Meracydia: The first expansion with beast tribe cities?

[Ghastly]

Meracydia is this huge island continent. It's also wild and full of forests. Might this be the first continent that doesn't have Elezen, Hyur, and Roegadyn (the human races) cities?
And will instead have half-beast and full blown beast populated cities? Would be a nod to past FFs were civilized beasts used to run cities. It would be a new and wild experience.

[PArcher]

Meracydia is almost certainly infested with allagan ruins, if not still-working constructs abd chimeical monstrosities. They came and conquered the place, enslaving it's people (Bahamut and Tiamat's brood) and just being Allagans. Even if the dragons recovered after that calamity, there's still going to be a significant allagan shadow overhead

[Ghastly]

But conquered doesn't mean that its civilized beast people couldn't have rebuilt their cities again and erase most of the allagan architecture and just leaving a few allagans places in small areas. I'd love to see everything from a city of civilized cactuars to a city of lion people (related to miqo'te)

[SendohJin]

Idyllshire, Anyx Trine, Ok'Zundu and Moghome are already like that pretty much.

don't think you're going to have much bigger settlements than that in this world.

[Frederick22]

Maybe a Miqote city !

[Vexander]

I believe it's been strongly inferred, or outright stated, that the Miqo'te came from Meracydia. I'd be pretty thrilled to pay the place a visit, maybe see if we have any long lost cousins. I just wonder whether or not Square would give us another new playable race. There doesn't seem to be too much hassle storywise, if we're looking at the addition of Au Ra. No new cities or anything.

[Enkidoh]

The lalafell too were stated as coming also from the 'southern islands' (or at least, the dunesfolk did - read: the founders and inhabitants of Ul'dah). Not to mention the ACN class also had origins as well in Meracydia. I'm not sure but hasn't it also been mentioned that there is still regular trade between Eorzea and Meracydia, suggesting at least that there would still be some habitation there, if not an actual citystate/nation. But I guess we'll find out eventually.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Wasn't it the plainsfolk lalafells that inhabit the "southern islands"? I recall reading somewhere that their hair colouring and small size allowed them to better hide from predators among the grassy plains of their natural habitat. The dunesfolk were a later adaptation to drier climates, such as evolving a protective film over their eyes to prevent them from drying up quickly.

I don't know about arcanamia coming from Meracydia. As far as I remember, it is said to have been developed by the people (they've never been explicitly identified as lalafellin, I believe) of the "southern islands", which may or may not include the southern continent. In my headcanon, arcanamia very probably derived from navigational calculations, as it takes a fair amount of mathematical aptitude to chart the seas for safe, open-ocean voyages.

[Enkidoh]

Well, the official site just says the lalafell race itself originated in the southern islands and the descriptions for dunesfolk and plainsfolk don't mention anything specific, so I guess I just took the one most likely to fit the idea of an island nation:

The Lalafell are a folk both rotund and diminutive. Small by any race's standards and possessed of a childlike countenance, it proves difficult for non-Lalafell to gauge an individual's age with any degree of accuracy. Originally an agricultural people inhabiting the fertile islands of the south seas, they found their way to Eorzea via the burgeoning trade routes. Lalafell are welcoming of outsiders, and share prosperous relations with all of the other races of Eorzea.

However, that reference to being an 'agricultural people' originally in Meracydia does indeed fit the plainsfolk's 'hat' more than the dunesfolk though, so maybe you're right!

The Plainsfolk have settled in La Noscea and other regions where the ground is flat and easily cultivated. Though many live the life of farmers, it is not uncommon to see Plainsfolk residing in Limsa Lominsa, holding positions in the navy or working in the fisheries. They are well known for their relaxed and carefree demeanor.

The Dunesfolk can be found on the scorching sands of Thanalan and other such arid areas. As the founders of the merchant city of Ul'dah, they are famous for their obsession with commerce. A natural inclination to transform ideas into action has served the Dunesfolk well in their business dealings.

[Ghastly]

Idyllshire, Anyx Trine, Ok'Zundu and Moghome are already like that pretty much.

don't think you're going to have much bigger settlements than that in this world.

Those are not nations though. They're just beast tribe settlements. I'm looking at something like an Ishgard, Limsa Lominsa, or the like made up of real beast tribes (non-humans) only. Could be a mix of a lot of them, that would be dreamy.