Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold, Norse Mythology & ties to Final Fantasy VII

Evercold, the new expansion for Final Fantasy XIV, arrives in January 2027 and marks the start of the MMORPG's new narrative arc, the Godless Realms Saga. It takes place on the Fourth, a world consumed by ice. The trailer is framed as a bedtime story told by a grandmother to an Au Ra child and, besides presenting some brief story elements, also shows locations and structures featuring serpent and Nordic dragon themes, with airships and floating lands. In the frozen world below, there are the "arcane giants," whose role in the story was left ambiguous.

It's clear that Evercold draws inspiration from Norse mythology and reinforces fan speculation from recent months: the 8.0 expansion would be based on Final Fantasy VII.

Early signs involved the inclusion of the Hardy Daytona — the bike Cloud Strife rides in the final segment of the Midgar arc — as a mount and Red XIII as a minion in FFXIV, and gained more credibility with the first images of Patch 7.5, where one of the bosses has a design similar to the Scorpion Sentinel, one of the most iconic bosses in FFVII.

With the official announcement, Evercold may have confirmed the theory. From the Nordic references, which Final Fantasy VII has in abundance, to the nod to Aerith Gainsborough's iconic scene in the expansion's logo, there are enough parallels to explore the lore within the lore of Final Fantasy VII and how it might be retold with a new coat of paint.

Drawing inspiration for an expansion or patch from a previous title is far from new in Final Fantasy XIV. The nods are generally not subtle, but they don't go so far as to follow the original work's story development to the letter.

The pattern used by Creative Studio III takes certain elements from a previous title — the Magitek from FFVI in A Realm Reborn; various narrative tropes from FFIII in Shadowbringers; the journey to the moon to face a great evil from FFIV in Endwalker; Alexandria, Necron, the theme of memory, and other elements from FFIX in Dawntrail — and blends them with the lore and universe created in Final Fantasy XIV.

Sphene, for example, is a clear reference to Princess Garnet Til Alexandros XVII, but her role in FFXIV's plot differs significantly from that of the princess of Alexandria in Final Fantasy IX. Likewise, the Crystal Tower in Final Fantasy XIV has a distinct role from what it had in FFIII.

Regardless of the inspirations, the world established in each expansion is original. Dawntrail reinterprets Alexandria as a kingdom that existed in the past and is now a cyberpunk society that players only encounter after traveling through all regions of Tural, inspired by Latin American cultures and with little to no reference to Final Fantasy IX, but with some elements from Final Fantasy XI.

The new expansion, therefore, may take elements, tropes, and names from Final Fantasy VII, but will give them a new coat of paint to fit seamlessly into Final Fantasy XIV's story. Not to mention the possibility of incorporating elements from other titles, with Final Fantasy X being a second candidate.

Before theorizing in depth, we need to establish the conditions under which we're building the theories themselves.

We take as fact that Evercold is an expansion inspired by Norse mythology, and that elements from that universe can and will be applied and integrated into Final Fantasy XIV's overall narrative and the themes implicit in the story's development. Therefore, references to cosmology are at the core of most of the speculation below. The fundamental question answered in most of them is: "How does this element from the trailer fit into Norse mythology?"

We also accept — not as fact, but as likely — the possibility of Final Fantasy VII's influence on the story. 2027 marks the 30th anniversary of FFVII and the potential release year of the final chapter of the Remake trilogy. While these elements could be pure coincidence, an integrated experience between FFXIV and FFVII creates a huge release schedule for Square Enix next year and brings together its two strongest current brands.

In that case, the problem lies in the "how?". References to Norse cosmology exist in both titles, but Final Fantasy VII is an adventure with aesthetic elements blending cyberpunk and fantasy, while Evercold has visuals drawn from Nordic aesthetics with typical fantasy elements of the franchise, such as floating continents.

One possibility, which we consider tangible, is that FFXIV takes this "universe" from FFVII from the less-explored side of the original title, or even as a role reversal: where Final Fantasy VII has Shinra as its main aesthetic link, the world of the Fourth might, through Nordic references, be closer to what the Cetra civilization would have been.

In the original title and the first two parts of the Remake, there's little information about the structure of the Cetra's world outside the knowledge that they were a nomadic race. We don't know what their homes, rituals, and cultural habits were like beyond the remnants left by the Temple of the Ancients and the Forgotten Capital in FFVII. It's a vast field of imagination to reconstruct and create its own narrative around an existing concept — something Final Fantasy XIV has consistently done with its predecessors so far.

In summary: we take as fact that this is an expansion inspired by Norse mythology; therefore, it is most likely based on Final Fantasy VII and seeks to reimagine the Cetra as a living society.

