Revelations from SHADOWBRINGERS

[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.

[Lauront]

On this...

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.

This is very much a possibility. The Ascians devised a reliable method of rejoining the worlds, that works for them given that they don't really consider the lives on these worlds to be true lives, and also because they see it as necessary to undo what Hydaelyn had wrought. Their plan is to both unmake and then remake the world as they consider it necessary to be.

However, that does not mean their method is the only one by which such a rejoining could be effected. Especially if much of Eorzea is just water, you could see new landmasses being placed in such areas.

And...

About Hydaelyn

Imo, I don't think Hydaelyn has evil intentions despite being possibly a primal. We know from the Gobu storyline that the primals will take on the emotions of their summoner. If the summoner has pure intention, then it's possible for a primal to be born with just good intentions. Ramuh is one example, he was self conscious that he would be threatening the very land he was summoned into to protect.

True - conversely, it also means Zodiark does not need to have been evil simply due to being aligned to darkness (it's not innately evil) and could, in principle, be re-summoned so as not to be. I think the big issue the Ascians have with Hydaelyn is that she disrupted their plans to bring back all those who were lost in order to summon Zodiark and restore their world, as she would have taken half the aether up. That would not have sat well with them, especially if her summoning was performed against their wishes. Obviously, the Rejoinings as they wish to undertake them are not compatible with our characters' desires, thus they remain firmly opposed to one another.

And...

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 thing is, it sounded as though it crept up on them and forced their hand into desperate measures. Especially given that the ancients possessed great fonts of innate aetheric reserves, I think it is quite unlikely that what was happening to the planet was due to them drawing on it in any way, unlike the case of Mhach and Amdapor, where the war was messing up the aether in their environments. If they bore any fault, it is probably due to ignorance more so than malice, but the description we were given is suggestive of some manner of parasite. I agree we need a bit more to draw any firm conclusions as it's too vague, as things stand. These could have just been extra-planetary parasites, after all, or maybe even ones that had lain dormant until beings with sufficient power drew their attention. It could also have been ancients who did not regulate their powers with the same self-control as the Amaurotines did. Hard to say given how many possible things this could be.

[Alleo]

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.

Well it remains speculations no matter what

I could also say that the problem with your theory is, that its kinda a fairytail or miracle solution to it. That somehow we suddenly find a way (and are powerful enough) to put all the shards together without sacrifice. I find that in the story that they are trying to tell to be of very low chance and I dont really understand why we would even need that? Let the shards exists on their own. The only reason the ascians seemingly even want them to be back is because of wanting their death race back. Why would we need a merge? One new continent that is discovered would already create conflict, but here we are talking about whole worlds. Of course you can have your theory, but I really doubt that this is the end goal. Not when we are fighting for us to stay how we are. Not when we are in the story quite fine with the way our souls are right now. Unlike the Ascians we dont care if we are not "perfect". I think this might just end more with us gaining a complete understanding and us making sure that the worlds will be save.

About Hydaelyn

Imo, I don't think Hydaelyn has evil intentions despite being possibly a primal. We know from the Gobu storyline that the primals will take on the emotions of their summoner. If the summoner has pure intention, then it's possible for a primal to be born with just good intentions. Ramuh is one example, he was self conscious that he would be threatening the very land he was summoned into to protect.

I think so too:

Seeing how she was summoned as a enemy to Zodiark and from people that were against sacrifices and wanting to leave the reign to the future generation I honestly doubt that she is bad. She might not be perfectly good either but all her reactions until now have shown someone that lets us live our lifes and only acts as an reaction to the Ascians. Her own words are "hear, feel, think" which are more to the side of freedom and free will and "answers" shows that she does not understand why we continue to fight among ourselves. So just because she might not have told 100% the truth (as in her coming after Zodiark) does not mean that she has bad intentions. I mean Urianger likes to keep things to himself too and did not even explain to us the danger of taking in all the light..heck he even lied about seeing the future...yet I would dare and say that he is not a bad man. Someone on reddit made a nice post that maybe her being summoned was under the view of freedom and life unlike Zodiark which needed sacrifice. It kinda fits with her actions. I mean she only took Minfilia when nothing else was working.

