Winterers (interview spoiler and speculation)

[lievaordiea]

also it really speaks to the banality of this game's writing that they are literally just following a checklist of locations. like damn.

when emet gives you a list you follow it :P

[Diclonius]

Perhaps we're not thinking outside of the box enough? Maybe the term "Winterer" refers to their goals, and not the people or location. If they're meant to be the next villains and behind some kind of legitimate threat, their long term goal could be something drastic, like trying to put the whole world into some kind of hibernation/stasis for some reason. That's not too far removed from what the Endless already were, and would explain why Calyx is reporting to them.

[mallleable]

I don't think the 'Winterers' are dealing with a literal winter, but more so a metaphorical one. What their 'winter' could be is a mystery that I don't think we have enough information on.

[Divinemights]

Winterers could be a hidden 3rd faction of Ancients dissidents like Azem, who chose to “winter through” the age of Hydaelyn and Zodiark, and may now be seeking Azem’s scattered legacy (7.3 story)

[Milea]

My guess is it actually has nothing to do with winter as that would be too on the nose.

Rather it is the meaning of riding out a period of hostile environment or storm somewhere else. The idea of wintering is to go to a place that is warmer cause you don't like the cold bitter winter.
So it doesn't have to be the cold bitter winter, it could any such season that is unappealing or hostile in this context.
Birds fly to warmer places in the winter.

So it could be people from the 9th who went to other shards to escape the lightning flood while they came up with a solution.
Or it could be the other Ascians or Ascian adjacents who didn't like the idea of a rejoining but couldn't stop Emet and co and were hiding from them.

[Ryvick]

Winterers or Snowbirds in the US tend to travel south in the winter to warmer climes. I wouldn't assume its a cold locale.

Perhaps a Rogue Garlean contingent that never went home?

[Jeeqbit]

Winterers or Snowbirds in the US tend to travel south in the winter to warmer climes. I wouldn't assume its a cold locale.

That is a good point.

[mallleable]

Winterers or Snowbirds in the US tend to travel south in the winter to warmer climes. I wouldn't assume its a cold locale.

Perhaps a Rogue Garlean contingent that never went home?

Meracydia is the Southern continent. Maybe there are Allagan empire revivalists there.

[Xpejro]

Winterer peers as others said might refer to some kind of migration from worse to better environment.

I might be delusional, but that might mean that somehow ascians from other timeline (in which WoL dies, and G'raha Tia summons Crystal Tower to the First) can't progress with their rejoining plan (or because of alternate timelines they have other plans e.g. something like Fandaniel that life has no meaning and we'll die someday)

After reading this it's stupid theory, but there's possibility that SE might use someday in some expansion that alternate timeline, because it still exists, but as for now It might be better to just wait for 7.4 and 7.5 than trying to deduce what 8.0 will be about, especially when we know nothing of "Winterer peers" intentions (I think that "peers" have slighty different plan than Calyx, and they're just using him for their own purposes)

We know at least that Calyx's primary goal and Winterer peers goal is to reclaim Azem key, but besides traveling between shards we don't know what it's capable of (Maybe it's something similar to the Alexander time travel or Omega's dimension travel)

[Khryseis_Astra]

My guess is it actually has nothing to do with winter as that would be too on the nose.

Rather it is the meaning of riding out a period of hostile environment or storm somewhere else. The idea of wintering is to go to a place that is warmer cause you don't like the cold bitter winter.
So it doesn't have to be the cold bitter winter, it could any such season that is unappealing or hostile in this context.
Birds fly to warmer places in the winter.

So it could be people from the 9th who went to other shards to escape the lightning flood while they came up with a solution.
Or it could be the other Ascians or Ascian adjacents who didn't like the idea of a rejoining but couldn't stop Emet and co and were hiding from them.

This is my thought as well… everyone seemed to jump on Emet’s comments about Blindfrost, but like you say, the whole point of being a Winterer is to get away from the cold, and in this case that could either be literal or metaphorical.

I think (and hope) we’re being led south, to Meracydia. There’s a couple different things that point to it, among which is the Milalla involvement in the key that might take us to the South Sea Isles for a more in-depth exploration than we got from Aloalo. From there, it’s a short trip to Meracydia…

Also liked Divinemights’ idea about a 3rd faction of ancients, that may or may not see Azem as an inspiration of sorts, which could lead to some more lore about what Azem was doing during the first Final Days.