Gerun Oracles

[Kaiser-Ace]

So....where does the Cloud of Darkness and Scathach fit into all this...?

Side stories. Crystal Tower is locked up and the Void Gate closed "Permanently" and when we inevitably defeat Scathach and Diabolos then they'll be done too.

And, like The Coil, once Alexander's plot is done it will never be relevant again.

[Nalien]

Side stories. Crystal Tower is locked up and the Void Gate closed "Permanently" and when we inevitably defeat Scathach and Diabolos then they'll be done too.

I really hope not... While the characters therein might as well be, the whole Void has to have some relevance... It could, and probably is, just the same reoccurring Void from games like Final Fantasy V, but given how central it seems to parts of the plot I'm not so sure... The hoops ExDeath had to jump through to access that Void were pretty substantial, meanwhile our Void is something a whole civilization managed to harness... I wonder if "Light and Dark were divided" and the whole Rejoining could refer to the Void... The Ascians certainly have a few connections to it...

And, like The Coil, once Alexander's plot is done it will never be relevant again.

The fact that we actually ran through it might be somewhat irrelevant, but I'd say Coil still has some relevance, given Tiamats introduction and potentially Alisaie's reintroduction to the plot. Similarly, the whole Cloud of Darkness plot could be further fleshed out at some point, regardless of us actually doing it or not... I mean, there is a FATE that references Xandes in much the same way I've always felt they should handle Coil in the MSQ. If you've not done Crystal Tower, the FATE loses a bit of its novelty, if you have, then you "get it".

For example, imagine Minfilia dies, and everyone is "sad", but then Alisaie summons Phoenix to save the day. It wouldn't directly need to reference the side-story content, it would just be a case of people who've done it getting the reference being made. All it requires is for the developers to accept sequence breaking as a thing; People who do 3.0 without clearing all of 2.0s content would be sequence breaking, like how people could get up to 2.55 and then do Culinarians final quest...

I don't know, Elidibus and Nabriales had a pretty tense conversation too, as if the Ascians view Elidibus as an annoyance. It's really hard to say at this point.

I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of Ascians are somewhat hostile to Elidibus (and Lahabrea), given they're effectively outsiders. More so with Elidibus, given the position he seems to have either been given, or earned. Granted, we don't really know how big a deal his position is, but I imagine it's effectively similar to the Pope, he is the voice of Zodiark, and he is an outsider. That would rustle a few feathers, I think.

[Fenral]

I really hope not... While the characters therein might as well be, the whole Void has to have some relevance... [...] All it requires is for the developers to accept sequence breaking as a thing; People who do 3.0 without clearing all of 2.0s content would be sequence breaking, like how people could get up to 2.55 and then do Culinarians final quest...

Estinien is the most obvious name to drop here. Also, as I'm pretty sure you can do Void Ark without waking Diablos in the Lost City (which is technically the inciting incident), I think we've hit that point already. If the questgiver immunity rule holds true, though, Nero tol Scaeva is stuck outside the Rising Stones until the end days, disguised as a proxy questgiver. My feelings on the subject otherwise are well-publicized.


I'd say they're getting ready to embrace the dark side and take on SWTOR's continuity model, if what's been said about 4.0 is any indicator. FFXI-style continuity lockouts just don't work when you have as many questlines as XIV does, and a need to work between them. At least, I hope so, because MSQ-irrelevant Mhach aside, the "optional" bombs we've gotten on Allag and the Void have to come back at some point. And Phoenix-Egi is just too cool and idea to go unused after the T13 intro scene.

[Nalien]

FFXI-style continuity lockouts just don't work when you have as many questlines as XIV does, and a need to work between them.

Was FFXI really that strict on continuity? I seem to remember Chains of Promathia and Rise of the Zilart breaking it pretty badly;

At the end of Rise of the Zilart, Tu'Lia is temporarily reactivated, that resulted in the Crystal Line reactivating, which resulted in the 5th Mother Crystal being drawn back to Vana'diel along with Selh'teus, which was Chains of Promathia content. The entire sequence in Qufim Tower should occur after completing Rise of the Zilart, but most saw the resulting cutscene long before getting to the Shadow Lord, let alone starting Rise of the Zilart... My memory is going to be a bit off, but I remember seeing the start of Chains ~Lv25, while Zilart had to wait until I'd beaten the Shadow Lord at Lv40~50.

That was pretty much in exactly the way I'm talking about having continuity going forward... Had you done Zilart, you "get" what happened at the start of Chains, the events of Zilart aren't directly referenced at all. Ideally I'd hope XIV does that going forward, complete with something like The Last Verse, which was strict on its continuity requirements (required Zilart and Chains completed). An "epic" quest like that, to tie together two expansions (or raid content), I think would be perfectly fine. Let people do Eureka without requiring Crystal Tower, but then throw a quest at the end which requires both and ties up the loose ends. I think XI nailed it in that regard, it was a nice way to maintain continuity, without locking entire expansions down.

[Zohar_Lahar]

Side stories. Crystal Tower is locked up and the Void Gate closed "Permanently" and when we inevitably defeat Scathach and Diabolos then they'll be done too.

So are they just alien lifeforms or are all voidsent supposed to be related to Zodiark and the Ascians somehow? Or let me put this another way: is everything in the universe revolving around Hydaelyn/Zodiark, or are they just specific to this "very star" (planet)?