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.

Quote:

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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?