I believe Yoshi-P even mentions during the live letter than Ul'dah wasn't hit during the Calamity, so it survived completely intact. No word on whether Gridania and Limsa-lominsa were directly hit either, so that's something that has yet to be seen and/or is something I can't mention without getting into NDA breaching territory~
Now, this is all speculation on my part so take it with a grain of salt.
Personally, I like to think the past five years haven't been easy, but they haven't been devastating, either. I mean, look at the progress that has been made in five years.
So, the calamity happens. We know that much. Bahamut blew some stuff up, and then supposedly retreated to lick his wounds after being locked up for thousands of years. The city-states are in an initial shock. Those present at the Battle of Cartenau Flats are all presumed deceased. Most actually are deceased, save us that were teleported by Louisoux. (We don't know if the GC leaders were, but they weren't directly on the battlefield so they may have not been teleported and still survived)
So, a big chunk of the Grand Companies is more or less dead. All three city-states are freaking out because Bahamut was set loose and wrecked the hell out of the outlying regions around the city-states. Countless lives are lost, families are torn apart, there's a lot of drama. Some ways of living may have been disrupted or outright killed by some of the destruction, but life would continue on. Eorzeans have been shown to be a hardy people. Most would likely strap up their boots and get to work on forging a new life for themselves. Farmers would start to re-till their lands and the like. There would be a plethora of new work available, which could honestly pull some people out of poverty that were in it before the calamity. Construction workers would be needed to help rebuild some settlements. People to gather the supplies. People to guard those people from new threats that have emerged in the form of ferocious new wildlife. Everyone would have something to do in order to help the world rebuild and heal. It wouldn't be a complete and utter apocalyptic wasteland.
Sure, it would be a depressing time for some folk, but I don't necessarily think every character needs to have a sad story related to the seventh umbral era. It was a tragedy, but I'm certain many people found a new way of life for themselves and made the best of it. Adventuring would be growing yet again, as there would be new lands and ruins to explore. New things to map out. As mentioned earlier, hunting and gathering would be at a high, and re-building settlements and hamlets would require many workers. People would have things to do.
Now, this is all speculation on my part so take it with a grain of salt.
Personally, I like to think the past five years haven't been easy, but they haven't been devastating, either. I mean, look at the progress that has been made in five years.
So, the calamity happens. We know that much. Bahamut blew some stuff up, and then supposedly retreated to lick his wounds after being locked up for thousands of years. The city-states are in an initial shock. Those present at the Battle of Cartenau Flats are all presumed deceased. Most actually are deceased, save us that were teleported by Louisoux. (We don't know if the GC leaders were, but they weren't directly on the battlefield so they may have not been teleported and still survived)
So, a big chunk of the Grand Companies is more or less dead. All three city-states are freaking out because Bahamut was set loose and wrecked the hell out of the outlying regions around the city-states. Countless lives are lost, families are torn apart, there's a lot of drama. Some ways of living may have been disrupted or outright killed by some of the destruction, but life would continue on. Eorzeans have been shown to be a hardy people. Most would likely strap up their boots and get to work on forging a new life for themselves. Farmers would start to re-till their lands and the like. There would be a plethora of new work available, which could honestly pull some people out of poverty that were in it before the calamity. Construction workers would be needed to help rebuild some settlements. People to gather the supplies. People to guard those people from new threats that have emerged in the form of ferocious new wildlife. Everyone would have something to do in order to help the world rebuild and heal. It wouldn't be a complete and utter apocalyptic wasteland.
Sure, it would be a depressing time for some folk, but I don't necessarily think every character needs to have a sad story related to the seventh umbral era. It was a tragedy, but I'm certain many people found a new way of life for themselves and made the best of it. Adventuring would be growing yet again, as there would be new lands and ruins to explore. New things to map out. As mentioned earlier, hunting and gathering would be at a high, and re-building settlements and hamlets would require many workers. People would have things to do.
![[Image: 7Ho5y7x.png]](http://i.imgur.com/7Ho5y7x.png)
