Il Mheg 1/2 of two mirrored zones?

[fay2]

They may not have mentioned it, but they definitely showed it......

and that might be why this was shown

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...

We seem to be the only candidate at the moment that could coordinate anti-Ascian efforts between the source and the 1st shard at the moment. So from that stand point it seems less jarring and would give it reason jump back and forth.

They "normally" have the MSQ prong at the start at the start of an expansion. assuming to reduce load at the launch splitting the player base. Having both prongs done before starting the main adventure.

Also have split copies of the zones to reduce the zones player numbers they later remove . To reduce load at the launch on a zone.

They may have built these functions into the story this time.

One prong leads to the 1st and sets up the rules for shard hopping.
Lakeland and the Crystarium

The other? a covert mission the destroy the new Blackrose plant.
found in southern Othard version of the zone called "Amh Araeng" on the 1st

The rules for shard hopping is something they really need to do early on in the expansion as we are likely to do it a lot on more day to day play. dealing with retainers, jumping to an fc or house to stop demo , do other content like hunts , the cacpot/other mgp things, daily Grand Company turn ins, etc.

Then on to the main event on the 1st. still thinking there will be a mid point return to the source for reasons, then the events in the trailer play out and we return to the 1st.

I hope they have a curve ball in having us travel to the 13th to suck up some darkness and weaponize it against the light on the 1st.

[Bonbori]

If that image is correct it's... not quite hard confirmation but soft confirmation the Au Ra have some draconic ancestry. "Drahn" is draconic for, well, dragon.

The problem is.... Midgardsormr came to the Source. From the sound of it, dragons (and draconic speech) are probably only found on the Source. It does beg the question of where that that name came from. Although... "drahn" does not mean "dragon" in draconic. The correct term is "dran". Still, it's so close to the correct term that it does make you wonder.

I've been thinking about it since the fanfest and a few days ago, while I was going through the SB Dragoon questline, I had a little eureka moment.

In that questline, we investigate various Far Eastern stories of "dragons", only to find out that they're actually just some unrelated creatures that inspired folk tales which eventually consolidated into a sort of draconic mythology despite Othardians having never encountered actual Dravanians (except the one).
In fact, even Seriyu was mistaken for a dragon in his backstory and is probably somewhat responsible for large snakes and sea serpents being seen as "eastern dragons" despite (probably) not being related to Dragon Star aliens.

And that story is very much rooted in real life. After all, actual dragons never existed on Earth, yet cultures around the world have come up with all kinds of dragons in their mythology.

So I was thinking... maybe on the First, the Drahn ARE the source of draconic mythology? Perhaps people there consider THEM dragons? Wouldn't it be funny if a real Dravanian came to the First and people were like... "Huh? What's this? Looks like a wanna-be Drahn!"

[Iscah]

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.

I picked that quote because it seemed like the quickest summary of the fact that "only six worlds remain", but other descriptions make it clear that they are not simply being 'ruined' but obliterated.

The lorebook describes it as "dimensional compression", and that the Ascians "work to topple the walls between dimensions, causing them to collapse in on themselves [to] regather the aether distributed amonst the thirteen mirrored planes and concentrate it back to the original".

(Though to be fair, this is presented as an in-story hypothesis by the Students of Baldesion and the Scions, with potential for new revelations to overwrite it - although I feel sure it has been explained elsewhere as well - maybe somewhere with the Ascians, maybe in the Warring Triad, but I don't know where to look for the quotes. Still, I don't think we've had any hints at the Rejoinings being anything other than that: the splintered dimension rejoined to the Source and ceasing to exist separately.)

[Cybylt]

and that might be why this was shown

That was a placeholder model for the aetheryte in that shot.

Q: Please tell us about the scale of the First world. How big are the areas compared to the Stormblood areas?

A: It won't be less game content than Stormblood. Perhaps a little bigger. The areas are fairly dense, and Norvrandt is comparable to the three states of Eorzea. To put it simply, Norvrandt is around the same size as what's called Eorzea in the Source, and everything else has been taken over by light, resulting in an empty, pure white space taking up the rest of the world. You'll be able to experience this in the areas as well. We showed a map called Amh Araeng in a previous keynote, which is where the light is being barely kept at bay. That area surrounds the Norvrandt region in a circle, and everything outside is whiteness with no elements.

