Solution 9 may have a Dark Purpose, Final Fantasy 14 

My fringe theory is that Solution 9 is a literal name. The 12th Shard while enduring the lightning aspected calamity came up with 8 plans to forestall their apocalypse. Solution 9 was a soul-ark they shotput at the Source to ferry souls there before the rejoining. This would explain the excess of lightning aether that got mentioned. It would also lead to Emet's statement of "some of the civilizations on the other shards might surprise you"

I think people are forgetting a really important detail of EW The Convocation had a plan. Zodiark. Venat and her Disciples had a plan. Hydaelyn. Azem however wasn't part of either plan. They left. Hydaelyn made it clear we did our own thing. I have a feeling Solution 9 was "our own thing.". Our attempt at solving the issues of the Final Days, or at the very least trying to mitigate what was done by the Convocation and Venat. Especially with a very safe assumption that the new lady at the top of the Dawntrail art is likely attached to Solution 9 in some way. Especially with the implication the music goes down. Where it begins by talking about the previous expansions, but then for the first time in a theme song approaches the idea of "we" and "us". The WoL has always been referred to as an individual, but suddenly we have a song openly talking about how "we" will be changing our Fate. I'm guessing Solution 9 is tied to Azem, and it's very possible cover art lady is either the original Azem still ( and we are formed of the souls lost in previous Rejoinings ), or she was somehow saved from a Shard by Azem in the past.

We already have Amaurot and Elpis as our way of running through the Ascians’ past, so the idea of us running through their failed “future” would be a pretty cool way of shaking things up with our encounters with them

It could be Ascians like you said but I personally think it could be a city / civilization from another reflection who got trapped on the Source by trying to find a solution to escape a rejoining at some point, like an Ark or something. And since I think traveling to others reflection will be a big part of the story going forward after Dawntrail, it could be helping in that direction.

If it's really the Ascians, then I'm curious if the last unaccounted for members of the Convocation are going to be antagonists or allies. It would be very interesting if they decided to become allied with the WoL, though I wouldn't be surprised if there was still bad blood.

The dev team could have created basically *any* story after Endwalker. I'm sure whatever story Dawntrail is, it will be good because they had more freedom than previously to choose what they felt would be fun and interesting.

I definitely thought about Zanarkand when I saw Solution 9, but given the extra evidence of the FF9 parallels, it makes much more sense to connect it there. I think you've got the right of it, I'm very excited to see what the game gives us as a reason for why we have a city like this in Tural.

Honestly, it does make sense when you think about it. I mean the naming is also suspicious since it is called a solution. I had a feeling that the city was made by Ascian’s hand. And it also solidify the idea with the proto language and the Ascian symbols we saw at the 8 man raid. It’s also possible that Gaius, Cid and Nero will be also involved with Solution 9 if we are going to fa e two new Ascians.

We cannot forget that Emet actively teased us about how we haven’t even gone to see the golden city in the new world, but he has. I DEFINITELY think he is/was aware of solution 9 and was pointing us there

Well with Emet mentioning the new world, I have a feeling he also had a hand in creating this city.

I definitely get FFX from the more tropical parts of the world that we've seen. The screenshot with the train makes it APPEAR like the high-tech city is built on top of some more ancient ruins, which is what made me think of FF7 (+ the train of course). But I've also seen theories on it being a dreamscape like in 10. I'm so curious as to what it'll be -- and Yoshi P's optimisim makes me optimistic. I trust in the dev team.

I mean, Heavensward didn't foreshadow Azys Lla either. Neither was Amaurot in ShB. I don't know why people are so wierded out.

I've been playing Final Fantasy games for too long to be shocked by Solution Nine. It does excite the hell out of me, however. I feel like since Ishikawa moved up to co-lead, we've seen less instances of things thrown into the story without some kind of precise road map for how it will be used. Everything sets up something else, which is why I actually loved the post-Endwalker story (I played it as one giant prologue). I know that post-EW is setting up a return to the 13th down the line. When we return is anyone's guess, but it will happen. I'd put money on it. Solution Nine completely trashed any preconceived theories I had about Dawntrail, and that's a very good thing. I want to be surprised. I want Emet's words to be right: that of our little Eorzea we still know precious little.

You're definitely onto something here as well. Considering that solution 9 seems to resemble a futuristic utopia and Tulliyol is a place that respects tradition, nature and living on the land I can see a big theme of dawntrail being progress vs tradition or the price that is paid when replacing the past.

Could be nothing but if you watch the reveal video for Solution 9, one of the Aetheryte's debris floating around it frame skips/glitches while the rest of the shot remains fluid and correct. Could imply this is some sort of simulated/virtual space.

Seven Calamities, with one averted. Which would make this one the ninth "solution" to the problem of recreating the world of the Ancients. That being said, I don't think the red symbol in Arcadion is necessarily an Ascian glyph. The closest resemblance would be Mateus, the inverse of Lahabrea. Pashtarot's glyph has three spikes on the top, but the side spikes aren't curved as in the glyph we see in the key art. If anything, the symbol kind of looks like a horned helmet with plate spaulders, or a snarling monster with claws cartoonishly raised. Think the symbol for Bowser. I think it was deliberately placed and colored to draw attention away from everything else, an actual red herring.

