Generally, do you like the lore/story so far?

[Brightamethyst]

IIRC we knew Omega was underneath Carteneau way back in 2.3. That's part of what everyone's fighting over in Frontlines.

[Cilia]

I can't say how far out the developers plan the story, but based on various articles I've read my best guess is one expansion out. So they didn't know what they were going to do with the Warriors of Darkness in Shadowbringers because when they stepped onto the stage back in 3.1, their role through 3.4 was already planned out but nothing past that (Stormblood would have been in the process of finalization).

The writers love to leave little bits hanging and dredge them up later for story ideas. 4.3 Spoilers:

Asahi's body being puppeteered by Fandaniel, for instance.

At this point I'm not sure why the protagonists don't cremate whatever notable enemies leave corpses behind purely to prevent Ascians from hijacking them.

Omega was first mentioned back in... what, 2.3? 2.4? It was the reason for Teledji's political posturing for the annexation of the Cartenau Flats; he wanted to control Omega and use it to challenge Lolorito's power, so he pretended to be sympathetic to the Doman and Ala Mhigan refugees and argued for the annexation of Cartenau to give them somewhere to go. Of course, Omega went nowhere until 3.55, but its existence was brought up way before that.

[JeanneOrnitier]

Though I would be surprised if Omega being an alien was planned back when it was first mentioned in ARR. And I'm not saying that as a condemnation, it's a very smart things for writers of long-running stories like this to leave things vague so they can fill them in later.

[Alexandre_Noireau]

No, and is quite sad considering how brilliant everything else arround it.
Since Stormblood i've been having issues with the directive/narrative, and now Shadowbringers does one of the worse things it could have possible done: bad multiverse/parallel universes. Omega was... Questionable enough. But Nordvrant is just a massive No.

Stormblood was too much, and the truly relevant side, Ala Mhigan resistance was underwhelming. Othard was good but couldn't develop well since it had to split with Ala Mhigo, it truly was a shameful decision, when i saw the trailer i whispered a soft: "why..."

Shadowbringers also, makes really no much sense to me... First, why so proud emet-selch would make his museum in a doomed reflection? makes absolutely zero sense, that is not even the REAL amarout, how is that the crystal tower is even in the first, and what about the others, how comes the Allagans do what only the unsundered can. All of ShB could have happend in the Source, instead of going to Nordvrant we could have visited either the New World or Meracydia, we know something stopped the allagans there, it was where the first primal was born, and i dare say what we see at the end of the amarout dungeon is the planet from the southern emisphere. Amarout should be in the source...

Second, is that ShB also pulls us away with that "prevent calamity" thing really out of nowhere, the narrative from Stormblood (when it was finally getting into what it was supposed to be as an expac thematically speaking...) and takes us away in what could be described only as an anime filler, if only we hadn't beat the main antagonist in a filler season in two rushed patches. I mean, we didn't even got Varis, we got kill stealed by side characters which aparently had a much better main scenario quest raiding the empire than us, is like the whole of the world paused. Feels so wrong.

In a perfect world... Heavensward would have seen the Sultana TRULY dead, Raubahn and not lyse leading a much more violent and dark revolution for Ala Mhigo with Stormblood being focused only in Ala Mhigo and the Southern Provinces, the 5.0 expansion could have been Othard, the opening of a proper two front war, the whole of ivallice linking into main scenario and the CURRENT persuit of the empire just starting, maybe 8th calamity ABOUT to happen now instead of being spoiled by a cat that saw like the whole seasons ahead of the anime and now thinks he can just make bad fan service with us. And now the 6.0 Expansion could be Shadowbringers proper, finally going after Elidibus, Zodiark, Maybe introduce emet-selch, honestly i don't care much for it as he came out of literal nowhere... Anyway, Fandaniel, yeah...

I really don't undertand the nature of Allagans, Ascians and the Crystal Tower by this point. The whole reflection things were fine till WE moved. I buy the calamities, everything, even preventing the 8th as a main quest... I don't know where this is heading.
Im just sad Hydrus is dead, and nothing ever progressed for Unukalhai.

