I've been sitting on this for the better part of a year after the first discussion about Endwalker originally being two expansions. Never sure if I wanted to add to the conversation. But I always found the topic about the "cut" Garlemald Expansion as an interesting one. After writing this up and seeing the original discussion, I came to the conclusion that I feel like Yoshida and the writing team made the right choice, even if Endwalker did end up a little awkward as a result.
Making a Garlemald focused expansion seems natural, but given Stormblood you have to be mindful of the themes and zone stories you want to tell. You can't just make it all about the homeland, that's too little to carry an expansion, while at the same time you can't spend a lot of the time in the provinces either because you risk doing similar stories as Stormblood, which would hurt the expansion. So it's a balancing act, people want to see the homeland and so my conclusion is they focused on that. In reality, I think Garlemald can support 3 zones of story/content before you run the risk of repeating themes or stretching your content really thin.
My approach to this was to largely focus on trying to solve a Garlemald expansion rather than rewrite both expansion. I wanted to keep the pieces that they put in place and maybe nudge things around if needed. Some changes had to happen due to pulling out Garlemald and I made a couple of personal tweaks that felt like missed opportunities, because at the end of the day this does amount to fan fiction. But hopefully also a conversation starter.
I would be interested to hear other ideas on how a Garlemald expansion could work as I think it is a fascinating topic to discuss.
Shadowbringers
In order to cleanly line things up for a Garlemald expansion, all of the Zenos related events in the late Shadowbringers 5.0 story and patch story have to be reworked. Fandaniel is completely pushed back in order to give Zenos full agency in his actions and saved for Endwalker.
5.0 Changes
Eldibus never reveals anything to Zenos about Zodiark or Hydaelyn before he flees. This was an odd point since Eldibus would have no fear or motive to actually give Zenos these details.
5.1 Changes
After the conclusion of Zenos fight with Gaius and Estinien, he leaves in search of new power for a rematch with the WoL. Fandaniel doesn’t present himself leaving Zenos to seek more mundane solutions in the meantime.
5.2 Changes
Zenos in his search learns about the Bozja and Zadnor events. Given Zenos eventual move to Reaper, connecting him closer to interests with the Void makes sense. This also brings in one of the few untouch side content threads back into the main story.
5.3 Changes
Zenos arrives in Zadnor finding the destroyed remains of the Diabolos Armament. The Allagan control and use of the Voidsent gives him an idea. He’s got a plan now and hints towards something in Garlemald, this would be the first vague hint about Reaper and his eventual job change.
5.4 Patch Story
The new direction to guide the story to a Garlemald focus story remixes some elements of the original story while rewriting an entirely new direction. Much of this requires putting the Scions into new personal goals that move either A or B plots and return the story to a more world view rather than a tightly focused one.
The patch opens with the Scions returning to their individual duties. Thancred and Urianger have plans to look into the remaining members of the Convocation and remaining black masked Ascians. As explained by Emet, Ascians can only be raised up to their seat by the Unsundered Ascians, which are all gone. So determining their fates and killing the remaining ones would bring closure to the last threads of the Ascians.
G’raha and Y’sthola plan to look into the Unsundered World on the Source. Most of it no longer exists, likely due to the Calamities, but having witnessed what they did on the First, they want to learn more. Given that Zodiark and Hydaelyn remain out there, as known primals, they need to understand them better. Hydaelyn especially, given her long silence. Plus Y'shtola is looking into understanding the Rift and crossing between shards, any ancient knowledge would aid her.
Alisaie and Alphinaud intend to look into the tempering cure seeing as they had success in the First with Halric. This will be a repeat of the events from 5.4 we got.
Before they all depart however, word from the Alliance comes. The civil war in Garlemald has supposedly ended and troop movements have returned to the borders. Additional rumors of securing the rebelling territories put the Empire back in a strong position. The worst of the rumors is that Zenos is now in command, putting the Alliance on edge.
