Yeah... I mean, I could get why that'd be a conclusion, but they were also... you can't give that kind of responsibility to someone that doesn't understand what it means to live and die in the first place, or even comprehend it.
[But it does say something, that worlds seem to continue repeating the same mistakes for their answers. Silent while she sings, he wonders if he should wait for her to continue, or ask...]
[Just those lines. Hydaelyn had many songs to choose from, after all.]
Yet when confronted with this... rather than stop them, Hermes chose to enable them. He sought to strip the memories of all present, including his own. Should mankind be worthy of surviving, he reasoned, it would find a way to defeat this danger, even as he rendered it unknown.
Do realize I am skimming over much of his difficulty. To explain Elpis and his role there would take quite some time, but suffice to say he found some unfounded parallels in his role testing creatures there, and setting mankind itself to the test. He was not a well man. Yet... he was not entirely wrong, either.
Oh yeah, I figured there's probably way more to explain, but I can take the abridged version for now. Still, damn... if he somehow appears here, I might punch him once. We can talk it out after, but just one...
[Because Zidane's just... has a big issue with those who create and leave their creations ignorant or... other things.]
There is a twist here, but I shall come back to that. For the moment... soon enough, the Meteia -- the Endsinger -- brought chaos to Etheirys. The creations magics that were our birthrights went wild, causing untold calamity and despair. Many perished, many more suffered, until at last the Council came to a determination. By sacrificing half of all mankind, they would bring into existence a being of such power and ability that it could stabilize the aether of our world, and in doing so end what we called the Final Days.
That invocation created a being known as a primal -- a manifestation of faith given strength through aether. The first and greatest of Primals, Zodiark, possessed the power to shield the world from the song of the Endsinger. No more could the corruption that they emitted reach us, beneath the stirred currents of aether that it brought forth. Thus did the Final Days end... leaving behind a world ravaged and desolated.
The most obvious and logical conclusion, of course. Sacrifice half of the remaining population to Zodiark, to grant it sufficient strength to restore the world.
[Up till now, Venat could sympathize. Disagree, but sympathize. Here, however, is where Ancient society loses her. To take that path, rather than the hard and painful one of rebuilding...]
[He doesn't excel in math, but this is like... a fourth of the population now?? Also, he has no idea how many people there were to start. And what about their magic?]
Far fewer than before. And so it was decided, at least by many, to sacrifice all the other living beings of the world in order to restore those who had sacrificed themselves to Zodiark.
Not in the least. The world would remain restored and protected, and they would have their friends and comrades back. After that, creating new beings to populate the world would be of no consequence. That was the purpose of Elpis, after all, to begin with.
A perfect answer... for those unable and unwilling to grown and learn from what pain they have endured. A retreat to a perfect paradise lost, rather than one rebuilt. Proof, in other words, that our society had failed. That it had no ability to handle suffering, to handle living -- that Hermes, for all his cruelty and folly, had not been wrong about us.
So... it's still back to where they started and completely proving Hermes right. Geez... And completely trying to forget what happened, but would they really try doing that?
[Why wasn't anyone angry? And how easily they decided to sacrifice their people... and just ignoring the problem wouldn't make it not come back?]
"Return to us our perfect paradise." A direct quote, when I begged them to reconsider. Till the very end, I had hope. I believed that they might listen. But they did not... there were enough to enact that plan, had I and those who felt as I did not intervened.
But we did. To counter a primal, we summoned a primal. We could not match Zodiark stroke for stroke and blow for blow -- but we would not need to, if instead we shattered Zodiark and all things into pieces.
We did not -- I did not merely shatter Zodiark. All things, all people, the world itself, we shattered.
[Venat is quiet now, though no less wrought with conviction.]
This, you may, and ought to, judge me for. In that moment, I condemned mankind to suffering and misery. I stripped away the ability it had to soar to paradise, on the wings of creation magic; instead, I set it to finding its way by foot. I saw no other way for it to find the answer to Meteion's question, no other path for it to find the strength and courage to make meaning out of life's misery... but I do not deny, I do not pretend, that what I did was not horribly, unforgivably cruel.
[Listening, frowning, his brows furrow as he listens and considers. Talk about taking extremes, but weren't the others already summoning Zodiark and getting ready to forget all about it? Both sides didn't exactly do the best thing, but they started with good intentions? He guesses...]
I mean... if it leads to a path to Meteion, it's probably better you did. They were only buying more time to ignore the problem.
A decision can be correct and also reprehensible. And many might not agree that I was correct. Though my choice proved to work in the end, who is to say another one might not have? A more merciful and pleasant one for all? I did what I felt I needed to... but I do not and cannot ask anyone to forgive me or excuse me, when I permit neither for myself.
But it did work. Thousands of years passed, but at last my champion, the Warrior of Light, found the strength and courage to lead humanity on the path it needed to take. Thanks, in no small part, to having traveled through time back to the beginning of the tale, and having witnessed Hermes' choices and set me upon this path to begin with.
There's always things you can think back about and what might be a 'good' solution later. In the moment, you gotta do what you gotta do. And at least you're looking back and wondering if you made the right call.