My thoughts about Solution 9 is that it's inspired off of Final Fantasy XIII's Cocoon, where you have this bubble of hyper advanced tech with a wild area that could be seen as a dangerous place that dissidents and/or people deemed Dangerous are sent and expected to die with Heritage found serving as the drop off point. also, and I could be wrong, but I swear Yoshida did mention that there is a civilization living there, but that they were removed from the preview, likely to prevent any possible spoilers and/or concepts they didn't want the public to see yet. I also find it interesting that you mentioned Ultima as that was the name of the Fal'ce that branded the Main cast in XIII, I also 'think' that it was established that the world were the Lightning from the XIII came from was a reflection. bu~t that could also be wrong and only 15 and 16 are reflections with 11 either being a reflection or another continent we cannot see. But I digress, it'll be interesting to see how this all plays out in the end.

Altima and Deudalaphon building Solution 9, that is my theory as well. It would just be fitting if Deudalaphon, who was the convocation member tasked with overseeing architecture and technology, was responsible for basically the most technologically advanced city on Etheirys. Altima's involvement would be less clear. However, like you mentioned in the video: in the slide advertising the Arcadion raids a red sign can be seen that looks eerily similar to a part of Altima's corresponding sigil from FF12, just like how all Ascian mask designs up to this point were derived from those sigils. I'm excited to see if this is correct or not.

I think another connection to Solution Nine, or more specifically Arcadion, to the Ascians/Ancients is the fact it's an FF14 original story and not based on other FFs. What other 8-man Raid have we had that was an FF14 original storyline? Pandaemonium, which was focused on Lahabrea. Granted FF9 also had a location called Pandemonium which served as Garland's castle on Terra, but I doubt they'd use that name as a connection to Solution Nine.

Most other Final Fantasy titles have never shy away from having some advanced civilization, Final Fantasy 1 had the Lufenians, Final Fantasy 3, the Ancients, Final Fantasy IV, The Lunarians, and it goes on. So this isn't out of place, especially in a Final Fantasy game!

I tried looking at the remaining known ascisn glyphs (since they are borrowed from FF 12) and none of them match the one in the Arcadion image. The only unknown glyph is Azem's. I think it would be cool if this was Azem's solution to the end days, somehow. Even if it is ultimately being used for some nefarious purpose now. A golden legacy left by Azem (to the warrior of light?)

I don't really see why people think the symbol in the Arcadion art is an Ascian symbol beyond the red coloring. Not only is it asymmetrical, it simply does not match the other symbols that we can verify from the Espers of FF12. It likewise is not split down the middle like an Ascian Prime. To me, the symbol more closely resembles a sort of pseudo-Japanese kanji. Similar to the way that Eorzean is stylized English, the symbol makes me think of a kanji with the same or similar stylization, which could fit with the imagery of the hannya masks on the far right of the art. The need for the Ascians to prepare a comfortable place for the Ancients to 'land' also doesn't make much sense, given both how unfamiliar Solution 9 would be to them and Emet-Selch's ability to recreate a physical Amaurot with relative ease. If they had succeeded and needed to permanently recreate Amaurot, he would have done so with the help of Lahabrea, the Architect himself, so the task would have been far easier still. I do not think they would have had any need to assign 2 sundered Ascians to spending hundreds of years creating a city rather than spending the same time facilitating further rejoinings. My current theory remains similar to many other's; Solution 9 was one attempt by the people of the 12th shard to escape from the end of their world. They extracted their souls into an 'ark' facility, granted themselves digitized avatars within a digital city, and fired that facility into the Source, likely dragging a massive amount of lightning aether with them and resulting in the constant levin storms around Heritage Found. If they are a reference to Genomes, they may have the intention of being reincarnated by inhabiting the bodies of people on the Source, perhaps by somehow rejoining with their reflections in a way that leaves their 12th reflection in control. I also wonder if they may have android bodies that allow them to act in the outside world, which would explain points I'll get to shortly. Additionally, originating from the 12th shard could explain the advanced technology. A shard that naturally tends towards lightning may have discovered electricity in a similar way to real life rather than developing magic, with an almost limitless amount of electricity facilitating the technological growth. The inhabitants existing within a datascape can also explain why Solution 9 is so massive, as well as why it appears far cleaner in design than the (likely) external structures we've seen in other art. Of course, there is also the art for the dungeons we've gotten. One shows the exterior of one of these areas and looks very much like a castrum or other military installation, with visible 'ships' that we've now seen in the recent dungeon video. This being a dungeon and the art clearly showing the gate having been exploded open indicates that we may in fact be fighting our way into Solution 9, potentially with the Eliminator acting as the third dungeon boss. Another piece of art clearly shows a ceruleum processing plant (with a large fan that matches Arcadion). I highly doubt that reawakened Ancients would have any use for ceruleum, so I wonder if the facility is either using the ceruleum, indicating that it is currently manned (maybe by Genome-piloted androids?), or that this facility may even be the source of ceruleum, with the wild west towns being created around it in order to extract the ceruleum leaking into the earth from damage incurred in its cross-shard travel. Perhaps the facility continuously draws on levin aether to power itself, either by refining it into ceruleum or with ceruleum as a byproduct? I believe this may also link to the dungeon that features large blue-and-purple crystals amidst mountainside ruins, which appear to be crystallized ceruleum that is charged with levin aether, given the audible crackling of electricity in the video. Perhaps the two are intrinsically linked, or perhaps the story will reveal that the massive facility recently 'came online' and its levin aether is now corrupting the natural ceruleum. The mountainside is also snowy in the concept art, so there is either another mountain we are unaware of further north or the lightning aether has spread all the way to Urqopacha. I also have smaller, more disparate theories. If my above theories are all somehow correct, then the leaking ceruleum could jeopardize Solution 9's ability to power itself. If it lost power, all the digitized souls would be lost. An alternative to much of this is that the ceruleum plant art also looks like it may be a sort of packing facility, with ceruleum being loaded into crates and transported on the aforementioned ships, though this would not explain the turrets visible on the ship in the dungeon video. Finally, I firmly believe that the girl at the top of the character art is a citizen of Solution 9 and less firmly believe that she is also, somehow, the nutkin. I will not be expanding on that last point.

