Preferences for a new world in 6.x, 7.x and beyond

[Kytrin]

I didn't read the whole thread so I'm not sure if this was mentioned, but I think what would be interesting would be if all of the remaining shards merged back into one world at the end... without the cost of life. Like our world literally became that much larger and more encompassing. I imagine that would lead to all sorts of fascinating new problems and places for us to explore and deal with.

[Katie_Kitty]

I didn't read the whole thread so I'm not sure if this was mentioned, but I think what would be interesting would be if all of the remaining shards merged back into one world at the end... without the cost of life. Like our world literally became that much larger and more encompassing. I imagine that would lead to all sorts of fascinating new problems and places for us to explore and deal with.

Certainly wouldn't be the first time. We've seen this kind of plot event happening in FF5, so I wouldn't be surprised if it happened. Would need some kind of explanation though for it lol

[Cleretic]

I didn't read the whole thread so I'm not sure if this was mentioned, but I think what would be interesting would be if all of the remaining shards merged back into one world at the end... without the cost of life. Like our world literally became that much larger and more encompassing. I imagine that would lead to all sorts of fascinating new problems and places for us to explore and deal with.

See, here you run into a structural problem with MMOs: doing this requires getting rid of The First. Since the First has entire persistent zones that can't be deleted, and FFXIV isn't the type of game to just go 'yeah this region isn't canon because we say so' (and thankfully, definitely not the type to retire content), the First has to remain in its current state. And because there's not actually anything special about the First... yeah, this idea's kind of a non-starter.

Also, it basically nullifies the entire purpose of the questline with Cylva and Unukalhai, which I assume they've included because they want it to have a point.

...Also also, I'm pretty sure that the shards rejoining by nature actually does involve a lot of loss of life, it just loses it in a way that doesn't involve literal death. You fuse the First with the Source, Runar does stop living, the fact his body didn't stop functioning doesn't invalidate that. There is no way to rejoin the shards without the loss of lives, which requires us to dismiss all the Ascian rhetoric that the Rejoining is an unambiguous, inherent good.

[Theodric]

I didn't read the whole thread so I'm not sure if this was mentioned, but I think what would be interesting would be if all of the remaining shards merged back into one world at the end... without the cost of life. Like our world literally became that much larger and more encompassing. I imagine that would lead to all sorts of fascinating new problems and places for us to explore and deal with.

Yeah, I think that would be pretty cool. It wasn't so long ago that there was absolutely no way to resolve Tempering but now it can be fixed. If the writers decide to have some sort of partial, non-lethal Rejoining take place, then I think it could work rather well. It's actually what I was hoping would happen to the First in order to keep it relevant in the long term. As it stands, it's largely forgettable to me. Sure, the Warrior of Light can go and visit anytime but the other characters can't and the majority of people on the Source are unaware of its existence.

One thing I envy about ESO and WoW is that they are written in such a way as to allow even regular civilians and soldiers to just hop through a portal and arrive in a strange new world. It's not without consequence or threat, either, since many are slain as a result.

Though as a role-player, the First does nothing for me. I don't portray my characters as Warriors of Light so they have no reason or plausible way in which to go to the First. If the First had been partially merged with the Source, however...well, that'd open it up to many more role-players!