Cicirifu: I wouldnt be surprised if this was something the final Azem saw coming and they paved the way for us to go and fix it in our time.

johnatanasov8266: One of my craziest theories, is we eventually save the 13th but because its been disconnected from the Great Flow so long, and because they remained aetherlocked since before the 1st rejoining even, it causes massive instability to the source and all the reflections.

Another is more simple, now with Hydaelyn being dead, the reflections will simply naturally get drawn towards the Source since the Sundering was Hydaelyn's magic.

or we can mix both theories xD the sundering is being undone becasue of Hydaelyn's death, so now all reflections, including the 13th get redrawn and all the dark aether is causing instability issues.

one that ive heard is the 13th is literally the only thing stopping a mass-rejoining, and the moment we save it, it trigger's a massive rejoining lol.

yoanignatov7610: What I would like to see is the warrior of light finding that the shards are going to rejoin but in a way that destroys Etherys since the star doesn't have a will. So the WoL goes shard hoping with the goal of re-uniting with their versions from them end goal being restoring their Ancient Azem form and sacrificing themselves to become the new will of the star. Then comes the twist when one of our Reflections refuses to rejoin with us and the WoL of flat out says "I was not asking" and yes we become the villain but to us we are still the hero because we are doing the right thing for everyone on Etherys.... but not for those in the shards.

Insanity_pepper: I'm still on my original theory that Halmarut and possibly other ascians have collected the people who have sundered souls of ascians so if they lose one, they have the next in line ready to memory dump and promote. Now that the paragons, Zodiark and the rejoinings are off the table, they've pivoted. Calyx was doing his thing in Alexandria for 400 years after he was, apparently, contacted by Halmarut. Probably a deal with the devil to show him the power of electrope and save him from death at the hands of his illness. The "wintering" focus is probably a new direction for them. I also bet that Halmarut was the speaker of the Milala that activated the key and brought them to the 9th. This could have been a plan to put their arcanist skills to work on electrope but it could also have been compassion. She wouldn't be the first ascian to save people from dying in a rejoining, like Elidibus and Unukalhai.

I think we're probably going to see some cases of people popping up that have the souls of ascians we've already killed. Nabriales died long enough ago that they could have promoted a new one. On that note, I can't help but notice that Calyx has the exact same hair, skin and eye color as Zero, as well as very similar facial structure. Now that Elidibus ate all of the jolly ranchers, they can't promote any more but they would still be effective if they were working toward a unified purpose.

As far as the withering? My bet is Ultima. We just had a ton of eldritch horror and name drops of the High Seraph all over pandaemonium. It's very possible that Zodiark and Mydaelyn being present prevented Ultima from showing up in force. The high seraph is basically a destruction and ruination elemental, sort of an eater of worlds. That would definitely fir the description of a great withering. Not to mention the very specific use of the words "soon every world shall tremble". As in "From the deepest depths of the seven hells to the pinnacle of the heavens, the world shall tremble" being shouted before a casting of ultima... twice.

ZethRyder: Just a really out-there theory, but what if the Withering isn’t what we think it is? SE loves connecting other FF titles within FFXIV’s lore. What if the Withering is actually Jenova, the calamity from the sky, already affecting one shard and threatening to reach the Source?

Shinra believed the Promised Land was overflowing with mako, essentially the Lifestream. What if that’s actually the Source they’ve been talking about all along? It is definitely rich in aether vs The shards. The FF7 Remake trilogy keeps stressing that the planet is dying, and so far we haven’t really seen FF7 story elements show up in XIV beyond cosmetics. Not to mention there is pretty strong similarities of the cetra and the ancients.

I know it’s a stretch, but with SE’s track record, it doesn’t feel impossible.

