iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

The answer explains why a second starting point wasn't implemented in 7.0, but a lot of EC changes have been all about going back on tradition to open the game to more players. I think there's a good chance they're discussing whether the system is something they want to bring for 8.0 or not.

Imagine if there was a button that would skip everything up to 6.1. If a friend told you he wanted to start FFXIV, would you tell him to press that button?

FFDream et Finaland : Nope !

Naoki Yoshida : I feel like many people are very concerned about this issue, especially in the media. Each time, with each new expansion, I'm asked about it more and more, as if it were becoming a real problem weighing on the game, and I get the impression that people are worried about us. When in truth, for me, the story and the quality of the story make FFXIV stand out from other MMOs, and it would be a shame to deprive ourselves of that.

During Dawntrail's Media Tour, 8 media people asked me the same question as you, and so I asked them the same question about the skip button and whether they'd recommend pressing it. And everyone categorically told me no, of course not.

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Late to the discourse again, but a 6.1 starting point has been confirmed to be something they started work on before. Too big for alt text so the rest of it is in the replies source: www.finaland.com?rub=site&pag..., goes back to 7.0 and talks about the story a lot

FFDream : The arrival of a new story could serve as a gateway for new players, but access to Dawntrail remains difficult and conditional on completion of all previous expansions. In the past, you mentioned the possibility of skipping all previous content and starting Dawntrail straight away. Is this still a possibility, and if so, where do you stand in your thinking?

Naoki Yoshida : Actually, this kind of system, starting a new character directly to 6.1 had been imagined and even almost implemented. But I decided not to use it.

What made me change my mind is that I think the majority of FFXIV players, especially those who tell their friends to join them because it's amazing and the story is crazy... Well, it's a bit hard to sell such things if you force them to skip the story by asking them to start directly with Dawntrail. I don't think many people in the FFXIV community would say that you shouldn't play the chapter dedicated to Hydaelyn and Zodiark because it's pointless and it's better to join them right away. On the contrary, I have the impression that we have a community of people who like to be mentors, who like to take newcomers by the hand and show them how things are done and how to play. And I have no desire to restrain this phenomenon by creating a way to start the game much later in the story. In my opinion, it's more interesting to continue with this system of benevolent veterans helping new players discover the story and learn how to play the game. These are elements that go together, and I think it's important to continue to benefit from the goodwill of this community and all these Warriors of Light to take care of the next generation. That's why, in the end, we did not go through this system.

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Egg. I don't want to be this negative but it's getting real dire

Elezen with a hairstyle with long bangs, and hair peaking far above their face despite looking head on.

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

For yuri day I bring you a fun fact: before engaging in the ceremony of Eternal Bonding and the exchange of rings, a couple must wear promise wristlets!

Ryne and Gaia standing in a flower field with a sparse forest at the foot of a mountain in the distant background.

Ryne is holding Gaia's hand and wrist while looking at her and slightly blushing.
Gaia is not wearing her jacket, showing instead a pink bow tied around her right hand, held by Ryne.

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I would like to congratulate myself for being the maker of the smallest mod on Heliosphere. put the fancy suit on now 🫵 heliosphere.app/mod/k05h17y1...

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

look i don't come here often i know but why am i being shown this 7 month old obvious scam attempt only today

Chat requests

Deleted Account 7 months ago

We regret to inform you that blah blah blah security suspension oldest scam in the book

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

rare oc post because i think i got the shaders down just right. look at the beautiful elezen

Elf woman with black hair and a red dress posing with a lace umbrella, in front of a sunset and tree leaves

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

It's Pride Month, remember to throw a brick at the Mizzenmast!

Halmarut, hiding behind a statue, holding Calyx with one arm with a lesbian flag wristband on her other arm: I had hoped that, in a crowd of other queer characters, we would be able to blend in. Of course, I was prerpared to find that fearsome warrior among them...

Halmarut: <sniffle> <sob> But why did it have to be so many of the Scions?

Most Scions of the Seventh Dawn are in the background, along with a handful of other characters.