The biggest mystery of the new trailer is who the narrator is. Many speculate, due to the gray cat tail and older appearance, that it's Y'shtola embodying Matoya. While valid, the theory seems to reuse a trope from the Shadowbringers arc and is a poor narrative tool when she is the most interesting character in this first teaser.

Beyond the clear reference to the "Promised Land," the narrator speaks of future events in the past tense, even though players haven't witnessed them yet.

If we take the arc's name "Godless Realms" literally, the mysterious figure wouldn't be an allusion to a goddess but a reference to a figure consulted by Odin in Norse mythology: the Völva, a seeress who recounts the creation of the world and the Ragnarök yet to come, on the same timeline.

The figure could also be a reference to the Norns, the weavers of fate, guardians of cosmic memory charged with shaping the existential trajectory of mortals and gods. In Norse mythology, there are three Norns, responsible for the past, present, and future, respectively — Final Fantasy XIV may have chosen to unite the three into a single omnipresent entity.

In either case, this figure partially resembles Aerith Gainsborough, the last survivor of the Cetra, a nomadic race with strong connections to the Planet, capable of accessing and reading ancient memories and future events through the Lifestream, the flow of souls and collective memories that constitute the Planet's life force.

The Cetra seek the Promised Land. Aerith states they travel the world searching for it but never clearly explains the concept; Shinra believes it to be the place where the Lifestream converges, thus a land abundant with Mako, but the consensus — implied by Aerith — is that it is the end of the Cetra's journey, the moment when, having fulfilled their purpose, they die and return to the Lifestream.

The connection between the Cetra and the Planet through the Lifestream makes them closer to the Vanir, a pantheon of gods related to nature and inhabitants of Vanaheim, one of the Nine Worlds described in Norse mythology as a lush and fertile realm, than to the Norns.

Aerith, on the other hand, is much closer to the Norns and the Völva than to the Vanir. She is the intermediary between humanity and the Lifestream and intercedes for both during the events of Final Fantasy VII. If we consider the Remake, where she (and Sephiroth) manipulate events to alter fate, Aerith plays all three roles: that of a Vanir as a Cetra, that of a Norn by, knowing all events, weaving fate and intervening in the Lifestream, and that of a Völva by guiding Cloud through the game's events and across different timelines.

It's possible that the narrator is not the figure — or the only figure — representing Aerith in the expansion. After all, a character shown in the trailer is so relevant to Evercold's plot that she also shows up as the expansion's cover figure.

Her appearance, kneeling, praying with her hands before disappearing into the ice, references one of the most iconic moments in the gaming industry.

One could argue that the elderly figure and the "priestess" are the same person, but her Au Ra features are too striking not to be noticeable under a human figure's hood (not to mention the Miqo'te tail), unless this character refers to entities that can shapeshift, like Loki and Odin. The most likely possibility is that the two figures have distinct roles but represent the same character in the work on which the expansion is based, since Aerith plays many roles within a single figure in FFVII.

Temporality is still a mystery in this story. In Shadowbringers, we discovered that time on the First passes much faster than on the Source, and there's no impediment to the Fourth having its own structure.

In Norse cosmology, there is wyrd, a web of consequences that connects all moments and all beings, and each knot affects all others regardless of their temporal position. Fate, in this web, is not the future: everything has a form that is complete before it is lived. The future is already defined and already has texture because the Norns have already woven fate. Ragnarök, for example, is not a prophecy but an event that already exists in the cosmos's structure, waiting to be reached.

The interpretation of an absolute and theoretically inevitable fate places the mysterious narrator even more in the role of the Völva. The Völva speaks in the past tense, "I saw" to narrate fate, even when events haven't yet occurred. The same language may be used by the hooded figure during the bedtime story, and the narrated events may be taken as absolute by her because, even if the Warrior of Light hasn't yet come from the heavens, their coming and all events that follow are already set in stone in her interpretation.

This is a concept relatively similar to one element of the Lifestream in Final Fantasy VII. The consciousness of the dead dissolves into the flow and remains accessible with memory and knowledge. Even as the source of life, the Lifestream carries everything that has ever happened to the planet, and the actions occurring within it are in a reality where temporal distinction is nonexistent.

The narrator may be "recounting" events within an equivalent of the Lifestream (as a source of timeless knowledge, not playing the same role as the Aethereal Sea already does in FFXIV) of the Fourth, in which she narrates the future as a point where past and future have already existed in the same web of events. A fate already written and an inevitable end of days could be a central theme of the new expansion, as the most recent patch events suggest.

The future, however, is not inevitable. The events of the FFVII Remake, from Aerith and Sephiroth's perspective, involve manipulating actions in the present/past to alter the future — a concept that dialogues with other interpretations of wyrd, where it is seen as a force constantly being shaped from the past and present, weaving the future from a set of possibilities.

