Anyone have an idea of the new area...

[Kirito]

There is supposed to be a new area (I assume from the learn more part in http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/about/world/cities). Anyone have an idea of what it could be... I was hoping it would be ishgard but by the reps mentioning Sharlayan I think it might be that area instead. What do you think? Now back to research I go...

[KaiserDrill]

Im thinking sharlayan too. Even though its supposed to be in the southern seas eorzea's position in hydaelin is pretty far south iirc. Antarctica is south of austrailia so thats a thought. Also like you said devs mentioning those npc designs and goggles are from sharlayan.

On another note, we are supposed to find out what happened to luisouix. He was also from sharlayan (once again iirc). Not to mention even though the arcanist guild was in ll in 1.0, the arcanist description on the teaser site says they channel aether using "geometric techniques hailing from the southern seas" or something like that.

Finally, a while ago, i read on one of yoshi's posts when someone asked him if at launch we would have ishgard, sharlayan, and another location, but i can't remember what the third one was. His answer was something like "if we made content for ishgard and (third location) i would take another year of development time. I thought it was funny at the time he didnt me tion sharlayan. I got a strong feeling we're getting content for sharlayan in the early stage of arr.

[Enkidoh]

Well, I always assumed Sharalyan is that unmarked city in the north-west corner of Aldebrand on the Eorzea map (it has the same artwork as Ala Mihgo on the map) - it's north of Vlybrand and Limsa Lominsa, and almost due west of Ishgard).

The fact that there is no other possible name given for this mysterious city, and that Sharalyan itself is mentioned as being in 'the north' makes it even more likely a candidate for Sharalyan's location.

EDIT: it is indeed Sharalyan - the label below the city on the map lists it as such in Eorzean script (just looked at the cloth map which came with my old CE of 1.0 and used a Eorzea/Roman letter list to decipher it and confirmed it).

[Picoman]

So are we saying, ARR is going to launch with a fourth city, Sharalyan?

I remember the interview the previous poster mentioned. He talked about Ala Mhigo and Ishgard but i dont remember Sharalyan being mentioned.

All info so far points to Sharalyan becoming more important but a player city aka Jeuno?

I reckon the fourth box on the XIV promo site under Locations is reserved for Coerthas. Just like how DoH and DoL dont have info yet.

[Enkidoh]

I always assumed that's what Ishgard was planned to be (central hub for the game - it shares a lot of similarities with Jeuno after all, being rather centrally located between the three main cities, is linked by a big bridge, consists of a giant citadel and their government prefers to keep out of world affairs, taking a more neutral role). But of course with 1.0's disastrous launch SE never bothered to implement it as a zone.

After all, on the Eorzea map Ishgard's artwork is depicted as important, it even has the nation's crest depicted next the city's name, but Sharalyan just has the same generic artwork that Ala Mihgo has, suggesting that SE never really had major plans for it originally. Or at least, that's how I'm interpreting it.

[nokinator]

Hmmm.. I was under the impression that Ishgard may have been destroyed, but i guess its been 5 years. regardless any new area would be cool.

[Karbine]

Hmmm.. I was under the impression that Ishgard may have been destroyed, but i guess its been 5 years. regardless any new area would be cool.

I remember some rage about it being destroyed when they showed off some concept art of Ishgard ruins and people started freaking out that they never even got to visit it in 1.0 and now its destroyed.

Thankfully Yoshi-P confirmed that it wasn't but he did say opening it up is in the future of ARR down the road, but not anywhere near launch. I'm sorry I don't have the time to pull up source interview but its pretty old. A few months after 2.0 was announced and he was doing interview rounds.

[Gramul]

I remember some rage about it being destroyed when they showed off some concept art of Ishgard ruins and people started freaking out that they never even got to visit it in 1.0 and now its destroyed.

Guilty.
/10cha

[Orophin]

Is there going to be new story quests for new areas then? like you pick Gridania as starting place, and get Gridania storyline. How's that gonna work in ARR anyways? we already picked side in 1.0, and we'll start in some specific spot when we log in 1.0 chars. Would there be new story line if you could pick sharlayan as starting place? hmm.

Actually it was said that your nation was dependent on the class you pick. Example, CNJ, LNC, ARC, BTN, LTW, CRP were all shown to be in Gridania in the Alpha, so if you pick any of those classes in the character creator, Gridania will be your starting nation. If they leave Arcanist in LL, then that will be your starting nation. So on and so forth.

Yoshi-P also said that the main storylines for each nation were being redone, so while I expect some of the elements of the previous stories to be there, they might be greatly different in ARR. For 1.0 chars, we'll log in somewhere else than our home nation. (probably something similar to how the Adventuring Party from the End of an Era trailer popped in Coerthas)

[MrKupo]

I do like the idea of Sharlaya but I was also thinking of how they are going to implement the new beastmen, Sahagins. All that concept art had to mean something, amirite?