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

[Mimilu]

My crack-theory:
Spoilers

We will be going to Garlemald but we will also be going to future Eorzea.
Like in the future we hopefully prevented, a calamity will destroy civilization.
La Noscea, the Black Shroud, and Thanalan will all be big maps, their individual ARR parts put together, with the city states in ruins. Maybe we will see some of Coerthas but Ishgard will be lost.
Mor Dhona might survive (and be our new hub city or end game hub) due to the Crystal Tower.
Back in current times, Garlemald will get like 3 areas.

[FrightfulNight]

My crack-theory:
Spoilers

We will be going to Garlemald but we will also be going to future Eorzea.
Like in the future we hopefully prevented, a calamity will destroy civilization.
La Noscea, the Black Shroud, and Thanalan will all be big maps, their individual ARR parts put together, with the city states in ruins. Maybe we will see some of Coerthas but Ishgard will be lost.
Mor Dhona might survive (and be our new hub city or end game hub) due to the Crystal Tower.
Back in current times, Garlemald will get like 3 areas.

If i recall the bad future is no longer reachable, or phased out of existence due to the efforts to undo the 8th calamity. I also do not think they will do another split expansion after the weak story in SB and since we just had a more isolated location this expansion i do not feel it will be so next expansion, i also do not think they would have spent such time adding flying to the ARR zones and even modifying them a bit to accomidate it if they were just going to destroy and completley remodel them again. I feel wherever it will be it will be the Source, modern time, and relevant to the current events. also while i know my idea of Islabard getting exploration five zones with one being Garlemald proper with other Islabard zones being added in Raid series, trials and future Eureka like content was not well received, i see getting just three zones for the entire continent, again like Orthard all over again will be widely panned. either way i feel it should be Islabard for this expansion, the veil of clouds just adds that irresistible sense of mystery to it, and it just screams end game zone. i do not know what they will do with Garlemald but the continent of Islabrd almost has to be where they do the next expansion. Plus i do not see them leaving that world map incomplete for long, we are already exploring or have already explored areas in the mist such as Dalmascus, and Bozja, and they already have locations developed there such as the capitol, i doubt it would have been shown in game if it is just going to be in the background and unexplored another two more years with more meanwhile at the Imperial palace cutscenes that have been prevalent both this expansion and the previous one. No they are just screaming to be used. i feel the subvert expectations was either a red herring or that what we will be doing there will be different then what most people expect, maybe instead of SB 2.0 which everyone dreads, it will be more espionage focused.

[Aniya_Estlihn]

If i recall the bad future is no longer reachable, or phased out of existence due to the efforts to undo the 8th calamity.

Read the most recent Tales from the Shadows, please.

[FrightfulNight]

Read the most recent Tales from the Shadows, please.

I feel that this recent story was done in the similar fashion as a plot point in Season 5 of Agents of Shield where

where the team is sent into a bad future where the world was destroyed and when they went back to their own time they left a hopeful message in the bad future where the survivors would find a way to go on, since we already averted this future it will continue on its own separate timeline with the survivors trying to make their world a better place as well but since we already averted it and since the method of getting there is so great as shown by the methods G'raha used i do not think the player will ever go there, or they may years down the line but after ShB dealt with a similar concept i do not feel it will be in 6.0

[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.

[BlitzAceRush]

That would seem a little odd to me given we just spent all of ShB averting the 8th for them to then go "Surprise! it's the 8th calamity again!" Also re-joinings require a shard to be absorbed back into the source and from all we know the Aciens do it one at a time and it takes them a lot of time to do each one, with the First saved and the unsundered gone it's unlikely they just have a second ready to immediately go, Fandaniel would also need to do this from one of the shards, so unless it's just all going to happen off screen we'd have to shard hop after him, something I don't see them pulling again given the lengths it took to get us to the first.