Solution 9 - Unfounded Speculation!

[Yuella]

Ok, I'm replaying Stormblood with an alt and I'm 99% sure House of the Crooked Coin was built by the same civilization that built Solution 9. Same color, similar pattern. I think the one in Azim Steppe was destroyed by one of the calamities while the one in Tural survived because most calamities are centered around Eorzea. Since the legend of Azim is popular with the Xaela, I'm also 99% sure that Azem had something to do with Solution 9.

[Vallavia]

Ok, I'm replaying Stormblood with an alt and I'm 99% sure House of the Crooked Coin was built by the same civilization that built Solution 9. Same color, similar pattern. I think the one in Azim Steppe was destroyed by one of the calamities while the one in Tural survived because most calamities are centered around Eorzea. Since the legend of Azim is popular with the Xaela, I'm also 99% sure that Azem had something to do with Solution 9.

I noticed the similarities in my recent replay too, and I think the Xaela or whatever civilization predated them in that region definitely have a strong connection to Azem solely based on this dialogue from the Mol khatun:

You, wait. I would have words.
A singular radiance. Shimmering.
Like a jewel of the Dusk Mother, blinding in its brilliance.
Stars flicker and flock to you. Before such gathered light, even the secrets of the gods may be laid bare.
Some are fated to rise in grace and glory. Others to falter and fade, though not from memory. Both will be your strength and salvation come the end.
Cherish the stars and the light they bring you in the dark.
For you are a traveler, are you not?

As far as I can tell, this is the first allusion to Azem in the MSQ. She also has this to say later:

The path laid by the gods is at an end, but there is another yet to be walked. By light radiant, born of a traveler's bonds. Seek and you will find. Go in hope and in grace.

[kaynide]

I noticed the similarities in my recent replay too, and I think the Xaela or whatever civilization predated them in that region definitely have a strong connection to Azem solely based on this dialogue from the Mol khatun:

As far as I can tell, this is the first allusion to Azem in the MSQ. She also has this to say later:

I had thought of this too; just to add (complete speculation):

(Some of) The Steppe people believe that their souls reincarnate, unless they go to the House of the Crooked Coin which takes their souls. From what we have seen in S9, they have some kind of "Soul Supply", which implies souls are...transferable? Able to be stored? Whatever the case, we already know this from our ability to transfer souls from the First back to the Source.

Azem (and/or Azeyma), the "Sun God", has places of worship just like the other gods (Azim Steppe, Qarn). City-states also tend to be related to a particular god (Gridania being Nophica, Ul'dah being Nald'thal, Halone Ishgard, llymlaen Limsa, Thaliak Sharlayan, Nym for Nymeia and Rhalgar for Ala Mhigo).

Based on typical Mesoamerican motifs and nomenclature from FFXIV, I -guess- that either Tuliyollal itself or the City of Gold is Azeyma's city. We have subtle connections I feel: "Dawn Father"; Sun and Gold being symbolically connected (Major symbolism in Mesoamerica, but also the alchemical symbol for "Gold" is the same Sun...the same symbol on our Azem crystal).

Now, all that said, I think if S9 were to be a "God's" city, it'd be Byregot, but the connection to Crooked Coin is intriguing and for it to be in Tural around/near the Gold city lends to lots of speculation. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Tuliyollal itself IS the city of gold (or built on top of it).

Of note, the other gods without cities to date are Althyk, Menphina and Oschon.
Also of note, the ancient cities (Amdapoor, Mhach, Gelmorra) that we know of largely evolved into other modern ones. We're not sure if they worshiped any one particular god over another.

[Vallavia]

I had thought of this too; just to add (complete speculation):

(Some of) The Steppe people believe that their souls reincarnate, unless they go to the House of the Crooked Coin which takes their souls. From what we have seen in S9, they have some kind of "Soul Supply", which implies souls are...transferable? Able to be stored? Whatever the case, we already know this from our ability to transfer souls from the First back to the Source.

Azem (and/or Azeyma), the "Sun God", has places of worship just like the other gods (Azim Steppe, Qarn). City-states also tend to be related to a particular god (Gridania being Nophica, Ul'dah being Nald'thal, Halone Ishgard, llymlaen Limsa, Thaliak Sharlayan, Nym for Nymeia and Rhalgar for Ala Mhigo).

