My speculations on the future expansion. It's wordy. Also spoiler warning for 6.0

[Argonloris]

Took me a long time to get this to written format and out of my head. Not because it was complicated but because I've been busy with CC and moogle tomestone farming. Game is to fun. But anyway. this is my thoughts on the potential future. It's a bit wordy.

Thoughts on where and why we go to the southern continent. (This is entirely speculation and nothing to currently prove any of it):

During a time before Fandaniel decided to travel to Garlemald and help Zenos, he was working under the unsundered to prepare for an eventual calamity on the southern continent. A number of Allagans were put in stasis after the beginning of the calamity that ended the Allagan empire.

Fanadaniel, once Amon had revived those in stasis and convinced them to resume the conquest that they had once been the core reason for them being there. While they lack numbers of pure blooded Allagans, they have the creations and the science to create more. They create husks, soulless bodies that use the Aether from the aethereal sea to power them.

The pure bloods have implanted themselves with technology to control the husks. In an effort to reach a more direct connection to the aethereal sea, they march on the world tree where Tiamat and her brood now rest and recover after the fights on Eorzea. While the locals are fighting back against the Allagans, Tiamat asks for help from her brothers and the Scions.

Estenien goes as part of his new mission to protect the dragons. Y'shtola goes because the world tree is a convergence point of the Aether streams in a way similar to Silvertear lake and may offer a way to traverse the rift between reflections. During the travels it would be possible that two husks have the souls of Emet and Hythlodeus and these two have broken away from the control of the Allagan Empire.

References to past FF games:

The husks would be a nod to black mages from FF9 where they didn't have souls but were created by the villains of the story for a purpose. Having two or three that break from the group would again be a nod to Vivi from 9.

Assuming one of the major fights would be the leader of the Allagans with all his implants, the boss could be similar to Vayne as "The Undying" in FF12.

Since the Allagans are tapping the aethereal sea to power their creations, one of the dungeons may resemble a Mako reactor from FF7 and bosses may be Allagan versions of Airbuster and Proud Clod. The people of the southern continent that protect the world tree may live in a canyon area that separates the forest from the badlands area around it. This would be Cosmo Canyon.

[Argonloris]

References to other things:

Assuming the naming convention of Amon is from a similar route. Members of the pure blood Allagans may be named from names in Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis (the little Key of Solomon) and reference the seventy-two demons. This would make sense in a number of ways. One being that Amon was the demon of life and reproduction in said text.

The second being that the demons named in the text all preside over a number of legions where these Allagans would do the same with their technology.

Names that are of note would be Valefor, Ose, Nabudis, Agares, Ambdusias, and Vassago. These names have all been used in at least one Final Fantasy game or another.



Possible design choices for areas:

The forest of the world tree is a slight misnomer. The forest is of itself one giant tree. with the smaller trees growing as branches from the roots of the giant tree in the center of the forest. This would be where Tiamat makes her home that she may use the abundance of Aether to heal her wounds and recover after the time in captivity.

It is in the center of a region with ever shifting Aether and wind currents making the area difficult to travel by airship. The only route in is through a canyon protected by the people of the southern continent.

On the other side of the badlands is the base of the former Allagan Empire. A small city in its own right, it is ruled over by a group thought to be long dead but that were really just in stasis. Since they tap directly into the surrounding Aether for use in the technology they use, much of the surrounding area is dried and decayed earth. This lends credence to those that call the Allagans demons as the land around their home is in a desiccated state.

[Argonloris]

Job for the franchise future:

Mystic Knight: where red mages use a blade as the foci for casting spells, a mystic knight works to channel Aether into the blade itself, altering it to enhance its damaging properties. They use a spellblade for a weapon and equip scouting gear similar to Ninjas. Mystic Knights come from the southern Isles and wear gear similar to what they wore in Final Fantasy 5

Attacks and Abilities:

Enchanting Slice- Base attack, charges the blade to absorb Aether

Buz- combos off of Enchanting Slice. Ice imbued attack. Primes enchant release for hardened steel. Changes Ates into Rahmet.

Ates- combos off of Enchanting Slice. Fire imbued attack. Primes enchant release for Burning brand. Changes Buz into Buhar.

Buhar- Combo off Ates. deals large amounts of damage and is the main combo attack for the class.

Rahmet- Combo off Buz. deals damage and refreshes burning brands, venom strike and hardened steel. Used in similar fashion to bards Iron Jaws ability

Enchant release- Used when after Buz or Ates. When used after Buz, applies the buff Hardened steel to the characters weapon, increasing damage dealt. When used after Ates, it

applies Burning Brand to the target, Burning brand deals damage over time to its target. May stack to deal increased damage.

Parlama Strike- an attack with 2-minute cooldown. Consumes Hardened Steel, Venom strike, and all burning brands to deal massive damage. For eight seconds

the player has Shining blade buff which increases damage done more than Hardened Steel. Hardened Steel and Burning Brand cannot be applied when Shining Blade

buff is up.

Venom Strike- Applies a damage over time to the target.

Kutsal Blade- deals damage to the target while providing a small heal to those around the player

Kasirga Strike- Ranged attack that hits the target with lightning.

Magic Shell- Damage reduction.

[Kaliesto]

This is like the best theory I've read, but knowing how FF devs work they love subverting expectations to a annoying degree.

[Lihtleita]

great theory but another sword job?

[Renalt]

great theory but another sword job?

I want me mallet!

[Argonloris]

I can understand the not wanting another sword class. It would be the fifth one if I'm thinking correctly. The only reason I think of swords is the look that they had in FF5. Beyond that the weapons for a job like this need to have fast animations. Hammers, and to an extent axes would feel out of place I think. If Endwalker is anything to go by, one of the next classes will be one that uses the same gear as ninja which means it would have to be something lightly armored and relatively quick on their feet. This is what came to mind when I thought along that route.

[NekoMataMata]

Feel like everyone's predicting a magical knight class that will basically be the reverse of RDM. I saw someone post something very similar but called it Runic Knight. I don't know if they'll ever actually do it though because Paladin is technically already a magical knight, it's just this would be more offensive with a bit of a different theme.

[Enkidoh]

Also, as I understand Yoshi stated future Jobs added in hypothetical future expansions will probably not be any remaining 'traditional' FF Jobs from previous games but entirelly new ones, so that means things like Mystic Knight, Geomancer, Ranger and Rune Knight/Fencer are all out. As for what that means for future Job design is anyone's guess though.

[Rilifane]

Also, as I understand Yoshi stated future Jobs added in hypothetical future expansions will probably not be any remaining 'traditional' FF Jobs from previous games but entirelly new ones, so that means things like Mystic Knight, Geomancer, Ranger and Rune Knight/Fencer are all out. As for what that means for future Job design is anyone's guess though.

I believe the reason for this is that having to stay faithful to a class from single player titles will not only limit creativity but is also more difficult to balance.
Some identities simply don't translate well into an MMO and we already have several cases of players not liking something about a class because it's not faithful to the original.
They'll face situation where they think "We have to include this skill somehow because it's iconic and part of the class but it doesn't really fit into the game".

They are still free to design a Rune Knight - they will just refrain from calling it Rune Knight because that instantly creates expectations from players. Rather they can take some of its characteristics and add things that work better for an MMO instead of doing mental gymnastics on how to design it as faithfully to the original as possible.

And I'm completely on board with this decision.
Traditions and nods to their other work are nice but if it starts to limit how well a class fits into the game and even prevents it from having their own niche, it's problematic and better to drop the iconic classesin favour of something new and fresh that isn't limited by anything.