This is just a small collection of things that stood out to move over the course of Endwalker. I hope you all LOVED the expansion as we all look forward to more grand adventures in the future! Also look forward to new lore content coming soon!
#ffxiv #endwalker #lore
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About Dynamis – it’s highly suggested that limit breaks use the power of dynamis. In the final fight, after using tank LB3, the first thing she says is “Dynamis..?”
Also, I don’t think it’s confirmed that all worlds outside of ours is dead. It’s just the worlds that she was sent to were dead or dying. While the song of oblivion did affect the entire universe, there’s room in the lore that there are other worlds that found a way to counter it. I personally would be surprised if that happened, but we do have two spaceships now.
As far as the blessing of light / echo… I think you went a bit extra on how much the blessing was mentioned vs the echo. :p I for one appreciated the echo explanation when Venat walked us through it in elpis. But I frankly dislike it as a storytelling device, even preferring closed-loop time travel over it.
I do agree the difference between two was muddy, and now it’s more muddy. Everything that is said in-game about the echo is theory, not fact – other than our talk with Venat. We should allow theories to be proven wrong, and perhaps not get so triggered about it… /smile. In addition, is it that absurd that the echo / blessing of light can have overlapping benefits? My personal understanding of the echo is that it is a portion of the original ancient’s power, the blessing of light originated from an ancient. Hence it’s not absurd to me that people with the echo could resist tempering with or without the blessing.
I'm so happy endwalker over all was an amazing expansion.
I can't wait to see what else you can find your research Sir Scribe!
Love your work and can't wait for more!
Almost at 10k!
I think the biggest issues I had were:
• not really seeing the rest of the world impacted by the endsong (though I haven't played the role quests as of yet, maybe they help)
I really would've liked to see how Raubahn and Aymeric and Kan-E-Senna and Nanamo and Hien and Best Admiral were impacted, how they would respond to these crises. They definitely just dropped off the face of Etheirys after post-ShB.
• not really getting to see Zodiark as an individual entity before he was destroyed (though I've heard it argued that Elidibus was Zodiark the way Venat was Hydaelyn and I can certainly accept that)
• all of the emotional buildup and not a single meaningful death among the main bunch. I don't WANT any of them to die, but it felt the whole expansion like it was leading somewhere and when they all just came back in the end I was a little bit… underwhelmed, I suppose. The only ones I really could've seen dying based on what I interpreted as foreshadowing were either of the twins but mainly Alphinaud—which definitely wasn't going to happen—or Krile, which maybe they should've just done because she got shelved hard this expansion imo
• Maybe most importantly, I wanted that big final twist. When Zodiark died and we heard Meteion's "Ahhh… At last…" I sooo badly wanted this to be Hydaelyn. It was made even more interesting when we learned about Venat and Meteion and it was clear that Venat made Hydaelyn, but that Meteion was the one given the "hear, think, feel" lines in that moment. I wanted to discover that while Hydaelyn originally existed as a benevolent force, Venat was weakened in some way and Meteion has been pulling the strings behind the scenes the entire time, was the one commanding the Sharlayan's to their doom, maybe had something sinister in store with the Loporrits… there was a lot of what I think to be missed potential in this department. Endwalker was ultimately very straightforward.
Overall, I loved the expansion, but these are the things I walk away feeling could have been improved upon in one way or another.
I feel like you totally missed the revolation that the Echo is actually a fragment of an Anchients soul and yours is Azem. That is why you can use the stone, and it is why everyones echoes are different. They are different souls. It is an 'Echo' of one of the Anchients. Also most of the guys in this expac use different terms because for the most part they have a very different understanding of things.
I didn't have an issue with the time travel here. Given Alexander and Shadowbringers, either it's a divergent timeline or the loop gets closed and you maintain the current timeline you're in. Venat calls out that she doesn't know which one it will be (though we have a hint with Argos) until she closes the loop by doing the Sundering and then pointing us towards Elpis.
Spoilers, obviously. You have been warned.
I agree with your points on the Echo and the Blessing of Light. It definitely got muddled with the explanations. Now I'm not sure what the Echo is even doing other than disabling us in the middle of combat and giving us visions of the past, while leaving us completely vulnerable in the present. Estenien was right, we need to stop falling asleep in the middle of duels. 😀
Time Travel has been a sore point for me personally. I think Shadowbringers did it the best in that G'raha came back to prevent the dark future from coming to pass. Closed time loops can work, but here it made very little sense. Why didn't Venat try to convince Hades and Hythlodeus after the memory wipe again? Both of them definitely hold her in very high regard and she even tagged Meteion with a tracker. Just because she couldn't trust if Hermes would be reliable, doesn't mean the remaining 13 members of the Convocation couldn't be trusted.
