Predictions for 5.3?

[EdwinLi]

The rejoining will never happen because all our quests/dailies are on the first.

Depends....

Some stories with similar plots and issues tend to have the "rejoining" end up with the two world combining to a point the other world becomes a new Continent in the world thus the "rejoining" still happened but the world is now bigger due to a additional Continent.

[Iscah]

Depends....

Some stories with similar plots and issues tend to have the "rejoining" end up with the two world combining to a point the other world becomes a new Continent in the world thus the "rejoining" still happened but the world is now bigger due to a additional Continent.

It doesn't matter how "some stories with similar plots" have done it because that is not how the Sundering works.

The planet split into identical copies. We know they overlay. They're not broken pieces to be reassembled like a puzzle.

And you don't just conveniently drop an entire new continent into another world without a catastrophic impact on global systems like weather, let alone whatever was pushed aside to accommodate it.

It would also entirely undermine the work we're doing in Eden to restore the Empty.

It's not happening.

And if it is happening despite all that, I will be cross.

[EdwinLi]

It doesn't matter how "some stories with similar plots" have done it because that is not how the Sundering works.

The planet split into identical copies. We know they overlay. They're not broken pieces to be reassembled like a puzzle.

And you don't just conveniently drop an entire new continent into another world without a catastrophic impact on global systems like weather, let alone whatever was pushed aside to accommodate it.

It would also entirely undermine the work we're doing in Eden to restore the Empty.

It's not happening.

And if it is happening despite all that, I will be cross.

It will greatly depend on how it happens.

The combining of two worlds differs based on the plot's choice of effect.

One outcome can have the entire memories and world's history altered to accomondate the changed world.

Another can result in the memories being preserved but the world itself altered.

As for the empty, there are ways around it without removing the Eden story such as only the new continent is mostly the Empty thus the world's history adjust itself from restoring a planet size Empty to a Continent size Empty.

However, these are just theories thus we will have to see where the stories goes and if there is a safe way to cause a rejoining without negative effects since the method of rejoining by Ascians is only done because it is considered the fastest method which means there is most likely a safe method but it is considered either much slower or that Zodiark is blinding them from it because it may not "benefit" him in anyways.

[Cilia]

I think something a lot of people are missing is -

Whatever caused the Final Days was, to the best of our knowledge, terrestrial. The starshower heralding the Final Days was just a symptom of the Sound, not the source of the issue itself (a la Jenova or (to my knowledge) Lavos). The real issue came from within the planet itself - or, perhaps, the aetherial sea.

Aside from the commentary of the various Amaurotine shades explaining the Final Days, the final boss of the Amaurot dungeon (Therion) bears the title "Chthonic Riddle." The word "chthonic" literally translates to "subterranean" from ancient Greek, but in contemporary usage refers to deities and spirits of the Underworld. Considering the Ancients referred to the aetherial sea / lifestream as the "underworld"... you can put two and two together.

My train of thought may turn out to be wrong (it has been before), but whatever actually happened, I doubt it's something so simple as a hibernating malign alien that crashed on the planet millennia ago suddenly acting up.

Regardless, we're unlikely to get answers for that specific event for a long while; 5.3 is the culmination of Elidibus' hastily cobbled together plot to be rid of us, so he's liable to be front and center. I'd not expect to see the issue addressed until 5.4, at the earliest.

[EdwinLi]

I think something a lot of people are missing is -

Whatever caused the Final Days was, to the best of our knowledge, terrestrial. The starshower heralding the Final Days was just a symptom of the Sound, not the source of the issue itself (a la Jenova or (to my knowledge) Lavos). The real issue came from within the planet itself - or, perhaps, the aetherial sea.

Aside from the commentary of the various Amaurotine shades explaining the Final Days, the final boss of the Amaurot dungeon (Therion) bears the title "Chthonic Riddle." The word "chthonic" literally translates to "subterranean" from ancient Greek, but in contemporary usage refers to deities and spirits of the Underworld. Considering the Ancients referred to the aetherial sea / lifestream as the "underworld"... you can put two and two together.

My train of thought may turn out to be wrong (it has been before), but whatever actually happened, I doubt it's something so simple as a hibernating malign alien that crashed on the planet millennia ago suddenly acting up.

Regardless, we're unlikely to get answers for that specific event for a long while; 5.3 is the culmination of Elidibus' hastily cobbled together plot to be rid of us, so he's liable to be front and center. I'd not expect to see the issue addressed until 5.4, at the earliest.

I still think Elidibus haste to remove us maybe involving the effect of Sundering. The story seem to been showing the Ascians in a hasty state currently as if there is another effect for the sundering only they know about that may make rejoining impossible once a certain amount of time passes.

