Where do you hope the story goes next? (SO MANY SPOILERS, AVERT THINE EYES CHILD!!!)

[Terin]

I'm still tackling some of the side-content, and also going back and cleaning up quests I never completed before. Honestly, I found Endwalker to be an... interesting experience. I've said before, I liked the story, just that to me, it felt like Zodiark got wrapped-up way too quickly, and the Moon didn't wind up being terribly interesting or important.

Looking towards the future, I'm hoping for one of a few possibilities:

1. One option, which I would LOVE, is to take a "second stab" at telling the story of Zodiark and Hydaelyn. Venat was cool, but as some have pointed out, maybe less "motherly" and "loving" than Hydaelyn seemed. I would love to see Hydaelyn fleshed-out a bit more, and actually giving Zodiark a personality.

Like, maybe Zodiark also loved the people of Etheris, but HIS approach was to begin re-shaping their bodies to be better-suited for war, to go out and CONQUER the cosmos before anyone could pose a threat. Hydaelyn had to restrain him, and sought to keep our humanity, thus the fusion of both of their powers' giving birth to the Playable Races (maybe Garleans, being the product of Emet-Selch, lacked aetheric ability because they lacked that connection to Zodiark and Hydaelyn?).

So maybe without Zodiark OR Hydaelyn around, aether goes out of control, maybe Primals begin manifesting sponteneously, thus requiring us to re-summon BOTH of them, thus achieving balance?

2. Just us "Adventuring" again! Honestly, I dug being "the Warrior of Light, savior of the universe", but I wouldn't make going more low-stakes with some one-off adventures! For example, maybe we catch up with each of the Scions, and just do some slice-of-life stuff with them. Like maybe Y'shtola decides Matoya needs a nicer living quarters, and we help them build a proper little "wizards' tower" that's no longer secluded? Or do some catching-up with old quest NPC's?

3. Mo' stuff on the Moon! Honestly, even if we aren't outright exploring the entirety of the Moon, I feel like it would be cool just to visit, and maybe make the whole place a little more pleasant?

Like, for one, I feel like we should inherit the Watcher's Tower (unless the aforementioned point of Zodiark and Hydaelyn coming back and working more in unison, in which case I'd love for that to be their sort of "home-base"). That crater where Zodiark was imprisoned looks hella sketchy even now, and honestly? I think it would be cool if we could sort of "cleanse" the space, maybe even creating some kind of "aetheric biome" to have a small field of flowers (Elpis flowers, perhaps?), just making the Moon more of a "pretty" location.

Similarly, I'd love to work WITH the Loporitts, and have Bestway Burrow COMPLETELY transform! Instead of the harsh, empty Allagan-like design it currently has, maybe we help them draw inspiration from various parts of Etheiris, that each "section" becomes populated with an entirely new look, maybe even creating their own "sky" sort of like Labrynthos? Barring that, just making the place a little more pleasant to visit, and ESPECIALLY taking advantage of the MASSIVE space that makes up Bestway Burrow. Heck, maybe the Loporrits even decide to make it like "a rabbit's paradise", giant woods and little burrows everywhere, vaguely a "Winnie the Pooh/Hundred-Acre Wood" vibe?

4. Deeper "Primal" lore. I used to love learning about Primals, but after Heavensward, it just sort of felt like "primals are just make-believe beings given form via aether". Yet I still always recall Ifrit speaking to us, with that line "Thou are strong, mortal". It always felt like they deserve a bit more history. I haven't counted how many primals exist, so I assume more than there are members of the Convocation, but it would be cool if maybe there is some small part of primals that is connected to something truly ancient, that while INFLUENCED by their summoner(s), they ultimately have some personality and memory of their own. So maybe Venat and Hydaelyn were connected by their love of Etheris and its people, but are actually two different beings with their own slightly differing personalities?

[Shironeko_Narunyan]

I'm done with Hydaelyn/Zodiark and the Power Rangers (err the Garlean Empire).

I'd love to see some more grounded fantasy, maybe something about the Twelve.

[van_arn]

I'm done with Hydaelyn/Zodiark and the Power Rangers (err the Garlean Empire).

I'd love to see some more grounded fantasy, maybe something about the Twelve.

idk if "I want to learn about the gods" is grounded, but whether it is or isn't I'm all for it

I actually like how the "gods" we've known until this point were just ... people. Ancients, Zodiark/Hyd, just people. We go into outer space, but somehow the cosmic scale of this game feels smaller than XI ever did.