Thancred makes the call to investigate these rumors and gain a clearer understanding of what has happened within Garlemald. With Thancred leaving, Urianger decides to reach out to Gaius instead to exchange information and resume the investigation into the remaining Ascians on the Source. Bringing Gaius back into the main story, allows a resolution to his Ascian hunt and opportunities for expanding his character beyond the Sorrows of Werlyt.
The WoL now is given the choice of who to help out with. This will be like the split quest at the start of expansions, but it is three quests. The full tempering quest line present from the original 5.4 story will be here.
For the Gaius and Urianger quest, new details about Gaius’ Shadowhunter days are revealed via echo letting the player roleplay as Gaius. Afterwards, WoL accompanies them into different zones of the world hunting down rumors. This gives opportunities to learn about remaining unknown Convocation members from Ascians. Given their elusive and now at risk nature, many have gone into hiding. So their hunt eventually reaches a stalling point and the WoL is told to come back once they have more to go on.
G’raha and Y’shtola quest line globe hops around Eorzea using what they know from the First to tie connections of the Unsundered World back to the Source. The first stop is Limsa given that the Tempest matches and they seek out the underwater ruins. If the WoL has a FC and is doing submarine expeditions, there is bonus dialogue to borrow their ship for the journey. If not, they work with the friendly Sahagin tribe from the tribal quests and Limsa to investigate the sea, Cid is occupied with the tempering cure. With nothing found underwater, it’s assumed buried and they look into deep ancient ruins around Eorzea. They investigate the underground city in Gridania of the Duskwights fitting with Rak’tika. Later, they look into the Sil’dahn ruins as well. Each path is a deadend, but new world lore is discovered. The two promise to continue their investigation without the WoL until they have better leads.
The WoL returns to the Rising Stones to be told of a meeting called by the Alliance as war looks to be back on the horizon. At the meeting, intelligence gathered so far by Thancred and the shinobi network confirms the rumors and early reports. Garlemald is united under Zenos and the legions are on the move. However, new strange magitek are being produced. The test firing of a new weapon upon one of the rebelling provinces makes the Ultima Weapon look like a child’s toy. This new weapon will be the replacement for the Lunar Bahamut threat introduced in the original story, but its threat is built up here rather than witnessed and saved for 5.5. Zenos has made no official declaration of renewed hostilities, though the WoL provides their opinion to the leaders about Zenos. The conclusion is that Zenos will be coming and the likely target will be the WoL. The Alliance leaders return to their nations hoping to prepare for a completely different sort of war that they may have no chance of winning.
Post-quest cutscene returns to Zenos. He is having scientists using the knowledge gained from Bojza along with other exploits by the WoL, the Void Ark, Crystal Tower, Ivalice and Weapon Trials to advance the Allagan Void research. The researchers are still needing more about the Void and so Zenos says he knows of a village with close ties to the Void and departs to complete his task.
5.5 and 5.55 Patch Story
With a new war on the horizon, the Alliance leaders ask for the aid of the WoL in training and preparing their soldiers. The WoL travel to Ala Mhigo and reunite with Lyse, Fordola and Arenvald. This brings these characters back into the main story in preparation for the expansion. Outside of the Summoner quest, Fordola and Arenvald’s story remains largely unknown, so like the original patch story, this is also the time to provide new character development and the two’s continuing relationship.
While helping out the training, the WoL is contacted by Urianger with news related to their Ascian hunt. Departing for Gaius and Urianger, the WoL learns from them some evidence to suggest that there is an Ascian making a play. Who the Ascian is remains unknown, but they have a tip and find some black masked Ascians. Evidence that there might have been a Convocation member here at some point seemed clear, but they’ve long since left. There are some stray clues about aether currents, but nothing meaningful to go on. Urianger plans to research the left behind research and share it with Y’shtola and G’raha.
