Revelations from Keynote II

[Ceridwenae]

Ahaha, I think he might need cake and some kind of (post-timewarp-shock) counselling regardless. Certainly cake. He's been locked up in there for gods-know-how-long and he's probably pretty hungry at this point.

But for a disguise and/or dramatic reveal? I don't see a problem with him temporarily wearing a hood that flattens his ears. (Cats' ears do have that flexibility, don't they?)

Maybe he just couldn't find any Allagan robes with ear-flaps sewn in.

Ah, I still haven't time to go in depth on the meat of the subject, but I just had a Eureka! moment. Whatever happens, poor G'raha is our next custom deliveries NPC. He needs cake, clothes with cat-ear flaps, new decor, maybe an orchestrion...

Poor lad.

[Iscah]

I don't think G'raha's name being "generic" is a particular issue. Lyse Hext, Fordola, Arenvald, Artoirel, Emmanellain, Hien, Kaien, and Gosetsu are all names straight out of the random name generator at character creation (the last three are "Raen" names).

Estinien as well! That must be a fun name to get through Heavensward with...

It seems very odd to me that such important characters have names taken straight from the generator lists, and yet less-prominent characters get original names.


(And yes, the Raen name list gets used for Far Eastern characters of any race.)

Ah, I still haven't time to go in depth on the meat of the subject, but I just had a Eureka! moment. Whatever happens, poor G'raha is our next custom deliveries NPC. He needs cake, clothes with cat-ear flaps, new decor, maybe an orchestrion...

Poor lad.

This is a fantastic mental image.

[Ceridwenae]

events you missed" backstory because of 1.0 being eternally cut off for new players.

We spend time with Thancred in ARR before he got possessed in ARR, and with Estinien in Heavensward before he got possessed (is this a pattern?!) at the end of Heavensward. Therefore it seems to follow that we would be hypothetically spending time with 5.0 G'raha before 5.0 stuff goes down, to make that feel significant regardless of whether you have earlier history with him or not.


Krile's been an MSQ character through post-Heavensward and Stormblood, actually. It's only her role in Eureka that's forced her to step out of active events during post-Stormblood.

Oof! Back into the thread after a few days was probably not the best idea as it happens, but I have some time now at least!

So firstly, yes - the first paragraph of yours I've quoted there is exactly what I'm getting at. It's the simple fact that if it is him, and he's "on our side", if you will, then we need to spend some time with him. We haven't even had an intro to him outside of raiding, which is my concern, so if he is to ultimately be important in whatever way, then that needs to be addressed pronto. That's effectively it in a nutshell. If this is not done, and he gets parachuted in to, I don't know, help us, then it's just such a terrible look for a story - if we pluck an internet number out of the sky and say only half of the playerbase has a clue who he is, the other half is going to be so full of questions it's going to ruin the experience. It'll make people hate him. I can't happily believe it would be so acceptable to do that.

But again, I'm not saying it's not him. I just haven't enough to persuasively convince me, and it's simply because of that one factor (and honestly, I'm not actually disagreeing fully with anything anyone has said about it).

Yep, with Krile that is the case, but if you recall the linkpearl conversation Minfilia has after we escape Castrum Centri (the one where Alphi talks all over it), she explicitly says "Krile"as that's who she's talking to. It's just very nice that Krile does turn up later on in the MSQ, before pootling off into Eureka. It's a nice simple way to do it - and the things in Eureka at least seem to be rooted in time as when she recently came back, it was referred to. I mention it only because she's still MSQ'd in person first before she goes all Eureka. Or, at the very least, it has me thinking there is some planning that goes into this! It may not always work (no, I don't want examples of honest mistakes and errors as proof of evil intentions), but there is a storyboard going on at least.

So, there is time for G'raha to make what I would consider to be an exceptionally necessary "intro" into the MSQ. It's just because it hasn't happened yet, I'm holding off on saying that's him for sure (not that anyone is saying that). I just need a teensy bit more for it to become sensible.

