Square Enix recently held its annual FanFest in Anaheim last week and debuted its new Final Fantasy 14 trailer for Final Fantasy 14’s upcoming expansion, Evercold, which releases in January 2027.
The trailer showed that the Warrior of Light and his companions Estineon and Alphinaud will travel to the Fourth Shard, a land filled with ice and ruled by terrifying giants, who have driven their people to flee to the sky.
A giant world tree can be hinted at in the trailer, which will get eagle-eyed fans on Reddit to start connecting the dots about what might be happening on the Fourth before we arrive. Given that the expansion takes inspiration from Norse mythology, we can only assume that this world is facing some kind of Fimbulwinter, and it will be up to us to restore the world and save its people as we did in The First in Shadowbringers.
Final Fantasy 14 May Be Reborn (Again)
Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki Yoshida has revealed that the game may be reborn in the future, perhaps as part of the move to a new engine.
World Trees aren’t a concept unique to the game either, and they’ve been staring at us all along. Reddit user /u/Kaellian will reveal in a post more than a year ago about the many references to the World Trees in Eorzea, and their shared connection through several different shards. With evidence like that, we’re sure to see those seeds of Yoshi-P and the narrative team laid years ago finally take root.
What is the World Tree Theory?
Get together folks, because this is going to be tough. The World Tree Theory is a well-organized red thread board that connects various topics in Final Fantasy 14 including trees, snakes, and other references to Norse Mythology throughout the game’s many tracts.
Fans believe that Final Fantasy 14’s world tree is being created to function in a similar way to Yggdrasil in Norse Mythology, holding the nine Realms together as Nidhogg, the serpent dragon, gnaws at its roots. With both Hydaelyn and Zodiark dead, our characters have been warned that a reunion is happening naturally, with charts on their way to colliding with the Source.
In the new trailer for Evercold, we see a focus on a beautiful tree-like structure, which looks very similar to the Crystal Tower in Shadowbringers, which may also show how our Hero of Light will be able to travel to this shard.
The World Trees have always existed as part of Final Fantasy 14’s lore, but they have never been the focus of the narrative. We are first introduced to the Guardian Tree in The Black Shroud in Twelveswood, although if you haven’t played through the White Mage quest line, you may have missed this part of the story. We also learn during the tank quest in 6.0 about how the ancient sentinel tree can be rewired to restore the aether balance in the area.
However, Dawntrail has recently focused on the topic thanks to its series of Arcadian raids and the new Vana’Diel Alliance Raids that connect to the expansion of Final Fantasy XI, Seekers of Adoulin, which will have two twin trees of the world: One that flourishes, and the other whose dying roots spread to all the different places in the world.
Adding more fuel to the speculation is that Solution 9, one of the key locations in Downtrail, was modeled after Final Fantasy IX’s Legacy Tree, and serves the same purpose of redistributing life back into the Lifestream. Speaking of Lifestream, the new teaser trailer for Evercold makes a direct reference to the Promised Land, a location mentioned in Final Fantasy VII, which also focuses heavily on Lifestream.
We’re sure to see those seeds Yoshi-P and the narrative team laid years ago finally take root.
Looking back at Final Fantasy 14’s lore, we are also told that the World Tree exists in Meracydia during the Warring Triad line in Heavensward. Director Yoshi-P went on to say that he deliberately stopped revealing too much about the location, as it would reveal many of the game’s secrets. A helpful NPC can also tell us about the Tree of Life in the Ninth Shard in Conde Petie, which could mean that there are other Trees of Life divided among the various dimensions that are now withering apart from the Zodiac to control the aetheric flow.
Fans have been hunting all of these shows for the past year, and they thought we’d build our own version of Yggdrasil in Evercold, which would help us move between the different charts and help bring them back.
With all these surrounding threads hanging, we’ll likely see some of these symbols finally pay off in future expansions.
How Dawntrail has always symbolized Evercold
Since the release of Dawntrail, we’ve seen a number of references to Northern Mythology, setting us up for a similar story to be visited in future content.
The latest episodes introduced Calyx and Halmarut, two members of “The Winterers” who warned that the “Withering” would happen, and took drastic measures to ensure that some mass of humanity survived. In Halmarut’s introduction, he warns the Scions that with Hydaelyn, who once divided the world, now gone, the Source longs to be healed again, and the remaining fairies look to rejoin.
This reunion would be very different from what the Ascians had previously caused with the Umbral Calamities, and would instead return Etheirs to a state where humanity had not yet emerged. Almost like during Fimbulwinter, when only a select few could survive inside the World Tree until it was over.
Knowing this, Halmarut visits the Fourth shard, a frozen world inhabited by people who have taken to building a new civilization in the sky.
The latest series of raids also lends more credibility that this is the direction Evercold may be heading. In the new Stadium Raids, we are told an ominous prelude: “The Lifestream that sleeps in the deep sheds its old skin little by little. Finally, the Lifestream eats its own tail, and makes new flesh from its own. The pain felt will cause the earth to shake, mountains to collapse, and rivers to dry up.”
This is probably a metaphor for the Umbral and Astral cycle that the Lifestream represents, but it may refer to a dynamic event within the Lifestream, which may have occurred on Thursday or will occur on our planet.
We are also introduced to the technology of “Cold Stasis,” which keeps the human body in a state of suspended animation and can stop the progression of chronic diseases. We are told about the disease psychonecrosis, which degrades the human soul and leads to inevitable death. The only cure for this disease is the Drop of Life, which can only be found in the heart of the Lindwurm, a giant snake.
I’m not sure if this foreshadows how we’ll later get the fourth one back from its cold spell, but it would be a good way to make the attack fit into the main story.
Honestly, there’s enough vague speculation here to keep the Elden Ring fan fed for the next few months, but with the revelations in 7.5, it’s safe to say we’re starting to see the pieces come together.
In the latest episode, we learn more about the stone of Azem, which helped us get back to the thirteenth in the most recent episode. It’s possible that as the stone, and Halmarut make our way to the Fourth, we’ll be able to help build a bridge to this new place.
It’s also possible that we’ll look to connect all the shards through some kind of Yggdrasil stand-in, whether it’s literally connecting the various Earth Trees to the shards, or something symbolic of it. For example, how the Crystal Tower from the First was used as a catalyst to bring us to that thought.
After Halmarut’s setup in the latest episode, fans are betting that he’ll be playing a role similar to that of Emet-Selch in the upcoming expansion, guiding us throughout the shard while also being the catalyst for why the world is the way it is. A possible deviation from this, is that Halmarut may be under the opponent, and may be useful in helping the team establish Yggdrasil for this shard.
It is hard to know now if this serpent analogy in the Lifestream will remain symbolic, or if we will see something from it. Some fans believe there are hints that something is poisoning the Lifestream now that the Zodiac is gone, and with the mention of the Promised Land, this could be a way to introduce Final Fantasy VII’s villain, Jenova, into the story.
Regardless, Square Enix has done a fantastic job of getting fans excited for the upcoming expansion after experiencing a lull following the immediate release of Dawntrail. With Yoshi-P suggesting that he’s eager to relaunch Final Fantasy 14, it’s possible that Evercold is building up to a serious overhaul of the series and the way we see the world.
Every last Mainline Fantasy, counted by Story
If you’ve ever wondered about the best Final Fantasy stories from the games, I encourage you to check out our ranking of the main series.
- Released
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July 2, 2024
- The ESRB
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Youth // Blood, Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Alcohol and Tobacco Use, Violence
- Engineer(s).
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Square Enix
- Publisher
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Square Enix
- Engine
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Ownership
