Stormblood page updated with new lore.

[Khalithar]

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/stormblood/story/

Azim Steppe

This could be interesting to see if they actually include all 50 tribes for us to interact with. I can definitely see there being a reputation grind behind it in a similar manner to Zhloe. I'm hoping to see if we can unite the tribes against the Garleans or if we'll actually have to pick a faction to ally with, knowing SE we will probably have to unite them and/or fight against the ones that allied with the Garleans or choose to attack us.

It could also be used as a way to implement a new PVP mode or a new map.

Yanxia

A female viceroy occupying the castle? I wonder who that will be. Galvus' second in command maybe? Maybe a V or X ranked Garlean? Off topic from lore, the Doma theme from FF6 (a.k.a. cyan's theme) is actually my number one most favorite song in FF6, I REALLY want that to be the theme music of the castle. I'm predicting a 4 person dungeon where we'll fight her.

Ruby Sea

They call the place that runs it the Confederacy. Has that been in the lore anywhere before? Or is it a brand new faction? I'm sure Moose knows. :P

Susano

SE apparently really likes swordsman primals that live for the thrill of battle. Is that going to be a thing in every expansion now?

Kojin

They make me think of the Quadav due to the turtle like appearance. If I had to take a guess at the lore and the beast tribe quests we all know we're going to get, my initial guess is that Susano forces his followers to only worship him which would be considered a taboo or really bad to the ones that would instead choose to worship multiple deities. Primals don't like to share their followers after all.

Lakshmi

This will be interesting to see. Her description reminds me in some ways of Sophia, but rather than gilded chains she strikes me as a primal that genuinely wants to love and protect and nourish her followers even if that means stripping them of their free will so they have no choice but to surrender to that love and benevolence. Part of me doesn't actually want to kill her, I sort of want to see if we can come to some sort of neutral agreement with her in a similar vein to Ramuh.

Ananta

I'm not sure what to make of them aside from the fact that I believe they were created by the Allagans. Besides that I've got no theories as of yet.

Omega

I thought we'd fight it after it had been awakened but the fact it's called "Bend of Time" leads me to believe that we'll get some sort of storyline where we go back in the past and fight it or it has some sort of dimensional bending ability. I really hope it's not time travel related, we already got that with Alexander.

Samurai

Their lore entry leads me to believe what it will lead up to is Samurai that have been without a purpose finding a new one in training us and finally coming out to use their blade to keep the peace again. It could lead to a similar concept behind the Dark Knight story, i.e. men in power that think themselves untouchable being attacked by a pissed off vigilante with a big sword. They could even tie that to the Dark Knight job quests we get, it would be awesome.

Red Mage

Now THIS is what I've really been wanting to see and it's a great explanation. The black/white mages of Mhach and Ampador casting aside their differences to create a new magical art? Sounds badass, can't wait to learn more about that.

That's about it as far as the lore stuff goes. I'm really excited.

[Culfinrandir]

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/stormblood/story/

Edit incoming.

Interesting stuff. Shame that the page keeps changing onto other areas due to the crazy layout (on mobile) but the information is a bit exciting.

[Khalithar]

Interesting stuff. Shame that the page keeps changing onto other areas due to the crazy layout (on mobile) but the information is a bit exciting.

I really enjoyed the information we got, especially the stuff on the Jobs and the new locations. Gave us more of a hint of what we'll see and experience while we're there and at this point I'm eager for any and all information I can get my hands on.

[ZhaneX]

Agreed very much on the explanation for the Red Mages of Eorzea. Definitely looking forward to learning more about them, their art, their history, and so forth.

[Rocl]

The Doman viceroy being female makes me think she's that woman with the cigarette holder on the Stormblood poster. Who looks decidedly unGarlean given her dark hair so I'm curious...

I agree with Cyan's theme desperately needing a cameo! I've been hyped for it since the very first Doma namedrop... I'm almost hoping Yugiri's lord, the last Doman General, ends up being Cyan--or maybe that the irredeemable act Zenos/this new female viceroy commits is poisoning the One River :P

The Confederacy is news to me as well; as for Lakshmi I've seen Ramuh comparisons bandied about already but the thing I honed in on was her granting "life-bestowing power" to an entirely female race. That's one way to solve asexual reproduction, I guess.

