Hrothgar Appreciation and Lore

Ahem.

As you all should know by this point, Viera males were not introduced in favor of adding the new Hrothgar race for various reasons. However, there's been little discussion about them, so I figured I'd get the ball rolling and try to draw some positive attention to them.

There is a lot about the Hrothgar we don't know. Aside from a bug in the French client, we weren't even made aware they existed until the Tokyo FanFest.

So, what do we know?

I have many questions.

Where do they hail from? What is their society like? What lore reason are the women not available / seen? We have three different subspecies of Hrothgar - lion, leopard, and wolf. How do they interact?

Most interestingly, "Hrothgar" is the name of a king from Beowulf and is used as a near catch-all term to denote Norse influence. Is there anything there? It got my hopes up for Viking class.

Maybe I'll switch to one for some representation, since they seem to be dead on arrival thanks to the controversy...

The short form of Hrothgar is "hroar" or "roar" and that was the closest I got to figuring out a meaning (though I guess I could study the Beowulf history a bit better). I actually was a fan of Kimahri back in FFX, but it was a tad low-key considering all the furry jokes, lol.

I wasn't even aware there was a large demand for races that were even farther from human, though.

I hope we get some lore on them soon, right now I'm kind of worried we're going to have a repeat of Au Ra, although the way Shadowbringers is shaping up that seems likely anyway, to an extent...

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Originally Posted by Cilia

Where do they hail from?

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Probably the icy heartlands of Garlemald...

Add the race in the side adventure romp expansion, just as an introduction, then visit their homeland/lore in the next expansion where we actually get back to tackling Garlemald. Hope I'm wrong with that, but well... We'll probably cross a Hrothgar version of Azim Steppe before reaching Garlemald-proper in 6.0, which is straight up Mt. Gagazet to Zanarkand...

Pure speculation of course, but with the Norse link and obvious Ronso inspiration, "somewhere cold" is the only idea I have, and there's only one cold region I can think of that we'll be visiting in the future...

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Originally Posted by Cilia

Maybe I'll switch to one for some representation, since they seem to be dead on arrival thanks to the controversy...[/size]

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They've been overshadowed by the outrage, though you need to remember that the number of people posting on the forum to begin with is a very small portion of the overall player population and not at all easily representative of the community as a whole. Furthermore, there have been quite a few requests for a 'bestial' playable race over the years and all of FFXIV's main rival MMO's in the West have at least one as an option. Namely WoW, ESO and GW2.

So I don't doubt that there will be a decent amount of people interested in playing a Hrothgar. It likely won't be the most popular playable race, though I'd wager the population numbers will be higher than the current rarest race/gender combination.

I am curious as to what their naming convention will be like. I sorta want to fantasia into one. I was suspicious of Viera not showing males during their first reveal. The Au Ra reveal back in Heavensward at least showed you both.

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Originally Posted by SicariusSeven

I am curious as to what their naming convention will be like. I sorta want to fantasia into one. I was suspicious of Viera not showing males during their first reveal. The Au Ra reveal back in Heavensward at least showed you both.

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You could speculate that they use the Ronso's naming convention from FFX if they had one.

Did they have one? I can't remember

Most FF games don't have a document for naming conventions. It's why TV Tropes has a page called "Aerith and Bob."

Wolf? I didn't see any Hrothgar that looked wolf-like. They all look like different cats to me.

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Originally Posted by SpiritTamer

Wolf? I didn't see any Hrothgar that looked wolf-like. They all look like different cats to me.

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It was mentioned in an interview

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As mentioned before, the face parts are special and Hrothgar has big differences between its faces, like a lion face, wolf face, leopard face. It became a fixed model relatively recently.

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https://old.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...w_with_yoship/

Assuming the wolf face doesn't get scrapped, I am guessing that the 2 Hrothgar clans could be Felines and the other Lupine? They really only showed the cat faces with different markings.

As for the naming convention, if they're inspired by FFX's Ronso then maybe they have similar lore? They use their race name as their last name. So it might be First Name Hrothgar

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Originally Posted by SpiritTamer

Wolf? I didn't see any Hrothgar that looked wolf-like. They all look like different cats to me.

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Yoshi P confirmed a wolf face. It is also possibly seen in the official artwork of the Hrothgar.

I just wish we had some lore on the Hrothgar.
I’d like to change my Hrothgar-to-be alts name to something lore friendly and have no idea what to go with. (and I’d like to use the free server transfer to change the name for free as well but oh well)

Some people are throwing out ‘Norse’ roots, but that’s already taken by Dragons, unless we’re expecting modern ‘nordic’ names instead, like Swedish/Finnish/Norwegian. This would kinda makes sense for a patriarchal society, stuff like x-son, as in son of (fathers name), ‘Erikson’ etc.

Ronso on the other hand apparently have loosely Tibetan lore, and being mountain dwellers that kinda makes sense. (although I don’t think it applies to their names)

Could that be our two clans name roots? Nordic/Tibetan? Or do you think the Tibetan aspect just be present on the First?

I thought I'd share a little that I found that might help in building on Hrothgar characters. In the lore book, there is a section specifically on Ilsabard and it references that the Southern part of Ilsabard, along with the entirety of the continant have already been taking under control by the Garlean Empire, which would mean that the Hrothgar would either be scattered or in Imperial rule by this point.

https://img.fireden.net/v/image/1500...0177867604.jpg

Looking further I find that this annexation actually occurred under the original rule of Solus Zos Galvus back in 1522, while the game itself takes place 55 years later around 1577. Doesn't give too much in regards to the Hrothgar and Queen Gunhildr as a whole but does bring to life what there life was more then likely like as we have already seen what has happened t Doma and Ala Mhigo which were annexed at around the same time.

