Warning: Spoilers Off applies to this page. There will be unmarked spoilers below.
Folders sorted by the rough estimate of in what era of the game the WMG were written.
Spoilers for Heavensward, just a heads up. We know from Good King Moggle Mog XII, Shiva, and Enkidu that anyone can be summoned in Primal form so long as there is enough belief and crystals. Then in Heavensward we learn that all Primals are created from the summoner's own imagination and are not the genuine article, removing further restrictions. Eventually, a misguided group are going to learn the arts of summoning from the Ascians, and will use them to turn themselves into the Warriors of Light, just as Iceheart became Shiva or the Archbishop became King Thordan. The template for these Primals is already present, belief. Every survivor of the Calamity remembers their saviors as the Warriors of Light, whom they can only remember as silhouetted behind a blinding light. Faceless divine figures. The Player Character/Warrior of Light will actually help this come to pass, since their heroics has only strengthened everyone's faith behind the title Warrior of Light.
- This would be a Mirror Match with the player party, as well.
- Confirmed: While not exactly in the context suggested here. We do fight the Dissidia Warrior of Light. A primal that Elidibus takes the form of.
Given what he says when you encounter him in Heavensward, he is one Ascian meeting away from learning how to use himself as a catalyst to summon a primal. He's even shown signs of reaching the Despair Event Horizon. When he learns of this, he'll transform into Rhalgr in a desperate attempt to reclaim Ala Mhigo from Garlemald.
- Plausible. We've already seen the Ala Mhigan Refugees try pulling this once early in 2.0 A Realm Reborn main story. Another theory being, he may become one of the Warriors of Darkness. And a third, he may instead try to claim Omega Weapon for himself.
- Another sign of this being plausible, 3.4 involves the Griffon appearing and starting a new faction of the Ala Mhigo Resistance. Turns out the Griffon IS working with Elidibus, and receives a "gift" in the form of Nidhogg's frozen eyes recovered from the chasm below the Steps of Faith. Apparently this is because Elidibus finds that the Griffon holds more grief, anger, and rage than anyone else he considered giving the eyes to. Now, who do we know among the Ala Mhigan resistance members that happen to have those thing to the point they don't consider the consequences of their actions or who they choose to work with?
- Turns out that this one is mostly true. 3.5 does indeed confirm that Ilberd is the Griffon who received Nidhogg's eyes and the knowledge of a Primal summoning technique that uses the mass death, lingering anger, and resentment, including his own death and rage, that permeates a battlefield to create a Calamity-level Primal.
- Maybe they'll do him one better and make his arm a gun instead.
- And if Raubahn's still around by version 7.0... AVALANCHE TIME!!
- A Full Metal Alchemist collab. Square Enix does own the rights.
- Jossed: It doesn't seem Raubahn will ever replace his missing arm.
- Jossed. Emet-Selch reveals during Shadowbringers that Hydaelyn and Zodiark are the Eldest and most powerful of Primals summoned by the Ascians in Ancient times via willing self-sacrifice of their summoners. Endwalker then gives us the full, horrifying story: The Eldest were created out of the lead Ascian invokers, who become the hearts of each Primal: Elidibus for Zodiark, and Venat for Hydaelyn. Further complicating matters is that the Elidibus that challenges the Scions is a Primal version of himself summoned by the Convocation to help calm the fear and concerns that was spreading between the Pro- and Anti-Zodiark factions.
- or perhaps Mide's loved one, who was revealed in the Midas segment to be trapped within Alexander's main core. Or perhaps a fusion of his essence and Alexanders fought in the core similar to how Bahamut Prime was.
- Seemingly confirmed through 3.4's patch trailer.
- Confirmed: The final boss is Alexander Prime. Alexanderception.
- Jossed: He's a spirit within Alexander's core consciousness.
- Jossed.
- Gigants
- Madiun - His original design was based on the design of the gigas' sprites.
- Golem - Though there are some basic enemy golems, having some variation of the Golem summon would be fitting for the Gigants.
- Mamol Ja
- Shemhazai - Stretching it a little, but the Mamool Ja were introduced in FF XI with a special affinity for binding creatures' souls to use Blue Magic. Shemhazai's "element" in FF XII was related to souls.
- Qiqirn
- Yojimbo - A mercenary for hire seems fitting for a race of hoarders and thieves. And since the other business oriented race already has Alexander.
- Jossed: He appears as a regular mercenary for hire in the Kugane Castle dungeon, as the final boss.
- Yojimbo - A mercenary for hire seems fitting for a race of hoarders and thieves. And since the other business oriented race already has Alexander.
- Tonberries
- Anima - A summon mostly associated with rage and tragic suffering. The two primary traits of XIV's breed of Tonberries.
- Jossed: Anima has been confirmed as a trial for 6.0. Anima is revealed to be created by Zenos and Fandaniel out of the dead Garlean Emperor, Varis. On top of that, the Scholar storyline shows that the Tonberries are not only largely restored to sanity, but by level 80 have a potential cure for their condition.
- Those Lalafell bandits from Mor Dhona will actually summon Valefor for real at some point.
- Cactuar
- Gigantuar - It will be explained that Cactuar are not particularly imaginative and thus their primal is really just a big Cactuar with a mustache.
- Alexander will create a primal version of Ark as a guardian.
- Confirmed somewhat: Alexander's final guardian is Cruise Chaser, who is basically a carbon copy of Ark in appearance, animations, and attacks. However the being in question isn't a Primal, but rather a mechanical guardian blessed by a Primal.
- That bit about Mide was jossed as of the Midas segment as the 'him' was revealed to be her old master who was trapped in Alexander's core.
- While Chaos is Jossed due to showing up in Omega, considering what happened at the end of 5.4, this might be more likely than you think...
- Zig-zagged in Endwalker. Fandaniel uses Varis' dismembered corpse to summon Anima to enthrall not nearly the entire populace of Garlemald but anyone without protection who wander too close to the the towers (which are powered by pieces of the emperor's corpse).
- Alternately: Yda is a pureblooded Ala Mhigan who is trying to recover her homeland. Serving as the Good Counterpart to Ilberd (Both obsessed with liberating Ala Mhigo).
- The second theory is correct - Yda is native to Ala Mhigo and previously had dealings with the Resistance.
- It's possible that this may be the boss of the Snowcloak HM dungeon that will likely arrive in 3.4, as an interesting inversion of the original where the aim was to summon Saint Shiva, Halone's enemy.
- Vanu Vanu
- Confirmed by the Gundu Tribe.
- Gnath
- Confirmed by the Vath/Nonmind tribe.
- Moogles of Moghome
- Confirmed by 3.3's announcement of a joint Moogle/Dragon beast quest series.
- Dragons of Anyx Trine
- See Moogles
- Goblins of Idyllshire
- Jossed by Word of God who states that Goblins will not be a beast tribe the players can interact with.
You think Ala Mihgans are pissed off with their exile? Shantotto has been compared to the Calamity, you want to piss her off?...
If what were once thought to be the representatives of the XIV player characters in XIV turned out to be antagonists, what's to stop FF worlds from turning on another, if Altana and Hydaelyn cannot find a way to allow both their worlds to exist in full?
Eventually, the Ascian's long term plan will succeed, and Hydaelyn will have exhausted all of her strength to combat the threat. As the planet dies, the heroes reach their Darkest Hour trying to figure out what to do. Hydaelyn speaks, and everyone can hear it. To save her and by extension the world, they must strike down Zodiark and exhaust his aether so that Hydaelyn can usurp him as he had usurped her, and she sacrifices what she has left of her aether to both the Warriors of Light and Midgardsormr. Midgardsormr, enraged at the Ascians for killing his offspring along with everything else, takes his fully manifested form once again and ferries the Warriors in the vacuum of space as the planet is erased. From this vantage point, the players see a great blue mist of aether where the planet once was, only for it to turn dark as it condenses and takes the form of Zodiark. The reborn god then declares that it will kill the wyrm and its charges, "snuffing out the last of Hydaelyn's light".
The Trial takes place along Midgardsormr's giant back as Zodiark flies about all around you in space. During the fight, Sormr will lash out at Zodiark himself but will be weakened by the Ascians fighting for their god. The party has to periodically wipe out Ascian adds to keep Midgardsormr from being distracted so he can fight Zodiark properly. Like the other bosses, Zodiark will have his own One-Hit Kill, Final Eclipse, where his wings will grow into blazing trails and space will shatter into a white void. Midgardsormr needs to be free of Ascian interference so that he can call on his and Hydaelyn's strength to protect the party from this.
- Jossed: Zodiark is not the final boss. He is in fact, the first trial boss of Endwalker, and his defeat only makes things worse.
After the Word of the Mother sends the Warrior of Light back to the "aetherial shore," she almost sounds as if she is speaking in the third person and referring to sending multiple people back. She could have released Minfilia as well.
- Iceheart will also be revealed to survive in the same way - she didn't disperse into aether when she fought off the Garlean dreadnaught... Hydaelyn just pulled her into the aetherial sea, too.
- More or less confirmed! At least with Minfilia. She is still the Word of the Mother, but she decided to go to the First world, where the Warriors of Darkness are from, to absorb their excess Light and save their world. There's still a possibility she could return, however...
- Ultimately Jossed: In Shadowbringers Minfilia becomes akin to an Ascian, able to pass on her power to a reincarnation on that world, but she ultimately passes on all her power to Ryne, her third incarnation.
Given his secretive nature, his intimate knowledge of the Triad, the established tension between him and the Garlean commander, his desire to become stronger, and the fact that there will still be room for one last update to the quest by patch 3.5, it's likely that he or his mysterious master will serve Kefka's role in the original Warring Triad story.
- Alternately, Hydrus will hold the honor of Kefka in this tail, being a legatos to the emperor similarly to how Kefka was originally part of an empire before taking things into his own hands.
- Jossed, Unukahlai's heart is only ever in the right place, he's unambiguously good even if his master is revealed to be an Ascian.
- A heretic whom Cyr will attempt to arrest.
- Gilgamesh
- Hildibrand's mother again
- Jossed she shows up playing with Godbert in the snow.
- Gigi's creator
In an interview, Yoshida said it was possible Haurchefant would return, due to the feedback he got. Knowing the game's world can be very dark, this option is entirely possible.
- He does make a brief appearance as a spirit to help the Warrior of Light and Alphinaud remove Nidhogg's eyes from Estinien, providing support along with Iceheart. So he did "return" as Yoshida said he would.
- Alternatively, Omega Weapon cites "the death of a comrade" as a potential way to inflict stress upon the Warrior of Light (thus increasing his or her 'performance') in the Deltascape raid. It's possible Omega might compile some version of Haurchefant to test its hypothesis...
