One small worrying issue I have with Dawntrail (Ending Spoilers)

[TheMightyMollusk]

Ending spoilers:

When we pull out Azem's Crystal right before The Interphos, we are shown that the key/chalice lights up with the same symbol, in the same color as the crystal. I think this is meant to imply that the key/chalice is also a creation of Azem, or at least invokes the same magic.

Huh. (Do we need spoiler tags when the thread's explicitly about the end game?)

Honestly, I still don't see it as a connection with Azem themselves. Azem never would've needed a device to travel between reflections, because they didn't exist. (And we know Azem was sundered, because the WoL is a reincarnation of their shard on the Source, so they couldn't have just made it later or something.) A mystery to (hopefully) be explored later, I suppose.

[Voidmage]

Huh. (Do we need spoiler tags when the thread's explicitly about the end game?)

Honestly, I still don't see it as a connection with Azem themselves. Azem never would've needed a device to travel between reflections, because they didn't exist. (And we know Azem was sundered, because the WoL is a reincarnation of their shard on the Source, so they couldn't have just made it later or something.) A mystery to (hopefully) be explored later, I suppose.

The traveling could maybe just be a side effect or just a fraction of what this thing can do.
If the Milalla story is to be believed it responded to their wish to be saved with a solution. Nothing suggests this is the only thing it can do.

I might be wrong but isn't Azem's crystal also just a wish devise that manipulates dimension whoolwhirwarstuff?

One thing the story is consistent throughout is that prayer is effective. It could be something like the stuff the 12 build at the end of the ARaid

[GartredZW]

Huh. (Do we need spoiler tags when the thread's explicitly about the end game?)

Honestly, I still don't see it as a connection with Azem themselves. Azem never would've needed a device to travel between reflections, because they didn't exist. (And we know Azem was sundered, because the WoL is a reincarnation of their shard on the Source, so they couldn't have just made it later or something.) A mystery to (hopefully) be explored later, I suppose.

Personally, I think that chalice has the ancient (or at least Ascian desundering) next holder of the seat of Azem in it. My thought process is that after Azem went off not choosing a side in Venat vs Convocation, they started searching for a new Azem, and found one, but the world was sundered before the process could finish. Or at least it was too soon for Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus to go back to calling Azem by his previous name.
I'm mostly basing this on the fact that the chalice has a chunk of what's clearly white auracite in it. Perhaps the rest of the machinery is there to keep him from escaping, like they should be able to do with white auracite.
There's also the possibility that it's a reincarnation of Venat's soul. Maybe after being reborn in the 2nd (or whichever shard Alexandria is on). Time flows differently, so she could have been reborn immediately after being eaten by Zenos, then released back to the aetherial sea after he died. I like to believe that she manipulated the flow of the aetherial sea just a bit so her soul would sunder itself after dying. It feels like what she would have wanted.

[TheMightyMollusk]

There's also the possibility that it's a reincarnation of Venat's soul. Maybe after being reborn in the 2nd (or whichever shard Alexandria is on). Time flows differently, so she could have been reborn immediately after being eaten by Zenos, then released back to the aetherial sea after he died. I like to believe that she manipulated the flow of the aetherial sea just a bit so her soul would sunder itself after dying. It feels like what she would have wanted.

Official word is that Venat used up the last of her soul to fight us, so she's deader than dead. Her story is over.

If anyone wants to argue about whether or not that's a good thing, please, go find the Endwalker story thread, don't derail this one for it. We've been having that argument for two and a half years already.

[GartredZW]

Official word is that Venat used up the last of her soul to fight us, so she's deader than dead. Her story is over.

If anyone wants to argue about whether or not that's a good thing, please, go find the Endwalker story thread, don't derail this one for it. We've been having that argument for two and a half years already.

I'm just putting forward the theories on where the story is going. quit with the passive aggressiveness.
The fact remains that we still go to another reflection which only exists because of Hydaelyn, and get an artifact with some connection to one member of the convocation. I'm not just pulling this out of nowhere.
Sequels build on the world building and story from the previous story. This shouldn't be a surprise.
I don't even want Hydaelyn to come back. I just think it would be a neat way to springboard off of the first arc to have a new character with her own new story who happens to be a reincarnation of Venat. Similar to how Ryne was her own character with her own arc despite being Minfilia's reincarnation.

[TheMightyMollusk]

I'm just putting forward the theories on where the story is going. quit with the passive aggressiveness.
The fact remains that we still go to another reflection which only exists because of Hydaelyn, and get an artifact with some connection to one member of the convocation. I'm not just pulling this out of nowhere.
Sequels build on the world building and story from the previous story. This shouldn't be a surprise.
I don't even want Hydaelyn to come back. I just think it would be a neat way to springboard off of the first arc to have a new character with her own new story who happens to be a reincarnation of Venat. Similar to how Ryne was her own character with her own arc despite being Minfilia's reincarnation.

I was neither being passive nor aggressive. Simple fact is, Venat's not coming back. If you're referring to the second part of my post, that was just weariness about the whole argument because, again, it's been going on for two and a half years.