Revelations from the Announcement Showcase

[Lauront]

So now that we've seen the announcement, what do you think was the reason Yoshi-P said to refresh ourselves on Heavensward? Do you think it was just Estinien or something more? Theories?

Well it gives Estinien's background, but it also contains that scene with Hydaelyn giving her version of events. And we're going to be touching on that again, so that's one possible reason. As an aside, people have noted the aesthetic similarity between the Void Ark raids and Fandaniel's play pens (implying a possible connection), so maybe that, but I believe he'd be more specific if that were just that.

Also, when did the moon form? My understanding was that it formed with Hydaelyn ejecting Zodiark; her words at least imply it, and if memory serves, it doesn't exist in the sky in the Amaurot dungeon, either. So why does that scene - pre-sundering as it seems to be - show him shielding it, if that's what he's doing?

It may be a red herring, but the tip of her sceptre does seem to show two orbs - one blue, and a larger, blurrier red one. The two moons theme is one from IV as well as IX. XIV once had two moons but we know one was false and we can put that aside. It's been noted Fandaniel has some Kuja vibes (betrays his masters, has a rather camp demeanour, a destructive impulse, and as of late, accompanied by a dragon), so I wonder if they're doing a tie-in in that sense, a la Terra/Gaia, in turn tying into the fate of the ancients, only perhaps having them on the receiving end of something similar. Although there are some parallels between Terra and the ancient world, and Garland and the unsundered trio, there's also points in Gaia which resemble what happened to Amaurot, namely the expulsion of the rejected Gaian souls. There is something that struck me as somewhat similar in Through His Eyes - i.e. the event about which Hades was called to assist Hythlodaeus. That involved a lost/anguished soul from the Underworld fixing itself to a creation, which Hades promptly resolved; the phenomenon was noted to be unusual. Although it could be unrelated, what if that was an early manifestation of the crisis that would later engulf the world and what prompted the whole study of phantomology in the first place? With the idea being that the ancient world was subject to a similar soul division process as used in Gaia and Terra that disrupted the normal "flow" of the Underworld, whence the sound triggering the loss of control over the creation magicks (then spawning the monstrosities) originated in the first place. Perhaps as a result of an outright invasion later, once enough knowledge had been garnered about the ancients.

Another interesting parallel is the Iifa tree's biological structure, such as this, which is not too dissimilar to this. If they were to weave in the Tower of Babil somehow, it'd provide an interesting architecture for it - and the connection to the Underworld would provide a parallel to the base of the Iifa tree.

As for Zodiark, at least appearance-wise, he has noted similarities to Necron, so this art piece is interesting given the expression. One angle is that the newly summoned Zodiark will take on a similar outlook to Necron, having witnessed the actions of Zenos and Fandaniel, both of which have a nihilistic bent.

There's also this curiosity in Ilsabard's map.

With the expansion drawing so much on IV as well, perhaps they'll try weave Zemus into it, and as for the XII connection between Zenos (Vayne) and Venat may be realised in Zenos getting the notion to absorb Hydaelyn's power, so I'm intrigued to see how they'll proceed in practice, as they'll no doubt be adding their own twists to each prior FF's story. With IX being one of my favourite ones though, I'm hoping to see some elements of it at the forefront.

Of course the picture can be seen that way but honestly it could also be that he is afraid that he might lose his power. Others on reddit have said that it looks like he is grabbing at the moon. I also dont see Hydealyn as looking like she is ashamed but that is bias talking of course.

I am just not sure why he decided to really make him look like the devil especially since ingame their pictures always show the same kind of figure.

We will see however what they have in store with him. My problem is more that he seemingly did not stop his tempered followers before the summoning of Hydealyn with their plans of sacrifices. He also seemingly does not command Elidibus who was his heart to stop the rest of the Ascians with their plan. Was it because he simply could not? Or does he not want to? Both could happen and honestly I would be fine with him being a nicer being and maybe having him and Hydealyn living in harmony at the end but its just funny that he still shown that way.

Because the planned sacrifices were deemed to be in the best interests of the star's future prosperity by the Convocation. Elidibus - his "heart", and by that I assume his controller - trusted his peers' judgement and by all accounts did not use the tempering to control their minds. Likewise, Emet-Selch afforded him so much autonomy that, even though he thought he was wrong not to draw on his memories, he respected that decision. This view is how the Convocation saw it, and even Venat did not dispute that they were well-intentioned. She just thought they were stubbornly rejecting her viewpoint that their doom hadn't been averted. We don't know the basis of that belief, and it is entirely possible that the whole matter of the sacrifices was brought in precisely to cause this kind of conflict and impel her group to summon Hydaelyn, in order to remove him. At the same time, Elidibus had taken his leave of Zodiark to mediate the dispute and then Zodiark had another primal grafted onto him. I am sure Zodiark experienced a sense of dread given the specific style of her attack - enervation - but he was summoned to save (and by implication, protect) the world, so it's not hard to believe the dread related to failure to fulfill that duty as well. Being rendered impotent to do so would then play into that. With Elidibus out of him and potentially unable to re-enter him once the Primals locked into battle, the Primal was probably both angered and anguished by what was happening, and the two on a collision course.

I don't think they'd be drawing attention to the matter of (no) good and evil and light/dark if there was not something more going on and we know an awful lot about Zodiark by now which has subverted views of him being a blood god etc etc, so the appearances seem rather irrelevant to me.

So while they didn't say much about the new 24-man, they did say it's an FF14-specific story that ties into one of the big unresolved pieces of Eorzean lore.

That has to be Silvertear, right?

I meant to post this the other day but forgot ... it's a definite possibility, and there was this interesting tidbit:

GE: Speaking of stuff we talked about before that may have fallen through the cracks… Do you have any updates on the so-called mysterious primal? There was the idea that right after Gaius took Ala Mhigo, he was going to keep going, but a primal halted his advance. It could have happened in ’57; could have happened in ’62.

Koji: That was related to the whole, “What lies deep beneath Silvertear!?” Yes, something stopped his advance. And then there was the trailer beam, tons of primals shooting out. And then there was the seal. What is it sealing? What was going on in there? A lot of this is where the 1.0 story was supposed to go, and there’s a lore reason for that.

When the Calamity happened, it caused a lot of changes to Hydaelyn. Whether that was enough to seal off something that was already sealed, but the seal was getting weak, or… That I don’t know. There could be something like that. The hint was that Gaius was stopped for a reason, and that it was a powerful force. There’s a presence. It wasn’t just Midgardsormr there, it was more of a force, and I can’t say anything more, for now.