Triple Triad Manufacturer/Destributer

This may be absurdly silly, but it would seem apparent to me that Triple Triad is a shared interest all over the game world that stretches from Eorzia to the Empire.

While I don't expect any serious answers, who do you think creates and distributes the cards globally?

Anyone that plays Triad would also know that most characters loosely all carry cards in their decks that has relevancy to their character in either their past/current allegiance, political standing or relations to other people/tribes/entities.

I don't think there's any real lore reason or relevancy to the question, was just a fun idea I had recently.

I believe its said to have originated in Garlemald somewhere? As for production, I imagine it's all over the place, various people see the card game and start producing their own cards to play with, rather than something like Magi of the Shores being the only producer of such cards. The Gold Saucer is a definite producer though.

My silly headcannon is that Triple Triad cards are produced blank though, and you effectively spiritbond them (or some contrived magic) to something to produce a specific card. Would mean something like the Gold Saucer can just import a bunch of blank cards from Garlemald and slap whatever on them. Would also explain why there are cards of some really out of touch people (like people literally living under the sea), they just got some blank cards from where ever and played about with them to produce their specific cards. Same deal with boss cards, maybe we just carry a bunch of blank cards around and Mist Dragon just happens to imprint on the card if we're lucky. I mean who exactly is producing Phlegethon cards? I'm sure there are some more completely outlandish ones too, how widespread can out encounter with Byakko and Suzaku be that they have official cards made?

EDIT: Checking around Gold Saucer while waiting for Leap of Faith, I can't actually find mention of where it originated, not sure where I'm remember hearing it started in Garlemald then...

Since Godbert owns the Gold Saucer, and that's the only place you can buy or sell cards and card packs (for MGP), if I had to venture a guess I'd say he's the one who put it out there. Given the game reaches as far as Othard, the only company from Eorzea operating that distantly is the East Aldenard Trading Company - making them the prime suspect for distribution (outside Eorzea, at least).

Blanket disclaimer: All of this is headcanon! But given as the game says almost nothing about it, I'd say we're free to speculate together!

Before we talk about manufacturing Triple Triad cards, let's talk about the game in general. Particularly how it's played both in the Garlean Empire and Othard/Hingashi and Eorzea. Given the Empire's tendency to look down on the native past-times of the countries it conquers, I'd say the fact that Garleans are mentioned to play the game a lot is an indication that Triple Triad was not something the Empire was recently introduced to by the people they are conquering. My gut feeling is that the Garleans learned of the game back when they were a republic. Most of the NPCs in Othard and Hinjashi who play Triple Triad mention that they learned how to play it from foreigners, either Eorzeans or people in the Empire. As for Eorzea, the Gold Saucer has entire sections devoted to it and it's the only place to buy specific cards. So the game has probably been around for a long, long time there.

The last thing to remember about manufacturing Triple Triad cards is that in FFXIV, the game is played on a special mat. So part of what makes the backgrounds change color might not just be the cards themselves, but the interaction between the cards and the board. Whether that is magical or magiteck (or can be both) isn't specified.

Personally, I think there's two main manufacturers and maybe a third. Eorzea has one of the main manufacturers. I'd say it's most likely Manderville & Manderville, the company that owns the Gold Saucer. It'd be right up the Mandervilles' alley to create cards based on all the stories of what the WoL has done and all the monsters, primals, people, etc. they have beaten, met, interacted with, etc. They also have reason to be doing business with the East Aldenard Trading Company which is where the second main Triple Triad manufacturer comes in. The second main manufacturer is probably in Garlemald somewhere. They'd be the ones making all the Garlean cards including those of the Legati and other military personal, the Viceroys, the magiteck, etc. We'll probably see more of their cards the further into Othard we get. We probably find their cards in the Gold Saucer since the East Aldenard Traiding Company does trade with Garleamald. The third might-be manufacture is the Hingans and Othardians. They want to facilitate trade, so I can see them jumping on something like a card game that is popular in both the Empire and the rest of the world. I see their Triple Triad manufacturing being less mass-produced then Eorzea and Garlemald's are and more artisan based. The same thing probably goes for Doma, the Confederates, the Steppes, etc.

As far as how the Triple Triad cards work, Eorzean and Hingan/Othardian cards probably have some type of enchantment built into the cards, the board, or both. Garlean cards probably use magiteck instead.

Other headcanons about Triple Triad. Card sleeves! If you've got Triple Triad cards from various manufacturers, they probably all have different backs. There's got to be some way to keep your opponent from knowing that you've got a Garlean card mixed in with all your Eorzean ones... Game rules! Different regions probably like different rule sets. I can see the Eorzeans liking rules that make things more fair for everyone (Open for example). Hingashi and Othard probably like more honorable rules (Order, Broken Ace). Garlemald likes all the rules that add strategy to the game (Plus, Same, Chaos).

And this was a result of me thinking about what the WoL could be doing while traveling on the Prima Vista to Rabanaster/Ridorana and realized that Triple Triad is one thing we know the Garleans like doing for fun. Cue the headcanon of the WoL showing off their Triple Triad collection to the crew of the Prima Vista and a few people freaking out about the WoL having Limited Edition cards of all the Legati they'd beaten. And by Limited Edition we're talking the holographic magiteck cards of which only a few hundred were made. Finding out that one of WoL's "fun things to do when they're bored" activities is challenging random on-duty Legionares to Triple Triad games until the WoL found someone with the right Limited Edition card broke everyone's brains.

I tend to assume the Gold Saucer since that's where you can buy packs, and the only place we see with tournaments etc.

Really though I don't suspect there's a concrete in lore answer. As for the empire, maybe it spread around because of conscipts from conquored territories playing the game.

Apologies for being AWOL. I finished 4.4 recently and ho boy, what a twist. That said though i think it makes sense the point of 2 distribution centers being the trade company and the Gold Saucer itsself.

An idea that came to mind though was taken by the idea of blank cards and attuning them. What if the reason that we get dungeon/raid card drops is because the blank cards attuned and imprint the aetheric signatures of the various entities we defeat. Like, perhaps why Primals drop cards is because after some time of exposure the Primal is burned unto a blank card.

Following that line of thought, assuming that it would stand to reason why you couldnt just get a card from anything due to not everyone having a high enough aetheric presence so to be captured by a card.

In that mind I would hazard a guess that some cards are manufactured while others are randomly created.

@ObsidianFire I really like the idea of card sleeves. (Itd be cool if they implemented such a thing) Since no crafting class can currently make triad cards, I'd wager that the card in their creation must be manufactured mechanically.

On a side note in at 207/236 cards!!

I don't think boss drops fit into lore, just as I don't think that Omega would think to provide us orchestron rolls based on the various things we fight for his experiments. I think that's just a gameplay thing.

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Originally Posted by Bright-Flower

I don't think boss drops fit into lore, just as I don't think that Omega would think to provide us orchestron rolls based on the various things we fight for his experiments. I think that's just a gameplay thing.

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Noted, and while that does make sense, I had in mind the difference between cards you roll for and cards that drop on duty completion. Though, I concede you're right in that it is likely only a gameplay caveat.

Off topic though;

I kind of hope that there's a second introduced entertainment venue in the Garlean Empire similar to the Saucer but offering little to no overlap in activities.

Hmm, I've been meaning to ask the board something off topic but haven't due to the delicate nature of the subject.