Where's the aether? (Spoilers)

[Lady_Silvermoon]

Whether that's meant to be immediate or not I have no idea, but Emet-Selch once said that if there's a full rejoining "you have nothing to lose" because you're "of the Source" implying the Warrior of Light wouldn't have to die.

He was attempting to sell the WoL on becoming an Ascian. Remember, the Ascians know how to pull souls and memories from bodies effectively making you immortal. Given six more calamities would likely take several thousand more years, when he says "should you survive" he meant as an Ascian, otherwise old age would get the WoL if nothing else did.

[kaynide]

He was attempting to sell the WoL on becoming an Ascian. Remember, the Ascians know how to pull souls and memories from bodies effectively making you immortal. Given six more calamities would likely take several thousand more years, when he says "should you survive" he meant as an Ascian, otherwise old age would get the WoL if nothing else did.

Minor point here-

My understanding is that there was only a need for one more calamity to cause a full rejoin, which we stopped in Shadowbringers; my understanding is once #8 happened, everything would cascade to full rejoin. I could be wrong though!

Annnd 2, very importantly, the Bahamut calamity revealed to the Ascians that calamities didn't require a full map-wipe (and therefore thousands of years). Rather, they could do Calamity causing massive damage but not reset humanity; they were planning to do calamity #8 (Flood of Light in Shadowbringers) about 5ish years from #7 (The Meteor project; some 5ish? 10ish? years pre ARR).

So, even if they DID need to do 6 more calamities, it could be easily done in like.. 30-50 years tops.

[Lady_Silvermoon]

Minor point here-

My understanding is that there was only a need for one more calamity to cause a full rejoin, which we stopped in Shadowbringers; my understanding is once #8 happened, everything would cascade to full rejoin. I could be wrong though!

Annnd 2, very importantly, the Bahamut calamity revealed to the Ascians that calamities didn't require a full map-wipe (and therefore thousands of years). Rather, they could do Calamity causing massive damage but not reset humanity; they were planning to do calamity #8 (Flood of Light in Shadowbringers) about 5ish years from #7 (The Meteor project; some 5ish? 10ish? years pre ARR).

So, even if they DID need to do 6 more calamities, it could be easily done in like.. 30-50 years tops.

While there is a line from Hydaelyn saying she will lose her grip if one more calamity happens in around 3.5, I believe? Shadowbringers has G'raha waking up hundreds of years after the calamity and Zodiark is not free and the world is not rejoined. So either she was mistaken about how many rejoinings it'd take to free him or the writers simply retconned that. And given even 200 years after the 8th calamity the world wasn't rejoined, we know most WoL (unless you play a young Viera) wouldn't make it even that long. So yeah, he was totally attempting to sell us on that Ascian life.

Also, the reason why the 7th umbral calamity didn't reset humanity is because of the twins grandfather. He wasn't around for the 8th and that did reset humanity. So the Ascians can't really just keep slamming shards into the Source or there will be no people left alive to cause the next calamity. They really do have to wait for people to rebuild.

Based on the story so far, I am with the Ascians. I think we should rejoin all of the shards. Endsinger is done and souls will be reborn/rejoined.

Who cares if you kill people? They come back from the ethereal stream.

I don't think killing is bad in this game anymore. There is really no justification for the continuation of hardship and suffering.

Rejoining the shards will not turn us into Ancients and/or end suffering. We'll just have the trauma of another half dozen brutal deaths etched into our souls. I'm sure that'll make us kinder to one another as species.

While it does look like some sort of rejoining is the direction the story is going. Just murdering everyone is a terrible plan. If not for moral reasons (which yes, for moral reasons) then because trauma impacts the soul for thousands of years and so far the only uses we've found for having a dense souls is holding a lot of aspected aether and curing someone else's soul corruption.

[Voidmage]

Rejoining the shards will not turn us into Ancients and/or end suffering. We'll just have the trauma of another half dozen brutal deaths etched into our souls. I'm sure that'll make us kinder to one another as species.

While it does look like some sort of rejoining is the direction the story is going. Just murdering everyone is a terrible plan. If not for moral reasons (which yes, for moral reasons) then because trauma impacts the soul for thousands of years and so far the only uses we've found for having a dense souls is holding a lot of aspected aether and curing someone else's soul corruption.

I don't think the story goes into a rejoining direction.
The thirteens will be healed, the first is on it's way to recover and the survivors of Alexandria have found a world outside the dome if they wish to leave it.
There could even be other survivors from former rejoinings if Yoshidas Interview is any indication and I think that is the direction they want to go.

The game makes a big point of remembering other people, the cultures and that they lived. If there are survivors then the cultures may not be lost yet.

That's also why I find that take you replied to... uh I don't have nice words for that.
Joining the Ascians and rejoining everything would wipe out those cultures, their history and their memories.
We would have never met Otis or Sphene (and I do like those). Imagine Ryne and the others from the first or even Zero just being erased without anyone remembering they existed in the first place.

I really don't know how someone can actually think like that tbh. I can't wrap my head around that.

[Lady_Silvermoon]

I don't think the story goes into a rejoining direction.
The thirteens will be healed, the first is on it's way to recover and the survivors of Alexandria have found a world outside the dome if they wish to leave it.
There could even be other survivors from former rejoinings if Yoshidas Interview is any indication and I think that is the direction they want to go.

The game makes a big point of remembering other people, the cultures and that they lived. If there are survivors then the cultures may not be lost yet.

That's also why I find that take you replied to... uh I don't have nice words for that.
Joining the Ascians and rejoining everything would wipe out those cultures, their history and their memories.
We would have never met Otis or Sphene (and I do like those). Imagine Ryne and the others from the first or even Zero just being erased without anyone remembering they existed in the first place.

I really don't know how someone can actually think like that tbh. I can't wrap my head around that.

NOOOOOO! You misunderstand me. When I said I suspect we might be going in the direction of rejoining the shards, I meant because we now have a safe means to do it with the hourglass thingy. A part of Alexandria was merged into the Source with zero casualties are far as I'm aware. And given that the Sundered world is unstable and might crash into itself if we stop praying to an answering machine, putting the world back together without murdering anyone might be our next arc. After all, we wouldn't have met Otis without the merge either.

And then Ryne could be with her daddy and Y'shtola could be with Ru...wait, nevermind, that's never happening. The men would riot.

[MarianneviBrittania]

And then Ryne could be with her daddy and Y'shtola could be with Ru...wait, nevermind, that's never happening. The men would riot.

Yes, Y'shtola is just trying to fulfill her vow to a..... friend. Yes, just a friend. That's definitely why she's been so desperate to Shard travel. Maybe we should just let the men riot? We can sell tickets!!!!! c: