tsbulmer: Having the player be involved with a Calamity makes a lot of storytelling sense to me, thanks to what Emet-Selch said in Shadowbringers - that he doesn't consider us truly alive, and thus isn't committing murder. That sentiment of his rang in my head as we did our business in Living Memory, and it seemed to me that SE wanted us to be in the Ascians' shoes for a bit. They've done so much to make the Ascians relatable and give us some sympathy for their perspective already, so it seems almost fitting for us to wind up on the cause-side of a Calamity and Rejoining.

TheJovianPrince: There are a lot of references to Ragnarok in Patch 7.4 based on Halmarut's speech. There are even references to the final four Ascians being left alive, which seems to be a direct reference to some gods, like Vidar, Vali, Modi, and Magni, surviving Ragnarok and meet in the new world, beginning a new era. Halmarut also resembles Yggdrasil or The Tree Of Life (The Iifa Tree and/or the World Tree from Meracydia) and Calyx resembles Ratatoskr, the great Squirrel that traverses the branches.

Another thing to mention about Ratatoskr is how similar it relates to Calyx's actions: He symbolizes how information, even malicious, travels quickly, and how small agents can influence vast forces, embodying themes of discord, the constant cycle of destruction and renewal, and the significance of even minor beings in the cosmic balance.

Perhaps 8.0 will bring about some Viking voyage where the land becomes unstable and we'll be forced to sail a frozen ocean or perhaps a collection of islands? The possibilities are endless.

EDIT: To further add on, Halmarut mentions that of a "winter" making it's way upon the horizon. This is how Ragnarok begins in Norse legends. A cold and uninhabitable winter which causes living hell on Earth.

A harsh winter is what brought the Lalafell of the South Sea Isles (Malala) to the Ninth reflection which was to escape this calamity. I think that's another reason why Halmarut was in a city occupied primarily by Malala. She could have been the main reason why and how the Malala learned the magic spell to open up a one-way portal to seek shelter during a calamity.

rhea-f4l: I find it hard for the 9th Reflection to be rejoined. For a rejoining to happen, not only the Reflection must be leaning thowards an especific aspect and in the brink of destruction, but the Source itself must be going through a similar-aspected calamity. So far as we know, the Source is back at balance and doing quite well. So if the 9th Reflection "died", I believe it'd turn into something similar to the 13th instead of being rejoined.

MaelleDevaux: I haven't thought about it too much, but I will say that after the 7.4 story I got the same sense of dred that the Lala/Kryle's family were going to be killed off. That would be soooo sad after everything she has been through, and for us to be a part of such devastation seems like something they would do. Yoshi did make some cryptic comments about a type of Reborn experience for the game coming, and a massive announcement at FanFest.... so I'm deathly curious about it all at this point.

Edge2177: As we've learned with the World of Darkness, a rejoining requires a similar incident to happen on the Source. So no, a rejoining won't happen in the ninth, instead it will end up like the 13th.

Jambara: Oh, this was already obvious if you understand writing, as soon as they made it a point to tell us that living memory is safe in the sky (it has to remain as a proper zone) and we visited Treno only in a dungeon map and not a full zone that needs to stick around, I knew they were setting them up to be lambs to the slaughter. I mean we do have the key, Living Memory could literally be moved safely off the 9th and have it as a functional zone that way.

My personal theory is that the key (or more the artifact inside the key) is tied to how

elaine_of_shalott6587: The Ascians need to learn the value of Clear Communication!

