Encyclopædia Eorzea ("Lore Book") Bug Report Thread

[Sounsyy]

How is that out of left field? It seems in line with the in-game references you cited. Particularly the reference to "the Near Eastern island of Thavnair" clearly indicates that Thavnair is just one portion of the Near East.

The assumption has always been that the Near East was, at most, another island chain or archipelago similar to the Cieldalaes or Sharlayan. For the past six years, the Near East has seemingly only ever referred to Thavnair, with many texts going from "Near Eastern" to "Thavnairian" and back in an interchangeable fashion. So for six years we've only seen "Hawaii" refer specifically to "Oahu," to use your example, and absolutely nothing else. Now we know Thavnair is but one tiny island in the greater Bounty that is the Near East and that's totally awesome to learn.

But apparently it also now refers to what seems to be a rather sizable portion of a continent we've known for five-ish years by two completely different designations. That's what I was referring to as feeling out of left field. Essentially everything south of Dalmasca, which is nestled in Ilsabard's central mountains (apparently), is a part of the Near East also, if I'm understanding the lore book correctly. So basically a good portion of Ilsabard, if not half of it, is referred to by Eorzeans as the Near East, but before the lore book, Ilsabard has always been referred to as two things: "the northern great continent" or "the seat of the Garlean Empire in the northeast." It's not that either of these two designations are incorrect, it's just that we've never once seen something as simple as "Near Eastern Ilsabard."

My hope in listing the Near Eastern issue on this thread wasn't to get anything corrected necessarily, but to encourage future Near Eastern lore text to reference places other than Thavnair from now on, now that we know this region is perhaps larger than the entirety of the Far East and is certainly more encompassing than just a "tiny island across the Sea of Jade." That's all.

If you're curious to see more on the Near East though, my pre-book collection is here.

[Anonymoose]

PAGE: 279
HEADING: VILEKIN
SUBHEADING: Tarantula Hawk

<...> employed the vilekin at Saint Mocianne’s Arboretum to pollenate the thousands of rare and exotic species <...>

Pollinate

[Fernehalwes]

Hello all!

I just wanted to pop back into once again to extend my gratitude to everyone who has posted here. For the most part, the errors that have been reported are, without question, errors. As for those issues reported which were not actually bugs, many of you have taken the time to explain to others why they were probably not actually bugs.

There are a few, however, which I would like to expand upon so as to eliminate any confusion that may have occurred as a result of the issue.

PAGE: 053
HEADING: Timeline
YEAR: 1561

Refers to the former sultan of Ul'dah (father of Nanamo) as Sasabaru. In Version 1.0, this name was Sasabal Ul Sisibal.

The spelling from 1.0 is correct, and the 2.0 in-game text has been fixed for 3.5.

PAGE: 087
HEADING: Keepers of the Moon
Section: Nomenclature

This seems to imply that the suffix is added to the mother's forename. So for this male keeper, Okhi is his mother's given name and Nbolo is the surname (family mother name)? This seems to contradict the lore book.

The naming conventions post on the forums is correct. This happened to be a mistake in the source JP from which we translated, and thanks to the post, I was able to inform Oda-san so he could get the JP text fixed before they went to print. While no bug is ever good (especially one like this where the text 100% contradicts what has been laid out before), this particular one contains an unintentional sneak peek into our development process. It turns out that WAY back in the day, there was talk of having some races (or clans) employ name order in which the surname comes first. We ultimately decided to scrap the idea for a number of boring reasons, but I have a feeling that the JP text that we translated might have been a remnant of an old design document.

PAGE: 154 & 155
HEADINGS: Knights of the Heaven's Ward
SUBHEADINGS: Charibert de Lieusignac & Janlenoux de Courcillaint

It appears there is some kind of name swap going on in the Heaven's Ward. In the short story, What Remains of a Knight, Charibert is given the name Charibert (de) Courcillain (Courcillaint?), but it appears in the lorebook that the last name either belongs to or was stolen by Janlenoux, the eleventh knight while Charibert's last name changed to Lieusignac. Who has the right of it?

The Lodestone story is mistaken and will be updated in all 4 languages (hopefully) soon.

PAGE: 301
HEADING: Elementals
SUBHEADING: Plasmoid (& Phurble)

This is probably more of a "times, they are a-changin'" thing, but I figured I'd leave it here for the sake of completeness. Back in the day, plasmoids were defined as voidsent. Likewise, I've never seen a phurble called an Elemental before, so that's interesting. Perhaps scholars just know better these days.

