Meracydia/Miqo'te/Azys La speculations (spoilers)

[jomoru]

I am not sure that's Eorzea on the globe, I mean its hydaelyn but the Earth equivalent looks more like Asia and Australia

[Fenral]

Hmmm, pretty sure Ilsabard is north, pretending to be Europe, while Othard is east, pretending to be Asia. Sharlayan is likely in a Great Britain sort of position off the coast of Ilsabard, with the Isle of Val as a smaller satellite island.

[Lyndis]

Maybe this is obvious or been talked about already. But the Cathedral is has different architecture than the aqueducts. The walkways are completely different and the only symbol that links it to Quarn is the Azeyma symbol. Other than that it is actually quite different (round??? there is nothing round in Quarn).

Now has anyone mentioned the destruction of the cathedral? There is a large green arrow type thing piercing the dome. There are others of these throughout Azys Lla and they seem to connect to the chains connecting to the mothership like anchors. Why would they put an anchor through a religious place if they worshiped that diety?

This hints that the flagship or these islands may be separate in make. Meaning the flagship is Allagan and the islands are different things they conquered/built and brought together or something else entirely has brought these allagan pieces together for their own purpose.

A friend of mine even suggested these islands may be required magics collected throughout the world to seal the triad.

[myahele]

Yeah, it's most likely these "islands were ripped from the surface and are being held held by those "anchors" which are using the power of the Flagship to keep them floating

As for the destruction of The Cathedral; we found out that Late Allagan Empire (Clone Xande's time and roughly the time of Azys lla's sealing) stopped worshipping gods, atleast most of them. So it's destruction is probably showing their triumph and warning.

It would not surprise me if Clone Xande made worshipping gods illegal and proclaimed himself god-king.

Azys lla seems like it was a tourist attraction or at the very least allowed civilians to enter. Just like we can visit the white house and other gov't facilites perhaps the Allagans did the same?

[CGMidlander]

I agree, I also think that Regula will try to infuse himself with Aether which will then drive him insane. Regula is VERY ruthless, razing an entire city-state just to prove a point, very Kefka-like. It seems like Regula REALLY doesn't want to fail the Emperor, too bad he did and I can only imagine him feeling terrible at the events that took place and will do everything he can to win back Solus' favor

Solus is dead, brah.
Varis runs the show now.

[Daralii]

<snip>

Something that's potentially of note is that, at the base of the spear in the Cathedral, you can see a link of a chain. That presumably goes through the island to the Flaghship tether.

Some parts of Azys Lla were definitely intended to be tourist attractions, showing the Empire's pride in itself(which is consistent with Crystal Tower's construction). The daughter of Midgardsormr, broken and chained, the Fractal Continuum, a museum, the Cathedral, and the Triad.

[-Krypyonite-]

-.

the cobblestone found in the Archeduct and in the cathedral are prettty much the same,(even the colour, showing it is pretty much eroded the same way, most likely the same era) so is the walkway next to the cathedral, what is mostly similiar in the three locations, the Archeduct , the Cathedral and Qarn is the pattern that can be seen in the pictures.

actually, the 2 types of pattern in the archeduct are in Qarn, while, atleast , from what i can remember, the letter type/glyph pattern can be seen in the Cathedral, not only the azeyma simbols. (go to the roof for example)

[Anonymoose]

But the Cathedral is has different architecture than the aqueducts. The walkways are completely different and the only symbol that links it to Quarn is the Azeyma symbol. Other than that it is actually quite different (round??? there is nothing round in Quarn).

actually, the 2 types of pattern in the archeduct are in Qarn, while, atleast , from what i can remember, the letter type/glyph pattern can be seen in the Cathedral, not only the azeyma simbols. (go to the roof for example)

Kryptyonite's on the right track. What connects the Cathedral to Qarn isn't just the Azeyma symbol; if you look closely at the bricks (the circles above the doors, as well as the lines pillars going upwards towards the dome) you can see the same symbols as on the pathways at the Aqueduct and lining all of Qarn.

[-Krypyonite-]

We don't know if they are Allagan, miqo'te, proto allagan. If they are Allagan they are from the theological era, wich means, third astral. We can't be 100% sure of who built them (i would bet on Allag but can't totally discard miqo'te). What we can be sure is that the same civilization built the 3 difrent locations AND that , that civilization worshiped Azeyma.

But if it wasn't for Anonymoose i would never notice Qarn could be a link, nor that Qarn was probably allagan.

[verislie]

So based on all of this, we could surmise the early allagan empire devoted themselves to the sun goddess Azeyma. They built the temple of qarn, azys la (on the ground) among other structures of reoccurring importance in the story. Before xande's first death, the empire completed the crystal tower which would now power the empire.