Some wild speculation about a certain macguffin from 7.0

[mallleable]

This is 100% wild speculation, but I think the reason why the Dimensional Key has Azem's symbol on it is not because it belonged to them, but because they put a protective/regulatory spell on it which flashed in the presence of Azem's duty finder spell probably like when a Convocation symbol flashes over an Ascian's face. So why would Azem have to put a protective seal on it? Encased in the key is a twisted white rock. Auracite. Sphene did say it 'responds to fervent desire.'

We know from Pandaemonium that even the Ancients have been bumping into bits of Auracite like The Heart of Sabik. Another spooky thought is we don't know which Azem put it there assuming it is a seal. Where my imagination is running is that dealing with these bits of Auracite, and where they're coming from, and their consequences has been a kind of thorn in the side for anyone who has held the seat of Azem. It's why the Last Azem knew to to reach out to us to deal with the stuff going on in Pandaemonium. Venat had to deal with it, the Last Azem had to deal with, and now it is the Warrior of Light's turn to inherit that burden. How cool would it be if our next grand adventure culminates in us defeating actual Ultima.

I am so looking forward to the Pandaemonium follow up quest!

[Anonymoose]

As a fellow "Ultima Prime" theorist, I'm definitely open to more auracite shenanigans.

A moment of pedantry, if you'll indulge me, though: If I'm reading the line by Nemjiji correctly, Athena found a piece of auracite and from it developed the Heart of Sabik as we know it.

The jury in my brain is still out on what I think The Key is(n't), though. It appears to me that the "goblet" portion of the artifact is the electrope interface that Preservation developed to jailbreak it, and the true artifact the Milalla possessed is the gray/orange-glowing bit within.

The swirly appearance of the true artifact reminds me of Ancient motifs, so I started with theories of Ancient production.

The fact that Preservation failed to get the artifact to work despite facing the same threats and having the same goals as the Milalla is interesting. What other condition that the Speaker met did they fail? My first shot in the dark was that by some coincidence the Speaker was themselves an Azem shard, creating a through-line with all the sun motifs in the Milalla ruins.

But by then I'm just building an easily toppled house of cards.

[Cleretic]

The jury in my brain is still out on what I think The Key is(n't), though. It appears to me that the "goblet" portion of the artifact is the electrope interface that Preservation developed to jailbreak it, and the true artifact the Milalla possessed is the gray/orange-glowing bit within.

The swirly appearance of the true artifact reminds me of Ancient motifs, so I started with theories of Ancient production.

The fact that Preservation failed to get the artifact to work despite facing the same threats and having the same goals as the Milalla is interesting. What other condition that the Speaker met did they fail? My first shot in the dark was that by some coincidence the Speaker was themselves an Azem shard, creating a through-line with all the sun motifs in the Milalla ruins.

The thing that still makes me disagree with the Ancients as a theory on this (it resembles their stuff most of all potential contenders, but not so exactly that it's clear) is that the current skillset the key's been shown to have would be utterly worthless to them. The Ancients wouldn't have needed a way to cross shards because the shards didn't exist at their time, and the Ascians wouldn't have needed it because they could travel between shards pretty easy. So either the Ancients didn't make it, or they made it for a reason that up until now has never been stated. And that latter one sounds too sloppy for the XIV writers.

But also... uhm, can I ask for detail on 'Preservation failed to get the artifact to work'? Because all evidence I've got suggest they're actually its most successful users; the traditional millala couldn't get it working in the Storm Surge times, while Preservation got their plans rolling pretty well and pretty quickly (well, by their timescale) both the first and second times they got hold of the thing. They didn't pull off full-power dimensional fusion, but that seems like it's more because it's a really big process that they were stopped from doing both times.

[Anonymoose]

But also... uhm, can I ask for detail on 'Preservation failed to get the artifact to work'?

Robor & (Alayla)
As those around them froze to death, our ancestors looked to a mighty relic for salvation. By its power they opened a portal, and used it to flee to another reality. <...> (The key is none other than that relic, and it has been in the safekeeping of our people since time immemorial.) <...> When lightning threatened this world, we attempted to use the key to flee again like our ancestors once did. Alas, no matter what we tried, we couldn't invoke its power. We had all but given up when Preservation approached us with an offer of partnership. <...> By augmenting it with electrope, Preservation did succeed in opening a portal. Yet they could never grasp how they had managed to do so, much less the underlying principles of the technology. To this day, not a single person understands the mechanics of interdimensional fusion. Let alone who imbued the key with its power, when they did so, or why.

