Final Fantasy XV -The Dawn of the Future-

Final Fantasy XV -The Dawn of the Future-　 is a novel followup to Final Fantasy XV. Written by Emi Nagashime under her pen name Jun Eishima based on a draft by the Final Fantasy XV development team, the novel retells the events of the cancelled downloadable content tetralogy of the same name. The novel released on April 25, 2019 in Japan. An overseas release is also planned.

Premise
The Dawn of the Future takes place in the world of Eos, the main setting of Final Fantasy XV. It covers the events of Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ardyn up until its ending and Ardyn Izunia's choice to accept or reject his role in the Astral Bahamut's plans. The rest of the narrative follows on from Ardyn's choice to defy his fate as bestowed by the Astral Bahamut.

Characters

 * Noctis Lucis Caelum; Crown Prince of Lucis, chosen as the prophesied True King by the Astrals to save the world of Eos from darkness.
 * Lunafreya Nox Fleuret; The Oracle who communes with the Astrals and former princess of Tenebrae, bound to aid Noctis in completing his destiny.
 * Ardyn Izunia; Chancellor of Niflheim, and the main antagonist of Final Fantasy XV. Originally chosen by the Crystal, he was corrupted by the Starscourge and given a different purpose.
 * Aranea Highwind; A mercenary dragoon serving the empire of Niflheim under the rank of commodore.
 * Solara Aldercapt Antiquum; a girl raised by Aranea during the long night.

Aranea
Aranea is returning to Niflheim after a 35-hour shift leading a recovery and cleanup effort in Altissia with Biggs and Wedge. She has lost half of her 86th Airborne Unit in the fighting, as the military treats its human troops poorly compared to the magitek infantry. She thinks about how much the empire has changed since her childhood, as putting all resources into expanding the military has made citizens' lives bleak and places like amusement parks and cinemas have closed down.

As she enters Gralea she finds the army fighting a Diamond Weapon in the city, heading for Zegnautus Keep. Aranea follows while her subordinates, Biggs and Wedge, evacuate children. Ardyn addresses the city through a speaker system to announce that on this day the empire falls and that Emperor Aldercapt, who had pursued immortality via his quest to acquire magic to be Niflheim's eternal sovereign, has no successor. The emperor's wife had died soon after giving birth, the emperor never remarried, and their son eventually died in battle. The public believes that losing his wife twisted Aldercapt's personality, but Aranea believes it to be Ardyn's influence.

Aranea finds the Keep devoid of life and the emperor dead on the throne. On the roof she finds Ardyn and spots an airship transporting the Diamond Weapon toward Tenebrae. She realizes he had released the Weapon and the rogue MTs upon the city and tries to attack, but he evades and deflects her attack easily. Biggs contacts Aranea to say he has put the refugees on a train to Tenebrae. Aranea declares that she's quitting and jumps off the roof.

She runs into Loqi Tummelt in his magitek armor transporting an eight-year-old girl on a special order from the emperor. The interaction makes Aranea reflect on her own childhood when her village was attacked by daemons and she had led the younger children to safety while the adults fought. Loqi entrusts the girl to her and holds back a horde of daemons while Aranea heads for the train, telling her Airborne Unit that their final mission is to protect Tenebrae. They down the airship transporting the Diamond Weapon and Aranea kills the monster by destroying its magitek cores. The refugees arrive in Tenebrae and Aranea learns that the girl now in her care is Solara Aldercapt Antiquum, the secret daughter of the emperor's late son.

Ten years later Solara has become an adept fighter under Aranea's tutelage and the protective care of Biggs and Wedge.

Lunafreya
Lunafreya dies after passing the Ring of the Lucii to Noctis. Gentiana lulls her to sleep, like she had done when Lunafreya was young.

