Predictions for 5.3?

[Morningstar1337]

I wouldn't say any of Sharlayan was "focused" on in Heavensward. Tangentially referenced in many cases, but no more of a "focus" than Meracydia.

I mean they are the reason the Hinterlands (and Idylshire by extension) had any ruins and were likewise the creators of the Antitower and Gubal. A zone, an endgame hub and 2 dungeons was more for them than what we have for Meracyida.

Plus I think we know more about that then we do Meracydia, enough that I've been wondering if they are gonna be the next not-as-cosmic antagonists after Garlemald (due to their hoarding of knowledge and the likelihood that there are some there that would like to use it for nefarious ends), in contrast to the more cosmic Ascians and the sound.

[Archwizard]

I mean they are the reason the Hinterlands (and Idylshire by extension) had any ruins and were likewise the creators of the Antitower and Gubal. A zone, an endgame hub and 2 dungeons was more for them than what we have for Meracyida.

Plus I think we know more about that then we do Meracydia, enough that I've been wondering if they are gonna be the next not-as-cosmic antagonists after Garlemald (due to their hoarding of knowledge and the likelihood that there are some there that would like to use it for nefarious ends), in contrast to the more cosmic Ascians and the sound.

And I would disagree completely.

What we know of Sharlayan:
- The Circle of Knowing, Sons of Saint Coinach and Students of Baldesion studied there a while back years before the Val incident, and they're big on academia and the study of the Lifestream, with Thaliak as their patron god and the implication they know more about time magic than they let on
- A conservative faction within their government pushed to make sharing their magical knowledge an act of treason, to the point they're willing to assassinate wayward Astromancers
- They previously expanded out into Dravania but abandoned it when Garlemald first invaded because they're non-confrontational, so they returned to the Old World and now they're isolationist; Matoya is probably the last Sharlayan scholar remaining in Dravania, and is tasked with overseeing the most powerful artifacts they left behind such as the Antitower

What we know of Meracydia:
- Bahamut and Tiamat's brood grew out of Meracydia, until Xande murdered Bahamut during the conquest; the Ascians taught the Meracydians about summoning, and the Allagans how to use Omega to imprison Bahamut's primal copy within Dalamud with thousands of his tempered children; the Burn was likely a result of siphoning aether in order to launch Dalamud, though the Garleans blame it on summoning instead
- Their native races - including tree people, centaurs, and a myriad of civilized races - were responsible for the Warring Triad, which were imprisoned within Azys Lla, along with several trophies of war and objects of research; the Ixali came about from some of this research in Azys Lla, as well as several prototypes for what would become the Ultima Weapon
- Xande's clone was so desperate to conquer Meracydia that he contracted with Cloud of Darkness, sent out an army of Voidsent to possess the fallen, and used the Crystal Tower to siphon power from Dalamud and rip open a portal to the Void, causing the Fourth Umbral Calamity
- The wake of the Allagan invasion left most of Meracydia a wasteland and drove several of its native races to build the Far Eastern nations; however, it's still not entirely unpopulated, with hostile and reclusive colonies in the remaining habitable areas, while witch doctors from Meracydia continue to trade with Eorzeans for ingredients for their potions

There's as much to draw from based on what we know of Meracydia as from what we know of Sharlayan - if not more.

Further, I'd say most of the Dravanian Hinterlands was sort of... incidentally Sharlayan. Like yes, there are ruins there, but outside the dungeons they're given a "That's neat" sort of reaction as you walk past mossy rocks with patterns carved in.
You have 3 dungeons and a town that were made by Sharlayan, but they also have next to nothing of Sharlayan anymore, because they're overgrown and coopted by the things that have populated them since. They're architecture now and little more, next to no delving into the implications they had upon the society at its peak. The Arboretum tells you nothing, Gubal Library tells you nothing in the grand scheme you didn't already know, and the Antitower's strongest implications are on its imminent plot relevance rather than the nation that originally built it. It's not about "how many ruins are there", it's "what's the value of information you can get from it"; the Hinterlands could just as well be a desert and you'd learn as much from everything outside Matoya's cave. And all she'll tell you is they're cowards and can suck it. The Hinterlands use the Sharlayan ruins as a setpiece for largely unrelated stories.
Azys Lla is populated largely of artifacts and creatures STOLEN from Meracydia, most of which are still preserved in two of its dungeons and three trials, some of which can and do give firsthand accounts of their homeland or feature visual "twists" to the story. Every moment you're in Azys Lla, you are hip-deep in the Allagan-Meracydian conflict; you cannot turn a corner without asking yourself something new about the country. You get as much about the Meracydians from Azys Lla as you do about the Ascians from Amaurot. The weight of information on Meracydia from that one zone is still higher than the information on Sharlayan from all the others combined.

[Vyrerus]

hard up for some Meracydia

Uhm, what? Azys Lla is pretty much all Allagan. Not Meracydian. You don't even encounter Meracydian things until the 4th Island with the Dragon brood and Tiamat. Meracydia in Azys Lla has a waaaay more tacked on feeling than Sharlayan's colony in the Hinterlands. I never once thought about Meracydia while in Azys Lla until getting to Tiamat's island.

What we know about Sharlayan:

They hoard knowledge, and their entire society is based off of it
They brought Aethereytes to all of Eorzea, and they produced them at the Hinterlands colony
They are capable of Time Magic on some level.
They figured out how to draw aether from other planets and stars.
They mark their most intelligent/skilled personages as Archons.
They have post-secondary education known as, "The Studium."
They are made up of every major race, though maybe not every clan.
The engaged in hoarding flora and fauna from all over the globe, and altered it, as well as had a fertilizer/manure that worked a little too well.
They have airships and sailing ships.
They are highly political.
They take in refugees.
They love to debate.
In a lot of ways the Ascian's Amaurot is very reflective of their society, only more advanced.
They venerate Thaliak.

