Is Dawntrail's MSQ in trouble? Or Primed for Greatness! 

I have a feeling it will be a chill expansion, but down the line we will probably find out they were plotting things behind the scenes and planting lore seeds just like ARR.

Trying to reach for the stars like they literally did with Endwalker would be a terrible idea for narrative. I don't expect anything on that scale for quite awhile and want it to be fairly chill while giving us something interesting and setting up what comes after. I see it as a fresh start for us and the star after everything that already happened

The Void Story was actually a lot of set up, not for Dawntrail, but for another expansion down the line (maybe 8.0) with a focus on the Thirteenth and The First. I think doing just a little prologue to Dawntrail in the last patch was a good idea. Since Dawntrail is the beginning it would have been really weird if we had 5 or 2/3 patches before the actual beginning.

Personally I'd suggest looking at the beginning and end of the 6.X story. We are going back to our adventurer roots and the whole story of the Void began as a simple, innocuous treasure hunt. So my expectation is that my expectations will be subverted, and that we'll be drawn into something bigger than a competition.

I’d just have expectations for something new, not if it could one-up something previous. I’d also say that in Endwalker didn’t entirely set up Dawntrail, because it’s something else different, it’s not apart of the previous Saga. Post ARR, HW, and others are all apart of the same chain, ending with Endwalker. DT is a new chain in FFXIV. Best not to fuse them together as one. It’s like jumping headfirst into 1.0. This is just a new beginning with no heavy set ups.

The names Endwalker and Dawn trail. Both envoke a point in a story. Ending or dawning. Walker and trail both indicate walking a path. The walking part shows youre already walking down a well known path yet Trail, thats a whole new frontier. Example the Oregano trail. It may mean we are following after someobe else or discovering a long lost trail soneone left a long time ago. There's a lot of circurlar logic in the names of the expansion.

I honestly feel like it's a mix: Dawntrail is a prologue for the new story direction while as well having post-Endwalker help pave the story after Dawntrail. There;s a lot of hints when it comes to new lands (Moenbryda's parents talking about Aerslaent, Corvos being in turmoil, more hints at Bukyo and the rest of Hingashi gearing up for stuff, Meracydia hints) and I feel like Dawntrail is there to set up the tone for this process: Explore, discover, delve into the mistery and the unknown, while placing down the building blocks for the next story crescendo. And hey, even if it's going to jsut be a prologue only or a filler expanc, I'm way more confident it won't get a Warlords treatment like WoW had. CBU3 has yet to do something that bad.

I personally think that they were more concerned with making sure that the players were 100% done with the previous story, no more hanging threads, no more mysteries, before moving on. To help get more of a clean break before moving on. As someone who has been here for 8 years, I'm not going anywhere, but I think that a lot of the new players from the streamer boom and especially those that are not following news about DT, are going to be disappointed. Because they will be going from what was 1-3 years jam PACKED with content because they had so much to catch up on, to....a normal expansion experience. One that I think will be good and interesting but will likely be more at the ARR or SB level rather than the HW or SHB level due to the weight of setup. I think that, as Synodic pointed out, we are often setting up not JUST the new expansion, but the one AFTER it in the patch cycles so I wouldn't be surprised if the Void and such ends up being the expansion after DT, a Lightbringers expansion if you will. The game is going to have its ups and downs. Nothing can be perfect or even great forever. But each time FFXIV has been average (I don't think it's ever been bad other than 1.0), they've always pulled it back up. They can't all be bangers but they can all be fun.

6.1 to 6.5 showed the premise of an expansion beyond 7.0. The Dawntrail events will happen and connect with that said premise. We will litterally learn of a society that mastered Soul Extraction in Solution 9. Ryne has Golbez's corrupted soul stuck in a Memoria Crystal, which is (I JUST NOW NOTICED), the same color as Solution 9's thematic! There is a link between the Contra Memoria and Solution 9, and it is staring at us right in the face!

As someone who has played the entire Trails series to me this will expansion will be the start of a new arc. I don’t expect anything groundbreaking but I expect at least a solid foundation that will lead to exciting new ideas in the future. The start of any new story has a lot of work to do to make the payoff worthwhile let’s wait and see what is in store in the new world.

I played WoW for 14 years, and as someone who payed attention to the lore and story of that game, the question "what could possibly happen after this??!" and "What is left for them to explore??" often came up often at the beginning and was totally forgotten later. Needless to say, this grandfather of a MMO, which is still alive and kicking after almost twenty (!!!) years. It always managed to renew itself, either by continuing story threads they hadnt explored before (like Deathwing during "Cataclysm"), deepdiving into themes only vaguely hinted at in a precurser Warcraft game (the "Pandaria" expansion), exploring an entire new realm ("Shadowlands", even if it was badly delivered), creating mythical places (the Dragon homeland now during "Dragonflights"), just traveling back in time ("Warlords of Draenor") and picking up lose ends ("Legion"). And thats not to mention the expansion of the Vanilla world with "The Burning Crusade" when players traveled to another world, the Outlands, the now broken world of Draenor, or the continuation of Warcraft's greatest and most iconic villian, "Wrath of the Lich King", which introduced a new continent in the far North. Having experienced WoW's story for almost 14 years myself, in concern to FF14 and Dawntrail all I can say is this: *of course they will continue the story and of course its going to be great!* Its just so stupid to think just because we had a super big climax in Endwalker that the world of FF14 would suddenly stop turning or that everything is peaches and cream. Its not. Never will be. I'd like to quote or rather paraphrase Gandalf (I think...) from the 3rd Lord of the Rings book, who at the end of the war says something like, "yes, we won, but this victory wont last. we only prepared the soil for the future generation, what harvest they will get is up to them" - something like that, I cant remember the excact words. Still, this is pretty much the situation we find ourselves in: yes, we won a great victory, we can celebrate and lower our guard, but this doesnt mean there isnt trouble brewing elsewhere having escaped our notice. Hell, Emet-Selch spoiled big-time in Ultima Thule about all the places we havent seen, all the secrets still waiting for us. And the New World has always been a blank canvas: mentioned multiple times, especially in ARR with the BLU quests, but never further elaborated. Same with Meracidia and, oh lemme think, the whole rest of Ilsabard! TLDR, these questions are annoying. If that would've been the case, they wouldnt have announced DT in the first place. 4:10 --- ... You realise, they have been doing this the whole time in EW, too? Emet-Selch, like I already mentioned, and lets not forget Zero and Golbez/Durante on the 13th, probably the introduction of an expansion *after* DT. Also the implication that our adventures with Ryne and Gaia arent quite over, either. They have been setting up new expansions the whole time. I agree that DT and EW are completely different, one being the beginning, the other an ending. So, lets compare DT to another expansion which turned out to be a beginning: A Realm Reborn! And, to an extend, 1.0. We all saw screenshots of that new sci-fi city, we all saw how huge this new continent is going to be. It wont be just set up and world building of course since we already have a good foundation of the world (and I really hope they pull a "Shadowlands" here, retconning every lore previously established...) but it will introduce a new norm, a new setting from which the story will expand further. That is, after all, the beauty of a MMO: its a living, breathing world, and unless everyone dies, their lifes will continue, their stories will continue, as will the story of our OC, aka the Warrior of Light. They would only end FF14, or stop continuing it, if plan to create a whole new successor, FF(X) if you will. Similar to GW2 which is an entirely new game building on the foundation of Guild Wars from 2004, its story based 250 years in the future. However, should they plan on doing that, we'd probably get a notice instead of a whole new expansion.

I'd be happier for the story to start over with low stakes, maybe treat the early notes of DT to be the first steps of a new adventure or a vacation with new experiences before we see the pieces of the next saga begin to fall into place. And maybe, with the hints and theories people have been making about Solution 9, the matters of inter-shard travel and how souls work from the 6.x patches might be the set up to it.

I have full confidence that the stuff with Zero is setting up BEYOND Dawntrail. We will need to reunite with Ryne and Zero and other reflections in the future. I don't think they'd do it otherwise. Plus, people really love Zero. I'm sure that is setting up something for later. We just can't point to it yet. As much as I LOVE how everything wrapped up with the first story of ffxiv, a chunk of it was weighed down by figuring out how to close up loose ends in 1.0. They don't have those shackles anymore, they have a formula, they're listening to player feedback more than ever -- I'm not worried at all about DT. Yes, it's a fresh new chapter 1, but I'm SURE we're going to see some ties back to the first story arc. I'm sure we're going to run into Ascians. I have full faith in the writing team.

From what I remember from the keynote speech at Tokyo fanfest, it was mentioned that the scions would be in conflict with one another in the Dawntrail MSQ: whether just as a rivalry, philosophical/political differences or a Crystal Braves situation is still up in the air. However a long-term personal conflict like this might alleviate some of the narrative strain for future expansions, especially when the story might go from a Dragon Age Origins tonally to a Dragon Age 2.

I was very concerned for Dawntrail's story, until I heard it was written by author of the Werylt/WEAPONS storyline. I'm now in the camp that the story is going to be good and just hoping that we get gameplay and content to match said story

With both the Ascians and Garlemald done for, we need the next big bad. I suppose Dawntrail will be lighthearted, more like aventure-y in contrast to the "all life of this nation/world is at stake" . And at the ending, the next big bad will be revealed and it should be as a consequence of the adventures in Dawntrail - it doesn't even have to be a character introduction, but the revelation that someting ugly is in motion. As Tural is regarded as the "new world" and to our knowledge had little to no influence from the Ascians or from Garlemald, I suppose they could work with some ancient evil that was at least partialy a reason why the baddies didn't venture there.

Honestly, I think that it's done on purpose. Lemme explain. As it's a new beginning and considering we come from a universal conflict and that SE said that we're going back to be an adventurer (specially since Hydaelyin is no longer around), it's not strange to think that we are indeed in a new beginning. Like a blank page. So why do we need a prologue for a blank page? That would destroy that idea of blank page, wouldn't it?

Actually, I have a theory that the whole thing with the Void wasn't a total waste for set up with Dawntrail. Consider what we know: 1) Y'Shtola is looking for a means to travel between Shards. I doubt the whole Void kerfluffle has put her off from her quest. 2) According to Fanfest, one of Dawntrail's hub cities is an advanced cyberpunkish looking city called Solution 9 that doesn't look like a city built by any culture we know of and which is definitely not in Tural. So my theory: Solution 9 is on another Shard, and Y'shtola's investigations into interShard travel will bring us there. The plot with Tural succession is only a starter plot, much like Zenos and Garlemald were in Endwalker.

My understanding and the typical solution to “oops killed the biggest bad” is to go full multiverse. Which is a bit implied by the FF11, and FF9 references if they pull in 16 and 13 they could burn the whole internet down. But they’d be in the same problem again straight after. That’s why I hope for the other way option, expand the world massively, with like 6 story threads of the form “you were Europe and now you see Africa Asia, America and Australia were always there” however it requires a good hook into every future story or we’ll be in a ARR/SB scenario where it feels like every story is low budget.

Happy new year scribe! This is indeed food for thought. Thanks for sharing!

You said it yourself, Endwalker is the concluding final chapter of a 10 year long story. It is not supposed to heavily setup a BRAND NEW story. It's not supposed to have all this setup, it's supposed to be a breath of fresh air. Not to mention that (just like ARR post story that you mentioned) the entire post Endwalker is likely setup for 8.0 or onward, for revisiting the First and/or bringing light back to the void. I do not think we need to worry about this in any way shape or form.

Don’t forget there was another detail earlier on in the expansion about Erenville returning home for a bit, only to return, presumably within a week with the hrothgal

It really does feel like we're going to get smaller more contained stories as the writers weave larger arcs and establish new lore in the background. I'm excited! We've seen a lot of new environments and peoples and I'm confident that the writers have a good idea of what they're doing. Fingers crossed!

To me, I honestly feel more that the lack of prefix to dawntrail works in its favor, we've been getting teased about the new world in so many different ways since at earliest heavensward (as far as I can recall), the fact we know were going to the New World ahead of time is supposed to be a nod to the idea that we need to think of everything we already know about it, like all the Blue Mage stuff. SPOILERS And in 6.55 they kind of lean in the direction of us needing to remember what we already know in the final quest.

its like the first book in a series it doesnt need to be bombastic it will set the stage well highly likely and will give us plenty to experience and look forward to

For me, I believe Dawntrails story will be smaller in scale, but will lean into planting ideas for where we are headed. We have yet to explore all of our Star and uncover the Allagan Secrets in Myrcedia, so there is a possibility of us just adventuring and "unclouding" the map. I also think Endwalker's Epilogue, Growing Light saga, may hint towards us travelling to a new shard or rather a new shard coming to us. If the Thirteenth can influence the Source through the void (although that was caused by Ascian shenanigans), who is to say another shard couldn't travel or influence the Source in some new way. I think with Y'shtola focusing on means to travel to different worlds and the idea of the WoL reflections having an important part in each shard seems to indicate a potential new reflection of our WoL being encountered in the Epilogue of Dawntrail. Maybe this reflection is much like how Ardbert was in that he is jealous of the WoL and the Source's world not being at risk of erasure. All in all, I think the next few arcs will focus on our WoL adventuring the world and indulging in that feeling until something or someone from a different shard takes advantage of Y'shtola's research, abuses it, and brings us out of retirement. Personally, I'd love an Alt-Allagan Invasion or something of that sort like a Xande-like figure who may be our WoL's reflection arriving to the Source to see it's abundance of resources and leads. No matter what, if that does or doesn't happen, I'm still excited to see where this beginning chapter takes us. Sorry for any confusing lettering, grammar, or thoughts. ADHD Medication + Mobile phone keyboard does not mesh well for thoughtful conversation.

Honestly they have already stated this is going to be a chillout expansion for the wol i am excited but this reads as either an interlude or a whole new story. As for the story having nothing to build of is slightly disengenuos there are plenty of plots that has been left un touched. Like where exactly the twins from the crystal tower came from What's going to happen now that the gods gave themselves to the star. Or what about the remaining shards or when is tataru's great evil plan going to come to fruition. Heck we might more content on the first and the void. Gra'ha may think he's stopped the 8th umbral calamity but there are other shards, all he did was likely forestall it. What about the missing ascians that you pointed out. And all the planets we're going to rebuild (and possibly repopulate) that also reads as a huge set up for new stories.

The Dawntrail story hasn't gotten a whole lot of setup during EW, but the setting itself has over the course of the entire game. People have been asking about the new world for almost a decade, now. If ever there was a good opportunity to reset the stakes and get a new arc or self contained story going, I think it's in Dawntrail.

The IRL pattern for successfully overcoming events like _Endwalker_ is to clean up loose threads and start moving out to occupy vacated territories. I expect that, given past story themes, we're going to focus on the former over the latter. Solution Nine? A loose thread. The succession? A breadcrumb trail leading to another loose thread. The expansion after _Dawntrail_ will also be about loose threads (Merecydia remains unaddressed; we will go there soon). Occupying vacated territories, for now, looks to be relegated to side content (Cosmic Exploration) as we're likely to be looking at literally vacant territories (rebuilding destroyed alien worlds, taking cues from those encountered by our depressed bird girl as to where to go) but not to colonize so much as to rehabilitate in the most literal sense- think of what we did in Ultima Thule, but writ large, a Habitat For Humanity on a cosmic scale. The big tell will be what our new Eureka/Bozja will be as to where this theme will go. And with each step, leftover threads can get pulled out of the drawer and addressed conclusively. With each step, a new Big Question takes shape and with it characters to embody it. _"We won. How do we make use of our victory?"_

I'm in no rush to play it honestly last year has been so packed with great...no amazing games that have released that I'm having trouble catching up even worst given my backlog so they can cook for as long as they like.

I mean we introduced Krile's missing grandfather and Erenville is helping a mysterious character find the wol because she has business with us. All and all it feels like business as usual so far.

The sheer curiosity and excitement I have around learning more about the "New World" is all I need to be fully hyped and ready for Dawntrail.

This video will be better after the last story update because we know that’s more setup so 6.3 and 6.4 were setups and 6.1and6.2 were filler to introduce key players later like how shadowbringers did

I have a few things to say to this. In post hevansward we deal a lot with the warriors of Darkness, a group that is little more then a ff3 reference distracting us from business we care about, namely the resistance. One expansion later and suddenly it is very relevant again. Similarly shadow bringers could be described as just out of left field as Dawn trail, since all the build up seemed to be going to garlamald. I bring this up to say that we might actually be getting a lot more set up for the future than we think, because hindsight is 20 20. We can say post ew is filler or pointless all we want but it's not helping anyone. We did a lot of work with the first and shard travel. We talked a lot about the nature of souls. We've established garlamald as looking for new trade partners (lets not forget there seems to be a booming cerulium industry in the new world that might need some experts). In post shadowbringers a lot of time is spent on the beast tribes and us as an ambassador, that really didn't go anywhere in end walker outside of the Ragnarok launch. I'll also admit I hated Emet-Selch when he was first introduced. He's my favorite character. When Fandaniel came around I was about to ley on my same hatred before I looked back and remembered just how much the context of shadowbringers made me love Emet. I'm skeptical of a lot of games and a lot of stories, but for xiv? Let them cook. They know what they want. It doesn't always land, but the writers know what they are doing.

Whatever we do, i think we need a more centralized conflict. I need a breather from saving the world/shards/existence. Maybe the next arc can be less hero and more adventurer, now that our role as Chosen One is done. Each following expansion can be a new adventure: filling up that map of the world.

What if the stuff we've had so far for FFXIV *is* story that ties to Dawntrail, with people speculating that the "Solution 9" is one of the Ascian failed attempts to rejoin the star. The void was also a failed attempt at rejoining the star, the entire world being subsumed by darkness that made it incapable of rejoining until it was fixed. I have two theories as to how it fits together: 1. Both are failed attempts at getting the star to rejoin or to bring back the ancients, both have been left while the other ascians worked of causing the rejoining/calamities. So it could be a contrasting story on how both were dealt with, the void being left until the other sundered realms where rejoined and Solution 9 left under the watch of a guardian or is in stasis as a back up. 2. Solution 9 was an attempt to solve the void's problem, taking in voidsent and cleansing their souls of the overabundance of Dark Aether while also storing their souls for rejoining. However these are just theories on circumstantial evidence or guesswork on my part, more than likely the reason why the next expansion hasn't had much build up is that its a gentle ignition. There's no huge threat, no end of the world scenario. It's literally the beach episode before the next real story gets going, so it doesn't need as much a build up as in the past. It's like when a game gets first released, it doesn't have stuff that prepares people before its even out it simply gets released and people learn about the world and story as they play for the first time.

I was actually expecting The Thirteenth to be HOW we get to Meracydia and be setup in that regards, but that was back in 6.1. I thought I’d be really cool to be able to use The Thirteenth as a way to explore cross shard travel as a whole, but find a new void gate and go through it and pop out in Meracydia since the connections of Allag, Meracydia, Azdaja, and the Void felt so intertwined. However I’m glad from both a story and a player perspective that we are going on a not normal journey for a purpose that’s not… high stakes or anything. I don’t think they are going to set up another decade long story starting with Dawntrail since we have roots of the last 10. It’s a new beginning, but I don’t think we will see an end like. Well, Endwalker. It might be shorter, maybe longer, but who knows. The writers should know not to make it be Endwalker and to top it as DT’s goal. It should be it’s own thing, topping a threat doesn’t make a story grand on its own

I think if we try and match or exceed the villains in Endwalker we are in for trouble. We rode to the ends of the universe to kill a god. You can't get bigger than that and going so massive comes with its own weaknesses too. Frankly, i think that we need a power nerf as the warrior of light. Not removing any of our in-game abilities, but to genuinely lower our godlike status as we have destroyed a lot of wonder to the world. There are not many things that can threaten a god killer, so the stakes inherently feel lower. (The entire 6.x story for example) and after combatting and defeating the Twelve....where can we go from there? Ultimately, trying to make the stakes even higher would be a wasted effort, and seem a bit silly to me, so i think it is better to instead look to the more mundane stories. Focus on the people, the world, build up the cultures and be a part of them again. Make the lore and the rules of the universe matter to us. There are generally higher stakes in the mundane, because you can lose those. No one would believe the Endsinger would win, how could it? The universe would end. But could one faction of a nation defeat another? Yeah, definitely. And there in lies the opportunity for better stories. Thank you for coming to my TedxTalk! Haha

I don't think dawntrail needs much setup, all that really needs needs to happen is for Wuk Lamat to show up, she she needs our help and we're off to tural, that doesn't require several patches to establish. also i'll add that shadowbringers did not have much in the way of setup, we saw the scions collapsing and emet selch showing up but everything with the first and the sin eaters was not seen until the actual expansion, it was mostly dealing the garlemald which had only a slight role in the shadowbringers story.

The idea of this next expac being more of an interlude to focus on world building rings truest to me, of the options you presented. The lack of story build up alone lends credence to the idea that Endwalker was, in fact, the end of one story. This, coupled with how little we've seen of the coming conflicts, leaves me feeling like I'm either about to jump into something new almost completely blind, or the writers are taking the time to lay the foundation of whatever BIG THING OF DOOM will come next.

i'm super excited about this expansion because it's literally a new beginning, a setup is nice but it won't be needed as much given the premise so far. I'm sure they already planted seeds here and there for it and even Zero's arc might come back later, but in a way this will be a new ARR planting seeds of its own for the future!

I believe we will be following the trail laid out by Emet Selch when he described all the places the WoL hadn't discovered yet. The post-endwalker started with a pre-amble on random adventures leading to unexpected places and I assume Dawntrail will go in a similar direction (I'm going to make a prediction that we find the Sources ruins of Amaurot or other places of the ancients)

I feel dawntrail will be mostly a chill fun romp dedicated to set up and the focus will be the new world overall going forward. Also on that note what places on etheris have we not visited yet meracidya, the new world, and the bulk of hingashi just to name a couple of places I think we will end up going to someday. Let’s say hypothetically during our adventure in tural we end up releasing some evil into the world on accident without knowing or this could set us up to traveling to the different shards and getting pull into combat there

One thing I want to make clear is that the development team did say they had the next 10 years of expansions and story already planned. So, even if the next expansion story wise doesn’t make sense now, I bet it will once we start playing it. I really feel like they already have a story set in place cohesivelythat will make sense as time goes on. We haven’t been told much of the plot, if at all of the next expansion, and for good reason. Because most likely, there are underlying tones that are major plot points for future expansions that we shouldn’t be spoiled this early in the new story.

Personally I'm excited for the MSQ. I'm expecting a back to the basics FF experience. We start an adventure in a new land, meet new characters, learn the lore of the area and get the first few pieces of the puzzle for the next arch that will come together in later expansions. After Endwalker, I personally think a more chill, but hopefully lore heavy and new character heavy, expansion will be a very fun change of pace. And I'm less worried about EW not setting it up because a lot of these areas, races, etc, already have a lot of lore in place in past expansions that will no doubt, be expanded on so there has effectively already been a lot of set up that just hasn't had spotlight yet but we've been hearing about a lot of these places since ARR. Honestly my only concerns with DT are combat related with stuff like raid damage buffs being an issue with the 2 minute meta causing homogenization. But the MSQ itself is the thing that has me excited.