She awakes in a crypt on imperial land that she had visited before to perform a ceremony. She flees from a daemon, emerging in a graveyard. She picks up a branch to fight off the daemons and sees the skies covered in miasma, the world trapped in perpetual night. Lunafreya jumps in the sidecar of a passing motorcycle driven by a girl who is also fleeing from daemons. Slowed down by Lunafreya's weight, the girl gets off to fight with a shotgun, and Lunafreya joins her using her new power: absorbing the daemons into her own body. Though wounded in the battle, miasma oozes out of Lunafreya to heal her. The girl turns on her upon realizing that Lunafreya is a monster, but collapses. When she wakes, Lunafreya introduces herself. The girl, introducing herself as Sol, says the Oracle died ten years ago and that Prince Noctis has been missing for as long. Lunafreya is shocked, having given her life so that Noctis could fulfill his calling and purge the darkness.

They push the broken bike, "Regina", to the nearest outpost, but the former Niflheim territory is abandoned, the only people around being Hunters and the Kingsglaive. When Umbra appears Lunafreya realizes Pryna is dead. Umbra communicates that Noctis is alive and she writes a message to tell him she is fine, but Umbra refuses to take it. Lunafreya accepts that delivering a message to Noctis is not possible right now, and wonders where Gentiana is.

Bahamut speaks to her in a dream. Gentiana had taught her about the gods: while Shiva, Ifrit, Leviathan, Titan and Ramuh govern the forces of nature, Bahamut governs the heavens and sits above the others. Bahamut delivers her a vision of Noctis defeating Ardyn, but the darkness doesn't lift. Lunafreya is horrified to witness Noctis sacrifice himself to pass into "the Beyond" to destroy Ardyn's soul. Bahamut claims this is the calling the True King should have fulfilled, but that Ardyn now has expanded his power to an extent the Ring of the Lucii cannot purge. He tells Lunafreya's new calling is to defeat Ardyn and she accepts for a chance to save Noctis.

Sol brings Lunafreya new, black clothes. She wants to head to Insomnia, but they need to find a port and cross the Cygillan Ocean. They make frequent stops to repair the motorbike and during these stops, they chat. Learning to fight with a spear was part of Lunafreya's training as Oracle, but though she can take down small daemons with it, she needs to absorb the large ones, concerned about what this will do to her body. Training to be an Oracle includes fitness and meditation, visiting statues of previous Oracles, singing and dancing and fasting and spending days in isolation. Sol can't fathom why Lunafreya would go through with it for no reward, but Lunafreya can't understand wanting rewards for doing one's duty. She catalogues her thoughts and experiences in a notebook as a letter to Noctis.

Lunafreya asks Gentiana in a dream if she knew that the Ring of the Lucii would kill Noctis. Gentiana's image is faint and silent, but Lunafreya reads "Bladekeeper" from her lips. Bahamut's swords prevent her from approaching. When she wakes she talks with Sol, who remains skeptical of the gods and the Oracles' unyielding faith in them, reminded of the imperial citizens' faith in the empire that led them to ruin. As they continue their journey, absorbing daemons makes Lunafreya grow stronger, but the markings on her body are spreading, she can see in the dark, and is in constant pain. The brightness of the campfire they use to keep the daemons away makes Lunafreya uncomfortable. Every absorbed daemon becomes a part of her, but her healing powers allow her to withstand it; thus her new power could not have been given to anyone else. She wants to fulfill her calling, but Solara insists she should consider what she wants to do, which is to live happily with Noctis. Lunafreya believes this is not possible because the gods would take her life away again if she didn't follow through, and because she considers herself no longer human.

Sol learns from Biggs that Aranea and her party have become surrounded by daemons during ruin exploration and has ordered the Solheimian ruins sealed up without rescue attempts. Sapphire Weapon, an imperial magitek weapon similar to the Diamond Weapon, is kept down there. Lunafreya wants to help Sol rescue Aranea, not because it is her "calling", but because she wants to do it. Sol reveals her name is Solara Aldercapt Antiquum, a descendant of the Aldercapt dynasty, and thus related to those who murdered Lunafreya's mother. Lunafreya doesn’t care.

The ruins where Aranea's party is trapped in is a temple where Lunafreya once trained, and thus she knows another way in. From a statue of Aera Mirus Fleuret, the first Oracle, Lunafreya learns her new power is the same as Ardyn's, and can be used to absorb the Starscourge from the afflicted and revert recently-turned daemons. Aera asks Lunafreya to save Ardyn, who had fallen from the gods' grace and rejected the fate the gods had prescribed to him.