EDIT: And Dullahans are soulkin here, whereas the minion said they were "in fact" voidsent. Is this the doing of the Trappers' League or the meddling Sharlayans? /fistshake

Back before the Calamity, very little was known of phurbles, leading scholars to believe that they were voidsent (a convenient category into which a lot of creatures are categorized until better conclusions can be reached). New (post-Calamity) studies now place them under Elementals. As for plasmoids, there is a clear split as to what scholars believe. The author of this particular tome puts weight on the fact that plasmoids appear to contain high concentrations of elementally aspected aether—something severely lacking in the void.

The Dullahans...well, this is a mistake in the minion text, and will be fixed in-game for 3.5.

PAGE: 148
HEADING: Ishgard
SUBHEADING: Hindsight / A Nation's Founding

Says that (in Ishgard's version of the founding tale) King Thordan was cast into a ravine by Nidhogg. When told the tale by Alberic, he says that Thordan was thrown into a chasm by one of his own men (seduced by Nidhogg). That probably still counts, right? Cast into a ravine by Nidhogg by proxy? Before I forget about it, though, it just seemed like something one of those tiny details that, if it stayed in the scripture for a thousand years, Ishgard might have given some meaning.

You are correct. The throwing was done by one of his men (under the influence of Nidhogg). I apologize for the misleading wording.

PAGE: 95
HEADING: Limsa Lominsa's Founding a Retcon?
SECTION: History

Encyclopedia Eorzea pg13
The first, and northernmost, is a remote archipelago known as Aerslaent - homeland of the Sea Wolf tribe of Roegadyn. It is from these islands that the first inhabitants of Limsa Lominsa are said to have hailed - arriving on Vylbrand after a failed raiding attempt in the southern Rhotano Sea.

Encyclopedia Eorzea pg95
In 874 of the Sixth Astral Era, the Galadion set sail from the isles deep in the northern seas - the last of a mighty armada which turned on its nation in the name of the people, only to meet defeat at the hands of those they meant to free. The Sea Wolf crew of this noble vessel, who could no longer abide the rule of tyrants, steered her crippled hull south though unknown waters in search of a new home. After a yearlong voyage cursed by many troubles, the ship drifted to the southern coast of Vylbrand, and there ran aground.

To start, even these two passages on Limsa's founding in the lore book conflict somewhat, but comparing them to the original story has me very confused.

Frithuric
You hear the legend of how this city was born? Well, years ago, there was this mighty kingdom far to the south–so far, they say that it would take a man half his life to sail to her shores–and it had an invincible armada of twenty score times ten unsinkable battleships. They conquered nigh on every city for a thousand leagues, and were the unchallenged master of the sea…until, that is, an armada just as invincible as their own invaded their waters.

Both sides fought with the courage of lions and the ferocity of sharks, but the kingdom’s fighters, so used to doing the attacking themselves, were unsure how to defend against onslaughts of a similar nature. And so their fleet was nearly destroyed and their cities were completely razed. Only a small fleet of their fastest dromonds was able to escape the carnage under cover of nightfall. It pained the crews to abandon their lands, of course, but they knew flight was the only way to ensure their people lived on.

And so they sailed and they sailed, until one day a terrible storm–some say sent by Llymlaen herself–picked up the few remaining ships and tossed them down upon the rocks of La Noscea. The ships were too badly damaged to be rebuilt, though by this time the men were weary from their journey, and no longer wished to run. And so they salvaged the remnants of their ships and built a tiny settlement on the rocks. Over time that settlement grew…and transformed into the city you see here today.
Obviously, taking into account that NPCs are wholly unreliable narrators and legends being even less reliable sources of historical fact - this story closely resembles the first passage from Pg13, but nothing like the one from Pg95. Obviously this "southern kingdom" isn't half a lifetime away, but the southern continent of Meracydia is implied to take quite some time by boat.


This has sparked several questions: If the Galadion and Limsa Lominsa are of Sea Wolf origin, why then are three out of the four named crew members Elezen? Why does the Galadion not have a Sea Wolf name? And where did the name Limsa Lominsa come from?

But I guess the most important question, is this a retcon?

First off,

It is from these islands that the first inhabitants of Limsa Lominsa are said to have hailed - arriving on Vylbrand after a failed raiding attempt in the southern Rhotano Sea.

This was poor wording on my part. This was not talking about the founders, but some of the first inhabitants. The text would have been clearer if it had read:

It is from these islands that some of the first inhabitants of Limsa Lominsa are said to have hailed - arriving on Vylbrand after failed raiding attempts in the southern Rhotano Sea.

