Storyline Prior to Game

[Rhomagus]

Now that I think about it, the image that has the FFXIV logo on the top of the forum could very well be Silvertear Falls, or at least Silvertear pre-razing.

I am of the opinion that Silvertear Falls is Mor Dhona, before and after the dragon attack respectively. I'm open to it being something completely different.

I'd also like to know how far back the echo "works". So far in the cutscenes it doesn't seem to go back too much at all. It also seems that others can notice you when you are "echoing". If that's so, could you change the events in the past?

As of right now there seems to be multiple potential threats to the Eorzean people (us):

Dragons

The Dragons seem to be a very clear and present danger for the denizens of Ishgard as of this moment. Where did the Dragons come from? How long has this war been raging? Do these Dragons have any relation to the Dragon in the opening?

The Beast Tribes

We can literally fight the beast tribes in the open world. Then again, we can also fight NPC's of the five races as well. The fear of economic sanctions might cause the governments of Eorzea to band against the Beast tribes. Each nation seems to have it's own motives to do so as the beast tribes seem to randomly assault the citizens of the three nations. The Ul'Dahn Syndicate and the Thalassocracy are prepping for war while Thancred, Y'shtola, Papalymo, Yda, the Sylphs, and Minfilia are actively trying to persuade us, and our respective governments, to avoid war.

The Primals (Eikons as they are called by Garleans)

The Primals (Eikons) are the "Gods" of the Beast tribes. The Garleans see the Beast tribes as heretics and vice versa. No one has "seen" the Twelve Gods that our city-states tend to worship and the Beast tribes revel in the fact that they can summon their Gods at will. Each tribe has a patron deity as the city-states do.

Amaal'ja/Ifrit
Ixal/Garuda
Sahagin/Leviathan
Kobolds/Titan
Sylphs/ ???? (Carbuncle seems appropriate but there is no mention of it)
Dragons????/ ???? (If Dragons are considered a Beast tribe then Bahamut: see above)

In some Gridanian cut scenes a character tends to be pushing the idea of "believing in what you cannot see" as a silly notion.

The Empire of Garlemald

The proprietors of the Adventurer's guilds in each city build up the Garleans as a ruthless imposing empire that could attack at any moment and that our resistance, as Eorzea's populace, would be a practice in futility. That is unless you talk to Momodi. She seems very confident in Ul'Dah's defenses for some reason.

They successfully attacked Ala Mihgo and have built a wall around it to keep people from fleeing to the other nations of Eorzea. There is only one road out, and that is North, to the Empire of Garlemald. It is believed that the Garleans are on a propaganda campaign to "re-educate" the Eorzean populace. This seems to be particularly prevalent with the children of Ala Mihgo.

The Garleans are actively trying to create conflict between Eorzeans and the Beast tribes. The Garleans seem to want us to take arms against the Beat tribes. They may see the Beast tribes as a possible threat to their civilization.

Minfilia and company are actively trying to avoid war altogether. They employ the same foreboding tones as the Adventurer's guild proprietors do and galvanize our fears with the Garleans.

There are several avenues for which the story arch could take place. There are reasons for Eorzeans to be peaceful with all these potential "enemies" but it seems far fetched that they would be peaceful with themselves. Eorzea seems to be a geopolitical powder keg at this moment in time. As there are many different factions and interests operating on all levels of each civilization.

The Slyphs want peace between Eorzeans while the Dragons (speculative beast race) are already at war with the Ishgardians.

Sharlayans and Lominsan's seems to be at odds (as seen in the Limsa Lominsa R15 quest).

Lominsan's are weary of themselves with the Musketeers (soldiers of the Thalassocracy), and pirate gangs, (Kraken's Arms and the Sanguine Sirens), on each other's tails.

The pirate gangs within Limsa Lominsa are at each other's throats with an upcoming Naval race on the horizon. While some Musketeers are Pirates in disguise. On top of that, some legitimate soldiers at the La Noscean Aetheryte camps are former pirates themselves. This may also be true of some members of Limsa Lominsa's elite fighting force "The Yellow Jackets". On top of that, Mealvaan's Gate has the Astalicia "[the thalassocracy's] worst kept secret..." officially documented as a "...ship from foreign waters".

The Amaal'ja and the Ixal seem to have some bad blood between each other.

