Predictions for 5.3?

[Kesey]

Sharlayan, I feel, is a strong contender for the future of the story. As others have alluded to they are isolationist and we've only had hints to what there culture entails from dungeons and their colony in ruins in the Hinterlands.

But, note names of the areas associated with Sharlayan in those dungeons and open world areas are Greek routed words. I also noticed when we arrived in Amaurot, interaction with the npcs during the few side quests in the area often allude to the "Sister City" while their areas and dungeons associated with the ancient Ascian culture also go on to be named in Greek routed words. If you really pay attention this done very heavy handily in both Amaurot and Sharlayan places.

Lets not forget that most of the scions are linked through their back stories to Sharlayan. The twins and their grandfather are from an important family in Sharlayan. Y'shtola, Urianger, Moenbryda and others are educated either directly in Sharlayan or in the Sharalayan tradition.

Sharalayan is isolationist, that is for sure. But I think the ground work has been set up to show they are hiding something, most likely knowledge, not withdrawing from the world politically to preserve their country. They are, and this my feeling from the observed information and the story so far, the Hydaelyn fraction of the ancients and hold the answers to the next set of questions. The capitol of Sharlayan is the Amourot "Sister City" and all our favorite people are tied up with them.

I know many people have speculated for a long time that 5.0 and now 6.0 has to be the invasion of the empire, but they are the red herring. I believe the person we need to be watching is the person in white robes who is with Zenos (the white robes themselves a red herring too).

[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

[LalafellDown]

My prediction is a random useless NPC will drop dead for no reason at all T pose style at the end of the credits. Fulfilling Yoshi P’s word that someone will die.

[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.

[Alleluia]

I believe the person we need to be watching is the person in white robes who is with Zenos (the white robes themselves a red herring too).

I agree. And I don't remember getting the chance to really punch the smirk off that face in Doma, so I will definitely enjoy our next encounter. lol I don't even care if its secretly the heart of Hydaelyn or w/e. If ever a face deserved a "proper dwarven decking", it was that one.

[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.

[Turethir]

My prediction is a random useless NPC will drop dead for no reason at all T pose style at the end of the credits. Fulfilling Yoshi P’s word that someone will die.

Did he say someone would die? I don't recall this ever being confirmed; as far as I knew everything was still up in the air. I know there was an interview where he said that "no character was safe", but there was nothing in there which referred to 5.3 specifically, just the story as a whole.

[MrThinker]

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.

I'm sorry, but could you tell me where you learned this information? This is literally the first time I've heard anyone claim that.