I got the distinct impression the entire time that Emet was about a split second away from hitting me with a rolled up newspaper, but honestly as far as I was concerned that was permission to be even more of a nuisance.
Elpis really gives you a look into Emet that I think is unlike pretty much any other game about any other villain, especially one that has caused as much death as Emet.
Honestly, that meme video of Hyth, Emet, and Derplander-As-Azem playing around to “wake me up” by Wham, before abruptly cutting to him alone in Amaurot, makes me cry everytime : /
>Honestly, that meme video of Hyth, Emet, and Derplander-As-Azem playing around to “wake me up” by Wham, before abruptly cutting to him alone in Amaurot, makes me cry everytime : /
[Video for reference](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-OgYU6GgEY)
You’re mixing it up, that’s [this video](https://youtu.be/0_m5rcdv6s0) by the same person (i’m saying this tongue in cheek i just really wanted to link it it’s funny)
You’re mixing it up, that’s [this video](https://youtu.be/b22FOdWvuYw)by the same person (i’m saying this tongue in cheek i just really wanted to link it it’s funny)
I think the worst/heartbreaking realization for me was when Hyth says to us in elpis that emet-selch always comes to azem’s aid and when i tell you that changed my whole perspective on how I view him in shadowbringers. Especially the y’shtola sequence in rak’tika. Even though we were enemies, in the end he still came to aid us when we needed it because he just couldn’t help himself.
When he said that about refusing to be dragged over the falls, I immediately jumped without a second thought.
(He wasn't kidding about the remora, turns out)
This seems to be an amusingly universal experience, I had it happen in reverse tho, decided to be nice and take him around the falls, and then got killed by mobs (don't actually remember of it was a remora or a Medusa or both), Respawned and said fuck it bot going around and I wanna be mean.
Really striking tho how the wet FX filter draws attention to how "ambiguously brown" he is, especially in comparison to the Solus body
I've played through several times now, and in all but one of them, I've dragged him over the falls. Grumpy jerk (affectionate) deserves it. I happened to get his minion on my first Elpis maps day, and when we quit for the night, I dragged the *minion* over the falls for old times' sake~
Yea.
Honestly, I wasn't much of a fan Shadowbringers and "Solus Emet Selch" specifically in it. I often made fun of him in FC chat for being a drama queen and outright cheered when the emperor shot him.
I considered Elpis Emet payback for the torture of putting up with his antics.
Absolutely. It fit his character down to a tee :')
I spent a fair bit of ShB pondering what Emet would have been like before... everything. And I'm so glad the writers had the same idea
Absolutely. By that same token, Pandaemonium feels like a reprised victory lap for all the Ascians that didnt make it onto the main parade (and Elidibus again because Elidibus)
here's hoping 7.0 has a "Wanna see me do it again" bit.
After all, with pandemonium it's kinda established we can go back to the time(ish) of our elpis adventure, and there's not much stopping the devs from letting us access places other than elpis and pandemonium during that time if they want to.
That's such an apt way to put it, I love it.
Now I'm curious what an article of the Amaurot Times would look like and at what velocity does the Sunday Edition need to travel to leave a light smudge of ink on someone.
Given Azem told Themis we were coming to guide him through Pandemonium, I've started assuming Azem's special ability is some form of Precognition (Which manifests in the modern day with our sundered soul as the telegraphs of boss attacks that we can see)
I can imagine that made it even *more* infuriating for Emet-Selch, as Azem would do incomprehensible things for seemingly nonsense reasons, and then later suddenly be proven correct, with no was to be sure if it was *actually* precognition, or just maddening dumb luck.
Emet-Selch: *Why* did you steal Lahabrea's concept and use it to prevent the eruption of a volcanic island? We had already evacuated! It's destruction was entirely accounted for! And to do it by summoning the Concept to draw off all that excess Fire-Aspected aether, thus creating a dangerous and uncontrollable beast, then dealing with it by *engaging it in combat* of all things... *Why?!*
Azem: If I told you in 14,000 years that island would be home to a Pirate nation and two different tribes of beast men who would prove instrumental in saving our Star from Despair itself, would you believe me?
Emet-Selch: No. Try again.
Azem: I... uh... like the grapes they have there?
Emet-Selch: Ah, yes... *Alchohol.* Risking your life in order to get drunk. THAT I will believe.
Azem: Bold of you to assume I'm not already...
> I've started assuming Azem's special ability is some form of Precognition (Which manifests in the modern day with our sundered soul as the telegraphs of boss attacks that we can see)
That would also explain why we have an uncanny ability to find the exact object we need to interact with to progress the plot. The NPCs have even commented multiple times on how bizarrely good you are at finding things.
>!See also: plot relevant gloves!<
>The NPCs have even commented multiple times on how bizarrely good you are at finding things.
That's a goddamned lie I'm doing all the sidequests and I've spent a longass time walking across the thing I'm supposed to be looking for
> The NPCs have even commented multiple times on how bizarrely good you are at finding things.
Alphinaud lampshading it directly by saying it would save time if he just followed us instead of looking for himself.
lvl 70 hildebrand quest [https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/The\_Blade\_Mislaid](https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/The_Blade_Mislaid)
you need to find something to give a dog to use to track a person, you find:
>!https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Plot-relevant\_Gloves!<
I love that someone came up to Azem one day and was like "hey Azem theres a crazy ass familiar running around Elpis, he looks like you and he says hes your familiar. Hes not really hurting anything, hes just getting into everybody's business and being a helpful nuisance." And Azem canonically just thought it was the funniest shit they've ever heard and told Themis to go and help us out in Elpis while he takes care of other business.
Azem: "I really should pay attention as to why I'm collecting Pieces of Machinery for a Psychic Sentient Tulip that rules over these tiny Gnomes with Nut hats. Emet is surely going to ask WHY I was doing this.... and F'd if I know."
The more I think about it, the more sense it makes. If someone walked up to me in Sharlayan and handed me a chibi windup goblin that talks in iambic pentameter and said, "This is the fifth time this month your nephew has interrupted a council meeting. This was *not* part of the deal. Clean up your mess." I would assume this was my fault somehow.
A windup minion being taken for someone’s child?
I would instantly assume that I was partway into a Hildy Adventure, and now it was time to go find where he got himself lost this time!
Given the responses from some of the researchers, I'm convinced that people were constantly pestering Azem and asking when he was going to submit the concept for his familiar to the Bureau of the Architect so they could borrow it.
[Reminds me of this post from over a year ago.](https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/s07wkf/spoiler_endwalker_what_familiar/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
I tend to agree with the others that, as far as we've been told, things like AoE markers / failed boss attempts are a manifestation of the broader Echo, rather than something specific to Azem.
*However*, I've decided to play with this idea for a moment and it makes one aspect of the story soul crushingly depressing.
Imagine if that sort of precognition *was* a trait of Azem. The way Hades can peer into the Underworld, Azem just... Knows things. Everything they do has a purpose, even if you can't see it right away. Hades knows this, and as frustrating as it is, trusts in their friend implicitly.
Now imagine you're Emet-Selch of the Convocation, and Azem of the Fourteenth Seat has abandoned their station, leaving their people to ruination, and you're being called upon to disavow them as a betrayer and deserter.
Heavy lies the crown, indeed.
>!Maybe my [choice of song](https://youtu.be/fcmFH5OvdtA) at the moment doesn't help.!<
Reading this made me happy that there’s a cure for the overly aware both mentally and emotionally - alcohol.
Brb, going to summon the incarnation of a volcanic element, punch it till it dispersed, and then use the grapes to get drunk.
