Which location(s) are we likely to travel to in the next expansion? *SPOILERS*

[Belhi]

Wasn't it also said it could potentially take up to 6.0?

Well yeah but I had the feeling he meant the 4.X and 5.X cycle. I would be a bit surprised with three straight expansions focused on the Garleans. I like them and all but 6 years of them would be a bit Garlean heavy.

[Theodric]

Well yeah but I had the feeling he meant the 4.X and 5.X cycle. I would be a bit surprised with three straight expansions focused on the Garleans. I like them and all but 6 years of them would be a bit Garlean heavy.

You can never have enough Garleans...or Hingans.

I suspect that Garleans will still show up even after we explore their inner territories...even if it's just as part of various side quests. I'm also hoping to see more of Hingashi, even if it's just a brief glimpse of what the more secretive areas are like...though at the same time I don't really want it to fling open its doors to any and every outsider that comes knocking so I'd also be fine with it remaining a mystery.

[Lauront]

Well yeah but I had the feeling he meant the 4.X and 5.X cycle. I would be a bit surprised with three straight expansions focused on the Garleans. I like them and all but 6 years of them would be a bit Garlean heavy.

Agreed; I think they mean that the "Garlean issue" will be resolved by 6.0. They need to start working on the Ascian/Zodiark threat, as well as perhaps introduce some new ones for regions like the New World. Garlemald isn't the big bad in the setting; it is simply a nation-state with hitherto antagonistic methods to those favoured by the Scions/WOL.

[KageTokage]

We're still really in the dark about exactly what it is the Ascians are trying accomplish on a grander scale, other then that we're apparently instrumental to their little scheme somehow and that they (Supposedly) need to cause calamities to bring Zodiark back.

I can't help but wonder if we'll be playing into their plans by going to Garlemald even if it means depriving of them of a major source of strife in the end.

[manamoppet]

I think the Ascians are trying to balance the world so that there isn't too much Light compared to Dark. After we take down Garlemald and eventually battle Zodiark, we probably run into a problem that we must travel to another star to solve, or the moon, since our Light are eventually so strong that it disturbs the world.

HW spoilers:

The Warriors of Dark (aided by the Ascians) in HW came from a star overrun with Light, an empty world of pure white, and tried to thus cause more darkness in ours to balance the scales while at the same time taking down Primals we haven't. Unukalhai who help us with the Warring Triad came from a star overrun with Dark, a.k.a the world that became the Void. So too much tipping in favor of either Dark or Light is bad. If I remember correctly, the Ascians also talked in a cutscene about Hydaelyn being too strong and causing imbalance in our star, which is why they need Zodiark.

I think that's something to keep in mind for 6.X or so.

[Lauront]

My thoughts on this are...

The true nature of their intentions has yet to be fully grasped, as although they wish to effect the Rejoining and revive Zodiark, there's other matters at play, like the light/dark balance. That said, I don't think we'll see a take down of Garlemald so much as a potential alliance with it, as the Emperor is now more willing to consider negotiations with Eorzea and may need some help if "Zenos" gets out of hand. Even if he goes, the Populares will remain.

[ObsidianFire]

Just to point out... Hydaelyn is at her weakest right after she saved us from being stomped by Ultima. Lahabrea want's us dead at that point to further weaken her so that it's easier for Zodiark to come back. Hydalen is so weak that she can't talk to anyone at that point and it's only due to Minfilia giving Hydalen her energy that she currently can. It's also due to Urianger being a badass researcher that the Warrior of Darkness's Shard didn't fall. If Elidibus' plan for the Warriors of Darkess had gone though, both their Shard and our Shard wouldn't exist as we know them.

Also, Hydaelyn isn't the one who cause the Warrior's of Darkess's shard to become too "light". That's actually the Warrior of Darkness's doing since they got rid of all the darkess on their shard. It's heavily implied they did that because Hydaelyn was too weak from shielding us from Ultima to tell them they could stop fighting.

