Azem on the Final Days? A Perspective

[Aethornes]

Hello, before I share a personal concept of mine of what 'Azem' may have done on the 'Final Days' I wish to just preface that what I say is but a concept of what could have occurred. I doubt the team will ever reveal what ever occurred, which may be for the best as the 'Azem' has been referenced as us. I believe the below concept would fit well with the precedents of FFXIV- considering there are soul crystals aka the job crystals.

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A Perspective:

'Player Character' is the reincarnate core soul of who was once 'Azem' within the world of Etheirys. A person by the name of 'Placeholder' they were once- the Azem who was a true diplomat and traveler who journeyed with the purpose of enriching lives of others with whatever value they held, whether that be wealth, knowledge, power, or merely just comfort.

In their final days, they were to listen to the lives of ancients who were fated to be sundered- and joined hands with them to realize a plan for the eras to come. Azem and those who wished to forge a valiant strong soul joined energies- creating the fated reincarnates of the 'hero' who was to be born countless times over from the sundered shards of 'Azem'.

Each new reincarnate reflecting a unique joined soul that was to be born from a shard of 'Azem' until the birth of the core soul was to be born, the original 'Azem'. In the stead of past heroes and reflections- the new core hero was to not only reflect the core soul, but the unique souls he joined with during the final days.

[TheRealQuah]

Personally, I think that the 'we are azem' thing is going to turn out to be more literal than just us being a reincarnation.

I think at the end of the story, when the game is done with, we are going to go back to Elpis and directly become the Azem in the ancient world.

[PorxiesRCute]

Personally, I think that the 'we are azem' thing is going to turn out to be more literal than just us being a reincarnation.

I think at the end of the story, when the game is done with, we are going to go back to Elpis and directly become the Azem in the ancient world.

This would be such a bad ending.

We could only "become Azem" if we rejoined with all our shards on the other reflections, which would necessitate either a full rejoining or just actively murdering six more people for some ridiculous power fantasy.

[NegativeS]

This would be such a bad ending.

We could only "become Azem" if we rejoined with all our shards on the other reflections, which would necessitate either a full rejoining or just actively murdering six more people for some ridiculous power fantasy.

I mean, we got one person to willingly rejoin with us. What's six more?

Personally, I think that it'd be an interesting plot if we ate another Ardbert and suddenly became more Ancient than not. Fragmented memories of our past life as Azem start to come back to us, and we start to feel the smallest inkling of regret that we didn't let the Paragons cook a little more.

[PorxiesRCute]

I mean, we got one person to willingly rejoin with us. What's six more?

Personally, I think that it'd be an interesting plot if we ate another Ardbert and suddenly became more Ancient than not. Fragmented memories of our past life as Azem start to come back to us, and we start to feel the smallest inkling of regret that we didn't let the Paragons cook a little more.

Ardbert was already dead and we were in an unwinnable situation. He made a noble sacrifice to help us save the world. How would any further rejoinings even go?

1) We walk up to our shards and politely ask them if we can vore their souls. Why would the Warrior of Light want to do that? Why would they say yes?

2) Their reflections are rejoined. This seems like an unlikely writing choice.

3) We're put in six more situations that require an Ardbert-style sacrifice from our remaining shards. This would be bad writing and it would cheapen Ardbert's sacrifice. No thanks.

[Iscah]

3) We're put in six more situations that require an Ardbert-style sacrifice from our remaining shards. This would be bad writing and it would cheapen Ardbert's sacrifice. No thanks.

This is my biggest objection to when people suggest we should rejoin with all our other reflections. There's no way it would involve killing them to claim their souls, so it would have to be multiple rounds of them being conveniently ready and willing to merge, and it would feel contrived.

[StormChase]

I mean, we got one person to willingly rejoin with us. What's six more?

Personally, I think that it'd be an interesting plot if we ate another Ardbert and suddenly became more Ancient than not. Fragmented memories of our past life as Azem start to come back to us, and we start to feel the smallest inkling of regret that we didn't let the Paragons cook a little more.

I really don't want us to rejoin with all the remaining Azem shards because that'd contradict the point of Shadowbringers. We don't need to be "whole" to be worthy. I think the one reason it had us rejoin with Ardbert in the first place was so he could have a second chance at being a hero.

[Cleretic]

Even if you went through all of those 'rote to the point of tedious' writing hoops for this terrible idea, you hit a new problem: Azem doesn't actually look like most of our characters.

I'm surprised at the person who brought this up, because as a miqo'te they should know: only hyur and elezen WoLs actually get told that they look like Azem. Everyone else has pronounced differences, either in size or shape. So for the WoL to become Azem via time paradox, most people then have to have their actual character that they presumably really like erased.

[Enkidoh]

As a miqo'te player I can confirm that miqo'te definetely are stated by Emet, Hyth and others in Elpis as closely resembling Azem too, not surprising given miqo'te are really just humans with cat ears, eyes/fangs and a tail so those 'additions' can be simply ignored.. (I had a headcanon 'EnkiAzem loved cats and specialized in cat-themed creations... so hence why she subconsciously kept reincarnating post Sundering as a miqo'te/hrothgar or similar more than any other race).

I think it's only lalafell, hrothgar, au ra and possibly roegadyn would not be stated as looking like Azem physically.

[Cleretic]

As a miqo'te player I can confirm that miqo'te definetely are stated by Emet, Hyth and others in Elpis as closely resembling Azem too, not surprising given miqo'te are really just humans with cat ears, eyes/fangs and a tail so those 'additions' can be simply ignored.. (I had a headcanon 'EnkiAzem loved cats and specialized in cat-themed creations... so hence why she subconsciously kept reincarnating post Sundering as a miqo'te/hrothgar or similar more than any other race).

I think it's only lalafell, hrothgar, au ra and possibly roegadyn would not be stated as looking like Azem physically.

Ahh, okay, that makes sense. Thanks! (And yes, roegadyn get a similar comment to lalafel.)

It's still a level of erasure; the Ancients are just Ancients, they're none of the races we play and only sort of resemble a few of them. The WoL becoming Azem would, for every single one, require a change of physical appearance, and in a lot of cases it's a really drastic change.