How Solution Nine and Other FFXIV Dawntrail Areas Could Affect the Story

pcinvasion.com:

The new Dawntrail areas revealed from the Japan Fanfest keynote were quite telling about certain elements of the next expansion’s story. Here’s how Solution Nine and other FFXIV Dawntrail areas could affect the story.

First of all, it is worth noting that Tural is huge. Looking at it on the full map, it’s bigger than Eorzea, and it rivals the Far East in size. Its north and south divisions tell of Tural being not just inspired by Central and South America, but the Americas as a whole. With a landmass this large and diverse, why has Tural barely been mentioned or involved in the numerous global events of Etheirys? It might be the new world, but it’s populated. Even Sharlayan, the resident do-nothing nation of Etheirys, has been involved more than Tural. There has to be a story reason behind Tural being so quiet.

Related: Dawntrail Dungeon preview at Fanfest: Cruises, processing plants, et al

We see a mining town resembling the look of the American Wild West as it’s depicted in popular culture. It even goes so far as to show a saloon. If Tural is meant to be both North and South America, this would suggest this area is in Northern Tural. While Tural might have a city of gold, I don’t think it’s a gold rush taking place in this area. We learn from the Blue Mage questline Tural has untapped reserves of cerulean for businessmen to make expenditures into mining. One of them is even on a native tribe’s land. If these businessmen had taken to the cerulean reserves in Tural, it could have sparked these mining towns to appear. The cerulean processing plant depicted in the last reveal further supports this idea.

This brings us to the biggest bomb drop of the keynote: Solution Nine. Among all the visuals of Tural’s varied but