Revelations from NA Fan Fest (July 2023)

[Alleluia]

I just want to say that I think the miqotes in our party look much better in this trailer than they did in Endwalker. Am I alone in thinking that? They looked a bit alien to me there, but in this they look more like their SHB versions. Well, Y'shtola does at least; we only saw G'raha's mouth and lower jaw in that one. lol But still, I stand by my assertion.

Maybe the contest for the Golden Throne is only the first half of the story, and upon reuniting the scions we journey north to discover a greater threat, a threat to all of Yok Tural.

I had a slightly crazy thought. What if the two sides in contention for the throne are each of Gulool's heads? If they treat him (or them, in this idea) like conjoined twins instead of some kind of strange joint hivemind or something, then maybe the brothers(?) are the ones fighting. And we basically have the scions breaking down in to "left gang" and "right gang". lol

He looks more of a oh crap why am I being swarmed again.

Yeah, I think he might be having a flashback to The Great Work. When we're the amazing friends that we are and leave him to the mob again, I hope we actually join Urianger in praying for his soul this time. Its only right.

Teenage MUTANT Ninja Turtles. Mutant = X-Men = Cyclops. Cyclops father is Corsair. And he dual-wields sword/pistol

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c6/9e...964ee9a541.jpg

That's Scott Summers' father? lol

[KageTokage]

I'm a touch curious if there's going to be any fallout from the Final Days in Tural because with the turning incidents being a worldwide phenomena, I'd think there could be some lingering presence of beasts and/or blasphemies around.

[Monokhrom]

I really hope Erenville gets a lot of screen time or is relatively important in Dawntrail. I adored him in EW! It'd be a bit wasteful of his character if he's just here to transport us back and forth from Tural.

[Eisi]

I had a slightly crazy thought. What if the two sides in contention for the throne are each of Gulool's heads? If they treat him (or them, in this idea) like conjoined twins instead of some kind of strange joint hivemind or something, then maybe the brothers(?) are the ones fighting. And we basically have the scions breaking down in to "left gang" and "right gang". lol

Big love for this idea <3

[Cleretic]

A neat idea I've heard for where the conflict could go is, rather than Scions picking sides of a conflict, instead picking interference vs. non-intervention. Basically run with the actual conflict one might have about a psuedo-colonialist narrative, and have the party split based on 'is it right to take part in deciding who leads'.

I can immediately think where some would fall on that conflict (G'raha's clearly shown no issue with this and Estinien probably doesn't see a problem with it, while Urianger and Thancred would probably prefer to go hands-off), and a few characters that would probably take it more subjectively based on what's going on (Alisaie would absolutely base it on who's contending, Krile would likely defer to Galuf's previous journey). It'd be a fun way to explore the characters, to have the divide not based on which external forces are more compelling, but on how they personally feel about a thorny issue.

[Alleluia]

A neat idea I've heard for where the conflict could go is, rather than Scions picking sides of a conflict, instead picking interference vs. non-intervention. Basically run with the actual conflict one might have about a psuedo-colonialist narrative, and have the party split based on 'is it right to take part in deciding who leads'.

People like to bring up colonialism when talking about the new world a lot, but there isn't any colonialism going on so its rather invalid, imo. They send their own people to Eorzea as mercs and traders. They have trade relations with Radz-at-Han (I think). They have some kind of diplomatic ties to Sharlyan. Far as we've ever heard or seen, this isn't some virgin culture that we're deciding whether to build a fort on or not; they're just any other city state. And we've long been in the habit of beign involved in leadership choices in other city states. Aymeric, Hien, the Nadaam, Chai-Nuzz. Its never been a colonialism expy before, I don't see why it should be considered such now just cus the aesthetics of the area are South/Central American.

None of the above says you are wrong about the idea that the two sides might be "get involved" 'vs "don't get involved". It might very well be that. I just don't think colonialism enters in to it at all.

The fact they mentioned Hrothgar as being native to one of the regions leads weight to female Hrothgar though. I'm not sure they would be mentioned specifically if not to expand the lore, and provides the narrative reason to include them (they're not rare in the new world like they are in Bozja)

Yeha, I think the chances of seeing female Hrothgar (and getting them playable) have significantly improved.

