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So, I've come to thinking, what happened to these camps, and the others that have vanished since 1.0? And what happens when their Aetherite is broken?
I mean, I get that Aetherite can be broken and that the layout of the land is changed forever, but... What are the intricacies surrounding a broken Aetherite?
Emerald Moss should be roughly around where Fallgourd Flat is, and I don't really remember for the other camps...
Is the area just ... forgotten? Or does it live on in NPC recollection?
I think of Aetherytes as metro stops. You set up a crystal somewhere the stream can handle it, and it acts as an anchor that people can find in transit and gravitate towards. When an aetheryte is destroyed, that station is no longer in service. As the Iceheart arc showed, a recently destroyed aetheryte leaves a sort of vacuum, but I'm sure that fills in with ambient aether relatively fast.
The aetherytes of the Sixth Astral Era were here when people arived; who built them was never revealed (Fifth Astral societies? Fourth? The Allag?). It was even theorized that civilizations built around them out of convenience. Even the beast tribes settled around them, though they twisted and chained their aetherytes in some strange act of rebellion. In ARR, the Sharlayans have helped rebuild our crystals, while the beast tribes have made their own (probably with the help of the "Paragons").
Each city used the aetherytes as ways to expand their sphere of influence, guarding the network of crystals within their region. However, most "camps" were just a few guards, an armory tent, and a fence. Atomos destroyed some (by using them as straws through which to drain aether from the stream - overaspecting them into broken, chaotic crystal chunks), the Calamity destroyed some (meteorimpact.mp4), and I'm sure others were simply rendered useless and removed as the streams shifted. Most of the camps were dismantled and forgotten, but you can still see the wreckage of a few of them. The original Revenant's Toll aetheryte is still there, corrupted by Atomos. The wreckage of Camp Bronze Lake is over by Camp Overlook.
Some camps were rebuilt on their original locations, but Eorzea seems to have committed to the idea that aetherytes, from now on, will only be situated in places where there has been a committed effort to develop (or perhaps they make a concerted effort to develop the area where they decide an aetheryte should be. Kind of a chocobo or the egg, thing... unless it's both?).
As for the three you mention:
Broken Water is still in Southern Thanalan, but they've changed the area to which the name refers. It seems that the Sagolii Desert has encroached further north-east, and rather than continue to call the area around Little Ala Mhigo by the name of Halatali (now that Halatali the training grounds are open again), they started calling it Broken Water. For what it's worth, Broken Water wasn't much further south. Zanr'ak used to be east of what is now Sagolii Desert, but it seems they've moved it west of Zahar'ak, expanding into the area that used to be patrolled via Camp Broken Water, which I'd guess was right around where the Zanr'ak Encampment is now.
Bald Knoll has been lost to the Sahagin; the area that they've taken over in Western La Noscea contains a large chunk of what was once Bald Knoll, including where the camp once was.
Emerald Moss is... complicated. The Black Shroud has been "warped" quite a bit by "the half-completed restoration of the land following the Calamity" (READ: Like Coerthas, the map team has fudged some details, mechanically.) I use Hyrstmill as a point of reference, because it and the Hedgetree are right where they should be relative to one another. Right where the hedgetree is now, in that shape of an area, there was a strobing tree in 1.0. We always wondered what it was, and now we know. If you go by that, Lifemend Stump in the Central Shroud has been moved quite a ways, assuming Amberscale Rock and the Guardian Tree form point of reference, as well.
Based on all of that, my best guess is that Alder Springs (including Fallgroud Float) is actually an area that didn't used to be navigable - a space of land between what were once Lake Tahtotl and Lake Fallgourd, where the water table now connects the remnants of the two via a small river. I think the Ixali Logging Grounds are closer to Lake Tahtotl, and the river flows past what is now Alder Springs towards where Fallgourd Lake once was (and might still be). If all of that is true, Camp Emerald Moss was south, off the current map, and we pass through it on the way to the Spriggan Dig in the Central Shroud when crossing that zone-line. The missing chunk would also include the area that once housed Lifemend Stump.
I'm sad we never got answers about the old Gelmorra Ruins in that area. I'm nigh on positive that Amberscale Rock is a dragon imprisoned by the Elementals (long story), and the stone circle of the ruins used to be farther north, littered with similar amber-like statues that looked suspiciously like tonberries...
I still have pictures of the old Gelmorra Ruins somewhere on my PC, it was lots of scary mobs, a hole, and statues. States of tonberries which of course weren't introduced until 2.0 in WP.
Amberscale rock, yeah, I remember it well.
Still, you gave a nice answer there.
Very clear.
I still miss some of the old areas, and getting the Wanderer's shadow achievement was great fun.
I always wondered about places that were named in the game by NPCs, which were going to become dungeons (Dragon's Aerie, The Fesse, Hengr's Crucible, Moraby Hollows, Umbra Cove, and Knight's Round Croft and possibly some others I forgot...)
There's no allusions to them anymore, and no allusions to the old camps by NPCs. Yes, they've been lost in one way or another, but... were these places lost, like the recollection of the warriors of light? (Think that storyline amnesia thing).
I think that's something only a dev would be able to answer. xD
[Edit] Dragon's Aerie would be quite appropriate for Heavensward.... Hmmmmmmmmm~ [/Edit]
http://cdn.guildwork.net/albums/imag...583c736c29.jpg
Same color stones as Amberscale. We always thought they were Tonberries lol
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post2737561
Moose, I'm not surprised you've given this extensive thought as well, but I had also been muddling over our new geography. I don't know if you saw this post in an earlier thread, but I tried to reconcile 1.0 and 2.0 Shroud cartography and came up with this map. I'm curious to know how it holds up against your findings as well.