[SPOILERS] The future of FFXIV should be its past.

[Omedon]

Ok so yeah, I can't get into this without touching on spoilers, but I doubt I'm the only one, relatively new as I may be, to see that the only thing that gets as much work put into it as the current lore, are hints at past lore in FFXIV.

There have been 7 eras of lost civilizations and fallen kingdoms, hinted at in so many ARR dungeons and Shadowbringers worldbuilding of the first. While this can be waved away as "it's just the world building that you need to do for a world this deep," there are multiple iterations of time travel opportunities in the game now, and other worlds that do this kind of world building have either done it with prior games or put in time travel to see these moments in dungeons. The Crystal Exarch himself could end up being the "Dr Who of the FFXIV universe," with the WoL as his faithful companion! And let's not forget that while Yoshi-P basically said "do all the 8-person raids, they're relevant," Alexander being specifically named puts time travel on the table.

I don't know, maybe I'm just hyper aware of this angle right now because I'm touring all the non-mandatory dungeon content in ARR, and so many of these things reference a past that deserves to be front and center, and at the same time, I can't think we're just going to start over on another planet with 7.0: We should still be rooted on "this star," and the greatest stories to tell here now are the ones that have been told, just not before our eyes.

Oh yeah, and Sharlayan are pretty sure that "if the end was here, we'd know." They're totally timetravel aware! And who says the Isle of Val isn't so much gone as it is time-shifted or something?

And don't get me started on the first! Literally every zone is "built on the bones" of older civilizations!

I'm new-ish to FFXIV lore, but everything I'm seeing is painting pictures of a history that begs to be explored! Maybe the double entendre of "endwalker" is that we go forth into places that have ended to solve the end that faces Eorzea in the present, and we are zapped out right before the actual apocalypse to learn from the lessons of eras past, and their rises and falls!

[Kranel_San]

Ahhh....... I don't like time travel so please no. Lets me explore Hingashi, Meracydia, New world, and most of all... Northrend... I mean The northpole!

[lezard21]

New world

I heard it's pretty dissapointing and no one plays it anymore

On the topic at hand, I do agree that events like the War of the Magi would be interesting story telling, but yeah, let's not do time travel.

Maybe reserve it for a raid where you use one of those memory crystals from Bozja to "relieve the events of the past" but not as a whole expansion. That would be weird.

[Kranel_San]

I heard it's pretty dissapointing and no one plays it anymore

I knew someone would meme this xD

[TheRealQuah]

!

The first era was pretty well described in 5.3, and we played through the crystal tower and shadow of mhach series to flesh out 2 of the other era. We lived through tbe 6th and 7th. I think there is plenty of content in the game that explores the past eras through gameplay and not worldbuilding

The Isle of val isn't missing, its Eureka.

Sharlayan don't do time travel, they have a series of prophetic books called the Gerun oracles that loosly prophecise future events. They don't think the final days are here because their book is predicting the eighth umbral calamity. They don't really we averted it, accidently putting the final days into effect.

Alexander was powerful enough to be able to go back in time and change events, specifically he could have easily defeated Bahamut. However Alexander reviewed all times lines and came to the conclusion that the best timeline was the one we are in. So he won't go back in time and change anything.

[Omedon]

The first era was pretty well described in 5.3, and we played through the crystal tower and shadow of mhach series to flesh out 2 of the other era. We lived through tbe 6th and 7th. I think there is plenty of content in the game that explores the past eras through gameplay and not worldbuilding

The Isle of val isn't missing, its Eureka.

Sharlayan don't do time travel, they have a series of prophetic books called the Gerun oracles that loosly prophecise future events. They don't think the final days are here because their book is predicting the eighth umbral calamity. They don't really we averted it, accidently putting the final days into effect.

Alexander was powerful enough to be able to go back in time and change events, specifically he could have easily defeated Bahamut. However Alexander reviewed all times lines and came to the conclusion that the best timeline was the one we are in. So he won't go back in time and change anything.

Well that was a studium level education on some details I either didn't know or missed! Thank you very much!

I'd still like to to see, say, the war of the magi live and in color though!

[aveyond-dreams]

I have 0 interest in any further time travel. The gimmick with the Crystal Tower was enough of a stretch. The WoL already can see visions of the past through the echo anyway.

The Crystal Exarch himself could end up being the "Dr Who of the FFXIV universe," with the WoL as his faithful companion!

Hard pass.

[ArthurATDayne]

The Crystal Exarch himself could end up being the "Dr Who of the FFXIV universe," with the WoL as his faithful companion!

I wouldn't mind seeing a cutscene where The Crystal Exarch travels to a really shady alleyway that's in a middle of a gang warfare shootout, steps out of his TARDIS like an idiot and gets blasted 100 times and dies right there. Like what happened to Dr Who in that stupid TV Movie, except this time no revival or coming back. THE END of Time Travel in 1st Quest of the MSQ.

Maybe pan camera to WOL's face for a reaction shot OMG Face
As The Crystal Exarch gets riddled with more firepower in overly dramatic manner.

[nebby00]

To be honest, lore wise I want to explore Mercydia or any other region that had been previously mentioned but lost to time for reasons of war or otherwise. Time travel honestly makes the story messy if the writers aren't careful, and typically I wouldn't be for it unless it's guaranteed to not cause too much confusion or muddle potential plot points.

And as others had said before, we already have touched on previous era events in the raids. I would like to be able to adventure in the current time line in potentially new continents; since after all the WoL is an adventurerer first and foremost and what is an adventurer without exploring new lands? I wouldn't be against traveling to other stars either!

[Larirawiel]

Time travel and altering the past has always made many problems. I hope, SQEX will never touch it. It will cause many retcons etc.

Cheers