Concept of other worlds

[MrThinker]

10,000 years would give you a 2000-year gap before the first Calamity, so I'm not sure where the problem is.

Sorry if I didnt make it clear where my confusion was.

Yes, they've finally given us a date for the Hydaelyn/Zodiark split - it was 12,000 years ago, which would coincidentally put it around the theorized time of the end of the "Age of Gods", as Eorzeans to date have known it, and the First Umbral Era (which in most in-universe scholarship is mostly conjecture, though it's highly suspected something happened. We are evidently going to learn much more about that in Shadowbringers.

StarDrake conflated the Sundering with the First Umbral Era/end of the Age of Gods. Or at least, that was my understanding of their understanding.

[Anonymoose]

"The First Umbral Calamity (aka Rejoining) can't be the Sundering" has been my first litmus test for "Is this a red herring or poorly-remembered history?" Determining the length of "Prehistory" (Sundering to first Rejoining) and identifying whether Prehistory or Presundering is the true "Age of the Gods", too, feels like a really important milestone.

I'm a bit nervous, to be honest, as I'd always hoped The Twelve would prove to be more than misremebered Warriors of Light (however likely that is). Putting them in that gray area between Sundering and First Umbral seemed so plausible. Mid-level gods created by Hydaelyn to lead Her children in the new era, only for the dual nature of man (and/or Zodiark's agents) to spark a rebellion against them that caused the First Umbral Era and the withdrawal of the gods from the world.

[Rongway]

2. Are we going to visit other worlds?(2nd,3rd etc)

Just in case it wasn't already clear, not all of the reflections are intact. There have been seven Calamities on the Source, each Calamity coinciding with the destruction/reabsorption of one of the reflections back into the Source. Also, the Thirteenth tilted so far toward darkness that it would be uninhabitable to us; its surviving denizens are the demonic things that are often the subject of ritual conjurings. Our primary purpose in visiting the First is ostensibly to prevent it from tilting irreparably toward light and suffering a similar fate to the Thirteenth.

[Lambdafish]

My one question is in regards to how we travel there. Didn't Arbert say that they had to die in order to travel to the source? That would make traveling from Crystarium to Gridania to unlock Gunbreaker difficult.

[Enkidoh]

If I remember rightly, Yoshi already revealed that it would be the Crystal Tower that would be the gateway between the Source and the Shards (hence why a copy of the Crystal Tower appears in the First and is featured front and centre in the full trailer - it's Yoshi pointing his thumb to it and saying "THIS PLACE IS GOING TO BE IMPORTANT FOR THE NEW EXPANSION" (subtlety is hardly SE's strong suit).

As far as Evil!Derplander and his party are concerned, it's clear now that Elidibus merely lied to them that death was theonly way to travel to the Source (remember: Ascians lie), as it not only served his ends it also allowed a convenient means of eliminating them if they decided to slip their Ascian-held leashes (sending their souls onto the Lifestream), and that physical travel between the Source Hydaelyn and the Shards is possible, although it could just be a handwave to allow Shadowbringers's premise to even work. Either way, we'll find out soon.

[Mansion]

They said we're "taking down the Garlean Empire," so it can't all be First-side, can it?

I am more and more confused about this part. Is it possible that by an Ascian thingy, the Garlemald Empire draws power (in whichever form) from the excess of Light in the First ?
Or will the Empire step in (Heavensward like) roughly in the second part of 5.0, for whatever plot-convenient reason ?

I'd like it to be all First oriented, not with a scrawny Ala Mhigo Source part where we do a bunch of things against the Empire, then fly off for a large part of the extension to Doma the First and then go back to finish what we forgot we were doing there in the first place.

[Anonymoose]

Yoshida-san elaborated a bit saying that it's "very convenient" and we would somehow "super-charge the Echo" and avoid the need to die. Though I'd be surprised to find Elidibus outright lied. Don't get me wrong, I've believed since his first cutscene that he was a snake, but the assumption that he has never outright lied and merely speaks in vague double-meanings with selective omissions that lead you to make the assumptions he wants you to has been my guiding principle for analyzing his character. Finding out he lied would send me back to square one on him which is... <shudders> [beat] <shudders harder>

[Astarotha]

given hes probably not on the best of terms with crystal-arm he may still have been halftruthing it by saying its the only way he has available to them, also possible the wods jumped at the first offer out of desperation and elidibus certainly isnt going to just offer up an alternative when you already said yes to what he wants

[TarynH]

2. Are we going to visit other worlds?(2nd,3rd etc)

I hope so. And I hope one of them is named Vana'diel.

[StarDrake]

Just in case it wasn't already clear, not all of the reflections are intact. There have been seven Calamities on the Source, each Calamity coinciding with the destruction/reabsorption of one of the reflections back into the Source. Also, the Thirteenth tilted so far toward darkness that it would be uninhabitable to us; its surviving denizens are the demonic things that are often the subject of ritual conjurings. Our primary purpose in visiting the First is ostensibly to prevent it from tilting irreparably toward light and suffering a similar fate to the Thirteenth.

To be even more clear,

we have already traveled to the Thirteenth. The World of Darkness is the shattered remains of the Thirteenth Shard, or at least the sliver of it that the Cloud of Darkness calls home.

As this was accessed from the Crystal Tower, it would indeed appear that the Crystal Tower being involved in shard-travel shenanigans was teased all the way back in 2.x - we just thought it was the doing of the CoD at the time.

Also, for folks worried about there being a Source-First split in the zones and creating a bit of a Stormblood mess in terms of flow again, not only do I think they learned their lesson on that front, but I would encourage you to go back to the inn and re-watch the second cutscene of "Seiryu's Wall".

It sounds like Solus will be relocating to the First by using... Black Rose, somehow, because of how it interacts with the Flood of Light?... leaving things here on the Source to Varis. Presumably things are gonna get weird once we beat ElidiZenos and we'll have to go chasing after Solus to open the expac.