I'm actually encouraged by the lack of hard setup leading into Dawn Trail. We get to experience whatever comes our way in the New World entirely on its own merits without any baggage or preconceptions. In my mind, the absolute weakest part of Shadowbringers was the 5.5 attempt to set up Endwalker...or rather, to set up the Garlemald-centric expansion that never happened. While we certainly got to see shades or the original plot that was being set up in late Shadowbringers, the actual Endwalker felt more like a retcon of 5.5-5.8 than an actual continuation of it. The Telophoroi as an ascendant faction of sundered ancients was entirely dropped, being reduced to Fandaniel as their sole representative. Zenos' visions of The Starfall and his connections to the events of the ancient world were forgotten in their entirety, the enormous focus on Lunar Primals and the rise of a new dominion of Zodiark was never played out. Hell, Zodiark himself was given a shockingly unimportant role in the story, being relegated to a trial boss in the first half of the MSQ where we face off against a mindless husk of the dark god bereft of its actual world-shaping powers. It's a puppet for Fandaniel to just sorta mess around with before finding a convenient excuse to exit the narrative stage and get out of the way for the REAL story to begin: the story of the Unsundered World. Side note, the Hydalen/Zodiark ultimate raid CANNOT get here soon enough. I want my PROPER match with Zodiark and by the Twelve I will pull a Zenos, posses a dragon, and fly to the edge of the universe if that's what it takes to get it. Without being shackled to the events of expansions prior, especially when said expansions are written easily a year+ in advance of the story it's setting up , Dawntrail is free to go absolutely wild with storytelling, themes, and locations, and if Solution 9 is anything to go by they're certainly going HOG wild with it. I think that's also why I've just thrown up my hands as far as speculations go. No attempts to predict and unearth the secrets of what we've seen in a couple fleeting screenshots. New world, new themes, new settings, new characters, and a brand new adventure to dive into with eyes wide open.

To add to your point: post-Heavensward patch stories included introducing the Warriors of Darkness, and setting up Minfilia's journey to the First.

I dont feel too bad about the lack of setup. It's turning a new page and I am willing to give the actual expansion the opportunity to make itself work. I enjoyed that the post-endwalker patches focussed on tying up more story-threads than setting new ones up. I doubt we are done with the ancients just yet but I do hope they take a backseat for a while. I want to see more of the world, I want more down-to-hydaelyn adventures, I want day-to-day struggles. Yes, I am the god-slayer, the end and the death... but also just an adventurer with a big stick that tries to see the world and solve problems while doing so.

As Yoshi P put it, this is a new ARR for us.

Yeah, the story needs to be a different to make us care. At this point, we have the tools to stop a universe-wide genocidal threat. There's practically nowhere to escalate to from there, and to try would ruin any sense of stakes. So I expect that we will pivot to a new kind of challenge that needs a completely different skillset, something that our current abilities aren't applicable to. A competition of some sort against our friends fits the bill, IMO (the WOL can't go all-out in combat against someone like Thancred or Y'shtola in the same way we did against Zenos). I'm not terribly worried for the new story. For all its faults, ARR was enjoyable. And DT has an advantage that ARR didn't - established world building. The writers will be able to focus more on the emotional core of the narrative, since they won't need to spend screen time on explaining things like aether and the elements. The team is bigger, more experienced, and has access to more resources than they did in ARR. I don't know if it'll live up to ShB and EW, but I trust the devs to make it a good experience regardless.

The most I've really been expecting for Dawntrail is to be a new ARR. Being the setup for the upcoming Saga. YoshiP had said long ago that 6.X wouldn't be setting up the next expansion. So I expect Dawntrail will be taking it's time in setting up important plot points for the future, and I'm excited for that.

I think you are absolutely right that this will be a brand new book. It's the start of a whole new years-long story, so they want a clean start to it the moment Dawntrail starts up. But there's another big issue not just the writers but the game developers have to consider. New players. People new to the game face the daunting prospect of getting through a decade worth of content before they even start Dawntrail. By not putting essential story into the leadup, this gives them the possibility of creating a new starting point for new players or fresh characters. Maybe even a whole new starting/learning area then diving straight into experiencing the story of the New World.

I am not worried, at least not because of a lack of set-up. It is true that this is breaking tradition and leaving more work for the expansion, but I think that is intentional. YOSHI-p said during fanfest something to the effect of there being two real chapters to this expansion. A new beginning isn't like any other expansion, the setup work is going to be greater, and I think they intentionally left all that work to be a part of the expansion. I think they want to start with something low stakes and chill that doesn't need much setup, and during that section we will get the introduction to the new arc. This gives them the space (and more importantly: resources) to focus on the setup. We haven't really seen an entirely new arc since 1.0, which was a very different team. 2.0 was rushed and put together quickly from what they could get to work. Endwalker was a climax, and I think we will see Dawntrail focus on interpersonal relationships and exploration. They probably want a clean break. We don't need major setup to make us care, because they are banking on a new world and our friends being enough to get us in the door.

I am reminded a lot of JJBA's part 4; Diamond is Unbreakable. The big bad world ending threat that was built up over the previous stories is dead. The amazing race across continents is over, and the heroes settle down in a humble locale, with little idea of the challenges they have in store. The story starts slow, with the heroes tackling smaller, but often no less life threatening threats. Its not until around halfway through the story that the main antagonist even shows his face. While incredibly powerful, with multiple ways to kill the heroes remotely, he is not even aware of their presence at first. Nor they of him. Despite his unique abilities he has no political power, nor desire for it. He is simply a serial killer, only using his powers to hide his misdeeds. If the heroes fail to catch him he won't take over the world, or even change it in a way noticeable to people outside of his small town, he'll just continue killing people one at a time. The stakes are significantly lower. Lower than they had ever been in the past. But the story still manages to create the same level of tension you've come to expect. I'm looking forward to Dawntrail, but we will have to wait and see what direction the story takes. As far as antagonists and threats go, I'd say expect the unexpected.

The biggest thing I want out of Dawntrail is an introduction to our new big enemy. It doesn't have to be a big reveal, but a taste of what's next. Maybe something from Solution 9 was locked away and has the power to jump to other shards at will. Something like that would show the scions they need to plan for a bigger threat and we aren't as strong with just the source. It is probably a dumb idea, but it would help bridge post endwalker and give a future goal.

