#you go from areas like the sea of clouds and azys lla which are boring and ugly and awful to navigate

[exhumedicarus]

man the improvement between heavensward and stormblood areas design-wise is so good and so immediately apparent

[capsicrew]

So, something I've been trying to puzzle...

Where was Elpis? In comparison to the modern world.

One consideration--after Emet-Selch and Hythlodeus arrive, Emet makes a comment about having to come "all this way" from the capital. And we do know, based on the ruins found in the First, that Amaurot was approximately in the area around and south of modern day Limsa Lominsa/Eulmore. Granted, its now at the bottom of the ocean, even in a world NOT beset by calameties every few centuries. So, theres potential this whole line of thought is moot. But assuming its not...

Additionally, its Emet-Selch. Elpis could be in the next county over and he'd probably complain about it.

Elidibus, during EW, also comments that its unlikely any ruin or anything of Elpis would exist in the modern day for us to visit. Y'shtola also comments, when inspeciting the ruins in the Tempest, that no ruins likely remain in the source due to the aformentioned calamities--but this would also indicate that any potential ruins also do not exist in the First, where we talk to Elidibus. So that could mean ruins COULD have existed there, outside Norvrandt, before the flood of light.

Or, potentially, that Elpis had existed in a place where its remains wouldve been lost no matter what. The obvious but less exciting prospect is that Elpis was destroyed during the Final Days and didnt have time to be rebuilt/recreated before the sundering. Though I feel like Elidibus wouldve said as much. "It was lost during the Final Days, so you cant see it. Unless..."

Beyond that, however... Elidibus considered time travel as the best option first, without considering if Elpis would exist on the other remaining shards. Going back in time to barely exist as a phantom was the consideration... not sending the WoL to another shard where it could be. So, I would guess that wherever Elpis was, it would not leave behind ruins no matter what shard we're on.

So, my personal guess is the Sea of Clouds. Like... Yeah Elpis appears above the clouds, but there could be landmass under there... Until we also visit Pandæmonium. Pandæ seems to be well under Elpis, but still within the clouds. And we know the space beneath the sea of clouds to be an unending tempest of wind and ice aether that tears anything in it to shreds--which would be a great place to isolate various creatures under study in Elpis and not risk them getting out in the world unprepared--to say nothing of isolating Pandæmonium. There's also the potential to maybe think about whether the ancients actually created the sea of clouds for that purpose.

In Elpis, mention is made of needing to maintain the becons that keep the islands afloat and aethericaly balanced...so if everyone is sundered, that aint happenin... So Elpis is left to deterriorate and eventually sink into the sea of clouds and eroded in an inaccessable vortex over the following centuries--no matter the shard. Perhaps its remnants then make some of the floating isles that remain--aetheric balance thrown askew, so they stay floating, but erode over time.

And then, to complete the poetry, I'd say Elpis was where Azys Lla currently sits. With everything going on in Amon/Hermes's head, but also because its a breifly important location in the Pandæmonium story, too.

Im bored at work with nothing to do, so thanks for reading my junk lmao