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

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.