The Key & Azem - FFXIV Lore Theory 

We know how Azem stopped the volcano. He used Lahabrea's Ifrita template to absorb the fire aspected aether and then destroyed Ifrita at another place so the fire aspected aether could disperse without issue. Azem did borrow the template by asking hythlodaeus instead of the convocation which annoyed Emet-Selch

I'm convinced that the crystal in 'The Key' is the one from the Tales from the Dawn short story: Days Gone By, Days Yet to Come. Hythlodaeus "marveled at the way the light played on its facets, like the surface of a tranquil lake..." It's otherwise described as the "fourteenth in [a] series of concepts to help ease the burdens of travel, which was contained within the palm-sized crystal." It couldn't be the Azem crystal that the WoL has, as that was created by Emet-Selch after the Sundering. And notably, Azem "forgets" this new crystal in Hythlodaeus' office, with Azem leaving on a new adventure (after the events in Elpis) before Hythlodaeus can return the crystal to them. So as far as we know currently, this crystal is last known to be in Hythlodaeus' possession prior to the Sundering. So, we have a palm-sized crystal created by Azem to "ease the burdens of travel" that is MIA as of the Sundering, and was mentioned in the last Endwalker short story to be posted before Dawntrail, where we have a palm-sized crystal that resonates with Azem's magick, which can enable travel between shards.

Emet-Selch planned, no, ENGINEERED THIS. He know about the key, the shard that Alexandria resided on, its connection to Tural, and the Tuliyollal’s soon to be power vacuum, all of it. He would’ve have pointed the WoL to go here otherwise. And the key is just the beginning, he wants to show us something, something bigger and more important

My main question regarding Danwtrail as why in the Seven Hells did we not call Garlond Ironworks when robots and ships started showing up!?!? I know it's partly for plot reasons to prevent Cid and Nero from inventing something to solve the issue and stop Sphene from going through with her plan, but Cid is going to go upside our head for not calling him sooner.

The key, or rather, the crystal inside of the key, may likely be a piece of Auracite. Golden Auracite, if you will. It resembles one of those massive archives you see in Anamnesis Anyder or the White Auracite Urianger and Moenbryda made to kill Ascians, but it's twisted into a spiral.

First thought that came to mind when you commented about Elidibus waiting for us because Azem told'm to was sort of the opposite of the maybe Azem went forward in time. What if it's the other way around? What if we *become* Azem? Through some means or another, probably not even intentionally, gather and merge with all of our shards, then go back in time to become Venat's protege. Probably where our playable story ends, as we know the eventual outcome is being sundered, so something like that would be more like the final closing act of the game. But it was an interesting thought

Something else I noticed, and someone correct me if I am wrong, but the key never actually activates unless the WoL is present. It can be there, shown in cutscenes and inert, but it doesn't actually do it's thing outside of the WoL's/Azem's presence. You can will it to transport you all day but it won't do anything like the Milala tried to do to go back to The Source. Suggesting that a shard of Azem may have been present when they fled the calamity of ice.

Re: Leaping into the volcano, I believe that’s in reference to one of the official short stories; where Elidibus, playing innocent, appeals to Emet-Selch’s sentimentality to acquire (retroactive) permission for Azem stealing the concept of Ifreeta(?), a fire concept; suggesting they manifested the aether of the eruption /to fight the volcano/. For the sake of saving a species of grapes.

I think a clue to how to figure out the function of the key might lie in Hydaelyn’s final moments with us. "When the way forward is hidden even from the mind's eye, look not to the invocation, but within yourself. These were the words of the crystal's original bearer." That might hold a clue to how the key works and it should in theory respond in a similar way to Azem’s summoning magic. We have been told in game interdimensional fusion shares similarities to that very same magic by G’raha Tia. My theory was the key was never intended for combining worlds but merely travel. Circumstantial evidence leads me to believe it is capable of crossing beyond worlds and distance due to our crystal able to do its job despite great distance or other reflections. Only catch is that it doesn’t work in other time periods. My theory is it works by establishing a connection point between two locations and allows the user to open a gate of whatever size given how much power is fed into it. I think Preservation used this trait to make interdimensional fusion happen by only partially using this trait of the key and collapsing the travel points together. They could only ever use it crudely and never found out the full potential.