- A popular hypothesis I've seen that's related is The body that Zenos posesses is Haurchefant's. Haurchefant's soul may or may not be in for the ride.
- Jossed due to the body never being confirmed to be his and he is never mentioned ever again.
This may take some explaining, but if the Zelda series can do it, so can the Final Fantasy series. We know for sure that something very similar to Final Fantasy III happened in Eorzea's past, it may be that details were lost or altered along the way - or even that the version of Final Fantasy III that we got is a more simplified version of the more detailed events that are revealed in Final Fantasy XIV.
Additionally, there are hints that Final Fantasy VI occurred in the world of XIV too. There are the overt appearances of the Warring Triad and the magitek of the Garlean empire, the kingdom of Doma, references to Mog being a legendary figure among the moogles, Relm is a remembered as a figure from a fairy tale and Ultros and Typhon reappear from the void. Perhaps the return of the Warring Triad is tied to how magic returned; a kind of morphic resonance. Doma, despite its apparent destruction, survived as a name and rebuilt. Ultros and Typhon likely escaped to the void after the events of VI, which explains why they keep popping up in the same manner as Gilgamesh.
The basic timeline would be VI - III - XIV, with each game separated by millennia, perhaps more in the gap between VI and III, to account for the shifting of continents and return of magic to the world after the events of VI. The events of VI are long lost, and only in XIV is the world returning to the level of technology it used to have before Kefka destroyed the world.
- Jossed by Word of God. While many past Final Fantasy game elements are reused/repurposed for Final Fantasy XIV, they are confirmed to be only homages to the source material and that XIV is not connected to any other world.
- Confirmed on both counts.
- Though time travel is a possibility as well for their reappearance.
- Confirmed in a sense. Noah, the Ancient Allagan scholar who the Crystal Tower allies named their group after, exists in the present day after the events of said questline via an artifact and a form of Grand Theft Me (he promises to return the person's body after he finishes using it to study the modern era and what remains of the legacy of his old Empire).
- Ultimately confirmed, since Amon is alive, and he is none other than Fandaniel.
- Confirmed: Endwalker shows a cutscene of Venat becoming Hydaelyn and sundering the world, forcing mankind into weaker forms and experiencing suffering, all to strengthen man against Meteion and the Final Days.
- Jossed: he pulls a Enemy Mine and dies in a Heroic Sacrifice to save Unukalhai.
- And for bonus points it will only have an extreme difficulty
- From Fan Fest 2016: "Q: Godbert Manderville trial? Yoshida: You can't beat him. If you beat him, Julyan is the Savage difficulty version." (Please look forward to it.)
- Confirmed: as of the 2016 fanfest and Stormblood.
- Jossed: Blue Mage was introduced with an origin tracing it back to a native civilization in the New World that barely has gotten a foothold in Eorzean culture.
- Confirmed.
- Monks: they were mostly focusing on hand to hand combat
- Confirmed for the Warrior of Light at least.
- Dancer: the female character's dress and movements before the fight resemble that of a dancer.
- Turns out it's just an unmasked Yda/Lyse wearing a different outfit and is now a Monk.
- Red and Blue Mages: each fighter had a red and blue aura surround them towards the end of their fight.
- Jossed: Both are monks/pugilists. The one in red is Yda's younger sister, Lyse.
- Red Mage: Let's get the obvious one out of the way. At the 2016 Las Vegas Fan Fest, Yoshida pulled his shirt trick once again. This time his shirt was of Marvel's Scarlet Witch. He also mentioned having watched Captain America: Civil War. Most have figured that this is a signal to the Red Mage being included. (Scarlet=Red, Witch=Mage, kind of a no brainer).
- Yoshida's also made mention that Red Mage is one of his favorite jobs in the franchise, but didn't know how to make them work with XIV's gameplay style when they were planning for HW. Since they got passed up for Heavensward it makes sense he'd try to get them in at the next possible chance.
- CONFIRMED in the Japanese Fanfest.
- Blue Mage: As mentioned above, there have been numerous hints both in-game and from the development team that Blue Mages are on the horizon, most recently, the speculation regarding Raubahn above.
- Confirmed. Blue Mages are now limited player classes, though the speculation on Rubahn has been Jossed.
- Dancer: As mentioned earlier, the female character from the Stormblood reveal trailer appears to take on the style and movements of a dancer.
- Confirmed as of Stormblood's release.
- Time Mage: Time Magic plays a very heavy role in the side stories of the later Heavensward patches. These might end up being a hint that the class in on the way as well. Given how both Vivi and Alexander used Time Magic to repair themselves or other things around them, it would probably be implemented as a Healer role.
- Unlikely, as Astrologian is fundamentally a time mage in everything but name, just with a thin layer of Astrology on top of it.
- Samurai: They actually wanted them to be added to the game by Heavensward and foreshadowed them as soon as 2.2 when they foreshadowed Ninja, but they outright admit they shelved them in favor of working on Dark Knight because it was more thematically appropriate for Ishgard.
- Possibly confirmed, albeit through Datamining so grain of salt. There's class strings for animations belonging to Samurai, just below strings belonging to Red Mage.
- CONFIRMED.
On both a personal level and the backstory, Eorzia is full of and haunted by loss. On a personal level, there was the massacre at the Waking Sands, The Monetarist scheme, Harchefaunt's death, Lousioux's death (if you were a 1.0 player) and Minfillia's definitive sacrifice. On a whole, there was the Calamity, Shiva's sacrifice to create peace, the murder of Ratataskr, Tiamat's revival of Bahamut as a primal, The Warrior of Darkness' loss of their home, and even minor things like Edda losing Avere.
That's ultimately where the strongest of the game's themes come from; moving on from horrible things like that. The PC managed to mourn properly and move on from the tragedies they've suffered, even if it's been a long road that's left them horribly scarred emotionally. And despite it all through and through, they've stayed Eorzia's Warrior of Light. This acceptance of loss is also noticeable in friendly Non Player Characters, Hraesvelgr's heart still aches from Shiva's loss and Ratataskr's death, but he's moved on and willing to look to the future, as are all of his children. It's the same for Ishgard as well, acceptance of the horrible things they did has helped put them on the track towards becoming something great.
On the flipside, you have those who refuse to accept loss who are treated as villains. Nidhogg still mourns, but hadn't accepted his sister's murder and still raged instead of trying to move on. Tiamat couldn't move on from Bahamut being slain and revived him as a primal, but realizing the horror of what she's done has left her time to mourn and move on, and she's treated as nothing but sympathetic now. The Warriors of Darkness lost their home and resorted to horrible, heart-shattering things to try to save what was left of it. And even Edda couldn't move on from Avere's death, making her susceptible to what's implied to be an Ascian teaching her necromancy.
- Even more relevant as of Shadowbringers, where we learn the motivation of the Ascians. They lost their entire world, and the fourteen pieces of it are so much lesser that in their eyes it mocks the perfection that once was. So they seek to put the pieces back together, not caring that it means committing omnicide thirteen times over with a matching Calamity on the Source for each one.
- Zig-zagged: Word of God has it that the game wasn't entirely planned until the end of the Heavensward expansion, but it's indeed a very strong theme on its wrapping conclusion Endwalker.
It is known for sure that the Allagans possessed knowledge of Miqo'te genetics, they infused royal blood into a Miqo'te bloodline in order to protect the Crystal Tower. If the above assumption is true (that Miqo'te and the other races cannot interbreed), that's a strange thing to do, unless you take into the consideration the possibility that, like the Ixali, they were being genetically engineered as a client race for the Allagans.
What form the Miqo'te took before Allagan intervention isn't known, they could have been a much more animalistic beast tribe or even created wholesale from ordinary cats. The Allagans made it a project to gift them with sapience and human-like features while preserving their unparalleled skills at hunting, but for whatever reason were unable or unwilling to remove some features like the ears, pupils, tails or gender imbalance. Then, as the Allagan empire fell, the guardians of the Crystal Tower, knowing that the Miqo'te had the instincts and the intelligence to survive, infused some of them with the blood necessary to protect it. With the Allagan empire gone, the world fell into chaos, and the Miqo'te lost the knowledge of their origin and became a race of hunters, leading us to the modern day.
The cinematic takes place in an alternate world where Hresvelgr allied himself with Nidhogg in his mission of vengeance. Hresvelgr said himself that only Shiva's calming influence on his soul kept him from being the same as his brood brother, and here we see that in one world, it simply wasn't enough to dissuade him.
- Jossed. Devs confirmed that the dragon attacking was the wrong model used and the team had no time to correct it before release. Shadowbringers also confirms that the other shards are not just pure mirror worlds to the Source with some things swapped, but each one having a much larger difference in culture, landscape, and history.
- Alternately, blitzball will be a Garlean sport that the Ala Mhigans play and actually like.
- Alexander was a gigantic Primal, not powered by one. That was the whole point; a machine that big and complex couldn't be built properly, but its sheer size was draining the land around it.
- Second part also Jossed: Omega wasn't built by the Allagans at all, it's an alien machine that crashed into Hydaelyn and Allag tech was reverse-engineered from it.
- Omega (see immediately above) Though possibly jossed as it appeared that Omega was being used to attack the Primal, though this doesn't rule out the possibility entirely.
- Jossed: It was a new Primal, which the Domans dub Shinryu based on a dragon from legend. Omega is activated to fight it.
- Widergelt will play a huge role in the upcoming Stormblood storyline, especially given his identity as Prince Theodred.
- Jossed: Lyse takes on that role
- This is assumming that the primal summoned at the end of 3.51 is somehow related to Omega and given the fact he's a huge Karma Houdini, fans will be more than eager to properly finish him off for good.
- Jossed: He does not appear at all.
- This bonus story was suggested at the fan fests, where it met much encouragement from the audience. With 3.5 complete, we now know what the two stories will be about.
- Regular Bend of Time will focus on retrieving Omega, which will be the easier challenge because of its autonomous nature and that Cid and Nero have understanding of it enough to control or debilitate it. The Savage difficulty will focus on Shinryu, the primal Omega was sent to subdue who is even more powerful than Bahamut.
- Jossed: The Savage raids are hypothetical fights based on battle data, although the final boss of each tier does get an extra form that doesn't appear in Normal.
- He has the body type and animations of a male Roegadyn, but his face and skin tone bear a stronger resemblance to Hyur. The easy answer is that Gosetsu has one Roegadyn parent and one Hyur parent.
- Jossed. The Live Letter has confirmed that he is a full Roegadyn.
Q3: Gosetsu looks like a Roegadyn, but also looks like a big Highlander. Which race is he?