The WoL rushes back to the front with communication that fighting has suddenly broken out. The rest of the Scions try to make it back in time, but the WoL is going on ahead with the war front. This is the new dungeon for the patch with Lyse, Arenvald and Fordola available as trust companions for the dungeon. Another war zone dungeon like the Ghimlyt Dark, instead of advancing the front Zenos’ armies are supported by voidsent and void magitek. The Alliance is unable to hold the line and the WoL is fighting the front Garlean forces as allies retreat to regroup making the dungeon technically run in reverse. The final boss is against a voidsent magitek prototype similar to that of the Diabolos Armament, but unlike standard boss fights, the health bar associated with the fight is attached to the Alliance forces. It is a survive until time runs out with options to disable parts of the boss to reduce damage.
The Alliance is able to retreat thanks to WoL and party, but the prototype unleashes a large beam attack on the Alliance HQ where troops are retreating along with leaders and the Scions. Y’shtola steps in with a barrier along with Alphinaud and Urianger, but it’s not enough and Y’shtola is vaporized in the attack defending escaping soldiers. The prototype remains unstable and threatens to go berserk like the Diabolos Armament, but it is shut down and pulled from the field.
A heavy loss for the Alliance and Scions, the opening conflict has reshaped the war to come. The Garleans have captured territory deep into the Ghimlyt and threaten Ala Mhigo. For the time, the Alliance leaders are rethinking their strategy and requesting aid from the Ironworks on this new threat. The Scions return to the Rising Stones to mourn the loss of Y’shtola and the WoL visits Gridania to tell her sister of the news.
The 5.5 patch ends with Thancred in the Garlean Capital on the trail of new evidence important to learning what Zenos has been doing with the void and how he managed to get the new power. Zenos also finally makes the job change to Reaper and signals the progression of the hunting grounds.
5.55 patch story focuses on fully returning Cid and Nero to the main story after hints in 5.5 and the tempering cure in 5.4. Gaius returns troubled by the new developments of the void weapon reminded of the Weapon trials. Cid and Nero work using their knowledge from the Crystal Tower and Omega to try to find a counter to the void magitek or at least something that can stand up to them. The WoL helps out in minor skirmishes along the war front trying to keep the Garleans at bay and provide support and morale to the Alliance forces.
The aid eventually turns into a big instance fight with the WoL starting off alone saving Allied troops before being joined by Gaius, Fordola and Arenvald. The instance caps off with them pinned down by void magitek until Cid and Nero arrive with the G-Warrior for the WoL to use as Cid and Nero test out their new anti-void weapon. In the end, the battle is won, but the anti-void weapon is less than successful, requiring more work.
This still grants the Alliance the needed morale boost and the Ironworks continue their research. Gaius is troubled by the events with the Empire and Zenos and vows to join the WoL in their hunt to stop Zenos once and for all. Fordola also steps forward wanting to join and see the man that Zenos has become with Arenvald coming along.
Back in Garlemald, Thancred has finally learned Zenos’ secret, but he is detected by Zenos. This is a roleplay duty as Thancred in a survival horror theme, where Zenos is hunting Thancred and you try to escape with the intel. In the end, Thancred is forced to face Zenos and Zenos cuts him down as the WoL hears over the linkpearl Thancred final words interrupted. Zenos makes a clear effort for the WoL to know that it was him that killed Thancred. This is intended to provide the WoL the revenge and motivation to focus down on Zenos. Zenos doesn’t want the WoL distracted by the war and wants them at their most powerful for their reunion.
With Gaius, Fordola and Arenvald joining the Scions temporarily, they replace the tank and dps trust losses with Thancred and Y’shtola gone.
Now at the darkest moment in a while, the WoL has their eyes set on the Empire once more. A way into the Empire is being planned and all they can do is wait.
Note: I killed two Scions for the reason to push the WoL to focus on Zenos. In the Garlemald solo duty, I think Zenos would have killed a Scion had the expansion been about Zenos. It ended up making a great solo duty and interesting plot beat pointless because nothing came of it other than a distraction. Had Zenos killed someone the plot would have been about him now, which wasn’t the point, so since 6.0 now is about him, I felt it was good to kill some Scions for the weight of the situation.
