What about the other shards?

[Sylvain]

I wonder if we'll ever have some information about the culture and history of the other shards.
And for some reason I'd like to see the sky of their world before the rejoining, must be quite epic.

[Enkidoh]

Most of the other shards no longer exist as they were all destroyed when they were Rejoined (seven in fact, one for each Calamity that have occurred on the Source), plus one has become completely lost to a Flood (becoming the Void, and which we actually have already travelled to - it's the World of Darkness). Really, not including the First and the aforementioned one that was lost to the Flood of Darkness (the Thirteenth) there's only four Shards left that are not yet Rejoined. As for how their cultures and history are like, well, given Norvrandt and it's cities clearly shows similarities to Eorzea on the Source, while wildly diverging in other ways, they wouldn't be too different to what we've already seen.

As for whether we will be able to visit them too, it's hard to say, although I'm liable at this time to say no, on account of the means we were able to travel to the First was an exceptional circumstance that has been forever disabled (due to the events of the Twinning dungeon), so unless another means of overcoming that troublesome 'only aether/souls can pass between the Source and the Shards unless you have a dimension-hopping crystal tower powered by part of Omega and Alexander' limitation becomes apparent, I'm not expecting to visit the other Shards any time soon.

[JeanneOrnitier]

I'm not sure about us visiting other Shards but I think other Shards will visit us. Elidibus's scene at the end of 5.0 seemed to be hinting to him trying his plan from HW again and getting more warriors to fight us.

I also feel pretty confident in saying the armored girl from the Eden questline will turn out to be from the Void/Thirteenth.

[Gemina]

I doubt we will go shard hopping, but I wouldn't be surprised if connections are made to the other existing shards. Because we are now aware that preventing calamities saves lives in multiple dimensions, catastrophic damage to basically any shard cannot be allowed. The tide of keeping Zodiark in chains is still heavily in favor of his servants. There are so few shards left. Everything we've done thus far has basically prevented further loss of Hydaelyn's shards and the rejoining.

[Tracewood]

I kind of get the impression they're using the idea of shards just in case they want to prolong XIV for years to come.

Not against it or anything, keeps things fresh. This expansion feels like a "disc two" of sorts since we are taking a break from the empire and focus on lore and world building and having our fellow scions go through some much needed development.

Really curious who will take the mantle of big bad at the end of 5.0. Will Elidibus slip away again or will Zenos do something so insane to hasten the rejoining and we need to stop him? Or will a new big bad finally be revealed? Was under the impression that Emet was the mastermind since SB with the way the presented him.

[Cilia]

Even if dimension-hopping shenanigans become more commonplace, I'd be fine with never visiting any of the other shards - until the Source has been fully explored, at any rate. I'd like to fully explore this world before hopping to others.

[Edax]

Even if dimension-hopping shenanigans become more commonplace, I'd be fine with never visiting any of the other shards - until the Source has been fully explored, at any rate. I'd like to fully explore this world before hopping to others.

Yeah, I remember Fringe starting to introduce more then one extra dimension and it jumped the shark with how convulted it became. I think we should stick to our own world because 1 planet is plenty big in my opinion.

[Iscah]

Agreed on sticking to the world(s) we currently have and not spreading to more shards. It just massively complicates worldbuilding, having to create another whole set of cultures and locations each time, instead of creating one world and exploring it in detail. If we know nothing about the other shards at all, we don't need to know. If we know a little, we start asking questions about the rest of it.

Not against it or anything, keeps things fresh. This expansion feels like a "disc two" of sorts since we are taking a break from the empire and focus on lore and world building and having our fellow scions go through some much needed development.

I feel like Stormblood was the "break from main plot" expansion, stepping away from the primary arch of Hydaelyn vs Zodiark for a less-cosmic-scale objective. (One that I didn't enjoy, personally.)

[Jandor]

I'd be quite happy to see a bit more shard hopping, maybe as side content instead of a full expansion focus though.

A deep dungeon or Eureka set on a different world, or worlds, has potential to be interesting.

[Theodric]

To be fair, visiting other worlds has been a plot point in numerous Final Fantasy titles. I'm fairly certain that we'll be exploring more of the Source in the future, though I wouldn't be opposed to visiting other Shards so long as the story told is an engaging one.

The Void, in particular, is of great interest to me. I quite like the aesthetics involved and would love to see more. As a plot point, finding a way to fix it would be of benefit to multiple individuals which further makes it worthy of a potential expansion premise.