A3: He's a Roegadyn, but one from the lands to the East. Rather than a Sea Wolf, he's closer to the Hellsguard tribe.
- Well who else are we going to fight in 4.1 to 4.5?
- Jossed: None of the above summon a Primal. Instead, Yotsuyu transforms into Tsukuyomi.
- This will contain spoilers for Stormblood, you have been warned.
- The reason Zenos could use his "resonance" to fully control Shinryu wasn't due to the power of this experiment. Zenos was able to control the primal because it was Shinryu he chose to control. Shinryu has no personality, it's a creature of pure violence. Had Zenos attempted to merge with any other primal, likely he would have to battle with its own sense of will. Zenos was fortunate that his test subject was an Almighty Idiot.
- Stormblood also has further revelations that Zenos is 1/4 Ascian, so his Ascian heritage along with his Resonance could have just as well dominated a stronger primal like Bahamut.
- The raid takes place within the Interdimensional Rift. Even ignoring the numerous existing FF5 references which make up the Bend of Time, Greg is frequently pulled in and out of the rift in his other cameos.
- Jossed, Gilgamesh is returning, as part of the 4.X hildibrand content(teased in 4.1 and slated for 4.2)
- Unlike every other boss in the raid series encountered before him Exdeath doesn't dissolve and vanish, but rather gets pulled into the void much like he did after his battle in Final Fantasy V. He may return (most likely the fight immediately before Omega) as Neo-Exdeath.
- Possibly Jossed: Neo Exdeath is a savage-only fight in Delta 4, so it's unlikely they would recycle an easier version of a boss they already have for whatever the final boss of the next wing is.
- Seeing as the first segment already used the Big Bad of V, it's possible the next two segments will follow suit with other titles. Most likely ones tied together via the Rift, Gilgamesh, or by Omega itself.
- Patch 4.2 did indeed draw on Final Fantasy VI, but 4.4 only had one past boss, Chaos from Final Fantasy I.
- Though Exdeath is already out of the way, it's still possibly the game will use the stronger villains from the game, like Enuo, or possibly even a rematch with Gilgamesh due to the Rift setting.
- Jossed: Sigmascape was focused on Final Fantasy VI while Alphascape starts with Chaos and goes back to XIV from there.
- So much about Omega seems mysterious, but if we look at his history as a superboss in the entirely of the franchise we can probably see a bit where it comes from. In the Dawn of Souls remake of Final Fantasy, Omega has a biography stating that he was created as an ancient weapon of the Lufenians meant to hunt and kill dragons, and mostly succeeded, which is why Bahamut is the only dragon of power the original Warriors of Light meet that isn't a feral beast.
- Going off of this, and that Midgardsormr has a history with it, this is my thought: Omega and Middy are from the same world originally, and was created by whatever spoken lived on their planet with the intention of wiping the dragons out. While an evolving machine of limitless potential, Omega couldn't take down 'Sormr itself even when it caught up to him, but still succeeded in wiping out the dragons, making a comment about Midgardsormr's arrival on Hydaelyn take on a darker tone, he wasn't coming with seven eggs from the stars to seek a home, he was a refugee fleeing his homeworld with the last of his eggs in desperate hope to keep his race from going extinct. And Omega's goal is the same as ever, to become strong enough to take down Midgardsormr, and to that end it's used the primals, Allagans, and now the deltascape to evolve itself to try to finally achieve its prime directive.
- As of 4.2 this backstory is confirmed nearly verbatim
- With the pieces and players involved in the Return to Ivalice raid, it may be possible that Jenomis cen Lexentale/Arazlam Durai may be in possession of the Virgo Auracite, otherwise known as Ultima. While his goal of translating and releasing the Durai Report is of good intent, Ultima may be influencing him to a degree and line everything up to regain its power and take shape once more, possibly setting itself up as the final boss of the raid altogether.
- Confirmed, though she ended up possessing Ramza instead.
- Nobody seems to have a clear answer on what actually happened in the five years between Legacy and A Realm Reborn, but despite the massive amount of damage that Bahamut was able to do in just the first couple of minutes from his escape, one truly has to wonder how anyone managed to beat him, and nobody can give any explanation whatsoever. So what if Louisoix's last ditch effort wasn't an attempt to prepare for the future, but an apology for failing to be able to do anything for the warriors who fought so hard to save Eorzea? The Archon uses the last power he has to send them to another of the worlds in hope that they can help the inhabitants of that world stop what he was unable to. The people who remember the flashes of the Warriors of Light from the Realm Reborn world are remembering their counterparts who sacrificed their life to actually defeat Bahamut in that world before he could cause nearly the kind of damage he caused in your characters' homeworld.
- Jossed. The Calamity is one of many on the same world as explained in Shadowbringers.
- Well where else did he get the axe from
- Jossed. Word of God confirms that they use weapon models they think best suits a character, thus Magnai's axe is not the axe from Titan.
- Jossed: Magnai only has one extra scene in the post-Stormblood story. He also asks Y'shtola if she's his Nhaama, who turns him down handedly.
- Jossed: He doesn't do any sacrificing. So far, the last time he's appeared in the story is in the Level 80 Summoner quest.
- Possibly confirmed. He did pull a Heroic Sacrifice for Fordola during Death Unto Dawn, but his death is not confirmed.
- Jossed: He survived, but with serious injuries that have sidelined him indefinitely.]
- Warring Triad all at once
- After Amaterasu appears as the final boss of the Hingashi expansion or whatever; Japan's big three all at once
- Jossed on Stormblood's final boss. The final boss of Stormblood is Elidibus in the body of Zenos yae Galvus.
- The Eorzean Alliance leaders
- Midgardsormr and some of his kids like Nidhogg (complete with Estinien form), Tiamat and Hraesvelgr and some of his grandkids like Tioman and Vishap
- The Garlean generals and other important Garleans (so like Gaius, Regula, Nael and Zenos or something) but they're on foot like in Final Fantasy XII
- The Scions; Papalymo, Y'shtola, Thancred, Moenbryda, Alisaie, Alphinaud, Urianger, Krile, Arenvald, Tataru, Minfillia and/or Lyse.
- Godbert and Julyan.
- Rowena and Lolorito and whatever creative things they spend their gil on
- The WoL having an emotional breakdown; so like Fray, Myste, painful memories and whatever direction the Dark Knight quests head in
- Alexander and friends but designed like it was Gordias
- Confirmed: The Epic of Alexander is an Alexander-themed Ultimate along with him fusing with Brute Justice and Cruise Chaser to become Perfect Alexander.
- original characters of the devs so like Nonora rather than the Wandering Minstrel
- Omega but even more assets ripped from Dissidia
- Confirmed in The Omega Protocol (Ultimate), minus the Dissidia bit.
- The Zodiac Espers including Belial and Cuchulainn models ripped straight from Final Fantasy XII too
- The Void Ark like the actual boat thing
- The devs themselves
- Another Yo-kai Watch crossover
- The moogles of Moghome and the Twelveswood team up and summon Good King Moggle Mog XII for good measure
- Something original that isn't built on previous assets (but that requires too much effort)
- A Shadowbringers-esque Ultimate which involves fighting through the gauntlet of Titania and Innocence together, then Hades and the Warrior of Light together.
- One big free-for-all against all of your class/job trainers. The Warrior of Light, Elidibus, uses their Specters to wear down the Warrior of Darkness before their final confrontation and these are the trainers at their strongest, including Estinien fueled by the Eyes of Nidhogg.
- Zodiark if he were completely whole and at his full power.
- Elidibus is clearly different than the other Ascians, from his dress to his behavior to his preference to avoid conflict. He's also prone to talking about balance and warning others not to upset it too much one way or the other, and conspires against the Warrior of Light more as they prove more of a threat to balance. But at the same time, he's remarkably helpful to Urianger when they're looking for a way to help the Warriors of Darkness and seems like as not to undermine his black-robed fellows if it suits his purposes, not seeming to care too much when they fail or die and even mocking Lahabrea on more than a few occasions. While he might have Pragmatic Villain reasons for doing this, it could also be possible that he's not entirely on their side in the first place and is pursuing a completely different goal. As the Warriors of Darkness say, Hydaelyn and Zodiark used to be the same being in the beginning before they split and Zodiark was shattered. Elidibus wants to end the Light vs. Dark conflict altogether not by bringing about Zodiark's ascension but by merging the two back together, ending the potentially world-destroying conflict by effectively eliminating both sides. It would also explain the unusual nature of his dress, being a creature of darkness clad in white, his great concern for the balance, and his moral ambiguity and willingness to play both sides.
- Shadowbringers more or less confirms this on a few spots. Hydaelyn was created by the Ascians who did not agree with the others summoning Zodiark to save their world. Hydaelyn defeated Zodiark and split him into several shards, the alternate worlds to the Source. The surviving Ascians are trying to revive Zodiark so that their world can be restored.
- The Original Ramza, who's wish for everyone to return to the land gets corrupted by the auracite.
- Queen Remedi/Li-Grim who embodies and manifests her "son's" wishes and twists them to her own will in Tactic's Advance much like the auracite does in the raid story. And since phases 1 and 2 of the raid focused on Tactics 1 and Final Fantasy 12 respectively, TA is the likely conclusion of the Ivalice Alliance games.
- Someone from Vagrant Story
- Jossed: It was Ultima, the High Seraph.
- If it does happen, the Warrior of light might be the one accidentally causing it in some way. The voice in the trailer seems to directly request the Warrior to reestablish the balance, being the only one able to set things "right".
- The reveal trailer for Shadowbringers shows things might have gotten a lot worse. The lion statue and the warrior statue from Amdapor City hard mode make their appearance; the lion engages Thancred and the warrior, Kiribu, fights the Warrior of Light. She easily puts him down no matter what job he switches to (Archer > Warrior > Dragoon > Monk > Samurai). Only when the Warrior of Light switches to Dark Knight does he have a fighting chance and the voiceover narration states that the Warrior of Light must become a Warrior of Darkness. And all of this is happening while the Warrior of Light is completely alone.
- Jossed: The entire point of 5.0 is to prevent another Calamity.
- It seems awfully suspicious that Gaius would bring up the name Emet-Selch when we already know of the two Ascians controlling Garlemald from the shadows. After all, Solus doesn't fit the Theme Naming of the other Ascians, and the only other Ascian who didn't follow the naming scheme was using an alias.
- Confirmed
- In the extended trailer for Shadowbringers, we have Urianger referring to Y'Shtola as "Master Matoya". But, Master Matoya was the name of Y'Shtola's old teacher. That means one of a number of things: Either "Master Matoya" is a title and Y'Shtola inherits it or Matoya is still a name and something happens to both of them so that they end up fusing together.
