A Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Citation At Last

[Lyth]

The Alexander storyline already introduced the concept of countless timelines:

'Alexander dreamed all the realities imaginable - all the realities mathematically computable - and in the end, reached a single, logical conclusion. It would change nothing, and erase itself from existence.'

...

'There was but a single time Alexander was spurred into action - not to change history, but preserve it. The summoning of the colossus, and events that followed, had potentially disastrous consequence for our reality. Its fabric strained to accommodate an infinite number of potential futures separated by nary a thread.' (Dayan, Lv. 60 Judgement Day)

Not every outcome is possible or even equally probable. Nor do past splits really matter, as we know from the short story that Yoshi-p references in the interview:

'Though we shall remain forever on different pages of history ─ and different books, besides ─ I take comfort in knowing we strive for a future of the selfsame brightness.' (Biggs III, Tales from the Shadows: An Unpromised Tomorrow).

It's a bit like how a quantum mechanical description of the universe might work, except where every possible sequence of outcomes is recorded in parallel as its own 'timeline'. Which could be the case, but we'd have no way of knowing because they would perpetually diverge and not be able to interact.

From a storywriting perspective, it doesn't really change anything outside of showing you 'what if' cases and letting you understand the consequences of decisions. You're still primarily concerned with one timeline, namely, the one we exist in.

[Kesey]

I love this game, but I'm done with the fanservice and lack of character building.

This time lore, while interesting, comes with the tease that an alternate Emet is out there waiting to be a threat.

Emet, in my opinion, was the greatest villain this game has produced. He was swan-songed in Endwalker. Leave him there.

Seriously, I played through all of Dawntrail and I honestly have no idea what the real threat of the new narrative is. Frankly, Dawntrail has the weakest villains to date.

And you want to tease alternate Emet...

[Iscah]

The Alexander storyline already introduced the concept of countless timelines:

'Alexander dreamed all the realities imaginable - all the realities mathematically computable - and in the end, reached a single, logical conclusion. It would change nothing, and erase itself from existence.'

...

'There was but a single time Alexander was spurred into action - not to change history, but preserve it. The summoning of the colossus, and events that followed, had potentially disastrous consequence for our reality. Its fabric strained to accommodate an infinite number of potential futures separated by nary a thread.' (Dayan, Lv. 60 Judgement Day)

The thing is, I don't see that as evidence of a permanent, ever-splitting multiverse, but the opposite – there is ideally only a single timeline, which Alexander is trying to safeguard both by calculating its best possible route and by ensuring that any time-travel meddling will form stable time loops rather than changing something and causing a split.

While the possibility of time travel is in play (I take from these quotes), the ideally-single timeline becomes strained, as each second brings new possibilities of it diverging off in new directions if the time traveller does something incompatible with their original future. But this is a very different prospect to it spontaneously splitting all the time, and as Dayan says, it is not the intended state of the timeline.

To go back to the explanation you quoted in part:

There was but a single time Alexander was spurred to action─not to change history, but to preserve it. The summoning of the colossus, and the events that followed, had potentially disastrous consequence for our reality. Its fabric strained to accommodate an infinite number of potential futures separated by nary a thread.
Were the wings of time to fall into the hands of the Illuminati, the repercussions would be dire indeed. History would be rewritten over and over again, each time bleeding the land of aether. And in the end, the colossus would usher in another calamity.
To prevent this tragedy─to preserve the circle of time as it had already been set in motion─Alexander sent forth a humble servant to do its bidding.
A clockwork coeurl, an eternal child, to gently nudge history back onto its proper path.

The "infinite potential futures" were an unnatural strain on the timeline caused by Quickthinx's scheme; preventing it brought time back to its ideal state, a single "proper path".

That path diverged later to bring about the Eighth Calamity timeline, of course, but if it was just a single split then perhaps that can be accommodated, especially when it becomes essentially a necessary loop-the-loop to build the Crystal TARDIS (the work of several lifetimes) and get it positioned to defend the other half of the split timeline from ruin, twice – the best possible outcome Alexander could hope for, indeed.

[Lurina]

I don't think the writers really have a plan with the time travel stuff. Alexander and Elpis were closed loops because they thought it made for a good story, and Shadowbringers wasn't because they thought it made for a good story. And now they're saying it's all an open ended multiverse where new timelines are constantly formed because that's a convenient way to dismiss the incongruence.

