Il Mheg 1/2 of two mirrored zones?

[fay2]

On the topic of rejoined shards "reduced to ruin" could mean so many different things. It could mean its obliterated from existence or it could mean its a lifeless husk and anything in between. We do know that lives are lost when calamities happen but what if it's only some of them? Where do they go, stuck on their ruined homeworld or thrown into the source? I just want to cling to the hope that we can save people from those 7 worlds too! =)

Indeed the use of the words "reduced to Ruin" and not something like brought to oblivion.
Would indicate that something is still there of those shards "rejoined" as Ruins are a husk or a remnant of what something once was.

Considering some of the calamity's have been more localized to eorzea seeming to have little effect on the greater planet as a hole? the Ascians may only be aiming to rejoin a small necessary bit to revive Zodiark each time not the hole thing.

[Seraphor]

Also consider that the Nu Mou are an Ivalice race, mentioned in the Return to Ivalice arc. They’re a beast tribe in Shadowbringers, who explicitly live on the Source, in Dalmasca, which means we must have some new areas in the Source, also the Nu Mou are probably in Rak’tika, in fact I think it might have been mentioned that that was the case.

[Crushnight]

For me if we have a split between Source and 1st my question is how? I doubt the Enigmatic voice person will let us giving he wants us on the 1st and i doubt communication will be possible between the 1st and the Source giving the lengths the Enigmatic Voice has seemingly gone to just talk to us. Currently the only way i see us going back to the source mid 5.0 msq is if an ascian showed up says your missing quite the party back home and leaves.

My guess is all zones are on the 1st based on how travelling between shard and source story wise(I have to emphasize that due to teleport/return probably won't be affected :P) seems like it takes a lot to do

[Seraphor]

For me if we have a split between Source and 1st my question is how? I doubt the Enigmatic voice person will let us giving he wants us on the 1st and i doubt communication will be possible between the 1st and the Source giving the lengths the Enigmatic Voice has seemingly gone to just talk to us. Currently the only way i see us going back to the source mid 5.0 msq is if an ascian showed up says your missing quite the party back home and leaves.

My guess is all zones are on the 1st based on how travelling between shard and source story wise(I have to emphasize that due to teleport/return probably won't be affected :P) seems like it takes a lot to do

I don't see how we could possibly NOT return to the source, whenever we like.
There might be a brief period at the start of the transition where canonically we have to complete a few missions on the First before we return to the Source, kinda like how in HW we were fugitives and couldn't return to Uldah.
But there's a huge difference between teleporting to Uldah when we're technically fugitives, and teleporting back to Eorzea when it's supposed to be physically impossible.

The Echo will allow us to transition between the two at will. We've already been told that the Echo will be the key to travelling between the two, and Lahabrea/Igeyorhm explain how the Echo allows you to 'break down the barriers between realities'. We just need to unlock that ability initially and then it'll be available to us from there on.

The reason the story will be so focused on the First, when we can travel there and back at will, won't be because of our travel limitations, but because of story circumstances, and because our other Scions who don't have the Echo won't be able to travel so freely.

[Iscah]

... kinda like how in HW we were fugitives and couldn't return to Uldah.

Actually, even when we were supposedly fugitives and unable to return to Ul'dah, you could still walk right in and maybe get specific lines from a few NPCs about it if you talked to them, but there was never anything physically stopping you.

The early part of Shadowbringers might drop you into, functionally, some kind of instanced area that you're not allowed to teleport from until you've cleared certain quest objectives. But it would probably be brief enough that you're not stuck there for too long.

[Nalien]

Also consider that the Nu Mou are an Ivalice race, mentioned in the Return to Ivalice arc.

Can I get a citation on that? It must have been a single line of dialog I overlooked or something, because I don't recall them ever being mentioned in the Return to Ivalice raid series, the reveal of them at Fanfest was the first I'd heard of them being in XIV.

They’re a beast tribe in Shadowbringers, who explicitly live on the Source, in Dalmasca, which means we must have some new areas in the Source, also the Nu Mou are probably in Rak’tika, in fact I think it might have been mentioned that that was the case.

Again, why does the official site only say we're travelling to Norvrandt? If we're travelling to parts of Dalmasca, why isn't that also mentioned? There has been zero mention of anything but the First, they have explicitly stated that is where we're going and made no indication of any Source side exploration.

And yes, they're the beast tribe in Rak'tika, we have a screenshot of them there after all.

[UniKoRn]

That because the fae are stated as masters of arcane. If your shard is suffering a calamity and you had the magic ability to remove you from the calamity by making it split of from that shard as a sort of mini bubble realm away from the shard it was split maybe even hidden nearer to the source.
Then it stands to reason that Unseelie Fae from the 13th shard did the same before the flood of darkness befell the 13th shard and a dark version has been hidden all this time. To me this make sense unseelie are more likely to shun outsiders.

Going way back to the original topic of the thread because I noticed something from the Tokyo Fan Fest description of Norvrandt and got some ideas. (Please note that this is a rough translation from Japanese that I found on another website!)

Norvrandt is described as a city that escaped the disappearance from the flood of light but still barely surviving and is on the verge of dying.

While the 1st Shard is in dire need of saving, someone has been managing to hold off the Light for the time being. The city is technically in a safe bubble at the moment.
Some of the the ideas I are had for people with power to stop it are Pixies (similar to fay2's idea), the rich Fat Kitties, the original Warriors of Darkness, the Crystal Tower (Allagan)?
What does everyone else think, any other contenders?

