Lore Book Revelations

[Belhi]

Wait a sec.... If Estinien is using Gae Blog... does that mean mine was a fake!?!?!

[Morningstar1337]

Wait a sec.... If Estinien is using Gae Blog... does that mean mine was a fake!?!?!

It seems very unlikely. For starters all the relic weapons are as the name implies, relics. Antiques, old. The Gae Bolg Estinein uses was likely made more recently.

Plus a lot of the relics seemed to had been mass produced in their heydey anyway like the Stardust Rods.

[Anonymoose]

On a different note, the Ascians are down 4 memebers, Mitron (killed by Arbert and his band), Lahabrea (Killed by Thordian), Nabriales and Igeyohrm (killed by us).

I haven't made it all the way through the book yet, so just drop a citation on (and ignore) me if I'm just mistaken here, but: Are we sure that vanquished means killed in this case? The word doesn't always mean "killed", just "defeated" or "overcome" in any way.

We saw Arbert wielding a blade of light in the aetherial sea, as we did against Lahabrea; yet that only cast him out of Thancred and destroyed a dark crystal. Mitron might still be out there sans a vessel of the First and some wasted time.

This does not confirm Gaius' death! *sob sob*

It feels wrong, but until I find a place that the book is wrong in a different assumption, I have to accept it as an extraordinary heavy weight on the scales of probability... bummed, though I am.

No, it goes even beyond that - the confusion about the gender of Nael is in the original Japanese too.

Never mind the two male-explicit pronouns in Japanese ("What if the Lodestone was deliberate misinformation? And surely Gaius didn't know better if Eula was hiding it.") or that the JP-built model was male in the DATs and had a male voice pack ("What if Eula was wearing armor built for a man and faking a deeper voice?") or that Yoshida-san himself said "always man" when asked in person at Fan Fest I ("What if he was just trying to cover the mistakes with some consistency that the lore book has negated the need?") or that Rise and Fall of the White Raven was considered accurate by the lore team in its day despite it needing an update now ("What if ... Ascians?") or that other things have changed, too, such as Bradamante's lore ("What if the Lodestone was just always wrong? It said the spear was said to be named for someone Darnus slew; it made no promises.")

I, for one, think we should just take the Encyclopaedia Eorzea as a gift and forsake everything else. What was the purpose of debate? To find the Truth. Here it is, in black and white (or black and parchment, I guess). Is it possible that a chunk of it is a masterful post hoc clean-up? Sure. Are some development stitches showing? Sure seems like it. But it's done. There it is: Truth.

I'm takin' it.

[Belhi]

It seems very unlikely. For starters all the relic weapons are as the name implies, relics. Antiques, old. The Gae Bolg Estinein uses was likely made more recently.

Plus a lot of the relics seemed to had been mass produced in their heydey anyway like the Stardust Rods.

The Lore book, that calls Estinien's weapon Gae Bolg, seems to describe it as a holy relic. It would seem strange to have two relics with the same name and the same appearance. That would just be confusing.

It feels wrong, but until I find a place that the book is wrong in a different assumption, I have to accept it as an extraordinary heavy weight on the scales of probability... bummed, though I am.

I get why people are such big fans of Gaius but I don't see why people feel him actually being dead is wrong. Infact it's very believable. The guy would probably be 60 by now. Let him go guys.... He has had his run.

[Balipu]

or that other things have changed, too, such as Bradamante's lore ("What if the Lodestone was just always wrong? It said the spear was said to be named for someone Darnus slew; it made no promises.")

How was it worded actually? Did it say someone Darnus slew, or did it say Bradamante was the spear's first victim? The latter would be true from a certain point of view.

By the way I don't think we should overthink Rise of the White Raven that much. Everyone ingame believed Nael to be male. Mostly because Nael really was male. Emphasis on WAS. What makes the switch so perfect that after shaking off Bahamut's tempering, Eula is confused about being in a body not her own. We believed the confusion is because Nael turned into a woman but actually her original female body was replaced by a fake female body constructed by Bahamut. It really wasn't her own.
I wonder with the Garleans back in the limelight in Stormblood, will we learn more about Eula or perhaps the real Nael.

[Anonymoose]

How was it worded actually?

その背に負いしは、過去に殺めし乙女の名を持つガンハルバード「ブラダマンテ」。

Bradamante—a gunhalberd said to be named for a warrior maiden he slew.

Die Kanonenhellebarde auf seinem Rücken trug den Namen eines jungen Mädchens, mit dessen Blut er sie zuerst besudelte — Bradamante.

Son arme, une hallebarde revolver, est appelée « Bradamante », le nom d'une jeune fille qu'il aurait tuée.

JP seems vaguer than the rest; "Carried on the back, the gunhalberd Bradamante possesses the name of a maiden killed in the past." I think that's how to read it, but I can't really tell if nuances and context imply that she was killed by someone other than herself. Granted, if that was the case, it doesn't look like anybody was told or ever corrected. EN says he killed her, FR says he killed her, DE says her blood was the first with which he sullied his blade, I think?

[Cilia]

Wait a sec.... If Estinien is using Gae Blog... does that mean mine was a fake!?!?!

If I recall rightly, when you go to have Gerolt make the Gae Bolg, he sarcastically asks you why you don't just go have Ishgard make you one. I was under the impression that it's a pretty common weapon among Dragoons - or at least Azure Dragoons, since running off memory I believe Haldrath also had one - so Estinien having Gae Bolg was hardly surprising. It's like a mark of mastery for Dragoons, so to speak.

All the relics are replicas anyway. It's not until you start powering it up that it matches the weapon of legend, and even then the Gae Bolg's ultimate form is an entirely different weapon (Longinus), so...

[Anonymoose]

I get why people are such big fans of Gaius but I don't see why people feel him actually being dead is wrong. Infact it's very believable. The guy would probably be 60 by now. Let him go guys.... He has had his run.

I meant that something feels subjectively, internally amiss; an intangible hesitation when looking at the big picture. Not to parrot my Griffin posts again and again, but of course it's believable that someone standing in the middle of a bunch of explosions is probably dead. The scales were always weighted pretty heavily against him coming back, and I'm willing to let him go for the lore book's sake.

It's just ... something about it makes my brain itch (and probably for no good reason).

If I recall rightly...

Pretty sure you do. Even the trailer dragoons and quest NPCs have Gae Bolgs, iirc.
It, and the Drachen equipment, seem to be standardized Knight Dragoon equipment.

On another topic...

I'm seeing mentions of Nanamo's parents and I can't tell if Sasabal or Sasabaru is the mistaken English variant of the name. Sasabal Ul Sisibal is from way back in 1.0, whereas Sasabaru has been seen more recently ... but I didn't even need to go back that far. As of 3.4, English and French don't even agree on Sasabal Ul Sisibal vs. Sasabaru on the Loyal Pleco.