Thoughts on how we might go from WoL to WoD

[Enkidoh]

The thing is, the Ascians have been yammering on about opening a 'gate' since ARR's story - remember Lahabrea's hammy comment after defeating Rhitahtyn at Cape Westwind during Operation Archon?

Lahabrea: "Look, Hydaelyn- your minion comes... bringing the Light."
Lahabrea: "Alas, the gate to the void already stands open. Soon, Darkness shall consume all, and you shall bow down to the one true god! AHAHAHAHA!!"

So really, this kind of talk from them is hardly original, hells, I'm not even convinced the next Calamity being a Flood of Light is even true, and just misinformation touted by the Ascians and their agents deliberately to sow confusion, strife and distrust with us and Hydaelyn out of desperation because we can now destroy their ilk for good.

I mean, look around, the world is hardly drowning in Light, Hydaelyn is a crapsack world of the highest order with Darkness tearing everything up, and our victories hard-won affairs that ultimately do little to stop the Darkness unravelling whatever little advances towards light we make (the only major inroads against the Darkness itself we've made have been the complete destruction of several Ascians), so, until I am shown Hydaelyn Herself telling us that we're too powerful in the Light and to please tone it down a notch, I'm regarding this whole affair as nothing but Ascian propaganda.....

Maybe I'm just in denial though....

[Anonymoose]

Interestingly, that's one of the "deliberate misinformation" / "deliberate vaguery" ones. Lahabrea's talking about an interdimensional rift. Perhaps the Chrysalis?

[Ceasaria]

I have played FFXIII-2 just now and to use the time travel, Serah needs to have an affinity with the chaos (as the encyclopedia in game says) which she has.
So in FFXIV, because our light and darkness are tied to order and chaos, and we need to change the history, so maybe we need to embrace darkness to be able to use the time travel (if it's a thing in Shadowbringers).

[LineageRazor]

I mean, look around, the world is hardly drowning in Light, Hydaelyn is a crapsack world of the highest order with Darkness tearing everything up, and our victories hard-won affairs that ultimately do little to stop the Darkness unravelling whatever little advances towards light we make (the only major inroads against the Darkness itself we've made have been the complete destruction of several Ascians), so, until I am shown Hydaelyn Herself telling us that we're too powerful in the Light and to please tone it down a notch, I'm regarding this whole affair as nothing but Ascian propaganda.....

Hear, hear. Dear lord, whether you take "Light" to represent order or goodness, BOTH are in mighty short supply from what we've seen! And yet, we're supposed to believe we're on the bleeding edge of a Flood of Light? If that's the case, then a "balanced" world sure would be a terrible place to live...

It's part of the reason that I believe there's a strong chance that we're going to be adventuring on the First Shard - a place ALREADY flooding with light, and the details of how it got that way conveniently obscured - and THAT'S why we're going to have to don the mantle of Darkness for a time. Whether that will be most, or only part of the reason we become the Warrior of Darkness, I do not yet know. But it sure doesn't seem like we're in dire need of more Darkness on the Source!

[CaesarCV]

I have played FFXIII-2 just now and to use the time travel, Serah needs to have an affinity with the chaos (as the encyclopedia in game says) which she has.
So in FFXIV, because our light and darkness are tied to order and chaos.

I wrote a longer post about this in either this thread or another (please excuse this poor holiday-addled brain) but there is really nothing to suggest that Light and Darkness represent Order or Chaos. The servants of the dark have sown chaos yes, but they've also supported bastions of 'order' like Garlemald. Far more important is the fact that our heroes, representing Light, fight to destroy corrupt order like Garlemald or the Ishgardian Orthodox Church just as much as they fight chaotic forces like wild beastmen tribes or mischievous Acians. Order versus Chaos is a powerful theme in lots of series like Warhammer (all of them) or the Shin Megami Tensei games, but it does not seem to be a primary theme in FFXIV. I think there's a fair bit of trying to jam square pegs into round holes here.

[MrThinker]

We already know that you can't travel to another shard without relinquishing your physical form (As far as we know, at least)

I'd like to point out that in the Crystal Tower storyline, we DO travel with our own bodies to The World of Darkness, aka The Void, formerly the 13th, through an interdimensional portal of sorts. Though at the same time, it might be hard to fit The Void into the same set of 'rules of travel' binding the intact shards.

[Anonymoose]

Counterpoint: The barrier between two shards is double-sided and thus much thicker and much more rigid. A clumsy comparison, but imagine being underwater and coming to the surface to find the empty air versus getting to the surface and finding all the weight and pressure of another ocean pushing against that boundary. The membrane between the Source and void even shifts and tiny holes appear naturally from time to time, and we can cut into it using "only" an extraordinary amount of energy (see: Void Ark). However, to hit another shard requires a Calamity, and opening that barrier at all seems to instantly re-merge our worlds - as if two bubbles are colliding and becoming one - and unmake everything from the copy in the process. Xande was using the Crystal Tower to prop open a small gate to the empty space where the Thirteenth once was.

[MrThinker]

Ah okay that makes sense. But this made me remember another question. Does a Calamity only need to happen on the Source for it to absorb another shard? I always assumed if it was a 2-way barrier, a calamity needed to happen on the target shard as well, which is why the Ascians are plotting in the shards in the first place. Otherwise, why did Igeyhorm raise all that chaos on the 13th, why did Mitron try to do things on the 1st?

[Anonymoose]

Unconfirmed, but I assume that chaos is wrought on both sides of the barrier betwixt worlds, causing maximum disruption and creating specific circumstances. Once the crescendo hits, a trigger is pulled, so to speak, and we both get the Calamity, but their world is destroyed by it.

[MrThinker]

Then going along with the 'calamity on both sides' line of thinking... Does a world in the midst of a Flood (either Light or Dark) count as having their aetherial-spacial-or-whatever barrier disrupted enough to be absorbed? Arbert and co. were intent on having another Calamity occur on the Source, because they believed the 1st would be the shard to be rejoined. Of course, they received second-hand information from Elidibus, and Elidibus is a snake that doesnt give the full picture most of the time.