... I wonder how many books remain until we're finally up against the All Father.
On one hand, I believe we've been through every realm of Zenith at least once except for two: Asgard and Vanaheim, the latter which as far as I’m aware has not been mentioned or hinted at at all, and I feel like we’re finally approaching the final stretch of this long journey.
But on the other hand, for all we know, there could be more ground to retread on just as we've done in Book VI where we got to dig deeper into Embla’s inner struggles between the political tug-o-war for the throne and the bat-dragon god finally arising to spearhead her quest for the torture and genocide of Askr because she spent centuries coping, seething, and malding over the people choosing the cow-dragon god over her so who knows? Maybe there’s still a few more tales in the other realms that they want to cover (the TT+ ones aside) before they finally have us square up with the All Father.
I'm also curious about what the Lost Gang (Líf, Thrasir, Triandra, and Plumeria) are up to.
Líf made it clear to Thórr and Loki back in Book III's Xenologue that despite accepting the offer they had made, he and Thrasir do not intend to serve the All Father forever.
Líf and Thrasir had lost nearly everything dear to them and are willing to do whatever it takes if there is a way to restore the Askr and Embla of their worlds. Meanwhile, despite that we have yet to see the two in any capacity after Book IV’s Ending, Triandra and Plumeria seem to be along for the ride, motivated in wanting to bring back Freyja after she had given her life to bring back all of the fallen Alfr, including them.
I believe all four are joining up with the All Father solely for their own gains, despite the identities of their contractors. In fact, I would dare say that they’re wary of the gods of Asgard.
I won’t say that the All Father is evil, but for as capable as his daughters claim him to be, he may also not be above deception for reasons most likely being to ensure that what he had written in the Twilit Runes is following as planned. It’s also possible that he’s not invincible too.
As stressed by the playable version of Thórr, we, the summoner, are not a part of the All Father’s design and thus should not even be existing at all in Zenith. Everything in Zenith must’ve been going exactly as the All Father had planned until we were summoned by what may had been a chance willed by fate itself and have been an unknown variable that NONE of the gods can begin to find a start in figuring out. Despite the All Father’s best efforts in making sure events are still going as they should, we’ve been, essentially, a monkey wrench in his plans, diverting certain details and creating errors that may or may not be fixed without some form of divine intervention.
I believe there are at least two reasons the All Father has continued to keep himself obscured this entire time since we arrived:
The first and most likely obvious reason being to continue keeping his plans in order so that Ragnarok will arrive, which is most likely written in the Twilit Runes. Even though he employed his daughters with the task of witnessing everything and ensuring the prophecies of the Twilit Runes go as followed, he may also be playing a subtle hand himself as the second reason falls back to us being an unknown factor that’s been slowly altering seemingly smaller details that could possibly have a disastrous effect for the All Father’s plans. We may be, quite literally, a legit threat to him.
Whatever they may be, he must have his reasons to not only stay up in Asgard but also in not having us killed despite that he probably could have this done so quickly and so easily if he is as capable as we are lead to believe.
So with all this said, there’s also the other realm that again, as far as my memory serves right, has not been mentioned in FEH in any capacity, Vanaheim.
I say Vanaheim does present for a potential set-up as the penultimate Book of the over-arching story. It could be the focus of Book VII or come in at a later book, basically the book before we finally take on Asgard (would be nice to take a deeper dive into Jotunheimr beforehand because we didn't get much for it in Book V)
Given their relationship with the Aesir, the Vanir could potentially serve either as unexpected allies or an antagonistic group hoping to put a halt on Askr's attempt to war with Asgard, since I can see them having a reason for either or, or there could be an issue the Vanir have unrelated to Askr or Asgard (but then again, Askr is always wounding up at the center of conflicts for whoever's the immediate threat)
Assuming the Vanir conflict is in relation of Askr and Asgard's feud, I also see this as potential for the Lost Gang to show up again as more foes we deal with or even the All Father showing up, most likely a face reveal followed by a warning/threat to us during Book Vanaheim (I mean, eventually, you may as well try approaching your enemy directly) or in the ending for a teaser.
But that's how I would try to set it up since I personally think given it's status as the realm of the Vanir, if you're gonna do a book on Vanaheim, it better be the penultimate.
There’s quite a bit of ways FEH’s story could go after Book VI, but we won’t really see for sure until Book VII is finally revealed.
As a side note, though I don’t quite believe FEH as a whole will stop once the story is finally concluded, I will say that I hope before it all finally comes to an end, I would love to see figures such as Hvergel and the Jotun Queen be made playable as well as FEH OCs who’ve only been playable through alts thus far.
