Discuss :D
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1.0 was on the first shard this whole time and all the legacy players were teleported to the source by Louisoix!!!!!!1!1!
Wait...that's totally wrong...
I'll admit he looks similar, but since he doesn't have that strap from the right shoulder to the waist, it is obviously a different person :p
The entire 1.0 trailer can be determined to be in the First Shard at this point.
the Midlander and the other characters we see are Arbert and his friends.
Guess the entire time it was just Arbert seeing a vision about what was happening in our world while he was going through his own issues in his world being the First.
Wrong, wrong and wrong again, because in the 1.0 opening Derplander goes off on an Echo trip to Mor Dhona and sees the Battle of Silvertear Skies (including the destruction of the Agrius and Midgardsormr's death), and... well.. the Garlean Empire (and Middy) does not exist in the First. So the battle never happened there.
And another nail in the coffin of that arguement? The 'Resolve' leveplate that Derplander picked up off that counter... has Limsa Lominsa stenciled on it. And Limsa does not exist in the First (it's called Eulmore instead.). Yes you could say that's a retcon but the fact remains: 1.0's opening movie is the Source. The adventurer's guild shown in the 1.0 opening movie Square Enix Visual Works used a very early design for the Drowning Wench to design, only for Tanaka to change plans at the eleventh hour, thus making the opening movie not match up with how things actually ended up in game (like how the Heavensward opening movie had Hraesvelgar leading the Horde attacking Ishgard instead of Nidhogg who it should have been). But it's still on the Source either way.
The First having these throwbacks is simply for fanservice reasons and doesn't necessarily mean anything deeper (like MrThinker I agree that roe isn't the same person but just looks like him - he's not even manning a leve counter for Azeyma's sake!). ;)
A lot can happen in 5 years, maybe he needed a higher paying job?
I started reading the thread ready to lean into "don't think too hard about it" but then you came out swinging; thank you, lol.
Even from what little we've already seen of 5.0, there appear to be a lot of homages and previously lost opportunities recovered from the cutting room floor and molded into something that can be used on the First. That doesn't mean they retain any connection to their original destintion. The Crystarium is based on the Rapture-era designs that later became Limsa Lominsa. Then the guild in the trailer, also Limsa Lominsa, had to be radically altered for server stability because putting the aetheryte in the guild would have caused catastrophic congestion 2010. This left a lot of motifs free for recycling. They're good motifs, Brent.
Though the final nail in the coffin, imho, is that The First was redesigned multiple times before Oda/Yoshida realized it was Rapture they wanted to re-capture. Obviously that wouldn't have happened if it was intended all along that 1.0 too place on First ... never mind the overwhelming implausibility vis a vis the Echo of Silvertear Lake.
I'm ready for this to be a prolonged "See? The Warriors of Darkness were the CGI trailer party all along!" Part II.
Basically what I am saying.
The First maybe part 2 of what was left following the 1.0 trailer.
We know the flood of light happened sometime after 1.0 due to what Arbert and his friends did but the trailer takes place pre-1.0.
Then we have to consider they went through their own version of 2.0 to 4.0 Main Storyline with their version of events slightly different due to the different names and alternate appearance of areas in the First but still mostly the same with their ending being their journey by defeating the final Ascian in the First Shard as shown in the vision we saw but that backfired and released the Flood of Light.
This may also go back to why we also have to go to the First because there Arbert and his friend went through their version of 1.0 to 5.0 already and since we are about to repeat their events of 5.0, with slight alterations due to different names and appearances of places, we are stopped here to alter our path into the First thus finding the alternate solution so we don't end up with the same ending Arbert got when he defeated the First version of the Garlean Empire and the Ascian that controlled it.
the thing about alternate/parallel worlds is that most things can remain the same despite their names being different such as the Limsa Lominsa stenciled can still be the symbol used by Eulmore.
We also know that the Flood of Light happened sometime after 1.0 when Arbert and his friends defeated their world's Last Boss in their version of 5.0 which we were about to start but got interrupted to go to the First so we don't repeat what Arbert did when he and his friend defeated their version of the Garlean Empire and the last Ascian controlling it.
You're assuming that the First is mirror of the Source, with the same people making the same decisions - but we've seen nothing to suggest this is the case.
The worlds split 12,000 years ago and have evolved separately from that point.
Entire cultures have gone in different directions. The chances of any people having "alternate selves" are reliant on all of their ancestors making the same choices, growing up in the same circumstances, surviving to adulthood and marrying the same partners. It's essentially impossible when the worlds have followed such different trajectories.
For a more specific example, dialogue at Xelphatol indicates that the Warriors have no idea that Alisaie has a twin, and assume Alphinaud is the same person until he speaks.
Arbert isn't meant to be us, or they would have made him a variable-appearance character based on ours. They've done that elsewhere in the game. Arbert is just a separate person with the same job title.
People seemed to be struggling to accept the references Koji and Oda have made pre-Shadowbringers after seeing how much Eulmore looks like Limsa Lominsa and that the First has a Crystal Tower, so Yoshida said it again louder for everyone in the back, lol.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Naoki Yoshida
That line itself might be a tripping point for understanding that it isn't a mirror world!Quote:
The only commonality would be the people.
From context I assume that's "people" as in races rather than individuals, but it could easily be mis-read.
I had a similar concern, but the fact he followed it up with something that precludes that interpretation helps. How can the world be all the same people if they don't have the same heritage? How can you change all the ancestors without changing all the descendants? How can you change their beliefs and values without butterfly effecting what they'll do and who they'll be attracted to? And thus who will be born and die? We should be expecting a completely different population with completely different families, family names, tribes, geographical boundaries, etc.
I think when Yoshida says "the people" will be the same, it should be pretty clear that he means "we're still limited to using the same character creator."