Based on typical Mesoamerican motifs and nomenclature from FFXIV, I -guess- that either Tuliyollal itself or the City of Gold is Azeyma's city. We have subtle connections I feel: "Dawn Father"; Sun and Gold being symbolically connected (Major symbolism in Mesoamerica, but also the alchemical symbol for "Gold" is the same Sun...the same symbol on our Azem crystal).

Now, all that said, I think if S9 were to be a "God's" city, it'd be Byregot, but the connection to Crooked Coin is intriguing and for it to be in Tural around/near the Gold city lends to lots of speculation. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Tuliyollal itself IS the city of gold (or built on top of it).

Of note, the other gods without cities to date are Althyk, Menphina and Oschon.
Also of note, the ancient cities (Amdapoor, Mhach, Gelmorra) that we know of largely evolved into other modern ones. We're not sure if they worshiped any one particular god over another.

I do think you're on to something, but I just wanted to point out for additional context that Belah'dia (and/or whatever ancient civilization previously built the temple at Qarn) held Azeyma as its patron (and Nym had Oschon, but that's less important). All of the cities with specific divine patrons are also exclusively in Eorzea and all worship the Twelve, so I doubt that a city in Tural would be dedicated to Azeyma specifically but rather the broader syncretic concept that spawned her and Azim, namely Azem themself (probably by a different name). We already know Azeyma's connection to Azem (anticlimactic and utterly uninteresting as it is), but we have yet to see what Azim's is, and like you said I think all of the sun imagery shown in promotional materials and in-game text combined with the matching House of the Crooked Coin design clear on the opposite end of the world is almost certainly a meaningful connection. Or they're just throwing out red herrings to generate community buzz, they've already done it once promoting this expansion...

[Eloah]

Azem (and/or Azeyma), the "Sun God", has places of worship just like the other gods (Azim Steppe, Qarn). City-states also tend to be related to a particular god (Gridania being Nophica, Ul'dah being Nald'thal, Halone Ishgard, llymlaen Limsa, Thaliak Sharlayan, Nym for Nymeia and Rhalgar for Ala Mhigo).

Slight correction. Oschon is actually the patron deity of Nym. That's why the dungeon is called "The Wanderer's" Palace, as it's a place of worship for him. As far as we know, Nymeia hasn't had a city devoted to her.

[Cleretic]

Ok, I'm replaying Stormblood with an alt and I'm 99% sure House of the Crooked Coin was built by the same civilization that built Solution 9. Same color, similar pattern. I think the one in Azim Steppe was destroyed by one of the calamities while the one in Tural survived because most calamities are centered around Eorzea. Since the legend of Azim is popular with the Xaela, I'm also 99% sure that Azem had something to do with Solution 9.

I hate to burst this bubble, but Y'shtola directly said the House of the Crooked Coin was an Allagan thing used as part of the mechanism to launch Azys Lla. I think the only thing we're distracted by is the fact that it's purple, and Allagan stuff isn't normally purple--although I'd argue that Allag's general blue crystals and red tech aesthetics make the purple contraption in the Crooked Coin a decent midpoint. I actually don't think Solution Nine has any resemblance to the Crooked Coin at all outside of color scheme; the big difference to me is that the ornamentation is totally different.

This just seems like another instance of drawing architectural connections that aren't actually real, despite counter-evidence. Like when people thought the towers in the end of Shadowbringers where a Mhachi thing, despite people in-game saying they were Imperial and them not actually resembling Mhach's stuff all that much. Or also in the Endwalker leadup, when people were convinced Sharlayan was deeply connected to Amaurot, mainly because they couldn't tell the difference between Greco-Roman and Art Deco as styles. (That somehow came back when we saw the Aetherfont for the first time, which genuinely surprised me.)

I think as a playerbase, we're just not very good at architecture.

[SannaR]

I do think you're on to something, but I just wanted to point out for additional context that Belah'dia (and/or whatever ancient civilization previously built the temple at Qarn) held Azeyma as its patron (and Nym had Oschon, but that's less important). All of the cities with specific divine patrons are also exclusively in Eorzea and all worship the Twelve, so I doubt that a city in Tural would be dedicated to Azeyma specifically but rather the broader syncretic concept that spawned her and Azim, namely Azem themself (probably by a different name). We already know Azeyma's connection to Azem (anticlimactic and utterly uninteresting as it is), but we have yet to see what Azim's is, and like you said I think all of the sun imagery shown in promotional materials and in-game text combined with the matching House of the Crooked Coin design clear on the opposite end of the world is almost certainly a meaningful connection. Or they're just throwing out red herrings to generate community buzz, they've already done it once promoting this expansion...

