Fan Fest Lore Revelations [Spoilers]

[Cilia]

Single race/clan cultures are not very common in FFXIV. The major ones that come to mind are the Xalea, Gyr Abania, and maybe Ishgard.

The Azim Steppe is inhabited only by Xaela clans (as far as we know).

Gyr Abania has a minority Seeker Miqo'te population; perhaps Hellsguard as well.

Ishgard has a minority Hyur population.

That said, there is a Raen only settlement in Sui-no-Sato. It's not an entire region, but it's there.

[Mieck]

From the trailer, I'm not sure it's possible to see it in terms of "this part happens in present day, this is the past" etc.

In the new Famitsu interview, they say there is a deliberate presentation shift away from direct story telling to a more themeatic display.


https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme..._interview_of/

Q: I think the trailer switch from the Hollywood style, to a more theme-oriented European movie style.
Y: Absolutely. Our target is to make our audience to not entirely understand what's happening, but still can enjoy a sense of epicness.

With that in mind, as others have pointed out, the Amdapor bosses may just be a representative of light, and how the WoL - throwing themselves at it again and again - is constantly rebuffed. Only the switch to Darkness / Dark Knight overcomes this "foe".
Another thing, I wondered about the visions the WoL is having. Premonition or flashback? It's not clear, naturally. He is, however, initially shown as his 1.0 archer, in a land reminiscent of Mor Dhona. There are crystal formations that can be seen at the start. Themetically it is a good place (if indeed it is, and not just some random wasteland, also highly plausible), because it is where the WoL's story started (for 1.0 players, at least).

[Raiu]

The Raen are liike the Seawolf Roegaydeyn in Limsa Lominsa. We've never seen what a "Seawolf only" culture looks like because there is no such thing (in Eorzea at least). So it looks like in Hingashi and Doma there is no such thing as a "Raen only" culture. Instead we see a bunch of races living together with one main culture. We see this a lot not just in Hingashi and Doma, but in most of Eorzea's city-states as well. Single race/clan cultures are not very common in FFXIV. The major ones that come to mind are the Xalea, Gyr Abania, and maybe Ishgard.

I understand what you mean, but the question at hand during the lore panel was not answered at all. We know for a fact that Azim Steppe is Raen's ancestral homeland too, and that the Raen later adopted the culture from Doma and Hingashi after Warlords picked them up as retainers, so they must have had something before they adopted the Doman and Hingan culture, but what? Were they similar to what Xaela still practice today?

The Raen lore is really confusing and in shambled because we are being told a lot of different things, both where Raen are from and what they are now.

"Q: Will there be more Raen-centric lore opportunities? Is Sui-no-Sato the only underwater Raen village or are there other villages that fall under the rule of the Ruby Princess? What of the tribes of Raen said to live in the mountains?"

"Koji: Okay, so, according to Oda-san, the Au Ra Raen are actually very central when it comes to Doman and Hingan culture. A lot of the Au Ra that live in Doma and Hingashi are of the Raen clan, and they make up a great deal of those two cultures. We see a lot of it in the Ninja quests. Prominent families that we hear about in Hingashi and Doma and some of the side quests. A lot of those are mainly Raen families. And so, when you see anything in the game that's just talking about, kinda like in general, like, 'Hingans are like this' or 'Domans are like this', most of the time that's actually talking about the Au Ra Raen. So, that can actually be used as that lore backstory for Au Ra Raen, and so... TL;DL #WeAreHingashi"

The answer just... does not fit with the question that was asked.

[ObsidianFire]

So Raen culture is Hingan/Doman culture then. It's never bben anything eqlse. And the Huyr and Roegadyn that came to live in Hingash and Doma picked it up from the Raen. That's what I got out of it anyway.

[MicahZerrshia]

If there's one thing that bothers me so far is Hydaelyn not being aware that doing too much good can cause a Flood of Light.

Unless she is the actual "bad guy" not zodiarc and we switch sides because we realize it.