[fay2]

I picked that quote because it seemed like the quickest summary of the fact that "only six worlds remain",

Those words alone too don't say the other 7 are truly gone too

an example
If you where to get a bakers dozen{that's 13} of jam filled donuts and take a bite out of 7 and suck the jam out of those 7, you would only have six jam filled donuts remaining.

The other donuts aren't gone, but they also are not hole jam filled donuts ether.

but other descriptions make it clear that they are not simply being 'ruined' but obliterated.

The lorebook describes it as "dimensional compression", and that the Ascians "work to topple the walls between dimensions, causing them to collapse in on themselves [to] regather the aether distributed amonst the thirteen mirrored planes and concentrate it back to the original".

(Though to be fair, this is presented as an in-story hypothesis by the Students of Baldesion and the Scions, with potential for new revelations to overwrite it - although I feel sure it has been explained elsewhere as well - maybe somewhere with the Ascians, maybe in the Warring Triad, but I don't know where to look for the quotes. Still, I don't think we've had any hints at the Rejoinings being anything other than that: the splintered dimension rejoined to the Source and ceasing to exist separately.)

Again Lyse known for her scholarly knowledge
i'd be warry of anything she says on fields of knowledge out side of politics and punching stuff without Papalymo around to correct her >_<

That was a placeholder model for the aetheryte in that shot.

The hole image is full of "placeholders"
the Wagon has a Othardian design
the Windmills are source design {also wonder if windmills would have wind is there is no day night cycle}

It makes you wonder if it is not been designed to be dropped in over 1st shard town to make a othardian zone using less dev time.

Q: Please tell us about the scale of the First world. How big are the areas compared to the Stormblood areas?.

the question was not is there any new zones added to the source? we know how the devils in the details

I will still hope that they will give us a few source zones too using a type of mirroring to save dev time, and give us more than the normal 6 "open world" zones. I for one would be ok with the idea of reusing digital assets of the overall open world zone with the towns place holders changed between the dimensions.

that's some thing they can continue to do in later patches/expansions
example




Hopefully give us a few harder open world zones to play with with mobs up to 85 as we gear up.

[Iscah]

https://img2.finalfantasyxiv.com/accimg2/10/56/1056bf5235ccec113603f258759b86ba239f55ad.jpg
Again Lyse known for her scholarly knowledge
i'd be warry of anything she says on fields of knowledge out side of politics and punching stuff without Papalymo around to correct her >_<

Are you trying to suggest that because Lyse said something about the six remaining worlds at one point, the entire lorebook theory is her idea?

Because that's definitely not how it works.

The Scions collectively have been researching this for some time now. This is knowledge based on what Urianger has been researching; what we've gathered directly from the Ascians' claims about their goals; what the other smarter Scions are working on while Lyse is off doing politics and punching stuff.

Lyse is going to know about their theory of how the Calamities and Rejoinings work, but that's because she's part of the group and they've explained it to her. It doesn't mean she had to be the one who came up with the idea.

The hole image is full of "placeholders"
the Wagon has a Othardian design
the Windmills are source design {also wonder if windmills would have wind is there is no day night cycle}

It makes you wonder if it is not been designed to be dropped in over 1st shard town to make a othardian zone using less dev time.

Do you mean they're using Othardian resources already in the game? Then I'd be more inclined to think they dropped their Othardian designs into this First-shard town. It would mean Ahm Areng is the less-dev-time second zone using those models.

Also, even if windmills are rendered useless by the Flood bringing weather to a halt, this was an existing, functioning town before that happened.

Mirror zone names

"Hells Sea"? Where are you even getting that from?

And this is far off beyond anything they've suggested or talked about.

And especially, if Rak'tika is on the First? It will not be the alternate Golmore Jungle, because alternate-Dalmasca has been obliterated in the flood of Light.


Their "resource-saving" work is already clear in things like the alternate-Limsa city recycling Lominsan and Ul'dahn architecture, perhaps others, instead of giving us something entirely new. There are other ways of recycling/repurposing things besides doing "mirror zones" of every new place.