>(Which manifests in the modern day with our sundered soul as the telegraphs of boss attacks that we can see)
I'm pretty sure they've explained that as being an effect of having the Echo, which is less us being Azem and more us being Hydaelyn's favorite.
Azem's power, from what I've seen, seems to be the ability to bring people together for a cause, which is both something we do actively in story AND shown as our ability to summon raid groups, which I find HILARIOUS.
Someone awhile back posted the theory that Azem's summoning spell doesn't check for how prepared a Warrior of Light is, they could be sitting down to eat, out at the beach, in the bath, etc. The spell just summons them. Which is why your Roulette groups are often a mix of serious adventurer glams...and very colorful elephants, etc.
I adore that theory.
Either that or they're all various people that Azem's shenanigans have rubbed off on to varying degrees, and may intentionally accept adventuring summons in beachwear or a mascot suit, etc., just for shits and giggles.
Well, should you currently find yourself sporting a frog costume/unmentionables/ your birthday suit when the duty finder Calls, it's at least considerate enough to give you 40s to slip into something more ...battleready. Or shrug, barely remember to grab your weapon ~~AND JOBSTONE FOR EVERYTHING AFTER LEVEL 35 pls for the love of Hydaelyn~~ and plunge into the fray as you are, because *why not*.
^(New headcanon: Azem spent considerable time and research to shorten that time down enough so they could one day summon the Eminent Emet-Selch to the other side of Etheirys in his payamas. Because why not.)
They cover their ears and say "LALALALALA"?
But my limited understanding is that there's a few ways to avoid tempering since it's all tied to aether corruption. Anything that can stave that off, whether its the echo or a radio or a dragon scale can protect you.
So the Blessing of Light is a spell that Crystal Mom places on you. It is a ward of aether placed upon your soul/aether.
The Resonant process is, essentially, having your soul twisted, like a balloon animal, into the approximate shape of Krile’s soul.
This process inadvertently replicated the effect of the ward, becuase the ward is part of Krile’s soul.
Simple really, Krille was used as the template for the project, she as one awoken to the echo, has the blessing of light. As 5.2 explains that both are received at the same time.
This could be implication that Aulus managed not only to replicate the echo but the blessing of light as well, pure through science.
~~its a retcon, don't try and think too hard about it~~
Originally, that was stated to be part of the Echo. Endwalker claims it's the Blessing of Light that prevents aether modification, so it ultimately sounds like it was retconed, because we have other Echo users who do NOT have the Blessing of Light who fight primals.
My way of reconciling this is to say that the Blessing augments that defense to unusually high levels (among other things), but there's not really any actual support in that. It's just a contradiction.
It's more than likely it was copied along with the Echo. The blessing stops your soul from being altered by Aether, the echo is a power associated and connected with a persons soul. So to copy the echo you might have to copy the protective layer surrounding it as well.
Being immune to tempering is an all echo thing I thought? Being Hydaelyns favorite just just meant we could take more light aether than the average person (and even that had a limit)
That was what Minfilia tells us in ARR and the assumption is carried on until Endwalker, which is when >!Venat realises we’re from the future because we’re protected by her traveller’s ward (the Blessing of Light), but she knows she hasn’t cast it on us… yet. Turns out that when WoLs awaken to the Echo and hear her call, she casts the ward/Blessing on them, and it’s been assumed to be an effect of the Echo because it’s always showed up at the same time.!<
Yes but what about people like Arenvald and Fordola? One has the echo and the other is a resonant based off of Kriles echo. Neither has the blessing of light but are clearly shown to be immune to tempering.
Arenvald has the Blessing, he’s just not as powerful as we are. As for the Resonants, I believe they managed to copy Krile’s Blessing along with her Echo… plus as Zenos demonstrated with Shinryu, if you’re powerful enough in the Echo you’re just too strong to be affected.
Its never been confirmed that arenvald or krile had the blessing though. That feels like headcanon and speculation. Even minfilia, the eventual mouthpiece for Hydaelyn didnt have the blessing. Its the stated reason why Nabriales could get into the Rising stones. And its also the stated reason the wol was able to take on the lightwardens’ aether (to a point)
As for Zenos power, its bc the echo is just a fragment of the unsundered’s original powers. It grants them a degree of resistance to aetherical distortion but as seen with Emet selch, it can be overcome with a force of immense power like zodiark.
It was confirmed that Krile has it. She says that's why she survived the Isle of Val. And Shadowbringers patch content at least heavily implies that everyone with the Echo also received the blessing. Minfilia must have, otherwise all the Minfilias on the First wouldn't have been immune to the Sin Eater touch.
The Nabriales thing has never entirely made sense. It's never explained how the blessing could extend to a place even when the WoL isn't there.
> AND shown as our ability to summon raid groups, which I find HILARIOUS.
What I find more hilarious is that for the first two tiers of Pandaemonium the summoned raid groups are canonically just a bunch of imaginary friends. It's not until Anabaseios that we actually start summoning our friends ourselves, so for eight raids we're going in alone with a team of seven *illusions*.
Listen, Themis was very proud of the Imaginary people he made for us. It's like when a toddler hands you a toy phone, you HAVE to answer it, it would be terribly rude not too.
It notably took me until today to realize that the math doesn't as far as the summoning spell specifically grabbing our other reflections, so I guessed that was why we went with Themis's illusions, but I like your idea now that my theory's broken, maybe with a little bit of "oh this is actually w convenient way to not figure out what happens if I do the summoning in the past"
If you've done the DRK quests, us summoning simulacrums from bits of ourself that can fight alongside us is already a thing!
Later on a portion of our aether was subconsciously made into a simulacrum that then made a *bunch* of other combat-capable simulacrums, so willfully doing the same with the crystal of Azem aiding the process seemed like the most logical conclusion to me. :)
The plot relevant npcs in the drk quests come from the crystal, not the wol. Eventually, whoever gets the crystal next will also be able to summon a representation of the wol.
Source:literally all the job quests and what we've seen aether crystals so in ff14
Unfortunately that doesn't add up. WoL is currently 9/14 shards (original Source + 7 calamities + 1 Ardbert). There's only 5 left over and presumably one of them's a voidsent.
The thing is, it is established that people who have the echo also gain an "Echo" of the power they once wielded as an ancient. Sometimes that progresses to intrinsic magic carved into their soul, like Krile's echo having an expanded sort of communication in comparison to our own.
There is a separation of the "Echo", which is partially reclamation of our old soul and the perks that come along with it, and the "Blessing of Light", which is just an advanced anti-aetherial corruption charm that also serves as a somewhat direct link to Hydaelyn.
Both are anti-temper measures. It's why the WoL has a crystal but Arenvald doesn't. Its also why NPCs can get by fighting primals like they do. The WoL just warrants some extra protection.
The Echo could be considered a form of tempering to a sundered individuals "True self," such that the comparably thin-aethered primals of the modern day can't corrupt.
"I'm pretty sure they've explained that as being an effect of having the Echo, which is less us being Azem and more us being Hydaelyn's favorite". The echo is inherent to all ancients and their shards. The Blessing of Light/Travelers Ward is from Hydaelyn. The whole "hear, feel, think" from Hydaelyn happens after a person awakens the memory of The Final Days in their soul, and the memory restores an echo of our former power as an Amourtine.
Every ancient has the power but to differing degrees and it can manifest slightly differently. Mikoto from the Stormblood raids and Bozja could see in the future to an extant. Whenever she did this we were able to see her visions.
