[5.55 Bozja spoilers] Additional post-ending Bozja story hidden in the field record

[Beddict]

I also highly doubt that Gabranth is dead. Taking a look at the Field Notes on Noah, it says the following:

Later, the body and armor of the ill-fated Gabranth would be discovered by the resistance, though he was not immediately identified as such—in part because the burns were so severe that his face could scarcely be recognized, and in part because so few had seen the face under the mask in the first place. Still, in the end, the identity of the corpse was confirmed, and news of the death of Noah van Gabranth spread across the land.

Bold for emphasis, but the body is identified as being Gabranth. However, it's also worth taking a look at the Field Notes on Dabog II:

To speak in terms that you might understand, I devised a technique that allowed the extraction of memories from my dear test subject VIII, Dabog. Said memories could then be implanted into other Hrothgar captives, thereby allowing mass production of hypertuned soldiers. Brilliant, is it not? It was a breakthrough that would forever change the face of war as we knew it. Or rather, it should have...

I am admittedly something of a perfectionist─it was not enough to simply manufacture an assortment of hypertuned soldiers. They had to be perfect. Uniform... Which is why I may have made more than a few aesthetic modifications to ensure they all resembled the original Dabog. I can hear Valens now. “Why even bother!? All those damned animals look alike.” And he certainly isn't wrong─they all do bear an uncanny resemblance to one another. Nevertheless, it was a detail I refused to overlook. And I could scarcely wait to see the looks upon your comrades' faces when my soldiers took to the field.

Sicinius developed the technology to extract a person's memory and implant them in the body of a hypertuned soldier that he has shown great skill at aesthetically modifying. My bet is that Sicinius created a stronger body for Gabranth by taking a hypertuned soldier, modified it to look like the original Gabranth, and then implanted all of Gabranth's memories in it. It lets Gabranth fake his death perfectly by torching the old body, and as an added benefit, gives him a stronger body which he may have needed given the theories about him suffering from the same disease that killed his father, and his final cutscene where he talks about not having much time left. I figure he'll be back as the figure influencing Princess Ashe behind the scenes.

[PangTong]

Overall I think it's pretty obvious from the notes that either Gabranth is not really dead or there is some shenanigans going on with his death. Either way it doesn't matter to me because all that stuff is contingent on the possibility of the story continuing in the future. I don't really care about theories as to what happened since either we'll find out or we won't.

What's baffling is why they spoiled all these future events in the field record when they could have just as easily... not done that. If you're really planning to continue the story, why go over all this stuff now instead of, you know, when you continue the story? Doing it this way puts them in this awkward position where they either have to skip over a bunch of major events because it was in the notes, or go through the trouble of retelling those events even though we already know what happens.

The fact that they're spoiling it all now, and in a fairly definitive way, suggests to me that there is not going to be a major continuation of this saga. While there are a few loose threads that could allow some of these characters to show up again, all the major conflicts and events are resolved. Any continuation would have to be some kind of new story arc and thus doesn't necessarily have to be a direct sequel to Ivalice/Bozja. It could just be that Lyon or Gabranth or Fran shows up in some other content series and there are some dialogue winks and nudges if you've completed Save the Queen.

If I had to make any guess at the reasoning here, this is my theory: It's pretty clear at this point that the Empire is done for. It's hard to picture Endwalker's story playing out in a way that ends with the current antagonistic Empire still existing as a major threat. There is not really any time to have a "Dalmasca liberation" arc in the main story, so the devs probably felt that it would be incongruent to get to 6.1 or or 6.3 or 7.0 or whatever, just to have yet another content series where we're beating back an Imperial legion, long after the Empire has ceased to exist/be a threat. Although it's true that the IVth Legion are basically a rogue army at this point, it might still feel "off" to be fighting any faction that identifies as part of a Garlean Empire. With that in mind the only sensible way for the liberation to take place is off-screen, or as some incidental dialogue/cutscenes.

Even so, it still doesn't really make sense to explain/spoil it NOW, instead of after all this stuff has occurred chronologically. So I think the field notes are really meant to serve as a conclusion to the saga, and the obvious "threads" like the mysterious weapons and the suspicious circumstances of Gabranth's dead, are just meant to leave the door open in case they ever want to reuse those characters.

[EdwinLi]

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I feel it maybe also a way for them to setup part 3 of FFT/FFXII story to not require players to complete FFT Raid story (aka Part 1) and Resistance story (aka Part 2).

The dialogue for part 3 of FFT/FFXII story can have two sets of dialogue being one where the NPCs know the WoL and one where the NPCs do not know the WoL. That way if they setup FFT/FFXII part 3 to bring us to a rebuilt Dalmasca or a new location and want to give players who miss out on finishing Part 1 and Part 2 instant access to Part 3, they just need to follow the lore given from Gabranth's notes as justification why players are not required to go through part 1 and part 2 since no matter if WoL gets involved or not during Part 1 and Part 2 the events of Gabranth's Notes still happen.

