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

[JeanneOrnitier]

We're going to go to the moon eventually but I doubt it'll be any more than a dungeon and trial. Still, I'll be upset if the way we get there isn't via the Lunar Whale.

[Kesey]

We're going to go to the moon eventually but I doubt it'll be any more than a dungeon and trial. Still, I'll be upset if the way we get there isn't via the Lunar Whale.

The Lunar Whale reveal from FF4 surprised me. Granted I was a kid then and I was riding on high of a no school day (it was a 2 hour snow delay that folded into a cancellation). If it was the whale I'd feel like my Final Fantasy journey had come full circle.

[Yuella]

If we go to the moon, I hope the IVth's legion will feature.

[Lium]

Not that this would ever happen in FFXIV, but what if someone dear to us gets killed? And I don't mean like Haurchefant. I mean like Tataru. What if she gets brutally killed by Zenos as a way to draw us out and then we basically burn Garlemald to the ground. So it would be like a vengeance story. But SE would have to all in with an extremely dark and brutal tone. The game would become MA rated pretty quickly. Would certainly be different!

But I think fans would probably revolt for a variety of reasons. Not the least of which, it's not very original.

[Kesey]

Not that this would ever happen in FFXIV, but what if someone dear to us gets killed? And I don't mean like Haurchefant. I mean like Tataru. What if she gets brutally killed by Zenos as a way to draw us out and then we basically burn Garlemald to the ground. So it would be like a vengeance story. But SE would have to all in with an extremely dark and brutal tone. The game would become MA rated pretty quickly. Would certainly be different!

But I think fans would probably revolt for a variety of reasons. Not the least of which, it's not very original.

Although I feel the vibe that we are about due for a character death, I doubt that death will lead down a dark vengeance path where we burn the empire to ground. I mean at that point, we'd be no better than the empire and not worthy of the title hero.

[Lium]

Although I feel the vibe that we are about due for a character death, I doubt that death will lead down a dark vengeance path where we burn the empire to ground. I mean at that point, we'd be no better than the empire and not worthy of the title hero.

Yeah. Although that would be sort of the point. We become death as Elidibus saw us. Destroyer of worlds. Plot twist. Hydaelyn has been watching over us not because we are a hero, but because of our destructive potential. But after what we learned about who we were in ShB that wouldn’t make sense.

Plus, I think some of this is cultural. The Japanese, as I understand it, are not very fond of super dark stories when it comes to fantasy. And if the protagonist taps into dark or “evil” powers of some kind, it is almost always used for heroic purposes.

Look at DRKs and SMNs as an example.

[EdwinLi]

Look at DRKs and SMNs as an example.

There is a actual lesson for these stories and even Shadowbringer being that the concept of Light and Dark along with Good and Evil are not as straight as people believe them to be.

The powers used by Dark Knight and Summoner are not evil themselves but people often relate them to Evil because the people who use them are commonly Evil.

It is the same for Darkness and Light concept being shown in Shadowbringer. Light is commonly seen as Good and Darkness seen as Evil to a point of pure bias and disregard of the reality of what is happening. The Avatars of the countless warriors of light is a example of how such blind belief of light and darkness can be evil in itself as the burning passion to get ride of evil from these warrior of light also reflect how they view light and darkness being in their eyes light is always good thus the person fighting for the light is good and darkness is always evil thus the person fighting for darkness is assumed evil.

Even certain people in the player based began with a certain belief before Shadowbringer is released that our character may do Evil things because they will be the embodiment of Darkness in the First which is just how strong the bias belief of Light and Darkness is even in reality to a certain degree.

[RyuDragnier]

Yeah. Although that would be sort of the point. We become death as Elidibus saw us. Destroyer of worlds. Plot twist. Hydaelyn has been watching over us not because we are a hero, but because of our destructive potential. But after what we learned about who we were in ShB that wouldn’t make sense.

Plus, I think some of this is cultural. The Japanese, as I understand it, are not very fond of super dark stories when it comes to fantasy. And if the protagonist taps into dark or “evil” powers of some kind, it is almost always used for heroic purposes.

Look at DRKs and SMNs as an example.

And when said dark powers are tapped into, it's often revealed that they're only dark because the powers are so dangerous they can overtake you. DRK itself in this game is powered by the emotions of the user, both good and bad, meaning it's possible to overtake the wielder if their negative emotions go too out of control. Similarly, SMN is summoning an avatar of a primal while using themselves as the avatar's power source of aether, meaning one wrong step can basically result in you dying from the avatar siphoning too much aether from you. And that's not taking into account the Trances SMN can use to make their body a conduit for a primal's power.

[Bright-Flower]

I'm not really sure. My gut tells me we're finally gearing up to go to Garlemald but I thought the same for 5.0 until it turned out we were going to the First instead.

I also wouldn't be too shocked if we had another Kugane situation. With the bulk of the expansion taking place in Garlemald, but because we don't have a friendly city there and it's a war zone, the expansion main city is Radz-at-hahn or something while the expansion zones are Garlemald related. Similar to how Kugane was neither Doman nor Ala Mhigan.

[Vyrerus]

We're going to go to the moon eventually but I doubt it'll be any more than a dungeon and trial. Still, I'll be upset if the way we get there isn't via the Lunar Whale.

They teased the Lunar Whale so hard this expansion with Bismarck 2.0. I was sooooo certain when I explored Lakeland fresh into SHB release that the final zone was gonna be The Moon, but alas, it was not to be. Though the spires of Amaurot, both in The Tempest and in the Raktika cave paintings remind me of: