Erenville's Journey

[Eisi]

Erenville is going home! Does anybody know where he's from? The obvious answer would be Golmore, but what if he's actually from even further away, like Meracydia?

I predict that no matter where he goes, we will go on the same journey in the next expansion and come to meet him and his family.

[Denishia]

Copying the post I just made but this time I'll make wild gut predictions:

It would be unlike XIV's world-building to limit all Viera to just Golmore and Skatay. But does this inform which continent we are dealing with next, is this a hint we should be giving weight to? Do we think he's going to be involved in 7.0 Main MSQ or is this 8.0 set-up? Or prepping for optional content in 7.0? And if so, does his return signal that we're going to meet him at said homeland or that this is just signally that he's excusing himself from the narrative for the same Viera lore reason that drives Anden's hesitancy and his sister's teasing to return to Fanow for a few patches until the writers want to bring him back, but making sure the players haven't forgotten that he exists.

Most importantly, if we do journey to Erenville's homeland, how will that location be distinguished visually/geographically/culturally to make it not just a copy of Fanow - or will it be remarkably similar?

I think there's a strong chance that 7.0 starts us off in Corvos and from there it's a 50/50 chance we stay in Southern Ilsabard and explore the rest of Othard while dancing carefully around the already story/lore explored optional areas of Bojza and Interior Dalmasca and areas like Landis. It does leave wide swaths of the map to explore still (Nagxia!) but because of how much of the regional politics is connected to optional raids, I could see Erenville's thing as the invitation for yet another side quest. The First Void quests show a willingness to connect the optional threads together.

However nothing stops them from declaring Erenville's homeland to be New World or Meracydia.

We haven't gone to the South Seas or either of the Roegadyn homelands, but we did eventually go to Ala Mhigo and the Azim Steppe, so they aren't adverse to letting us explore the 'ancestral' homelands name-dropped in the character creator. I still feel that because we got Fanow we won't get Golmore.

[Narnio]

I am big for the Ilsabard/Othard in 7.0 theory. It would definitely help to address some concerns after the fall of the Empire, which has been brought back up as of this patch. It feels fitting to 'clear' the Three Great Continents before we go to the other two.

Thancred has gone to help in the provinces including both Ilsabard and Othard post Endwalker, from his dialogue regarding his brief and almost suspicious appearance in 6.1 despite not taking part in the dungeon. It seems likely the client contacted him during his finishing up in Othard, before making the long trip back to Sharlayan (recall, he's incapable of teleportation).

There's plenty to be seen in both continents. Landis is a large part of Ilsabard, given the many cities that lie within the nation's borders, so I find it likely we'll be heading there with maybe a trip to the once-mentioned Nhalmasque as well, and of course visiting Corvos. I don't see any reason to fully dance around Dalmasca however, we still have Lea Monde as one of the major capitals which has been mentioned since ARR. There's of course Nagxia, with references to some former Scions going to it after Endwalker, and room for Golmore/Valnain. We could potentially take a trip to the Dalvalan Grath, since its just near the 'treasure islands' of Blindfrost that Emet mentioned.

I do agree though that with the existence of Fanow and Rak'tika, it doesn't seem very necessary to have yet another Viera village. I find it more likely that Erenville may be from one of Dalmasca's cities or towns neighboring the jungles instead.

I imagine that when it comes to the South Seas and Aerslaent, we'll see them with the Meracydia and New World expansions respectfully, as places we stop in briefly on our journey over (giving Aerslaent's very much norse influence, I find it likely they've explored the New World as their own equivalent to Vinland).

[Denishia]

I do agree though that with the existence of Fanow and Rak'tika, it doesn't seem very necessary to have yet another Viera village. I find it more likely that Erenville may be from one of Dalmasca's cities or towns neighboring the jungles instead.

I imagine that when it comes to the South Seas and Aerslaent, we'll see them with the Meracydia and New World expansions respectfully, as places we stop in briefly on our journey over (giving Aerslaent's very much norse influence, I find it likely they've explored the New World as their own equivalent to Vinland).

As a Hellsguard player, I admit the desire to get a dungeon at least in volcanic mountains to the northwest of Garlemald so I get a glimpse of the purported homeland. Also it'd be a way to redo and improve the environmental aesthetics of Pyros.

South Seas Islands is one of those locales I believe with 100% certainty we will physically go to, for a dungeon or sidequest mini-zone like Werlyt instead of a full map now that we have Island Sanctuary. For the Japanese love of Hawaii if nothing else.

Golmore and Fanow is something I go back and forth on solely because of the M Tribe in the Fringes repeating the same idea of Suncat village that the U village in Thanalan had. Unlike Fanow, this hypothetical Golmore would have different tree models and could include a Male NPC or two to distinguish itself.

I still think if they do a Southern Ilsabard/Othard expansion, Ivalice Raid will be mandatory or tweaked, or else major plot points and even zones will have the same vibe as "playing HW before you do the DRG quests". Landis and what its situation is too dependent on the completion status of Bozja, content that will never be mandatory MSQ.

Realistically I think Southern Ilsabard gets tacked onto a Meracydia expansion. My fear is a Doma/Ala Mhigo split of Meracydia and New World (or worse, Meracydia as one zone and all three shoved into one expac. But as the plan is to reach 10.0, I'm telling myself not to fear that.)

[Alleluia]

I was guessing Golmore, as well. But who knows? Might be Corvus. Though I'm guessing that's actually the location of the mysterious missive the Students have gotten asking for a neutral party. But Corvus could connect to Golmore, thus bringing the threads together.

[SaitoHikari]

Realistically I think Southern Ilsabard gets tacked onto a Meracydia expansion. My fear is a Doma/Ala Mhigo split of Meracydia and New World (or worse, Meracydia as one zone and all three shoved into one expac. But as the plan is to reach 10.0, I'm telling myself not to fear that.)