[Lauront]

I know but Ascians were always the big bad of the game, will we face sudden other big bad that come out of nowhere or will be just deal with normal villians on each country?

The Void remains as a significant threat, as well as any other baddies they intend to concoct. They have stated they have already got the storyline down up to and including 6.0, IIRC. There is also trouble brewing in Sharlayan, based on the AST quests.

People also need to remember that SE has a habit of playfully deceiving players, so it's an open question whether the Ascians and Hydaelyn/Zodiark will actually be finalised in 5.0 - it's far from a foregone conclusion. The Empire as an Ascian tool could come to an end in 5.0, but Garlemald as such will endure beyond that, I am sure. I've stopped taking everything they say at face-value, because they like to inject white lies so as to surprise and build hype.

Unless she is the actual "bad guy" not zodiarc and we switch sides because we realize it.

I've made this point before, but many leap to the assumption that they're easily shoehorned in the good/evil dichotomy. In the end, they are supernatural, divine beings, the true agendas of which may not really be readily understood by mortals, or even their immortal servants, like the Ascian Overlords. I don't see light as necessarily good or darkness as necessarily evil - they are forces in the multiverse and it's possible that Hydaelyn, as a manifestation of light, and Zodiark, of darkness, proliferate their respective force. I would hazard a guess that deeds done in the name of the light or darkness (e.g. Igeyorhm overwhelming the 13th) could throw things into an imbalance either way, and this to an extent is out of the control of both gods.

So yeah, we can assume for the time being that Hydaelyn is "good" (which may or may not be true), and I don't think the trailer is enough to arrive at the conclusion as to who is the good or bad guy, but the interesting thing about it is that it shows Thancred, just after Yoshi mentioned we'd be facing the Empire unaided by the Scions. This, plus the progression of the WoL during the cutscenes, do suggest a time skip to me, but not on our world, but perhaps the First. It also helps make some sense of the following from the 2018 anniversary event:

O hero of rebirth traversing,

Soar you the azure skies.

Upon your breast a crimson crest,

Shine Light down from on high.


O hero of rebirth transcending,

Weave you an azure lie.

By your deeds doth crimson bleed,

And Darkness quench the fire.

Then there is that scene in 3.4 where Arbert claims that it is not about darkness or light, but about how they are used.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMMr_BZddAw


My view is that we're now seeing these threads connect and play out.

We'll learn of her true nature, and Zodiark's, in due course.

The Kuribu in the cutscene is interesting - I wonder if these statues were fashioned after the image of a goddess, or perhaps beings we've yet to encounter. Maybe not the equivalent to Voidsent from a Light flooded world, but nonetheless beings which draw upon it. Although PoTD is its own microcosm, the Kuribu form in PotD is markedly more angelic.

The impression I got from the trailer is that the story will be evolving into more complex arcs. I am glad that Solus and Elidibus will feature as major plot points into 5.0. The fight scene in the trailer with "Zenos" is intriguing, because it almost looks as he and the WoL are coordinating before they unleash whatever move it is they do; we'll know more once further pieces of the trailer emerge. The girl is interesting, and could be Minfillia, which would be particularly reasonable if it's a time skip. Other suggestions where Rielle and even a cloaked Viera (which I doubt) or a young Urth. I think Minfillia reborn makes the most sense for now. It is certainly not Unulkahai, which I had first thought it was, as the attire and overall facial structure is very feminine.

The opposite of the Warrior of Light is not the Warrior of Darkness, but an Ascian. Both the Warriors of Light and Darkness were blessed by Hydaelyn and follow her ideals ultimately. Even when Albert and Co. became WoDs, their goal was to save the aether (life) of their Shard from nonexistance. I can easily see us becoming a WoD not because we havr to fight against Hydaelyn, but because Hydaelyn herself says we have to do that for some reason. We know she cares about preserving life, so I could see her be willing to do whatever she has to to preseve it. Even if that means asking us to spread Darkness.