If I'm interpreting the summary correctly, it worked "as intended" for the Speaker, then not for the Milalla's descendants, and not for Preservation, leading to electrope-based augmentation that eventually stumbled over a jailbreak for the portal feature. Desperately wanting to survive the collapse of your world is then perhaps not sufficient to activate it.

...the current skillset the key's been shown to have would be utterly worthless to them. The Ancients wouldn't have needed a way to cross shards because the shards didn't exist at their time, and the Ascians wouldn't have needed it because they could travel between shards pretty easy. So either the Ancients didn't make it, or they made it for a reason that up until now has never been stated. And that latter one sounds too sloppy for the XIV writers.

Data correlation is a messy process until the puzzle is actually solved and you can trim away the excess.

If the story is introducing multiple new Azem connections through the Milalla at the same time post-Endwalker (e.g. the sun-themed sanctuary, the relic symbol), then it would not be unreasonable (in my opinion) to explore potential anticipations of further Azem-related connections in whatever future plot that connects to (including ones that act as "new revelations" expanding on existing content).

However, as soon as one gets specific on what they might be, the house of cards gets a little too high for comfort.

Random example, Robor questions what the true nature of interdimensional fusion is, and why someone would imbue the artifact with that power, and when that might have happened. It stands to reason (in my opinion) to anticipate that those are questions that are intended to be answered. And - if the all the revelations in the same ballpark as the artifact have been related to Azem so far - would not one start in that same ballpark when anticipating those answers, and then work outward from there?

Except...where can you even go from there, with regard to Azem, without the house of cards immediately becoming too high to put any weight on? Following through my knee-jerk first thoughts mentioned above: If the Key is simply a means of travel - sure, that's a suitable invention for the Traveler - but it would mean either the Key worked on the unsundered world and only incidentally works inter-shard by virtue of that, or Azem knew the sundering was coming and created it as an emergency tool. That's a pretty big can of worms to open unprompted, but I wouldn't argue the story is devoid of potential foreshadows to that revelation, either. In either one of those cases, though, it might make sense to limit its use to Azem (or shards thereof), simply for the sake of security - or hope/faith that their future selves were as trustworthy when the chips were down.

Edit: Notice that the Milalla temple in Dawntrail is filled with the same ostensible sun motifs that appear on the Aloalo Island boss's outfit, in the same sun-orange hue as the Azem crystal/symbol.

(Before anyone jumps this gun, yes, the short story focuses on Azem creating an artifact that reduces "the traveler's burden" and "forgets" the crystal in Hythlodaeus's office. The short story also, depending on the language, declares it to be blue, so we might be stuck with that.)

[Cleretic]

If I'm interpreting the summary correctly, it worked "as intended" for the Speaker, then not for the Milalla's descendants, and not for Preservation, leading to electrope-based augmentation that eventually stumbled over a jailbreak for the portal feature. Desperately wanting to survive the collapse of your world is then perhaps not sufficient to activate it.

Yeah, I disagree on that interpretation. That quote sounds like Preservation did make it work, they just didn't understand how. There's no 'Preservation's failed attempt' there, and what little we know about Preservation does suggest that 'put it in an electrope machine' would be their first plan anyway. And not necessarily a bad one, given that electrope manipulation itself stems back to Aloalo.

My personal running theory is that the key, appropriate to its name, does absolute sod-all by itself but can power something else to do dimensional whatsits. Preservation basically blindly reverse-engineered a 'something else' that the people of Aloalo also had and used, that got forgotten over the ages thanks to random quirks of history and record-keeping. In fact, I wouldn't be tremendously surprised if we've seen evidence of it ourselves: the larger statue of the Speaker we find in Aloalo's secret route is holding a big amber orb that doesn't seem to be reflected in the golem we actually fight.

