Rewritten MSQ - Garlemald and EW

[TimotheusReed]

I think we’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one, I fundamentally do not like the idea of a fantasy world left bereft of the forces that once dominated it. I do not think using religion as a plot point moving forward is worth the player’s time because at this point the player is aware of most in-game mysteries – except for whatever is going on with the Twelve.

I honestly really like the idea of a world bereft of its gods. I mean most of the gods we encountered weren't even real gods or even their own individual entities. They were manifested wishes and prayers.
Born from the wishes and prayers of mortal beings or the Ascians.

This is also not the first FF game, where the game continues after the forces which once controlled the world were eradicated. FFX-2 and FF XIII for example did the same thing.
I didn't really like both games that much tbh, but I still find the idea interesting. Because many FF games end with the defeat of a god etc. or the forces which once controlled the world.
And I always was interested on how the world will continue after that. FFX-2 and FFXIII explored the aftermath for example. And I like it that FFXIV does it too.

There is always potential for new entities, gods or enemies to appear, because the whole concept of aether is so flexible.
Even stronger foes than the ones we already faced are potentially possible.

There is also a lot that is still unknown about the nature of aether in general and a lot of potential for new forces to establish themselves.
There still are a lot of mysteries and things even the Ascians didn't know. For example we discovered time travel before the Ascians did.
There might also be other forces in the universe we don't know about. FFXIV doesn't necessarily need gods and all-powerful beings. There are also a lot of other Final Fantasy games which didn't need gods to establish a good plot.

I mean even we as WoLs are not all-powerful gods and we did defeat those beings with the help of others. There can still be beings which have similar WoL-like powers.
Or maybe other entities could find a way to rob us of our powers and infuse our WoL blessing onto themselves.

I would like a plot, where the power of the WoL gets stolen and someone else uses our power. There are a lot of possibilities.

[Knot_D]

I would like a plot, where the power of the WoL gets stolen and someone else uses our power. There are a lot of possibilities.

Already happened on Garlemand instance

[Theodric]

Already happened on Garlemand instance

Which, unfortunately, amounted to absolutely nothing. Not even one of the Scions being injured.

[Knot_D]

Which, unfortunately, amounted to absolutely nothing. Not even one of the Scions being injured.

...Which is good? Why you want them get injured badly??

Another reason to leave lore in forum I guess...

[Theodric]

...Which is good? Why you want them get injured badly??

Another reason to leave lore in forum I guess...

The premise of the expansion was the second coming of the apocalypse. I think some meaningful character deaths and injuries would have made things feel genuinely dangerous and interesting instead of utterly predictable.

Even the scene where a blade is deflected right at the last possible second was straight out of the typical Hollywood movie - and I play fantasy games in the hope of a compelling story and deep narrative rather than for a lack of stakes.

[Rosenstrauch]

Which, unfortunately, amounted to absolutely nothing. Not even one of the Scions being injured.

It did give us a modern day rendition of the Tortoise and the Hare: The Paraplegic Corpsewalker and the Bodysnatching Prince.

EDIT: So I've been playing Mass Effect 3 for the first time.

And for the first time I got to witness the death of Thane Krios, watching him take on Kai Leng and actually fight him to a standstill, only to get gutted at the last second. I watched him slowly die in a hospital bed not long after, attended to by myself and his son, Kolyat. It was a genuinely beautiful scene that I won't ever forget, and elevated every single character involved. Even Kai Leng—a character so thoroughly reviled by the Mass Effect fandom for being a bit of a meme (he's a Metal Gear Solid/Rising cyborg ninja in a third person cover based shooter, with an insufferably smug attitude even though the game's combat system does not allow him to be even half as cool as he ought to be), but I hate him for all the right reasons now.

The tl;dr: Characters getting hurt or killed as a consequence of their or someone else's actions? That is an important spice for storytelling. And in my experience, it's only ever been the FFXIV community that's insisted otherwise.