The six cities of Eorzea and missed opportunities

[anhaato]

Once upon a fanfest earlier this year, Yoship made a comment about how Eorzea was originally intended to have 6 starting cities; Limsa, Gridania, Ul'dah, Ishgard, Ala Mhigo, and Sharlayan. It's no coincidence that each of these cities have a patron deity for each element.

Limsa = Llymlaen = Wind
Gridania = Nophica = Earth
Ul'dah = Nald'Thal = Fire
Ishgard = Halone = Ice
Ala Mhigo = Rhalgr = Lightning
Sharlayan = Thaliak = Water

Pretty cool, right? Except, as you know, we don't actually have Ala Mhigo ingame. But that's what got me really disappointed when Koji was translating those comments, and speaking as if the story of Ala Mhigo is done and over with. Of course I realize that this is probably the case, Stormblood already told us all we needed to know about it, but that's just disappointing, isn't it? The story of Ala Mhigo ends without so much as a stroll into the city proper, just a dungeon of it. The lack of Ala Mhigo sticks out in small ways like the airship landing at Radz-at-Han, how you can purchase passage to all parts of the Eorzean Alliance bar Ala Mhigo because it doesn't exist.

If it wasn't for the way Stormblood forced them to drastically reduce the story we could've gotten out of Ala Mhigo, maybe we'd be living in a future where we could have each Eorzean city as a hub city with their own housing districts, and Sharlayan housing on the way. But unless the devs prove me wrong, they have a clear distaste for Ala Mhigo's story and don't want to revisit in any impactful way, so all that leaves is a sense of "what could've been" and the Eorzean Alliance will never truly be fleshed out for all of its components.

[SeverianLyonesse]

I know it's unlikely given that the game is more likely to travel overseas or across the stars/shards in the next expansions...

But given how little we actually explored of Garlemald in EW, I feel like an expack should be devoted toward filling in the gaps of a post-Garlean restoration. We could have:

City hub 1: Ala Mhigo
Zone 1: Republic of Landis
Zone 2: Some region connecting Gyr Abania, Werlyt, Terncliff, and Garlemald.
Zone 3: Surprise zone.
City hub 2: Dalmasca
Zone 4: Corvos
Zone 5: The Bounty
Zone 6: Nagxia

There are three things that really bother me about the map as we currently have it:

1) All of the new zones in EW are isolated from each other and don't form continuous blocks of geography like in ARR/HW/SB or even ShB. So the world now feels very fractured and incomplete.
2) We still have many places like Werlyt, Terncliff, and Bozja that aren't displayed anywhere on the official map despite us having actually been to them.
3) There's still clouds all over Ilsabard.

We need to fill in the rest of Ilsabard for this to feel like an actual interconnected world rather than Skyward Sword.

[WhiteArchmage]

snip.

First off, anything that involves Dalmasca (or Valnain, I'm not THAT picky) as a new hub city gets an instant like from me. I've been super behind making an alliance raid series based on Vagrant Story, starting in the wine cellars and making our way towards the Cathedral through the Undercity. Alas, it'll have to be when they get Matsuno back (also wouldn't be opposed to a full on collab with the Ogre Sage, that one needs some love).

Second, it'd be great if we actually filled in the map; it feels very weird how we've gone to Terncliff, Garlemald, and are a stone's throw away from the Corvos Narrow yet... nothing but clouds.

A little more on-topic, the Healer role quests deal more with the continuation of the Ala Mhigo storyline, which is all good, but being locked behind role quests... are unlikely to be picked up in the MSQ itself, and thus have areas created for them. Missed opportunity, indeed.

[DamianFatale]

I know it's unlikely given that the game is more likely to travel overseas or across the stars/shards in the next expansions...

But given how little we actually explored of Garlemald in EW, I feel like an expack should be devoted toward filling in the gaps of a post-Garlean restoration. We could have:

City hub 1: Ala Mhigo
Zone 1: Republic of Landis
Zone 2: Some region connecting Gyr Abania, Werlyt, Terncliff, and Garlemald.
Zone 3: Surprise zone.
City hub 2: Dalmasca
Zone 4: Corvos
Zone 5: The Bounty
Zone 6: Nagxia

There are three things that really bother me about the map as we currently have it:

1) All of the new zones in EW are isolated from each other and don't form continuous blocks of geography like in ARR/HW/SB or even ShB. So the world now feels very fractured and incomplete.
2) We still have many places like Werlyt, Terncliff, and Bozja that aren't displayed anywhere on the official map despite us having actually been to them.
3) There's still clouds all over Ilsabard.

We need to fill in the rest of Ilsabard for this to feel like an actual interconnected world rather than Skyward Sword.

Corvos would be a City hub not a zone. I like your idea otherwise though.

