New Year's Foreshadow 2021

[Erendis]

I feel that the poem is about Ancients and we will go to Sharlayan since it's been mentioned a lot lately.

[FrightfulNight]

Most of the poems have that our inaction vibe so I am highly betting Sharlayan is going to be involved in 6.0, in fact I imagine it will be the main hub city, I also feel the last zone mystery zone will be the moon i have felt that way for years and I still hold to it. The subsequent 5 zones I imagine will all take place in Islabard, there is to much going on there and I do not imagine another misdirect right after they pulled one in ShB, it would be to repetitive. I also imagine the sound will probably be saved for post Zodiark/Hydalyn story arch since 6.0 should be the conclusion to their arch, not dealing with something else entirely.

[MoofiaBossVal]

My understanding for the "below" is that it's referring to the Lifestream/Heart of the Star at the center of the planet, which was presumably corrupted and is where the Sound/sickness is coming from.

My understanding of the heavens/sky is the Moon, where Zodiark's power/essence is located at, which was created in an attempt to fix the Lifestream/Heart of the Star.

I think the speaker was supposed to be an Ancient Amuarotine?


I think the plot of 6.0 is us working with Sharlayan trying to figure out how to fix the Sound, and then we go down to the center of the earth, and are stopped by Zenos (like how Sephiroth was waiting for Cloud at the Lifestream), and then we beat Zenos and fix the sound.

[WhiteArchmage]

Once again, it's like the English is a completely different poem. At this point I think we can accept that they're doing it deliberately to give us twice as many pieces to puzzle over.

...

The Japanese specifically uses the word "stairway" in multiple places. I'm aware it's a metaphor, but I think the detail is relevant.

"To gain Knowldege, a stairway into the earth. To save Life, a stairway into the heavens."

The Antitower definitely fits as far as climbing down, anyway. But where has Sharlayan climbed up?


Continuing a line of thought from another thread: Sharlayan was founded by Salina. It's all Allag. Always has been. With the Arc Welding they've been doing lately, this one doesn't seem so crazy anymore...

Oh she's buuuying a Stairway to Heaven (couldn't resist, sorry).

So I'm REALLY hoping it means Sharlayan. The island (island-chain?) seems too small for a full expansion but even having it as a hub city and a central piece of the plot while we go fix their screw-ups elsewhere would be really interesting. Especially since we've gotten bits and pieces over the years: The Isle of Val/Eureka, The Forum, Sharlayan Astrology, Old Sharlayan, and who knows what OTHER secrets they're sitting in that HAVEN'T made it out of the Isle yet (Oracle? Rune Knight?).

Or it could be that we require a mixture of Sharlayan knowledge with Allagan technology and a little Garlond ingenuity to STEAL THE-sorry, CONQUER TH-nope, not that, go TO THE MOON!

[Fenral]

Oh she's buuuying a Stairway to Heaven (couldn't resist, sorry).

You have no idea how hard I was fighting making that joke myself.

[RyuDragnier]

Reflecting on it a bit, I think I could get myself pretty excited for Sharlayan. I feel like I've crested on my excitement to break out of Eorzea and see the world and and want to work back to getting grounded again - to go home, see the areas we skipped, meet Sharlayan, learn more about the races and clans, get involved in more city-state drama. I'd love if FFXIV "main scenario" ended where it began; back home dealing with Silvertear Lake somehow. We still don't know if the Presence is truly gone...

I'm still of the mindset that the final battle of 6.3 will happen in the core of the world, which we'll enter via a dungeon at Mor Dhona. There's no better place to end everything at, and it could finish the hanging thread of what Midgardsormr could have been guarding at Hydaelyn's request.

[Recon1o6]

I have a feeling that it is sharlayan. More specifically, the progeny line makes me think of one person in particular who we haven't seen but have heard about

Alisae and Alphinaud's father. Who they have both disagreed with, alphinaud in particular about sharlayan policy

the way its written makes me wonder, did the sharlayan's know the truth about zodiark and hydaelyn being primals, furthermore about the sound?

"We bear their scorn" (offering no explaination) or watch them die (They collect and refuse to share knowledge just in case it leads to the sound being reawoken?)

