Revelations from JP Fan Fest (January 2024)

[Iscah]

I think it's really obvious that it's the secondary city, the Eulmore or Radz-at-Han (which therefore makes Heritage Found the equivalent of Kholusia or Thavnair), and I think people are sending themselves down a very wrong road by thinking it's anything else.

Exactly. Aside of the fact they outright said it would be a hub city, it doesn't take much detective work to conclude that it must be the case.

There's no way they'd be showing us the final zone this early, though – or if they were, I would be very disappointed – so it can't be that much of a secret in the story.

Keep in mind how we all assumed Labyrinthos must be super secret and once we got there everyone was just "oh yeah, we've got this really neat underground storage area" like it was no big deal.

[YianKutku]

East for them would have them land on the New World, unless they encountered another isle along the way. Leads me to believe that Solution 9 has been around for a while, though that doesn't necessarily mean they've been very active.

I am highly skeptical that people with the nautical skill to sail across the equivalent of the Pacific Ocean (and back, to tell the tales) will also mistake the continent of Tural for an "island".

I can imagine a sort of Hawaii-equivalent that the Haragin encountered, of course. Still within the "New World" general geographical category, but also convincingly islands.

[Vyrerus]

I'm wary of accepting those as actual Mamool Ja until we are told so canonically. It may have just been borrowing the models as the closest-looking thing to represent the FF3 creatures.

You're likely right because they used Mamool models again in World of Darkness for the Thor adds in the Scylla clone trash phase.

[Alleo]

I'm really curious as to what the reasons could be for the Scions interfering in the affairs of state of a completely different continent. It would be a bit ironic for them to officially announce their separation so that Eorzea has to take matters into their own hands, while they help with the succession shortly after. It's also interesting why they, of all people, were chosen to do this.

So far, I still find it very hard to believe that this situation could lead to a conflict between the Scions. We've been through so much together...hopefully there are good reasons for it.

[Iscah]

I am highly skeptical that people with the nautical skill to sail across the equivalent of the Pacific Ocean (and back, to tell the tales) will also mistake the continent of Tural for an "island".

I can imagine a sort of Hawaii-equivalent that the Haragin encountered, of course. Still within the "New World" general geographical category, but also convincingly islands.

I've said before (and lose track of where I've brought it up) that I was hoping that if the devs ever went back to the Haragin's "grey monoliths and fire-breathing steel demons" it would be subverted and turn out to be literally what they described.

[MikkoAkure]

I'm wary of accepting those as actual Mamool Ja until we are told so canonically. It may have just been borrowing the models as the closest-looking thing to represent the FF3 creatures.

Interestingly enough, while still being a FFIII enemy, "haokah" comes from Lakotan so there's still possibly a New World connection even though you're probably more right and they weren't thinking about that when they chose models. It leaves the door open but I'd still prefer there to be no Allagan anything in the New World.

I can imagine a sort of Hawaii-equivalent that the Haragin encountered, of course. Still within the "New World" general geographical category, but also convincingly islands.

Isn't this world's Hawai'i equivalent the South Seas Isles? I was always under the impression they were south of the Cieldalaes but the most recent map put them south of Thavnair.

[Iscah]

Isn't this world's Hawai'i equivalent the South Seas Isles? I was always under the impression they were south of the Cieldalaes but the most recent map put them south of Thavnair.

I feel like there has been an eastward drift on multiple loosely-defined southern locations – Meracydia as the "southern continent" sounded like it was south of Eorzea, not far to the east, and I think it was even ambiguous whether the Cieldalaes were the South Sea Isles directly.

[Iscah]

An additional thought on this...

I think it's really obvious that it's the secondary city, the Eulmore or Radz-at-Han (which therefore makes Heritage Found the equivalent of Kholusia or Thavnair), and I think people are sending themselves down a very wrong road by thinking it's anything else.

I think that assumption might be a step too far yet – it could be a zone but it could also be part of the city or even a dungeon, either to be traversed to reach the city or for some additional goal after we arrive there.

We definitely have a dungeon connected to Solution Nine's architecture for at least part of its run, but it could also travel to or from the older ruins for part of it.

[Lyth]

...

We'll know more on Tuesday. My thought is that Gulool Ja Ja may have sent Wuk Lamat to the Students of Baldesion in the hopes of gaining Galuf's wisdom on how to conduct the succession. Given his previous letter, Gulool may be unaware of Galuf's fate.

This may not necessarily be as simple as picking the next leader. If the potential candidates have sufficient power and political influence, it may be an issue of having the transition happen in a way that avoids civil war. A contest to find the Golden City may be a way to settle the matter more amicably, and may have the secondary benefit to Gulool's goals as well, given the earlier letter.

[MikkoAkure]

One thing I hope gets revealed on Tuesday is who all is at war because it’s pretty obvious there’s open conflict going on across both halves of the continent from the art of Urqopacha with scorch marks on a cliff wall to the flaming bits of Solution Nine architecture.

I’m hoping a mention of Solution Nine will come up to shine a little bit more light on it so we won’t be left in the dark until summer but I won’t hold my breath. I’m also wondering how early we’ll go there. SB, ShB, and EW all had their endgame hub accessible in the very beginning of the expansion which is why I’m thinking they revealed it to us this early.