What if our character died?

[Morningstar1337]

(Kinda makes you wonder if restoring it is really such a good idea, but I've been thinking that the entire time.)

Those that do not learn from History are doomed to repeat it. Forunatley I'd sure people would at least know of the Earthquake.

Plus, the Tower will likely not open again until there is a civilization that can surpass the Allagan Empire. By that point, it would either be redundant except as a power source or it will be studied so that this hypothetical civilisation can create backup plans so that it wouldn't be felled so easily to a mere earthquake (they cna also study What made Azys Lla the floating continent it is to that end, provided it dosen't require the Triad beyond powering the facilities there)

[Fenral]

The problem was not the earthquake, so much as having a single source of power for all mankind. As that seems to be G'raha's end goal (but apparently not Salina's), I'd say we're exactly repeating history. Given it can "only" be opened by the royal blood, according to in-game sources, if you can accept the possibility of it being opened again without the royal blood, then the royal blood never needed to be preserved inside it to begin with. Not even Alexander can sort out that paradox.

Anyway, my point was that having a single anything in which you place all your hopes invites disaster, be it world-powering power sources or the one person on the planet with any semblance of individual agency. This may be my Libertarian side showing, but I think the story as it is now could easily be rerouted into an examination of why Eorzea needs to be able to save themselves without counting on a Warrior of Light to do everything for them.

tl;dr: The story could only become more interesting if we died.

[DarthSanguine]

The Legend of Zelda has three timelines that diverge after Ocarina of Time (The one where you play as an Adult and Child Link). IIRC, One occurs after Link slays Ganondorf but chooses to stay int he future, another where Link slays Ganondorf and returns to his present (for reference the Direct sequel Majora's Mask is in this timeline) and one where Ganondorf wins.

Link doesn't stay in the future. Zelda forces him to go back in time to stop Ganondorf before he can take over.

[DarthSanguine]

the Garland empire would have free roam of all that tech, waring triad & bound 1st brood Dragon as they got in without the key).

The Garleans only got in because we broke down the barrier with an aetherial ram.

[Morningstar1337]

Anyway, my point was that having a single anything in which you place all your hopes invites disaster, be it world-powering power sources or the one person on the planet with any semblance of individual agency. This may be my Libertarian side showing, but I think the story as it is now could easily be rerouted into an examination of why Eorzea needs to be able to save themselves without counting on a Warrior of Light to do everything for them.

tl;dr: The story could only become more interesting if we died.

That does seem interesting though I don't think we'd die until the end if at all simply because...The Warriors are Player Characters, and chances are most people would be mad if their character were to die (especially in the unlikely scenario of SE decides to force an inability to play as such characters and force players to make a new one form scratch).

So something like that would either be reserved for a "Rhapsodies" type plot, as in an epilogue, be used as the basis for the Shards (which I don't think is likely), or if we decide to follow G'hraha's example and seal ourselves away for some reason...

With that said, The way the Warriors of Darkness were presented (Undead, using Crystals, otherworldly powers). Kinda makes me think of Madoka Magica and how the Magical Girls on that show were secretly Liches. Meanwhile the Ascians seem far closer to the traditional Lich (though still not an exact match), both cases are known to use the Echo to become such beings. It has me wondering if the Writers have Madoka or Lichs in mind when writing regarding the Ascian conflict?

[Cilia]

Long story short: it depends on what point in time we kicked the bucket. Earlier in the story getting a new Warrior of Light would be a pretty simple matter, but after we've established our status as a major player on the Eorzean stage it would lead to chaos and panic.

Exactly what the consequences would be remains a matter of what we failed to do, and whether or not you can predict the causal chain that would follow. At the very least Urianger seems convinced it'll lead to a Calamity...

[Fenral]

It's more than possible for the PC to die in a non-literal sense. Just look at the Major Arcana of the Tarot. "Death" may be the final boss of Persona 3, but in the Fool's Journey, which is to say: the story told by the numeric progression of the Major Arcana, Death is in the middle, representing a turning point, or the end of one thing as it leads to another. (As an aside, the actual "worst" of the Major Arcana is probably The Tower, which represents catastrophic failure.)

Granted, this may be impossible simply from an implementation perspective if there are more Warrior of Light title drops outside of the MSQ than I think there are. (CT and Coil come to mind, both of which are now MSQ continuity-broken, but I think the rest are WoL free.)

[Kallera]

It's more than possible for the PC to die in a non-literal sense. Just look at the Major Arcana of the Tarot. "Death" may be the final boss of Persona 3, but in the Fool's Journey, which is to say: the story told by the numeric progression of the Major Arcana, Death is in the middle, representing a turning point, or the end of one thing as it leads to another....

Granted, this may be impossible simply from an implementation perspective if there are more Warrior of Light title drops outside of the MSQ than I think there are. (CT and Coil come to mind, both of which are now MSQ continuity-broken, but I think the rest are WoL free.)

I think you have something there. as an example: iirc, forgetting the details of the WoL in the first place in 2.0 wasn't just a collective loss of memory, but done by an outside force. a reapplication of this would "kill us" without actually killing us.

[Belhi]

I don't think that Hydaelyn putting so much on the WoL isn't a thing she has really wanted as much as the only option she had left. She realised she was on the point of losing and decided to play a trump card. It cost her a lot but it as a play that it appears her enemies underestimated and it got away from them. I don't think Hydaelyn has placed everything on the WoL but we are effectively a cross between the king piece and the queen on her chessboard. We are the strongest but also the most crucial part of her remaining play.

TLR - When your facing disaster anyway a desperate play is better than an ineffective play or no play at all.

[RobinMalvin]

Would something happen to our bodies like Ysale's explosion in Azys Lla?

Ysayle's is not the only death that caused their bodies to disintegrate completely to aether. Louisoix, Thordan and his Knight Twelve all died in similar manner, probably because they took so much aether into them. Unless WoL decides to do the same, we'll die normally with remains to mourn.

While we've seen that WoL isn't without flaws, most people only know us as invincible hero, even those close to us sometimes forget how we're just as mortal as they are. Should we be killed, it'll serve as cruel reminder to the people that'll shock them to the core. Urianger knows this, that's why he convinced WoD to kill us, to sow terror in people's heart even greater than any calamity could hope to achieve.