Revelations from Gamescom 2019

[Crushnight]

My interpretation of it is that it wasn't so much that he was uniquely powerful, in the way Zenos or Emet-Selch might be, but that he was able to blind side us somewhat. In a sense there is a bit of borrowed power involved, due to the bond with the serpent, but certainly nothing Sin Eater.

Given Ran'jit's appearance and who he associates with it wouldn't have been a stretch to think he may have been given a boost by something not his own, his serpent is made from his aether so the serpent is his own power so when he fused with it he was just putting all his aether back into his body. So Ran'jit straight only used his strength when we fight him which was good to find out.

[Lauront]

The Alpha issue ties in with a larger issue: is everything alive a discreet sundered soul with specific pieces out there? Because the way the scions understand it - as Alphinaud explains in Il Mheg - most souls dissolve into the lifestream and only a few strong souls (including presumably us) maintain cohesion after death.

Either the scions are wrong about how this works, or the detail that every lifeform is gaining ether creates a conundrum. After all, with lifestream theory, there are countless new souls being made, and if they're new what are they rejoining with? Random aether? In that case Alpha could be included.

I guess a third possibility is that there is a discreet unit of aether, an aether atom, which was sundered, and each one gets rejoined. Then Alpha is out of luck again.

I'd imagine it's random re-attachment, unless the original form is there and readily recognisable (e.g. a soul characterised by the Echo), where the original cannot be "found".

[QT_Melon]

That or Alpha is the "special snowflake" exception where a new soul was born from excess aether?

[RyuDragnier]

17. None of the new job actions added in Shadowbringers get any real lore explanation or backstory. I would like to know more about these new actions! Could you provide this information to players somehow?

Yoshi: This also ties back to the previous question. We want to do story for the level 80 actions, but changes are still in motion right now, and we want to avoid contradictions where the "facts" don’t match the skill.

I understand why they haven't considering changes that keep being done each expansion, so I have a suggestion for them, merely have the job trainers act as though we're making up these moves, that we ourselves came up with them as the reason for them existing. As lazy as that seems, there's no real way for us to have learned these skills from anybody, so merely acting as though we're creating them sounds like the best course of action, lorewise.

[Eyvind]

In response to point 18 (Keeper of the Moon names) am calling it now, "aliapoh" will turn out to be ancient Amaurotine for "pretends to be an orphan for money"

[Lauront]

Given Ran'jit's appearance and who he associates with it wouldn't have been a stretch to think he may have been given a boost by something not his own, his serpent is made from his aether so the serpent is his own power so when he fused with it he was just putting all his aether back into his body. So Ran'jit straight only used his strength when we fight him which was good to find out.

On that point, was it confirmed that it is made of his own aether, or is this an inference from it being a familiar (unless that in turn confirms it)?

It's also worth recalling that whilst fragmented, some souls on the First do still possess the Echo, which could be the case with him. That, plus an unfamiliar fighting style, may have proved enough to temporarily allow him to hold off the WoL... until it wasn't enough.

He is an interesting character and I am glad they avoided going down the "part Sin Eater" route for him, because I feel it'd cheapen it somewhat as a plot angle, given that it had already been used for Vauthry.

[Enkidoh]

I think next time I'll just ask "What is the Chrysalis?"

It's probably one of those questions which is easier to "phrase" visually, because the statues of the Primals (at least one) appear in it, and of course they bear a resemblance to the murals. There may be no significance to it but the Chrysalis is a mysterious place (and possibly where Zodiark was summoned out of given the state of the planet at the time... which could also mean it served as a shelter for the 3 unbroken Overlords during his "demise"), so you'd hope they'd do some of 2 or 3 from the below if it originally had no significance

Interestingly, the old ARR artbook The Art of Eorzea ~ A Realm Reborn had a tidbit from the artist responsible for the Chrysalis's design accompanying the concept art for it, and stated that the directive he was given by the writing team when designing that trial battlefield was that it was actually created from the memories of the Ascians, so whether it is an imperfect recollection of something that did once exist before the Sundering is unclear, but given what we know now.....

...

Oh goddess, now even I'm doing it. I'm going back and looking for 'foreshadowing references' to SHB's revelations and retcons (no matter how pointless that is)!

[JeanneOrnitier]

It's kind of a relief to see that they do seem to have plans for the Heart of Sabik. Though I liked the idea that it was tied to Ultima the High Seraph, but I don't think the timeline works.

[Lauront]

It's kind of a relief to see that they do seem to have plans for the Heart of Sabik. Though I liked the idea that it was tied to Ultima the High Seraph, but I don't think the timeline works.

I wonder if she was something similar in nature to those monstrosities that plagued the Amaurotines, or somehow the result of creation magicks, without being your typical Primal, bearing in mind that this monstrosity acquired sentience through worship due to her destructive potential. Perhaps a relic of the original world that somehow evaded sundering, or in spite of it retained a great deal of power. It's implied that due to the Source's lack of aetheric density required to weave the spell that she may be from another world, but another time could also make sense.

[Eyvind]

I don't know what plans they do, or did have the Heart of Sabik, but note that Sabik is a star in the constellation Opiuchus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eta_Ophiuchi

Ophiuchus's other, older name is Serpentarius. Which is an alternative name for Zodiark in the Ivalice games where he was introduced: https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki..._and_symbolism

Therefore, Sabik=part of Serpentarius=Zodiark

Make of that what you will.