Ability Name Inspirations

So lots of the new abilities in 3.0 have interesting names. Just thought I'd provide a quick rundown on where some of the cooler ones get their inspiration.


Sheltron: A Sheltron is essentially a shield wall, a group of soldiers packed tightly together, with shields and pikes coordinated to make attacking the group extremely difficult, especially for cavalry. The term appears most often in reference to a Scottish formation used in the Wars of Independence.

Meditation/Forbidden Chakra: A Chakra is a Hindu and yogic concept of a sort of energy node within the body. They lie at the intersections of energy channels and were important in meditation.

Elixir Field: Elixir field is a rough translation of Dantian, which is a concept in some Chinese traditions somewhat similiar to Chakras. Dantian are also centers of energy in the body, which are important in some Chinese martial arts and Taoist practices.

Gaerskogul: A valkyrie mentioned in some Norse Eddas. Her name may translate from Old Norse as "spear-shaker".

Empyreal Arrow: Empyreal is a fancy way of saying "heavenly."

Assize: An assize is a court. No, I don't understand this one either.

Tetragrammaton: The Hebrew name of God. As in, the term "Tetragrammaton" isn't the name of God itself, but refers to it. The Tetragrammaton is YHWH. Tetragrammaton derives from Greek, literally meaning "four letters."

Ley Lines: Alignments of places, both natural and historical, like ridges, rivers, and ancient monuments. Originally a sort of wacky geographical theory, later adapted into a wacky New Age spiritual theory, wherein rather than being travel routes, these were lines of mystical importance. Both theories are British in origin.

Enochian: A system of magic and language of angels described by the British occultist and adviser to Queen Elizabeth, John Dee.

Dream Within a Dream: not sure if this is where they took their reference, but Dream within a Dream is a poem by Edgar Allen Poe.

Malefic: In Astrology, malefic planets (Saturn and Mars) are those that bring harm.

Benefic: The planets (Jupiter and Venus) that bring good fortune.

Luminiferous aether: When scientists discovered that light had wave-like properties, they were confused on how it traveled through empty space. The solution was the Luminiferious aether, an invisible substance that light propagated through. This was later proven not to exist, and the theory of relativity suggested that it wasn't needed. Quantum mechanics explains the wave-like nature of light without any need for an aether.

Helios: In Greek Mythology, the Titan who drove the chariot of the sun across the sky. Brother of Selene, goddess of the moon, and Eos, goddess of the dawn.

Essential Dignity: In Astrology, Essential dignity refers to the strength of a planet without regards to its position in a natal chart. I think that means whether or not the planet is strong right now, regardless of when the subject in question was born.

Exalted Detriment: Again, Astrology. Exaltation and Detriment are different essential dignities a planet can have.

Stella: the Latin word for star. Exciting!

Aspected Benefic: Aspect is something to do with Astrology and relations between planets. (it says something about astrology that it's more confusing and less sensical than all the other stuff in this list, which has included crazy body energy points, names of god, outdated physics, and a freaking angelic language.)

Royal Road: A road built by the Persian king Darius the Great, one of the greatest rulers of all time. Darius's road drastically improved communication in the Achaemenid Empire, and over time, began to be used as a metaphor for easy access or understanding. Astrologian probably gets this skill name from Freud's description of dreams as the "royal road to the unconscious"

Synastry: In astrology, synastry is the practice of comparing the star charts of two people for compatibility.

Time Dilation: According to special relatively, as an observer approaches the speed of light, they experience time more slowly. It has to do with the bending of space time, and actually has to be taken into account on satellites, including the Space Station (where astronauts age about .007 seconds slower for every six months aboard.)

Collective Unconscious: In Jungian psychology, sort of a unconscious shared by everyone and made up of universal symbols.

Celestial Opposition: In astronomy (and I'm sure astrology has something about this as well) objects are in opposition when they are at opposite points in the sky from a specific object (usually earth, for obvious reasons.) I really hope the AST level 70 skill is taken from a related concept when three astrological bodies line up, because I really want to hear people try to say Syzygy over Mumble.

Saving this for when i decide to do more. Maybe older skills or maybe other stuff in the game, like Primals, etc.

