Revelations from Patch 3.56

[Theodric]

To be fair, Nero wasn't even wearing a helmet or headband. He literally walked into what should be one of the most secure locations in Gridania with his 'third eye' fully exposed. I was under the impression, as a Garlean role-player, that they would need to disguise themselves whilst roaming Eorzea's cities.

[Enur]

People on reddit have been musing and i have yet to see the theory here.

Real yda was said to have been abducted five years ago.

Zenos was recently inserted as the supposed son of varis.

Zenos got a sorta face reveal, only lower face. no forehead.

Unlike other garleans, zenos has yellowish hair, not white.

Real yda was abducted and set in charge due to plot, and fakeing being the emperors son. Long plan as a member of the Ala Mhigan resistance to topple the garlean empire, posing as the heir, breaking down the system from within?

While far fetched, remember the Eula van Darnus story. In a garlean legatus suit it is possible to hide gender.


(Horrible english and wording, but i hope i got the point across)

[Theodric]

Varis Zos Galvus isn't an idiot by any account, though. He's described as a great tactician so I am fairly certain he would recognise his own son and realise if anything was off if someone - especially a woman - tried to impersonate him. They already pulled that trick with Nael and again with Lyse. Pulling it for a third time would just be silly - and Zenos is already confirmed as being the main antagonist of Stormblood. He was also described as someone people wouldn't sympathise with at all. It's likely he's just someone who is rotten and opportunistic, caring little for anyone but his own amusement. That certainly was the impression he gave upon hearing the report of the damage done to Gyr Abania.

[Yasuhiro]

Pick up the phone because I called it!
No one believed 2 months ago when I said it would be him!

The new Primal

I had a feeling it'd be Shinryu not even taking lore into account.
FFXIV is a fanservice game for fans so makes sense they'd have include Shinryu and Omega together.

[Enur]

I suppose youre right. Yoshi did say he didnt wanted people sympathizing with zenos.

As to varis, i was under the assumption that simply killing him would move the throne to zenos no? Wouldnt varis want to be distanced to his son in case the son wanted the throne himself? Having an heir that would kill you could perchance lessen the likelyhood of them ever getting too close?

[Sarevok_Thordin]

I get the feeling that Nero is going to be a bit harder to swallow for players who may have not completed the World of Darkness Scenario.

I wonder how many players chose to be open to Nero's idea as opposed to being wary of him, and if they had completed the said raid or not. Personally, I think he's fighting his infeiroirity complex and wants to work alongside you for the sake of showing his worth next to Cid, given the end of the WoD raid that left with Cid being the one to save him, I think he wants to regain that self worth.

[Rufalus]

To be fair, Nero wasn't even wearing a helmet or headband. He literally walked into what should be one of the most secure locations in Gridania with his 'third eye' fully exposed. I was under the impression, as a Garlean role-player, that they would need to disguise themselves whilst roaming Eorzea's cities.

haha, this is so absurd when you stop to think about it. I wish he was at least captured nearby to gridania but when it turned out he has potentially useful information they let him in, escorted by guards, wearing shackles, until our group hears him out and allows him to be unfettered to help us. I'm definitely feeling quality has slipped in the story. I think the 3.0 scenario, the journey with ysayle and estinien, still stands as the best work they've done, with room to breathe for character development instead of the rushed patch series stories.

[RobinMalvin]

- WHY did everyone blindly accept Nero? Did we forget about Crystal Tower and trying to kill us?

Good point. I know many people see Nero's role in Crytal Tower was redeeming, that he had begun to be 'good guy'. But honestly, he didn't do anything that's so redeeming in my opinion aside from defending Unei and Doga from voidsents and even that was fueled purely by selfish desire to control CoD. He took a new path, yes, but nothing implicates he's taken a good path, or if his goal ever changed.

No one blindly followed Nero. It was mentioned time and again that no one trusted him. They simply agreed with his idea, an idea that even Cid apparently entertained before Nero pointed it out but too fearful of what would entail. Should there was enough time, I'm sure no one would allow Nero to be involved in the operation but given the circumstances and the fact he'd already done preliminary research on Omega, he was included. To the Alliance, he's simply an ally with benefit.

- WHY was Omega so easily released when Nero could have done it the whole time?

It's possible he's found way to awaken Omega but what good would that do, if no one knows it is HE who managed to do it?

He wants recognition, acknowledgement for his genius. That's what he's always ever after, and that's why he risked to come to the meeting of the Alliance. He has to be in spotlight, not some unknown hero.

- WHY Shinryu? I mean it was cool to see, but what does a dragon have to do with Ala Mhigo?

I've been thinking about this too, it certainly doesn't make sense why a myth from Far East would end up summoned by an Ala Mhigan, especially when the prayers were meant for different deity altogether. We can chalk it up to the fact that the catalyst used for the ritual is the Eyes of a great wyrm, but that still doesn't allign with the prayers, especially when we see Shinryu's power to summon Tidal Wave. Doesn't seem in the least Rharlgr-ly.