Hey Scribe, are we getting a video on the job classes for: Gunbreaker & Dancer, Sage & Reaper based upon their Eorzea Encycolpedia 3 entries?

I feel like we already had the "massively advanced technology zone out of nowhere" at least twice before - first when doing the Bahamut raids in ARR and second when going to Azys Lla in HW. Yes, Solution 9 does seem to be pushing that a little bit further (for example, it seems to be more intact than the Dalamud fragments and Azys Lla), but FFXIV has already had precedent for _wildly_ advanced technology compared to the swords and sorcery of your average everyday Eorzean life.

My theory's that S9 isn't really a thing when we get there. it's just this mysterious tower with a flat top over this old mining town. then we do a dungeon in the innards of the maintenance tunnels.. and actually activate it, revealing this grand hypertech city that was supposed to be used for the ancients when they returned but never was. Also The Arcadion is us joining up with our raid party later on to discover the history of the place and why something weird is happening to it. With the help of an up-and-coming Ironworks Miqo'te who's charged with maintenance and exploration. Named N'vidia.

Or... Solution 9 is the city that have been built all this time (by Ascians?) to simply welcome the ancient brought back from Zodiark after he was made all again. Their new home as Amaurot and all of their old cities no more exist in the Source. I'm excited by Solution 9 and what this place implies more than anything that has been presented before for Dawntrail. I've heard this could be located on another shard, or be some ancient place built to escape the Final Days. In the artwork you can see various languages here and there including eorzean. I don't kow where it is but I hope there is a good reason why such an advanced civilization has never been talked about before.

I'm one minute into the video, so I'm not sure if it's been mentioned or not, but consider the entire Endwalker Relic questline - the last Relic stage has visual effects EXTREMELY resembling to Solution 9. The relic questline being tied to Hildibrand - which is often overlooked for how comedic it is in purpose - also lifts some suspicion. There's even a specific line from the 6.4 Manderville questline where Delion mentions that Hildibrand's superhuman resistance might be "the product of a hyper-advanced civilization from the distant past", either making a direct reference to Allag OR whatever civilization is Solution Nine's. And I'm leaning towards the latter precisely because of how alien (literally) the entire questline was, and the very specific look the last relic stage has.

I admit, I'd forgotten about the remaining Ascians, but Endwalker put such a capper on their story that I don't think they'd be directly involved again. Rather, my theory is that a colony of opo-opos discovered an Ascian artefact similar to the monolith from _2001: A Space Odyssey_ that, for lack of a better word, hyper-evolved them into the FFXIV version of Genomes.

I like the theory, but I had another thought since I never played 4 or 9. The second calamity was the calamity of lightning, my thought was this was the people's of that time solution to it, with the previous 8 having failed. It doesn't account for Ascians being involved or not, they might have had a hand in it.

I think if we're going to compare Dawntrail to ARR and Heavensward, it's fair to remind people that even in those expansions we still had high end technology settings that might have caught people as out of place. Castrum Meridianum in ARR and Azys La in Heavensward. And yeah, Esthar was the first thought of Solution 9, but there's also something about it that feels a bit like Cocoon to me. I can see the inspiration of Terra too from FFIX. Also I'm not sure if we're going to see much ascian connections (at least I hope not) We know that Dawntrail is supposed to set up an entirely new multi expansion story arc, so tying back to the ascians again feels like it would carry too much baggage from the past expansions, and I for one am ready for a new start. The ascians have had their story told, their arc is complete, and their plans as well as the major threat faced by them have been dealt with. Now is the perfect time to start to introduce something new.

I'm just happy to see Dawntrail, which reminded me of XI's Seekers of Adoulin expansion, having similar metallic purple ruins/buildings/constructs tucked away just like the Ra'kaznar zone from the same expansion. They just went all-in on the tech part instead of the heavier magic leaning. Can't wait to see how they spin such familiar settings into something brand new!

I think perhaps a trip to another shard may be a huge possibility considering how jarring Solution 9 looks from the New World. However, the Terra concept has huge potential.

Thanks for condensing and laying out what's being said so far into digestible thought. Can't wait for 7.0 to drop this summer and see how this all plays out!

My first thought upon seeing Solution Nine from the outside - that artwork of the area with the steam train in particular - was that it looks a lot like a tree surrounded by a thick smog. That drew me to the Iifa tree with its mist. The buildings in that artwork also kind of look like what's in Madain Sari if the buildings weren't ruined.