A lot of players may end up angry if Part 3 force them to go through part 2 since not many like the design of part 2 of FFT/FFXII story progress.

[Ultimatecalibur]

Hence why I believe he'd sit back and judge them, fitting for him being the Judge Gabranth reference from FF12. Dalmasca has already been hinted at to be the one with potential problems in the future. Additionally those two weapons are very much wild cards in this since we have no idea what they are or what effects they could have on the user that could alter their views. To me, with the setup they've put the effort into making, it's a matter of 'when' they bring Gabranth back and not 'if'.

This might lead him to using those auracite weapons to turn into the Libra Lucavi Sel/Exdeath the Judge-Sal.

As of now we have seen the following Lucavi in FFXIV:

• Aries - Belias
• Taurus - Duma/Argath and Yiazmat
• Leo - Hashmal
• Virgo - Ultima
• Scorpio - Cúchulainn
• Sagittarius - Rofocale and Shemhazai
• Capricorn - Adrammelech
• Aquarius - Famfrit
• Pisces - Mateus

The ones that are missing are:

• Gemini - Zalera (already mention in FFXIV as the Death Seraph)
• Cancer - Zeromus/Zebbeb
• Libra - Exdeath/Sel

[WhiteArchmage]

This might lead him to using those auracite weapons to turn into the Libra Lucavi Sel/Exdeath the Judge-Sal.

As of now we have seen the following Lucavi in FFXIV:

• Aries - Belias
• Taurus - Duma/Argath and Yiazmat
• Leo - Hashmal
• Virgo - Ultima
• Scorpio - Cúchulainn
• Sagittarius - Rofocale and Shemhazai
• Capricorn - Adrammelech
• Aquarius - Famfrit
• Pisces - Mateus

The ones that are missing are:

• Gemini - Zalera (already mention in FFXIV as the Death Seraph)
• Cancer - Zeromus/Zebbeb
• Libra - Exdeath/Sel

As a caveat, we saw Ultima in a form inspired by her original Tactics appearance with lots of creative liberties, not her XII/TA/TA2 look. Considering we got "Mark IV" versions of Belias and Hashmal, we MIGHT see another version of the "High Seraph" complete with giant cannon under the skirt.

Also, Chaos is the Esper tied to Taurus, though I forget WHAT happened to the Duma stone to know if he would make a cameo appearance. We also had Chaos as a boss in Omega in his FFI appearance, but Omega were specifically based on stories. Considering the "Warrior of Light" WAS a "real" figure, Chaos in his Ivalice guise could be, too.

[Ultimatecalibur]

As a caveat, we saw Ultima in a form inspired by her original Tactics appearance with lots of creative liberties, not her XII/TA/TA2 look.

I'd argue that the Keita Amemiya "angelic upper half monstrous lower half" design was based on the XII/TA/TA2 version.

Considering we got "Mark IV" versions of Belias and Hashmal, we MIGHT see another version of the "High Seraph" complete with giant cannon under the skirt.

The "4th Make" versions of both used the same models and animations as their raid versions. I'd more expect a Lucavi rematch to be against the "Demi-Virgo" version.

[ICountFrom0]

We might get the 13th form as well, maybe?

[Yuella]

From the last cutscene, it looks like Noah is dying from some sort of illness so they faked this assassination but for what purpose? Tricking the Dalmascan into thinking Lyon betrayed the IVth Legion when in fact he didn't?

[RyuDragnier]

From the last cutscene, it looks like Noah is dying from some sort of illness so they faked this assassination but for what purpose? Tricking the Dalmascan into thinking Lyon betrayed the IVth Legion when in fact he didn't?

Bingo. Lyon is intensely loyal to the Gabranth family, having served his father for years before Noah took control, and has served Noah for over 20 years. By making it seem like Lyon killed Noah, the Resistance will stop all searches for Noah and just focus entirely on Lyon, who is more than able to lead them on a wild goose chase (and get some good fights in). Noah, as Beddict pointed out, may have had his being transferred to a newer body which will take the reins and is currently setting things up for his next big plan.

[Slatersev]

Also, like pay attention to the scene between Gabranth and Lyon, Gabranth is very casual about telling Lyon he has to put him in jail to set and example and Lyon literally just says fine.

There's no lingering look of anger, its handled super casually. Lyon taking it personally and leading a coup wouldn't just be outta character, it would be incongruous with the final scene.

The Field Notes are very obviously meant to set stuff up and tease future plot points, not hurriedly tying up a story they dont intend to revist.