Revelations from Patch 4.4

[Heliantheae]

On the speculation

If anything else happens to Ishgard, I'm marching into Halone's Hall and kicking her useless God ass out.

[Jonnycbad]

Getting a huge FFT vibe with Lucavi running the show from behind the scenes in mortal bodies

[Ramesses]

Speculation doubts...

I doubt that Ishgard is on the cards... they still need to finish the story of the Hogswarts--*ahem*-- Saint Endalim's Scholasticate.

To be honest, I rather enjoyed that storyline.

[ObsidianFire]

Oh good, the trailer was very misleading!

MSQ

It is great to get an in-game explanation for why kami can be summoned as primals. And wow, that is a very broad definition. Objects of worship... hoo boy, let's hope it doesn't get tested by people.

So the Burn was more Allagan shenanigans. Go figure. The way I see it, the crystal in the House of the Crooked Coin is acting like a combination power diverter/battery on an electrical current. The Allagans seemed to have used it to divert the aether from the Burn into the crystal (how they found a crystal that could do that is another story) and then didn't turn it off once Azys Lla was floating. And now the power diverter is turned off again and the aetherial current is flowing correctly.

What I find more interesting is the myth behind how the crystal got there. It seems to describe someone finding an aetheric power source underground and then using it to make Azys Lla and Dalamud. Thing is, we already know who was more then likely behind that: either Amon or Xande (or both). But I'm betting on Amon. As for a time when all seemed doomed, it sounds like it could be the early part of the war with Mericydia. And according to the lore book, Azys Lla was operational during the war. It's also mentioned that it was after the end was averted that the traveler came back and floated Dalamud. Which would easily coincide with Dalamud being floated after the war with Mericydia was over. So what do I think the crystal is... well, we know there are places where the "distance" between the corporeal world and the aethrial sea are very thin. Think where the Antitower is built. I wonder if House of the Crooked Coin was another place like that. And Amon managed to somehow get a shard of the Mothercrystal popped out into the corporeal world. It would explain why the Xaela think it's a shard of Nhaama's power at least. And maybe why it's so good at messing with large amours of aether. And other things like the aetheric properties of land.

Sadu, Magnai, you and Y'shtola were amazing. I loved the way all of that was handled. It's also why I'm really glad Alphianud and the rest of the Scions never showed up for any of the Steppe in 4.0. They would have made it so much more difficult. I do find it interesting that the Xaela philosophy is almost the same as Gaius' (might makes right; the strong rule the weak) only for whatever reason it ends up not blowing up in their faces for the most part. It makes RPing as Xaela characters interesting, that's for sure.

As far as the darkness in the WoL goes, Temulun notices it in you before you even leave to see the House of the Crooked Coin. So the darkness was there before whoever talked with us started talking with us. And that's very ominous... where (or who) prior to now would we have gotten that darkness from?

What was said to us was really confusing. First it's mentioned that a Calamity is going to happen. Then it's mentioned that what sounds like a Flood of Light is going to happen. And those can't happen to the same shard at the same time! Calamities involve Shards becoming one with the Source and Flooded Shards can't be joined to the Source in a Calamity, so... yeah... I'm confused. Which means I'm not quite yet convinced it's Zodiark yet. It also doesn't help that we (the players, not the WoL) know what Zodiark looks like. He looks like Hydaelyn's dark purple twin. I'd kind of expect to see him if he was the one talking to us...

Part of me thinks it is the WoD and that they're in a hurry to get off their shard and onto the Source and are doing things sloppily. Like trying to get bodies. So they're looking for anything familiar to them on the Source. Most familiar to them would be us and the Scions. Only we have the Echo and can't get pulled out of our bodies. I'm half-way expecting the Scions to wake up next patch and for it not to be them in their bodies, but someone else. And having to deal with all that awkwardness.

The other part of me thinks it might be Zodark. In which case... why should we trust anything he says? He hates us. And he and pretty much everyone working with him are awfully good at making the things we don't want to do sound like what we should be doing. In which case, him getting rid of most of the Scions is a real blow to us. We've never had that many people in the Scions well and truly out of commission with no indication that they'll be back. Part of me wonders how the WoL will fare when our most constant support and guidance isn't there to rely on when we need them the most. And I consider this different than the end of ARR. Back then, it was thought they might be dead. Technically, they aren't here. And given what we know of Ascians, that's almost worse.

I know we all said 4.4 would be interesting but man... 4.5 is going to be crazy.