Thancred was picked because Endwalker didn’t really use his character so removing him didn’t hurt anything and his arc was completed in Shadowbringers making for a good time to bow the character out. Y’shtola was picked because she also didn’t take anything away from the narrative of Endwalker and it felt like a good subversion of the Stormblood moment where she really should have died, but didn’t. This time played for real. I didn’t pick them out of any sort of malice for their characters as I quite liked both of them by the time Shadowbringers completed. XIV does too many fake out deaths, death isn’t required, but don’t do fake outs repeatedly so this restores some necessary balance and sense of stakes.
6.0 Expansion Story
The Alliance works to rebuild their line and hold against the Garlemald threat. Lyse and Raubahn lead on the front lines from the western side and Alliance. Hein, Yugiri and the Steppe Au’ra lead the front lines from the eastern side. With the aid of the Ironworks, they retrieve an Imperial airship and sneak into enemy territory. The western front reports void summonings and void magitek breaking through the lines. This is the split quest path for the expansion.
Zone 1 Part 1
Zone 1 is a region in Ivalice, the stolen airship has engine failure and forces a landing in the zone. The local resistance is still active, but deep underground. The story is recruitment and information gathering while Cid fixes the ship. Gaius only knows a little about the region, but acts a little bit as the guide and de facto speaking role for the WoL, like Alphinaud would often do in cutscenes. The WoL past experience in Ivalice leads them to Lente’s Tears reuniting with characters from the 24-man. They learn about the current situation of the Garlean forces and occupation in addition to a little bit of how Zenos has been running the Empire. Despite the conquest, Zenos has a very disinterested approach making it clear his actions are not borne from a want of Imperial conquest, but motivation to spur the WoL to act. His conquest was quick and bloody, which silenced most for now.
With the help of Lente’s Tears, the WoL and company move to secure an Imperial facility to let Cid repair the airship. The victory gives a boost to morale in the resistance as they make plans to organize more. Gaius remains behind to support as the WoL leaves to the western front.
Zone 2 Part 1
Zone 2 is the region north of Ghimlyt Dark. The WoL along with Urianger and the twins push into enemy lines with the help of the improved Ironwork’s anti-void weapon thanks to Nero’s aid. WoL, Nero and company beat back the void summonings and void machines, but spies learn of a factory near the border that is the source of the summonings. They go in alone to investigate and learn that there is a void pact portal like the one in the Crystal Tower, but a smaller scale. The threat is resolved, but reveals a larger void portal deeper in the region that needs to be taken out to end the threat.
Zone 1 Part 2
Storylines merge back and continue in Zone 1. Gaius has a plan to retake the Imperial base present in the region, end the conquest. The main theme of the zone, since Stormblood already explored the occupied theme, is a focus on Gaius and Fordola’s resolve. Both have different opinions and atonements that they’re trying to see and how they view the Empire. This zone gives these two characters the chance to finally start pushing their long running character arcs forward. Nothing will be complete with them by the end, but meaningful progress will have been made. Things end with the liberation of the region and the Princess in hiding being introduced as the new leader.
Zone 3
Zone 3, the repaired airship takes them deeper into Garlemald territory and to some information Thancred left behind to understand what is happening. This is an industrial and research region, the story theme is learning about Garlemald and the people, humanizing them beyond just being conquering warlords. The story line ends in a magitek and allagan looking facility. WoL has their rematch with the perfected void weapon prototype that defeated them back in the 5.5 dungeon. This is the first trial fight for the expansion.
They learn here what Thancred was trying to inform them about, Zenos is trying to create a similar portal to the one that Xande had and go to the Thirteenth and find himself a strong enough power to replace that of Shinryu to battle the WoL. There are hints that the benefactor is well versed in Allagan methods, making Cid think of Amon from the Crystal Tower, even though he’s long since dead.
Zone 2 Part 2
Information found while in the facility lets them understand how to break the pact with the portal. They return to Zone 2 and with the help of the Alliance push into the region. A war ravaged region, no citizens live anymore, it’s all military outposts. The story theme for the zone is the cost of war and military price on the people and land. Showing how far and twisted Zenos is going to get his fight. The portal is shut down and the region is handed over to Alliance control. The Scions with the WoL push deeper into Garlean controlled territory.