The alternative is if the worse has occurred to the poor cat, and he's all in cahoots with those fruit loop Ascians, possessed/worn by Zodiark, or the other Ascian whose name I can't recall offhand but we haven't met yet. For that to be a thing all we need is something regarding that to be shown or alluded to in the presumably upcoming cutscene soup. I mean, that can also happen if he's playing for our team, too. That would be a nice'n'easy way to do it, and perhaps get CT more firmly on the radar of those who haven't run it, with plenty of time to actually do so.

You also mentioned the colours used in the clothing, Iscah. Normally I don't want to buy into colours meaning stuff, but given that colour-coding is such a huge trope I'm not going to bat it aside entirely. It's just another pro in the list.

Also, @Allyissa for this, I'm somewhat in agreement in that I don't see a like-for-like in the picture comparison. However, to play devil's advocate (I like to do this), I'd suggest there is some artistic interpretation vs. game rendering involved here. FF art gives a more stylised appearance to the game characters (I mean, they used to be 8-bit). It's easy to argue that the poster depicts G'raha in a more stylised manner.

As for the naming, I'd just chalk that down to the same thing as I had two other girls in my class at school with the same name. Tedious, but a thing when people like certain names. In a way, it lends some real world believability to the game.

Anyhoo, to wrap up: if either the above mentioned cutscene soup occurs or G'raha just turns up somehow in person or is referred to explicitly in our next story segment (the whys and hows we'll put aside for brevity) ahead of the expansion, then I'll happily make the purchase on the person in the image could well be G'raha*.

Sorry for the delay in response! <3

*Or his evil twin from a different shard/dimension/time/oh, whatever. <- throwaway line. May or may not be entirely serious, read at your own discretion.

[Fenral]

Honestly, while that hood is certainly large enough to cover the ears entirely, I also suspect it's simply temporary pending the mysterious figure's proper introduction in 4.56. That aside, the smoking gun for why it has to be a male Miqo'te is right here:

That triangle is too dark to be the same kind of scarring elsewhere on his face, too irregular to simply be part of the shadow, and also just the right shape and size to be the typical whisker markings exhibited by male Miqo'te. The lips and nose are just the right size and shape, too, and the chin, while the right size already, would also probably match from a slightly lower/more off-center angle than I have in my archives.

I wish I could go back and grab better pictures from better angles with better lighting than the World of Darkness cutcenes, but /gpose didn't exist back in 2015.

[Erendis]

"Setting him up" in the MSQ now would depend on how they're (hypothetically) handling the Crystal Tower continuity.

Tbh, they can just add Crystal Tower requirement to continue story, like they did with Ifrit, Garuda and Titan HM.

But for a disguise and/or dramatic reveal? I don't see a problem with him temporarily wearing a hood that flattens his ears. (Cats' ears do have that flexibility, don't they?)

Maybe he just couldn't find any Allagan robes with ear-flaps sewn in.

Y'shtola also does not have earsocks in the trailer.

[Ceridwenae]

Hi! I have more thoughts to add, but I'm super busy these next few days and don't know when I'll be able to put justice to them. Hopefully the thread is still going nicely then and it won't be too odd to give a proper response a bit later.

I have to say, though, it's really fun to be thinking about this sort of stuff and having somewhere to mull over the possibilities.

[Jollyy5]

I've seen people say it wouldn't make sense for Matoya to possess Y'shtola's body, because if Urianger is fine, why wouldn't she be?

I personally believe that Matoya indeed did take over Y'shtola's body. It could be that Y'shtola was unable to return due to her circumstances surrounding her "aethersight", or just runs out of time between her waking up and Shadowbringers.

The situation being as dire as it seems to be, I feel it's very plausible that Matoya would borrow Y'shtola's body because her skills/knowledge are sorely needed.

It would also explain her going from a Conjurer to a Black Mage.

[Claymore65]

I think the G'raha theory has some merit (though to be honest I'm not convinced by the pictures), I think it only really makes sense with a core assumption: either there is definitely Time Travel of some sort in the expansion, or the Crystal Tower opens up again due to some Calamity related Shenanigans (which to be fair, is perfectly possible). We definitely haven't reached the mythical "society is ready for the secrets of Allag" time in the setting, and in most stories "Sealed away until Civilization is Ready" is codeword for "Never".

