Solution 9 - Unfounded Speculation!

[MikkoAkure]

They could find a new paradise in Solution 9. They could decide that they needed to move forward instead of trying to reclaim the past. Solution 9's lightning aether could protect them from the Ascians' detection etc etc.

Considering they were ghosts who freely traipsed around the moon and multiple worlds and have been around for 12,000 years, I don't think there's anything they didn't know. Emet-Selch knew about Vrtra's "secret" underwater treasure hoard after all.

I think the use of the Ancient script is interesting and there's a connection somewhere, but I don't for a second believe that they are Ancients themselves. WE are descendants of the Ancients and are moving forward instead of trying to reclaim the past and that whole story beat has been done already so I doubt they'd retread it.

[Denishia]

I think the most anticlimactic explanation is they are an isolationist society that's been there the whole time. Like they found a way to survive the second umbral calamity and they've just been in hiding. "Yeah, we've just been down in this cave the past 7000 years perfecting our cyberpunk aesthetic. A meteor? Hurled right at your continent? Ya don't say."

Oh, see even that is way too spectacular for how low I'm resetting my speculations. Solution Nine is, at most, a thousand years old. And probably less two hundred. But younger than Mhach. It's actually not an older civilization at all but a contemporary of all the other Turali nations that came together to form Tuliyollal and the seeming tech difference on the practical international stage didn't translate to imperialistic power over their neighbors. The Cyberpunk is all aesthetic. This sounds ridiculous but it will be justified in the plot. The big level 98/99 twist are something altogether different.

[kaynide]

Oh, see even that is way too spectacular for how low I'm resetting my speculations. Solution Nine is, at most, a thousand years old. And probably less two hundred. But younger than Mhach. It's actually not an older civilization at all but a contemporary of all the other Turali nations that came together to form Tuliyollal and the seeming tech difference on the practical international stage didn't translate to imperialistic power over their neighbors. The Cyberpunk is all aesthetic. This sounds ridiculous but it will be justified in the plot. The big level 98/99 twist are something altogether different.

Ehh, I mean considering real world Earth went from horses drawn wagons to Drone-based Amazon deliveries in less than 200 years, it's not THAT unrealistic to speculate a rapid rise of tech prowess. And since we already had a high-tech society in the Allagans however many years ago, any exposure S9 had to it would only accelerate their progress.

I'm more curious if it's connected to anything else in old lore (like the Green "Ark" near Rhalgar's Reach is connected to Sharlayan). Like, I wonder if S9 is the survivors of Mhachi. And the streets are crawling with undead (but very polite) citizens!?

[Denishia]

See, if Solution Nine is tied to the civilization of Urqopacha, being a heavily and aggressively expansionist empire originating in a Peruvian-looking region, then a lot of undead would be highly appropriate. What with not just the mummies but that dead rulers were still afforded political power and given taxes, so a fantasy version could very well have actual zombies.

I want whatever is going on in Solution Nine to not be connected to anything else - especially not Allagans (or Ascians). But I will grumble a tiny bit less if it's Mhach just because of the post-patch Void Quests teasing but not doing anything substantial with the Void Ark raid. Just enough to remind players of its existence.

If forced, I would rather have rogue Meracydians if there's an outside group (Allagans, Shards, older non-Turali civilization, etc...) involved to lay the natural foundation for going to Meracydia in a later Expac beyond an Estinien-level excuse of checking off the bucket list.

[MikkoAkure]

I'm more curious if it's connected to anything else in old lore (like the Green "Ark" near Rhalgar's Reach is connected to Sharlayan). Like, I wonder if S9 is the survivors of Mhachi. And the streets are crawling with undead (but very polite) citizens!?

Mhach’s version of that Sharlayan ark in the mountains was the Void Ark that was supposed to take them to Dun Scaith and we all know how that turned out. Ul’dah, Sil’dih, and Ala Mhigo were populated by Mhachi survivors so I think they’re accounted for anyway.