- Jossed: it's basically an alias that she uses among the Night's Blessed, who believe that everyone should keep their true names hidden.
- We are traveling to the "First Shard", one of the alternate Hydaelyns created by Zodiark's defeat. The Scions we see in the trailer, the Astrologian Urianger, Gunbreaker Thancred, and "Master Matoya" Y'shtola are all the Alternate Universe counterparts to the characters we know in the Source.
- Jossed: They're the embodied souls of our Scions that the Crystal Exarch pulled away from the Source during the events of Stormblood.
- Solus knows exactly what Gaius is capable of, having pretended to be his closest friend for decades. Lahabrea betraying Gaius at the end of A Realm Reborn gave him the motivation to hunt down Ascians instead of continuing his attempt to conquer Eorzea. And as 4.3 showed, Gaius and his new companions have defeated at least five Ascians (two of which were red-masked and thus high-ranking). Now Elidibus and Solus have to worry about two mortals that equal them in strength and are actively working against them instead of just one.
- As noted by Hien in 4.5, despite Garleans disdaining the worship of gods, they worship Varis with the fervor of one, bonus points if it's the primal version of the Emperor from 2.
- Quite possible to happen now that he's been slain and up until then he was The Unfought...
- Alternately... Since it took death for Zenos to awaken to his Ascian heritage, the same thing would happen to Varis, allowing the two of them to end up being a Composite Character of II's Emperor. Zenos is the Devil side while Varis is the Angel side.
- Confirmed in a twisted sense; Zenos and Fandaniel use Garlemald's faith in the Emperor to convert his corpse into the primal Anima.
- Confirmed: Word of God is that Myste is based on both Haurchefant and Ysayle.
- Ardbert is a Warrior of Light on the First and he's a shard of the WoL's soul, ergo, since Unukalhai is a Warrior of Light of the Thirteeneth, he is also. It'd be nice to put him back in the story somehow.
- Jossed: He's implied to be a shard of Nyelbert's soul.
- Notice how he's the only one aside from the WoL themselves who can sense and see Ardbert.
- Jossed: The Warrior of Light's original self was Azem, one of the Convocation of Fourteen and a mutual friend of Hythlodaeus and Emet-Selch's.
- At the end of the MSQ, the Exarch surmises that perhaps his timeline is somewhere out there. Where better to have a setting like that than in an actual Dark Apocalypse?
- If not what the previous WMG says, then why not this?
- Jossed: The final dungeon of Shadowbringers as a whole is Pagl'than, the ancestral homeland of the Amal'jaa.
- To give the player one final gut punch at the end.
- In the backstory for Amaurot, it's shown that it was the fault of a 'sound from within the earth' that the Ascians began losing control of their creation magic and began accidentally creating monstrosities that led to their doom. This sound will be revealed as being the fault of some eldritch being, perhaps another Elder Primal or godlike entity, and Hydaelyn/Zodiark will willingly merge to give the Warrior of Light the blessings of light and dark to defeat it.
- So the Final Boss will be Lavos?
- Confirmed: The sound (or rather, the source of it, Meteion/The Endsinger), is indeed the final boss of Endwalker.
- Since the first section of Eden involved new versions of Leviathan and Titan, we'll end up having to fight new versions of old-world primals like Shiva, Ramuh, Garuda and Ifrit. Eden Ifrit would also look more in line with his classic version and Eden Shiva could end up splitting into two bike clones that have to be brought down to prevent a raid wiping attack if not in standard mode, then in Savage.
- Confirmed. You do fight new versions of Ramuh, Ifrit and Garuda. The latter two are fought as a tag team.
- Also confirmed for Shiva, though the bike clones isn't a thing with her. Ryne becomes Eden Shiva and loses control of it. Her "light" form is her take of Hydaelyn and in Savage mode, her third form is Hresvelgr wrapped around her body in "dragon" form. Her raid wipe attack is a new Flood of Light.
- Androids in NieR: Automata are named after their model (e.g. 2B is No. 2 Type B, "B" meaning "Battle"), and while 2P is a reference to 2B's Palette Swap in Soulcalibur VI, the name seems intentional and suggests the existence of Type-P, knowing Yoko Taro. Any guesses what the P means?
- Considering the events of the Puppet's Bunker, Production maybe?
- Or, considering the name of Puppet's Bunker, Puppet? 2B indicates that they aren't actual YoRHa.
- Whatever happens in the post-Shadowbringers story, the next expansion will take place back in Eorzea, and new chances for the Warrior of Light to expand their crafts. The blacksmith trainer would be Gerolt, the goldsmith trainer being Godbert Manderville while the culinarian trainer would be Julyan.
- While we've yet to know what shenanigans they'll end up getting to after being dragged into the First, one thing that will end up being used with great fanfare is the Great Serpent of Ronka, especially since while the Hildibrand stories start out hilarious, they end up having a Cerebus switch where things get super serious. In the G So R's case... It'll turn out to be that it was just biding its time to mutate into an 8-man trial boss that threatens creation worse than any Lightwarden.
- Jossed. Developers stated that they will not do Hilidibrand for Shadowbringers.
- Somewhat Jossed the jossed. While it's technically not in Shadowbringers, Endwalker 6.2 added a Hildibrand questline that takes you back to the First, where Hildibrand gets to confuse and annoy denizens of the Crystarium.
- We only know of the last king of Ala Mhigo as a crazed tyrant who committed a number of atrocities in his reign. He was likely a normal man until the Ascians got a hold of his mind and/or body. Doubly if it was Emet-Selch.
- While it is true that he's dead, there are a couple reasons I think that this is not going to stop that character from taking villain center stage.
- Varis had, last we spoke to him, an Allagan cloning facility that wasn't used for anything in Shadowbringers - Emet-Selch used a different body in the First and morphed it into a form resembling Solus. Allagan cloning technology was used to truly resurrect Xande - it's very possible that Varis was researching this for just such a contingency as his own death.
- The only narratively satisfying people to take the throne in Varis's absence would be Zenos (by birthright) and Gaius (presumably after rallying the citizens around him during the civil war.) Both are complete non-options as of 5.1 - Zenos has no interest in the throne, and Gaius has been framed as Varis's killer.
- 6.0 will likely be Garlemald. I can't imagine that Garlemald will be simply dealt with as a threat offscreen cause Zenos decided to go murder his dad - especially with the mini-dungeon bit of the Imperial Palace, whose assets I can't imagine creating without the intent to go there in the very near future. If 6.0 is Garlemald, then whoever manages to claim the throne in the chaos will likely take villain center stage.
- All the major villains in FFXIV have a strong association with a past villain - Nael is Sephiroth, Gaius is Vayne, Thordan is Seymour, Zenos is Sephiroth, Emet-Selch is Zemus. Varis has a strong association with Emperor Mateus Palamecia - whose most famous deed was dying in an anticlimax halfway into the game before coming back as the final boss. If Varis comes back from the dead and claims villainy again, he will have done the same.
- Looks to be Jossed—the villains of 6.0 are Zenos and Fandaniel. That being said, the 8-man raid series of the expansion is entitled Pandæmonium, which has a connection with Emperor Mateus (being the name of his castle after he died), so it's not out of the realm of possibility that Varis returns in those raids.
- Zig-zagged, as Varis is Anima, so he is there, just not the main villain.
- Cylva assumes that the Ascians had some hand in their creation, but the Cardinal Virtues' bodies are a bit too fresh to have just been rotting in the ground for nearly a century before Vauthry supposedly dug them up. After all, the Warriors were convinced by the Ascians to travel to the source, so it's not out of the question that one of them was around when they offed themselves on the First to do so. It would also give an explanation for why Ardbert's body wasn't used to make a Virtue: Emet-Selch saw the shard of his friend's soul in Ardbert, and wouldn't want to desecrate his friend's memories by making their vessel into a plaything for Vauthry.
- A big armored guy with a horned helmet who was the first Garlean you fought in 2.0 that was pathetically easy. When you consider that the Garlean antagonists are patterned after previous antagonists from the series, he sounds a lot like Garland. Maybe this time he'll prove to be a challenge.
- Confirmed: Though he is still only a mid-boss.
- Further Confirmed in Patch 6.1, which reworks his fight from a 8-man Trial into a solo fight, where he definitely proves to be a challenge.
- In order to contrast the sympathetic backstory of the Ascians, Zodiark will be completely awful. He'll reveal to Elidibus that he never intended to return the souls of Amaurot at all, before killing him after he goes over the Despair Event Horizon. It'll then be revealed that he intends to eat the souls of the inhabitants of Hydaelyn's shards before killing the Mothercrystal herself, just to spite her for getting in his way. And his final plan will be to take the souls of every living being in the multiverse just to feed his need for aether.
- Jossed about Elidibus. He's killed in 5.3 and it's revealed the one we've known this whole time is a Primal of the original Elidibus and had been separated from Zodiark, both fighting for and against him in each Shard to usher in the Rejoining. Elidibus is also killed before he gets to see Zodiark ever reborn.
- Confirmed: Zodiark is indeed released. He is then killed. It's not a good thing.
- """Jossed:''' Zenos was just having a dream of the Final Days.
- If we follow 2P's narrative then the conclusion should be pretty simple, we are in the path of Ending D, 9S went insane for reasons unknown and is now hunting 2P because she reminds him of 2B with the aid of the Machine Network. However we are dealing with Yoko Taro here his stories are never that straightforward and one side never has the full story. To start with the 2P's narrative starts to fall apart with even a passing knowledge of the games, she never mentions YoRHa, doesn't bat an eye at the sight of the Android's gods (humanity), despite even by 2B's knowledge having never seen a human in millenia, and implies that the Androids and the Machines are working together, something neither side is even willing to consider in Automata, similarily she claims that 9S is the one controlling the Machines, something that is impossible for even a hacker as strong as 9S to do, even if we take the existence of Adam, Eve, or the Red Girls out of the equation. As if Taro wanted to put a final nail in 2P's narrative he reveals that 9S doesn't have the Logic Virus anymore and we are given hints that the Machines are being forcefully hacked by the Yo R Ha Android given their pleas for help and mercy. Finally, and perhaps more simplistic of all is that there is no P designation among Yo R Ha, and 2P's introduction is unusually informal for considering 2B's previous robotic behaviour. What each side wants is a mystery for now, but it is clear that they are not aligned and that 2P is either ignorant of said reality at best, or actively lying to the heroes for a secret agenda at worst.
- Confirmed: 2P was manipulating the Warrior of Light into helping her unleash the Machines onto the First, and 9S was actually trying to stop her.
- Confirmed on Sapphire being Regula, though it’s less Warring Triad since it turns out to be a Flawed Prototype.
