3.4 speculation

[Cilia]

Personally, I feel there are too many possible pieces and too few threads to follow, so just about anything predicting further story development amounts to this:

The thread we've been following since 2.3 has finally finished spinning. There's a lot of pieces, a lot of possibilities, but nothing really hinting at further development unless the Warring Triad becomes MSQ relevant. The only things I can say with relative certainty are that it will be setting up 4.0, there will be Garlean involvement, and Ala Mhigo will probably have something to do with it.

[Tracewood]

Personally, I feel there are too many possible pieces and too few threads to follow, so just about anything predicting further story development amounts to this:

The thread we've been following since 2.3 has finally finished spinning. There's a lot of pieces, a lot of possibilities, but nothing really hinting at further development unless the Warring Triad becomes MSQ relevant. The only things I can say with relative certainty are that it will be setting up 4.0, there will be Garlean involvement, and Ala Mhigo will probably have something to do with it.

Really curious how this will play out, as with each patch there will be new dungeons but since Nidhogg is slain, what will SE come up with that will prompt us to revisit a HW zone (aside form Azys Lla) and go, "hey something is going on in here we should look!" and slap a dungeon entrance at that? The Scions are spread too thin right now so it'd be nice to start getting back on track. The Dragonsong War was a pretty big diversion but in the end we gained an ally with Ishgard which is worth the struggle. And Yshtola seems to be all over the place with the main story, warring triad and Alexander... well at least next patch Alex is expected to come to a close.

If I recall, we spent much time on Cortheas dealing with the rising heretics while pursuing the primal Shiva and it escalated us going to Ishgard. I wonder if we'll be spending time in another zone that will be the launch of the new area? Was assuming some ARR zones will start to open up a bit more (there is a cut off pathway very bottom left in Southern Thanalan that leads to an open stretch of desert. And in Cortheas Central, an ixail guarding a gate you cant get past) Maybe a couple sections in East Shroud where imperial troops will start patrolling... in a way it could irritate the Twelveswood causing some kind of mini-calamity in as of itself.

I'm getting far into this game than I have in years, not even XI had me interested in it's full lore aside from the storylines, possibly more than I should but it's fun for me so pardon my rambling. Yoshi-P would you consider creating ONE new area to explore before expansion? Just one, why? It'll tide people over until, give us something to talk about anyway. Make it where you have to get to a certain point in the main scenario before you can enter (3.4/5), Cortheas Central gave us a small glimpse of Ishgard from the distance, this new zone could give us a preview of the new place... or could leave a bit of a mystery too.

I hope Ala Mhigo does have an Aht Urghan vibe to it, I know nostalgia is blinding me right now, but I can practically taste it.

I want to assume crossing the desert would be the next course of action, but can't take to the skies right away since the regions surrounding Ala Mhigo would be under heavy surveillance (or could be more aether currents). Also a change of scenery since we dealt with the biting cold of the north.

[EdwinLi]

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I actually picture Ala Mhigo to be a mix of Aht Urghan with a lot of Garlean mixed into it due to how the place has been modified and turned into a Garlean Fortress City.

We may see a lot of garlean buildings within Ala Mhigo and the area around the City as the places has been going through Modernization... i mean Garleanization through the Garlean attempt to turn the place into a Garlean City over the years.

It would probably be like going into a old part of a city where we see the old builds, shops, and stuff while also seeing new shiny buildings that stick out a lot due to how new and different it looks as the old part of town gets torn down building by building to become replaced with a new modernized building.

It would be interesting to see how the long term the years of Garleanization has also affected the Ala Mhigo citizens that remain stuck there over the years. Maybe have some of them wear Garlean citizen clothing to show how much the Garlean Civilization influence has begun to over shadow Ala Mhigo's culture from before they became conqured by the Garlean Empire.

[VargasVermillion]

It would be interesting to see how the long term the years of Garleanization has also affected the Ala Mhigo citizens that remain stuck there over the years. Maybe have some of them wear Garlean citizen clothing to show how much the Garlean Civilization influence has begun to over shadow Ala Mhigo's culture from before they became conqured by the Garlean Empire.

I remember it being mentioned in a lore panel that for the most part the garleans try to keep most of a conquered nations culture in tact in effort to gain more knowledge to add to their expanding library.