6.0 Story Speculations

[KizuyaKatogami]

I also don't know if Square has the balls to actually kill a core cast member ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I hope they do tbh. It’s been a long time coming. They’ve played extremely safe thus far, but with a literal apocalypse coming i don’t think they can keep it going anymore. There needs to be a sense of threat and urgency and a core cast member dying would issue just that.

[HiraishinNoJutsu]

I hope they do tbh. It’s been a long time coming. They’ve played extremely safe thus far, but with a literal apocalypse coming i don’t think they can keep it going anymore. There needs to be a sense of threat and urgency and a core cast member dying would issue just that.

I hard agree with this one. Although I overall enjoy the story of FFXIV and think that unnecessarily killing characters for the sake of it is bad, setting the stakes of the literal END of days is very necessary. The previous apocalypse
-Destroyed the Laws of reality to the point where they needed to be rewritten
-Devastated the star to the point that Zodiark needed to restore the planets capacity to house life
-Split the convocation up with Azem's rejection of both summonings
-Hydaelyn's summoning and the subsequent battle that sundered the world
-The beginning of the Ascians self proclaimed "Great work"
I could go all day >:^)

These are massive events brought by the Final days of Amaurot so if we get off scot-free I don't know how I would feel. If Zenos or Fandaniel rolled up on the scions and just executed one of the members that would really light a fire under me to get going. ATM with Zenos i'm just excited to put him in the dirt. He's a cool antagonist/reflection of the WoL IMO but I don't have any real personal stake in him other than "TIME FOR ROUND 8!!! Scythe vs Scythe edition" you feel me?

[Adeacia]

I hope they do tbh. It’s been a long time coming. They’ve played extremely safe thus far, but with a literal apocalypse coming i don’t think they can keep it going anymore. There needs to be a sense of threat and urgency and a core cast member dying would issue just that.

I can agree that someone should be offed, however based on how things are in the story I can name only one person that best fits to be the person that should die. That person is...us. However since this is an mmo they can't exactly do that. Thus, in my view none of the scions should die.

[Lauront]

It WOULD be interesting. We've seen what the effects of such deep tempering are: Captain Madison and the Drowned, for starters. But the most notable are, of course, SIN EATERS. I'm not saying Fandaniel knows about the cure for Tempering, but it WOULD be on-brand for what we know of him to deliberately set to temper people so hard as to warp their bodies beyond saving. With the chaos that Sin Eaters caused on the First, having a continous source of sorta-Sin Eaters but Astrally-aligned would create a LOT of Chaos.

Plus, Fandaniel's towers have the capacity to temper and not everyone following along has the Echo or its counterfeit version. There's ways and means of resisting tempering (being tempered by a more powerful being or having the Resonance "installed", for example), but none without risks besides the Echo.

With regard to Sin Eaters, Voidsent are indeed their mirror since they're both corporeally corrupted by aether (light and dark respectively), and we saw Tadric replicate the process of creating them in the tank side quest. I'm certain we'll see some of this kind of thing as Fandaniel re-creates the Final Days (those towers already seem to be emitting something like a sound signal...), since the modern denizens of the Source lack the capacity for creation magicks, so he'll have to be creative in how he replicates the monstrosities. There is some precedent for this kind of thing in the DNC quests, but nothing on the order of the Final Days, hence all the preparation he is making.

I hard agree with this one. Although I overall enjoy the story of FFXIV and think that unnecessarily killing characters for the sake of it is bad, setting the stakes of the literal END of days is very necessary. The previous apocalypse
-Destroyed the Laws of reality to the point where they needed to be rewritten
-Devastated the star to the point that Zodiark needed to restore the planets capacity to house life
-Split the convocation up with Azem's rejection of both summonings
-Hydaelyn's summoning and the subsequent battle that sundered the world
-The beginning of the Ascians self proclaimed "Great work"
I could go all day >:^)

These are massive events brought by the Final days of Amaurot so if we get off scot-free I don't know how I would feel. If Zenos or Fandaniel rolled up on the scions and just executed one of the members that would really light a fire under me to get going. ATM with Zenos i'm just excited to put him in the dirt. He's a cool antagonist/reflection of the WoL IMO but I don't have any real personal stake in him other than "TIME FOR ROUND 8!!! Scythe vs Scythe edition" you feel me?

