Revelations from the Announcement Showcase

[Hank_Hotspur]

Personally, I suspect lots will end up disappointed with the history, much to the same reasons of the long threads we had complaining about Shadowbringers, be them here, Reddit, Gamefaqs or elsewhere (quick google and will find posts about people complaining we used even more light, there was no "blessing of darkness", plus, due that, the "Warrior of Darkness" title was a clever metaphorical one only, our character wasn't put into a position truly at odds with light and having to abandon it, but rather just worked as "regulator" of sorts or even helped again by it via the Oracle of Light).

If not mistaken, some even threatened to sue Square for "false advertising", lol - and this is real, can look for it in this very same forums.

In the end, the writing is pretty idealistic. Our character will always be the goody two shoes, who will be smiling and saving cats in trees: we will always be the Superman, Steve Rogers, Aragorn (whose may not be the coolest, but need to be there for the final strike, for the "good", "heroic" message) and never the Batman, Big Boss or a Geralt (operating more on the gray area if convenient) - I really doubt, after all these years, and in the final chapter of this season, that it'll change.

Especially, since it ends in the expansion itself. There'll be less time for more questions or more complex/demanding developments.

I expect even more on the typical idealism again. This imagery of the Paladin - bar all the Cecil parallels - displays exactly the imagery of the noble good knight clad in shiny armor to save the day - our typical heroic fairytale.

The WoL has killed more people than Batman, so I don't know why you put him in the "morally gray" category.

[Cilia]

So between the Announcement Showcase and Live Letter shirts, I'm going to go out on a limb and say the melee DPS job is something like Soul Reaper, a scythe-wielding psychopomp.

[BlitzAceRush]

So between the Announcement Showcase and Live Letter shirts, I'm going to go out on a limb and say the melee DPS job is something like Soul Reaper, a scythe-wielding psychopomp.

I'm just putting my hat in the "scythe" ring but not committing to any one job for it, I feel that's a safer bet as who knows what they'll do with the Job given Gunbreaker and Sage, we could literally get Necormancer only to find it has nothing to do with death or dark magic at all and the person we learn it from took the same to slight Necromancers to which he hunts.
Least guessing the weapon you can feel right, even if someone guessed Sage it wouldn't really have felt like you'd gotten it right.

[Hank_Hotspur]

I'm more about having fun ideas rather than "guessing" because so far every guess anyone had before the announcement showcase was completely wrong to the point where even Yoshida and Koji Fox mentioned how way off people's speculation were.

[Lauront]

I agree, and although a separate thing, for me in regards to lore speculation, it's more about tying existing knowledge with things, than whether it ultimately proves correct or not, which is a fickle thing.

Speaking of fun ideas, here's an interesting little thing I came across on Reddit today... if only for the fact that it brings the colours in alignment with the dawn theme of the expansion, and of course the imagery of the Final Days. The change in the sceptre, of the blue orb seemingly coiled with a reddish orb on top again is reminiscent of IX to some extent...



Have to wonder if that's where they were going with the "no dark, no light" thing.

I think, however, that the Paladin as the poster job is a misdirection in the same way that Dark Knight as the poster job for Shadowbringers was. When the 5.0 trailer dropped there were people that thought WoL was completely turning to darkness in some way, which was not quite the case.
Now, all this talk of the typical heroic fairy-tail PLD has me considering that again. Especially since Yoshida says the main reason they picked Paladin was because it represented hope. You know who else was a knight in shining armor that represented hope?

I tend to agree with such an interpretation, tbh. The derplander's silhouette on the moon even resembles Elidibus for a brief moment. Probably drawing on the salvation theme.

This doesn’t really jive with the short story we got focusing on Elidibus and Emet Selch, where it’s mentioned pretty casually that Azem was gonna use Ifrita to absorb the aether of a volcano and then fight it (literally described as being sent off to battle). I think like all societies the Ancients had varying degrees of proficiency and this undoubtedly led many to be unable to resist the beings that were summoned. Add in the fact that they are literal manifestations of their worst nightmares, ones that got worse and worse and worse throughout the Final Days, any society would be overwhelmed no matter how militarily powerful they are.

