Thread: Predictions for Patch 4.4

Originally Posted by Anonymoose

I don't think it was ever resolved whether Varis was spitting on his recently-deceased uncle, who challenged him and nearly tore the Empire apart, or whether the War of Succession was relatively short and they left Solus hangin' in the throne room on an extended period of mourning until it was resolved, and then he spit on him at the end of it anyway for some reason. (For being too sick to name a successor after his son died in the first place...?)

I do want to ask a question while on this topic. It's been about three years since I started the game, and I've pretty much entirely forgotten... What was the timeline for the war of succession anyway? Was it already happening throughout the ARR story? Did it break out after Gaius' defeat? Or starting even before that? Or do we actually not know?

As for Solus being on the artwork, it's not too much of a stretch to guess why he's featured so prominently on there. After all, the world's dealing with the fallout of what are ultimately his decisions. This direction's pretty exciting because it means we're going to get a lot of answers for the motivations of the Garleans.

Originally Posted by LineageRazor

Haurchefant, I'm pretty sure is gonna stay dead. Ysayle, I'm not so sure... In her case, we never recovered the body (or even held a funeral, to my recollection). On a more personal note, I wasn't really satisfied with her sacrifice. It seemed pretty pointless, as all it did was slow the Garleans down a bit and temporarily cripple one of their flagships. They still got to Azys Lla and set up shop, so all it really did was give us a minor head start. It really didn't feel like her character arc had come to a satisfactory conclusion, either, regarding her angst at having the rug yanked out from under her with the revelation that Primal Shiva was just a poor copy of the original, rather than the original reincarnated. Additionally, the way she died was just weird, shattering into crystal fragments. I don't think any other individual, including other folks who've been defeated after transforming into Primals, have died the same way. A clever writer could definitely take advantage of that.

She's probably dead, but if she were to make a reappearance, it would not shock me.

I think the topic of Ysayle is going to get brought up again at some point, though I am 100% sure she's dead. I don't imagine that Ysayle was the only other person to possess a crystal of Light in our current time period, the Imperials probably know of several more and I wonder if we'll eventually run into another individual like her. I think that one warrior from the Four Lords questline is highly implied/stated to have possessed a crystal too, but he's from another era.

Also, around the time that we defeated Zurvan, if you talked to the Imperial soldiers nearby, they mentioned something about how they were going to ship Regula's body back to the mainland too. I imagine they would have difficulties since the main ship is apparently semi-permanently grounded at Azys Lla, which is something that should really be addressed again.

Originally Posted by SaitoHikari

I do want to ask a question while on this topic. It's been about three years since I started the game, and I've pretty much entirely forgotten... What was the timeline for the war of succession anyway? Was it already happening throughout the ARR story? Did it break out after Gaius' defeat? Or starting even before that? Or do we actually not know?

The timeline is definitive for when we learned about it (2.2), and even clearer about when it ends (2.4), but Stormblood has made me question whether we were ever up to date on information to begin with.

Even in 2.00, the rumor mill was that Solus was over 80 years old, in failing health, and without a successor. Roialle and Kan-E believed these rumors an explanation of why the XIVth Legion had become less active than when they first invaded. Livia confirms this when she and Nero are watching the Warrior of Light's battle with Ifrit - the "troubles at court" prevent any help from coming.

The XIVth had reportedly gained permission to resume conquest because of the Ultima Weapon, but High Legatus Varis then-yae Galvus had felt that marching on Eorzea was premature and commanded Baelsar to halt only to find that he'd already gone rogue.

One might assume we had relatively up-to-date information, but when Yugiri shows up in 2.2, Solus is already dead, a war of succession has already erupted, a rebellion in the midst of that war has already risen and fallen, and in 4.00 everyone acts as if the Doman Rebellion was over a year ago, outside of the confines of the bubble. It could be that Eorzea and the XIVth Legion were just very poorly-informed and this was in motion ere the game even began.

I am amazed that none here knew of the war of succession until we arrived. Have you truly heard naught of what has transpired?