BaghNakh1: What I think is that maybe the 9th won't be rejoined but we will straight up lose it forever. Remember that both Zodiark and Hydaelyn aren't here anymore and both the Sundering and the rejoinings are both things that are deeply attached to them, and now that they're gone, maybe the 9th going through a "rejoining" could mean that its aether doesn't rejoin the Source but it goes somewhere else. I think Halmarut herself kinda mentions the fact that since Zodiark and Hydaelyn were both deeply intertwined and connected to the natural forces and balance of the Source and its reflections, now that they're gone, there is a void that was left and my theory is that something else is going to fill that void, because Hydaelyn, the Mother Crystal, doesn't exist anymore, so where does that aether is going to go if a rejoining event happens? What thing or what entity is going to replace the void left by Hydaelyn and Zodiark? I still believe that Ultima is going to be the next big enemy of this saga, after all, we know through the lore regarding the Heart of Sabik and Pandaemonium that Ultima has been lurking around since well, probably even before the Ancient society and if thats true, then maybe Ultima is the thing that was there all along before the Sundering happened and both Hydaelyn and Zodiark became the two entities sustaining the balance of the Source and the reflections, so maybe the Winterers are like: "well since Hydaelyn and Zodiark aren't here anymore, now we have to turn things back to how they were even before our time", who knows, maybe the Winterers were part of a group that was meant to be the "Plan B" and maybe Ultima is part of that plan, whichever it is. Maybe we end up learning that whatever happened in the 13th wasn't an accident but it was on purpose and the same "failed rejoining" that ocurred in the 13th is about to happen in the 9th where lightning-aspected aether just completely overwhelms that reflection but does not rejoin the Source since... well, there is no point to do rejoinings anymore since Zodiark is no more.

edit: I remembered that Halmarut, during her dialogue, says something that goes: "For soon, it begins, and every world shall tremble." which sounds similar to the incantation that is recited to cast the Ultima spell: ""From the deepest pit of the seven hells to the very pinnacle of the heavens, the world shall tremble!"

Cicirifu: A problem with killing the Ninth is, what happens to Living Memory? Are we gonna have a moment where it first teleports to the Source, so that we can still technically visit it? It would explain why Living Memory as is already has clear skies.

someGenXgamer: Oh this got my brain going! Since we obtained the key it's been talked about and hoped to be a way for others to travel to the reflections, such as revisiting The First. Emet-Selch even pushed us to explore the reflections in the presence of the Scions near the end of 6.0. So now we have this tool to do just that. This may also present a way to get around the "normal" mechanics of triggering a rejoining.

Say in 7.5 we, WoL's and Scions, try an experiment to use the key to open a traversable portal. We decide to use The Ninth since we were just there and Krille having a better way to visit family than treacherous airship travel through a levin-aspected sky seems like a plausible goal. Plus the key had previously opened a portal to The Ninth during the Calamity of Ice. It does open a portal, but something goes wrong. The over-aspected levin aether starts pouring through and we can't close it off. Similar to the breaching of the Bosphorus, the aether expands the tear, increasing the aether coming through. This destabilizes the already precarious Ninth and it aethericly tears apart, it's aether exploding through this tear. The sheer volume of aether coming in causes a new Calamity on The Source.

We accidentally destroy a reflection and damage the Source. We go out in 7.55 and possibly 8.0 to survey try to help remedy the disaster we have caused.

Halmarut knew this was going to happen because we have been watched since we got to Tural, and she knew of our plans to try and use the key to go to the other reflections. And if she expected a disaster, even if we didn't choose The Ninth, it's likely that The Fourth, Eighth, and Eleventh are in likewise over-aspected condition. This may be why The Winterers are preparing for a Great Withering. If these reflections were primed and waiting for Calamities that will now never happen ("No, it's nature's proclamation. Can't you hear it? It echoes in the silence left by the will of the star.") they can't disperse all the over-aspected aether. They may be expecting those shards to implode in a manner similar to The Thirteenth.

Goodness, that got very long, very fast. I may not sleep now! Happy Theorycrafting!

niphoros3962: Ive been thinking the same since patch 7.4, idk if it will be a calamity but our actions will unintenionally cause some disaster. If it is a calamity, maybe we use the key in Solution 9/Heritage Found and since the area is so lighting aspected, using the key in the area somehow messes with the electrope there causing the rejoining. If not the key, something else in S9 will be involved.

SuperRamos619: My take away was different. I think she means that the WoL attentions are turning away from the 9th, to pursue other goals. So, without the WoL actively looking to solve/save the 9th from their lightning aspect atmosphere, the 9th is simply going to continue to decay.