I remember making a joke about a year ago thinking oh man I can't wait for the 8.0 New World expansion (Was convinced 7.0 was gonna be Meracydia), we finally get a nice reset and go explore the American frontiers and meet cowboys and oops we unearth an ancient futuristic city made by the Ascians or Amon cause that prick is everywhere. I think if I called it that long ago and got it mostly on the nose I think that shows the type of setting and reveals the devs favor and have always shown fondness for and why I don't think this is a jump the shark moment, this is totally in line with their typical storylines and overall way the world works. There's constant ancient civilizations that get unearthed from the past since the world has had so many calamities. I also remember thinking it was suspicious that Allag claimed they ruled the whole world but their next plan of attack was Meracydia and not the massive continent in the West? What exactly was there that kept them from attacking that location or claiming it as conquered? Either way if you've followed the world and storyline of the previous sundering, calamities, and empires I don't think a reveal of another advanced civilization is too out of left field and I welcome more insight into the star's vast history.

Having thought about this place for some time, there's a few ideas that do come to mind. First, some rogue faction of Allagans isn't impossible, and Allagans doesn't rule out Ascian influence, for their technological rise also was influenced similarly to the Garlean Empire's. This leads to the second, some offshoot of the Garlean Empire. Some attempt at also seizing the large deposits of cerulem and expanding their influence... but one that failed when those of this western colony broke off from the empire. These first two I give low odds, but not zero odds, so they cannot be ignored. Obviously we have the Ascian person replacement plan discussed here, no need to elaborate on this further. We also have the possibility of this being a colony from a shard that has already been rejoined, people who fled their world before the end. Something surprising from a civilization from another shard, to be sure. If this is the case, I would suspect that the people of the 12th shard, the one rejoined in the 2nd calamity, would be the most likely, as this was the calamity of lightning, the very element said to be overaspected in the surrounding land in the previews. However, it is also possible that this is a colony from a shard that has yet to rejoin. These are the Fourth, Eighth, Ninth, and Eleventh shards. This would require one of those shards to have figured out the secret of planar travel, but given the technology at play, I would say this this could be a distinct possibility. Additionally, as the Ninth shard is one that remains intact, this is one that would be a thematic choice, given the FFIX influences apparent in the Dawntrail previews and preorder items. Finally... given that there are said to be great ceruleum deposits in the New World, we cannot ignore the possibility that some of those on the new world have simply advanced their technology, somehow. If these people somehow were sheltered from the effects of the umbral calamities, intentionally or otherwise, they might have had a continuity with their culture that most others could not have. This is another I give low odds, but not zero. At the end of the day, we have to remember that the devs fully know what the expectations were with the early teasers, showing a return to form. and notably Solution 9 is the city we know the least about, save that the zone around it has a lightning aspect, and there is a raid tied to it. Thus while this might feel to some like a jumping of the shark, it could well be a return to form in that a new adventure starts in what would be pure fantasy, but then stumbles into evidence that high technology is part of the setting as well. The fact that Solution 9 is a city even means that our encounter with whatever is here will not be entirely hostile. This feels like Midgar and Esthar vibes will likely come into play as well, in addition to the Terra vibes.

It could simply one of the Ascians ideas of how to fix the Sundering problem. They didn't just immediately figure out the Calamitys, so it wouldn't surprise me if they all started researching different solutions before settling for whichever seems to work best. Then just kept the rest on the backburner incase they can manage do something with it later.

"Go forth and seek discovery. Some of the civilizations in the reflections will surprise you." - Emet-Selch This is a civilization on a shard that has been allowed to grow without the Ascians interfering with it with endless wars and chaos.

The one thing that keeps me from 100% thinking this is too Ascian-related are the ads: there are a few ads visible in the footage, such as one of a female Hyur near a shop. If it were a plan to bring back the people of the Ancient World, it wouldn't focus on the appearance of the people they're trying to eliminate to bring them back, imho. I'm still not sure what S9 is, but it sure as heck is exciting! Bring it on, I say!

Personally, I love it. I got a Cocoon vibe from it BTW. Also, my personal theory it's an Advanced Civilization Built by Miqo'te. As the one humanoid figure you can make any detail out looks suspiciously like a miqo. Is it something the Ascians made, probably, they probably uplifted the local civilization with the intent for it to be an Ark of sorts... esp if the lightning zone is the base of the city. The concept in my idea is this is what Cocoon was before it launched into the sky. Only the launch was cancelled. When the flood of light failed to actualize.

Super excited to see how Solution Nine fits into the world and story. I had an idea that it may have something to do with the 9th shard. We know it's still ok. Maybe the Ascians never touched it and it became a techno utopia since there were no calamities. And now they found a way to us or something? Idk just a random idea

didn't one of the side quests in shadowbringers fake Amourot talk about whether it was ok to send relief to a rival/unaligned city on the other side of the sea, a city that suffered a calamity before the final days (been a while, and it was only a short quest), perhaps this is that city from the other ancient civilization. The quest was "Debate and Discourse"

My tinfoil hat theory about Solution 9 is, What if it was created by Azem? I found it odd that they said "heritage found" in the live festival, and since 13 Ascian Glyphs are known, as far as I'm aware. The one at 12:51 looks very original, unlike the 13 other ones that are based on the summons from FFXII The City looks also like it's in a bubble or shielded away like a safe heaven, and since they use the ancient language, and we don't know what Azem did at the end days it might be a possibility.

solution 9 could have been the plan for the 9th calamity assuming the 8th calamity was not stopped by us in shadowbringers.

