Winterers (interview spoiler and speculation)

"Be sure our Winterer peers are apprised of the details", Calyx says to an Ascian. Yoshi-P just confirmed it's not the name of the Ascians. He also said you'd be closer to the answer if you literally lookup the definition of "Winterer".

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• A "winterer" is someone or something that passes the winter season in a specific place, such as a person or animal that visits or resides in a location during winter.
• Any person or animal (but especially a bird) that visits or resides in a specified location during the winter
• An animal (like cattle) kept on a farm or ranch specifically to be fed and fattened during the winter months.
• A fisherman who lived at a fishing station year-round, rather than just during the fishing season.

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So I suppose the most obvious speculation of this is Blindfrost given it's one of the few remaining places that Emet-Selch mentioned:

https://i.imgur.com/S6B99Ig.jpeg

"Or the treasure islands beyond the frozen waters of Blindfrost, in Othard's north?"

However, Yoshi-P said our focus would be on the 9th now and finding out about the key, so it'll probably end up being another shard altogether that was consumed in ice. In particular, this could be the 8th or the 4th, which seem the only likely candidates:

https://i.imgur.com/80wagxM.png

(I adjusted this a lot since a lot of people on the forums have complained of brightness and this was really bright)

It's been pointed out below that in winter, birds and people often seek warmer climates, thus it could refer to them going south to Meracydia, or alternatively sheltering from the general phase that the shards are going through until their plan is achieved.

nobody looked at the original Japanese yet for this word to confirm its translation?

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

"Be sure our Winterer peers are apprised of the details", Calyx says to an Ascian. Yoshi-P just confirmed it's not the name of the Ascians. He also said you'd be closer to the answer if you literally lookup the definition of "Winterer".

Quote:

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• A "winterer" is someone or something that passes the winter season in a specific place, such as a person or animal that visits or resides in a location during winter.
• Any person or animal (but especially a bird) that visits or resides in a specified location during the winter
• An animal (like cattle) kept on a farm or ranch specifically to be fed and fattened during the winter months.
• A fisherman who lived at a fishing station year-round, rather than just during the fishing season.

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Well that sounds like they'd be outside of the shards entirely, trying to avoid rejoining.

winterers is still a stupid name.

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Originally Posted by Astronema

nobody looked at the original Japanese yet for this word to confirm its translation?

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He says Winterer even in Japanese

https://youtu.be/wGlgf7dEGkg?t=2562

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Originally Posted by Fawkes

Well that sounds like they'd be outside of the shards entirely, trying to avoid rejoining.

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That would probably rule out Altima and Deudalaphon as involved Ascians. Both of them must have been operating on the Source if Gaius was able to banish them and take their masks.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

image

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should probably get rid of the "ff11 crossover" speculation since it's already confirmed ff11 isn't a shard but in another dimension

Sigh, Ascians

They could be a different group of survivors of the Final Days, apart from the Ascians, either:

- with a completely different goal,
- a different approach to the Rejoining.

Or my favorite, though unlikely:
- while the Ascians were Zodiark's tempered, they are Hydaelyin tempered

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Originally Posted by Hallarem

Sigh, Ascians

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Everything has to connect to Amaurot even after they spent an entire expansion cutting threads.

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Originally Posted by Daralii

Everything has to connect to Amaurot even after they spent an entire expansion cutting threads.

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Allagans, Garleans, this and that, the gods, the beast tribes, solution 9, The First, the WoL, the elementals, everything. *Repeat amaurot theme with fistclench emote, nodders*

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Originally Posted by Brandr

They could be a different group of survivors of the Final Days, apart from the Ascians, either:

- with a completely different goal,
- a different approach to the Rejoining.

Or my favorite, though unlikely:
- while the Ascians were Zodiark's tempered, they are Hydaelyin tempered

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I think it was confirmed they have different goals than the original unsundered.
I just hope they steer away from the corny writing that Calyx got struck with.

"Damn fools and their heroics > : ( "

Whatever it is, hopefully it's another shard.

I want to get whisked away to another shard for an expansion, without any of the scions or anyone we know.

Welp.

