#eLPIS IS DYING !!

[whitherwanderer]

Just lay me In the dirt 'til I'm pushing up daisies, oh— Your love is a murder.

[aethernoise]

guess who’s Going Through It in Elpis rn

[aurumalligator]

Today- We Ink

Just look at them, I love them so much. I will smooch both of 'em. I said I would dual wield husbands and I shall deliver. I've decided I hate doing lineart on my tablet and so I'm just printing my sketches and scanning the traditional lineart in for digital color and adjustments. But I love ballpoints and fineliners for inking and I don't think I can let them go.

[nym-of-jex]

United in Dream

Naught but a dream, gone with the dawn.

Nym with her Azem- Soteria, together only in dream

[siderealcity]

The symbology of the Convocation of Fourteen is just... one of my favorite details in ffxiv. And yeah, I know they have zodiac signs because Final Fantasy Tactics had zodiac signs and FF12 had zodiac signs, but 14's spin on them is inspired, and I don't think that gets enough appreciation.

Each of the Ascians is characterized to at least superficially match their sign. Emet-Selch seems like a Gemini, seemingly on both sides of every issue. Fandaniel seems like a Leo who wants to be the center of attention. Lahabrea, The Creator, seems like an artsy Pisces... just...y'know, a horrible one.

And it's not as if "terrible, messed-up version of Zodiac symbol" is new here. Tactics definitely had that already. The thing ffxiv adds to the trope is the presence of the Sun.

Azem's symbol being the sun and not a constellation tells us exactly what their role in the Convocation was supposed to be. The sun's path through the constellations is what gives all those signs their meanings. You can't be a Gemini unless the sun is in Gemini. The sun's passage through the zodiac is supposed to illuminate the best way forward. This is why Emet-Selch calls them both "Shepherd to the stars in the dark," and "Counsellor to the star's people." They're meant to inspire people to become their best selves. This is inadvertently what WoL does in numerous places and times across the game, (and one of the ancients in Elpis even comments on it) because apparently repeatedly dying at the hands of their coworkers and friends for eons did not get them out of having to do their job.

When the sun protested their unspeakbly terrible plan, they went all in on their hubris by casting it down forever. They never replaced Azem. They don't even want to remember they ever had a sun. They don't have the light that illuminates their best selves, their better future. So they can't find it anymore. They don't know how to be themselves anymore, in Azem's absence. In Elidibus' case, literally. He is so desperate for the guiding star he can't even remember having, that he constantly, instinctively, seeks out Azem in different forms. Wearing Ardbert's corpse, and wandering up to WoL for awkward chats, and looking back to the heroes of the past who were definitely Azem shards.

The sun, torn from the heavens, leads to the maker's ruin.

[picaroroboto]

One of the typical imageries associated with the concept of "hope" is the image of light amidst darkness. FF14 does a lot of stuff with light and dark of course but in Shadowbringers they made light a thing of horror so they can't rely on the light image all the time.

Another usual image is a bird - "Hope is a thing with feathers..." from the Emily Dickinson poem. Meteion, the bird, was created with hope, but becomes a thing of despair.

So what's left as the image of "hope" in Endwalker is this:

From the cutscene "Live, Die and Know", where Venat monologues about hope and light everlasting while the camera cuts back and forth between her, blackened with blood, and the WoL succumbing to the Light corruption, both limping and stumbling along their paths. This is the face of hope in FF14 - broken, dying, bloodstained, yet defiant. That's what makes playing the hero in FF14 so damn magnetic.

Early ARR, I was cringing at the cliche chosen one, light vs dark type concepts. Further along I began to doubt Hydaelyn, given her ineffectiveness and the cruelty of the fate she bound the WoL to. But from Elpis to the end of Endwalker and beyond, I was proud, for the first time, to be called a Warrior of Light.

[battlecrazed-axe-mage]

So I have an odd little question for the FFXIV players out there, as a few of my friends have independently done it

(Reblog with the color you dyed them if so!)

[comma-tose]

I love the secret Atlas facility under Old Haven, BUT I can't help but think about how cool it would've been to have it somehow be underground beneath Lynchwood, specifically if Nisha had survived instead of dying in borderlands 2.

I feel like there's SO much potential there.

There's a bounty on Fiona's head and they have to go to a town where any crime is punishable by a brutal death and Rhys has Jack in his head who is torn between helping the team get away from Nisha or refusing to work against his girlfriend. Also Jack would've probably told Nisha about the Gortys project at some point while he was alive since he was aware of it and already had a piece so that could've been a plot point as well.