I don't think the writers will do that again, or at least not right at the very beginning of a new story arc. The devs have to know by this point that this has always been poorly recieved.

I'm thinking the next big threat is going to be something that has global implications (likely something involving the status of the lifestream, something that's being hinted towards) rather than a singular villainous group whose activities centered around one area of the world, and we'd have to discover and come up with an answer to it somewhere within the Three Great Continents first (most likely Corvos/Dalmasca/Nagaxia), before we think to check how the rest of the world fares in their efforts (assuming they even agree that it's a problem to begin with or possess the capacity to handle it).

[Narnio]

Realistically I think Southern Ilsabard gets tacked onto a Meracydia expansion. My fear is a Doma/Ala Mhigo split of Meracydia and New World (or worse, Meracydia as one zone and all three shoved into one expac. But as the plan is to reach 10.0, I'm telling myself not to fear that.)

This is my biggest fear. I don't want another split expansion. Stormblood was weird in that regard, and I get why they had to do that for Endwalker (climax and all). I'd prefer each get their time in the spotlight, Ilsabard/Western Othard for one expansion and then Meracydia for another.

I could imagine we'll be seeing Hellsguard stuff in a relic story or even a criterion dungeon, they could probably fit a lot of lore about one of their cultures into one of them.

[Seraphor]

This is my biggest fear. I don't want another split expansion. Stormblood was weird in that regard, and I get why they had to do that for Endwalker (climax and all). I'd prefer each get their time in the spotlight, Ilsabard/Western Othard for one expansion and then Meracydia for another.

I could imagine we'll be seeing Hellsguard stuff in a relic story or even a criterion dungeon, they could probably fit a lot of lore about one of their cultures into one of them.

I don't think we're ever going to get another expansion focused on a single territory like Heavensward. The world has expanded too much to really give a single location that much attention. Besides, Heavensward wasn't truely focused, all zones were contiguous but they were distinctly different locations. You could lump in Western Coerthas and maybe Sea of Clouds in with Ishgard, but Dravania was a distinctly separate territory outside of Coerthas.

After Shadowbringers essentially recreated Eorzea on a different scale, giving each of the Mor Dhona/La Noscea/Thanalan/Black Shroud/Coerthas facsimiles a single zone each, I think that format is here to stay. Thavnair got itself a single zone, Sharlayan got a single zone, Garlemald (which should be as big as all of Eorzea at least!) got a single zone.

To get six new zones out of the next expansion, we'll probably need to visit at least three new 'territories' plus bonus and endgame zones. And EW made it up with two zones in space so probably four territories.
I can see exceptions in the New World and Meracydia though, which could potentially house two/three zones each.

Personally I'm thinking (maybe a little bit of hoping) that we'll round out Islabard in the next expansion. Expand that Islabard category in the teleport menu a bit. Throwing in Corvos, the Blindfrost, The Knowing Sea, maybe a Nagxia/Dalmasca zone, and something else currently obscured by clouds. You could easily make up five zones plus the secret sixth among that.

[MikkoAkure]

I don't think we're ever going to get another expansion focused on a single territory like Heavensward. The world has expanded too much to really give a single location that much attention. Besides, Heavensward wasn't truly focused, all zones were contiguous but they were distinctly different locations. You could lump in Western Coerthas and maybe Sea of Clouds in with Ishgard, but Dravania was a distinctly separate territory outside of Coerthas.

For me at least, it's less about "single territory", and more that I want an expansion where all the zones are actually right next to each other and tell a single story together.

In Stormblood, the overall story suffered from having to slam the brakes to go to the opposite side of the world for a very weak reason. The far east zones feel like they had much more going on in them and more time spent in them so sprinting the army to the doors of Ala Mhigo felt rushed in comparison.

ShB was fine and I liked how it worked with the zones actually connected to each other through a hub zone in the middle and spokes on the sides. Each of them had their own looks that couldn't be mixed up with each other but all told the story together. EW went back to what I and seemingly others didn't like about SB. The zones are all spread out from each other and you can't walk between them naturally.

I don't want an expansion where we split it up in completely separate geographical locations just to fulfill a checklist of places we haven't been yet. Meracydia has absolutely nothing to do with anywhere else in the entire world except for Dravania, which has already been done. It makes no sense to me to have it tacked on to another region. Personally I think it would be boring anyway since we're told it's a barely inhabited wasteland that has no interaction at all with the outside world. Just because it's there and exists doesn't mean we have to go there.

They could obviously make it more interesting than what we're told and give us a reason to go there, but I'm personally bored to death of arid/desert zones and I feel like they wrote themselves into a corner by making it a blasted hellscape. Number one reason I don't want to go to Meracydia though is that I never want to see an Allagan device ever again and I want a story that doesn't have Ascian/Allagan/Garlean baggage and can be it's own thing.

Treasures of Aht Urghan was my favorite overall FFXI expansion and it had barely anything to do with the original story, no Zilart or Kuluu in sight, and completely new game modes like Besieged and hunting the Astral Candescence if you lost. Similarly, it came out after the climax of multiple expansions worth of story that built off the vanilla game's story and felt like a vacation from everything else and I think that's what we need right now.


On the topic of the thread, I wonder if there's anything we can glean from this:
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes.../#sidestory_02

[Shookbeast]

If we went to Corvos, is it possible that since it was occupied by Garleans that it will feature a more tech-forward design with paved streets and cars? I ask, because maybe then the zones we visit will overall have a slightly more modern or tech theme. Cities and cars for Corvos - and then maybe almost a Bladerunner-esque “cities buried in the sand” for Meracydia. The designers must want to stretch beyond more green/forest zones and whatnot.