Sanna got that from.

[Cleretic]

People are trying to come up with fun possible theories based on next to no information pulled from pictures with basically no context. Let us have fun, jeez. This is the only time we have to come up with wild and crazy ideas for the expansion that are in the realm of possibility before the mystery is revealed.

And personally, I dislike that these 'wild and crazy ideas' about the Ascians are not only just... the same idea constantly, so they're honestly not all that wild or crazy, but that they overpower any other ideas very quickly in this community.

I look at the Enigmatic Maiden and instead realize that her name is basically a thesaurus-ized version of 'Mysterious Girl', which is actually a name that's been pulled twice in Final Fantasy; once in IX for the one Genome with a soul who also has a kinda-similar hairstyle to the Maiden, and once for the Maenad in IV After Years, who were artificial agents of the Creator who dress similarly to the Maiden. And I can't help but notice that both of those are artificial humans made by major villains to in some way replace important party members, and that maybe we're looking at some connective tissue there.

[MikkoAkure]

And personally, I dislike that these 'wild and crazy ideas' about the Ascians are not only just... the same idea constantly, so they're honestly not all that wild or crazy, but that they overpower any other ideas very quickly in this community.

Maybe it has something to do with the community liking Ascians, the amount of characterization that has been given to them lately, and the clues that they're already involved here as well.

Yoshi-P has already said to remember the Convocation and before that people were thinking that Solution Nine is similar to 2 other Ascian-constructed nations with the added benefit of using their alphabet. People are bound to guess that Ascians are involved and are trying to figure out to what degree and which ones and what possible clues could be. There's only so many clues we have so people are bound to be attached to the same ones, especially if the more plausible they are.

I look at the Enigmatic Maiden and instead realize that her name is basically a thesaurus-ized version of 'Mysterious Girl', which is actually a name that's been pulled twice in Final Fantasy; once in IX for the one Genome with a soul who also has a kinda-similar hairstyle to the Maiden, and once for the Maenad in IV After Years, who were artificial agents of the Creator who dress similarly to the Maiden. And I can't help but notice that both of those are artificial humans made by major villains to in some way replace important party members, and that maybe we're looking at some connective tissue there.

In Japanese, her name is "Girl with a fleeting smile" and uses different characters from those two examples, which doesn't seem like it could necessarily be the same thing and doesn't really give us many clues either, but I didn't play much of FFIX or anything of After Years.