Given that the FF14 universe is filled with dynamis, I could imagine that scholars would be studying this form of energy based off emotions and maybe even retrofit the Ragnorok to utilize dynamis instead of aether to visit other places. Just because a civilization is dead or gone doesn't mean there aren't interesting things out there to find or discover. The field of archeology would not exist otherwise. Additionally, the song of oblivion didn't reach everywhere at the same time. There could be other civilizations that survived or found innovative ways around the destruction wrought by the Final Days, and Meteion said it herself, that her new song of hope would let life begin anew.
This expansion has been excellent. Perhaps it didn't quite hit the same highs and lows as Shadowbringers for me personally, but the soundtrack, the story beats, the fact that everything you have ever done in game gets brought back into the fold with nearly every NPC raid participant from little Alpha to the sky pirates from the Void Ark raids to even Ramza and Alma's theater company from the Ivalice raids, coming to assist you simply because Alphinaud called and said the Scions need your help this time, was frankly amazing.
I'm just gonna sit back and wait for the "Lunar Tear" from final fantasy 8
If it helps with the time travel bit, they do at least say that it's an alternate timeline, so you can use that to wave away any minor continuity errors.
If it helps with the time travel bit, they do at least say that it's an alternate timeline, so you can use that to wave away any minor continuity errors.
I feel like it's important to remember the Omega raids heavily alluded to dynamis back in storm blood.
lemme hit some of these in no real order;
I never got the feeling this was 'the end of FF 14'. there was always more or the map we haven't seen to still go to, not only that, it's really ONLY Earozia that's been 'fixed'. We know nothing about the current state of things in The New World, or Meracydia, to say nothing of newer zones like Thavnair and Garlemald. still stuff we could find or do there, and on our star in general. plus there is the other shards, so, yeah. they have LOTS they can still do.
The time travel didn't bother me ether time cause the first time it was just a back ground thing G'Raha did, so it was just a 'whatever' thing to me, I mean, Alexander exists and has time powers so meh. The time travel this time, I don't really have any issue with cause …. well we got Elpis out of it, and all the cool, interesting, fun and heart breaking things that came with it, and I for one am fine with giving a pass to something as dumb as time travel if it end up leading up to something amazing.
yes, as a Dark Knight main, the nothing we got is grating. 2 new buttons, and 3 passives. 2 of which could be folded into one, and the 3rd, which is just potency's. no reason that can't just be the new norm for those skills. Due to que times, and work I haven't really had time to poke around any of the other changes. kinda blew my time off load on getting through the MSQ, but who knows, maybe now I'll have a good enough reason to switch to Gunbreaker after 6 years. just that nasty head cannon thing to get around.
Dynamis is interesting, but I wanna see if they do anything with it in a tangible way, like a job or explain it better, before i personally decide if it's good or not. till then, neat side thing.
as for the Echo/Blessing of Light. does seem weird how they seem to treat them as interchangeable terms when they are supposed to be two different things. But ultimately, they are both plot devices that explain why we know things we shouldn't and can't be tempered. so shrugs
Personally to me it seems we’ve been using dynamics based jobs for quite some time. The earliest examples I can think of are bard and warrior but dark knight and dancer seem to fit this bill as well. It would definitely be interesting if we got a magic class dedicated to dynamics, likely a healer with the whole new hope thing but who knows
About the other shards. Does anyone worry that the remaining shards might eventually rejoin? While it's true the previous 7 Rejoining were artificially set into motion by the Ascians, could the circumstances of a Rejoining come about spontaneously? The situations that almost caused the rejoining of The First were spurred by the Ascians, but I believe they could have eventually happened naturally, given enough time.
Also, there are still a couple of sundered Red-Masked Ascians about that we haven't run into. They may decide to cause a rejoining out of spite. Or potentially, some Black-Masked Ascians on the other shards still set to their tasks by the now dead Unsundered? This could be an interesting story line in the future.
Part of the 'echo /= blessing of light' confusion isn't helped by Krille using the terms interchangeably in post heavensward.
I'm curious as to what is/has happened to the remaining shards. Are they gone now as well, and if they are what are the reproductions.
I mean, the Dragon star was kind of dead to begin with. Also I can see someone, say Cid, figuring a new fuel source.
Personally, I don't like that monk can now access chakra before the level 30 job quest.
