Question regarding the Shards... *story spoilers*

[TinyRedLeaf]

If hypothetically speaking we were to have the same situation happen to Earth (as in, our Earth), would Earth-2, Earth-3, etc etc have their own versions of jovian planets and other celestial bodies? And again, the reason I ask this is that the game focuses a whole lot on the planet but I wonder about the things beyond it.

Well... if you subscribe to the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, then theoretically speaking, there are indeed an infinite number of "shards" of Earth out there, each contained in a universe unto itself.

In fact, we don't have to go far beyond Shadowbringers to see an example of this "weird science" in action. G'raha Tia, by all rights, shouldn't exist in the First. And in preventing the Eighth Umbral Calamity, by all rights, the timeline in the Source that led to his awakening will no longer come to pass. He is now effectively a person adrift in time and space.

But then, how is it that G'raha Tia continues to exist in the First? Well, if we accept the many-worlds interpretation, then all that really happens is that a new timeline without the Eighth Umbral Calamity has been created. The former, blighted timeline still exists out there somewhere, but it's no longer connected to the objective reality that our characters experience, or will experience.

Paradoxical? Yes, very much so. Which is why I'm not very fond of stories that get into timey-wimey stuff. It's rarely handled in a way that makes satisfactory sense.

[Iscah]

But then, how is it that G'raha Tia continues to exist in the First? Well, if we accept the many-worlds interpretation, then all that really happens is that a new timeline without the Eighth Umbral Calamity has been created.

I'm running on the theory that we are NOT in a "many worlds" scenario, but one that naturally tends to a single stable timeline, particularly since the Alexander raids showed a stable time loop in operation - but it's also canonically stated there that time travel destabilises the timeline and (if I'm interpreting it right) introduces many potential offshoots until it's resolved and the loop completes. However, in this instance we seem to have broken the loop and made it go off in a different direction - with G'raha's ongoing existence basically propping the old timeline open and forcing both versions to exist when there should only be one.

So, not infinitely many worlds, just two.

("Many worlds" is depressing. No matter what you do, you're just in the one version of the world that got lucky, while the bad stuff you were trying to prevent still happened somewhere else.)

[Gaethan_Tessula]

But then, how is it that G'raha Tia continues to exist in the First?

I find that it's still possible that the protagonists lose and A G'raha Tia needs to sent back in time again.

If that's the case, we're not going to see Exarch G'raha vanish until the possibility of the or an 8th umbral calamity is truly past.

[Iscah]

I was not talking about them lining up with anything in the real world, but if the Source and the Shards line up with one another. If they do, it means their stars have been copied as well, along with whatever the stars are (fires on a crystal shell, an actual galaxy, a whole universe of stellar objects...). It could go a long way to answering the cosmological questions.

That's not necessarily the case. If the shards are localised parallel dimensions then it's possible they all still look out to the same universe - like different floors of a building seeing the same view through the windows.

I find that it's still possible that the protagonists lose and A G'raha Tia needs to sent back in time again.

If that's the case, we're not going to see Exarch G'raha vanish until the possibility of the or an 8th umbral calamity is truly past.

I agree it's possible that we haven't resolved the Calamity threat yet, and that's the reason why G'raha Exarch is still here.

But I don't think that means he'd be sent back in time again. That would mean we have a second Exarch influencing events right now.

It would just mean he's here until we do successfully change the timeline.