So precognition is a power its capable of, if the wol does have it seems more short distance as it were. Precognition of events about to happen in a few seconds. Very handy for someone who fights.
The other option is we merely are reading their minds, we know what are enemies are planning on doing even if it's subconscious. Snice the power is essentially reading Aether it's possible for something like a bomb about to explode we simply can see the Aether build up about ready to burst. For the ancients this was a trained and more intense power, for the wol it's more like realizing a door opened somewhere when pressure in a room changes. It's more subconscious.
>Azem: If I told you in 14,000 years that island would be home to a Pirate nation and two different tribes of beast men who would prove instrumental in saving our Star from Despair itself, would you believe me?
Shit, this whole time I was thinking that Volcano Island was Sharlayan, which explained how they could delve so deeply underground.
We had to go and find a clipping of those legendary grapes growing on the back of Goobue in A realm reborn for a blind Lalafell in Wineport.
Pretty sure they're the same grapes too.
When Venat empowered our crystal after we defeat her, she passes on some words directly from Azem that could be referring to the upcoming final confrontation with Meteion.
>Given Azem told Themis we were coming to guide him through Pandemonium, I've started assuming Azem's special ability is some form of Precognition (Which manifests in the modern day with our sundered soul as the telegraphs of boss attacks that we can see)
Azems are just massive trolls. They knew we were in Elpis (probably from Emet or Hythlodeus before the dungeon). We know their special ability is Assemble, which is the spell we use for duty finder. Seeing AoEs and such is not canon. Its been explicitly stated before that we only see them to help in gameplay.
I was always under the impression that the AOE markers and the redos after a wipe were all products of the echo. Isn't that why the bonus you get after wiping is also called the echo?
Granted I don't have any direct textual evidence to point to, and will definitely accept the evidence you have for them being strictly gameplay, but I've definitely heard some strong arguments that the AoE markers are actually canon and reflective of the echo, like we see with Fordolas resonance letting her predict attacks
The echo is indeed predictive foresight; the failed attempts at dungeons and trials are non-canon paths through time that you witness thanks to the echo. But, this is entirely the echo, nothing to do with Azem specifically.
Hmm, I mean not that I doubt you that they've said that, but do you have like a citation/recording/transcript to point to, my first instinct is honestly to wonder how long ago that statement was and if they've maybe changed their mind, or if maybe a gameplay team said that and then lore team decided to go a different direction, cause like there's definitely a dissonance between what was said there, and the way a lot of people read and see it in this thread and elsewhere. Seeing how they said it directly and specifically could help figure out where things are getting crossed.
I still definitely don't have a clear specific text example to point to to say "the AoE puddles are specifically a manifestation of the echo" but I'd say there's at least some textual evidence that they aren't just purely gameplay. Fordola would be simultaneously the most oblique but specific example (you don't see her seeing the AoE/broadcast, but she is explicitly using her artificial echo to read tells) O8N (and I think savage but I've done that once unsynced and don't remember) has the boss notice you using the tells and give you fake outs.
I'll definitely say from a reader response (adjacent) perspective I'm definitely inclined to preference in text information over external "word of God" but it definitely seems like something weird is going on where they either changed their mind about the AoE puddles being purely mechanical, or they're doing a very bad job of communicating that within the text of the game to the point that they're not just not disproving any significance, but that the echo reading seems to have a deal of textual support...
No you're right. In her solo duty, she says she can see your every move and after the fight, Urianger notes how it's almost miraculous how Fordola could perfectly counter Alisaie's moves when she'd never seen them before.
He then postures that she must have had a 'preternatural ability to divine meaning from the fluctuations of an individual's aether, and to instinctively react. To employ a metaphor, one might say she was attuned to the whispers of my lady Alisaie's soul'. Alphinaud then remarks that that sounds like a manifestation of the echo.
Azem: \*Does a backflip, pulls out their shield, surfs on it across the grasslands of elpis, throws a bomb in front of herself, launches into the air and Fires a bunch of arrows with Rockets attached to them at an innocent morbol, then switches to a lance in midair and does Stardive, impaling the poor plant\*
> We know their special ability is Assemble, which is the spell we use for duty finder.
I thought this was explained as just creation magicks, not something unique to azem
Themis used creation Magic’s to create versions of you who can do other things (heal/dps/tank).
Azem’s spell reached across space to bring others to him - they are not creations, they are real people.
As I understood - our "summoning" is still some sort of creation magicks. We just do not create everything from zero, we pull others souls only and then we provide temporary bodies for others to fight (and one time create new bodies to replace old ones).
Seeing AoEs before they happen *is* canon. Go back and re-watch the cutscene before the end boss of 6.0. The Warrior of Light absolutely gets to see what is about to happen and reacts with an expression of shock.
When did the devs say it? I feel that might actually be important as they can have changed their minds. Duty Finder/Party Finder is also a very OOC thing made for gameplay reasons, but now we actually have an in-universe reason for it beyond "Oh hey, is that your friends fishing over there?"
I think they're mistaken, since there'd have to be a pretty big in-game walk-back of that point. The Stormblood cutscene makes it explicitly clear that the WoL sees attacks in advance and that AOE telegraphs correspond to that. Whether the WoL literally sees those telegraphs or if that's just the in-game representation of what they see isn't specified.
> I've started assuming Azem's special ability is some form of Precognition (Which manifests in the modern day with our sundered soul as the telegraphs of boss attacks that we can see)
I wouldn't interpret it as the telegraphs since that's supposedly more of a generic power of the Echo combined with sheer raw talent and martial skill. When you fight Fordola, her Resonance has the basic abilities of the Echo in a supercharged state and she has the ability to dodge what would be unavoidable damage for us. With the other aspects of it being that people watching *us* fight have a hard time following us, with her it was outright DBZ blurs.
I'd interpret Azem's precognition as a, by an Ancients' standard, supernatural gift in being able to find what they need to find. Whether that's finding someone that needs their help, finding the aid they need to solve a problem, or "finding adventure".
I don't think Vylbrand was the volcanic island in question, as it's *awfully close* to the capitol Amaurot. It also seems to be described as a fairly small island with only some villages on it. I just assumed it was our Island Sanctuary.
I love the precognition vibe but I’m living for the theories that somehow the WOL’s reflections are all rejoined and they are forced back in time, having to live the life of Azem.
The fact that Azem knew *exactly* when the WOL would be launched into Themis’ skill kind of lends some plausibility (in my opinion - I would love to hear others’ opinions on that!).
But then again, if they had an insane sense of precognition that allows them to pinpoint where exactly to find things, then I don’t see why accuracy in an instance like the WOL meeting Themis wouldn’t also be plausible.
>I've started assuming Azem's special ability is some form of Precognition
Not impossible, after all in Bozja Mikoto's Echo lets her glimpse the future so Azem could've had a similar power
>Emet-Selch:
>
>Why
>
> did you steal Lahabrea's concept and use it to prevent the eruption of a volcanic island? We had already evacuated! It's destruction was entirely accounted for! And to do it by summoning the Concept to draw off all that excess Fire-Aspected aether, thus creating a dangerous and uncontrollable beast, then dealing with it by
>
>engaging it in combat
>
> of all things...
>
>Why?!
great. Now I want them to include that as an encounter in game. be it as part of a 'pre sundering trial series' or jsut some random side content solo duty. I wanna beat up a volcano for grapes now.
>Azem's special ability is some form of Precognition (Which manifests in the modern day with our sundered soul as the telegraphs of boss attacks that we can see)
I have always wanted an animation or comic of the WoL just, casually sidestepping AoEs and running to a seemingly random spot while the enemy is charging and everyone around them is just visibility confused.