Despite what everyone seems to be concluding elsewhere, it feels likely to me the Milalla also travelled through time and Alexandria originates from prior to the 2nd Umbral Calamity, too - that possibility was explicitly raised within the narrative, and it's an hourglass, after all. I don't understand why anyone would expect adherence to any consistent set of metaphysical rules when Shadowbringers and Endwalker made it obvious this is all being written by the seat of their pants.

[Rosenstrauch]

I am actively avoiding this forum in general due to still working my Minfilia alt/new main WoL(?) through Endwalker. Already had a few Dawntrail things spoiled for me elsewhere, so no sense in taking chances. But I saw the title and had to click on it.

I feel so very, very validated now.

[Cleretic]

Despite what everyone seems to be concluding elsewhere, it feels likely to me the Milalla also travelled through time and Alexandria originates from prior to the 2nd Umbral Calamity, too - that possibility was explicitly raised within the narrative, and it's an hourglass, after all. I don't understand why anyone would expect adherence to any consistent set of metaphysical rules when Shadowbringers and Endwalker made it obvious this is all being written by the seat of their pants.

I mean, with that one I'd more caution an Occam's Razor situation than anything; it's not that it's impossible that the Unlost World is from the shard lost by the Second Calamity, it's that it's less likely than another possible option (that it's from some other shard that didn't get rejoined).

It's a 'why take a longer road to the same destination' kind of problem.

[Lurina]

I mean, with that one I'd more caution an Occam's Razor situation than anything; it's not that it's impossible that the Unlost World is from the shard lost by the Second Calamity, it's that it's less likely than another possible option (that it's from some other shard that didn't get rejoined).

It's a 'why take a longer road to the same destination' kind of problem.

With respect, that's true only from the perspective of a reader. It's "simpler" for the Milalla not to have time traveled, and for it not to be possible for a remnant of a rejoined shard to be left floating in the void insofar as that concept has never been established, but only in an in-universe sense where this all some real unfolding history.

If you view the final scenario as the product of a series of creative decisions going from the foundations of the premise to the specifics, it seems more likely they decided on having a lightning-themed group from the lightning-themed dead shard first, then just fudged the details to make it work with the planned metaplot and decisions from the other creative departments, like the appearance of the post-MSQ state of Living Memory.

I could be wrong, but...

[Kennar]

Without getting into this game specifically, modern media has taught me that "multiverse" is too often an excuse for lazy writing. Want to bring back dead characters? Multiverse. Want to change the rules of how the world works? Multiverse. Want to retcon another writer's story to fit your own ideas? Multiverse. Nothing is impossible; everything is meaningless.

[Iscah]

And now they're saying it's all an open ended multiverse where new timelines are constantly formed because that's a convenient way to dismiss the incongruence.

I've been saying for some time that I don't see an incongruence between the "usually stable loops but one instance of a split". Both can coexist with the right set of rules.

It makes sense to me that the setting seems to prefer stable time loops if it is possible for them to form, but a split can result if someone is time-travelling to the past and creates a situation that contradicts the future they came from, so the timeline splits due to the paradox.

Introducing infinite additional worlds is what feels like the incongruence to me. I was saying that when it was theoretical, and I'm sticking to it now.

[WhiteArchmage]

Iscah, honestly, it feels like you're doing a lot of Doomsaying right now. In theory, there is a possibility that the writing team will throw everything in the garbage and instead focus MSQ entirely on Hildibrand-style shenanigans. In theory, it's entirely plausible we'll get the Turali version of Ifrit that's actually very nice and gives ice cream to children. In theory, it's possible that CU3 decides there'll be no more MSQ going forward and we'll just get new raid content. It's not a 100% possibility, but it's not 0, either.

That's what that answer read to me as, at least. And it's not even the first time that Yoshi-P's given an answer that basically amounts to "I mean, this is open here if you want to write fanfic about it." Because they like to poke at player creativity, and the "multiverse theory" he's talking about is basically locked to two universes which were already "connected" back in ShB (and if anything, sounds to me more like "hey, if our writers want to write another short story about that timeline, or you guys want to write fanfic about it, who am I to stop you/them?"

In no way is he saying we're going to get travelers from the universe where Varis was a good father and Zenos is our best friend but for reals this time.