The middle of Pashtarot's glyph. Flip it upside down. It's very close to the crown, it has the same teardrop shape in the center with the sides curling up and around.
A friend told me on the weekend that he thinks that the fear of death S9 residents now feel will lead towards Necron manifesting itself somehow, either as a primal or as another kind of entity.
Maybe that will be the reason for the FF11 AR coming. Cuz that will feature chaos i believe. Maybe a manifestation of the S9 peoples newfound fear of death
Who's to say Necron hasn't already made an appearance? Queen Eternal looks veerrrrry similar. Not saying this means Necron/Eternal Darkness won't come back up, but I think it's already there.
WOL: "Ah shit, here we go again". Actually a point, can a primal be accidentally summoned if a ritual wasn't already in progress? We know tempering was a deliberately taught step, and summoning was an actual ritual of creation magic. The only spontaneous summoning I can think of was in Hildebrand (or questionable canon) ~Rogue Titan was a ritual in progress thrown off kilter ~Susano was technically a Kami manifestation, not a normal primal
@@Techstriker1 Well, it will be interesting how the game takes us there if if happens, maybe will be the plan of the baddie in turn or some S9 people will start a cult or something.
@@sifferino She does, in fact, but I don't think they'll just ignore Necron himself and his theme, but who knows, characters like Ultimecia and Emperor Mateus were sorta "ignored" in where they should've probably been featured (Eden and Pandemonium).
Pashtarot - Conservator of Order and Collective Will Conserving order and collective will sounds a lot like what Sphene was doing. Keeping copies of people around in a world designed for them that never changes is pretty much the definition of "conserving order and collective will"
When interacting with NPCs I believe one of them mentions Sphene's crown or equipment are widely considered to be special storage devices. First generation endless are separate from the system and have both soul and memories intact. Therefore, where is the first generation Sphene? She must exist because the same process used to preserve Ottis was used on her. We know she was converted to an endless before Everkeep was finished. Therefore, she predates living memory.
From what I recall she died well before living memory became a thing. The project was partially an attempt to recreate her. The Sphene we met was never the original queen Sphene. Just a cruel joke of a copy.
dont think sphene is a shard. when an azem shard appears in msq its usually made known. also if this is azems mask this is the mask of the original owner. i do agree this is a mask or something thats been made into a crown thats really well spotted. but i think if it was his mask it would have reacted to us the way the key did
It would be VERY significant if it had to do with Azem in the slightest. We see it in shadowbringers expansion AND the patches. Emet selch seeing azem in us. We receiving azems crystal. We using azems power to call in warriors (or perhaps even reflections of ourself from other shards) to help fight battles. Their emphasis on the crown and portal key does make me somewhat belief this is very significant. Wether it be ascian related or azem related is yet to be seen. But the whole azem thing sorta came outa nowhere in shadowbringers. There were indicators all over that we were special for sure. But i dont think it has ever linked us to azem in the slightest until shadowbringers where they revealed us to be a shard of the 14th member.
I like to think that she's not dead but on the brink of death and the crown is keeping her alive in a form of stasis until a cure for her illness is found.
When the crown is shown after the credits, it is pulsating. If you go back to cutscenes where we speak to Sphene you will nptice the crown is pulsating then too. The question is: does the crown pulsate in the presence of anyone or only the warrior of light who is a shard of Azem? This would be a crucial clue in uncovering the relationship between the queens' crown and Azem. Now to find a cutscene where the crown is pulsating at a time when the warrior of light is not present.
I prefer the theory that the crown is an experimental regulator from the time of the calamity that might store the original sphene's soul. In terms of character shards, Sphene feels way more like she'd share a soul with Wuk Lamat than Azem. In my mind, caring for people while being a wandering adventurer is pretty different to ruling a nation and caring for those people, it's pretty much the whole difference between Azem as the traveller and the rest of the convocation. And because we've had so much contact with ancients and ascians who magically reproduce their mask, it doesn't make sense to me that they also had physical versions that have just never come up before.
I think the crystal might be a creation of Azem's and that's why it resonated with our crystal, but all of the rest of the tech around it is Alexandrian.
I think the crown's thing is more literal than we think it is. At one point, one Alexandrian citizen (I think in Outskirts) mentions that Sphene's crown functions as a regulator, specially made for her. This was of course forgotten in the wake of the reveal that Sphene was an ai, and probably this comment was a guess on the citizen's part, but perhaps that train of thought wasn't entirely wrong. Perhaps the Real Sphene still exists to some capacity within the crown.
Yeah, I suspect that the crown simply holds the soul, or at least the memories, of the original Sphene. My hypothesis is that it isn't entirely technological/electrope based and works similarly to the vessels developed by the Crystal Exarch and Beq Lugg. If Sphene IS an Ascian shard I'm wondering if it may even be made out of somethin akin to white auracite. When Sphene was trying to tell us something though, while we were meant to suspect Zoraal Ja's interference at the time, I'm now wondering if she was afraid of Preservation overhearing. For all their attempts they still hadn't properly figured out how The Key worked properly which led to the botched fusion of shards. I'm wondering if they used the Endless technology on themselves to continue calculating the data on dimensional fusion in the background while Sphene made occasional forays into what remained of their shard and then possibly other shards to gain enough aether to sustain Living Memory. Sphene's compassionate nature, which lived on in her copy, probably only took what aether was absolutely necessary because she personally was against the plan but she couldn't fight the programming implanted by Preservation, and with more people dying and needing to be stored the aether demand was becoming too great. Meeting the REAL Sphene might allow us to learn more about what's going on and learn what she really wants, which probably includes defeating Preservation. As a wild guess, given the descriptions Wyrm read out about the Convocation I suspect Preservation took inspiration (if not direct control) from Deudephalon.
I could see the original sphene to turn into necron, it could be she was preserved against her will and simply wants it to end. After all, are we really going to gloss over the fact robot Otis flat out said something along the lines of "She gave into despair near the end". This means near the end, she was no longer the happy/caring Queen she was, and I could see the original Sphene potentially even seeing modern Alexandria as a mockery of her own. So many directions this could take. Also, we know there was a monument to her, Otis said they built one, but never said where it was. It could be under the original castle, where Sphenes original body could be.
