Solution 9 - Unfounded Speculation!

[Cilia]

Plot twist: It's a remnant of the destroyed 9th Reflection, which was Lightning-tipped and found some way to transpose a city of theirs onto the Source before the big kerblammo. They have better tech because the Ascians were pretty hands-off until it was time to cause chaos, and with an abundance of Lightning spurring technological development they were able to get to modern (or near-future) tech.

Since then they've been isolationist to prevent the people of the Source from getting their hands on their sweet sweet tech, like Esthar in VIII.

[diamondedge83]

Plot twist: It's a remnant of the destroyed 9th Reflection, which was Lightning-tipped and found some way to transpose a city of theirs onto the Source before the big kerblammo. They have better tech because the Ascians were pretty hands-off until it was time to cause chaos, and with an abundance of Lightning spurring technological development they were able to get to modern (or near-future) tech.

Can't be the ninth, it's still intact. The Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Tenth and Twelfth are the shards that have been restored through the calamities. The Twelfth shard was the one rejoined through a lightning aspected aether calamity.

[Cassar]

Would be cool if "Solution 9" means it's the 9th solution they thought of. Maybe Solution 9 was the one that involved transporting your whole city into a different shard (which happened to land on the source), but it also meant leaving the rest of your world behind. Could've been their last resort, after all the other solutions failed. They could've come from any shard, not necessarily shard 9. Maybe even from the most ancient shard (the first that was rejoined, whichever that one was) which would explain why their alphabet is so close to the ancient's and also would explain the high tech: they've lived for longer than any other civilization in the Source.

Honestly as cool as this theory sounds, it almost sounds too... obvious? simple? I don't know, I'm not fully buying it but as of right now that's the most interesting thing that I can think of. I'm ready to be surprised though!

[Lady_Silvermoon]

Would be cool if "Solution 9" means it's the 9th solution they thought of. Maybe Solution 9 was the one that involved transporting your whole city into a different shard (which happened to land on the source), but it also meant leaving the rest of your world behind. Could've been their last resort, after all the other solutions failed. They could've come from any shard, not necessarily shard 9. Maybe even from the most ancient shard (the first that was rejoined, whichever that one was) which would explain why their alphabet is so close to the ancient's and also would explain the high tech: they've lived for longer than any other civilization in the Source.

Honestly as cool as this theory sounds, it almost sounds too... obvious? simple? I don't know, I'm not fully buying it but as of right now that's the most interesting thing that I can think of. I'm ready to be surprised though!

I have a similar theory that Solution 9 is a 9th solution, though I was thinking to the Final Days. A lot of people think they are from the 12th which was the Lightning Calamity, which would explain why their tech seems to run off it. That was the second calamity.

[diamondedge83]

Would be cool if "Solution 9" means it's the 9th solution they thought of. Maybe Solution 9 was the one that involved transporting your whole city into a different shard (which happened to land on the source), but it also meant leaving the rest of your world behind. Could've been their last resort, after all the other solutions failed. They could've come from any shard, not necessarily shard 9. Maybe even from the most ancient shard (the first that was rejoined, whichever that one was) which would explain why their alphabet is so close to the ancient's and also would explain the high tech: they've lived for longer than any other civilization in the Source.

Honestly as cool as this theory sounds, it almost sounds too... obvious? simple? I don't know, I'm not fully buying it but as of right now that's the most interesting thing that I can think of. I'm ready to be surprised though!

It does seem a little too 'on the nose', but I don't think that means it should be discounted. Even the obvious can be good when done right, especially when everyone overlooks it for being too obvious.