So, something popped out at me when I was rewatching ending cutscenes for the base expansion: Erenville mentions, "It remains to be seen how interdimensional fusion affected other reflections. Krile's parents spoke of the power's capacity for both good and evil. I cannot help but wonder how Sphene's deeds will be remembered by those they touched." I think they may have activated it in the gap of time between Zoraal Ja getting the Key and the fusion to the Source happening. Time dilation was TOTALLY a thing, as 30 years passed by in day (rough comparison), so more than enough time had passed, for them anyways, to attempt a fusion prior to the one with the Source. Also, where is Preservation???? And WHO is Preservation? Like I know generally who they are and what they do, but they gotta still be around, watching from the shadows......like Ascians. lol

See I figured the Key is the beacon or 'node' that connects different shards, and that's how we're able to summon allies from everywhere with azems stone. Basically even without us having the key, whenever we used Azems stone to summon allies in the past the key activated on its own to facilitate it.

When the key isn't glowing orange, doesn't the crystal inside look similar in texture to white auracite?

I think the more simple answer is the Key was made by Emet studying Azem's teleportation magic (he had to have some knowledge of it given it's embedded in the stone) and it was his original plan to rejoin the worlds, via interdimensional fusion but saw it as a flawed method.

I don't think Azem time travels. I think the reason they knew about the Warrior of Light coming back to Elpis was because Venat told them about her adventure with the player character. They knew the player visited before and likely knew they would come back because of the shenanigans in Pandemonium. I also think that the reason Azem didn't side with Venat in the Final Days was because she also told them of what would be needed for the Warrior of Light to be born and stop the Final Days in the future. So they sacrificed themselves in order to make it happen. My key to this is "FLOW", the lyrics are sung from Venat's perspective and if she knew the ultimate outcome, that I have zero doubt in my mind Azem would tell her if they knew, she would not be crying every time Azem rises from the Aetherial Sea to be reborn and die.

My guess is that Azem was going to help with Pandæmonium, but through the Echo saw us descending from the heavens like a shooting star(their words), and decided to stay out of it. We’ve seen the Echo show powers of foresight and precognition, separate from seeing the past from another’s perspective. Lore wise, the Echo is how we dodge AoE’s in fights. So I’d say it’d be safe to assume that Azim’s power of the Echo was more powerful than others.

Nomura has touched the writer's room. In kingdom hearts 3 the repeating phrase is "May your heart be your guiding key", essentially travel between the worlds is guided by your heart's yearning. In this situation why did the lalas go to that shard at that time? Because they had regrets about being unable to save thier home. The heart calling is also how combat buddies teleporting in works in kh3. (Look up riku summoning sora in the world of darkness)

Maybe the key was made as an alternative to rejoinings, Etherys have to eventually return to being whole once the Final Days crisis truly ended, and dimensional fusion could be a way to "rejoin" etherys shards without destroying these shards and their population. Another thing that bother me is that, i feel the "golden city" gate at sky deep cenote is not made by alexandrians, and maybe it was more "hijacked" by them by Dimensional Fusion when Galuf was investigating it, Yak Tel was struck by meteors in the past and probably leading to the creation of the cenotes in the region, and meteorites were the method of traveling between "dimensions" in FFV, the game were FF14 took reference for the concept of Sundering, Dimensional Fusion, Galuf and Ronkan

Considering Azem's mysterious foresight, it might be the effect of Echo, since it can also grant visions of the future, that is 100% will happen, as we've seen with Bozja story. Only Ancients could invoke it at will and much clearer, so Azem could've foreseen what needs to happen, so he dropped the key at Hythlodaeus, didn't help with summoning of the Hydaelin and al l other stuff.

Soooo. My theory. Azem is the true name of the Master of Masters from Kingdom Hearts. He is currently dealing with that issue and will be working with Soar and Rikku before returning to be sundered. Which is why we will soon run into Sora in FFXIV. :)

I am fully convinced Azem is going to be a penultimate and final boss either for an expansion or for the entirety of the game itself. Simply because of their name in and of itself. A is the Beginning and Z is the End. Their actions were the reason we were able to begin our adventure and they may also be the grand finale.