They find a massive sword and spear that Lunafreya thinks belong to Odin, one of the twenty-four Messengers, which were use in the War of the Astrals. Ifrit had tried to eradicate mankind and Bahamut had attempted to destroy the other gods and Eos itself. Shiva, Titan, Leviathan and Ramuh had defended the planet, and after exhausting their powers, fallen into slumber. This differs from the myths, but Lunafreya had learned the truth from Gentiana.

They run into Biggs and Wedge, who scold Solara for coming. They destroy the Sapphire Weapon, Lunafreya absorbing copious daemonic energy during the battle. They find a silver-haired daemon carrying a spear. Lunafreya turns Aranea back into a human, but doing so turns her. Aranea attacks the daemonic Lunafreya who is bound and taken to Lestallum where the Hunters and Kingsglaive doubt this daemon could be the Oracle. Ignis confirms that he saw Lunafreya die during the events in Altissia, and that her body vanished, though he can't explain it.

Gentiana warns Lunafreya in a dream about Bahamut using her to gather the darkness, including the darkness in Ardyn, to gain the power to perform the "final summoning": Teraflare, to destroy Eos. Bahamut views humans "like flowers," indistinguishable from one another whose damaged specimens should be removed. Because Bahamut exists both in the mortal realm and the Beyond, he must be defeated in both dimensions, but there is another way to stop Teraflare. Bahamut notices Gentiana, and silences her.

Lunafreya awakens furious at Bahamut. Aranea helps Solara break her out of containment, and the two head for Insomnia on the motorbike. Lunafreya writes a final message for Umbra to take to Noctis when the time comes. When she enters the throne room, Ardyn is surprised she is there to ask for his cooperation rather than to kill him.

Noctis
Noctis is dreaming within the Crystal where the soul of the star dwells to gain the power to become the True King. He had left his friends behind to claim the Crystal, but was taken inside it while Ardyn revealed his true identity, and is now in the presence of the god Bahamut.

Noctis receives the memories housed in the Crystal and sees the Stone brought to Eos, bringing with it light and life. A hall was built to hold it and population soared. Ardyn and Somnus's parents had bestowed the two a pair of longswords in the hope they would rule together, but the brothers turned against one another after their parents passed away. Noctis sympathizes with Ardyn and Aera's plight, but cannot forgive Ardyn for murdering Luna, though he also feels culpable over her fate because she was helping him by forging covenants with the gods, a path that was already killing her. Prioritizing the kingdom over individual people was Somnus's way of thinking.

While Ardyn was imprisoned Somnus founded Lucis and was followed by myriad kings, some cruel and some kind. The nations of Tenebrae, Niflheim and Accordo arose, Niflheim released Ardyn, Regis was chosen a king of yore and learned of Noctis's fate from the Lucii. Had Ardyn not been released Noctis would have been just another king. Noctis witnesses the hardships Luna went through while he was road-tripping with his friends. He regrets not understanding what she was going through and now understands Ravus's anger toward him. He recalls Cor and Gladiolus pushing him to try harder, and learns how Ignis protected him in Altissia and never told him the full truth to avoid hurting him. Noctis feels he was immature and ignorant and wants to pay everyone who supported him back. He sees himself fulfill the prophecy and die to save the planet. The fate seems inescapable, but Noctis does not want to lose everything.

He sees his father, who had raised him while knowing his fate, trying to give him a happy childhood. Noctis apologizes, but Regis deems it is the parents' duty to worry about their children, not the other way around. He affirms that a king must always push forward and accept the consequences. Before vanishing Regis hands Noctis his sword to protect "the people and things that he loves." Noctis thinks of the people and things he loves, and especially doesn't want to waste Luna's sacrifice.