Zone 4
Zone 4, Gaius and Cid reunite with the WoL, Nero and Scions in the outskirts of the capital. The Alliance forces and Garlean forces fight in full, the zone utilizes the Bozja gameplay to make the whole field an active warzone the entire time. The story theme of the zone is focused on the horrors of war. Being near to the capital, there are some hints to what Garlean life might have been like, but only subtle bits. The WoL will have the option if they have Grand Company ranks to command their own squad out here, if not it’ll be generic Alliance soldiers. The WoL will meet, learn and see people die driving the horrors of war theme as the push to the capital continues.
This is where Julius and people of the 1st Legion are encountered for the first time. They are enemy combatants. The main threat in the region is the void portals that are allowing more voidsent through. Once the WoL has pushed far enough in, they lead a commando group (Gaius, Fordola, Arenvald with the Scions) behind enemy lines. They take out the void portals, breaking the Garlean defense forcing their retreat. The push into the capital begins.
Zone 5
Zone 5 Garlemald, at the center of the capital a large portal is visible, Zenos at work. The task is to clear out the remaining smaller portals ending the void threat. The story theme for this region is the same as the one from Endwalker, the propaganda, the racism, the fear, everything laid bare to show the Garleans way of life. This is also where Gaius and Fordola conclude their character arcs of the expansion, finding their personal resolve and way forward. With the shut down of one of the portals, Gaius learns of soldiers that want to join them, but are afraid to because of Zenos.
Gaius recruits and reunites the divided Garleans loyal to the homeland and not Zenos. A battle with Julius plays out at the end of which Gaius is able to convince Julius that Zenos must be stopped. The push on the palace brings them face to face with Zenos once more. The WoL, wanting revenge for Thancred and Y’shtola, attacks Zenos. A brief fight ensues, but Zenos can see he’s missing the power necessary for the real contest that he wishes for. He retreats to the top of the tower and enters the portal. The WoL attempts to follow, but a Diabolos class voidsent appears and the second trial begins.
Zone 6
Zone 6, The Thirteenth shard, the WoL chases after Zenos alone as everyone else will become affected by the corruption like Nero did. The zone is different from the World of Darkness and a setup for the 6.1 patch story teases. The story theme of the region is learning about the true state of the Thirteenth and Zenos’ past. The history of Zenos is laid bare and through echo the WoL learns that Zenos is like the WoL, a Sundered ancient. And from a friendly soul in the Thirteenth, the connection between the WoL, Azem and Zenos is revealed. Zenos as an ancient Unsundered person was in the running for the seat of Azem after Venat stepped down. However, they declined the position not wanting to be bound by the duty and responsibility of one of the Fourteen thus passing to WoL to be Azem. In the past, the two helped each other and even worked to try to find a solution to the Final Days, but ultimately failed.
This addition to Zenos is not designed to change his character to be sympathetic, but explain the various elements of Zenos that had been teased and never followed through with. Why did Zenos dream of the Final Days, why is Zenos so uniquely powerful, this provides answers to these and makes the connection between these two. And Zenos becomes a reflection of the WoL, a mirror “what if” had the WoL grown up with a different environment showing how isolating and lonely the strength they have can be.
Caught up to Zenos, the friendly soul is revealed to be the Thirteenth shard of Zenos. This has been his goal the whole time. Like what Ardbert did for the WoL, Zenos does but forcibly merges with his shard. Zenos becomes the WoL’s equal as he wished. Zenos is the final trial fight, just normal 9/14 rejoined Zenos against the WoL. After the fight, the Endwalker instance battle plays out, but more of a brawl roleplay as they are both exhausted of aether. The fight ends with Zenos’ loss, happy with the resolution and the WoL kills him.
WoL returns reporting on Zenos’ end and Gaius is now looking to find someone that can lead the government and people. Post credit tease hints to the benefactor that had been aiding Zenos from the shadows and being pleased with the results.
