Revelations from JP Fan Fest (January 2024)

[YianKutku]

However, I'll point out that the situation we're looking at is, from all the evidence we have, how Tural selects its leader. If so, we're effectively looking at an entire expansion of the Nadaam. I know people who are already a bit shifty on what we did there since our influence was basically the combat-trial equivalent of election tampering, but us throwing in with a particular side, especially on request, would at least be within their society's accepted boundaries. Deciding to completely overturn the whole process because we've decided that Everyone Is Bad Actually? Yeah, that's probably a bad look.

Personally I saw what happened in the Nadaam in Stormblood as the equivalent of signing on contractors: nobody involved in the Nadaam had any questions or queries about "outsiders" being involved in their leadership ritual. Sadu was far more concerned with whether we were representing the Oronir, and when we said we were representing the Mol, she just laughed it off and considered us irrelevant.

It's similar to Siegfried in the Masked Carnivale: he's not using Blue Magic, and is instead completely decked out in magitek armaments, but it's still not against the rules.

For the succession contest in Tulliyolal, I am certain the Scions will at least look into whether we're allowed to help one faction or another. My hypothetical for "actually all the factions are bad" is based on the usual story concept of aristocratic maneuverings causing nothing but suffering for the common people, rather than going in and declaring the locals cannot rule themselves. I'm thinking along the lines of all the factions going "we've decided to use Primals to fight for us, regardless of tempering risk". I should mention I think the likelihood is very low, but it was entirely speculation on the sort of circumstance that would lead the Scions to truly interfere with the succession contest beyond merely helping the factions.

[YianKutku]

Some reveals and implications from the 6.55 MSQ.

The MSQ pre-empts all our questions about whether the Scions should participate in the succession ritual by explicitly saying outsiders are encouraged to participate. And even then, the WoL and G'raha can express caution at getting involved with politics anyway. The end decision is to go to Tural to see the situation first-hand, and decide from there; I think this is entirely fair and reasonable, even if Doylistically we know we'll be getting involved anyway.

As it turns out, the "client" that Thancred and Urianger were talking about is not Wuk Lamat, and likely not Gulool Ja Ja either. Wuk Lamat specifically wants the WoL, or rather "the strongest champion". So the Archon-seeking client is probably another one of the four claimants to the throne. Wuk Lamat's faction is primarily the WoL (and Erenville), plus Krile and the Leveilleur twins tagging along, the former to find out about the letter to Galuf and the latter to essentially sightsee. This does mean Estinien still doesn't really have a real reason to follow to Tural; I suspect it is surprisingly plausible he's going to turn up there just because he figures he can find work there, completely unrelated to the rest of the succession ritual. I just watched the post-credits scene: Estinien is literally going to Tural because he has nothing better to do.

The Miqo'te in the expansion art is likely Koana, Wuk Lamat's adoptive brother. "Second oldest brother", apparently. He's also likely another of the claimants to the throne. In fact, given we see five "new" characters in the expansion art, those are probably Gulool Ja Ja (obvious big Mamool Ja with two heads) and the four claimants.

Wuk Lamat says there is one particular claimant out of the four who must not succeed the throne. She uses male pronouns for this person, so it could be the Mamool Ja in the front row. Going further into speculation, this is probably the "eldest brother", and may be the "trueborn" son of Gulool Ja Ja. The other option for the "must not succeed the throne" character is Koana, but the way Wuk Lamat and Erenville were talking about him, they don't seem to be angry or sad, so I think it's less likely.

This leaves the woman at the top of the expansion art as the complete unknown. I am speculating she's the fourth claimant to the throne. Possibly Wuk Lamat's adopted little sister?

Completely baseless speculation: the way the woman at the top is posed, and the lack of information we have on her, makes me think she's either the true villain who's manipulating everyone into thinking the other claimant is the expansionist ambitious one, or she's the meek yet wise little sister type who ends up winning the succession as everyone else withdraws peacefully. I have no basis for this other than "vibes" and "it would be the sort of story I expect".

[Alleo]

Officially, they're not going as the Scions. They're going as Sharlayan Archons, plus various hangers-on.

You are right, forgot that part in 6.4. Well I hope that it will make sense that this creates a conflict between the scions themselves. Maybe this "conflict" is also a bit overplayed at the fanfests to create some hype. Like the whole Warrior of Darkness or Ysthola as Matoya stuff in Shadowbringers.

While I'm cautious about taking anything in a trailer that's there for pure flash as actually canon, I do think it's worth noting that we're fighting Galool Ja Ja. And we don't really know much about the Mamool Ja culture, but my general gathering is that while they respect a strong combat record, they might not be the 'trial by combat' sorts. While I feel like we're inevitably gonna fight Galool Ja Ja just by virtue of 'always gonna fight the big guy', it's entirely possible it might not be as a friend.

Could go both ways but for me right now it feels more like a friendly fight. Maybe Galool Ja Ja wanted to see our strenght? The WoL looks to be enjoying the fight.

