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

[Hank_Hotspur]

Idk, the towers are obviously magic in origin, not magictek. So there probably isn't a control system. Furthermore, it's definitely Ascian in design, not Garlemald. I know it tempers people to "Garelmald" but tempering again is a magic thing, not magictek.

"Magitek" is pretty loose nowadays in the lore of the game. The recent WEAPON series being made of weird organic metal with musculature that stretches and folds like flesh but still has a cockpit (and looking more "natural" than the actual WEAPONS born from The Planet in FF7) shows how broad its application is (in addition to the Roader enemies). Of course its probably Ascian in design, but since they had a hand in both the creation of the Allagan and Garlean empires then really all magitek stems from them. As for tempering being just "magic" and not "magitek", we thought the Echo only occurred purely naturally but the Garleans have shown to be able to replicate it through artificial means with the Resonance.

So far, nothing has been solved in story just by figuring it out. We discovered the cure for tempering in the last patch, but discovering it didn't suddenly untemper everyone on the planet as well as figuring out how to kill Ascians didn't suddenly kill them all. I think for Sharlayan to make for not just a hub but as a full expansion-focused location like you say it couldn't be handled the same time as a Garlean-focused threat. That gives me flashbacks to fighting the Burning Legion in WoW and defeating a corrupted Titan never before mentioned in the lore results in Sargeras, one of the oldest and important villains in the lore, suddenly being imprisoned forever and wrapped up with a thud.

I would suspect that if "the sound" that caused the final days of Amaurot will be the focus of the next story arc, I think that would tie nicely in to a fully focused Sharlayan expansion. Sharlayan is probably the biggest depository of ancient history on The Source, but Sharlayans are very isolationist to the put of just abandoning outposts rather than rally with allies against an encroaching threat. I think setting an expansion about prying open Sharlayan to the world to help ensure another end of days event doesn't occur would be a neat first step to the story arc, but if they try sandwiching that with thwarting Garleans and Fandaniel's towers I fear we will have another expansion split like Stormblood had with Doma and Ala Migho were neither side of the story had enough focus.

[Kesey]

snip.

I'm fairly sure the towers are the means to stop the Eorzean Alliance from mustering an army to invade the Garlean Empire. I've been fully on board with a Sharlayan expansion through out this thread. I also see the narrative trap of a duel Sharlayan and Empire arc.

But again, I think its naive to think "the sound" which was the "hubris" of the Ancients is going to be the focus of the expansion. These Ancients that brought the sound on themselves are the same people who don't care to genocide planets full of people to bring back their old world. They have been the main villains for the entire game. They brought that disaster on themselves. I would not be surprised if the answer to "the sound" was Azem fixed it while Ancients summoned Zodiark and Hydaelyn and sundered it all up anyway.

[Hank_Hotspur]

I'm fairly sure the towers are the means to stop the Eorzean Alliance from mustering an army to invade the Garlean Empire. I've been fully on board with a Sharlayan expansion through out this thread. I also see the narrative trap of a duel Sharlayan and Empire arc.

But again, I think its naive to think "the sound" which was the "hubris" of the Ancients is going to be the focus of the expansion. These Ancients that brought the sound on themselves are the same people who don't care to genocide planets full of people to bring back their old world. They have been the main villains for the entire game. They brought that disaster on themselves. I would not be surprised if the answer to "the sound" was Azem fixed it while Ancients summoned Zodiark and Hydaelyn and sundered it all up anyway.

For "the sound", I don't consider it the premise behind 6.0, but something they could expand on if they decide to have another overarching story arc starting with 7.0 or beyond. We don't really know if they plan on doing one-off loosely connected expansion stories or something as expansive as the Ascian/Garlean storyline starting in 7.0, but I do think that part of the genius of the FFXIV writing team is giving themselves enough wiggle room to work with. We know they have the story planned out in broad strokes, but the recent interview with Gamer Escape had Yoshida enlighten us that how stories play out and the finer points are subject to change more in less time than we suspect (such as the reveal of Azem and the Convocation as well as the full reveal of Elidibus' plot not being finalized until the end of 5.1).