So, who are the stronger here, the ascians or the allagans? Why is there a Crystal Tower in the first?

It would have even made more sense if there was a crystal tower on the southern emisphere instead of the first. Like piercing the core, maybe being literal ends of Hydaelyn. Anyway, i just feel like nothing in my encyclopedias makes any sense anymore than we can just go and create whatever we need using reflections, still a few arround ain't it?

[Cilia]

snip

This is going to take a lot of explaining, so I'm going to hidebox things for people to digest piecemeal if they so choose (or not; that's kind of the point).

Why Emet-Selch Made a Fake Amaurot on the First

It's just a phantasmal overlay, not the real thing, and given he's implied to have figured out the PC's true identity as the fragmented Azem it's rather likely Emet-Selch made it as a sendoff to his old friend, who he believed was going to succumb to madness and turn into a monster.

It's also not possible to have made the fake Amaurot on the Source, since whatever ruins the Ancients left are implied to have been wiped away by the Calamities on the Source.

Why the Crystal Tower is on the First

It's the Crystal Tower from the "Bad Future" where we didn't go to the First, Garlemald used Black Rose to trigger the 8th Calamity, and Norvrandt was annihilated as a result. In this "Bad Future" there were still survivors though, among them Cid and other Ironworks members who eventually unlocked the Crystal Tower. This awakened G'raha Tia, the main protagonist of the Crystal Tower series, who then bound his essence to the Tower in order to survive spacetime jumping through the Rift, then with the help of the Tycoon (an artificial Alexander / Omega hybrid also made by the Ironworks) jumped through spacetime to Norvrandt before the 8th Calamity annihilated it and set in motion plans to prevent that Calamity.

Why the Allagans can do so much Crazy Crap

Allagans, why else?

In all seriousness, they did have an Ascian set things up, and later discovered Omega for yet more technological leaps. Their lack of ethical boundaries also helped. An Ascian also set up Garlemald, turning it from a forsaken backwater into the world superpower practically overnight in historical terms; they're already managing things the Allagans couldn't do. (As did Bad Future Ironworks.)

Allagans vs. Ascians

An Ascian set up Allag, which never managed to achieve everything the Ancients were capable of, so the Ascians win by a wide mile.

While Shadowbringers was excellent, I agree that one of its narrative flaws is that other than the grand scope of saving it nothing on Norvrandt we did really improved the situation on the Source. I can't speak to your personal taste though, so past that... different strokes for different folks, eh?

[Alexandre_Noireau]

Why Emet-Selch Made a Fake Amaurot on the First

It's just a phantasmal overlay, not the real thing, and given he's implied to have figured out the PC's true identity as the fragmented Azem it's rather likely Emet-Selch made it as a sendoff to his old friend, who he believed was going to succumb to madness and turn into a monster.

It's also not possible to have made the fake Amaurot on the Source, since whatever ruins the Ancients left are implied to have been wiped away by the Calamities on the Source.

I know it's just emet-selch magicks. That the Ancients ruins have been wiped doesn't stop the ascians, specifically someone as proud of his hard labour as emet-selch to have have build his museum on a mere reflection (which they clearly despise), it feels out of character and unjustified really, also the reflections have gone through their own story, there shouldn't be any ruins of amarout left in them by that logic.

Why the Crystal Tower is on the First

It's the Crystal Tower from the "Bad Future" where we didn't go to the First, Garlemald used Black Rose to trigger the 8th Calamity, and Norvrandt was annihilated as a result. In this "Bad Future" there were still survivors though, among them Cid and other Ironworks members who eventually unlocked the Crystal Tower. This awakened G'raha Tia, the main protagonist of the Crystal Tower series, who then bound his essence to the Tower in order to survive spacetime jumping through the Rift, then with the help of the Tycoon (an artificial Alexander / Omega hybrid also made by the Ironworks) jumped through spacetime to Norvrandt before the 8th Calamity annihilated it and set in motion plans to prevent that Calamity.

