An ominous premonition? (Slight spoiler for the Studium quests)

[KageTokage]

On that subject, I find it a little weird that we started having premonitions of the world's end after Zodiark was dealt with as our Echo has previously never functioned in such a manner.

Perhaps it was a warning from Etheriys itself? If the Ancients were the original life somehow born in both body and soul from the star, they may have possessed a deeper connection to it with the Echo being a product of that, as there's no indication their creations like the Loporrits also possessed it.

[Vyrerus]

On that subject, I find it a little weird that we started having premonitions of the world's end after Zodiark was dealt with as our Echo has previously never functioned in such a manner.

Perhaps it was a warning from Etheriys itself? If the Ancients were the original life somehow born in both body and soul from the star, they may have possessed a deeper connection to it with the Echo being a product of that, as there's no indication their creations like the Loporrits also possessed it.

I interpreted it as hearing Meteion's thoughts(once I knew it was her). An Echo of 12,000 years of intent to kill.

[Illmaeran]

But, it's also a considerable lynch pin in Ancient Astronaut theory that proves (to believers) that ancient cultures received advanced technology from aliens. The idea is that this artifact looks like a plane and is aerodynamically sound, technology that couldn't exist in ancient times unless aliens gave up that technology. The fact that this thing doubles as a translator in the ff14 story--aliens would need translation devices to communicate--and if story needs to make an even more ancient culture then that of the Ancients, they would need to be from space and pre-Meteon.

This is now one of my favorite pets. The episode of Ancient Aliens focused on this guy was rather interesting and I found the show in general to be amusing. Having a little Alien Artifact following me around makes me smile.

[Ramesses]

This definitely the most interesting thread I've read all day-- seriously.

I have so many numerous questions, concepts, pet theories and speculations that I'm just simply going to use images to convey the bare bones basics -- just a very few -- of the mysteries I possibly expect to see unraveled in the future. Each and every one I list below might be separate happenstances or they might all be intertwined-- who know?

Tales From the Shadows, Episode 8 - 'An Unpromised Tomorrow". This is the one that baffles me the most-- and with the revelations from EW, how, where, when does this alternate future unfold?





Next up-- the House of the Crooked Coin



The weird green orb in Praetorium-- it still boggles my mind that I only noticed it sometime around the tail end of Stormblood-- and I've played Prae since ARR early access release in Aug 2013.



The shoebill-- (yes, he/she/it is even in that unsundered garden)




Mide, Dayan, Travanchet and the epic of Alexander-- I've still convinced that we are missing a massive explanation here





"In Search of the azure Star" (studium delivery quests)-- was one of my favourite side quests in EW-- I highly recommend you do this and view the excellent cutscene at the end. The intriguing part of this one was the astrological hints at what other stars were other there in the FFXIV universe. With all the events that occurred with Hydaelyn and Zodiark-- what does that really mean for Etheirys as a star?

[KageTokage]

I feel like the suggestion that not all stars had their own Lifestream (Assuming any of them did at all) has some important implications behind it, as the rest were stated to have a "greater flow" they return to and it's those souls that Meteion was imprisoning to free them from them from the agonies of life.

Etheriys being the "last beacon of hope" might bear some deeper meaning then it simply managing to stand firm where other stars faltered and also being more rich in aether.

[Cleretic]

So, something perhaps worth noting about the original mystery of this, that I just stumbled on and haven't seen, is that the Golden Dhaya actually has a real-world basis. Specifically, it's based on one of the Quimbaya Artifacts (forgive the slightly conspiracy-theory website, it's the only thing I could find that both talked about it and showed it), a series of golden relics found in Columbia that date around 1000 AD. Specifically it's based on the 'Quimbaya Airplane', a fish-like figure that bears striking structural resemblance to modern airplanes--and indeed some people have designed versions with flight mechanisms, similar to what we do in the Studium quests, that show that the design is actually stunningly aerodynamic.

The Quimbaya Airplane is part of a broader category of what are called Out-of-Place Artifacts, which are generally 'things that we don't understand as making sense in the context we found them', commonly being archeological or anthropological finds that we thought couldn't be made or owned by the people who apparently had them. Other famous examples include the Nazca Lines, the Shroud of Turin, and at least for some time the Moai.

I'm not sure if that gives us immediately helpful information, but I do think it's really useful to know exactly where the game is pulling from, since it tends not to mix and match tremendously overmuch in a single piece of content.

[Iscah]

Tales From the Shadows, Episode 8 - 'An Unpromised Tomorrow". This is the one that baffles me the most-- and with the revelations from EW, how, where, when does this alternate future unfold?

I don't think it's necessarily going to be built on at all. It's just confirming that the other timeline still exists independently and wasn't overwritten.

By my theory on the timeline at least, it's totally irrelevant to the time loop underpinning Endwalker (besides being necessary for the existence of the other branch of the timeline that does support the time loop) and unless we develop a higher-order spacetime machine that can jump timelines then it's entirely beyond our reach.

[Iscah]

I feel like the suggestion that not all stars had their own Lifestream (Assuming any of them did at all) has some important implications behind it, as the rest were stated to have a "greater flow" they return to and it's those souls that Meteion was imprisoning to free them from them from the agonies of life.

Etheriys being the "last beacon of hope" might bear some deeper meaning then it simply managing to stand firm where other stars faltered and also being more rich in aether.

I still haven't done any of the Studium quests but I did still get the impression from MSQ that Etheirys might be the centre of the Lifestream for the entire universe and not just the individual planet. The talk of a "larger flow" and the apparent reassurance that Hyth and Hades' souls will make it back to the Lifestream despite them being so far from home. Perhaps some other details as well, but if so then I've forgotten them.

It would certainly put a new spin on the potential importance of Silvertear Lake as the source of all... was it all aether or all magic? Significant either way.

[KageTokage]

Given the current plotline involving the 13th and potential shard traversal, this subject couldn't help come back to mind; particularly due to "seven wedges" being needed to stop a coming calamity, which as previously mentioned happens to match how many worlds still exist between the shards and source.

The bit about Golbez and the fiends chasing a sudden opportunity for their world's "salvation" I find interesting as it suggests something has changed in recent times that is allowing for this...and the removal of Zodiark and Hydaelyn feel like the most probable cause to me. Moreso if they seek salvation through rejoining as Ardbert and company originally pursued at the behest of the Ascians, as that would further suggest that the boundary between shards and Source has weakened.

[Lyth]

When Emet showed us the Source and its reflections in the Ocular during Shadowbringers, he had them topologically arranged in a circle rather than a line (i.e. the First and the Thirteenth are both immediately adjacent to us). If the lifestream links the shards to each other, then perhaps the Ourbouros isn't just a symbol of rebirth, but also represents the flow of souls from one shard to the next. That being said, if you had a calamity causing a large loss of life and resulting displacement of souls, you would then expect the rejoining to cause two adjacent shards to collide rather than the shard in question and the source. You'd also need eight wedges between seven shards if you were partitioning the lifestream.