Yup, I agree with that. We have to remember this is a race with rather fantastical powers innately. The Echo is but a fraction of the powers they possessed, which were all in addition to creation magicks and immortality. Although they were peaceful, that was in terms of how they dealt with one another. Besides Azem and Hades, I think Lahabrea probably had a very good appreciation of the combat uses of their powers, considering that a use of one of his fields of study was to find methods to deal with these monstrosities, which accounted for the way in which they operated - hijacking creation magicks to create more and more of themselves. The only reason they were so effective was that they were created out of the very powers of the ancients. All of this is speculative, and I don't think they'll address the question directly, but it's reasonable to surmise they knew how to use their powers for combat uses if they needed to.

Of course the other seats, except for Emet-Selch, never really liked Azem's constant actions of not following their standard procedures of waiting for the paperwork and getting the paperwork approved before people are allowed to act.

I believe it was less about the paperwork and more to do with Azem acting unilaterally, without the agreement of the rest. The office was intended, by its nature, to wander the world and thereby guide the Convocation on what matters to fixate on. Personally I doubt Emet cared much for it either, but Elidibus, Hythlodaeus and he were all friends with the office's last holder, so they bailed them out. One has to wonder if the favour was repaid in explaining how the trio survived the Sundering.

[RyuDragnier]

I believe it was less about the paperwork and more to do with Azem acting unilaterally, without the agreement of the rest. The office was intended, by its nature, to wander the world and thereby guide the Convocation on what matters to fixate on. Personally I doubt Emet cared much for it either, but Elidibus, Hythlodaeus and he were all friends with the office's last holder, so they bailed them out. One has to wonder if the favour was repaid in explaining how the trio survived the Sundering.

Did they ever explain how they get into the office? Are they chosen by the other Convocation members, by popular vote of the city, by the previous holder of the office, what?

[Lauront]

Did they ever explain how they get into the office? Are they chosen by the other Convocation members, by popular vote of the city, by the previous holder of the office, what?

There's nothing concrete of which I'm aware, but there's hints that it's the other members who do so, as in Elidibus's case there were doubts expressed by some (in context, the scene is Lahabrea and Igeyorhm addressing him) that he'd be a good fit for the office - the role of his office being to mediate the views of his peers for the good of the star. As such, it would appear to be by mutual agreement rather than any single one of them. The common thread is that they're exceptional individuals - we know from Hades's short story that they kept their options open in case one candidate turned down a seat. The stuff they added for Elidibus in 5.3 is interesting because he leaves it as a hanging point whom he swore his oath to steer the star (we know his duty itself stems from the Convocation but this was worded in reference to someone specific). His short story then adds that he was beloved by the other members of the Convocation and besides this, had a close relation to Azem. Which, in turn, is leading me to think that might be a contributing factor as to why Azem opposed Zodiark's summoning and took their leave, and perhaps also later saved those of their brothers which they could through their incantation when Hydaelyn came near to sundering the world. A theory I've seen floating about is they could've been subjected to a spot of Louisoix style time skipping forward. I'm hoping they come back to it later as it remains an unexplained plot point. Lahabrea's loss of his sense of identity and Elidibus's refusal to draw on his memories explains why only Emet-Selch had a fond recollection of this individual, even if they may have been seen in a negative light by the Convocation for their departure at the time of Zodiark's summoning.

[Lauront]

A few more points of interest from that negative filter... probably reaching (especially with some) but it's intriguing to see how it compares with some IX/IV art (ignore it if you're sensitive about spoilers in those:

Some zooming in required to compensate for my awesome Paint skills.

Although I put Zeromus in there, the Creator from the After Years could be another source of inspiration given the plotline behind that, and the moon, and the uses it sought to put it to.

Any allusions to the Iifa tree and the Terra/Gaia story would be intriguing given the particular point of origin of the Sound which threatened to end Amaurot (the Underworld); Emet's short story touched on a phenomenon which may have been the early stages of the crisis. While it was used predominantly to create a parallel later in the story on how he viewed the sundered life forms, it does have me wondering about whether it was linked to the Final Days given that the phenomenon he resolved was aberrant. Therion, the Terminus beastie from the end of the Amaurot dungeon, had the look of anguished souls imprinted all over it.

In summary...



With that said, there's a lot of points I could see them borrowing from IX in putting together the story. Not at all biased due to IX being one of my faves.