Rhys's choice between Fiona or Jack could've led to either a chase through Lynchwood in Fiona's route or taking control of some of the machines there to kill a bunch of people in Jack's (while avoiding hurting Nisha of course).

Plus when Athena showed up it'd be a chance for her to fight Nisha a bit to stop her from killing the group and for some vague mentions of them working together back on Elpis which could be a bit more foreshadowing towards Athena being wanted by the Crimson Raiders and getting captured later on.

[dualcastimpact]

Just went through the confrontation with Nabriales and Moenbryda's sacrifice (again) and out of all the major deaths that the story keeps coming back to, Moenbryda and Papalymo's feel the least organic, at least in terms of building up that emotional rapport with the Warrior of Light and/or player enough for the Warrior of Light and/or player to be impacted by their passing. Haurchefant interacts prominently with the Warrior of Light and is a reoccurring character all the way from ARR and halfway into Heavensward. We get a whole expansion with Ysayle. We get a whole expansion with Ardbert. Emet-Selch gets TWO expansions, and even Venat and Hythlodaeus get two whole dedicated levels for us to hang out with. You can't argue the same for Moenbryda and Papalymo, who barely interact with the Warrior of Light and in fact never seem to have any significant one-to-one moments with them.

You could argue that Moenbryda's and Papalymo's deaths don't in fact affect the Warrior of Light all too badly like the others' deaths do—and you'd be right! Moenbryda's death is Urianger's grief. Papalymo's death is Lyse's grief. The Warrior of Light doesn't grieve them the way they grieve Haurchefant or Ysayle, or Ardbert, or the Ancients they meet in Elpis, and that's not the issue. The issue is that the game, especially with Moenbryda, tries to make the player feel something for their deaths when they've not allowed the player to engage with the characters enough for us to feel anything for their passing. I'd argue I feel worse about Wilred dying than I did for Moenbryda and Papalymo, and that's because we see so much more of him with the Little Ala Mhigo sequence and his interactions with us while he was in the Crystal Braves; we see him grow as a character, however brief and unrelated to us it was, and we don't get that with Moenbryda and Papalymo.

To make matters worse, Moenbryda's and Papalymo's deaths were driven by their connection to Louisoix: Moenbryda in wishing to understand his motivations for leaving her behind and sacrificing himself for the sake of some no-name place called Eorzea, and Papalymo in wishing to prove himself Louisoix's finest pupil, following his master's footsteps in sacrificing himself to temporarily seal the dread primal Shinryu. Again, that's not the issue—the issue is that ARR only gives us crumbs about Louisoix and the Circle of Knowing, crumbs that are nowhere near enough to make us care about him! Oh, Moenbryda and Papalymo are both paying homage to Louisoix through their sacrifice? Oh well, nothing to do with me! I don't know anything about Louisoix to warrant my caring!

It wouldn't be such an aggravation if the story doesn't insist on making the player care. You have a sequence with Moenbryda's parents comforting Urianger in Endwalker, and there's a sidequest involving Papalymo's father as well—their deaths are not forgotten! They're hearkened back to! They're even included in this image of the fallen made floating in the aetherial sea!

Clearly their sacrifice is considered as major as Minfilia's and Haurchefant's and Ysayle's, which would make sense if the game bothered to put in the effort to make us care about Moenbryda and Papalymo in the first place!

Okay. Rant over. I initially wanted to write about how Raginmar very likely called Kirika to help heal Moenbryda before he went after Nabriales and Minfilia—in-game it makes sense for the Warrior of Light to not be able to call anyone, but by post-ARR Raginmar's adventuring party is pretty established; they're all connected by linkpearls and can contact each other in an emergency, and Moenbryda getting blasted in the stomach by a column of dark aether very much counts as an emergency. There's one issue with that scenario, however:

Papalymo: "She was counting on the theory that a soul's aether burns brightest at the moment of its passing. A scholar until the very end..."

Moenbryda was dying when she gave up her life to temper the aetherial blade. That was the theory she was counting on: that her soul's aether, near its end, would burn brightest at the second of her death and be enough to augment the aetherial blade.

Thancred: "She gave her life to temper the blade of Light? I...I have no words."

