[Spoilers] The Patch 4.5 Lore Discussion Thread!

[zuzu-bq]

Oh no, Moose post incoming. I'm intrigued, this trailer wasn't as hype as the previous one and too short to cover the lots of MSQ we will have in the next months, do remember scenes of part 2 are included in every x.5 trailer. So we'll be back here to speculate more and more once we cut out part 1 scenes away of the trailer.

The editor of these trailer become so good into misleading us that I always try to not let my imagination run wild since the flow of cutscenes and voices are all mixed up across content we'll recieve. Some scenes though are, interesting to say the least. More Eureka secrets revealed? Kirle seems legitimate surprised with something, oh no. I'm honestly invested in the story surrounding the Isle of Val and I wonder if we can save Ejika from the primal's grasp or if he was enthralled for good. Hydratos seems very nice, we got images of the insides of the castle finally. An Ozma-like creature as an NM? And what certainly is Absolute Virtue, my XI veteran friends are in terror.

Throw wide the gates, once again. On the MSQ side, Varis coming to us to "return the world to what it once was". He seems to be fed up with all the Ascian bullshit just like the Eorzean Alliance. In the Prelurde and Requiem images combined, the resulting image is very well composed, all characters facing directly to us except Old Solus, maybe that means their goals will coincide? Varis was included in the promotional image. The circle in the end, similar to the blessing of the light but clearly nothing alike. I've counted Fourteen circles, one of them being unlike the others... are those...?! And yes the voice seems to be Solus, while his JP voice is somewhat generic (even though the acting of it is good) the NA voice is very distinguishable.

We finally get some Ivalician glimpses, Ramza's back with what looks to be his Armor from the last chapter of FFT. And bunny legs. Not much else from 24-man raid really, Yoshida said the story would be intense but the PLL gave us nothing but scattered teases around the trailer. I'm glad my predictions of having us meet with a Viera by the end of the Ivalice raids was correct, and gives players a nice introduction to the soon to be new race.

[Anonymoose]

Oh no, Moose post incoming.

Better late than never! I got distracted comparing Shadowhunter's voice to Roose Bolton trying to exclusive / not be able to exclude him from my brain screaming, you know this guy. I was already struggling enough with not being able to rule out Joe Dempsie as the mystery voice, lol.

[Xie_Belvoule]

Glade to see this trailer confirm my theories on pretty much everything.

Garlean counter attack- check
Varis is removed from the picture so solus can make his move- check
GC leaders get a beatdown- check
Zenos, my friend returns- check
Zodiark appears- check
Zodiark will likely reveal that mama crystal isnt all she seems- check

The only thing I don't see is black rose but that's probably the big shocking moment in the patch. While hien was away the domans are hit with the black rose.

It's obvious to me now what Varis' plan was, to create a world where everyone had the echo. The Resonant was his original attempt to create a version of the echo that could be mass produced. He wants to create a world where everyone can understand everyone else, thus making them immune to the schemes of the ascians. In a world where everyone has the echo their would be no misunderstandings, no lies, no strife. A world without war or conflict, a world where the true power of the echo would lead to everyone being "of one mind"
Side bonus, in a world where everyone has the echo, then the primal threat is eliminated as everyone would be immune to tempering.

Essentially a world of total peace as everyone would be linked to everyone else via the echo, bridging the gap between them. Like Halderman's novel Forever Peace.

[ObsidianFire]

Zodiark appears- check
Zodiark will likely reveal that mama crystal isnt all she seems- check

Where did you see Zodiark in the trailer? The last time we saw him was in an Echo vision at the end of 2.0.

[DarthSanguine]

Where did you see Zodiark in the trailer? The last time we saw him was in an Echo vision at the end of 2.0.

We've never seen Zodiark in FFXIV. The purple crystal was Bahamut's core, not Zodiark. That Necron looking statue we see in a scene with all the Ascians in 2.x is most likely a depiction of Zodiark - though we can't be certain that's what he actually looks like.

[Anonymoose]

We've never seen Zodiark in FFXIV. The purple crystal was Bahamut's core, not Zodiark.

Do you have the first artbook? It implies otherwise.

[CaesarCV]

I'm using some older quotes in the thread to organize my thoughts since my browser was being weird and I had somehow thought that page 3 was the last one. But I think some of the points are pretty pertinent anyway!

It's obvious to me now what Varis' plan was, to create a world where everyone had the echo.