Eorzeans and Garleans have similar faiths, "the Twelve".

Eorzeans claim to have only witnessed the emergence of the Primals about ten years ago. The Beast tribes claim the Primals as creators of the world in which we live.

They could very well be one in the same, just different manifestations of each other. Alternatively they could share the same relationship as the Grecian Titans and the subsequent Gods of Olympus.

The drums of war are resounding throughout Eorzea. There are economic, religious, and geopolitical motivations for it. All that is needed is a failure to negotiate and a perceived act of aggression.

Final Fantasy XIV's story does not suck. If you think it does, you're either not paying attention or you don't know story.

[Nephera]

I dunno, grid's storyline feels somewhat removed from whatever is going on and after you finally make some headway its like "Welp time for you to go to ul'dah, peace."

[MariyaShidou]

I dunno, grid's storyline feels somewhat removed from whatever is going on and after you finally make some headway its like "Welp time for you to go to ul'dah, peace."

Because they are a bunch of tree huggers that have no knowledge of the outside world.

On the other hand the LNC quests actively seek aid from Ul'dah PUG Guild (specifically the Ala Mhigan faction within the guild) while ARC quests revolve around cooperation with Ishgard. Interestingly the Ala Mhigan faction within the PUG Guild are bad, bad people (From PUG quests).

And the MIN r20 quest reveals that there is another civilisation that thrived long time ago near Thanalan (kinda forgot the name).

[Frisque]

I'd also like to know how far back the echo "works". So far in the cutscenes it doesn't seem to go back too much at all. It also seems that others can notice you when you are "echoing". If that's so, could you change the events in the past?

The echo can go back a REALLY FRIGGIN' long way.

*fair warning, there are some Conj quest spoilers here...***

In the R36 Conj quest, you do an escort job for the NPC Morys. You basically echo all the way back to his childhood. (they don't give exact figures, but we're talking like he's early 20's maybe in real-time, but in the Echo he was like 10 maybe 12?)

Regarding whether or not you can change anything.... well, they're not really clear about that. In the same quest (inside the echo) you have to defend "young" Morys from wolves at Amberscale Rock. Which begs the question.... prior to echo who defended him from the wolves? The elementals? And did your act of running defense make a bit of difference? Because it seems that the elementals still have claim over Morys.

**SPOILERS OVER***

But yeah, looks like there's not too many limitations on the Echo as far as timeline goes.

[Malakhim]

The echo can go back a REALLY FRIGGIN' long way.

*fair warning, there are some Conj quest spoilers here...***

In the R36 Conj quest, you do an escort job for the NPC Morys. You basically echo all the way back to his childhood. (they don't give exact figures, but we're talking like he's early 20's maybe in real-time, but in the Echo he was like 10 maybe 12?)

Regarding whether or not you can change anything.... well, they're not really clear about that. In the same quest (inside the echo) you have to defend "young" Morys from wolves at Amberscale Rock. Which begs the question.... prior to echo who defended him from the wolves? The elementals? And did your act of running defense make a bit of difference? Because it seems that the elementals still have claim over Morys.

**SPOILERS OVER***

But yeah, looks like there's not too many limitations on the Echo as far as timeline goes.

SPOILERS For Limsa Arc:

It should be noted that the ENTIRE Limsa arc before the story joining is one big trip to the past, being that at the very beginning, you see Stahllman, who is prominent throughout the entire arc as the commandant of the Knights of The Barrcuda who is trying to take down the current Admiral, is actually a deckhand, a DECKHAND, on the ferry you came in on. Once you hit rank 15, you'll eventually meet a character named Blackman(I forget his name) that tells you that hat Stahllman has been "coming to this spot for years, still searching for something he lost".

Moreover, your character goes through what seems to be an "echo overload" when he proceeds to view past events within past events when you see Y'shtola confronting Stahllman, and then when you go further to see his scheming with Emerick and Merodalyin(spelling), and then cuts back to Y'shtola. I am not sure if Trevanchet and the rest of his kind, whom I assume are other shadowless or ascians, have the ability to use the echo as well.

/SPOILERS.

Either way, Eorzea seems to be screwed on all fronts.

At this point I think it might be wise to put spoiler tags on the thread title, as we've gone into more than just before the game even begins, which is partially my fault. >.>