(SPOILERS)What do you think was meant by hints for the next expansion in Heavensward?

[EirolOcarrol]

Spoiler warning for this thread, as it's related to the MSQ and hints at the next possible expansion. In a somewhat recent interview, Naoki Yoshida was asked about hints as to the next expansion, and whether it would be Garlemald.

The interview in particular is with GameSpot. "Michael Higham on July 22, 2020" if you would like to find it.

Are we going to be in Garlemald soon? We've seen a little bit of it in story moments with

Estinien and Gaius

but are we going to start seeing more and actually going there?


YoshiP:

In that aspect, I think we'll be able to go against players' expectations in a good way. Content that's coming in the patch 5.3 series, there's the Sorrow of Werlyt, the latest installment in the weapon series, where you're actually fighting against the forces of the Garlean Empire. In Save the Queen, the Bozjan Southern Front is an upcoming instance that really touches upon the Garlean Empire.

...

Oh, and of course, you can totally take your time on this, but it might be a good idea to get a refresher on Heavensward.

Many are taking this to mean that there will be hints as to the next expansion in Heavensward. But as is often the case, YoshiP is being a bit, intentionally vague. But this is about as much as Yoshida has seemingly given a hint.

And together, it seems to imply that the next expansion won't be in Garlemald, and that there are hints to where it will be in Heavensward.

It's certainly given me reason to go back and look at Heavensward. Shadowbringers was already hinted at in Heavensward. And it could mean that same place and series of events hints at even more that we didn't notice.

Further spoilers ahead, but I can only think that it would mean a few things.

- Something to do with Sharlayan, as Heavensward contains an abandoned Sharlayan colony. And currently there is a new member of the Scions and 5.3 ended on an even more Scion-centric note than usual, if that's even possible.
- Something to do with the Warriors of Darkness that we somehow have yet to explore. Though this seems unlikely, as that seems like the point of Shadowbringers. And I haven't noticed any clues there.
- The Antitower "Word of the Mother" part could hint to something focusing on Hydaelyn next expansion, instead of Zodiark. But that also doesn't see super likely, as Shadowbringers, like the Warrior of Light, seems to have done a lot to conclude Minfilia's story.
- Alexander, and time travel. We've seen Alexander in Shadowbringers as being the "core" of the Crystal Tower's time travel mechanism. Or at least an attempted replica. It wouldn't be a stretch to think that Alexander in the Twinning were some kind of Primal at least intending to be similar in some ways to the original. Unless I've missed something, of course! But time travel seems to only be justified in the most extreme of circumstances, as previous events have shown. And I don't think they're planning on relying on time travel and turning this into a Chrono Trigger. It wouldn't mesh well at all with the world of Hydaelyn.
- Something to do with Dragons. Perhaps Meracydia? With Sharlayan, this is one of the ideas that people have been most like to consider. It's another unexplored territory much talked about. Like with Sharlayan, I have a hard time imagining a particularly important reason to go to either one as an expansion focus, at least right now. But Dragons have continued playing a central role in the story, from Bahamut, to Shinryu, to Omega, to Estinien.
- The thirteenth? Unukalhai certainly takes a small spot in Heavensward.

And, I can't honestly think of much else. What do you think it means?

[Gothicshark]

Honestly, the clues are aimed at Garlemald, but this could be a bit of a red herring, as the main subject of the expansion could be elsewhere. We might actually finish off Garlemald for the most part before the next expansion, or in the early chapters of it. As to locations of interest, Sharlayan is possible, there is also Several lost empires mentioned during heavensward, we might get more Dragon content as well, plus we have a few worlds to learn about, might want to prevent their eventual rejoinings, and we should deal with the Void World.

Honestly we have a lot of work in the future, as to what they focus on, hard to tell.

[Edax]

Probably a hint at some deus ex machina thing that is going to happen. My guess is Hraesvelgr is going to swoop in with Estinien and wreak an airship.

[zcrash970]

Maybe we are going to the moon

[Seraphor]

Hoping for Meracydia and dragons personally, but Sharlayan stuff could be cool too.

[RyuDragnier]

Hoping for Meracydia and dragons personally, but Sharlayan stuff could be cool too.

I'm placing all my bets on this. My reasoning is quoted from myself in the "6.0 Predictions" thread from the Lore section of the forums.

Meracydia was where the first recorded primal summonings happened. It was there the Warring Triad appeared (Sephirot is the FIRST White Mage tree), there that the primal version of Bahamut was created (by Tiamat), there that the SMN job was born, there that the first communication with the Voidsent and Cloud of Darkness was established, there that Bahamut was captured in Dalamud, there that the monsters in Azys Lla were captured. Quite literally, Meracydia is so tied to the Ascians, Allagans, practically every major storyline in FFXIV to date that it's the perfect place for the "finale" for the Zodiark/Hydaelyn storyline, despite parts of it being uninhabitable wastelands.

Considering how much of the game's lore leads back to the Allagan Empire and the events in Meracydia, it feels heavily that Meracydia itself is special for a reason. The threads of the Ascians, Dalamud, Bahamut, the Warring Triad, Crystal Tower (Cloud of Darkness and the voidsent specifically), Azys Lla, the Allagan Empire, primal summonings, all of it leads to Meracydia. It feels like too much of a coincidence that multiple major threats that the planet has ever seen come from there. There has to be something there, something big, because there's no way that it's mere coincidence that 4 Elder Primals came from there.

[MorionQ]

I’m betting it’s going to be Sharlayan related, too. It’s been in the background since the start of 1.0 with the Circle of Knowing/Scions, and we spent a ton of time in the ruins of the colony in HW. Also, AST is a Sharlayan job.

More or less, we’ve been likely to head there at some point for a long, long time.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

New World?

[Puremallace]

It has to be the Void and the 13th planet. That is the literal star that has been crossing over into our universe since the beginning and even Emet admitted they screwed up bad on their first try. Garlean empire is in literal chaos and civil war right now so I do not see it being some huge expansion level event.

There is also the world that Midgarsommar says he escaped from with the 7 eggs. We literally just left Tiamat sitting there. It could be Xenos kicks off some dimension shattering event in 5.5 that leads into 6.0

Minfilia also mentions that "the crystals power is all but spent" so Hydalyn has no real ability to protect the Source anymore?!? maybe??!?

[Enkidoh]

Funny how everyone says "we're going to the 13th Shard!", forgetting we've already done that (it's the World of Darkness) - there's literally nothing there other than a few crystallized platforms/rocky ruins and a whole lot of voidsent). So we're not going back there (also the Crystal Tower raids were ARR content, not HW).

More likely Yoshi's 'Heavensward refresher' remark probably is calling back to the Warring Triad, where there was a bit of dialogue during one of the Warring Triad storyline's cutscenes that in hindsight was actually foreshadowing the revelation in Shadowbringers about the Ancients' Creation magic (I can't remember the exact context of the line though so don't quote me on that). I'd completely forgetten it in fact until I suddenly recalled it while typing out another post in the Lore section.

We'll find out either way.