About the in-game explanation of how Limsa was formed, we’re not retconning anything here, merely bringing out the ‘truth’ for the first time. What has existed in-game (so far) has simply been (as you pointed out) a result of extreme embellishment on the part of the speaker. He’s told the story so many times, expanding it with each telling, that little exists of what actually happened. Thousands of ships, great battles, conquering of lands, the first voyage getting confused with subsequent raids, etc. Even “north” has become south. There are actually quite a few characters who do this in the game, and it is (for the most part) by design. I’ve always thought that having every character in the game tell you something that is 100% correct is simply not realistic. Especially in a town populated by cutthroats, brigands, cheats, and liars. Things are arguably more ‘lifelike’ if answers can only be gathered by piecing together overlapping parts in several recollections of the same story. You’ll find a lot of this in Limsa. The lore book is the historians’ version of the founding story, and therefore the ‘true’ one (as true as a historian’s record can be, mind you).

As for the four Elezen crew members on a ship that was hailing from the Sea Wolves’ homeland? There’s an explanation for this, as well, but we’re hoping to reveal it in a future storyline.

PAGE: 179
HEADING: The Empire
SECTION: Social Hierarchy

For Citizen - Lower Citizens, the "Bas" title is listed, however, lore from Gubal lists the title for citizenry as "Ban."

This was incorrect in-game, and the text has been fixed for 3.5.

PAGE: 295
HEADING: Bestiary / Soulkin
SUBHEADING: Mammet

This true Raimdelle Codex entry (by the man himself) says that mammets were invented "five score" years ago. (100 Years)
But Serendipity tells you this year that Mnejing is the first mammet ever built and is ... one century old. (100 Years)

So it's accurate, but ... Frandelont Raimdelle lived, like, centuries ago, didn't he? He can't still be alive, can he...?

Ulp! This was supposed to be a quote from the updated (newest) edition of the Codex, and not the original. So Raimdelle did not actually say this, some nameless editor did (at least that was the intention). Sorry about that and nice catch!

[Anonymoose]

Thanks for popping in and keeping us in the loop! <furiously scribbling notes into bestiary>

It's kind of poetic that the book is actually helping clean up in-game wording and development notes in turn. All three entities end up benefiting one another as they're polished up, and it's looking like everything is going to end up quite clean, in the end. From the changes between versions to the fast-paced workload, it's seemed like even the back-end resources weren't quite as consistent as your team was able to make them seem with the addendums and "recent discoveries" and backing your way out of having to literally retcon just about anything (aside from a little stitching on Darnus and that one incident with the Labyrinth we try not to talk about).

That's cause for some pretty strong congratulations to all of you over there!

[Sounsyy]

RIP Meracydia theory ...maybe. But I'm looking forward to finding out about those Elezen! Thanks so much for dropping in Fernehalwes and dropping some knowledge on us!

[Rocl]

At least tell me you're using the Eyes for good, Ferne.

[Hiromaniac]

I haven't checked if it was mentioned earlier in the thread, but dullahan are also referred to as being voidsent in the Minute Mindflayer minion description. That one also will also need updated with the new patch.

[ZhaneX]

The naming conventions post on the forums is correct. This happened to be a mistake in the source JP from which we translated, and thanks to the post, I was able to inform Oda-san so he could get the JP text fixed before they went to print. While no bug is ever good (especially one like this where the text 100% contradicts what has been laid out before), this particular one contains an unintentional sneak peek into our development process. It turns out that WAY back in the day, there was talk of having some races (or clans) employ name order in which the surname comes first. We ultimately decided to scrap the idea for a number of boring reasons, but I have a feeling that the JP text that we translated might have been a remnant of an old design document.

Called it.

[FJerome]

Things are arguably more ‘lifelike’ if answers can only be gathered by piecing together overlapping parts in several recollections of the same story. You’ll find a lot of this in Limsa. The lore book is the historians’ version of the founding story, and therefore the ‘true’ one (as true as a historian’s record can be, mind you).

Is there going to be any plans to make this accessible in-game somehow (maybe via an in-game library, *hint-hint*)? I'm worried it's going to get increasingly awkward to have enthusiastic conversations about the Lore if too much of the "truth" is locked behind the Lore Book, both for the players who can't afford it and the players who don't even have the chance to buy it, such as most of the ones in NZ and AUS. It gets discouraging if you're all hyped-up on a theory only to find out that the Lore Book said your in-game sources were wrong.

[Trotsky]

Is there ever going to be a second edition of the book with all the mistakes fixed? Could call it a Lore Reborn or something.