[Khalithar]

The Doman viceroy being female makes me think she's that woman with the cigarette holder on the Stormblood poster. Who looks decidedly unGarlean given her dark hair so I'm curious.

A beautiful evil female with a cigarette holder. So cliche, she's probably going to spend her days sitting on a silk bed or cushions or something. But I have a feeling she could be the Viceroy, maybe a Garlean collaborator? Like the

various NPC's in the nin storyline such as their former master that was put in charge of a covert assault/espionage unit.

If she is a collaborator that betrayed her people, and the spoiler is any precedent, there is a good chance she got a high rank.

If we do get a recreation of the 'Doma' situation from FF6 I suspect it won't follow the exact same vein as Kefka's attack. Or at least I hope so.

I don't know, right in the same sentence with the Doma castle they mention the place called The One River where Doma has been built. I'm getting serious FF6 Kefka style attack vibes from that. I'm basically convinced at this point it's going to happen.

[YianKutku]

I don't know, right in the same sentence with the Doma castle they mention the place called The One River where Doma has been built. I'm getting serious FF6 Kefka style attack vibes from that. I'm basically convinced at this point it's going to happen.

To what end, though? Doma is already occupied by the Empire, so there's no need to break a siege. Any contamination of the river is going to affect the imperial troops just as much as the Domans.

Mind you, I'm almost as convinced as you that the One River's going to be poisoned at some stage; as you mentioned, the similarities are too striking. I'm just curious about the justification for the act.

(Maybe the Doman resistance needs to weaken the imperial presence in the city, and asks the WoL to plant casks of sleeping potion here and here...)

[Khalithar]

To what end, though? Doma is already occupied by the Empire, so there's no need to break a siege. Any contamination of the river is going to affect the imperial troops just as much as the Domans.

The evil Viceroy is defeated but rather than die, she barely survives and runs off deeper in to the castle, already a merciless heartless ruler, she decides that if she'll die she'll take everyone out from the rebels that were responsible for her fatal wounds AND the Garleans that treated her as little more than a self important barbarian. Thus she decides to give everyone a last middle finger since if she's going down she's going to take everyone with her and so with her dying breath she pours a mighty poison in to the water.

Galvus hears that his Viceroy has been defeated by the upstart Domans and decides that he's going to make every last one of the rebels suffer. He warns his men ahead of time who gather up as much rations as possible and then dumps poison in to the river, maybe some toxic magitek waste? Or an actual poison? If what we've heard about him is true, he'd have no issue inflicting, for lack of a better term, casual brutality on anything and anyone that dares even remotely defy him.

The resistance forces the Viceroy back and she realizes her fate is sealed, rather than give them the pleasure of killing her, she poisons the river entirely and then falls on her sword, giving herself a painless death and one last middle finger to the rebels and the Garleans.

That's just off the top of my head, I could probably come up with more.

[Mieck]

Azim Steppe

This could be interesting to see if they actually include all 50 tribes for us to interact with.

As anyone with the Lore book can attest, the only tribe we absolutely have to see is the Goro

[Theodric]

I like the part that states that it isn't uncommon to see Eorzean and Garlean ships docked side by side in Kugane. I really, really hope that the city remains neutral and it doesn't kick out the Garleans. The mention of political intrigue and scheming is interesting to me, I hope that means that we'll be seeing a lot of it and it will be more nuanced than 'Garleans are evil'.

With so many Xaela tribes to account for I doubt that we'll see all of them in-game, unfortunately. I do hope we get to see quite a lot of them, though - and hopefully those with darker themes or who side with Garlemald don't get killed off. With that said, if they do then it will simply show that Eorzeans themselves aren't against genocide when it benefits their 'cause'.

The Doman Viceroy being female is interesting. It's been a while since we've encountered a high ranking female Garlean and Livia was...well, very memorable.

If we do get a recreation of the 'Doma' situation from FF6 I suspect it won't follow the exact same vein as Kefka's attack. Or at least I hope so. Having it be a direct retaliation to Eorzean/Doman aggression against Garlemald would make it more morally grey overall and at the very least I hope it serves as a means to help create a faction of Garleans that are loyal to their homeland and people but not the cause and methods of Zenos and his key allies.