Mysterious monsters without much explanation?

Was there ever a monster in the game that didn't seem to have lore or little lore backing it?

I like to know what is up with those Centaurs and Minotaurs in particular.

I got a indication there is couple of Minotaur Tribes, and then there is that allagen tech infused variation.

Minotaurs have been proven to have been yet another Ancient creation as they appear in Elpis (and as I recall, it was even explained there that they were designed to be security guards for sensitive or restricted facilities, basically they're just dumb muscle). Whether by the present day they have formed primitive societies is unclear though.

Really, I think we're at the stage that pretty much every monster or living creature in Hydaelyn was once either made with Creation Magic by some Ancient Etheirysian 12000 years ago before the Sundering, or was created more recently by genetic engineering or magical means by the Allag or some other past civilization (the Ixal being an example).

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Minotaurs have been proven to have been yet another Ancient creation as they appear in Elpis (and as I recall, it was even explained there that they were designed to be security guards for sensitive or restricted facilities, basically they're just dumb muscle). Whether by the present day they have formed primitive societies is unclear though.

Really, I think we're at the stage that pretty much every monster or living creature in Hydaelyn was once either made with Creation Magic by some Ancient Etheirysian 12000 years ago before the Sundering, or was created more recently by genetic engineering or magical means by the Allag or some other past civilization (the Ixal being an example).

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I wonder what animals/creatures are actually native to Etheirys.
I get the feeling that it would be mostly animals that actually exist on our world, like cats, wolves or horses.

But to get back to the topic, the monster i most want to have an explanation is Bismarck from the source.
The fact that the First have an actual Bismarck that is a living creature and not a primal is interesting.

It means that a magical being like him could have actually existed on the source, and probably would have been intelligent too.
So was the original Bismarck a creature from Elpis or Pandaemonium ? Or was it an older magical being ? Is it dead or still alive ?

Honestly i'm interested in the backstory of all creatures the primals were based on, and i hope we get some of their backstories.

Ultima.....

We still don't know where Ultima came from beyond that Ajora called her from another realm. Is she a space alien like Omega and Midgardsormr? Is she something summoned from one of the shards? Somewhere else beyond the rift?

Gigants? I'm not sure if we saw any in Elpis or not; regardless, we definitely still don't know why they worship Crystal Tower.

We don't actually know where most of the beast tribes come from either, though a lot of the ARR ones existing on multiple shards means they were pre-sundering so are probably Ancient creations. But I think the only one we know for a solid fact is Ixal being Allagan chimeras.

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Originally Posted by JeanneOrnitier

We still don't know where Ultima came from beyond that Ajora called her from another realm. Is she a space alien like Omega and Midgardsormr? Is she something summoned from one of the shards? Somewhere else beyond the rift?

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My personal headcanon is that Ultima's a shard of the Ascian Altima who went out of control, and the WoL of that time was the one who sealed her away originally.

The game calls Ultima extradimensional. That could mean a lot of things, but the wording and surrounding context lead me to believe it's probably got nothing to do with the thirteen reflections.

Originally Ultima had no mind to speak of. She was simply a thing summoned to the Source by Ajora to destroy Mullonde. It was sealed away by Ramza several centuries later, when it reawoke. The description of her included with her collectible statue says people began to worship her out of fear, which in turn fed her in much the same way prayer might feed a primal. The process awoke in her a sense of self. She had effectively become a primal with an actual living body. The text on Ultima's in-game TT card corroborates the statue's description and adds that she was once the "embodiment of pure ruination."

I'm curious as to what heck those umbrils in the Tower of Zot were supposed to be, given that all of the other enemies there are either tempered Garleans or magitek.

Even Estinien questions what they are if he's in your trust party.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Minotaurs have been proven to have been yet another Ancient creation as they appear in Elpis (and as I recall, it was even explained there that they were designed to be security guards for sensitive or restricted facilities, basically they're just dumb muscle). Whether by the present day they have formed primitive societies is unclear though.

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Actually, the minotaurs are weird because they have two explanations. They're in Elpis, but the Encyclopedia Eorzea also credits them as specifically a third-generation chimera made for security detail. There's a few other creatures in similar situations, too.

Personally if I were trying to square that one, I'd go for 'the Elpis animals didn't survive for whatever reason (not even necessarily a big reason, animals just go extinct sometimes), but Allag reinvented them'. Even outside of situations where they conceivably could have come up with a similar idea completely independently--'existing thing but with wings' doesn't exactly require great leaps of creativity--you can point to Amon's dreams of Elpis as a potential bridge.

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Originally Posted by RukoBoshi

Honestly i'm interested in the backstory of all creatures the primals were based on, and i hope we get some of their backstories.

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I wouldn't want this in any way at all, because it actually devalues and demeans the tribes that we're told envisioned and believe in these figures. 'All of these tribes simply misunderstood a creation made by the effectively-perceived-as-human Ancients' sounds really bad, and basically strips them all of any agency of their own on a societal level. I'm already not a big fan of the fact that Ifrit was entirely explained away as an Ancient creation in a short story that isn't even in the game itself.

Bismarck works and makes sense because the Vanu Vanu's belief system and culture is very totemic and animist; it makes sense that they ascribed deific abilities to an animal they saw do a thing, because that's the sort of society they actually are, and even then they don't really worship Bismarck as their creator, that's not his role in their stories, they see him as the creator of the Sea of Clouds. That's not true for a group like the kobolds, who not only ascribe their own creation to Titan, but whose society is more rationalist and not the type to elevate external things in that way.

And it starts to sound REALLY bad when you factor in the Twelve. "Oh, all these other religious beliefs are just their people misunderstanding something entirely normal, but the majority religion of the place you call home? No, their gods are completely real and pretty much exactly as they say!"


EDIT: Centaurs, to answer the OP instead of just handwaving vague 'probably Ancients' non-explanations, are also explained by the Encyclopedia, but it's a little weird; in the game 'centaur' is specifically used to describe a type of Sharlayan construct, but as we all know there's been a few other creatures of the same shape, some artificial (Reptoids, the Ultima Weapon), some not (the society that summoned Zurvan). So I think it's just a reasonable explanation that centaurs as we understand it are just a thing in FFXIV's world, it's a good shape that both nature and man keep relying on. Or you could say 'it was the Ancients' and throw away everything else, I guess.

If you're ever unsure about why a monster in the game exists, and it's in a part of the game before the late Stormblood patches, I recommend just checking the Encyclopedia Eorzea, it usually has some ideas. You want an explanation for the Skatene? That's in there, turns out those were Sharlayans' fault! We don't have that resource on anything past about 4.2, but with the third volume being worked on, that problem's days are numbered!

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

I wouldn't want this in any way at all, because it actually devalues and demeans the tribes that we're told envisioned and believe in these figures. 'All of these tribes simply misunderstood a creation made by the effectively-perceived-as-human Ancients' sounds really bad, and basically strips them all of any agency of their own on a societal level. I'm already not a big fan of the fact that Ifrit was entirely explained away as an Ancient creation in a short story that isn't even in the game itself.

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Correction, Ifrita. They are completely different beings, as primal summons are based on what the summoners believe. If we meet the original Ifrita, she likely will not look like the Ifrit the Amaljaa know.

It is kind of funny that the fire concept in P8S part 2 is represented by the modern day Ifrit instead of something more...mundane but still possessing an affinity for fire like a drake.

We also already know at least one of the primals likely has a mundane origin as Garuda was theorized to simply be a general of Allag who commanded the iksalions that would eventually become the ixal.

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Originally Posted by RyuDragnier

Correction, Ifrita. They are completely different beings, as primal summons are based on what the summoners believe. If we meet the original Ifrita, she likely will not look like the Ifrit the Amaljaa know.

