Speculations and ideas on Alternate Dimensions

[Morningstar1337]

Okay, this is a what if. I'll be using tvtropes links for some clarity

Anyway I've been thinking that between the games that feature multiple worlds as a plot point (Kingdom Hearts, Bravely Default, V and the XIII trilogy), this theory and that FFXI did an AU campaign. I wonder if there's alternate versions of Eorzia? world and timelines that seem similar but have drastic differences.

In particular I wondered about an alternate Eorzea where the Primals or a villain with certain ambitions would have succeeded in tempering the city states. Or one with an evil version of the PCs.

Are alternate universe possible? And what would happen in these hypothetical Eorzeas?

[Enkidoh]

The use of alternate/parallel universes in FFXI was ironically born from technical reasons and not a narrative one - it's far easier to simply re-texture an existing zone and populate it with different enemies/npcs than it is to make a whole new area - hence two expansions featured exactly this (Wings of the Goddess and the Abyssea add-ons). So it was definitely a case of 'form follows function', rather than an actual desire to emulate past FF games and their use of parallel worlds.

As for FFXIV, about the only possibility of a 'alternate' Eorzea I can think of at this time is actually for how the storyline for version 1.0 was originally planned to plan out (the original story kind of ended after encountering Gaius for the first time and the cool scene involving him fighting the Archons), and it was virtually abandoned when the 7th Umbral Era story was added.

From what I'm led to believe the original team under Tanaka had planned Dalamud to play a different role in FFXIV's story, but when it was decided to replace version 1.0 completely with ARR, they decided to 'bring it down' as a convenient and interesting way of ending the original game (and explaining the changes to the environment as well).

So hence, a possible alternate Eorzea is one where the 7th Umbral Era and the Calamity never happened (where the story continued along the lines of what Tanaka had planned for 1.0), and the adventurer continued working for the Path of the Twelve. I admit it's an idea that I've been thinking about a lot lately.

[HakuroDK]

I am strongly convinced that there alternate dimensions and that they are all connected via the Interdimensional Rift. Find your way into The Rift, and you can possibly find an exit which leads to an alternate dimension or, as has been displayed in FFXIII-2, a different time period as well. Though The Rift is also connected to The Void, which not only has similar properties to The Rift, but is also where big nasties like Cloud of Darkness, Enuo, and a ton of other nasty demons are trapped.

As for parallel Eorzeas, I feel that they are very much like the different servers, on a technical level. Same static set of people and environments and events, but the adventurers are very different. There could feasibly be some less-parallel Eorzeas in which different events play out, such as Gaius successfully conquering Eorzea, the Ultima Weapon falling into Ascian hands and using its power to lay waste to, at the very least, the entirety of Northern Thanalan and Mor Dhona, and even the possibility of Bahamut never being contained in the Coils and roaming free across the world, causing cataclysmic disaster in its wake. There could even be a parallel Eorzea where there is no Eorzean Alliance, Ul'dah conquered the areas of Mor Dhona and La Noscea, and successfully fended off and even invaded Garlemald, while the Pirate Alliance that formed Limsa Lominsa never happened, and Gridania remains isolated within the Twelveswood.

[Morningstar1337]

snip

I already knew of the server theory, in fact I linked to it in the OP.

Still If not Paraellel world maybe these alternate Eorzias that can be scenario fodder can be called Perpendicular Dimensions?