We also have allies who were born at the colony, as well as those who lived there. Namely the Twins.

What we know about Meracydia:

Bahamut/Tiamat brood

Warring Triad and associated races, most of which are likely no longer alive.

It's a barren wasteland that has reclusive and violent specks of society here and there.

It's directly south of Eorzea.

I really don't know what Meracydian knowledge you're gleaning from Fractal Continuum and HM nor the Aetherichemical Research Facility. All three of those were basically all Allagan everything. /shrug

[Archwizard]

-snip-

I love how I'm depicted as being "hard up for some Meracydia" when I already said I'm not counting Sharlayan out, while you're not even pretending to be balanced with the way you present information.
"They have sailing ships" is kind of moot when every non-landlocked nation in the world does, and several of your points like "highly political and love to debate, in many ways reflective of Amaurot" could all be wrapped together.
Several pieces of minutiae you list ("Archons! Thaliak! Allies from there!") don't even constitute anything substantial about the society itself. They're flavorful factoids.

I wouldn't be too concerned about the possibility of Meracydia vs Sharlayan, I'm just frustrated with the imbalanced and illogical arguments against either one.

What we know about Meracydia:

The Miqo'te are believed to have originated on Meracydia, before they were driven to Ilsabard by the Allagans and then came to Eorzea after the Age of Endless Frost.
There is a Meracydian horde of dragons born from Bahamut and Tiamat. Under Bahamut's leadership, the Meracydians were able to mount a significant resistance to the invading forces of Allag, who were considered even more advanced than any races living today; this may also tie to whatever unknown reason Xande was hellbent on conquering them. The Ascians later consorted with them to summon Bahamut as a primal after he fell against the Allagans, and to have said primal captured by the Allagans.
In response to the fall of Bahamut, the Meracydians turned to summoning primals for defense. Chief among them were the Warring Triad, summoned by: a race of tree-like beings; a race of centaurs; and "the diverse peoples of an ancient Meracydian nation united by the worship of Sophia". Sephirot's powers in particular were abused by the Allagans for much of the bio-engineering in Azys Lla, while the process of keeping the Primals in stasis prevented the Meracydians from re-summoning them.
Lanners are a large part of Meracydian mythology. The treelike race of Meracydia claims the lanners "bore the seeds of the World Tree" across the globe; the same World Tree is depicted by the Astrologian's Bole card.
The song Equilibrium also highlights the balance-based tenets of the Sophian faith (in which a maiden is encouraged to kill her abusive mother to "still her broken melody", and then herself for the crime of murder, essentially implying all crimes are equal).
Azys Lla is largely composed of trophies taken from Meracydia, possibly including the ruins dotting its outer quadrants. Of particular note is a Cathedral in the Gamma quadrant, which shares many symbols and patterns with the Sunken Temple of Qarn, itself said to predate the Belah'dians who eventually coopted it.
The Allagans under Xande employed Voidsent to ravage the Meracydian continent, who in turn created a self-replacing army of undead.
Between the Allagan attacks and the repeat summonings, the land is still heavily scarred and largely uninhabitable today, with scattered reclusive/violent tribes.
They have witch doctors who break from the reclusivity and continue to trade with Eorzea for potion ingredients.

And that's ignoring what may be left on Meracydia from the Allagan conflict, considering Allag made a number of great strides to biological engineering (chimeras), magic (Summoning), and technology (the prototypes for Ultima Weapon and activation of Omega) in direct response to the Meracydians. Considering how much of what the Allagans made seems to be built to last everywhere else on the planet, it is extremely probable the land still has a large number of roaming Voidsent, undead, chimeras and Allagan machines, and that the relatively recent destruction of the Warring Triad may have freed them to be resummoned by whatever factions are left on Meracydia.

... I would say that's plenty of an idea of what we could find there.

[Vyrerus]

flavorful factoids

All I did was present information about Sharlayan in a similar manner to how you're going on about Meracydia.

If you notice, almost all of the information you present is, "flavorful factoids" and not much else. Everything of substance tells us more about Allagans than about Meracydia.

Other than the expectation subversion they claim to be going for, I don't really think they've put enough into the game to really flesh it out in a good way for a 6.0 drop. Also, all I meant by, "hard up" was that you are clearly very excited for the possibility.

[Archwizard]

If you notice, almost all of the information you present is, "flavorful factoids" and not much else. Everything of substance tells us more about Allagans than about Meracydia.

Not... really? That's plenty of information about the sapient races we'd find there, the culture of said races, and potential enemies, as well as some plausible interpretation of the landscape.
That's as much as we know about Sharlayan now. More even, since we have little idea what to expect from enemies in the Old World besides "magicked plants" and "the Sharlayan government itself".

Bear in mind we knew nothing of the First whatsoever before Shadowbringers was announced, other than that "Arbert" and his team were from there and caused a Flood of Light, so "not enough to flesh it out" is entirely moot.

[BasicBlake]

snip

Not to mention that if we finally get access to more of Koshu, it would be a great tie in to Meracydia. Since the original inhabitants of the island are the Meracydian refugees that the Allagans drove out.

Granted like you have already said, it really could go either Sharlayan or Meracydia. But there is no way a whole expansion is going to focus on Sharalyan. There just isn't enough ground to cover there. It will most likely be a pit stop, just like Thavnair, or a side focus for whatever expansion they deem to bring it in for.

So while the person you have been conversing with is... very aggressively/condescendingly rallying for Sharlayan, how are they going to make a whole expansion about a tiny zone? They can have all the time magic and airships they want, they are still going to need to fill an expansion with 5+ leveling zones.