[Veloran]

My understanding for the "below" is that it's referring to the Lifestream/Heart of the Star at the center of the planet, which was presumably corrupted and is where the Sound/sickness is coming from.

My understanding of the heavens/sky is the Moon, where Zodiark's power/essence is located at, which was created in an attempt to fix the Lifestream/Heart of the Star.

I think the speaker was supposed to be an Ancient Amuarotine?


I think the plot of 6.0 is us working with Sharlayan trying to figure out how to fix the Sound, and then we go down to the center of the earth, and are stopped by Zenos (like how Sephiroth was waiting for Cloud at the Lifestream), and then we beat Zenos and fix the sound.

It will need to be dealt with at some point, but I can currently only see the Sound as a threat once Hydaelyn and Zodiark are gone. It hasn't been a pressing issue for 12,000 years or even been apparent in any regard, so there's no reason for it to arise as a problem right at this juncture. It also has nothing to do with all the Garlemald stuff going on right now.

[RicaRuin]

It will need to be dealt with at some point, but I can currently only see the Sound as an issue once Hydaelyn and Zodiark are gone. It hasn't been a pressing issue for 12,000 years or even been apparent in any regard, so there's no reason for it to arise as a problem right at this juncture. It also has nothing to do with all the Garlemald stuff going on right now.

I'm still pondering that it might be an issue in 6.0. After all, why we don't know much about the Sound, we know it comes from the depths of the planet. Which are also hinted at.

Probably focussing on the depths so much because of how elaborate the german version is. They could've gone with a lot of simpler terms for deep earth, but they chose such a fancy way and even personified the Depth part which is something you usually only do when you really want to emphasize something. I'm really struggling to translate it as something simple as deep earth and not pay much attention to it.

Might also be wishful thinking on my part as I really wanna know more about the Sound.

[MoofiaBossVal]

It will need to be dealt with at some point, but I can currently only see the Sound as an issue once Hydaelyn and Zodiark are gone. It hasn't been a pressing issue for 12,000 years or even been apparent in any regard, so there's no reason for it to arise as a problem right at this juncture. It also has nothing to do with all the Garlemald stuff going on right now.

My understanding is that the Sound is coming back right now.

In 4.5, you had Matoya's magics shorting out. A few people I've talked to have attributed that to the Light aether from the First, but light aspected aether shorting out magic is not an effect demonstrated in the story. What is? The Sound. at the end of 5.0 we learned that the Sound warped the magics the Ancients used.

Then, in 5.2, Urianger heard a sound which ruined his water walking spell. In 5.3, Alisae and Y'shtola hear the Sound as well. These incidents are distinct from Thancred becoming tired due to his soul being divorced from his body.

In 5.3, the WoL picks up the soul stones of the Ascians, which records the moment of them summoning Zodiark. The dialogue of one of the crystals seems to suggest that one of convocation members apparently got screwed up during the summoning, probably by the Sound. Said convocation member is almost certainly Fandaniel, who seems to be very different from all of the others. Zenos wants to recreate the Final Days, and he's now working with Fandaniel. It seems pretty obvious that 6.0 is going to culminate in us confronting the Source of the Sound.

One of the reported trademark names for the 6.0 FFXIV expansion is "Forspoken", which means to curse or enchant or bewitch something or someone. That'd line up with 6.0 being about the Sound and its effect on the planet. It's even addressed as a sickness by Lahabrea in 2.0 (though obviously I'm skeptical of whether or not the Sound was conceived of at the time 2.0 was written, but Lahabrea's line will probably be retconned into that, just as how the Starshowers were neatly retconned in 5.2).

There is little reason to visit Sharlayan unless we need the best and brightest magicians and their aetheric knowledge to save the world from a metaphysical threat. That threat is the Sound. There are also parallels between the Sharlayans and the Ascians; they are both great magicians from a solitary city-state. The Amaurotines heard of what the Sound was doing to other nations, but refused to get involved until it was affecting them, and by then it was too late, and their solution was halfbaked. I'm guessing the Sharlayans will succeed where the Amaurotines failed by heeding the call of the WoL and the Eorzean Alliance and getting a headstart on working on the problem, and they will be able to use the resources of the Alliance to find and implement their fix.