- Jossed: on Emerald being Grynewaht. It's Gaius from his invasion of Werlyt.
- The Diamond Weapon will be piloted by Valens van Varro during the final chapter of the story, its Oversoul being Livia sas Junis, who has been dead since Castrum Meridianum in A Realm Reborn. Just to make sure its a one hell of a Climax Boss, even after beating it with G-Warrior, the Warrior has to go down on foot and disable it. Just for added pain, Gaius has to be the one to fully destroy Diamond Weapon/Livia to put her to rest once and for all.
- Jossed on Livia. Valens is wanting to make Diamond Weapon's data be Zenos yae Galvus's.
- More specifically, 5.5 against the final weapon will have the G-Warrior combine with or be upgraded with parts of the previously destroyed weapons either before or after having to fight the last weapon as a trial encounter.
- Keep in mind that Gunbreakers have a Weathered Lion Heart as an i480 gunblade. It's got the namesake, but isn't the actual weapon.
- We see an unmasked Anogg in 5.4, and she appears to be a redhead, at least.
- Jossed: Fandaniel does betray Zenos in the end by taking control of Zodiark himself, but not for any of the guessed reasons, nor does he kill Zenos.
- Jossed: At no point was Fandiel implied to be "sealed" as described above. He's a sundered Ancient who reincarnated as Amon and has been working with them since he was recruited in the final days of Allag's existence. Lahabrea's mistake is implied to be his recklessness not only causing disruptions with the Ascians plans, but led to multiple members of the Convocation of Thirteen being vanquished and sent to the lifestream.
- From the Portable Archive records, we can see that the Machine Lifeforms were developing curiosity over the process of birth, and it's highly likely that they would begin to experiment with it. This would result in the development of the White Androids and the mannequin-like beings, who would turn on the Machine Lifeforms for their own goals...whatever they may be.
- Jossed as of now. The next class is confirmed to be Sage, a healer.
- Jossed: The music played for the final battle with Zenos is "Footfalls", the main theme of Endwalker.
- Confirmed: The Tower is the final part of the YoRHa raid series.
- Jossed. No voice acting from the Nier raids exist.
- Jossed: Endwalker shows how Zenos and Fandaniel reach Zodiark and then pull a twist by making Fandaniel join with Zodiark instead of Zenos.
- There actually is precisely one moogle seen in Norvrandt: Nutsy, leader of the regional hunting clan.
- Jossed: The Eden Primals are Leviathan, Titan, Ramuh, Ifrit, Garuda, Shiva, and the Cloud of Darkness.
- Half-jossed. One of the hints shown is of an Ascian with Lahabrea's mask in a place called Pandaemonium. However, the 24-man alliance raids will focus on the Twelve.
It would be interesting, to say the least. The Twelve themselves mostly exist as background lore, so seeing them make a physical appearance would be very satisfying.
- It's mentioned that :whatever the Twelve you fight are, they are not Primals, so Jossed.
- Definitely looking like it since 5.4 has a series of quests that set up a new arc involving the New Warriors of Light and Unukalhai.
- Alternatively, it will be a return point in 6.1 - the past stories have involved few detours to prior locales in the main game, with Heavensward standing out as the most heavily involved but even then only lasting a couple quests in total, Stormblood only returning to ARR areas in transition between Gyr Abania and Othard, and Shadowbringers not involving any canon return until the patches. However, the patches have always included returns to past locales, and that seems likely to continue.
- Confirmed: Somehow Further Hildibrand's Adventures, of all things, starts in the First. Apparently him appearing in 5.3 was not just a gag.
- Confirmed, in a roundabout way. When the world was whole, he made the being, Meteion, who was responsible for the sound. Jossed on the name. Fandaniel's real name is Hermes.
With the G-Warrior still undergoing repairs and apparently due to recieve some upgrades, plus the general factor of not wanting to let it simply go to waste, a showdown between the G-Warrior and the Diamond Weapon seems all but inevitable. However, there still needs to be a trial and Extreme trial for 5.5, and while it's possible that SE will break with their previously established pattern and tie them into either the MSQ or another sidequest chain, it's far more likely to end up as part of the Sorrow chain. So instead, the writers Take a Third Option: 5.5's quests open up with a solo duty where you put paid to the final Weapon, but in the process the G-Warrior is thrashed, and with the Garleans closing in, the Resistance is left with no choice but to airlift you out of there and blast the wreck to hell and gone so as to deny Valens any sort of prize. Except, naturally, that doesn't work, and sometime later the VIIth Legion launches the inevitable counterattack on Terncliff, led by our favorite Mad Scientist Valens piloting the refitted and appropriately repainted G-Warrior. Time to gather up seven of your best friends (or just DF randos)!
With the recent bombshell that was dropped in 5.4 a question arises, who is going to be the final boss of the raid? In Automata's side most of the major characters that would be able to take the title have already been fought, 9S, Engels, or are either not available or unwilling to fight the party, Adam and Eve, the Red Girls, 2B. The answer may very well have been revealed in 5.4 to be a Grotesquerie Queen, the appearance of the Seed of Resurrection is a horrible thing to happen, if the events of the Drakengard series are anything to go by, and the fact that it spat out something that resembles Anogg makes it all the worse. Fighting an Anogg shaped Grotesquerie Queen fulfills the Yoko Taro story trope of fighting one of, or possibly both, twins, may very well cause the "No one stops" moment and creates a powerful oponent to be the final boss.
- Looking pretty Jossed! The trailer for 5.5 shows it's the Red Girls.
- Turns out only semi-Jossed, the Red Girls fused with the Seed of Creation to create their own version of a Grotesquerie Queen called the False Idol and Her Inflorescence and create a new world.
While the possibility of fighting a Grotesquerie Queen as a final boss sounds awesome there is another possibility with what was shown in 5.4. Yoko Taro is a known Troll and one that delights on using hints from previous games to subvert expectations and there is something strange with this particular Seed, if it is one, Annog's behavior is strange because, as Furiae so nightmarishly demonstrated in Drakengard, those who are revived by the Seeds of Redemption/Destruction become monstrous parodies of their former selves with an insatiable desire to kill all living beings but, other than an inability to speak the language of the First, Anogg's behavior didn't change in the slightest to the point that no one, not even her own brother questioned if this was the real Anogg. It may be possible that the Machine Network is using whatever knowledge it has of the Drakengard world to create a Seed of Destruction of their own in an attempt to understand the existence and intentions of God, as the humans did before them.
- Confirmed: The Seed is a creation of the Network with the intention of recreating the Grotesquerie Queen seen in Tokyo millennia ago and create a new world. They succeed in opening a portal and creating a new Queen but are promptly foiled by the Warrior of Light, 2B, 9S and Anogg.
- Maybe Jossed? The False Idol/Her Inflorescence seems to know some things about Drakengard / Nier lore that wouldn't make sense for the Machines to know.
- Confirmed: The Seed is a creation of the Network with the intention of recreating the Grotesquerie Queen seen in Tokyo millennia ago and create a new world. They succeed in opening a portal and creating a new Queen but are promptly foiled by the Warrior of Light, 2B, 9S and Anogg.
- Jossed. He very much lives.
- "A Beautiful Song."
- "The Tower."
- "Wretched Weaponry."
- An FF14-remix of "Birth of a Wish."
- If the Grotesquerie Queen is involved, then some combination of "The Final Song" from Drakengard 3 and Shadowbringers' main theme.
- All Jossed: We got Emil-Despair, Mourning, Posessed by Disease and a remix of Kainé with Final Fantasy. Shame. would have liked Birth of a Wish in here.
- The Watcher's Song
- Semi-Jossed: The final boss does include a rhythm game like mechanic, but there is no Optional Boss.
- I think you misunderstood my point, which is fair cause I didn't phrase it that well. I meant after all of Konogg's Messages come through.
- Apparently I was wrong. Jossed.
- Pandemonium was a hell gate in II.
- Interesting thing to note: Lahabrea is on the cover of the raid series. In Final Fantasy XII, Lahabrea is the Scion that opposes the Esper Mateus. Mateus is the name of the Palamecian Emperor who found his way out of Hell and summoned Pandemonium.
- Jossed, Pandemonium is just where the Ancients kept concepts too dangerous to be released into the wild but too scientifically interesting to just destroy. It is managed by Lahabrea though.
- Matanga: These were confirmed with the reveal and are only here for organization and confirmation sake.
- Hummingways: Between the players going to the moon, the description of the Namingway minion, and Yoshi-P not so subtly teasing them in the Beast Tribe showcase by drawing special attention to the fact that a certain iconic Final Fantasy race comes from the moon.
- Confirmed but they're going to be called Loporits.
- PuPu, since they are basically aliens.
- Alternatively as mentioned above, Fandaniel true name will be Zeus.
- Jossed. While Zenos' plans involve Zodiark, there is no Zemus; Fandaniel's past life's name is Amon, and his true name as an ancient was Hermes. Also, Zeromus shows up in an entirely different form in patch 6.4 after defeating Golbez in his trial, long after Zenos is already dead.
- Alternatively as mentioned above, Fandaniel true name will be Zeus.
- Maybe not explicitly named such characters, but they would be more Expies of said characters. Since Alphinaud and Alisaie have been the twin casters, they'll be the gender reversed roles of Palom and Porom. Since Estinien is now confirmed to be a Trust member, he'll be Kain. Unless Lyse or Widargelt finally makes the jump to Trust, one of them will be Yang.
- If Gaius is still alive after the Sorrow of Werlyt, he'll go through Cecil's Paladin arc where he confronts his inner darkness represented by his Legatus armor. He learns to let go of his hate and anger, allowing himself to be purged of his darkness before becoming a Garlean-esque paladin with technology to compensate for no aether.
- Gaius has no presence in the 6.x story. We got Cecil's Paladin moment in another character: Zero, in 6.5, though through learning to trust others and embrace the light.
- Definitely confirmed on the Golbez part. Even though his name hasn't been spoken yet, he's introduced in 6.1.
- Jossed! Endwalker is introducing male Viera, with female Hrothgar to arrive afterwards.
- There's also the fact we don't know how he got those Ascian masks and the fact one of them probably belongs to Fandaniel
- Jossed: The next Trust party member after Estinien is Zero. Now she is not a Scion, but considering that she is a Trust while Varshahn isn't suggests she is going to stick around.
- Alternatively, going by the Venat is Azem's mother theory, Venat will be Anima
- Double alternatively, Anima is Hydaelyn and Zodiark glued together, it's literally on the Endwalker cover art
- Contrasting this, I believe that Anima is going to be Varis. If anyone is going to be the core of a primal that's tempering people towards Garlemald itself it would be him, as I think he's the Dreamer that has been mentioned. Daddy Issues works just as well. Twofold two due to Emet and Varis's relationship.