Ok in any case, let me throw my theory: the people of Alexandria didnt account for a problem happening when too much prayer happens in the presence of high levels of aether: Primals. Usually, we need crystals because they have powerful amount of elemental aether; but these people were surrounded by a dome of thunder element, and a thunder calamity. It is entirely possible they just prayed too much and Sphene is, in fact, an primal of thunder aespect. Electrope works by transforming thunder aether to any other type of aether, so a thunder aespected primal in this situation would be all mighty. And the prayers? A cult centered on her: Preservation. If they still exists, and they keep praying, Sphene will be back. One final thought: Sphene's crown might have the same mechanism than Odin's blade: it would be used to take control on a new Vessel for such primal. She is just a primal under this theory, BUT the origin of the crown its as unknown as Odin's blade at this time.
If you're talking about the true Golbez, not his friend Durante, I think that's still a very popular belief that they were an Azem shard. Being unusually powerful, not speaking, and also seeing the memory from Golbez's POV (a very rare point of view for echoes/memories), there's certainly more there to believe than some other proposed characters. But Sphene being a shard would piss me off, because she was such a nonsensical character.
If its been over 400 years, maybe the OG soul of Sphene has been reborn already? On the 9th presumably if she died before the soul system was up and working.
The crown resembles more a specific part of the Pashtarot glyph then anything Azem related. Then Pashtarot was given the title of the preserver of discipline and order and he was mentioned from Emet-Selch when Hermes was talking about Kairos, the memory reconfiguration system used in Elpis. And now we have something similiar to Kairos. Kairos was able to delete memorys and reconfigure them and its very very similiar to the whole memory system of the alexandrians. Maybe Pashtarot build something new off Kairos? I mean ... Yoshi P said we were done with the hydaelyn/zodiark arc but not with the ascians. To me it makes no sense for the game to give us two Azem-related McGuffins: The key and the crown.
Depends a bit what they do with it if it IS azem related. Though i lean towards ur theory. Emet selch sofar has foreshadowed Dawntrail with the golden city as well as alzadaal's legacy wich triggered the whole golbez/Zero arc. It wudn't be past the devs to link that 1 line about pashtarot to this. We've seen time travel and time shenanigans before in alexander, the tycoon and the crystal tower. So its not far fetched that an ascian shard could get her people to develop mond wiping twchnology based on memories of kairos. Less potent then kairos but still effective on smaller scale. Like how emet selch created the allagan and garlean empire.
@@cherrydragon3120 If Sphene is a Azem shard would she not contradict everything Azem stands for? Azem left the convocation because Azem despised the thought of sacrificing life to save other life. Azems hold every life in high regard no matter how incomplete or inferior it may be. But the whole Alexandrian stuff is based on sacrificing life to save other life. To keep the status quo no matter the cost. Azem, even as a fraction of its former self, would never wipe out a whole star just to save a handful of people. Thats why i think the crown or Sphene is in no way related to Azem because it is hinted ingame that the crown somehow controls sphenes action. A lot of Sphenes clothing design resembles parts of the pashtarot glyph. Like someone had disassembled the glyph and made it into clothing accessory. Then the title pashtarot had was 'preserver of discipline and order' and we have a group that called himself 'preservation'. So for me there are far more hints to pashtarot, then to azem. we have to wait to find out ^^
I have held that Sphene is a shard of Azem. I think the crown isn't an artifact from Azem but instead made of Auricite, amplifying her will to protect her people no matter the cost. I can remember who, I think it was StoutHelm, but someone came up with the theory that Ultima is our next big bad, and I am inclined to agree
Oh come on ! Ultima ? Seriously ? They just cant pace the story anymore ulitma is supposed to be THE bad guy. Not a patch day bad guy like zeroumus. Fucking writing has become trash of this is the case.
@@RomanticPhantom0 Ultima the High Seraph is a extra dimensional creature that may potentially exist across all 14 shards as she was present in the World Unsundered
@@RomanticPhantom0 and Pandaemonium was to stop Athena from becoming a god, using the Heart of Sabik (an Auricite shard FROM Ultima). Which is now in the possession of Claudien. AND we know that the Ultimate fought in the Ivalice raids was a primal summoned in the image of the actual Ultima who still slumbers in her weakening prison
Well it’s said her crown is a “special” regulator, the crown on her projection is not the physical crown, the physical crown is elsewhere, if I were to give you my piece about her crown it holds backups of her consciousness. That’s what makes it special. Also we kind of have an idea about what the Azem glyph should look like, it’s on the scion traveler’s mask it couldn’t be more on the nose than the Traveler’s set having the glyph right on your face. So while there is probably some way some how that sphene is a shard of Azem I personally would opt that she is not for now. If her crown is somehow the true symbol of Azem, why wasn’t it on the Scion travelers set? Why has it no resemblance to anything about ardbert or the real golbez? It’s a nice theory, but it’s so far removed from explicit material regarding every other shard of Azem.
I would like to add something that is always looked over as I watch the video and reading comments and that is sphene's soul. We know Otis in the robot body is his soul and memories and memories are part of the soul but seems like from the unlost world memories can be replicated without removing from the soul so if the crown is an old regulator then its possible it contains sphene's soul and possibly memories as well plus in the Alexandria dungeon it sound like they say soul but hard to hear do to deletion/corruption of the memory. I could be very wrong but felt I needed to add this bit of info
Take a look at the legacy tatoo from 1.0, wich is supposed to be Azem's mask symbol. The crown has some kind of resemblance to it if you take a really close look.
Pashtarot's Mask is what I'm guessing. Not Azem's. I do agree with you, Sphene (original) is a sundered ancient, the question is which one. Azem and the key are a source lore thing. Sphene is a shard, not related to the key. Think of what Emet Selch/Hades did for Garlean, put a spin on it's head instead and make Sphene into an Ascian who matured a shard and decided to maintain her people till it was the right time.
The crown was hinted to be a more advanced version of the regulators. This means the original Sphene memories are inside the crown and she can PERHAPS revive herself an infinite amount of times. I don't know if it was stated that Sphene herself needs soul to keep herself immortal. We know the regular citizens of Alexandria do need souls because death is a controlled concept in Alexandria; therefore, if anyone dies by a reason outside natural death, then that person will have a spare soul to revive themselves. I don't think that was the case with Sphene since she was an endless(an upgraded version)
I think the fact we got Robot Otis and Endless Otis was a big big hint to something in the future. The memories are just data at this point. They can be recovered, updated, etc.
