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

[BlitzAceRush]

I agree, all the tech needed is stuck on the first, the only one who could even use it is stuck on the Source and even if he was there we destroyed Proto-Omegazander (Tycoon) so the time travel ability of the tower isn't even there anymore, it also took the future timeline generations of people to get Cid's ideas to function.
In addition we have no real reason to even go there, they sent someone back to avert their fate, we've nothing to gain by going back there, while yes they have advanced tech it again took them ages to make it, they're in a post apocalyptic world they're not just going to have lodes of shiny new future tech sitting around for us to borrow.

[Kesey]

I agree, all the tech needed is stuck on the first, the only one who could even use it is stuck on the Source and even if he was there we destroyed Proto-Omegazander (Tycoon) so the time travel ability of the tower isn't even there anymore, it also took the future timeline generations of people to get Cid's ideas to function.
In addition we have no real reason to even go there, they sent someone back to avert their fate, we've nothing to gain by going back there, while yes they have advanced tech it again took them ages to make it, they're in a post apocalyptic world they're not just going to have lodes of shiny new future tech sitting around for us to borrow.

But the tech that's on the first comes from our time line on the source.

After reading a few comments above the 8th calamity by flooding The First with light and using Black Rose on source has been averted. Without concrete proof of what Fandaniel is plotting, we can guess that he is still planning an 8th calamity by other means. Now this new possible 8th calamity could play out 100% differently than the one that was averted.

This leaves the possibility of the WOL visiting a different future post-calamity. Or readvenuturing through The Source in apocalypse mode. Or a whole new world reborn.

Although all these scenarios feel like soft resets, not like an epic end of season finale. So ultimately, I don't see this stuff happening until later if ever.

[BlitzAceRush]

But the tech that's on the first comes from our time line on the source.

After reading a few comments above the 8th calamity by flooding The First with light and using Black Rose on source has been averted. Without concrete proof of what Fandaniel is plotting, we can guess that he is still planning an 8th calamity by other means. Now this new possible 8th calamity could play out 100% differently than the one that was averted.

This leaves the possibility of the WOL visiting a different future post-calamity. Or readvenuturing through The Source in apocalypse mode. Or a whole new world reborn.

Although all these scenarios feel like soft resets, not like an epic end of season finale. So ultimately, I don't see this stuff happening until later if ever.

From the Source 200 years removed, there's no guarantee they could get any of it to work today and again we did brake the actual machine that controlled the time travel, so even if the second crystal tower suddenly dropped in Cid's back yard he'd have a bunch of stuff he has no idea how to use with the most important part missing.
I'm not saying we might not time jump again (though not any time soon) I just don't think it'll be because of anything to do with Graha's jump or the "Doomed" future.

[FrightfulNight]

This truly might be a case of Occam's Razor. With that statement many of us are pondering where 6.0 will go but the way it is set up and has been for the past two expansions it is most likely Islabard. Yoshi P. might have been misdirecting it due to the statement similar to Benidect Cumberbatch character in Star Trek into Darkness being said not to be Khan when in fact he was or Christopher Waltz not playing Blofeld in Specter when once again he was. The story has been pushing Islabard hard for two expansions now especially with that final scene in 5.3. Also while we will have to wait for 5.4 to get a better picture, past x.3 patches did show a little bit on where the next expansion would be. 2.3 began to show the Ishgardian plotlines develop and 3.3 did the same for Ala Mhigo, the only one that did not if I recall was 4.3 as the location for ShB was kept under heavy wraps up to the third fan fest.

While they did do the curveball away from Islabard last expansion, to set up the long awaited Ascian expansion and show just how high the stakes are with the other shards, I do not think they will do it two expansions in a row, especially with locations already somewhat developed and made. I feel Yoshi P. wants to wrap up as many season 1 story lines as possible and that most likely includes the empire as well as Hydalyn/Zodiark, allowing the next storylines to be less tied down and explore new territory. Also I feel at this point they have just done about all they can with the Garlean Empire, to keep them around as antagonists for another full expansion will just get a tad repetitive and stale.

That being said I seriously hope we do not have to have another expansion with Zenos as the main antagonist, that right there I feel will especially get old and tiresome especially after the more complex and ironically human antagonists of ShB like Emet-Selch and Elidibus.

