So I was on the bird app, and an artist I follow by the handle of Onionoholic was musing about why, "Ardbert and Co have level 50 AF, but Norvrandt's monsters are level 70?"

Most people responded with jokes, glamours, or the same tired line of, "Gameplay and story segregation."

I opted to shitpost about their gear being made of, "chadsteel" instead of darksteel in response(since Norvrandt does have access to better materials via gathering), but while I was at it a realization occurred to me because I can never joke for very long when thinking about this topic.

The First was pushed to the brink of annihilation by the Flood of Light. However, this Flood was stopped by Minfilia and the souls of Ardbert's companions. It left The First desolate, except for Norvrandt.

What then happened to Norvrandt's Lifestream? Well... it continued to exist and go on, containing every soul and every mote of aether that the planet held in its aetherial plane. It must have, because for over a hundred years, new lives continued to be birthed, and souls continued to flow back to into living bodies under new identities.

At the same time, the world was primed and set back to its primed state from its flood state for a Rejoining. All the Ascians had to do was completely rend the dimensional veil separating the Source and The First with a properly aspected calamity on the Source.

So the walls keeping their aetherial realms apart was thin, too.

I postulate that all of the aether of the First then became concentrated in Norvrandt, enriching and empowering the life that remained. I also think that it's possible that aether from the Source may have been leaking through the seams of the dimensional veil, further enriching the life and land that was left to conduct the aether.

Combine that on top of survival being naturally challenging, leading to the tough or the lucky surviving.

Further still, given Norvrandt's proximity to concept crystals of the original monster beings... is it not possible that some of those had been out and about in Norvrandt, interbreeding with fauna of a similar nature?

This leads me to think about why the Endwalkers monsters will be 81+. Well, devilish experiments using the concept crystals of the Ancients combined with Allagan/Telo tech.

I know you probably still view it as just... gameplay story segregation, but I really don't think it's that far of a reach!