I didn't back then and I'm still not arguing that Cassandra of the future visited Cassandra of the past, as that would just be foolish to deny the facts that are clearly in front of us. This causes her to take an early journey during SoulCalibur times instead of only setting out for the first time in SoulCalibur II times, but it's still factual that she's going to go on her SoulCalibur II times, and as of right now, she hasn't used any of her knowledge from the future to prevent anything from happening the way that it's destined to happen. I've suggested as much before, but I'll repeat myself in saying that she could have either stopped Sophitia from having children or she could have acted as a surrogate mother, because she knows that Pyrrha and Patroklos will be tainted due to the Soul Edge fragments wedged in Sophitia's heart. She chose to not do anything, so she is not herself changing fate, though she has the knowledge to do so if she so chooses. If she keeps on this path, finding herself unable to act, then history is indeed doomed to repeat itself. Her goal in the original course was to save Sophitia from her charge from the gods, and that's still true of our current chain of events.
The difference is that Cassandra has knowledge from the future, but if she never puts it to use, then it amounts to a hill of beans whether or not she has that knowledge or not. So yes, you knew what I was going to say before I said it, but that's just the way it is, at least for now. And it's important to consider, because like Setsuka's path that differs from the original (but only in that new information and new events have transpired, which don't in and of themselves avoid the future that is to come), yet still appears to continue to approach the same end result, it continues with it the history is doomed to repeat itself mantra, which means we're going to end up the same way we did before, whether we like it or not. It's fatalistic as all hell, I'm aware, but until a path presents itself that can't possibly end up the same way, that's essentially the guideline that I'm using the determine my point of view.
Zasalamel is another story, but his is the hardest to read, because he is perhaps the character who does the least acting in all of SoulCalibur VI, instead just observing and planning his future, trying to make sense of the current state of affairs, between his memory from the future that he received from himself, trying to rationalize that reality, and yet observing the world around him not go the way that he's expecting it to go, which in turn, all things considered, changes his goal from that of wishing to die to cultivating humanity to see what they can truly accomplish, which is quite different, granted, but still, ultimately, requires the power of the swords in order to accomplish, means that, while his intentions are different, it remains possible that his actions ultimately have the same end result, in that he either awakens Abyss inside himself and/or awakens Night Terror, and that surge of energy, combined with the duel between Siegfried and Nightmare, then awakens Algol, then we have repeated history, that's possible and probable a turn of events.
Stepping back a phase, because that would be SoulCalibur III stuff, the next opportunity for intervention lies with Azwel's manipulation of Raphael and Amy, whether or not their course plays out the same way for SoulCalibur II stuff, where Raphael is the one to stab Soul Edge to free Siegfried, that seems like it's still pretty likely to occur, but what happens after may or may not shape the destiny of those involved. It's also possible that Zasalamel breaks up this event, and claims Soul Edge (and Soul Calibur) for himself early, which would be a divergence point that couldn't be ignored, as it would prevent Raphael and Amy from suffering malfestation, though Amy would still be in Azwel's clutches, unless there was some other solution presented for that. This is assuming that gets changed, however, because Zasalamel could just as easy wait for Raphael to weaken Soul Edge, get afflicted, and then swoop in and steal it while it's weak, that could happen, still be different, and yet still doom Raphael and Amy to their tragic future.
I know what you're going to say next, too, that even if all of those things coalesce and the bigger picture future remains the same, the fact that there are differences at all along the path that leads to those events happening, in and of themselves, constitutes a new timeline. And that's where we disagree, as a matter of semantics. They have not as of yet defined the nature of SoulCalibur's timeline, where we could have multiverse or not, what the possibilities really are. The simplest possible interpretation of time travel theory is that there is only one line, until a divergence occurs to skew it off into a tangent, but thus far, none of the skewings have been sufficient to actually cause a tangent, and that's the hairs that are being split from my side of the argument, that until such a tangent occurs, we are practically on the same timeline, for all intents and purposes.
I've already touched on Azwel just a bit above, but his inclusion in the narrative is either a new element or it is not, and both possibilities are equal, in my eyes. The Aval Organization, much like the Guardians of the Spirit Sword before it, is a secret organization that acts behind the scenes away from the public eye. Azwel was once of the Aval Organization before casting it aside and just doing whatever in the hell he wants to do, but he still was one of them, meaning he knows how to get things done in secret, which is part of how he is such a master manipulator. It's a plot device of convenience, to be certain, but I'm not ruling it out that they can't pull the "it was there all along" card, since they've framed the organization as a whole in that light already. So we, the players, are just now learning of their existence, but whether or not they were even in the cards before to the developers is irrelevant, because of how they were written in. It's practically impossible that the Aval Organization existed back in the early 2000s, and I'm not even remotely suggesting that level of diabolical planning, but my point remains that it does not matter. The core mantra that "history hides away more than one truth" collaborates this, so again, sorry to sound like a broken record, but until one of Azwel's actions actually causes a turn of events that contradicts the original telling of the story, he cannot be tagged as an interloper or credited with changing history, because everything so far falls under the "well, it could have happened and we didn't know about it before" camp.
Edge Master is a bit of an enigma so far, yes. Since he's not a playable character, he didn't get a Soul Chronicle, and now that you mention that, it may have been a deliberate move to not include him on the roster, not due to the aversion of mimics, but to keep his knowledge of the goings-on a secret. He's even more passive than Zasalamel in this regard, but I didn't include him in my earlier comparison of Zasalamel to the rest of the cast due to his not being a playable character, so it's unfair to judge Edge Master's presence when he has very limited exposure to actually have a story or have his perspective be known. At that point, we'd be saying that Greed could be the mastermind behind it all because he was only in the one side event during the one quest in Libra of Soul, and after defeating Fiddler and Miser, they're never seen again, ooooo, spooky! But that silliness aside, knowing Edge Master's perspective could be seen as my ultimate goal, in a manner of speaking, since he's generally seen as the omnipotent presence of SoulCalibur, if such a thing exists. As it is, they've kept just enough things under wraps and us in the dark to sow the seeds of doubt, which is why I'm able to have my perspective in the first place. If it was as clear-cut as you make it out to be that we're definitely on a new course, then I couldn't possibly even have theories as to how it may be the way that I'm saying it could be.