Well... prayers for Eynzahr to be special advisor for this treasure thing? Maybe this time? No? Okay. TAT

Do we know if Lindblum survived the Surge in the Ninth?

Could it be that they also merged a dome-like zone within the Source, located in Blindfrost, and that's why Calyx refers to them as Winterers? As in the place they 'landed' their own dome.

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Originally Posted by Raikai

Do we know if Lindblum survived the Surge in the Ninth?

Could it be that they also merged a dome-like zone within the Source, located in Blindfrost, and that's why Calyx refers to them as Winterers? As in the place they 'landed' their own dome.

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that sounds like city of silver, which resides in the forsaken land of the gods in the lord of the mysteries.
https://lordofthemysteries.fandom.co...City_of_Silver

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Originally Posted by Shinku_Tachi

Whatever it is, hopefully it's another shard.

I want to get whisked away to another shard for an expansion, without any of the scions or anyone we know.

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While the "another shard" thing is take it or leave it for me (as Emet-Selch alluded to there's places on our own star we haven't been to) I do feel that we really need to get away from the Scions. I want a new group of characters to get to know and travel with. Dawntrail kept wedging the Scions into the story, and it became more and more ridiculous as the patches went on. The last patch they just showed up out of nowhere because we needed a duty support party I guess. I was actually hoping we would get to group with the members of Oblivion, which would have been appropriate for the story, but instead they brought the Scions in again right at the very end for no reason.

Personally I feel the opposite. I really don't want to go to another shard at all. Absoloutely hated solution 9 (even though I thought it would be much neater than it turned out to be) and the 'oh we're doing stuff in the 9th' really disheartened me for the postpatches.

...Think I'll be skipping out on the next expansion if it's another shard tbh. I know it's too early to come to that conclusion, but I can't say I have high hopes with how badly written DT was.

also it really speaks to the banality of this game's writing that they are literally just following a checklist of locations. like damn.

Perhaps we're not thinking outside of the box enough? Maybe the term "Winterer" refers to their goals, and not the people or location. If they're meant to be the next villains and behind some kind of legitimate threat, their long term goal could be something drastic, like trying to put the whole world into some kind of hibernation/stasis for some reason. That's not too far removed from what the Endless already were, and would explain why Calyx is reporting to them.

I don't think the 'Winterers' are dealing with a literal winter, but more so a metaphorical one. What their 'winter' could be is a mystery that I don't think we have enough information on.

Winterers could be a hidden 3rd faction of Ancients dissidents like Azem, who chose to “winter through” the age of Hydaelyn and Zodiark, and may now be seeking Azem’s scattered legacy (7.3 story)

Aren't the Telphoroi still rolling out there? I know Fandaniel identified himself as one of them.

My guess is it actually has nothing to do with winter as that would be too on the nose.

Rather it is the meaning of riding out a period of hostile environment or storm somewhere else. The idea of wintering is to go to a place that is warmer cause you don't like the cold bitter winter.
So it doesn't have to be the cold bitter winter, it could any such season that is unappealing or hostile in this context.
Birds fly to warmer places in the winter.

So it could be people from the 9th who went to other shards to escape the lightning flood while they came up with a solution.
Or it could be the other Ascians or Ascian adjacents who didn't like the idea of a rejoining but couldn't stop Emet and co and were hiding from them.

Winterers or Snowbirds in the US tend to travel south in the winter to warmer climes. I wouldn't assume its a cold locale.

Perhaps a Rogue Garlean contingent that never went home?

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Originally Posted by Milea

My guess is it actually has nothing to do with winter as that would be too on the nose.

Rather it is the meaning of riding out a period of hostile environment or storm somewhere else. The idea of wintering is to go to a place that is warmer cause you don't like the cold bitter winter.
So it doesn't have to be the cold bitter winter, it could any such season that is unappealing or hostile in this context.
Birds fly to warmer places in the winter.

So it could be people from the 9th who went to other shards to escape the lightning flood while they came up with a solution.
Or it could be the other Ascians or Ascian adjacents who didn't like the idea of a rejoining but couldn't stop Emet and co and were hiding from them.