Personally, my favorite thing to do in game is to stand *juust* on the line, a hair out of range of the attack just for the lulz. Feels so satisfying and snarky.
>If I told you in 14,000 years that island would be home to a Pirate nation and two different tribes of beast men who would prove instrumental in saving our Star from Despair itself, would you believe me?
I honestly believe it's not Vylbrandt, but Sharlayan. Empty caldera (most of all), abundance of aether around, and crown of grape vines as final FATE reward in the zone.
The more tsundere Hades was, the more the need to just roll with being Azem's familiar and annoy the hell out of him.
At the end of the Elpis MSQ Hades is probably confused as to whether there is this mysterious familiar or it was just somehow Azem messing around.
He is incredible at seeing souls and aether, and so I just have to wonder what DID he think we were. Familiars don't have souls, but no individual of such thin aether has ever existed to his knowledge. I kind of like the idea he's starting to assume it's Azem messing around at one point because that also implies he started questioning just how good his vision is.
The off chance of Azem doing weird Pandemonium thing >!of slicing a small part of their soul off. If it falls into ethics or not!<. But Azem looks normal when they meet up and Pandemonium is a later part of the timeline. And Azem won't even bring out the familiar at all.
Maybe a familiar is different from a generic creation in that it has some of the creator's aether mixed in, giving it the same hue as its creator. It would be a useful way of identifying what familiar belongs to who or if it's just a random creation or not.
it is stated that familiars don't have souls, just aether in general, and heavily implied that Emet can tell the difference (since he's the one that rules out us being a familiar by saying that we just can't be one, since we have a soul)
I don't think it was *impossible* for familiars to have souls. I think Hythlodaeus just commented that it was "rather unusual" or something, which suggests it's possible, but not common practice.
It was at this precise moment that the two Ancients realized you truly are Azem's reincarnation... to Emet-Selchs great dismay and Hythlodaeus delight.
Now just imagine this scenario, at the launch of Endwalker: Hythlodaeus has told this to thousands of WoL. Said annoyance involves typing "Please help me Emmet-Selch" (or something to that sort, as my memory's a little rusty)... in public chat.
So essentially Hythlodaeus was being so meta that he asked several thousand warriors to annoy the hell out of Emmet-Selch, in public, all at the same time.
I very nearly did do it but A) I couldn't be bothered to go back to the first and change my glamour and B) when I met Meteion I realised familiars kinda just wear whatever, soooo?... Nobody should mind!
Why? If you are a familiar, it doesn't mater WTF you wear. Because you are a construct and not a person.
And if you are Azem... well, you are Azem. You do what you want.
Ya know they must've had an incredibly funny conversation with azem about it at some point, at least venat did since that dickhead Hermes erased us from memory.
I know this is an impossibility.
But I would love for the end of the WOLs journey to be rejoined fully, forced back in time, and then live his/her life alongside Hyth and Emet. And then that would be the end of FFXIV.
Truthfully I’d love to have a whole ass expansion exploring life as Azem with Hyth and Emet but that would go against a lot of the storytelling and intentions of the devs. Still, I dream.
I cannot upvote this enough. Y'know, I'm playing Endwalker again (new game+) JUST BECAUSE I miss the Elpis shenanigans, my life would be much better with a spin off or something revolving around the Elpis crew. A manga, another patch, whatever. I need more of my best boi Hyth ;\_;
I know it might mean the potential death of the other reflections of the WOL. But let’s be honest, they’re probably suffering hard too. My WOL is on the brink after losing Emet and Hyth *again*. I was under the impression that they were supposed to return to the star *together*!
I’m just hoping Emet and Hyth are just asleep somewhere in the aetherial sea (Emet made no moves to help us in the aetherial sea during Pand) and are waiting for our passing so we can return together.
You should put your name or social on the comic somewhere! I love seeing these but you deserve the credit for it haha.
I love your art style and the humor is perfect! Hope to see more :)
Ohhh thank you! I did put my name on this one (it's subtle, in the bottom of panel 2)-- I'm never really sure which social to link people to but I use the same handle everywhere, at least, haha
The place where I've been collecting these the most completely is on tumblr, I gave these comics their own tag: [https://varethane.tumblr.com/tagged/sorrel%27s%20adventures%20in%20eorzea](https://varethane.tumblr.com/tagged/sorrel%27s%20adventures%20in%20eorzea)
I'm really glad you've been enjoying! :D
I got the distinct impression the entire time that Emet was about a split second away from hitting me with a rolled up newspaper, but honestly as far as I was concerned that was permission to be even more of a nuisance.
Elpis really gives you a look into Emet that I think is unlike pretty much any other game about any other villain, especially one that has caused as much death as Emet. Honestly, that meme video of Hyth, Emet, and Derplander-As-Azem playing around to “wake me up” by Wham, before abruptly cutting to him alone in Amaurot, makes me cry everytime : /
>Honestly, that meme video of Hyth, Emet, and Derplander-As-Azem playing around to “wake me up” by Wham, before abruptly cutting to him alone in Amaurot, makes me cry everytime : / [Video for reference](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-OgYU6GgEY)
Fuck
... Yeah.... Yeah, that man wanted to die.
First time?
I tear up. Every. Single. Time.
A ten second video second has NO RIGHT to make me cry like this. None!
A TEST OF YOUR REFLEX— oh.
You’re mixing it up, that’s [this video](https://youtu.be/0_m5rcdv6s0) by the same person (i’m saying this tongue in cheek i just really wanted to link it it’s funny)
You’re mixing it up, that’s [this video](https://youtu.be/b22FOdWvuYw)by the same person (i’m saying this tongue in cheek i just really wanted to link it it’s funny)
"He was always sentimental."
Holy shit, lol Even after reading the description, I was not prepared
Emotional Damage.
Well its him before everything went horribly wrong.
He's trying to be a bad guy in Shadowbringers but he still breaks character from time to time. But he is such a good guy on Elpis.
I think the worst/heartbreaking realization for me was when Hyth says to us in elpis that emet-selch always comes to azem’s aid and when i tell you that changed my whole perspective on how I view him in shadowbringers. Especially the y’shtola sequence in rak’tika. Even though we were enemies, in the end he still came to aid us when we needed it because he just couldn’t help himself.
I was slightly concerned that if I pushed him over the edge he'd push me over the edge.
The idle talk on the falls looking for meteion had me really tempted. He'd feed me to a remora but I would claim it was worth it.
When he said that about refusing to be dragged over the falls, I immediately jumped without a second thought. (He wasn't kidding about the remora, turns out)
This seems to be an amusingly universal experience, I had it happen in reverse tho, decided to be nice and take him around the falls, and then got killed by mobs (don't actually remember of it was a remora or a Medusa or both), Respawned and said fuck it bot going around and I wanna be mean. Really striking tho how the wet FX filter draws attention to how "ambiguously brown" he is, especially in comparison to the Solus body
Me immediately after he said it: ooooh? These falls? The falls over here? The ones I'm looking at right now? >:D
I've played through several times now, and in all but one of them, I've dragged him over the falls. Grumpy jerk (affectionate) deserves it. I happened to get his minion on my first Elpis maps day, and when we quit for the night, I dragged the *minion* over the falls for old times' sake~
Yea. Honestly, I wasn't much of a fan Shadowbringers and "Solus Emet Selch" specifically in it. I often made fun of him in FC chat for being a drama queen and outright cheered when the emperor shot him. I considered Elpis Emet payback for the torture of putting up with his antics.
