Firstly lets determine all possible locations, no matter how likely. On the first image, the world map, I have put the white circles highlighting places of interest
1: Meracydia
An ongoing long term place of interest, I firmly believe this area will be saved for further down the line of the current overarching plot. Though our favorite former pirate Riol is apparently off investigating it.
2: Corvos
Another zone that has come up in the lore and NPC discussions starting with Endwalker, and where the B-Team Scion members Hoary and Coultenet are apparently located at this time. I believe Corvos will be paired with Meracydia, as both have heavy ties to the Allagan Empires and Meracydia being "closed off" to the rest of the world I believe Corvos will end up a expansion hub city that we lead an expedition to Meracydia from
3: Hingashi
Between Mount Rokkon and NPC lore, Hingashi is in a similar situation to Corvos where it's mysteriously being getting a lot more attention since Endwalker. There is a conflict between the great houses that rule the island nation brewing behind the scenes.
4: Aerslaent and Blindfrost
I am pairing these two together, as while they are quite far apart on a flat world map, Ethyris *IS A GLOBE*. No flat earther conspiracies here. So they're both regions within the "Arctic Circle" of the planet, and Emet Selch makes mention of Blindfrost in his "go see the world speech" and it is the only location we haven't visited on that list except Meracydia. Aerslaent is another location like Corvos and Hingashi that's being getting some mentions, especially by two B-Team scions who've being in the Drowning Wench since Endwalker concluded, Aergmhus and Bluomwyda. It is the ancestral homeland of the Roegadyn clans, famed navigators and pirates.
5: The "Pacific Ocean"
If you draw you attention to the left of the map, you can see the great fissure that splits Tural into its North and Southern halves. However this is clearly only the "edge" of a much larger "fracture" in planet. There was a throwaway lore mention that this great fracture might be the site of Hydaelyn and Zodiark's initial conflict, where the former drop kicked the latter so hard it split the planet into 14 pieces. Such a titanic conflict would've definately left a mark on the planet. As the world map stops just to the right of Hingashi (Japan) and to the left of Tural (Americas) we cannot see the "Pacific Ocean" of this planet.
SO these are the 5 (technically 6) locations of major note left on the map. While we are still missing *most* of Ilsebard under clouds I cannot see us visiting anything under them any time soon. We may be surprised but for now I am going to assume they're not in contention yet.
Now onto the second picture, we recently got this from Yoshi-P's new years address, a "note that was slipped underneath his door" while he contemplated his Keynote speech for the NA Fanfest later this year.
For those who struggle with cursive it reads
"Our past astern, we scan the sea"
"In search of that which yet may be"
"Frail playthings of the restless tide"
"Yet wind and wave shall be our guide"
A rather "nautical" little poem if I do say so myself. With this as our only solid clue, let us reexamine my suggested locations. I've already eliminated Meracydia and Corvos as a pair, leaving Hingashi, Blindfrost and Aerslaent and "Pacific Ocean"
Now Hingashi would be a very very specifically themed expansion. It is FFXIV Japan. It is on the brink of an internal civil war. I cannot for the life of me connect the above poem to a expansion set during civil war fantasy japan.
I can connect such a poem however to the other 3 locations. Now for my "Pacific Ocean", considering what the lore is setting up with regards to the "barriers between shards" and the potential ramifications of removing the two elder primal who usurped the natural order of the planet and became its "Will" for millennia, I think the supposed sight of their great conflict that led to the sundering would be saved potentially for...the final expansion of this story arc.
Which leaves Aerslaent and Blindfrost. Neither of these two locations are particularly large. As you can see in images 3 and 4, they are tiny...sparse ocean areas with small archipelagos. Now this is not really a factor in FFXIV expansions, Heavensward took place entirely within Dravania and Coethas. I think since Stormblood people have come to expect expansions need some giant continent to be worthy of an expansion but we have precedent that isn't the case.
Now the "key" is a very old artifact, tracing back to previous Calamities and even further than that, and our current goal outside keeping an eye out for whatever Ascians were involved with Calyx's plot is investigating the key. This I believe will takes us to some of the "older" places of Ethyris. Aerslaent being the ancient homeland of the Roegadyn clans falls perfectly into this idea. On top of matching the nautical themed "clue" Yoshi-P gave us today and being close to Blindfrost, I can see 8.0 being a Nordic/Piratical themed expansion taking us far to the north into the arctic circle of the planet.
For anyone still confused why I pair the two, please refer to the final picture of our own planet Earth seen from the North Pole. You would not think the northern reaches of Canada were "close" to the central northern reaches of Russia but that's purely when viewing a classical map. If the ocean between them wasn't frozen its a short direct line between the two.
Blindfrost and Aerslaent are closer together than Eorzea is to Thavnair, and much closer together than the trip from Eorzea to Tural. And I believe we'll end up sailing north, meeting our two friends Aergmhus and Bluomwyda and fleshing them out a little, as they're more B-Team than the rest of the B-Team put together.
Of course, this is really early wild speculation but I really really enjoy this kind of thing so I wanted to share. Anything and everything could happen. Not to mention how clearly each expansion is going to have some plotline involving one of the surviving Shards interwoven into it. We've hard a shard covered in eternal light, and eternal darkness. We just had a shard drowning in lightning. Perhaps we are going to see a shard frozen in ice...or drowned by water.
Also if 8.0 is nautical themed we can probably guess the overdue Ranged DPS we expected for Dawntrail shall be a pirate of some kind ahaha. But let me know what you guys think. I welcome disagreement as long as it's polite
submitted by /u/---TheFierceDeity---
[link] [comments]
Continue reading...