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You realize how thin a difference that is, right? That basically the only thing that changed between the Ancients and the Amal'jaa was the thing's gender?

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

You realize how thin a difference that is, right? That basically the only thing that changed between the Ancients and the Amal'jaa was the thing's gender?

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I think that's more the devs didn't want to make a new model and just reused assets.

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

You realize how thin a difference that is, right? That basically the only thing that changed between the Ancients and the Amal'jaa was the thing's gender?

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Ifrita in World of Final Fantasy (her first appearance) looked like this.

https://52f4e29a8321344e30ae-0f55c91...es/1726924.jpg

If they keep her true to her original appearance (but possibly more beastly looking like FF8/FF10 Ifrit), then she will look nothing like FF14 Ifrit.

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Originally Posted by RyuDragnier

Ifrita in World of Final Fantasy (her first appearance) looked like this.

https://52f4e29a8321344e30ae-0f55c91...es/1726924.jpg

If they keep her true to her original appearance (but possibly more beastly looking like FF8/FF10 Ifrit), then she will look nothing like FF14 Ifrit.

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That's actually not what she looked like in World of Final Fantasy, that's art commissioned specifically for the card game and it's the artist's own interpretation. (I remember reading a Final Fantasy Portal article on it)

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/fi...FF_Ifreeta.png
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/fi...age_Manual.png
Ifreeta looked like this in her original appearance. It's... slightly different.

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Originally Posted by Zero-ELEC

That's actually not what she looked like in World of Final Fantasy, that's art commissioned specifically for the card game and it's the artist's own interpretation. (I remember reading a Final Fantasy Portal article on it)

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/fi...FF_Ifreeta.png
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/fi...age_Manual.png
Ifreeta looked like this in her original appearance. It's... slightly different.

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I had actually looked for concept art for her, but sadly that card was all that popped up. Thanks for posting the sprite pictures.

I wouldn't have automatically jumped to the conclusion that Ifrita represented a gendered concept in this game. The Amaurotines have their own names for a lot of familiar concepts from our own world, which is how I had personally interpreted this. And as was pointed out earlier, the fire concept that we can build with Hephaistos during High Concept is still the 'Ifrit' that we know. While there can be more than one possible manifestation of Ifrit, as we've seen from E6S, was there anything in this game that actually supports the claim that the two terms 'Ifrit' and 'Ifrita' are 'completely different'? Or is this just speculation based on a side game?

With regards to the earlier conversation in this thread, both the Church of Locus and the Sect of Germonique have their theories about Ultima's origins (as per Field Record 42), and the Sect in particular invoked that familiar ritual to use their bodies as vessels in Lucavi summoning (which is suspiciously reminiscent of Voidsent summoning). Now if only we knew which 'Locus' (place) such a Church could be based in...

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Originally Posted by Lyth

I wouldn't have automatically jumped to the conclusion that Ifrita represented a gendered concept in this game.

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Pronouns: Ifrita has 'em.

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Ifrita. A manifestation of concentrated fire aether. I could see what Azem was planning: transform the volcano's aether into Ifrita, draw her away, and then destroy her elsewhere. This would safely disperse the excess. Of course, the plan required someone to procure the concept of Ifrita for Azem. But if that someone was not Lahabrea himself, who else could it be?

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The Savage raid strongly implies that Ifrita and Ifrit were basically the same, but we do have to remember that the context of Pandaemonium Savage is 'present-day scientific paper drawing connections between Ancient times and modern day and taking some dramatic liberties', so take that with a grain of salt. But regardless of what Ifrita actually looked like, the intention of her addition was pretty clear: to declare that Ifrit was an Ancient construct that the Amal'jaans misinterpreted as a creator deity, and not a figure that the Amal'jaan society devised of their own accord or derived from their own experiences like the Ixal (although even the Ixal don't really consider Garuda their creator, which it turns out they were right not to). And I don't like that.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

I'm curious as to what heck those umbrils in the Tower of Zot were supposed to be, given that all of the other enemies there are either tempered Garleans or magitek.

