Thread: 8.0 and World

The first saga had the Ascians, Hydaelyn and Zodirak as an overarching plot element, so I wonder what the overarching plot element for the new saga will be. I think 7.3-7.55 would be a good place to establish it.
All I can think of so far is that we check out the remaining shards to make sure that nothing is wrong.

Originally Posted by Thighland

The first saga had the Ascians, Hydaelyn and Zodirak as an overarching plot element, so I wonder what the overarching plot element for the new saga will be. I think 7.3-7.55 would be a good place to establish it.
All I can think of so far is that we check out the remaining shards to make sure that nothing is wrong.

My theory is that Recollection or whatever they are called are going to have a multi shard presence - Calyx is just one of their minor minions who's gone a bit off plan in the source. We won't kill him in the next patch, the solution 9 guys look tempered in the trailer and the description of the trial on the site leads me to believe Calyx uses them to summon a primal. Most likely it being Necron who appears to remove their fear of death by making them not exist to begin with. All fits in with the ff9 narrative that way too.

Then I think there will be a multi shard war, expansion could be set over multiple shards fighting recollection and Calyx will be the boss at the end of 8.0

Originally Posted by TheRealQuah

My theory is that Recollection or whatever they are called are going to have a multi shard presence

Preservation; Recollection is Robo-Beatrix's trial. And I don't think it really makes sense for them to be a multi-shard organization; not only is their ideal not really something that makes sense outside of the Ninth, they also haven't had access to multiversal travel of any kind for some amount of centuries (I don't believe we have a timeframe on their scale for when Robor and Alayla took the key).

But also, this just makes them exactly the Ascians with a different hat, and that's a lot less interesting. I don't think they're gonna be done next patch, but they're gonna be built differently than that. I suspect it's gonna be more along the lines of them already being revved up really well to do multi-shard shenanigans, and have just been kept at bay by their inability to do it themselves.

Originally Posted by DreadCrow

Like, merging with Albert was an exception, because at that moment, we would have died and since Albert was somewhere between life and death as it was, he made a heroic sacrifice.

Also, Shadowbringers was a story all about coming to terms with death, and Ardbert's journey was him coming to terms with his own; he died a meaningless death preventing an apocalypse that didn't actually stop, and only finally passed on once he'd finally figured out what he actually did die for: a chance for someone else to finish the job he started.

It's a great moment for a character I otherwise feel lukewarm on, and it wouldn't make any sense to enforce it on others who don't have the same journey. Especially if we're killing them ourselves for power; that isn't a heroic sacrifice or coming to terms with a death that's already happened, that's just cold-blooded selfish murder.

But like why? How does rejoining with individuals who share soul shards with Azem make us a better Warrior of Light other than just raw power? We are the Warrior of light, not the Warrior of power. The previous arc had us become hope against despair, light against darkness. I think the next story arc will require us to be the light against a different kind of darkness. And I think what will be interesting is that we will have to find what it means to be the Warrior of Light ourselves as we no longer to have Hydaelyn to guide us.

I'm biased towards the Black Shroud and don't think it gets enough attention in the MSQ, so I think it'd be neat if underneath the Shroud, as an extension of Gelmorra, there is a whole country-sized subterranean biome similar to D&D's Underdark. It could also give some focus on Duskwight which are rarely referenced in the game.

Could also be connected to the abyss seen across the lands. In the Lancer quests, the npc Foulques falls into the North Shroud's abyss, and can be later seen as a random undead encounter in the Palace of the Dead.

Originally Posted by Tahli

I'm biased towards the Black Shroud and don't think it gets enough attention in the MSQ, so I think it'd be neat if underneath the Shroud, as an extension of Gelmorra, there is a whole country-sized subterranean biome similar to D&D's Underdark. It could also give some focus on Duskwight which are rarely referenced in the game.

Could also be connected to the abyss seen across the lands. In the Lancer quests, the npc Foulques falls into the North Shroud's abyss, and can be later seen as a random undead encounter in the Palace of the Dead.

I agree that the Black Shroud has been getting way too little attention, and that the devs could easily make an expansion out if it if they really wanted to.
Reconnecting with Eorzea should be on the agenda someday anyway imo.

Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

I don't know. I feel the only shards that should possibly be rejoined are the First and the Thirteenth since it would actually benefit them in terms of how it could balance the light (1st) and the dark (13th).

6.X has the beginnings of how to resolve that issue without requiring a rejoining.

Originally Posted by Tahli

I'm biased towards the Black Shroud and don't think it gets enough attention in the MSQ, so I think it'd be neat if underneath the Shroud, as an extension of Gelmorra, there is a whole country-sized subterranean biome similar to D&D's Underdark. It could also give some focus on Duskwight which are rarely referenced in the game.

Could also be connected to the abyss seen across the lands. In the Lancer quests, the npc Foulques falls into the North Shroud's abyss, and can be later seen as a random undead encounter in the Palace of the Dead.

I'd enjoy an expansion about going back to look deeper at a part of the world we've already been, and if we're ever doing that, 'the underside of the Shroud' is maybe the very first place we should go. But I think it'd require a fundamentally entirely different approach to how FFXIV currently does expansions; I don't think that quite makes sense in the current form of expansions we have.

Like, to just start with a dumb thought exercise that my Discord server stumbled into at one point: I think that a well-rounded FFXIV expansion should have all five Magic the Gathering land types in their zone lineup. There should be a Plains, Mountain, Island, Swamp and Forest somewhere in there as a primary defining element of a zone, just to ensure that you have a lot of aesthetic diversity. My concern with something like a 'Gelmorra Expansion' is that you're not gonna be able to hit all of those, and the expansion suffers because of it.

Originally Posted by Cleretic

There should be a Plains, Mountain, Island, Swamp and Forest somewhere in there as a primary defining element of a zone, just to ensure that you have a lot of aesthetic diversity. My concern with something like a 'Gelmorra Expansion' is that you're not gonna be able to hit all of those, and the expansion suffers because of it.

Sounds like the Island Sanctuary resource gathering destinations list (the surprise sixth addition being a cave).

But more importantly I don't think the other poster is asking for an entire expansion as the "Gelmorra expansion" – it wouldn't need to be that any more than Endwalker was the "Thavnair expansion".

(Now that I mention that... endgame hub Gelmorra please and thankyou.)

I think a zone-and-city Gelmorra would be great. Enough to make the devs actually tell us stuff about Duskwight culture for starters.