I would argue the success of XIV's writing isn't contingent on that kind of line-goes-up power-creep in the way a lot of long-running epic narratives in media do. The heart of the MSQ's intrigue is more in the setup and pay-offs to the various mysteries it establishes, the various ongoing character arcs, and the way it addresses broader themes in nuanced ways rather than just throwing bigger and more powerful bad guys at us. Endwalker may've raised the stakes significantly but it ultimately used that macro concept of the apocalypse to explore the micro concepts of how peoples and society deal with the desperation and the despair of impending doom, while resolving the mysteries behind the apparent end of days. If Dawntrail gives us new mysteries to consider, characters to invest in, and a unique setting with a nuanced conflict at its heart to explore then it'd be doing its job even if the world isn't going to implode on itself if we didn't participate.

I think this is an opportunity for the writers to start with a fresh story. When we start ARR it was right after a calamity. If I’m correct this is an Astral era. After conflict from ARR to EW. We as players get to experience life in game during an Umbral Era. So I think this will be a new experience for both writers and players.

The only thing I want from Dawntrail is a good introduction to some new companions. I love the Scions, but I’m ready for some new characters to fight alongside and watch change and grow over years. I have no reason to expect anything less than an excellent adventure regardless. They’ve yet to give me anything close to disappointment.

We've had several expansions in a row that should be evidence enough for us to trust the writers and what they have planned. They've been absolutely nailing the story delivery for many many years now and I'm sure that's going to continue. Just an example and some food for thought, I'm convinced that the story we've been given so far with this two-headed leader we need to depose and help someone new take the throne...... I would not be shocked if that part of the story was only the first three or four levels, like how we took out zodiark at 83...

I get your concern, and I share it as well, but this uncharted territory or rather, very little walked territory, and as nervous as I am for the story going forward, im aslo excited to see how thier gonna try to walk this new Dawntrail!

I've got to think that Solution 9 is related to the unsundered world, and as such, that does build on what's gone before. But I also remember (but not from where) one of the dev team comparing the FFXIV storylines to times of the day... Realm Reborn was the morning, Heavensward and Stormblood were the day, Shadowbringers was the twilight, and Endwalker the dark midnight... with Dawntrail being a new day (hence the name). So to that extent, I don't think it needs a lot of buildup. The letter, the trunkless legs, these were the glimmers before the dawn, but when the sun rises we greet a fresh new day.

I personally think they're not only setting up a new story ark, but also a new entry point for new players and as such leaving it as unspoild as it can be - that in the future players do not have to play ARR - EW but start with DT. Right now it's a tremendous task if you want to enter the game, even if you're interested in the story, it will take about 300h to get where we are. The undending codex plays into that. How do we need a lore entry on Alphinaud at level 90? Or the shards? Or the Garlean Empire? That only makes sense if they either plan with lots of people using Jumppotions, or if they even make a new entry point and you can choose what you start with.

After all these years, am I the only one who wants something more in line with ARR in terms of world building, stakes, etc.? Dawntrail seems like a great beginning after all this time, especially with the variety of environments

I see Dawntrail as FFXIV Part 2. FFXIV has a whole is a like a literary series. ARR starts with the culmination of its own end in Endwalker. Dawntrail is just that.... The dawn of a new trail. Dawntrail shouldn't have to compete with the expansions before it as those expansions have effectively been closed. ARR required its writers to "tie up" ARR with Endwalker. Dawntrail is a new beginning for a new saga that seems to be separate from what ARr became. In truth: players should not be comparing Dawntrail to anything that came before. Dawntrail (if it runs for 10 more years) has the potential to be a completely and entirely different story. True: other places in the world of Hydelan were mentioned and there is still room in Dawntrail and beyond for those places to be visited. However, IMHO: it is completely unfair to Dawntrail to be compared to any previous expansion as Dawntrail seems to be a new start, a new beginning, a new saga for FFXIV.

I do think there are two important things to keep in mind about the idea of setting up the next major story arc 1) Endwalker took 10 years to get to. There were hints of where they were going EVENTUALLY in arr but a very small amount. There's plenty of time to build to the next big thing still and we're likely going to be seeing bits of that in 7.0 2) even if it has nothing to do with 7.0, I refuse to believe the void story hasn't been set up for the future. I'm even willing to bet money there'll be a future xpac based on more with the void( my running theory is merging the first and the thirteenth like ff5)

I fell in love with the First, it's peoples, and it's plight, with little or no prep. I have faith.

Something to take note that we knew that this was gonna happen. Yoshi-P has said ever since 6.1 that the story wouldn't set-up anything until "something happens" at 6.55. I firmly believe that, be it a setup for future expansions or not, the Void Arc (not the Alliance Raid) is just a *filler arc*. Dawntrail has the big work of actually setting up something new for the next 10 years, just picking up stuff here and there to setup the world (Like, what they did during the End of Days, how did they survive? Did it even reach them?). And it doesn't need to be an universe ending matter. It can be a personal one.

I believe that its more a thing of expectation than anyother thing. Its like from ARR to endwalker its a book in which a story gets Full circle. dawntrail is The First chapter on another book that doesnt intend to make a seamless connection but rather "look They saved The universe but They aint dead and They have yet stuff to live and feel, come along for The Ride" and Then maybe, a huge plot Will start to be set up.

I think the Tural parts are going to be fairly chill. The murica parts with solution 9, probably have a dark undertone

Maybe mystery and discovery are the selling point. We're not getting a massive build-up because the core is, "I don't know what's out there. Everything is brand new."

When Emet spoiled the places he's been to and seen the history unfold as he had. It's very clear to me. We may have saved the world but we still know nothing of it. Which is an absurd thing to think about in that regard it's what makes us a pale reflection of Azem but maybe we can discover more by making our own trail. The path of fate has been walked. On to the unknown path of the Adventurer.

Hmm... Not just the letter Krile read or the Hrothgal legs off the boat, but the overly-vague-but-stupidly-obvious conversation Urianger and Thancred have in 6.5 after we finished the dungeon. You know, their chat about the unknown employer. Honestly, the concern I have about the idea Yoshi P presented about the Scions going up against one another is how it will come down to the same tropes seen in many crossover versus stories in media, where the sides might fight for so long before realizing there is a true threat. I have a lot of faith in FFXIV having its themes and general plot, but I do not have faith in any real stakes in the Scions being pitted against one another, nor that facet of the 7.0 msq going for even half as long as, say, Smash Bros. Brawl. Y'shtola might "die" again, only to be alive the whole time to uncover a macguffin that beats the BBEG. We might have a 4th Wall breaking joke as a dialog option about Urianger betraying everyone. I am not yet sold on the writers' strength on this end of the story - not yet. Otherwise, I'm hoping this expansion sells me on the start of a new journey. We shall see.

