Revelations from NA Fan Fest (July 2023)

[Cilia]

I thought they said the reason Hingashi hadn't been invaded by the Empire was because they wanted to finish conquering the Three Great Continents (Aldenard, Ilsabard, and Othard) before they started going after outlying territories? Between that, their relatively weak navy, and their airships requiring refueling for long-distance travel, I have a very hard time believing the Empire's reach extended to Tural.

I hate to say "Citation needed," but...

[Cleretic]

'New World means Garleans' I think is just desperate cope from Garlean fans who don't want their time in the spotlight to be over. Yeah, there's just no evidence at all.

[Eldor-Ashdale]

Yeah that was my initial assumption, glad to know I've not missed a super obvious piece of lore, at least.

[Absimiliard]

How did Garleans even end up in this conversation? Their whole society just turned to dust; their military prowess is gone, most of their remaining citizens are constantly wavering between starving and freezing, and the lion's share of their magitek was destroyed. They aren't going anywhere for a very long time.

[MikkoAkure]

How did Garleans even end up in this conversation?

Because this earlier quote.

Speaking of more New World locations, it has been mentioned in the past the Garlean Empire had sent out expedition teams already to conquer some of the lands in the New World so we know they have setup control in certain areas of the New World already. However, we only get mentions that uprisings happened in those locations as well during the War when word spread about how the Garlean Empire was being pushed back and the status of those locations and the Garleans left stranded there due to losing contact with the Garlean Empire remains unknown.

As far as I can tell, the idea of Garleans being in the New World began somewhere on the internet, maybe even here, when people were talking about ceruleum being found in the New World according to the BLU quests and wondering if the Garleans had an outpost there because of that since Thanalan shows that the Garleans like setting up on every ceruleum vent they can find. Someone made a theory that the Vth Legion was there because they haven't been mentioned yet and because of "something, something, FFV had a western continent" and then like a lot of FFXIV lore "facts" it started spreading around as if it was an actual thing that happened.

While it was originally just a fan idea, it's not entirely impossible that there's a lost legion out there separated from the homeland with no contact and no knowledge of the fall of Garlemald. Just because the capital fell doesn't mean that every single legion across the world suddenly had their magitek crumble and rust and laid down their arms and teleported back home. The XIVth legion was abandoned in Eorzea for a time after Gaius' "death", the VIth is still stuck up in the sky, and the IVth legion went AWOL during the war and tried to make their own nation.


While it might be interesting come across a legion on the far side of the world that isn't immediately hostile, or at least funny to tell a legatus who hasn't heard back from home in a bit that his crazy prince committed patricide and destroyed the empire, I'd prefer if the new expansion had no Ancients, no Ascians, no Allagans, and no Garleans.

[Cleretic]

Honestly, far from the BLU quests suggesting that maybe the Garleans were over on the western continent because of ceruleum, the BLU quests basically confirm they couldn't be, because this is exactly a story where they would've turned up if they could've and they didn't.

What, you're telling me that these people think the Garleans would've been on the same continent as a rich source of ceruleum held by people they would've considered 'savages', and just never bothered trying to take it by sheer military force?

[Kesey]

I guess the possibility exists they do crafting/reconstruction content for Garlemald in the expansion, as they have hinted numerous times that a reconstruction will need to happen it's just not time for it yet.

But short of an announcement at one of the upcoming fanfests, I wouldn't hold my breath.

[Cleretic]

I guess the possibility exists they do crafting/reconstruction content for Garlemald in the expansion, as they have hinted numerous times that a reconstruction will need to happen it's just not time for it yet.

But short of an announcement at one of the upcoming fanfests, I wouldn't hold my breath.

If it happens, we likely know what 'slot' it comprises in terms of expansion development: it'll probably be Dawntrail's equivalent of Ishgardian Restoration in Shadowbringers, or Island Sanctuary in Endwalker. If it's in that place, it'll likely be mentioned at a later Fanfest, but we won't get fuller details until the patch cycle starts again.

It's possible that it'd instead be more on the level of the Doman Restoration. I wasn't really around for that expansion's cycle (I was playing the game during 4.0 but not really paying attention beyond what was in the game, dropped it for a while at 4.1), but I'd wager if it is then we wouldn't hear it at all during the Fanfests, and it'll only crop up during patch live letters. I think this is pretty unlikely, though; the Doma Restoration was more of a leveled-up equivalent of the Revenant's Toll and Idyllshire developments in ARR and HW, which wouldn't make a lot of sense for somewhere as far-flung from the rest of the expansion as Garlemald would be for Dawntrail.

[Lyth]

It's also worth remembering that they will be continuing the Variant/Criterion dungeon series into 7.0, which will give them lots of scope to explore regional lore about virtually any topic they like. I'm hoping that there ends up being a Deep Dungeon as well, because those are also great for investigating the history of an area.

As much as I'd like to explore other areas as well, the one advantage that the New World has over all the alternatives is that it has no real ties to previously established lore, which allows them to write a story free from player preconceptions. I think reintroducing yet another Garlean stronghold back into the New World in this way would defeat the purpose. There will still be opportunities to explore those other stories in parallel, but let the limelight shift away from the usual for a bit.

[Magikazam]

Honestly, far from the BLU quests suggesting that maybe the Garleans were over on the western continent because of ceruleum, the BLU quests basically confirm they couldn't be, because this is exactly a story where they would've turned up if they could've and they didn't.

What, you're telling me that these people think the Garleans would've been on the same continent as a rich source of ceruleum held by people they would've considered 'savages', and just never bothered trying to take it by sheer military force?

I mean, It would be hard for a Garleans single outpost to conquer a whole continent. It just would be hard to even receive supply for the Garlean empire (The same Empire that somehow had 2 internal war in the same year, second one collapsed their empire.)

I can see lots of scenario where Garlean could be on the other continent ngl and I'm not against learning more about them, as they were just some generic evil empire whith slight hint of lore that we barely ever see reflect into the game.