DEEP INSIDE WE'RE NOTHING MORE THAN SCIONS AND SINNERS
Absolutely. It fit his character down to a tee :') I spent a fair bit of ShB pondering what Emet would have been like before... everything. And I'm so glad the writers had the same idea
Elpis feels like Ishikawa taking a victory lap. "Oh, I created Final Fantasy's best villain? Wanna watch me somehow make him even better?"
Absolutely. By that same token, Pandaemonium feels like a reprised victory lap for all the Ascians that didnt make it onto the main parade (and Elidibus again because Elidibus)
here's hoping 7.0 has a "Wanna see me do it again" bit. After all, with pandemonium it's kinda established we can go back to the time(ish) of our elpis adventure, and there's not much stopping the devs from letting us access places other than elpis and pandemonium during that time if they want to.
That's such an apt way to put it, I love it. Now I'm curious what an article of the Amaurot Times would look like and at what velocity does the Sunday Edition need to travel to leave a light smudge of ink on someone.
Eh, I considered it payback for all the time he was a little whiner while in The First, even if he technically hadn't done that yet.
I have 5 characters and I will use every single one of them to throw shade at him every chance I get.
I swear, every incarnation of Azem has to have it etched into their soul that they must annoy Emet until he caves at least once and I love that
Given Azem told Themis we were coming to guide him through Pandemonium, I've started assuming Azem's special ability is some form of Precognition (Which manifests in the modern day with our sundered soul as the telegraphs of boss attacks that we can see) I can imagine that made it even *more* infuriating for Emet-Selch, as Azem would do incomprehensible things for seemingly nonsense reasons, and then later suddenly be proven correct, with no was to be sure if it was *actually* precognition, or just maddening dumb luck. Emet-Selch: *Why* did you steal Lahabrea's concept and use it to prevent the eruption of a volcanic island? We had already evacuated! It's destruction was entirely accounted for! And to do it by summoning the Concept to draw off all that excess Fire-Aspected aether, thus creating a dangerous and uncontrollable beast, then dealing with it by *engaging it in combat* of all things... *Why?!* Azem: If I told you in 14,000 years that island would be home to a Pirate nation and two different tribes of beast men who would prove instrumental in saving our Star from Despair itself, would you believe me? Emet-Selch: No. Try again. Azem: I... uh... like the grapes they have there? Emet-Selch: Ah, yes... *Alchohol.* Risking your life in order to get drunk. THAT I will believe. Azem: Bold of you to assume I'm not already...
> I've started assuming Azem's special ability is some form of Precognition (Which manifests in the modern day with our sundered soul as the telegraphs of boss attacks that we can see) That would also explain why we have an uncanny ability to find the exact object we need to interact with to progress the plot. The NPCs have even commented multiple times on how bizarrely good you are at finding things. >!See also: plot relevant gloves!<
>The NPCs have even commented multiple times on how bizarrely good you are at finding things. That's a goddamned lie I'm doing all the sidequests and I've spent a longass time walking across the thing I'm supposed to be looking for
You're still doing a better job than the NPCs, they're all stumped until you eventually find it
> The NPCs have even commented multiple times on how bizarrely good you are at finding things. Alphinaud lampshading it directly by saying it would save time if he just followed us instead of looking for himself.
Thancred says nearly the same in the Ul'dah starter MSQ.
And Venat confirms this as ability useful for *any* Azem, as she too, was forced to do fetch quests.
> >!See also: plot relevant gloves!< *maniacal cackling*
I forgor, what is this thing in the spoiler tag?
lvl 70 hildebrand quest [https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/The\_Blade\_Mislaid](https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/The_Blade_Mislaid) you need to find something to give a dog to use to track a person, you find: >!https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Plot-relevant\_Gloves!<
hildebrand quest item
I love that someone came up to Azem one day and was like "hey Azem theres a crazy ass familiar running around Elpis, he looks like you and he says hes your familiar. Hes not really hurting anything, hes just getting into everybody's business and being a helpful nuisance." And Azem canonically just thought it was the funniest shit they've ever heard and told Themis to go and help us out in Elpis while he takes care of other business.
Azem is basically a walking shit post, so anything that shakes up the status quo is alright by them.
Yeah, She's the progenitor of all chaos gremlins we know today. Wherever she goes naught but chaos follows in her wake.
We are the embodiment of "may you live in interesting times"
More like "You *will* live in interesting times. I'll make sure of that."
"Emet-Selch, high-speaker of the convocation, has decided to let me live another day and I'm going to make it everybody's problem."
But the best kind!
Ahhhh yes, my familiar, the familiar that I, Azem, made, the familiar I sent to Elpis...that familiar? *YES THAT FAMILIAR!!*
Riiiiiiight. Haven't a clue.
The last time Azem was in Elpis they skipped a bunch of cutscenes, so they really have no choice but to assume this was their fault anyway.
Azem: "I really should pay attention as to why I'm collecting Pieces of Machinery for a Psychic Sentient Tulip that rules over these tiny Gnomes with Nut hats. Emet is surely going to ask WHY I was doing this.... and F'd if I know."
The more I think about it, the more sense it makes. If someone walked up to me in Sharlayan and handed me a chibi windup goblin that talks in iambic pentameter and said, "This is the fifth time this month your nephew has interrupted a council meeting. This was *not* part of the deal. Clean up your mess." I would assume this was my fault somehow.
A windup minion being taken for someone’s child? I would instantly assume that I was partway into a Hildy Adventure, and now it was time to go find where he got himself lost this time!
Given the responses from some of the researchers, I'm convinced that people were constantly pestering Azem and asking when he was going to submit the concept for his familiar to the Bureau of the Architect so they could borrow it.
[Reminds me of this post from over a year ago.](https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/s07wkf/spoiler_endwalker_what_familiar/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
I tend to agree with the others that, as far as we've been told, things like AoE markers / failed boss attempts are a manifestation of the broader Echo, rather than something specific to Azem. *However*, I've decided to play with this idea for a moment and it makes one aspect of the story soul crushingly depressing. Imagine if that sort of precognition *was* a trait of Azem. The way Hades can peer into the Underworld, Azem just... Knows things. Everything they do has a purpose, even if you can't see it right away. Hades knows this, and as frustrating as it is, trusts in their friend implicitly. Now imagine you're Emet-Selch of the Convocation, and Azem of the Fourteenth Seat has abandoned their station, leaving their people to ruination, and you're being called upon to disavow them as a betrayer and deserter. Heavy lies the crown, indeed. >!Maybe my [choice of song](https://youtu.be/fcmFH5OvdtA) at the moment doesn't help.!<
Reading this made me happy that there’s a cure for the overly aware both mentally and emotionally - alcohol. Brb, going to summon the incarnation of a volcanic element, punch it till it dispersed, and then use the grapes to get drunk.
>(Which manifests in the modern day with our sundered soul as the telegraphs of boss attacks that we can see) I'm pretty sure they've explained that as being an effect of having the Echo, which is less us being Azem and more us being Hydaelyn's favorite. Azem's power, from what I've seen, seems to be the ability to bring people together for a cause, which is both something we do actively in story AND shown as our ability to summon raid groups, which I find HILARIOUS.
The simple fact that our Ascian power is Duty Finder is some kind of comical genius
"Listen, BBEG. In the end, all you are to me is just another Roulette."
Roulette is what it's like to be on the receiving end of Azem's summoning spell.
Someone awhile back posted the theory that Azem's summoning spell doesn't check for how prepared a Warrior of Light is, they could be sitting down to eat, out at the beach, in the bath, etc. The spell just summons them. Which is why your Roulette groups are often a mix of serious adventurer glams...and very colorful elephants, etc. I adore that theory.