- Confirmed on Anima being Varis!
- Jossed: Zodiark is a Disk-One Final Boss. Zenos ends up being Post-Final Boss.
- Jossed: Hermes is the true name of Fandaniel. Elidibus' true name was Themis.
- Apollo, following the sun symbolism.
- Dionysus, because they were a wandering god, and one of the side story associates them with grapes.
- To add on, Dionysus is known as a genderfluid deity, among his epithets are "twice-born" and "liberator," and in some mythologies is closely related to or even the same deity as Hades. And of course is "mad," walks among men, and most intriguingly is a foreign or traveling god
- Helios, also for the sun symbolism.
- Eos, Goddess of the Dawn, also for the sun symbolism.
- Persephone, because just like the goddess’s fate which dictates her to go to the mortal world to create spring, new lives, and hope for all humans, then return to the underworld, Azem and their reincarnations also travel all worlds, fight back against “winters” to save mankind before returning to the Aether Sea, waiting to be reborn and repeat the cycle again and again.
- Also, Persephone is the one god that truly has a close relationship with Hades Emet-Selch while being his opposite.
- Heracles, a wandering hero who had a habit of appearing in other people's stories to resolve the problem, who later ascended to become the god of strength. Said to have single-handedly made the world safe for people to live in.
- Alternatively, we'll literally never find out.
- As the above WMG pointed out, the true names of the Ascians revealed have all been the names of Greek Gods. Lahabrea is slated to return in Endwalker as the main antagonist of the Pandemonium raid series. Lahabrea has been dead since Heavensward and Pandemonium is the palace of Hell itself in Paradise Lost and Final Fantasy II. It seems fitting that Lahabrea would be named after the Greek god of death.
Poseidon:
- Since the Ascians' real names are all probably from Classical Mythology. Lahabrea is also a horse guy, a Pisces, Mateus carries a trident, the fact he's probably Thaliak (as much as the Emet-Wo L shippers wouldn't like to believe), which sort of fits for Poseidon I guess.
Hephaestus:
- He's fire themed, and was skilled with Creation magic, and by the time we meet him he has been 'crippled' albeit by his own doing. Also in the Pandemonium raids we meet his son who is named Erichtonios, which was the name of a son of Hephaestus in some myths.
- Confirmed, albeit with the spelling Hephaistos
- Confirmed: It's not like they made this a secret, Koji did say anybody who read the lorebooks would immediately know who it is.
The Overwatch one would be if there's a whole set of OW expies with the Reaper one indeed going DIE! DIE! DIE! when using their Limit Break during the Level 90 Class Quest.
- Jossed: No such references, sadly.
- Althyk: Loghrif, God of Time. Uses an axe (which could be kinda interchangable with a hammer, Belias uses a club thing too). Associated with the element of Earth and Loghrif's real name is Gaia.
- Azeyma: Azem, similar sounding name and both are Sun people.
- Nald'thal: Emet-Selch, Nald'thal are twins and Emet-Selch is a gemini. Leader of the underworld, Emet-Selch's real name is Hades. Nald'thal is also a money guy and Hades was also a god of wealth.
- Nymeia: Mitron, wheel symbol and Chaos' title is Walker of the Wheel. Associated with the element of Water and Mitron is fish guy. Also hangs out with Althyk/Loghrif.
- Thaliak: Lahabrea, scholar guys. Associated with the element of Water and Lahabrea is a Pisces and his real name is probably Poseidon. Bonus points if Pandæmonium ends up being based near Old Sharlayan.
- Menphina: Venat, after Endwalker Magnai tells you that Nhaama created the moon but we know Venat created the moon, and since Menphina is the goddess of the moon then maybe Venat is her Eorzean equivalent heck she's probably Tsukuyomi, her Othardian equivalent too.
- Crystarium = Cathedral City; a mysterious futuristic looking city comes out of nowhere, the difference is the Crystarium appearing is suppose to stop a cataclysm.
- A worldwide cataclysm is caused by accident. In the First, the Warriors of Darkness accidentally allowed imbalanced light to spread; in Nier, the death of Angelus caused by fighter jets kickstarted the apocalypse on Earth.
- Sin Eaters are similar to the Legion and those effected by White Chlorination Syndrome.
- The world is covered in eternal light.
- Jossed: The Relic Weapons are of Manderville design and are crafted on the Source. The Splendorous Tools, however, are created on the First.
- Confirmed. The lorebooks states it was a "Diabolos-class" voidsent.
- Jossed: Azem's memories never play a significant roll in Endwalker.
- Interestingly enough, the poster art for Endwalker revealed during the 2021 Fanfest is titled 'Scions', which contains artwork of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, along with the mysterious woman from Silvertear Lake (presumed by many to be Venat), and... Zenos.
- He does help against Fandaniel's machinations, but it's an Enemy Mine situation. He is also the Post-Final Boss.
- Jossed: Old Sharlayan does know about the Final Days and has the means to control what would come along for the evacuation, but they don't actually want it to happen.
- Also Fandaniel's ??? is the other Ascian Gaius managed to beat the shit out of.
- Jossed: We meet his past self before he was Fandaniel, but not a second copy of him or another being sharing his body.
- The ??? likely refers to Meteion.
And since that's the case, it's possible that Hydaelyn's moon is actually a spaceship, similar to what's revealed about the moon in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. And that would be the perfect way to include brand new planets into FFXIV—by using the moon to travel from planet to planet.
This would be a perfect next step for FFXIV if they cover the whole of Hydaelyn, and it would open up countless possibilities towards the future. It doesn't have to be the next expansion after Endwalker, but it could be on the table at some point in the future.
- Confirmed... kind of. Ultima Thule, the final zone, is comprised of reconstructed fragments of the dragons' and Omega's worlds. Worlds that had both met their end already.
- Fully Confirmed as of the 2023 Japan Fanfest. Dawntrail's Lifestyle Content will involve travelling to other planets in some way.
- Jossed: He turns out to be an overprotective parent who hastily disowned them because he felt the Warrior of Light and others had "corrupted" them (a decision he comes to regret later into the story.)
- Partially Confirmed and partially Jossed. While the Warrior of Light does indeed call upon their full potential, they gain a golden aura instead of a golden mask.
- Also Ryne will be a Gunbreaker.
- Unfortunately Jossed.
- Hoo boy, Confirmed as all hell. Fandaniel releasing Zodiark was part of a Thanatos Gambit. His goal was to kill Zodiark, who was the Barrier Maiden protecting the world from the Final Days.
- Jossed: He had a more fleshed out motive than expected but did not act to further the late Paragons' goals. There is a long story behind his actions. The current incarnation of Fandaniel was recruited from his sundered Source shard. To be precise, Fandaniel's latest incarnation that was recruited by Emet-Selch was Amon. That's right, the same Amon that resurrected the first Emperor of Allag. The Amon that you engaged in combat in the Crystal Tower raid was only a clone of himself. His experience as a citizen of Allag, rotting with disgusting pleasures, and serving Xande colored his view of the world and response to Emet-Selch imposing his will or memories of his past self on him inwardly. Amon developed a nihilistic view of life, not so dissimilar to the Emperor whom he served, just wanting to lead the world to demise with no deliverance. His view just simply doesn't align with his now non-existent superiors, who wanted to regain the world they lost.
- As of Endwalker's epilogue, it's Jossed as the Scions have publicly disbanded. Though it isn't the end of the group itself, the Scions of the Seventh Dawn name lays dormant until then.
- Jossed: The Loporrits are the third tribe, with their story focusing on regaining purpose after the aversion of the Final Days.
- Emet-Selch's recreation of the Final Days of Amaurot featured "Terminus Criers", which resembled red-tinted Gremlins.
- Gremlins are known for their "Bad Mouth" ability, which causes Misery to its target.
- Gremlins are commonly found in ruins alongside both Voidsent and Sin Eaters, and are notably the only non-Sin Eater enemies in Holminster Switch.
- Since Terminus Beasts have no aether at all, it makes sense why they're ignored by the Sin Eaters, which are otherwise single-mindedly obsessed with indiscriminately consuming the aether of living beings.
- It's also possible that, considering everyone looks identical and dresses in the same body-concealing robes, they resorted to some drastic measures to eliminate strife from their society.
- Meracydia
- New World
- Confirmed: the New World (under its true name Tural) is the setting for Dawntrail.
- The rest of Hingashi
- The Southern Isles
- Hydaelyn in various eras in the past
- The Heavens of the Twelve
- The remainder of the First
- The First in various eras in the past
- Any of the remaining Shards that wasn't detroyed by the Rejoining
- The Thirteenth / The Void
- Confirmed. We go there for a bit in 6.2.
- More of the World Unsundered
- Dragonstar
- Alphatron
- The Ea's star
- The Grebuloffs' star
- The Karellians' star
- The Nibiruns' star
- The other stars witnessed by Meteion
- Zig-zagged. It does feature four new Duty Support (formerly Scenario mode) party members... who are nameless guys used exclusively for A Realm Reborn dungeons and trials. As for actual Trust (formerly Avatar mode), no new characters are added.
- Points in favor of Ericthonios being the Unsundered Lahabrea:
- His transformed state has a mask that resembles Lahabrea's on the top of his head.
- The sigil directly under that mask◊—And later on the crystal Eric has at his waist◊—looks like the sigil Lahabrea's Scion of Darkness counterpart from Final Fantasy XII, Mateus', sigil◊.
- It would explain how we went from 'master of creation magic' to 'schmuck who got owned by an old man' without the flimsy excuse of the frequent body-hopping weakening him somehow
- Points against Ericthonios being the Unsundered Lahabrea:
- Tales from the Shadows confirms the Unsundered Lahabrea was the same Lahabrea that created the phoinix. Theoretically, Emet-Selch could be unaware of the switch, but considering the man can identify people by the specific color of their soul, this seems improbable.
- In the Japanese Tales from the Shadows, Lahabrea is apparently called 'oji-san', which implies he was older than Emet-Selch. Given that Emet and Azem are well into their careers and Eric is still being mentored, it's probably safe to assume he's younger than them.
- If Ericthonios is the current Lahabrea with case of Laser-Guided Amnesia, it seems strange that Themis would not mention anything about that.
- If Eric does become Lahabrea somehow, why wouldn't he remember meeting us in the past? Elidibus has the excuse of his nature as a primal and the fact that his Pandæmonium adventures are probably only one of his many accomplishments, but Pandæmonium was Eric's whole life up to that point; one would think he would remember the events. And using Kairos again somehow seems cheap.
