Thread: Patch 4.4 (Prelude in Violet) Speculation Thread! (Possible spoilers [NO LEAKS])

Some say that its more like History must be changed. So we kinda need to do something to stop something from happening. Because if somehow we should change the past than this just fully introduces time travel and I honestly feel like if such a timetravel exists (as we truly changing something) why dont the Ascians use it?

Also the JP trailer seemingly does not have Arberts voice over at the end. (Or at least there is a discussion if its him, because quite a lot of people are sure that this does not sound like his voice actor) Maybe this is Zodiark? Who somehow gotten strong enough to communicate with us and make uns believe that something bad will happen thus we might be doing something that could benefit him?

I wonder if this is all going to lead into what Elidibus was saying about way back in the ARR storyline, about how if we had the same understanding of things as the Ascians do then there wouldn't be any conflict. Don't get me wrong, I don't trust Elidibus by any means, and I sincerely doubt his actions are altruistic, at least not from our perspective. Nonetheless, I don't think him saying such a line back then was insignificant. I think we're at the point now where the Ascians are going to be putting their plans in full swing, and Garlemald will probably be center stage for when it all kicks off.

As for the Omega storyline, I'm excited to see if we get to learn a bit more about Midgardsormr before he came to Hydaelyn. At the same time, I worry for poor little Alpha, who almost certainly seems like will be playing the role of martyr. I'm also interested to see how Cid Nero deal with things, and how they probably assist in making Omega itself more manageable to deal with in the end.

Suzaku looks like she'll be a cool fight, and I love the tidbit of her battle music we hear in the trailer. Seems like perhaps the aramitama might be affecting her in a way that has her mistaking the WoL for Tenzin. Also of note is that it seems that, unlike in Byakko's case, Suzaku is not willingly allowing her aramitama to surface so that she can be calmed in a controlled environment, but rather that she is unexpectedly overwhelmed and we're forced to react to the situation so we can save her. To Suzaku, she probably thinks that the WoL really wants to kill her, and will probably lash out in fear for her life, which is all the sadder considering she's mistaking us for one of her most trusted friends.

There's probably something going on underneath The Burn. We'll probably fall through some pit and it'll be crazily advanced underneath.

The trailer confirms my suspicion that the Rising event hints were pointing to Arbert making a return in the story and that it was indeed alluding to a mirrored set of individuals (WoL in 'light' terms; WoD, Thordan, Zenos and possibly Elidibus or the Ascians more generally in 'darkness'), beginning with Arbert (who was always there, as we went through ARR, just not physically with us.) I do wonder if we may be passing to the First, at some point, to assist Arbert, or whether it will be him coming to aid the WoL. If there is a twin disaster - a flood of both light and darkness - it may become particularly tricky to handle. I certainly don't think time travel (in a literal sense) will be involved, nor do I foresee a trip to the Moon just yet, as some have predicted. It will either be "visiting" visions of the past via the Echo, or a trip to the First, if the trailer is not splicing and dicing words together as Anonymoose pointed out might be the case. It may even refer to an already resolved matter, but that'd be a bit boring.

I, too, thought that the voice might be Alphinaud, but apparently in other language versions of the trailer the voice is more distinctly Arbert's.

Too much of it is entirely ambiguous and most likely utterly misleading, knowing SE's history of structuring these trailers, but it's of interest to me that the Steppes (due to the design of the locale, whatever the Dotharl might think it is) and the Burn may both house Allagan facilities - I presume this is what Y'shtola is interacting with. There's been suggestions that the Burn may be where the Allagan Empire experimented in primal summoning, later resulting in the sight Solus witnessed.

I consider the stuff around Elidibus/Zenos, Varis and the Populares to be the most potentially misleading aspects of the trailer - it is interesting to me that when Arbert's voice echoes, almost inscrutably, to the effect that "History must be changed", it might in fact be "his story must be changed", with reference to Varis, who Regula (his close childhood friend) had said will have need of the WoL's aid in the future. I am hopeful that SE intends to touch on this thread once more.

Regarding Kan-E-senna's curious statement, I thought he might mean Elezen Zenos. Unless Elidibus were to approach the Scions, her ability to scrutinise who is in his body is likely too limited to achieve such a thing, and besides, Elidibus would have a very strong aetheric signature. A Resonant Zenos might not - unless the Resonance is the extension of the Ascian echo to mortals, through means taught by the Ascians to Aulus. She could be referring to any number of things, so maybe it is just Alphinaud, as either Zenos or Elidibus should have a trace of a sort in their new body. Corsinus's theory on this being a form of aetheric projection of the soul may also have some merit, hence Y'shtola's visit to the House of the Crooked Coin - she's clearly weaving a spell with a purpose in mind. Very difficult to tell at this point. I think the way in which the "canon" WoL is formulated, almost like a hologram, does suggest use of the Echo, maybe to project the soul.

