Revelations from Fan Festival 2016 Tokyo

[Vexander]

Can't wait to learn more lore behind Red Mages. Groups of people I know have been having discussions about it.

One group thinks its going to be based in Limsa Lominsa as a class developed by the Maelstrom, due to the strong color association, Nym and Limsa's neutrality towards White/Black magic compared to Ul'dah and Gridania, and the outfit being a close resemblance of Maelstrom Alliance Seal gear.

Another thinks its tied to Sharlayan due to Alisae's recent reveal in the MSQ and the outfit sharing a similarity in other Sharlayan outfits we see such as the Gubal Library Dungeon Gear and the more recent addition of Tomestone gear to Idyllshire. They also feel the class using White and Black Magic and coming from outside of Eorzea would be a little more lore-friendly, and also ties in to speculation some time ago that Sharlayan was founded by dissident White and Black Mages during the War of the Magi.

Can't wait to learn more either way.

[Cilia]

The Crystal Tower was also billed as having ties to the MSQ. Even if Nero didn't turn over a new leaf after CT, his new lack of character development could end up just as non-canonical as his last appearance, so don't worry about it too much.

I'm not worried, just disappointed. I never liked him in the MSQ but after that final CT cutscene it gave me hope Nero would turn his life around and become the first good, non-expatriate (or at least not an expatriate by choice) Garlean and find another path outside of trying to outshine Cid. Nope, still working on giant death mechas! And another time-warping giant mecha so soon after Alexander seems... repetitive.

(I mean, I understand the love of giant mechas... I got the Masterpiece versions of all four Gearhulks I can use in my Magic EDH deck... but in case you didn't learn from the past, messing with Allagan shit is bad news bears.)

Unless they specifically said that we are returning to Ivalice, the reasonable first interpretations is that it's the the Ascians who are doing the returning. Connections between the Ascians, Ivalician elements and the void (their names, Cu Chulainn's entry in the lorebook etc) are too consistent and pervasive to avoid that.

The only curiosity is that this sort of thing demands to be in the MSQ.

Context. Is. EVERYTHING!

It's been stressed time and again that there is no connection between the Ivalice everyone knows and Eorzea / Hydaelyn outside of fanservice names. Until we get information stating this is not the case, best not to jump the gun and start going "There's a direct relation between Hydaelyn and Ivalice! I knew it!" We have no context on what Ivalice means in the world of XIV yet, so.

[Fenral]

And another time-warping giant mecha so soon after Alexander seems... repetitive.

I'm sure it will also include a mysterious new ally who shows up out of nowhere with some mysterious past connection to Omega, who will then, right as our efforts against the last boss prove to be in vain, beautifully seal themselves away along with it to spare the world greater destruction that we may go on and wash, rinse, repeat with some other poor sod's wonderful destiny.

We're 2 for 2 right now. Come on, guys. Surprise us.

[Anonymoose]

<wanders in from the kitchens and sticks a post-it on the wall>

The Bend of Time is a dimensionally transcendent place where one can access monsters from various stages of Chrono Cross.
It is believed to behave like a Pocket Dimension.

<shrugs and says "Maybe, iunno." and heads back to the kitchens whistling Equilibrium>

[SolipsisticBuddhist]

Honestly, I just read that whole thing nodding in agreement, really. It was a rushed, bad way to phrase "When looking for representations of Samurai in Marvel (which is precisely what I was inspired to do two days ago) the hits are overwhelmingly Silver Samurai and Spider-Man." After exactly that result, I supposed that Silver was way too obvious and Spidey was way too obscure and maybe I'd keep an eye out for, like, Tom Cruise or Kill Bill (considering he compromised on 007 for Machinist).

I'll fix it. (And add another "stop phrasing things concretely just because you're moving on immediately" post-it to the stack.)

You're good mate. Just wanted to put in a correction before people began quoting it as gospel.

[myahele]

I guess we'll find out more about Lakshmi's origin in a future lore book, but I do find it interesting how "human" she looks. Especially when you consider Shiva and Sophia and to a lesser extent Garuda, look like despite human (5 spoken races) origins.

[Caitlyn]

The Ananta are the beast tribe that the Allagans abused to create the Lamia. They are extremely adept at magicks and gemcraft and are currently oppressed by the Garlean Empire off the coasts of Ala Mhigo. They offer their worship to Lakshmi, the Lady of Bliss.

Well, I wondered how the REAL Lamia species would look like. Thankfully, they look more human than their allagan counterparts. Sadly, goes my dream to have a playable Lamia-race T_T

As far as I can see, Lakshmi looks very similiar to their beast tribe. Did someone noticed the snake tail on the left side? I swear, forget Haedalyn! I worship Lakshmi from now on!

About the new Raid "Return to Ivalice": Does that mean, Viera are still a thing? Maybe the new race with 5.0?

[Fenral]

There are Doman Plums and Xelphatol Apples in FFXV. Names are just names.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

I don't know why people cling to the hope of Viera coming in the new raid. If anything, we'll just get more monster reskins we already seen or for a funny, Vieras as enemies.

[Cilia]

People want Viera in the new raid - or rather a Viera to show up period - for reasons that are twofold:

1. It will heighten the probability that the numerous Ivalice references are, in fact, not just references and that there very well may be some direct relation between Ivalice and Hydaelyn.
2. From what I've seen Viera are the most requested new race to be added, and one showing up will heighten the probability of them becoming playable.

... mostly because horny guys want their sexy bunny girl waifus people really like Ivalice. For my part I don't understand why - I never got into XII and haven't played any of the other Ivalice games, so I'm just like whatever.