Epilogue 1

So my first reaction to this scene was not, "Oh great, Solus was possessed by an Ascian.", but "Oh great, Solus was an Echo user who sided with Zodiark". And even after watching the scene several times, that's still my overall take on it. I am seriously considering that Solus never was possessed, but was a Garlean with the Echo who sided with Zodiark and created an Empire for the sole purpose of pushing his agenda.

As for why I think this... Solus is the weirdest Ascian we've met so far. He focuses on some very odd things and doesn't focus on some other things. For starters, Solus doesn't mention he's an Ascian until done with his first monologue. Instead, he puts more focus oh how Varis should be running his empire. He seems to think of himself more as "Emperor Solus" and less as "someone possessing Emperor Solus", if at all. To go with this, just about all the Ascians we've met so far make some mention of the body that they're inhabiting not being their original body. Solus is almost the exact opposite. I don't think we've seen an Ascian look so at home in the body that they are currently in until now.

There's also the fact whoever Solus is, he has to have been born on the Source. He says he founded the Garlean Empire, so he was on the Source long before the WoL was stripped of their blessing which let the other non-Source Ascians in. To add to that, most of the Ascians we've seen are not fans of long-term machinations that put them in the spotlight. Lahabrea and Gaius only had contact with each other for the five years after the Calamity max. It seems Lahabrea and Igeyorhm only started working on Thordan after Ultimate Weapon failed. And all of them were influencing the actual rulers and staying in the background. Solus meanwhile... he ruled the Garlean Empire for sixty years. For sixty years he was the face of the Empire. That's... a long time to keep a charade going. I find that a lot easier to swallow if it wasn't a charade at all. Either that or the Ascian possessing him has a serious case of Becoming the Mask. At the very least, Varis doesn't seem at all shocked by how Solus is acting. It seems like this is how Solus was even before he died.

I also find it interesting why Solus he says he came back. According to him, he was in the Ascian version of retirement and then Lahabrea was an idiot and got himself killed. So Elidibus asked him to come and help out again. And when he comes back, it sounds like he picks up where he left off. Garlemald just doesn't sound like it was some random con he got assigned. Personally, the reason I think Elidibus asked him to come back is because there's no other Ascian that can get back to the Shard currently. Our blessing of light is functioning again, and Elidibus needs someone who was born on the Shard.

Where Solus does show that he's got the Ascian manipulation down pat is how he instructs Varis to deal with "the masses". He seems to have purposely given them legitimate sounding reasons for why Garlemald was doing what it was doing. And I wouldn't be surprised if that's exactly what he's doing with Varis right now. And speaking of Varis, he's looking like the only sane man in his family. Only, he can't really do anything about his situation. I get the feeling he didn't know what Solus really is until he won the War of Succession and became the next emperor.

Granted, part of why I hope this is what is going on is because we've never seen anyone becoming an Ascian like we became a Warrior of Light. All the Ascians we've come across before Solus have obviously been Ascians for long periods of time already. Given that Ascians seem to start out just like all Echo users do, I don't think it's that far of a stretch to think we'll eventually run into one who just became an Ascain.

To be honest, Solus (or his history if you assume he has the Echo anyway) reminds me a lot of the WoL, if the WoL went evil. Goodness knows he had the same reputation of being a peerless warrior as we do. And just as normal Eorzeans, the Scions, and Alphinaud are telling us that our deeds inspire them, he inspired all of Garlemald. Only, he's purposely trying to bring as much chaos he can as we are trying to bring as much order as we can. It'd be interesting if the only major differences between Solus and the WoL was whose sides they ended up taking between Zodiark and Hydaelyn.

Epilogue 2

Black Rose was a weird bioweapon the first time I ran into it in the Fringe quests and it's an even weirder weapon now. For starters, it apparently only kills living things and nothing else. It being a gas makes sense but... well, some of the canisters containing it were hidden underneath the Percipient One (the huge tree) in the Fringes. They eventually leaked and poisoned the tree. This caused it to develop weird fruits that drive anything that eats them crazy. Yeah... how does that work if it's just a gas? I don't know... And now the way it kills people looks very weird... Given that the person who developed it was not a Garlean, but an elezen, I wonder if Black Rose is actually messing with the aether of whatever it come in contact with, and not just it's biochemistry.

