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.

[Tunda]

I would like them rebuilding more military like imperials or some sort of ascians but stronger with actual deep story linked to azem

[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.

[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.

[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.

[Hanayumi]

All depends on the audience reception to the new story, I believe Yoshida mentioned having a general idea of the story for the next couple expanasion, but if they feel the playerbase isnt enjoying it then they wont continue with it beyond that expansion. As far as I can tell its not so much the base Dawntrail story thats going to make or break any expected Arc but the patch story, well have to wait and see where it all goes...As fir as ties into pervious story stuff might happen more so with side content, Role quests for example all deal with older zones and we've got the next Ult dealing with Eden series.

[Voidmage]

All depends on the audience reception to the new story, I believe Yoshida mentioned having a general idea of the story for the next couple expanasion, but if they feel the playerbase isnt enjoying it then they wont continue with it beyond that expansion. As far as I can tell its not so much the base Dawntrail story thats going to make or break any expected Arc but the patch story, well have to wait and see where it all goes...As fir as ties into pervious story stuff might happen more so with side content, Role quests for example all deal with older zones and we've got the next Ult dealing with Eden series.

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.

This is actualy something I'm wondering.
I also remember him saying that they first want to look for feedback before deciding how to continue. I give them probs for taking a risk even though I hate it.

My question is. If they still haven't decided yet how to continue then what exactly do they have planed for the patch story?
If they first wanted to look for feedback (which sounds like they themselfs weren't sure how the response would be) then it would be stupid to continue that story into 7.1 and 7.2 (I guess those are the ones they have already written).
On the other hand they also can not wait before deciding how to go forward.
Wouldn't the safest bet be doing something like the void questline for two patches to have a buffer?

I don't know if I will play patch stories that also have Wuk Lamat as the main character. My WoL being invisible was not the reason why I played this game. They can keep her and even make her appear from time to time but I don't want another story revolving around her 100% of the time.
If that is the future I don't know if I would continue it. I still like the other content but the MSQ and the lore is my main focus in this game tbh.

I guess they tried to look how people responded if expansions were self contained and centered around one character each time instead of us. Maybe that would work but not in this form.


Edit:
Sorry for the edit but there is another thing they left open, namely this one here with the "Keeper of Whispers"

https://imgur.com/a/Kqpn9oS