Initially, i considered the possibility these were Allagans who had left the empire--leaving it due to the impending calamity or they were sick with Xandes' warmongering as examples of why--and managed to reach the northern continent of Tural; my friends and i even joked it was FantasyPunk 2024 with this sci fi mash of Terra and Zanarkand. Now that I've seen these ideas about Solution 9 being some kind of Ascian work makes a lot of sense to me. I'm looking forward to meeting the surviving ascians because I'm hoping just a little bit to see if our interaction with them is going to be a "so what do we do now?" Kind of situation.

Right now my current running theories are: 1 - One of the Ancient cities that independently derived a solution to the Final Days that survived somehow. 2 - A city from the reflection that was merged with the Source during the Calamity of Lightning. 3 - A city from the source that adapted remnant technology and/or was a prototype civilization development project by the Ascians that built itself to survive the Calamity of Lightning. What's been tickling my brain is the name Heritage Found. Solution 9 is the city, but by the sound of it so far Heritage Found is the zone it's in. Borrowing from FF9, it has me wondering if the vessels that were intended for Ancient souls were 'filled' by some from the Source's Lifestream when the actual intended souls didn’t make it, broke containment and then wandered out into Tural eventually resulting in the current population millenia later.

I'm in the excited camp, I thought a return to roots was nice but I wasn't sure how they'd sustain an entire expansion on that. And I've always loved the sci-fantasy aesthetic of Final Fantasy. Seeing this has made me surprised but hyped for Dawntrail and I can't wait to see where it goes. My personal guess is that Solution 9 is an ascian contingency plan, perhaps a city populated by the sundered descendants of the ancients under ascian rule, waiting for the day that the ancient world would be brought back. But now that their ultimate plan is foiled, I can't imagine that an advanced city with the technology of the ancients plus thousands of years, led by two of the Convocation, will be very welcoming to the slayer of Zodiark. But we shall see!

My Theory on Solution 9 is similarly Ascian related; I postulate that this city is of Azem's creation! Azem was MIA during the whole Hydaelyn vs. Zodiark saga, perhaps this is where they went; They gathered as many ancients as they could, found a nice secluded corner if the world and kept their civilization alive & hidden, so even the Ascians couldn't find it. As for explaining us being a reincarnated Azem, I say it's all according to keikaku! (keikaku means plan); After the Ktisis Hyperboria incident, perhaps Venat relayed the WoL's future-info to at least one other person, whom would logically be Azem, which prompted them to prepare for way more than the Final Days. Apart from the city and yet-unknown lore, also chose the perfect time to reincarate, knowing that they'll become the WoL and relay the info to Venat... Solution 9 was a backup plan alongside Venat's backup plan; whatever Hydaelyn's plan missed, Solution 9 would cover... On that note, Arcadion looks like a big CPU, so perhaps they were gonna "Xenoblade X", and digitize/download as much life to "Sword Art Online" as it could before the final days could ravage the world if WoL failed...

I'm happy that there is a little bit more final fantasy 9 dripping through. I do so enjoy it and I'm very excited to see how much there is going to be in Dawntrail that has been inspired by final fantasy 9.

I still stand by my theory of S9 being in existence since the Second Umbral Calamity, albeit with the caveat that the Ascians established it in preparation for the release of souls from Zodiark's fall.

Very excited about Solution 9. My only reservation about it, is that of old patterns hold, it can’t become a major player hub, both being an expansion city and the secondary expansion city, which won’t have a marketboard. Seems like the perfect place to have apartments and host the modern sensibility players in the community.

no matter, I love sci fi final fantasy.

I don't know how I could not see this but Solution Nine is the name of the main location in the northern part of Tural, litterally written on the map, the city being apparently protected by some energetic dome (probably fuelled by the structure that can be seen in Heritage Found).

Solution 9 strikes me as a sort of hidden El Dorado-esque mythological “paradise.” It’ll likely be something we have to discover to introduce a Deis Ex Machina fix to a massive problem.

My initial feeling is that could be some cyberpunk style area. The later tower event looks like graphic cards. In another hand, the japanese title of next expansion means golden legacy, which was indicated by to the undersea by Emet-Selch (where he visited, not created). In XIV, the lore allowed the cross-over between other world asides of our reflections, so it leaves quite some free space. (Though that also means some new trouble for us to handle in other world)

I like what has been theorized so far, but I do have a couple thoughts to potentially add or play with as we get closer to 7.0. For one, I've been hopeful since before Shadowbringers came out we might change to something other than Allagan Tomestones. Since Allag never came to Tulal or its continent, it would make sense to have to require a new place of origin for whatever the new bi-patchly endgame currency is. Solution 9 could very well carry that for Dawntrail's patch cycle. But then, that would raise the question of why we're pulling this new "ancient" currency out of thin air to turn in for gear if Solution 9 is under management of at least one of the remaining Ascians. This brings me to the second thought. Final Fantasy XI. We know the new 24-man raid series will be about FFXI to some degree. But will the XI references start or stop there? I never finished the story of "Seekers of Adoulin," nor can I find a full plot summary (beyond fairies escaping from a stone) without watching so many videos of the expansion's missions (someone should get on making a proper summary), but I do see some potential parallels. In FFXI:SoA, we travel to the New World and team up with the underaged-waifu-of-the-week (Square loves its formulas) to uncover a mystery beyond the main city's walls while trying to quell a sort of power struggle within those boundaries. There was an antagonist named Hades behind the scenes, and someone "mysterious" (read: obviously part of the picture) within the city playing a role of his own in having us not get too involved with the truth if it can be helped. Deep in the wilds was a set of ruins with a dark, city-like secret beneath it. How much of this sounds familiar compared to what we know of FFXIV:DT so far? Well, it's obvious as to why we won't be facing Hades in Dawntrail, but if another Convocation member, who worked with Hades, is running Solution 9, and if one of the candidates to Tulal's throne is taking orders from this ranking Ascian, then those roles have been as good as echoed. Instead of a girl in her teens whose brother we're trying to save, we're working with a Hrothgal who, if I am remembering right from Yoshi's early DT explanations, is with one of the throne candidates in the same or similar fashion. FFIX may be a major inspiration for this first leg of a new journey, but I think FFXI have have some footing as well, in ways beyond what the raid series will measure.

