Ask English Localization Lead Kate Cwynar Lore & Localization Questions

Hi Kate!

I really enjoy the in-game system introduced in 6.0 for character information, and it updating as the story progresses. It's a great way to find out info about the characters on the fly that the Eorzean Encyclopedia can't flesh out.

I wanted to ask if this sort of system could be expanded to include minor characters in the future? Job npcs, special quest npcs, etc?

There are many characters not featured or talked about outside of their respective quests and it would be nice to have information on them. For example, Rielle from the Dark Knight quest has no entry in the Encyclopedia Eorzea, or Sanson Smyth from the Bard Quest, but they're still important characters to a lot of the fans. (Me, I'm a fan.)

On that note, will birthdays (namedays) be released for characters one day? :)

Hello Kate, hope you're having a great fan fest.

Will we ever see a clean up of what I call the Ascian board meeting? It's the cutscenes that happens in 2.3 after we defeatRamuh. We start the scene with 14 Ascians and end up with 15 after Lahabreha teleports to the meeting. We know that there should at least be at least twelve as there wouldn't be a representative for the seat of Azem. Emet-Selch also should be taking a nap in the rift as he "died" as Solus around this time. Emmerololth also should be not be in this cutscene as we're told in a Tale from side story they were on the Isle of Val when it got yeeted into the Aetherial Sea. Yet they are given dialog. I know this was made back when the team didn't know what they wanted to do with the Ascians or how many they wanted there to be.

The Hythlodaeus minion mentions some significance to taking on a burden of his name. So is Hythlodaeus a name or a title? If it is a title, what is our Hythlodaeus' his real name?

What is up with all of the DNA like spirals in Ancient architecture? You see them on every kind of building and at any kind of height. They even have them as part of light fixtures.

Hello!
At a high level, what's the process like for localizing fish descriptions and guide entries?

(Also, as a low-key question, could we mad-lib another fish description and name again, like was done with The Vegetarian?)

Question 2~

When fish descriptions/guides are localized, are they meant to fill in some lore bits, or provide just some fun context to better flesh out the world and environment while adding personality to the fish? We see some little variances in a fish's name and descriptions across different languages, so just curious if fish fill a role, or are just fun extras.

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Originally Posted by squishygoodra

Can you share anything about Urianger’s parents?

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Please! We have so little information on him before he arrived at Sharlayan. Anything about his parents (was he an orphan like Thancred, or did he have a family), his place of birth or upbringing would be amazing to hear about!

Hi Kate! Hope you are well!

I want to first thank the dev team for everything they have done in these amazing 10 years. The story had me from curious, to cheering at victories and crying tears of both happiness and sadness. All I can say is what a journey. But just because a saga has ended doesn't mean we have to say goodbye, we can instead say a new adventure!
Truly I admire the story writers and visual designers for this game!

Now for my question: Will we, in the story to come, revisit some places that we haven't really had the chance to explore either to the fullest or without a massive war happening throughout? Will we have the chance to visit places like Corvos, Bozja and Zadnoir, Southern Othard? I feel like these places house a plethora of amazing stories and I would like to learn more about them.

Thank you again for your hard work and I wish you all the best! <3

Hello Kate! Hope everyone is having a good time.

While the title mentions Zenos this is more a general question about: does the soul of a person return to the aetherial sea even if they are not in their world? Will they still be able to reincarnate or their soul is lost forever or adrift in the nowhere?

Hello Kate! :)

It was great to finally head into the Northern Empty after all these years, by way of Old Sharlayan!

But there is a locale in the Northern Empty there that's intrigued me since a lore panel at PAX a while ago (the archive video is unfortunately deleted), where Koji-Fox talked about the isle of Nagyn (Origin), the center of the world and the origin mythos for the roegadyn people. As of the updated illustrated map created for Endwalker, the isle has not only slightly moved, but is also now very clearly labeled.

Might this be a place we will know more about, or even one day visit? Is there anything we can know more about now?