Draylin41: I would love if we had excuses to go to old zones in order to progress into new expansion areas. Really blew my mind when we went back to the Crystarium not just for information but ending up going to Elpis in the process. Other MMOs I've played don't really do that and have each expansion be more self-contained. If we do start figuring out Shard travel at will, I'm thinking each Shard could be more closely connected to different parts of the world allowing us chances to revisit some pretty forgotten places, maybe even have small hidden instances or dungeons to facilitate us transitioning to the new Shard.

WarGiver: My first time encountering your videos, so to share my take:

I think we are going to see a story line that rhymes with Shadowbringers. The setup is that we will explore the 9th and find various beasts like the doomtrain. What we don't know is they are feeding off of the Levin and converting it to something else. We kill them as threats only to learn of our error. The Levin powered beasts were holding back the 9th from going over the brink and becoming entirely consumed like the thirteenth. Halmarut dubs this withering because of who she is. Some Milala are working to stop this and have created the beasts. We might need to use the key to stabilize the 9th, and by doing so we stabilize other reflections.

First: We do not know that Halmarut and Calyx are part of the Winterer group. The words, at least the English version, at the end of the fight against Calyx he used the phrase "Our Winterer Peers" This could mean that they are part of the group, or it could mean that they are adjacent and working towards the same goal. My reason for questioning this is rolled into the second.

Second: Winterer is a word used to refer to someone that takes up residence for the winter (aka a Snow Bird) The Milala are from the source and took up residence on the 9th during the age of Eternal Frost. They left to escape the freezing of the ocean. That would make them Winterers in that context.

Third: Preservation's purpose drifted from curing Levin sickness (Basically something that can provided now) to farming Aether to support the endless. Interdimensional Fusion is basically another way of rejoining, fusing two dimensions, HOWEVER, This does not sound like the typical ascian rejoining, as that would be to the source. This sounds like it would be to another reflection. More so Preservation was founded by Calyx and he has been an Endless operating continuously for 400 years. As an ally of an ascian, and the inventor of the Regulators I find it hard to believe he is unaware of how souls actually function. He clearly knows that memories are stored as aether on top of the soul and are washed off on death with only the strongest remaining.

Fourth: Halmarut was the seat of plants and agriculture. The fact the threat is called the withering and its connected to the 9th that clearly is nearly totally barren should not be overlooked as a connection.

DariusSnjor: Honestly I absolutely love the theorising this last patch has given life to, like genuinely outside Azems key, I had not feel this excited about a mystery since the start of 7.0 ,and I'm casually optimistic about the future.

willymobile: I think the story delves into rejoinings being inevitable for various reasons. Halmarut and Calyx seem to be attempting to keep life in general going even if its a tiny population surviving since that's better than nothing. Halmarut in particular looks to be very "hands off" given she didn't act for or against us previously including vs Calyx where she only saved his memories at the cost of his entire plan. She likely wants to let nature take its course in general but is forced to act now because failure to do so results in no nature left at all because everything's dead. With that said, there's obviously an actual way to mitigate whatever threat is happening but not one that saves the 9th. That fact is clearly a hint that her solution to the problem is obviously very limited in scope or somehow flawed (a fact she is likely aware of, since she doesn't seem too happy about the 9th allegedly being doomed). Sadly I am too small brained to really guess at what the writers are hinting at as far as why any given solution specifically doesn't work for the 9th. My guess is the need to resummon a hydalyn/zodiark replacement to fix whatever void was left by them. If I had to REALLY reach with my predictions, she might intend to pull a Fandaniel and replace them herself to act as a neutral arbiter of nature, but that is seriously reaching as we dont know how evil or benevolent she is.

ayanhart: My theory is pretty simple - Venat/Hydaelyn was the one that sundered the world and now she's dead she's no longer there to sustain the shards and the aether is slowly drifting back together.

The unsundered were either unaware of this (it seems Hydaelyn herself may have been), unable to reach Hydaelyn to kill her (or believed her to be unkillable) or if the shards all started rejoining at the same time, it'd cause such havoc on the source that the world's aether is torn apart.