I know the bad end thing... but was the whole tower transported to the first then? Then that would solve that.

Why the Allagans can do so much Crazy Crap

Allagans, why else?

In all seriousness, they did have an Ascian set things up, and later discovered Omega for yet more technological leaps. Their lack of ethical boundaries also helped. An Ascian also set up Garlemald, turning it from a forsaken backwater into the world superpower practically overnight in historical terms; they're already managing things the Allagans couldn't do. (As did Bad Future Ironworks.)

I know of these, thank you, what i have problems is with Allagans having powers like and/or over the Ascians, which this Crystal Tower being also in the reflections would suggest, but if it was Omega/Alexander who transported it, then is more viable.

Allagans vs. Ascians

An Ascian set up Allag, which never managed to achieve everything the Ancients were capable of, so the Ascians win by a wide mile.

As it's supposed to be, what a crystal tower in each reflection would imply otherwise. But it was moved by Omega/Alexander, implying that whatever created Omega is stronger than Ancients and Ascians both if it's able along Alexander of such a feat. Anyway the whole reflection thing is a mess to begin with.

The whole jump is still unjustified. Really, Nordvrant shouldn't exist. But it does.
I can only hope we don't go into yet another reflection.

Multiverse narratives are so bad, cause they have these consistency problems that are unsolvable. Nordvrant serves no purpose whatsoever to any of the events of the main scenario, everything could have happend in the Source just fine.

Not to mention i would rather be raiding imperial facilities (Estinien had a better MSQ than us this expansion) trying to stop the black rose instead of playing DLC content of another game, but i guess thats another topic entirely.

[Tranquilmelody7]

I skip +95% of the cutscenes in this game.
For me it's a more along the lines of 'don't care' then that I dislike the story per se.

[Alleluia]

I'm very happy with the story's current direction, trust the writers to make it just the right amount of focused on the WoL's personal story vs the greater conflict, and am very much looking forward to the next parts.

[Morningstar1337]

I know it's just emet-selch magicks. That the Ancients ruins have been wiped doesn't stop the ascians, specifically someone as proud of his hard labour as emet-selch to have have build his museum on a mere reflection (which they clearly despise), it feels out of character and unjustified really, also the reflections have gone through their own story, there shouldn't be any ruins of amarout left in them by that logic.

I think the reason is not that the reflections have their own history its that their history wasn't peppered with cataclysms of a destructive scale that would wipe even the sturdiest ruins off the map (The Flood of Light was close but Minfilia and co. stopped that before it could flood the Tempest)...but the issue that the sturdiest ruins on the Source had endured 4 calamities (one being a massive earthquake that was meant to bury the civilization that built them, and another is apparently a noah's arc-scale flood) with none the worse for wear and was even a factor in the last of them (granted that DID leave the respective ruins worse for wear. but that was more due to it blowing up from bamahut's emergence than it is external factors.)

[Cilia]

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I argued that there shouldn't be any Amaurotine ruins left as well (super deep in the ocean! Stonework won't last that long!) but writers disagreed I guess. Phantom Amaurot wasn't meant to be a museum, as you put it, just something to make Emet-Selch feel at home and maybe send off his old friend with.

The whole Crystal Tower from the Bad Future was teleported to the First with the help of the Tycoon. It is beyond the Ascians' capabilities (and the Allagans for that matter) to do such things because the one who really controlled the spacetime warping - the Tycoon - was the product of roughly a century of Ironworks R&D involving Alexander and Omega. It exceeds what came before by learning from the best of the best in their fields and synthesizing them.

It's entirely unclear who or what created Omega, but that one's extraterrestrial so nobody has any idea how they made it so powerful.

Again, I can't speak to whether or not the story is to your taste. If you're unsatisfied with it, well... I guess you're unsatisfied with it.

Personally, I think it's been hit or miss, and though Shadowbringers was very good (and finally got us some answers about the Ascians) I'm well aware it's rather disconnected from the events on the Source. I'm not expecting to hop around other shard worlds either; seems like a way to completely sever player interest in Eorzea itself, which I don't see happenin'.