Yup, I Am Calling It...We Are Going To Meracydia In 8.0!

[Brynne]

I think Meracydia is unfortunately a ways out based on Yoshi-P's words in the linked article above. Of course it's valid to hope that he means "next expansion" far out, and not "a couple expansions away" far out, but I doubt it. I'd be happy to be proven wrong, because I'm super curious about Meracydia, but I suspect we're going somewhere else first.

We have the Key in our possession, yes, but we don't really know how to use it yet. Given that we're going to Garlemald next patch, I'm thinking maybe a trip to some of Ilsabard's other regions might be on the horizon.

[HammAndCheese]

It's possible, but we've had FF7 bikes for two other expansions' Fan Fests and the story doesn't seem related.

It is usually the preorder and collector's edition minion/mounts that hint at things, and it's usually only partial references (like how Dawntrail isn't entirely FF9 but just uses some references).
I believe we are done with the void forever. We finished that story - for good.

We can't fix the void NOW, because the lore of Reaper and Black Mage depend on it. To solve that, we set some characters (Zero and Golbez) on a course to fix it "eventually" ie. when the game gets shut down. That story is done.

We will have to wait and see won't we? We can absolutely fix parts of the void anytime the devs see fit to revisit that storyline. There is no "can't" about the matter.

[Kranel_San]

At this point, I just want for us to go to Meracydia so we don't have to repeat these threads every single expansion since Stormblood at least.

[VeyaAkemi]

If we are going to not-Australia, we really need that arachnophobia filter...

[HammAndCheese]

If we are going to not-Australia, we really need that arachnophobia filter...

Whoop, all spiders, but larger.

[Jeeqbit]

We will have to wait and see won't we? We can absolutely fix parts of the void anytime the devs see fit to revisit that storyline. There is no "can't" about the matter.

It has been common for an expansion to be about what was dealt with in a prior expansion's patches, I just think it doesn't make sense in this case. I feel that we did fix part of it by sending a load of light to it. If we did what we did in The First and got rid of all voidsent like we got rid of all Sin Eaters, it would be difficult to explain the fact that Reaper exists as a job when all voidsent are no longer, well, there. They took care of the the story in what I felt was the only logical way they could by saying that the 13th will be fixed eventually, but it will take a lot of time. As you said though, we'll see later this month.

It is unfortunate if I'm right because the aesthetic is quite cool.

In Shadowbringer, I forgot her name but there was a warrior from the 13rd introduced to us within the job quest, where she was the "traitor" of the warrior of light withint the first reflect. She got a new quest on 7.35 when we've got pilgrim palace. There was here early talk of turning back the 13th in something habitable.

With Zero in the end of Endwalker before we've got that annoying Wuk Lamat, we were also working a lot with 13 reflect and the lore from there.

All the talk from the sidequests and NPC chatter was prior to us going to it in the Endwalker patches, and then again right after we started going.

[VeyaAkemi]

Whoop, all spiders, but larger.

You are thinking small my friend, if memory serves, that's where Tiamat and Bahamut initially established their brood.

Fire breathing spider-dragons, and that's just a start.

[mallleable]

I really want to go to Meracydia too, but with a lot of the talks of Garlemald at the start of Dawntrail, and at the end, there is more reason to believe we're getting more Garlemald, and the rest of Ilsabard in 8.0.

[Reginald_Cain]

bruh you guys are right.... I shoulda realized corvos variant dungeon queued we'd revisit ilsabard. the question is will we see Dalmasca? What of the other border nations of othard and ilsabard like nagxia?

We might get multiple world locations like stormblood and get meracydia and islabard.
Perhaps bifrost will take stage along side meracydia to hint at a heavensward 2 style expansion. The ending patch always hints the next expansion and this art doesnt get more heavensward coded. winterers? the dragons of meracydia?

[Reginald_Cain]

With regards to final fantasy 7 references, I don't believe we'll get anything as on the nose as the ffiv fan service in ew. I do believe we will get Jenova as a trial or raid and hear me out! It will be linked to Oizys from Cosmic exploration, The plague on the Grebuloff homeworld and perhaps as the prime mover of the omicron empire. In stigma dreamscape we can see not all omicron wanted to go forth with expansionism despite the fact that a robot network should work as a hive mind. What if as a subversion to Jenova using her cells to control biological lifeforms, she employs a digital virus to the omicron infecting most of the network to conqueror planets to mine their minerals for machinery while she saps the aether like she would the lifestream of planets she'd hop to in ff7?

Oizys's gravitational anomaly looks way to much like ff7's meteor after getting hit by a rocket! Not only that but it looks drained of it's aether much like the burn as if it was recently sucked dry by an alien monstrosity.