Will Coerthas ever return to normal?

[Lunaxia]

It looks like the issue of the Dragonsong War will be resolved within the next few patches, but there's still the matter of the region's current climate. Throughout the MSQ/ sidequests, it's been mentioned that the cold weather wrought by the Calamity has been as much a hindrance on their lives as their fight with the Dravanians, yet I wonder if we'll ever see this rectified?

It's true that the cold will be easier to deal with once the dragons are out the way, but leaving Coerthas as it is once the war is over would make things feel unfinished, somehow... though I don't see the devs taking out the only snowy region the game has.

Do you think Coerthas will stay this way forever?

[MicahZerrshia]

It was horrible they made Coerthas the snow zone to begin with, it was one of the most beautiful zones in v1 and they go and muck it up. It felt forced and out of place too from a lore perspective imo.

But since the snow is specifically spoken about in the msq there is no way they will remove it, at least from central and western Coerthas. We may get some of the old beauty back in southern and eastern but I am not holding my breath that we will even get these zones period, much less them being snow free since we got so few new zones in HW. I was hoping that they would release new zones in the patches to expand the areas we currently have, but nope.

[Theodric]

-snip-

It's possible that they intend for Ala Mhigo and the surrounding areas to look similar to how Coerthas did originally. Or at least that's my hope.

I don't mind all the snow and ice throughout Coerthas though. It has a certain charm to it and it 'fits' the gritty nature of Ishgard. I do agree that it'd be nice to have new zones show up in major content patches to expand the game world though.

[Februs]

Do you think Coerthas will stay this way forever?

From a lore standpoint, I personally choose to see the weather anomaly in Coerthas as something similar to a nuclear/atomic winter, just on a fantasy scale. Instead of persistent smoke and ash driving down temperatures, we have a persistent aetherical disturbance of some kind.

If that's the case, then this wouldn't be permanent, but it would be long lasting. Once the land has had requisite time to heal the temperatures and weather would eventually return to normal; however that process could take decades, possibly longer depending on how many other factors are in play. Wanton destruction or repeated primal summoning would likely sustain the effect longer, as both tend to cause undue stress on the land and throw extra pollutants (such as smoke/ash) into the sky.

From a technical standpoint, I don't see them changing the visual design of Coerthas anytime soon. Not only would it be a royal pain in the butt to reprogram an entire region's visual aesthetic, but, as you said, it's also the only snowy area in the game. SE will probably want to hold onto Coerthas for a good long time. If my theory about it being similar to a nuclear winter (or something with similar extended consequences) is true, then SE could run with it as an excuse to keep the region cold and snowy for practically as long as they wanted. I wouldn't be surprised if the snows only finally started to clear at the very end of the FFXIV lifespan, when the game is officially being put out to pasture. It would be a nice, hopeful, way of ending the game by leaving the world in better shape then when we first started our adventures.

[CyrusArjuna]

I'm all for having parts of Coerthas being the beautiful craggy green pastures they were in 1.0 (especially if they bring back that music <3)

I was actually talking to a friend of mine about all the changes from 1.0 to 2.0 and made this image to show a rough estimate of what we have access to now - http://imgur.com/28dFXIc. There's still plenty of Coerthas that they could change back, but according to Moose in this thread, some of the currently unused areas of Coerthas might be up in the sky now.

Edit: Was just looking over a 1.0 Coerthas map and saw a region labeled "Wyrmking's Perch" a little north of Dusk Vigil. Any word on what that was supposed to be? Are any of Midgardsormr's brood called the "Wyrmking"? (Labeled 1.0 map for anyone curious)

[Hinoto-no-Ryuji]

Devil's advocate: parts of La Noscea (and also the Dravanian Hinterlands!) already fill the plains-style-geography niche that a Green Coerthas would fit into, and Snowy Coerthas makes for a more distinct region vis-a-vis the rest of Eorzea.

I wouldn't mind see the Eastern Highlands and the Lowlands at some point, though. It might be nice to see the transitional geography between them and Mor Dhona/the Shroud.

[CGMidlander]

Nope, because it looks too cool. (And it would be too much effort to rework zones and content within zones)

[LineageRazor]

The situation in Coerthas is the result of an Umbral Calamity. I'd expect the situation to remain the same until the world is reconfigured by the NEXT Umbral Calamity. Which likely won't occur within the scope of this game (and, in fact, since we're Great Heroes it wouldn't surprise me if the game eventually leads us up to putting an end to Calamities in general).

[Celvantis]

In terms of design Coerthas is intergrated as being cold and mentioned via npc's and story who even dress for the occasion so it would be a bit odd to be in a sunny highland with npc's mentioning the cold and snow.
It would have to be a instanced area which is a whole bucket of not-gonna-happen issues and story wise it will probably take decades to a generation for the weather to return to normal eitherway.
I would prefer East Coerthas instead added as a transitional area with mostly green pastures. I much prefer the green highland and stone farm look from 1.0 and the music gave it a wonderful rustic countryside feel I sorely miss as well as areas like Owl's Nest.
The lack of landmass for Ishgard (even with West Coerthas which is just tundra and the Falcon's nest) just gives it less presence for me in spite of it's suggest military strength.

[Canadane]

When you have a significant gravitational pull suddenly encompass your planetary mass instead, you can expect some weather changes to be the least of your issues.
One could derive that Corethas was chilly before Dalamud was placed up there, and it's returned to it's natural state after many thousands of years.

I don't expect us to be seeing the greenlands anymore there.