Novus seems to be the name of the relics after you complete the 2.28 content, just as it was zenith prior, etc.. Perhaps a bit convoluted, but a bit more creative than just going Curtana +1, +2, +3, to infinity. From there, the scrolls/Alexandrite are sounding like they'll allow the player to customize the weapons to a degree. Want to keep pumping STR into your Curtana? Go for it. Though, I imagine these costs will scale in a manner that eventually choosing other upgrades will be wiser and more economically sound if there aren't caps in place. To that end, while they may be listed as i110, their effective ilvl could be much higher with upgrades in place much like materia "levels" crafted gear in terms of raw stats without the ilvl changing.
Still, we're pretty much in the dark on the system specifics, so even the above is pretty much speculation from me. I'll agree that capping/gating will suck, but that seems to be Yoshi's thing.
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