Thanalan's desertification and Amh Arang

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Originally Posted by Nalien

Here I am hoping Amh Arang isn't actually Thanalan... Wouldn't it make more sense to have the regions of Norvrandt be analogous to the regions of Eorzea we haven't visited? Rather than Thanalan, make Amh Arang bizarro-Paglth'an, for example. Who knows whether that was always dry or not...

Heck, with the Mt Gulg namedrop as something analogous to O'Ghomoro, I'd hope Norvrandts fake Limsa/La Noscea are on the northern half of the island that we've never once set foot in...

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Does it matter? It seems like Ahm Arang is nestled in between Lakeland and the wall of crystal, it's a "vast desert" according to the promo site, and the architecture is Abanian-ish. If anything resembling Paglth'an was ever there, it probably isn't now.

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Originally Posted by Daralii

Does it matter? It seems like Ahm Arang is nestled in between Lakeland and the wall of crystal, it's a "vast desert" according to the promo site, and the architecture is Abanian-ish. If anything resembling Paglth'an was ever there, it probably isn't now.

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Of course, but we're straight up never going to visit Paglth'an, O'Ghomoro or other such Eorzean areas at this point (bar some 8.0+ bottom of the barrel level expansion I guess, or disappointment dungeon like Xelphatol...), so it would be nice to go to their First counterparts instead. It's the next best thing, I guess...

Would also help set up the First areas as more distinct IMO, since they wouldn't all be re-imaginings of current zones. Helps distinguish them in my mind; On the Source a city popped up in Thanalan, on the First one set up in not-Paglth'an. Helps send home the message that these worlds have thousands of years of divergent history. If the ruins in Amh Arang are basically just the same location as Ul'dah? That doesn't, IMO.

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Originally Posted by MikkoAkure

It comes from Encyclopedia Eorzea:


That being said, the encyclopedia is written in-universe and isn't necessarily correct about everything. Considering how much (randomly thrown in from different places in the real world) desert flora exists there, the area must have at least always had a propensity for dryness. Thanalan could also be like the real world Sahara which alternates between desert and grassland depending on the climate

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I'd indeed take that statement with a generous grain of sodium chloride (it even outright says that "some" scholars believe it desertified in a previous Calamity in the distant past, meaning it's not even a popular theory shared by all in universe) - at worst it's a retcon as 1.0 had a quest where it was mentioned that Thanalan was in the past a forest but gradually became increasingly dry and arid, with any attempts at regrowth hindered by vermin eating new shoots (and that was hindering active attempts by Ul'dahns trying to reestablish vegetation in the region):

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Originally Posted by FFXIV version 1.0 sidequest 'An Inconvinent Dodo'

U'bokhn: "Never heard of the Desert Shade, have you? See, there? You've only proved my point. Well, I'll enlighten you. It is a group of concerned souls fighting for the ecology of Ul'dah. We do what we can to stop these arid lands becoming even drier."
U'bokhn: "I hail from Gridania, myself. Couldn't believe me own peepers first time I laid eyes on Ul'dah. Never knew there to be landscapes without the merest trace of green."
U'bokhn: "Willing to wager you didn't know this whole area used to be forests either, did you? Aye, well, it was. It pains me heart to think of them trees and shrubs and whatnot, slowly drying up and dying. And look at this hellish-hot, barren wasteland left in the wake of it all."

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Of course that quest did not actually mention what exactly caused Thanalan to dry out, and more specifically, when, but U'bokhn definetely gave the impression in that quest that it was at least within fairly recent memory (remember, diminishing water resources was what caused the war between Ul'dah and Sil'dih, scant centuries in the past, far far less than the countless millennia that have undoubtably passed since the Third Calamity.

I guess though the other side of the coin is that the Encylopedia Eorzea is actually correct after all with the 1.0 quest retconned in turn... but then only the writing and lore teams know the real truth.