I also believe Emet-Selch was holding back a bit with regard to the MC's companions, because he was allowing for the possibility that the WoL would pass his test (hence the contingencies he set up via Hythlodaeus, etc.) Zenos and Fandaniel really have zero reasons to hold back in that way.

[KizuyaKatogami]

I can agree that someone should be offed, however based on how things are in the story I can name only one person that best fits to be the person that should die. That person is...us. However since this is an mmo they can't exactly do that. Thus, in my view none of the scions should die.

I think it’d be fine for some of the scions to die if written well. Yshtola has had one too many death teases and it would be interesting for it to finally come back to bite. Shadowbringers was the expansion with the biggest stakes yet, but somehow all of the scions escaped unscathed perfectly fine. That isn’t going to fly in this upcoming expansion. If we know the scions aren’t going to die, then where’s the threat? Where’s the urgency? If we know everything’s going to be fine it just defeats the purpose. Besides, Thancred, Yshtola, and Urianger have all really fit their purpose, so either one of them are fine to be killed off imo as long as it’s executed well. Graha left a bad taste in my mouth with how much plot armor they had to give him to survive so i’d really rather they not repeat that same mistake again just to keep the scions alive.

[HiraishinNoJutsu]

I can agree that someone should be offed, however based on how things are in the story I can name only one person that best fits to be the person that should die. That person is...us. However since this is an mmo they can't exactly do that. Thus, in my view none of the scions should die.

I think there can still be really interesting plot points about the WoL's state of being none the less. The DRK quests briefly touch on something like this but, I would still love to see what would happen if the WoL met another Azem shard and wasn't as fortunate with their attitude as they were with Ardbert and have an internal tug of war for dominance of being. Perhaps if the WoL becomes fully rejoined and we are swallowed up by our own Ancient part's will we would still be dead in a way?

I also believe Emet-Selch was holding back a bit with regard to the MC's companions, because he was allowing for the possibility that the WoL would pass his test (hence the contingencies he set up via Hythlodaeus, etc.) Zenos and Fandaniel really have zero reasons to hold back in that way.

SO! MUCH! THIS! I know extreme fights are not canon but Hades's Elegy makes me feel like Emet was just not playing hard ball with WoL during the dying gasp. I also have a sneaking suspicion the sorcerer of Eld has some more in store for us, as if we read into the implications of the translated white day dev blog from 2020 and assume that the one who helped us in SoS was the man himself and not a reflection from the stone. Emet-Selch is still conscious in the lifestream and now has an anchor to us in the form of Azem's stone.

[KizuyaKatogami]

I think there can still be really interesting plot points about the WoL's state of being none the less. The DRK quests briefly touch on something like this but, I would still love to see what would happen if the WoL met another Azem shard and wasn't as fortunate with their attitude as they were with Ardbert and have an internal tug of war for dominance of being. Perhaps if the WoL becomes fully rejoined and we are swallowed up by our own Ancient part's will we would still be dead in a way?



SO! MUCH! THIS! I know extreme fights are not canon but Hades's Elegy makes me feel like Emet was just not playing hard ball with WoL during the dying gasp. I also have a sneaking suspicion the sorcerer of Eld has some more in store for us, as if we read into the implications of the translated white day dev blog from 2020 and assume that the one who helped us in SoS was the man himself and not a reflection from the stone. Emet-Selch is still conscious in the lifestream and now has an anchor to us in the form of Azem's stone.

To add to the bottom part yeah i agree 100%. Not only that but we know Elidibus is still alive in the crystal tower and with pandaemonium featuring lahabrea....i wouldn’t be surprised if all three of the unsundered show up in 6.0. Especially considering Fandaniel seems to be planning to do something to Zodiark,and with the expansion trailer featuring us as a paladin on the moon(protecting Zodiark) it would be interesting to see them.

[HiraishinNoJutsu]

with the expansion trailer featuring us as a paladin on the moon(protecting Zodiark)

DUDE THANK YOU! I have been waiting for someone to bring this up because even though Koji told us that the Amano art has secrets I haven't seen anyone talk about it in my neck of the woods. I'm not sure why but when I see the drawing the first thing that comes to mind is "Desperation". It looks like Hydaleyn is triumphing over Zodiark and those blue tendrils look like his essence is being drawn out of him and in a last act he's reaching out to someone to save him.