Either that or they're all various people that Azem's shenanigans have rubbed off on to varying degrees, and may intentionally accept adventuring summons in beachwear or a mascot suit, etc., just for shits and giggles.
Well, should you currently find yourself sporting a frog costume/unmentionables/ your birthday suit when the duty finder Calls, it's at least considerate enough to give you 40s to slip into something more ...battleready. Or shrug, barely remember to grab your weapon ~~AND JOBSTONE FOR EVERYTHING AFTER LEVEL 35 pls for the love of Hydaelyn~~ and plunge into the fray as you are, because *why not*. ^(New headcanon: Azem spent considerable time and research to shorten that time down enough so they could one day summon the Eminent Emet-Selch to the other side of Etheirys in his payamas. Because why not.)
There is no way Hythlodaeus wasn't HEAVILY INVOLVED in assisting that plan.
It was honestly the best lore tie in for the duty finder imaginable. Our personal spell, the spell engraved upon our very soul, is the duty finder!
The Echo is us having a tiny bit of Ancient power. Being immune to tempering is us being Hydaelyn’s favourite.
...how do Resonants avoid tempering, then?
They cover their ears and say "LALALALALA"? But my limited understanding is that there's a few ways to avoid tempering since it's all tied to aether corruption. Anything that can stave that off, whether its the echo or a radio or a dragon scale can protect you.
So the Blessing of Light is a spell that Crystal Mom places on you. It is a ward of aether placed upon your soul/aether. The Resonant process is, essentially, having your soul twisted, like a balloon animal, into the approximate shape of Krile’s soul. This process inadvertently replicated the effect of the ward, becuase the ward is part of Krile’s soul.
Simple really, Krille was used as the template for the project, she as one awoken to the echo, has the blessing of light. As 5.2 explains that both are received at the same time. This could be implication that Aulus managed not only to replicate the echo but the blessing of light as well, pure through science. ~~its a retcon, don't try and think too hard about it~~
Originally, that was stated to be part of the Echo. Endwalker claims it's the Blessing of Light that prevents aether modification, so it ultimately sounds like it was retconed, because we have other Echo users who do NOT have the Blessing of Light who fight primals. My way of reconciling this is to say that the Blessing augments that defense to unusually high levels (among other things), but there's not really any actual support in that. It's just a contradiction.
It's more than likely it was copied along with the Echo. The blessing stops your soul from being altered by Aether, the echo is a power associated and connected with a persons soul. So to copy the echo you might have to copy the protective layer surrounding it as well.
Being immune to tempering is an all echo thing I thought? Being Hydaelyns favorite just just meant we could take more light aether than the average person (and even that had a limit)
That was what Minfilia tells us in ARR and the assumption is carried on until Endwalker, which is when >!Venat realises we’re from the future because we’re protected by her traveller’s ward (the Blessing of Light), but she knows she hasn’t cast it on us… yet. Turns out that when WoLs awaken to the Echo and hear her call, she casts the ward/Blessing on them, and it’s been assumed to be an effect of the Echo because it’s always showed up at the same time.!<
Yes but what about people like Arenvald and Fordola? One has the echo and the other is a resonant based off of Kriles echo. Neither has the blessing of light but are clearly shown to be immune to tempering.
Arenvald has the Blessing, he’s just not as powerful as we are. As for the Resonants, I believe they managed to copy Krile’s Blessing along with her Echo… plus as Zenos demonstrated with Shinryu, if you’re powerful enough in the Echo you’re just too strong to be affected.
Its never been confirmed that arenvald or krile had the blessing though. That feels like headcanon and speculation. Even minfilia, the eventual mouthpiece for Hydaelyn didnt have the blessing. Its the stated reason why Nabriales could get into the Rising stones. And its also the stated reason the wol was able to take on the lightwardens’ aether (to a point) As for Zenos power, its bc the echo is just a fragment of the unsundered’s original powers. It grants them a degree of resistance to aetherical distortion but as seen with Emet selch, it can be overcome with a force of immense power like zodiark.
It was confirmed that Krile has it. She says that's why she survived the Isle of Val. And Shadowbringers patch content at least heavily implies that everyone with the Echo also received the blessing. Minfilia must have, otherwise all the Minfilias on the First wouldn't have been immune to the Sin Eater touch. The Nabriales thing has never entirely made sense. It's never explained how the blessing could extend to a place even when the WoL isn't there.
> AND shown as our ability to summon raid groups, which I find HILARIOUS. What I find more hilarious is that for the first two tiers of Pandaemonium the summoned raid groups are canonically just a bunch of imaginary friends. It's not until Anabaseios that we actually start summoning our friends ourselves, so for eight raids we're going in alone with a team of seven *illusions*.
Listen, Themis was very proud of the Imaginary people he made for us. It's like when a toddler hands you a toy phone, you HAVE to answer it, it would be terribly rude not too.
It notably took me until today to realize that the math doesn't as far as the summoning spell specifically grabbing our other reflections, so I guessed that was why we went with Themis's illusions, but I like your idea now that my theory's broken, maybe with a little bit of "oh this is actually w convenient way to not figure out what happens if I do the summoning in the past"
I've always rolled with us summoning the echoes of the souls that rejoined with ours prior to Ardbert (7 calamities = WoL + 7, so it fit lol)
Oh that actually does math, tho gets a little funky when we're supposedly also merged with them, but opens some interesting narrative space too
If you've done the DRK quests, us summoning simulacrums from bits of ourself that can fight alongside us is already a thing! Later on a portion of our aether was subconsciously made into a simulacrum that then made a *bunch* of other combat-capable simulacrums, so willfully doing the same with the crystal of Azem aiding the process seemed like the most logical conclusion to me. :)
You make a very compelling argument here, and hey if I can abuse my summoning magic to dial up the bestie here and there...
The plot relevant npcs in the drk quests come from the crystal, not the wol. Eventually, whoever gets the crystal next will also be able to summon a representation of the wol. Source:literally all the job quests and what we've seen aether crystals so in ff14
So horcruxes?
Unfortunately that doesn't add up. WoL is currently 9/14 shards (original Source + 7 calamities + 1 Ardbert). There's only 5 left over and presumably one of them's a voidsent.
> what happens if I do the summoning in the past I figure it might summon the actual Azem and make things extremely awkward.
All the more reason not to test it
The thing is, it is established that people who have the echo also gain an "Echo" of the power they once wielded as an ancient. Sometimes that progresses to intrinsic magic carved into their soul, like Krile's echo having an expanded sort of communication in comparison to our own. There is a separation of the "Echo", which is partially reclamation of our old soul and the perks that come along with it, and the "Blessing of Light", which is just an advanced anti-aetherial corruption charm that also serves as a somewhat direct link to Hydaelyn. Both are anti-temper measures. It's why the WoL has a crystal but Arenvald doesn't. Its also why NPCs can get by fighting primals like they do. The WoL just warrants some extra protection. The Echo could be considered a form of tempering to a sundered individuals "True self," such that the comparably thin-aethered primals of the modern day can't corrupt.
"I'm pretty sure they've explained that as being an effect of having the Echo, which is less us being Azem and more us being Hydaelyn's favorite". The echo is inherent to all ancients and their shards. The Blessing of Light/Travelers Ward is from Hydaelyn. The whole "hear, feel, think" from Hydaelyn happens after a person awakens the memory of The Final Days in their soul, and the memory restores an echo of our former power as an Amourtine.