Even Estinien questions what they are if he's in your trust party.

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An FFXI cameo (part of a number of XI cameos in EW via monsters and NPCs) , but yea I haven't found out what they might be in a XIV context anywhere in game either. Glad they're still bothersome for the most part, very on brand for them.

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

Pronouns: Ifrita has 'em.



The Savage raid strongly implies that Ifrita and Ifrit were basically the same, but we do have to remember that the context of Pandaemonium Savage is 'present-day scientific paper drawing connections between Ancient times and modern day and taking some dramatic liberties', so take that with a grain of salt. But regardless of what Ifrita actually looked like, the intention of her addition was pretty clear: to declare that Ifrit was an Ancient construct that the Amal'jaans misinterpreted as a creator deity, and not a figure that the Amal'jaan society devised of their own accord or derived from their own experiences like the Ixal (although even the Ixal don't really consider Garuda their creator, which it turns out they were right not to). And I don't like that.

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The "dramatic liberties" being that entire phase, you're not meant to try and draw anything from it other than a lalafell with a wild imagination.

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

Pronouns: Ifrita has 'em.



The Savage raid strongly implies that Ifrita and Ifrit were basically the same, but we do have to remember that the context of Pandaemonium Savage is 'present-day scientific paper drawing connections between Ancient times and modern day and taking some dramatic liberties', so take that with a grain of salt. But regardless of what Ifrita actually looked like, the intention of her addition was pretty clear: to declare that Ifrit was an Ancient construct that the Amal'jaans misinterpreted as a creator deity, and not a figure that the Amal'jaan society devised of their own accord or derived from their own experiences like the Ixal (although even the Ixal don't really consider Garuda their creator, which it turns out they were right not to). And I don't like that.

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I have similar thoughts for the EW ramifications of Gridania's whole setup cuz it makes it REALLY underwhelming for me and rather horrifying at the same time.

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

The Savage raid strongly implies that Ifrita and Ifrit were basically the same, but we do have to remember that the context of Pandaemonium Savage is 'present-day scientific paper drawing connections between Ancient times and modern day and taking some dramatic liberties', so take that with a grain of salt. But regardless of what Ifrita actually looked like, the intention of her addition was pretty clear: to declare that Ifrit was an Ancient construct that the Amal'jaans misinterpreted as a creator deity, and not a figure that the Amal'jaan society devised of their own accord or derived from their own experiences like the Ixal (although even the Ixal don't really consider Garuda their creator, which it turns out they were right not to). And I don't like that.

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There is always some aspect of fact in myth. Things get exaggerated, misremembered, and become fantastical in nature. But there's always a part of the myth that's true. If we look in the past of the game, there are 2 possible times in the past where it's possible for it to be true.

First possibility, Ancient Allag and Zurvan. As in his description, "records describe the "Demon" striding into battle girded head to foot in armor formed of unshifting flame." During that time frame Allag used reptoids, creations made from multiple scalekin specimens and spliced together. They were kept under control via a metal box in their head that shocked them to have them follow commands. One could feel they were "beasts bereft of reason or intellect, each fighting an endless, mindless battle for survival."

Imagine if you will if Zurvan proceeded to fry those metal boxes without harming those reptoids, and then unspliced them with his intense aetherical power. It would be akin to having been cleansed by a sacred fire, as the creation myth states. This would make said myth rather truthful in a fashion, they were cleansed by a sacred flame, they were saved by a "god of flames".

However, that doesn't take into account the Calamity of Earth causing widespread destruction, or how they'd survive it.

The 2nd possibility, is that all of this happened during the 3rd Calamity, the calamity of fire, which razed the planet, burned crops, bringing famine and turning forests into deserts. At such a time there would indeed be people fighting for survival without a single thought. A being could have arose then to uplift the Amal'jaa and would have brought them the glory where "the tribes ranged far and wide, and ruled all that walked or crawled upon the land".

