Revelations from Keynote II

[RicaRuin]

On the topic of the cloaked figure in the Artwork - I don't really think it's G'raha Tia. They try their best not to intertwine Raid Story with the MSQ, and then again, wouldn't they have told players to complete the Crytal Tower Raids by now...?

[Iscah]

On the topic of the cloaked figure in the Artwork - I don't really think it's G'raha Tia. They try their best not to intertwine Raid Story with the MSQ, and then again, wouldn't they have told players to complete the Crytal Tower Raids by now...?

I was writing about this the other day (link), but I think if there's time travel in play and this is "Future G'raha" that we're dealing with - whether we go to his time or he comes back to ours - then it's not necessary to have completed the Crystal Tower raids. He is from a point in time where those events have already taken place, whether you have personally experienced them yet or not.

If players haven't completed the questline yet, I think it could be easily sorted out with some variable dialogue at the start - he'll recognise and greet you, because he's been through that story with you, even if you-at-the-current-time have never met him. So your character would react in one of three ways: (for those who haven't started yet) no idea why this unfamiliar person knows you; (for those partway through) confusion because you do know him but not like this; and (for those who completed it) full recognition and wanting to know how he got out of the tower.

That would lead into a customised explanation of what's going on, possibly with some "you mustn't speak a word of this to my past self next time you see him!" warnings for those who haven't finished.

[alimdia]

My main problem with the theory of G'raha is that it hinges on that smirky mouth face, but that's not a face unique to him, that's a default face every catboy has access to. Who's to say Emet-Selch isn't using a Miqo'te body?

[Kalise]

My main problem with the theory of G'raha is that it hinges on that smirky mouth face, but that's not a face unique to him, that's a default face every catboy has access to. Who's to say Emet-Selch isn't using a Miqo'te body?

Well, it's not just the smirky face, but also the purple stuff on his face/neck and arms.

Which, is best guessed at being some sort of crystalline corruption that G'raha may receive from his time in the Crystal Tower.

So far, there haven't been many other plausible theories about what the purple stuff all over the dude actually is.

[Fenral]

I mean, any catboy player has access to that face, but there are a lot of possible combinations for each face type. With barely a dozen named male Miqo'te NPCs in the world, one happens to have that exact skintone, mouth, nose, jaw, and (if you look closely) eyebrows. For a truly new character, they would almost certainly have come up with a unique face model as they have for major players in Stormblood, rather than recycle the exact presets used by a noteworthy character from 2.X.

Either way, most of the stuff being talked about with regards to G'raha himself has come up in other threads in response to him suddenly coming up in places like Eureka and the Omega storyline, as well as the casual name-dropping Salina and Desch got in the Heaven-on-High story, almost as if they want to make sure he's back in player consciousness for some reason. It's not so much that the cover art has suddenly inspired speculation about his return, as the new art reveal seems to be in line with speculation that was already going on after the last few major patches.


(And the reason I'm so sure about the accuracy of the presets is that, like some of the ARR key visuals, this one appears to be painted over actual in-game character models. See also: The Art of Eorzea, pages 10-11.)

[RicaRuin]

Unpopular opinion, but I think the stuff covering the neck and face looks more grey-ish and not really crystalline. At least for the part covering the face, I would claim it looks more like a nasty scar than crystals.

[Merehm]

It's me or his right arm is thinner than his left ?

[Lauront]

It needs to happen for its own sake, as well as events that would change as a consequence of the time loop not happening. The Hotgo tribe, of which Mide is one of the few survivors, wouldn't exist if not for the time loop that Alexander's events take place within.

We can't observe what started the time loop or why, because we're part of it and it exists in perpetuity.

I see. That way it makes it sound like it's a bit of code gone wrong, and Alexander is the debugging tool. Particularly when you say the tribe wouldn't exist otherwise; my question would be, why would it need to? However, if there's some unobserv-ed/-able causal agent it begins to make sense.

I think it's worth keeping in mind that the trailer is deliberately misleading. As in, basically anything it appears to be communicating "clearly" will almost certainly change meaning drastically as we come to understand the surrounding context.


Unless Yoshida's comments on misdirection are the true misdirection... Hmmmm...

Indeed, I fully appreciate that. It's also incomplete in its present form.

I was writing about this the other day (link), but I think if there's time travel in play and this is "Future G'raha" that we're dealing with - whether we go to his time or he comes back to ours - then it's not necessary to have completed the Crystal Tower raids. He is from a point in time where those events have already taken place, whether you have personally experienced them yet or not.

