WoL from the future here.
It's worse than we ever could have expected.
Everything is...everything is just Namazu. Never could I have imagined such a disastrous fate.

The whole nordic theme we're seeing in the Fourth makes me think the end goal would be to create a bridge of aether between the remaining Shards and the Source, like some kind of rainbow bridge. Either just to create a way for the aethereal sea to flow between the worlds or even to allow travel between them.

The “dimensional frequency” explanation is how the Flash used to travel from one universe to another. Great explanation.

Wow, Minnesotan here, and I can't believe I'm catching strays in an FFXIV lore video XD

I think the coolest thing about the magic of Azem's gem and Ethos is that I am pretty sure the future 8th Umbral Calamity timeline and G'raha Tia managed to recreate them fron first principles. Summoning souls (pure aether) across the Rift is what Exarch G'raha does to the Scions, it's what he does to give us allies in The Dying Gasp, and it's what we do with Azem's Crystal from the Seat of Sacrifice on. Meanwhile, both he and Elidibus make dimensional portals that allow Azem's Reincarnation Specifically to traverse the Rift physically to certain points, which is exactly how we use Ethos in 7.5 to make a new just-for-us gateway.

And come to think of it, Future Timeline dropping their Crystal Tower in the middle of the First's Lakeland is also very similar to Alexandria dropping itself onto Yyasulani using Ethos, which I didnt connect the dots on until this video. The point is: modern humanity recreated a lot of Azem's theoretical dimension-hopping from first principles in a kludged fashion, with working out the bugs and unexpected effects being a key point of conflict in Shadowbringers. Now we've got Original Ancient Magicks to look at and source from and I suspect that putting those devices together with theoretical knowledge from the Shadowbringers plot is how we're going to be "solving" interdimensional travel now

I personally have two theories. Yggdrasil Theory and Fusion throry.

Fusion Theory leverages Ethos's ability to merge dimensions in a non-harmful way. As the Realmships are all flying, they could honestly be fused to the Source with minimum risk to the world around them, conpared to Alexandria. This would also explain our ability to visit these places if a rejoining happened.

Yggdrasil theory is rooted in The Fourth's Norse-inspired mythology. I believe the remaining reflections and the source will be connected like the Realms of the World Tree, and this will serve both as a dividing structure and a stabilizing flow between the Source and Reflections. We already know there's precedent for this as well, as both Etheirys and The Fourth have world trees of their own—ours in Meracydia, from which the Primal Sephirot was born, and The Fourth's depicted in a tapestry.

I've always been curious about the specifics of the sundered worlds. Like...they all have their own moon, they all have stars in the sky...when Hydaelyn split Etheirys, she made the reflections, but she certainly didn't split the UNIVERSE into thirteen reflections. So what would happen if one of the reflections developed space travel and headed for one of those stars? Would they be blocked in a little cosmological bubble, able to see them but never touch them? Would they get a certain distance away from Etheirys and 'pop' into the Source's frequency? It drives me bonkers.

13:34 "I'm gonna go get the papers, get the papers"

Hold up.  We DO have an example of a being that left Etheirys and returned, that isn't from the Source.

Zero!  Zero entered the Source as the Avatar pacted to Zenos, went to Ultima Thule with Zenos, and eventually made their way back to the Thirteenth!

“And I tend to go a little overboard on context” An understatement (I say, happily swimming instead the ocean instead of staying on the boat)

Iirc from the MSQ the ninth was titled towards lightning bcs someone made a crazy enough bomb that was based on Electrope and thus lightning and it supercharged the atmosphere overpowering any other elements that could dampen/weaken the lightning element. When I heard this mentioned in the history part of the 9th I always think about the fear of scientists irl when they developed the atomic bomb that if you release enough energy at once you start a chain reaction that basically annihilates every element in the air in a massive, unstoppable chain reaction turning the very air we breath into toxic, radioactive gas.

Also another note I rarely see mentioned anywhere but it has cemented itself in my head, less about reflections but more about the topic of souls. Since you mentioned that the souls of creatures and people on the source directly after the sundering only consisted of 1/14th of an originial ascian soul + the WoL def./presumably being a reincarnation of the soul of Azem, I have been thinking that due to the rejoinings of 7 shards to the source our WoL must have at least a soul that is somewhat like 7/14th or 6/14th of an ascian soul at the beginning of our story. (Due to the 7th calamity most likely happening while the WoL was alive). Now during the happenings of ShB at a crucial part in the story our WoL combines with the soul of Ardbert thus elevating the WoL soul to be more complete towards the whole Ascian level soul. At some point I feel like that the WoL is going to have to "complete" their soul by visiting other shards and finding the soul splinters of Azem to be able to have enough power to overcome some "Avengers Level Treath".

Even tho at the current point in the story every time an adversary shows up it always feels like "Hydrogen Bomb (WoL) vs coughing baby (enemy)" situation during which you just throw the WoL at the enemy and he leaves nothing behind... :,D

Overboard on context? never, we're here for that

This is one of the most detailed and comprehensive video essays that I've watched! I love all the details that you discussed and how well you managed to fit 12+ years of lore into a single 30-minute video.

I wish you would have also brought up the alternate timeline Eighth Umbral Calamity. (Shadowbringers spoilers below)



In the alternate timeline, Minfilia was not brought to the First to halt the Flood of Light, and the Garleans completed and deployed the Black Rose aether-poison. The Flood of Light and the Black Rose caused the rejoining of the First into the Source.
This is very important because all this was the catalyst for the Shadowbringers story. As the Source was ravaged by the Calamity, Garlond Ironworks eventually managed to gain access to the Crystal Tower, re-awakening G'raha Tia in the process. At some point, G'raha saw the Warrior of Light and the other Scions killed by the Black Rose, motivating him to work with the Ironworks in reverse-engineering Alexander's temporal control and Omega's spacial control. Thus, with those and G'raha's control of the Tower and its effectively unlimited aether, he created space-time travel magic to transpose himself and the Tower 200 years back in time and across the rift to the First, in an effort to undo the Eighth Umbral Calamity and save the Warrior of Light.

You got it backwards. The Winterers want to murder many to save a few lol

You hade me at Aetherial Fuckery

I'd like to imagine the WoL vibrating at different frequencies just to travel to and from reflections/Source

Reaper as the highlighted job in this expac making more sence with the void travel theory

Note while Solstice can mean Winter Solstice, it can also mean Summer Solstice. A Solstice is simply the peak/trough of the Sun's distance, which means that there is likely also Summerers, either people trying to pull into Umbral Fire to combat the Astral Ice (aka referencing us being the Warrior of Darkness in Shadowbringers) or another group of Ascians forcing an Umbral Fire Calamity in a different shard

Assuming calamity is neccessary in aetherology is miopic and maladapted. Also hypothesizing the source would need to be wounded before it could recieve varying essences of itself in the reflections sounds traumatized. What we do know is the aether flows cycles in cycles, wheels in wheels. Eventually each reflection or their remnants will align just so that aethers rush and flow into each other. And with the right aspect the touch can be so light, so subtle, that few could even notice it. A gust of wind for example...