6.1-6.3 Patch Story
The three patch stories focus on Gaius and his efforts not to be put in charge of the nation, the threats to his life for the death of the Emperor and seeking out a good person to install in the government. It spends more time diving into the civilian cost of the war, their fears of the other peoples, etc.
The main threat is trying to close the pact portal that remains in the palace, which didn’t go away with the defeat of Zenos. The mysterious benefactor remains at large and continues to manipulate scenes from the background. Void threats continue to be an issue with the portal. It concludes with a big x.3 trial fight discovering the pact creature in the Thirteenth.
The post-expansion story ends with Gaius having installed a new leader and shows progress towards improving relations. With the threat of the benefactor, Gaius and Urianger resume their Ascian hunt. The post-scene reveals the benefactor to be an Ascian and making promises to bring about the Final Days.
6.4-6.55 Patch Story
The WoL joins Gaius in the Ascian hunt. The battle with Zenos and the continued reveals of their life as Azem, the WoL sees it as their duty to bring a close to the past. The new motivation for the WoL provides their sense of a character arc to follow through into Endwalker. They are the last of the Ancients and one of the Convocation, they want to see a future for the races of the present and close the chapter on the past.
The twins take up ambassador roles between the tribal races trying to fulfill one of the Y’shtola long standing critiques of the Eorzean city states. Gaius and Fordola act as go-betweens for the Garlean new government to formalize a lasting peace and eventually dissolvement of the conquered territories. G’raha returns to the Crystal Tower with Cid to dig more into the Allagan mystery and Bozja to understand how Zenos got what he did. Estinien is recruited to hunt down the benefactor.
Urianger reports on strange aether readings of currents going wild, rapid growth of flora and fauna. This concludes in the 6.4 in a fight against some mutated creature caused by excessive aether. Post patch cutscene reveals the Ascian is making their move now.
Things come to a head with the WoL and Gaius tracking down some Ascians and slaying them, but not finding the benefactor. Urianger is pulled away to investigate the aether readings. Another void portal appears near the Amali’jaa. The Scions go to their rescue and close the portal. This goes to help push some of the peace talks. Everything ends in the battle at Carteneau and another void portal. Urianger reveals that thanks to his time in the First he realizes that the Source is undergoing an excess of Dark aether causing the growth and wild aether. Where too much Light slows things down, too much Darkness causes spontaneous creation, mutations and cancer-like growth. The cause is unknown, but the benefactor finally appears and introduces themselves as Fandaniel making the claim that they will bring about the Final Days once more.
Labyrinthos and Thavnir Revisions
The point of going to Sharlayan is different as they want access to information on Allagan relics and ancient knowledge discovered. However, the Final Days threat is still occurring and the Dark leaning aether makes things all the more present throughout the world. This means the Forum is still making its secret plans with the ark and has locked off a lot of the Labyrinthos which makes them question what secrets they’re hiding leading to the same events happening.
As tempering isn’t an issue, the issue in Thavnair is a pronounced increase in aetheric activity that’s made flora and fauna go wild, which the Alchemists have been assigned to investigate along with void portals appearing. Otherwise events are very similar outside of the capture and no Tower of Zot, the dungeon is an open environment dealing with the excessive wildlife growth.
New Zone - Amon's Lab/Hermes Lab
After the split concludes, G’raha and Cid have gained some new evidence. They’ve learned the location of Amon’s testing facility. This is the replacement zone for Garlemald. The facility is buried and time has damaged it extensively. Thanks to G’raha and Cid’s work, they’re able to reactivate the Allagan machines and learn about Amon’s research into the void for Xande and the Crystal Tower. Fandaniel appears at this point to taunt the WoL and reveal their identity as Amon.
