Live letter is almost here

[KageTokage]

I feel like the weird structure of Stormblood's content was probably because they couldn't think of a good way to incorporate a dungeon into the 4.2/3 MSQ.

I also feel like we have to get in touch with the ignored Scions at some point in 6.x...and incidentally, both the twins and Thancred are busy with things in Ilsabard so as much as they claim we won't be able to predict the next expansion until 6.5, I think they're also a touch prone to underestimating how much people read into things

[aveyond-dreams]

I do not believe that returning the twins or Thancred to the MSQ would be beneficial at this point. If the twins aren’t going to grow up and stop preaching then it’s best that they be left behind - and preferably avoid having child characters in the main party.

You could make a case for bringing back Thancred at a later juncture, but after a stunning performance of doing next to nothing in EW and having his major arc conclude in Shb, I don’t have much confidence in him being able to bring something compelling to the story.

[SannaR]

Yeah you might be right. As the ending of Stormblood and the shifting into Shadowbringers ends with the Tsukiyomi fight which is just a trial. As the Burn is part of the ramp up going into Shadowbringers. Still a little bitter at the bait and switch and how watching that first fan fest to me took out the whaaaaat the heck is going on type of feeling they probably were going for when we had our almost died while having our meeting with the Exarch in the rift situation. I highly doubt many were expecting us to be aimed at going to the first. I was ready to have Stormblood 2.0 but this time with more grey scale while trying to figure out what was happening with the Scions. I think you can tell how adverse the devs were to wanting to deal with a Garlean centered expansion. Since they had us aimed at dealing with them at the end of Ghimlyt Dark while making people ponder what was going on with those that had been affected by the "calling" only to sweep us away to the first. Then go and destroy it off screen so that by the time we finally reach there it's in ruins and turns into a humanitarian mission. Only to be sort of touched on again in the role quest capstone and so far ignored by the MSQ yet again.

[Enkidoh]

For me the interesting thing about Myths of the Relm is who worships some of the gods as we know four semi active groups that hold one of the twelve as their deity. In the ones we haven't gone over. Yet do we know of any groups that worship Menphina, Althyk or Nymeia?

Menphina is worshipped fittingly by the Keepers of the Moon miqo'te, but they're more of a minority compared to their Azeyma-devotee Sunseeker kin, although it's unclear how deep that is given most Moonkeeper npcs tend to be solitary sorts, or random brigands, and no actual Moonkeeper communities have been seen (no those bandit hideouts in the Black Shroud do not count). I'm not sure but it would not surprise me if there were also a few acolytes of her among the elezen (specifically the Duskwight), given their preference for dark spaces and how Menphina's deity stone is in Coerthas overlooking Ishgard. As for the other two, worship of Nymeia was briefly forced on Ala Mhigans as the 'only supreme god' by Mad King Thedouric in the last years of his tyrannical rule, but it's not clear if any remained devoted once he was toppled (and in any event Gaius specifically forbade any religious worship during the Garlean occupation.).

I think now Nymeia is mostly just evoked by gamblers and the like as an Eorzean analogue for "Lady Luck", but otherwise has no structured devotion. And Althyk I'm pretty sure Sharlayan holds in high regard, as Louisoix specifically evoked his power to send the original Warriors of Light forward 5 years into the future during the Calamity (you can just make out Althyk's symbol appear on Louisoix's hand during the End of an Era scene, and the WoLs return 5 years later at Althyk's deity stone in Snakemolt in the Black Shroud (whether Amdapor worshipped him and thus Louisoix specifically put the deity stone there for that reason is a very good question).

Either way, it's going to be interesting to see how Myths of the Realm will depict them going forward and whether there will be any reference to this lore or not, although my gil is yes it will, but, we'll see.

[SannaR]

Menphina is worshipped fittingly by the Keepers of the Moon miqo'te, but they're more of a minority compared to their Azeyma-devotee Sunseeker kin, although it's unclear how deep that is given most Moonkeeper npcs tend to be solitary sorts, or random brigands, and no actual Moonkeeper communities have been seen (no those bandit hideouts in the Black Shroud do not count). I'm not sure but it would not surprise me if there were also a few acolytes of her among the elezen (specifically the Duskwight), given their preference for dark spaces and how Menphina's deity stone is in Coerthas overlooking Ishgard. As for the other two, worship of Nymeia was briefly forced on Ala Mhigans as the 'only supreme god' by Mad King Thedouric in the last years of his tyrannical rule, but it's not clear if any remained devoted once he was toppled (and in any event Gaius specifically forbade any religious worship during the Garlean occupation.).

