Winterers (interview spoiler and speculation)

[Raikai]

After reading the first short story, about Otis and Zelenia, it's heavily implied that other nations may have the electrope technology to make a dome.

So maybe the Winterers could really be other escapees from the Ninth. Treno (like suggested on the short story) or another one. Other surviving nations could not be something known by the Alexandrian ruling body, but an Ascian could probably travel between electrope-made domes, engineering their plan.

Perhaps in the process that had Alexandria merging with the Source, another dome also merged somewhere else, maybe in Blindfrost, so to give their peers the Winterer nickname. 7.4 and 7.5 could be likely exploring the discovery of this fact, and 8.0 we head there.

I just hope - if that's the case - this other nation is not cyberpunk super high tech and more built around magic. Treno in FF9 looks very victorian, and that's a cool aesthetic.