Lyu-Phy: I didn't ponder too much about such a possibility, but yeah I agree with you. If Dawntrail is the new A Realm Reborn, the end probably ends with a bang to kickstart the new saga, especially after Yoshi P teased 7.5 to bring about change. The Ninth which is on the forefront of Dawntrail via Alexandria, Heritage Found, Sphene and Calyx and now Treno.. raising the stakes by claiming a whole world would definitely be enough to make the WoL be abundantly more careful and impacted - the only thing that muscles cant solve is an invisible enemy, that's why Endwalker was so good or Shadowbringers. Especially if not only one whole shard gets annahilated but some cataclysmic event that happens alongside it on the source - which is equally disturbing. Bring it on I say, I don't want to lose the 9th (also poor Krile, you all just want to make her one of the most depressing character in the game huh), but the stakes will surely be raised.

TheJohnnylupine: looks like my comment disappeared, luckily I was drafting it while doing some general fact checking. sorry if it shows up twice though.

i've been thinking along similar lines.

If we assume that will of the star being mentioned is Zodiark (likely given Halmarut's background) or both Zodiark and Hydaelyn (possible given we are rarely given all plot points until the end of the arc) Then Zodiark being sundered may have been a wound which he instinctively attempted to heal causing a pulling force on the shards, Hydaelyn may have countered this by setting up a scaffolding around the source and shards that not only acted as a barrier but also created a force that pushed the shards apart.

Either

without Zodiark to act as a centre of metaphysical gravity for the shards they're going to start drifting away and the more detached they become from the source the more they wither and fade until all that is left is a literal vacuum, not a void in the way the 13th became the Void but a gap in reality where nothing exists. A pocket dimension with literally nothing inside of it.

or its the same as the above but with Hydaelyn's scaffolding still being in place which could prevent the shards from crashing into the same space as one another but also ensures the only way they can drift is away.

either way if and when a shard "drifts too far "they fade to nothing creating nothing but empty space.

Emet-selch's explanation of how the source and shards work with regards to rejoinings implies aether seems to behave like a pressure gradient, high concentration of one element on the shard (high pressure) a disaster of some kind on the source to weaken the barrier a little bit and the "pressure build up" causes aether to catastrophically flow from the shard into the source.

if it works that way then what happens if the source id connected to an empty space where a shard used to be? Aetheric pressure will be higher on the source and if the source and a shard were somehow joined then this would cause aether to be sucked into the vacuum.

We can infer that Everkeep is in some way still at least metaphysically attached to the 9th, even if its no longer fully physically in the 9th because we know living memory is still firmly in the 9th shard physically and we know the memory data of people who lived in the area on the source that everkeep got grafted to were sent to living memory. Cahciua was one of them and more recently Wuk Lamat's childhood servant (Namikka) both ended up in living memory.

Unless someone kept opening a portal every time they needed to let a batch of memories or aether into living memory then those memories were being sent there by some means other than physical and if that's the case then there's a chance that that means is always open. It may even be that the infrastructure in everkeep can't even close it.

it may not be a portal, it could be more like warping space, like a wormhole. Preservation caused the "space" between the 9th and the source to stretch until the two points in space merged and now there's an unseen bridge connecting the two worlds.

if there is a bridge it connects the two aetheric systems in a similar way to how before calamities the walls between worlds broke and shattered.

Aether from the source could already be being drained into the 9th at a gradual but ultimately manageable way but if "pressure" drops on the 9th even more it could cause aether to flow into the 9th at dangerous rate. Maybe not at a rate that will destroy the source immediately but it would be something that sucks the grafted area of Alexandria and the immediate area into a new hole in reality and that sounds like it may be something we would have to find a solution to.

The only solution may be to ungraft everkeep and the remnants of alexandria from the source and block the hole but this would mean displacing the residents of everkeep - assuming they aren't lost in some aether sucking disaster.

Evacuating everkeep before either it gets imploded or we implode it could mirror the genomes exodus from Terra which i think clicks into place nicely

the impending disaster might not be caused by what we've done this expansion, but by what we haven't done. By defeating Zodiark and Hydaelyn, we shattered the ancient equilibrium that held the shards in place, and we haven't yet addressed the structural damage that caused.

ReyReyzzz: They might use this ‘disaster’ as a narrative excuse to re-haul/update the world and bring it out of the gutters of the PlayStation 3 limitations.

I know that this is very wishful thinking but I really hope they come in with a bang. FFXIV needs to hit us with a real surprise these days because everything’s been feeling safe as hell for a while now.