That said, the cosmic scale of the Twelve could be interesting. 6.1 can't come soon enough.

[Fawkes]

I think I said it before, but if they really want 6.1 to feel like the start of a new story then it should be in a new area, with new NPCs. If we're just calling up the scions again and doing fetch quests in Ul'dah then it's not going to feel new. Ideally we'll be meeting new characters that will be the next "scions", our next adventuring group. Not that the scions have to go away, I'm sure we could still have them show up from time to time. But for the story to feel new it's going to have to have a lot of new in it.

I don't really care that much where it is specifically. Or what the compulsion for our new adventure is. I hope it's interesting whatever it is.

[Listrella]

I think I said it before, but if they really want 6.1 to feel like the start of a new story then it should be in a new area, with new NPCs. If we're just calling up the scions again and doing fetch quests in Ul'dah then it's not going to feel new. Ideally we'll be meeting new characters that will be the next "scions", our next adventuring group. Not that the scions have to go away, I'm sure we could still have them show up from time to time. But for the story to feel new it's going to have to have a lot of new in it.

I don't really care that much where it is specifically. Or what the compulsion for our new adventure is. I hope it's interesting whatever it is.

it's not going to be in a new area, zones are not introduced in patch content, we might get new NPCs though.

[Fawkes]

it's not going to be in a new area, zones are not introduced in patch content, we might get new NPCs though.

Well, they also haven't ended the main story arc and started a new one before.

They have added things in patches like Foundation and the Doman Enclave and Diadem/Eureka/Bozja. It doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility that they could add a new zone.

[Iscah]

Well, they also haven't ended the main story arc and started a new one before.

I feel like people generally are putting too much stock in this being "the start of a new story" just because they brought Zodiark and Hydaelyn to a definitive end in 6.0 instead of dragging it out to 6.3. I don't see this as any different to the end of 5.0 feeling like a very definite ending to that story arc and yet we picked it straight back up again in 5.1 to introduce new problems or return to secondary ones in the existing zones.

I am expecting 6.X to be an "inbetween" arc, tying off loose ends and positioning the story for new things, but that it will be 7.0 that really kicks off the new story arc in a way that new players can boost to the start of the expansion and start from there.

It simply doesn't make sense to put the critical first chapter of the new story arc in the patch quests of the conclusion to the previous story, where people will have to play through 6.0 to see it - or at least, be expected to skip to 7.0 and then immediately navigate back to unlock New Game Plus and play 6.X.

As for new zones in the patch quests, it seems unlikely that we'd get a true new field zone, but I'm expecting Corvos as an additional Eureka-type zone. As I noted in another thread, it's been well set up in the story and they can reuse landscape assets from Thavnair (nearby), Labyrinthos (designed to mimic Corvos) and Allagan ruins, rather than designing an entirely new place. The ruins may also provide a source for relic weapons.

[Shironeko_Narunyan]

I'd expect it to be as Gaius said so long ago: that the Twelve are just primals, too. Maybe less similar to Ifrit/Garuda, and more like Ramuh, but still primals. That could then present interesting problems. A god manifests somewhere, and we'd normally go and extinguish them, but they're one of the pantheon the Eorzeans revere. So we'd kick them back into the lifestream and that leads to us being an outcast, public enemy number one.

For example. Sure there are several ways to make a fun story out of this.

[Chie_M]

The culmination of the Zodiark / Hydaelyn saga really disappointed me. That being said, as long as I never have to deal with the loporrits in the MSQ again, I'll be happy.

I'd love to visit Meracydia, personally. We've already killed the Warring Triad, the pantheon native to that land; as well as seen an echo of the star that Midgardsormr fled from, and now I want to see the place that he fled to. With Meracydia being home to Miqo'te tribes and us now having ties with their northern neighbour of Thavnair, I don't think it'd be too hard for the story to steer us in that direction.

[Delis]

I hope they lean more into the Azim thing and we just go wandering, go on adventures and explore other parts of our world. Nothing world threating just some nice exploration and adventuring. Break away from the scions, meet some new npcs to hang out with. Maybe we get hints or hear some things on how certain members of the scions are doing but just being off on our own for a bit will be nice I feel.