A game for 4 year olds

[KageTokage]

I think I'm mostly interested in the potential question of whether or not the denizens of Ultima Thule would rather go live on Etheriys if the possibility exists for them.

The Ragnarok is essentially functioning as a teleporter between the two points now so it theoretically wouldn't be difficult for them to come visit barring some weird shenanigans involving dynamis or some such.

[Carin-Eri]

I think I'm mostly interested in the potential question of whether or not the denizens of Ultima Thule would rather go live on Etheriys if the possibility exists for them.

The Ragnarok is essentially functioning as a teleporter between the two points now so it theoretically wouldn't be difficult for them to come visit barring some weird shenanigans involving dynamis or some such.

Yeah, that'd definitely be good!

And in terms of the Ultima Thule Dragons, it'd be great to see how they'd react to/interact with mini-Midgardsormr and the remaining Dravanian Horde Dragons.

[RukoBoshi]

Shadowbringers didn't get one for the same reason DSR got delayed; as much as they were able to get done in pandemic conditions, the delays that resulted still meant things had to get cut, and they (rightly) prioritized the stuff that's a lot more mainstream. Shadowbringers also had the excuse of being pretty far away from the guy that's usually the impetus for the allied quests, so it was also pretty easy for them to say 'yeah we won't do it this time'. No evidence says they'll do the same for Endwalker's. And I hope they don't, I can't imagine a better match for the Hippo Riders than a pretty far-flung restaurant!

Ah that's a shame for Shadowbringers, i was looking forward to see the shard of that masked Miqo'te. He could even have had his mask on the other side of his face, would have been a funny interaction.
For Endwalker, I can totally see the Uber Eats elephants serve food from the edge of the universe and the moon. I can imagine the Miqo'te trying to smuggle the jellyfish mount too ! That would be a funny little plot.

Yeah, that'd definitely be good!

And in terms of the Ultima Thule Dragons, it'd be great to see how they'd react to/interact with mini-Midgardsormr and the remaining Dravanian Horde Dragons.

If they decide to wake up Midgardsormr at a earlier point than when he does in G'raha original timeline, i would definitely be interested in his interactions with these dragons.
Something like the lvl 90 Omega sidequest could be nice to show some of his insights about it.

[KageTokage]

I doubt it would happen, but taking the Studium professors on a field trip to the Last Dregs would be amusing given that they're all hyped up to take the Ragnarok on an expedition to meet some alien races after the final quest there, but are now capable of doing so in a more leisurely manner.

[KariTheFox]

What's even the point of a story where after fighting against the oppressive, expansionist Garlean Empire, the end goal is to... slap some lady on the throne and call it a day because well, Garleans are just suited to being ruled by a monarch, and some of thier vassal states are better off being colonized by them anyway. What's the theme here meant to be? What's the message?

[CheshCa7]

But she is pretty and nice, unlike Shtola who was a ... 3 or something? I don't quite recall and I am too lazy to search for that thread.

[MikkoAkure]

To add to what I said before, I have no problem with the idea of monarchies on their own. My personal opinion is that just as in real life, democracy isn't for everyone and not for every country. The writers don't necessarily have a problem with monarchies either, or else Doma would not have remained a monarchy at the end and Hien would have been all "let's give the power to the people instead" like Aymeric, who had good reason to do so considering his dad's regime lived on a lie and the people who were angry about that now have ideas and also guns.


Ala Mhigo, Garlemald, Eulmore, and Bozja's monarchies end with no clear or willing successors. In Ala Mhigo's case, the country is taken by force by a rebellion made up of commoners. There is one royal successor who refuses to be ruler and would have no supporting noble class to rule with anyway. In what world would it make sense for them to select a random person and say "you, who have no experience ruling a country shall rule for life and so shall your descendants"? You can't have a monarchy out of just 1 guy descended from other guys. It requires a whole supporting structure and power/legitimacy which is usually made up of the nobility leading a strong and regimented social structure plus the military and often the religious addition: "it's this way with these people because the divine said so". Remove any one of those and your monarchy doesn't have anything to sit upon.

Besides the aforementioned Ishgard, Ala Mhigo and Bozja were taken by rebel forces with egalitarian ideas after their country's previous regimes were already conquered, replaced, and either don't exist anymore or at least aren't present in the newly conquering rebelling armies.

Eulmore was just 1 guy who created a super unbalanced and messed up society and fed his own people to each other to control them. After being killed as a Light Warden and leaving a power vacuum, it would leave a bad taste in players' mouths if the writers decided to elect a new mayor-for-life among the super elite who were living extravagantly like the world is ending (because it was) off the backs of people who are thrown off the city, turned into monsters, and live in shacks amongst garbage.

As for Garlemald, they had 2 civil wars over the legitimacy of the government determined by legions having different ideas and different factions. Now the remaining legions that we know about are completely depleted, have become POWs and give support to the Ilsabard Contingent, or both. The royal family and related nobles are dead.

Aveyond's story even required making up someone random that came from nowhere with no prior build-up or mention at all in earlier content, with no support from existing factions inside Garlemald, and inventing new and contradicting rules of succession for them to take the Garlean throne. She is chosen by Gaius (who by the way is believed by the entire Garlean populace as Varis' murderer in the lore of the actual game) as "oh, she'll do" and just happens to come with baggage including being pregnant with the baby from a rebel leader and ex-lord of a province who just fought and beat back the Garleans to regain his country and is suddenly is A-OK with Garlean hegemony when he learns his baby momma is supported by the Scions for the Garlean throne.