LupusArcavius: Tbh I don't think this dev team has the balls to do something like this anymore. They've been playing it safe with the story for a while now. I think at worst we'll see the Ninth being on the verge of being destroyed and in 8.0 we'll stop it and maintain the status quo like the first and the thirteenth. I'd love to be proven wrong though

4mb127: My prediction is that fracturing the world into reflections shattered something fundamental in the fabric of reality and something pushes through from beyond.

Miyao05: This has always been my theory since day 1, we are going to lose the 9th, meaning treno/other places still exist, but somehow living memory since its warp into the source/9, it's going to get either destroyed or completely transfer to the source, and those in alexandria who are in the source right now will be the last survivor of 9. But everyone else there will perish, and we may get like weather effect like how it happens with all rejoining but it won't be quick or sudden, but slow and painful. But that's my thoughts on it.

iGREENification: With the Will of the Star dead, that protection and stability that Zodiark had is now gone. We saw it with Zeromus and the arrival of Alexandria. the reflections are free to travel between the realms now, bit that also means the aether than made them is most likely dissipating, so there's a choice. Do they dissipate or migrate or conquer.

thegneech: "Lightning-aspected rejoining/calamity" is fairly likely, I agree; but I don't think it'll be laid at the WoL's feet. More likely it'll be the actions of some malefactor, either previously-minor or as-yet-unknown who Meddles Recklessly (tm) trying to pursue some other agenda. My first candidate would be Sareel Ja, except that he's locked away in the Vana'diel raids, and that is usually a one-way trip for an NPC. Maybe the 13th will come back around and some twisted disciple of Golbez tries to steal the key to join the 13th to the Source?

slimabob: I think you're cooking! The WoL accidentally triggering a calamity in pursuit of activating the key is a GREAT subversion of expectations. There's a great irony in us spending the last 10 years avoiding a rejoining, only to inadvertantly enact one- fundamentally changing a part of our world forever. I like your idea, and it's given me a lot of fun things to think about!

azharahs: There are enough tropes that support your theory, that I have to agree with you. After all, why have the Millala explicitly say they were staying in Treno, despite the condition of the reflection, if that decision wasn't going to be significant? The key is contained in electrope, which is lightning aspected, so its possible that using it, especially if done incorrectly, and with the amount of aether that I think would be needed for interdimensional activity, might trigger enough of an event on the source to cause a rejoining. Also, it would be an almost stereotypical way to come back from the "vacation" vibe that led into Dawntrail to start with. Literally starting the new expansion off with a bang, so to say. I wonder what Halmarut's actual role in this is, though. She didn't sound as hostile toward us as the other Ascians, even referring to us as "hero", and not sarcastically either. She seems to be afraid of us, at least on some level, which makes sense, all things considered, but yes, I agree, we're headed for some sort of massive shake-up.

IaconDawnshire: With Zodiark and Hydaelyn gone there's no more barriers to prevent the reflections to come back to Etheryis. And they WILL merge back if they haven't already started

indivion1741: Hi, interesting theory. I already shared my opinion in the last video. I might write about it again here or add a bit more. I think it could happen that way, or of course, that we fend it off but can't stop it. Another possibility, in my opinion, is that they want to restart the hero, meaning us. It is a new story, after all, and I'm very curious to see how it continues. Whether it will be like the banquet in Heavensward's introduction, well... I think what could also happen in patch 8.0 is that the end of this world occurs, and we try our best to prevent it, of course. What could happen is that the key reactivates, and boom, we might be on a completely different shattered world. Cut off from our current friends, we have to find a way back using the resources of this world, like in Shadowbringers, except that story-wise, we can't escape. At least, that's how far I've imagined it so far. Of course, I hope for more polish from Yoshi P. and his team. This is just my own theory.

Amnixia: I think we’re getting the 8th umbral calamity. They won’t remove old content but allow people making new characters to do the chronological story or start 8.0 (Yoshi acknowledged the current investment to get to endgame is too much)

They’ll probably do something along the lines if wows stat/level squish.

gaspardguillemette561: In the french version the group that lead that create the cataclism are called the hivernaux, like (winter men when translated) so it should be logical to have a ice cataclism

Jan 09 2026

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