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.

[TheOperator3712]

If I was in charge of DT's patch story, I would have figuring out how to use the hourglass to get to other shards as a main priority. However, something everyone has forgotten to mention so far is that there is one other lose thread from 7.0. The upset Rhoneek in Shaaloani. This was important enough to warrant mentioning in the epilogue, so it's likely that will be at least 7.1, if it doesn't stretch out into 7.3. So we might not get to the hourglass until 7.4. I would expect 8.0 to be an investigation into another shard, given the remaining plot hooks. I don't think DT was actually meant to be a new ARR, I think that was just bad marketing. I think DT was just meant to be a filler arc that gave us the new MacGuffin we need for the real storyline the devs want to tell. Which will involve going to other shards. We've clearly seen in the 6.x patch quests that the devs want the story to go in the direction of visiting other shards for some reason. Emet-Selch even hinted at this when he said "some of the civilizations in the reflections will surprise you", and that section was basically the writers using Emet as a sock puppet to tell us about their future plans.

Hopefully we get a really interesting story about some advanced civilization that wants to conquer the other shards down the road. Or they might go the route of having the shards start drift back towards the source in the absence of Hydaelyn, requiring us to either evacuate the shards or prevent their rejoining somehow. The most likely at the moment does seem to be that we just go shard hopping over the next 10 years without any overarching plot; and 7.0 doesn't give me confidence that the current writing team will be able to land even that. Time will tell though. For now we have upset Rhoneek to investigate and a political disturbance to settle in 7.1.

[KisaiTenshi]

Wait, that happened when you started in Gridania? Is that why we could tell Cauhciua that treant eat wolves? x'D

Yep that was literately part of the cinematic after the "how to fight" tutorial.
https://youtu.be/0xnhhJisWNs?t=284

[GrizzlyTank]

Unfortunately for some reason Yoshi have become hesitant to drag in past side content, like with the shadowkeeper and the failed WoL from the 13th.

They also killed off the political drama which have left a massive hole in the persistent suspense for the game.

[BakoolJaJa]

For now we have upset Rhoneek to investigate and a political disturbance to settle in 7.1.

Oh god, that means we're still close to Wuk Lamat, which means she will probably be in it. I cannot take another Wuk Lamat centered quest line. Please, please do not make me go through that again.