CG Midlander

[Catapult]

Moose, I love you for making this thread! Ferne, I'm glad you can tell we're itching here. <3

Anyway, my turn to throw a few concepts into the mix. I would argue that it is indeed an echo of the past. But I'll get back to that.

As shown to us by Blackburn, Minfilla and the Hermit of the Wood, members of the path of the Twelve have a few thing they do/are.
- Never travel alone. Our friends in the Tavern are clearly also on the Path and possess the echo as well. It explains why they are not in a panic while our midlander has his vision. "Look who has returned from his reverie. How nice of you to join us again. Well? Don't keep us in suspense." I translate this as "Looks like you're done echoing. What did you see?"
- They are sensitive to other users of the echo and can tell when someone has entered their own past. This is how Minfilla and Tataru test your capability with the echo when you arrive at the Hall of the First Step.

So when our midlander drops into Silvertear Falls, and the party TAKES NOTICE, he's probably going to want to track down these guys when he has a chance, irrespective of whether they are already aquainted or not. So come our 2.0 trailer, they've clearly met up, refined their skills, got used to the jobs they have finally decided they prefer and are returning to Silvertear Falls in the reborn realm to see what has changed. Heck, these guys probably beat Nael together.

Backtracking a little again... the echo is something you normally use on people, not inanimate objects. So if a piece of stained glass has done it to you, you're going want to want to know where that bugger leads!

So in short my theory is:
- Midlander echos.
- All parties go "WTF? You're echoing? We need to talk!"
- They track each other down and get coordinated as a more cohesive party, killing the Raven and being part of rebirthing the realm.


Oh, and I think that is meant to be Limsa, not Ishgard. The leve plate is at least a Lominsan one. Limsa was also flagged as the "lead" city when xiv was first released, hosting a lot of the initial content and demos, including the alpha test.

[Anonymoose]

Oh, and I think that is meant to be Limsa, not Ishgard.

This is literally the only assumption I disagree with in your post; I think you've captured some very good points that help us around some of our constraints, but I remain convinced that the AG is in one of the other three city states. We already know SE was okay with editing the video - if it was in Limsa Lominsa, I feel like they would have (at least) edited the aetherite crystal out of the Adventurer's Guild.

Now, the Garleans are in control of Ala Mhigo, so that would leave only Sharlayan and Isghard. It could very well be Sharlayan - that area has more dragons, no? Perhaps that's a link of some kind... However, again, I remain convinced that it's Ishgard.

As we have seen in some quests involving the echo (ingame), some people can notice us when we walk around in the past.

This is one of the things I've been meaning to check on... the boundaries of the Echo.

From Minfilia:
"Were you not witness to the skies turning dark and showering the land with a storm of stars? Some of our brothers believe those who partook in this celestial event were 'touched' by the Twelve, and that that is how they came by their gift."

and later

"Very good. I pray together we can learn more of this gift...for though we have scoured the realm for nigh on ten years, I fear there is still little we understand."

Therefore, they've been trying to learn about the power of the echo since just about the same time as the Battle of Silvertear Falls. Is it possible that our primal, Siren, was one of those released by Midgardsormr's death rattle? Remember, we're not sure that The Twelve are responsible for the echo at all; even Ifrit seems to taunt us that it's something else...

If the AG Party are Walkers, then it makes sense that their echo didn't come with the meteor shower - they'd already been through that.

Also, after re-reading the script, I think it's important to toss the idea that the archer was a fourth member. Milfinia says that you can interact with the past via the echo, sometimes. Therefore, I think he just showed up there.

Now, I know, we've just accepted the armory system as being at work here. But still, what's up with the bow? Don't WE (the players) enter the echo on whatever job we were on at the time? If he entered with a sword but then was like, "AW, DAMN, BETTER WHIP OUT A BOW." I'd get it - but it's already lying there for him. It's not exactly an issue, I'm just being nit-picky, but still...

Maybe there's a reason the Elezen Female is missing... Milfinia says that Walkers travel in pairs. Perhaps the roegadyn was originally paired with the Elezen, but later paired with the midlander. They look like partners in the new trailers, and the miqo'te/elezen male seem to taunt eachother in a partnership like way.

But then who's paired to the lalafell!?

Perhaps the female elezen is present in the ARR cinematic, but none of her shots were used for the trailers... that's an even paired pathwalker party of six.

So, let's take another look at our collective guess so far!
(I'm just going to call it "The AG" instead of the "Ishgardian" AG.)

The AG party are Walkers of the Path

The guildleve triggers the Midlander into an echo of the past
The Echo itself takes place in 1562-6A, the AG Party exists somewhere between that date and present day upon game release ten years later. We will assume 1572-6A until shown otherwise.

As himself, the midlander interacts with the 10 Years Ago Party

The Battle of Silvertear Falls leads to the release of the primals via Midgardsormr
Siren is among those he summons, and it is she, presumable, who bestows the Echo on the Walkers in the first place.

A time-loop is created, whereby the midlander was in the past for just long enough to save 10 Years Ago Party from the marbol and inspire them to seek him out in his present day, but was pulled back to the present in time to escape the fall from the Juggernaut. The past wasn't altered, but his present self came to understand his place within that past (think LOST's "Whatever Happened Happened" principle).

The midlander returns from his echo, inspired to find the 10 Years Ago Party
They start by exploring the levequest that gave him the echo. At some point, this direction they've taken leads to the 10 Years ago party members.

Joining forces, they play a vital role in fighting against the Empire as Dalamud falls.
Including at least one defeat of Ifrit to get their hands on them there relics.

These time shifts allow for job changes via the armory system without any conflict. Likewise, it explains why the Galka has aged so much more than the midlander/miqo'te. The lalafell hasn't aged a day, but lalafell seem to have unnaturally long life-spans in the first place (there's a lalfell miner in Ul'dah that says he's been mining for 80 some-odd years!)

At first, I figured the Eorzean year was just drastically shorter - but while other characters do seem to indicate that it COULD be a shorter year, it's not MUCH shorter. All other uses of the term in the game seem to correlate pretty closely to Earth-years.

NOW WE'RE GETTING SOMEWHERE.
I think we may be looking at a first post release today on the lore blog!