A Realm Reborn, and it's effect on 1.0 characters. [Spoiler]

[Merri]

So, with the current climax to the Seventh Umbral Era storyline, and phrases mentioned within the 2.0 trailer, most people I've spoken with about it have come to one conclusion. I figured a discussion thread on it might be a good and/or fun idea, so, here we go. Obvious spoilers to the Seventh Umbral Era storyline below. (Including a small portion of what occurs after you finish the final battle with Nael van Darnus.)

 

 

We managed to down Darnus last night, and while the ending was nice, by no means did it feel "right". I believe there's still more to come with the following patches, but it did seem to tie together some open ends and the trailer this morning seemed to solidify those ideas.

 

As it stands, when you defeat Van Darnus, everyone thinks you've stopped Dalamud from falling - even Cid. Cid goes on to explain that he's glad we didn't have go through with Louisioux's back-up plan, "whatever the hell that may have been". With the trailer this morning showing Louisioux himself and the voice over, we've come to the conclusion that Lousioux's back-up plan was to freeze chosen heroes in time as to save them from certain death, only to be awakened after the cataclysmic events of Dalamud in order to save Eorzea from the Garlean Empire.

 

Fast forward to the future Eorzea. The Garlean Empire has stalled in it's advance on Eorzea, and it starts to push back against the empire. Those heroes of ages past are awoken once again to help push the Garleans back and reclaim a radically transformed Eorzea (Due to Dalamud and events that we all missed during our slumber).

 

Now, this is obviously still speculation, but speculation that seems to have somewhat heavy evidence.

 

We do know for a fact that we'll be brought into the future. It's boldly stated in the trailer. So even on those grounds alone, what do you think that means for current generation characters?

 

Personally, I think it will be extremely interesting to essentially have two different generations of Eorzeans in existence. Us, who have weathered the seventh umbral era's coming, and those players who join post 2.0 that have possibly lived in the future Eorzea their entire lives. It's going to add a very strong spin to almost everyone's background unless they choose to retcon their character to have been in the future Eorzea.

 

Figure it's something we all should start thinking about, and how it will reflect on our characters - even if the exact scenario portrayed above doesn't come to pass.

 

What are your thoughts?

 

[Eva]

Honestly, considering just killing Eva off entirely and starting over brand new. Still need more info though. Characters created after 2.0 going to be considered from the 1.0 era as well? The whole thing seems extremely hokey to me. I mean it would be kind of interesting maybe if it was like a few people that left behind everything (families, friends, etc.) from the past. But I assume a lot of people are going to bring this "stuff" with them, and of course other RPers too. And for this kind of an exodus of hundreds of people... I dunno... Playing it by ear.

 

But I think I would prefer to create a new identity and start fresh with a storyline that isn't going to be a carbon-copy of every other 1.0 RPer's story.

[Merri]

You're absolutely right. It will be a very difficult choice for characters with large families or ties to player-made NPCs, and significantly easier for players who have very few ties that would need to be carried over. Those that would choose not to bring family and friends along with them would obviously be suddenly stuck with a character who's family was presumably killed during Dalamud's destructive rain. Pan that out over the community, and it's quite a few characters with a shockingly similar background all of a sudden.

 

However, for people who want to start fresh, It's an absolutely perfect chance to do so. Whether your future character is perhaps a relative of your 1.0 character (All depending on how long the gap is. Who knows. Could be 10 years, could be 20, could be 50, or even more.)

 

Personally, I'm too attached to my character to imagine killing him off, so I'll most likely make due with what lore we're given.

[Rhostel]

One thing to keep in mind is, even if you don't like the idea of your character being sent forward in terms of roleplay, you can still keep the actual character. If we're getting the chance to change our looks (and race), it's entirely possible for there to be different individuals in the future who share the same name. It's not at all unusual for names to run in a family and so forth.

 

Also, I don't think the entirety of Eorzea will be killed by Dalamud. After all, there's got to be survivors who can rebuild and bring forth the future generations. Those getting sent forward by Louisioux are the ones in Mor Dhona, I guess, where its coming down hardest.

 

Oh, and, the skip might be fairly short. If it's 15 years or less, I'll definitely have Rhostel left behind. Maybe even up to 20.

