Revelations from the Announcement Showcase

[Vulcwen]

Them stating that Light and Darkness is not good or bad is funny when we get a picture with Hydaelyn and Zodiark where the latter definitely does not look like a nice guy. And since a lot of the Darkness users especially the Ascians have done some really horrible stuff in the name of Zodiark I kinda wonder if that holds true...If he has tempered them why does he not stop them from doing that? I really hope that they make a good story on why Zodiark should not be seen as a bad guy..maybe he is not able to do something and we find that out? Also if none of them are good or bad then that also means that Hydealyn is definitely not evil either.

Looks can be deceiving. If you flip it so Zodiark is on top, you can see he has a facial expression that indicates fear or pain, he leans back and reaches out to the viewer. His gaze is towards Hydealyn, but Hydealyn doesn't look at Zodiark, she looks a bit ashamed.

[Lauront]

Looks can be deceiving. If you flip it so Zodiark is on top, you can see he has a facial expression that indicates fear or pain, he leans back and reaches out to the viewer. His gaze is towards Hydealyn, but Hydealyn doesn't look at Zodiark, she looks a bit ashamed.

I mean putting aside what the Ascians have done (and they have their reasons and perspective to explain why this isn't mere villainy, whether people disagree with it or not), he was summoned to save the world, which he did. In order to check his power and over a disagreement over the final stage of sacrifices, Hydaelyn was then grafted onto him by the looks of things, and the world sundered. There's bound to be even more we don't understand, and I believe something or someone may have deliberately instigated their conflict for their own benefit. I expect we will learn more of this with 6.0, and that it will tie in with Fandaniel's story in some way.

Zodiark was imprisoned and as far as we can tell, silent. So we have Elidibus guiding the Ascians on an oath he swore to "someone" (we can guess who that might be; their escape from the Sundering remains a mystery), and the rest labouring to restore their world, their people and their civilisation; it is plainly clear from all of Emet-Selch's POV writings that he saw the sundered as aberrations, existing at the expense of the original ancients. The other two suffered some loss of their sense of identity, but Elidibus still laboured towards fulfilling his oath. Their silent god isn't going to intervene and if he is conscious, he's not exactly going to see what Hydaelyn did as a good thing, especially since it came out of nowhere as far as the primal is concerned. From that perspective, she was a threat to the world he was tasked to save and protect and there was probably a sense of dread in him that she'd succeed.

I think by now it should be clear that light =/= good and darkness =/= bad. They are merely types of energy. Sineaters are mindless and voracious; lightwardens, even if fair to look upon, are not necessarily benign. Voidsent share the voracious appetites of sineaters, but have a bit more personality to them. Darkness just goes with characteristics typical of creatures of the night, whereas light with more "angelic" features, but even so it can produce some monstrosities, and darkness some beings fair to look upon. Looked at another way, I would see Zodiark as a fierce protector of the world.

I'm beginning to wonder if the Anima trial is in fact what is left of Zodiark's anguished consciousness, such as it is, rather than anything specific to Fandaniel. It's bound in chains, aether coming out from its maw - what if the lower part is his jailer? The theme of pain would fit his sense of anguish that we see in the picture.

[KageTokage]

The new dungeons:

I didn't notice until someone pointed it out on Reddit, but you can actually see a certain trio of sisters peeking out from the central spire if you zoom in...albeit with a much creepier design then what we've seen from them previously, what with the pale color schemes and freaky-looking identical masks (Though still recognizable from their builds and choice of weaponry).

That said, I'm thinking the dungeon might be called the Tower of Zot and could be what Fandaniel has twisted the former royal palace into through some means .

[JeanneOrnitier]

Oh wow those totally are the Magus Sisters. Yeah I can see this place being Tower of Zot for sure. I wonder if we'll see the Giant of Babil too?

[EdwinLi]

Whatever that twisted tower is, I am guessing it is creating twisted horrors to invade the world or are turning people into twisted horrors.

If they are going for the End of the World and Hell on Earth theme for 6.0 expansion then it will make sense that there are going to be some horror level twisted stuff going on. Not to mention they got Anima to make it more clear about that.

[myahele]

I wonder how relevant the Nier raid will be for FFXIV future plots. Will it be self-contained in the 1st because so far each raid has been relevant in some way.

[RyuDragnier]

I wonder how relevant the Nier raid will be for FFXIV future plots. Will it be self-contained in the 1st because so far each raid has been relevant in some way.

It will probably reveal something big about the moon itself. A kind of reach on my part, but what was on the moon was a big plot point back in Nier: Automata.

[JeanneOrnitier]

https://twitter.com/Very_Merri/statu...57062228881411

[JeanneOrnitier]

So now that we've seen the announcement, what do you think was the reason Yoshi-P said to refresh ourselves on Heavensward? Do you think it was just Estinien or something more? Theories?

[Mieck]

So now that we've seen the announcement, what do you think was the reason Yoshi-P said to refresh ourselves on Heavensward? Do you think it was just Estinien or something more? Theories?

I think it'll be more than just Estinien. I noticed that Emet's narration in the trailer name checks patch 3.5 - The Far Edge of Fate. I'm not sure they would deliberately reuse that choice of words if it wasn't a pointer to something else. However, my reading of that patch is that everything in it has already been squared away.