6.0 Predictions: Will it be Garlemald, Sharlayan, or Meracydia?

[Vyrerus]

I think that Yoshi-P mispoke, or that him saying, "Get a refresher on Heavensward" was a red herring, as some others have stated. I think we should look to Stormblood. We know the game is formulaic, and I don't think they will break from formula. So I think that the structure for the next expansion is going to be a split across two regions sort of thing. I think the regions will be Thavnair, Meracydia, and then the Underground. Followed by a dungeon that is the Tower of Bab-il which leads us to go to the Moon.

I think that, if he really wants us to get a refresher on Heavensward that what he means is, look at the reference structure for what content it had, rather than the story. Aside from most of the zones being brand spanking new, we went to a city we'd heard a lot about but never saw. We went to zones that were distinctly FFXIV, but the final zone wasn't really in a region, rather above the highest reaches and brought down to accessibility by Allagan artifacts. It heavily referenced older FFs, namely 6, 1, 3, 5, and 11. For whatever 6.0 is, I believe they will finally cash in and reference hell out of Final Fantasy 4. So we'll get an Underground, a Tower of Bab-il, crystal caves on the Moon, and the Four Fiends of the Elements for primal-like trials.

What the FFXIV story actually holds, I cannot say, but I think they will be referencing FF4 with reckless abandon, since they haven't really referenced it very much at all, up to now. I think the Underground will be in Meracydia, because there won't be all that much on the top(I imagine it to be very much like The Burn but with maybe a little more plant life). Going to the moon will be a simultaneous FF4 and FF8 reference. Technically an FF13 reference if you count Cocoon as a moon I suppose...

If it's not that, then I don't know. I guess if we look at it like Stormblood, where the expansion was split between the western and eastern fronts of a set of continents, then it could be split with northern and southern. Meracydia is the south, Sharlayan the north. I don't think either has enough tangible story elements to make up an expansion by itself.

[Mansion]

I think the "get a refresher on HW" could mean anything, but most probably something that is coming rather in 5.3 or later that echoes to what happened in HW. And I'm thinking about Warriors of Darkness vs Light, which is due to happen in 5.3 too.

As much as the "end" of that 5.X story gets me quite excited, I just love that moment in the end of X.3 MSQ where you read the hints for the next expansion (although the 4.X cycle was a bit obscure in foreshadowing).

[Morningstar1337]

Bolding the part I feel we must talk about. Considering how much of the game's lore leads back to the Allagan Empire and the events in Meracydia, it feels heavily that Meracydia itself is special for a reason. The threads of the Ascians, Dalamud, Bahamut, the Warring Triad, Crystal Tower (Cloud of Darkness and the voidsent specifically), Azys Lla, the Allagan Empire, primal summonings, all of it leads to Meracydia. It feels like too much of a coincidence that multiple major threats that the planet has ever seen come from there. There has to be something there, something big, because there's no way that it's mere coincidence that 4 Elder Primals came from there. As for the New World...Blue Magic looks an awful lot like creation magic considering you're casting spells that mortals shouldn't be able to do out of nothing.

Mayhap Meracydia was the original location of Aumarot, and thus Ground Zero for the Sundering, Leading to the continent being the best possible place to revive Zodiark?

[MikkoAkure]

Mayhap Meracydia was the original location of Aumarot, and thus Ground Zero for the Sundering, Leading to the continent being the best possible place to revive Zodiark?

Amaurot was located just off the coast of Norvrandt in the First, while Meracydia is located very far to the south on the Source so I don't think that's likely. In between Vylbrand and Meracydia are the Cieldades and then after that, the lalafell homeland, so Meracydia is likely in the Southern Hemisphere.

Speaking of the Cieldades, didn’t Yoshi-P once say those islands were originally a candidate for 3.0? Limsa Lominsa does do trade with them, the lalafell homeland, and Meracydia.

But regardless, I’d rather SE fill out the map that we actually have rather than shunt us off to another dimension or go to a wasteland continent filled with Allagan monsters. We’re finally going to Ilsabard with the resistance quest line and will get to learn more about that continent. It would be a shame if they tease us and then send us somewhere else again.