That's certainly not how it worked out for Arbert, as he specifically mentions joining his former enemies, the Ascians, after mentioning he carried out the instructions he received (by whom? presumably, Hydaelyn) to the letter. He is particularly annoyed by the fact that Hydaelyn only chooses to manifest before them through Minfillia after summoned by Urianger. So what you say is possible, but I don't really see it, and I would find it to be a particularly dull arc. Although I claim no particular insight into SE's plans, I remain open to the prospect that she is as honest as she needs to be given her own agenda.

The term "Warrior of Light" is not particularly well-defined and appears to originate more from how the people in the setting view your deeds, with the term WoD being the more "synthetic" of the two. What I mean by this is that your label, WoL, originates from the heroic deeds you perform in the setting. Arbert repeats this as well. The term WoD, by contrast, appears to be taken on with the imbalance of light and darkness in mind, so it has a rather more fundamental, ontological meaning to it. I.e. it transcends the original provenance of the term and reinvents it.

The Ascians' goals differ to yours, thus far at least, in that the resurrection of their god would entail the obliteration of all life. That's what we've been told and what many of them believe. Insofar as their powers (the Echo) and nature is concerned, though, I like to see the Ascian Overlords as immortal champions of darkness and their god's will as they interpret it. Taken thus, they're your dark analogue.

I'll add that we've seen next to nothing of the Twelve. These entities, worshiped as gods by the Eorzeans, have had remarkably little presence so far. I wonder what they are and if they will factor into this conflict, and if so, how. Will they ultimately just end up being powerful manifestations of Primals, like the Warring Triad?

[YianKutku]

Who said anything about siding with the Ascians?

Sorry, I didn't mean here on these forums. I was referring mostly to comments on Reddit and immediate reactions on Discord. (In my defense, I was kind of loopy when I made that post, since the Fanfest keynote was 2:30am my time and the Lore panel was 6:30am my time, so my sleep schedule was out of whack.)

The thread of logic of those comments was that the threat is of a Flood of Light, hence the Light is Bad. Hydaelyn is of the Light, hence Hydaelyn is Bad (with a side of "I knew it"). And so we have to go against Hydaelyn, and since the immediate current antagonists to Hydaelyn are the Ascians in service to Zodiark, we have to side with them.

My issue stems from my disbelief that our actions would have caused a Flood of Light in the first place, rather than it being a plot device created by writer fiat. And even if it did, the major question remains: what should we have done differently?

After all, what we've done for the most part (ie putting aside more personal questlines) is helping people, whether in small or large scale. We set ourselves against the Ascians because the Ascians have, almost exclusively (again, with the exception of Unukalhai), been spreading misery and death, or the means to do so.

So there is this uncomfortable implication that if our actions are responsible for the possibility of this hypothetical Flood of Light, that means we have been helping people too much. Which in turn means we should have stood by in some cases and let horrible things happen in the name of "balance", which is kind of, well, "kill your abusive mother and then yourself" Sophia-level.

(Not quite at "as all things must be" level, though.)

The other way I can see the writers spinning this is that if we've helped people in this specific way instead of the way we did, then we could have avoided the Flood of Light, but that just makes it based on unfairly arbitrary rules that we could not have known.

[Lauront]

I understand what you mean, but the question at hand during the lore panel was not answered at all. We know for a fact that Azim Steppe is Raen's ancestral homeland too, and that the Raen later adopted the culture from Doma and Hingashi after Warlords picked them up as retainers, so they must have had something before they adopted the Doman and Hingan culture, but what? Were they similar to what Xaela still practice today?

The Raen lore is really confusing and in shambled because we are being told a lot of different things, both where Raen are from and what they are now.

"Q: Will there be more Raen-centric lore opportunities? Is Sui-no-Sato the only underwater Raen village or are there other villages that fall under the rule of the Ruby Princess? What of the tribes of Raen said to live in the mountains?"

