It seems somehow appropriate to have the title reminiscent of an Indiana Jones movie. The Key has become central to the story of FFXIV moving forward and the legacy of Azem. But where did the key come from? What can it do? And Where has it been? Many questions are answered in Dawntrail, but many more remain after the story. Here we explore what we know of the key, and where it may take us in the future.
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Another hit video! i am going to keep my expectations low, because i dont want to hype too much! Thank you for these videos.
I completely believe that the traveler's mask is at least reminiscent of Azem's mask. Not only has the design not been touched on, there is the mask in LM, and if you look at the summoning circle design it shares similar elements to the traveler's mask
Very good and interesting video! Also, great music in the background for this topic, it bring the mystery around
Nice work!
I love these videos, it's so awesome seeing someone else(or a team?) come up with similar and identical conclusions that I've come up with on my own after playing through DT. I've never been more excited for the future of this game. It's also why it stings seeing people shit on DT so much when this has been one of the best lore expacs, but most people seem to have completely missed almost all of it.
Anyhow, this is only one point in the video, but I think the worlds Sphene showed us were other rejoined worlds. The wind(5th) and earth(4th) rejoined elements specifically. Those are also the elements she manifests and attacks us with in our fight on those respective worlds. Further highlighting that a rejoined world may not be completely deleted, as I've seen other people say, and giving more evidence that the key allowed the Milala to travel through time to the 12th and that the space that Living Memory currently resides in is indeed still the 12th. Thus I think our understanding of rejoinings is incomplete or flawed. I also think the source is their first successful fusion attempt since that was after they got the key back, and Sphene was rather desperate for souls. This also seems like it was their first time going on the offensive, so I don't think they've attacked other worlds.
Now I've seen people say that perhaps the world Alexandria is from is instead just another shard that was prepped for a rejoining but never was, and this could be true, but if that's the case, then that would mean that at least 2 other worlds met the same fate based on what she showed us. Meaning that almost all of the other shards out there are already destroyed. And I'm not entirely sold that the writers would do that, given the immense potential the shard travel gives us and with how loved shadowbringers and the First was/is. Plus, it would shit on a bunch of other evidence and hints they've been throwing out on certain things. Again, I'm not saying it's not possible, it just seems unlikely. But FF writers love to surprise you.
To tie this information with Azem, it gives more ammunition to the prospect that Azem time travelled. Their disappearance after they left the convocation was already suspicious enough, and their magic being able to shard jump when the shards did not exist is also pretty strange, but their exact knowledge of the future in the Panda raids is what really sends it home that they've got more to do in the story. And this key showing the possibility that it time traveled and is directly related to Azem is just, my oh my.
I think the nature of the rift is going to be very important in the future. I think the nature of Azems magic is that it allows the navigation and traversal of the rift. This could explain how it is not only able to travel between shards, but it could also explain the potential time travel as well. The scenes we are shown when we travel between shards and travel through time are one and the same. And even during our first time shard hopping to the first in ShB, we see flashes of history. History that was mostly things we lived, but also history that we were not there for. This too happened on our return from Elpis, where we saw scenes of the final days and of Venat's actions. So I've begun to suspect that the rift could be a sort of "river of time," and if one is able to navigate it and move through it at will, they could be possessed of the ability to cross shards, cross time, and even jump timelines/universes like the Exarch did with the Crystal Tower. This could also even further tie in to why time flows differently on shards until contact, or more specifically, a connection is made between the source and a shard.
So many things to talk about, so many implications. I feel like I could write essay after essay on lore stuff after this expac, it's so crazy. And so again I say, I don't think I've ever been so excited for the future of this game, which is amazing since this is only the first expac coming off of the incredible conclusion that Endwalker left us with. I only wish more people could see it, as opposed to hyperbolically ragging on a single character.
A couple of thoughts:
The big one, with the others being wild theory:
1) It's clear that Emet-Selch knew about this crystal's existence. He casually mentioned "the forgotten people of the south sea isles" as well as the new world. Plus, everything that happened to Alexandria was the direct result of Ascian guidance. I know he is terminally sentimental but why would he, the only unsundered who wasn't damaged or flat out crazy as a bag of cats, leave a device capable of merging reflections without a calamity out there untouched. He may have been sentimental, but he was also tempered by his own admission.
2) The ancestral home recreation of the Millala was a volcano and they found the crystal ages prior. I wonder if Azem dropped the crystal while stopping an eruption?
3) Did the crystal display the symbol of Azem in reaction to our crystal, or does it just do that whenever it is activated? Was it reacting to us or someone else? Sphene was able to use the crystal multiple times, it it possible she, herself, was tied to the crystal's legacy? What did we say to her as we were teleported away?
4) I have a theory that young Gulool Ja isn't Zoraal Ja's son. I think he IS Zoraal Ja. The people of Shaloaani were experiencing tremors for days before the dome appeared. This was likely due to the attempts to batter their way through the barrier between worlds. As time gets crazy, it's possible that they appeared initially in the wrong time altogether and Zoraal Ja essentially kidnapped himself in the past, to give himself what he felt like he deserved all along. I would have an easier time believing this than I would a Mamool Ja reproducing while being the only member of his race in a sealed city.