If players haven't completed the questline yet, I think it could be easily sorted out with some variable dialogue at the start - he'll recognise and greet you, because he's been through that story with you, even if you-at-the-current-time have never met him. So your character would react in one of three ways: (for those who haven't started yet) no idea why this unfamiliar person knows you; (for those partway through) confusion because you do know him but not like this; and (for those who completed it) full recognition and wanting to know how he got out of the tower.

That would lead into a customised explanation of what's going on, possibly with some "you mustn't speak a word of this to my past self next time you see him!" warnings for those who haven't finished.

I think given the nature of time travel in the game, it does make sense that that might be how he becomes relevant to the plot... whatever his role might be.

[LineageRazor]

Read through this thread in one sitting, and was a bit amazed to see the G'raha theory postulated and catch on so fiercely. I don't see it, at all - even after the sketched-in G'raha eye marks. The stuff on the neck and face looks exactly like Au Ra scales to me, with the exception that they're gray rather than black or white. It brought to mind the discussion a while back about there being a third tribe of Au Ra (maybe more) who might come into play in the future. Perhaps this is it! I was also certain that the face was female - until I took a good look at that arm. That does not look like a female Au Ra arm; way too beefy. On the other hand, the face is way too effeminate to be a male Au Ra face. Someone discounted the Au Ra idea by noting the lack of horns, but the hood could cover up several of the Au Ra horn styles.

While it'd be nice to see G'raha again, I don't think this is it. Honestly, I also don't think it will happen, ever. The way G'raha promised to guard the sealed tower until the world was ready for its secrets was a HUGE flag, in my opinion. "When the world is ready" can pretty much be translated to "never" in any work I've ever seen it appear in. A time travel plot MIGHT be able to work around that, I suppose, but I still think it unlikely. G'raha's exit from the storyline had an all-too-familiar "we're getting rid of this character because we've told his story and having him hanging around would be inconvenient" feel to it. I detest that all-too-common sort of tidying up of loose ends, but can easily recognize it when I see it. (Was happy to see it averted with Alpha, even as easy as it would have been to have him disappear with Omega!)

I've talked about most of the other stuff in other threads, so will leave it at that!

[Kalise]

I don't see it, at all - even after the sketched-in G'raha eye marks. The stuff on the neck and face looks exactly like Au Ra scales to me, with the exception that they're gray rather than black or white. It brought to mind the discussion a while back about there being a third tribe of Au Ra (maybe more) who might come into play in the future. Perhaps this is it! I was also certain that the face was female - until I took a good look at that arm. That does not look like a female Au Ra arm; way too beefy. On the other hand, the face is way too effeminate to be a male Au Ra face. Someone discounted the Au Ra idea by noting the lack of horns, but the hood could cover up several of the Au Ra horn styles.

Yeah, it's a pretty sneaky teaser for sure... Since, yes, the facial markings look very similar to Au Ra scales, but the face looks very effeminate while the arm looks quite manly.

Also, while the facial markings look like Au Ra scales, the weird stuff all over the arms do not. When most Au Ra have scales on their forearm and/or their upper arm.

While it'd be nice to see G'raha again, I don't think this is it. Honestly, I also don't think it will happen, ever. The way G'raha promised to guard the sealed tower until the world was ready for its secrets was a HUGE flag, in my opinion. "When the world is ready" can pretty much be translated to "never" in any work I've ever seen it appear in. A time travel plot MIGHT be able to work around that, I suppose, but I still think it unlikely.

I dunno... Trailer Voice Guy said that the Calamity that needs undoing, is "Greater than even the 7th Umbral Calamity"

If the world is ever ready for the secrets of the Crystal Tower, it'd probably when trying to stop something this powerful from destroying it... (Especially when we're actually in a spot where we're getting pretty dangerously close to 1) The world being engulfed by Light/Darkness given the effect that the First is having as well as it seeming to be setting up for some massive shenanigans with Black Rose and 2) Ascians feeling as though their plans to cause a rejoining so as to resummon Papa Zody are coming to fruition)

Not saying this means G'raha, but he's a possible candidate. Especially given the references to time travel in the trailer (Having to "Undo the Calamity" and "Rewrite History" suggests some form of travelling to the past) - Not to mention, the trailer shows lolifillia while this art shows an adult Minfillia (Some have posited it could also be Lyse, but Lolifillia is wearing the same dress as the girl in the art (Or at least, one very similar))

It could equally be some kind of new dragon femboi, though I feel that might be less likely given SB had a significant focus on Au Ra already due to the Xaela tribes.

Inb4 it turns out to be Hildibrand or something xD