As for why Garlemald would have it, Black Rose was developed twenty years ago, and then never used. I can easily see the data getting out to other people in the Garlean Empire in that timeframe. The quests about Black Rose make it pretty clear that a lot of people were involved on the Garlean side when it came to trying to find out where the rest of the hidden samples of it were...

As for Gaius Shadowhunter, he's totally kicking himself about Black Rose. It was developed by his legion and he apparently didn't actually know what it was for until the final experiments were done (I can't imagine him okaying the project if he'd know what the goal of the project was before it started). Of course, given what we just found out about Solus... yikes... that's going to go over well. At least we don't have to worry about him not knowing what the Ascians are really up to at least. Lahabrea screwed up in a lot more ways then just getting killed. Even when Lahabrea was manipulating him, Gaius was a lot more questioning and active throughout the whole situation then Varis has proved to be this far.

Omega

Decent end to the tier. That said, part of the problem with Omega has been that Omega itself has had very little character. The story itself is okay, but isn't that interesting overall. It feels like nothing changed in the long run. Well, except for diverting a catastrophe, but that was a foregone conclusion. I'd say this has been the weakest raid tier in terms of it's overall story. Really, it's all the side characters that make the story work.

What it did much better at was dropping bits of lore info about the dragons origins. Midgardsormr's fight is probably the most interesting fight out of the bunch, if simply because it's nice to see him in his heyday. Him having all of his children's abilities (and a few extras) was a great way to do it. It also gives some idea about how life on Hydaelyn has changed the dragon race. I love that Midgardsormr asked Hrasvelgr to rescue the WoL and Co. It's a nice way to tie in the rest of Eorzea's dragons. And is it just me, or does Midgardsormr have a thing for Hydaelyn like Hrasvelger has for Shiva? Only in Midgardsormr's case, he's the weaker one that get's "eaten" by her. It also clears up one of the few things that always irked me about Heavensward. The Astrologins of Ishgard could predict the hoard's movements by watching the "dragonstar". I always wondered why that was the case and it now seems that the "dragonstar" might be where the dragons were originally from. It looks like they might still have a connection to it somehow...

Out of all the side characters, Cid seems to be the one who grew the most. Getting out the Lunar Transmitter data for it must have been really hard for him. It also seems that he went to Bozja after the Lunar Transmitter destroyed it. Which... yikes... that must be somewhere on the level of going to Hiroshima/Nagasaki after the Hydrogen Bomb hit for the first time... I can see why that would have gotten him to get out of Garlemald ASAP once he found out they wanted him continuing it.

Meanwhile... Nero is off to his next project... I guess we'll see him next expansion? At least this time he's admitting to himself that he will be involving Cid and Co. (and us) with it!

And kudos to SE for not taking to obvious route of killing off Alpha. It was nice to have everyone in a raid get out alive for once.

The Four Lords

Okay... I really want to know more about how Suzaku's immortality works. That seems very suspicious. Who thinks we'll need that for our (probable) fight against Koryu?

[Dualblade]

MSQ

So yeah when it comes to Temelun sensing a sliver of darkness inside you it happens BEFORE visiting the Crooked Coin. How exactly got there is not known, more so if it apparently wasn't there when we first went to the Steppe. Though it took me a few seconds to wonder why she was talking about that when I was playing a Dark Knight at the time.

Personally ever since we first saw Minfillia as Hydaelyn's voice talk about Zodiark I had thought that it would eventually come to be that yes, Zodiark did do all that stuff she said and had to be taken down/imprisoned...but that by the time of the present he may very well have actually become more of a shad of grey. This partially comes from how the XII version of Zodiark is essentially just a child sealed away due to fear by its creators and the Tactics version not really having anything to do with the Lucavi plots. At the same time that doesn't mean that the Ascians can't be working against his wishes, whether that be on purpose or not (Lahabrea for sure gave off a vibe of not really caring about Zodiark at all.) If this voice/spiriting away is actually Zodiark it wouldn't surprise me if its because he doesn't have many other ways of actually being able to communicate with us currently that aren't...intrusive at best.

As for Garleans, Solus is for sure giving off Ardyn vibes though I would put that up just as much to his leitmoif as his mannerisms. Between him and Elidibus we now have good reason to see Varis as a...not exactly ally yet, but the enemy of my enemy is my friend. And it wouldn't surprise me if Varis was starting to see the Scions in that light the more time he spends with the Ascians. Zenos will probably make an appearance in 4.5 but I doubt he will die, not so long as Elidibus is still in his actual body.