I believe the key is Azem's answer and countermeasure to the final days, Zodiark and Hydaelyn plans. The key was able to create a dome/pocket dimension that allowed Alexandria to survive their rejoining.The dome would have a similar effect to zodiark thus protecting from the final days and being able to let zodiark go. The dimensional fusion aspect is sorta worst case scenario power in which it could undo the sundering of hydaelyn without killing the reflections. Venat and Azem were friends it's not impossible Azem learned of Venats last resort sundering magic and thus made their own countermeasure.

That theory is very similar to mine - I've been thinking that Azem is our future self. As in, upon journey's end, we end up travelling back, having seen all there is to see in the present.

I fully agree in the thought process that Azem made a lot of their later decisions in life knowing about the WoL, and how we would be the champion to the Star. I think that's why The Key exists in the first place. I think that after being informed of Venat's plan to summon Hydalen, and sunder the world; that Azem put a plan into motion of their own. One that would ensure the WoL would be able not only able to be a Champion to the Source, but to all reflections. Which is why the key has the power to bridge worlds. Azem was a Traveler at heart, and so is the WoL. What better way to champion the Star, and her reflections by connecting them, and traveling there yourself?

That cutscene blew my mind when I saw the same symbol of Azem in the key :O Which, now, after watching your video and reading some of the comments, make sense to me, bear with me: The crystal allows us to summon other WoLs, right? well, is it not a kind of in-between shards travel? maybe that's the point of all of this. Azem had somehow the power to travel between shards tho I cannot fathom this last part as before the sundering there were no other shards... In any case, as demonstrated in ShB we can travel to other shards easily, with our possessions and body, and so, WE, the WoLs are key to travel to other shards, and I think Y'shtola knows it somehow.

I think it would be very, very interesting to consider that it might not have been Azem who created the key, considering there were no other shards in Azem's time and Azem was sundered. But another shard of Azem like the WoL would both have a connection to Azem and possibly a motivation to travel between shards. And they not be as noble as we are. At this point, could there be any other threat bigger than an anti-WoL? (Can't even call them the Warrior of Darkness, dammit Ardbert)

Azem title the traveler also, perhaps Azem made the gateway tech as a traveling system for the old world and each of the gateways got pulled to every shard

If we allow that Azem had this massive foresight, I suspect the key was created by them as a solution to a problem that has not reach reached it's crisis point. My theory is that the aetheric imbalance shown by all the Shards thus far (The First overbalanced to Light, the Thirteenth overbalanced to Dark, the UnLost World overbalanced to Lightning) is that problem. While the Ascians were using it to bring about Rejoinings, nothing could be done about it, and Hydaelyn and the Twelve (And even the Ascians) were in place to correct and steady the balance of the Source after a Rejoining. But the fact that Alexandria's world suffered a Calamity, seemingly without Ascian involvement or a matching Calamity in the Source suggested that Shards can collapse to imbalance all on their own, and really the Ascians were just nudging them past a tipping point they already teetered on by their very nature. This suggests a NATURAL Rejoining could happen... and would likely be devastating, with none of the Ancients or their tools present to stabilize the world after. I think the key is intended as part of some kind of fix Azem was working on for this.

Would be funny if the key's core is made out of Auracite and studied by Azem similar to how Athena studied the Heart of Sabik. Azem may even be (partially) successful in doing so and found some means to aid in travel, making a travelers key.

Krile's father says the key responds to desires. The Key is very likely to be some kind of ancient Auricite, not unlike the auricitr from the Ivalice raids.

That key would be the perfect tool for spreading enough chaos to start an umbral calamity. Wouldn't surprise me if the Ascians planted it on the south isles to be discovered.