Does anyone know if Allag used the modern alphabet? I know all our maps for Allagan areas do. If Solution Nine is still using an older script, they’d have to be older than even Allag, from another Shard, or picked it up from somewhere and adopted it as their own for some reason. I think that script being there pokes holes in a lot of theories and limits the scope of our speculation.

See, if Solution Nine is tied to the civilization of Urqopacha, being a heavily and aggressively expansionist empire originating in a Peruvian-looking region, then a lot of undead would be highly appropriate. What with not just the mummies but that dead rulers were still afforded political power and given taxes, so a fantasy version could very well have actual zombies.

The old civilization of Urqopacha were giants and their descendants still live in Urqopacha. I think they’re the trolls that are being copy-pasted from Treasures of Aht Urghan that were shown off in the last fan fest.


Another weird potential clue is the merry-go-round that Yoshi-P insisted is important. Horses aren't very widely known around this world, but Solution Nine's merry-go-round features them. If Tural is accurate to our world, horses would not be present there at all unless they were introduced but the people they've been in contact with as a potential Europe-analogue use chocobos instead.

[diamondedge83]

Something just came to me now as I was reading these responses; perhaps it's already been hypothesized, I don't recall, but solution 9 could come from the Eighth Umbral calamity timeline's future. Perhaps they created an entire city and had it travel back in time to long before the timeline split (or created the city after they arrived) in order to escape the Ninth Umbral Calamity. Chrono Cross event in our future? It's probably something way more mundane, but it's fun to think about.

[Denishia]

Another weird potential clue is the merry-go-round that Yoshi-P insisted is important. Horses aren't very widely known around this world, but Solution Nine's merry-go-round features them. If Tural is accurate to our world, horses would not be present there at all unless they were introduced but the people they've been in contact with as a potential Europe-analogue use chocobos instead.

Good point about the weird chocobo/horse division in Aldenard and Othard. And it has me thinking about the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI) that allowed South American mammals, esp. marsupials, and terror birds into North America and the more successful invasion of native North America genus. But instead of a Central American land bridge, Tural has a literal narrow bridge. So it'll be interesting if the zones keep to an extreme division of mob types. And I'll be laughing if only one of continental regions has chocobos and whichever option they pick.

Please please have a glyptodon mob and make a mount version. I don't care which one of the armadillo mobs is used as a base, but I love all of them in game and give me new variations.

[SannaR]

Horses could have made it there depending on how wide spread the Ice Age caused by the 5th Calamity was. We do know that some Miqo'te and Lalafell crossed a few areas due to what we can probably safely assume were ice land bridges.

[Iscah]

I think that script being there pokes holes in a lot of theories and limits the scope of our speculation.

I think the script counts for very little. Given the prominent ruins beneath the city, it simply could have been discovered there.

solution 9 could come from the Eighth Umbral calamity timeline's future.

It seems very unlikely, both logistically and thematically, plus it would mean we have another functioning time machine in play and we really don't need that complication in the plot.

But instead of a Central American land bridge, Tural has a literal narrow bridge.

The massive chasm could be a recent development.

Please please have a glyptodon mob and make a mount version. I don't care which one of the armadillo mobs is used as a base, but I love all of them in game and give me new variations.

I think they already used "glyptodon" for the Island Sanctuary armadillos, with no special model.

I do want an armadillo mount though. They have very sweet faces.

Horses could have made it there depending on how wide spread the Ice Age caused by the 5th Calamity was. We do know that some Miqo'te and Lalafell crossed a few areas due to what we can probably safely assume were oce land bridges.

From memory, the Miqo'te migrated during the Age of Endless Frost when the sea had frozen over.

I don't recall what was said about the Lalafells, but since they originated from an island culture, it's likely they were seafaring and travelled by boat.

[Cleretic]

The massive chasm could be a recent development.

One of those 'not sure what to make of it' signs around Dawntrail for me is that the chasm doesn't have a name on the map. That thing's so big that it's very prominent on a world map, and yet it's not actually labelled.

I don't even know if that's actually a sign of something or just a bit of a quirk, though.