A good effect will be if the lesser shards are preserved as separate worlds permanently but a bad effect maybe that the lesser shards all disappear from existence.

Though if the effect is that the lesser shards will disappear from existence (thus killing everyone on all lesser shards) it would provide a strong motivation for the new Warriors of Light on the first to push towards rejoining their world as the only way to save everyone on the First in a certain point of view.

[Morningstar1337]

Though if the effect is that the lesser shards will disappear from existence (thus killing everyone on all lesser shards) it would provide a strong motivation for the new Warriors of Light on the first to push towards rejoining their world as the only way to save everyone on the First in a certain point of view.

I wonderif Ardbert (the real one) and maybe co. could pop up and reveal not only his impersonation but that they tried the "help the Ascians to save the First" bit and it would had failed.

[EdwinLi]

I wonderif Ardbert (the real one) and maybe co. could pop up and reveal not only his impersonation but that they tried the "help the Ascians to save the First" bit and it would had failed.

If it is the worse case scenario then I doubt Ardbert just telling them "it will not work" will be enough.

The Ascian's actions and haste to get things done soon as possible probably means that time is very near and if they don't act now then it will be over for everyone who are not living on the Source. This will mean the only solution is cause a rejoining, find a way to prevent all lesser shards from disappearing so they can continue within this 3.3 MSQ, some how fuse the worlds of the First and Source together to create a new world, or all shards end up disappearing from existence thus killing everyone in the First and other lesser shards.

[JeanneOrnitier]

My assumption was always that the cause of the Ancients' calamity was them straining the planet too much. Yes they had much more aether than sundered souls do, but they used creation magic for absolutely everything. Eventually that was going to cause something to break.

[Morningstar1337]

If it is the worse case scenario then I doubt Ardbert just telling them "it will not work" will be enough.

The Ascian's actions and haste to get things done soon as possible probably means that time is very near and if they don't act now then it will be over for everyone who are not living on the Source. This will mean the only solution is cause a rejoining, find a way to prevent all lesser shards from disappearing so they can continue within this 3.3 MSQ, some how fuse the worlds of the First and Source together to create a new world, or all shards end up disappearing from existence thus killing everyone in the First and other lesser shards.

I was referring more to the "manipulated WoL" angle not the "death of a universe" angle.

My assumption was always that the cause of the Ancients' calamity was them straining the planet too much. Yes they had much more aether than sundered souls do, but they used creation magic for absolutely everything. Eventually that was going to cause something to break.

That is true, If modern Hydaelyn was even a fraction of Amaraut that the Ascians claimed it is, than it likely the metaphysics of aether and the lifestream were in play. Which kinda makes their faite a parallel of geostigma in a sense, the planet avenging itself on her inhabitants. Incidentally it also makes the morality a bit more clear-cut as it would mean that unsundering the Ascians would do way more harm to the world than expected.

[Rosenstrauch]

Starting up 5.0 quests in New Game+, and I was struck by a detail that seemed mostly like inconsequential world building: The Crystal Exarch, during your introduction to the Crystarium, tells you that the people of Norvrandt are unaware of the existence of other stars. Basically, that the entire "source and thirteen reflections" stuff is completely alien to them. As such, we need to mislead them about where we are from.

I believe that is part of the wedge Elidibus will push to get us and the newfound "Warriors of Light" to fight. He will give the new heroes as much knowledge about the true nature of the reflections as he needs to in order to convince them that the Rejoining is a good thing, and that we came to Norvrandt to prevent the Rejoining. Believing that the Rejoining will happen after we leave, the Warriors of Light will attempt to force us to do so, with Elidibus leading the fray under the appearance of good intentions when it fact he means to kill us by casting us out of the First and into... whatever you call the space between the Source and the reflections.

I have to wonder how the Crystal Tower raid stuff could tie into that, however. Perhaps Elidibus actually succeeds in getting rid of us, and this necessitates drastic measures on the part of our friend on both worlds? They could also do these as an A-Plot B-Plot sort of scenario, in which they're separate plot threads that resolve in succession, but are otherwise unrelated. IE: We deal with Elidibus and his Warriors of Light, and then end 5.3 by being sent home with the Scions. But I think interweaving them into a single plot thread would be more interesting.

Also, I am holding out on the admittedly dim prospect that Minfilia will return before Shadowbringers runs its course, if only because I miss her dearly of her promise to do so in her last Heavensward appearance. Don't get me wrong: Shadowbringers has handled Minfilia's death so well that it'd be a shame to roll it back a second/third time. But even so, it's not necessarily a permanent retirement for her character. That said, I'd be very unhappy if bringing her back meant killing off Ryne.