Solution 9 - Unfounded Speculation!

[Cleretic]

This sounds so demeaning, why you say it like that? No, it's drawing a connection to something that's known, also we have never seen an Ascian that moved on from being an Ascian and not turn into something even worse. Would be nice to see just a normal Ascian having moved on and working as a florist or something.

I also think it's a massive reach obviously, everybody who looks at it can see it, but I don't think people have issues desperately clinging to Ascian relevance.

See, the thing that bugs me is that the immense wishful reach is stifling more interesting--and perhaps more plausible--explanations. ANd yet, I might get a bit mad in expressing that, but who doesn't?

Because I actually think the more plausible idea for this one isn't Altima: It's something like Atlas from the FFXIII games.



Yeah, it's not quite an exact, but that sign reads to me like a tribal painting of Atlas with some perspective-distortion more than it does Altima's sigil. But I doubt we'll get to entertain that theory or anything like it very much when the alternative is 'Maybe It's Ascians Again'.

[SannaR]

See, the thing that bugs me is that the immense wishful reach is stifling more interesting--and perhaps more plausible--explanations. ANd yet, I might get a bit mad in expressing that, but who doesn't?

Because I actually think the more plausible idea for this one isn't Altima: It's something like Atlas from the FFXIII games.



Yeah, it's not quite an exact, but that sign reads to me like a tribal painting of Atlas with some perspective-distortion more than it does Altima's sigil. But I doubt we'll get to entertain that theory or anything like it very much when the alternative is 'Maybe It's Ascians Again'.

I would have gone with the Prototype Fal'Cie Adam since it's the semi optional boss in the future tech city. Not that I would want a stuck in a time loop boss fight.

There is so much to draw and compare to things we have seen when it comes to speculating about who or what made Solution Nine. Or how it came about. You have the Machi/Levin purple, the select few hexagonal and triangular doors seen in the dungeon that's probably connected to it giving off Allag vibes. The Tron and Cyberpunk feels. Though I tend to go with Chronopolis from Chrono Cross myself. Not quite the sanitized white futuristic look as cities akin to Neo Midgard, or Arkives from Star Ocean: Til the End of Time. The crate stacks do look the same shape as crates found in Azys Lla that the Garleans use, but with purple lines on the side.

I know many are tired of Ancients stuff but it would be interesting if this was as some have said the Nineth Solution our past self tried in protecting people from the Final Days or the sundering. It could also be parts of Ancient civilization built on by those who used it as shelter. Or something made by those those who found a way to shard hop from the 2nd Calamity which would be denizens of the 12th reflection. I do ascribe to the theory that we are probably dealing with some form of Ethar/Wakanda situation as the city is too high tech to not have been hidden. With Heritage Found being the public facade.

I just hope we aren't dealing with a Midgard/ Atlas from RWBY type situation where those above the lightning and or purple dome thing are the only ones that matter vs the ones below are treated as disposable.

[Lyth]

Anything is possible at this point, since we have next to no information available. I made a postulate about the metropolis 'across the pond' about a year ago, although my original guess was that there would be an Esthar-like city in Meracydia. I am happy that they brought in a more futuristic aesthetic just to change things up. But it's hard to be definitive about S9's origin.

The most useful visual cue in identifying Ancient structures is the scale. Everything from the doors, to the counters, to the aetheryte in Amaurot are significantly bigger than our character models. Elpis is done to normal scale only because we start out miniaturized in Propylaion before being enlarged to fit the scale of the zone. There is also some homogeneity between the architectural motifs in the two places, as well as the use of stone/marble and earth tones. The primary focus of their designs seems to be on utility and functionality over flash and spectacle. The electronic billboards and neon lighting in S9 carries a more aggressively commercialized feel that we haven't seen before.

Outside of the name itself, FFIX is probably not the first game I would have thought of as source material. I can't help but wonder if this is simply a similar trick to Krile's clover, since we've fallen into the predictive habit of 'what story are they going to remake next?'

[DaemonInazuma]

Some notes I've made on just the layout of the New World:

1) Xak Tural is pretty much completely surround on all sides by mountains or rough seas and beaches. If we are sailing from Sharlayan, we had to sail south into the Indigo deep and west into the Stardust Sea. Basically, S9 is like Esthar from 8, Zankarand from 10, etc.

2) The bridge across the giant scar from Yok Tural to Xak Tural is the only way into and out of the northern continent of Xak Tural from the west. The only known records of contact from the other entry point is Hingashi sailors from the east from the EE books. This bridge is very advanced compared to the architecture of Tuliyollal so I would assume it was built by the inhabitants of S9.

