Winterers (interview spoiler and speculation)

[Jeeqbit]

"Be sure our Winterer peers are apprised of the details", Calyx says to an Ascian. Yoshi-P just confirmed it's not the name of the Ascians. He also said you'd be closer to the answer if you literally lookup the definition of "Winterer".

• A "winterer" is someone or something that passes the winter season in a specific place, such as a person or animal that visits or resides in a location during winter.
• Any person or animal (but especially a bird) that visits or resides in a specified location during the winter
• An animal (like cattle) kept on a farm or ranch specifically to be fed and fattened during the winter months.
• A fisherman who lived at a fishing station year-round, rather than just during the fishing season.

So I suppose the most obvious speculation of this is Blindfrost given it's one of the few remaining places that Emet-Selch mentioned:



"Or the treasure islands beyond the frozen waters of Blindfrost, in Othard's north?"

However, Yoshi-P said our focus would be on the 9th now and finding out about the key, so it'll probably end up being another shard altogether that was consumed in ice. In particular, this could be the 8th or the 4th, which seem the only likely candidates:



(I adjusted this a lot since a lot of people on the forums have complained of brightness and this was really bright)

It's been pointed out below that in winter, birds and people often seek warmer climates, thus it could refer to them going south to Meracydia, or alternatively sheltering from the general phase that the shards are going through until their plan is achieved.