Fan Fest Lore Revelations [Spoilers]

[Cilia]

In regards to Astral / Umbral Eras...

What constitutes the fall into an Umbral Era is a Calamity, cut and dry.

What constitutes the rise into an Astral Era is... decidedly less so. The GC leaders declaring the 7th Umbral Era was over was, yes, little more than a PR move not based in anything scientific because there's no known scientific measurement for what marks the transition.

(This was mentioned in an interview somewhere; I can't recall which one or have a source, but I do remember this.)

We've been seeing more indications of spontaneous aether depletion since the latest patch. Without veering too far into "Hydaelyn is evil territory," it's possible we've been inadvertently feeding her the land's aether as we grow stronger. It may be possible that the balance needs to be maintained between more than just two points, with the land itself as a possible third (which would also throw a wrench in the "Hydaelyn == planet" hypothesis and pave the way for more concrete answers). Man as the fourth to give it a proper second axis?

Well... in fairness, conflating Hydaelyn-the-planet with Hydaelyn-the-goddess might be just a bit of a stretch. It makes logical sense, but Lahabrea speaks of them as if they are separate entities before engaging us directly in the Praetorium. It's Lahabrea so he can't be fully trusted - duly noted - but it's there.

"Like a parasite, [Hydaelyn] must be burned out if the planet is to recover."
-Roughly. Perhaps we'll see what he meant.

My original way of reaching that hypothesis was by using the crystals of IX as a base; though they can't speak, they are the terminus of all souls on a given planet. If Hydaelyn is "all made one," it would stand to reason She serves a similar purpose... perhaps the point of Calamities, then, isn't to cause planetary devastation, but mass death - create an influx of souls so great Hydaelyn simply can't process them all and the strain breaks down one of Her walls?

Hmm...

[zuzu-bq]

Is it me or Shadowbringers intro guitar seems a lot like a sped up Prelurde played on strings.

[Astrid_Stormborn]

Padjali only began to appear after the Pact of Gelmorra during the Sixth Astral Era, right? So it's been under two millenia and for a people who live for centuries.... about a dozen doesn't seem too bad?

The 1st Padjal was born after the Gelmorrans made peace with the Elementals and started to found Gridania, which was about 500-600 years ago.

[Alleluia]

Is it me or Shadowbringers intro guitar seems a lot like a sped up Prelurde played on strings.

It parallels it, I think. I don't know if its sped up, specifically. But yeah, I hear the connection, too.

[Sylvain]

I personnaly considered astral era to simply start when the nation's in eorzea simply consider that beside the world has recovered from the current umbral era.
The last one being overly mitigated by lousoix simply made it very easy for the people in eorzea to recover from it.

Beside the people burned to crisp by bahamut, (mostly the people fighting) there hasn't been that many casualties considering what could have happened.

No city state collapse, no mass immigration, arguably only the people of Ishgard truly struggled as their ecosystem abruptly shifted to a polar environment. Heck it was so quick so there's a place Dragon and ishgardian are frozen in place while fighting. (If I remember right that happened soon after bahamut cataclysm)

So ... tbh if the only remaining issue eorzea has is garlemald, them yes it is an astral era.

[Fenral]

I was digging through the History section of Encyclopedia Eorzea volume 1 (my volume 2 still says it's in Pre-Order?), and it does seem to corroborate that the Umbral Era only seems to last for as long as the calamity itself, with the Astral Era starting as soon as the aftershocks subside and people start rebuilding. The Seventh seems to be a bit of an exception in that the mitigation worked so well, it not only didn't affect the rest of the world much, but people had about 5 years to rebuild before the GC leaders decided it was safe enough to call it. Still enough to trigger a Rejoining, though.

[zuzu-bq]

It parallels it, I think. I don't know if its sped up, specifically. But yeah, I hear the connection, too.

The notes seem to follow the same interval, well Prelurde itself has various versions in very distinct BPMs. I wish I knew enough of musical theory to analyze the scale Soken used in it. I'm just a percussionist, can't read that much into it.

Seems to me that the female voice that is singing in the traser comes off starting on Answer's motif as well.

[ChaoticCrimson]

(my volume 2 still says it's in Pre-Order?)

So it's not just me who's been having issues with their order. I had to manually push my payment through on Saturday, since usually those go through just before the release date. Since then, I still haven't gotten any word on shipping though... There was a delay on my Best Of soundtrack too before that finally went out days later after the release. Wonder what the deal is.

[Fenral]

Wonder what the deal is.

Outsourcing.

[ObsidianFire]

Apparently there's been manufacturing difficulties of Lore Book 2 (whatever that means). So pretty much no one who has pre-ordered has had their books shipped or been charged yet. Generally, the SE store only carges you for the pre-order when the order is shipped.

We know they said that it sold out at fan-fest, so I wouldn't be surprised if the book was over-ordered and SE is now having to do a very rushed 2nd print run. And that 2nd print run hasn't finished yet.