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This is my thought as well… everyone seemed to jump on Emet’s comments about Blindfrost, but like you say, the whole point of being a Winterer is to get away from the cold, and in this case that could either be literal or metaphorical.

I think (and hope) we’re being led south, to Meracydia. There’s a couple different things that point to it, among which is the Milalla involvement in the key that might take us to the South Sea Isles for a more in-depth exploration than we got from Aloalo. From there, it’s a short trip to Meracydia…

Also liked Divinemights’ idea about a 3rd faction of ancients, that may or may not see Azem as an inspiration of sorts, which could lead to some more lore about what Azem was doing during the first Final Days.

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Originally Posted by Ryvick

Winterers or Snowbirds in the US tend to travel south in the winter to warmer climes. I wouldn't assume its a cold locale.

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That is a good point.

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Originally Posted by Ryvick

Winterers or Snowbirds in the US tend to travel south in the winter to warmer climes. I wouldn't assume its a cold locale.

Perhaps a Rogue Garlean contingent that never went home?

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Meracydia is the Southern continent. Maybe there are Allagan empire revivalists there.

Winterer peers as others said might refer to some kind of migration from worse to better environment.

I might be delusional, but that might mean that somehow ascians from other timeline (in which WoL dies, and G'raha Tia summons Crystal Tower to the First) can't progress with their rejoining plan (or because of alternate timelines they have other plans e.g. something like Fandaniel that life has no meaning and we'll die someday)

After reading this it's stupid theory, but there's possibility that SE might use someday in some expansion that alternate timeline, because it still exists, but as for now It might be better to just wait for 7.4 and 7.5 than trying to deduce what 8.0 will be about, especially when we know nothing of "Winterer peers" intentions (I think that "peers" have slighty different plan than Calyx, and they're just using him for their own purposes)

We know at least that Calyx's primary goal and Winterer peers goal is to reclaim Azem key, but besides traveling between shards we don't know what it's capable of (Maybe it's something similar to the Alexander time travel or Omega's dimension travel)

After reading the first short story, about Otis and Zelenia, it's heavily implied that other nations may have the electrope technology to make a dome.

So maybe the Winterers could really be other escapees from the Ninth. Treno (like suggested on the short story) or another one. Other surviving nations could not be something known by the Alexandrian ruling body, but an Ascian could probably travel between electrope-made domes, engineering their plan.

Perhaps in the process that had Alexandria merging with the Source, another dome also merged somewhere else, maybe in Blindfrost, so to give their peers the Winterer nickname. 7.4 and 7.5 could be likely exploring the discovery of this fact, and 8.0 we head there.

I just hope - if that's the case - this other nation is not cyberpunk super high tech and more built around magic. Treno in FF9 looks very victorian, and that's a cool aesthetic.

it could be a faction returning from another place they previously 'escaped' to to take back what they think is theirs

I just hope it's not random remaining sundered Ascians and that it's something related to something more credible, like Ultima or something Azem saw and made contingency plans for. They can't overshadow Elidibus and Emet ;)

Much like with Solution 9. I had hoped it would be somekind of time-stasis or remnants of Allagan rebel factions. Like that one princess (Who I was hoping to be Sphene).

They were pretty high up there with tech, including pocket dimensions, space travel and dimensional travel.

But most likely its the easiest answer with these writers. Ascian sundered remnants, possibly a whole clownposse of Asahis doing weird dances and faces with Calyx doing Kefka cosplay. Wanting destruction or the resurrection of our next big boss (tm)

Yawn. A word is not enough for me with the story in the state it is in. The cliff hanger moreso made me want to remain unsubbed than resub. I will review the following patches safely from YT. If 8.0 is just an Ascian rehash then its a no go for me, I am afraid.

"A fisherman who lived at a fishing station year-round, rather than just during the fishing season."

Fishing expansion confirmed?

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Originally Posted by Casaerison

"A fisherman who lived at a fishing station year-round, rather than just during the fishing season."

Fishing expansion confirmed?

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Finally, a new gig.

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Originally Posted by Wyssahtyn

also it really speaks to the banality of this game's writing that they are literally just following a checklist of locations. like damn.

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when emet gives you a list you follow it :P