Quote Originally Posted by Vallavia View Post
Not to veer entirely off topic, but I still believe that the original Archons who founded Sharlayan were either a) the actual Twelve in human form or b) acting on direct behalf of the Twelve, either of which put them on the trail of eventually making contact with Hydaelyn and thus solidifying the Ancient association (there's also the very conspicuous shots of the assembled Forum in their identical robes and obscured faces being direct parallels of assembled Ancients, but that could just as easily be entirely within the context of Endwalker's story).
One of the original twelve archons was indeed used as a basis of imagery for Rhalgr, but the same guy also defected to join the Ascians. Though that was 1.0 lore and I'm not sure how much carried over.

Relm was a member of the archons during this time period as well and she seemed to otherwise be a normal person so I don't think they're the actual Twelve. The Twelve also said that they don't interfere with the world.