Thread: Patch 4.4 (Prelude in Violet) Speculation Thread! (Possible spoilers [NO LEAKS])

I feel like there's a very high chance that the coming light-related calamity is something being instigated by the Ascians considering that we know they were keeping an eye on the first shard.

Letting a small flood of light into the world, not enough scour it completely but still enough to damage it horribly would be an easy way of causing a calamity. The question is how they'd go about doing it, but I think if whoever is speaking saying we're the only ones who can stop it indicates to me that they're going to do something on our end. I also wonder if this is the hidden purpose the Ascians have been preparing us for all this time, because I'd think the WoL would have an easier time causing a flood of light then they would, and unwittingly causing a calamity would be one heck of a plot twist.

I get the impression this trailer contains a number of large of red herrings.

The spires of light in the beginning, cool and ominous as they seem, look to be the same battlefield from the Wyrmgardsormr fight later on. Perhaps it will connect to revelations about his past and home.

Y'shtola will be my lodestar here; she appears in every scene so they must be sequential (even if not in this order).

So we have a meeting in Ala Mhigo where something happens that we don't expect. Though perhaps that is the red herring. Perhaps the only unexpected thing is that the Warrior of Light starts hearing that voice then. (What sounds to me a bit like Arbert of all people at first, but more on that later.)

Kan-E says she's reaching out and trying to sense someone's soul, but it's missing. At first I thought maybe Zenos showed up at the meeting but I'm thinking it's probably more likely she just failed to find Alphinaud because he's in the Burn.

Anyroad, we revisit the Azim Steppe, where Y'shtola's doing something with the "shard of the Dusk Mother" up north there and Magnai is drawing his axe in the southern desert. This is the scene I feel I have the least context for. Is Y'shtola trying to find Alphinaud or is there something plot-related here? Is Magnai fighting Sadu? Is this them giving the "Who is my Nhaama?" thing closure? Or is someone invading?

Perhaps this is where we pick up Yols and make for the Burn, since Y'shtola is part of that party, as well. (WoL, Alisaie, Hien, Yugiri, Y'shtola, Hien)

Meanwhile, Alphinaud and Shadowkiller seem to be finding his camp destroyed. The effect used for the dead NPCs is pretty cool. Is this an Ascian-related death or an Empire one.

While the balloon ceremony in Mor Dhona EDIT (Mor Dhoma ... Dhoma ... Confound it!) Doma seems to be a red herring (related to the Doman Reconstruction moreso than a death), we have a voice over expressing loss (or merely the fear of loss, as would be reasonable right now, even) and a scene of her looking broody in Limsa Lominsa. Why in Limsa Lominsa? Do we just fail to get Alphinaud back or is there more to it?

Maxima is missing and we have one scene of Urianger surprised to see something ... Rising Stones?

That just leaves the oliphant in the room: the voice.

That sounds suspiciously like Gendry Arbert to me, but the door's open for Alphinaud, too (I need to compare accents). Maybe it's more that the time has come to kill Alphie, instead, lol. (Notice that in the artwork, his ear looks bloody.) That puts a few of the pieces into place, but that's also exactly the red herring they'd throw at us. Either way, it seems a good candidate for the source of the visual oddities in the patch - contacting the Warrior of Light through distant echoes.

"Twin dooms only you can forestall." against what sounds like hints about a Flood of Light and about a Calamity. Occam would suggest that, whoever it is, is warning us about Elidbus's plans to set up a Calamity via the Garlean War, and that seeing as we'd only just saved the First from a Flood, only we can prevent these "twin dooms". However, that sword of possibility cuts both ways. "Throw wide the gates that we may pass." ... the alternative is far darker.

Would the devs really put the loss of a shard on our shoulders?

I've just rewatched the WoD scenes from 3.4, and I think there's solid ground to say Arbert is narrating the 4.4 trailer.
Word is this is much more explicit in the German version. His parting wisdom was advising us not to make the same mistake they did, but for him to be making a potential reappearance, I guess we have not done so. Though, with the way we just nod our way through all conversations, that is only to be expected, I suppose.

I think Shadowhunter's camp looks like a new area. I would be really happy if this turned out to be a new zone they were planning to drop in either this patch or 4.5. It would be great to have a new zone with which to setup the approach to Garlemald proper, since I think scope of that is quite limited in the current SB zones. It worked in 2.x because Ishgard was always there, and worked again in 3.x because Baelsar's Wall had been in all the way through ARR and HW. But the SB zones just run up against walls and offer little hint of what's over the horizon. A new zone, maybe on the other side of the Burn, would be a great thing, I think.