This could also be compounded with Zodiark's aether drifting down to the shards and causing issues - maybe intensifying the already existing aetheric imbalances.

kuronaialtani: I think the "great withering," the "long winter" these new antagonists are preparing for, is a very simple thing. Zodiark was created to not only shield the star from dynamis and the Final Days but bring life back into it. And while Hydaelyn did sunder it and create thirteen new worlds, she also made it so those shields would remain intact and not be released. With both of them now gone, by our hand, the star by right is completely unprotected from the shards naturally "withering" away without their connection to the Source via zodiark's aether, AND the shields against dynamis outside of the Final Days are gone.

They could be looking towards a literal "freezIng" of the star's aether, and we're going to seek an alternative that won't prevent time from moving forward.

shing1uk: Here's my theory then, the "withering" is the death of the shards, now that Zodiark and Hydaelyn are gone, the flow of aether to and from the source has ended and the natural cycles of rebirth and death are failing. the winterers are trying to find ways to preserve souls on the shards and manually move them back to the source as well as maybe protect the source from potential calamities. (as i'm not sure if they'd go with the shards just popping out of existance, or of what was left of their aether being flooded back to the source as with previous calamities).

the Key, the WoL's ability to move physically between shards and the source, like with the 1st, will lead to a scramble to set up similar aether transfers as we saw with Zero's story. finding the shards or over-aspected areas on the source to balance out the aetheric imbalance on each shard and connecting them all will be the over-arching plot. I am expecting 8.0 to be finding a solution to the 9th's levin abundance, so shard travel and exploration, 9.0 being trying to find over-aspected areas on the source to fix other shards (merycidia, the clouded areas under Garlemald) and 10.0 onwards being handling conflicts caused by others over how this all works out.

AShadowedGamer: what i gleemed from this is that like igeyorm, Halmarut too failed to rejoin the shard she was in charge of and back tracked seeing that Calyx was trying to essentially eliminate death via memory modules she saw an opportunity an used that as her excuse to remain in charge of the 9th shard i presume she was going to use him to collect all the souls of the 9th an then send them all into the source all at once to sort of create a different kind of "rejoining" buts since now that this plan has failed thanks to the scions an main protag's intervention she has to abandon the 9th an just let it die or i guess in this case become a second void. so now her new plan is to launch a new calamity using her new allies these "winterers" to push what i assume is meant to be an ice aspected imbalance this is probably why we are learning about the milala right now because what the writers are telling us is that the same threat they faced an had to flee from is going to come back but more severely.

so with that in mind i think we will be using the key to travel to another shard its gunna probably be shadowbringers 2.0 all over again were we step into lands unknown to us where we are not known for our deeds or heroics kinda what they are aiming for i suppose for a "soft reset" an i believe krile is going to take a more active role going forward with us tho seems like yshtola is joining us too much to my annoyance... since i really just want a full expansion where we have no scions at all.

trevormccaffrey2575: I would love to see an expansion dealing with time travel but it takes place in the "Guardia" kingdom. Get some Chrono Trigger reference in there.

stevenalvarez2924: Here's a fun theory. That new Ascian Aura is the first to show any affection outside of the Ancients. She pretty much said, "You shouldn't be shedding bodies as if discarding old clothes." A nuanced way of saying that "You shouldn't treat connecting with people as pointless." She has a goal beyond what the Ascians we knew, had. She possibly either has friends or even a family she is connected with.

phoolondevils: I think everything is tied together.

The key, the withering and the z/h ark.

I believe that when the shards were made, it was made not to be permanent.

Halmaroot is plants, so im viewing everything as a tree. We do love our norse imagery, all the shards are off shoots of the tree(the source).

The withering is the branchs are dying, all the shards are dying cause mother dearest isnt there. Or cause of transport between them breaking down the walls,

halmaroots explanation of transit show a shattered glass style effect. It feels like the walls are collapsing. The ascians, the void born, caylx and even us, have transported through the barrier, maybe its all small cracks, which are adding up and blocking aether from getting from the source to the shards.