- Emet-Selch is named for the Greek god of the underworld, Elidibus (probably) for a Titaness of justice, so it would be weird for our last Unsundered to be named for an obscure mortal king.
- Endwalker has been going out of its way to subvert expectations, and having our friend Eric become our enemy Lahabrea seems too obvious a way to win sympathy for Lahabrea.
- Jossed, 'our' Lahabrea is still Hephaistos.
- Hephaistos is much more reckless, maniacal, and arrogant than original Lahabrea, all of which modern Lahabrea had in spades and eventually proved his downfall.
- After being found out by Themis in Pandaemonium, Hephaistos would be much more careful about his imitation if he got another chance, at least at first. His regression into his original personality would be seen as sanity slippage by the other Paragons.
- His fusion dance with Igeyorhm is very similar to the original Lahabrea's merging with Athena- something the original Lahabrea found so appalling he ripped out half his soul in disgust. It's unlikely the original Lahabrea would willingly do that again... but Hephaistos would.
- Bonus point, the Venat/Themis familial connection could be used as a counterpoint to the Lahabrea/Erichthonios situation.
- It would also add multiple levels of irony, including his very name. Themis is the name of the titaness of ordered families in Greek mythology. If Venat is his mother, then their family becomes as disordered as it gets.
- Shadowbringers already shown that some physical ancient ruins of Amaurot were scattered throughout the Shards, like the pillars at the bottom of the Tempest. It's possible that ruins of Amaurot are also present, but undiscovered, in the Source. As for Elpis itself, it's possible that it was destroyed during the Final Days, or crashed down due to being unable to be maintained by the power of the Ancients.
- There are some floating circular island to the northeast of Garlemald on the full map that people connected to some early concept art of Elpis; possibly that is Elpis in the modern day?
- I mean, we already visited Azys Lla. It's literally a floating science facility thing where the people there are kinda inhumane and was even ran by same dude. Plus there's the theory that Azys Lla was partially made from the remnants of Elpis.
- I was thinking about this and I'm going to have to go with a "No actually" here:
- If the 'Adventurer' were to go back and become Azem and get their ass sundered right they're only like 8 or 9/14 or something of a full ancient and so you'd end up with a feedback loop of 8 or 9/14 or something of Azem's aether will get thinner and thinner with each sundering and at some point probably won't survive the sundering.
- If the 'Adventurer' were to get sundered at 14/14 well that's ages away unless something happens that speeds it up.
- And finally everyone after Endwalker everyone goes on about how the Adventurer is free to do and go wherever they want now, the Adventurer becoming Azem shackles them to the past and is a contradiction to all that plus Temulun would've already foreshadowed that, and traps them in time loop that sets a definate end to the Adventurer's adventurering (apart from the natural end of the Adventurer's lifespan but even they'll just reincarnate and keep adventuring).
The round-shaped doors of the buildings are noticeably offset from the ground, which is a highly unusual architectonical trait that implies whoever were inhabiting these buildings were able to at least hover from the ground or reliably jump. The door shape itself resemble the hollows of trees in which some species of birds make their nests, and the large cylindrical buildings trees themselves.
The buildings are also very vertically focused and have many floors, as well as mid-air stone bridges that connect buildings together; the multiple doors in the upper floors implies that whoever lived there was potentially expected to exit or enter their home through flight, or to at the very least be comfortable with particularly tall heights.
What makes it sure that they were anthropomorphic is in the rest of the architecture, such as the familiar chairs in the central park and the very focused-on bar. The actual liquid containers of the bar, seemingly made of some stone or porcelain material, also resemble oval eggs, further strengthening the avian connotations.
- Alternatively, they could have been a race of anthropomorphic winged insects similiar to bees; on top of the above deductions, the civilization Nekropolis seemed to have been highly communal: the number of mailboxes on buildings imply dozens of individuals lived in the same building, similiar to small 'hives', and no individual houses seem to exist. If they were actually based on bees, their mysterious dissapearance might also be a reference on the modern worrying disappearance of wild bees.
- There's some Azys Lla flavour text about bacteria the started growing Lalafell like limbs or something, but Lalafells exist on the First, so it probably wasn't the Allagans who developed the Lalafell bacteria, and since the Ancients weren't that different to the Allagans then they probably did it or something.
- In Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringers the trial series was foreshadowed in some way like you can see statues of the Warring Triad at Azys Lla, the Four Lords appear on the Othard map and Estinien and friends find out about the weapon project while hanging out in Garlean territory, so one can assume that the Endwalker trials would be foreshadowed in the same way. The other option is the trial series will be the four fiends but there doesn't seem to be any foreshadowing for them, unless they end up being involved with the Last Dregs shenanigans.
- This actually seems more likely than the Last Dregs being a Beast Tribe questline, as no MSQ or post-MSQ dungeon has ever set up a Beast Tribe questline this neatly. To add onto this theory, the actual structure of the Trial series might be fighting recreations of powerful opponents the Omicrons fought in their galactic conquest and stored in the Stigma unit memory, in order to gather enough data to recreate extinct species.
- All jossed, the Last Dregs is part of the Omicron Tribe Questline, and Endwalker has no Trial series, due to all of the post-6.0 Trials being included in the MSQ.
I also considered the characters receiving a distress beacon from a few hundred light-years away, but you're a few hundred years too late, so only someone with convenient space-time powers could help. Except that's more-or-less the setup for Pandaemonium so probably not.
Alternatively or additively, Ultima The High Seraph's design looks like a bunch of entities fused together into one Nightmare Fuel being; if we take that fully at face value, and if the above is even remotely true, we might be fighting a fusion of several desperate alien species fused together into one being.
- Ok, but the offical art for Ultima looks like a bunch of beings mushed together, so what if rather than a Meteion, Ultima was a bunch of Meteia instead. How they ended up mushed together, I don't know. Go ask Altima or something Word of God said she might still be around.
- Further evidence to support this is that Ultima creates auracite and, in line with its Ivalice counterpart, transforms the user into a monstrous being fueled by a strong emotion, which is similar to how a blasphemy is created.
- Alternatively, the hypothetical Save the Queen continuation would be locked behind Return to Ivalice and Save the Queen both of which are rather long and outside of the players who regularly keep up to date with content they would be locked out of it, which wouldn't be very good considering the gigantic Newbie Boom the game had over 2021.
- One thing is for certain, Word of God has confirmed that a Garlemald expansion was on the table.
- Seemingly confirmed with the announcement of Dawntrail: not only are the stakes lower than those of Endwalker, but they're arguably the lowest they've ever been in FFXIV's history up to this point.
- There's also a raid questline where two out of three parts have to be completed to advance the MSQ which involves a lesbian couple where one has magic light powers and can probably world hop fine just like the adventurer and the other one will eventually remember how to world with her dark powers or something.
- Ok but what if the story just pretends you already did it and advances like that, like you can already do the Coils while Alphinaud and Alisaie are in a coma.
- Jossed: Though considering the events, new zones being added in later patches is not a stretch.
- They look suspiciously similar, even having the same very dinstinctive eye colour.
- Confirmed.
- Considering what is known about him, and after a comparison to the members of the Twelve that have appeared, it seems likely that he would be Thaliak if this is proven true.
- An equally as likely option is Oschon, the God of Travelers. Not only is Deryk...well, an explorer and traveler, he also has long, slightly reddish hair; the Astrologian card that depicts Oschon also has him with long red hair.
- Additionally, keep in mind that while the Twelve have animal disguises, they only said that they can't be seen in their true form. They never said what their disguises should be.
- Confirmed as of 6.5. Deryk is the human disguise of Oschon, the Wanderer.
- Jossed in 6.5. The opo-opo is just some animal Deryk—or rather, Oschon—took care of.
- Spriggan: Byregot (Confirmed)
- Fish: Thaliak
- Jossed, The fish is Nymeia
- Golem: Nophica
- Jossed, the Golem is Althyk. Nophica is a Little Leannan.
- Bunny: Menphina (Confirmed)
- There will eventually be a Shoebill hanging around and it's obviously going to be Nald'thal because of the whole Emet thing they have going on.
- Also jossed, Nald'thal is little mummy.
- It sounds too much like Nael though.
- Alternatively, there is nothing underneath the armor.
- Jossed. Not just from the fact he was already voiced but also we found out what Golbez looked liked at the end of 6.4.
- For the record, the latter has yet to be confirmed.
- Jossed: The voidsent Made a Slave to Zenos is Zero.
- Jossed for three, Confirmed for one. Sidequests after the story patches show the backstories of the Four Archfiends. Scarmiglione, Barbariccia and Cagnazzo were by no means heroes. Rubicante was one of the Memorite Unukalhai spoke of.
- Jossed: The fate of that people remains unknown. The Necropolis is repurposed by the Omicrons and Jammingway into a café called the Last Dregs.
The first area names being Pools of Folly -> Demise -> Oblivion? Really specific for no clear reason. It could easily be Hermes' reflection on the short lives of the sundered. Same with the bone dragon reviving and the platinals being skeletons.
The Atomos section is admittedly harder to place, being more in line with Emet-Selch's disdain with the sundered's lack of unity (maybe that's where he got the idea), but Thanatos being the boss is some pretty obvious stuff.
The last section marks the point where Hermes went all apocalypse-happy, if all of the sudden lava is any indication. King Behemoth is the prototype for all the reused-model lookalikes now, but him dropping instant-kill meteors is reminiscent of the Final Days. This also explains why he gets a post-defeat cutscene, the only one of the non-final alliance raid bosses to have such so far.
The "Labyrinth" being called that while it's really just three straight lines with barrier shenanigans involved also makes sense under this logic. Amon thought that actually working to build a labyrinth was too hard, so he put down a couple teleporters and then left.
Bonus mini-theory: he's responsible for most of the adds (sans Xande in CT and the voidsent in Wo D). Scylla, for example, comes right the heck out of nowhere - who is this woman and why does she have dogs for heads? - but after we hear that Amon turned some dude into a man-bull hybrid, her existence makes a little more sense.
Meanwhile, the Ascians found another shard of Igeyorhm and 'promoted' it, replacing her. That's the Igeyorhm the Warrior of Light fights in Azys Lla.
Evidence: Zero is the only one who didn't fully transform. It's unlikely her mother was the only pregnant woman during the Flood of Darkness, so her explanation about being in the womb and that's why she's only part-voidsent is unlikely. Zero is able to use 'memoria', the art of turning souls into crystals - a technique taught to the 13th Warriors of Light by the Ascians in order to cause their downfall, and one Zero would have been too young to learn if she was born at the same time as the Flood of Darkness.