[LineageRazor]

At this point, I have the growing suspicion that we're not going to Garlemand, and probably never will. Varis is dead. Zenos, the heir, is not interested. The country is in chaos, and the Ascians who were secretly running it from behind the scenes are either dead or busy with other things. I'm guessing that by the end of Shadowbringers, someone (probably Gaius, in spite of his current status as a suspect in the murder of Varis) will move in, take charge, and begin to make reforms to counter the Ascian influence, now that they're no longer there to enforce it. And that will be the end of it. They will have been effectively neutered as a global threat, and while there will still be pockets of antagonistic soldiers (to explain away why we still fight them in Eastern La Noscea, or Yanxia or whatever), there will be no story-related reason to go there at all.

It would be a pretty anti-climactic end to their role in the story, but ever since they were revealed to be YET ANOTHER Ascian plot, I've pretty much lost hope that they will be handled with any decency.

At the end of 5.3, something will happen that causes Zodiark to go berserk. He sacrifices all the Amaurotine souls in his possession to try and break the seal keeping him inside the moon, and in doing so unwittingly causes life to surge into existence on the surface of the moon, transforming it from a barren white/gray rock to an environment more lush, alien, and varied than we've ever seen before. And so we have to stick all the Scions on that giant boat in Gyr Abania and send it to the moon. And up there, we'll run into the long thought to be extinct Hummingway race, who live in a sublunarian kingdom and are actually the longest lived race of them all: Some were even around from before Hydaelyn split the world!

I like the cut of your jib!

Seriously, though, THE MOON does seem like a likely destination for us at some point, both for the FFIV fanservice aspect, and the fact that that's where Zodiark's actual, physical location seems to be.

Whether we'll have a whole expansion there, or just an instance, I have no idea.

[Starkbeaumont]

there is still no conclusion to the seal in silvertear lake. below Midgardsormr. this is the first thing that came to mind when yoshi said to look back at HW.
though no clue where that would lead us unless we are pulling a massive connection to FFIV here.
Underworld, Land of the Summons, Tower of Babil, the Moon.

Afterall there must be a reason we didn't fight golbez or any other FFIV bosses (like the fiends) so far. especially during the Omega raid where it was expected

[RyuDragnier]

there is still no conclusion to the seal in silvertear lake. below Midgardsormr. this is the first thing that came to mind when yoshi said to look back at HW.
though no clue where that would lead us unless we are pulling a massive connection to FFIV here.
Underworld, Land of the Summons, Tower of Babil, the Moon.

Afterall there must be a reason we didn't fight golbez or any other FFIV bosses (like the fiends) so far. especially during the Omega raid where it was expected

I'm still of the mindset that the seal will be important for the grand finale of the game. A dungeon leading to the final trial underneath it, followed by a solo instance where the fate of the world will be decided. It'd make the greatest stage to hold it, and if my thoughts on how Yoshi-P will end this game come to fruition, it's going to have to be there that the game ends.

[EdwinLi]

Why not all three?

[Tracewood]

Maybe they might go back to Silvertear Lake and Carteneau areas... The crystal tower completion requirement, the reminder of Heavensward... I don't know why but I think we might not be done with those areas yet. (Also my nagging OCD sees that teleport page with Mor Dhona empty while the Cortheas tab filled up over the course of heavensward.)

Or they might throw us for a loop and have us travel through time to the distant past where the Allagan Empire was at it's climax. Or to the distant future where Zenos doomed all of life and became a god. I feel the Crystal Tower has a much bigger role now so anything goes.

[Cilia]

"[G]et a refresher on Heavensward" is so nebulous it could mean a lot of things. There's a lot of content in each expansion, and if we go with "any piece of content from 3.X is a hint!" there can be an argument made for a very wide array of stuff.

However, unless Yoshi-P is pulling our legs it's been made apparent going to Garlemald / Ilsabard is not on the table. Hell, of the expansions thus far Heavensward is the one with the least involvement from the Empire.

Week and a day left before we get more hints.