Draylin41: My theory is that the Azem they talked about before the Sundering isn't really an Ancient in the traditional sense. It's actually just our WoL after he/she has managed to rejoin with all their shards and become just as powerful as an Unsundered Ascian. By that point they are able to access time travel and end up going back and setting up events that result in our journey in the game. How else would Azem know the exact time and place to direct Themis to us for the Pandaemonium raids? Azem from that time wouldn't have known and was possibly as daring as they were by having foreknowledge of future events. I know there would be some paradoxical stuff going on but if the original Azem from ancient times was just a normal citizen with no outstanding qualities they may never cross paths with their future self and never draw the attention of the Convocation. Thus, allowing our future self to take up the seat of Azem while the origin is just an anonymous Ancient.

I just think it would be incredibly wild if by the time FF14 is done making expansions it was us masterminding everything to see the world finally whole again. And yeah, I get that may seem like it under minds us helping to restore the First and Thirteenth but maybe we're able to find a way to Rejoin shards without all the chaos the Ascians unleashed with their Calamities, possible having individuals rejoin voluntarily like we did with Ardbert.

SuperRamos619: My personal Theory as of now, The Withering was a natural phenomenon, which began to show itself as weakening aether currents. It just so Happened that that the world was also being assaulted with Dynamis, which then caused thr End of Days. The two events are seperate things that happened to overlap in that moment.

Zodiark restored the Aether currents, which halted the natural phenomenon. However with Zodiark gone, nature has resumed it's course in the Withering

MahaloWellCasual: Extending from take two:

I kind of want them to actually make the final battle winnable but the result inevitable, and the final expansion's patches to end with the entire game being shut down after a certain date, echoing the fall of the Meteor in 1.0. It would be such an incredible send off, new people would be scrambling to experience the entire game before it's gone forever, and the OGs would get to reminisce with their old friends and raiding buddies and favorite characters after decades of fun and companionship. People might break the servers on the last day trying to be online to watch the massive beautiful sad musical cutscene of everyone and everything going away.

Then they can announce the next MMO, FF17/18/19, and a new generation of storytelling could begin completely fresh with a rejuvenated / trauma bonded fan base. The Unus Annus Effect is real.

Alas, that would be good marketing and bold game design. More likely it'll get the FF11 treatment and we get a new MMO anyway.

cebsvartberg3143: Well the wol doesn’t know about the wintering or what the remaining ascians are up too yet. I feel that the plot will reveal itself more into 8.0 or 9.0 and maybe 7.5 ( I doubt ) of what the great next treat will be. Ilsabard is probably the next location. I feel like if theyre going to do an shard hoping expansion for the next msq is kinda rushing the point of the plot over all. We need to get that fog removed from Ilsabard and Meracydia, they’ll probably have a certain connection to the next big treat.

TheJohnnylupine: Two theories

One

We will end up going to the metaphysical cosmic heart of the universe. Calyx's blueprint for the next evolution for the endless will be the catalyst.

The symbols Calyx is shown to work with include squares, triangles and circles. One symbol is a triangle with a circle inside of it.

The real life symbol for the alchemical philosophers stone is known as the squared circle, it is a circle, inside a square, inside a triangle, inside a circle.

It was designed to integrate the four classical elements within it. The stone is said to do many things including bestowing immortality and creating artificial humanoids known as homonculi.

Living memory is comprises of four districts and each of them is associated with one of the four classical elements, it is also a place created to provide a form of digital immortality for the people of Alexandria and generates endless, artificial people, to do so. Living memory is like a philosopher's stone.

If the Devs were working with alchemical themes they may also work in hermetic themes as well. Western alchemy was heavily influenced by hermetic philosophy and hermetic philosophy covers alchemy.y within it as well.

