Revelations from Keynote III (2019)

[briarth0rn]

It troubles me that it seems like the entire expansion is going to be set in a world other than our own. I'm sure there's some reason the fate of the First Shard is important to the Source, but I feel a considerable level of disappointment that we're likely not going to pull back any more of the cloud cover on the map of the Three Great Continents. It feels like filler.

There's a lot of salt surrounding the genderlocking of the new races, as well, but I'm particularly concerned that they exist in Norvrandt as well as Hydaelyn and, despite both cultures being isolated from one another for 12,000 years post-Sundering, the male Viera/Viis are still conveniently kept out of sight in both worlds, and the Hrothgar are literally called 'Ronso', who didn't seem to segregate their sexes in FF10 either.

[RukiaFae]

I'm thinking that since the Crystal like towers are on each shard, they are similar to aetherites and act like sources of energy that connect the worlds. They probably look different because they are molded and used differently by the different worlds. This could also be the reason why Silver tear has a higher source of aether. Midgarsomer broke the vein of aether streaming from the Crystal Tower.

[Heliantheae]

I've been thinking about Eden. And this might be because I'm playing through Lightning Returns right now. When I saw Eulmore it reminded me of Yusnaan. And I noticed the other parallels of Norvrandt and Nova Chrysalia. Both are worlds teetering on the edge of being swallowed by the Light/Chaos. The story will probably have Gaia taking on a roll similar to Lightning and leading souls to Eden.

[Daralii]

Dran is the Dragonspeak word for their own kind, isn't it? With Drahn only being one letter off, could Au Ra be considered a beast tribe on the First too?

[MrThinker]

I've been thinking about Eden. And this might be because I'm playing through Lightning Returns right now. When I saw Eulmore it reminded me of Yusnaan. And I noticed the other parallels of Norvrandt and Nova Chrysalia. Both are worlds teetering on the edge of being swallowed by the Light/Chaos. The story will probably have Gaia taking on a roll similar to Lightning and leading souls to Eden.

Hmm, that's a very interesting idea you have there in terms of story. As for what Eden is though....

Tbh, 'Eden' in FFXIII is just a living building (fal'cie) you don't actually fight. So when i hear 'Eden' i dont think of the Fal'cie but rather that 'garden' looking god that turns the entire planet into a weapon to blast the target into the centre of another galaxy and causing it to explode. Also the keyart for the raid evokes, for me at least, a sense of 'The Promised Meadow', that area from the beginning and ending CG's of FFVIII that is now an arena in Dissidia NT.

Ofc, it could go the Alexander route, where you explore 'Eden' (FFXIII-inspired area) before you need to fight 'Eden' (FFVIII-inspired Final Boss).

The major concern I have for this raid is that it would repeat the mistakes of Omega and basically just wholesale put in other FF bosses for no good reason.

[zuzu-bq]

The following panel confirmed for the Narrator/Mysterios Voice's Voice Actor in japan to be Uchida Yuuma. He hasn't previously worked in Final Fantasy XIV and going from how japanese VA contracts go, I doubt its a character we already have voiced lines for at this point. Most likely debunking most we've had speculated so far besides G'raha since he have never had voiced lines

On top of that, they've asked us to do Crystal Tower questline for extra stuff in MSQ!

So that's some neat minor info for the theorists out there.

[ObsidianFire]

Dran is the Dragonspeak word for their own kind, isn't it? With Drahn only being one letter off, could Au Ra be considered a beast tribe on the First too?

Dra[n] is dragonspeak for dragon. However, as far as we know, there are no dragons on the 1st Shard, since Midgardsormr is only on the Source. Which kinda begs the question of where they got the word from to begin with.

It's also worth mentioning that as FFXIV has gone on, it's become more and more apparent that "Beast Tribes" aren't any different then any of the other spoken races are. Given that the 1st Shard doesn't have any Garleans, I wonder how much the term "Beast Tribe" even means to them.

[Daralii]

I've been thinking about Eden. And this might be because I'm playing through Lightning Returns right now. When I saw Eulmore it reminded me of Yusnaan. And I noticed the other parallels of Norvrandt and Nova Chrysalia. Both are worlds teetering on the edge of being swallowed by the Light/Chaos. The story will probably have Gaia taking on a roll similar to Lightning and leading souls to Eden.

There are definitely similarities to LR. The wealthy have decided to sequester themselves and live out the end of times in self-indulgence(Snow...), the rest of the populace has given up and are just living out their daily lives, and the world's prophecized savior pulled from another time and place. Hopefully it's actually a matter of saving the First and not just saving souls to be reborn because the world's a lost cause.

[Iscah]

[...] we actually can't rule out a parallel world clone just yet. We can assume that there aren't generally parallel world clones running around, but if there's any Ascian involvement at all in preserving the lineage of Desch (or if Desch and/or G'raha's mysterious "father" was an Ascian), it's possible that our G'raha is/was simply one of many duplicates across the Shards.

Basically, we could all be right and wrong at once.

I'm starting to wonder that too - since "mystery man" seems to have been shown in the First Tower* and not where we think G'raha should currently be, does that suggest he is not the same person, or is there something deeper at work about the Tower itself?


Will need to check if the doors to the First Tower have the exact same pattern as Crystal Tower. They certainly looked the same at a glance.


It also occurs to me that "our" Crystal Tower always seemed so different to normal Allagan architecture. If it's actually created/influenced by something else entirely, that might explain it.


*the words stuck together while I was trying to phrase "the First's version of the Crystal Tower" and I decided I like it.



However, I'm less eager to blame G'raha's origins on Ascians. We still don't know if they can reproduce or (if they can) whether that results in anything other than their human host's genes being passed along. It's never been hinted in any way - not that it will necessarily stop them, but I don't want to leap to that conclusion until we have a better idea of what's going on.

I'm also still on the line of thinking that Solus was *probably* mortal to begin with - particularly if his "preferred appearance" is a clone of his original self.

(waiting ever so eagerly for Tuesday!)

On top of that, they've asked us to do Crystal Tower questline for extra stuff in MSQ!

What did they actually say? Just that it was relevant, or that they were going to make it required for MSQ?

(How does it actually force you to do the hard mode primals in post-ARR, by the way? I had already done them before I reached that point.)

[Mansion]

I think they said the final details are in Tuesday's MSQ so we'll see then, it does not look that far now!
And congratz on all those Crystal Towers theories (although guided by the leak) that seem to work even better now. I had a STRONG Final Fantasy 9 feeling watching this Keynote, and although it's not my favourite game I like its fantasy orientation. And those zones from ShB are so appealing in that respect