Hey I was wondering why certain characters say the word "comrade" like "comb-raid" and others say it like "comm-rad". does this have to do with dialects in certain areas? or is it just a voice actor preference?

Hi Kate! I hope you find yourself well.

I am wondering if we can get more information on Deudalaphon? It wasn't until very recent in 6.2 that we finally learned about this Convocation member's name from the Ascian Codex entry, but what was their occupation in the Convocation?

I'm very curious to hear more lore one day on both Deudalaphon and Altima since it was confirmed to be the two Sundered Convocation masks Gaius had claimed.

Cheers, and I hope you're enjoying fanfest :)

Hey Kate, I had some questions about the world map at the moment.
I can't help but see that Illsabard and the area adjacent to the Burn & Gyr Abania remain clouded still to this day. Is there a possible lore reason as to why it's still clouded or will we finally uncloud Illsabard? I also don't know where we might find the south sea isles (the home of lalafells) on the map.

Hi Kate, you do great work! Here's my question:

When was Ivalice at its height? We've had a lot of storylines that bring them up, but we've never actually heard when exactly they were around!

Hello Kate and the Whole dev team! Would y'all consider implementing into the normal gathering system the separate inventory that Island sanctuary already has? So that inventories would be more accessible for other items :)

One other question:

Is there any chance we'll learn more about Gelmorra? Inquiring Duskwight mains want to know more about their homeland!

Are there any further plans to utilize Gaius in content outside of Werlyt, like maybe getting into his relationship with the imperial family? I've been thinking about the mention in EE1 that he was Solus's favorite legatus and wondering if he even knows Solus was an Ascian.

Hello, Kate! Thank you for the efforts you and your team put into the lore and localization of the game!

Here is my question: Following the events of the "Save the Queen" arc in Shadowbringers, and the fall of Garlemald during 6.0, will we see any further developments along those lines in once-Imperial territory? In Corvos or Dalmasca/Golmore maybe?

Apparently since 5.3 in the Japanese version of the game, both Alisaie and our character have been addressing G'raha casually as "Raha", indicating a close relationship with him.

We have seen other characters do this – Krile calls him Raha, and in other cases we've seen Matoya refer to "Shtola" and Lyse to "Naago" without the tribe prefixes for the same reason – so the audience is already familiar with the idea that this is done for close friends and relatives.

Why was the decision made to alter it in this case and lose the implications it has on the characters' relationships?

After the Myths of the Realm raid series, will the lore for the Twelve be wrapped up, or will there be more opportunities to find out about them? The intriguing suggestions unearthed after completing Euphrosyne are incredible, but I think those of us who particularly like our WoLs' patron deities would love more information about them. (I know I would be over the literal moon for more Nymeia lore...)

Can we please get naming conventions for races beyond the playable ones, such as the Thavnairians and races of the First?

Given that female Hrothgar are on the way, it would also be useful to update their naming conventions sooner rather than later, so people can start picking out character names as soon as possible.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

Why was the decision made to alter it in this case and lose the implications it has on the characters' relationships?

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I can't edit, so I will have to ask separately:

Can you please consider changing this approach to be in line with the Japanese version?

Hello Kate! It's been some time since ARR and I have always wondered - What was the story behind the two lalafell guards with the Scions? The ones that were there when we joined the Scions, then buried later. The other fallen Scions had names and interactions, but these two always remained nameless.

Hello Kate! Which character's dialogue or type of text is your favorite to work with during localization? Like, is there a character that whenever they pop up you're like yes! I'm so excited!

Of course the MSQ right now focuses on Vrtra's relationship with Azdaja, but what is his relationship like with his other siblings? Has he met all of them, and what do they think of each other?

In ARR, we're told that Moenbryda was 'like a sister' to "Yda", well before we find out Lyse's true identity. Was the person who was so close to Moenbryda Yda, Lyse, or both of them? We know the scions knew Lyse's true identity, but did Moenbryda know it as well?

