Question regarding the map of Eorzea

While checking out the map of Eorzea I noticed something on it I never paid much attention to. On the lower left corner of it you have this:

http://puu.sh/3z1gM/336c372399.png

Those 4 symbols at the top are obviously the 4 main city-states, but what about those below? Hamlets? I don't recall the Hamlets having their own flag though.

Thank you for asking! I always wondered when I looked at the map, but never got around to asking.

/call the lore masters

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Addicted

[W]hat about those below?

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I wouldn't discount the smaller symbols as being cities/townships. The "big four" there are the official members of the Eorzean Alliance, which was originally founded to combat the over-bearing military might of Ala Mhigo. That would explain why those four take prominence in the design, both in detail of the city-states on the map as well as the larger flags. The first version of this map was drafted in 1506 Sixth Astral Era, so perhaps that timing lines up.

The blue/white one is familiar but I can't quite place it yet...

Based on the grouping of the Eorzean Alliance members, I think it's also safe to assume the others are grouped according to some relation. What can we make of those groupings?

Deities? Battle/crafting/gathering guilds? Beastmen? Character Races?

No idea, but it is interesting

I originally attributed those symbols to actual places because of these symbols in the map:

http://puu.sh/3z3l1/fb0261d2ae.png
http://puu.sh/3z3lt/88fc83e6f5.png
http://puu.sh/3z3mU/a59f93d5b9.png

Unfortunately, the resolution is far too low to see if there's any resemblance to the ones I posted.

If you look at the ships sailing into Limsa Lominsa, they bear the blue and white flag. Why is it so familiar to me...

We also see a small red rectangle off the western coast of Thanalan and to the south of Sharlayan, and a small yellow/orange one off the coast of Mazlaya (off the west coast of Thanalan), which could be two of the flags in this smaller box.

I believe the red flag with the white mark in the center may be Sharlayan, as we see the red rectangle next to where text-descriptions in game place the city and a ship sailing away from this location bears the same flag on its mast...

Looks like I'm getting to work!

[Starts a new wiki page and puts on his translating hat.]

That fourth flag is probably Ishgard. Note that it has spears on wither side. Ishgard is famous for it's dragoons right? I'm also thinking those smaller icons could be the class/job symbols.

As Moose says they're mostly likely associated to Hamlets, small cities/townships. Places Roddard Ironheart would have stayed as he journeyed across Eorzea mapping the details. The odd thing for me is the detailed drawings of Ishgard, Gridania, Ul'dah and Limsa Lominsa and the vague copy/paste city design for Sharlayan and Ala Mhigo. Maybe he wasn't allowed into these cities for details or maybe a sting of the Autumn War still hung around Roddard so he gave preference to the 4 City-States.

The flags are at least grouped together...4 -> 3 -> 2 -> 2 -> 3...but as Moose stated the Blue Flag with the White Stripe looks to be associated it with Limsa or at least the ships near Limsa. So they aren't in order of the City-State, so I don't know the exact order, but a few places I think could be considered:

Ul'dah:

• Golden Bazaar
• Silver Bazaar
• Camp Blackbrush --- This is where "outcast" and poor Ul'dahns live.

Limsa Lominsa:

• Wineport
• Aleport
• The Cieldalaes --- Seems to be mostly fishing villages, I just include it in this list cause of the region.

Gridania:

• Quarrymill
• Hyrtsmill

Ishgard:

• Owl's Nest
• Eagle's Nest
• Ferndale --- The town Nidhogg eventually destroyed.

Just a few examples I mostly wanted to toss in Fern(e)dale.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NoloeTazier

[A]s Moose stated the Blue Flag with the White Stripe looks to be associated it with Limsa or at least the ships near Limsa

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Can anybody read the name under the ships? I'm chipping away at it now, but most of the "handwritten" Eorzean is quite difficult to get right. Even the six letters above EORZEA on the sigil are giving me grief (though, to be fair, they might not actually say anything considering the sixth letter is a backwards u).

All three ships are marked with the same five-letter word, which I'm pretty confident begins with a J.

EDIT:
The longer I stare at this, the higher I assess the likelihood that any text smaller than The Cieldalaes is deliberate gibberish.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Anonymoose

EDIT:
The longer I stare at this, the higher I assess the likelihood that any text smaller than The Cieldalaes is deliberate gibberish.

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The same thing happens in the End of an Era video ;-; all the Eorzean on Louisoix's containment spell / redalamudding is simply ABCDEF...XYZ in Eorzean obviously. Though there are deity names and titles when their symbols appear (I only ever got through 'Thaliak, the Scholar' before giving up realizing there was little to be gleaned from translating)

I went through that exact same process, lol.

Did you also fall to your knees and scream FERNEHALWES to the heavens?

Or was that just me :(

I said something about it in one of our Lore threads (forget which one) just in case Fernehalwes was supposed to report in to the Lore department that Anonymoose did, indeed, try to translate Dalamud, and did, indeed, just tell everyone that it was only the alphabet, thus ruining the immersion of loremongers everywhere and winning our favorite ahriman a bet.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Anonymoose

Can anybody read the name under the ships? I'm chipping away at it now, but most of the "handwritten" Eorzean is quite difficult to get right. Even the six letters above EORZEA on the sigil are giving me grief (though, to be fair, they might not actually say anything considering the sixth letter is a backwards u).