My Predictions for 4.4 -5.0 (I had some ideas that I have no idea will be in 4.4 itself

-near the end of Stormbloods update cycle, Fordola will temporarily join our Jolly band of Scions until a certain point 5.0 Storyline or Post-storyline
-We'll meet NotGaisbuttotallyGais aka Shadowhunter at the end of 4.4 and learn his true identity (or cliffhanger into learning his identity at the beginning of 4.5)
-Ele-Zenos is flying off to Garlemald to try and get his body back and will reach Doma by the end of 4.4
-Solus Flashbacks since Solus is in the new Update card
-Eldibus will prepare to personally try taking us down
-In 4.5 We'll unwillingly team up with Zenos to take on Eldibus in an instance, Eldibus not wanting to take a chance will leave the body allowing for Zenos to take over, resulting in a Niddhog-esque Trial

I have a feeling the Shadow Hunter's identity won't remain a secret for that long. It's generally best to not maintain a mystery too long past the point where enough hints have been dropped for observers to draw the correct conclusion, and he introduced himself with Gaius van Baelsar's entire moveset and a bunch of Ascian masks on his hip. Conversely, if it is kept secret for longer than this upcoming patch, the chance that he isn't Gaius will steadily increase. But he's probably Gaius.

But really, first Xelphatol, and now the Burn. Really wish they'd stop turning areas that should be fully-explorable zones into one-off dungeons, though I guess we should be grateful that the eternally-underutilized Azys Lla wasn't just a dungeon.

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Moving on past MSQ, we also have Omega: Alphascape coming up, don't we?

The name is... troubling, though we already knew Ironworks guest characters have the biggest targets on their backs. I had thought the story had finally gotten over that fixation after Gosetsu did his thing in 4.0, but after Heaven-on-High I wouldn't put it past the the writers (or Yoshida) to have Alpha defeat Omega once and for all with the magical power of sacrifice. Prepping a monument next to Mide's...

On a lighter note, we've done 5 and 6, so numeric progression dictates 7 will be next. Sephiroth already has a bit of a reputation as a bonus boss, so it would be a fitting tribute. More importantly, I wanna hear a Soken cover of "One Winged Angel." Perhaps we'll go Proudclad -> Jenova -> Sephiroth, with the fourth and final stage saved for our showdown with Omega itself? (Bonus points if Jenova gets a form change that gets one-shot by Knights of the Round.)

Originally Posted by ObsidianFire

Edit: I really need to learn not type up stuff ASAP if I think Anonymoose will post on it...

BEHIND THE SCENES: If I type EDIT INCOMING and it stays that way longer than 25 seconds, what's happened is that I think I know the answer, I've typed the answer, and I now have the official lorebook and my unofficial lorebrary open and am making sure I could prove those things if asked, lol.

On the subject of the casket Varis spits on in his introductory cutscene -

I never considered it was his fallen uncle; it always seemed like it was Solus. While Varis was his heir apparent, they had a number of disagreements and differences in philosophy. Varis disagreed with the Meteor Project and opposed it covertly though van Baelsar and Eline Roaille. He also felt that Solus was too soft on his children, which led to the war of succession that concluded around 2.4 (if I remember right) and as such blames Solus for the war. Varis is also implicitly not a patron of the arts, and has instilled censorship policies where Solus let them do as they pleased.

His uncle, on the other hand, will go down in Garlean history as nothing more than a treasonous would-be usurper - hardly someone befitting a burial service like the one shown.

There's nothing definite, but my money would be on Solus...

The timeline suggests Gaius went rogue shortly before or shortly after the war of succession broke out, which would have made it possible for him to operate without interference from the rest of the Imperial military. The implication is that he considered his own ambition (conquering Eorzea) more important than resolving Garlemald's political dispute, which would line up with how he and the rest of the XIVth were declared deserters punishable by death. (Varis is harsher than Solus was for sure...)

On the Shadowhunter's identity -

In a recent interview, Yoshi-P said that he "doesn't want to betray everyone's expectations" and that he deliberately had the crew zoom in on the mask fragment resembling Gaius' old faceplate. Basically, all the hints dropped are big and glaring on purpose so the people who care can figure out where things are going and who is who (i.e. it was painfully obvious the Griffin was Ilberd). Between that, his fighting style, weapon, and dialogue, it's almost a sure bet the Shadowhunter is Gaius. (I figured it out even without recognizing the mask piece, and 60% of the time I'm right, every time.) I'll be genuinely surprised if it's not.