The "Arcane Giants," mountain-sized beings, are another mystery from the trailer. The Weapons are a similar category of colossal creatures in Final Fantasy VII and function as the Planet's immune system, awakening when it senses an existential threat as a last resort for self-preservation.

Beyond their size, the Giants/Colossi resemble the Weapons in design. We know there are several of them on the Fourth, and they all have a drill-like crystal in the center of their bodies, just as the Weapons have a sphere reminiscent of Materia. The structure and design of their bodies, however, are similar to Sin (Final Fantasy X).

Explaining the dreams of the Fayth, Sin's reincarnation cycle in Spira, and possible implications for the Final Fantasy VII universe would take an entire article by itself; therefore, we'll stick to the concept where Sin and the Weapons connect: Sin, inspired by natural disasters, is perceived by the people of Spira as punishment for using Machina. It emerges from one village to another, causes uncontrollable destruction, drives individuals who get too close mad, and then disappears.

The Weapons resemble Sin's role and represent, in light of FFVII's environmentalism themes, a materialization of natural disasters, but with direct causality. They are the Planet's response to human transgression. Sephiroth's summoning of Meteor awakened them, but their targets primarily include regions controlled by Shinra, where Mako reactors were built that convert the Lifestream into disposable energy and threaten the Planet's survival.

If they resemble one of these examples, the Arcane Giants could be the Fourth's response to some past action or to the events that culminated in the world being covered in ice. They could be the punishment — and the "ice age" being a consequence of their presence — or the ecosystem's attempt to rid itself of the catastrophe that caused the ice age.

The creatures, in this case, would be a partial reference to the Jötnar, the first beings of the cosmos who represent hegemonic forces of nature and chaos, commonly portrayed as antagonists to the Aesir gods (with exceptions: intimate relationships between gods and Jötnar occur in Norse mythology). The difference is that, in this interpretation, it's not clear how the conflict between them and the gods occurred, whether we're talking about the world trying to protect itself from a greater threat or whether the gods became the giants after a cataclysmic event.

A flaw in the above theory is that it disregards many of Final Fantasy XIV's worldbuilding elements, especially the existence of Primals and the possibility that the "ice giants" are manifestations of them on the Fourth. Once summoned, Primals consume the surrounding aether and can act autonomously, overriding their summoners' emotions, and exerting enough influence to temper individuals.

These Primals may have tempered so many people that they became colossi and sent the world into an ice age, or they may have been deformed by the world's unstable aether and turned into a creature distinct from their original purpose. In either case, the kneeling Au Ra figure gains a bit more substance, either as someone whose prayers maintain the presence of these creatures in the world, or whose prayers keep the means of controlling them in check.

If they are a parallel to Sin rather than to the Weapons, the arcane giants as Primals also fit a bit better into the general lore of Final Fantasy X — just as the Fayth's dream sustains Sin's existence and perpetuates the cycle in Spira, these Primals may have been summoned and are sustained by the lingering faith of an extinct civilization. In their absence, the Primals may have remained, continuing to drain the planet's life force.

The figure beside the priestess has aesthetic traits reminiscent of visual descriptions of the god Odin and may play an important role in the plot. But I'm inclined to believe that Odin's representation in this expansion is the Warrior of Light.

Odin manifested himself in the world as a wanderer with a beard and wide-brimmed hat, arriving at communities in crisis and offering help to test humanity's wisdom. His role in mythology is highly controversial: he is both the god of wisdom and of war and built the cosmos after killing Ymir, the primordial giant. His role is that of a world-destroyer to the Jötnar and supreme god, creator of Midgard and Asgard, to the Aesir — he is a hero or villain depending on the interpretation of his actions.

The Warrior of Light is called by the narrator "The Wanderer," and the Au Ra girl adds, "the one who came from the sky." The interpretation of hero or villain may not be equivalent in Final Fantasy XIV's universe when we approach the protagonist, but a traveler from the skies has a parallel in FFVII.

Jenova is known to the Cetra as "The Calamity from the Skies." Upon crashing onto the Planet, she takes the form of loved ones — a trait shared with the shapeshifting abilities of Odin, Loki, and other gods in the Norse pantheon — and infects them, turning them into monsters. Jenova arrived at the Planet to reshape it and use it as a vessel to reach the next and encountered resistance from the Cetra to the point of being sealed and isolated.

The consequences of Jenova's arrival for the Cetra and the Planet resemble those of Ymir's death at Odin's hands. The Lifestream, in this interpretation, is Ymir's body, and it is through it that all events of Final Fantasy VII (equivalent to the creation of the chain of events that result in Ragnarök) culminate: the extinction of the Cetra; the creation of the WEAPONs; the discovery of Mako; the origin of SOLDIERs; the Cetra's memories that result in Aerith's fate; and humanity's salvation through Holy.

