Antagonistic Adventurers

[Aonns]

Just a thought I had for a possible plot for the new arc.

We briefly touched on the subject when the heroes of the First came to the source and recruited Urianger, but I'm thinking a group more overtly antagonistic. Not from another reflection, but home grown here on the source.

Hear me out, its been hinted that the new bad guys are also Ascians. But we know for certain that we've returned all of the Unsundered Ascians to the lifestream. That leaves Sundered Ascians who we've grasped from previous interactions are a little unhinged. While the Unsundered went around implementing their grand plan to Rejoin the Shards, this group began cultivating a group of adventures to use for their own ends.

These adventurers come from a foreign country and are unheard of in Eorzea thus far. They are like us, blessed by the Echo. They see the portents of battles to come and utilize it in combat. They can dodge blows thought unmissable, they can grasp weaknesses thought hidden, they can strike as deadly and sure as any hero in the land. But they are unkind. They do not care for the betterment of others and seek only to better themselves and pursue whatever goal the Ascians have given them.

In cutscenes, they can dodge and parry our blows. They can actually fight us on even footing. They can actually beat us, unprepared as our allies are to battle a foe who mirrors the abilities of their own Warrior of Light.

Mechanically, we can have instances, trials, or raids where we fight this group over and over again as our respective Echos give us visions of battles that we win and battles that we lose, each vying to be the inevitable outcome.

I feel like this would be a fun way to put the spotlight back on our avatars and the powers they wield after the "vacation" where we took backseat to Wuk Lamat.

[Selsix]

I'm all for spitballing ideas man but it kinda just sounds like you want to write fanfiction.

[NegativeS]

Awwh, I thought this was gonna be making our WoL an antagonist. Lame.

In cutscenes, they can dodge and parry our blows. They can actually fight us on even footing. They can actually beat us, unprepared as our allies are to battle a foe who mirrors the abilities of their own Warrior of Light.

Gonna be real. Just giving them the Echo is not enough to put them on even footing with us. We've already been over this with Zenos, who not only had fake-Echo, high skill, and a number of OP Doman artifacts, but merged with Ilberd's super-primal and ate what was left of the Mothercrystal. Omega and Bahamut are probably the low end of what his power level probably was around the end of Endwalker, he probably ranked close to pre-Ultima Hydaelyn. And we soloed him, because all of that powerscaling was just him fulfilling his purpose as a foil and actual head-to-head challenge for the WoL.

Until they start collecting job stones like candy, go to another reflection to eat half of its aether, rejoin with another copy of themselves, travel back to the Unsundered Star and realize the truth of their own existence Magicant-style, I will not accept any villain that narratively holds a candle to our WoL. Like, literally half of the post-MSQ of Dawntrail was the big bad desperately trying to take measure of our strength, and was still way off the mark by the time he was confident enough to invite us into his lair to kill him.

The story has always been strongest when the stakes and the scaling are on our allies and the world around us. Not us.

[Gwenkatsu]

Mechanically, we can have instances, trials, or raids where we fight this group over and over again

Just no.
The thing I disliked the most about Shadowbringers was how I had to fight this sad kung fu clown with the bullshido moves from a bad 1980s martial arts movie over and over and over again. No more General Trash'Pit for me, thank you very much.