Maybe Azen was alerted to our presence in Elpis, and stealthily spied on our and Venat's subsequent activities. The crystals we've got so far are a breadcrumb trail for the WoL to follow and eventually rejoin the shards non-destructively

I thought that the key was Azem's solution to Venat's plans to sunder everyone. A way to breach through the barriers and allow himself and maybe others to visit their friends without a calamity kind of joining.

I feel like it's really easy to assume the key was made by Azem, was made in Ancient times but if this is true then the key itself would have been sundered meaning that THERE ARE 14 KEYS.

I'm sure the only time Azem will actually and finally appear is when our WOL is about to join the aetherial sea

To me it's quite obviously a piece of auracite. It has very clear connections to both Azem's magic and the Heart of Sabik, in that they're all enabled by "hopes and dreams", as Venat puts it in our final scene with her (dynamis?). It was the Milalla's desperate wish for escape that allowed them to activate the relic to begin with, long before it was encapsulated in electrope. As for the scene where it appears to be syncing with Azem's crystal, I think it more likely that it's actually reacting to our "hopes" directly, rather than the crystal. If it wasn't limited by electrope into the singular purpose of opening a rift, it would likely be able to act in much the same manner our crystal does. Which begs the question; is our crystal a piece of (synthetic?) auracite as well? Very possible, if not even likely. I am expecting a long story arc where we explore auracite, its many variations and implications, as it appears to be a substance not even the ancients understood fully (which makes sense if it is dependent upon Dynamis to function) - perhaps one entirely alien to Etheirys to begin with, which fits nicely with Cosmic Exploration as well, theme-wise. Also, why did Moenbryda and Urianger dub their creation white auracite, as it appears to have no connection to any of the other auracite we've encountered thus far? Likely a path we'll explore as well. Also, look forward to fighting Ultima (again).

I hope we get a better explanation of electrope in the future. It's a bit too much "magic mineral" or MGS "nanomachines" right now, and it'd be fun to find out how it originated and what can really be done with it.

Well an easy answer to why the Milala after the first intershard travel couldn't use it is that the High Elder of the Milala that DID use it was Azem's partial self for that time period, obviously there had to be previous Azems to us, and that was a very long time in the past. So after that Azem passed away and returned to the Lifestream, nobody had the resonance with it to make it work. Til much later when it was brute forced into working, but again they didn't know how to guide it so it just did what it did based on the amount of energy put into it. Also going with a bit of a Star Trek reference here, but with Aetheryte travel, we travel between Aetherytes via the Lifestream(which spans all shards, hence us being able to travel to the 1st). The Key however may make use of the idea that "what if it's Space/Time that's moving and we're standing still?" idea. You connect 2 points in space/time(not 100% sold on the time aspect at ALL), like a wormhole or Dune's folding of space travel method, or even perhaps in a way Elite Dangerous' Frameshift, you're not the traveler in that case, you're the station and you're moving the destination to your location(not physically moving it mind you, just via the gate it seems that way, but with the interdimensional fusion, maybe brute forcing it causes that effect?)

you broke my brain sir XD ok so i didnt think of the aetherytes but good catch! i immediately thought of the concept crystals in Anyder and on the Moon when i saw the Key. Also........yes. Some of the cryptic comments about Azem have been very fascinating, if not suspicious lol. Meeting up with them running amok in the present would be quite fascinating. Seeing what happens with the key is something I'm very much looking forward to.

I might be misremembering but I don't think the lalafells of the south sea isles were passing down the key from generation to generation on the source they were only passing it down after they got to the unlost world reflection. There was text somewhere (maybe the volcano place in the last zone I don't remember) where it said that during the calamity of ice a figure appeared and gave them the key to escape it was only then after escaping that they started passing it down.

I think the key is a fail safe of sorts that Azem created in response to both The Convocation and Venat's plans for the Final Days. A way to reestablish connection between disparate shards and "rejoin" them peacefully through interdimensional travel and not the Ascians calamitous rejoinings. I dont think he was happy with either the summoning of Zodiark or Venat's sundering and spent his/her time devising an alternate solution.

i have a theory that i believe that Azem (us) can control time, as you said, view the future so they likely saw not all but pieces, or rather moments of wol life, and with that knowledge did they conspire to do what needed to be done before they became sunderer. For all we know, they might have known about other future unfold, such as that source, that was once before, we died, and g'raha came to the first which alter things. I like to think the strongest magic would be the ability to control time.