[Yuella]

We were shown fighting Lyse in Stormblood trailer. It could be just another sparring match.

[Lady_Silvermoon]

Some reveals and implications from the 6.55 MSQ.

I really hope that if we throw our ample strength behind putting a person we've known for five minutes in charge of an entire continent, she immediately turns into Darth Vader and we spend the next five expansions attempting to fix such a stupid decision. I love that they anticipated our moral qualms and assured us it's fine, but didn't consider for one minute how stupid it is.

"But one of her brothers is a warmonger!"

"How do we know?"

"The person who wants us to put her on the throne told us."

We learned NOTHING from the Crystal Braves.

[Lium]

I really hope that if we throw our ample strength behind putting a person we've known for five minutes in charge of an entire continent, she immediately turns into Darth Vader and we spend the next five expansions attempting to fix such a stupid decision. I love that they anticipated our moral qualms and assured us it's fine, but didn't consider for one minute how stupid it is.

"But one of her brothers is a warmonger!"

"How do we know?"

"The person who wants us to put her on the throne told us."

We learned NOTHING from the Crystal Braves.

I sort of think that's why Wuk Lamat is there. Through her, we'll get to know the rest. But it will be up to the writing to make sure the WoL has learned from past mistakes.

I'm also wondering why we are adventuring yet again with the Scions. Did SE ever explain why? Pretty sure they said EW was going to be it for the Scions for a while and that we'd have new companions.

Hard to see how that happens when it appears the entire expansion is setting up a Scion vs. Scion showdown in whatever this contest is.

[Vallavia]

The Scions were formally disbanded so as to avoid being called upon in perpetuity by every world power to attend their myriad woes. Alphinaud even says that their operations will return to being largely conducted in secret, as they were in A Realm Reborn and previously with the Path of the Twelve, mirroring the initial move to Mor Dhona to remove themselves from spheres of political influence.

I never took this to mean that these characters were just going to evaporate from each other's lives indefinitely, just that they were going to operate independently of each other more. All the former Scions that we're regularly in contact with are close personal friends, and they come and go from their own tasks with regularity (Y'shtola and Estinien in the void camp while G'raha and Krile were investigating the Twelve, for instance). I understand that this is unfortunate news for those who loathe the Scions, but I think it's been made pretty clear from the outset that the principal cast is always going to be involved in some way.

[EdwinLi]

I sort of think that's why Wuk Lamat is there. Through her, we'll get to know the rest. But it will be up to the writing to make sure the WoL has learned from past mistakes.

I'm also wondering why we are adventuring yet again with the Scions. Did SE ever explain why? Pretty sure they said EW was going to be it for the Scions for a while and that we'd have new companions.

Hard to see how that happens when it appears the entire expansion is setting up a Scion vs. Scion showdown in whatever this contest is.

The events of the story already explain why during this MSQ.

They are not going as Scions this time but as representatives of Sharlayan or just themselves for different reasons since the Scions have been "officially" disbanded to the public knowledge.

Thancred and Urianger are invited to be representatives for Sharlayan supporting one of the candidates as a means to help improve relationship between Sharlayan and Tural along with showing both nations are willing to work together.

Alphinaud and Alisaie are there since they decided they will take their Vacation time going on another adventure with WoL.

Krile is joining us because she wants to find out what became of her Grandfather.

Estinien is there because he is just traveling there to sightsee.

We do not know why Y'shtola will join us later but it is most likely involving her investigation into shard traveling.

G'raha reasons are unknown now but we should get his reason during the expansion storyline.

[Iscah]

I'm also wondering why we are adventuring yet again with the Scions. Did SE ever explain why? Pretty sure they said EW was going to be it for the Scions for a while and that we'd have new companions.

I have no recollection of the devs ever making such a statement.

Players (not all but some) were determined to spin "the Scions are formally disbanding" and "we're going on a new adventure" to add up to "we're going on an adventure without the Scions" but that was never stated.

The Scions do go off to pursue their own individual activities at the end of 6.0, but your conversation with Tataru at the start of 6.1 makes it clear that some time has passed since then. They're still your close friends and the people you're going to call on when you need someone with their particular skills.

[Lium]

I have no recollection of the devs ever making such a statement.

Players (not all but some) were determined to spin "the Scions are formally disbanding" and "we're going on a new adventure" to add up to "we're going on an adventure without the Scions" but that was never stated.

The Scions do go off to pursue their own individual activities at the end of 6.0, but your conversation with Tataru at the start of 6.1 makes it clear that some time has passed since then. They're still your close friends and the people you're going to call on when you need someone with their particular skills.

Didn't Yoshida make several comments last year about how we were going to distance ourselves from the Scions over the course of 6.X and leading to 7.0 and introduce new companions while the Scions would take background roles? I know I'm not imagining that.

It's why when the first trailer for DT dropped there was a lot of disappointment both on here and on social media about seeing the Scions again. To be clear, I'm not angry, just confused. I'm not one of those people that hates the Scions. I've always liked them. I just thought they were fading into the background for a bit. But we'll see.