6.0 Story Speculations

[Vyrerus]

1. Cilia will go back to playing and posting as Temujin

2. Moose will make us a quality comprehensive thread that people will love.

3. Cleretic will do a 45 minute 42 second video on Fandaniel.

4. I will forget about the forums until like half way through my time off for Endwalkers.

5. Yiankutku will make some quality posts again.

6. The story will polarize no one.

7. The lore thread will explode anyway.

[YianKutku]

1. None of the main Scions will die.
- That would leave a significant lack of Trust partners for 6.x dungeons; they can't really kill anyone since doing so will cut out a specific role or force you to use G'raha for healer / tank (so Urianger and Thancred are def. safe). Y'shtola won't die because she's too popular, and as the de facto deuteragonists the twins are all but guaranteed to survive. Estinien just came back to the fold and without him there would be no melee DPS trust.

Honestly I'm undecided on whether I should speculate on the fate of the twins. I agree that ultimately they'll be fine, but I'm not sure if Endwalker is going to be on the nose enough to do a fake-out "death", like Palom and Porom in FFIV, where they're basically saved because the plot wants them to be there for the big cheer climax. But that's what many people are expecting for Alphinaud and Alisaie anyway due to the FFIV links, so if it happens, it probably won't be a huge shocking event.

I'm actually wondering about Y'shtola. She'll definitely survive, but I have the suspicion she'll survive in the way Arenvald survives: still alive, but no longer able (or willing) to adventure with us. I feel like it's a graceful way to let her fade into the background and make way for new characters, while keeping her available for consultation in the way Matoya is. Strangely enough, I'm less sure of this possible fate when applied to the other OG Scions, like Thancred and Urianger. Y'shtola's story just seems mostly done in terms of venturing forth to adventure, but there's a good case for an extended epilogue of quiet retirement and research.

Also a darkly amusing corollary to "these Trust NPCs are indispensable" is that if 6.0 introduces new NPCs that share the same required roles, Thancred and Urianger would suddenly lose their plot armour.

7. The thus-unnamed floating continent will be very important.
- They don't leave it undisclosed otherwise...

A while ago I meme-ed in a Discord channel that Endwalker will end with the huge climactic battle that will literally destroy the planet, and all that is left are floating landmasses over the abyss that used to be the core of the planet, and that's where the floating continents and Island Sanctuary will come from.

[StriderShinryu]

I don't really know that "availability for Trust use" should be that big a guiding factor in whether a character is safe or not. In ShB we already did have occasions where we only had one "choice" in a role for a specific role, specific characters showing up only as Trusts in a single dungeon, characters that flex between roles, etc. We also have the Scenario and Avatar versions of Trusts so that if we were short of characters at a specific point in the story (say if both twins were indeed.. otherwise occupied) they could basically sub in extra characters that exist as Trusts only in that one case.

Just as an example, in the Scenario mode of Holminster Switch, we can use Lyna as a DPS trust but she never appears as a usable character again but, if we want to do Holminster later on, we can use Avatars mode and bring YShtola there even though she was still in RakTika at that point so couldn't have been there.

[Lauront]

Regarding Pandaemonium, while it is reasonable to surmise it may have been used to house experiments, it remains unspecified. Each of the language versions puts a slightly different slant on it, but the common thread is a subterranean stomping ground/holding pen for very dangerous beings.

On another note, I wonder if they will find room to squeeze in the Creator from IV's The After Years... it overlaps a bit with some of Omega's story and traits, but as a being that studies civilisations across worlds through seeded crystals, and then destroys them, it could be there is a common thread behind the destruction of 2 and almost 3 stars. Also easy to tie in references to beings such as Lavos into such a thing. I'm strongly expecting a Zeromus ref, so why not both?

[Cilia]

1. Cilia will go back to playing and posting as Temujin

Joke's on you, I'm keeping it on Trpimir so people don't think I'm a woman. (I'll play as her first tho.)

6. The story will polarize no one.

Unfortunately, being grounded in contemporary real-world politics, and real-world politics being kind of polarized (even globally)... I blame social media. (Are primals an allegory for the dangers of populism?)

-snip-

In regards to specifics:

Alphinaud will retire from field duty to be the new Antecedent as was hinted at... some point, or a political player in Sharlayan. He's always been more of a bookworm and diplomat than fighter, after all.

Alisae will remain on field duty trying to emulate her idol (the PC).

Thancred will likely retire or die. His character was heavily intertwined with Minfilia, and with her now gone he's basically reached the conclusion of his own story arc. There's not much more to do with him as a character, so outside of gameplay convenience having him as a Trust tank there's no reason for him to still be active.

Urianger may or may not retire from field duty. Though he's been effective in that capacity, he's a researcher first and foremost, and his talents are better utilized there. (It's nice to see him regularly in the MSQ though.)

Y'shtola is too much of a maverick like Matoya to really retire and be a ruler / political leader. I expect she'll remain on field duty.

G'raha will remain as the PC's fanboy hanger-on groupie best friend and follow wherever s/he goes.

Estinien will remain on field duty, assuming he stays with the Scions.