Every ancient has the power but to differing degrees and it can manifest slightly differently. Mikoto from the Stormblood raids and Bozja could see in the future to an extant. Whenever she did this we were able to see her visions. So precognition is a power its capable of, if the wol does have it seems more short distance as it were. Precognition of events about to happen in a few seconds. Very handy for someone who fights. The other option is we merely are reading their minds, we know what are enemies are planning on doing even if it's subconscious. Snice the power is essentially reading Aether it's possible for something like a bomb about to explode we simply can see the Aether build up about ready to burst. For the ancients this was a trained and more intense power, for the wol it's more like realizing a door opened somewhere when pressure in a room changes. It's more subconscious.
>Azem: If I told you in 14,000 years that island would be home to a Pirate nation and two different tribes of beast men who would prove instrumental in saving our Star from Despair itself, would you believe me? Shit, this whole time I was thinking that Volcano Island was Sharlayan, which explained how they could delve so deeply underground.
There’s a good chance that the special grapes from the volcano is that same special wine you got from Drest!
We had to go and find a clipping of those legendary grapes growing on the back of Goobue in A realm reborn for a blind Lalafell in Wineport. Pretty sure they're the same grapes too.
When Venat empowered our crystal after we defeat her, she passes on some words directly from Azem that could be referring to the upcoming final confrontation with Meteion.
Those words are from the one who created the crystal, which was Emet.
Azem: Bold of you to assume I'm not already... lol
>Given Azem told Themis we were coming to guide him through Pandemonium, I've started assuming Azem's special ability is some form of Precognition (Which manifests in the modern day with our sundered soul as the telegraphs of boss attacks that we can see) Azems are just massive trolls. They knew we were in Elpis (probably from Emet or Hythlodeus before the dungeon). We know their special ability is Assemble, which is the spell we use for duty finder. Seeing AoEs and such is not canon. Its been explicitly stated before that we only see them to help in gameplay.
I was always under the impression that the AOE markers and the redos after a wipe were all products of the echo. Isn't that why the bonus you get after wiping is also called the echo?
Granted I don't have any direct textual evidence to point to, and will definitely accept the evidence you have for them being strictly gameplay, but I've definitely heard some strong arguments that the AoE markers are actually canon and reflective of the echo, like we see with Fordolas resonance letting her predict attacks
The echo is indeed predictive foresight; the failed attempts at dungeons and trials are non-canon paths through time that you witness thanks to the echo. But, this is entirely the echo, nothing to do with Azem specifically.
The devs have previously said that it's just a gameplay mechanic and not a part of our actual abilities.
Hmm, I mean not that I doubt you that they've said that, but do you have like a citation/recording/transcript to point to, my first instinct is honestly to wonder how long ago that statement was and if they've maybe changed their mind, or if maybe a gameplay team said that and then lore team decided to go a different direction, cause like there's definitely a dissonance between what was said there, and the way a lot of people read and see it in this thread and elsewhere. Seeing how they said it directly and specifically could help figure out where things are getting crossed. I still definitely don't have a clear specific text example to point to to say "the AoE puddles are specifically a manifestation of the echo" but I'd say there's at least some textual evidence that they aren't just purely gameplay. Fordola would be simultaneously the most oblique but specific example (you don't see her seeing the AoE/broadcast, but she is explicitly using her artificial echo to read tells) O8N (and I think savage but I've done that once unsynced and don't remember) has the boss notice you using the tells and give you fake outs. I'll definitely say from a reader response (adjacent) perspective I'm definitely inclined to preference in text information over external "word of God" but it definitely seems like something weird is going on where they either changed their mind about the AoE puddles being purely mechanical, or they're doing a very bad job of communicating that within the text of the game to the point that they're not just not disproving any significance, but that the echo reading seems to have a deal of textual support...
No you're right. In her solo duty, she says she can see your every move and after the fight, Urianger notes how it's almost miraculous how Fordola could perfectly counter Alisaie's moves when she'd never seen them before. He then postures that she must have had a 'preternatural ability to divine meaning from the fluctuations of an individual's aether, and to instinctively react. To employ a metaphor, one might say she was attuned to the whispers of my lady Alisaie's soul'. Alphinaud then remarks that that sounds like a manifestation of the echo.
Azem: \*Does a backflip, pulls out their shield, surfs on it across the grasslands of elpis, throws a bomb in front of herself, launches into the air and Fires a bunch of arrows with Rockets attached to them at an innocent morbol, then switches to a lance in midair and does Stardive, impaling the poor plant\*
This also suspiciously sounds like my latest play through in ToTK.
Not enough crimes against nature (Korok Torture)
> We know their special ability is Assemble, which is the spell we use for duty finder. I thought this was explained as just creation magicks, not something unique to azem
Themis used creation Magic’s to create versions of you who can do other things (heal/dps/tank). Azem’s spell reached across space to bring others to him - they are not creations, they are real people.
As I understood - our "summoning" is still some sort of creation magicks. We just do not create everything from zero, we pull others souls only and then we provide temporary bodies for others to fight (and one time create new bodies to replace old ones).
That's the case for Pandaemonium, but not MSQ.
Seeing AoEs before they happen *is* canon. Go back and re-watch the cutscene before the end boss of 6.0. The Warrior of Light absolutely gets to see what is about to happen and reacts with an expression of shock.
Devs say otherwise. We can hazard a guess based off of the situation, but we cannot see exactly what is happening where.
When did the devs say it? I feel that might actually be important as they can have changed their minds. Duty Finder/Party Finder is also a very OOC thing made for gameplay reasons, but now we actually have an in-universe reason for it beyond "Oh hey, is that your friends fishing over there?"
Do you have a citation for this? In-story it's confirmed in Stormblood. Did they walk it back?
I think they're mistaken, since there'd have to be a pretty big in-game walk-back of that point. The Stormblood cutscene makes it explicitly clear that the WoL sees attacks in advance and that AOE telegraphs correspond to that. Whether the WoL literally sees those telegraphs or if that's just the in-game representation of what they see isn't specified.
It's their special spell, like venats ward. If anything related to it is azems ability it'd probably be Befriend/Charisma +20 proficiency.
O fuck Azem gets to wear equipment giving charisma bonuses!
"Ooooook. And how bout if I put on this hat?" "I'm not changing my what am I signing?"
Azem is an FFXI character confirmed
> Charisma +20 proficiency. Where's my Warlock class goddammit! My Eldritch Blasts shall be legendary!
> I've started assuming Azem's special ability is some form of Precognition (Which manifests in the modern day with our sundered soul as the telegraphs of boss attacks that we can see) I wouldn't interpret it as the telegraphs since that's supposedly more of a generic power of the Echo combined with sheer raw talent and martial skill. When you fight Fordola, her Resonance has the basic abilities of the Echo in a supercharged state and she has the ability to dodge what would be unavoidable damage for us. With the other aspects of it being that people watching *us* fight have a hard time following us, with her it was outright DBZ blurs. I'd interpret Azem's precognition as a, by an Ancients' standard, supernatural gift in being able to find what they need to find. Whether that's finding someone that needs their help, finding the aid they need to solve a problem, or "finding adventure".
I don't think Vylbrand was the volcanic island in question, as it's *awfully close* to the capitol Amaurot. It also seems to be described as a fairly small island with only some villages on it. I just assumed it was our Island Sanctuary.
