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

[Seraphor]

I'm banking my money on Meracydia. We got some dragon-like creature created by Fandaniel. We got a GameSpot interview by Yoshi-P in 09/02/2020 mentioning that if we want to look forward to the next expansion we should get a refresher on Heavensward lore. Now, what area has heavy ties to Heavensward that we haven't explored yet? Meracydia. Meracydia is where the dragons settled on Hydaelyn where Bahamut and Tiamat had their first brood. Meracydia is where the Warring Triad originated.

And the supposedly "leaked" concept art looks late allagan to me, like the pvp gearset. And Meracydia happened to be the last continent the Allagans attempted to colonize.

Meracydia was my first guess, but HW also gave us a load of Sharlayan lore, and ShB suggested a link between Sharlayan and Amaurot in some capacity. So if we're going to be ending the Hydaelyn/Zodiark arc, I think Sharlayan is inevitable.

That concept art is clearly Garlean, and the annotation says as much. So a split between Sharlayan and Islabard is the most likely scenario.

As for why Garleans need aetherytes:
Not everyone in Ilsabard is pure blooded, many parts of Ilsabard are nations subjugated by the Garlean Empire, just like Bozja and Dalmasca. So there's still plenty of need for aetherytes, but being that they are subjugated by Garlemald, those aetherytes would be heavily controlled by the empire. Thus, Garlean Aetherytes.