"Koji: Okay, so, according to Oda-san, the Au Ra Raen are actually very central when it comes to Doman and Hingan culture. A lot of the Au Ra that live in Doma and Hingashi are of the Raen clan, and they make up a great deal of those two cultures. We see a lot of it in the Ninja quests. Prominent families that we hear about in Hingashi and Doma and some of the side quests. A lot of those are mainly Raen families. And so, when you see anything in the game that's just talking about, kinda like in general, like, 'Hingans are like this' or 'Domans are like this', most of the time that's actually talking about the Au Ra Raen. So, that can actually be used as that lore backstory for Au Ra Raen, and so... TL;DL #WeAreHingashi"

The answer just... does not fit with the question that was asked.

Yup, totally agree, it does not answer the question at all. If they didn't want to give away a possible further peak into Hingashi or more chances to explore Doma, they should've just said so. It's an interesting answer nonetheless, because it suggests the Raen shaped those cultures. Great, but they're almost invisible for the most part outside of the Ruby Sea and some token NPCs in Kugane.

I am annoyed by the lack of relevance the Raen have had outside of Sui-no-sato, and I wish they'd gone a bit further than just making them a small minority of Doma and Hingashi.

I would have been much more pleased if Gosetsu had been a Raen.

Is there a transcript of the lore Q&A anyway? That's what I came here looking for, before I got caught up in discussing the trailer.

[Theodric]

I'm still of the belief that Hydaelyn cannot be trusted. At least not fully. If Hydaelyn and Zodiark are two sides of the same coin then it stands to reason that they're both at risk of tipping things too far in regards to their respective element.

Hydaelyn doesn't need to be a straight up villain to be in the wrong. It could be as simple as her being misguided. The imagery and actions surrounding her possession of Minfilia, however, definitely reminds me of a parasite though. I recall saying as much around the same time that Minfilia was revealed to have been made into Hydaelyn's vessel.

[Alleo]

So a possibility I've seen brought up is that the travel between world's will, in-universe, be us going to one of the shards. So my theory is, we are not causing a Flood of Ljght, but the war with Garlemald is on the path to Calamity...and if the Calamity happens, Hydaelyn won't be able to stop the Flood in the first shard.

It could even be that the other Scions have already been pulled over to try and speed up the process of stopping the Flood, while the WoL/D will go between the Source and First Shard to try and prevent both.

Still wonder what actions we would have to do to stop a FLood of Light that is already happening. Also that would be quite another heavy packed expansion since we are kinda dealing with Garlemald and the Ascians too, throwing Dimension hopping on that pile would quite make this into stressfull storytelling imo.

Or maybe we just get a glimpse of a possible future and to prevent that we have to be very careful in our actions.

The opposite of the Warrior of Light is not the Warrior of Darkness, but an Ascian. Both the Warriors of Light and Darkness were blessed by Hydaelyn and follow her ideals ultimately. Even when Albert and Co. became WoDs, their goal was to save the aether (life) of their Shard from nonexistance. I can easily see us becoming a WoD not because we havr to fight against Hydaelyn, but because Hydaelyn herself says we have to do that for some reason. We know she cares about preserving life, so I could see her be willing to do whatever she has to to preseve it. Even if that means asking us to spread Darkness.

Can we say that for sure? The only example we have is Arbert an his group and they got called the WoD by Elidibus who wanted them to cause more and more summonings so that a calamity will happen and their shard will be destroyed. It was not Hydaelyn who called them to the source, the good outcome was only done because of Urianger, if it would have been like Elidibus wanted it to be, we would have had a calamity with mass death at the hand of the WoD. That imo makes it sound like quite the opposite of the WoL.

In the end the WoD wanted to spead up the process thus trying to outright kill us because that would have thrown the world into utter chaos. Hydaelyn still forgave them because she probably understood that it was not really their fault and that they were desperate but we cant just really say for sure if it means to stand on the same side.

So we will see what makes them different enough to warrant a different name. In the end until now the WoL has done nothing but trying to do the best for the realm and its people. We killed lots of bad guys that would have thrown the world into chaos if they were left for themselves and we stopped Primals. So what actions would we need to take to not make it Light? (Especially since we will be able to help Ishgard with rebuilding and things like that)