3) There are two distinct people groups in the trailer. The colorful poncho dressed Tuliyollal inhabitants and the overall wearing worker uniform people. The uniform workers are almost certainly labor for the Ceruleum mining in the Shaaloani region. The question is are these workers citizens of S9 or labor outsourced from Yok Tural?

4) All forms of advanced tech exist in Xak Tural. They have trains transporting Ceruleum from the Shaaloani region into the base of S9 at Heritage Found. They do not share their tech from the images and videos we have seen of Yok Tural.

5) The floral and fauna of Yok Tural compared to Xak Tural is night and day to each other. Yok Tural is relatively untouched wilderness whereas the landscape of Xak Tural is barren Arizona desert. The question is how long has S9 been there and maintaining their consumption of the resources of the land? or has the land been like this since the beginning?

6) S9 has a dome or shield over it with gatehouses at Heritage found. This has probably led to the Cities of Gold/El Dorado myth. If no one can get in and it looks so advanced from the outside, they are obviously hiding knowledge and riches beyond measure to the common folk. Very Eulmore of them.

I'll make more notes as I observe the info more closely, but I'm certain the Ancients/Ascians are involved in this civilization. I definitely think we are moving away from the Ancient's story because of Endwalker, but they are intrinsically apart of the world of FFXIV.

It's not to say they are the main reason that S9 exists but they played a part in getting them to the point they are at technologically (Emet telling them how to use Ceruleum).

The one question I keep asking myself still is we know where the ruins of Amaurot are on the First but we have yet to see them on the Source. If the majority of the cities' ruins were located in Xak Tural, it would give a good explanation as to the advancement of their civilization especially with help from the Ascians.

[diamondedge83]

Honestly, you could make an argument for the glyph resembling anything with horns/legs.

Here, I'll put forth a totally new original theory that no one here has come up with yet. S9 is actually teeming with bedbugs. The glyph represents an upside-down bedbug feeding on someone's hairy skin, and it is projected onto bedbug-infested buildings so that the residents know to stay away.

Looks more like a Red Herring to me. Seriously though, it could just be an Ad for some kind of store or battle arena. It could be a sign that just means "Don't Enter/Danger."

[Mayhemmer]

Unfounded speculation? I can do that. I had the inkling when they first showed off some of the dungeon design concepts that the Ronkans might be involved in some way, and that feeling is still only getting stronger. I have nothing to base this on aside from "well, this kind of looks like that..." observations and comparisons, and some comparisons to FFV, but I'm willing to see how far it'll get me in the story and how wrong I end up being. That's the fun part.

As for Solution 9; I wonder if we'll see actual people there. From some of the concept art, they're leaning heavily into the whole 'inside of a computer' look, and I feel like there's more to that than just futuristic aesthetic. If we're leaning into FFIX comparisons, maybe whoever "lives" there either all uploaded themselves into some digital state, or are some form of autonomous workforce. Maybe we'll fight the Eliminator there, as some robotic security force mean to eliminate threats. Maybe the Arcadion is some sort of literal digital playground for it's inhabitants and we'll have to fight all forms of freakish virtual reality nightmares they conjure up.

Anyway, I honestly thought they would have waited until a Meracydia expansion to do anything FFIX-related, what with it's 'World Tree' and being an analogue to Australia being good comparisons to the Lifa Tree and the Outer Continent.

[diamondedge83]

Anyway, I honestly thought they would have waited until a Meracydia expansion to do anything FFIX-related, what with it's 'World Tree' and being an analogue to Australia being good comparisons to the Lifa Tree and the Outer Continent.

Well, to be fair they're always sprinkling a little bit of any FF references whenever it strikes their fancy, but generally it has felt as though major story beats have taken inspiration from the games in order. It's not perfect, in fact it didn't start out strong at all; how many FFI references are in Heavensward? Matoya? and Azys la is more an FFVI than FFI reference. Stormblood is only vaguely FFII. It's really mostly Shadowbringers with major FFIII and Endwalker with FFIV references. I prefer them throwing in whatever fits, and both FFV and FFIX deal with two worlds joining together (in very different ways). For all we know though, Solution Nine could be more of a Midgar+slums/Cocoon+Gran Pulse type thing. I really liked how 6.x merged FFIII with FFIV.

[DPZ2]

I don't know about you, but the view with the train looks waaaay to close to the view from the slums of Sector 7 in yet another FF game ...