6.0 Story Speculations

[WhiteArchmage]

I actually wouldn't mind the WoL being... free. Like, not having to deal with the Primal of the week, the world being at stake every other Tuesday; just being free to explore and ADVENTURE in a new, exciting world that has no need for a living weapon and its political power. The WoL finally free to adventure because they want to, not because they HAVE to.

That's why I'm likely head-canoning my WoL as retiring to their Island Sanctuary, and running a business after 6.0 ends. Likely going into a "Ah, <kupo> me. Again?!" come 6.1.

[Tensaihime]

Wait, wait, I’ve got it! The Ironworks! WoL will still be helping people because their motto is “Freedom Through Technology,” the money should be good (this armor does not repair itself), it has nothing to do with Zodiark and his followers, and we won’t be forced to separate 100% from all the characters we’ve grown to like!

[Vyrerus]

So I got asked to describe my favorite game vaguely today. It's FFVI, so I put up, "Amnesiac with magical powers tries to save the world, but the attempt results in a court jester and an assassin destroying it."

Could have been more vague, but I still had to describe the game lol.

It got me thinking about that scene though, with Shadow vs. Kefka on the Floating Continent. I know he's not as cut throat, and he's on a tank job these days, but Thancred is sort of the Scion's Shadow, though he has no history of robbing trains(to my knowledge) nor being a hitman (to my knowledge). People keep comparing Fandaniel to Kefka, so it made me think, "What if Thancred bites the dust doing something similar?"

Also I'd love, if we ever get a proper VI remake, to see Shadow push Sephirot into Kefka, crushing him in a Warring Triad Dagwood of a Sandwich.

[HiraishinNoJutsu]

Read this on the Wiki (Fact check me if its incorrect)

"A Lalafell from the archipelago of Sharlayan, Papalymo graduated second in his class at the Studium academy and came to study under Archon Louisoix Leveilleur, becoming his finest pupil. His father, a fellow thaumaturge, bequeathed to Papalymo a treasure held by generations of Totolymo's house: the Aurifex staff."

As a person who started in Gridania because... Kain Highwind. I felt done dirty by post HW. Papalymo Sacrifices himself and turns out Yda wasn't really Yda to begin with. When Shadowbringers rolled around and fleshed out the scions Gridanians were that expansions biggest losers!

Rant aside I hope that when we go to Sharlayan we get to meet The remaining archons and their connections. Does Papy's Family even know he bit the dust? Do they care? Was picking Lancer the worse choice as a new player?

[Vyrerus]

Read this on the Wiki (Fact check me if its incorrect)

"A Lalafell from the archipelago of Sharlayan, Papalymo graduated second in his class at the Studium academy and came to study under Archon Louisoix Leveilleur, becoming his finest pupil. His father, a fellow thaumaturge, bequeathed to Papalymo a treasure held by generations of Totolymo's house: the Aurifex staff."

As a person who started in Gridania because... Kain Highwind. I felt done dirty by post HW. Papalymo Sacrifices himself and turns out Yda wasn't really Yda to begin with. When Shadowbringers rolled around and fleshed out the scions Gridanians were that expansions biggest losers!

Rant aside I hope that when we go to Sharlayan we get to meet The remaining archons and their connections. Does Papy's Family even know he bit the dust? Do they care? Was picking Lancer the worse choice as a new player?

Nah, Lancer is an awesome job. I started in Limsa on Marauder, but the Lancer quest line sucked me in so hard with Foulques and defining Courage and the animations for spear and what not, that I wound up taking DRG up to 50 before WAR back in ARR.

Honestly, I think the Gridanian starters are likely best setup to deal with us possibly losing the Scions, whether they die or retire. They've already had theirs written out of the story(or rewritten into someone else), so when the rest are written out, then it won't feel as bad for you. I think you made a fine choice.

Also there's plenty of people who like each Scion just because they vibe better with them. I know people who started in Ul'dah who liked Papalymo and Yda best and stuff.

[RyuDragnier]

I'm hoping the reveal of the old Amauratine souls comes into play here, and that's only because of the recent mind blowing revelation a friend sent me. Apparently Hythlodaeus has been helping us in their reincarnation since the beginning of FF14, said reincarnation being Y'shtola. Now I'm not sure how they could fit it in, but if Emet comes into play, or if we need to find him to get him to help us for whatever reason, we know we have the person for the job.

