The Future Expansion; What is the possibility?

[jazo]

I would fangirl squee for days if they reveal an FFXI integration to FFXIV due shard shennanigans, we had 2 crossover events Shantotto and Iroha that actually *spoiler?* remains on Eorzea finding a way to get back home

Also, she is the daughter of FFXI Tenzen

And we had our FFXIV Tenzen too


Plus lots and lots of other references/parallels to XI on XIV

Of course there would not be like a... FFXI remake on an explansion of XIV BUT due the shard mumbo jumbo, it might as well be its own Vanadiel "first" to the OG Vanadiel "source" shards where they could retell/remake on XIV engine the shadowlord saga and encourage FFXI players to try FXIV

HECK!!! even they could reset levels to everyone on that shard and give new players the chance to start on Vanadiel(XIV) via its own leveling system as on eureka or a separate leveling there so everyone can start fresh from there

That way its not as to negate FFXI lore but to "migrate" it to XIV

[Lunalepsy]

It feels they don't wanna reach Garlemald because they know the game will end.

[KageTokage]

Pretty much everything is building up to the next expansion focusing on Ilsabard and Garlemald with both the relic quest and the Werlyt storyline getting our feet wet in the region and engaging in smaller scale confrontations with Garlean forces.

It feels they don't wanna reach Garlemald because they know the game will end.

We have two entire continents that have been totally untouched, as well as additional regions within Aldenard like Old Sharlayan and Hingashi that are unexplored as well.

I'm not really worried about them having any shortage of potential future content, though where the story will go once the two biggest threats to the realm have been addressed is anyone's guess.

[Enkidoh]

The thing is, the Shards are not the corresponding FF world that their name might appear as - they're just copies of the Source Hydaelyn where things turned out slightly differently (different names for the races for instance) - this is after all why they're also referred to literally as being reflections of the Source.

So the Eleventh Shard would not be Vana'diel, the Tenth would not be Spira etc. The development team already debunked Hydaelyn as being any other FF world long ago, despite numerous name references popping up which are just fanservice and not to be taken as something more.

Also, it was made pretty clear in the two FFXI/FFXIV crossover events that Vana'diel is not only a completely seperate world to Hydaelyn and it's Shards, but is in a completely different dimension to Hydaelyn (read: universe) so that's another nail in that coffin.

And remember, even if Vana'diel and Hydaelyn were the same world (or at least a Shard), the means we managed to travel between the Source and the First in ShB was an exceptional circumstance that has now been permanently disabled with no way of restoring it (aka: the events of the Twining), so no further Shard hopping will be possible sadly (to say nothing of there only being four remaining Shards anyway not including the First - seven have already been rejoined so they no longer even exist and one is the Void so that kind of limits things). No, it's more likely we will be travelling back to the Source and having to deal with Garlemald (and Zenos) once and for all. But we'll find out eventually either way.

[MelodyCrystel]

It feels they don't wanna reach Garlemald because they know the game will end.

Which is the reason why I think our next place to go (as long as we speak about the Source) will be either the continent of our Bluemages -- since we had not yet Beasttribe-quests of the Mamool Ja, it would make sense -- or perhaps the so-very-often referenced Dalmasca.

(I can only speak for German dub, but in 2.0 Nero shoots a spy from Dalmasca, so the bait is at least for me very old.)

[KageTokage]

I think I'd want to see Meracydia the most as it's largely an unknown outside of the things the Allagans took from there to Azys Lla.

[MikkoAkure]

Which is the reason why I think our next place to go (as long as we speak about the Source) will be either the continent of our Bluemages -- since we had not yet Beasttribe-quests of the Mamool Ja, it would make sense -- or perhaps the so-very-often referenced Dalmasca.

(I can only speak for German dub, but in 2.0 Nero shoots a spy from Dalmasca, so the bait is at least for me very old.)

We've already been to Dalmasca for an entire 24-person raid series and now the relic quest, which is based around fighting the bad guy controlling Dalmasca.

I can see us going to Ilsabard/Garlemald in the next expansion. Story elements have been put into place that make me feel like they're setting it up so that Garlemald could be a future city in the same way Ishgard and Kugane are (hopefully not a repeat of Ala Mhigo though). Unless something big happens, the story already looks almost over for the bad guys and I think that's a good thing. I'm starting to get tired from everything being Garleans/Ascians/Allagans and we need something new. FFXI's first 2 expansions continued the main storyline and then ended it in a good way, before moving on to an expansion that was completely different on the other side of the world with not much connecting it to the original MSQ story. Then an expansion that brought us back to the MSQ in a sort of tangential way by going back into the past, and then another expansion of something completely different. The story doesn't have to end with us beating the original bad guys.

[Skivvy]

There are many reasons this wouldn't work and as someone who has played XI for nearly 20 years and XIV since 2010, it would only be shallow fan service.

But just to cover a few things. If you look at the first, the geology is quite similar to Eorzea, in fact its pretty much an exact replica, Quon is completely different from a continental perspective so some pretty devastating geological events that have never been spoken of in XI would have had to taken place in the 10,000 years since the Zilart fell for it to change so drastically. Not to mention they also have their own Hydaelyn and Zodiark in the forms of Altana and Promathia, the former being in peak power and the later of which we already dealt with. Then we also have alternative timelines to deal with, like the Abyssea timeline in which Promathia (or Zodiark) would have killed us and reigned supreme as Shinryu and the timeline that was created/erased via the Rhapsodies expansion. And that is only naming a few things that would be hard to explain. The Zilart and Kuluu, while being relatively similar as the Ascians, as also different enough for their respective lore not to overlap smoothly, if at all.

Just using races as an example doesn't quite fit, there would need to me many more connections. Incorporating all of the Vana'diel lore, which is much much more intricate than the XIV lore, would be a complete mess and nearly impossible to do without retconning one of the games lores in it's entirety. If Yoshida wanted to just make Vana'diel a shard of Eorzea, not only would he have to be creative in a way that I feel is beyond his capabilities, but it would do a complete disservice to XI and the franchise.

This is a really great post.

As much as I still love XI, I would hate to see them try to make it a shard as well. There is just no way they would be able to do XI's world justice, and like you stated, I imagine it would only feel like shallow fan service.

[ChaoticCrimson]

The reason we had to go to the First was pretty extraordinary, and the means by which any of it was even possible were also pretty extraordinary. Besides, at this juncture it doesn't look like it'll be possible to move the "Crystal TARDIS" from the First, and the only alternative would be to have Cid from our timeline attempt to do what he did to that CT to the one from our timeline back at the Source. Even if you consider our Cid would have more manpower and resources available I doubt it would be a quick job considering how long it took in the Black Rose timeline. And for what reason would we need to stick our noses in the affairs of other shards? I doubt Elidibus would try to bother priming the other remaining shards for rejoining while the First is still in the precarious position it is. Nevermind the fact that Elidibus is mostly on his own since the other remaining unsundered Ascians are seemingly gone for good and the rest of them have been drastically dwindled thanks to us, Gaius, etc. which rather limits his scope of effectiveness for the time being.

[Mansion]

Garlemald feels off though, it's a big mess now but I don't really see us actually going there. What we are already doing is more limiting what's going on around that unstable situation with Werlyt and Bozja, perhaps liberating other people. But we don't have anything to do in Illsabard properly. Unless we get some request from the Populares to join forces or something...