Hydaelyn at large (is there a compilation of info yet?)

[Kyan]

I can't really think of any case in Vana'diel that would be a land bridge aside from Jeuno, which wasn't really a land bridge though. It was quite literally an actual man-made bridge (multiple bridges, actually) that just happened to have a city at their center. The land bridges of XIV mean more along the lines of how Panama is just a thin strip of land that connects North/Central America with South America. An isthmus, if you will.

It has been a while since I played XI, but yes, I forgot it was man made bridges, hahaha. But I guess, what I was implying is the notion that people are saying the "three Great Continents" are physically connected in Hydaelyn without evidence, but that could be because of the expectation and familiarity of Vana'diel's middleland continents being physically connected.

Yes, that's exactly what was meant [referring to "borrowed colours"].

Which is interesting in and of itself - I guess what I was inferring to was the fact the Garleans are not attacking specific nation's trade to the East if the Domans felt comfortable enough to borrow colours for their ships.

The only trouble I have there is that some of the previous visitors (a la the Uma Byugo) seem to imply a fairly large and established yet still free society/city back home

So, I discovered you can read a lot of the quest dialogue on XIVDB. In the Limsa part of the Heavensturn event, "Heavenly Power", we are to haul carrots for the harvest. This is said by the Far Eastern assistance who has injured himself carrying carrots: "...Come to relieve me? Oh, thank the Twelve. Blasted yoriki and his ideas! He's a northeasterner, you know. They're all off their gourd."

It is these little one liners found throughout the event (hinting at a wider, free realm), the general gaiety of the Easterlings (they are having a lot of fun!), and the fact that they come freely to Eorzea every Heavensturn just to celebrate, rather than plead for help to liberate their continent, strikes me as really odd. Whilst I concede defeat (and ate my cleric's circlet) in regards to Othard being the Far East, I am still hedging my bets that the Far East is either an extremely large continent, or there is multiple large landmasses which make up the Far East. It would explain a lot of the information present, but this is just my inference.

[JGwinters]

It has been a while since I played XI, but yes, I forgot it was man made bridges, hahaha. But I guess, what I was implying is the notion that people are saying the "three Great Continents" are physically connected in Hydaelyn without evidence, but that could be because of the expectation and familiarity of Vana'diel's middleland continents being physically connected.

The continents being connected by a land bridge comes from early marketing materials, before 1.0 was released I think. I'm sure someone with more resources readily available could give you a quote. I'm not sure if it's been mentioned since that (maybe at the 1.0 site it was?), but nothing since has contradicted that piece of info so there is no reason to stop thinking that that is how the continents are laid out.