As for the origins of the key itself... yeah, I can buy that it's auracite, but my suspicion is that we don't yet know its creator(s). Again, I've personally ruled out the Ancients and Ascians; the fact Aloalo's people already had it rules out everything after the Fifth Calamity, so everything modern and the War of the Magi participants are out; and best guess on timeframes also rules out any known civilizations from the First or the Ninth. That leaves our options pretty slim:

• Ancient Doma,
• Ancient Bozja,
• Ivalice,
• Allag,
• Goug I guess,
• Some group in Meracydia,
• Some group in Tural that predates literally every figure or group we just met in Dawntrail,
• Pre-Flood of Darkness Thirteenth society somehow,
• Or a completely incalculable unknown, maybe from somewhere we haven't been or an era we don't know much about.

I don't have concrete ways to rule most of these out, but I've got gut-feel 'that doesn't seem right' responses to most of them; it just doesn't look or smell like their thing as we understand it. Couple that with the fact I just think us not already having the answer is more complelling, and yeah, I think we literally can't even make an educated guess yet.

[mallleable]

Yeah, the idea of 'why would Azem or or the Ancients need such a device' is partially what prompted me to fall down this rabbit hole as well as a more thematic lens. Dawntrail is a story with themes of legacy, burden, and grief, and we've been exploring those themes with the new characters. But where does The Warrior of Light fit in? We've already basically accepted that we carry on the legacy of Azem since Shadowbringers, and will continue to do so as represented by the summoning crystal. So what if this new thing is actually a burden-? And that is where the idea of it being like a weapon that Azem could not destroy, and they could only partially neutralize it during one of their adventures. And to continue being reckless with this house of cards, maybe the seal is why Preservation couldn't access its full power. With the seal, its only capable of dimensional travel, but with out the seal it's capable of things like dimensional fusion. Spooky stuff.

[MikkoAkure]

The thing that still makes me disagree with the Ancients as a theory on this (it resembles their stuff most of all potential contenders, but not so exactly that it's clear) is that the current skillset the key's been shown to have would be utterly worthless to them. The Ancients wouldn't have needed a way to cross shards because the shards didn't exist at their time, and the Ascians wouldn't have needed it because they could travel between shards pretty easy. So either the Ancients didn't make it, or they made it for a reason that up until now has never been stated. And that latter one sounds too sloppy for the XIV writers.

How do we know that the only thing it can do or even if the only thing it was meant to do is interdimensional teleportation? Nuclear fission in our reality has been used to make weapons of unimaginable destruction but currently we mostly use it to heat water into steam. Considering what we know about both the writers as well as our Azem, it could very well be the Ancient version of the Ironworks' increasingly intricate kettles and originally designed to derive energy from an artificially created pocket universe in order to heat water to make tea but as a side effect and some tweaking it can open portals to other realities.

Right now it's a magical writers' tool of undetermined power, purpose, and potential meant to do whatever the writers want it to do and the only lead we have to go on is the Azem symbol. So far almost everything magical has been derived back to Amaurot or Allag but nothing we've encountered from Allag has the symbol for a Seat of Convocation member slapped on it.

We also don't know if it was OUR Azem who made it, ours was the last of a line and we know of one other. It could be that the device was originally made by Venat and the reason why the Milala were able to use it to escape the Fifth Umbral Era was with Hydaelyn's intervention. That could also account for Krile's particular affinity towards Hydaelyn over other echo-bearers, since she's the only Milala on the Source.

[fulminating]

Azem's spell draws a knight, a naked roegadyn, 2 frogs and 4 people in swimming costumes from across space; if it is of azem perhaps the intended use was intradimensional travel? The unique circumstances surrounding the creation of the shards - all being from the same original dimension - could allow it to function as a workaround to hydaelyn's barrier. Assuming this to be true, unless the intent was to visit other planets, it does seem to be an invention of limited use to the ancients though.

The handle of the cup is fairly clearly electrope, and presumably from the efforts of the ninth scientists's attempts to make it work.
The bendy crystal looks kind of like it's from elpis or amaurot recreated, but in fairness the anyder and lunar ones are a lot more rectangular.
When y'shtola tried to blow it up, it had a sort of round looking shield protect it. It sort of reminds me of art of war, but more likely to be aloala than nym. I did think it looked a bit like the ronkan mount's action, but magic circle with lines in is not really compelling either way.

