Thread: [4.4 Discussion] "Change the Future"

Originally Posted by Anonymoose

Man oh man.

We can assume that, if it is Zodiark, he is using Arbert's voice because it is familiar and therefore likelier to be trusted. Arbert gave us - and even Minfillia - a lengthy speech on the dangers that beset his world. This may serve to establish a reminder of those warnings.

Even so, the voice is distorted, suggesting it requires quite some exertion from him and there is a great deal of urgency in it - this is my favoured interpretation of "eon become instant", because I don't think we're going to see time travel or timeline/world mergers just yet. There's strong pointers that Y'shtola may have been a bit reckless with that Allagan device, especially with the optional NPC dialogue after the event. However, it's a singular event and probably just a trigger. Going back to 3.4, one must reflect on Arbert's words that serving the Light, he and his fellow heroes did "everything right" and still, their world shifted from being endangered by Darkness to a flood of Light. Whatever the Ascians' motives, I don't think we fully understand the nature of either their god or Hydaelyn, or the Light and Dark, as such. I am reminded of Arbert's comment that it's not so much about Light or Dark as it is what you do with it.

I agree with you that someone - possibly Zodiark - is probably trying to warn the Scions that their plan is rather bad. It's transparent, it is a risk Elidibus will have calculated the minute he took over Zenos's body and won't harm the Ascians, who thrive off chaos, so much as it will destabilise the Empire and along with it, many innocents' livelihoods.

As a general comment on the aspect of time compression, and the whispers in various venues about how this might entail time travel, I rather doubt it. My view is that it's possible that if this is Zodiark, he may be able to view time as a singular point/moment, and therefore speaks in a way that might seem like travel, to regular mortals.

I am linking the video because I think the themes in it are about to be realised in upcoming patches/5.0.

https://youtu.be/SMMr_BZddAw

Catching up with all the new posts, I've been ruminating on a lot and trying to sort out the pieces and probabilities. Not that probabilities are doing much heavy lifting for us with all these twists lately.

I've been twirling the Mysterious Voice pieces around and statistically they still feel Zodiark-shaped. As far as I can tell, we do not know of anything that could pull off a transdimensional soul-call conversation aside from a great crystal. We do not know of anything that would promise to force the barriers of time and space if only we would open the gates aside from Zodiark. Ergo, it is most likely either Zodiark or something we do not know.

(Whether Yshtola messing around with the purple moon crystal in the cave with the snake statues is related on top of that assumption...)

I've been trying to work out, for the sake of covering all the bases, how the Twin Dooms could be related rather than mutually avoidable and I've only got one idea so far:

If Souce-side, localized Light and Dark forces (i.e. the "bearers" of that power) are not in balance, it might just be generally unsafe to attempt to blow out a dimensional barrier. If Elidibus is making a Calamity-level move, the pieces must be roughly where he wants them and it's time to bring the confluence of chaos to a crescendo. If Thancred clandestinely moves to cause Garlemald to turn on itself and attempt to uproot the Darkness in their midst, Calamity-level machinations going off around the same time might be catastrophic.

This does the most lifting for the least work, but, again, logic alone hasn't been getting us very far lately.

Originally Posted by Anonymoose

Catching up with all the new posts, I've been ruminating on a lot and trying to sort out the pieces and probabilities. Not that probabilities are doing much heavy lifting for us with all these twists lately.

I've been twirling the Mysterious Voice pieces around and statistically they still feel Zodiark-shaped. As far as I can tell, we do not know of anything that could pull off a transdimensional soul-call conversation aside from a great crystal. We do not know of anything that would promise to force the barriers of time and space if only we would open the gates aside from Zodiark. Ergo, it is most likely either Zodiark or something we do not know.

(Whether Yshtola messing around with the purple moon crystal in the cave with the snake statues is related on top of that assumption...)

I've been trying to work out, for the sake of covering all the bases, how the Twin Dooms could be related rather than mutually avoidable and I've only got one idea so far:

If Souce-side, localized Light and Dark forces (i.e. the "bearers" of that power) are not in balance, it might just be generally unsafe to attempt to blow out a dimensional barrier. If Elidibus is making a Calamity-level move, the pieces must be roughly where he wants them and it's time to bring the confluence of chaos to a crescendo. If Thancred clandestinely moves to cause Garlemald to turn on itself and attempt to uproot the Darkness in their midst, Calamity-level machinations going off around the same time might be catastrophic.

This does the most lifting for the least work, but, again, logic alone hasn't been getting us very far lately.

Well, if the Rejoining requires the barriers between the worlds to be broken down, a flood in either direction could "spill", so to speak - especially if it occurs just as at the time of the Rejoining, and not in the distant past as on the 13th, so you may be right. Either way, a Calamity would be a very bad thing, Rejoining or not.

Edit - something interesting I came across today on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...en_44_msq_and/

Usual spoiler warnings apply.

I believe VERY STRONGLY that the voice we heard in our heads was Arbert's.

Minfilia probably reached out to our word and let his voice come through to warn us that we're making the same mistake they did (since we're about to go on full-blown offensive mode against the ascians) - Basically, they are meaning to warn us that if we kill the ascians, our world is done for, burned by the light's radiance, in the same fashion his were.

I also believe that the fellows who are now taking a long nap were brought to the WoD's world, in a manner very much alike the one the WoD troupe was brought here - soul only. It's quite possible that while they were in Hydaelyn, their physical bodies over at their world were in a similar comatose state.

Any thoughts?

Originally Posted by BellaRiddle

Any thoughts?

Since you very strongly believe the very thing that fell off of my "most likely" list, I suppose I'll put forth the considerations that I couldn't make fit.

Let's skip right over "none of the people who would have been transported to the First have Crystals of Light through which to make the journey." Maybe if Minfilia's doing it you don't need them, eh? So Minfilia mimics Hydaelyn's soul-call ability and leaves us ... elsewhere.

"That way...sorrow."
Thancred's go a bad plan. Ok.

"History...must be changed..."
Need to redirect the flow of events. Got it.

"Ahead looms a Calamity. Ahead looms Light, expunging all form and life. Twin dooms only you can forestall. Only you."
Alright, our first variables. Is one going to hit and then the other? Or could either hit and we have to walk between them? I'm guessing if you're guessing this is Arbert, the latter?

"Let expanse contract, eon become instant..."
Come again? Why does Arbert want to change the laws of space and time as his solution to this problem?

"Throw wide the gates that we may pass!"
Come again!? When did Arbert gain the ability to make time and space bend before him!?
What gate does he need to be let through? If Minfilia called me here, and he's still got his Crystal of Light, get it done, right?

And why doesn't Arbert sound like Arbert in Japanese?