Neoplatonic philosophy overlaps with hermetic philosophy, for example both talk about the concept of the nous, the divine intellect. Neoplatonists believe that the one ( god) emminates a superfluity ( not just an add name in the final boss of the level 99 dungeon but a term for something that is overwhelmingly excessive) of perfection to the point that it projects the nous (divine intellect) outwards which in turn projects the world soul, which contains platonic concepts, ideals etc and animated the corporeal world. The goal of the Neoplatonists is to meditate on the nature of the universe so that they can ascend through the hierarchy of emmination that come from the one so they can join with it. According to this philosophy the self is striped away when joining with the one, much like souls joining the livestream in ffxiv.

As far as Calyx is concerned, what better way to overcome death than to design an endless form that can ascend to the same metaphysical level as the one, the thing that generates everything and usurp it.

Even if Calyx himself doesn't follow through with creating a form that can can enter the space the one occupies or usurping the one the winterers are likely aware of his plans and may be interested in retreating into that space to endure the withering

It lines up with the end of ff 9 where the heroes follow the flow of the planets memories back to its cosmic origin point

Two

Everkeep is going to be destroyed. Tural will accept it's refugees.

Everkeep is still linked to the 9th, despite being physically in the source but memory data was still being transferred from everkeep to living memory .

This is shown by the fact we encountered an endless in living memory made out of the memories of someone we met who was only in the process of dying when we met them.

That data was getting through somehow and it wasn't following a physical pathway as the only known physical bridge to living memory is on the other side of the continent to where everkeep currently is.

So the connection is at a spiritual or metaphysical level.

The withering appears to be linked with the loss of the will of the star. Context clues from the speaker making the statement, an Ascian, indicate Zodiark over Hydaelyn.

The withering could be a result of the damage done to the structure of the world due to the sundering, as Zodiark was the epicentre for the sundering he may have acted as a kind of lynchpin keeping the damaged pieces linked through him, alternatively he may have been instinctively been pulling the shards together and towards him because his missing pieces were in some way attracted to one another. Either way without him to hold the pieces together or act as some kind of shard magnet the withering may have begun due to the structure failing and so the shards may be beginning to drift apart and fade away. The 9th is already unstable due to being close to a rejoining level catastrophic event and might have been further destabilised by having a piece of it removed and fused to the source so it may be the first to drift away to the point of no return.

This withering may leave a slot in the cosmos that is now empty and if aether flows like a pressure gradient perhaps everkeep being attached to the 9th still could cause its aether to be drawn into that slot, like a rejoining.

It would provide the withering with a real tangible example of what will happen unless we do something about it

It would mirror ff 9, Terra, the world trying to fuse with and take over the worlds lifestream is destroyed, the heroes take what citizens of terra they can and escape causing what remained of the terran people to become refugees.

jellybryce7742: calyx has overstayed his welcome. I don't even want a kuja fight anymore

ReaverPrime: Going backward to repeat past events with new perspective is literally the endgame of the first Bravely Default. I'll take a hard pass on it in FFXIV.

winterweather0091: If you think about it. Hydaelyn's at fault, for fracturing the worlds into the 12, regardless of her reasons for doing so. What if this leads up to an unavoidable great rejoining as every world or reflection is super unstable in a way. The heroes/scions will have to carry out the very task the ascian's set out to do, in some way shape or form. If you ever watched Kamen Rider Zi-O & Kamen Rider Build, it may take that direction (or an inspiration of sorts).

I'm just hoping they bring our special boy lil-Z, back be it reflection or shard. Meteor(Goku) needs his Vegeta(Zenos).

burtwonk: Halmarut said something about the will of the star. I might be way off, but it made me think about the fact that Zenos devoured the mother crystal and we still don’t really know what the consequences of that would be.

barcey: My theory is that this withering is just a natural process that all the shards will start going through because they weren't meant to be sundered in the first place and that our goal will be finding a way to save everyone without the need to basically do what the Ascians did and merge the shards

Jan 01 2026

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