Hello Kate and team

I appreciate the dedication to details you put into localization so thank you and much love

my question
"can the WoL and other Ancients be reborn in any race or do souls have restrictions to what race they get reincarnated in?"

we see in the sundering scene of Endwalker Venat walking among sundered ancients no lalafell, viera or hrothgar among them we also know from 5.2 that not all souls have the echo i assume because they are "new souls"? so are there restrictions to what races ancients can be reborn in? can the WoL be reborn say in a Kobold's body?

What's the diet of dragons, especially the first brood? If they don't need to eat regular food, could they if they wanted to?

If you had to pick one of the twelve as your patron, who would you pick, and why?

Out of the NPCs in game, minor or major, who would be your light party of choice to accompany you?

another question to Kate

what's your favorite ice cream flavor?

Are there any plans to expand upon the current Free Company features in game such as:

1. Being able to search for players exclusively within the Free Company settings
2. Setting up Free Company buffs to be automatic (Monday - EXP Buff/ Tuesday - Crafting Buff / etc.
3. Increasing Buff usage from 2 to 3/4
4. Allowing FC seekers to apply for an FC outside of the game

Thank you for reading this! <3

I've noticed that many of the creatures found in Elpis are also found in regions of Abalathia's Spine in the modern era, such as the harpeia in Xelphatol, the minotaurs in Gyr Abania, the unicorns in Coerthas, and Coeurlregina in Dravania. Was Elpis located somewhere near the modern Sea of Clouds but crashed down to earth during the Final Days? And could it be that the elementals in the Shroud were also released into the wild by this incident?

Is there a deeper meaning to the number of incidental Duskwight characters seen in the Garlean Empire? There seem to be quite a few in the Save the Queen content, like Albeleo and Gilbrisbert, as well as in the airship crew of the Prima Vista and among the dead rebels found by Alphinaud and Gaius during their journeys. Some seem to be former Eorzeans, though not all. Was it common for Duskwights to emigrate or defect to the Empire, or were most unwilling subjects from the vicinity of Ala Mhigo?

Hi Kate, I hope you have a great Fan Fest!

Question: How old are the major resident NPCs of Eulmore, i.e. Vauthry, Ran'Jit, Dulia Chai & Chai Nuzz?

Hi, and thanks for this opportunity to ask questions!

It's established that the unsundered trio made the Convocation crystals after the sundering, so where did they get the memories with which to imbue the crystals? Are these memories complete, or even necessarily accurate?

Have the exact same souls been cycling through the Lifestream since life began on Etheirys, or are souls routinely created and destroyed through natural processes? As a follow-up, what did the "new life" intended for the third sacrifice to Zodiark entail exactly — Was it going to be simplistic life such as plants or animals, or newly-born souls (effectively, other people)?

There's a clearly established difference between beings with souls versus arcane entities, but where do other lifeforms fall within that dichotomy, such as plants and animals? Exactly how rare are instances of beings gaining souls like Alpha did? For example, the Ixal were engineered by the Allagans, but presumably they all have souls now?

Whatever happened to K'lyhia and the Arcanist Guild's Guildmaster? Is there any chance we'll get to see them again?

I have two questions:

Lore Question:

Last February, we received an answer as to why Zenos dreams of the Final Days, though with each passing patch bringing him up, and with 6.4 outright showing the WoL thinking of him I have to ask. Why was it deemed necessary for us, the player, to have this information if the WoL never learned of it and nothing ever became of it? Was this plotline going somewhere and did it get dropped, or will the WoL continue to contextualize Zenos and his past through further patches?

Procedural Question:

How do localization teams decide which information is left out or obscured? For example in the North American localization of Shadowbringers it was not as obvious as it was in other localizations (and the original Japanese) that Emet-Selch recognized the WoL's soul as Azem (something the Nier collab written by Ishikawa confirms). What was the reason behind this choice?