Downside of this possibility is that we have 0 way of knowing if that even happened because Allag is the furthest back we know in terms of world history, outside of the small area that was Ivalice (which was likely during the time before said 3rd Calamity).

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Originally Posted by RyuDragnier

There is always some aspect of fact in myth. Things get exaggerated, misremembered, and become fantastical in nature. But there's always a part of the myth that's true.

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To be fair, at some point the "true" part of the myth is so far removed from the myth that the myth ceases to be a useful guideline on what that truth allegedly is. For example, the level 50 FSH quest, where "giant sea serpent" was actually "just a big fish".

Still, I personally like your second idea of the Calamity of Fire being the source of the Amalj'aa belief in a fiery deity. The Calamity of Fire was not really "raging wildfires", but more "dry heat", according to the lorebook, but I assume that dry heat would lead to wildfires anyway due to, well, dry heat. The dryness would not be as damaging to the Amalj'aa as other races, given the Amalj'aa being less reliant on water, but the lack of food would definitely be an issue. Having a saviour figure emerge from that Calamity using fire-based rhetoric would certainly help the myth of Ifrit.

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Originally Posted by Alpheus

I have similar thoughts for the EW ramifications of Gridania's whole setup cuz it makes it REALLY underwhelming for me and rather horrifying at the same time.

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That sort of an entirely different enormous subject as a whole (and one that might get more attention if we get a variant dungeon set in the Shroud like I'm guessing we will), but the Elementals are a funny combo for us, because they're both essentially a leftover from a different plan in 1.0, and a thing that we in the English-speaking world miss a lot of the cultural context on (they're basically the Japanese myth of the kami bigged up considerably and mixed with a bit of European fae).

Definitely a considerable derail from the subject of this thread, which we're already kinda derailing on a minor level.

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

That sort of an entirely different enormous subject as a whole (and one that might get more attention if we get a variant dungeon set in the Shroud like I'm guessing we will), but the Elementals are a funny combo for us, because they're both essentially a leftover from a different plan in 1.0, and a thing that we in the English-speaking world miss a lot of the cultural context on (they're basically the Japanese myth of the kami bigged up considerably and mixed with a bit of European fae).

Definitely a considerable derail from the subject of this thread, which we're already kinda derailing on a minor level.

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Fair, won't derail further just wanted to say (referring to my last post) how you felt about the Amalja is a vibe i share AND that I just feel similarly to how Gridania fared (and Im not even a fan of Gridania) with the EW-ining of a sizeable chunk of its lore. Anyways you have a good one ^^b.

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Originally Posted by RukoBoshi

the monster i most want to have an explanation is Bismarck from the source.
The fact that the First have an actual Bismarck that is a living creature and not a primal is interesting.

It means that a magical being like him could have actually existed on the source, and probably would have been intelligent too.

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I don’t know the details, but I am of the understanding that fae creatures are at least somewhat extra dimensional. As an example, as our fairy friend Feo Ul can communicate to our retainers in the source. It doesn’t strike me as out of place that Bismarck either existed at one time in the source, or a source-version of him existed. I hesitate to say he was a creation of Elpis…but we can probably say everything that exists that isn’t a plane-Jane animal is probably at least ancient-influenced. The facts are we just don’t know the natural state of the world before or outside the ancients.

Why the need for constant new concepts to release in the wild? Is/was the planet barren of life pre-ancients? Why the need to essentially unbalance the ecosystem?

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Originally Posted by kaynide

I don’t know the details, but I am of the understanding that fae creatures are at least somewhat extra dimensional. As an example, as our fairy friend Feo Ul can communicate to our retainers in the source. It doesn’t strike me as out of place that Bismarck either existed at one time in the source, or a source-version of him existed. I hesitate to say he was a creation of Elpis…but we can probably say everything that exists that isn’t a plane-Jane animal is probably at least ancient-influenced. The facts are we just don’t know the natural state of the world before or outside the ancients.