I'm more of the belief that it's a fragment from whatever world was rejoined during the Second Umbral Calamity. Given that they made mention of the color purple and how that ties to lightning. Sure, one of the remaining Ascians could have had a hand in that particular Calamity, but that's as far as they go, I feel. What's more, gold is among the most potent of electrical conductors, and the City of Gold is one of our main interests in this expansion. 🤷‍♂️

Imo all late Allagan armour designs fits the hi-tech aesthetics of Solution 9. Same with their robots and mechas (G-Warrior was an Allagan design after all). I think we should stop looking at Allagan Empire through just the Crystal Tower and Azys Lla. Just look how different their base design was in The Burn. There is a clear reason why their armour sets are called "late", as these were most likely created in the last years of Allag supremacy. Ofc I could be totally wrong. :D

I’ve been playing Final Fantasy for a bit but endwalker was my first new expansion, so I’m still new to expansions. Do you think that the universal gear for crystalline conflict was a hint to solution nine or was that just a coincidence?

my current theory is that solution nine was a last-ditch escape effort built by one of the other shards that was destroyed, one whose timescale was incredibly quick compared to that of the source to the point where technology developed to a post-allagan level and they were able to learn how to bring a whole city through the rift as though it was an ark we also know that its been speculated that different shards got different remnants of the old pre-sundered world (and in the first it just happened to be underwater) so its possible that the reason solution nine uses the ancient alphabet is because they got a relatively in-tact chunk of the pre-sundered world and were able to use the information they found there as a head-start perhaps it was sections of the world that altima and deudephalon had a strong hand in (maybe some sort of architectural school in the same vein as akadaemia anyder?) and that is why their sigils feature prominently?

Four high end Ascians and however many minions.

I agree with 9 being the inspiration and have for a while. I never hear people talk about this, but the end of endwalker was basically the end of FF9. Metion was basically Necron (humanity was doomed to despair so he came to end everything), before you fight Necron your other party members sacrificed themselves to revitalize your current party just like the scions did, ffs the second to last quest was called "you're not alone". If all that wasn't a nod to 9 idk what is

As for theories, the one I've seen I find the most interesting is FF9 (Gaia/Terra) where the thinking is that a Shard, seeing it was going to be doomed and realizing a Rejoining was happening, may have been advanced enough to digitize their people (ala Tron or Terra with the souls) and send that city across. Remember we had to deal with a lot to move SOULS, but what about a DIGITIZED soul sent across on a computer hard drive? I have no idea if so, but...I think it's interesting. Also, lol at 6:30; It's a GREAT game (my favorite FF, actually), so I highly recommend it...but you're right that it's super old. (Then again, "S kills A" in 2024 may be a spoiler for a new generation, so...)

If genomes or a concept similar get introduced during the story then it's all ffix themed. I also think that all the symbols in solution 9 are reminiscent to the trance symbols that appear when Zidane uses his dyne moves. It would be cool though that the two ascians left they could be based off kuja and Zidane. Also since the special edition has yet to be announced im calling that we get the mage mashers as a weapon glamour for viper

I don't know if you are right or not, but I do know you've got a solid theory backed up with a lot of the same bits of evidence I picked up. I would love to hear more theory crafting from you. :)

You know what this whole advanced city reminds me of?...It Reminds me of the city of "Insomnia" from FF15 but it also reminds me of "Qudratum" from Kingdom Hearts 4 where the whole "Yozora" stuff takes place a place know as "Reality and Unreality" it also reminds me abit of "Scala Ad Caelum" the city of power for all keyblade weilders, from Kingdom Hearts 3.

I didn't get the Terra vibe like you did, but as far as a plot theme, it would make sense. For me, (as my own stab in the dark) advanced technology evoked Zanarkand feels. I awlays felt Zanarkand in Tidus' time was an advanced civilization, even though they were portrayed as ruins, which was represented as a spiritual successor in Yuna's time.

"It's inclusion feels awkward because none of the trailers have been able to thoroughly communicate that this was going to be a thing." The only time FF14 has not had weird futuristic tech show up out of no where was Stormblood. Both ARR and Heavensward had Allagan tech as major parts of the story. The only time either the Allagans or the Ascians weren't throwing futuristic tech into the mix was Stormblood, and even then there were the raid quests with Omega.

My theory is that Solution 9 is a "digital" solution to the problem of the Ancients (and the Ascians too, to some degree). It looked very advanced and the concept of "a world within a world" could also be true if Solution 9 was a digital space that was created for exchanging and swapping souls with their "real life" counterpart. The other region they showed (Heritage Found) also piqued my interest since the word "Heritage" in that case would play into the whole "swapping souls" theme. The reason why I think it's a digital space is because we've seen what ancient and allagan technology in Aldenard, Elpis and Ilsabard looks like. It's very distinctive and other civilizations found those technologies years later as well. As far as I can tell, Solution 9 seems like a completely isolated space.