I think now Nymeia is mostly just evoked by gamblers and the like as an Eorzean analogue for "Lady Luck", but otherwise has no structured devotion. And Althyk I'm pretty sure Sharlayan holds in high regard, as Louisoix specifically evoked his power to send the original Warriors of Light forward 5 years into the future during the Calamity (you can just make out Althyk's symbol appear on Louisoix's hand during the End of an Era scene, and the WoLs return 5 years later at Althyk's deity stone in Snakemolt in the Black Shroud (whether Amdapor worshipped him and thus Louisoix specifically put the deity stone there for that reason is a very good question).

Either way, it's going to be interesting to see how Myths of the Realm will depict them going forward and whether there will be any reference to this lore or not, although my gil is yes it will, but, we'll see.

There is at least one moon kitty that I can think of that we've known for awhile and that is the one who is apart of the archers guild. Then there is the moon kitty we were introduced to in this year's the Rising quest. Yet I was thinking more about how Menphina is labeled as the Lover. I don't know who would worship her in that way except for the obvious. Then the moon and later moons that form her symbol are called her hound(s). So is she supposed to be some Artemis/Diana hunting moon goddess equivalent? As nothing except for the mention that she's Oschon's lover hints that she's any kind of Aphrodite/Venus type. That and then look at how she is depicted. She is seen as a maid carrying a round skillet. She seems to be all over the place.

Looking at Althyk he too seems to be a jumbled mess. He's the surveyor of change and space. While also being the God of time. He's Azeyma and Menphina's father and Nymeia's older brother who is depicted as an austere Emperor who weilds a mythril greataxe.

Another thing about Nymeia as a place to look at would be the weavers guild since her depiction is that of weaver donning a white silken viel. I do wonder if we will see interaction between the Gods or not as some of them could be fairly interesting depending on who we get. As I stated that the alter alignment doesn't match how they're shown elementally in the few places we see all of their symbols.

[Destati]

Ultima Thule, one of those weird planets in the background though Elpis could be fun too, actually, especially with how Ktiesis is.

Some kind of storage archive in Labyrinthos.
Something Ktisis Hyperboreia like.
Anythings possible over in Thule.
Could even be some abandoned Garlean lab.

Gonna throw in my two gil and say that I doubt it would be Ultima Thule considering how these dungeons are meant to level alternate classes and unless I'm mistaken PoTD and HoH didn't require getting to the lategame and were located in relatively early-level zones. I feel like it's more likely to be in Labyrinthos for that reason (though hot take - personally I've had enough of Sharlayan for now). As much as I would love Elpis, especially considering how there's an area on the map that looks like it would be suitable for a deep dungeon, I think it's also too late in the game to work. Having it be in Garlemald would be interesting (somehow I neglected to consider it as a possibility), I'd love to explore a lab and learn more about the awful experiments they conducted. I think Thavnair could be ruled out because the Uznair Canals are already there.

[RukoBoshi]

Gonna throw in my two gil and say that I doubt it would be Ultima Thule considering how these dungeons are meant to level alternate classes and unless I'm mistaken PoTD and HoH didn't require getting to the lategame and were located in relatively early-level zones. I feel like it's more likely to be in Labyrinthos for that reason (though hot take - personally I've had enough of Sharlayan for now). As much as I would love Elpis, especially considering how there's an area on the map that looks like it would be suitable for a deep dungeon, I think it's also too late in the game to work. Having it be in Garlemald would be interesting (somehow I neglected to consider it as a possibility), I'd love to explore a lab and learn more about the awful experiments they conducted. I think Thavnair could be ruled out because the Uznair Canals are already there.

Garlemald would be the more interesting option simply because of how little there is going on there.
Aside from the final role quest, there's no significant content there right now compared to Sharlayan, Elpis or Thavnair.

Something with the tower of babil could be nice, i like it's aesthetic and it's not going anywhere, better give it some use.

[KageTokage]

Labyrinthos has the very conspicuously unused Meryall Pasturponics facility in the NE corner of the map, which could potentially be deep/variant dungeon material if it's where the gleaners store all of live wildlife specimens.

I also really would like to get to explore the magitek facility under the Tower of Babil at some point.

[Iscah]

I think Garlemald is more logical than Labyrinthos as the location of a facility-turned-deep-dungeon. The dungeon setting requires basically everything to break free from its cages and roam the halls, which seems more likely to happen in an abandoned military facility than the heart of Sharlayan with the gleaners hard at work.

The natural story hook would be that the Eorzeans discovered this facility – maybe scientific/bioweapons, maybe magitek construction factory, maybe a bit of both – and it needs to be cleared out before the threats escape into the city and threaten the survivors.

Also, a game-structure level, Garlemald is equivalent to the Ruby Sea as the third zone visited and location of the level X3 dungeon.

[Wyssahtyn]

personally i think it's probably going to be thavnairian