It's difficult — and unlikely — to imagine our hero as the cause of a world's calamity when we're so used to saving them, but Final Fantasy XIV has never been afraid to dabble in moral ambiguity. The arrival of the Warrior of Light (the wanderer from the skies) as an agent of great change was a concept introduced since A Realm Reborn, and when he first traveled to another world in Shadowbringers, the expansion subverted pre-established conceptions about the Ascians, Hydaelyn, and Zodiark. But what if, this time, the subversion comes in the uncertainty of the protagonist's role?

Cloud Strife as an unreliable narrator was one of the most well-executed tropes in Final Fantasy VII. It's not possible to replicate that role with the Warrior of Light since, at the end of the day, he is our avatar, but what if our actions weren't as beneficial as we believed?

What if, by taking on the role of savior of the Source, we also accepted the role of destroyer of other worlds? What if, to unite the Reflections, the Scions are confronted with dilemmas similar to those we saw in Emet-Selch, but with much greater moral weight regarding the value of a life in another world?

The choice of the Reaper as the hero's class in the trailer might suggest this path. The Warrior of Light was the reason for the absence of Hydaelyn and Zodiark, the entities responsible for the events that culminated in the Sundering and the cosmological structure of the previous arc. In part, the adventures we see today in FFXIV and the state of the post-Endwalker worlds already echo Odin's act of killing Ymir, but instead of building a new cosmos, they already existed, now without their structuring deities, the consequences of whose absence have not yet been presented — a set of Godless Realms.

In that case, the plot would no longer depend on a villain trying to destroy the world. A Shinra draining the life force or a Jenova invading and infecting people isn't necessary — just the absence of balance caused by the hero without his knowledge suffices. The "villain" becomes the feeling of dealing with the inevitable, whose answer isn't "Who must we stop?" but rather how to reverse a process already in motion.

That question, if well-executed, is much harder to answer than facing the Endsinger at the edge of the universe, but it also assumes that, aware of the Sundering and after it, the Ascians/Ancients never considered this possibility. Or they were aware that it wouldn't serve their purposes.

Both in the logo and in the trailer, there is a frozen tree-shaped monument at which the priestess prays. The most obvious comparison with Norse mythology — which fits with the concept of the Source and the Reflections — is Yggdrasil, the tree that connects the nine realms. Yggdrasil is responsible for the balance between these worlds but is dependent on them: if a world becomes sick or unbalanced, the tree also becomes sick. If Yggdrasil becomes sick, all worlds suffer.

There are two comparative interpretations. The first is that the Source is the trunk of Yggdrasil in Final Fantasy XIV's universe, and each Reflection is a branch. The Umbral Calamities, as explained in Shadowbringers, are the consequence of when there is such a strong imbalance in one of the Reflections that it merges back into the Source, culminating in a catastrophe. The Fourth is, according to the trailer, a world on the brink of ruin due to ice storms.

The second is that the tree represents an unknown link of connection between the Reflections. Something that joins each fragment as elements of a single ecosystem, rather than separate worlds, and that the cause of instability is the "Yggdrasil" — the force of that link — becoming sick, culminating in the simultaneous destruction of all Reflections and the Source if they don't go back to its original state.

When transformed into Mako, the Lifestream — interpreted here as the collective of memories and teachings passed down by the Cetra, but also as the conduit connecting all life in Final Fantasy VII's world — ceases to exist. Gradually, the Planet's life is drained, and eventually, the world will collapse.

The Fourth Reflection may have suffered a similar side effect, such as using aether excessively or repeatedly to summon Primals or leaving them present for so long that they dried up the planet's aether and caused the ice age.

Perhaps the ecosystem and social organization of that world involved groups using Primals for comfort and convenience — a parallel to the Mako reactors — and a group equivalent to the Cetra that nurtured and cared for the world's aether source, or the "Yggdrasil" of that cosmology, to maintain balance. When the preservation disappeared, the Primals may have grown too large and resulted in their current state.

The lore and worldbuilding for Final Fantasy XIV are massive, and there may be details I've missed that could debunk some of the theories and possibilities presented above. The details of Evercold are still scarce, and we know little so far about the Fourth, but the trailer shown has plenty of material to consider implications within the game and capture references from outside it.

It's been a while since I've been this interested in FFXIV, but between an expansion that finally seems to chart a path for continuing the Warrior of Light's adventures with the grandeur they deserve, combined with the welcome gameplay changes shown during the Fan Festival, it seems like a good time to revisit the game and prepare for January 2027.

As usual, feel free to bring discussions, theories, speculation, and feedback.

Thanks for reading!