Has anyone else wondered who Sasamo was, and what his 80 sins might be?
Didn't trim his nose hair! Didn't brush after meals! Skimped on his taxes!
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Has anyone else wondered who Sasamo was, and what his 80 sins might be?
Didn't trim his nose hair! Didn't brush after meals! Skimped on his taxes!
Well his name indicates a Lalafel. At a guess I would say he was a past Sultan of Ul'dah.
I haven't really looked for anything in the area, but from pure imagination I would say he did something bad for the city then had a moment of revelation, and as penance built the flight of steps to the western entrance. There are 4 flights of 20 steps so each one probably represents a crime or a life lost in his scheme.
Well, that entrance (the Gate of the Sultana) wasn't actually there in 1.0, so if the original design of the city isn't being retconned I'd say that was built post Calamity, suggesting a more recent namesake for the unusual title of that staircase. However, given the fact it leads from the Gate of the Sultana, a connection to Ul'dah's royal family is likely.
I think only Ferne could truly answer this question sadly, given so little explanation is provided in game about this.
Although it doesn't give us any insight in what the 80 sins might be, isn't Sasamo a female Lalafell name?
Most likely. Dunesfolk male names are also AAB but the B is two syllables. There are exceptions on occasion where an old, now-unused lalafellin vowel is silently implied - so there's a small chance Sasamo could be male.
I can't find any information on them whatsoever, though. As others have said, the stairs are new - but I don't think they'd just name a staircase after some random person in town, no matter how many sins they committed. It could be a member of the royal family, but those are generally the people you want to glorify and naming parts of their city after their flaws might not be a great way to do that (nor do I imagine that it would go over very well with them or their descendents).
My best guess is that it's tied to some Dunesfolk legend - something between history and mythology; an unverifiable historical anecdote with possible religious undertones.
My theory:
=> Most locations in and around Ul'Dah are related to Nald'Thal.
=> "Sin" specifically relates to divine transgressions.
I'm guessing Sasamo is an important figure related somehow to Nald'Thal, and his sins somehow play into some kind of legend/mythology.
...or basically what Moose just said.
Yup, I've been doing a little digging and turns out he was the first Sultan of Ul'dah.
Here's some information on the City-states and their histories
This is cool stuff!
...Although, this just makes me stand by my previous post even more. "Sasamo" by itself could possibly be a male name (with how Lalafell names work in Japanese I don't think it's possible, but how lore differs between languages is a different topic) but "Sasamo Ul Samo" is definitely female.