6.0 Story Speculations

[Yuella]

6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 will probably deal with Garlemald, Sharlayan and Thavnair aftermath (1 patch per area). 6.4 will be the set up for the next expansion.

[Adeacia]

6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 will probably deal with Garlemald, Sharlayan and Thavnair aftermath (1 patch per area). 6.4 will be the set up for the next expansion.

They said the current story will end at 6.0 and 6.1 starts a new one. Everything should be already dealt with in 6.0 if that's the case.

[Vyrerus]

They said the current story will end at 6.0 and 6.1 starts a new one. Everything should be already dealt with in 6.0 if that's the case.

Well, think about it. There has to be a transitional period, and there aren't going to be any new zones till 7.0 unless they pull a wild surprise on us mid expansion. Aftermath and fallout from 6.0s events transitioning into going forward make sense.

[Tsiron]

New story starting immediately after 6.0 only makes me even more convinced something fundamental will change about the world... but they wouldn't go that far, would they? Essentially a second "cataclysm"?

[Enkidoh]

But that is a technical impossibility save for some phased window dressing that ultimately does nothing to change the game fundamentally, because the current/previous story arcs and environments are required to remain for players still joining - there simply will not be a new 'Seventh Umbral Era'/'End of an Era' event like the transition between 1.0 and ARR.

And Yoshi has said in the past the current game environment will not be changing, so I'm pretty confident in saying that those convinced that the game world will be drastically altered after 6.0's story is completed and 6.1 begins will be probably disappointed (after all, remember the brief controversy that surrounded players convinced they were going to be literal 'dark side' type players as the 'Warrior of Darkness' in ShB - as depicted in the ShB opening movie - only to find out when ShB actually launched that all they did was bring the night sky back by drawing on the Blessing of Light, and thus their darksider dreams were smashed, leaving them bitter and cynical as the 'Warrior of Darkness' tag was just an ironic alias? It will be the same thing here.).

'New story' just means that Yoshi is no longer hamstrung by the legacy of the old Hydaelyn/Zodiark/Primals/Echo/Empire storyline begun in 1.0, so he can take the narrative in a new direction, but with the existing setting and lore. The world will not be changing, that's just being realistic.

[GoldStarz]

The magus sisters are the 3 rulers of Thavnair, but choose to involve themselves with the Telophoroi because they are nihilists who are fed up with life. Their forms after their ultimate attack will resemble their insectoid forms from FFX.

This is more or less what I've been thinking for a while. I think the Magus Sisters are going to be heroes of Thavnair that everyone respects, but because of their status, they won't listen to the Scions about the towers and will end up getting tempered and maybe transformed and end up as the tower dungeon's final bosses (I don't think they're going to trial bosses tbh not unless there are way more trials in EW, since we've already seen the Asura-looking statue in concept art and that screams trial way more than the sisters do to me).

They said the current story will end at 6.0 and 6.1 starts a new one. Everything should be already dealt with in 6.0 if that's the case.

I don't think that means they can't/won't be dealing with the fallout of 6.0. With the amount of shit going on, there's plenty of stuff that can turn into it's own story arc. I'm pretty sure they just meant that the world is only going to be on fire for 6.0 and that it'll wrap up the Zodiark stuff.

[Bright-Flower]

It can do both. I think the 'story ends in 6.0' means that we're not getting a second climax. No Final Steps of Faith, no Castrum Flem...flemmis...w/e it was. No Seat of Sacrifice. (Not that 6.3 won't have a trial but it won't be the actual end of the EW storyline the way 3.3, 4.3 and 5.3 were for their expansions.)

They'll be moving on to a new overarching plot starting in 6.1...but that could involve Garlemald, Thavnair, Sharlayan etc. Afterall they are the new expansion zones, why not make use of them. They can have developments taking place there that advance the new story. It won't be Ascian/Zodiark/Hydaelyn plot related, sure, but that doesn't mean these new zones will immediately lose relevance.

[vormela]

I don't have speculations but I have ideas to add and questions I want answered from 4.x-5.3ish that I didn't see anyone say yet.

- Arenvald. I want him to be humanity's champion, but I am not sure how.

- Why do the Garleans have a third eye, and why can't they use magic? Why did Emet-Selch choose the Garleans after Allag and all the technological stuff? Why did he get stuck with them, the underdogs?

- What did G'raha Tia and Emet-Selch discuss during the questline where Emet-Selch kept sleeping over at the Crystal Tower? And when the abduction happened, what did they discuss? Did Hades retreat to the Crystal Tower to regenerate as part of an agreement? G'raha Tia seemed to not want to trap an Ascian in the tower until Elidibus was in there, even though he probably could have. Would G'raha Tia on the Source remember anything from that, and would he agree with the choices he made on the First? I hope to get some "is it ever good to forget/forgive" type of stuff, especially about our past lives. I still don't trust G'raha Tia to make sound choices as a young person with access to books. He isn't Urianger. :P

- Hydaelyn is actually in the moon and no one knows except... someone and seemingly Elidibus. Maybe Alphinaud/Alisaie's mom knows. I don't know why -- more invisible secret mom stuff. Dulia-Chai is the momliest person in the game besides the Gridania innkeeper and she doesn't even have kids (except Alphinaud). We need more mothers for whatever is left of the world after this. I think we had Fhlammin and the weaver quests had one in Ishgard and she was just okay. We cannot leave all these little Garlean children wandering around like Ga-Bu in a post-apocalyptic world. So yes, we need parents. The Amaurotines were very refreshing.

Hopefully I am not the only one with these thoughts. I am so excited!

[vormela]

I think the "end of Hydaelyn/Zodiark" announcement is just to reassure people that they have more in store than just "it was the Ascians!" People here seem like they are tired of Ascians (I am new and love them, but 2.0 was long ago).

Since Shadowbringers was so focused on making them into interesting antagonists, and we were away from the Source, it put us in Ascians 24/7 Land. The company was probably afraid whiny customers would be sick of the Ascians and need to hear that the story arc would change.

Establishing that the Ascians were maybe tempered and have backstories and actual civilizations they come from makes it so that the characters' backgrounds won't be entirely written off the map. I hope. I can't wait to meet Lalabread again and find out his name. And Venat's faction is of course of the same story arc, and we don't really know what to expect from them. I would be happy if we went back in time and made friends with our former Amaurotine self, to be honest. We already did that with Ardbert. I love that story. They did a great job with the nostalgia of Amaurot. Anything could happen and I would probably be overjoyed.

[Bright-Flower]

For the garlean stuff, I believe that the Garleans discovered cerulean and began using it for technology before Solus came along. He didn't found their society but rather reshaped it into an empire if I'm not mistaken. I don't think he was 'stuck with the underdog' so much as saw them as useful tools to bring forth another calamity. And he they ascians came close to getting a two for one deal with them.

There might be an explanation but I'm not expecting they to explain why garleans can't use magic and have the third eye. I think that's kind of like asking 'why are lalafel short' and 'why do Miqo'te have cat ears.' They 'could' come up with an explanation but I think it's really just 'they evolved that way' without an 'answer' to really give out. I could be wrong though.

I don't expect we'll see much of the Ascians, if any even survive 6.0, after it outside of maybe the Pandaemonium raid series. I think they really are wrapping them up. Laha may come back for one last hurrah in the raid, but with Emet and Elidibus gone and Fandaniel not likely to survie 6.0 I don't see much room to explore them more even if they wanted to. I think this really is the end of that thread.

As for Emet and the crystal tower, keep in mind that while Emet was there we basically had a truce with him. G'raha can be clever and tricky at times but he's not really the backstabbing type. I don't think they had any sort of secret deal or anything.