Is there any lore justification for being able to do previous expansion's sidequests?

[Dikatis]

Although I definetely agree with you and share your opinon, unfortunately the development team lately has increasingly pushed lore explanations for various gameplay functions, even when there was no real need to do so! (Such as Fantasia and ability telegraphs/AoEs). I guess a line has to be drawn at some point as to where lore ends and "it's just a gameplay function and nothing more" begins.

Fantasia being a shady potion that costs a fortune and only a handful of people know about doesn't require that much of an explanation? And ability telegraphs being "read your opponent's body language to anticipate their attacks" as seen in the Hall of the Novice since Heavensward isn't really much of a gripe?

But Brightamethyst has the right of it. Sidequests take place in the expansion they were created for. You're just reading a book out of order.

[RedLolly]

Even the fantasia one was just a funny quest to give us a freebie as part of the graphical update, and so everyone gets a free one even if you bought a boost or beat ARR before it was a reward.

[Yuella]

I did Scholar's job quest (60-70) during 5.5 where the telophoroi's towers were up in several zones. During cutscenes, those towers were visible in the background.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Do you also need a lore justification for why players pop off into thin air regardless of the location where they have logged out?

Teleportation magics are canon. Just pretend they cast Return and went home for the night.

[RedLolly]

Teleportation magics are canon. Just pretend they cast Return and went home for the night.

The reason NPCs don't do it super often (though we see them do in some cutscenes!!) is because it's really expensive to travel regularly via teleport, and you can only take what's in your pockets, making it useless to merchants and most groups traveling together.

[Lunair]

The reason NPCs don't do it super often (though we see them do in some cutscenes!!) is because it's really expensive to travel regularly via teleport, and you can only take what's in your pockets, making it useless to merchants and most groups traveling together.

That's not the main reason, actually. the main reason is that teleporting requires using one's anima, or life aether, (and yes, this is still canon, there're NPCs who still mention that this is a cost.) and most people only have so much, and it takes time to replenish naturally, though it DOES replenish over time. So most people, even if they CAN teleport far enough, need time to rest between jumps. try to teleport without enough anima and FWOOSH, you're lost in the aetherial sea.

Also, regarding being able to see telegraphs, aye, that's been something we knew was canon for ages. it just has been reconfirmed in the MSQ with NPC dialogue in recent trials when you do them with NPCs.

Additionally, regarding Fantasia, there ARE lore-based ways that they might function, if one REALLY wanted to treat them as canon. For example, Fantasia may well be extremely aetherically dense, enough to destabilze one's aetheric composition, essentially inducing corporeal corruption like you might see in any other case of oversaturation/overaspectation/overpolarization, but also possessing of a bit of a hallucinogenic property, enough to dramatically loosen one's sense of self, allowing them to reshape their body to match, something that's actually in line with what we see with things like overcooked tempering corruption, (Drowned in Sastasha hard, victims of Anima's tempering in Garlemald, etc, where the primal causing it directly overrides the victim's sense of self.) but that's just one possible explanation, and would be obscenely dangerous to the point it'd be unsurprising for it to be treated as madness to try and make one.

Surprising as it is to folks, a LOT of game mechanic things in this setting DO in fact have lore-based explanations. the biggest exception just happens to be things relating to timelines since the time bubble is a thing.