[Nalien]

What does everyone else think, any other contenders?

My current theory is Minfilia arrived and stopped the Flood of Light. That massive crystal tidal wave in Amh Araeng? That was the Flood of Light.

If Amh Araeng is Norvandts Thanalan, then this perhaps lines up with the last we saw of Minfilia. Granted, Word of the Mother was in the Aetherial Sea, or some other place, but we battled the Warriors of Darkness in Zanr'ak before Urianger played his trap card to take us all to her. Makes sense to me that, upon returning the Warriors of Darkness to the First, they'd be in a similar location geographically. Whether the Warriors of Darkness died upon arrival, as was originally implied, or survived long enough to help stop the Flood, I can't really say, but given Uriangers plan was something along the lines of using our Crystals of Light and theirs to create a path to the Word of the Mother, it makes sense to me that the path to the First Minfilia took back then was via the location those twin sets of Crystals met, Zanr'ak; We technically used two sets of Light Crystals to open a Voidgate (Lightgate?) to the First at that point?

If true, then that has some interesting implications for how the Flood functioned... Specifically we have a direction of origin for it, given the position of the Sun in one screenshot, it's either coming from southeast or southwest... I have some theories for why it would be heading towards Norvandt and not originating from it (given it's the Firsts Eorzea, one expects it to have the same aetherial plot relevance at least), but I'll save those for later... Hopefully the Calling we and the Scions experienced functions as a different means of travel as well, since that would otherwise have some dire implications for, at the very least Alphinaud, given where he fell...

[fay2]

Again, why does the official site only say we're travelling to Norvrandt? If we're travelling to parts of Dalmasca, why isn't that also mentioned? There has been zero mention of anything but the First, they have explicitly stated that is where we're going and made no indication of any Source side exploration.

They never mentioned going to Azys Lla in the fanfests for Heavenward 4 years ago, so to answer the "If we're travelling to parts of Dalmasca, why isn't that also mentioned?"
Maybe its a story relevant secret?

and also the way they show the Doma zones for Stormblood you be forgiven to think stormblood had more zones added in the east than the west. Despite getting 3 open zones in each region.


There are a few things that point to the Shadowbringers and 5.x story having us jump back and forth
◾Blackrose is a Source thing
◾The crafter content is set in Ishgard which is on the Source.

the way the leaders of the alliance are likely to act would point to point to more of Othard opening up 1st.

While the 1st Shard is in dire need of saving, someone has been managing to hold off the Light for the time being. The city is technically in a safe bubble at the moment.
Some of the the ideas I are had for people with power to stop it are Pixies (similar to fay2's idea), the rich Fat Kitties, the original Warriors of Darkness, the Crystal Tower (Allagan)?
What does everyone else think, any other contenders?

"the rich Fat Kitties" I think they problaby tried at the start but lost the will and have resigned them selves to it all being a lost cause now. They may have been the ones ordering the original Warriors of Darkness around back in the day. This would also explain Thancred's words about the city to "Midealyn"

"Midealyn" is high on the list

I don't really need to say what I think because its liking the work of Fae speakers, but I did lol

Stories involving Fae can have hole castles if not more move between realms
usually accompanied by a mist when its larger objects

the end part of
"The Orbonne Monastery"
on the 1st shard theory

After killing the Thunder God Fran mentions that it seemed to be holding the aether at bay.

I would hazard a guess Titania is likely doing the same if not better job of it especially if she was "summoned" for that purpose.

The other thing about that theory is it points to the ability to teleport between shards after attuning to aetherytes there.

[Nalien]

They never mentioned going to Azys Lla in the fanfests for Heavenward 4 years ago, so to answer the "If we're travelling to parts of Dalmasca, why isn't that also mentioned?"
Maybe its a story relevant secret?

They may not have mentioned it, but they definitely showed it... Pretty sure they mentioned it though, given I clearly remember them mentioning how they had to brush up on a lot of bioengineering terms when writing the lore for it...

It's in their Tour of the North trailer at the very least. I distinctly remember plenty of us speculating the Warring Triad coming off this shot.

As I recall, Heavensward was sold as; "Ishgard, Dravania, and the Sea of Clouds", with Azys Lla falling under the later. Stormblood was sold as; "Ala Mhigo and Far East", and that's all we got in terms of overworld zones. When Shadowbringers is being sold simply as "Norvandt on the First", why should we expect a secret Source zone? Best case, as with the Return to Ivalice raid series, YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse may take us to new regions on the Source, or some new Source area may be explored in the new version of Eureka.

Honestly, I'm not even sure if we'll be going back and forth between Source and First all that much... That kind of writing didn't work too well with Heavensward, and with Stormblood bringing in a lot of "Meanwhile... At the Legion of Doom" cutscenes, and the rise of Roleplay instances... I could see a lot of the Eorzean Alliance vs Garlemald story being covered in that method... For the Main Scenario at least, I suspect a fair few Job quests might actually involve the war on the Source and have us travelling back every 2 levels... Honestly I'd prefer all of 5.0s main story to be on the First, uninterrupted... I think it would have more dramatic effect for us to return to the Source after finishing our business there and then witness the effects of the war, rather than directly involving ourselves in the war or having constant cutaways to watch events unfold...