I suppose finally is the matter of the Scions missing souls...is this just a one patch thing, or something that might take quite a bit of an expansion to get back? Because a trip to Sharlayan territory could cover an expansion before moving into Garlean lands.

Omega

The bit about Midgarsomr was pretty neat, I had been wondering about why we would fight him when the trailer come out since Chaos was/is the first boss of Alphascape. Omega M/F was...somewhat dissapointing after the Omega battle though that might be because I had better teammates for Omega M/F in comparison. I assume Omega F is shows up for the final cutscene instead of being based on your own characters gender, probably for the best since Omega M's hair is a bit wierd. Petty reason but still. Personally I think Omega actually managed to get atleast some form of its data into the OMG minion that now belongs to Alpha, meaning it'll finally be able to experience that which it can't get simply from battle data.

[Mieck]

Epilogue 1

So my first reaction to this scene was not, "Oh great, Solus was possessed by an Ascian.", but "Oh great, Solus was an Echo user who sided with Zodiark". And even after watching the scene several times, that's still my overall take on it. I am seriously considering that Solus never was possessed, but was a Garlean with the Echo who sided with Zodiark and created an Empire for the sole purpose of pushing his agenda.

Thoughts

I think he was Ascian possessed, rather than Echo user that sided with Zodiark. There's a window of opportunity which seems now like a deliberate grey area - Solus very likely was a regular Garlean but somewhere between 1505 when, aged 16, Solus enlists in the army, and 1513 (24) when he is promoted to legatus. Within 2 years, the empire begins subjugating its neighbours. Somewhere in that window seems to be the likely point of Ascian possession, and probably towards the upper end of that age range. Enough time for him to have started a family, I would suggest. House Galvus was a prominent family. The Ascians would have been keeping an eye on it.



An outlier time frame might be that it was not until he beheld the Burn - they have been making a lot of this point of lore lately - that he is possessed. I'd be happier with this thought, because it at least allows that highly ambitious bads can just be bad without Ascian influence, but I suspect I'm clutching at straws with that last leap. The lore book is also not specific about the year this happened, though it can be reasonably assumed to be prior to the conquest of Doma.

Edits: reasons

[Theodric]

Regarding Solus:

It's very interesting that Solus is so eccentric. I wonder if he acted that way in public when he was in power? He was, after all, beloved by his people. We also know that he commissioned the Prima Vista and supported the arts, which was used as method of bashing Varis. Yet now we know that Varis is actually the one who truly cares for his people whereas Solus outright calls them 'powerful pawns'. I do find myself curious as to how far the writers will take the similarities towards Ardyn. FFXV ended up becoming very dark when it came to that particular character and his actions. FFXV also did very well for itself so I don't doubt that we'll get major references to it at some point...albeit with twists unique to FFXIV.

Solus also states outright that Varis regrets knowing the truth about the Empire. It'll be interesting to find out when, exactly, he came to know of Solus' true nature. Was it before or after the War of Succession? Speaking of that, it seems likely that no matter who won they would have found themselves in the same situation as Varis. I'm still hoping we get further clarification in regards to the situation with Regula. Now that he's dead, it serves to further isolate Varis. He has nobody to lean upon, to our knowledge. Even his personal guard are easily manipulated to do Elidibus' bidding. With that said, when Varis shoots Solus the guards behind him appear to be genuinely shocked by the proceedings.

[Rosenoire]

On Solus and Varis:

I'd totally forgotten about Regula, and now, I genuinely feel sorry for Varis because he lost what sounds like his only actual friend due to--yup, Ascian machinations. Really, pretty much everyone he's ever been close to has been either taken from him by the Ascians or was actually an Ascian. It really makes me wonder about Zenos' mother. It also puts his callousness at the news of Zenos' death in 4.0 in a whole new light; of course he didn't care because his son literally was only a test subject as far as the people actually running the Empire were concerned.

That said, I'm not crazy about the "Ascians did it" plot twist. I actually liked the idea that Solus genuinely believed eradicating the eikons was for the good of all, and that the Empire and all of its strengths and flaws were human, and not purely the product of manipulative embodiments of pure evil.

[Kusanagi7]

about Solus

so is that the real solus or ascian possed solus im confused

[Remedi]

shall we take a moment to....

appreciate how well made was the banner for the patch? After the empire epilogue, Solus gaze on everyone in that picture was well hidden hint on the truth of things. As him watching from the shadows and being the puppetmaster