There is some Azymea worship outside of Eorzea. Or at least was. The church like structure in Azys La is from Meracydia and has Azymea symbols on it.

[SannaR]

The Amaurot connection was more so based on the nautilus spiral that Sharlyean has a lot as their motif and the occasional nautilus spiral that you'd see on the floor in Amaurot and I want to say one of the Anyders and not that there was confusion between art deco and Greco-Roman. Then there is also Elpis that has more of a closer Greco-Roman look than art deco and the Omphalos that also is Greco-Roman. The Machi aspect was more so due to them having a more organic, biological look that had a lot of black n purple. Where most Garlean stuff has none of those hallmarks. Garlean has mostly well the Ivory Standard as it's building colors that have a huge nod of brutalist architecture style with small hints of a very sentimental Amaurotine's touches.

[Cleretic]

The Machi aspect was more so due to them having a more organic, biological look that had a lot of black n purple. Where most Garlean stuff has none of those hallmarks. Garlean has mostly well the Ivory Standard as it's building colors that have a huge nod of brutalist architecture style with small hints of a very sentimental Amaurotine's touches.

While I admit this is largley helped out by hindsight--we now know exactly what the towers are, rather than just seeing them--I think their design makes sense as sort of a nightmarish parody of Garlean technology and buildings. There's the shared bio-organic nature, but especially from the outside, you can see them as sort of a twisted mockery of a Garlean alarm tower, built out of flesh and bone instead of metal and mortar. At the time that angle wasn't completely clear, but I do remember specifically running the Weeping City to get some comparative looks at their building style, and seeing that they had fundamentally different construction even if they shared some traits. Again, hindsight gives me the perspective to say that it feels like Mhach was built like that while the towers look like they grew like that.

[Vallavia]

I hate to burst this bubble, but Y'shtola directly said the House of the Crooked Coin was an Allagan thing used as part of the mechanism to launch Azys Lla. I think the only thing we're distracted by is the fact that it's purple, and Allagan stuff isn't normally purple--although I'd argue that Allag's general blue crystals and red tech aesthetics make the purple contraption in the Crooked Coin a decent midpoint. I actually don't think Solution Nine has any resemblance to the Crooked Coin at all outside of color scheme; the big difference to me is that the ornamentation is totally different.

I don't agree that Y'shtola's opinion alone and its use by the Allagans rules out the connection entirely, as predictable as it would be it's entirely possible that there's some overlap between the Allagans and the mystery Solution Nine people. Agree to disagree on the resemblance, I don't even detect anything remotely Allagan or Solutionny about it solely via design (having just looked at it again more closely five minutes ago), which to me suggests that it's something that predates both the Allagans and the current civilization in Solution Nine in the present day.

This just seems like another instance of drawing architectural connections that aren't actually real, despite counter-evidence. Like when people thought the towers in the end of Shadowbringers where a Mhachi thing, despite people in-game saying they were Imperial and them not actually resembling Mhach's stuff all that much. Or also in the Endwalker leadup, when people were convinced Sharlayan was deeply connected to Amaurot, mainly because they couldn't tell the difference between Greco-Roman and Art Deco as styles. (That somehow came back when we saw the Aetherfont for the first time, which genuinely surprised me.)

To be fair, Sharlayan does have a pretty significant connection to the Ancients, namely Hydaelyn herself, and like Sanna said the Greek influences are overflowing in Elpis and Pandaemonium. The facade of the Baldesion Arsenal does bear a certain resemblance to some Amaurotine buildings, namely in the isolated decorative spiral on the top (you can see it most clearly if you compare to the Watcher's Palace on the moon), and I don't think fixating on the finer details of Deco design diminishes that. I still maintain that Sharlayan's connection to the Ancients goes even deeper, with the very conspicuous group shots of the Forum all clad in matching robes and veils mirroring scenes of gathered Ancients in flashbacks, but that's another thread.