Concept of other worlds

[Johaandr]

Such the first world we r going to visit on shb.
I kinda feel bit overwhelment by the thoughts of it.
I mean thea idea of traveling to the first world looks to be fun and exciting too.
Also its understnable to balance the worlds inorder to save the worlds.. from zodiarc..?
Or is it just me who r confused. So i got some questions.

1. Hydaelyn is the ORIGINAL world that got split?
2. Are we going to visit other worlds?(2nd,3rd etc)
3. Our current city state looks crap in comparison to the 1st world cities. Will they revamp/remodel textures on our current ARR city states?(limsa, gridania and uldah).
^ honestly its been bugging me after HW. Its so clunky and «smaller» in comparison.
4. When will they expand our current world Hydaelyn.

Just the idea of visiting other worlds.. ehh i dont know i dont get it. I kinda want evrrything to be on Hydaelyn. I feel the lore gets even more and more confusing in general.

I got alot of questions to se in general about their intentions. But i cant pin point bout what to ask. I like the idea of visiting other world but.. in my mind i feel we r just ditchin Hydaelyn for a time being once shb come. The 1st world enviroment looks so polished which is understandable but i also want our ARR to revamp their textures and such.

[Anonymoose]

1. Hydaelyn is the ORIGINAL world that got split?

Yes. We live within a dimensional plane referred to as "The Source." Hydaelyn and Zodiark once shared the aetherial sea, the will of Light and the will of Darkness dwelling as one. Zodiark, for reasons unspecified, broke the balance and took more power. Hydaelyn, fearing for Her safety, went nuclear and ejected Him from the sea, imprisoning Him in the moon. This stressed the fabric of the cosmos until it cracked, creating 13 "reflections" of what the Source was like at that time.

2. Are we going to visit other worlds?(2nd,3rd etc)

Not at this time, as far as we know.

3. Our current city state looks crap in comparison to the 1st world cities. Will they revamp/remodel textures on our current ARR city states?(limsa, gridania and uldah).

There's a chance that this is why the First's cities look kinda similar to the ones that were built on the Source; an excuse to do a lot of the groundwork on re-making ARR zones more polished and flight-worthy.

4. When will they expand our current world Hydaelyn.

They said we're "taking down the Garlean Empire," so it can't all be First-side, can it?

[Mansion]

They said we're "taking down the Garlean Empire," so it can't all be First-side, can it?

I am more and more confused about this part. Is it possible that by an Ascian thingy, the Garlemald Empire draws power (in whichever form) from the excess of Light in the First ?
Or will the Empire step in (Heavensward like) roughly in the second part of 5.0, for whatever plot-convenient reason ?

I'd like it to be all First oriented, not with a scrawny Ala Mhigo Source part where we do a bunch of things against the Empire, then fly off for a large part of the extension to Doma the First and then go back to finish what we forgot we were doing there in the first place.

[Cilia]

1. Hydaelyn is the ORIGINAL world that got split?

Yes. Hydaelyn (our world, the Source) is the original world; the thirteen Shards (reflections of the Source) were created when Hydaelyn imprisoned Zodiark in/as the Moon.

2. Are we going to visit other worlds?(2nd,3rd etc)

Not that we're aware.

3. Our current city state looks crap in comparison to the 1st world cities. Will they revamp/remodel textures on our current ARR city states?(limsa, gridania and uldah).
^ honestly its been bugging me after HW. Its so clunky and «smaller» in comparison.

Not that we're aware. Old world revamps tend to be put on the back burner; there's nothing ruling it out, but there's no known plans for this and new content tends to be prioritized over that.

4. When will they expand our current world Hydaelyn.

We're likely to get some expansion on Hydaelyn in Shadowbringers - the conflict with Garlemald is supposed to be resolved, as I recall, so there has to be some new bits added to Hydaelyn.

[Johaandr]

Okay think i got the grasp of it which lead me to question about the source and reflection?
Reflection of source thirteen shards...? The all shards of reflection used to be as one before Hydaelyn imprisoned zodiark?

[KageTokage]

The shards came into existence after Zodiark was imprisoned during the event known as the Sundering.

I believe it was specifically stated that it happened around 12,000 years ago at the Fanfest, which offers a huge amount of time for deviation in the histories and cultures of each shard.

[StarDrake]

Yes, they've finally given us a date for the Hydaelyn/Zodiark split - it was 12,000 years ago, which would coincidentally put it around the theorized time of the end of the "Age of Gods", as Eorzeans to date have known it, and the First Umbral Era (which in most in-universe scholarship is mostly conjecture, though it's highly suspected something happened. We are evidently going to learn much more about that in Shadowbringers.

3. Our current city state looks crap in comparison to the 1st world cities. Will they revamp/remodel textures on our current ARR city states?(limsa, gridania and uldah).

This is also just a long-standing problem with games of this sort in general. The Eorzean cities were designed, depending on how you want to reckon it, either five years ago or ten years ago, and built for hardware that is now a full console generation behind us. Their designs and textures reflect the hardware limitations of the day. Kugane and the Crystarium look significantly more impressive because they were designed to make the most out of the capabilities of the PS4 and equivalent or better PC hardware.

It's possible some of these assets might spruce up the old cities, but at the end of the day, there's only so much time available to the team and it wouldn't be surprising if they focus on new content ahead of refurbishing old content.

(It's worth noting that World of Warcraft once tried to devote the vast majority of an expansion to polishing up and altering old out-of-date launch content, and the general opinion these days is that the project was a disaster that sucked down precious resources like a vortex.)

[MrThinker]

Yes, they've finally given us a date for the Hydaelyn/Zodiark split - it was 12,000 years ago, which would coincidentally put it around the theorized time of the end of the "Age of Gods", as Eorzeans to date have known it, and the First Umbral Era (which in most in-universe scholarship is mostly conjecture, though it's highly suspected something happened. We are evidently going to learn much more about that in Shadowbringers.

I thought they said in the same stream that the First Calamity was 10000 years ago. It wouldn't make sense for the Sundering to also be a Rejoining.

Would it?

[Iscah]

I thought they said in the same stream that the First Calamity was 10000 years ago. It wouldn't make sense for the Sundering to also be a Rejoining.

Would it?

10,000 years would give you a 2000-year gap before the first Calamity, so I'm not sure where the problem is.

[MrThinker]

10,000 years would give you a 2000-year gap before the first Calamity, so I'm not sure where the problem is.

Sorry if I didnt make it clear where my confusion was.

Yes, they've finally given us a date for the Hydaelyn/Zodiark split - it was 12,000 years ago, which would coincidentally put it around the theorized time of the end of the "Age of Gods", as Eorzeans to date have known it, and the First Umbral Era (which in most in-universe scholarship is mostly conjecture, though it's highly suspected something happened. We are evidently going to learn much more about that in Shadowbringers.

StarDrake conflated the Sundering with the First Umbral Era/end of the Age of Gods. Or at least, that was my understanding of their understanding.