After the encounter, they find a deep crack in the earth, from the earthquake that destroyed Allag. Following it, they discover a second ruin, which they have seen before. They recognize it as belonging to the Unsundered world. This is a research facility used by Fandaniel/Hermes during his time on the Convocation. Several reports are discovered hinting at things such as Meteion, Dynamis, Elpis and the Final Days. It’s not a complete accounting, but it provides details on the past which aren’t immediately important.
Thavnir Part 2 Revision
Problems on the surface have gotten worse and Fandaniel leaves through a teleporter in his facility to the moon. The WoL chases after and finds Zodiark with Fandaniel in the process of finishing off the rest of the seals. Destroying the last seal before WoL arrives, he explains the point of his plan was to introduce enough dark aspected aether from the Thirteenth into the planet to weaken Hydaelyn such that the seals could easily be shattered. With Zodiark free, he merges with it and the first trial fight. Everything plays out the same.
Final Days are now coming and everything is the same up to how to progress after saving Raz-at-Han. The information they gained from the ancient facility of Fandaniel gives them hope. The WoL returns to find the location of Elpis and as expected it’s in ruins on the Source. However, it’s pointed out that that might not be the case on the First. The WoL returns to the First.
Elpis Revision
The time difference has happened once again and fifteen years have passed since the WoL left. The WoL sees an adult Ryne and Gaia along with a further along recovered First and Empty. With Ryne’s help they use Eden to travel to the location in the former Empty to where Elpis is. The Elpis region is a ruin crashed to the earth, but otherwise familiar. With the guidance of the Elpis flower, they investigate Fandaniel.
The time here is filled with data logs, reports, echo memories and other means to convey Emet, Hythlodaeus, Venat, Fandaniel and Meteion. All the same information gained from the original Elpis is gathered here without time travel. Clearer motivations and decisions post Elpis and during the Final Days are here to completely flesh out the events and why people did what they did.
Labyrinthos and Ultima Thule Revisions
The WoL returns to the Source with the new information and they learn about Sharlayan involvement the same as before. Everything at this point plays out the same up to the Ultima Thule. The scene plays out slightly differently in that Azem’s crystal with Hydaelyn’s power doesn’t have enough power after using it to summon Emet and Hythlodaeus. The WoL is forced to pick who returns and leave two Scions permanently dead. Endsinger battle happens as usual, but without Zenos showing and the WoL just fights normally like Zenos said, WoL doesn’t need the pep talk.
With Endsinger defeated and all of the Ascians killed, the WoL’s task is complete. The story of the Unsundered Ancients is over, it's time for a new tale to begin with the present day races and WoL returns to the Ragnarok. The Scions return home. With the world saved, the Scions disband for real, since with the player picking anyone they want to be dead it’s not possible to build a story that relies on them and not knowing who may or may not be alive still. The Scions go about their personal stories. The WoL hands over Azem’s Crystal to Tataru to have it given to someone worthy (new player character) and dies to return to the star allowing the new races to move to their own future unguided by the past which is now resolved.
The end of 7.0 would involve letting the player basically free fantasia and hit the narrative power reset button. And with the graphical update, this lets players fully explore the new changes if they want to make changes free of charge. And it narratively puts a complete end to the Ascian storyline and brings the story back down to a grounded level with a new WoL that’s no longer Azem. Player-wise, it’s not a deletion of anything, so all progress remains, but narratively the WoL is now a new person with new connections to make. This also makes for a clean fresh start point for new players that may want to jump straight in.
Note: I have two more Scions die here, because like before I’m not a fan of fake out deaths. Before the end of the zone, I knew they were coming back. So this is a compromise so that some can return, but there’s a consequence to the action rather than it being a free pass for everyone. Plus, I think giving the player a real lasting choice at the end of a story will carry so much more weight for people and be remembered that much deeper. Character death isn’t a requirement like Yoshida said for a good story, but I did largely try to keep to what Endwalker was already doing, while making adjustments here or there. In this case, since they wanted the moment, which thematically I think works well for what they’re doing in the narrative. However, just killing and undoing it to make a thematic point seemed a little shallow, so I’ll let the story have its point, but force a consequence on that point.
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Originally Posted by Eytha
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