My little fan theory is solution 9 is another shard that fell to lightning energy and theyve harnessed it to advance. I feel like this might be a shard crashing into us like the convergence event in marvel comics. Weve got to the first and the 13th. I wouldn't be shocked if the events of everything is causing everything to collapse in on itself. Eventuality leading into another long multi expansion story of reintergrating each reflect to the source and rejoining the shards. Or at least finding a way to do it in the least destructive way. Though im not current i just fought the fire fiend so i could be completely wrong or missing something.

I really love this theory and I hope that's where they are going with this. Even if they don't do this I'm still excited for Solution 9.

My hope overall in general is that they let the Shard idea(s)/exploration(s) chill for an expansion or two. If we get too many of those "oh another shard" moments I feel it takes away from the gravity/weight that carries with-in the worldbuilding. I'm more hoping it's akin to an Alter-Dimension or a Digital Plain/Dream of sorts. But we won't know for sure until DT Releases.

Yoshi P Def made Final Fantasy xiv jump the shark with the solution 9 reveal

The most apt description of final fantasy I've ever heard was when Tim Rogers said, "Where final fantasy is like, 'what if lord of the rings had motorcycles?'" when comparing ff to dragon quest. I'm not really surprised this is a thing.

As much as I understand wanting a break from sci fi after how heavy in it the second half of endwalker became, i have to wonder what form they expected to return to? ARR ended with us facing down a giant mechanical superweapon wielded by a technologically advanced empire. The end of 3.0 had us on a floating facility created by another older technologically advanced empire that was covered in their technology and chimeric monstrosities. There is no point in the game where there was no sci fi elements, so im legitimately curious why they expected there to be none here

I dunno, a while after we defeated Elidibus, Fandaniel says something to effect that the "last of the unsundered" had fallen, if we take this to mean that none within the convocation of 14 are left, then that kinda makes this theory questionable, but there are a lot of different ways we could interpret what Fandaniel was saying that it's hard to know for sure...

All I remember of Solution 9 is that is was an LB for Zidane in Final Fantasy Record Keeper. Perchance we see the little thief return as a Viper.

We might hear tales in the game about a place of the last Ascian respite only to get there and find a bunch of angry souls deep within the compound and no Ascians. Later we find out the Ascians that were there have perished in the making of Solution 9 considering that no paragons remain and as such any remaining Acians will die much easier. I think Solution 9 is the most interesting part of Dawntrail.

loperates built it !

The bulding in 3:11, left side, reminds me of the design language of the lamps in elpis

I think Solution Nine might genuinely be an Old World ruin that originates from the Source, from a civilization back in the First Astral Era. We don't know much about that time period, but what little we do know could potentially line up. The Second Umbral Calamity was the Calamity of Lightning, and it was caused by the 'greed of kings' going to war with one another and overtaxing the resources of the planet. We're told that the people hid in caves and were slowly dying of pestilence and plague, and their prayers to the gods is when magic was first created. We've seen that for races/peoples that don't have magic on the planet, they compensate via technology. If the *entire world* wasn't using magic during the First Astral Era, it's conceivable that they got this far through innovations that modern-day people wouldn't even consider. If Solution Nine was already a city that drew its power from the Levin plains of Heritage Found, then the Calamity may have super-charged it and ensured that it would last in perpetuity. The only question that remains, then, is why the residents of the city didn't emerge in the Second Astral Era and take over the planet. It's not particularly hard to come up with potential reasons, but they'd all be based on information we just don't have yet. Just to end this comment with one - it's potential that Solution Nine was always meant to only house digitized souls and enable people to abandon their physical bodies, allowing them to persist but also ensuring they could never go outside of the confines of the city.

I posted this theory on another of your videos, but I figured I'd post it here for the sake of consolidation. My theory is that Solution 9 was built in the place of the City of Gold. Whoever built Solution 9 discovered the lost city and tore it down to use the abundant gold as a building material for all of the advanced technology that makes Solution 9 what it is.

Given the appearance of the Mandervillious weapons, my personal theory is that it was built by a group of Mandervillians who crashed in Tural and rebuilt their civilization there.

Seeing Solution 9 and listening to the presentation leads me to think that yes its a 9 reference but they are also going 13. That Solution looks alot like the Advanced tech cities of 13-2. I think you are right with introducing souls etc but its from the shard with lightning. They kept stressing the word lightning as well which also leads into 13 with Lightning. I think our next big arc is going to be Chaos and Order. And this is the start to set that foundation.

Great video! The idea of it being related to Terra seems pretty interesting. However, one statement that I have a gripe with is the notion of "if a game is old and you haven't played it by now then you probably won't". I finished FF9 for the first time last year and even the original PS1 version holds up really well! visually the game's art style aged nicely, mechanics don't feel particularly dated and overall it's still a blast to go through! Going through older titles in the series and recognizing references in XIV is really fun and I feel that we should encourage more people to experience the older games :)

I am kinda glad it isn’t “primitive”. The americas only getting to be stone age tribes is a colonial stereotype, and places like the Aztec capitol of Tenochtitlan (modern day mexico city) was one of the biggest urban centers in the world at its time, so showing that there are high tech peoples and cultures could be a really interesting inversion of the usual tropes.

