Answers from FFXIV Korean Anniversary LL

So, recently there was a panel during a Korean 10th anniversary special LL where people could ask questions to have them answered by either Yoshi-P or Oda Banri. Some of the answers I found to be quite interesting. I'll only be bringing up three questions and answers here. Keep in mind this translation comes from the FFXIV Discord.

I'll paraphrase the questions because they're very long, but will keep the answers the way there were given.

Q3. How could there already have been Electrope on the Source in the Skydeep Cenote? It was already present before Krile's parents had used the Key to connect the worlds.

A3. "The answer is laid bare in the trip that the Interdimensional Key took, where it came from, until it eventually came into Warrior of Light's hands. We cannot explain in detail as it is spoilers, but we think its a very neat and keen question. We are very happy that you were interested in this."

Q6. While the First has its own script that differs from Eorzean, the script used in Solution Nine is the same as the ones Ancients used. Why?

A6. "The Reflections have been divided by Hydaelyn for a long long time, therefore each Reflections made their own individual advances and development. There has been some Ascian intervention here and there, which may have been left significant impact as well. Perhaps we will find out more about why in the up and coming adventures of Warrior of Light?"

Q15. About the contract made by Midgardsormr and Hydaelyn. What exactly is it, when when did he arrive at Etheirys?

A15. "Please keep in mind that "Midgardsormr came out of the Whorl" is merely an expression for mythology regarding the Twelve, and that this is not an exact representation of reality. Midgardsormr did arrive after the Sundering. We will have to avoid mentioning what the contract was exactly about up here on stage, but since it has been a long while, I would like to share one piece of information: it is no coincidnece, that Silvertear Lake, which is where Midgardsormr resides, is a location easily connected to the Omphalos."

As for my own interpretations,

I think question 3 is the most interesting one, it's something that I can't believe I never noticed until now but yeah, how would that be the case? I'm glad to see it's being explained in the future and based on Yoshi's response, it seems to be happening pretty soon.

About Q15, this is something that I always knew couldn't be a coincidence. The fact that Middy and Hydaelyn have a contract, have contacted each other, and the enter to Omphalos just so happens to be right there next to him? I just didn't expect them to ever explain it, but based on this answer I have reason to believe maybe this will be a plot thread going forward.

Finally, Q6, this is something that has also bugged me for a while. It really seems like the Ninth has been heavily influenced by Ascians more than the First. Since we don't really have other reflections to base this on, we can't know for sure if it's normal or an anomaly for the scripts to be the same, but I would assume there's some significance. I think this points towards one or more ancients having big influence over how that society evolved as a whole.

I was saying to some people that this feels like a kinda bad crop of questions. Ideally if you're doing a lore Q&A, you want questions about parts of the game the story itself isn't going near, so that you can have a meaty answer but not risk spoiling any past or future content. The entire lineup of questions here felt like a lot of them were really close to things that the story is obviously going to (or already has covered), so all they can do is either reiterate the obvious or go 'ooooh, maybe you'll learn about THAT later'.

My theory on the writing was always shooting for 'simplest, lowest-key possible answer' and going for the notion that the Ninth has sort of a 'frozen' typography thanks to moving to computers and typefaces: they weren't physically writing for long enough to develop their own ways to write certain characters (or they have and do, but that's not reflected in signage). It's like how the lowercase a in the forum's font has that 'hook' on top of it, which fell out of favor in handwriting long ago... but is still in a bunch of typefaces because they were based on the handwriting of people that still did that. That's kind of deliberately a 'nothing' theory that should be blown over by the slightest breeze on this subject, so the fact that it still holds kinda shows that they didn't actually say anything about it.


The one question that I thought was worth covering was actually one about the Arcadion: the weight classes are based on soul density, which they can't exactly measure objectively. We're moving up in the weight classes not because we're getting heavier, but because we're proving ourselves to be more soul-dense; this also explains why Sugar Riot is somehow 'heavier' than Brute Bomber.

With regard to the electrope thing, I'm sticking with my 7.00 gut until the evidence heavy enough to swing it another way: (theory 1) the story's going to head in a "what was Azem doing after bailing on both the Convocation and the Venat faction" (theory 2) there's some connection between Azem, the key, and the culture of Aloalo. (First guess: the key worked for the Speaker because they were a shard of Azem) But we'll see.

With regard to the script thing, a reference to past Ascian intervention and a "maybe we'll see soon!" in the same answer is interesting...

With regard to the Midgardsormr thing, the "it's no coincidence..." reference to Omphalos made me laugh out loud. I think it's clear at this point that in the original 1.x story, the seal on the "force" imprisoned under the lake (what we call "the Presence of Silvertear Lake") was what Midgardsormr was protecting. With that story long gone, connecting it to the Omphalos somehow makes sense. There are legends that Althyk and Nymeia brought forth the existence of Midgardsormr with Silvertear Lake as the font of all aether and magicks, and that works well enough alongside a covenant with their BFF Venat. Whether the Presence is still part of the world-lore at all is one of the questions I'm most interested in, though I get if they want to keep it open. (There's always the opportunity to connect it to that odd reference to Athena and Ultima having more to do with history than we realize.)