[MikkoAkure]

People like to bring up colonialism when talking about the new world a lot, but there isn't any colonialism going on so its rather invalid, imo. They send their own people to Eorzea as mercs and traders. They have trade relations with Radz-at-Han (I think). They have some kind of diplomatic ties to Sharlyan. Far as we've ever heard or seen, this isn't some virgin culture that we're deciding whether to build a fort on or not; they're just any other city state. And we've long been in the habit of beign involved in leadership choices in other city states. Aymeric, Hien, the Nadaam, Chai-Nuzz. Its never been a colonialism expy before, I don't see why it should be considered such now just cus the aesthetics of the area are South/Central American.

There was a little bit. IIRC the BLU quest had an Eorzean guy who was trying to move the Whalaqee of their lands to mine Ceruleum, and they all got sick and were dying from Eorzean diseases they brought with them.

Limsa Lominsa were also the first ones who came to Tural from the east and followed it up with expeditions though the encyclopedia didn't exactly say what they were up to.

[Eisi]

People like to bring up colonialism when talking about the new world a lot, but there isn't any colonialism going on so its rather invalid, imo.

One of the only times the New World was previously in focus was the Blue Mage questline where an Eorzean merchant seeks to bring sacred Whalaqee land under his control because there's oil there, so the colonialist angle is kinda there.

But I'd love to see a story about the New World where it doesn't need to define itself against Eorzea in any fundamental way. I think it's nice if they're friends and trade and exchange ideas respectfully, a story that's kind of what could have been in our world as well. Or what might yet be.

and they all got sick and were dying from Eorzean diseases they brought with them.

Oh yeah true! But the guys who visited us got medication right?

[Cleretic]

People like to bring up colonialism when talking about the new world a lot, but there isn't any colonialism going on so its rather invalid, imo. They send their own people to Eorzea as mercs and traders. They have trade relations with Radz-at-Han (I think). They have some kind of diplomatic ties to Sharlyan. Far as we've ever heard or seen, this isn't some virgin culture that we're deciding whether to build a fort on or not; they're just any other city state. And we've long been in the habit of beign involved in leadership choices in other city states. Aymeric, Hien, the Nadaam, Chai-Nuzz. Its never been a colonialism expy before, I don't see why it should be considered such now just cus the aesthetics of the area are South/Central American.

I don't think the problem is as simple as 'the story says there's not colonialism so don't think about it like that'. It's sort of an inevitable specter around a story where the base pitch is 'a bunch of white people (who are generally from a European-analogue location even if geographically it's more Africa) go to the unsettled America-analogue'; even if you're not doing a colonialist story, there's a lot of tropes you could accidentally fall into. Which, in fact, they've already been doing: we've been calling it 'the New World' until now, which is... not great.

Perhaps fortunately, the lore and translation panel from FanFest did make a point of basically saying 'we know we haven't been the best at this in the past, we're making an effort to do better with Dawntrail specifically'.

[Iscah]

While I would like to believe this, I didn't catch it in the presentation, and it would break the team's insistence on demanding NIN be really difficult to gear alongside other jobs. EW got us a second maiming, so maybe?

Are you joking about the "team's insistence" that NIN is hard to gear? Sounds unlikely.

One of the only times the New World was previously in focus was the Blue Mage questline where an Eorzean merchant seeks to bring sacred Whalaqee land under his control because there's oil there, so the colonialist angle is kinda there.

Yes, but he was a villain and we were opposed to it.

At least, I still haven't gotten past Azulmagia and I assume we don't have a change of heart later.

The Whalaqee tribe is also likely to be from the "North America" continent and not in the region we're visiting. (I was going to say "not in Tural" but then we haven't been told how far that label spreads.)

a European-analogue location even if geographically it's more Africa

I really don't think it was ever meant to be Africa, or if anything only the southern desert is a displaced bit of Africa while the rest sailed south as Meracydia. The cultures line up better to Aldenard being Europe and then Ilsabard/Othard both being Asia. Othard mimics the shape of Asia, but Russia is missing, and I bet we'll find Ilsabard has its outline when they finally lift the clouds over it.

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On a tangent... where's the best place to get high resolution files of the various maps?