Crazy Personal Headcanons

[Kranel_San]

Here are some of my crazy personal headcanons that I thought would make more sense

1. Some extreme and savage encounters are canon while others are a combination of normal and their harder difficulty with few normal-difficulty encounters being canon. For example, I consider Thordan ex, Hades ex, Zodiark ex, Exdeath savage, and Kefka savage to be the canon over their normal counterparts.
   Meanwhile, I consider Shinryu, Innocence, ShB WoL canon encounters to be a combination between the extreme and normal difficulty
   And then we have O12N, Bahamut, Ultima weapon encounters are canon as they're in normal (No Omega didn't transform into some abomination and Bahamut didn't become super Sayan)
   
   
2. Instead of being one consistent job. My WoL label himself as an adventurer who keeps learning and trying out new jobs whenever possible. As a result, my WoL is an all-rounder who uses every job actions and even enhances some actions further based on the knowledge gained from other jobs.
   
   
3. Azem's crystal does not summon random guys out of nowhere, but instead, it gives me the advantage I need. For example, against Meteion it summoned a solid ground for me to stand and move freely on while also enhancing my abilities. Against Zodiark, it summoned seven solid clones of me to fight. Against ShB WoL, it just freed me from the rift.

[KageTokage]

Perhaps not a headcanon so much as it is a theory, but with all the myriads of...questionable experiments the Garleans were conducting in the research facility beneath the imperial palace, I'd be surprised if tampering with the void wasn't one of them given their people's history with the Reaper job, and perhaps that has something to do with both how Zenos got his avatar and why the tower is still radiating that unpleasant aura.

[Rulakir]

I suppose mine is that Etheirys will eventually return to being whole without Hydaelyn. It may take thousands upon thousands of years, but I believe that the sundering will naturally correct itself over time. The only exception is the 13th, but I'll be surprised if we don't handle that situation before the end of the game's run.

[SannaR]

Here are some of my crazy personal headcanons that I thought would make more sense

1. Some extreme and savage encounters are canon while others are a combination of normal and their harder difficulty with few normal-difficulty encounters being canon. For example, I consider Thordan ex, Hades ex, Zodiark ex, Exdeath savage, and Kefka savage to be the canon over their normal counterparts.
   Meanwhile, I consider Shinryu, Innocence, ShB WoL canon encounters to be a combination between the extreme and normal difficulty
   And then we have O12N, Bahamut, Ultima weapon encounters are canon as they're in normal (No Omega didn't transform into some abomination and Bahamut didn't become super Sayan)
   
   
2. Instead of being one consistent job. My WoL label himself as an adventurer who keeps learning and trying out new jobs whenever possible. As a result, my WoL is an all-rounder who uses every job actions and even enhances some actions further based on the knowledge gained from other jobs.
   
   
3. Azem's crystal does not summon random guys out of nowhere, but instead, it gives me the advantage I need. For example, against Meteion it summoned a solid ground for me to stand and move freely on while also enhancing my abilities. Against Zodiark, it summoned seven solid clones of me to fight. Against ShB WoL, it just freed me from the rift.

1. Is definitely how I see it when I need to have a way of explaining how exactly we get some things or remember some things. 2 and 3 make a lot of sense.

[KageTokage]

I suppose mine is that Etheirys will eventually return to being whole without Hydaelyn. It may take thousands upon thousands of years, but I believe that the sundering will naturally correct itself over time. The only exception is the 13th, but I'll be surprised if we don't handle that situation before the end of the game's run.

This honestly makes really wonder if/how they'll touch on the reflections other then the 13th going into the future, because while they can't reasonably devote an entire expansion to each, having them all of them relegated to a single expansion where we perhaps need to somehow "reinforce" the boundaries keeping them from rejoining with the Source in order to prevent disastrous consequences for all would feel similarly awkward after how the First was handled.

[Enkidoh]

This honestly makes really wonder if/how they'll touch on the reflections other then the 13th going into the future, because while they can't reasonably devote an entire expansion to each, having them all of them relegated to a single expansion where we perhaps need to somehow "reinforce" the boundaries keeping them from rejoining with the Source in order to prevent disastrous consequences for all would feel similarly awkward after how the First was handled.