I think the 8 man raid did more to set up future conflict. Ultima or beings like her that can infect minds (including really powerful individuals like Lahabrea) and seem to be able to contain a mountain's worth of aether in a pebble are a logical step up. These beings seem very lovecraftian and could possibly threaten multiverses. They might not come into play next expansion but I do think we have a lot to explore there, including the 4 shards we haven't visited yet. I can't wait to learn more about them, maybe they're beings from beyond the universe? maybe Jenova from FF7 will be one of those beings? what exactly is their purpose? Regardless, it IS going to be a challenge to match what Endwalker did. After all, it tackles the most important question in the universe: What meaning is there in life when death is assured? It is hard to imagine something that is higher concept than that. It is also the what I think the core concept of Final Fantasy as a whole is: a battle against nihilism (which is hard, cause nihilism has some pretty good points).

Frankly it should be pretty simple to understand, Dawntrail, is an expansion akin to ARR, meaning, it's the start of a whole new adventure, where the new threats are to begin stirring, new plots open, etc.

The biggest point I would like to make is this. We know that Dawn Trail is essentially going to be a two-part beginning. I think it is possible that Dawn Trail will feature more than one conflict, similar to how A Realm Reborn did (the slaying of Primals -> Defending the realm from the Imperial Legion, while having the looming threat of the Ascians present). That being said, the obvious observation with what I just stated is, that arr had two "conflicts" (separated into two parts of the story) that were being instigated by or involved, a higher threat / mastermind person or group. YES, those two parts transitioned quite well and I can understand the point of it was all "just one part". BUT, we did not start off arr dealing with the Imperials. After making a name for ourselves as a peerless adventurer, we join the scions and deal with, what? Primals being summoned. THEN we start seeing the Imperials involvement in the story, which eventually leads to smacking Gaius and Lahabrea around. I say again. My theory is that Dawn Trail will follow a similar path to A Realm Reborn in terms of how the story is "set up".

I think the Tural segment of Dawntrail is going to be its own entity, and it will eventually segway into something more. Yoshi P said as much... Las Vegas Fan Fest | 2023 | Day 1 01:04:00 - 1:10:35

After things cool down in patch 6.55, would you analyze the trailer of Dawntrail? I personally noticed two things 1. the Nutkin bit has layers of comedy Nutkin minion description: *Inspired by the words of Millith Ironheart, this daring squirrel longs to travel the realm in search of the legendary golden acorn, and hopes that trailing in your shadow will ensure that he isn't eaten before he discovers the mother lode.* this description makes Nutkin look of joy when he finds Thancred, even more hilarious 2. The trailer lyrics( or what fans managed to get) The cheerful singing when it starts showing Taco G'raha and Pictomancer Krile is somewhat foreboding

Blue Mage had some stuff about the New World in it, that we will be going to in Dawntrail. So there is bits & pieces previously noted in the game before the letter with Krile.

I feel like we will 100% be going back to the void at some point. Probably after DT. That way Zero and Golbez have some time to cook and maybe they reclaim some of the void, a foothold sort to speak. And then we go in to help them finish the job in some later expansion. I thought that DT would just be that "inbetween" expansion but then they showed Solution 9, and now it's obviously gonna be more than just a carefree summer vacay sort of affair, at least that's what it seems like to me.

Honestly I think it might be exciting to jump right in to something new. I'm not worried about how I'll feel about the story. What does worry me is public reception from people who think continuous upward momentum is both possible and good for a story.

Setup is extremely important. I certainly looked forward to Endwalker because I wanted to punch Forchenault in the face. Dawntrail is the perfect opportunity to give the writers, players, and main cast a rest from all the unearthly gravity that has been the past three expansions. I hope the writers take it and Dawntrail mostly is this sort of summer vacation downtime, while subtly setting up for future stories and expansions.

In my opinion the whole point of 6.x was to wrap up a loose end of the zodiark story. Specifically the void's zodiark shard because due to nature of the void the zodiark shard wasn't destroyed hence the need to create a void story to wrap up zodiark's story. It is also setup for future plot points to restore the 13th and the First. That being said I believe that is why there has been less set up compared to the other expansions. Dawntrail is effectively A realm reborn 2.0 Yoshi P has echoed the sentiment as well calling dawntrail the second rebirth of final fantasy 14. All and All I'm curious to see what direction the story goes in and if Solution 9 is simply an ancient / ascian city in the modern era. Surely Emet wasn't the only ascian who got bored and like to make cities looking at you Deudalaphon >.>

I hope that this is something more chill and down to earth. They wouldn't be able to match the energy and buildup of Endwalker, and ideally they won't try. You need downtime to make the uptime more exciting, and I was actually missing the downtime in the post-Endwalker patches.

Allegedly, the main scenario writer for DT is the same that wrote Werlyt's questline, and the things shown at fanfest surely show a big difference between two themes, so it could be cool still

Im ready for the next 10 years of FFXIV. At first i was inclined to believe that Dawntrail was just going to be a vacation type of expansion. But considering everything thats happened and all the little tidbits one can pick up here and there. i would very much consider this a new beginning, for another 10 year long story arc. So i expect a lot of world building to happen. As for one-upping EW? No, it wont, it cant, and i wouldnt want it to. As you said it yourself EW was the culmination of a decade long story. There is nothing they could possibly do to one up that, without the previous world, character and story development. I do however hope it wont feel as much a slog as ARR did. And that we continue to see the friendship between the scions developing (I seriously love all those intimate little moments we get to see or even share with them, like Y'shtola sleeping over her books, or the sass and banter that happens between everyone rather frequently since late stormblood).