[Enkidoh]

I'm hoping the reveal of the old Amauratine souls comes into play here, and that's only because of the recent mind blowing revelation a friend sent me. Apparently Hythlodaeus has been helping us in their reincarnation since the beginning of FF14, said reincarnation being Y'shtola. Now I'm not sure how they could fit it in, but if Emet comes into play, or if we need to find him to get him to help us for whatever reason, we know we have the person for the job.

An interesting theory, but one that falls flat when you remember Y'shtola does not possess the Echo, meaning she does not possess an Ancient's soul. Of course she may simply have not 'awoken' to it yet, but that's a stretch, and thus simply coincidence that Hythlodeaus and Y'shtola using the same gestures and animations.

The other side to that of course is that then cycles back to the old theory/statement of the Archons being "incarnations of the Twelve in mortal form", and given what we now know about Azeyma (and possibly Oschon) being possibly based on cultural memes of Azem... maybe there is something to this after all... until I then remember Hythlodeaus was never on the Convocation... so that's another strike against that theory. Doh!

And also, it might pay to remember Hythlodeaus's very name literally means "speaker of nonsense" in Greek, and indeed the philosopher character with this name was very subtletly depicted as really being a bit of an idiot as a wry pun in Thomas Moore's Utopia, and thus, don't automatically believe everything that came out of Emet and Azem's 'mutual' friend's mouth as factual. The two may suffer fools gladly, but that does not mean they're fools themselves. Or maybe I'm just babbling nonsense myself.

[KageTokage]

I feel kind of silly for not drawing a connection sooner, but the second lorebook mentioned the Othard Matanga as having an "irrational" hatred of Au Ra...but now that it's also been mentioned that they were one of the races to originally settle in Thavnair, they probably had a hand in causing an exodus away from their homeland.

I'd assume there's probably still a hostile group of Matanga there who opted to remain in stubborn opposition of the foreigners who will eventually be responsible for summoning the Magus Sisters at some point, though.

[Rosenstrauch]

An interesting theory, but one that falls flat when you remember Y'shtola does not possess the Echo, meaning she does not possess an Ancient's soul. Of course she may simply have not 'awoken' to it yet, but that's a stretch, and thus simply coincidence that Hythlodeaus and Y'shtola using the same gestures and animations.

As much as I am a proponent of the whole "Echo = Ancient Soul, No Echo = New Soul" thing—because honestly it makes the most sense in my mind—it was pointed out to me in that recentish Minfilia thread that what Elidibus actually said in the 5.2 cutscene basically amounted to "Everyone used to have the Echo". Whether he meant literally everyone, just the people of Amaurot, or just the survivors of the Final Days... it's actually not entirely clear, apparently.

If it's literal, then the only reason characters like Y'shtola haven't awoken to the Echo is... I don't even know. Maybe she doesn't have enough midichlorians in her bloodstream or something. But Y'shtola could definitely be Hyth's reincarnation and still not have the Echo, if that's the case.

On the other hand, the only real link between Y'shtola and Hyth has been them sharing an animation or two. Venat uses the same thinking/worried emote that Minfilia is known for, and Ryne in turn uses it as well. But now we've got a mystery lady at the end of the expansion who is most likely Venat herself. It'd pretty hard for me to buy that she was Minfilia at any point because of that. So... maybe a cigar is just a cigar, y'know?

On the other, other hand, the developers blatantly used the finger snap and handwave animations to indicate that the unnamed Amaurotine in the 5.3 Trial was definitely Emet-Selch. So maybe we're just not supposed to think too hard about all of this.

[Tsiron]

A thought occurred to me (immediately contradicted by what we know of post-EW content but...) what if they're tying up a lot of loose ends (the Garlean Empire is in a sorry state, the city states are cleaning up their various messes with their "beast" tribes, a cure for tempering exists etc.) because EW will involve either us leaving the Source for good, or something about it changing fundamentally to the point of basically creating an entirely new world somehow maybe we end up completing the rejoining?