All three ships are marked with the same five-letter word, which I'm pretty confident begins with a J.

EDIT:
The longer I stare at this, the higher I assess the likelihood that any text smaller than The Cieldalaes is deliberate gibberish.

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Yeah I noticed the gibberish too as I looked closer, it's almost like a grocery list. After zooming in and knocking my brain around I came up with these for words/letters for the boats:

Jaks_
Jans_

The letters are so jumbled it's hard to tell what the last 3 are.

Uhn... Smaller flags, fist row, sixth from the left.
I am almost 100% sure, like 78% sure actually, that that's the same banner up in Little Ala'Mhigo. They do have a purple banner, gotta watch with more care

There may be something in the flags, and without any further evidence I'd probably sign on to the theory that they're hamlets/villages.

As for the smallest text on the map, I'm 100% convinced it's deliberate gibberish. In the bottom right of the full map there is box with similarly sized text that is barely legible but still clearly Eorzean. If they could make that text recognizable, certainly they could have for the other map labels but they intentionally did not.

I have the fabric version of the map at home - the one that came with the collector's edition. I'll try and take a peek at it this evening to see if it can give a better resolution.

Its linkshell marks! The Blue and white. Maybe that is why its so familiar to you? I once saw a thread on the fourums with the Eorzean Alpahebth but i cant find it now.. God i should start making bookmarks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Anonymoose

If you look at the ships sailing into Limsa Lominsa, they bear the blue and white flag. Why is it so familiar to me...

We also see a small red rectangle off the western coast of Thanalan and to the south of Sharlayan, and a small yellow/orange one off the coast of Mazlaya (off the west coast of Thanalan), which could be two of the flags in this smaller box.

I believe the red flag with the white mark in the center may be Sharlayan, as we see the red rectangle next to where text-descriptions in game place the city and a ship sailing away from this location bears the same flag on its mast...

Looks like I'm getting to work!

[Starts a new wiki page and puts on his translating hat.]

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Incidentally, no, not even the fabric map tells me anything. It seems the artwork itself is designed to make the text illegible rather than it being a resolution issue.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by StianGold

Its linkshell marks! The Blue and white. Maybe that is why its so familiar to you? I once saw a thread on the fourums with the Eorzean Alpahebth but i cant find it now.. God i should start making bookmarks.

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That gives me an idea, especially since the symbols in question are associated with ships. Perhaps they're related with trade routes or merchant organizations? It's a bit odd they'd be below the 4 city state flags but it's something to ponder. I don't really recall if the named merchant organizations in Ul'dah and Limsa Lominsa had crests or the like.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Addicted

While checking out the map of Eorzea I noticed something on it I never paid much attention to. On the lower left corner of it you have this:

http://puu.sh/3z1gM/336c372399.png

Those 4 symbols at the top are obviously the 4 main city-states, but what about those below? Hamlets? I don't recall the Hamlets having their own flag though.

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My guess is that each set my be associated with a city-state and its factions.

The first set (four on the top left) could be Ul'dah's.

1.) The Brass Blades
2.) The Stone Torches
3.) The Sultan Sworn
4.) The Order of Nald'thal

The second might be Limsa.
1.) Knights of the Barracuda
2.) The Yellow Jackets
3.) Some other order we don't know about...I doubt that Mealvaan's Gate would be considered a force in itself.

The next ones are bit hard to judge or how the order works...

I think the bottom right might belong to Gridania.

1.) The God's Quiver
2.) The Woodwailers
3.) The Stillglade Fane

The bottom left is hard to figure, but it may be Ishgards...Possibly the dragoons (not the azure dragoons) and maybe a religious-military faction under the Archbishop.

And the far right might be Ala Mhigo's...The Fist of Rhalgr and whatever their pikemen are called.

The flag in little Ala Mhigo is that of a gryphon holding a sword. You can see a better image of it here: http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/world/cities/ala-mhigo

From my position, the flag in question doesn't look anything close to that.

Edit:

The Autumn War took place 100 years ago (according Oliver Goodfellow of the Raven), putting it around 1472. If the first map was drafted in 1506 as Moose stated. Perhaps the conflicts between Ala Mhigo and the rest of the city-states were still ongoing during this time, hence why they were emitted from the list of major flags.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mtoto_Wamoto

The flag in little Ala Mhigo is that of a gryphon holding a sword. You can see a better image of it here: http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/world/cities/ala-mhigo

From my position, the flag in question doesn't look anything close to that.

Edit:

The Autumn War took place 100 years ago (according Oliver Goodfellow of the Raven), putting it around 1472. If the first map was drafted in 1506 as Moose stated. Perhaps the conflicts between Ala Mhigo and the rest of the city-states were still ongoing during this time, hence why they were emitted from the list of major flags.

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The Autumn War began in 1468 when Ala Mhigo invaded the Twelveswood. Only lasted a year once Limsa Lominsa, Ul'dah, and Ishgard entered the conflict. As I stated earlier in the thread, Roddard Ironheart may have not been allowed in Ala Mhigo to give it a proper City-State icon or the grudge of the Autumn War may have still existed, whether it was his own prejudice or others. I don't remember if it's stated where Roddard is from, but if he is from Gridania then he'd have a reason to not like the Ala Mhigans.