Warrior of Darkness: alter ego or something completely different?

[Kaiser-Ace]

He's wearing regular AF1 gear so he can't be that tough. That's like.. ilvl50ish.

It could be a glamour to throw us off too. lol

[Cilia]

He's wearing regular AF1 gear so he can't be that tough. That's like.. ilvl50ish.

Considering I can run around in golden underwear and lose none of my combat effectiveness if I so choose, I wouldn't read too much into that.

[Frederick22]

Guys, do you remember that screenshoot of Derplander and his party? They had NOT dye black AF1 also based on the colors of the screenshoots it was possible an echo flashback

What does it fits in all this?

[Naraku_Diabolos]

I agree that the Warriors of Darkness do represent us, and that we are fighting mirror images of what the true "FFXIV party" (from the CGI End of an Era trailers) represented. Think about this. The Ascians brought these images, a reflection, of us to come forth and wreak havoc. If I did not know any better, I'd say the Ascians created the Warriors of Darkness to bide time and have us fight them, while they are busy gathering strength and numbers just to resurrect Zodiark. It kind of reminds me of the Band of Seven saga from the InuYasha anime. Maybe in later patches once we (and IF we) are to even talk without fighting the Warriors of Darkness, we would learn more about them. To me, they are an alternate party of ours (if we had one) that the Ascians are using. Btw, remember the Midlander WAR from our patch trailers? He has red hair and a mustache. These character models for the Warriors of Darkness are different.

[Rbstr]

Here's my $.02:

Derplander is a parallel hero to the WoL during the events leading up to the calamity. Him and his whole party were teleported, just as the WoL was during the events of the calamity. He becomes the WoDarklander via one of two ways
#1 When they were teleported weren't hijacked by Hydaelyn. They just ended up someplace else, perhaps sometime else relative to the WoL.
Which leads to the key point the Heavensward trailer (and others) is using editing to lie to us about Derplander being a player stand in. He fled Uldah for Ishguard but under different circumstances ect.

#2 He's basically been around the whole time as one of the WoL's merry band of adventurers. We don't usually see these folks in cutscenes but they exist as kind of the canon explanation for all the other player characters running around and doing things with you. They had to flee uldah just like you did because they're basically your team. He ends up headed to Ishguard to catch up to the WoL you but gets embroiled in other happenings.

In either case, Derplander was part of Team WoL but ends up getting separated and becoming Darklander.
There's some good canon time in Heavensward where the WoL is off with the Estinien/Yasale/Alphinaud party in Dravania for all kinds of things to happen.

[Kallera]

This may sound a bit more pessimisstic than my former theories. But a more "classic mmorpg response" could be to eventually make Derplander and his merry band ineffectual villains instead of a longstanding ones. and, through the course of 3.x, we do away with the ascian faction.

I guess it depends on what sort of traits stand out with the Derplander when he is introduced, is his decisions those that the audience can relate with, even if our protagonist can't? Does he have true companions, or lackeys that he eventually loses? Does our character make the desire to defeat him a personal task(perhaps causing development of our own as we seek our "White Whale")?

[Morningstar1337]

Does our character make the desire to defeat him a personal task(perhaps causing development of our own as we seek our "White Whale")?

We already have a white whale, it's called Brismarch. And we also had several Pequods stafed with Ahabs trying to kill the beast. The only thing missing if if someone got snagged on the dragonkillers

(Also Titan also quotes the book)

On topic, I don;t think we're do away from the Ascian plot, but I do think that 4.0 will focus on the Garleans more than the Ascians (which is why 4.0 wouldn't be gated)

Also considering that the WoL is basically unkillable, I expect the WoD (if they are not primals) to also be just as unkillable as well (Though using the echo like the Sahagin pirest did might open them up to White Auracite gaol, but considering how rare the Auracite is...)

[Fenral]

Hmmmmmm... What I would like to see, that will probably never happen, hinges on my relative discomfort with the current portrayal of the Warrior of Light being something deliberate and intentional on the part of the director.

The WoL is a totally overpowered version of the self-sacrificing hero. Rather, (s)he's so thinly defined as a character that "self" never really factors into it, and everything they do is for some great abstract called the "greater good" which is both entirely undefined and also extremely rigid and inflexible as far as what "good" entails. This hero has run around for two major version updates (and a prologue), all to shine rock-mom's "light" across the world.

So what's the opposite? You'd be tempted to say "a bad guy," sure, but what if the WoD is another hero? Only he's not the complete self-denying saint, but instead operating on a self-defined code of morality, kind of like the Dark Knights. He was in a similar boat to the WoL, but was able to think on his own, to make that choice to hear out Eldibus, even if it meant going against the "greater good" in favor of the "lesser good." This can also be taken to uncomfortable extremes, though, so if the WoL is on the far left...

If the swords of Light and Darkness need to be wielded together, but can't be wielded at the same time... Well, these are just thoughts left here to be crushed by the next update.

[Kallera]

We already have a white whale, it's called Brismarch. And we also had several Pequods stafed with Ahabs trying to kill the beast. The only thing missing if if someone got snagged on the dragonkillers

(Also Titan also quotes the book)

On topic, I don;t think we're do away from the Ascian plot, but I do think that 4.0 will focus on the Garleans more than the Ascians (which is why 4.0 wouldn't be gated)

Also considering that the WoL is basically unkillable, I expect the WoD (if they are not primals) to also be just as unkillable as well (Though using the echo like the Sahagin pirest did might open them up to White Auracite gaol, but considering how rare the Auracite is...)

I meant "white whale" as in "something we persue to a fault, with a vengeance". Think Zephrinin.

[Morningstar1337]

I meant "white whale" as in "something we persue to a fault, with a vengeance". Think Zephrinin.

I know, hence all the Moby Dick references. You might be right on the Warrior(s) of Darkness being a rival(s). It might be interesting to see that group in the current tier raid gear though, to push the "These dudes are better than you" aspect of typical rivals.

Who knows, they might even be the type of people to appear out of the blue, help out group out and win the admiration of every save the WoL and maybe Alphinaud, basically Moles