Some of the names are odd. Dream within a Dream should have been named like a previous NIN ability like Mikage or Midareyuki. English names for NIN abilities irks me. They're fine for Rogue abilities, but not for NIN :/


Dragonsong Dive should have been called "Highwind", referencing both Cid Highwind's ultimate Limit Break, and Fang's Full ATB ability from FFXIII, both characters are Dragoons.

Meh, I prefer names of abilities mostly in English. It's kinda neat that the Mudra-related abilities are in Japanese, that gives it a sort of foreign feel, and the others that aren't so mystical are just normal "Eorzean".

Cid and Fang weren't dragoons, because those games didn't have dragoons. Dragoons in pretty much every game had dragon-related abilities, so I'm glad FFXIV is going that way with Heavensward. Dragonsong Dive is a neat reference to the lore with the Dragonsong War as well.

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Originally Posted by Jonnycbad

Some of the names are odd. Dream within a Dream should have been named like a previous NIN ability like Mikage or Midareyuki. English names for NIN abilities irks me. They're fine for Rogue abilities, but not for NIN :/

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But the 52-60 abilities, which are the ones with the English names, are ones the WoL develops himself. It wouldn't make sense for most characters to be using Japanese names.

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Originally Posted by Jonnycbad

Dragonsong Dive should have been called "Highwind", referencing both Cid Highwind's ultimate Limit Break, and Fang's Full ATB ability from FFXIII, both characters are Dragoons.

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Cid's 'Highwind' Limit Break in FFVII had nothing to do with DRG though - he basically called in the airship of that name to barrage the enemy with missiles (effectively FFVII's version of one of Setzer's slot machine attacks in FFVI where he had the Blackjack/Falcon fly in and drop a H-Bomb on the enemy).

And given the fact that the name 'Highwind' shows up in FFXIV as the name of Eorzea's airship company, there is even less connection to DRGs. I agree with Trashy - Dragonsong Dive makes far better sense than Highwind would for that attack.

Ooo Trashy, I like to do this too. I often look up words or phrases I see in-game and elsewhere, just because it gives me joy. I wanted to point out something about royal road, however!

Now, I'd probably call this folk etymology, since I can get no confirmation from my usual etymology channels, but some people believe that the word tarot actually means "royal road". Tar + ot. Whether that be true or not is not relevant to whether or not it inspired the ability's name and I think that this "folk" etymology at least played a part in the inspiration for our friendly AST ability ;).

EDIT:

*adjusts spectacles* Aha, I hath tracked down this insanity. Le Monde Primitif. In the Le Monde Primitif, written by a Antoine Court de Gebelin (a person you'd enjoy googling, even for the meek wiki description, and ties to tarot's history), he suggests that the name tarot is Egyptian. See he was convinced that the tarot and the Egyptians were closely linked. Anyroad, he puts forth this idea that the name of tarot means "Royal road", which he says is "mot-a-mot, le chemin royal de la vie", translated to say, "word for word, the royal road of life". I was able to google the archived pages of this Le Monde Primitif and thankfully I know a little French.

*waits for someone to tell him he is entirely wrong about everything in life and should jump off the nearest Pyramid and die* *smokes detective pipe in the meantime*

Source Here

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Originally Posted by Trashy

Assize: An assize is a court.

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Oh... that's what it means?

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Originally Posted by Viridiana

But the 52-60 abilities, which are the ones with the English names, are ones the WoL develops himself.

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Not so with SMN. Learned Painflare, Ruin III, and Tri-disaster from Allagan Tomestones, and the methodology for learning Dreadwyrm Trance and Deathflare from them too.

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Originally Posted by WyrahFhurrst

Not so with SMN. Learned Painflare, Ruin III, and Tri-disaster from Allagan Tomestones, and the methodology for learning Dreadwyrm Trance and Deathflare from them too.

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But the quote I was responding to was about NIN abilities, which we do all develop on our own. :p

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Originally Posted by Viridiana

But the quote I was responding to was about NIN abilities, which we do all develop on our own. :p

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Oh! My appologies. I thought you were generalizing. Sorry.