The new expansion is called Evercold

I think this expansion will at least bring a lot of players back to the game.

The trailer gives me the impression that they are now backpedaling back to what seemed to work so well for them in the past storyline-wise: the "source shards."

I hope that Dawntrail serves as a lesson for the creative teams, reminding them not to underestimate the significance of players' feelings towards their characters and their role in the game world..

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Originally Posted by Mikey_R

Whilst this was my initial reaction as well, upon reflection, it doesn't make sense. We already know what happens when the shards join with the source, and it isn't good.

Rather, with the key and Azem's crystal, I would point it more towards breaking down the walls between shards to allow travel between them more freely and thus 'unite' them in that way.

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I would say yes and no here... we saw a partial rejoining of the ninth without an accompanying calamity. Alexandria now exists on the source, and while the time bubble and the unique climate within the bubble weren't good for the people who existed in the area when Alexandria plopped itself onto the source, the damage was pretty minimal compared to the rejoinings we've seen in the past.

I can absolutely see the warrior of light being persuaded by the argument that life on these other shards has become incredibly poorly due to the imbalance of the aether created by the ascians, and that a controlled rejoining is preferable to a violent one like we had seen before. Also worth mentioning just becuase the ascians did rejoinings the way they did, doesn't mean that's the only way to do it, as we saw with how the ascians taught primal summoning to include tempering, when that wasn't actually something you had to have to summon up those old gods.

Similarly it could be possible to do a rejoining without destroying both planets in the process, and the ascians just preferred the more destructive route

Fimbulwinter! Called it. X3

I think we're going to go the way of grafting the World Trees together, like the original World Tree, so a rejoining of worlds but not in a violently overlapping with other shards kinda way.

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Originally Posted by RagAndBoneLady

Fimbulwinter! Called it. X3

I think we're going to go the way of grafting the World Trees together, like the original World Tree, so a rejoining of worlds but not in a violently overlapping with other shards kinda way.

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calling it now... the world tree on the fourth is actually Exdeath

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Originally Posted by wereotter

calling it now... the world tree on the fourth is actually Exdeath

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I'm sure there'll be a glacier of FFV references if the ultimate goal is merging every remaining shard, though it makes OC's theming confusing because of all the material they could have used for this arc.

I think it has the potential... But it's either going to be one of those things which is a massive hit, or something that just completely falls flat... They are making the right conversations, but it comes to something like what they have highlighted... Are they following the letter of the feedback or the spirit of that feedback... I hope it's the spirit of it, and I do hope they nail it, but we'll see...

The discussion of going from daily to weekly-based, just seems like sheer semantics, as ultimately the game as is now, is weekly-driven

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

Well yes, but it seems like part of the Ninth was merged without issue, in a way the Ascians did not seem aware of.

Despite that we are apparently joining the shards together, the expansion does not give me the impression that we are doing this, because it seems the focus is entirely on the Fourth. This may be why they called it a "Saga". We may be doing it gradually over multiple expansions and patches.

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Echoing what others have said, I wouldn't say it merged without issues. But yes, being able to create freer access to more shards for more people is going to be a multi expansion story. If we imagine for a second that we found a way to freely go to a shard, what do you think would happen if you just threw wide the gates? Would the shard see it as in invasion? What if the shard is much more hostile and sees it as an opportunity to invade somewhere else, what if differences in culture clash too much? We already saw a snippet of that last point with the Ninth and they way they treated souls. This isn't to say that the next set of expansions is going to be going to each remaining shard to 'unite' them, that would get old quick.

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Originally Posted by wereotter

I would say yes and no here... we saw a partial rejoining of the ninth without an accompanying calamity. Alexandria now exists on the source, and while the time bubble and the unique climate within the bubble weren't good for the people who existed in the area when Alexandria plopped itself onto the source, the damage was pretty minimal compared to the rejoinings we've seen in the past.

I can absolutely see the warrior of light being persuaded by the argument that life on these other shards has become incredibly poorly due to the imbalance of the aether created by the ascians, and that a controlled rejoining is preferable to a violent one like we had seen before. Also worth mentioning just becuase the ascians did rejoinings the way they did, doesn't mean that's the only way to do it, as we saw with how the ascians taught primal summoning to include tempering, when that wasn't actually something you had to have to summon up those old gods.

Similarly it could be possible to do a rejoining without destroying both planets in the process, and the ascians just preferred the more destructive route

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Partial is the key word here, it not being a full re-joining means it would necessarily have less of an impact, but it did still have an impact. I would say the Scions would want to achieve the goal of 'uniting' the world with the least amount of impact to the source and shard, with a partial re-joining only happening if it is the only option.

And lets us not forget, it cannot be a full re-joining. With a full re-joining, the souls of every individual are going to merge back together, you would necessarily kill off the people of the shard (I doubt the inhabitants of the source would be the ones to join as they are the 'original'. Not to mention the mass amount of Aether that is going to join with the source. The only way that could theoretically be possible is if it was done slowly, but, if it is a matter of the worlds joining on their own, you can't necessarily slow this process down.

In my opinion, there is no way to carry out a full re-joining without mass, devastating consequences.

There is a lot going on in that cinematic and the pics on the website include some other interesting tidbits.

I suppose everything we see in the game footage photos could theoretically all be on the 4ths now inhabited and terraformed moon. Hence no snow. And the freezing of the shard could have happened after the exodus to the moon so anyone on the moon was spared death from the calamity. I have a feeling we won't be heading down to the 4th from the 4th moon quickly and probably only sparingly if at all. Two of the instance/trial pics depict quite a lot of fire/lava. It is possible we or another group could be trying to restart the Fire aspect of the 4th to negate the overwhelming Ice aspect.

It is also possible we find we can use the Port key and the Stone of Azem to safely combine the physical remains of fallen shards with the Source opening up new landmass on Eitherys. Altho unlikely.

The Trailer looks promising. Reaper as Main and no Wuk Lamat at this point. Hope Thancred and Urianger will join us or better Gaius and Nero. Or even some new Characters.

The site for the expansion is up, https://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/evercold/