Could there be a relatively peaceful solution to the shard problem?

[Shadotterdan]

So, the fact that the world is broken up into several shards is a problem that I feel would be better remedied. I was wondering lore wise if there might be a solution where instead of a grand calamity, a more gentle siphon is in place. Something that transfers souls over to the source until there are none left, at which point the rest of the aether comes through to rejoin the shard.

I guess it would be somewhat frightening to people on the shard. One day no new children are born, but it seems like a less evil way to fix the world.

[Cilia]

I don't see how it's a problem exactly, other than the Ascians' longing for the world that once was. (The Unsundered are gone now, so...)

If the writers want it to happen they'll write a way for it.

[Vyrerus]

If there is, we'll be the ones finding it. And boy that will be asinine. Especially if they never address the time bubble. I mean, it'll still be ridiculous, and it'll be ridiculous because if the Ascians who know how the world works and how the world was rewritten couldn't find it in 12,000 years, and we find it in one despite being a fragmented baboon version of one of them, we'll be left to wonder if they were just jackin' it for 11,900 years or something.

[Jandor]

If there is, we'll be the ones finding it. And boy that will be asinine. Especially if they never address the time bubble. I mean, it'll still be ridiculous, and it'll be ridiculous because if the Ascians who know how the world works and how the world was rewritten couldn't find it in 12,000 years, and we find it in one despite being a fragmented baboon version of one of them, we'll be left to wonder if they were just jackin' it for 11,900 years or something.

They don't really need to, the time bubble concept has been taken massively out of context anyway.

If I recall correctly it was mentioned way back before even ARR had released, let alone any expansions, as a 'Simpsons' style excuse for avoiding the problem of the characters (mainly the twins) getting older.

It was never meant to be taken as literal canon that everything that we ever do happens within the span of one year.

[Rannie]

They don't really need to, the time bubble concept has been taken massively out of context anyway.

If I recall correctly it was mentioned way back before even ARR had released, let alone any expansions, as a 'Simpsons' style excuse for avoiding the problem of the characters (mainly the twins) getting older.

It was never meant to be taken as literal canon that everything that we ever do happens within the span of one year.

Except for during canon cutscenes it explicitly states only so many years has passed take for example after you fight the Saphire Weapon ala Gundam style, the Elezen with Gauis during the cutscene states that Ala Mhigo fell 20 years prior, which it also states the same when you start up or go into the description for Part 1 of New Game Plus for Stormblood canonically we are still in 1577 and puts us 5 years after 1.0.

[MikkoAkure]

Except for during canon cutscenes it explicitly states only so many years has passed take for example after you fight the Saphire Weapon ala Gundam style, the Elezen with Gauis during the cutscene states that Ala Mhigo fell 20 years prior, which it also states the same when you start up or go into the description for Part 1 of New Game Plus for Stormblood canonically we are still in 1577 and puts us 5 years after 1.0.

There's the year from the Emperor dying and the Doman revolution happening to the time we actually arrive in Doma. And included in that is the 2-3 month journey across the ocean in the fastest ship in the world. But the thing is, is that the game is an MMO with new people coming in all the time and was not designed to have a hard, exact timeline from the point that the game starts. You can already do coils after completing Shadowbringers and view side story cutscenes with characters that could to be dead according to the narrative at the time you do them, so it's already all over the place. In the end, I don't think you're supposed to think too hard about it. It's just an MMO and I don't view it as being meant to be as consistent as say a movie or a novel or literally any other type of video game.

[RyuDragnier]

Except for during canon cutscenes it explicitly states only so many years has passed take for example after you fight the Saphire Weapon ala Gundam style, the Elezen with Gauis during the cutscene states that Ala Mhigo fell 20 years prior, which it also states the same when you start up or go into the description for Part 1 of New Game Plus for Stormblood canonically we are still in 1577 and puts us 5 years after 1.0.

Which is still ridiculous because from how much stuff has happened in X amount of time (including the woman moving to Idylshire and then having a baby), it should be either 1579 or 1580.

[Rosenstrauch]

There is possibly some way to reintegrate the shards without requiring calamities on the Source, and I imagine Hydaelyn herself would be the key to that. But whether it takes a thousand years of gradual breakdown and transference or five seconds of slurping up the planet through the Rift, doing so would still result in the destruction of the Shards along with the erasure of entire planets' worth of nations, cultures, and species.

There's just no way around that, I'm afraid. There's no way to put the world back together without revisiting the effects of the Final Days on entire worlds—and I doubt even the Ascians wanted to have to do that in the first place.

[TheMightyMollusk]

The Ascians didn't care enough to keep looking for another method once they hit upon one that worked, since the inhabitants of the Shards are, in Emet-Selch's own words, not really living beings to them. Maybe they were afraid to try finding another method after their first attempt screwed up the Thirteenth. They can't Rejoin a Void, after all, so risking another Shard might not have been worth it.

As for whether or not we'll find a way to Rejoin the Shards? I doubt it, unless there's some threat so big that it's the only way to save any of the worlds. Which would require some very careful setup to not come across as a gigantic ass pull.

[RyuDragnier]

It's doubtful we'll ever rejoin them, and we don't really need to.