1: Meracydia
An ongoing long term place of interest, I firmly believe this area will be saved for further down the line of the current overarching plot. Though our favorite former pirate Riol is apparently off investigating it.
2: Corvos
Another zone that has come up in the lore and NPC discussions starting with Endwalker, and where the B-Team Scion members Hoary and Coultenet are apparently located at this time. I believe Corvos will be paired with Meracydia, as both have heavy ties to the Allagan Empires and Meracydia being "closed off" to the rest of the world I believe Corvos will end up a expansion hub city that we lead an expedition to Meracydia from
3: Hingashi
Between Mount Rokkon and NPC lore, Hingashi is in a similar situation to Corvos where it's mysteriously being getting a lot more attention since Endwalker. There is a conflict between the great houses that rule the island nation brewing behind the scenes.
4: Aerslaent and Blindfrost
I am pairing these two together, as while they are quite far apart on a flat world map, Ethyris *IS A GLOBE*. No flat earther conspiracies here. So they're both regions within the "Arctic Circle" of the planet, and Emet Selch makes mention of Blindfrost in his "go see the world speech" and it is the only location we haven't visited on that list except Meracydia. Aerslaent is another location like Corvos and Hingashi that's being getting some mentions, especially by two B-Team scions who've being in the Drowning Wench since Endwalker concluded, Aergmhus and Bluomwyda. It is the ancestral homeland of the Roegadyn clans, famed navigators and pirates.
5: The "Pacific Ocean"
If you draw you attention to the left of the map, you can see the great fissure that splits Tural into its North and Southern halves. However this is clearly only the "edge" of a much larger "fracture" in planet. There was a throwaway lore mention that this great fracture might be the site of Hydaelyn and Zodiark's initial conflict, where the former drop kicked the latter so hard it split the planet into 14 pieces. Such a titanic conflict would've definately left a mark on the planet. As the world map stops just to the right of Hingashi (Japan) and to the left of Tural (Americas) we cannot see the "Pacific Ocean" of this planet.
SO these are the 5 (technically 6) locations of major note left on the map. While we are still missing *most* of Ilsebard under clouds I cannot see us visiting anything under them any time soon. We may be surprised but for now I am going to assume they're not in contention yet.
Now onto the second picture, we recently got this from Yoshi-P's new years address, a "note that was slipped underneath his door" while he contemplated his Keynote speech for the NA Fanfest later this year.
For those who struggle with cursive it reads
"Our past astern, we scan the sea"
"In search of that which yet may be"
"Frail playthings of the restless tide"
"Yet wind and wave shall be our guide"
A rather "nautical" little poem if I do say so myself. With this as our only solid clue, let us reexamine my suggested locations. I've already eliminated Meracydia and Corvos as a pair, leaving Hingashi, Blindfrost and Aerslaent and "Pacific Ocean"
Now Hingashi would be a very very specifically themed expansion. It is FFXIV Japan. It is on the brink of an internal civil war. I cannot for the life of me connect the above poem to a expansion set during civil war fantasy japan.
I can connect such a poem however to the other 3 locations. Now for my "Pacific Ocean", considering what the lore is setting up with regards to the "barriers between shards" and the potential ramifications of removing the two elder primal who usurped the natural order of the planet and became its "Will" for millennia, I think the supposed sight of their great conflict that led to the sundering would be saved potentially for...the final expansion of this story arc.
Which leaves Aerslaent and Blindfrost. Neither of these two locations are particularly large. As you can see in images 3 and 4, they are tiny...sparse ocean areas with small archipelagos. Now this is not really a factor in FFXIV expansions, Heavensward took place entirely within Dravania and Coethas. I think since Stormblood people have come to expect expansions need some giant continent to be worthy of an expansion but we have precedent that isn't the case.
Now the "key" is a very old artifact, tracing back to previous Calamities and even further than that, and our current goal outside keeping an eye out for whatever Ascians were involved with Calyx's plot is investigating the key. This I believe will takes us to some of the "older" places of Ethyris. Aerslaent being the ancient homeland of the Roegadyn clans falls perfectly into this idea. On top of matching the nautical themed "clue" Yoshi-P gave us today and being close to Blindfrost, I can see 8.0 being a Nordic/Piratical themed expansion taking us far to the north into the arctic circle of the planet.
For anyone still confused why I pair the two, please refer to the final picture of our own planet Earth seen from the North Pole. You would not think the northern reaches of Canada were "close" to the central northern reaches of Russia but that's purely when viewing a classical map. If the ocean between them wasn't frozen its a short direct line between the two.
Blindfrost and Aerslaent are closer together than Eorzea is to Thavnair, and much closer together than the trip from Eorzea to Tural. And I believe we'll end up sailing north, meeting our two friends Aergmhus and Bluomwyda and fleshing them out a little, as they're more B-Team than the rest of the B-Team put together.
Of course, this is really early wild speculation but I really really enjoy this kind of thing so I wanted to share. Anything and everything could happen. Not to mention how clearly each expansion is going to have some plotline involving one of the surviving Shards interwoven into it. We've hard a shard covered in eternal light, and eternal darkness. We just had a shard drowning in lightning. Perhaps we are going to see a shard frozen in ice...or drowned by water.
Also if 8.0 is nautical themed we can probably guess the overdue Ranged DPS we expected for Dawntrail shall be a pirate of some kind ahaha. But let me know what you guys think. I welcome disagreement as long as it's polite
submitted by /u/---TheFierceDeity---
[link] [comments]
Continue reading...