Zodiark's original purpose was to save the ancient world and my admittedly own little head canon is that the quotes in SoS can be interpreted through Zodiark as well, things like
"I am Salvation given form" Zodiark's raison d'etre and "Mankinds first hero and his FINAL hope" Zodiark being the last resort the convocation turned to as a means to stop the final days

With this in mind I have a hard time painting him as the malevolent figure he was described back when all we knew of him was that he was the Ascian's "Dark God" but I also feel like its only fair to give Hydaleyn a chance to explain before we draw any conclusions(things like if the sundering was intentional or an unforeseen side effect would change or perception of Venat and the Mother Crystal instantly for example)

Your Idea that we might be protecting Zodiark from something or someone feels like a plausible idea my guess is that were either protecting him from Zenos who's getting ready to fill the Elidibus sized hole in him or maybe someone else coming to finish the job? Curious on what everyone thinks!

[KizuyaKatogami]

DUDE THANK YOU! I have been waiting for someone to bring this up because even though Koji told us that the Amano art has secrets I haven't seen anyone talk about it in my neck of the woods. I'm not sure why but when I see the drawing the first thing that comes to mind is "Desperation". It looks like Hydaleyn is triumphing over Zodiark and those blue tendrils look like his essence is being drawn out of him and in a last act he's reaching out to someone to save him.

Zodiark's original purpose was to save the ancient world and my admittedly own little head canon is that the quotes in SoS can be interpreted through Zodiark as well, things like
"I am Salvation given form" Zodiark's raison d'etre and "Mankinds first hero and his FINAL hope" Zodiark being the last resort the convocation turned to as a means to stop the final days

With this in mind I have a hard time painting him as the malevolent figure he was described back when all we knew of him was that he was the Ascian's "Dark God" but I also feel like its only fair to give Hydaleyn a chance to explain before we draw any conclusions(things like if the sundering was intentional or an unforeseen side effect would change or perception of Venat and the Mother Crystal instantly for example)

Your Idea that we might be protecting Zodiark from something or someone feels like a plausible idea my guess is that were either protecting him from Zenos who's getting ready to fill the Elidibus sized hole in him or maybe someone else coming to finish the job? Curious on what everyone thinks!

Don’t worry you’re not the only one that thinks that! Actually Lauront has a very interesting version of the Amano artwork that uses a negative filter and lets just say...things start to make a bit more sense when you see that. The trailer did get me very excited though because not only did it show us on the moon where he resides, but it also showed us with Elidibus’ shadow. So it seems we very much are taking his role. Also in the trailer we see the Source glowing an eerie Hydaelyn blue. So i wonder if Fandaniel at some point decides to go for her instead. But yes the Amano art does paint Hydaelyn to be very...malicious, much to the dislike of the community it seems .

[Lauront]

Ah yes, this...




We'll see what comes of it, but I do find it interesting how neatly the colour scheme falls in line with the Final Days and dawn theme with the filter applied.

I think there can still be really interesting plot points about the WoL's state of being none the less. The DRK quests briefly touch on something like this but, I would still love to see what would happen if the WoL met another Azem shard and wasn't as fortunate with their attitude as they were with Ardbert and have an internal tug of war for dominance of being. Perhaps if the WoL becomes fully rejoined and we are swallowed up by our own Ancient part's will we would still be dead in a way?



SO! MUCH! THIS! I know extreme fights are not canon but Hades's Elegy makes me feel like Emet was just not playing hard ball with WoL during the dying gasp. I also have a sneaking suspicion the sorcerer of Eld has some more in store for us, as if we read into the implications of the translated white day dev blog from 2020 and assume that the one who helped us in SoS was the man himself and not a reflection from the stone. Emet-Selch is still conscious in the lifestream and now has an anchor to us in the form of Azem's stone.

The JP version of the poem in Ere our Curtain Falls does suggest it was him. I'm not so much saying he was softballing during the fight (I see it as more of a gamble that he knew could end him rather than outright suicide), given how much it took to bring him down (with Y'shtola even remarking on his infernal strength), but more that he had set it up so either he prevails and proceeds with his plans, or the MC carries the torch. It's for that reason I surmise that he didn't take a scorched earth approach with their travel buddies. Again, something which Fandaniel certainly has no reason to care about and really, neither does Zenos.

I also found the MC's saddened reaction to what the Minstrel said of Elidibus to be... interesting, to say the least.