The omegascape stuff is less interesting lorewise, but we'll see if anything comes of it. Midgardsormr will obviously be Omega's interpretation of him, and I wonder if he's done enough to impress the great wyrm.

Originally Posted by Voidedge_Ragna

This is very interesting, as it confirms certain statements that were made by someone anonymous. Its both sad and great SE has a leak.

I'm beginning to wonder about this... certainly makes for a good PR gimmick, if you think on it.

Originally Posted by Mieck

So, I don't know whether a conversation has been had on this before, but this was a thought I had during an idle moment at work today..


We see Y'shtola at the House of the Crooked Coin, which is where the Dotharl go to die - if they want to avoid being "reincarnated". And I say that with quotation marks because... the quests don't really give us a proper steer on this, do they? I mean, the Dotharl bang on about it a lot, but there are enough NPCs and quests lines that throw doubt onto this and, besides, wouldn't reincarnation be a hard break against the rules established in 2.x when the Scions are covering how to kill an Ascian? Souls, when the body dies, return to the Lifestream, and we also know from Shtola's trip through it, that it is a pretty tempestuous place. A soul would have to be pretty exceptional to survive that and come out the other side.



If reincarnation is genuinely happening, what marks the Dotharl out as a special exception to the laws of aether and the Lifestream?
If it is not happening, what has convinced the Dotharl that it is happening?


I'm sure there's more I could say to clear this up, but I wanted to put this initial thoughts down since it potentially could be relevant to what we've got coming up in 4.4. The House of Crooked Coin has essentially been ignored since the expansion launched.

I'm leaning towards them being wrong on it. Much like Eorzeans might be about the Twelve being actual gods. But there is always the potential for new lore that corrects our understanding of the lifestream, aether and souls. Given the House's very distinctive design - entirely separate to the rest of the Steppes and even nearby regions, and the discomforting resemblance to Allagan constructs, I had strongly expected them to visit it in the future.

Originally Posted by ObsidianFire

I wonder if whatever is happening is Elidibus'/The Ascians response to Urianger figuring out how to save the First Shard from the Flood of Light. Like, they were planning on it to be flooded, and then it wasn't and now Elidibus/The Ascians are having to fall back on "messier" plans to bring about whatever they wanted to bring about back in 3.4. And due to the messiness of the Fallback Plan, the WoD are able to get back over to the Source to warn the WoL that the Ascians messed up Hydalyen's plan to save their shard. And now the Source is about to be hit with the results of that.

Is 3.4 the patch where we think we'll get the final Beast Tribe Quest that ties all the Beast Tribes together? Because if it is, I can see the Magnai/Sadu stuff being from there instead of the MSQ.

We know at least from Elidibus and the kid from the 13th shard that a flood of either side is not great for the Ascians too. I do believe that they dont really care if life stops existing or if we all die but they do care if this hinders the "rebirth" of Zodiark. And at least Elidibus was against the flood but he just never told the WoD that there is another way to truly save the shard and only told them about the calamity and the rejoining which would benefit him and Zodiark quite a lot. So I cant just see how they want a flood of light but I do can see that this is all a trap that wants us to believe that there will be a flood. Thus we do something that will benefit them.

Originally Posted by Mieck

If reincarnation is genuinely happening, what marks the Dotharl out as a special exception to the laws of aether and the Lifestream?
If it is not happening, what has convinced the Dotharl that it is happening?


I'm sure there's more I could say to clear this up, but I wanted to put this initial thoughts down since it potentially could be relevant to what we've got coming up in 4.4. The House of Crooked Coin has essentially been ignored since the expansion launched.

We do at least know that people with the echo could theoretically become immortal. We saw that with the sahagin priest, the WoD and the Ascians. So maybe the Dotharl are all just echo users that are chosing to be reborn again and again. Kinda how their soul does not become one with the lifestream to be reborn as a completely new person again but stays their own soul thus they can remember their old lives. And maybe something in that place helps them to stop using this and truly become one with the lifestream. But if the lifestream really functions as the scions say (and we cant say that for 100% either) then they would be reborn anyway, just this time without any memories. (Or it could be even more horrible and that place somehow completely destroys souls but then why should Ysthola be there)