This doesn't sound like Varis's plan to me at all. He seems to be of a more...secular sort. In the previous patch he claimed to want to restore mankind to its rightful place in history, which leans more towards freeing them from outside influence like gods and ascians than some sort of echo based wonderland. If anything, it sounds more like Elidibus's. He claimed a long time ago (all the way back in the A Realm Reborn Patches) that if the Scions mastered the Echo they would be on the same side as him, whatever that means. That's part of why I thought that Aulus Mas Asina (sorry if I messed up the name) was Elidibus in disguise, since coming up with a way to give more people the Echo would be extremely useful to his goals. I was wrong about him being Elidibus admittedly, but the point still stands. Our White Robed buddy seems to have different goals and methods than the other Ascians, sometimes even seeming to work against their plans.

As to the whole 'create a world with no races' and such, I wouldn't be totally shocked if he was talking more generally about all bowing to Garlemald. Remember that Varis lead the Optimates faction over the Populares. He was (and probably still is to some extent) convinced of Garlean supremacy. That might have changed since he learned the truth about his country's origins, but I personally think he'll try to 'make Garlemald real' rather than abandon it entirely. He's talking seemingly to the Alliance in that scene, and likely requesting their surrender before the war really begins.

Zodiark appears- check

I honestly got no real hint that it was necessarily Zodiark. If it was I feel like there would have been a bigger hint, like a gigantic dark crystal or something like that. Sure the voice was saying some sort of evil sounding stuff, but that could mean it was any ascian, or something else entirely. Not to mention that it tends to be shorthand in games and movies that 'Dark Gods' have deep, booming voices. This voice didn't really sound like that. I'm still skeptical that Zodiark will show up awake, because that kind of means that the Ascians have won, and mortal life is doomed.

Zodiark will likely reveal that mama crystal isnt all she seems- check

This is admittedly a response to this idea in general. The 'Hydelyn is actually evil' seems to be a popular theory, but there's almost no evidence for it. The biggest point against it in my opinion comes from the Warriors of Darkness plotline. Arbert and his companions assumed that Hydeyn was evil and tricking them. They blamed her for the flood of light, and were willing to work with Elidibus to try and save their star by serving Zodiark instead. However, in the end, they were wrong. What saved their shard (although it seems like that might not be working out so hot) wasn't using the power of darkness or violence. Instead, it was asking Hydelyn for help. That would have been the perfect time to demonstrate her darker side, but instead she sacrificed both her corporeal vessel and more of her (extremely low) power to do her best to save the shard. That seems much more like the actions of a benevolent mother goddess than some masterminding tyrant. Sure, she kicked out Zodiark in the past, but much like classical mythology he had the world in complete primordial chaos, with apparently no mortal life.

I wonder how Gaius is going to play into all of this? That he survived the events of ARR is mysterious enough, though he also now apparently has the power to track down and slay Ascians. That in itself implies that someone or something is pulling his strings, though despite his noble intentions it may backfire since simply defeating all the Ascians risks bringing about disaster.

Hm...other than Gaius having the masks, there's really no evidence he's actually fully killing Ascians yet. That he can is taken as a given by lots of people, but I'm not totally sold on it. He definitely wants to, but an inability to permanently kill them is a perfect chance for him to try and get help from the Scions. Either way he's definitely trying, and seems to be being set up as something of a 'good' foil for Varis.

[Nightsword]

If Gaius is using Ultimate weapon technology, he might be able to absorb Ascian souls like the Ultimate Weapon was able to absorb Primals.

[ChaoticCrimson]

If Gaius is using Ultimate weapon technology, he might be able to absorb Ascian souls like the Ultimate Weapon was able to absorb Primals.

Well, people have been wanting the Heart of Sabik to have some more relevance than a simple one-off plot device...

[CaesarCV]

If Gaius is using Ultimate weapon technology, he might be able to absorb Ascian souls like the Ultimate Weapon was able to absorb Primals.

There's possibilities there. But how would he have produced it or designed it? Nero was mentioned as the one who reconstructed/improved Ultima weapon, and he's been accounted for during Stormblood. He could have designed it for him during Heavensward...but that'd be a little weird with no buildup right? Not to mention that Gaius seemingly has very little in the way of resources at the moment. He was considered a traitor even before the XIV legion was destroyed, and both he and Nero are 'arrest on sight' in Garlemald.