Every Umbral Calamity Eorzea experiences is another Shard "rejoining" with the Source. Each rejoining gives Zodiark more power and lore interviews have revealed that Hydaelyn split the Shards off from the Source out of desperation to slow down how quickly Zodiark was overpowering her. We've had Seven Umbral Calimities so half the Shards have joined the Source. One of them can't join the source because it was flooded with Darkness. The rest still can including the Shard Hydaelyn is bleeding the excess light off of (Warrior of Darkness's shard).

If the Ascians are committed to bringing about balance, they have a very, very counter-intuitive way of doing it. Or they're lying about that... that's a valid option too.

[Lauront]

Mayhap their concern about the balance is fuelled exactly due to what happened to the world that was once the Void. It was of no real benefit to them.

[Belhi]

I think the Ascians are trying to balance the world so that there isn't too much Light compared to Dark. After we take down Garlemald and eventually battle Zodiark, we probably run into a problem that we must travel to another star to solve, or the moon, since our Light are eventually so strong that it disturbs the world.

HW spoilers:

The Warriors of Dark (aided by the Ascians) in HW came from a star overrun with Light, an empty world of pure white, and tried to thus cause more darkness in ours to balance the scales while at the same time taking down Primals we haven't. Unukalhai who help us with the Warring Triad came from a star overrun with Dark, a.k.a the world that became the Void. So too much tipping in favor of either Dark or Light is bad. If I remember correctly, the Ascians also talked in a cutscene about Hydaelyn being too strong and causing imbalance in our star, which is why they need Zodiark.

I think that's something to keep in mind for 6.X or so.

I think you have a few details wrong there:

A balance is needed between light and dark to avoid a world decending into Void. Void worlds are useless to the Ascians because they cant be used to revive Zodiark, their god. That seems to be their major motivation for avoiding that happening. After all the 13th shard world became a void because an Ascian screwed up and allowed the darkness to get too strong.

What the Warriors of Darkness were trying to do was to cause a Calamity on our world, The Source, to force Hydaelyn to merge their world back into the source, effectively turning their world to aether and consuming it. That is pretty much the whole point of the Calamities. Doing so kills everything on the Shard world but the WoD saw that as a better outcome than their world becoming a Void.

I am not too convinced on Hydaelyn growing too strong either. After all our side has failed 7 times to stop a Rejoining. That means the Ascians are half way to reviving Zodiark. What that actually means for us is hard to say for certain but Hydaelyn claims she only caste Zodiark out in the first place as a last resort when he tried to seize control. I think Hydaelyn recognises that she broke the world trying to stop Zodiark and that it might not be possible to maintain forever but I don't think she had good options and potentially she doesn't know how to solve the problem in a way that isn't going to be very bad for us.

I actually had a theory that part of her reason for being so hands off is as an manifestation of the Light she recognises that by her very nature she doesn't possess the ability to truly create balance. However mortals that exist in a world with Light and Darkness may be able to find a way she isn't able to. Regardless I think that the fundamental broken nature of the world will be as much a major overarching issue for us as beating Zodiark. It means we cant really win by just beating up the bad guys. We need to find another way.

[Endemerrin]

Given the direction the story is headed, it seems Ilsabard is the strongest contender, mashed up with Thavnair. (I mean, they specifically created a Thavnairan embassy in Kugane, so we know that has to be relevant at some point.)

What I hope we get, however, is a bit different. 4.3 spoilers below the cut.

So, we liberated Ala Mhigo and Doma. Great! Time to head to Garlemald, right? Wrong.

As of 4.3, we learn that Dalmasca is still actively fighting to liberate their home from the empire, and they aren't doing well. It may be something that gets resolved in the Return to Ivalice storyline, but it'd just leave a bad taste in my mouth if we hopped off to Ilsabard without addressing their struggles at all. Like..

"Hey, Doma and Ala Mhigo are free! Sorry, Dalmasca, you're on your own."

I'd love to see a Dalmasca / Thavnair expansion, where we finish uniting the entirety of Aldenard + Othard for a final push against Garlemald. Would also be a prime opportunity to give us the Viera that they name-dropped as a race on Hydaelyn as of 4.3. All of this, of course, will most certainly not happen - but a man can dream.