I think the reason the lala's have the key is because the South Sea isle is probably the same location that Azem went to save from the volcano before the sundering. We know azem liked the isle and it's ppl along with the grapes from there. It isn't far fetched that azem gave the key to the ppl for safe keeping or the key was made there by azem. Then the sundering happened and the key ended up on the south sea isle with the minlala of the source which is it's physical counterpart/origin point.

I don't think the Key makes sense to send someone forward in time. But I do think it's connected to dimensional travel in some aspect, because Azem is the Traveler. It makes sense for the key's magic to allow interaction with other dimensions because Azem's spell can do the same thing. The connection to the aetheryte look is something I noticed as well, though, so I suspect that the key's main focus is sort of an inverse of Azem's crystal. Where the crystal calls others to the user, the key is designed to teleport the user (and those around them) somewhere else. Dimensional fusion is an extension of this principle.

We are Azem. The end of our story as WoL will see us become a fully merged ancient being at which point we travel to The World Unsundered and apprentice under Venat. Azem isn’t our past, it’s our future. That’s how Azem has knowledge of future events. As such, Azem creates the key to facilitate this eventuality, closing the time loop. Crazy Crackpot Theories by Teslo, AKA: Azem. PS: I’m sure the devs haven’t thought this far ahead, and I’m sure they have multiple story points for this to develop into, so everyone’s guess is likely both correct and incorrect simultaneously. Lol

I don't think Azem is in the present. The writers really don't want to show them, to keep player's verisimilitude. Now, this doesn't mean we couldn't run into something very close to Azem in the present. I speak, of course, of Azem's familiar, which could just use the WoL's character model for extra hilarity. :D

This depends on if Alexandria is really from the 12th shard

In the most recent short story the chief archivist gave Venat a crystal that was about the cosmos. I am wondering the reason why Azem did not join Venat when she was made a primal, is that Venat gave that crystal to Azem, who in turn traveled forward in time to leave the key on the source with Milala, then traveled back for the sundering.

We know the Amourantians were at war, with someone linked to Sabeek if memory serves me correctly. This makes me think, Ultima Seph was human who was trapped in her form during the sundering. We do not know what the effect would be if you were sundered while in an Ancension form, its very possible, you will be trapped. Venat seals Seph away, not kill, if Seph was such a threat with Auracite to the planet then why didn't she? I personally think Venat, Seph and Azem linked together in the next story through history which led to Seph and Azem building the key. To act as a way to likely recover people if Venat plan went wrong or something. People are assuming Azem takes power off the key but they is another scenario. Azem was sundered, what if the Leader of the Preservation, is actually Azem. If a shard of Azem created the Endless and delivered the key to Sphene to bring more people over, when the WOL touched the key it would naturally resonate with him, the two are the same being after all. We know Azem didn't believe with the convication over summoning Zodiak, it would make equally amount of sense the other verisons of you are not aware Zodiak is no more.

Whatever way we slice these theories, if there is one thing I'm almost sure of, it's that the artifact will be used. If not in the patch quests, then in the coming expansion. Also with how all the signs are suddenly pointing to Azem, I get a sneaking suspicion we will be crossing paths with him/her soon enough.

If they use it to create more gateways into other worlds they could make expansions about the reflections and interdimensional threats

Time travel might be a bit of a stretch for Azem. I would say their Echo would give them insight. So here is my line of thinking. Remember how Emet-selch has the ability to see souls, what I would call Underworld Sight (underworld being the ancients' term for aetherial sea). The Sight wasn't unique to him as Hythlodaeus also had it but didn't manifest as strongly. What if Azem had the Echo that was passed onto his sundered souls. As for others with Echoes that aren't Azem related (ignoring other players), they could get it from their resecptive souls, just manifested more or less strongly or differently. The Echo is capable of showing both past and future. We see the past as cutscenes. Mikoto Jinba's shows the unchangeable future, and even the player (and Fordola Lupis) have limited clairvoyance, hence why we can "see" telegraphs. We only see visions of the future when working in close proximity to Mikoto and likewise vice versa for her. So Azem could either/or both see into the past/future. They could've "met" us by observing us from afar or otherwise glean the info through a past/present/future mutual contact.