If Raginmar was able to get Kirika to come and try to heal Moenbryda, that makes this plot point implausible. She wouldn't have been near death if a healer was at hand. A solution to that problem would be Kirika actually failing to heal Moenbryda and managing to only staunch the wound instead of healing it, but that's additional trauma for Kirika that I have to think about and work on, and I do not have the time for that— oh no— I can feel the brainworms coming—

[princecharmingwinks]

Sterek Fic Rec - January 2023. I am hurting, team. I was one of the few that fully watched the movie and I can say, it hurt so much. You’ll find a lot of fix-it fics making an appearance below and over the next months because I need them. 

here is the repeated image of the lover destroyed by elisela (1/1 | 7K | Teen)

Stiles doesn’t go home right away.

The urge is there—when he answers the phone to Lydia’s shaking voice, when he gets the text from his dad, when he stares out at the sun glowing soft peach and golden over the buildings in D.C. and he thinks about Derek never seeing another sunrise. It’s there weeks later when he gets a check from the Estate of Derek Hale, when he crumples it up and throws it in the trash, when he fishes it out an hour later and tries to salvage it by weighing it down with a book from the Hale vault.

It’s there, it’s there, it’s there.

Stiles doesn’t listen to it.

Because Stiles isn’t going back to Beacon Hills to say goodbye.

A Big Surprise by novemberhush (1/1 | 1K | General)

If you go down to the woods today you’re sure of a big surprise...

Scott and Malia McCall’s youngest daughter is having a Teddy Bears’ Picnic-themed birthday party, but that’s not all the pack will have to celebrate today because Stiles and Derek have some exciting news to share with everyone.

A Divine Move by alikatastic (1/1 | 2K | Not rated)

After Derek died, Peter was the one to let Stiles know. Stiles rushed to Beacon Hills to attend Derek's funeral and take care of Eli. When Peter takes Stiles to the Nemeton to show Stiles what happened, they make a discovery. Derek was trapped in the nemeton. All they had to do was pull him out.

Is That a Gun In Your Pocket Or...That's a Gun In Your Pocket by Elpie (Horribibble) (2/2 | 8K | Explicit)

Derek Hale is the best boyfriend. He's sweet. He's funny. He recites Pablo Neruda completely unprovoked. He also happens to be in the murder business. But hey, nobody's perfect.

-

A romantic comedy with guns and roses. (Well, maybe not the roses.)

Last Lovesong of a Dying Lemon by wldnst | podfict by knight_tracer (1/1 | 10K | Mature)

Stiles' Jeep keeps breaking down. Derek is a mechanic.

Safe by Hedwig221b (1/1 | 976 | Not rated)

“Where is he?” Stiles rumbled, glancing at each member of the pack in front of him, before settling his incinerating gaze on one person he once considered a brother. “Tell me, Scott, where is my husband?”

Best Laid Plans by justonemoremiracle (1/1 | 2K | Teen)

As it turned out, spending months away from Beacon Hills —and thus, the pack— had completely screwed up his ability to come up with good, sensible plans. “… You’re asking me to be your fake boyfriend.” As a sidenote, Stiles had to give it to Derek. His ability to sound completely unimpressed, even over the phone, was stellar.

Cold as Ice by Gia279 | podfict by misswhimsy (1/1 | 10K | Teen)

A man stood in front of Derek, three feet away. He had blood on his mouth, throat, and left arm. He blinked at Derek but he looked more dazed than afraid. He grinned, baring bloodied teeth, held up two fingers, and rasped, “Hey,” in a voice that sounded like it hadn’t been used in weeks, before collapsing straight down in a dead faint.

Solitary Animals by Mollyamory (Molly) (1/1 | 13K | Teen)

In which the Alpha pack wants to take something important away from the Hale pack, and there's only one sure way to keep Stiles safe. Negotiations of a personal nature ensue.

Teen Wolf Movie: Post Credits Scene by HelloWhyTheFuckAmIHere (1/1 | 1K | General)

No post credits scene at the end of the Teen Wolf movie, you say? Maybe you just missed it...

princecharmingwinks special mention (The first fic that helped me breathe again after watching it. I didn’t really realise how long I was holding my breath until I read this <3)

like lightning to the abyss by evcndiaz (1/1 | 3K | Mature)

All that to say, he's asleep when he feels it. Asleep with his head pressed against his dining room table, drooling onto a stack of bills when the world (his world) suddenly falls out of orbit. It's different this time, though. Whatever fine-tuned sense he's got locked into Derek Hale doesn't just stumble this time, doesn't just hiccup like he's in pain. It goes quiet, there one minute, snuffed out the next.