I havent finished the entire video yet, so maybe this is mentioned. But at an encounter or conversation with Sphene, she makes a sudden personality change. Which made me wonder if Sphene isnt Sphene, but that her memories are used by someone else EDIT: This encounter mentioned at 7:44
....or the crown contains the actual soul of Shpene with memories intact and just need a corporeal body which we could totally get for her from Garlemald scientists.
One problem with this theory about the crown, is that Azem's seat glyph is known. It can even be seen in game back as far as the Scion Traveler's Mask, where it is part of the bit that covers the face, albeit possibly upside down. That being said, one could bend the crown in such a way as to resemble it I suppose. But it's not, as pictured, the glyph of Azem.
I took Sphene being from the Twelfth Shard before its destruction from Lightning during the Second Umbral Calamity or Calamity of Lightning! The Ninth still exists as far as we know!
The only problems with this, is that the 12th shard was rejoined 5000+ years ago, before the calamity of ice. But the Milala only travelled to Alexandria's shard after the calamity of ice. So it being the 12th requires some kind of time travel, which hasn't been implied and would probably be too much time shenanigans after the Crustal Tower and Elpis. Also it seems as though Living Memory still exists on a living shard, as if it wasn't rejoined and somewhat recovered after it's own lightning calamity.
We know they attached Otis's full soul including memories to the robot. And they also had an endless version of him. What if they attached original Sphene to the crown in the same way?
I think the crystal inside the Key is the one from that Hythlodaeus story, but I don't think the crown has any relation to Azem. We see four Ancient glyphs on the walls of the Millala museum- one of which matches the design (which they've never explained) on the Scion Traveler's Mask. I think that's Azem's, and it looks nothing like the crown. Though the crown could very well be another Ancient or Ascian glyph. In Alexandria (the dungeon), a background NPC says "They've done it! They've preserved the queen's..." I wonder if they had all they needed to create an Endless of the full Sphene, but suppressed her in favor of the re-creation of memory that we meet. Perhaps they could control it? Or they knew the real Sphene wouldn't have been on board with the whole genocide plan. Think of Otis, there were two Otis' existing concurrently, but the one in LM was a memory re-creation like Sphene, with the "real" soul in the robot. Could the real Sphene's soul be trapped in that crown, seeing everything around her, unable to do aught but watch?
I don’t think Azem would settle at being a ruler. But, they would help a just ruler that encourages “living life to the fullest” Now, if you told me zidane was an Azem shard, that would track. And a Zidane figure would help a stone queen…
I kno its not exact one for one, but if you turn the Legacy Tattoo upside down, squish it a little and squint it does slightly look a little like the same shape as the crown, but not really lol
I'm not sure I vibe with the Sphene as a shard of Azem theory. I think the game went through great lengths to get us to compare and contrast Sphene with Wuk Lamat, even so much as giving them identical eyes. They even do a forceful case of "Look, shards of people are a thing!" (The trolley gang) right before introducing us to Sphene to put us in that mindset. And the next several hours are just her and Wuk Lamat realizing how similar yet different they are from one another.
she sounds like an ascian. she talks almost if she knew something about azem. but in general the electrope stuff just makes them sound like ascian in their prime and their ability to revive.
Music a bit too loud Bro Imo for better understanding, checking other languages than English would be useful because of how much the English localisation changes entire sentences and nuances unlike French and German that are direct translations to Japanese
You need to watch the dollhouse TV series to understand living memory. Sphene is a doll. Her original memories and maybe soul are stored in that crown and we will need to acquire it eventually.
I said from the beginning that this is the 9th reflection, because it was played in ff9 just like the first reflection casually dropped THE warrior of light from ff1
Looking at the tweet re: the ninth, I don't think that's a solid confirmation. The *interviewer* said that they asked if she was from the ninth. Yoshi just urged them to imagine various possibilities to look forward to and then the quote mentioned afterwards where only the crown, Sphene as we saw her in 7.0, and discussions are mentioned. To me, this looks like he side-stepped that question if that is in fact exactly how the interviewer worded it. No confirmation on the ninth.
Maybe the original is in some type of stasis in the crown or being channeled and used for an alternate goal. Like minfilia getting used in shadowbringers.
Shot in the dark but figured I'd post this: If you look at the crown upside down, the top part that has now become the bottom, looking upward resembles the olden glyphs from ShB of how Hydaelin and Zodiark were drawn, same as their minions that were released. As of the moment, I am finding more design similarity with that than the sigils for the rest of the crown. The type of curvature and giant blobs just aren't there in the normal sigil designs. Under this assumption, if this is a visual representation of some form of Primal as what Hydaelin and Zodiark were, the question is what is the rest of the crown. The "new" top half "could" be interpreted as the Primal bottom visually fused to some other figure in that drawing style, some figure or person with a yellow diamond top and giant wings. The wings section oddly resemble Necron from ff9 moreso than the primals we know since they have traditional repeating patterns instead of weird mechanical curves like Necron. Funny enough, there is a character that is defeated earlier in ff9, Trance Kuja, and upon defeat, there is a location transfer with the new location being a giant yellow/golden beam of light in a city before Necron comes on the screen. If you go back to the final boss cutscene, when Sphene is defeated, there is a giant swirling golden light sky view similar to this transition, which could be a color reference as well as the Azem swirl on the artifact which was used to travel to other locations. Robot Sphene's data when dissolving actually looks like it's going upward instead of disappearing like after Sphene talks to Wuk Lamat, and the background being that golden view with the swirl does not even show up in the boss until after Endless Sphene has forced her way back in. That giant swirl that the cutscene purposely pans to is never explained. Her crown also glows during this time period. Necron's philosophy also would match Sphene from what I found. Necron's creation: "In Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary Ultimania - File 1: Character Book, Necron is described as, "a being awakened by Kuja's fear, despair, and hatred, which called out to it as he learned of his mortality, just as his ambitions were within reach"." Describes Sphene after the final fight, especially after talking to Graha earlier in the story. Even the concept art for Hill of Despair where Necron is fought has the similar design style of those blobs and swirls of the crown overall.
