If you were hoping Meracydia was going to come soon, Yoshi P confirms it isnt.

It got pointed out when I brought up Winterers that the definition of it is people or birds that go to a certain place in winter. which could mean it's a red herring and we're actually going somewhere warm.

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Originally Posted by Shistar

As cool as that could be, I'm afraid there's already been a calamity of ice (Age of Endless Frost, which caused Miqo'te to travel to Eorzea from Ilsabard and the Millala to arrive to the Ninth from Aloalo), so that shard is long lost to us.

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There's no guarantee that there is not another shard they attempted to create an Ice calamity with and didn't succeed. Technically there are two known to have had issues with Lightning, and two that had issues with darkness (one is supposedly unaspected but it looks like darkness).

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

There's no guarantee that there is not another shard they attempted to create an Ice calamity with and didn't succeed. Technically there are two known to have had issues with Lightning, and two that had issues with darkness (one is supposedly unaspected but it looks like darkness).

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Aha, good catch, Jeeqbit! We can always rely on you for this kind of information. I didn't remember that at all, honestly...
Well, all the better! I think ice is one of the prettiest elements they can work with. I'd be looking forward to some hauntingly beautiful snowy landscapes!

Given the "winterer" comment made by [Redacted] during the post MSQ cutscene, i'm of the opinion that we'll be traveling through Blindfrost the sea to the north of Othard, and possibly deal with intershard travel to deal with this new threat. Honestly i'm kinda hoping that given the nature of the new threat, and the possibility of being able to travel to other shards through the use of the interdimensional key, i'm hoping we form a new Scions group comprised of the allies we have met along the way, like Ryne and Gaia, Zero, etc.

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Originally Posted by Kranel_San

If they're avoiding Meracydia because people are expecting it, then we'll never get Meracydia because it will always be one of the most prominent expectations for an expansion's setting.

It also doesn't help that in the current world map, as of DT, Meracydia's outlines and shapes can be seen, so it feels like the devs are preparing for the day they set off to Meracydia.

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We've got Ilsabard, Meracydia, "North America", and even Hingashi which YoshiP has alluded to us taking part in a "Shogun War". But with the current McGuffin device, there's implications of "multiverse/reflection" travel, which is was probably discussed as a possibility before the resounding market fatigue of "omg the multiverse" that we're seeing now. If they already have something different aside from "the multireflection/multiverse" expansion 2 electric boogaloo (I don't count EW's jaunt into the 13th as one) then we might see it delayed depending on how they can steer their titanic-sized development cycle.

I just hope we don't end up going to another shard in 8.0.... can we give the whole shard thing a break for a while?

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

It got pointed out when I brought up Winterers that the definition of it is people or birds that go to a certain place in winter. which could mean it's a red herring and we're actually going somewhere warm.

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Tbh, I think the name is not so literal as to imply/attach a climate to the organization. Considering Calyx refers to the Winterers as his (and the Ascian's) peers: I imagine that if there's a reason for the name then it's likely just in reference to how the various operatives/members operate outside the larger organization's home reflection (since cross reflection travel is still mostly impossible aside from our few exceptional cases of it... this idea of the name makes more sense than literal migration. Note that I take for granted the Winterers are not capable of cross reflection travel, hence the attempt to make copies of our plot device as well as the reason for employing an Ascian).

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

It got pointed out when I brought up Winterers that the definition of it is people or birds that go to a certain place in winter. which could mean it's a red herring and we're actually going somewhere warm.

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Don’t remember seeing if anyone posted the word from the Japanese version… could also be one of those Japanese words that really doesn’t translate well to English.

But I'm definitely leaning towards it being more metaphorical at this point… Ascians and/or their partners in crime that were waiting/hiding out, and now that the Unsundered are gone, moving forward with their own agenda.

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Originally Posted by Astronema

they better not copy snowpiercer.

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They don't currently have the writing skill to copy OG snowpiercer anyway.

After the bore it was dawntrailer, i can see them doing a collab with TEKKEN, they have a lot of monsters that can be raid bosses and a lot of fashion items that can be gear sets, the Arcadion stages look a lot like tekken stages and some arcadion bosses look like FGC characters (bomber (nappa) doing lariats like zangief, wicked thunder with the proton cannon spam).

Okay so the set up we have is this.

-We have a new orange crystal that flashed the sun symbol of Azem when used. It resembles a chalice (trying to trigger the WoL here?) and is used to either/both travel between reflections or merge them.
-Dimensional fusion is a new and just as dangerous variation of the rejoinings, however, it appears to instead layer the reflection over top of the source verses eradicating the reflection and that aether rushing back into the source. Basically the source is no longer "safe" in that regard.
-We now see that the Ascians were starting to repeat the elements used in past calamities. They would need to eventually, with 13 shards and 8 elements. Darkness and Ice are the theorized final two. I think we need to consider the Astral/Umbral polarities in looking at the final shards.
-"Winterers" is the next enemy group. Wintering is to endure through a rough season or time, and Calyx's goal of allowing some humans a form of immortality not reliant on flesh and blood is in line with their ideas. We don't know what or why. (My theory is entropy, which the Ea considered a fate worse than death and is absolutely a real thing. Terrifying to an immortal, and being mortal with finite time to grow was kind of our only response to that fear.)