But the question from that Q&A that got me on the edge of my seat was this one:

Quote:

---

Q16.
From time to time, you see some very unique skills/spells being cast by the enemies. I am curious if the enemy labels and gives a name to their own skills/spells, or if the Warrior of Light takes a look at the enemy and goes "Thats gotta be called that skill!"

A16.
Both are correct. There are some cases which the enemy possesses their own will and named their own cast, or a if it carries a program, or maybe some cases which an Eorzean named it such as "Morbol Breath". Warrior of Light being able to see the castbar on top of the enemy's head is thanks to the Echo. A normal person could not see such. Think of it like a "super gut sense" that top-tier MMA fighters might have?

---

That one almost gave me a heart attack after finally going a little while without seeing "AOE MARKERS ARE THE ECHO" theories. The last sentence softens the blow a little bit because it does emphasize the fact that the Echo lets you read the intentions of your enemy. (Combined with Krile's ability to see aetherial traces it made Fordola just short of precognitive in combat.)

But it always made me nervous that the Echo was reading spiritual stuff and the user interface gave you warnings for inanimate objects falling/exploding. I love "the UI is the Echo" as tongue-in-cheek lore, like the fantasia lore being that it simply "gives you the courage to become whatever you want to be" even though we know it's just a lampshade over a system mechanic ... but it worries me when it could easily be taken as hard-canon when it doesn't yet cover all the necessary bases.

Where are the full questions and answers, if I may?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Anonymoose

That one almost gave me a heart attack after finally going a little while without seeing "AOE MARKERS ARE THE ECHO" theories. The last sentence softens the blow a little bit because it does emphasize the fact that the Echo lets you read the intentions of your enemy. (Combined with Krile's ability to see aetherial traces it made Fordola just short of precognitive in combat.)

---

I like this one because it does feel like an extension of something the Echo actually does. If it helps you understand communication in different languages, and someone gives a specific technique a specific name... well, is that not, essentially, a form of communication? If Omega has the Larboard Wave Cannon, calls it that, and is using that, then isn't that Omega communicating 'Larboard Wave Cannon' to us in its own, murderous way?

See, that theory has never sat well with me as it's easily contradicted by the simple fact of the Echo works on 'touching' the soul, and yet there are plenty of enemies that are completely soulless or not living (such as machina, or things like boulders that have a charge time as a gameplay mechanic.), so the this explanation simply falls flat (if attack telegraphs/charge meters are are a result of percieving an enemy 'through the Echo', then how can a machine with no soul be percieved in the same way? Unless it's just' aether' as usual I guess, but still seems a stretch).

I guess it's just sour grapes on my part though, giving a lore explanation for something that really doesn't even need lore, it's a gameplay mechanic, nothing more. Ah well.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Enkidoh

See, that theory has never sat well with me as it's easily contradicted by the simple fact of the Echo works on 'touching' the soul, and yet there are plenty of enemies that are completely soulless or not living (such as machina, or things like boulders that have a charge time as a gameplay mechanic.), so the this explanation simply falls flat (if attack telegraphs/charge meters are are a result of percieving an enemy 'through the Echo', then how can a machine with no soul be percieved in the same way? Unless it's just' aether' as usual I guess, but still seems a stretch).

---

Isn't the soul just a fancy, specific kind of aether or am I confused here?
I guess if you really want this explanation to work, you could say the Echo facilitates communication by sensing the "intent" in one's speech or actions (which I thought was the original explanation as to why everyone speaks the same language from a gamer's perspective, and that makes enough sense to me) and thus is translates whatever aether waves it catches into something we can vaguely understand. It is also said that the Echo manifests in many ways and this is just the "basic" thing everyone gets. On top of that, you can get stuff like Krile's soul vision, Fordola's precognition, Mikoto's visions of the future and our visions of the past.

I generally understand the Echo's translation function as the WoL getting a certain "vibe" when talking to someone even if they don't understand the specific words, they answer in common Eorzean and the person also more or less gets the gist of what we said, allowing people to understand each other even if they don't share a language, it goes both ways.


If we can "read" what the enemy is casting, would this mean the enemy would theoretically also be able to do the same when we're about to cast something, lore-wise? It was never explored in-game, but I'd justify it saying that people aren't used to interacting with someone with the Echo and aren't able to exploit it as effectively as someone who does.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Enkidoh

I guess it's just sour grapes on my part though, giving a lore explanation for something that really doesn't even need lore, it's a gameplay mechanic, nothing more. Ah well.

