Revelations from SHADOWBRINGERS

[Kusanagi7]

so quick question was the events of the and leading up to the ending suggesting our character is a amaurotian?

[Alleo]

so quick question was the events of the and leading up to the ending suggesting our character is a amaurotian?

Answers in spoilers

Yes it seems to be hinted that we were once part of the immortal race and maybe even one of the 14 important ones. (Seeing how our Aura is special and we were a friend of Emet) Heck depending on how this goes we might even be one of those that created Hydealyn.

[EdwinLi]

Answers in spoilers

Yes it seems to be hinted that we were once part of the immortal race and maybe even one of the 14 important ones. (Seeing how our Aura is special and we were a friend of Emet) Heck depending on how this goes we might even be one of those that created Hydealyn.

Well..........

A part of me suspect we may not be a member of the people who created Hydealyn but still was someone against the creation of Zodiark and probably also against Hydealyn summon as well due to also costing countless souls to create her.

If there is one thing we learn about the Original Soul of WoL is that he or she was still driven to do Heroic deeds no matter his or her reason behind the action which lead Emet to suddenly see a image of WoL's original self since at that moment WoL was very close to the Original Soul's personality.

I suspect WoL's original self wanted to prevent the Calamity without the need to sacrifice people to create Zodiark and Hydealyn but failed to do so because he or she could not find the source of the Calamity.

Still this opens up a higher Antagonist to the storyline once the Ascions and Zodiark are finally defeated, which is soon now since we have broken them down to only one leader now.

The only question is now what will happen to the world once the Ascions and Zodiark, and probably Hydealyn as well since her nature to be the counter to Zodiark may cost her life to defeat Zodiark, are all defeated and who is or are the beings that caused the Calamity in the Original World along with what is their goal for planning to destroy all life on the Planet.

Then there is the question about what may become of the remaining shards and the Source but my theory is that near the end we may find a way or events of Zodiakr and Hydealyn's defeat may cause all shards to fuse with the Source and create a new World without causing a Calamity.

[Alleo]

Well..........

A part of me suspect we may not be a member of the people who created Hydealyn but still was someone against the creation of Zodiark and probably also against Hydealyn summon as well due to also costing countless souls to create her.

If there is one thing we learn about the Original Soul of WoL is that he or she was still driven to do Heroic deeds no matter his or her reason behind the action which lead Emet to suddenly see a image of WoL's original self since at that moment WoL was very close to the Original Soul's personality.

I suspect WoL's original self wanted to prevent the Calamity without the need to sacrifice people to create Zodiark and Hydealyn but failed to do so because he or she could not find the source of the Calamity.

Still this opens up a higher Antagonist to the storyline once the Ascions and Zodiark are finally defeated, which is soon now since we have broken them down to only one leader now.

The only question is now what will happen to the world once the Ascions and Zodiark, and probably Hydealyn as well since her nature to be the counter to Zodiark may cost her life to defeat Zodiark, are all defeated and who is or are the beings that caused the Calamity in the Original World along with what is their goal for planning to destroy all life on the Planet.

Then there is the question about what may become of the remaining shards and the Source but my theory is that near the end we may find a way or events of Zodiakr and Hydealyn's defeat may cause all shards to fuse with the Source and create a new World without causing a Calamity.

About Hydaelyn, Zodiark and us:

Of course it can be completely possible that we had nothing to do with Hydaelyn. Or it could be that she did not need that huge amount of sacrifice and the WoL and some of her friends sacrificed themselves for her so that others can live on. This could also greatly explain why we are the WoL. But all of this is just speculation.

I am also not sure if the catastrophe was not created by the Ascians themselves. Ysthola did say that the magic or aether needed to create all of it must have been huge. Maybe they misused it too much and the planet was dying thanks to that, and all the stuff happens. While we ran through the destroyed city Emet does say that fear creates more of them so maybe the fear of going to be killed created more and more of those creatures making it even worse. So it could be that there is no higher new enemy. (And in a way the Ascians would truly not be much different then us, which Alphinaud also pointed out)

Was it stated in the story that Hydaelyn as the enemy to Zodiark is connected to him in such a way? I honestly cant remember such a scene so I am not sure why she would need to die if we kill Zodiark.

Also how would those shards be fused without massive loss of life? And do people even want it to be fused. They might be similiar but those shards still had their own history/culture/belief. Also that huge amount of people from a couple of shards suddenly being all on the source? Where should they live?

Of course all is possible but I still doubt that this game will end with the world being whole again. I do believe that the message they try to give to us is, that its worth living a not perfect life and that the worlds as they are right now are fine. As long as there is nothing cosmic that will destroy the reality or the worlds if they are not combined I see not reason to do that.

[EdwinLi]

---

I am not saying.....

that the Ascions created the Calamity but something else that was beyond their knowledge. As Y'shtola said, the people of the original world had a large amount of aether to the point no matter how much they use they will never cause any Calamity for using it.

However, the Ascions created the plan to summon Zodiark due to not being able to find the source of this Calamity and without knowing the source they could not prevent it without a higher power.

The knowledge of what create this Calamity still eludes both the Ascions and ourselves but chances are it is a being of higher power with a set of followers.

As for the Complete world, it will most likely be made a much large sized planet if it happens since the spliting of the Source into 13 shards is like the splitting of the Soul where the Soul is basically cut into smaller pieces to create the 13 fragmented Souls.

Calamities are made to destroy the Shards into Aether so they can return to the Source but if the Shards are to fuse with the Source without a Calamity it may result in the Lands of those Shards becoming a part of the Source thus the Complete world becomes much bigger than the world we know now and potentially open up new Expansion areas for Post-Zodiark/Ascion storyline

[Alleo]

I am not saying.....

that the Ascions created the Calamity but something else that was beyond their knowledge. As Y'shtola said, the people of the original world had a large amount of aether to the point no matter how much they use they will never cause any Calamity for using it.