[Gerik]

Honestly, considering just killing Eva off entirely and starting over brand new. Still need more info though. Characters created after 2.0 going to be considered from the 1.0 era as well? The whole thing seems extremely hokey to me. I mean it would be kind of interesting maybe if it was like a few people that left behind everything (families, friends, etc.) from the past. But I assume a lot of people are going to bring this "stuff" with them, and of course other RPers too. And for this kind of an exodus of hundreds of people... I dunno... Playing it by ear.

 

But I think I would prefer to create a new identity and start fresh with a storyline that isn't going to be a carbon-copy of every other 1.0 RPer's story.

 

Nuuuuu you can't!

 

Gerik hasn't met Eva yet ;;

/fanboy

[Aysun]

It'd be really crappy if we are 'chosen' ones because of something super specific in the storyline. I mean, what if it's due to the Echo? I know a lot of people don't have that ICly. From the looks of it, it's our favorite old primal Elezen that's in on it, so hopefully it's just cuz we're awesome adventurers who were fighting.

 

I plan on keeping Aysun as is, if she's shoved into the future, I'll play it out. Could be some super fun journal entries lol. I'm too attached!

[Lenana]

It'd be really crappy if we are 'chosen' ones because of something super specific in the storyline. I mean' date=' what if it's due to the Echo?[/quote']The trailer said they chose the bravest ones to be teleported to the future, so probably not.

[Derrick1894]

Sadly, with being pushed about 20 years or so, I'm thinking about just making it to where just the lives of everyone else change aside from my character. It gives a great twist and a way to play with time. Since it is about 20 years, not everyone has to die. It's possible to make them older or pass the names down the line, but I don't think that passing the name down the line would make them entirely the same person. Maybe a few differences here and there to make it a bit more interesting. Just a suggestion to those with the idea.

[Kylin]

Not a big fan of how they're seemingly planning this transition. Time travel and RP is always a difficult subject. I wasn't even too big of a fan of FFXI's Wings of the Goddess premise because of it. This is particularly difficult for people who have multiple important NPCs in their storyline. I mean, I just established Cartius (Ky's dad) as a powerful villain to name one example. When it comes to said NPCs, I see only 3 options:

 

1. Kill them off in the disaster.

2. Have them survive the disaster, but fast-forward 10/20/however many years SE designates into the future, essentially adding that many years instantly to their age. (I made all my NPCs a certain age for a reason...)

3. Find a workaround to have all said NPCs teleported through time with me.

 

All options have glaring issues and can horribly impact storylines. I'm willing to see how it plays out and go with the flow, but by the looks of it, I'll be forced to go with option 3. Which just comes off as super cheesy. So after the transition, I won't ever be mentioning said transition ever again in RP and will just try to move past it somehow >.>.

[Lenana]

One thing: Is the time travel instantaneous? Or are they just in another dimension or something that entire time?

[Smiling River]

This whole mess reminds of Rift... weren't all the player characters summoned from the past (after they died, I think) to fight in some 'crucial' time? Yeah, no. It's hacky, horrible writing that many here could improve - and the maws? srs? Yeah just bring back old sh- from XI... that'll do. Because that's what we expect when paying for an MMO, stuff from the previous game. Here is a pencil, make up some new stuff SE. It's not hard to revamp the world for 2.0 w/o maws or time jumps. Or hell if you are gonna do a time jump at least make it plausible.

 

I haz idea, for example-

 

Proposal: Cid finds that the aetherial energy has been whacky since Dalamud's fall to Eorzea. He studies these traces in energy, and realizes that as Dalamud grows closer, aetherial power does as well. Now this is not noticeable in magic use, since one person cannot manipulate too much aether anyway, compared to say an aether crystal. Cid gets an idea, thus far our aetherial crystals allowed us to move across a map instantaneously, within our three dimensional world (think of coordinates on a map), however with exponential increase in aetherial energy triggered by Dalamud, the crystals cannot only take us across the map (3 dimensions) but through time (4th dimension) as well. Just in the nick of time he and his team (you can be part of the team if you want, or maybe this is a good basis for a cross LS RP storyline) create a device to help the aether crystals take us into the future, en masse. One way trip, our only salvation. It can account for an unpredictability of exactly how far ahead we'll go, since this is all basically an experiment.