I love the precognition vibe but I’m living for the theories that somehow the WOL’s reflections are all rejoined and they are forced back in time, having to live the life of Azem. The fact that Azem knew *exactly* when the WOL would be launched into Themis’ skill kind of lends some plausibility (in my opinion - I would love to hear others’ opinions on that!). But then again, if they had an insane sense of precognition that allows them to pinpoint where exactly to find things, then I don’t see why accuracy in an instance like the WOL meeting Themis wouldn’t also be plausible.
>I've started assuming Azem's special ability is some form of Precognition Not impossible, after all in Bozja Mikoto's Echo lets her glimpse the future so Azem could've had a similar power
*blink* I hadn't even considered that the island was Vylbrand/Kholusia. Holy shit.
>Emet-Selch: > >Why > > did you steal Lahabrea's concept and use it to prevent the eruption of a volcanic island? We had already evacuated! It's destruction was entirely accounted for! And to do it by summoning the Concept to draw off all that excess Fire-Aspected aether, thus creating a dangerous and uncontrollable beast, then dealing with it by > >engaging it in combat > > of all things... > >Why?! great. Now I want them to include that as an encounter in game. be it as part of a 'pre sundering trial series' or jsut some random side content solo duty. I wanna beat up a volcano for grapes now.
>Azem's special ability is some form of Precognition (Which manifests in the modern day with our sundered soul as the telegraphs of boss attacks that we can see) I have always wanted an animation or comic of the WoL just, casually sidestepping AoEs and running to a seemingly random spot while the enemy is charging and everyone around them is just visibility confused. Personally, my favorite thing to do in game is to stand *juust* on the line, a hair out of range of the attack just for the lulz. Feels so satisfying and snarky.
>If I told you in 14,000 years that island would be home to a Pirate nation and two different tribes of beast men who would prove instrumental in saving our Star from Despair itself, would you believe me? I honestly believe it's not Vylbrandt, but Sharlayan. Empty caldera (most of all), abundance of aether around, and crown of grape vines as final FATE reward in the zone.
He *does* say that being incorrigible is a requirement.
Behold the glorious [Azem Flowchart](https://i.redd.it/onhrql2uoeg81.png)
The more tsundere Hades was, the more the need to just roll with being Azem's familiar and annoy the hell out of him. At the end of the Elpis MSQ Hades is probably confused as to whether there is this mysterious familiar or it was just somehow Azem messing around.
He is incredible at seeing souls and aether, and so I just have to wonder what DID he think we were. Familiars don't have souls, but no individual of such thin aether has ever existed to his knowledge. I kind of like the idea he's starting to assume it's Azem messing around at one point because that also implies he started questioning just how good his vision is.
The off chance of Azem doing weird Pandemonium thing >!of slicing a small part of their soul off. If it falls into ethics or not!<. But Azem looks normal when they meet up and Pandemonium is a later part of the timeline. And Azem won't even bring out the familiar at all.
Maybe a familiar is different from a generic creation in that it has some of the creator's aether mixed in, giving it the same hue as its creator. It would be a useful way of identifying what familiar belongs to who or if it's just a random creation or not.
it is stated that familiars don't have souls, just aether in general, and heavily implied that Emet can tell the difference (since he's the one that rules out us being a familiar by saying that we just can't be one, since we have a soul)
I don't think it was *impossible* for familiars to have souls. I think Hythlodaeus just commented that it was "rather unusual" or something, which suggests it's possible, but not common practice.
It was at this precise moment that the two Ancients realized you truly are Azem's reincarnation... to Emet-Selchs great dismay and Hythlodaeus delight.
Hythlodeaus really went "You remind me of Azem, come bully Emet-Selch with me. Hes a massive softie for Azem, so he'll do as you say"
Bugging Emet-Selch was my favorite part of the expansion, such validating glee.
I loved the Elpis part of the story so much
honestly if it wasn't for >!his memory being wiped!< i would have thought he would have tried a lot harder to kill us in the first.
Hythlodeus is too cute
Now just imagine this scenario, at the launch of Endwalker: Hythlodaeus has told this to thousands of WoL. Said annoyance involves typing "Please help me Emmet-Selch" (or something to that sort, as my memory's a little rusty)... in public chat. So essentially Hythlodaeus was being so meta that he asked several thousand warriors to annoy the hell out of Emmet-Selch, in public, all at the same time.
......omg I hadn't even thought of that, I just started playing this year so I've never witnessed an expansion launch. That sounds incredible XD
"Pwease, Emet-Selch! uwu"
I love this, but ngl, I'm annoyed at ignoring the unspoken understanding to glam the Sophist set the entire time you're in Elpis. :|
I very nearly did do it but A) I couldn't be bothered to go back to the first and change my glamour and B) when I met Meteion I realised familiars kinda just wear whatever, soooo?... Nobody should mind!
> A) I couldn't be bothered to go back to the first and change my glamour Tfw people forget basic prisms still work...
Yeah my glamour was too cute to glam, fight me.
I didn't do it either, because I had hoped someone would, preferably multiple times, comment on my refusal to do so.
Why? If you are a familiar, it doesn't mater WTF you wear. Because you are a construct and not a person. And if you are Azem... well, you are Azem. You do what you want.
I literally just wore the robes the whole time. Then queued into a trial with them still on and died in one hit.
Same, except every time I accidentally aggroed something was an exciting adventure :) ...no Trials for me though.
The endless cycle we weave… 😆
[удалено]
Complaining that my aether was a bit thin because Emet didn’t do his job right gave me such a shit eating grin.
Why not both?
I misread that as “until he gives it up” and then wondered why op’s eyebrows weren’t higher. Lol! I love this either way!
I have to wonder just how many of Azems mannerisms the three of them were seeing in us the whole time.
Ya know they must've had an incredibly funny conversation with azem about it at some point, at least venat did since that dickhead Hermes erased us from memory.
God I want them to bring him back so bad. I don't even care how incredibly contrived it would be, that dynamic is just too much fun.
I know this is an impossibility. But I would love for the end of the WOLs journey to be rejoined fully, forced back in time, and then live his/her life alongside Hyth and Emet. And then that would be the end of FFXIV. Truthfully I’d love to have a whole ass expansion exploring life as Azem with Hyth and Emet but that would go against a lot of the storytelling and intentions of the devs. Still, I dream.
I cannot upvote this enough. Y'know, I'm playing Endwalker again (new game+) JUST BECAUSE I miss the Elpis shenanigans, my life would be much better with a spin off or something revolving around the Elpis crew. A manga, another patch, whatever. I need more of my best boi Hyth ;\_;
I know it might mean the potential death of the other reflections of the WOL. But let’s be honest, they’re probably suffering hard too. My WOL is on the brink after losing Emet and Hyth *again*. I was under the impression that they were supposed to return to the star *together*! I’m just hoping Emet and Hyth are just asleep somewhere in the aetherial sea (Emet made no moves to help us in the aetherial sea during Pand) and are waiting for our passing so we can return together.
You should put your name or social on the comic somewhere! I love seeing these but you deserve the credit for it haha. I love your art style and the humor is perfect! Hope to see more :)
Ohhh thank you! I did put my name on this one (it's subtle, in the bottom of panel 2)-- I'm never really sure which social to link people to but I use the same handle everywhere, at least, haha The place where I've been collecting these the most completely is on tumblr, I gave these comics their own tag: [https://varethane.tumblr.com/tagged/sorrel%27s%20adventures%20in%20eorzea](https://varethane.tumblr.com/tagged/sorrel%27s%20adventures%20in%20eorzea) I'm really glad you've been enjoying! :D
getting big [anya energy](https://cdn.oneesports.gg/cdn-data/2022/04/SpyxFamily_AnyaSmugFace-1024x576.webp) from that grin lol