That said, I still lean more heavily to Shard-based shenanigans of some sort, and the voice either being Arbert (our friend on the First Shard), or an entirely new character.

Just for Fun: Let's outline the evidence for Time Travel vs the case for Shard Travel. I'll be bringing up evidence of both happening in the plot, and where they've happened in the plot in the past.

Time Travel
Evidence of Time Travel in the Past

• During the Ending of 1.0, Lousioux sent the existing Warriors of Light to the future to survive the battle of Cartenaux and Bahamut's rage, though this is a little questionable
• There was one strange case of possibly symbolic Echo time travel where we gave Cid a pair of Goggles, though I think that was just to represent him getting his memories back.
• Time Travel is heavily featured in the Alexander Questline
• The Heavensward Hildibrand Questline introduces a user of Time Magic who can reverse age, though they never actually travel back in time per se, unless I remember incorrectly.
• Sharlayan Astrologers Technically use Time Related Magic to undo damage and heal wounds.

Evidence for Time Travel for the Expansion

• The Mysterious Voice's Message about "eon becoming instant" and "history being unwritten" can definitely be interpreted as Time Travel related (but isn't necessarily Time Travel related)
• Thancred's line about "this place having changed, and not for the better" can be interpreted as Time Travel related (but isn't necessarily Time Travel related)

Shard Travel
Evidence of Shard Travel in the Past

• At multiple points during ARR, they established the existence of other Shards
• ASCIANS
• More seriously, Ascians explicitly come from different Shards and are definitely capable of transferring between the Shards and the Source etc
• The Entirety of the Warriors of Darkness storyline is based on Shard Traveling Echo-Users
• Minfilia, a former major member of the Scions, traveled to the First Shard Specifically
• Unukalhai is another Shard Traveler now residing in the Source

One thing I'll note, most of the above examples were specifically part of the MSQ.

Evidence For Shard Travel in the near future

• The most Recent Patch re-establishes the existence of other Shards, reminding people who might have forgotten not once, but twice (once when Solus explains the Ascian Hierarchy, and again during Varis' "become one race" speech
• Minfilia was recently revealed to be playing a role in the expansion, a character who explicitly was on the First Shard. At bare minimum, she needs to come back to the Source and then we can have time travel shenanigans.
• Solus, someone clearly established as a major villain is going to the First to experiment with the Black Rose etc
• During the chat with Krile and Matoya, they established that the souls "aren't in this world", which could imply travel to another shard (but I'll admit this could also imply time travel).

As far as very subjective evidence, I think the voice sounds a lot like Arbert, but that might just be me and is dependent on localization etc.

[Ceridwenae]

*you made me wonder some stuff!*

I'm just wondering if you or someone else can answer this for me: do we have anything to confirm either way that the other shards are similar to each other, or even copies of each other?

Also, has it been noted anywhere if a soul can potentially manifest itself in a new corporeal form if the original form is unavailable?

[Kalise]

Also, has it been noted anywhere if a soul can potentially manifest itself in a new corporeal form if the original form is unavailable?

Uhh... Maybe Y'shtola? After going into the lifestream, when we (Well... The Elementals) brought her back there was no corporeal form there to house her soul. Which suggests one was created as she was pulled from the lifestream, albeit imperfectly (Due to the blindness and what not)

do we have anything to confirm either way that the other shards are similar to each other, or even copies of each other?

I'm not sure about any hard evidence to this. But there are some implied similarities. Such as the fact that they're all Shards from the same Source which would suggest that they're be similar. Much as if you break apart a biscuit, all the crumbs will be similar because they have the same origin.

There's also some other aspects, such as how Arbert and the Ascians seem to speak the same language as Eorzeans, with the same accent (Or at least, no-one really seems to notice that they're from anywhere other than Eorzea). Which, given how etymology works, suggests similar origins in terms of development of life because different climates and different ways of life impact vocabulary (I.e. Eskimo's IRL have many different words for "Snow" because they need to distinguish beyond just "Snow" due to where they live)