The Scions will be reformed from a paramilitary organization into more of a "Band of Brothers" type deal, like how you met the city-state's representative in 2.0 just out and about. Everyone acting as a knight errant, basically.

I did say 6.x (so post-6.0 MSQ) dungeons though. Really though, the only way Estinien doesn't go away after 6.0 is if Zenos is reformed so there's still a melee DPS in Trusts... since Estinien was introduced pretty much just to fill that hole with Ryne stuck on the First... but as much as I'd like it to, we all know it ain't happenin'. (The Special Site still doesn't have new character bios and we're just shy of 2 weeks away, so other than important regional NPCs I'm still not sure there'll be any new recruits in Endwalker...)

More speculoos:

11. Fandaniel isn't the "real" Fandaniel.
- Our frenemy Danny Boy is really a normal person unrelated to the Fandaniel of Amaurot. As mentioned by Emet-Selch, it's possible to use anyone to "create" an Ascian; I suspect Fandaniel was one such case but it went very poorly. He didn't want to be an Ascian and tried to reject it, but was forced to; tried to return to his normal life only to find out he couldn't and immortality sucks, so he joined up with the Ascians and bided his time until they were all down for the count and he was free to enact his "Final Days 2: Electric Boogaloo" plan.

12. The Telotowers are funneling aether to the Tower of Zot and/or Pandaemonium.
- (The Tower of Zot is the "remodeled" Imperial Palace, yes?) Danny Boy wants to open the "Gate to the Gods," takes a lot of aether, so that's a secondary function of the Telotowers. Maybe. Or it's being sent to Pandaemonium to empower the source of the Sound, if the Sound even comes back and is down there.

It occurred to me that Alph is switching to Sage (Healer) so neither he nor Urianger really have their importance as Trust NPCs to save them, though I doubt either will die regardless.

They can sub in one-shot Trust NPCs, but that would kind of be a waste without continuity and banter. After 6.0 there still needs to be a full party available since the PC flexes to any role; assuming G'raha is still around (and he probably will be; too popular) we need 2 survivors (any role). Or just throw one-shot NPCs at us, idk...

[Veloran]

I did say 6.x (so post-6.0 MSQ) dungeons though. Really though, the only way Estinien doesn't go away after 6.0 is if Zenos is reformed so there's still a melee DPS in Trusts... since Estinien was introduced pretty much just to fill that hole with Ryne stuck on the First... but as much as I'd like it to, we all know it ain't happenin'. (The Special Site still doesn't have new character bios and we're just shy of 2 weeks away, so other than important regional NPCs I'm still not sure there'll be any new recruits in Endwalker...)

To echo what others have said, I really don't think we should be using Trusts as a litmus for characters staying around. The PR played up Estinien being a Trust in Endwalker, but this (and every other character's inclusion in the system) isn't really something all that relevant from a design/programming point of view. Ultimately Trusts are just squadrons with some more advanced scripting and dialog popups. Even if every single Scion were to die, it's not much of an endeavor to simply have other characters be used for future 6.X Trust content, who are introduced purely to be used for each of those individual dungeons. Even the role allocations aren't so important given they can just program the NPCs with whatever skills, health and damage numbers they want. It's all just a puppetshow where each NPC is programmed to do as much damage/mitigation/healing as they need to and to follow mechanics.

Moreover we're supposedly going to be dealing with an entirely new cast after Endwalker. There's limited reason to think that anybody will remain alongside WoL into next expansion.

The Telotowers are funneling aether to the Tower of Zot and/or Pandaemonium.
- (The Tower of Zot is the "remodeled" Imperial Palace, yes?)

Tower of Zot is the Thavnair tower. Also, I'm not sure it makes sense to have Pandaemonium as effectively the real MSQ ending in the patch content by tying everything into it as the source of the apocalypse, which is the entire thing we're supposed to be stopping in the main storyline.

[RyuDragnier]

With the new trailer having dropped, it looks like we're literally looking at our darkest hour in the game. There's heavy hints somebody will definitely sacrifice themselves here, and Azem's full power may be unleashed, judging by the launch trailer.

[Vflower]

"Come, let me relieve you of your burden. You've suffered enough."

That's the most interesting part of the trailer to me, who is the one speaking? Could she be Fandaniel's xxxx?

In the German trailer she says something like "Let's end this suffering. What else remains to hope for?"

[KageTokage]

The new dungeons they showed off look...interesting.

One seems to be somewhere in the aetherial sea with its gleaming paths of crystal, while another is...somewhere with an extremely morbid aesthetic, with dead trees, bones, and spheres of darkness adorning the landscape.

The latter seems more like some kind of nightmarish dreamscape then an actual place in reality.

[RyuDragnier]

The new dungeons they showed off look...interesting.

One seems to be somewhere in the aetherial sea with its gleaming paths of crystal, while is another is...somewhere with an extremely morbid aesthetic, with dead trees, bones, and sphere of darkness adorning the landscape.

The latter seems more like some kind of nightmarish dreamscape then an actual place in reality.

I'm gonna assume...

it's the dungeon before the fight with Anima. A nightmarish hellscape after the dreamer tries to get us to succumb and stop fighting.