Excellent theory! And I agree Azem = our future self who is brokenly stupid powerful, I always thought it was after we rejoined with all of our sundered selves but now it's unclear. The ancients saw him as a 'full ancient' though.

Just need to correct you on something: Etheirys is the name of the pre-sundered world, and as such, in the present day would refer to all 14 worlds - so Alexandria's world is also Etheirys. The world that most of FF14 takes place on is called either Hydaelyn or The Source.

We know that "future sight" was one of the (probably rarer) powers of the Ancients. Mikoto's Echo grants her this ability, in a very limited form obviously. While Azem's job was helping people and their specialty was travel, it's quite possible they had the ability to see future events too.

the key is definitely linked to azem, and its quite possible he used that key after he used ifritas template to disperse the aether she collected in the volcano to disperse it elsewhere, we also know that ancients were granted specific abilities, hythy and emet have soulsight, venat can create protection wards etc, perhaps the azem we're reincarnated from has foresight, maybe perhaps that key allowed them to travel to different time periods, they definitely knew that they would need to tell themis about their future self, can we also touch on the subject that emet has now confirmed 2 known locations of portals to different shards? the first was the portal to the 13th (ruins beneath the waters of the bounty), and the 2nd was the portal to the 12th (literally calling it the fabled golden cities of the new world) does that mean there is a portal somewhere in the frozen waters of the blindfrost in othards north, the sacred sites of the forgotten people of the south sea isles, and meracydia?

I believe Azem will eventually be the main antagonist. I have no idea yet how, but he's always been there in the shadows, ans he's definitely going to be a big part of the future MSQ given his link to the key. That would be a great way to build some excitement, as opposed to introducing another random villain #10 which we have no connection to.

[8:20] "... Likely right in front of our eyes." Wait... The watcher on the moon? It couldn't be, could it? I also like the general idea of it being something of a warp stone, being able to go anywhere in the world even without a aetheryte present.

I really am against further time travel, so an alternate theory is Azem was a precog. We know it is a power some Ancients had if Bojza and the echo are any indication. Though much like time travel, I think seeing 10,000 years into the future seems a bit excessive, so hopefully it would only be precog up to the sundering or something. Preferably to me, no precog or time travel would be involved, and this artifact is perhaps the product of another incarnation of Azem (be it in the past of the Source or another reflection), OR, the artifact has nothing to do with Azem and Azem's stone simply interacted with the artifact, giving the WoL the ability to use it more freely (vs it previously known state to almost never work). My concern is things getting too convoluted with either excessive precog planning, time travel, or things becoming too "grand scheme all along!" plot. But we shall see.

If Azem was keeping an eye on us to tbe point where he knew our every move, there's a strong possibility that he's someone we already know. My guess would be Alphinaud, as he's been there since day 1.

That's Azem's Forbidden Fruit Gummy of time-space travel for sure, as opposed to the Forbidden Fruit Gummy of Summoning The Squad. As soon as it was branded with Azem's emblem I knew it was ours, and I wanted to say the Speaker might have been a previous incarnation of the WoL, which was how she was able to activate it and send everyone to safety. After all, the way to activate Azem's crystals is for them to will them to work, so why can't she have been our predecessor as the Source's shard of Azem?

I agree that this is likely what the writers are going for, Azem's involvement and such, but I'd much rather it be auracite and finally give us more info on auracite's (white and all others) history and origins, as we've always just had teasers with the Ivalice Ultima and even Athena's involvement with the mysterious space rock wasn't enough explanation for me. Or at least I hope the key has auracite origins, but was given to, and used mainly by, the seat of Azem as part of their duty, instead of made by it.

Given we seem to have 2 other reflections in play, Alexandria's homeworld (Unlost World), and the reflection Mecha-Sphene tried to steal from, I would love it if the natives to one of them come knocking to see what the fuck is going on (Unlost noticing the lightning dome is gone, or the one she attacked looking into said attack).

