The computer ate my notes so hopefully I haven't forgotten anything particularly interesting that I wrote down the first time...
General MSQ
The name Kanilokka caught my attention for unintended reasons because it had previously been used, rather oddly, for a Mamool Ja at the Landsguard headquarters in Tuliyollal and I wasn't sure whether that was an error or trying to make a point of the city being multicultural.
I spent the dungeon wondering whether there was any significance (not that the timing would have added up) but having checked again now, he's been renamed more conventionally as Gavoll Ja so it was indeed an error. I wonder if they made the 7.1 character first and then realised their error, or if they found the error first and decided to reuse the name.
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The dungeon gear is very pretty (I scored the fending dress on my trust run) but so completely disconnected from the aesthetic of the dungeon. I guess it's something that got dumped there from Old Alexandria when the shards merged?
Also the NPC outfits explain why we got that scientist glamour outfit recently.
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There seem to be people still alive and not-zombified in the lab vats and nobody even commented on it.
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Weather in the final section of the dungeon is variable but often strangely clear - the weather type says "electrostatic dust" but still, actual sunlight seems to be getting through, and we must still be inside the dome or there wouldn't have been a point to building Vanguard if Zoraal Ja already had access to a facility that led outside it.
Is earth aether able to nullify the constant storm?
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I was expecting the Lupipyati to turn out to have a human mind embedded, but later I got the impression that Zoraal Ja might have been planning to take it over himself once the research was perfected, and it was being kept sealed away until that was ready. On second thought I'm not sure that's in character for him (we still learned basically nothing further about him) but perhaps it could be for a loyal follower.
I've since seen other people theorising that Teeshal Ja might have been embedded in it, but I don't think that seems right. It could be a conclusion they intended to imply, but it doesn't feel like things add up to that, when it happened after Zoraal Ja rejected her.
My overall impression is that something catastrophic happened to the facility on the day that she left baby Gulool Ja hidden, which resulted in the ruined state of the facility. (Specifically, Shale says "some manner of accident happened at the facility after this was recorded".) I suppose that could have been waking up the Lupipyati to force her mind into it, and soon after she went mad and rampaged, but then who would be left to seal the beast back up again? Kanilokka seems to be the only one left who is still competent, but it doesn't seem like a one-man job.
Also I have to wonder what the soul-transferral process would do in term of the whole Living Memory / regulator system. It seems that memories of Teeshal Ja have been erased, which implies that she died with regulator active, but would soul transferral register as death?
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We still haven't had any direct indication of Gulool Ja's age, but the closest is that "people lived [in Yuweyawata] until nearly a decade ago" which could be the date of the lab accident.
Previously I'd decided to assume he's nine years old based on Vivi's age in FFIX, which conveniently adds up, whether correct or not.
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Koana's history felt too dramatic - not just a tragic accident but his parents are specially heroic.
Also, while it's lovely he's found this "the hhetso are sacred" creed, I never got the impression that's actually the Hhetsarro mindset on this front? They follow the herds but they still use the rroneek for hides and meat, unless they're exclusively taking the ones that died of other causes.
(Kind of awkward that they give roast rroneek as one of the reward options for the quest if they don't actually eat them...)
MSQ conclusion implications
So, "Neo Sphene" says the plan is to rapture 5000 citizens into Living Memory 2.0, but is this actually her plan (or the plan of whoever is behind this) or is there just some reason to make the citizens think it's happening?
What's the plan? Who benefits? It has the reek of Ascian operations but that feels too simple an answer.
Meanwhile, if we assume the other girl in Living Memory is the "true Sphene" - Endless but freed from the system admin AI's conflicting goals - what has caused her to spawn here and now, not earlier? Has something been switched back on, or has she been driven out of some place where her data was in storage? (The crown, or something else?)
Random detail but from what we can see, she's not wearing her gloves when we see her hand, so has probably spawned, well, not in her queenly robes...
Also, the Duskwight attendant had better be an innocent victim in all this and not the one pulling the strings.
PS. I succeeded in overflowing the key items page. Nothing exciting happens, you just lose sight of the last couple of items in the list.