However, the Ascions created the plan to summon Zodiark due to not being able to find the source of this Calamity and without knowing the source they could not prevent it without a higher power.

The knowledge of what create this Calamity still eludes both the Ascions and ourselves but chances are it is a being of higher power with a set of followers.

As for the Complete world, it will most likely be made a much large sized planet if it happens since the spliting of the Source into 13 shards is like the splitting of the Soul where the Soul is basically cut into smaller pieces to create the 13 fragmented Souls.

Calamities are made to destroy the Shards into Aether so they can return to the Source but if the Shards are to fuse with the Source without a Calamity it may result in the Lands of those Shards becoming a part of the Source thus the Complete world becomes much bigger than the world we know now and potentially open up new Expansion areas for Post-Zodiark/Ascion storyline

About your answer:

Ysthola is also not all knowing, especially about something she had only seen for such a short amount of time. Emet himself stated that the fear created more creatures which does kinda hint that at least some of them might have been created by them without them wanting to. Also I cant see how constantly creating something using vast amount of aether would remain without consequences. A NPC says that it felt like the planet was giving up on living. So at least for me it feels like the Ascians were not completely without fault for this. Of course we need to learn more to truly understand it.

The Ascians also seemingly only created it after it nearly destroyed everything else and was upon their city. So maybe they waited for too long and thus never had time to truly search for another reason, maybe thats the reason why one member went away.

Put even if the are not fused by becoming aether, the collision of so many planets to become one would be another huge desaster. Of course they could simply be like: Well here is the new huge planet, now plant these landmasses upon it..but I doubt that. And even such a placement would probably bring quite the death. And again lets not forget all the parts about different culture, different believe and more.

[EdwinLi]

About your answer:

Ysthola is also not all knowing, especially about something she had only seen for such a short amount of time. Emet himself stated that the fear created more creatures which does kinda hint that at least some of them might have been created by them without them wanting to. Also I cant see how constantly creating something using vast amount of aether would remain without consequences. A NPC says that it felt like the planet was giving up on living. So at least for me it feels like the Ascians were not completely without fault for this. Of course we need to learn more to truly understand it.

The Ascians also seemingly only created it after it nearly destroyed everything else and was upon their city. So maybe they waited for too long and thus never had time to truly search for another reason, maybe thats the reason why one member went away.

Put even if the are not fused by becoming aether, the collision of so many planets to become one would be another huge desaster. Of course they could simply be like: Well here is the new huge planet, now plant these landmasses upon it..but I doubt that. And even such a placement would probably bring quite the death. And again lets not forget all the parts about different culture, different believe and more.

The problem with your theory....

is that you're assuming that no matter what a Calamity MUST happen for all Shards to fuse into one Planet. However, I am saying that it maybe possible that later in the story we find a way to fuse all shards into one world without a Calamity thus creating this new world where the lands of the remain shards become part of this world without overlapping one another's existance.

Of course the different shards will bring with them the countless different cultures and conflict will appear but that is part of the cost just like discovering a new Continent that has its own Civilization with their own belief and cultures.

[spuffyre]

I thought I would share my overall and specific thoughts about the latest expansion.

The Story

From the beginning with Tesleen to Ardberts struggle, to learning more of Emet and his people. I can freely admit that I cried over ten times through the whole playthrough. I wept at Tesleen's end even though we knew her for a brisk few quests. I wept as we were preparing to say goodbye to the Ex-arch. I wept throughout the whole dungeon knowing that the creatures that came were conjured by the people of Amaurot in their fear of the end. The pacing, the emotion, the pure craft that went into this expansion is something I don't think the FFXIV team will ever top. Although I am slightly gutted at Emet's death, and how we are now reverting back to Zeno's boring plot. I can only hope that the MSQ Team put a lot more thought into our newly appointed enemy and his lack of interesting qualities apart from appearance.

The Zones:

The zones that appear in this are quite literally breaking the bar that SE has set previously. SB's areas apart from the Steppe and Kugane were bland, plain and pretty boring. However each and every area I entered I was filled with absolute wonder. Not to mention the final area, cleverly obscured by fog had me audiably say "What the fuck" when it was revealed to us. Once again, in combination with the music ala Soken, each zone felt completely unique with it's own set pieces and music devotely made.

The Dungeons:

With Trusts being an option, it really gave me a lot of joy to explore these places without fear of my party dashing full speed ahead for their clear. From the Tim Burton wonderland style of Dohn Mheg, to the horrifying runthrough of Holminster to the awe of Mt. Gulg. Everything had been carefully thought in considerable detail, to the point of where regular players wouldn't care about the enviroment, detailings were still added for the vigil eyed. (Seriously, Mt. Gulg's hedge maze below the walkways were absolutely beautiful.)

The Characters:

Everyone seems to have had a lot of effort put into their development. Alphinaud changes from his prideful self, Thancred deals with his internal struggle. Yshtola learns to be more accepting and joyous. Ryne struggles with her identity. Alisae goes through tremendous heartache. And not to mention, Us. The feeling I had when Ardbert took hold of us and we spoke, for the first time! (Although yes it was Ardbert speaking through us) was an experience I never had gained from an FFXIV expansion. My print screen button is truly broke at the amount of moments I had with the gang, and all the dialogue options we were presented with covering a large scope of player's attitudes. (I'm looking at you: Go shower, stinky!) I truly felt like I was part of this world, that our character was important and not some sidelined entity that is summoned only when a fight dawns.

Overall, FFXIV's best work.