As a Nier fan, i cant let the parallels slip by. Honestly me thinks the key is a seed of destruction

I reckon Azem used the key to leave reflections of his unsundered self to protect each reflection

I think the key could be the main thread from which everything stems for the main story arc over the next 10 years. It's functions open limitless possibilities for destinations & time travel, & storywise it could go back & forth between the wrong hands & ourselves & of course there's it's own origin story which we very likely could uncover with an Azem story expansion. The way it was displayed sitting on the map at the end of DT might not be just a hint of where we might go next, but a huge tell of foreshadowing. And what better moment to foreshadow the next 10 years? Or then again, it could just get destroyed in patch 7.1 😂

im glad im not the only one that made this observation back in june now i feel like im not crazy rofl

I believe that Azem created the Key before the Sundering! I think Azem could use it to travel Time & Space! The LaLa's were on their Island during the 5th calamity! They used the Azem Key to teleport & they went through time & space to the 12th calamity!

Predicting... the WoL's true Ascian name, before Azem, is Chronos.

It looks to me like the centre of the key is a piece of auracite and, considering that it was around during the time of the Ancients and also seems to have the ability to interdimensionally travel, it makes me wonder if it's maybe somehow related to the Heart of Sabik since it's a piece of auracite that's been around since the time of the Ancients and is implied to have come from another world as well. Maybe the two are paired somehow, opposing forced or the Key was sent to the dimension of Etherys in order to provide them with what they need to deal with the Heart of Sabik. The questions are, however, what is the dimension that the auracites are from, what's it like, why were they sent to Etherys, and what or who is behind it?

You might be on to something here. Glad I'm not the only one intrigued by the seat of Azem symbol on the key.... My theory thus far, Azem was sundered. The original Azem and us are one and the same person as noted by Hythlodaeus,"my new old friend". And because of the sundering we lost our memories of the ancient days except for the first Final Days which is imprinted unto our souls. BUT in preparation of being sundered, one of the things he did is, Azem somehow manage to send us back to Pandemonium to deal with it, hence meeting Elidibus. The first clue. It begs the question, if Azem was sundered, did he retain the same ability as the Ascian to fleet around using "vessels" to maintain his existence? Azem was of the convocation also, let us not forget that. As members of the convocation, they are the best of the best of what they do, the Paragons of Eld. And as the seat of Azem, also known as The Traveler, travelling about to distant places held no bars, possibly even through time and space. But how did he(he being me as in my character in-game) manage it? Azem's magic resonate with the key, might this also be a clue as to the origin of the key? Did the original Azem travel about using this key, even through time and space, setting us on the path we now thread? I'm afraid of the answer because if that truly is, it marked the beginning of the end of our journey. We already are eight timed rejoined. 6 more times and we are back to our original self, The Seat of Azem. Do we want to go back being Azem? Conflicted, to say the least.

The alternate timelines is all but confirmed by Alexander back in Heavensward. He mentions seeing all the possible futures and chooses the one we are currently in to help come to fruition. I think a LOT of people forget about he lore from that raid.

I need my Warrior of Light / Azem to achieve immortality. The memories of Emet-Selch and the Ascians shall not be forgotten. And the shards need to be explored. A task that may take more than one or two lifetimes.

Oooo looked what popped on notifications 😊

Makes you wonder if they are going to do a reflection war

Wild theory to add to this, what if WE are Azem?

It bothers me that if Azem is still around then there are two of their soul, their and the sundered one that the WoL is part of. It's possible that like Fandaniel they're only operating with part of his original soul. But It's also possible that Azem isn't operating in the present. We know that the WoL is part of Azem's soul, and can rejoin with other parts of Azem's soul. It's theoretically possible that Azem comes into existence as themselves again once the WoL rejoins all the segments of their soul, and at that point travels back to the world unsundered in order to do the stuff that Azem did then. It would explain their foresight without their soul needing to exist twice. It's a bit timeloopy but it would be an interesting sideways call back to FF1 where the warriors of light you play as are also the original warriors of light you hear about having defeated chaos in the past thanks to time loop shenanigans

I have the feeling we are Azem. Like the actual one, not a reincarnation. We have proven time traveling already.