Well, to be honest, apart from the First and the Thirteenth/Void, there's only four Shards left anyway, the others were all Rejoined. So I assume SE probably would just quietly ignore them for simplicity's sake.

[Lyth]

There's a lot that the writers could do with them, depending on how Y'shtola's shard travel plotline develops. The reason why the First provided content for only one expansion was because it was largely destroyed by the Ascians, with Norvrandt being effectively just a parallel universe version of Eorzea (i.e. Limsa/Eulmore, Amh Araeng/Thanalan, Rak'tika/Twelveswood, Il Mheg/Coerthas, Lakeland/Mor Dhona). If you have a largely intact shard with multiple connection points to the source, you functionally have a Link to the Past style Light/Dark World approach to travel and bypass barriers/obstacles that you may encounter in your journey (you've doubled the size of the world map, but you don't have to reveal the entire landmass and explore it all at once). A smaller shard could easily be used as the basis for side content, be it a Relic storyline or Deep Dungeon. They don't have to show their hand until they're ready to play it.

[RyuDragnier]

This honestly makes really wonder if/how they'll touch on the reflections other then the 13th going into the future, because while they can't reasonably devote an entire expansion to each, having them all of them relegated to a single expansion where we perhaps need to somehow "reinforce" the boundaries keeping them from rejoining with the Source in order to prevent disastrous consequences for all would feel similarly awkward after how the First was handled.

They'd likely have an expansion for each Shard, and I have a feeling you're right on the money for what we'll have to do. Hydaelyn Sundered the world and Zodiark altered the aethercurrents...since Zodiark being gone currently has the Aethercurrents repairing themselves back into their original state (as shown by the FSH Studium questline), then Hydaelyn being gone means there's nothing keeping the shards separated anymore, they're going to combine. Probably not today or tomorrow, but over time they will...and with possibly the biggest Calamity the world will have ever seen.

In one such scenario, The First and 13th will likely have to be repaired before anything is done. A task easily done due to the excess energy in both. The First has too much light, not enough darkness. The 13th has too much darkness, not enough light...have their energies bleed into each other just enough, and they'll stabilize themselves.

[KageTokage]

Given that there seems to be a connection between the Lifestream of the Source and the shards due to Hydaelyn being able to return some departed souls from the First, I wonder if it's the primary force that exerts the "pull" on the shards whenever a rejoining happens. Perhaps the "stakes" mentioned in the Golden Dhyata's prophecy could be referring to stifling if not severing that connection so that the shards can exist independently with no risk of being rejoined..

I also suppose the game could reasonably give each shard an expansion assuming it runs long enough. If we're looking at the remaining regions of the Source, there's at least three more expansions to be had there alone between Ilsabard, Meracydia, and the New World. Nagxia, Rabanastre, and Hingashi also account for enough landmass together to be future expansion material as well.

[Denishia]

Oh, I do like that as the eventual capstone expansion a la Rhapsodies of Vana'diel with a callback to the first major arc (after we've had whatever the next ten years plans are, which I hope are focused on the present day) to be a return to the Shards and hoping through the other remaining worlds with the goal of saving them. The idea of Rejoining the Shards is counter to every single action that the WoL has taken and framed to be, reversing the goals and triumphs of Shadowbringers and Endwalker, whereas "save the rest of the shards so that they permanently may have the freedom to continue on forward and grow without fear of becoming devoured by their parent world" to fit in with the themes of XIV. On the small scale, I find the championing of the idea of the WoL going around "collecting" the heroes of the other Shards to claim their fragments of Azem for a power upgrade both ...bizarre and unappealing, to put it gently. If we do ever go to another Shard and meet another WoL that has an Azem spard, my greatest disappointment would be if they kill that character off like Ardbert. Undoing the Sundering is something I cannot understand the game ever arguing for - but Stabilizing it makes sense. And that said Stabilizing would work as something touched on in 6.1 with the Studium Quests and a lecture or two involving Y'shtola, then put on the back burner with a handwave of 'we the Scions have done what we can/the natural process will work itself out/this is something that a hypothetical sequel generation deals with' and then bringing back the phenomenon and exploring the fate of the Shards and working to save them several expansions later. It fits with how they leave story hooks open but allow for another plot to be the immediate focus.