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Deep Blue looks like he shits himself after being taken down by the Tyrant

Deep Blue, wearing a green shirt and orange shorts with brown baked-in shadows around his butt crack

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

#7.5spoiler and ShB role quest spoilers

[2]<Meteor Survivor> hey guys big news
[2]<Meteor Survivor> we just met an ascian who's still at it, sort of
[2]<Cyella Valthane> place your bets now
[2]<Unukalhai> Would they really try the same trick again?
[2]<Golbez> Did that Ascian approach you in a bid to cause a Rejoining, presenting it as the only way your people could endure?
[2]<Krile Baldesion> Halmarut came to us, she spoke of the reflections seeking to rejoin naturally, and of her aim to rejoin them manually, as the natural process would wipe out the Source along with all reflections.
[2]<Meteor Survivor> yes. obviously.
[2]<Cyella Valthane> lmao
[2]<Ardbert Hylfyst> welcome to the club!
[2]<Unukalhai> They really do it to everyone, huh.
[2]<Golbez> Then even in the absence of their leaders, the Ascians' operations are unchanged.
[2]<Meteor Survivor> she was kinda cute though

LS #2: Hydaelyn's Special Children
Input: i hate her stupid plushie though it's just some guy we already beat

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

#7.5spoiler In fields of tranquil Light, sow you seeds of Darkness.

Halmarut wearing Ascians' dark robes with hood down, holding her hand up to her sigil, standing in a bright golden field amidst slowly falling snow.

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

new lord of verminion meta just dropped

A horde of yans, sheep-like creatures with googly eyes, running towards a red crystal with two broken in the background

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

out-of-date by now but this is what we were shown sometime in mid-EW

Principal questlines
Patch 4.2 (in collaboration with others) & 4.4 Main Scenario
Patch 5.1 (in collaboration with others) & 5.5 Main Scenario
Chronicles of a New Era: The Shadow of Mhach
Pandaemonium

6.2 Tataru's Grand Endeavor

Bard Quests (since 3.0)
Dancer Quests
5.0 Magical Ranged DPS Role Quests

Palace of the Dead
Assistant to guest writer for Return to Ivalice & Save the Queen

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

#7.5spoilers anyway they definitely know what they're doing with the solo duty and i think i do now. great foreshadowing by using the launcher's need to crop the art, please be only the teaser solo duty and not the party for evercold proprer i've had enough of microwaved (good expansion) casts

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

They would get along so well, I think…

Screenshot showing Cahciua and Venat in conversation. In the background, Meteor laughing and catching his breath while Erenville looks down on him.

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Maid day is an important holiday which I will always observe with as many characters as I have

Screenshot of five characters in maid outfits. The leftmost one is sweeping the floor, the rightmost one is standing awkwardly, the center ones are doing cute poses.

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

The "registered account" numbers shown in the fanfest keynote were misleading, they showed the numbers at the start of each expansion, except for Dawntrail's case where it was the current numbers. Fudging a number that includes bots and only ever goes up. Horrible metric, thank you yoshi-p

Total number of registered accounts

A Realm Reborn: 0
Heavensward: 4,000,000
Stormblood: 10,000,000
Shadowbringers: 18,000,000
Endwalker: 25,000,000
Dawntrail: Approaching 35,000,000

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Fellow elezen, if you look at a lalafell at the right angle, you can dab on the haters

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

this would have been such a funny name though. Shiva action + Zero

Back to Evercold, I really wanted to go with "Absolute Zero"

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

I'm old (at the game), it's been nine years! Slightly more than that, I started playing basically as soon as they removed the time limit on the free trial, but this character and paying for the game obviously came later

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

why would dalamud turn down a developer who has made tools as revolutionary as a.. solar storm-stock market tracking dashboard no way people won't flock to their own launcher and ecosystem, which is dalamud with their repo instead, and AI plugins treated as "first-class". what's a custom repo anyway

Solar Storm Markets
Space Weather vs S&P 500 Returns

Live dashboard tracking the correlation between geomagnetic storms and stock market returns. Real-time Kp index, 26 years of data, and a finding that contradicts the original research — algorithms don’t have melatonin.

Roadmap

Phase 0 ✅ — Inventory the goatcorp stack and map every endpoint. See STACK.md.
Phase 1 ✅ — Fork all upstream repos, stand up static CDN mirrors via GitHub Pages.
Phase 2 🟡 — Run our own XLWebServices instance on commslink.net, pointing at our forks.
Phase 3 ⬜ — Build and publish our own Dalamud release with MainRepoUrl repointed at our XLWebServices.
Phase 4 ⬜ — Rebrand and ship FFXIVPlugins Launcher — a fork of XIVLauncher with all goatcorp URLs replaced.
Phase 5 ⬜ — Replace DIP17 with a no-gatekeeping plugin pipeline. AI plugins are first-class.
Phase 6 ⬜ — Sustainability: auto-merge bot for upstream Dalamud + ClientStructs commits, sig-update process for game patches.