Honestly, they could do fuck-all for 6.55, send my WoL a letter to her where she's sunbathing on the Island Sanctuary saying "New World. Wanna go?" and I'll STILL be happy! I also feel like all of this Void stuff is really setting up something for something even later. This isn't the first time we've been looking into "fixing" the void. Unukalhai first showed up post-HW, and wasn't seen again until post-ShB, where we brought him over to the First to look into options with Cylva. Even with everything we've done with Zero and Golbez, the Void is still nowhere near saved. I don't think it'll be dealt with in DT, but I think we've been building things up for later expansions there.

In my honest opinion, i dont feel like dawntrail needs a lot of set up since its a whole new book, not a continuation of the same story arc from 10 years ago, if anything as long its better than ARR to set up the story i feel its gonna be great

In my opinion Dawntrail is the Prologue to the bigger story that will come later! The setup doesn't need to be flashy or big in size! This is the break before the big story! Dawntrail is also the intermission to the overall FFXIV storyline! In essence new book new story! We will see...!!!

To me, it feels a lot like the setting to Shadowbringers, but in less dreadful. I just replayed the patches to Shadowbringers with my free trial alt, we had so little clues of who was the man in the cloak, where the souls of our friends went and what happened to them. All we had was Garlemald, Black Rose and the war getting more intense, the meeting with Varis and all. It all fell into place as we played the expansion, and the following patches, but it sure looked grim going to it. For Dawntrail and the story after it, I expect travel to reflections will be the main focus, the First, the Thirteen, and maybe some info on the other... 4, was it? The closer focus for the moment is the City of Gold, which was on Hades' list of place to see before you die. We have seen the one in the sea of Bounty in the Endwalker's patches, we will probably see the other as we move forwards with this arc's plot.

I'm just eager to see where they go with Dawntrail, and I'm fine with it either being a relatively self contained story with just sprinklings of bigger things to come or with it charging right out of the gate with the makings of a Brand New Story. My bigger concern, honestly, is not DawnTrail being a new beginning but instead with it not being a clean enough break from the past. The developers and writers have already demonstrated a pretty stubborn impulse to not want to leave things in the past and actually move on. As much as I did enjoy seeing Emet and Hythlo again, and as much as I loved Venat, I don't want to see any more Ancients again. I really (really, really, really, really) don't want to ever see Zenos again. I don't want everything to just be "The Allagans" or "The Ascians" again. Heck, even with the Scions, they invented a scenario where they supposedly disbanded and were going to go their separate ways but, nope, everyone was back together in literally the next patch (and we already know all of the Scions are coming along to the New World even if there are supposedly going to be divisions between them). We even had great characters like Fordola and Arenvald pumped up but then tossed back into the storage locker because "More Scion Time." Whatever they do with DawnTrail narrative wise, I just want it to actually feel like the new start they are advertising it as instead of just being too afraid to do anything but keep playing the hits. But I'm very afraid we'll end up in Solution 9 and find out that Emet, Hythlo and Zenos' souls have actually been stored there in Aetheric digital storage and they've "alive" again.

I think the void stuff is set up for later stuff of like the 1st and 13th joint story. As for dawntrail and the new world, it might not have the set up in story as much but the new worlds come up alot and is a kinda major point in the first 1-50 blu quests as the magic comes from there and you have to save some of the natives land via a blu mage off to stop a vein of cerulium being mined. I think dawntrail is kinda in a good spot for a new begining, as it puts the player in a good place of mind, its a new place, we have no real info, and we may be this world saving champion, but we only really have that rep in eorzea we didnt help them with blasphamies, deal with any possible prinals etc over there, so its kinda a fresh start, yeah we are known but i dont think we will be considered a big deal. Basically we get to have a whole new adventure, new lands to see, etc, so yeah i think a kinda fresh start is nice.

I fully expect Dawntrail to take its queues from ARR. There will of course be a conflict like the empire vs the city states, but the stakes of the conflict will be much lower than what we’ve seen in the past expansions I think this will be more chill by comparison, more learning and exploring and setting up threads to follow in years to come. And I’ve been telling friend it’s probably going to be a good starting point to the game if they wanted to join now and skip ahead to correct content

Maybe Krile's letter is the wagon which WoL rode in ARR, and the technique for travelling between shards is one of the setups.

If it focuses on polital manouvering, local troubles and doesn't shoot to space (Literally and figuratively) I think it's going to be a great expansion. People who want to just keep the hype train rolling from EW to even more magnificent things will just end up driving this game to its death storywise. I think EW already jumped the shark with the "end of the universe" I think a well deserved toning down is required.

I'm thinking it's a massive misdirect to setup future conflicts and expansions. I think a lot of people might actually be missing the narrative significance of the Thirteenth as the post story for EW. Yes, it started as a treasure hunt but it also started as research into how to traverse the space between reflections. I think the future of XIV is in exploring the reflections and perhaps avoiding an unintentional catastrophe of the shards eventually rejoining.

Dawntrail's Goal: Be better than 2.0: A Relm Reborn. That's all it has to do, be better than 2.0. Compare beginnings to beginnings.

Well, since Endwalker was the end of a story and Dawntrail is the beginning of a new one they may not follow the same pattern for setting up story. Nowhere does it say that they have to keep it the same or follow that same predicted path they set up for ARR- Endwalker. I plan on just waiting to see how all of this plays out and not put expectations on what's to come.

At this point if people dont understand that Dawntrail is basically a Chapter 1 to a new adventure then I dont think we can do anything for them

I was just thinking about a question I had for the lore master himself and next time I look at RU-vid my man posted a video! Señor Scribe, what, in your opinion, is the reasoning in universe for the eden primals being vastly different to their originals? If there was a solid reason, I can't remember it. On topic, I'm very curious to see just what they will do in half a patches worth of story but I'm very intrigued with where they'll go from here. I do however think that the void arc is absolutely setting up for post dawntrail events. That's continuing the long term setup they've done before but they want 7.0 to be the true start to the new story, they've definitely put a lot on their plate considering all the patch content they've promised to come too.

I just assumed Dawntrail was going to be basically, "The WOL goes on vacation", and therefore a bit light on story. Further more, I'm not sure it'll need much.