Revelations from Keynote II

[Fenral]

I'm also surprised my wild guess caught on the way it did, to be fair, and originally only threw it out there so someone could point out some obvious feature I missed that ruled it out entirely. That hasn't happened yet, to my surprise, aside from a few recent "it can't be because it can't" arguments that don't actually have any basis. Yes, he said he'd watch over the Tower until the world was ready, but we also promised we'd make that world and see him again, a promise not unlike the one Minfilia is now confirmed to be keeping.

Also, while I did sketch in eye marks for the sake of clarity, they are present in the original image, unless you can propose an alternate explanation for the jagged edge to the shadowing around the right eye, with something more conclusive than the racial markings exhibited by the race that normally has access to that facial type, that would normally be present in that exact shape at that exact spot on the face. And, again, the mouth, chin and nose are a match, as near as I can tell, and I did go through quite a few screenshots from a number of angles before publishing that conclusion.


But it could be more misdirection. He could simply be a character who switches facial models completely when the halfmask comes off, like Lyse, or Elidibus, and the use of G'raha's facial presets is either a coincidence or a prank. I'm prepared to be wrong entirely, of course, but for now I don't see the harm in allowing speculation to continue, especially as (for once) I'm barely involved in it.

[Lauront]

It caught on because of the strong resemblance to his facial features. I don't think other candidates fit as well, and especially not au ra. Besides, figuring out who it is won't assist much in determining under what circumstances we'd meet him, whether it is actually him (i.e. whether he is possessed), etc.

I'm not a huge fan of him, so I'm not invested in it being him, but given what we're seeing in the expansion art, I think it's a very reasonable conclusion that it's a strong match to G'raha Tia... with some embellishments.

[RicaRuin]

Partly, people like the G'raha Tia Theory because there was a very vague lague hinting at something with Crystal Tower, not going into detail here. But afaik that leak had been proven fake.

[Vanitas]

What are the off chances that Y'sthola is the one burning down the forest in the extended trailer for whatever reason?

[RicaRuin]

What are the off chances that Y'sthola is the one burning down the forest in the extended trailer for whatever reason?

Interesting thought... I mean, if the theory is right that light grows to powerful and we go WoD to balance it out, maybe Y'shtola burns down that forest to cause some chaos as well...

[Cilia]

I see. That way it makes it sound like it's a bit of code gone wrong, and Alexander is the debugging tool. Particularly when you say the tribe wouldn't exist otherwise; my question would be, why would it need to? However, if there's some unobserv-ed/-able causal agent it begins to make sense.

The trick to understanding everything surrounding Alexander is to remember that it's a closed circle. It's all already happened countless times before you even begin to play your role within it, and countless more "yous" continue to play it out within the loop. The Hotgo tribe, for instance, has to exist because Mide and Dayan were sent into the past by Alexander after the final battle... because that not happening would create a temporal paradox, much like the DPS failing to save your past selves in A12 instantly kills you.

Remember Backrix' journal. He begins chronicling the events of Alexander, which continues up until A10. During the trip to the past his journal is knocked from his hands and picked up by Past Quickthinx, who uses it as a script to play out the events leading up to that precise moment. If Alexander isn't summoned, Backrix won't write his journal, and it won't be knocked out of his hands and picked up by Past Quickthinx - but those events all have to happen, because they already have.

There's not confirmed to be a "Zeroth Loop" outside of our ability to observe... but just like a hypothetical perpetual motion machine needs some energy input to start out, it's the only way this makes logical sense.

[Iscah]

I'm also surprised my wild guess caught on the way it did, to be fair, and originally only threw it out there so someone could point out some obvious feature I missed that ruled it out entirely.

I don't think it's that wild a guess. I'd already suggested during the 4.4 theorising that the mysterious voice could be G'raha - based off that apparent leak which may or may not be accurate in the end.

So once you'd pointed out that the hooded character looks like him, it all adds up pretty clearly to me.


...aha! Went back through the forum and found our previous discussion where I suggested that it might be him.

Partly, people like the G'raha Tia Theory because there was a very vague lague hinting at something with Crystal Tower, not going into detail here. But afaik that leak had been proven fake.

That would be this alleged leak that inspired my guess that it was G'raha.

We thought it had been proven fake because it's way off the mark about Blue Mage.

But now... it did correctly predict Minfilia's return - on the (special edition) box art and everything - so who knows. Maybe it's still fake and they just threw out some educated guesses about things that are likely to happen at some point.

True leak or not, the Crystal Tower is likely to come back into play eventually, because at the end of that story we had the scene where Nero throws away his magitek compass and it detects something down below the tower.

Unpopular opinion, but I think the stuff covering the neck and face looks more grey-ish and not really crystalline. At least for the part covering the face, I would claim it looks more like a nasty scar than crystals.

The grey colour makes it look like it can't just be a scar, even if the shape of it would suggest that.

The colour also could be affected by the orange-tinged lighting in that scene, which would mute the usual blue of crystals.

It's me or his right arm is thinner than his left ?

I think it might be that his right arm isn't down at his side like his left, but lifted up so we're only seeing the lower part of his forearm and the top of his hand.

[Berethos]

On the topic of the cloaked figure in the Artwork - I don't really think it's G'raha Tia. They try their best not to intertwine Raid Story with the MSQ, and then again, wouldn't they have told players to complete the Crytal Tower Raids by now...?

That wouldn't prevent them from bringing in a character if they felt it would work (and who knows, maybe tapping into the darkness in the void somehow with the help of G'raha to offset the surge of light coming is part of how Shadowbringers all goes down), as you could both be in the midst of the Heavensward story, working your way toward meeting Hraesvelgr for the first time with Estinien coming along...while also preparing to deal with him losing control to the Eye in and around the 40s Dragoon quests.

If they decide to bring him back, they'd just treat the CT as if it existed in a time bubble (like many other things they've done this with).

Honestly, the last time I can remember them actually requiring that you clear side-content for the sake of future MSQ was clearing out the three Hard Mode primals, and that had more to do with a specific set of MSQ NPCs that handed out those quests being moved as part of the MSQ. Since CT is a side story, it can easily exist in the same kind of time bubble that the job quests often do.

[Kalise]

What are the off chances that Y'sthola is the one burning down the forest in the extended trailer for whatever reason?

Gosh darn Level Boosted BLM's don't know how to play the job...

[Iscah]

Gosh darn Level Boosted BLM's don't know how to play the job...

Hey, at least she found her Fire spells and isn't playing ice mage...