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As to how the Milala had the Dawn Key, perhaps they've always had it, as Azem was once reincarnated as a Lalafell (perhaps as whoever The Speaker was) and crafted it along with that nature-orb thingy for emergency purposes should something happen to Aloalo and/or the South Sea Isles… Being the precious little Vacation-Hobbits that they are, the Aloalo Lalas especially, wouldn't even need concern for such a swift & sudden issue like the oceans freezing in a eternally summer/tropical environment… Unless perhaps that the creator of the Dawn Key has that reverse Echo that shows the future like Mikoto's…
Semi-alternatively, a post-Sundering yet still primary Azem was going around being an Azem, helping out people & places that would definitely get overlooked by the Ascians and their machinations…
Whoever made it, I'm thankful they did, wouldn't have best bae Krile!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSS IVE BEEN WAITING!!!!!!
I still can't help wonder if we've maybe seen this sort of crystal before, one that can cross dimensions and responds to the reverent wishes of people. Sounds a lot like the Heart of Sabik to me and I have to wonder if maybe there are multiple ones in different shards and if perhaps that points to who and what is going to be the big bad of the game for the next main story now that the Ascians are basically dealt with.
I don't think those are ancient/ascian masks at all. I just see them as a reference to the faces in Oeilvert from FFIX.
Halfway through this video I had a thought. Why, conceived and born of many generations on the Alexandrian reflection, does Krile have a source sized soul. Shouldn't the Milalas born on the reflection, have souls…. FROM the reflection.
I don't know if it was touched on previously but, the sun mural in living memory in the volcano island homeland recreation is Azem's summoning spell. That leads me to believe that someone with the crystal of Azem at one point showed up and used their magic in front of some of the population to the point where they revolved their entire civilization and culture around it. To add, are we sure that the Allagans are the ones who made the House of the Crooked Coin? It looks more in line with what we see with the South Sea, or is it something that Y'shtola just assumed because it was connected to the burn? I think this may more likely be one of the 14 conceptions of Azem that Allag just ended up using.
I never noticed the ruined buildings' resemblance to Bastok's architecture in the final story fight. Given we already know that the alliance raid series is Echoes of Vana'diel, I suppose that would confirm that Vana'diel, or at least a version of it or something resembling it, might be a reflection. But, perhaps one that had already been rejoined and only exists as a fragment like Alexandria.
Where can I find information on Emet-Selch taking up the mantle of Azem after the sundering? I never thought he did, so I'm curious where this is coming from.
"Something even more destructive than a baby." 10/10
So the crystal in the middle is like an aetheryte crystal. Whereas an Aetheryte allows the traversal from one location to another on a star, the core in this key allows the soul to traverse between stars. The extrope housing is like the programing for the key. LIke the notches you would find on your house key.
You have also look a the nature of this "teleportation" In shadowbringers, the ability to bring a soul to a star, also came with a certain amount of time travel. In Dawntrail, we see with Kriles parents, that they are able to come back to the source with NO TIME LOST.
Also, ultimately this artifact is created using AZEMs magic, and the last person besides the player to have Azems Crystal was Emet Selch. I believe Emet Selch created this artifact. To allow Emet to travel between stars, but also left to the peoples on the star before the 5th or 6th umbral calamity. (whichever one was ice)
Based on the MSQ writing capacity of the current writing team, I'm willing to bet at the time of this comment that it's a red herring mcguffin. If they get an actual competent writing team back in that don't have their protagonist running around screaming "I can't lose because I have the power of love and friendship on my side!" and then make utterly lore ruining things like Alexandria, I have no capacity to accept whatever they come up with making any reasonable sense whatsoever.
I think the key being able to bridge the shards is not it's primary purpose.
Azem was known for two things, traveling the star, and dealing with threats to it.
Azem has also shown themselves to have a strange amount of information about the sundered future, and about their sundered self through the actions we hear of in Elpis.
I think Azem did run across Ultima (the original, not the primal in the Stormblood raids), and came away knowing what a threat that was.
The key might be a warning, or a tool, to deal with the threat of this true original Ultima, and that it can bridge the shards is only so the key can find it's way to the correct shard of Azem, for while they might be able to figure out where that Azem comes from, they wouldn't be able to control where the key would wind up. Like a memory crystal thrown into the aetheral sea as a warning about Pandamonium, this key is to make sure that a threat to the star, perhaps one greater than that of the Endsinger, is dealt with.
And even though Ultima might be sundered as well, and less of a threat, Hydaelyn, the force keeping the worlds sundered, is no more. Ultima may become whole once more, given time.
I suspect the interdimensional fusion may not have been caused by the key, but only had the early effects directed by it's misuse. That this fusion, this planar overlay, will be happening regardless, and that the world needs be prepared for the sundering to slowly end.
Some shards however, might well be safe from this, altered too far from the baseline. The first and thirteenth come to mind here.
Shortly after the WoL places the key on the table, the screen cuts to black and Sphene’s crown is shown. This is surely important. It has been mentioned that the crown is special.
I have no idea if this is offical or not but i remember seeing text that emet and azem helped some people from a volcano?? maybe it was the malala???
Love this. Subscribed. More lore plz
11:50 Ah, I suppose that's why Wicked Thunder has great mastery over electrope. Her parents are from the Source, therefore she too possess denser soul than average Alexandrian. Interesting.
Or a part of Azem is inside of that auracite, dun dun dun, nah I dunno