One thing that's not mentioned here, but is heavily emphasized on one or two of the slides, is that the energy of the region is almost overwhelmingly lightning element-based. I have a separate theory that could still be somewhat compatible with yours in regards to the FF9 connection. "Solution 9," while being a Zidane reference, also involves "solution," but what is the problem to solve? I'm wondering if the lightning clue might be that the advanced people that are responsible for this region might actually be people from the Twelfth Shard, the one that was rejoined with the Source in the Second Umbral Calamity, also known as... the Calamity of Lightning. The Source had people like the Sharlayans actively looking for escape routes in cases of calamities / end of the world, so why wouldn't people from other worlds? My theory is that, either with Ascian help or from a people that were advanced (directly or indirectly) through Ascian interference (like Emet and Allag), people from the Twelfth Shard either fully managed to escape to the Source prior to the rejoining, OR somehow were able to retain themselves after the Rejoining and created this hidden, advanced city as its "solution" to surviving the cataclysmic Rejoining. As to why it was called Solution 9, perhaps it's simply that it was the 9th iteration of their plan that finally bore fruit? Now this hidden society could still be plotting something similar to what you're theorizing with Terra from FF9, in that it is slowly expanding and developing to potentially one day challenge or outright take over the existing Source inhabitants. There's certainly something suspicious if this region turns out to be purposely cloaked/hidden almost like some kind of FFXIV version of Wakanda. But a parallel world's inhabitants that had Ascian connections would certainly explain why all the text in the city is the way it is.

I feel like the "City of Gold" is really the Solution 9 area.

I’ve been waiting for this video since I saw the video during the keynote! Let’s gooo❤❤❤

To be fair I had a similar theory regarding Solution 9. I'm a big FF9 fan, so when I heard the name, I thought.... that sounds awfully familiar... And the fact that during one of the previous fan fests we saw tubes in a lab that looked a LOT like the Tubes the Genomes were grown in on Terra. Also wondering if perhaps MIKOTO might make an appearance during the exploration of this city as Mikoto was the name of Zidane's "sister" as well.

This is a completely different theory: Solution 9 could be a civilisation time travelled from the 8th umbral calamity timeline - in that timeline the ironworks developed at least some technology comparable to allag including travel across space and time, and several ascians would still be alive to continue the rebirth of zodiark plan, so the chances they'd get to peacefully live out an 8th astral era without a 9th calamity of some kind where zodiark is rejoined would be low.

We know that Y'shtola is over there and I think we can assert that she's still looking for way to visit the other reflections. My guess then is that Solution 9 is the 9th reflection. (I don't know enough to know if the 9th is one of the reflections no longer exists, but I don't think my reasoning is unsound). Given that the technology at the very least looks Allagan in nature, perhaps it is so because it's the 9th's version of Allag? Of course this all brings to wonder- what of Solutions 1-8? When you spoke about the Protolanguage of Etheirys it made me wonder if Venat cultivated more than just getting everyone on the Moon and flying it away. It could be a Loporrit initiative too. Lastly, I see two things pointing towards the theme of division; the literal bridge between the continents, and the bridge between advanced technology and not. I am very curious about how this theme plays out.

Given that it's located in an area with a heavy concentration of lightning aspected aether, I'm in the camp that says that Solution 9 is the First Astral Era civilization that caused the Second Umbral Calamity. We know that magic wasn't discovered until the Second Umbral Era, so any advanced civilizations before that would've been purely tech-based. If they realised that they'd been manipulated by the Ascians into doing that, they might've become isolationist in order to not cause further Calamities, and if they found out the Ascians' goal, might've been waiting until Zodiark was gone before interacting with the world again, as Zodiark's death would mean the Ascians had failed.

Another idea could be a Reflection Civilization who has figured out how to travel between reflections, but for whatever reason have they own rules about what they can and cannot do on the source or other reflections, maybe they think their reflection is the source.

While I do doubt Solution 9 has an Allagan origin, due to the use of the ancients language and its architectural style, you are incorrect in stating that the Allagans never made it to the new world. Encyclopedia Eorzea II page 187 states: "With the third astral era came the rise of the Allagan empire, and it was but a matter of centuries before the nation had conquered most of the three great continents, as well as portions of the new world." So the Allagans did reach the new world, though they did not conquer its entirety.

The rune at 12:45 has multiple elements of the Ultima glyph from FF12, so there is ascian involvement for sure.

Also Solution 9 is the name of Zidane's trance-attack (limit break). Connection with FF9 again x)

I’ve seen so many theories. A city from another shard that has been transported (given the surviving shards have had no calamities and could well have had a long time span then tone could have advanced far enough). Ascians, a breakaway Allagan faction. I’ve even seen some people say it could be something to do with Azem. Maybe this is something they set up to happen. For what purpose? Who knows. Maybe they set Solution 9 up to happen as another failsafe should Venat’s plans fail. At this point, it’s kind of anything goes but I am excited to see what they do with it.

I could still totally believe this civilization reached this level of advancement without ascian influence, but only if they had found some way to survive and continue advancing through multiple calamities. Perhaps a method which also led to them blocking themselves off from the rest of the world. That way the civilization could still be around today, and maybe Heritage Found is a location where contact is made with that civilization for the first time in millennia.

The difference between the Ascians and the Terran plot that the Ascians want all souls to rejoin as one whole - where as the Terrans want Gaian souls to dissapate (the mist monsters, a byproduct of the Iifa tree blocking their return to the crystal) so that the Terrans can use Gaia's crystal to cycle their souls.