[Cleretic]

Yeah, the idea of 'why would Azem or or the Ancients need such a device' is partially what prompted me to fall down this rabbit hole as well as a more thematic lens. Dawntrail is a story with themes of legacy, burden, and grief, and we've been exploring those themes with the new characters. But where does The Warrior of Light fit in? We've already basically accepted that we carry on the legacy of Azem since Shadowbringers, and will continue to do so as represented by the summoning crystal. So what if this new thing is actually a burden-? And that is where the idea of it being like a weapon that Azem could not destroy, and they could only partially neutralize it during one of their adventures. And to continue being reckless with this house of cards, maybe the seal is why Preservation couldn't access its full power. With the seal, its only capable of dimensional travel, but with out the seal it's capable of things like dimensional fusion. Spooky stuff.

I do like the idea that this is perhaps a weapon by intention, honestly, or at least a tool of malice; perhaps the dark truth is that Preservation were closer to its intended uses than anyone else, and it's a tool of invasion and conquering rather than exploration and travel.

I'm not sure if it's true or if I believe it, but I think it's a valuable thought exercise. Like, can we definitively rule this out? And honestly, I can't.

How do we know that the only thing it can do or even if the only thing it was meant to do is interdimensional teleportation? Nuclear fission in our reality has been used to make weapons of unimaginable destruction but currently we mostly use it to heat water into steam. Considering what we know about both the writers as well as our Azem, it could very well be the Ancient version of the Ironworks' increasingly intricate kettles and originally designed to derive energy from an artificially created pocket universe in order to heat water to make tea but as a side effect and some tweaking it can open portals to other realities.

Basically my thought there is 'if it was first intended for some other important thing, they would've hinted at it'. The key's only ever described as a tool capable of doing this one specific thing, so reasonably, that's its main thing. It being originally intended for something largely irrelevant and later got discovered to also be capable of dimensional travel would be a bit of a pointless 'that's nice'-level extra, given the important part of that story is likely the person who found it was capable of dimensional travel. Sure, they could add this extra wrinkle, but that's not where the key's origin story is. Its origin story is either its invention or discovery as a tool of dimensional travel, because that's the lead interesting part; it doesn't really matter if it happened to also be a pretty good stapler pre-Sundering.

I don't think it showing the symbol of Azem is a smoking gun for Ancient-ness, either. As has been said a few times in this subforum, we've actually got a pretty limited scope on it doing that; it did that when we produced the Azem crystal, it's entirely possible it'd show an entirely different symbol if we pulled out another Convocation soul crystal, or even, say, the Pictomancer job crystal. But even if it is specifically intended to project that symbol, that's not necessarily a sign of its creator, it could be a sign added in by people who revered this person and their symbol. Those people could even be post-Azem; we know some Ancient-era figures survived as legends, would it be so weird if 'the Traveler' did too?

[SannaR]

Azem's spell draws a knight, a naked roegadyn, 2 frogs and 4 people in swimming costumes from across space; if it is of azem perhaps the intended use was intradimensional travel? The unique circumstances surrounding the creation of the shards - all being from the same original dimension - could allow it to function as a workaround to hydaelyn's barrier. Assuming this to be true, unless the intent was to visit other planets, it does seem to be an invention of limited use to the ancients though.

The handle of the cup is fairly clearly electrope, and presumably from the efforts of the ninth scientists's attempts to make it work.
The bendy crystal looks kind of like it's from elpis or amaurot recreated, but in fairness the anyder and lunar ones are a lot more rectangular.
When y'shtola tried to blow it up, it had a sort of round looking shield protect it. It sort of reminds me of art of war, but more likely to be aloala than nym. I did think it looked a bit like the ronkan mount's action, but magic circle with lines in is not really compelling either way.

What if the concept crystal they handed over to Hythlodaeus but "forgot" it at the Bureau was a prototype of some sort that was meant to allow someone or a group of people to reach Meteion? That it was meant to be a proof of concept that never to our knowledge was put into practice prior to the sundering. It could have also had a distances problem if it was meant for that in mind, but it could work to allow Azem to zip around the planet more quickly. Think instant transmission from Dragon Ball or how Eternity Bands in game work; just without the limitations they have. That then later on allowed for shard travel without the need to ditch your body. Because what is a reflection but a piece of the star stuck in a pocket dimension of a sort.