I think there was some kind of mistranslation on the post. In the encyclopedia 3 there is a chart of all the reflections and which have been rejoined and which have not. including what the calamity was caused by. the ninth is solid. meaning it has not been rejoined. the one that was devastated by lighting is the 12th. it is much more likely they came from the 12th.
Did she die from the sickness, or from the event in Alexandria where she attempted to save people, but got caught in a blast..? I'm trying to recall where it was said she died from the Lightning sickness, however, I am so eager to see what is coming! More so with the possible little hint of Southern Gustaberg in the Interphos fight. it's a sort of blink and you'll miss it moment, but it seems one of the FF11 buildings from that area appears in the background during a part of the interdimensional sync and it's been making rounds on speculation forums.
Oh wow, I need to rewatch that fight if that's the case! To the best of my knowledge she died of that sickness like many others. She was onboard her airship during the Alexandria Dungeon and her ship was saved by one piloted by her knights when there was a shower of levin. I am 95% sure it was the sickness but I cant find the dialogue as of yet.
@@WyrmLimion I believe it's a line from Otis during the repast in Archeo Alexandria. "But sadly, her reign was cut short. Like many others, her body had been ravaged by lightning, and one day she collapsed and passed away..." I assumed it was levin sickness as well, but in hindsight it could be open to interpretation. I suppose she could have simply been struck by lightning and mortally wounded.
Also, anything to do with Preservation is immediately called into question for me. A few lines later Otis tells us that they extracted her soul while she was on her deathbed. I would not be surprised in the slightest to learn that she was totally fine, and Preservation created this narrative to give them an opportunity to replace her with something more "convenient". Perhaps her kindness to others was too much of a liability.
i know i'm going full conspiracy, but isn't 7.0 also the expansion where we can have separate eye ware? and we potentially may or may not be getting a crown OR a mask? HUMMMMMMMM
"Might I call upon your aid?" is like code for "yo I'm an Azem shard, want to be friends?" Thats exactly what Azem's power is - they call upon friends when they need them Great vid!
Dunno know about azem, but that crown does seem reminiscent of an ancient or ascian mask. And ascians convincing people to use advanced tech to get them to make a calamity happen is pretty much their whole shtick.
I have a theory: Maybe the real Sphene was Azem's reflection in the 9th, and that is why Azem's symbol appears in the final fight over the key. We all think that it resonated with our WoL summon crystal, but maybe it's just a coincidence and Sphene was the one that activated it, and then absorbs it. Or maybe she is just an ascian, as most believe. I also think what Sphene wanted to tell us about when we were alone was about Preservation, makes sense they would check on her with their robots, and that is why she stopped when a guard was around. I think Preservation will be a sort of villian organization moving forward as they had no remorse over using souls as a sort of product. Orogenics was a soul harvesting factory where they chop down the components of souls just so Alexandrians can use them for their own benefit, it's something that is wrong in so many levels, so we are gonna have a reason to why we should be afraid of them.
@@RomanticPhantom0 Yeah, I think the key is clearly something from Azem. I was just thinking that the memories of queen Sphene show that the real Sphene was a very kind individual, which is a common trend with the shards of Azem we have met, also failed their mission of saving their reflection like Ardbert and possibly the original Golbez (This last one isn't confirmed of course). It's just a theory I had. The key resonating with the summon crystal seems to be the more obvious conclusion, I just thought it was weird that after it activated it went inside Sphene in the final battle.
Something I've been insanely curious is the last 3rd of Alexandria, the dungeon Who else is talking beyond Sphene? I had imagined it could be any remaining members or Preservation, if they're still alive, but I really don't know, and wonder what everyone else thinks
If Sphene is really the Azem shard from the ninth, then wouldn’t the WOL’s soul be less dense than the others on the source (or at least would have been less dense until being joined by ardbert)? Wasn’t most of the ninth already rejoined with the source?
Based on the construction and the glow my first instinct is to say its allag technology. However there is that yellow jewel. We see these 2 colors present with one another in 1 situation. That being the alexandrian gear from the alexander raid. Im wondering if these things correlate in any way. I guess its a start.
My haunch is that it has to do with preservation's intentions. They sounded like a huge threat to Krile to where she was shipped off to a other world. Did they leave, die, or got "stored" somewhere?*
2 other things I like that you kick and scream about the Azems mask thing when that is the most baseless thing about the crown and 2) goddamn the music is drowning you out dude, you're almost impossible to hear at some points
The middle of Pashtarot's glyph. Flip it upside down.
It's very close to the crown, it has the same teardrop shape in the center with the sides curling up and around.
A friend told me on the weekend that he thinks that the fear of death S9 residents now feel will lead towards Necron manifesting itself somehow, either as a primal or as another kind of entity.
Maybe that will be the reason for the FF11 AR coming. Cuz that will feature chaos i believe. Maybe a manifestation of the S9 peoples newfound fear of death
Who's to say Necron hasn't already made an appearance? Queen Eternal looks veerrrrry similar. Not saying this means Necron/Eternal Darkness won't come back up, but I think it's already there.
WOL: "Ah shit, here we go again".
Actually a point, can a primal be accidentally summoned if a ritual wasn't already in progress?
We know tempering was a deliberately taught step, and summoning was an actual ritual of creation magic. The only spontaneous summoning I can think of was in Hildebrand (or questionable canon)
~Rogue Titan was a ritual in progress thrown off kilter
~Susano was technically a Kami manifestation, not a normal primal
@@Techstriker1 Well, it will be interesting how the game takes us there if if happens, maybe will be the plan of the baddie in turn or some S9 people will start a cult or something.
@@sifferino She does, in fact, but I don't think they'll just ignore Necron himself and his theme, but who knows, characters like Ultimecia and Emperor Mateus were sorta "ignored" in where they should've probably been featured (Eden and Pandemonium).