Permanent.

Final.

Stiles is out the door before his phone even rings.

Or; Stiles brings Derek back to life. Because of course he does

Thank you Sterek fandom family, you are all helping me through this. Soon we will be able to consider the movie a distant memory that was just a bad dream. Until then, let’s stick together hey? Big hugs everyone!

[thefandomexpert]

ok. dawntrail opinions

Overall I enjoyed it! my expectations were met, which is about all i can ask for coming off of the arr-ew epic. I do think they had some issues trying to ‘recapture the vibes’ though. There are several points where things are introduced as direct analogues to things the wol has experienced (provided you’ve done the earlier expansions) when they should have been left as their own, new experiences.

The most obvious of this is Zoraal Ja being stated, in game, to be a Zenos-equivalent. Which he is NOT. Zenos would never think about the consequences of his actions that much, his point is he doesn’t HAVE a reason. he says himself in ew: ‘would you hate me less if I had a good reason?’ that’s zenos. he’s there to make you confront how you view morality in that sense: what’s a ‘good enough’ reason to commit atrocities? if there is a ‘good enough’ reason, what if someone decides the line is somewhere else than you do? Zoraal Ja could have been a neat parallel where he does have a ‘good reason’ for turning to violence, but this, and the other major interesting thing about his character (ie. his relationship to his father and adopted siblings) is completely glossed over, ignored, and unexplored in favor of keeping him just a super strong ‘unknowable’ enemy. he’s a zenos equivalent only if you understand neither characters beyond their very basic plot purpose and it pissed me off they’d make the choice to POINT THAT OUT in a game that’s kind of made a living on making you examine grey morality.

Similarly, the last quarter of the expansion was a direct parallel to the decision we make in late shb and ew regarding the ancients and stopping the ascians. I feel like they felt like too many people were sidestepping the fact that we made a moral choice at The Dying Gasp; ‘they’re already dead/they’ve made villains of themselves.’ In removing the timeline fuckery of elpis and solidifying the shades in the amaurot equivalent, the alexandrian plotline seems to try very hard to corner you on those fronts and impress upon you that while the correct decision is to fight for your right to exist, it is a heavy decision and you Are Destroying Things, other people’s potential futures, in doing so. Again, I think this was well done (having whole areas of pretty assets erased after like 2 questlines in each one? bonkers. props to them.) but it was SO close to the ascian plotline it started to get distracting. like. They have Cahcuia say the ‘remember we once lived’ line. I love her (favorite va of the expac too) but why would you do that. get my grandpas words out your mouth rn. dead serious. This was a time for discussing the difference between permanent, remotely stored ‘memories’ of the departed and the fallible but active task of having the living population remember those they’ve lost, but instead they just. again, ignored the new interesting thing and decided to make sure you remembered the major plot line of the major villains of the past 10 years. like i love my ascians but if you wanted to do that you could have had whatever minor ascian enacted the lightning calamity be around!!! fuck!!!!

anyway the people who think wuk lamat is lyse 2 are just straight up wrong tho. They are NOT parallels they have the exact opposite character arc What are you Smoking

[honestlyboringperson]

Redoing my Persona 3 AU!

Name: Madoka Kaname

Arcanas: Fool/World

Personas: Eurydice, Eos, Elpis

Madoka is of course, our wildcard of the AU. She is recruited at the same time as Sayaka. She and Sayaka were staying behind to finish up schoolwork and accidentally stayed too late and ended up trapped in Tartarus. After recruitment she is ecstatic to be part of S.E.E.S. as like in the original anime, she deprives her self worth from being able to help and aid others. She uses a bow in battle and to help with her fighting skills, she joined the archery club.

She is not a natural wildcard as the wildcard was supposed to be Homura. As like in the original anime Homura has time manipulation and has been going back in time and due to her making Madoka the centre of events she gained Homura’s wild card ability. At the end of the story, she becomes the great seal and is forgotten by the masses except for the S.E.E.S. She is remembered for her warm nature and helping her social links, but her social links can’t put their finger on who it was.

PERSONAS

Madoka’s initial persona is Eurydice. Much like Eurydice, Madoka is the staring point for the story. Her death kickstarts Homura to continuous live in a cycle for the hope that she can be saved, like how Orpheus went to the underworld in the hope that he can bring Eurydice back to life.