Why the need for constant new concepts to release in the wild? Is/was the planet barren of life pre-ancients? Why the need to essentially unbalance the ecosystem?

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I think they were alluding (or atleast trying) to Bismark in elpis when during the msq Hermes (I think it was him or Hythlodaeus) made mention that the Words of Mitron created a flying fish and it started the fad of giving aquatic life, up to and including the cute little axotle thingies or abystoma, the ability of flight.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Minotaurs have been proven to have been yet another Ancient creation as they appear in Elpis (and as I recall, it was even explained there that they were designed to be security guards for sensitive or restricted facilities, basically they're just dumb muscle). Whether by the present day they have formed primitive societies is unclear though.

Really, I think we're at the stage that pretty much every monster or living creature in Hydaelyn was once either made with Creation Magic by some Ancient Etheirysian 12000 years ago before the Sundering, or was created more recently by genetic engineering or magical means by the Allag or some other past civilization (the Ixal being an example).

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I forgot about that FATE that had those, but yeah a lot of the monsters I know came from ancient times.

But I think there were still a few that still has questionable origins I think.

I probably should have re-word that post to say what these monsters are doing now rather than their EW creation story because that could apply to 84% of the monsters of the game I think.

5% being the World of Darkness, 5% from Allag, and 5% from Depression incarnate (lol).

1% being other creatures with no real idea where they came from.

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Originally Posted by Rannie

I think they were alluding (or atleast trying) to Bismark in elpis when during the msq Hermes (I think it was him or Hythlodaeus) made mention that the Words of Mitron created a flying fish and it started the fad of giving aquatic life, up to and including the cute little axotle thingies or abystoma, the ability of flight.

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Could be; could also be why there are so many fish-like mobs that float (Tempest/Violet Tides/really any beach).

Considering Bismark is intelligent and not just a beast, it seems very likely the case.

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Originally Posted by kaynide

Could be; could also be why there are so many fish-like mobs that float (Tempest/Violet Tides/really any beach).

Considering Bismark is intelligent and not just a beast, it seems very likely the case.

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And another thing to remember is the fae were also shown to have existed back pre-Sundering, and presumed to be an Ancient creation too - a certain sidequest in Elpis shows a fairy (an Il Mheg fairy, not a SCH fairy which is not the same), under study, with the puzzled Elpis researcher assigned to study it at a complete loss to explain it or knowing who even who created it in the first place. And their puzzlement turns to utter bewilderement when said fairy soon turns into a beaver, causing the fed-up researcher to throw in the towel and tell the WoL "Now let us never speak of this again". So the mystery remained! (Presumedly the Ancient researcher quickly swept the records of it under the rug).

Even the infamous shoebill that popped up throughout ShB shows up under study in Elpis in another sidequest, and like the aforementioned fairy no one knows who created it or where it came from, and that in particular "resisted all forms of study" according to it's assigned researcher, but it did kind of pour cold water on the fan theory it was Emet's familiar (or at least a creation of his), as EW made no link of it to Emet in Elpis at all (if Emet did create it, the Bureau of the Architect would have naturally known about it, Emet did seem to be a stickler for following official protocol if nothing else, even reluctantly), so why it was shadowing the WoL throughout the First in EW is still unexplained.

So if the fae are Ancient creations, is unclear, but EW definetely makes the case for it.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Even the infamous shoebill that popped up throughout ShB shows up under study in Elpis in another sidequest, and like the aforementioned fairy no one knows who created it or where it came from, and that in particular "resisted all forms of study" according to it's assigned researcher, but it did kind of pour cold water on the fan theory it was Emet's familiar (or at least a creation of his), as EW made no link of it to Emet in Elpis at all (if Emet did create it, the Bureau of the Architect would have naturally known about it, Emet did seem to be a stickler for following official protocol if nothing else, even reluctantly), so why it was shadowing the WoL throughout the First in EW is still unexplained.

