Revelations from Keynote II

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Originally Posted by Mansion

Wasn't that about the Uznair Canals in treasure maps ?

What bugs me is how the areas are not known. Surely before heavensward we had heard of Dravania, Isle of Val, Ala Mhigo, these kind of things. And we knew about Othard / Doma.
But here it is plain unknown.

If it is on Ilsabard, do we really know so little about it?
If it is from another continent, that could be hydaelyn. (Do we know where did the Miqotes come from when they crossed the frozen seas during the Xth Umbral Era ?)
If it is in another shard, then it's ok I guess...

These areas look Light aspected (at least Ahm Araeng, Il Mehg and that pinkish area we have an artwork for). I'm in the side of "We are going in a Light imbalanced shard, and we'll learn from it so we can change things in Hydaelyn"

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we've known about Thavnir since ARR with the relic npc before Othard was even mentioned Thavnir's location is South of Ilsabard big island below Ilsabard on map it's unclouded like Sharlayan so my hope back before 4.0 was that 5.0 we visit these two or Thavnir on our way to Othard but ofc that never happened Yoshi could've just meant the canals pretty disappointing that was all we got

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Originally Posted by Crushnight

looks like stardust rod can't tell if atma version or base

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Indeed it does a bit... just a bit short, but that might be the perspective.. I'll ask one of my lala blm friends to get the i80 replica and try to do a similar screenshot for proof.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

If we create a timeline where the future is fine, we would still have no logical reason to return to the bad timeline for future MSQ purposes.

It's things like this that make me really dubious about the inclusion of time travel. It usually works fine when the plot is completely written around it, such as in Chrono Trigger, but when it's suddenly introduced into a setting as a major plot point things can get messy. Not to mention that whole Alexander questline suggested that XIV operates under the "stable time loop" principle, meaning that an attempt to change the future will actually end up causing the future to happen...though that may explain why they keep going on about how fate cannot be changed (Such in the new year's message) or embracing fate (As Y'shtola/Matoya said in the trailer).

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Good point that "future-changing time travel" doesn't really fit with creating new stable locations in other time periods. On the other hand, it could definitely work with a stable time loop - whatever we do while we're there, was always going to happen.

Of course, what it is incompatible with, is Trailer Voice Guy telling us we need to unwrite history.

But then I said from the start, I'm not convinced that we're actually going to do that just because an as-yet-untrustworthy Voice claims that we need to - and I don't think it fits with the themes of the game so far. (And particularly with the Alexander quests, having replayed them recently.)



Inescapable prophecies fit with the unchangeable nature of a stable time loop, I think. Though a good question in that case is: how specific is this fortune or prophecy? Have their exact actions been dicatated to them, or is it vague enough that by 'accepting' their fate and acting in accordance with it, they can decide the exact circumstances and retain some control over the outcome?

For what it's worth, we have at least one solid example of a card reading - the Dawn Cross, according to the lorebook (Vol.1, p.244), is one of the two most common fortune-telling methods and is "believed to provide more detailed information regarding a subject's fate" compared to the three-card Trinity. (The book and quest dialogue have more detail on card placement but what's relevant here is the resulting format of the 'told fortune'.)

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JANNEQUINARD (relaying Leveva's reading)
In the center of the Dawn Cross we have the Spear. To its left, the inverted Arrow. To its right, the inverted Balance. Beneath, we have the inverted Spire and the inverted Bole. And finally at the crown, is the Ewer.
“Though peace hath settled upon our great land, it will be along the path of coming destruction that friends new and old shall discover the bush that doth bear the fruit of knowledge and hope.”

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If that's the level of detail Urianger is getting out of his cards, that's going to leave plenty of room to get a thoroughly ominous reading, accept that it's going to happen, and do their best to turn it around.



Vagueness is the key to running a stable time loop and still letting the heroes "defy fate". The climax of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is an excellent example - despite being present for both versions of the looped time, neither the reader nor the characters are aware of what really happened by the end of their "first time through", so they are still acting freely during their second time through.

They take action to prevent something that (they thought) happened the first time around, only to set up the circumstances that mean it never happened in the first place - while giving their past selves the impression that it did. And then ending up in the right place at the right time for Harry to save his past self, except that's not why he went there, and he doesn't work it out until the last moment.

It's really clever, it comes together perfectly, and it's a great example of how you can stage a stable time loop without giving the audience the entire story - even while they're in the middle of fulfilling the second half of the looped events.

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Originally Posted by Neophyte

What job was Yoshi-Ps character in that screenshot?
http://www.novacrystallis.com/wp-con...9_PARIS_13.png

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That page isn't allowing hotlinked images.

