6.0 Mystery Zone Speculation

[Jennah]

We've met enough people from the 13th lately that I still think we're gonna head there.

Maybe we somehow start a rejoining to make Zodiark vulernable or something, I dunno.

If not, fixing it seems like the biggest loose thread around for a new story in 6.1.

[Enkidoh]

We've met enough people from the 13th lately that I still think we're gonna head there.

Maybe we somehow start a rejoining to make Zodiark vulernable or something, I dunno.

If not, fixing it seems like the biggest loose thread around for a new story in 6.1.

We've already been to the 13th, it's the World of Darkness, aka the Void, which is all that is left of it after the Flood of Darkness ruined it completely. There's literally nothing there other than a few ruined platforms and a whole lot of voidsent. So I doubt we would ever be going back there (after all, there are plenty of reoccuring events featuring voidsent appearing suddennly in the Source, so the story kind of has to keep the Void as is for that to make sense.).

[Seraphor]

We've met enough people from the 13th lately that I still think we're gonna head there.

Maybe we somehow start a rejoining to make Zodiark vulernable or something, I dunno.

If not, fixing it seems like the biggest loose thread around for a new story in 6.1.

We've met them through optional side quests that require you to level 4 jobs to 80.
They're definitely not going to be included in the MSQ for at least 2 more expansions.
And if they continue the thread of fixing the 13th via sidequests in 6.x, then it's not going to converge with the MSQ until even later.

[SoleilAlphi]

my wish is for Lunar Subterrain from ff4

[van_arn]

Well, I mean, van_arn only presented 'disable' them as one option (alongside 'teaming up with them').

Were I writing this, I'd be sorely tempted to further upend expectations and have us working to restore Zodiark and perhaps fuse Zodiark and Hydaelyn into a new, more-balanced entity. (After all, we know primal fusion is A Thing thanks to Rastapast- er, I mean Raktapaksa.) That'd do an end-run around the Hydaelyn-vs-Zodiark eternal conflict, and even aside from the Echo (which we'd presumably still have) the newly-fused entity could presumably also still lend us a Blessing... though one assumes it would be a Blessing of Light and Darkness (or a Blessing of Balance) at that point.

After all, we've been the Warrior of Light, and the Warrior of Darkness... maybe it's time to be the Warrior of Balance, and try to keep things from tipping too far in any direction.

Plus, honestly, I feel like there'd be a bit of a poetic balance if the arc that began with us trying to stop the Ascians from restoring their god (who we now know was created to stave off the end of the world) concluded with us trying to restore Zodiark as a step in trying to prevent the end of the world, and an Ascian (Fandaniel) trying to stop us.

But, again, that's me as a writer; I have zero idea what direction the devs will take it.

The Warrior of Balance [name provisional] would actually be a great setup for future content. And a pretty cool setup for another arc. We'd naturally be anti-void, and presumably have access to the machinery of both light and dark if that's the way the story would go.

Maybe it's a weird way of looking at Hyd/Zodiark, but I see them as more machines fueled by bodies rather than as beings with agency. I have no idea what their actual programming is, aside from "make the bad times stop" for Zodiark and "this way instead" for Hydaelyn, but finding consensus between those two directives could potentially bring about Zoedaelyn.

Then again, "using" Zoedaelyn would likely cost something. Maybe it's best to just blow up/absorb Zoedaelyn and deal with whatever it was created to muzzle.

[Payadopa]

It's not really a [zone] but every time I look at that Endwalker art i don't see a hole but a giant eye that's threateningly staring at the space craft that's coming toward it. My money is on the moon turning into Zodiark's eye (he's a big boii) and then the rest materialises so we can have our own Bayonetta 1 (last boss) moment.

[Jandor]

Hmm, mystery zone. Well for a wild guess I'm going to go with that rift that the Ascians like hiding in.

Fandaniel will have filled it up with monsters and some more traditional laws of physics so that it can function like a regular zone.

[BreyVoreas93]

To be really, brutally honest, I don't see Old Sharalyan appearing at all - it's on a tiny island completely isolated in the top corner of the world map, and has a policy of very restricted dealings with the outside world. That and it's kind of a FF tradition sadly to talk up certain places, and yet never have the player ever visit them at all (FFXI was full of these - Tavnazia (other than the ruined cathedral and aqueducts), the mithra homeland Ozhirlya, the whole eastern portion of the Iradjia continent where the far eastern nation Tenzen, Iroha, and the NIN and SAM Jobs came from was, the far northern continent the orcs and gigas came from, etc etc). Sadly I see the same happening here - places like Old Sharalyan will be mentioned constantly, but never actually visited. I think that's just being realistic.

As for the final zone, I think it's clearly going to be the Moon, and in keeping with the FFIV references, there will probably be a surface area like the Lunar Subterrene in FFIV, and an underground area that is decidely more bonkers and surreal the closer the player gets to Zodiark's prison (picture the Lunarian city in FFIV or, as Shougun mentioned, something like Terra from FFIX).

Either way, we'll find out soon enough!

Fully agree with this perspective, I do not see Sharalyan being visited at all. Beyond that, wasn’t the nation destroyed? I thought they talked about that in HW, or was that something else?

[Seraphor]

Fully agree with this perspective, I do not see Sharalyan being visited at all. Beyond that, wasn’t the nation destroyed? I thought they talked about that in HW, or was that something else?

Sharlayan is a huge island to the northwest of Ishgard.
It's not at all destroyed, it's the homeland of the people who settled in the Dravanian Hinterlands (which you may be confused with) and is where they all returned to when they abandoned the colony.
The landmass is much, much larger than the isle of Val which has had 4 full-sized map zones.
Its almost as big as Thavnair.
It's perhaps comparable to Hingashi, for which we got a city hub, Kugane.

The Sharlayan's have been hinted at having more knowledge about Hydaelyn, and in ShB a lot of parallels were drawn between them and old Amaurot.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if their involvement is instrumental to concluding the Hydaelyn/Zodiark story.

[Rosa_Frandlia]

Sharlayan is a huge island to the northwest of Ishgard.
It's not at all destroyed, it's the homeland of the people who settled in the Dravanian Hinterlands (which you may be confused with) and is where they all returned to when they abandoned the colony.
The landmass is much, much larger than the isle of Val which has had 4 full-sized map zones.
Its almost as big as Thavnair.
It's perhaps comparable to Hingashi, for which we got a city hub, Kugane.

The Sharlayan's have been hinted at having more knowledge about Hydaelyn, and in ShB a lot of parallels were drawn between them and old Amaurot.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if their involvement is instrumental to concluding the Hydaelyn/Zodiark story.

And the Sage reveal. Remix of Gubal theme, Sharlayan architecture, and when you look at the reveal trailers they are in new zones typically and not old. Remember how we thought GNB reveal was in Thanalan, but turned out to be Ahm Ahrang? Also mention that Alphinaud switch to Sage is in the MSQ really makes me think the possibility it is our main hub is possible.