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A new headcanon just appeared in my mind...Azem made the Shoebill originally as a case of "What if I created a creature and have it act like Emet-Selch?" The shoebill follows the WoL because it's just as fascinated with them as Emet is. :p

For that matter, has the ambystoma made any sneaky appearances post 6.0?

The shoebill seemed to have at least one cameo per patch up through 5.3, but I haven't noticed the former since Ultima Thule.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

And another thing to remember is the fae were also shown to have existed back pre-Sundering, and presumed to be an Ancient creation too - a certain sidequest in Elpis shows a fairy (an Il Mheg fairy, not a SCH fairy which is not the same), under study, with the puzzled Elpis researcher assigned to study it at a complete loss to explain it or knowing who even who created it in the first place. And their puzzlement turns to utter bewilderement when said fairy soon turns into a beaver, causing the fed-up researcher to throw in the towel and tell the WoL "Now let us never speak of this again". So the mystery remained! (Presumedly the Ancient researcher quickly swept the records of it under the rug).

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The faefolk were always a...weird case to me given that they seem to be wholly absent from the Source.

They're believed to be the souls of children who somehow didn't pass on to the Lifestream and instead lingered in a new shape, but that's a strange exception to the usual permanence of death given that even ghosts are hand-waved as not literally being souls of the deceased but rather more akin to arcane constructs created by the lingering sentiments of those who've already passed on proper.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

The faefolk were always a...weird case to me given that they seem to be wholly absent from the Source.

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I think the Sylphs are what the Fae changed into on the Source.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

The faefolk were always a...weird case to me given that they seem to be wholly absent from the Source.

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I feel like they might not be absent so much as decentralized. They don't have a single specific seat of power to congregate in, so they're much more spread out, and probably doing much smaller things without the safety net of an entire kingdom to support them.

This is definitely the sort of thing I'd expect to get sorted out by the Encyclopedia Eorzea 3, though, and probably isn't important enough to get discussion outside of that.

Just a word of warning. We visited one facility on Etheirys. While one might be able to draw conclusions about some of the creatures we have encountered from that visit, I doubt that the facility held samples of every living creature in the world.

I don't remember seeing Au Ra, Miqo'te or any of the other peoples we've encountered during our visit. Just a lot of 12 foot tall Hyur.

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Originally Posted by DPZ2

Just a word of warning. We visited one facility on Etheirys. While one might be able to draw conclusions about some of the creatures we have encountered from that visit, I doubt that the facility held samples of every living creature in the world.

I don't remember seeing Au Ra, Miqo'te or any of the other peoples we've encountered during our visit. Just a lot of 12 foot tall Hyur.

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They seem to be doubling down on the angle that the present-day races are largely descendants of the Ancients who were born of the imperfections they bore post-Sundering.

The fact that Hyur are the only race who don't get immediately dismissed as some manner of familiar due to quirks small or otherwise seems to support that there was only a single race of man back then.

I feel like Myths of Realm is the most likely place we'd get an explicit clarification behind that in-game if anywhere, though.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

The fact that Hyur are the only race who don't get immediately dismissed as some manner of familiar due to quirks small or otherwise seems to support that there was only a single race of man back then.

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When going through Elpis, I know that hyur and elezen get it mentioned that we look pretty much exactly like Azem, while the more unusual races like au ra, miqo'te and hrothgar don't get that, instead leaning more on the similar aether. We're treated as familiars no matter what, though.

I'm not sure what roegadyn and lalafel get; realistically I could see those two going either way on that. Hyur and elezen getting that treatment makes complete sense, though, since the Ancients have a structure of 'elezen frame, hyur head' that a lot of the more 'generic' Garleans also get.

Lalafells and Roegadyn get called out more then the other races since even in the initial Elpis cutscene where we get "fixed" by Emet-Selch, Hythlodaeus will accuse him of being lazy/overdoing it due to the size discrepancy (Though I think the latter might apply to any of the particularly tall race/gender combos).