Here's an alternate page with all the new images: https://twinfinite.net/2019/02/final...ingers-images/

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Originally Posted by Mieck

Lastly, at the risk of stirring the pot, the robed figure on the right of the artwork, with the straps and ornate bangles on the wrist... well, it's a little like the original Bard AF hands, and Bard is all about performance, which is.... maybe a bit like... dancing?

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That's quite a stretch.... but come to think of it, guess what class G'raha is?

Yeah, okay, archer rather than bard. But still.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

That's quite a stretch.... but come to think of it, guess what class G'raha is?

Yeah, okay, archer rather than bard. But still.

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Well, Encyclopaedia Eorzea Vol. 1 retconned him into an archer who also sings the song of his people. Pretty sure there's a specific Job for that, but I'm drawing a blank...

(Still has nothing to do with Dancer, though he may end up in that gear anyway if I want to do a retainer respec...)

I still haven't got my head round the Alexander lore, but isn't the idea that the characters were trapped in a time loop (where the later events put in motion the earlier events required for them in the first place) and that due to Alexander being benevolent, he would not interfere?

Isn't this exactly where a being like Zodiark could differ? That is, putting aside whether he is benevolent, malevolent, or neither. Potentially sitting outside such a loop, given that he appears to have power over time.

Let's go a step further and say he can see past, present and future all at once, would he not then be able to speak of changing history, as in changing the course of actions you are engaged in now? In which case, there is no time travel, as we would usually understand it.

To me, Alexander sounded a lot like an entity overseeing a simulation and capable of interfering with what was going on inside the simulation.

I'll have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of such narratives (the Harry Potter type plot turn you mentioned) and it would potentially interest me even less than straight up time travel. It's the kind of thing I don't mind reading about in a book or the occasional game but it'd be pretty meh for me if this is what they have in store.

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Originally Posted by Lauront

I still haven't got my head round the Alexander lore, but isn't the idea that the characters were trapped in a time loop and that due to Alexander being benevolent, he would not interfere?

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The plot is a time loop, but it's a single time loop, not infinite - and not directly affecting the characters.

Alexander itself is essentially a time-travelling supercomputer, able to calculate all possible futures and manipulate time so the "best" future plays out. But it's also a primal, and its mere existence is draining aether from the land, so it concludes that the actual best future is one where it doesn't exist. In the end it can't be destroyed, so to remove itself from the world, it traps itself in a self-contained time bubble - allegedly sealed forever, though there are implications that some things can still get in and out.

There's an running theme throughout the script on the idea of being able to rewind time and undo past events, but with the conclusion that it shouldn't be done.

Just to clarify, do you mean Alexander's plot?

The thing that eludes me about it is the "why" behind the whole plot - as in, why did it all need to happen in the first place? Like the creation of the stable time loop.

All that just makes me wonder how things would differ if the being in question lacked Alexander's limitation of being a primal. Still, I think there's other ways of parsing some of the time-related references which can exclude time travel altogether.

Going back to Minfilia, I have to wonder if what's going on with her is not perhaps rebirth, as opposed to being aged down. So that the body she's reborn in would plausibly look like a younger Minfilia as we know her, but is not really the same, and therefore gives the illusion that the trailer is hinting at time travel. This would align with her retention of the aspect of the Word of the Mother, and may also link into the cover art for ShB, with the DRK holding the luminescent child.

I'm also wondering if the trailer may be hinting at a time skip, given some of the narration.

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Originally Posted by Lauront

Just to clarify, do you mean Alexander's plot?

The thing that eludes me about it is the "why" behind the whole plot - as in, why did it all need to happen in the first place? Like the creation of the stable time loop.

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It needs to happen for its own sake, as well as events that would change as a consequence of the time loop not happening. The Hotgo tribe, of which Mide is one of the few survivors, wouldn't exist if not for the time loop that Alexander's events take place within.

We can't observe what started the time loop or why, because we're part of it and it exists in perpetuity.

I think it's worth keeping in mind that the trailer is deliberately misleading. As in, basically anything it appears to be communicating "clearly" will almost certainly change meaning drastically as we come to understand the surrounding context.


Unless Yoshida's comments on misdirection are the true misdirection... Hmmmm...

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Originally Posted by Cilia

Alpha never really does anything outside his prime directive until after the defeat of Omega-M/F. He certainly went above and beyond the scope for which he was intended, but until then he just got us to fight Omega's test subjects and then Omega itself, which is the entire reason he was created. Going on a journey was the first independent thing he willed himself to do outside of his intended purpose.

Might be why we can't Echo-talk with mammets - they have some degree of intelligence, but no real will of their own. Except maybe Vivi.

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Alpha did try to bash against the trap Omega put us in, which was the reason Midgardsormr acknowledged Alpha's will and bravery. I would put that in the same degree of free will as Maggie coming to save us when the Praetorium was blowing up.