Anyways, the Domans still support their monarch, who is still alive and isn't a tyrant, and his form of government is perfectly fine for their people. Just like how Thavnair has been ruled for ages by an immortal dragon and there's no problem with that either. He was willing to step away from ruling after the secret was revealed but the people are fine with him and wanted him to stay. The Dalmascan rebels we work with are trying to put Princess Ashe back on the throne. If there was a story or expansion in the game that revolved around a corrupt and evil democracy with a princess of a fallen house supported by the people in the hiding, the WoL would probably help the princess restore the monarchy, and that would be perfectly fine and be a good story.

But I guess mentioning Doma, Thavnair, and Dalmasca trying to keep or restore their monarchies with popular support doesn't suit forum goers who need to insist that the writers have a political agenda and that Alphinaud is knocking on doors and spreading the word of archon loaf, democracy, and the Sharlayan way.

[Iscah]

This four (plus a few decades) year old thoroughly enjoyed the concluding quest. I'm expecting to see the Nibirun finally have their change of heart in the rank 8 quest. There's no way we're not getting their pretty location added to Elysion – it's been a request since Explorer mode only had the grey aftermath, and the Elysian sky has been based on theirs from the beginning!

It makes no sense to attach numerous shades of gray to a course of action, then double down on defending it as having been the right and best course. At that point you're better off just taking the black and white approach to avoid creating a weird tonal dissonance.

Agreed. I think either there's a clash of plans amongst the writers, or the whole "balanced on all sides" thing is just an ideal they theoretically want their plot to reach, but in practice they either don't know how to get there or they don't actually like that prospect in a real plot as much as they think they do when they're at the basic drafting stage.

[Moomba33]

I'm expecting to see the Nibirun finally have their change of heart in the rank 8 quest. There's no way we're not getting their pretty location added to Elysion – it's been a request since Explorer mode only had the grey aftermath, and the Elysian sky has been based on theirs from the beginning!

I would love to see the Nibirun tree restored as a vista in Elysian. It's beautiful.

[Kozh]

He seems to like this name, since his one female alt is named that way. A blondish elezen. Hmm is that some kind of self insert?

It's normal for people to have OC/name that they're attached to. I have one that I made during middle school because I misheard a planet/star name, and fun fact, I still use it for my ffxiv username and one of my alts (used to). Not everything has to be self-insert. Don't be weird.

Aveyond's story even required making up someone random that came from nowhere with no prior build-up or mention at all in earlier content, with no support from existing factions inside Garlemald, and inventing new and contradicting rules of succession for them to take the Garlean throne. She is chosen by Gaius (who by the way is believed by the entire Garlean populace as Varis' murderer in the lore of the actual game) as "oh, she'll do" and just happens to come with baggage including being pregnant with the baby from a rebel leader and ex-lord of a province who just fought and beat back the Garleans to regain his country and is suddenly is A-OK with Garlean hegemony when he learns his baby momma is supported by the Scions for the Garlean throne.

Okay first of all, that's kind of unfair. It's a rewrite but we're not allowed to create new character or add something to the lore? You might as well kill a big portion of fanfics on ao3. And speaking of that, I remember that EW does introduce us to a major new character with no prior build-up or mention at all, which is Meteion. And no, the morse code on CT isn't meteion.

Second, I admit that I haven't read Aveyond's rewrite in detail, but what you write here? It's way more interesting than what we got in ffxiv. Currently, the garlean is basically "some of them went to moon, some seek sanctuary in sharlayan, and the rest are just existing. Oh and most of their people died". Sure there's a chance that the devs might revisit garlemald again in the future, but I'm sure some people here agree that the chance is, and supposed to be, very small. Name issue aside, imo this summary of rewrite is pretty solid and a good plot hook. It kinda reminds me of FFXV Aldercapt (the empire guy)'s granddaughter story, and a little bit of lyse in it too. For a broken nation (or group) sometimes a symbol can give them strength, and this dutchess can become that symbol, that Garlemald isn't finished yet. With her relation with non-Garlean she might even become the reason as to why Garlemald will turn over new leaf in the future.

Of course there is still the issue of women not allowed to be leader, but this is written by the devs, I'm sure they can twist things so that it's okay for her to take the throne. And if it truly rub people the wrong way, we can flip their gender, not hard to do and won't even change the story that much.

I can't comment further as I haven't read the rewrite completely, but as I said previously, it got potential to create intriguing political drama. And dare I say it can also be a romantic drama too (two people from two warring nations? Having to choose between their people or their love? The struggle of convincing their people to stop the fighting? Sign me up!).

Now to a more sensitive topic, I'm guessing people have problem with some states depicted as being better under the Empire rule? As seen with Bozja, it's not too farfetched I'd say. We know that not all garleans are evil, as seen with Maxima and the Populares. Gaius is pretty respectable guy too, a shame that ARR can't exactly explore his chivalrous side. To make the Empire all evil is boring to me. And in real life, we do have people who think their nation was better when they're still under other nation's rule.


Honestly even if this was written by you or other lore people, I would still be very interested in it.