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

[FrightfulNight]

Bringing these two ideas together, I'm going to say Sharlayan is the next expansion city and area because it isn't just a hub of knowledge with isolationist tendencies, it holds the knowledge that it was a civilization that was founded by those who survived and followed Hydaelyn after summoning her. Venat is most likely to be associated with Sharlayan, and I'm willing to hedge a bet that Venat will also be associated with Louisoix or Minfilia somehow. When we consider this the end of a season 1 story and all the Scions are either from Sharlayan or we educated in Sharlayan; all of the knowledge of Hydaelyn seems to come from Sharlayan sources too. The conclusion has to be set in Sharlayan. I expect 5.4 and 5.5 to be a distraction, only to find out that Zenos is leading the Imperial forces to a Sharlayan invasion (making Bojza and Werlyt victories too easily won). Fandaniel will use this chaos and whatever other secrets Sharlayan is hiding to set off the last rejoining and bring back Zodiark.

Lastly, before anyone gets on their "but its just an island" trope, remember the Yoshi-p interview said they will be "going against player expectations". I think that Sharlayan has many hidden compartments, countermeasures that don't account for actual space. Remember if they are inheritors of Ancient's knowledge of creation magic and like other Sharlayan locations we've visited, (like the door in Matoya's cave leads to the anti-tower which doesn't exist on a map, or inversion of weather and cardinal directions in Eureka, and Baldesion Arsenal looping hallways in on itself) they are very easily hiding lands which won't exist on the map and I'd hazard to bet also have the door that leads to the aetherial sea and Hydaelyn herself.

I honestly believe Sharlyan might be the Hub City but the res of the expansion will still be Islabard, that does not mean it is inconsequential i imagine it will have a good amount of prominence like Ishgard in HW but since HW already saw similar concepts to some of these zones you are mentioning i do not think they will do that. Plus especially right now after ShB they really need to Fill in some of that World Map and some of these hidden zones you are speaking of do not really do that. Plus since we only get 6 zones in an expansion i want them to be cultured, The aetherial sea might be good for a dungeon but to make it one of the 6 zones of an entire expansion would just waste a zone in my opinion , you see it in the character creation screen there is not much there, in fact hardly any of these hidden zones you mention seem to have any cultures or peoples what so ever. After a shard hopping expansion we need to focus on further exploring the Source since it is the world we are most invested in and that includes finally exploring some long hinted at countries, not more isolated areas like these.

[Cilia]

At this point I'm advising waiting for TGS and the next Live Letter; the former should (hopefully) have something big (like part of the FMV) and the latter is supposed to preview some 5.4 content.

[Veloran]

Probably not next expansion, but I'm still holding out for SPACE ALLAGANS at some point. I will say the Weapons series really makes me suspicious that the Garleans there have some benefactor, because no way they had the tech to make the Weapons on their own, they're all absurdly advanced.

[Vyrerus]

Probably not next expansion, but I'm still holding out for SPACE ALLAGANS at some point. I will say the Weapons series really makes me suspicious that the Garleans there have some benefactor, because no way they had the tech to make the Weapons on their own, they're all absurdly advanced.

You'd have to assume that Cid has the same benefactor, since it's all just repurposed and restored Allagan tech, with some new designs like the artificial auracite and what not.

[Kesey]

Probably not next expansion, but I'm still holding out for SPACE ALLAGANS at some point. I will say the Weapons series really makes me suspicious that the Garleans there have some benefactor, because no way they had the tech to make the Weapons on their own, they're all absurdly advanced.

Pretty sure the Garleans are just digging this stuff up and reverse engineering it. Instead of SPACE ALLAGANS, they are more like ancient Allagans.

But seriously, I'd like to know the true history of Allagan and Mercaydian war at some point, because I'm kinda a history buff. I'm fairly sure it was secretly started by Ascians, then excellerated by Ascians and ultimately led a calamity/rejoining for the Ascians, but you know details.

[YianKutku]

Pretty sure the Garleans are just digging this stuff up and reverse engineering it. Instead of SPACE ALLAGANS, they are more like ancient Allagans.

But seriously, I'd like to know the true history of Allagan and Mercaydian war at some point, because I'm kinda a history buff. I'm fairly sure it was secretly started by Ascians, then excellerated by Ascians and ultimately led a calamity/rejoining for the Ascians, but you know details.

This is probably how it went, yes. We know that Emet-Selch helped create the Allagan Empire. We also know he wasn't actually officially in charge during the whole Allagan-Meracydian war, but maybe he was in the background, or maybe he saw that Amon was crazy enough to resurrect Xande, and decided that his work was already done.

