Solution 9 - Unfounded Speculation!

[Lady_Silvermoon]

Gunning for the most anticlimactic reason for Solution Nine at the moment. Just what a civilization designs when the aether is overwhelmingly electric. That there’s no Shards involved and it’s a lot younger than anyone, including my previous guess, has suggested. Not even an earlier Astral Era. Everything text or quasi glyph-based is red herrings. Going to set low - and thus reasonable- expectations. Because at this point a nonAscian/Ancient/Shard/Alien connection would be subverted expectations.

I think the most anticlimactic explanation is they are an isolationist society that's been there the whole time. Like they found a way to survive the second umbral calamity and they've just been in hiding. "Yeah, we've just been down in this cave the past 7000 years perfecting our cyberpunk aesthetic. A meteor? Hurled right at your continent? Ya don't say."

[Denishia]

I think the most anticlimactic explanation is they are an isolationist society that's been there the whole time. Like they found a way to survive the second umbral calamity and they've just been in hiding. "Yeah, we've just been down in this cave the past 7000 years perfecting our cyberpunk aesthetic. A meteor? Hurled right at your continent? Ya don't say."

Oh, see even that is way too spectacular for how low I'm resetting my speculations. Solution Nine is, at most, a thousand years old. And probably less two hundred. But younger than Mhach. It's actually not an older civilization at all but a contemporary of all the other Turali nations that came together to form Tuliyollal and the seeming tech difference on the practical international stage didn't translate to imperialistic power over their neighbors. The Cyberpunk is all aesthetic. This sounds ridiculous but it will be justified in the plot. The big level 98/99 twist are something altogether different.

[kaynide]

Oh, see even that is way too spectacular for how low I'm resetting my speculations. Solution Nine is, at most, a thousand years old. And probably less two hundred. But younger than Mhach. It's actually not an older civilization at all but a contemporary of all the other Turali nations that came together to form Tuliyollal and the seeming tech difference on the practical international stage didn't translate to imperialistic power over their neighbors. The Cyberpunk is all aesthetic. This sounds ridiculous but it will be justified in the plot. The big level 98/99 twist are something altogether different.

Ehh, I mean considering real world Earth went from horses drawn wagons to Drone-based Amazon deliveries in less than 200 years, it's not THAT unrealistic to speculate a rapid rise of tech prowess. And since we already had a high-tech society in the Allagans however many years ago, any exposure S9 had to it would only accelerate their progress.

I'm more curious if it's connected to anything else in old lore (like the Green "Ark" near Rhalgar's Reach is connected to Sharlayan). Like, I wonder if S9 is the survivors of Mhachi. And the streets are crawling with undead (but very polite) citizens!?

[Denishia]

See, if Solution Nine is tied to the civilization of Urqopacha, being a heavily and aggressively expansionist empire originating in a Peruvian-looking region, then a lot of undead would be highly appropriate. What with not just the mummies but that dead rulers were still afforded political power and given taxes, so a fantasy version could very well have actual zombies.

I want whatever is going on in Solution Nine to not be connected to anything else - especially not Allagans (or Ascians). But I will grumble a tiny bit less if it's Mhach just because of the post-patch Void Quests teasing but not doing anything substantial with the Void Ark raid. Just enough to remind players of its existence.

If forced, I would rather have rogue Meracydians if there's an outside group (Allagans, Shards, older non-Turali civilization, etc...) involved to lay the natural foundation for going to Meracydia in a later Expac beyond an Estinien-level excuse of checking off the bucket list.