Pashtarot - Conservator of Order and Collective Will
Conserving order and collective will sounds a lot like what Sphene was doing. Keeping copies of people around in a world designed for them that never changes is pretty much the definition of "conserving order and collective will"
When interacting with NPCs I believe one of them mentions Sphene's crown or equipment are widely considered to be special storage devices. First generation endless are separate from the system and have both soul and memories intact. Therefore, where is the first generation Sphene? She must exist because the same process used to preserve Ottis was used on her. We know she was converted to an endless before Everkeep was finished. Therefore, she predates living memory.
Maybe they have already "fixed" that over the many years
From what I recall she died well before living memory became a thing. The project was partially an attempt to recreate her. The Sphene we met was never the original queen Sphene. Just a cruel joke of a copy.
when she glitched out the end sounds like might i call for you to save me, last words sound like save me or save them
dont think sphene is a shard. when an azem shard appears in msq its usually made known. also if this is azems mask this is the mask of the original owner. i do agree this is a mask or something thats been made into a crown thats really well spotted. but i think if it was his mask it would have reacted to us the way the key did
It would be VERY significant if it had to do with Azem in the slightest. We see it in shadowbringers expansion AND the patches. Emet selch seeing azem in us.
We receiving azems crystal.
We using azems power to call in warriors (or perhaps even reflections of ourself from other shards) to help fight battles.
Their emphasis on the crown and portal key does make me somewhat belief this is very significant. Wether it be ascian related or azem related is yet to be seen. But the whole azem thing sorta came outa nowhere in shadowbringers. There were indicators all over that we were special for sure. But i dont think it has ever linked us to azem in the slightest until shadowbringers where they revealed us to be a shard of the 14th member.
I like to think that she's not dead but on the brink of death and the crown is keeping her alive in a form of stasis until a cure for her illness is found.
When the crown is shown after the credits, it is pulsating. If you go back to cutscenes where we speak to Sphene you will nptice the crown is pulsating then too. The question is: does the crown pulsate in the presence of anyone or only the warrior of light who is a shard of Azem? This would be a crucial clue in uncovering the relationship between the queens' crown and Azem. Now to find a cutscene where the crown is pulsating at a time when the warrior of light is not present.
I prefer the theory that the crown is an experimental regulator from the time of the calamity that might store the original sphene's soul.
In terms of character shards, Sphene feels way more like she'd share a soul with Wuk Lamat than Azem. In my mind, caring for people while being a wandering adventurer is pretty different to ruling a nation and caring for those people, it's pretty much the whole difference between Azem as the traveller and the rest of the convocation. And because we've had so much contact with ancients and ascians who magically reproduce their mask, it doesn't make sense to me that they also had physical versions that have just never come up before.
Your background music's a bit too loud I think..
26:10 Was our investigative lightbulb moment about what the Crown is.
Background music is too loud relative to your voice
I think the crystal might be a creation of Azem's and that's why it resonated with our crystal, but all of the rest of the tech around it is Alexandrian.
I think the crown's thing is more literal than we think it is.
At one point, one Alexandrian citizen (I think in Outskirts) mentions that Sphene's crown functions as a regulator, specially made for her. This was of course forgotten in the wake of the reveal that Sphene was an ai, and probably this comment was a guess on the citizen's part, but perhaps that train of thought wasn't entirely wrong. Perhaps the Real Sphene still exists to some capacity within the crown.
Yeah, I suspect that the crown simply holds the soul, or at least the memories, of the original Sphene. My hypothesis is that it isn't entirely technological/electrope based and works similarly to the vessels developed by the Crystal Exarch and Beq Lugg. If Sphene IS an Ascian shard I'm wondering if it may even be made out of somethin akin to white auracite.
When Sphene was trying to tell us something though, while we were meant to suspect Zoraal Ja's interference at the time, I'm now wondering if she was afraid of Preservation overhearing. For all their attempts they still hadn't properly figured out how The Key worked properly which led to the botched fusion of shards. I'm wondering if they used the Endless technology on themselves to continue calculating the data on dimensional fusion in the background while Sphene made occasional forays into what remained of their shard and then possibly other shards to gain enough aether to sustain Living Memory. Sphene's compassionate nature, which lived on in her copy, probably only took what aether was absolutely necessary because she personally was against the plan but she couldn't fight the programming implanted by Preservation, and with more people dying and needing to be stored the aether demand was becoming too great. Meeting the REAL Sphene might allow us to learn more about what's going on and learn what she really wants, which probably includes defeating Preservation. As a wild guess, given the descriptions Wyrm read out about the Convocation I suspect Preservation took inspiration (if not direct control) from Deudephalon.
I could see the original sphene to turn into necron, it could be she was preserved against her will and simply wants it to end. After all, are we really going to gloss over the fact robot Otis flat out said something along the lines of "She gave into despair near the end". This means near the end, she was no longer the happy/caring Queen she was, and I could see the original Sphene potentially even seeing modern Alexandria as a mockery of her own. So many directions this could take.
Also, we know there was a monument to her, Otis said they built one, but never said where it was. It could be under the original castle, where Sphenes original body could be.
Ok in any case, let me throw my theory: the people of Alexandria didnt account for a problem happening when too much prayer happens in the presence of high levels of aether: Primals. Usually, we need crystals because they have powerful amount of elemental aether; but these people were surrounded by a dome of thunder element, and a thunder calamity. It is entirely possible they just prayed too much and Sphene is, in fact, an primal of thunder aespect. Electrope works by transforming thunder aether to any other type of aether, so a thunder aespected primal in this situation would be all mighty. And the prayers? A cult centered on her: Preservation. If they still exists, and they keep praying, Sphene will be back. One final thought: Sphene's crown might have the same mechanism than Odin's blade: it would be used to take control on a new Vessel for such primal. She is just a primal under this theory, BUT the origin of the crown its as unknown as Odin's blade at this time.
People are getting overzealous with the Azem Shard possibility, like it was Zero then Golbez, and now Sphene? Not everyone as to to be tied to Azem
If you're talking about the true Golbez, not his friend Durante, I think that's still a very popular belief that they were an Azem shard. Being unusually powerful, not speaking, and also seeing the memory from Golbez's POV (a very rare point of view for echoes/memories), there's certainly more there to believe than some other proposed characters. But Sphene being a shard would piss me off, because she was such a nonsensical character.
Pretty sure the OG Golbez actually is Azem's shard. It was implied so blatantly in Baron Moon dungeon.