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

That's it I'm overthrowing Merlwyb, she knows damn well that her tomestones will end up in the Bloody Executioners' hands yet doesn't give a shit

Due to new regulation introduced by your character's city state, going into effect on April 1st, we need to verify your character. This is done locally on your PC and takes less than a minute.

-Verify Now
-No, don't ask again

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Extra interesting because the french ver. had the incongruence between past and present Mitron's gender since 5.4. It took until 6.4 near the side story's release for it to show up in English. French also has him explain why he looks different now. I don't speak Japanese so I can't say there sadly

French, Translation below
LOGHRIF:
C'est toi, Mitron? Tu... Ton apparence est bien différente.
Je viens à peine de recouvrer la mémoire, et mes souvenirs de toi sont encore un peu flous.

MITRON:
Ce n'est pas surprenant. De réincarnation en réincarnation, notre voix et notre apparence changent au gré des corps que nous occupons.
Nos âmes, elles, restent les mêmes. J'ai immédiatement reconnu la tienne! Et tu n'as pas changé, toujours aussi... oublieuse.

Translated to English:
LOGHRIF:
Is that you, Mitron? Your... your appearance is very different.

I only just recovered my memory, and my memories of you
are still blurry.

MITRON:
That isn't surprising. From one reincarnation to another,
our voice and appearance changes according to the bodies
we occupy.

Our souls, however, remain the same. I immediately
recognized yours! And you haven't changed, always so... forgetful.

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Ever noticed how Mitron is the only post-Emet Ascian to not have something going on with his identity and presentation? Instead his story shrugs off how his appearance can differ so much from his ancient self's voluntarily? His struggle was dysphoria, testosterone saved him (he's still not normal)

LOGHRIF:
Is that you, Mitron? Forgive me, I didn't recognize you...
In my defense, my memories have only recently been restored. My mind is still a little hazy.
MITRON:
Hardly surprising. No matter how many times we are reborn, it is disorienting to have everything change around you.
Even so, I immediately recognized your resplendent soul. And I cling to the hope that one day you will likewise remember mine. You always were a forgetful one.

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

As for how canon it is, they say it's "brought to you by the writers of FFXIV", and Banri Oda has been directly credited for some other writing in that crossover (the weapon stories, they're really nice too!)

A white ghost and young girl with straps and bandages next to a moogle.

Crossover

NieR Reincarnation X FINAL FANTASY XIV Online

A crossover-exclusive story brought to you by the writers of FFXIV

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

regarding lrp, the state and growth of people post-sundering is portrayed in NieR: Reincarnation's crossover event story. This is to my knowledge the only other portrayal of what happened immediately after the sundering.

Background showing white and blue humanoid shapes, with a man in a black robe and red mask standing in the center.

"Unnngh... Aaah..."
Pitiful moaning of malformed creatures...
They can no longer shape words.
Language, culture, knowledge—forgotten.

Background: same as before.

Decades... Centuries... Millennia pass.

As he works tirelessly,
the wretched creatures begin to learn.

They speak in new tongues.
They worship new gods.
They forge new histories.

Background: The whisps take a more solid humanoid shape; some of them with cat ears and tails, other pointys ears.

He looks upon this and is repulsed.

These wretches are fragile and weak.
They can barely comprehend magic.
Ignorant, intolerant, misbegotten husks.
Fighting each other without aim or end.

Their pitiable lives are fleeting.
In the simplest of ways, they die and die.

Background: The man in a hood looks down, completely hiding his face.

Yet they claim the mantle of mankind?

He looks upon this and is repulsed.

No matter what he does...
No matter how much time passes...

The hatred and heartbreak remain.

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Oh you just know Vamp Fatale is seething

Honey B Lovely, wearing sunglasses decorated with flowers, taking a selfie together with Yaana, who is making a heart gesture with her hands, wearing egg-shaped sunglasses.

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Final touches on the display cakes, happy Valentione's day!

Rral Soj standing with Papawni on her back, with her legs between her head, as both check an elaborate cake.

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

i am sorry for putting her on a diet of minifridge drinks and her birthday typed into a vending machine, i promise i understand her character is more than that

Shale wearing a simple black shirt, shorts, standing next to a table, one hand on it, the other going through her hair. The table has a hexagon-patterned bag and a soda can with a gimme kitten design.

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Eli the Lorefiend @lorefiendeli.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

I've been working on recreating the dialog box, but as someone who's not a graphic designer, I feel like I'm getting pretty close... This is using the game's font though, and it's expensive enough that I need to find an alternative