 

Further explanation: I explained it this way over voice (and will do on the podcast)... imagine a map on a table. So far we can only go anywhere on that map. With more power, we realize there is no one map, but rather a stack of maps going up to infinity, so now we can not only go from point A or B on the map, but also up/down to a different map, aka point in time. That's basically a way to visualize what I am trying to say.

 

More weird stuff: Now if you/SE really really wants to get weird, we can say that as Dalamud approached it drew the aether out of Hydaelyn beyond what we predicted, so now imagine not a single stack of maps on the table but an infinately large table with an infinite number of maps on it, going up. Ta-da, alternate universes. So we can teleport not only within one time/location... but actually break past the 'borders' of our map unto a different Hydaelyn all together.

 

Yeah, I know, cool.

[Aysun]

Got to understand Oskar that most people don't want that sort of crazy stuff either. I personally would rather have something simple like what they are doing now. I can't give reasons, I just like it. As for it conflicting with your story Kylin.. Sorry. >>

[Smiling River]

What crazy stuff? Time warp or an example I gave of ways of dealing with it? It's all 'crazy' in a way, I certainly would rather avoid time travel because it's lame... but, if they are going that route I'd rather it be interesting than simple, because time travel + simple = hacky, IMO. Just thinking about everyone in the RP community having a stick up their behind cause their character (as directed by lore) was awesome enough to get summoned and basically be re-born/escape death... /shudder.

 

Then again we still haven't received the bulk of the information right? Hopefully as we do, we'll have enough to discern our future with our characters.

[Gerik]

I think I wouldn't mind it if we were teleported to the future or something, but I guess it's cause he's a simple guy with no real familial attachments, so it's not hard, but I can definitely see how having complex relationship complicates the process of transition ><. I'd prefer an instantaneous teleport rather than some cryogenic process, but I guess that's up to the great gods of SE. I guess I'll roll with the punches and see where it goes.

[Lenana]

Something someone posted on the Lodestone that is interesting:

 

The trailer says that "we were sent beyond the reach of time where we remained until now" this is in no way insinuating that we are sent to the future. The trailer is stating that we are sent to a place where nothing happens, a dead zone or limbo if you will. The trailer also shows that he is standing in what looks like a battle field with no people and a hole tears open walking through it.

 

So what I believe happens is in a last ditch effort to protect the only people that can save the realm he send us to a place where time stands still until we can safely return to kick major ass.

 

Discuss.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/thre ... ime-travel.

 

So it's like i was asking about. It's not exactly time traveling, from the way it sounds.

[Merri]

Something someone posted on the Lodestone that is interesting:

 

The trailer says that "we were sent beyond the reach of time where we remained until now" this is in no way insinuating that we are sent to the future. The trailer is stating that we are sent to a place where nothing happens, a dead zone or limbo if you will. The trailer also shows that he is standing in what looks like a battle field with no people and a hole tears open walking through it.

 

So what I believe happens is in a last ditch effort to protect the only people that can save the realm he send us to a place where time stands still until we can safely return to kick major ass.

 

Discuss.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/thre ... ime-travel.

 

So it's like i was asking about. It's not exactly time traveling, from the way it sounds.

 

That's actually what I inferred myself, but I'd still consider it time travel. The "bravest" would simply be frozen in time, and unfrozen when they would be needed most. While it's not time travel in the sense of going from point A to point B, it's inferred that some form of time does pass back in Eorzea, and therefor it could still be considered time travel as we'd be moving from the "past" (present) to the future.

 

 

The more I think about the entire concept, the more indifferent I grow about it. While there's plenty of negatives, there's room to make positives out of the bad. Having a character stay behind and weather the era (depending on the length of the time skip) while others move forward could add interesting dynamics to the relationships. Something tells me the time skip might only be something as small a five years, though, given the nature of the events. If it's twenty years after Dalamud has razed Eorzea and the Garleans still haven't conquered it, that would be pretty laughable.

 

Unless of course there's some unseen event that has prevented them from doing so, such as the beast tribes and the primals giving them a lot of trouble.

[Lenana]

Well, Dalamud could put the Garleans back a bit on conquering Eorzea, which may make longer than 5 years make sense.

 

(And lets not forget that it will take a long time for the factions to rebuild, so I think the time skip would be longer than five years.)

[NKato]

Guys. The Cavernous Maws from FFXI were based on Atmos from FF9.

