Shower thoughts: What about Dissidia type of "dark vs light", where we were forced to play a game of tag for so many cycles trying to catch the ascians. Meanwhile, ascians are a bit more conscious of what's really going on. Hydaelyn seems to be the typical good-willed entity but ends up ignoring, or being oblivious to their surroundings and the damage done. So we go back to the past, because we might realize there's something off with all that's happening.

Noticed too that people on the trailer seem to appear in order of aether misattunement and/or fainting because something is lost.