Also, Zero has blue hair, the same color as Igeyorhm.
Jossed:Emet-Selch stated plainly that the 13th was a shared failure due to it being their test run/first attempt at a rejoining. Additionally an Ascian only loses their memories when they are reborn and Mitron's transformation was the basis of the Flood of Light, Igeyorhm's was not.
- Jossed: Lahabrea remerged with Hephaistos at the end of the Pandaemonium story to reclaim his full power. And since he had the Heart of Sabik, which only the Lahabrea who married Athena would know where it was or what it could do, it can only be "our" Lahabrea.
- Jossed and Confirmed; Rubicante is an Au Ra and Cagnazzo was a Roe.
- One detail that might support this theory is that the Warrior of Light is carrying the crystalized aether of Scarmiglione and Barbariccia. Being turned into memoria is said to be permanent, but Golbez might be able to break that rule with his new power to free them, or barring that, using the aether once he steals it to create "shades" of his Archfiends to fight for him.
- Confirmed! The trailer for 6.5 clearly shows that the four Archfiends will all be brought back in some way.
- Confirmed, as Golbez turns her into a voidsent he can control.
Thus he re-joined with Hephaistos, damning himself in the process to save everyone else.
Jossed. Lahabrea rejoins with Hephaistos to un-brainwash Hegemone.
Which then leads to...
- Jossed: The Warrior of Light fights Athena with allies summoned with Azem's crystal. The ancients brought back in the story are made by Athena and cannot physically stop her.
- Jossed: Lahabrea remerged his soul to get his full magical power back to undo Athena's brainwashing of Hegemone.
- Jossed: Athena fights alone in the final battle, barring a few familiars. Lahabrea is never fought.
- Jossed: The Pandaemonium in the aetherial sea is a recreation made from a piece of Azys Lla.
- Jury's still out on whether or not this was the original plan for Endwalker's MSQ. The only way we can find out is from Word of God.
- Maybe, but 6.45 provides an explanation to why Mandervilles are the way they are - it's because the person who started the entire family line willingly gave his (sickly and dying) body to an alien to possess. And said possession makes its hosts significantly stronger, faster and tougher - something the Manderville descendants retained. Dynamis might still have a presence though.
- Confirmed!
- Before EW dropped Yoshi-P made some comments about Zenos's avatar, and how Wo L was his only friend 'and maybe his avatar is some sort of variation on Wo L' (here)
- Ok but isn't Azem's schtick is all about The Power of Friendship something all their other shards (the WoL, Ardbert, Tenzen, Ramza and so on) all have. Zero doesn't have any of that even before everything went to shit she didn't have The Power of Friendship. Even Golbez uses more The Power of Friendship than Zero.
...but instead of them helping us, Athena will be using them against us.
The term (technically sans e, but whatever) describes both an inland march and the retreat from such. She has a strong connection to the Lifestream, explaining how Pandaemonium showed up near the Aitiascope. Why act now? As part of the Lifestream she's essentially "smeared across time", aware of her existence in the Unsundered World and Etheirys and experiencing both; she sensed us mucking up her plans by defeating Hephaistos in the past and moved Pandaemonium to the present to disorient those acting against her and to plan her invasion - at a time where the world has been rocked by the destabilizing Final Days and the Scions' supposed disbanding. Versions of the Three Paragons will be the normal bosses, while Athena herself will be the tier boss, planning to invade Etheirys with her twisted creations.
- Confirmed to a degree. Themis is the only one to make an appearance and technically he is only a shade using parts of Themis's soul.
Such a thing would certainly be devastating from Emet-Selch's point of view and for his psyche: not only did he spent eons committing atrocities upon atrocities in the hope of bringing back his compatriots and loved ones, but during all that time, one of said loved ones came back over and over to try and stop him, forcing him to fight, and probably kill, several of their reincarnation over the centuries.No wonder he looks in equal parts furious and desperate by the end of Shadowbringer: his closest friend -one of the two people he owes his elevation to the Convocation of Fourteen to- kept coming back from the grave to oppose him over and over again, like a very bellicose conscience.
And perhaps this was part of the plan: Venat knew Emet-Selch well, and remembered the Warrior of Light's time in Elpis, when Emet-Selch angrily took offense at the thought of "forsaking his duty", so, as Hydaelyn, she may well have chosen a ruthless form of psychological warfare: forcing him to look into several incarnations of Azem's eyes as he slayed them to slowly grind down his resolve.
When one considers the bond between Golbez and Durante, one may also draw the conclusion that...
There are also superficial similarities between the two—long fair hair, deep voices, merciless in combat... Less compelling evidence to be sure, but evidence nonetheless.
- Confirmed: Zeromus will be fought in Patch 6.5's trial, the Abyssal Fracture.
- Alternatively, Zeromus EG will be saved for a future Ultimate raid centred around the Four Fiends and Golbez.
- Jossed, Zeromus has the same appearance in the Extreme version.
- Weapon Master: A Walking Armory like Firion from Dissidia Final Fantasy. Yoshi-P's T-shirt in the Fanfest was for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The turtles all wield unique weapons, so the Job will carry several small weapons on their person, using a different weapon for every skill to chain combos.
- Corsair/Swashbuckler: It's speculated that the shirt is hinting that the new Job will use Scouting gear, with the TMNT representing the Pirates Versus Ninja trope. The Warrior of Light is also wearing a thin sword at their hip in the teaser trailer, suggesting a possible Sword and Gun combo.
- Both jossed, the melee DPS is the Viper, who - while it has a swashbuckler-esque aesthetic - is more of a hunter than it is a Weapon Hunter or Corsair.
- Green Mage: It's possible that the shirt might additionally be a hint towards the Caster Job - not due to the name, or the weapons, or the fact they're turtles, but the color green. A Green Mage in this case would be a caster who specializes in poison and affliction-based spells.
- An additional heavy hint of this is the clover accessory Krile finds at the end of 6.5's MSQ - why is it relevant? Because the Green Mage in Tactics A2 has a clover on their cloak.
- Pictomancer/Painter: Each of the Ninja Turtles are named after famous artists, after all.
- Confirmed.
- The Jobs for the expansion have been revealed to be the Viper and Pictomancer. The Viper wears Scouting armor and fights with twin blades that can connect into a Double Weapon a la Zidane Tribal in Dissidia Final Fantasy. Pictomancer is the Magical DPS, taking direct inspiration from Relm Arrowny, who thus far is the only Pictomancer in Final Fantasy's history.
A technologically advanced Shard as an antagonist would also work well in creating a new overarching saga now that the majority of the big enemy factions, Garlemald and the Ascians, are no longer in play, and would pave the way to build up to greater inter-Shard conflict.
- Also it's run by an ascian, it's literally in the artwork
It's possible that Solution 9 the city could have been used for a similar purpose in the past, taking unfortunate Etheirys souls that died in close proximity to it to replace them with other souls, and the final arc of the game will involve going to XIV's version of Terra to stop the main antagonist from restarting the process and killing all life on Etheirys.
- Alternatively, there never was a "literal," El Dorado style City of Gold, and Solution Nine has always been the high-tech city that's it's been. It's just that, over generations, the truth was lost, and eventually the legend of the City of Gold came to be.
It will show the good of both but also the danger of focusing solely on one or the other, showing that a balance between the two must be made for people to thrive.
The Big Bad of each part will be people who are uncompromising in their beliefs, one believing that "We've always done it this way, so we don't need to change it!" and the other believing that "Nothing of the old ways are useful, throw everything away and embrace the new age!"
- Godbrand's recording actually references him having two children, and Godbert muses for a bit about what became of the seemingly forgotten second Manderville bloodline. It's likely that Julyan is descended from that original cadet branch.
- Nabriales. His ability to control the flow of time seems to be unique to him. Thus, it would make sense for him to be Aion, the incarnation of time's inevitability and cycling in Greek thought.
- As said in Encylopedia Eorzea, Nabriales' office presided over the martial arts, meaning it might have alternatively been Ares.
- Alternatively still, he might have been Kratos, personification of strength.
- Still another possibility is Poseidon, as being the god of earthquakes implies intense strength right away. Furthermore, considering his position as Top God before the Zeus sect gained ascendance, it's possible that between Nabriales and Pashtarot, one was/is Poseidon and the other Ares. Pashtarot-Poseidon would make sense with the conceit of the Top God being responsible for the most important edicts.
- As said in Encylopedia Eorzea, Nabriales' office presided over the martial arts, meaning it might have alternatively been Ares.
- Igeyorhm. Her office presided over rhetoric and logic. Thus, epistemology might have been her ultimate sphere, and with it knowledge itself. The closest match seems to be Mnemosyne, goddess of memory and mother of the Mousai.
- Emmorololth. Her office was medicine. While Hygieia might come to mind, she was more about cleanliness than medicine proper. One possibility is to match her to a more metaphorical sort of medicine—maintaining the order and function of society, like maintaining the body's blood and lymph flow. This leads to Hestia, goddess of the hearth and civic order.
- Halmarut. His office was agriculture and plants. The brothers Triptolemos and Demophon seem likely candidates, the sons of the rulers who took Demeter in while she was mourning the initial loss of Persephone. Triptolemos essentially became her prophet, while Demophon was the boy she had tried to burn the mortality out of.
- Pashtarot. His jurisdiction was establishment and enforcement of law, and Halone, the war deity of the Twelve, had once been a candidate for the post. Ares fits perfectly, both as a warrior like Halone and being associated with protection and Themis in his native Thrakia.
- As mentioned above, Poseidon as the pre-Zeus Top God also fits for responsibility of issuing edicts.
- Altima. She governed the arts. Mnemosyne seems from here to best match to Igeyorhm, so Aphrodite in her role as goddess of beauty—seeing art as a way to propagate beauty, and not just visual beauty, through society—is the next fit.
- Deudalaphon. He's evidently the "Innovator" connected with Arcadion, but finding deities associated specifically with novelty is not an easy thing. It may be better to select a god who's effectively a polymath. This most likely means Apollon.
- Azem. While giving them a canon original name is arguably counter to being redefinable by the player, there is an argument to be made for Nemesis, despite popcorn enemies of the same name assisting Thanatos in the Labyrinth of the Ancients. "Nemesis" is in fact a neuter name, and the deity herself presided over the allotment of weal and woe. Azem's travels, then and now, were about ensuring as many as possible knew weal, and certainly the present day also involves dispensing woe to the wicked that the weal might not be threatened.
- I would argue Apollon would be a better guess, given the various connections with the sun made in-game. It could also tie into how the game encourages the player to play multiple roles, just as how in mythology Apollon had a wide patronage (ex. archery, music, boxing, medicine, crops and herding).