Predictions from the Patch 6.2 Trailer & Patch Website

[My apologies, I know Moose does these usually but... :/]

So, the new Trailer was quite packed, and the special site was updated as well. I'm mostly hyperfocusing on the parts that do seem to depict Eden.
First off, I think first new character that is shown (the ancient with the mask on) might be Athena, as it seemed like some sort of apparition due to the light particles.
The second one, the one also up on the Website now...

https://img.finalfantasyxiv.com/lds/...aB2BjnXDvk.jpg

Seems like that one's going to be a prominent one like Hesperos. Since we have 3 out of 4 Raid Battles shown in the Trailer and this one is among them, I suppose it might be P7? For name suggestions, I just wanna throw out Mnemosyne - a Titan from Greek Mythology and associated with memory/remembering. They did mention in that recent interview that the patch title connects to Pandaemonium as well, and they do love their shallow references.

For P8, I think we might get Lahabrea himself? That voice line at the end of the trailer is definitely him in german (years of MSQ Roulette burned that voice into my head), and the german line 'Dieser Kerker wird euer Grab sein!' ('This prison will be your grave!') is fitting as a boss line during a fight - and the last bosses of a Tier usually get voiced lines in battle. (Shiva and Eden's Promise did. Hesperos not. Huh...)

Also... why is the Lahabrea Constellation Crystal suddenly red? It used to be blue...

All I can say is...

The Sky Pirates and Cait Sith are back and taking a role in this new MSQ!

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Originally Posted by EdwinLi

All I can say is...

Cait Sith is back and taking a role in this new MSQ!

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I don't think so - didn't they say in the last Live Letter or something that the new Quests in Tataru's Great Endeavour will include the Sky Pirates, suggesting to clear the Void Raids before doing them?

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Originally Posted by RicaRuin

I don't think so - didn't they say in the last Live Letter or something that the new Quests in Tataru's Great Endeavour will include the Sky Pirates, suggesting to clear the Void Raids before doing them?

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either way they are back.

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Originally Posted by RicaRuin

Also... why is the Lahabrea Constellation Crystal suddenly red? It used to be blue...

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I suspect this is related to how these Ancients got corrupted. We have seen something is twisting them mentally and physically but never understood how this was achieved until maybe this patch.

I suspect the Lahabrea crystal we see here isn't literally the same as the Lahabrea crystal we picked up while street-sweeping in Fake Amaurot. What we were told by Fake Hythlodaeus (who's a questionably reliable source, but in this case as reliable as we're likely to get) suggested that those crystals were made by the Unsundered post-Sundering, containing memories of the Convocation as they last stood. Notably, it seemed that Azem's crystal wasn't officially part of that batch, suggesting that at the very earliest those crystals were after Azem left.

I think all that happened was that pre-Sundering, they had entirely unrelated crystals for similar but different purposes, and later they just made a new batch. Red Lahabrea Crystal's probably the overwrought Ancient equivalent of a letter left to the next guy to hold office, or something. It's a different color just to reflect that for us, so we wouldn't get confused.

I agree I think the ancient woman is Athena.

For MSQ, the reaper woman in the trailer was talking like she's from the Void, which is interesting because she seems to still be a hyur and not a voidsent.
That scene of Zenos's avatar and WoL slowly approaching each other makes it more likely that the avatar is our thirteenth shard, imo.

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Originally Posted by JeanneOrnitier

I agree I think the ancient woman is Athena.

For MSQ, the reaper woman in the trailer was talking like she's from the Void, which is interesting because she seems to still be a hyur and not a voidsent.
That scene of Zenos's avatar and WoL slowly approaching each other makes it more likely that the avatar is our thirteenth shard, imo.

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I would say more specifically that the Reaper Woman IS BOTH Zenos's Avatar AND our 13th counterpart. Same Job as the avatar, Same weapon as the avatar, BLUE flame similar to the colour of our soul. The likelyhood is that when the avatar comes into contact with us directly on the void that we effectively reverse the corruption done to them by the void and restore their original form (either due to having the crystal of light or simply because coming into contact with our denser soul triggers a purge of the damage like a skin graft, remember there was a reaction when Ardbert made direct contact with us in Nordvrant as well). Would also be fitting to have a female counterpart to our character regardless of our default gender this time around since Ardbert filled the male role. (not to mention that if "Azem" enters the story later on we'd have Ardberts actor do the male voice and the Reaper Woman's be the female voice).

Also if confirmed then it makes sense how Zenos was able to go on a Joyride in our body during Garlemald. Cheating bastard had a soul key.