We also know that Ascians were the ones who taught Meracydians how to summon Primals, which eventually caused Xande to go even more nuts and make a pact with the Cloud of Darkness. Interestingly the final cause of the Fourth Calamity was Xande and Amon miscalculating how much energy Dalamud would channel to the Crystal Tower, and whether the foundations could handle it, which seems to be something that can't exactly be planned, especially if neither Amon nor Xande were Ascians themselves (which we know, since we fight them and they did no Ascian-related things).

So I get the impression that the Ascians were trying as hard as possible to cause some sort of major disaster that would get amplified into a Calamity, all throughout the Allagan-Meracydian War. And then the war ended with Allagan victory, and more time was spent with Azys Lla and such, and Xande got more and more nihilistic, and the Empire fell apart as revolts continued to happen, and when the Crystal Tower's foundations buckled, the Ascians probably went "finally, we'll take it".

[Kesey]

This is probably how it went, yes. We know that Emet-Selch helped create the Allagan Empire. We also know he wasn't actually officially in charge during the whole Allagan-Meracydian war, but maybe he was in the background, or maybe he saw that Amon was crazy enough to resurrect Xande, and decided that his work was already done.

We also know that Ascians were the ones who taught Meracydians how to summon Primals, which eventually caused Xande to go even more nuts and make a pact with the Cloud of Darkness. Interestingly the final cause of the Fourth Calamity was Xande and Amon miscalculating how much energy Dalamud would channel to the Crystal Tower, and whether the foundations could handle it, which seems to be something that can't exactly be planned, especially if neither Amon nor Xande were Ascians themselves (which we know, since we fight them and they did no Ascian-related things).

So I get the impression that the Ascians were trying as hard as possible to cause some sort of major disaster that would get amplified into a Calamity, all throughout the Allagan-Meracydian War. And then the war ended with Allagan victory, and more time was spent with Azys Lla and such, and Xande got more and more nihilistic, and the Empire fell apart as revolts continued to happen, and when the Crystal Tower's foundations buckled, the Ascians probably went "finally, we'll take it".

Yeah, I don't think the history will be fleshed out until we travel to Mercaydia, as the current state of things there would be heavily impacted by the legacy of this war. Guess we'll wait and see.

[Kesey]

Now that we've had the first live letter for 5.4 and the new dungeon is called "Matoya's Relict", evidence is pointing to a Sharlayan expansion.

"Relict" implies that an item or the location will be "old" and/or from the "past".

Matoya could either reference the old lady or our favorite cat girl. Either way, both are associated with Sharlayan.

[MikkoAkure]

Now that we've had the first live letter for 5.4 and the new dungeon is called "Matoya's Relict", evidence is pointing to a Sharlayan expansion.

"Relict" implies that an item or the location will be "old" and/or from the "past".

Matoya could either reference the old lady or our favorite cat girl. Either way, both are associated with Sharlayan.

Or it could not. I'd just sit back and enjoy the show rather than worry about where the next expansion will be instead of getting your hopes up for something that might not happen. Theorycrafting is fun, but remember that 4.4's patch had The Burn as the new dungeon, followed up by 4.5's Ghimlyt Dark and neither of those had anything at all to do with the location that 5.0 went to.

[FrightfulNight]

Now that we've had the first live letter for 5.4 and the new dungeon is called "Matoya's Relict", evidence is pointing to a Sharlayan expansion.

"Relict" implies that an item or the location will be "old" and/or from the "past".

Matoya could either reference the old lady or our favorite cat girl. Either way, both are associated with Sharlayan.

Or it could be a possible tool to permanently slay Zenos or deal with Zodiark, i still feel that the main hub city will be Sharlyan but the rest of the zones will Finally be in Islabard, we have waited long enough, the clouds give it a perfect endgame zone, that does not mean Sharlyan will be relegated on the back burner as i imagine it will be as significant as Ishagard in HW, i imagine we will be going back there a lot to figure out how to deal with Zodiark while the team research's meanwhile we head to Islabard to deal with Zenos and Fan, first five zones are Islabard then when he is defeated at a similar timefrime as Vauthry we go back to Sharlyan and then the Moon for the final fight against Zodiark, this wraps up most of the season 1 plot points then the next expansion can be new territory. Maybe a globetrotting expansion to go to areas in Orthard and Islabard that we have not been to yet fully like Hingashi propper.