[Kesey]

This truly might be a case of Occam's Razor. With that statement many of us are pondering where 6.0 will go but the way it is set up and has been for the past two expansions it is most likely Islabard. Yoshi P. might have been misdirecting it due to the statement similar to Benidect Cumberbatch character in Star Trek into Darkness being said not to be Khan when in fact he was or Christopher Waltz not playing Blofeld in Specter when once again he was. The story has been pushing Islabard hard for two expansions now especially with that final scene in 5.3. Also while we will have to wait for 5.4 to get a better picture, past x.3 patches did show a little bit on where the next expansion would be. 2.3 began to show the Ishgardian plotlines develop and 3.3 did the same for Ala Mhigo, the only one that did not if I recall was 4.3 as the location for ShB was kept under heavy wraps up to the third fan fest.

While they did do the curveball away from Islabard last expansion, to set up the long awaited Ascian expansion and show just how high the stakes are with the other shards, I do not think they will do it two expansions in a row, especially with locations already somewhat developed and made. I feel Yoshi P. wants to wrap up as many season 1 story lines as possible and that most likely includes the empire as well as Hydalyn/Zodiark, allowing the next storylines to be less tied down and explore new territory. Also I feel at this point they have just done about all they can with the Garlean Empire, to keep them around as antagonists for another full expansion will just get a tad repetitive and stale.

That being said I seriously hope we do not have to have another expansion with Zenos as the main antagonist, that right there I feel will especially get old and tiresome especially after the more complex and ironically human antagonists of ShB like Emet-Selch and Elidibus.

The 4.3 patches showed the Empire and Emet. Emet became the important player and the Empire did not. I'm not sure that is sufficient evidence.

Unfortunately, if we are to have an Empire expansion it will require Zenos as 5.3 clearly ends with him seizing the throne (granted not out of personal desire but because Fandaniel has promised him it was important to whatever it is he is plotting). But I don't think an empire expansion, with the given plot, will be more than a rehash of Stormblood.

The story is going use Fandaniel, and by extension Zodiark, as the main villain and their attempt to cause 8th calamity/rejoining. Could that mean the empire? Maybe, but its just as likely as any other location to hold a McGuffin that could cause the 8th calamity/rejoining.

[RyuDragnier]

The story is going use Fandaniel, and by extension Zodiark, as the main villain and their attempt to cause 8th calamity/rejoining. Could that mean the empire? Maybe, but its just as likely as any other location to hold a McGuffin that could cause the 8th calamity/rejoining.

My money's still on Meracydia for this. You expect me to believe 4 Elder Primals are coincidentally born on the exact same continent, all within a relatively short(ish) time span? No way in hell, something powerful is there that could allow such a thing to happen.

[MikkoAkure]

My money's still on Meracydia for this. You expect me to believe 4 Elder Primals are coincidentally born on the exact same continent, all within a relatively short(ish) time span? No way in hell, something powerful is there that could allow such a thing to happen.

It's no secret, we've already been told that the ascians are responsible for the summonings. Plus faith, urgency, and aether on a greater level than that of anything the Eorzea beastmen are capable of. The now dead civilizations of Meracydia were powerful enough to stand up against the Allagan Empire at its height for at least a little bit. Take that and the ascians whispering the secrets of summoning and you have a recipe for the Warring Triad. Then there's Bahamut, who was summoned by beings practically swimming in aether.

But given what we know right now at this moment, there is no reason to go to Meracydia. It is a dangerous and mostly unlivable wasteland with nothing in it and no civilizations beyond scattered tribes. Right now we have 2 separate side-storylines where we've started or will start to liberate the very southwest and southeast edges of Ilsabard. It was already frustrating as a player and for the characters themselves in the game that the WoL was randomly pulled into doing something else just as the war with Garlemald started heating up and there was action in the borderlands. It would be odd if they did the same thing again, especially since now the Garlean Empire is fractured and in the middle of a civil war.

The ascians are similarly unorganized now that we've killed all the ones planning everything for the past 10,000 years. Unless the few remaining ones form up around Fandaniel to cause ruckus somewhere else in the world, or something we didn't know about and wasn't in the game yet suddenly comes to light in the next 2 patches, I don't see us going anywhere except Ilsabard for 6.0.