Are the Shards in separate dimension or are they physical locations?

[Edax]

Say Midgardsormr was flying away from his planet and was approaching The Source. Would he physically be able to see and land on The First? Or would it be that only The Source exists to Midgardsormr while the shards exist in other dimensions?

[Alleluia]

I don't know if its ever been confirmed, but since we can't visually observe the other shards from the Source, I'm gonna guess they are in a different dimension and out of phase with each other. But its localized to the planet's space, b/c we do still observe the same night sky from both the Source and the First, including moon phase. So, either Hydaelyn sundered everything we can observe from the planet's surface in addition to the planet itself, or the sundering is only in a localized multiverse pocket ... thing. I think its the latter.

And the Source is the shard that's in phase with (ie. in the same dimension as) the rest of reality, since all the aliens seem to end up there.

Leads to another question for me, which is "can the people on the shards travel to the source if they invent rockets?" And I'd say no. Since the people on the First are in phase with (ie their atoms move at the same vibration frequency) their home dimension (hence why they are able to physically interact with it), they would stay in phase with it regardless of location. So if they went to the moon's location and looked back, they'd see the First, not the Source. I think this also ties in with why its so hard to successfully bring whole people across the rift btwn worlds. Spirits are more malleable, but bodies are physical matter and thus would be more difficult to alter the physical status of, at least if you want to keep the person in question alive at the end of it.

Sorry, I've got a lot of thoughts on this topic. lol

[YianKutku]

One of the parts I'm still confused about is whether Omega travelled through space or the rift between worlds/dimensions.

From what we see in the Omega raids, Omega was chasing Midgardsormr through deep space. But according to Cid in the Ivalice raids and the stuff we find in the Twinning, apparently Omega's power to travel was through the rift, and it came from another "dimension"?

Maybe Omega could travel through the rift because it was looking for the specific shard that Midgardsormr hid himself in, but I would have thought that would be significant enough to warrant explicit mention, rather than retroactively reasoning it out from what seemed like contradictory comments.

[Iscah]

From what we see in the Omega raids, Omega was chasing Midgardsormr through deep space. But according to Cid in the Ivalice raids and the stuff we find in the Twinning, apparently Omega's power to travel was through the rift, and it came from another "dimension"?

Omega created an "interdimensional rift" in which it was carrying out its experimental battles, but I don't remember it being suggested that it came from another dimension itself. Do you have a direct source for that quote or are you just going from memory?

[EdwinLi]

I can only guess it maybe the Flash explanation of how Multiverse works but limited to Source and the Shards that still remain....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaOAe-NNGa4

[Anonymoose]

As far as the question as it's phrsaed in the OP goes, that is unlikely. The writers have yet to have a reason to have to clarify how far the broken part of the cosmos radiates out from the Source...so they haven't. Maybe it's just our planet, maybe it's the whole cosmos. We don't know. They might not know.

However, in either scenario, Midgardsormr and Omega probably only saw the Source as they approached from elsewhere in our dimension.

The real question is ... if you launched a rocket from the First, when, if ever, would it "cross back over" into unsundered space?

These are questions the developers will address at an uncertain point in the future, lol.

The way the shards have been spoken about before, they're all overlapping, just on different "planes", as if they're on different "frequencies" in the same "space"...but this may no longer be the working assumption.

[Iscah]

The way the shards have been spoken about before, they're all overlapping, just on different "planes", as if they're on different "frequencies" in the same "space"...but this may no longer be the working assumption.

You say that like there's a specific reason to reconsider that assumption - is there?

I don't remember there being any suggestion of other possibilities. Is there a reason to question it beyond "we don't know the technicalities of how it works in circumstances the story hasn't explored yet"?

[Lambdafish]

One of the parts I'm still confused about is whether Omega travelled through space or the rift between worlds/dimensions.

From what we see in the Omega raids, Omega was chasing Midgardsormr through deep space. But according to Cid in the Ivalice raids and the stuff we find in the Twinning, apparently Omega's power to travel was through the rift, and it came from another "dimension"?

Maybe Omega could travel through the rift because it was looking for the specific shard that Midgardsormr hid himself in, but I would have thought that would be significant enough to warrant explicit mention, rather than retroactively reasoning it out from what seemed like contradictory comments.

Omega does have the power to open rifts, and yes, is likely not even from this dimension to begin with. You kinda answered your own question, because while Omega can open rifts and travel dimensions, Midgardsomr can't, and as Omega was pursuing him, there was no need to cross dimensions between dragonstar and the source

[SilverObi]

I've been operating on the assumption that it works like the planet Aether (ha) from Metroid Prime 2, in which you see the "true" version as you approach and land while the "echo" planet is only able to be breached through rifts in the dimensional walls. And that as you pull away from one, you enter back into "true" space as it's a localized shattering of spacetime but as the night sky on the First is different than it is on the Source this theory is out the window right now, unless one of our own skywatchers has put the work into examining the stars.

[Iscah]

...but as the night sky on the First is different than it is on the Source this theory is out the window right now, unless one of our own skywatchers has put the work into examining the stars.

I've just checked - the stars are the same. I could see the Spire constellation in Lakeland, and the same bright stars around the moon both there and in Southern Thanalan.

Given a bit more time I could probably find the six astrological constellations to double-confirm it.