Revelations from Keynote II

[Claymore65]

How is the time travel evidence out of story? The recent patches have been very clearly hinting at time travel. "History must be changed," "Eon become instant," "Win or lose, the path you walk leads only to oblivion." These are all lines coming from the voice that called to us, and they all suggest somebody with knowledge of the future trying to influence the present.

I lean towards the Shard Travel theory, namely because those lines can be interpreted as Time Travel related, but aren't necessarily time travel related at all. "History must be changed" doesn't necessarily mean someone is actively changing the past, it could easily mean we need to change course, or things are going to go very, very bad. "Eon become instant" is part of a teleportation magic line from Final Fantasy Tactics, and doesn't imply anything direct about Time Travel. "Win or lose, the path you walk leads only to oblivion" sounds more like we need to change course, not Time Travel to the past/future/etc. It sounds almost exactly like something Arbert would say as a warning to help us avoid making the same mistakes he made. All we really have are cryptic lines of dialog that may be deliberately confusing. That's not to say the lines don't suggest Time Travel as a possibility, but I don't find the evidence extremely convincing.

The Evidence for Shard Travel though, aren't single lines that can be interpreted as related to Shard Travel, it's literal events that imply we're doing something related to First Shard, even if we aren't directly traveling there. I find it hard to put more stock in cryptic lines that might suggest Time Travel over one of our current main villains traveling to the First. I might be wrong of course, but I lean toward that direction. The locations shown so far have an extremely high fantasy feel, which feels closer to "Travel to an alternate light filled dimension" than "Travel to a post-apocalyptic future we need to prevent" etc.

I'll fully admit some personal bias here though. Time Travel opens a huge can of worms that can be really hard to close again, and it can get really confusing really quickly. While I enjoyed Alexander, I liked that it was kept entirely separate from the MSQ. I'd be cool with a "Character from the future visits to give us a warning / change the course of history", but I'd honestly prefer not to have Time Travel be a primary component of the expansion.

[Lauront]

Personally, I am inclined to agree with Claymore65 that the words can be construed in different ways, from different perspectives, and I've made the point that the "History must be changed" reference could be referring to current events, from the perspective of a being either situated further ahead in time (G'raha, Arbert, whoever), or which views it entirely differently (Zodiark, for example), and thus be referring to the character's current trajectory and its future implications. Likewise, the "eon become instant" line may be referring to the teleportation method being that much hastier than traditional" methods of shard-hopping, few and elusive as they are to most mortals, and would make it consistent with the Tactics reference.

The only other hint of a time skip we have is the trailer, but it's incomplete and is implying a skip forward, when given the nature of the calamities and on the assumption that time travel were involved, a trip backwards would make more sense, and on another Shard as opposed to the Source (albeit it is becoming imperiled, too.) My guess as to the cause is that it could be that "absorbing" the Light on the First means the Source is becoming more flooded with it... it may also be that the floods themselves tilt the balance on the source one way or another, in the same way calamities on other shards are experienced by it... and the WoL's actions by the end of 4.56 end up pushing it too far to the Light. A skip forward wouldn't necessarily involve time travel, either.

That said, there is always the possibility that there is both a time travel aspect (forward into the future, in order that the Crystal Tower might be in a suitable state to accommodate travel backwards and not just on the Source but to other Shards, or due to being "pulled" into the future, and so on) and a Shard travel aspect (travelling backwards into the history of another Shard; logically, the First.) I think if we were just to pick one, my money is on Shard travel, but a bit of both may ultimately be involved.

My feeling as to where SE could be taking the original Zenos is that Elidibus restores his body to him, but this time to enable him to actually stand a chance, has him bear some form of Blessing of Darkness - in turn, slaying him could then precipitate the events that throw the Source into imbalance. Alternatively, he could overpower you but the Echo preserving your soul might allow whoever this voice is to "pull" you away and rescue you, but I think this makes it harder to explain what could catalyse a flood of Light, unless some other cause comes into the picture. This could be why Elidibus (in any recognisable facet) is deliberately kept out of the artwork, to keep it vague what he might be doing or whom he might be possessing in 5.0. Zenos's arc is unresolved for the time being, and his attitude when reviving do make it seem like he could be put to WoL-slaying uses by Elidibus. Solus, at the very least, will be implementing his proposed method of reversing the flood of Light on the First. In the likely scenario of the original Zenos perishing, that could then be the catalyst for the flood's outbreak.

As for Varis, putting him on the artwork in any capacity could ruin any surprises they have in store for him... including the possibility of nothing happening to him.

Whether or not the voice is Zodiark, given the transformation to WoD, I want to see him brought into the picture and given some meaningful interaction with the WoD. I'm hoping they focus more on Solus as the big bad, so we can see some "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" cooperation with Elidibus. Becoming the WoD without the Blessing of Darkness would feel... incomplete.

For Minfillia, I am keen to see if she's being reborn in some fashion, and whether this ties into some of the box art for ShB, with the dark rider holding the glowing white infant.

People dismissive of the G'raha Tia and Crystal Tower hypothesis should remember that it can sustain portals to other shards, and did. Granted, it needs a source of power great enough to enable it to do that, with Dalamud out of the picture, but that could be fixed. I am no fan of G'raha, but in combination with the leaks, the similarities with the art work and the nature of the expansion, I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it. There are powerful artefacts in the world, such as the Heart of Sabik, which could tie into it (and also therefore tie into the "hint of darkness" the auri NPC sensed in you following the events in the House of the Crooked Coin.)

On the question of the voice acting for the narration in the trailer (i.e. is it Arbert etc.), does anyone know who the voice actors are in the various versions and whether it lines up with Arbert, or some other character's VA?

Well... This issue with "Shard Travel" relying on the Echo is only for travelling between shards of your own volition.

In order to hold your OWN soul together without a body, you need the Echo.

However, the souls of all the Scions have been taken by someone or something else. It would not be impossible for there to exist some form of outside source of Echo or Echo-like power, that could reach across shards and not only separate a soul from their material body (Without destroying said body) but also hold the soul together while in the Lifestream while pulling it to a specified location.

It would of course, necessitate ungodly amounts of power, in addition to some form of host for the souls at the end, but there's nothing to suggest that such a thing cannot exist.

Yup, it could be as much to do with the method being used as anything else. Perhaps the WoL will be next.