(Mild screenshot spoilers) In case anyone was wondering, Gyr Abania is Turkey

While I wait in a 4000 player queue...

I didn't see a thread about this, but as a roleplayer, I really like talking about the real-world cultural inspirations for in-game societies so I can understand them better. After my thread about Thavnair, it's probably not surprising that I leaned forward in my seat when I saw Gyr Abania using Middle Eastern cultural themes. I'll admit that I'm a little biased against Ala Mhigo for story reasons, and I'm really interested in Thavnair, so at first I thought it might be stepping on my favorite island nation's toes. But after more digging around, I'm pretty confident in saying that Gyr Abania is more Turkish, and Thavnair is more Persian/Indian.

I first noticed because of the Ala Mhigan Kilij, since a kilij is a Turkish sword. But that alone isn't really enough to jump to conclusions.

I reserved judgment until I actually got to see the inside of Ala Mhigo (mild spoilers): http://imgur.com/a/UP53G

And then I went looking at pictures of Turkey and its architecture: http://imgur.com/a/aQ8fk

I was like, "Hey, that sure looks a lot like the Fringes, the Peaks, the Lochs, and all the striped stonework, pointed arches, geometric patterns, and blue tiles you see in Ala Mhigo." Then as I was flying over the Peaks, I looked up at the ark and remembered that in the biblical story, the ark came to rest on Mount Ararat, which is in Turkey. So, at this point I'm pretty confident about it, and Thavnair's cultural themes are safe from the warlike savages.

There is definite Middle Eastern influence in not only Ala Mhigo's culture and design aesthetics, but also a lot of the ruins in Gyr Abania share similar real-world basis (such as the Ziggarut in the Peaks). Having said that, the majority of Ala Mhigo's population are Highlander Hyur who have a very Gaelic/Norse influence in their naming traditions and society (someone in my FC outright said that "Ala Mhigans are Scottish!" ;)), so it zig-zags all over the place. And then there is the whole warrior MNK thing with the Fists of Rhalgr which is pure Asian culture.

Like the other nations, SE draws from a selection of real-life ideas, concepts, places and mythologies when world-building so Ala Mhigo and Gyr Abania are no different. :)

I thought about this too when I was going through the zones and basically what I came up with is this:

Gyr Abania = Middle East
Ruby sea = South East Asia
Yanxia = China
Azim Steppe = Mongolia

And if we take all these in context we can look forward a little and assume Garlemald = Russia.

This lines up well with what was said in one of the interviews from the european media tour.

Quote:

---

In Stormblood , the players will first visit the Garlear-occupied Ala Mhigo and the Continent of Othard and travel to Kugane. How did these areas come into being and where did the inspiration come from?

NY: This is a pretty long explanation, but if you want to listen to that, that would be great. So we start with Ala Mhigo. You probably already have an idea of ​​the place, perhaps inspired by Little Ala Mhigo, which can already be entered. While it looks similar to Ul'dah, that is, desert-like and stone, we wanted to make Ala Mhigo look different. If you put Eorzea on a map of the real world, Ala Mhigo is about the height of Turkey. When we decided on the location of the region and we adapted everything, we put a mock-up on the white cards that our development team has created. We wanted to create a historic city and get away from the desert, we placed water and forests there. But: Ala Mhigo has been ruled by the Garlean Empire for more than twenty years, and this should reflect the atmosphere of the region. For example, we wanted to show how the culture is influenced and how this affects the appearance of the houses. There will also be barren areas, former front lines from the war. In the city areas the player will see a lot of imperial influence. But when the player comes into more rural areas, he sees more of the original culture and its influence. We wanted to make something unique from Ala Mhigo, compared to other regions like Ul'dah.

---

While Gyr Abania may be Turkey. I'd go deeper and say Ala Mhigo itself is Constantinople/Istanbul. While the Garleans never changed the name, they did occupy the nation. Garleans are a weird amalgamation of N. Germanic and Roman (Kind of like Holy Roman Empire, but not based on religion). Like honestly everyone says the Garleans are Roman, and I think of them as the HRE instead, just take out all the Catholicism and replace it with a sense of superiority due to being Garlean.

The occupation of Ala Mhigo by the Garleans, reminds me deeply of "Eorzea's Constantinople" basically, but in reverse. XIV doesn't have a serious Western v Eastern culture schism, like the real world. But what it does have is Magic v Magitek. So you could think of the Magic culture of Eorzean Ala Mhigans as "Turkish", and the Magitek of the Garleans as "Roman".

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zetsumei_Tsunarashi

I thought about this too when I was going through the zones and basically what I came up with is this:

Gyr Abania = Middle East
Ruby sea = South East Asia
Yanxia = China
Azim Steppe = Mongolia

And if we take all these in context we can look forward a little and assume Garlemald = Russia.

---

In Imperial Garlemald jokes incoming... XD

The rooftop gardens is pretty much a ripoff of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. (Built for the wife part)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zaviermhigo

While Gyr Abania may be Turkey. I'd go deeper and say Ala Mhigo itself is Constantinople/Istanbul.

---

I thought something similar long ago, based simply on the superficiality of a king named "Theodoric" having a religious and political dispute with "monks"--and it screamed Byzantine Empire to me. So, I'm pleased to see that suspicion confirmed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Having said that, the majority of Ala Mhigo's population are Highlander Hyur who have a very Gaelic/Norse influence in their naming traditions and society (someone in my FC outright said that "Ala Mhigans are Scottish!" ;)).

---

Taken from the top excerpt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highlander

Quote:

---

Highlander, a person from the Scottish Highlands.

---

The Ala Mhigan accent is a Yorkshire one, bit surprised people think they sound like Scots.

Ala Mhigans: Anglo-Nordic names, Turkish architecture, obscure British accents (they're all over the place!), and in ethnic appearance...ambiguously Mediterranean? Meffrid, straight up, looks African, while Raubahn and Ilberd could be Greek, Turkish, or even Berber, and people like Lise and Fordola seem more stereotypically Caucasian, although Fordola has a very distinctive angularity to her features.

Of course, the real-world countries and ethnic groups mentioned here are just a scant few of a gigantic diaspora that covers that entire region. Regardless, it's good that Ala Mhigo is presented without any singular real-world cultural parallel.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Naraku_Diabolos

Taken from the top excerpt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highlander

---

Only applies to the real world. FF Highlanders are their own thing. Besides, the landscape of the Ala Mhigan highlands is about as far from Scotland as it gets.