Really though, I don't want to see a third set of dimensions. Already the First is taking us away from learning more about the places and cultures of Hydaelyn. We'll be learning about Ronso and Mystel when we could be finally finding out about Duskwights and Hellsguard. We're still (probably) not going to Thavnair or Sharlayan.

At least the First has been a long time coming in its setup.

[Cybylt]

They've said that what is currently left of the First is counterparts to the Eorzea region which rules out everything but a Gelmorran style area but that could simply be a portion of Rak'tika.

With what we've been told I suspect the zones to be counterparts to 2.0 regions and possibly how we technically get our ARR remade for flight without having to flip a bunch of zones and make things more difficult for new players.

So to make some guesses

Lakeland = Mor Dhona
Rak'tika = Black Shroud
Ahm Araeng = Thanalan
Kholusia = Vylbrand (specifically O'ghomoro)
Il Mheg = Coerthas Central Highlands

Some of those race guesses also ignore the possible existence of multiple clans on the First, for example duskwight counterparts called dark elves.

[MrThinker]

We showed a map called Ahm Araeng in a previous keynote, which is where the light is being barely kept at bay. That area surrounds the Norvrandt region in a circle, and everything outside is whiteness with no elements.

They've said that what is currently left of the First is counterparts to the Eorzea region which rules out everything but a Gelmorran style area but that could simply be a portion of Rak'tika.

With what we've been told I suspect the zones to be counterparts to 2.0 regions and possibly how we technically get our ARR remade for flight without having to flip a bunch of zones and make things more difficult for new players.

So to make some guesses

Lakeland = Mor Dhona
Rak'tika = Black Shroud
Ahm Araeng = Thanalan
Kholusia = Vylbrand (specifically O'ghomoro)
Il Mheg = Coerthas Central Highlands

Some of those race guesses also ignore the possible existence of multiple clans on the First, for example duskwight counterparts called dark elves.

If Ahm Araeng surrounds Norvrandt in a circle, its hardly going to be JUST the Thanalan analogue right? Thanalan was only the southern part of Aldenard...

Alongside Pagl'tha, but no one talks about Pagl'tha.

[Apoptomon]

Cool theories here people!

If Ahm Araeng surrounds Norvrandt in a circle, its hardly going to be JUST the Thanalan analogue right? Thanalan was only the southern part of Aldenard...

I thought it was the 'crystal wave' thing that was the thing referred to as a circle around not!Eorzea, myself. Like maybe that was as far as the light-flood got before Hydfilia was able to hit 'pause'.

[kidalutz]

Are you trying to suggest that because Lyse said something about the six remaining worlds at one point, the entire lorebook theory is her idea?

Because that's definitely not how it works.

The Scions collectively have been researching this for some time now. This is knowledge based on what Urianger has been researching; what we've gathered directly from the Ascians' claims about their goals; what the other smarter Scions are working on while Lyse is off doing politics and punching stuff.

Lyse is going to know about their theory of how the Calamities and Rejoinings work, but that's because she's part of the group and they've explained it to her. It doesn't mean she had to be the one who came up with the idea.





Do you mean they're using Othardian resources already in the game? Then I'd be more inclined to think they dropped their Othardian designs into this First-shard town. It would mean Ahm Areng is the less-dev-time second zone using those models.

Also, even if windmills are rendered useless by the Flood bringing weather to a halt, this was an existing, functioning town before that happened.





"Hells Sea"? Where are you even getting that from?

And this is far off beyond anything they've suggested or talked about.

And especially, if Rak'tika is on the First? It will not be the alternate Golmore Jungle, because alternate-Dalmasca has been obliterated in the flood of Light.


Their "resource-saving" work is already clear in things like the alternate-Limsa city recycling Lominsan and Ul'dahn architecture, perhaps others, instead of giving us something entirely new. There are other ways of recycling/repurposing things besides doing "mirror zones" of every new place.



Really though, I don't want to see a third set of dimensions. Already the First is taking us away from learning more about the places and cultures of Hydaelyn. We'll be learning about Ronso and Mystel when we could be finally finding out about Duskwights and Hellsguard. We're still (probably) not going to Thavnair or Sharlayan.

At least the First has been a long time coming in its setup.

Uh we were in Sharlayan Dravanian Hinterlands Idyllshire that entire set of ruins is the Sharlayan capitol.