If its been over 400 years, maybe the OG soul of Sphene has been reborn already? On the 9th presumably if she died before the soul system was up and working.
The crown resembles more a specific part of the Pashtarot glyph then anything Azem related. Then Pashtarot was given the title of the preserver of discipline and order and he was mentioned from Emet-Selch when Hermes was talking about Kairos, the memory reconfiguration system used in Elpis. And now we have something similiar to Kairos. Kairos was able to delete memorys and reconfigure them and its very very similiar to the whole memory system of the alexandrians. Maybe Pashtarot build something new off Kairos? I mean ... Yoshi P said we were done with the hydaelyn/zodiark arc but not with the ascians. To me it makes no sense for the game to give us two Azem-related McGuffins: The key and the crown.
Depends a bit what they do with it if it IS azem related.
Though i lean towards ur theory. Emet selch sofar has foreshadowed Dawntrail with the golden city as well as alzadaal's legacy wich triggered the whole golbez/Zero arc.
It wudn't be past the devs to link that 1 line about pashtarot to this.
We've seen time travel and time shenanigans before in alexander, the tycoon and the crystal tower.
So its not far fetched that an ascian shard could get her people to develop mond wiping twchnology based on memories of kairos. Less potent then kairos but still effective on smaller scale.
Like how emet selch created the allagan and garlean empire.
@@cherrydragon3120 If Sphene is a Azem shard would she not contradict everything Azem stands for? Azem left the convocation because Azem despised the thought of sacrificing life to save other life. Azems hold every life in high regard no matter how incomplete or inferior it may be. But the whole Alexandrian stuff is based on sacrificing life to save other life. To keep the status quo no matter the cost. Azem, even as a fraction of its former self, would never wipe out a whole star just to save a handful of people. Thats why i think the crown or Sphene is in no way related to Azem because it is hinted ingame that the crown somehow controls sphenes action. A lot of Sphenes clothing design resembles parts of the pashtarot glyph. Like someone had disassembled the glyph and made it into clothing accessory. Then the title pashtarot had was 'preserver of discipline and order' and we have a group that called himself 'preservation'. So for me there are far more hints to pashtarot, then to azem. we have to wait to find out ^^
I have held that Sphene is a shard of Azem. I think the crown isn't an artifact from Azem but instead made of Auricite, amplifying her will to protect her people no matter the cost. I can remember who, I think it was StoutHelm, but someone came up with the theory that Ultima is our next big bad, and I am inclined to agree
Oh come on ! Ultima ? Seriously ? They just cant pace the story anymore ulitma is supposed to be THE bad guy. Not a patch day bad guy like zeroumus. Fucking writing has become trash of this is the case.
@@leighg9othe stout helm theory is in reference to the next 10y villain so save your histrionics.
@@leighg9o that's an extremely big reaction to a THEORY.
@@RomanticPhantom0 Ultima the High Seraph is a extra dimensional creature that may potentially exist across all 14 shards as she was present in the World Unsundered
@@RomanticPhantom0 and Pandaemonium was to stop Athena from becoming a god, using the Heart of Sabik (an Auricite shard FROM Ultima). Which is now in the possession of Claudien. AND we know that the Ultimate fought in the Ivalice raids was a primal summoned in the image of the actual Ultima who still slumbers in her weakening prison
Well it’s said her crown is a “special” regulator, the crown on her projection is not the physical crown, the physical crown is elsewhere, if I were to give you my piece about her crown it holds backups of her consciousness. That’s what makes it special. Also we kind of have an idea about what the Azem glyph should look like, it’s on the scion traveler’s mask it couldn’t be more on the nose than the Traveler’s set having the glyph right on your face. So while there is probably some way some how that sphene is a shard of Azem I personally would opt that she is not for now. If her crown is somehow the true symbol of Azem, why wasn’t it on the Scion travelers set? Why has it no resemblance to anything about ardbert or the real golbez? It’s a nice theory, but it’s so far removed from explicit material regarding every other shard of Azem.
I would like to add something that is always looked over as I watch the video and reading comments and that is sphene's soul. We know Otis in the robot body is his soul and memories and memories are part of the soul but seems like from the unlost world memories can be replicated without removing from the soul so if the crown is an old regulator then its possible it contains sphene's soul and possibly memories as well plus in the Alexandria dungeon it sound like they say soul but hard to hear do to deletion/corruption of the memory. I could be very wrong but felt I needed to add this bit of info
Sphene is their shards version of Minfilia
holy shit im good, 14 mins
im so hyped
Take a look at the legacy tatoo from 1.0, wich is supposed to be Azem's mask symbol. The crown has some kind of resemblance to it if you take a really close look.
Pashtarot's Mask is what I'm guessing. Not Azem's. I do agree with you, Sphene (original) is a sundered ancient, the question is which one. Azem and the key are a source lore thing. Sphene is a shard, not related to the key. Think of what Emet Selch/Hades did for Garlean, put a spin on it's head instead and make Sphene into an Ascian who matured a shard and decided to maintain her people till it was the right time.
The crown was hinted to be a more advanced version of the regulators. This means the original Sphene memories are inside the crown and she can PERHAPS revive herself an infinite amount of times. I don't know if it was stated that Sphene herself needs soul to keep herself immortal. We know the regular citizens of Alexandria do need souls because death is a controlled concept in Alexandria; therefore, if anyone dies by a reason outside natural death, then that person will have a spare soul to revive themselves. I don't think that was the case with Sphene since she was an endless(an upgraded version)
Sphene being the Azem shard on the Ninth would be INSANE and I would live for it.....hopefully we can reconstitute with whatever data is leftover
I think the fact we got Robot Otis and Endless Otis was a big big hint to something in the future. The memories are just data at this point. They can be recovered, updated, etc.
I havent finished the entire video yet, so maybe this is mentioned.
But at an encounter or conversation with Sphene, she makes a sudden personality change. Which made me wonder if Sphene isnt Sphene, but that her memories are used by someone else
EDIT: This encounter mentioned at 7:44
I am calling it right now: the crown is a data device with a secret backup of the benevolent queen which will eventually be restored.