Ugh I miss those three! Tearing up!

Azem has been around in present day, right before our very eyes but not yet time to introduce himself. Crackpot theory, Azem is the old man you meet at the start of the game, and gives you the ride to Ishgard at the end of ARR.

I agree and disagree with different points. Azem's timey wimey stuff is simpler solved with "The Echo". The Echo seems to be a watered down version of the original Ancient's gift. Azem's/WoL's "Gift" is time based. In cutscenes we can view the past. The Echo buff in duties is rationalized as us using our Echo/Gift to see ways we could fail and starting the battle with foreknowledge from seeing the future. So, I don't think Azem needs time traveling adventures. But, I agree that Azem might be around in some form. I also think "an" Azem is active in the present in some form. Someone dropped the soul crystals where we'd find them. The South Seas Lalafel say they happen to find the key when they most needed to travel. I'll jump to it. Honestly, I now think the Shoebill is this "Azem". It mysteriously shows up to the confusion of everyone on Elpis where and when an Azem-like being appeared when Hades and Hythlo would have expected Azem to have crashed on the pair of them alone. It has an odd fascination with our interactions with Azem's bestie. The only thing I'm unsure about is if the true Azem is us, sundered, or the Shoebill. It seems too convienant that when we get confirmation that we "are" Azem it is surounded by the context of Ancients thinking instead we might be a copy/familiar (MSQ) and a raid series where we see multiple copies (Lahabrea self-sundering, Athena copying herself, Themis creating copies of us to fight in the raid battles, etc.). Is the Shoebill a familiar/copy Azem made to monitor things after they were sundered, or did they avoid the Sundering and we are the sundered copy/familiar?

The time travel theory is interesting, and that theory makes me think that Azem didn’t lose the key in the volcano by accident, but rather when their travels were over and they’d done everything they needed to they simply gave the key to the Lalafel who needed it

My assumption with the key is that it is a relic artifact of azem. Also, not sure if correct, but the first thing I shouted when I saw the key and the crystal inside was auracite

It would be sick if Azem the Traveller turned out to include time travel in their repertoire

Is fitting for The Traveler have a magical device that allows him to open portals

Imagine that at the end of this arc, we face Azem as a raid boss

7:16 hm. I think it's more that it can be used to open portals elsewhere than being it's intended purpose since well, there were no reflections and other stars where more of a theoretical concept.

I wonder if we might use it to start fusing our shards back to the source. But in such a way that we dont need to kill the people on those shards. It cant be healthy to have our world split into fragments.

I hope the Eternal Queen Extreme gives us hints

If a part of Hermes can become a sick twisted bastard fandaniel what’s stopping a piece of Azem from doing the same?

i hope azem to be the last enemy/antagonist of the last expansion, they are cooking with him

But isn't when azem stopped the volcano from erupting, uses ifrit's concept and summoned him? Later then fight and beat him to then disperse the excess of fire aerher in the volcano?

If the ‘key’ were to have a counterpart; should it be called “Hyadaelyn’s Foot?

My pet theory is that Azem is indeed active in the current world, adventuring as the Warrior of Light. And at the end of our story, we end up with our soul fully rejoined and travel back in time to become the Azem of old.

Sn associate of mine asked what was the best final fantasy to play to segway into XIV. I have no ideas, Any advice?

Something Azem was working on before Venat wdnt psycho and broke everything, my bet.

I dunno. The answers never feel as satisfying as the mystery.

It's an Ancient Auracite like *The Heart of Sabik.*

We are Azem. He was not sacrificed to zodiark, he did not contribute to Hydaelyn, he was sundered. We are one fragment, golbez was likely a fragment and ardbert was a fragment. Azem can't be working in the shadows because we are Azem

I think the key has a reference to the bells in ffix based on its shape.

So the biggest part of theory is based on yet not showed (if it will ever be) ability of grail-time travel? That's the biggest stretch i've seen