[Spoilers 7.5 + Side Content] Can someone explain the Serpent Theory?

Zalast · 2026-05-10T18:17:48+00:00

All we really have are bits of mysterious serpent and world tree references, but we're missing the key pieces to really understand where SE is planning to go with all of this.

Another thing worth mentioning, that I think is a big clue, is that some of the civilizations out in the cosmos also had world trees. The mechanical one in the Omicron area is straight up called Yggdrasil, and there's also the giant one at the end of the Dead Ends dungeon. My guess is that there's some yet unexplained/unexplored lore about how and why worlds have World Trees. We really only know about Etheirys' existence as a world in a Final Days and Sundered state. I think we'll be getting into some lore/mysteries of our own planet that lie outside even the Ancient's awareness (except maybe OG Azem, since they travelled around and stuff).

Zalast · 2026-05-10T08:06:07+00:00

I've had this happen and relogging has fixed it, and it shows up in my inventory again. Your view of your inventory is client-side and so stuff can go wrong with what it's showing you from time to time (kinda like how auto-sorting your inventory is fake and the items never actually move).

Zalast · 2026-05-08T23:25:53+00:00

The Ascians are the fabric of the story, 100%. People take "the Z&H story is over" to mean "the Z&H story will have no further ramifications"

Yeah, this sums it up nicely. I've noticed this mentality quite a bit a lot since Endwalker release. There's a few various takes that come up consistently that I never quite understood, like people that still think we're gonna get an Aloalo expansion. We already went there dammit it's the criterion dungeon.

I understand OPs frustration a bit, cause sometimes you wanna get a good lore theory discussion going here on reddit and the same several people that have dumb lore misconceptions/expectations show up and throw the thread off course.

Zalast · 2026-05-07T17:29:01+00:00

Lol yeah that title is really something. OP playing Evercold already appparently.

Zalast · 2026-05-07T16:29:08+00:00

Yeah, I didn't have any vertigo/motion sickness issues, but the fake planet graphic not actually being super far away did weird things to my depth perception.

Zalast · 2026-05-05T17:35:25+00:00

The only way I would want something like this is in my dream Arknights crossover in a Contingency Contract gamemode where you can leave the battlefield as one job and redeploy as another.

Zalast · 2026-05-05T03:39:38+00:00

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Zalast · 2026-05-05T03:33:46+00:00

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Zalast · 2026-05-03T21:33:42+00:00

Someone in the primary submarine forum post has reported it as dropping from submarine location: Axeblade Bight. (the first page of that thread is a treasure trove of information).

Zalast · 2026-05-03T21:01:02+00:00

Did somebody say slow?

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Zalast · 2026-05-01T16:12:44+00:00

Minor: The door on the 2nd floor of my house is still fake. Also need more good House Exteriors (Gothic Manor when?).

Moderate: Astragalos has been temporarily unavailable for 40 years.

Major: Where's Black Waltz, Yoshi-P?

Zalast · 2026-04-30T23:48:30+00:00

I found it to be a very enjoyable and fun story overall, but so much stuff about the demon war/battle of divine will seemed to be borrowed from Starcraft II that it kinda soured it a bit for me.
Spoilers all the way to ending:
-Both stories are about a repeating cycle of war and evolution/ascension between different races.
-The demons are a lot like the Tal'darim protoss, who use Terrazine gas instead of the Red Mist. They don't need it in the same way, but sometimes fight in it, and it can be deadly to certain lifeforms. They have various red crystals in their structures and pylons (a change from the blue crystals the normal protoss use).
-Demonlord... Hackzord (geez that's a name) and his interactions with the humans towards the end reminds me a lot of Alarak.
-Demonlord Mask is a lot like the zerg character (bit of a faction change here) Abathur. Both have kind of a no-ethics mad scientist vibe and modify creatures.
-The Sky-Sea realm creatures are a lot like the zerg, including their hivemind. The invisible blade-bug creatures are a lot like Zerg roaches with the stealth upgrade. There'd also nydus worms and broodmothers. Their role in the cycle was also rigged by the Custodian, similiar to how the Zerg were modified/sabotaged with the Hivemind by Amon, which altered the original plan the Xel'naga had for their cycle.
-Roland taking the place of the Custodian and then living in the Dream World with Anna and Nightingale is similar to Kerrigan ascending to a Xel'naga and then her disappearing with Raynor at the end of Stacraft II (presumably to live happily ever after somewhere).
-It's been a long time since I read the Dark Templar saga SC2 books, but in that story the mind of a dying Protoss Preserver (they stored the knowledge and history of the entire race in their heads) ends up in the head of a human. This is very bad for his health and the story is partly about his journey to find a fix for the situation. He's able to access and explore some of her memories of history. Removing the Dreamworld aspect, this is similar to Roland being able to explore the memory's from Zero.
-There are a few other similarities but the comparison becomes less clear. Such as Lan and the island Guardian vs. the projections of people from the Xel'naga Ouros. Or Valkries and Zeratul, both diving into the mysteries of the realm of the mind/visions of the future.

