[Lore Guys!] Garlean Race Question & Hidden Castrum in Coerthas

[Koti]

Now the second one is really simply. What is what that Castrum in Coerthas? More importantly-- what is its name? If you have really good settings and its a clear day, you can see it off in the distance from that one tower where the npc says, "No one could survive that fall.." (or something like that). I think I have a screenshot of it, but I really love to know what that Castrum is called.

Thanks!

[Anonymoose]

1000 word limit is a pain

You can circumvent it by typing everything you want to and copying it, then posting EDIT INCOMING, and then editing your post and pasting. Just make sure you don't accidentally copy over the copy or you're screwed, lol.

Garlean's Third Eye

We know next to nothing about the third eye, really. It's only even been mentioned two or three times, that I know of, and neither referred to its actual effects. Cid says that perhaps his own third eye helped him realize who you are, but it sounds more like a sentiment than a theory. Likewise, an Eorzean claims that Garleans implant magitek into their bodies and have a third eye that sees in all directions at once. Either could be true, or they could be tales of boogeymen spread by laymen among the invaded. Who knows!

What is what that Castrum in Coerthas?

The model is an exact match for Castrum Marinum, which lies in the sea between Thanalan (where Ul'dah is) and Vylbrand (where Limsa is), but if you look at where you're standing and what way you're looking, it really doesn't seem to be in the right direction or at the right distance. It's possible that there's a second base that looks just like Marinum in every way except lies in the Coerthas Western Highlands. There's no evidence either way, so pick whichever theory you like better and call it a guess, for now, lol.

[Koti]

Oh, I know. My friend asked me about the Castrum and he said it looks like the same as you said. I told him to check his map, pointing out that exact same deal regarding the directions. Which is why I keep staring at my map, at it, and squinting at Ishgard with their new Magitek weaponry that they DID NOT HAVE back in 1.0. They are not helping my under the table theory in, haha.

Though for both however, its kinda why I was hoping to get the Lore Mod's attention, cause I know the man has the answer-- even if its just "Stay tuned for 3.0!".

[Anonymoose]

I told him to check his map, pointing out that exact same deal regarding the directions.

You piqued my curiosity, so I decided to go back up there and take a better look at it with fresh eyes. Using the region maps instead of the zone maps, you can tell that you're looking towards the silhouette southwest across the Yafaem Saltmoor and into the Straight of Merlthor. The angle lands a bit north of where I remembered Marinum being, so I went back down to Cape Westwind - turns out facing Marinum from there requires more of a northwest angle than I remembered. Funny enough, trying to look back at Coerthas, the open sea goes on a lot farther east than I'd expect.

It's all well within the range of "Eh, close enough," though. The silhouette is definitely bigger than you'd expect it to be, given the distance, but trying to maintain the points of view inside of several discrete zones any better than they are now sounds like kind of a nightmare. It'd be impossible to scale the points of view in a way that convincingly reflects the truths that Aldenard is a continent and the zone you just chocobo'd across in 5 minutes was a sizeable chunk of a visible region of that continent. Given all that, I think the zone artist was just trying to show you that the Coerthas Highlands are high enough that you can see over all the mountains to the sea from there. All the parts of the shape are the same - the teleport ring, the airship dock on the right, even the pattern of docked juggernauts spiraling up the left side of the silhouette. Gonna throw my lot in with the Marinum theorists.

Third eye, though? I still got nothin'.