Revelations from Gamescom 2019

[Lauront]

14. It's been observed by players that in the Chrysalis, the meteor phase of the fight has a crystal formation very similar to the Crystal Tower, as well as a figure that looks a lot like Hydaelyn's portrayal in the caves. Could you please elaborate on what the Chrysalis is and why the Ascians chose to portray scenes of both gods?

Oda: The cave painting was not done by Ascians, but by someone who had a memory of the world before the Sundering. Perhaps he saw it in a dream or something, and then made a mural. The reason why there’s a crystal-shaped thing when it comes to the Ascians is that Zodiark crystal is sort of the antithesis to the Mothercrystal of Hydaelyn, so that is sometimes used as a motif.

This question was probably referencing that when you go through the Aetherial Tear, the underside of the Zodiark crystal looks very similar to the shape of Crystal Tower. That they didn't pick up on this tells me that they might not know, or that it might not be important. A great deal of the Chrysalis is made up of altered copy-pasta. The floor is from Titan, the boundary in the distance from the Burning Heart, and soon. They might have just clipped some Crystal Tower to use as something else.

Correct. it may be down to the translation, too. My money is on misunderstanding.

I think next time I'll just ask "What is the Chrysalis?"

It's probably one of those questions which is easier to "phrase" visually, because the statues of the Primals (at least one) appear in it, and of course they bear a resemblance to the murals. There may be no significance to it but the Chrysalis is a mysterious place (and possibly where Zodiark was summoned out of given the state of the planet at the time... which could also mean it served as a shelter for the 3 unbroken Overlords during his "demise"), so you'd hope they'd do some of 2 or 3 from the below if it originally had no significance:

Three types of foreshadowing: 1) It was planned all along. 2) It was added without an exit strategy and we worked it out later. 3) It's actually different than what was intended but was made to look foreshadowed with clever writing. Good writers use all of these. Great writers can trick you into confusing them. FFXIV's team deserves a lot of credit for their time and dedication on that front.

Still, I'm satisfied with the answer they did choose to give, as it opens interesting avenues in its own right.

[Enkidoh]

I think next time I'll just ask "What is the Chrysalis?"

It's probably one of those questions which is easier to "phrase" visually, because the statues of the Primals (at least one) appear in it, and of course they bear a resemblance to the murals. There may be no significance to it but the Chrysalis is a mysterious place (and possibly where Zodiark was summoned out of given the state of the planet at the time... which could also mean it served as a shelter for the 3 unbroken Overlords during his "demise"), so you'd hope they'd do some of 2 or 3 from the below if it originally had no significance

Interestingly, the old ARR artbook The Art of Eorzea ~ A Realm Reborn had a tidbit from the artist responsible for the Chrysalis's design accompanying the concept art for it, and stated that the directive he was given by the writing team when designing that trial battlefield was that it was actually created from the memories of the Ascians, so whether it is an imperfect recollection of something that did once exist before the Sundering is unclear, but given what we know now.....

...

Oh goddess, now even I'm doing it. I'm going back and looking for 'foreshadowing references' to SHB's revelations and retcons (no matter how pointless that is)!