Wisdom of Nym: Hints for our next destination in Final Fantasy XIV based on the past and what we’re ignoring

There’s not really question in most people’s minds about the fact that there’s going to be another Final Fantasy XIV expansion. There doesn’t need to be. The game is doing very well, the story and overall development cadence point to it, and Square-Enix has better things to do than rent the San Diego Convention Center to announce nothing. What most people are wondering – those who are thinking about it at this point, anyhow – is where that expansion is going to bring us.

Obviously, I don’t know the answer to that just yet. But I have been thinking about it recently, partly because it’s my job and partly because there’s an obvious thing being teased even more at this point than it was at the end of Stormblood. And there’s an angle to all of this that leaves me feeling like there may be, in broad strokes, a pattern to our next destination that’s at once subtle but consistent.

Here’s that theory, then: We never get teased our next destination until the x.3 patch. Up until that point, it’s just not talked about, even if it would make some sense to bring it up beforehand.

For example, there was really no reason for us not to know that Papalymo and Lyse were hiding out with the Ala Mhigan resistance up until 3.3’s ending cutscenes. We could have been told that at any point and it would have had the same resonance. But instead, basically all of the quests and stories were focused around Ishgard, Dravania, the unexplored corners of Mor Dhona, and Sharlayan. No one was talking about Ala Mhigo at all.

A lot of people concluded from the storytelling in Stormblood that we were heading to the Empire next, since the Empire had been brought up a lot by that point. But that’s just it – had been brought up a lot by that point. It was in 4.4 when we started getting the call and seeing the Scions collapse. Everything was focused on the Empire to make the travel to the First feel like even more of a surprise than normal.

My point isn’t that this is a hard-and-fast rule, but it definitely does offer something of a pattern. A location and obvious expansion destination being discussed before we start building up to the next expansion doesn’t inherently mean we’re never going there; look at all the story around the Warriors of Darkness in Heavensward that wouldn’t pay off until now. But it does mean that it’s unlikely to be our next destination.

I’ve long subscribed to the theory that the Empire itself will be our final destination, the sort of thing that caps off the game rather than something in the middle. This is not necessarily a universally held theory, and I can understand why; it presumes that we are building toward an actual conclusion instead of moving on endlessly, for example, and it makes some guesses about further developments for the game and for Square-Enix in particular that require not precisely leaps of faith but a fair measure of guesswork. But it’s always felt to me like yes, we’ve got a level 99 showdown in the heart of the Empire being seeded over time.

Now, much of our focus in Shadowbringers has been on the First. This makes logical sense, since that’s kind of the point. But our other major focus through both quests and “Meanwhile on the Source” moments has been on the Garlean Empire. We followed the resistance forces in the heart of the Empire, we got to play as Estinien in a final sequence, and we have been marinating in speculation around what’s going on in the Empire, what’s next after the events in the capitol, and so forth

It’s easy to read that as implying that our next destination will be straight into the heart of Garlemald. But that implies that after having a raid series entirely focused on the Empire and a relic weapon series also focused on the Empire, we’re going into the next expansion being… still all about the Empire. It might be a little early to pull the trigger on all of that, in other words.

Let’s also not forget that we had a little bit of foreshadowing about another potential future; at the end of 5.1, Estinien mentioned that he had a personal matter to take care of, just as our friend Shadowhunter did. We know now what Shadowhunter was up to, of course, but Estinien’s personal expedition hasn’t been shared yet… and it’d make sense for him to show up after the action in 5.3 with a statement about “hey, I was off doing X and it’s important to the main plot because Y.”

For example – remember how a while back I mentioned that two members of the First Brood, Azdaja and Vrtra, are still somewhere on the source but not currently active? What if Estinien was seeking them out for whatever reason and now that’s crucially important? Bam, instant hook for the next expansion, and it’s been seeded for a very long time while also not diving right back into Imperial stuff we’ve already been inundated with.

Having said all of this, a case can definitely be made that the whole point here is misdirection, that we’re supposed to look at the signs and think “this must be pointing towards the Empire so it must actually not be Garlemald” and then be surprised when it turns out to be a double-bluff. But past a certain point, that line of thinking turns into a dog chasing its own tail.

The obvious question, of course, is why we should think about this now. There’s every reason to assume that the announcement at the next fan festival won’t be nearly as cryptic as the ones we got before Shadowbringers was fully revealed, simply because even if the next expansion sent us to another world it wouldn’t be as surprising as it was when we went to the First. (I tend to doubt they’ll try the same trick anyhow, but still.) We’ll probably actually know our destination in November; at most, we’ll know part of it. Why not wait for a while?

Well, part of it is just because coming up with the theory is fun. But another element is that while it’s still early, that gives us a chance to spend our time looking a bit more closely for pointers. Most of the open threads in the story do eventually come around to be woven into the main narrative, and so it can actually be useful to look at the lingering stuff that hasn’t been addressed yet.

At least one more patch is likely to focus chiefly on what takes place within the boundaries of Norvrandt, before both the Eden series and the YoRHa series wrap up those storylines. But we currently have no reason to assume that we’re not going to be turning the corner into a new story when 5.4 drops, and I for one would like to be thinking about where that means we’re going ahead of time.

Feedback, as always, is welcome in the comments below or via mail to eliot@massivelyop.com. Next time around, let’s speculate on elements we’re awaiting for this particular expansion and what form they’re likely to take as we move into the later patches.