Eurydice’s design is supposed to invoke the image of a bride which is a symbol of purity and innocence, traits you would typically use to describe Madoka and the fact that in the story of Eurydice and Orpheus, Eurydice died on her wedding day by stepping on a snake, thus the snakes crawling up her leg and making up her halo. The bandages are a symbol of death, with Eurydice dying and Madoka’s repeated deaths.

Madoka’s evolved persona is Eos, Greek god of dawn. While Eurydice is dressed in a simple white dress, Eos is dressed in a much more mature dress, showing Madoka’s developing maturity, also shown in the bandages beginning to unravel, showing her skin. This also shows that she is overcoming death, foreshadowing her fate being not death, but not really being alive either. Eos was also known for her, um…. “mature” habits which don’t align with Madoka, but the idea is that Madoka helped give “birth” to the improvement of the mental and social states her social links were in. With Eos being the Greek god of the dawn, it also fits with Madoka ending the dark hour, and bringing the dawn.

[yarrayora]

Oh wait I meant Fates lol, like who lives who dies, typos strike again lol

personally i like the idea of nighteye still dying, that his fate is inevitable. but with my plan to involve sloth squad saving eri that might be hard to do lol

same with shigaraki! horikoshi actually did really fucking great killing him off, and how he lives on through spanner's admiration and fondness towards him, unfortunately Elpis exists and there is no way mahiru won't use that to help deku save shigaraki from AFO

toga, though, i've always planned to make her survive with the vampires

midnight also, i actually can take it or leave it with her death, but i know what i wanna do with her

[capsicrew]

Something thats been on my mind...

The thing about the "time bubble" that FF14 exists in... Even if some time is passing, its not a notable amount of time. We know about souls going to the aetherial sea and eventually coming back as new life. Even though that life is all new, we've seen that souls will often have a certain tug that makes them similar across generations or when split across reflections. But even with all the friends who have died in the game--we never had to think about those souls coming back in a new life because not enough time could pass in the "bubble" for a child to be conceived, born and grow in any way.

...until a pocket of Tural accidentally sped up 30 years. The Alexandria Dome exists now in the source, not its home reflection. When a person with a regulator dies, their soul is saved--but new life would still be given a soul in the natural way. Once Alexandria fused with Yyasulani, those new souls would be drawn from the aetherial sea of the Source, I would assume--not the Unlost World. And then it was caught in the old time stream and had 30 years pass(!) We meet several people born after fusion happened. And it is not impossible that someone in there has the refreshed soul of someone we once knew. Zenos could be in Gulool Ja RIGHT. NOW. (probably not)

Now, Id like to think the writing team is above some kind of emotional punch of using the name of a dead comrade in a new body just for... idk, cheap emotional reaction. But its not impossible. And fan theories can just run wild lol

Though another thing Ive been thinking about too... Its been subtly mentioned that souls have a certain memory or emotional inclination that carries through its rebirth. Either as a joke (such as with Rowena and Genolt) or actually in the plot--like with Azem's or Hermes's reincarnations. Though, Amon showed us that even the same soul can be drastically different than its predecessor... But certain feelings and leanings still existed (drawing comparisons to Elpis and Azys Lla or Amon's thing for making new creatures). It makes me wonder how those memories or feelings imprinted on the soul come into play with Alexandria's regulators. Especially for such a notible soul as Azem's. Someon who dies has their memories imprinted on a fresh soul... But do those deeper feelings translate? Would someone who started with Azem's soul still have that innate... Azem-ness after dying and being given a new soul? Would someone inheriting Azem's soul via regulator suddenly find themselves feeling a deep need for adventure? They say that people dont change on new souls because of the memory restoration... But I wonder...

[voidsentprinces]

