'This town certainly has changed, and not at all for the better'

[Crushnight]

i started thinking where Thancred was at first then i decided to start looking at it as where has thancred been and once i started looking at it like that it starts to lower the chances of a few locations.

Both halatali and lost city of amdapor can be put in the highly unlikely catagory as nowhere is it stated Thancred has visited either of these places (unless in lore book 2 as yet to receive my copy >_<) Halatali is more likely of the two given he was in charge of the Ul'Dah region in 2.x but i still put far down the list as Thancred's statement implies familiarity.

Next on list is potentially Mor Dhona or a garlean settlement on the Islbard continent cannot speak much for the garlean settlement as very few if any information on them but we do know thancred has visited at least one to get information on Alphanaud as for Mor Dhona its proximity to the silvertear lake as well as having potential influences from both Limsa and Ul'dah.

The last three areas i can think of are Limsa, Ul'dah and Sharlayan all are considered cities and not towns but they all have a deep connection with Thancred;
Limsa - He was a rogue so must have a good working knowledge of the city and surronding area but the architecture is the big turnoff from trailer to point to Limsa
Ul'dah - He was in charge of the area during 2.x the architecture is very similar in trailer
Sharlayan - Thancred went and studied here but he hasn't been there in a fair few years and nothing that we have seen that is Sharlayan looks like the architecture of the trailer

All in all i personally feel it is Mor Dhona due to the proximity to silvertear lake and Hydalyn which could potentially be a gateway for other beings to enter, the architecture of the town resembles parts of Ul'dah and Ishgard plus there is the fact we haven't explored upper Mor Dhona leaving to ambiguity to what it looks like and the fact it is refered to as a town not a city though this could just be how thancred talks about the city states.

These are just my thoughts on what he said interested in any debates about it i don't have every bit of information and if thancred has stated he has visited any areas before that i missed be interesting to know

[Jollyy5]

In order to figure out where Thancred is in the trailer, wouldn't trying to find that caged aetheryte in chains by a cliffside be easier than trying to figure out which building he ran into?

Also, I'm of the mind that this can't be too far into the past considering he has his Scions tattoo already, coupled by what he says when he enters the building, I'm leaning towards it being in the future or Thancred getting whisked onto another shard due to getting his soul dragged out.

[DarthSanguine]

All in all i personally feel it is Mor Dhona due to the proximity to silvertear lake and Hydalyn which could potentially be a gateway for other beings to enter, the architecture of the town resembles parts of Ul'dah and Ishgard plus there is the fact we haven't explored upper Mor Dhona leaving to ambiguity to what it looks like

Which part do you mean by upper? Because to me that implies the northern half - which is the part we DO have. The southern half was in 1.0, but there was nothing there except an aetheryte camp (Camp Brittlebark IIRC), and an entrance to the West Shroud just south of where the Crystal Tower now is.

[Crushnight]

Which part do you mean by upper? Because to me that implies the northern half - which is the part we DO have. The southern half was in 1.0, but there was nothing there except an aetheryte camp (Camp Brittlebark IIRC), and an entrance to the West Shroud just south of where the Crystal Tower now is.

The castle buildings that we are locked out of above the rising stones

[DarthSanguine]

The castle buildings that we are locked out of above the rising stones

Ah, right. Vertical. I got you now. I have always wondered why we couldn't go up there...

[Jandor]

Looks like Ul'dah to me. The monsters used are light themed ones, probably in Ul'dah due to them spreading out everywhere, fueled by the overuse of light.

Light does cleanse everything into a featureless void eventually, but that doesn't necessarily mean there isn't an intermediate stage before that, something that resembles a light version of the void.

[Iscah]

Plus Kuribu are stated to be Gelmorran (spelling). Gelmorra was a subterranean city in the Shroud.

Where are you getting that "stated to be" from specifically? People might have previously assumed it was Gelmorran due to it being a transformation spell in the Palace of the Dead, but they're more heavily associated with Amdapor (final boss of Ancient City hard mode; lorebook states they were built as guardian golems during the War of the Magi).

Granted, Gelmorra was built in the same area and potentially by the descendants of the Amdapori, so they might have carried on the same concept. But we really don't know much at all about Gelmorra beside it being underground.

[Anonymoose]

I really thought I'd have more to offer after milling it over for a couple weeks, but i really don't. I find it suspicious that the concept art released so far is from a place Yoshida isn't ready to talk about and contains one desert place, one forest place, and one seaside place. Hmmmmmm. But do I really want to make the logical leap to dimensional shift yet? I can make sense of it, but the assumptions start on the ground floor of the house of cards. Why wouldn't it just be Ilsabard? But if it was Ilsabard why wouldn't Yoshida talk about it? And I can make sense of Thancred saying "this place sure has changed" of a place he's been in another dimension or within Imperial territory, but nowhere else. Unless it's our Wings of the Goddess expansion.

[Alien_Gamer]

But if it was Ilsabard why wouldn't Yoshida talk about it?

I think this is simply just a marketing decision. They've still got a few live letters to do, 2 fan fests and who knows how many interviews planned to tease us with pieces of information here and there. They want to build things up to the final full reveal at the last fan fest. I may be misremembering but I don't think the reveal about hitting Doma and Gyr Abania hit until the second fanfest before StB.

[Anonymoose]

I may be misremembering but I don't think the reveal about hitting Doma and Gyr Abania hit until the second fanfest before StB.

This is correct. We knew we were going to Ala Mhigo but not the Far East until the extended trailer. We never seem to go in just one direction. However, that's also the source of what I said. If we're taking on the Garlean Empire, we're going to Ilsabard. Period. So when Yoshida says he can't talk about the three new areas we've seen (two by name), and he says...

Warriors of Light will become the Warriors of Darkness, but the timing is not right yet to disclose where we are going. So it was intentional. Still have 4.5 coming up and there is a lot to experience in that patch. So they didn’t want to expose that until 4.5 is revealed.

that's a hint that there's another factor in play. What separates this place from the Ilsabard we know? Pre-and-post a specific event? Dimensional? Chronological?