Quote Originally Posted by PotatoTree View Post
[HB]

A few things that are unclear are:
2. if it's possible to go back in time to a previous version of the shard before a rejoining happens like the Alolo lalas may have done with the key, what are the consequences of this and what was Azem doing? Was Azem like some time traveling planeswalker?
We kinda know the answer to this

It's covered in Shadowbringers.
* G'raha sealed himself inside the Crystal Tower by the end of ARR.
* Cid developed the time travel theory after the Eighth Calamity to try and undo it by reaching the First before its rejoining.
* Two hundred years after the Calamity, that research had been passed down to one of Biggs descendants who, in turn, woke up G'raha.
* G'raha travelled back in time to before the Calamity and to the First using the Crystal Tower, but time dilation meant he arrived too early on the First and had to wait to summon the WoL.

We've also kinda seen what happens if you change the future given that's what happened in Shadowbringers. If the Milalla changed the past and prevented the second calamity from being completed, you'd expect it should be a similar situation to what happened with the First, the WoL should be living in a world where the twelfth wasn't fully rejoined it also would have happened long before they were born so it should have "always been that way" where Shadowbringers avoided dealing with that timey-wimey headache by making it a future we averted.