Coerthas: Then and Now

I'm not sure this is the right place, but it deals with setting, so hopefully.

I think I'm just really enamored with Coerthas because of it's dramatic transformation between 1.0 and 2.0. I wanted to try and recreate some screenshots from 1.x in 2.x to show, even if just for myself, the changes?

The problem is, even after watching a video of someone riding through most of the zone, I can't see how it lines up at all >_< -- video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd9ohpDDCRU

This page has some of the pictures: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ic-Shot/page12

The problem is, the only place I *think* I recognize is the "Gates of Judgement", and even those look super different.

2.x, for me, has Coerthas dominated by the 3 large fortresses of the High Houses, the Gates of Judgement, and Steel Vigil, but I can't see anything like those in the old zone. I just... really don't get it.

Consider that coerthas is 5 major areas divided by aetherytes. Connected by tunnels or bridges.

Area 1: Dragonhead and ishgard, the Nail, Darkhold

Area 2: The frozen waterfall To the west edge of coerthas conceals the path west.

Area 3: The tunnels leading northeast past original Chimera cave are blocked, via cave-in, etc

Area 4: The bridge to the southeast (where we fight gilgamesh) is currently under repair.

Area 5: The area to the south, where the former entrance to AV was, now seen much further north. New paths carve their way through the south to both Mor Dhona and The Black Shroud, entirely bypassing this area. (I blame Bahamut)

http://i.imgur.com/IqdffhJ.jpg

Also don't forget that all we currently have accessible at the moment for Coerthas is just the Central Highlands and part of Natalan, the rest of it is sealed off - if and when SE will open the rest of the region is anyone's guess.

I wish one day Coertha will back to greenish glass land like its should be

Just now its snow everywhere ... its nice but I wish there summer or fall

Winter has come. Beware the white walkers. Time to polish your Valyrian steel, if you're lucky enough to have any.

Thanks all!

I do wonder, we know The First Dicastrial Observatorium of Aetherial and Astrological Phenomena existed before The Calamity, but was it visibly similar in 1.x? What about Whitebrim Front and Camp Dragonhead? (And Witchdrop?) I could imagine the last may have been created during The Calamity, but were the others... From what I saw, it seemed like they might have been there but were very... not fort-y looking?

Camp Dragonhead was a small little tent camp with a crystal up on a hill and most of the area if i can remember was Forest/grassland (pine trees and green grass) so it really is different. Kinda miss it was a nice area.

Well, like they say, once you start hitting Fort-y, you're in the winter of your life.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-u...ewcoerthas.jpg
I did this overlay a while ago for a Reddit post about this topic. My biggest regret is ARR (my only one, really), is the loss of scale of the world. While the copy paste was a bit of an issue, I loved the vastness of the zones. Now the city states feel more like neighborhoods. If you look at all the parts that were cut out of old Coerthas, there is a massive chunk missing between it and Gridania. And it's not like you can just retcon an entire zone between two existing zones.

When I look at the original map

How the hell we warp from Mor Dhona Revent's toll to the middle Coertha?

The south of Coertha area used to be dangerous though, not easy pass there