---

Agree on this part. I think the cast names are neat though. I like the idea of some enemies naming their spells and the Echo translating that intent while others are just the WoL being like "yeah I'd name it like that if I was the one to choose" lmao

Huh... I assumed that the Gate was fused to the Skydeep Cenote by Preservation -- more specifically by Alayla, and Robor at some point, but YoshiP's answer seems to imply it might be a little more complicated than that. It could be possible that a lot of electrope formed on The Twelfth (the second reflection to be rejoined, and caused the lightning calamity), and it's now floating around in The Rift long after it had rejoined. But I think that could only explain where Sareel Ja got all the electrope to make his Vana'diel, and not the Gate.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cleretic

My theory on the writing was always shooting for 'simplest, lowest-key possible answer' and going for the notion that the Ninth has sort of a 'frozen' typography thanks to moving to computers and typefaces: they weren't physically writing for long enough to develop their own ways to write certain characters (or they have and do, but that's not reflected in signage). It's like how the lowercase a in the forum's font has that 'hook' on top of it, which fell out of favor in handwriting long ago... but is still in a bunch of typefaces because they were based on the handwriting of people that still did that. That's kind of deliberately a 'nothing' theory that should be blown over by the slightest breeze on this subject, so the fact that it still holds kinda shows that they didn't actually say anything about it.

---

An Ascian still would have had to have taught them writing at some point in the Ninth’s history. Civilization completely reset after the Sundering and they reverted back to cave paintings, I doubt the Sundered population held onto the knowledge of exact Ancient letterform on their own and maintained it for tens of thousands of years. They only had computers for the past 400-500 years after all.

At some point an Ascian probably introduced their Ancient script to all shards with their civilization-building initiatives. Destroying civilizations to cause chaos is probably easier when you yourself made them, and they’re not going to invent a whole new form of writing when they do so. The Eorzean and Vrantic scripts probably evolved off an Ancient script originally introduced by an Ascian in the past but the Ninth may have held onto the original because more recent Ascian involvement in their cultural history combined with “frozen” typography as you say. I think that’s the simpler answer.

After all, East Othard has been left on their own with no known Ascian plots throughout history and Eorzea is where all the drama happens and the Othardians have their own non-Ancient-influenced script.

So as a quick side-note before i get into the beef of my response, sensing AOE markers IS a lore-based thing, as it turns out, and was confirmed by Y'shtola's dialogue during the DT raids, especially explicitely when fighting a certain nutjob on top of a city. She straight up SAYS to watch the flow of aether and dodge accordingly, confirming that she can see them too, and as a result, she does every mechanic perfectly. Which is neat! It's kinda like the revelation that respawning at the aetheryte after falling in battle is canon too.

As another note, I actually have a theory on Fantasia, and it's based on what we know about Tempering and Corporeal Corruption.

Essentially, what we DO know is that if something is suffused with enough aether, it undergoes a process I refer to as "Corporeal Corruption", a state in which their physical composition and form dramatically shifts irreversibly. (usually.)

The thing is, we see repeatedly that this process can be guided by Tempering and similar phenomenon. Without Tempering or other psychological influences in play, Corporeal Corruption tends to just convert the subject into whatever aspect they were overaspected with, (such as what happens to the Black Mages without stones in the BLM quests) or if it's balanced aspect-wise, (and thus Unaspected) they Crystallize, ala G'raha Tia or gods plenty other examples like in Mor Dhona or The Burning Wall, but if something is directly influencing the target's sense of self, the corruption tends to result in something related! Leviathan made the Drowned, for example, and Anima made cthullu cosplayers.

This isn't just dependent on primals though! We see another example of this with the Ishgardian Elezen who underwent Dragonification! In this case, it's because of the Dragon's aether that's in their blood influencing their sense of self, but the end result is the same! they undergo a significant shift in physical form to match their sense of self, even if it's warped.

Based on what we learn later on about how the Ancients underwent transformations, the dots end up coming together! An individual's "sense of self", their self-image, determines their physical form when in an aetherically unstable state! This is also consistent with what we know about Anima being required for teleportation, (which IS still canon, NPCs like the guard outside Gridania's aetheryte still mention it.) and this is where Fantasia would come into play.

If we assume that Fantasia is, for all intents and purposes, a specifically made chemical that allows one to shift their sense of self, (A hallucinogen, essentially.) and then induces an aetheric destabilization in the consumer, following the above precedents, logically they'd undergo corporeal corruption into their ideal form!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zero-ELEC

Where are the full questions and answers, if I may?

---

I'm also curious to know if anyone has the full questions and answers. Just saw the FFXIV Discord was the source.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lunair

snip of fascinating info!

---

Fantasia being a hallucinogen that changes a person's sense of self into a more positive light while then destabilizing corporeal aether enough to make a dramatic physical change can have some either hilarious or depressing implications to us players that are "fantasia addicts."

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lunair

fantasia lore snip

---

Hi, hello, I am adopting this headcanon forthwith. This is a wonderful supposition on how it might work in-lore, especially considering we do have a merchant peddling them in-game and then see a Lala turn into a Roe.