....or the crown contains the actual soul of Shpene with memories intact and just need a corporeal body which we could totally get for her from Garlemald scientists.
One problem with this theory about the crown, is that Azem's seat glyph is known. It can even be seen in game back as far as the Scion Traveler's Mask, where it is part of the bit that covers the face, albeit possibly upside down. That being said, one could bend the crown in such a way as to resemble it I suppose. But it's not, as pictured, the glyph of Azem.
@@RomanticPhantom0 the symbol from the traveler mask is also in the summoning glyph from the crystal of azem
That's just a headcanon we don't know anything about Azem
@@RomanticPhantom0 Tataru is more than she seems confirmed. And she already seems like the biggest Threat hiding in plain sight
I took Sphene being from the Twelfth Shard before its destruction from Lightning during the Second Umbral Calamity or Calamity of Lightning! The Ninth still exists as far as we know!
The only problems with this, is that the 12th shard was rejoined 5000+ years ago, before the calamity of ice. But the Milala only travelled to Alexandria's shard after the calamity of ice. So it being the 12th requires some kind of time travel, which hasn't been implied and would probably be too much time shenanigans after the Crustal Tower and Elpis.
Also it seems as though Living Memory still exists on a living shard, as if it wasn't rejoined and somewhat recovered after it's own lightning calamity.
I think the crystal that Hythlodaeus mentions in the Tales of Dawn is the Key, not the crown.
We know they attached Otis's full soul including memories to the robot. And they also had an endless version of him. What if they attached original Sphene to the crown in the same way?
I think the crystal inside the Key is the one from that Hythlodaeus story, but I don't think the crown has any relation to Azem. We see four Ancient glyphs on the walls of the Millala museum- one of which matches the design (which they've never explained) on the Scion Traveler's Mask. I think that's Azem's, and it looks nothing like the crown. Though the crown could very well be another Ancient or Ascian glyph.
In Alexandria (the dungeon), a background NPC says "They've done it! They've preserved the queen's..." I wonder if they had all they needed to create an Endless of the full Sphene, but suppressed her in favor of the re-creation of memory that we meet. Perhaps they could control it? Or they knew the real Sphene wouldn't have been on board with the whole genocide plan. Think of Otis, there were two Otis' existing concurrently, but the one in LM was a memory re-creation like Sphene, with the "real" soul in the robot. Could the real Sphene's soul be trapped in that crown, seeing everything around her, unable to do aught but watch?
I don’t think Azem would settle at being a ruler. But, they would help a just ruler that encourages “living life to the fullest”
Now, if you told me zidane was an Azem shard, that would track. And a Zidane figure would help a stone queen…
I fully believe Preservation will return as the post content antagonists and Sphene's crown will play a role in the future.
I honestly don't think sphene is dead. That the crown has a back up of her in it.
But with using what you've said I believe that it houses the original sphene and that may have something to do with azem
I kno its not exact one for one, but if you turn the Legacy Tattoo upside down, squish it a little and squint it does slightly look a little like the same shape as the crown, but not really lol
I'm not sure I vibe with the Sphene as a shard of Azem theory. I think the game went through great lengths to get us to compare and contrast Sphene with Wuk Lamat, even so much as giving them identical eyes. They even do a forceful case of "Look, shards of people are a thing!" (The trolley gang) right before introducing us to Sphene to put us in that mindset. And the next several hours are just her and Wuk Lamat realizing how similar yet different they are from one another.
she sounds like an ascian. she talks almost if she knew something about azem. but in general the electrope stuff just makes them sound like ascian in their prime and their ability to revive.
Music a bit too loud Bro
Imo for better understanding, checking other languages than English would be useful because of how much the English localisation changes entire sentences and nuances unlike French and German that are direct translations to Japanese
You need to watch the dollhouse TV series to understand living memory. Sphene is a doll. Her original memories and maybe soul are stored in that crown and we will need to acquire it eventually.
I said from the beginning that this is the 9th reflection, because it was played in ff9 just like the first reflection casually dropped THE warrior of light from ff1
Looking at the tweet re: the ninth, I don't think that's a solid confirmation. The *interviewer* said that they asked if she was from the ninth. Yoshi just urged them to imagine various possibilities to look forward to and then the quote mentioned afterwards where only the crown, Sphene as we saw her in 7.0, and discussions are mentioned. To me, this looks like he side-stepped that question if that is in fact exactly how the interviewer worded it. No confirmation on the ninth.
Maybe the original is in some type of stasis in the crown or being channeled and used for an alternate goal. Like minfilia getting used in shadowbringers.
Shot in the dark but figured I'd post this:
If you look at the crown upside down, the top part that has now become the bottom, looking upward resembles the olden glyphs from ShB of how Hydaelin and Zodiark were drawn, same as their minions that were released. As of the moment, I am finding more design similarity with that than the sigils for the rest of the crown. The type of curvature and giant blobs just aren't there in the normal sigil designs. Under this assumption, if this is a visual representation of some form of Primal as what Hydaelin and Zodiark were, the question is what is the rest of the crown. The "new" top half "could" be interpreted as the Primal bottom visually fused to some other figure in that drawing style, some figure or person with a yellow diamond top and giant wings. The wings section oddly resemble Necron from ff9 moreso than the primals we know since they have traditional repeating patterns instead of weird mechanical curves like Necron. Funny enough, there is a character that is defeated earlier in ff9, Trance Kuja, and upon defeat, there is a location transfer with the new location being a giant yellow/golden beam of light in a city before Necron comes on the screen. If you go back to the final boss cutscene, when Sphene is defeated, there is a giant swirling golden light sky view similar to this transition, which could be a color reference as well as the Azem swirl on the artifact which was used to travel to other locations. Robot Sphene's data when dissolving actually looks like it's going upward instead of disappearing like after Sphene talks to Wuk Lamat, and the background being that golden view with the swirl does not even show up in the boss until after Endless Sphene has forced her way back in. That giant swirl that the cutscene purposely pans to is never explained. Her crown also glows during this time period. Necron's philosophy also would match Sphene from what I found.
Necron's creation: "In Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary Ultimania - File 1: Character Book, Necron is described as, "a being awakened by Kuja's fear, despair, and hatred, which called out to it as he learned of his mortality, just as his ambitions were within reach"." Describes Sphene after the final fight, especially after talking to Graha earlier in the story.
