Campfire Discussion: Opening Cinematic Theories

[Murugan]

First things first: Devs are welcome (read: encouraged) to answer any of these questions should they see fit; we always love it when a dev sits at our Lore Campfires and dishes out some canon.

TL;DR Version: Questions We Keep Seeing
- What AG do we see here?
- Where are they fighting?
- Is that Bahamut?

I see these questions as worth finding the answers to, but when they come up in the forums, they often only show up for a half a page or so before we get back on topic and forget about them - so let's wrap them up here. I'll add alternate theories and more questions, should they arise, to the OP as we go along.


My Analysis:
Three players gather at the Ishgardian Adventurers' Guild and choose to tackle a guildleve in Mor Dhona (Likely then a region of Coerthas).

Evidence:

• It's not an AG we've seen so far.
• On his map, The Elvaan centers his gaze first on central north Aldenard.
• The camera pans over (presumably) Silvertear Falls into Silvertear Lake.

Engaged with the Marbol there, the party is interrupted by a fleet of Garleans moving south, engaged in battle with the wyrms of Dravania over the heart of Mor Dhona.

Evidence:

• When the Hume wakes aboard the Imperial Juggernaut, the sun is fading from view as night falls. This means that when we first see the airships sweep over the battlefield of the party's levequest, the sun is just beginning to set. If the sun sets in the west, the empire is moving south.
• The Empire's only stronghold on our continent is Ala Mhigo, which means they likely went around Gridania, through the Rothlyt Sound, and into Coerthas, hoping to catch the King of the Primals off guard.
• On the map, the Dravania has a wyvern/wyrm right above it. Seeing as there aren't many in Coerthas, but the Wyrmking does /PERCH/ there - I assume the rest are hanging out back there somewhere.
• When we see the battle raging, we can clearly see the crystals visible in present-day destroyed Mor Dhona sticking out of the ground.
• The airship crashes here, and we can go see it still there in Mor Dhona, making the rest of this just as likely.

The Wyrmking Bahamut descends on the Garlean armada and tears it to shreads, crashing down into Mor Dhona and dying/going dormant as the entire area is destroyed.

Evidence:

• He's still there.
• When the dragon 'dies,' he explodes into light and other primals (Specifically: Ifrit and Titan) fly outwards. This would be in line with the rest of the primals being "freed" from the reign of their leader, presumably making this great beast the Wyrmking Bahamut.
• The Grand Company page clearly says the Garleans were met with a Primal after they had conquered Ala Mhigo. I believe that the appearance of Bahamut over Coerthas, where we know Ishgard has already been battling back the scalekin (likely from Dravania) is what tempted them to ignore the conquest of Gridania and strike fast and hard at the heart of the false gods.

Who challenges my analysis?
Who has more questions?
Who has alternate theories?

Every time I see the cutscene for pre-disaster Mor Dhona I get depressed that we didn't get access to it instead.

So I'm hoping the whole sequence/echo exists as a warning to us, and that eventually we can actually travel back in time where we have to save/defeat Bahamut before Mor Dhona/Bahamut is destroyed/the primals are released/or whatever.

Point is give us this silvertear falls/old Mor Dhona and let us try and avert the travesty that zone became.

[Konachibi]

Every time I see the cutscene for pre-disaster Mor Dhona I get depressed that we didn't get access to it instead.

So I'm hoping the whole sequence/echo exists as a warning to us, and that eventually we can actually travel back in time where we have to save/defeat Bahamut before Mor Dhona/Bahamut is destroyed/the primals are released/or whatever.

Point is give us this silvertear falls/old Mor Dhona and let us try and avert the travesty that zone became.

You may be on to something there.

Perhaps in the future we may see Mor Dhona operating through a 'phased enviroment' like some other MMO's have started using. where some of us who haven't completed the 'save mor dhona quest' will still see it as we see it in-game now, and others who have done the quest will see it in it's original form before it was destroyed.

Given the graphics engine on this game, that waterfall would look amazing :3

[Murugan]

You may be on to something there.

Perhaps in the future we may see Mor Dhona operating through a 'phased enviroment' like some other MMO's have started using. where some of us who haven't completed the 'save mor dhona quest' will still see it as we see it in-game now, and others who have done the quest will see it in it's original form before it was destroyed.

Given the graphics engine on this game, that waterfall would look amazing :3

I sure hope not I don't like phasing. I'd rather it be a limited time effort like one major content's patch worth, where everyone playing then has the opportunity to participate and then at the end it is changed forever (and you can never do it again).

Phasing is cheap, and content is destroyed eventually anyways. I'd like to see once an expansion or once a year for there to be some meaningful content I could participate in that would change the world permanently.

(I don't mean events, I mean real content of all type/playstyles including:

• An Epic quest line
• Culminating in a solo version, and a higher tier group encounter that ends the particular storyline.
• "Largescale" PvE (like XI got late in its life, as in everyone can participate)
• Genuine challenging endgame Alliance Content

No real gear progression would be needed, no bait at all would be needed other than maybe a title, or other token for people to remember it by. People will do it to experience it, and that would make this MMO so unique.

[Murugan]

If I was writing the game then the main character of the introduction would be the real source of echo. During the "Bahamut"/Garlean fight he having the original power of echo (being able to see into the future as well) already knows the outcome of the fight and that there is nothing he or anyone else in the present can do to stop it. When Mor Dhona and Bahamut are destroyed and the Primals released it sets off some chain reaction that is both unstoppable and catastrophic.

We have the power of the echo because during the catastrophe that took place in Mor Dhona the introduction character sacrificed himself releasing it to all the player characters.

As our power of echo gets stronger we are eventually able to travel back to his time to give him the aid he and his party needs to defeat the dual threat of the invasion/dragons. After a tough struggle, we are eventually victorious and he acknowledges this to have been his plan from the moment he set eyes on the guildleve that day and had the initial vision.

(the guildleve was not the focus of the introduction it was only what they happened to be doing at the time of the attack, and what served as the trigger for the vision)

Now that we have helped avert the disaster in Mor Dhona we are free to enjoy the awesome zone it once was, and the character from the introduction who we finally learn the name of (Cid?!) becomes a recurring and prominent character in the rest of the FFXIV storyline.

The primals are still a threat but are "in check", and the beastmen can be a threat of their own (or maybe still allies, but probably threat first).

The Garlean invasion has been turned back, for now, they will likely attack again (maybe Ishgard), but it is time to turn the tables on the Empire and free Ala Mhigo!

[User201109011315]

You may be on to something there.

Perhaps in the future we may see Mor Dhona operating through a 'phased enviroment' like some other MMO's have started using. where some of us who haven't completed the 'save mor dhona quest' will still see it as we see it in-game now, and others who have done the quest will see it in it's original form before it was destroyed.

Given the graphics engine on this game, that waterfall would look amazing :3

We could just use Echo to go back in time to the old Mor Dhona.

There's no need to get in a time machine and change the course of history if we can just use the Echo and visit the past.