[Phaty]

Ala mhigo literally just got liberated before the final days started. The events of ShB happened within days of Eorzea time. We kinda had bigger things going on than rebuilding Ala Mhigo. Maybe they will do something with it now that the Acians and primals aren't a threat anymore. They could at least do something along the lines of what we did with Doma

[DamianFatale]

Ala mhigo literally just got liberated before the final days started. The events of ShB happened within days of Eorzea time. We kinda had bigger things going on than rebuilding Ala Mhigo. Maybe they will do something with it now that the Acians and primals aren't a threat anymore. They could at least do something along the lines of what we did with Doma

I want to see that done with Garlmald as well. A Garlean Enclave would be a neat contrast from the Doman one that we have. It would be even more intense and interesting storywise if the two had quest chains that linked them together.

[Phaty]

I want to see that done with Garlmald as well. A Garlean Enclave would be a neat contrast from the Doman one that we have. It would be even more intense and interesting storywise if the two had quest chains that linked them together.

Now that there's no universal scale calamity i would like to see an expansion based on rebuilding what was lost and exploration

[anhaato]

Ala Mhigo as a hub city for a Dalmasca expansion would be nice. Both areas feel long overdue for some expansion into. Or perhaps it could be part of a Corvos expansion. Either way, using Ala Mhigo proper as a base of operations for more Near East business would be fun, it would also give them an opportunity to treat Gyr Abania as the gateway to the rest of Ilsabard. I just hope the devs don't forget about Ala Mhigo any further now that we're going back to worldly adventures.

[Packetdancer]

City hub 1: Ala Mhigo
Zone 1: Republic of Landis
Zone 2: Some region connecting Gyr Abania, Werlyt, Terncliff, and Garlemald.
Zone 3: Surprise zone.

Brief note: we do know what the region connecting Gyr Abania and Werlyt is. The Ghimlyt, which is also the only land route between Ilsabard and Aldenard, thus a territory of little environmental value but immense strategic value. (As we saw in the Ghimlyt Dark instance.)

Per the lore:

For those who dare travel 'twixt Aldenard and Ilsabard, there is but one path, and it leads through Ghimlyt. A confluence of harsh terrain and aetheroclimatic conditions have shrouded the land in perpetual darkness...

But yes, I'd like to see more of that, too, especially considering the Werlyt side appears to be the equivalent to the Mediterranean. (Terncliff housing when?)

Digression: does it annoy anyone else that Werlyt is both a region (containing Terncliff) and the capital city (north of Terncliff), thus making you label 'Werlyt' twice if you're maintaining your own map in parallel with whatever they show us (and best guesses at other places)? No? Just me?

ANYway...

City hub 2: Dalmasca
Zone 4: Corvos
Zone 5: The Bounty
Zone 6: Nagxia

I want so badly to see Corvos because I have theories about the Anchorite. And the Dalmascan architecture looked really neat when we got to see a glimpse of it during the Save the Queen storyline. And Nagxia would be amazing!

I feel like it's worth noting that we have (sort of) seen the Bounty, though, since that's the water bordering the western edge of Thavnair. And I suspect Thavnair (and Radz-at-Han) are about all we're getting of the Bounty.

I'd argue that in addition to getting rid of the clouds over Ilsabard, it'd be nice to get the New World actually on the map (though, thank you to the devs for finally giving a glimpse of the western coast of that continent from space, as I can update my own world map now), as well as Meracydia. Because while Meracydia might be the small island due south off the coast of Thanalan we glimpsed from space in the post-Heavensward stuff, all the descriptions of it make it sound like an entire giant continent, the size of at least Aldenard or Othard.

But yes, the clouds ought to at least be gone over the Ghimlyt and Werlyt. I mean, we've got Dalmasca Superior and Dalmasca Inferior on the map and we haven't been there. Likewise the Blindfrost.

(I mean, as long as they're updating the map anyway I'd also love it if they corrected the spelling error that has the Corvos Narrows mislabeled the Dorvos Narrows. Ahem.)

I get why they don't, though. As long as they don't fill out those chunks of the map, they leave themselves a lot of room to fiddle with lore in future expansions. But I do love every time we get a map update, or enough information that something else can be placed with reasonable confidence in the guess being at least vaguely right.

[anhaato]

City hub 1: Ala Mhigo
Zone 1: Republic of Landis
Zone 2: Some region connecting Gyr Abania, Werlyt, Terncliff, and Garlemald.
Zone 3: Surprise zone.
City hub 2: Dalmasca
Zone 4: Corvos
Zone 5: The Bounty
Zone 6: Nagxia

Quick note: We know that Nagxia has at least 2 cities within it, Bunlai and Dagluk. Either of those could be a city or end hub of some sort. I agree with the thoughts overall but I wouldn't like for them to cram Corvos, Nagxia, and Dalmasca into a single expansion. I actually think we'll get Corvos as the new relic zone coming up in this expansion, with the whole Unyielding Blade lore it has.