Thread: Predictions for 5.3?

Weird showerthought, I think we've been approaching the fate of the Aumarotines as a Cosmic Horror Story of sorts, and it certainly is akin to that, what with the whole eldritch horror angle, but the thing is that those horrors came form within the Aumrotines and manifested via their magics. As such I wonder if the Ascians' backstory, the original umbral calamity, is instead of a more traditional archetype, and one already used with Allag. A tale of a grand civilization felled by its own hubris. what if there was some drawback (like the idea of draining the planet from its aether in massive amounts as I alluded to before) that made their creation magics dangerous even on this scale.

Originally Posted by JeanneOrnitier

I dunno I'm not seeing death flags on Y'shtola.

The death flag been raised on Y'shtola since events of 3.0 as she is literally using up what remains of her life force to see aether and among other things suggested by Master Matoya.

Y'shtola even admits that she will continue to use this deadly method with what remains of her time left alive and from how they acted, it maybe a few years or less unless she can some how recover her eyes or stop using this power which she is sadly not inclinded to give up using despite knowing she is literally killing herself.

Yet, on some side of things, Y'shtola may live through the entire story but from what it is said, she may die not long after the story ends but knowing her I will not be surprised if she spends the remaining moments of her life recording the final story of WoL (potentially Season 2 story that is said to maybe planned after Zodiark Storyline is finally over on the assumed 6.0 to 6.3 being the assumed ending when Zodiark and Ascians are finally defeated) before passing on.


On another topic:

If the Resistance story is hinting at Asura a part of me expect this to be her Ultimate attack....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwymQhI_4m0

I posted this on reddit, but I will put it here too.

We are going to fight Elidiblus, destroy his current body, the Exarch is going to use his own body like white aethercite and trap Eldi inside himself, there is going to be a battle for control, Eldi is going to win, we are going to have to fight the Exarch and when all hope seems lost, the Exarch is going to regain control of his body and tell us destroying him is the only way to save the source and the shards, so in our infinite wisdom we are going to heed to his advice and with the help of everyone granted the echo by Eldi (because irony), destroy his body on the first, at the same time destroying Eldi and the shockwave that sends through his soul will wake the Exarch on the Source.

The scions are going to be released back to the source with an emotional farewell between Thancred and Ryne and Tataru is going to cry with joy at seeing everyone wake up.

Then something something cringy mystery villain speech, something something cringy Zenos speech. dun dun dun cliff hanger, wait for patch 5.4

Throwing an alternate prediction out there because why not. The trial we won't be expecting could be Atomos. As an enemy encountered in the Labyrinth of the Ancients and the World of Darkness, it ties into the requirements of that quest-line being needed to advance the story-line.

Taken directly from the fan wiki as a brief primer of it's origin:

Atomos is a type of recurring Voidsent. It first appeared at certain Aetheryte camps as part of the Seventh Umbral Era events, as the rift between Hydaelyn and the void became wide enough to allow its passage. It is assumed to be the "Black Dooms" spoken of in the prophecy. Its design here is identical to that in Wings of the Goddess.

When it appears, it will usually spawn powerful Voidsent imps and undead. Anyone who teleports to these camps puts themselves at mortal risk. If they die upon arrival, their Anima will be wasted as they will be forced to return to their home point. If their home point is at the Aetheryte, it can be difficult to leave without returning to the Inn.

In patch 1.23b, this version of Atomos has spread to more areas. The locations it originally manifested at will now see it appear as a boss monster. More powerful Voidsent will appear to accompany this. If Atomos is defeated it will leave behind a Voidstone, which will grant any who examine it an Over-aspected Cluster, Crystals, or an effect that increases or slows their movement speed. Additionally, these particular Aetheryte crystals have turned orange and no longer cost Anima to teleport to, as Atomos drained all of their aether.

In A Realm Reborn, Atomos appears as a boss in the the Labyrinth of the Ancients. Three instances of Atomos guard three separate paths through the tower, apparently bound in place by Allagan magitek, and they spawn a series of Voidsent which adventurers must confront before dealing with the Atomos. More Atomos appear in the World of Darkness, linked to a crystal known as "Atomos Prime." As before, the alliance must battle three of them separately to force them to drain the life force from Atomos Prime.


In FFXI, Atomos was also known as the distorter of time, it was a manifestation of reality regulation by means of devouring and consuming unnecessary objects and events. Seeing as how we altered time by stopping the Flood of Light, thus sparring not only the First from destruction but the Source as well... It seems many events are now unnecessary, right?

I'm reminded of a little game called Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, in which the protagonist is forced to flee from an entity called the Dahaka. In the previous game, he continuously used The Sands of Time to rewind specific moments to stop events from transpiring. The Dahaka was the manifestation of fate attempting to restore time to it's unaltered state by killing the Prince by removing him from time itself.

While it may not be a one for one, It shouldn't be possible to simply change your fate as you wish without some sort of repercussion taking place. This isn't a story where the good guys win and that's it. It never has been.

They mentioned that the trial that closes off the ShB story would be "hard to predict", so I feel like that automatically tosses Elidibus and the Exarch out of the equation; though it could definitely be some other entity summoned as a result of one or the other's actions, or perhaps even both. It could also be a technicality and they do end up being the ones we fight, albeit transformed into something so far removed from their original selves that it throws us for a loop.

In the former's case, if he turns out to be the very Elidibus who's currently acting as Zodiark's heart somehow, I could see us having to fight a Zodiark Prime, as the previous "prime" entities we've fought were essentially avatars of the original primal; possessing just a fraction of their power, but still being more then a match for us. Considering how insanely powerful Zodiark is, even just a fraction of a fraction would still be a huge threat.

In the latter's case, I could also see it being someone/something that either represents the timeline his actions were meant to erase or is actually from that timeline and is making a final spit of defiance to try to reverse it.