Noctis awakens in Angelgard and meets Umbra who carries a notebook that the revived Luna had used to describe her travels. Noctis realizes the Crystal did not show him any events of his ten-year absence, and takes the royal vessel to Galdin Quay where he meets Sol waiting for him. He knows about her from Luna's notebook, and Umbra leaves as Sol becomes his guide. Gladiolus calls Sol and tells them to come to Hammerhead. Noctis asks if his three friends are okay, and Sol explains Prompto helps Cindy transport goods, and Ignis is not handicapped much by his blindness because no one can see much in the dark.

Sol tells Noctis of her and Lunafreya's travels, and finishes by revealing that Luna's calling is to fight Ardyn. This shocks Noctis, as though the notebook had mentioned that she was going to the Citadel to talk to him, she had not mentioned Bahamut's mission for her to kill Ardyn. To Noctis this doesn't make sense since he has the Ring of the Lucii, which is supposed to be the only way to kill Ardyn. He learns Luna can now absorb daemons, the same ability Ardyn had as a healer. Sol feels guilty Lunafreya became a daemon because she had asked her to save Aranea, but Noctis reassures that Luna wanted to help out of her own will. Noctis decides to head to the Citadel to save Luna. Because gods never grant enough power to save everyone, he'll have to do it himself.

At the Citadel Ardyn refuses to cooperate with Lunafreya, even after she explains Bahamut is going to destroy everything on Eos. Ardyn doesn't mind the end of the world and asks her to leave, as Noctis will arrive soon. Lunafreya angers Ardyn by saying Aera asked her to save him, and he summons Ifrit.

Noctis drops Sol off at Hammerhead and continues alone to the Citadel. He fights a king of yore enslaved by the Starscourge, wishing his friends were with him. When he cracks the king's mask he sees Somnus's face, realizing they look alike and how this must have made Ardyn feel. Noctis agrees to save Ardyn at Somnus's behest, and questions why the gods never gave powers like Ardyn's to anyone else, and why they have chosen to give those same powers to Luna now.

Ardyn maintains he doesn't care about Bahamut destroying the world, though he wishes he could also kill the Bladekeeper, a god who cannot die or be inflicted with the Starscourge as long as he exists in the Beyond. After Lunafreya heals Ifrit of the Starscourge, the Infernian turns on Ardyn, and Lunafreya halts him by forming a covenant with Ifrit. When Noctis arrives she has transformed into a monster due to having absorbed Ifrit's Scourge and attacks Noctis with her spear.

Bahamut arrives, saying the king's role has ended, as the humans' foolish actions mean the world's new fate is destruction. Bahamut commands Lunafreya to release her power, and Ardyn realizes he is readying Teraflare. If Teraflare fails, Bahamut might be forced into hibernation the same way the gods had to rest after the Astral War. Bahamut raises the Citadel into the air to take the Crystal out of reach, but Ardyn warps up to it, knowing Noctis will follow to save Lunafreya.

Origins and release
Following the release of Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ignis, the Final Fantasy XV development team decided to expand their initial plans for downloadable content, intending to create a new narrative for fans while tying up remaining loose ends with the game's lore. During this period, production was handled by Square Enix's new subsidiary Luminous Productions, which included the Final Fantasy XV development team.

The new DLC was revealed in April 2018 as The Dawn of the Future, a tetralogy of DLC episodes planned for release in early 2019. These were DLC campaigns that focused on the characters of Ardyn Izunia, Aranea Highwind, Lunafreya Nox Fleuret and Noctis Lucis Caelum. They would also create a new narrative where the characters defied their god-given fates leading to an alternate ending to realize the ideal future the characters had envisioned. Hajime Tabata, the director of Final Fantasy XV, left Square Enix in November 2018 and it was decided Luminous Productions would focus on an in-development new IP. All DLC episodes but Episode Ardyn were cancelled, but the team sought a means of telling the planned story through another medium. The Dawn of the Future was re-announced as a novel alongside the release of the anime short Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ardyn – Prologue and the release date of Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ardyn.

The novel is written by Emi Nagashima under her regular penname Jun Eishima. Her work with Square Enix includes writing work on Final Fantasy XIII-2, and supplementary novels related to Final Fantasy XIII and the Drakengard series. An English version of the novel is in production.