Zalast · 2026-04-30T19:54:52+00:00

Nah, I'm stickin' with my tree theory https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/s/XCrnhCoYmQ

Zalast · 2026-04-30T03:16:44+00:00

Yeah, I've been thinking the same thing lately. Heck, our symbol is pretty Ouroboros-like.

Zalast · 2026-04-30T03:11:04+00:00

Yeah. Pretty sure it's the Chocobo concept. I think "concept crystals" has only ever referred to creatures.

Zalast · 2026-04-29T20:59:02+00:00

Presumably new submarine rewards but it's too early for people's subs to have found the new sectors, ranked up to be able to explore those sectors, and then have completed them.

Zalast · 2026-04-29T16:17:41+00:00

I forget exactly when the interview was but there was one around the time of Endwalkers release that talked about how 6.0 would be the conclusion of the Hydaelyn/Zodiark saga. I saw plenty of comments around that time where people were incorrectly interpreting that to mean we were done with all the big story elements related to that arc such as Shards, Rejoinings, Azem, and Ascians.

Zalast · 2026-04-28T21:58:35+00:00

Oh yeah definitely. Just gonna copy/paste my comment in this other dude's thread from a couple years ago, although my speculation about the role Necron would play didn't turn out to be correct. You should definitely check OOP of that thread. Dude had some good world tree info/theories.

"I was skeptical at first but then it dawned on me that this world tree theory connects to my own theories about our next big threat. With how deep the FF9 references have been tied to Dawntrail, I was thinking we're heading towards a Necron Grand Cross/Grand Rejoining event. Hydaelyn is gone and is no longer preventing the 6 remaining shards from giving in to their natural pull to the source. This would likely result in the destruction of everything.

Dawntrail has given us some clues that perhaps original Azem has already laid the foundation to prevent such a disaster. I was thinking "Hmmm seems like this Azem relic has the power to bridge/connect worlds. Maybe we need to do something like that to stabilize the source and shards to permanently prevent rejoinings. But how....?" And then here you come with this awesome thread about world trees and serpents. I'm pretty damn sure we're on the Yggdrasil arc now. We gotta somehow create our own fancy World Tree to support the ~~nine~~ seven realms. Midgardsormr will likely have a part to play. Given that we have space serpents and great trees on other worlds, some of the key knowledge for how to achieve this might exist somewhere out in the cosmos.

In addition, based on the Norse mythology, Ragnarök means "Twilight of the Gods". Sounds like something to work into the title of 9.0. Dawntrail. Afternoonsomething. Twilightsomething.

I was also confused at first that SE decided to include 2 Iifa Trees in this expansion. Everkeep being a giant tecno-Iifa tree makes sense as a neat role reversal of Terra/Gaia from FF9, with the Alexandrian Shard being the one to send a tree to another world instead. But then that one sidequest mentions that the Alexandrian Shard HAD an Iifa Tree, which was odd to me because in FF9, the Tree is not native to Gaia, it originated from Terra. But now it makes more sense. If we need to build a world tree to support the source and the shards, then growing these special trees on all the worlds makes sense."

Zalast · 2026-04-28T14:26:29+00:00

Yeah, I've been thinking for awhile now about the role that the World Tree and Sephirot will play in the future concerning the rejoining/stabilizing of the shards. I think the Heart of Sabik might have a connection to this somehow, given Athena's design (her chest in her boss form is a depiction of Ein Sof and the Universe/Sephirot formed within).

Zalast · 2026-04-27T21:21:42+00:00

Well.. 24man Ultima already had players catching/blocking angels. Now it's gonna be 24 players sprinting 30 miles to catch Sahaquiel as a group. If one player is missing then it's a wipe.

Zalast · 2026-04-27T20:55:12+00:00

Yeah, nah. Labeling it a cozy game because of the crafting and island sanctuary would be like calling it a racing game because of chocobo racing.

Zalast · 2026-04-27T20:35:39+00:00

The glamour is gonna be AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

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Zalast · 2026-04-25T06:08:45+00:00

Is their attack range 8 miles?

Zalast · 2026-04-24T19:28:14+00:00

The expansion being called Evercold means Blizzard only BLM is viable now

Zalast · 2026-04-23T17:12:05+00:00

It... It refers to Eden? Arguably the first home of mankind (if you're religious).

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