 

When you consider the lore involving Atmos, it makes sense that Louisoix would send you into a sort of limbo inside Atmos' realm or something to that effect.

 

Funny how nobody has guessed at this particular theory and keeps grabbing at only the FFXI connection.

 

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Atom ... reature%29

[E'irawen]

I'm glad this thread was posted! I posted one asking similar questions before, but we didn't have much info- if any at all- regarding how transitions into 2.0 is going to work.

 

Up unto this point I've felt guilty for not actively engaging in RP...but now I'm almost seeing it as a blessing in disguise? I may not do anything with Ezreal at all until after 2.0 is up and running, so I know exactly what was going on. His history can be flexible, regardless if I wanted him to be considered a 1.0 character or not... but, to be fairly honest, it just seems easier and far less of a hassle and headache to just...wait. Lol. I certainly do hope this doesn't make me a lazy individual?

[Yssen]

Couple things.

 

The lore up on the teaser trailer sight states that the Empire starts advancing again in 1571, using the catastrophe of the 7th Umbral Era starting to their advantage (sneaky sneaky Garleans). We can make an educated guess as to when now is based of of the year 1557 being the date used for the fall of Ala Mhigo, and the previous halt of the Imperial advance. This does not help us much with determining the length of the alleged time skip, but it does give us a starting off point. We can assume that "characters beyond the reach of time" will be brought back sometime after 1571.

 

Like it or not, time travel has been a factor in FF since the first game. It is also a central theme of several core FF games (8 and 10 come to mind, also XIII-2). While a terrible concept when handled poorly, time travel is also an interesting concept and can be handled well. We must remember that in the end, whether a character is sent out of time or not will be each individual player's decision for their character(s). We also know that there will be at least one month of inactivity between when they shut the game down to convert over to 2.0, and when we start having access again. In fact, there have been no explicit guarantees that all of us will have access to the game at the same time. They have stated that they have no determining factors of priority for player access during the period before the relaunch, and that they will work on converting characters as fast as possible.

 

With a time skip of unknown length looming, and at least a month before any of us could have access to 2.0, RP and collaborative stories on these forums will become important, just like they were before the actual game launch. Whatever individual choices are made in regards to the time skip and time travel, we must remember that we are a community here to tell stories, and using the forums to determine what happens in supposed "limbo" or the intervening march of time will told here. I look forward to seeing and involving myself in those stories. It is what we are here for, right?

 

Don't panic, don't worry, just adapt. See you all on the other side, however you choose to get there. ;P

 

- Yssen

 

PS - Fun factor to think on. When everyone does start emerging from time travel joy, how do you know that the characters you run into post time skip are who they were before. In more ways than one. [Excitement]

[Rhostel]

Um, Ala Mhigo fell at least 15 years ago, which means it's at least 1572 according to the official calendar. The Empire moving again in 1571 is referring to the start of their current push. :roll:

 

Also, there is no time travel in Final Fantasy X. >_>

[Yssen]

Maintained alternate timelines are still time travel ;p

[Aysun]

It is currently 1573. Game launch 1571.

[Riik]

I personally was planning on Riku being petrified to stone by a powerful Garlean mage, then revived later by another mysterious mage in order to fulfil some kind of role I havn't decided yet... not only would it explain why Riku hasn't aged, but also gives me an actual storyline to work through when 2.0 is out...

 

but after catching up with this stuff, I'm just not sure what to do >.<

 

I might stick with my idea just to be different, and to allow the possible story implications brought about by the action to occur.

[SamusKnight2K]

I don't have any plans myself but I do know I have every intention of tweaking whatever "future" deal SE gives us to fit Mihana somehow be it frozen, traveling through time, or whatever. Just because SE decided they need to pull a stunt like this to redo their game doesn't mean I have any intention of aging Mihana by X amount of years or killing her off and making a new identity. She doesn't have the Echo like everyone else as well which will make the entire thing interesting. Same with Calzien's fate, I don't intend to kill off/age him either. As for relations, I've toyed with either the fact Mihana's tribe perishes with it all, or finds refuge likely someplace else sending her on a desperate search to find what fate befell them during the time she had been gone.

 

All in all I absolutely hate the time-travel thing (It seems so cheap and overdone.) but if that's what they're going to give us to work with I'm using it.