Encyclopædia Eorzea ("Lore Book") Bug Report Thread

[Niwashi]

HEADING: The Near East - Ilsabard or Thavnair?

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My assumption is that the region known as the Near East must include all of these islands and small landmasses in the Bounty / Jade Sea as well as the southern tip of Ilsabard, but the revelation seemed to come out of left field is all?

How is that out of left field? It seems in line with the in-game references you cited.

Particularly the reference to "the Near Eastern island of Thavnair" clearly indicates that Thavnair is just one portion of the Near East. That phrasing wouldn't make sense if they were somehow one and the same. It's like when someone refers to "the Hawaiian island of Oahu" they're not claiming that Oahu is the entirety of Hawaii, but just that it lies within that state, and is the part of it that's under discussion.

It's true that none of those in-game references addressed the question of what else is in the Near East, but the encyclopedia seems to be simply filling in formerly missing information rather than changing anything.

The other in-game references you cited are simply talking about Thavnair or Radz-at-Han. Would you find it weird if someone got to sample Parisian cooking during a trip to France? Or if someone importing American goods into Europe purchased them from a New York based company? Paris isn't a synonym for France, nor is New York a synonym for America, but they're prominent places within their respective countries. The encyclopedia points out that the civilization of Radz-at-Han is very prominent in the region, so it's not surprising that that's where a lot of the trade between the Near East and Eorzea would come from (leading to it being the part we've seen the most references to so far).

[Sounsyy]

How is that out of left field? It seems in line with the in-game references you cited. Particularly the reference to "the Near Eastern island of Thavnair" clearly indicates that Thavnair is just one portion of the Near East.

The assumption has always been that the Near East was, at most, another island chain or archipelago similar to the Cieldalaes or Sharlayan. For the past six years, the Near East has seemingly only ever referred to Thavnair, with many texts going from "Near Eastern" to "Thavnairian" and back in an interchangeable fashion. So for six years we've only seen "Hawaii" refer specifically to "Oahu," to use your example, and absolutely nothing else. Now we know Thavnair is but one tiny island in the greater Bounty that is the Near East and that's totally awesome to learn.

But apparently it also now refers to what seems to be a rather sizable portion of a continent we've known for five-ish years by two completely different designations. That's what I was referring to as feeling out of left field. Essentially everything south of Dalmasca, which is nestled in Ilsabard's central mountains (apparently), is a part of the Near East also, if I'm understanding the lore book correctly. So basically a good portion of Ilsabard, if not half of it, is referred to by Eorzeans as the Near East, but before the lore book, Ilsabard has always been referred to as two things: "the northern great continent" or "the seat of the Garlean Empire in the northeast." It's not that either of these two designations are incorrect, it's just that we've never once seen something as simple as "Near Eastern Ilsabard."

My hope in listing the Near Eastern issue on this thread wasn't to get anything corrected necessarily, but to encourage future Near Eastern lore text to reference places other than Thavnair from now on, now that we know this region is perhaps larger than the entirety of the Far East and is certainly more encompassing than just a "tiny island across the Sea of Jade." That's all.

If you're curious to see more on the Near East though, my pre-book collection is here.