Okay, question:

Did Ardbert rejoin with us, or did he reincarnate? I was thinking he reincarnated, because a suspiciously similar Hume boy ran up to us, excited about adventuring. Can a soul rejoin without its home shard likewise rejoining?

I think he rejoined with us. He was a shard of our soul and him rejoining with us gave us the power to withstand the light thus not turning into a monster. Later he is seen walking at the same place we are so I took this as him being part of us now. It would also be a bit strange to have him be the boy because that would make him an Ascian that took over someone else because everyone is already born with their own soul thus it cant be him. The boy was probably just there to show us how we give hope to the next generation, greating more adventurers that will take care in the realm even if we are not there anymore.

Edit: Is it just on my side or is the forum not function correctly? I have the reload the page a lot of times until I can even answer a post..and the likes appear and disappear all the time. x)

[EdwinLi]

Well it remains speculations no matter what

I could also say that the problem with your theory is, that its kinda a fairytail or miracle solution to it. That somehow we suddenly find a way (and are powerful enough) to put all the shards together without sacrifice. I find that in the story that they are trying to tell to be of very low chance and I dont really understand why we would even need that? Let the shards exists on their own. The only reason the ascians seemingly even want them to be back is because of wanting their death race back. Why would we need a merge? One new continent that is discovered would already create conflict, but here we are talking about whole worlds. Of course you can have your theory, but I really doubt that this is the end goal. Not when we are fighting for us to stay how we are. Not when we are in the story quite fine with the way our souls are right now. Unlike the Ascians we dont care if we are not "perfect". I think this might just end more with us gaining a complete understanding and us making sure that the worlds will be save.

Well there is much more going on than we originally believed due to the revelations in 5.0....

While yes, reaching a understanding and preserving what life is now with the shards would be a more direct story path, let us not kid ourselves that something in a future storyline won't force us to find a solution to create a Complete World without sacrificing lives with a Calamaity.

We yet to learn the cause of that original Calamity and I suspect the source of that Calamity will be returning in a future storyline, most likely after or during the final moments when we defeat the Ascions and Zodiark which looks like to be soon now they are down to their last Leader, to finish what it started and may not be possible to stop unless the world is complete so the world has enough strength to fight back.

The first time it happened the world did not fight back because it was considered giving up on living thus why the plan to create a actual will, being Zodiark, to fight back the Calamity was put into motion and also the lack of time to discover the source of this Calamity prevented them to find a alternate solution that will not require such large sacrifice of life.

Speaking of complete.....

I am curious how the story will progress to have our WoL gain back the remaining 5 fragments of his or her soul. The story seem to set this up as important and related to our WoL's Origins.

I think that we may begin to see visions of the Original Soul's memories later and more of it will be seen as WoL's soul becomes more complete. Though that does put into question what will become of our WoL and what effects will he or she experience other than just past life memories returning.

[JeanneOrnitier]

Implications regarding the shards and souls

Do you think Unukalhai is our soul split on the Thirteenth like Ardbert was on the First, and that's why Elidibus saved him?

[Arannon]

Implications regarding the shards and souls

Do you think Unukalhai is our soul split on the Thirteenth like Ardbert was on the First, and that's why Elidibus saved him?

Could be...

Its all speculation, and Unukalhai has been a character thats gone mostly unexplored so far...that said, he's a character thats gone mostly unexplored for two expansions now...and one that wasn't exactly main-plot relevant for his interactions the first time, which fits Ardbert and the others pretty well too minus their main plot relevancy...honestly, for all the talk of reforming WoL-Prime, I don't think we'll do that. I think we only managed Ardbert because he came to us initially, then went home...and then we had to go there and by the end of things we'd come to an understanding. I don't think it would work if they just kept chucking shards at us. There would have to be an understanding and an accord met between us and anyone else. That kinda thing takes time, heck it took us an entire expansion and a grave threat to our very existence to get Ardbert...I think instead, we'll get the history and lore behind it, but not the unlimited power of creation or status of being "a complete soul"...or if we do its gonna be something sudden, and most importantly, temporary...

[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.