New FFXIV player hub Solution Nine is a wink and nod to Final Fantasy IX

Since Yoshi P delivered his Keynote speech in Tokyo on January 7 for the upcoming Final Fantasy XIV expansion, Dawntrail, the community has erupted with discussion. Aside from Pictomancer, there’s another reveal catching the attention of fans — Solution Nine. Here’s what we know, along with some fan theories.

What we know about Solution Nine

Located in the Far North of Tural, Solution Nine is a mysterious and ultra-futuristic city hub filled with towering glass, metal facades, neon lights, and what appear to be vast highways. 

Yoshi P provided very little information on the settlement during his speech, but he noted Dawntail’s Solution Nine was built by an entirely different civilisation than those inhabiting Tural. He also mentioned that in order to provide the Fan Fest preview, they had to remove all objects from the foreground of the images so as to avoid spoilers.

Proto-Alphabet

From the showcase video, we can see that the civilisation that built Solution Nine used the Proto-Alphabet. It’s the same alphabet used in Endwalker’s The World Unsundered, as well as in the Pandaemonium raids. The use of this particular alphabet hints there could be some Ascian involvement when it comes to Solution Nine, though that’s all just speculation, for now.

The few pieces of Proto-Alphabet text shown in the video are easily translated referencing the Encyclopedia Eorzea III and in-game uses. Those lines read simply as “Employment” and “Soul Supply” — the second line of text is particularly interesting.

Final Fantasy IX connection

Final Fantasy IX’s mysterious and orphaned hero, Zidane, has a Limit Break sharing the namesake, Solution 9, but that’s not where the connections to FFIX end. Like XIV, the FFIX world has a lot to say about a soul, and that comes up in the story behind its twin worlds, Gaia and Terra.

In FFIX, you mostly explore Gaia, later learning about Terra after stumbling upon remnants of the civilization. Long ago, the people of Terra clamored to stave off their planet’s death, notably trying to preserve their souls by merging with smaller planets, like Gaia.

Fortunately for the earliest Gaians, and unfortunately for Terra, that didn’t go over so well when the Terrans looked to merge again. The whole soul cycle thing gets a little confusing, but the long and short of it is Terra winds up stuck in Gaia, and the game’s big bad, Garland, really wants to finish the process and take over Gaia.

Zidane’s entire story loops back into this, and his entire existence winds up tied into Terra’s doomsday plot twist. Now seems like an appropriate time to reiterate: he’s got that Solution 9 ability. The script used in the animation looks awfully familiar, doesn’t it? (Check the ~2:03 mark)

Solution Nine fan theories

There are endless possibilities for what Solution Nine could actually be, but the FFXIV community over on Reddit seems to be circling around the probability of coming face to face with an Ascian-esque people, or another shard.

Some popular trains of thought include an ancient civilisation preserved their people and tried to take over Etheirys in order to save itself. The story could always go back to the Allagans, another advanced civilization of the realm, and then there’s the whole deal with worlds like The Thirteenth — perhaps it’s another place like the Void desperate to balance its aether.