Whatever the future of FF14 will be it probably won't go cataclysmic anytime soon again and I for one would welcome it. Personally I'd like to see us returning to the adventuring business for a while where we build up new relationships and have conflicts that affect us and our new companions instead of the whole World.
You used the Echo to see Hermes send Meteion into space. Hydaelyn helped with it and even gave further info on how its used in regards to the memory of places vs people.
Dynamis, which I'm near certain is a Tales of reference, is probably how they're going to low key explain the abilities in the next level cap expansion. Since you know, Azem of Light seems to enjoy tinkering with things.
FF1 literally had us going to a space station.
The blessing of light & the echo are conflated way too much by far too many characters, which I've just attributed to a lack of understanding on their part. We know the Echo came first, through the WoL's visions before they even obtain the crystal of light — the object which bestows the blessing unto the person. They are separate & having played EW to completion now, there does seem to be a fuck-up in the writing.
But I hypothesise that Hydaelyn, being made of man, does not have the capacity to understand the extent of her power or fully how her own blessing works.
She harbours the fickle nature of men, with all their faults, such as when she still offers riddles when the world depends on clear answers, and her test of worthiness. Which as is already established, Venat liked to test her strength against her peers. She didn't need to do that.
Similarly, she could attribute the temper-protection to her blessing out of ego or misunderstanding.
All of this to say that despite how much copium I'm inhaling right now, I think it's possible — even probable — that Hydaelyn made the mistake most other people do when talking about the Echo/BoL. She's ultimately not an omniscient being, but a person.
… Not that this couldn't have been conveyed more clearly if that was what they were going for.
While the things about DRK are justifiable to be confused or upset about, the tradeoff for not getting really anything is (as of this post) being the most damaging tank in the game
I'm not as hostile to time travel being used as a literary device, but I definitely agree that it's all too often a copout. I know that in the universe of my sci-fi/space fantasy novels, it will absolutely NEVER be a thing.
Anyway… as to the direction the game is going to take from here, it might be that each expansion pack will be its own self-contained story arc. Lots of other continents on our world to explore and other reflections of the Source to visit… not to mention maybe being able to revisit The First after the aetheric balance has been fully restored to the entirety of The Empty. An expansion where we go to The Thirteenth and deal with The Void once and for all would be incredible.
So many possibilities.
So, you said almost all optional content expect Nier was justified in plot. I mostly agree, and I loved the delivery scene, but…. What about Eden???? There's no references to it that I saw.
Does Thancred just care less about Ryne if you haven't done Eden?? I don't remember Gaia being mentioned in MSQ.
PLEASE. I want to know what happened with Meracydia. I want to see the New World…
I don't feel like time travel was much of a cop out for a few reasons:
1. This is not the first time XIV has done it, through Alexander and ShB. It was also properly set up at the beginning of the boat ride to Sharlyan when Hydaelyn has a talk with you.
2. Something that I feel should get mentioned more often, we had to sacrifice Elidibus to open this portal. An entire, extremely powerful, unsundered Ascian just to open this portal, just to be able to see and hear there without being able to actually interact with anything. Something demanding that much aether can't be used very much, if at all again, like what you mentioned with space travel.
3. What happens in Elpis, stays in Elpis. Due to Kairos, the events of the final days (the first ones) remain completely unchanged. What Elpis gives us is better motivation for all the characters involved and a better idea of what really went down. So far as I can tell, the events in Elpis didn't break continuity of any major plot events (aside from the Echo vs. Blessing of Light thing, but that's a whole different can of worms).
Thank you for forming the words to my perplexed mind regarding Echo and Blessing of Light. Its at the tip of my tongue but I just couldn't put words out. Finally, someone said it. Thank you.
Regarding the time travel stuff, what irks me a bit is that it somehow invalidates our achievements as things that were "meant to happen". It enforces the chosen one aspect too much.
We started as "just another adventurer", one among others who got the blessing of light. Exceptional, sure, but not unique. Any blessed one could have become the warrior of light.
If we just so happened to be one of azem's fragment, fine. Could just be random chance, and it can still be actually.
But the fact that there was a timeloop means that we weren't free, we didn't have real choices.
But now, like Zenos put it, we aren't the warrior of light anymore.
We are an adventurer, anew. We broke the cycle, the loop is concluded, we are free to do whatever we please, there is no fate anymore. So while I kind of dislike that loop effect, it can narratively push for us being free of choosing our path now. So…fine.
I don't understand the ninja changes at all tbh
Please do Gunbreaker lore next 😁🙏