But in credits, we're shown this image,

It most certain depicts Shinryu. Eorzea didn't know of Shinryu until his appearance, so it's likely that the image is Far Eastern in origin. We don't know of Shinryu's legends at this point, but the way he's depicted in the image and the seemingly revered response of the Domans imply that he's a mighty beast of untold destruction in the legends.

The ways I can see it being Shinryu:

1) Ilberd came to the knowledge of Shinryu, and deeming his legends depict him more terrible than Bahamut, and the fact that he's still revered by Domans in Eorzea and home, chose to summon spesifically Shinryu. This is similar with Thordan VII's MO to summon Knights of The Round.

2) Ilberd didn't summon Shinryu, or maybe even any spesific deity. His words was:

"A god has no need of faith when summoned by so pure a purpose"

The "purpose" here was the desire for vengeance, cried out by the fallen resistance members and possibly the fallen Garlean soldiers. It's possible what Ilberd wished was simply a being of pure hatred and vengeance, and among the eikons drift in aetherial sea, Shinryu was the closest match, and so the primal took on the form of a dragon foreign to Eorzea.

- WHY do we not even care about going to Doma? Why was it so forced for us to leave this area?

We don't know why we should go there yet. The only times it's implied of going to Doma is by Gosetsu, and he only meant them for Yugiri alone. No mention of WoL, or anyone else in Eorzea needs to go there. Also to be fair, no one says we would go to Doma first comes next expansion.

The ending implies that we would focus more on Ala Mhigo and that's probably the first focus in story of Stormblood. Would we liberate Ala Mhigo and then Doma, or the other way around is up for debate, but the certain thing is, we don't know yet. Unlike in 2.55 where we were all but certain going to Ishgard, all we know from 3.56 is that we're going to deal with Ala Mhigo first. When to Doma, is for us to look forward to.

[Chewy2nd]

I think the story is going to flow more naturally into Stormblood this time, rather than being on a cliffhanger for 3 months, it's gonna pick up all the threads where they left off.

[Hinoto-no-Ryuji]

Regarding Garlemald...

No attempt at diplomacy was made. Nobody brought up Regula's sacrifice even though his storyline really should be considered to be an extension of the MSQ's given how relevant it is to the game's story moving forward. I just don't get it - the lore book took the time to flesh out Garlemald as more than just a generic 'evil empire' and one can even argue that the Garleans were dealt a very poor hand, being unable to wield aether in most cases and being driven out of fertile lands in favour of living in a dangerous wasteland. They sought to survive, eventually becoming defiant and embracing magitek and military might out of necessity.

All of this is completely irrelevant right now. None of us know any of these things about their lands or their past, in-game; we just know that war with Garlemald is looming, and they haven't been especially open to bilateral negotiation in the past. Does the Eorzean Alliance even have communication channels with Ala Mhigo?

(I do agree that the Garlean Roe was more than a little bit cartoonish, and as much as I love me a good solo instance, I wish that sequence had been used to better effect. Maybe even as a way to introduce Zenos. I dunno. It's definitely my least favorite thing about the patch.

As for that checklist...well, Cilia covered most of what I wanted to say, but a couple other points:

- WHY did everyone blindly accept Nero? Did we forget about Crystal Tower and trying to kill us?

-Absolutely nobody accepted Nero. Half the people at the meeting didn't know who he was, and the other half didn't trust him as far as they could throw him.

Plus, Crystal Tower was where he showed that he could be relied on in spite of himself, given the right circumstances. It's the only reason we "trust" him at all, to the point where I'm kinda curious how that scene plays out if the player hasn't done CT. Hell, we're even given the chance to Not Trust him ourselves, in those opinion options you disliked so much. Also...

To be fair, Nero wasn't even wearing a helmet or headband. He literally walked into what should be one of the most secure locations in Gridania with his 'third eye' fully exposed. I was under the impression, as a Garlean role-player, that they would need to disguise themselves whilst roaming Eorzea's cities.

I mean, he's a pretty sneaky dude. That, and the average Gridanian likely hasn't seen a Garlean outside their fully-armored conscripts and soldiers - the eye may not register at a quick glance, if they even got that. I could see nobody paying him too much mind until he ended up somewhere he wasn't supposed to be.

- WHY do we not even care about going to Doma? Why was it so forced for us to leave this area?

-We don't even know we're going to Doma yet. All eyes are on the Wall and all thoughts are on what to do after the Alliance definitively holds it.

In addition, we haven't been given the narrative thrust to do so, for the time being. This game has played with storytelling in an MMO environment since the start; this time, it would seem that they decided to provide us with a reason to move East once we could actually do so, rather than end with an explosion of urgency and then expect us to lollygag around our old stomping grounds for three months. Clearly, it's gotten mixed reception, but I can see why they did it. We'll get our reason for going to Othard in 4.0.