*chews on my breakfast burrito* So...considering the Ancients viewed "retiring" or returning to the lifestream as a beautiful act. Because it meant they had a fulfilling life and had done all they could for Eitheirys and are now making way for someone new to add to that while holding onto their title as a sort of legacy of those who came before and those who are still to come. I feel it interesting that in all interations of Hermes. He sought out the answer to his own life and life in general to perhaps grant him an understanding as to what he had done in life, what might he of contributed to this perfectly flawed society? And then he is reborn as Amon, who lives during the time of a dying Allagan Empire, only through reviving Xande does he find fulfillment in his life and he then gets one two'd by the universe by being nearby as Xande mourns his life and achievements. Sighting that death was a more beautiful gift, life is a curse to him and now that he has seen the other side. All is but ash in his mouth and Amon is unable to comfort the Emperor as Emet-Selch arrives to notify him that despite his best efforts, the Empire is destined to fall in calamity and he is Fandaniel. He then lives a fractured life of only half formed memories and dreams of what came before and watches his life's work crumble. But both his past life and his current one has carved into his soul that death is beautiful and should be applauded. And so as soon as the Paragons are vanquished, Fandaniel b-lines for death's welcoming embrace. But why should he leave those behind to suffer life's warmth when he can show them how beautiful it is. So he brings forth the end of days and before falling into the Cradle of Darkness. He genuinely opens his heart to the Warrior of Light. Genuinely letting them know that when he said he wanted everyone and everything dead, he meant it. In his own twisted way, Fandaniel was sharing with us his happiness and joy without care for the wanton destruction and sorrow it would bring. Because both Hermes and Amon lived in seemingly perfect societies with flaws that crumbled before calamities outside of their control. And so the unleashes the Final Days and gives many a beautiful twisted end. But, he learns as Xande learned that in death it is but a hollow victory, floating in the aetherstream he finds nothing but ash from his success. And he is agitated that we would try to stop the Final Days and seeks to stop us in the Aitiascope. And in his defeat, he laments that death was not as beautiful as either Hermes or Amon were told and no matter how many lives he had lived, he never learned the answer despite being so close to Hydaelyn and just like when meeting us in Elpis. Hope was always so close yet he was looking beyond us to see the answer clearly enough and so he sinks into the darkness, unfulfilled, and sorrowful.

He is retiring and making way for something new...but has he done nothing for this star? What was it all for?

"The End has come...and it will be beautiful."

[wine-dark-soup]

ok i am no scientist so apologies in advance if the following astrophysics bit is incorrect. but.

you know how light is the fastest known moving element in the universe (light-year and all that)? well, the distance it has to cover to travel the universe are still SO big that it takes time to reach us. for example, the sun's light actually takes 8 minutes to hit the earth - the ray that warms us was emitted 8 minutes ago, and if we look at the sun we actually see it as it was 8 minutes ago.

if we follow this logic and take greater distances, the stars we see at night are not what they are now - we see them as they were thousands and thousands years ago.

now back to ffxiv. for fantasy compliant reasons, let's say meteion travels fast enough to not be affected by the passing of time. hermes was a man full of doubt, but, looking at the night sky, he was full of hope. he created the meteia to hear people's stories from other stars that could actually chase his doubt.

so the meteia start traveling the universe far and wide... and meet decaying civilizations. this we know. but the meteia didn't just see them dying - because they were stars so distant, they were actually already dead. the meteia were, as much as the human mind can comprehend that, in the past. meteion observed the stars with hermes back in elpis, and shared his fascination and hopes for the great unknown. but, all this time, all that they observed was already dead, or on the verge of dying. so when the meteia reach the distant stars and see death - and horrible death - everywhere, their despair is double. it was dead to begin with. there was no way to prevent this outcome.

in the dead ends dungeon, the first two civilizations we meet - the grebuloffs and the karellians - are ABOUT to go extinct. when we end their segment, there is still at least a survivor (e.g the karellian soldier realizing he killed everyone else). which probably means (as suggested by their name - the sixth and eighth ends respectively) they were stars closer to elpis. then we take a big leap to the seventeenth end. meteion says "farther still existed a star without strife..."

the star of the nibiruns. farther in time as much as farther in terms of distance. so while their star might still be shining bright in elpis, they are actually dead-dead. when meteion arrives, ra-la the last mercy IS at work, granting them death. for gameplay reasons, we DO kill ra-la, but all the nibiruns present in the cutscene before the boss fight are dead.

so, for meteion, what does it mean to travel that far into the universe, and meet the creature - ra-la, once again a sphinx - that summarizes the human experience, only to realize said experience is one of suffering that the people chose to avoid by deciding death (at the hand of ra-la) was preferable?

this is why she became a new ra-la, ready to end all life in the universe, thinking this is a mercy, because after all, everyone suffers AND everyone is already dead to her, because she only saw pasts where the end was inevitable. when she comes back to elpis with all those bad news, the stars still shine; but the seventeenth end's memory is fresh and she brings this to hermes, introducing nihilism into amaurotine society.

the loop is complete; the ancient were ready to follow the same path as the nibiruns, if they hadn't been sundered.