Other thoughts pending edit. Also, I like the fact I'm not the only one to pre-like Moose's incoming edit

Arbert fits both thematically and with the actual voice. I can see that. My initial reaction was Elidibus given the weird vocal effect might be a return of the "Ancient" language, but it's likely the words I can't make out are also just conveniently cut off.

Reasonably surprised in some of the Eureka scenes--is Ejika wielding Zantetsuken there or just a like model? Is the Eikon ... Odin ... ? Gods, that'd be very FFXI. The bad guy was Odin this whole time!

Let's steal from Moose and do this in order:

The spire of Light in the opening I originally thought the Burn, but if I pause it reminds me more of Coerthas? Could it be an in-game render of Midgardsormr's downfall? (Gods, teasing verdant Mor Dhona!) There's a giant moon/planet in the background later in the video though which ... seems to indicate we might be on a facsimile of Midgardsormr's world/the Dragon Star?

The obvious voidsent gargoyles in omega-created Chaos' arena really bug me. Why would Omega add those?

Ala Mhigo and Doma formally joining the Eorzean Alliance--with Doma in the fold they might want to reconsider the name.

Interesting how word of Doma summoning a Primal got back to the capital. I had thought the plan was for Asahi's team to relay the information, but they're all dead or shipwrecked... then again, I doubt something like eyewitness accounts and proof would stall Elidibus' plans.

I guess Alisaie inherits Gosetsu's yol and Y'shtola gets Lyse's? If that's the Burn gear on the party it looks oddly Allagan, which makes sense, I guess.

The area Shadowhunter and Alphinaud are in looks more like Yanxia than anywhere else, but it's ... weird ... definitely feels new. Where's Maxima?

If the dungeons are St. Mocianne's Arboretum (Hard) and The Burn-- what in the Seven Hells is this 4-man Allagan-themed area? More of The Burn? I'm guessing so since it's the same party...weird. That makes weird dragon, crystal scorpion and Allagan roader for the Burn bosses? That's a goddamned Allagan juggernaut... are we going to learn the Allagans are responsible for the Burn's aether problems and not even a real Primal?

Ejika protecting Eureka Mask with a summoned sword that looks awfully like Zantetsuken. Yipes. Didn't expect him to become an antagonist tbh. The shot of Ejika/Mask is in some kind of library but if you look behind Krile you're in some kind of weird cave with doors. What the hell, Sharlayans? You just build libraries in caves randomly?

Disappointed Suzaku doesn't get a foot with a bird head and just stands on the phoenix like a surfboard. She seems to have already succumbed to some madness. Does she mistake the WoL for Tenzen due to the presence of the Echo?

I'm bored to tears of the Steppe and Magnai and Sadu. House of the Crooked Coin tho? Sign me up. Give me answers. The video gets some weird effect after Suzaku for non-Omega shots.

Gold-plated Midgardsormr definitely makes it easy to see how Domans could mistake Shinryu for him, right!?

The weird occurrence at the meeting could very well be Arbert patching himself in the conference call with help from Minfilia. A warning, perhaps, but "throw wide the gates that we may pass" is very ... confusing. Is he asking for a way back to the Source? Is it possible we Echo into Elidibus deceiving them and showing them how to Shardhop? Murky words and voices.

Given we see a lot of the Omega fight, he's gonna be third and we have a mystery 4th? Alpha seems to sacrifice himself for some reason too, his feathers rain down from the sky, Cid cradles it on his hand before it poofs...and what is Cid so afraid of? He's shown shaking at his desk...? Like there's something he's nervous about it. End of the world, maybe. Nero being forlorn and saddened feels like an obvious "sad my chocoboy died." Weird we see Nero but not Biggs and Wedge. Guess Omega gave them much more grievous wounds than whatever he did to Cid. (or Nero is just disobeying a chirugeon's orders of bedrest)

Some of the crystals in the Omega arenas are now reddish-orange which I guess means they get overaspected/corrupted at some point.

The two guards with unique headgear in the Elidibus walking away from Varis shot--could they be something to look out for? Didn't we have a big bad evil Empire with two recurring enemies like that before? Maybe I'm reaching but the red and blue remind me of Zorn and Thorn? Though I never played IX.

Weird trailer. Weird patch.