The crystal we picked up contained memories of Lahabrea's life "as remembered by the unsundered;" the shape, specifically, seems to be used for memory storage, considering the unmarked stone that led us to Pandaemonium had the same shape but no markings. Not sure the color is significant... probs just another stone derived from Lahabrea's memories? (inb4 one of Lahabrea's creations accidentally killed Athena so now he's trying to resurrect her and shit's gone pear-shaped. Or worse, she died in an accident or as an unintended consequence of an experiment.)

While it's... fairly reasonable to conclude Zenos' contracted voidsent (showing up again here) and the Reaper woman are one and the same, I'm not of the mind that necessarily means they're a sundered reflection of Azem. All what we're shown really means is the PC recognizes her, something easily explained by the fact we saw her during the MSQ (when Zenos summoned her to try and attack the Scions while possessing our body and I'm pretty sure during our duel at the edge of existence).

Wait with bated breath!

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Originally Posted by Cilia

While it's... fairly reasonable to conclude Zenos' contracted voidsent (showing up again here) and the Reaper woman are one and the same, I'm not of the mind that necessarily means they're a sundered reflection of Azem. All what we're shown really means is the PC recognizes her, something easily explained by the fact we saw her during the MSQ (when Zenos summoned her to try and attack the Scions while possessing our body and I'm pretty sure during our duel at the edge of existence).

Wait with bated breath!

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No I'd be pretty sure that they're a sundered shard of Azem at this point for a number of reasons: There's no way anyone could have survived the flood uncorrupted on the 13th, "we" have a dream with them at the start of 6.1. Coming into contact with their source counterpart (us) possessing the same soul but far more denser is one of the few plot devices that could salvage a corrupted soul from the void, Ardbert simply touching us the first time when we collapse triggers a reaction immediately so the same stands to reason if our 13th counterpart were to make physical contact with their source counterpart, then Zenos being able to steal our body at all when a previous plot point (Elidibus unable to possess Ardberts corpse before his rejoining with us) made that non viable, there's also the small detail that she is a woman as well which would be poetically relevant as: Ardbert is Azem's shard from the 1st and a near clone of the canonical WoL, it stands to reason that the Female counterpart would be of the 13th another fallen world but of the opposite element (and opposite sex).

Let me just preface this by saying I agree that's a plausible if not probable conclusion given foreshadowing is rarely subtle in this game and I have a tendency to overthink. That said...

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Originally Posted by Raiya

No I'd be pretty sure that they're a sundered shard of Azem at this point for a number of reasons: There's no way anyone could have survived the flood uncorrupted on the 13th, "we" have a dream with them at the start of 6.1. Coming into contact with their source counterpart (us) possessing the same soul but far more denser is one of the few plot devices that could salvage a corrupted soul from the void, Ardbert simply touching us the first time when we collapse triggers a reaction immediately so the same stands to reason if our 13th counterpart were to make physical contact with their source counterpart, then Zenos being able to steal our body at all when a previous plot point (Elidibus unable to possess Ardberts corpse before his rejoining with us) made that non viable, there's also the small detail that she is a woman as well which would be poetically relevant as: Ardbert is Azem's shard from the 1st and a near clone of the canonical WoL, it stands to reason that the Female counterpart would be of the 13th another fallen world but of the opposite element (and opposite sex).

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The "dream" at the beginning of 6.1 is, as far as we can tell, just a "Meanwhile, in the Void..." scene like we get repeatedly during Shadowbringers (and occasionally during Endwalker).

Our contact with Ardbert (who was nothing more than a soul at that point; Reaper Lady still has a body, just twisted by excess Astral / Dark aether) was the beginning of a rejoining, more like than not; he only does so again when going through with it, so I don't know where the idea that coming into contact with Voidsent Reaper Lady will rebalance her soul and mend her mangled body comes from (porxies can plausibly fix the former, the latter has yet to be remedied at any point through any method).

Zenos was able to steal our body due to our soul having been ripped out and stuffed into a random Garlean soldier by way of Aulus' technology and Zenos' mastery of the Echo allowing him to use the same powers as the Ascians to body surf. It only works for a limited time because Aulus' tech doesn't last forever, but.

Nobody attempted to possess Ardbert's corpse before Elidibus did so; presumably any of the Ancients could have done so before he rejoined with the PC, but there was never reason to. And given he was physically dead for a century his body should have been in a state of significant decay, but that's neither here nor there.

Rest is jumping to conclusions...