Head cannon incomming:
So the reason Glynard isn't manning a levecounter is 1: because guildleves aren't a thing anymore gameplay wise so they had to give him a new purpose. 2: If he was stationed in Limsa, it would make sense that he'd have abandoned his post by now as the state of the city clearly shows a breakdown of society. So now he simply runs a shop in the crystarium.
As for the leveplate having limsa lominsa written on it, it could be that particular leveplate actually came from the source. Perhaps it was intentionally placed there for Arbert to encounter it and trigger his echo to make him aware of other shards. We already know that he eventually comes to be working with ascians during the heavensward storyline. Perhaps an ascian placed that leveplate there on purpose as part of their plan to eventually bring Arbert to the source.
In any case I'm sure all will be revealed during the role quests as they are meant to Chronicle the adventures of Arbert and his crew. :)
Maybe I should be a bit more detailed about what I mean by their version of 1.0 to 5.0 storyline....
When I say this I mean THEIR own version of 1.0 to 5.0 storyline.
For them their history is different thus their version of their Journey to stop the Ascians will obviously take different events but lead to certain similar conclusions in their own way.
For example, for Arbert he never met the Scions because they do not exist in the First but instead his Journey resulted in meeting his Friends that also became the WoL/WoD thus they replaced the Scions in both people and encounters. Through this they took their jounrey to defeat the Primals of their world thus they earned their reputation for being the WoL in the First and on that journey discovered the Ascians.
However, then their Garlean Empire invaded their version of Eorzea which lead to them to try to convience their world's version of the City States to unify against them which eventually lead to starting the war against their version of the Garlean Empire and after etc (such as in their version of 3.0, Hraesvelgr is Evil and was killed by Arbert but there was never a Dragonsong war but just a natural war between Humans defending themselves and Dragons invading) and etc then by their version of 5.0 it ended with the Flood of Light.
Their History from Point A to Point B to Point C are vastly different but the results are the same in some way.
There is a saying that "it is not the ending that matters sometimes but the journey itself." A persona may see a similar ending to the different journies but how different the journey itself is what really determine the difference in History.
We will most likely get a better picture of what Arbert's Journey entails once we reach the First since I do expect to see some Side-quests or maybe part of the Main Storyline to actually show us what Arbert went through since part of our goal is to not get the same ending Arbert and his friends got being the Flood of Light.
It's possible it happened that way of course, but you're still assuming that there must be a story parallel between each 'chapter' of Arbert's quest and our own, and there's no reason to be certain that is the case.
There doesn't have to be a Garlemald-equivalent on the First, or city-states banding together, or anything that exactly follows our story.
There are primals, and Ascian meddling, and heroes called to fight against it - but that's as far as we can know. They've been on some sort of adventure, but it doesn't have to be anything like our own.
Wellll... There's always Ascians.
We do not yet know what the purpose of Ascian meddling on the shards is. We know they meddle, and that it likely has the ultimate goal of prepping the Shards for Rejoining, but the specifics of what they do is still completely unknown.
It's possible that as part of the Rejoining, they need to ease the world into a kind of parallel state. If there's a technologically advanced nation on the Source, the Ascian meddler needs to set one up on the Shard. If there's a coalition of city states on the Source, the Ascian meddler needs to arrange for it to happen on the Shard. The commonality somehow aids in the Rejoining process.
All speculation, of course, but if we're reaching hard to try to come up with reasons why the folks in the 1.0 cutscene could be folks from the Source, it's one possible crackpot theory!
Glynard is an Ascian. He was always in the background messing with Arbert :D
But seriously. We can't make this story work with Arbert and friends as the ARR, HW and SB trailers are clearly set on the Source and Arbert wasn't here for that.
This is how it would go down if it was all true:
Arbert and friends were chilling in the Crystarium and doing leves despite the flood of light already being a thing. Glynard gave him a leveplate friom the Source simply to mess with his mind. He saw a trippy vision of the Source. This convinced him to travel to the Source.
He fought in the Battle of Cartenau just chilled in the background in 2.0 and left the Banquet in Ul'dah pissed that he couldn't do anything to help the Warrior of Light.
On his way to Ishgard he was attacked by Hraelsvelgr who was there for some reason. After that he traveled to the Moon to chill with his buddy Elidibus.
Despite returning to the First he actually came back to join Yugiri and Gosetsu on their voyage to Doma.
And now he is back on the First again.
This hardly makes any sense.
*hangs upside down*
All I want to say to any of this is. I contemplated the same, but then I was like, Nooo... My 1.0 character can't be from the 1st, can he??? But what if another shard was our direct mirror, after all-- 7 shards were already taken out, there are 13 in total. Maybe? Maybe not? Only Koji Fox & Co know! ... and he probably will never tell while he laughs away evilly in a dark room wearing a black robe.
... On a different subject, if all the races are on the 1st, but with different names...
Where the heck are the Purebloods?!
Maybe levequests will be important again!
...one can only dream...
The dragons where brought to Hydaelyn - Source Edition™ by Midgardsormr. Since Midgardsormer is the progenitor of dragons, arrived after the split, and also brought his first brood with him, I think it's save to say that dragons do not exist on the First or any other Shard, but only on the Source. Therefore, Arbert cannot have encountered an evil Hraelsvelgr, since Hraelsvelgr doesn't exist in his world at all. And neither should any other dragon.
If there are dragon-like beings on the 1st, then they are most likely evolved scalekin rather than the intelligent aliens that we know of.
Anonymoose is right. These are just homage to past designs. I too was glad that I was able to see the guy again and now in game. But to say that the opening cutscene in 1.0 is the First, thats untrue. The trailer of SHB alone says WOL/WOD is in the source.