Do we know anything about the southernmost part of Yok Tural?

Been looking at the world map, dreaming of where 8.0 could take us, and can't help but notice that the southernmost part of Yok Tural is covered by clouds. And my corsair-addled brain also can't help but get Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean Sea vibes from the area, and that it could be a shady backdoor to Meracydia. Do we know anything about this area or are these uncharted waters?

I'm not 100% sure, but I think this is the area references in the Blue Mage class quests, where blue magic has it's home. But it's been years since I did that quest line, so my memory of that is... spotty to say the least, but I'll try to rattle my gray cells around a bit.

Here's a spoiler warning anyway, for the blue mage class quests:

The people there were given a native south american feeling by the dialogue, complete with an illness being carried in, that was harmless to Eorzeans, but really bad for the locals due to their immune system lacking resistence to it. They taught blue magic to two Eorzeans who happened upon them by means I don't remember. One of them is the job mentor, the other the antagonist of the quests.
After a big ceruleum deposit was found, antagonist wants to build a reffinery there, both for personal profit and to profit and "civilize" this low-tech society, so he's more of the musguided, than the outright evil kind of antagonist.
The job mentor meanwhile wants to prevent the construction of the reffinery, and leave their culture unaltered.
Both of them are trying to get the cure for the illness over there, by the way.

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Originally Posted by No_Nick_Needed

I'm not 100% sure, but I think this is the area references in the Blue Mage class quests, where blue magic has it's home. But it's been years since I did that quest line, so my memory of that is... spotty to say the least, but I'll try to rattle my gray cells around a bit.

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Actually, the Whalaqee are from Xak Tural. Pashenine says as much in the DT Fisher questline, and they're also mentioned at one point in Shaaloani. It also lines up with where we know ceruleum has been discovered.

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Originally Posted by mallleable

Been looking at the world map, dreaming of where 8.0 could take us, and can't help but notice that the southernmost part of Yok Tural is covered by clouds. And my corsair-addled brain also can't help but get Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean Sea vibes from the area, and that it could be a shady backdoor to Meracydia. Do we know anything about this area or are these uncharted waters?

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If we're continuing the South America parallels, Southern Yok Tural would likely be a Patagonia-type region like Argentina, rather than something tropical, but we don't have anything else to go on and it's gone unmentioned.

As far as a Caribbean-feeling region, we know that actually exists. We're told in the Studium Delivery role quests for Carpenter/Leatherworker/Weaver that barbecues are "a culinary practice originating from the archipelagos off the coast of the New World". There are a few candidates looking at the map from the tropics looking areas. It could be the Great Shallows off Yak T'el, it could be in the Stardust Sea near Tuliyolllal, it could be the islands off Loazeniheta, which we still know nothing about despite getting a name on the map, or it could be the Shades' Triangle and we might get some vaguely Caribbean stuff there mixed in with the 5AE stuff.

I've mentioned it before (probably elsewhere, since I've been staying off the forums), that we're missing the northernmost and southernmost parts of Tural. The southernmost part is just way more obvious.

A funny thing is that the zones we do have access to are kind of... not where their real life inspirations are. This isn't a criticism so much as just pointing it out. Tuliyollal reminds me of Panamá (with a bridge rather than a canal), Urqopacha is indeed in the same relative place as Perú, but then Kozama'uka is too... far north when it reminds me more of Brazil, and then Yak'Tel is way too far South considering its inspiration on the Yucatán Peninsula. It should be north of Tuliyollal!

Of course, this is a game, it took inspiration from these locales rather than attempted to faithfully recreate them. And more to the point of this thread, we're missing everything south of Bolivia, which I'm very intrigued because the Argentinian vistas are amazing.

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Originally Posted by WhiteArchmage

A funny thing is that the zones we do have access to are kind of... not where their real life inspirations are. This isn't a criticism so much as just pointing it out. Tuliyollal reminds me of Panamá (with a bridge rather than a canal), Urqopacha is indeed in the same relative place as Perú, but then Kozama'uka is too... far north when it reminds me more of Brazil, and then Yak'Tel is way too far South considering its inspiration on the Yucatán Peninsula. It should be north of Tuliyollal!

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And on the other side, while Shaaloani is about right as Texas-esque, Heritage Found is just completely impossible to file geographically alongside both Shaaloani and any real-world comparisons you can make.

I feel like Vegas was the go-to comparison for a long time before release and then just stuck around afterwards, but... well, Vegas doesn't have a great big body of water near it. Seattle was my first guess and that does still sound right, but Seattle is WELL out of range for 'visible from not-Texas'.

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

And on the other side, while Shaaloani is about right as Texas-esque, Heritage Found is just completely impossible to file geographically alongside both Shaaloani and any real-world comparisons you can make.

I feel like Vegas was the go-to comparison for a long time before release and then just stuck around afterwards, but... well, Vegas doesn't have a great big body of water near it. Seattle was my first guess and that does still sound right, but Seattle is WELL out of range for 'visible from not-Texas'.

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The Vegas strip has canals with gondolas, a coliseum, fountains and gardens (indoor), and until recently a volcano. Rural Nevada and Texas are pretty comparable in terms of "similar to Shaaloani." I'd agree Lake Mead is a bit small (thanks California), but it's not a pond.

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

And on the other side, while Shaaloani is about right as Texas-esque, Heritage Found is just completely impossible to file geographically alongside both Shaaloani and any real-world comparisons you can make.

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Shaaloani actually seems like Arizona to me terrain-wise, but the Hhetsarro living there appear to be based on Plains cultures, so I can't get a very solid read on what its real-life counterpart is meant to be.

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Originally Posted by MediocreIndigo

Shaaloani actually seems like Arizona to me terrain-wise, but the Hhetsarro living there appear to be based on Plains cultures, so I can't get a very solid read on what its real-life counterpart is meant to be.

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While parts of Shaaloani definitely reminded me of when I lived in Arizona, I can see its resemblance to the arid parts of West Texas too and the area where the Hhetsarro live definitely has a bit of an East Texas vibe with the bald cypress-looking trees and bayou-y feel. Either way, it's just broad inspiration instead of exact 1-to-1 and the closer each new place we go to is to a real world location or culture, the less interesting it is on its own.

Ul'dah has Southwest American flora (cacti) and vistas, but a vaguely Middle-Eastern cultural vibe and feels a lot more unique than Shaaloani which just took generic wild west tropes but tamed it down with rubber bullets for some weird reason and sent them out there drilling for oil like There Will Be Blood.