Even the concept art for Hill of Despair where Necron is fought has the similar design style of those blobs and swirls of the crown overall.
I think there was some kind of mistranslation on the post. In the encyclopedia 3 there is a chart of all the reflections and which have been rejoined and which have not. including what the calamity was caused by. the ninth is solid. meaning it has not been rejoined. the one that was devastated by lighting is the 12th. it is much more likely they came from the 12th.
Maybe we'll have a little bit of answers with sphene extreme release
The crown is vaguely, very vaguely, evocative of the heart motif Azem's sigil seems to have included.
Did she die from the sickness, or from the event in Alexandria where she attempted to save people, but got caught in a blast..? I'm trying to recall where it was said she died from the Lightning sickness, however, I am so eager to see what is coming! More so with the possible little hint of Southern Gustaberg in the Interphos fight. it's a sort of blink and you'll miss it moment, but it seems one of the FF11 buildings from that area appears in the background during a part of the interdimensional sync and it's been making rounds on speculation forums.
Oh wow, I need to rewatch that fight if that's the case!
To the best of my knowledge she died of that sickness like many others.
She was onboard her airship during the Alexandria Dungeon and her ship was saved by one piloted by her knights when there was a shower of levin.
I am 95% sure it was the sickness but I cant find the dialogue as of yet.
She died from lightning covid. Something we can cure now with the tempering cure as long as their body doesn't transform.
@@WyrmLimion I believe it's a line from Otis during the repast in Archeo Alexandria.
"But sadly, her reign was cut short. Like many others, her body had been ravaged by lightning, and one day she collapsed and passed away..."
I assumed it was levin sickness as well, but in hindsight it could be open to interpretation. I suppose she could have simply been struck by lightning and mortally wounded.
Also, anything to do with Preservation is immediately called into question for me. A few lines later Otis tells us that they extracted her soul while she was on her deathbed. I would not be surprised in the slightest to learn that she was totally fine, and Preservation created this narrative to give them an opportunity to replace her with something more "convenient". Perhaps her kindness to others was too much of a liability.
Can you point me in the direction of these theories?
i know i'm going full conspiracy, but isn't 7.0 also the expansion where we can have separate eye ware? and we potentially may or may not be getting a crown OR a mask? HUMMMMMMMM
"Might I call upon your aid?" is like code for "yo I'm an Azem shard, want to be friends?"
Thats exactly what Azem's power is - they call upon friends when they need them
Great vid!
Dunno know about azem, but that crown does seem reminiscent of an ancient or ascian mask. And ascians convincing people to use advanced tech to get them to make a calamity happen is pretty much their whole shtick.
I have a theory: Maybe the real Sphene was Azem's reflection in the 9th, and that is why Azem's symbol appears in the final fight over the key. We all think that it resonated with our WoL summon crystal, but maybe it's just a coincidence and Sphene was the one that activated it, and then absorbs it. Or maybe she is just an ascian, as most believe.
I also think what Sphene wanted to tell us about when we were alone was about Preservation, makes sense they would check on her with their robots, and that is why she stopped when a guard was around. I think Preservation will be a sort of villian organization moving forward as they had no remorse over using souls as a sort of product. Orogenics was a soul harvesting factory where they chop down the components of souls just so Alexandrians can use them for their own benefit, it's something that is wrong in so many levels, so we are gonna have a reason to why we should be afraid of them.
Ok, finished the video. You also had the same conclusions haha.
@@RomanticPhantom0 Yeah, I think the key is clearly something from Azem. I was just thinking that the memories of queen Sphene show that the real Sphene was a very kind individual, which is a common trend with the shards of Azem we have met, also failed their mission of saving their reflection like Ardbert and possibly the original Golbez (This last one isn't confirmed of course). It's just a theory I had.
The key resonating with the summon crystal seems to be the more obvious conclusion, I just thought it was weird that after it activated it went inside Sphene in the final battle.
Also think of how Zero might feature are return aswell
No, that wouldn't be Azem's mask. His mask was black.
It could be that's an important artifact of Azem's, but that's it.
Something I've been insanely curious is the last 3rd of Alexandria, the dungeon
Who else is talking beyond Sphene? I had imagined it could be any remaining members or Preservation, if they're still alive, but I really don't know, and wonder what everyone else thinks
the armband from the endwalker Theophany Set has a same little heart as sphenes crown on it
If Sphene is really the Azem shard from the ninth, then wouldn’t the WOL’s soul be less dense than the others on the source (or at least would have been less dense until being joined by ardbert)? Wasn’t most of the ninth already rejoined with the source?
The rejoined shards are 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12.
The WoLs soul was the same density as everyone else on the source until they merged with Ardbert
Now they’re 8 times rejoined and a denser soul
Based on the construction and the glow my first instinct is to say its allag technology. However there is that yellow jewel. We see these 2 colors present with one another in 1 situation. That being the alexandrian gear from the alexander raid. Im wondering if these things correlate in any way. I guess its a start.
Its the new mentor crown 😂
I think in the trial fight she is using the key to connect to the other shards and stealing some of their aether.
My haunch is that it has to do with preservation's intentions. They sounded like a huge threat to Krile to where she was shipped off to a other world. Did they leave, die, or got "stored" somewhere?*
hello I'm from future:
crown= ascian thing stuff
And Sphene is Glamoured Zenos
Means:
Story is about Zenos, a Ascian in Body of Sphene :D
As long as I am reunited with my queen somehow!
Jk but I'm still cooking, its super interesting for sure
It was the evil Milala. The crown is probably in the raid series. Ultimate transformation limit break
Rude, we are saints.
Is it just me, or does her robot form resemble Ultima?
It's AI Sphene.
We have seen Azem's mask before though. They had a black mask unlike others who had red masks.
2 other things
I like that you kick and scream about the Azems mask thing when that is the most baseless thing about the crown and 2) goddamn the music is drowning you out dude, you're almost impossible to hear at some points
lol this new writing team is just gona f everything up. no confidence at all!
maybe vanat is trolling use on 7.x LOL ...
Wuk: SPHEHEHEHEJEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNEEEEE!!!!
kween sfeen