[Oooh, let's not talk about time travel and just say they did. As bad as taking the deep dive into memories.]
Warrior of Light, huh? Sounds kinda familiar, but good. I bet they went on one hell of an adventure.
Without question. In the end, the Warrior of Light was the one to defeat me -- to defeat Hydaelyn, the Mothercrystal, upon whom mankind had relied and believed in as their protector for countless years. And that, then, is my tale, such as it is. Or truly, the Warrior of Light's tale, for Hydaelyn was no longer needed.
I think you can say it's your tale too, but the Warrior will begin a new story now for himself and everyone else. Thanks for telling me. Still gonna say, a little mad with Hermes though, but only because he reminds me of someone.
I said he was correct, and yet -- had he not reacted the way he did, would he have still been proven right? Hermes himself could learn nothing from his own struggle, his own suffering. What he judged others for, he himself embodied.
Everyone finds a different reason to live so it's not an easy question to answer in the first place. Not only that, but everyone dies at some point - civilizations end, new ones begin, and all that. Maybe he needed to go on a journey himself instead of having others try to answer it for him. Sounds like he needed a different kind of help really.
You understand so quickly, though to truly embrace that simple fact takes a great deal of will and strength. Hermes... well, I would say his story is done, and yet here I am. I should be quite dead, and if I am being honest, I was looking forward to the rest.
Huuh, probably because the rules are different here. Or this is something... I dunno, interrupting that time you're from? Like a sudden side plot introduced in a story that could completely derail the ending. But if that's the case, I'd say this is so-so - not the worst, but far from the best.
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[But it does say something, that worlds seem to continue repeating the same mistakes for their answers. Silent while she sings, he wonders if he should wait for her to continue, or ask...]
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Yet when confronted with this... rather than stop them, Hermes chose to enable them. He sought to strip the memories of all present, including his own. Should mankind be worthy of surviving, he reasoned, it would find a way to defeat this danger, even as he rendered it unknown.
Do realize I am skimming over much of his difficulty. To explain Elpis and his role there would take quite some time, but suffice to say he found some unfounded parallels in his role testing creatures there, and setting mankind itself to the test. He was not a well man. Yet... he was not entirely wrong, either.
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[Because Zidane's just... has a big issue with those who create and leave their creations ignorant or... other things.]
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[Please tell them they agreed to that... the half sacrificed anyway.]
How did that stabilize your world's 'aether'? And how did that stop the Final Days?
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[Also, that saved their world, but... could all the others have truly been dead or gone? Well, the song would see that they didn't he guessed... ugh.]
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[Up till now, Venat could sympathize. Disagree, but sympathize. Here, however, is where Ancient society loses her. To take that path, rather than the hard and painful one of rebuilding...]
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[He doesn't excel in math, but this is like... a fourth of the population now?? Also, he has no idea how many people there were to start. And what about their magic?]
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A perfect answer... for those unable and unwilling to grown and learn from what pain they have endured. A retreat to a perfect paradise lost, rather than one rebuilt. Proof, in other words, that our society had failed. That it had no ability to handle suffering, to handle living -- that Hermes, for all his cruelty and folly, had not been wrong about us.
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So... it's still back to where they started and completely proving Hermes right. Geez... And completely trying to forget what happened, but would they really try doing that?
[Why wasn't anyone angry? And how easily they decided to sacrifice their people... and just ignoring the problem wouldn't make it not come back?]
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But we did. To counter a primal, we summoned a primal. We could not match Zodiark stroke for stroke and blow for blow -- but we would not need to, if instead we shattered Zodiark and all things into pieces.
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[She can't see him, but he does shake his head. It's all sounding familiar, just without a looming threat of a song like that...]
... So, you shattered Zodiark then?
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[Venat is quiet now, though no less wrought with conviction.]
This, you may, and ought to, judge me for. In that moment, I condemned mankind to suffering and misery. I stripped away the ability it had to soar to paradise, on the wings of creation magic; instead, I set it to finding its way by foot. I saw no other way for it to find the answer to Meteion's question, no other path for it to find the strength and courage to make meaning out of life's misery... but I do not deny, I do not pretend, that what I did was not horribly, unforgivably cruel.
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[Listening, frowning, his brows furrow as he listens and considers. Talk about taking extremes, but weren't the others already summoning Zodiark and getting ready to forget all about it? Both sides didn't exactly do the best thing, but they started with good intentions? He guesses...]
I mean... if it leads to a path to Meteion, it's probably better you did. They were only buying more time to ignore the problem.
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But it did work. Thousands of years passed, but at last my champion, the Warrior of Light, found the strength and courage to lead humanity on the path it needed to take. Thanks, in no small part, to having traveled through time back to the beginning of the tale, and having witnessed Hermes' choices and set me upon this path to begin with.
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[Oooh, let's not talk about time travel and just say they did. As bad as taking the deep dive into memories.]
Warrior of Light, huh? Sounds kinda familiar, but good. I bet they went on one hell of an adventure.
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