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The Garleans' respect for Galvus transformed into worship. In 1517, he was granted control of Garlemald as dictator by popular support. The same year, the republic attacked Dalmasca, a small country nestled in the central mountains, and rained down fire upon it with their new airships. The army turned to conquer the south of Ilsabard, conquering it in 1522. Having unified the continent through force, Galvus proclaimed himself emperor, and created the Garlean Empire.

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https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Solus_zos_Galvus

I'm really curious to learn more about then in the Gunbreaker storyline.

I would have thought, given their appearance and starting armor, they lived in a tribal society not unlike the Xaela. However, them inventing Gunbreakers makes me think they may be more advanced and civilized than first impressions may convey, which could be an interesting juxtaposition.

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Originally Posted by disturbedcobra

I thought I'd share a little that I found that might help in building on Hrothgar characters. In the lore book, there is a section specifically on Ilsabard and it references that the Southern part of Ilsabard, along with the entirety of the continant have already been taking under control by the Garlean Empire, which would mean that the Hrothgar would either be scattered or in Imperial rule by this point.

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To expand on this, only the Helions live primarily in southern Ilsabard. The Lost have explicitly left (or been driven out of) southern Ilsabard, according to the lore on the special site. Where it is precisely they've left to is the question. The special site again implies - but does not state - that all Hrothgar hail from Ilsabard. Complicating matters, The Lost are nomadic, so they may range quite far, making it impossible to say they are "from" anywhere. One would assume they prefer colder climes, due to their color palette, but the special site does not state this, either. Instead, it says that "the cold, wintry colors of their fur are said to serve as a symbol of their independent nature, which drove them far from the warm embrace of their queen."

If they are adapted to living in colder regions, then northern Ilsabard would be a good candidate for their home. That part of the continent is frozen over for most of the year. It is also, ironically, where the Garleans were driven to before they started conquering things. But they really could dwell anywhere in Ilsabard. We know very little about its geography, and there are probably plenty of other cold, inhospitable places.

As to whether they're wolf-like or cat-like, the character creator included with the benchmark allows you to make some that can end up looking somewhat canine, depending on your face, jaw, and nose choices, but they're predominantly feline. Interestingly, faces 5 and 6 include a "mustache" under the "Facial Features" option that very clearly resembles a shortened (vestigial?) version of a Coeurl's whiskers, and those faces have a unique fur texture that makes them look spikier, perhaps even carapaced, not unlike FFXIV's take on Coeurls.

https://i.imgur.com/j4gGWQl.png

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Originally Posted by Bright-Flower

I'm really curious to learn more about then in the Gunbreaker storyline.

I would have thought, given their appearance and starting armor, they lived in a tribal society not unlike the Xaela. However, them inventing Gunbreakers makes me think they may be more advanced and civilized than first impressions may convey, which could be an interesting juxtaposition.

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It definitely left an impression, haha. I was surprised to find that a lot of people were upset that Gunbreaker technology came from the Hrothgar and not the Garleans, in part because of the less than civilized look the newbie gear gave. But I thought the lore made sense - for one, we very rarely see any NPCs actually wearing the new player gear in-game, let alone any job trainers, so the Hrothgar renders on the site may not necessarily reflect the whole of their culture. And second, of course it's unlikely that the Garleans would teach any aether based job with their, uh, inability to manipulate such... but they do have a history of stealing ideas from others (see: allagans, the concept of the Ixali dirigibles into airships), and the Hrothgar do happen to live conveniently nearby...

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Originally Posted by Qurho

It definitely left an impression, haha. I was surprised to find that a lot of people were upset that Gunbreaker technology came from the Hrothgar and not the Garleans, in part because of the less than civilized look the newbie gear gave. But I thought the lore made sense - for one, we very rarely see any NPCs actually wearing the new player gear in-game, let alone any job trainers, so the Hrothgar renders on the site may not necessarily reflect the whole of their culture. And second, of course it's unlikely that the Garleans would teach any aether based job with their, uh, inability to manipulate such... but they do have a history of stealing ideas from others (see: allagans, the concept of the Ixali dirigibles into airships), and the Hrothgar do happen to live conveniently nearby...

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I certainly EXPECTED pre GNB announcement that garleans would have something to do with the gunblade job, or failing that, garlond ironworks. But I don't mind it being someone else. And given the name gun breaker I suspect we may find that the Hrothgard devised it as a counter to garlean guns etc, but we'll find out for sure soon enough.

And yeah, you don't tend to see starting armor on npcs. Except Fran because for Viera it was modeled off Fran's outfit. And really the Au Ra starting gear fits better for Xaela than Raen as well.

Speaking of Hrothgar and Gunbreaker-- This got me thinking.

Since the Pureblood race (and thus the Republic) was pushed up into the hostile lands of Ilsabard, due to their lack of magic and they would hire mercenaries with what little they had to protect what little bit of land was slowly being taken away from them...

Maybe the Garleans learned how to use/make their gunblades from the Hrothgar they were neighboring with and over time, create their own unique flare different from the Hrothgar.

Just a thought.