End of an Era; am I ret-conning my own recollections?

[Enkidoh]

A curious addendum to Professor Moose's excellent explanation is that it appears prior to the Calamity occurring, Bahamut's existence was in fact known on some level, whether through ancient stories or cultural memories or through some other means by the general public - in 1.0 the first Job quest for PLD featured this curious exclamation from Captain Jenlyns, the captain of the Sultansworn of Ul'dah:



Even more curious, is the line was retained for the exact same quest in ARR as well. So, how did Jenlyns know of Bahamut? Foreshadowing not only what was really inside Dalamud, recalling cultural memes of the real Bahamut killed by the Allagans in Meracydia? It always puzzled me why Jenlyns said that, although it could have just been a sly bit of hinting how the Calamity was going to unfold by Ferne.

[Anonymoose]

although it could have just been a sly bit of hinting how the Calamity was going to unfold by Ferne.

If I remember correctly, it was this - there was another one, as well:

The newfangled doodah before you was built by Immortal Flames scholarlies. It can teleport you to any corner of the city quicker than you can say “Bahamut's backside”...and all for the bargain price of 500 gil! [IF DECLINED:] Bahamut can't live on good wishes and a smile, so why should I? Beggars can walk.

German once used "Since the accident in the mines, the Bahamut is loose at Frondale's Phrontistery" in a Tanaka-era MSQ, but I think it was just a nod to series past at the time.

Also, I completely forgot about it until now, but there was also that quest where Nael started kidnapping people potentially with information on primals trying to twist it into an advantage. The VIIth nabbed up an Ishgardian theologian that claimed there were ancient beliefs of dragons believing in a god amongst their kind. I'd originally had a theory that it was the XIVth who kidnapped him, they spirited him away to Aurum Vale because Nael had Castrum Novum and who in their right mind would look for anything in Aurum Vale, and that the information they gleaned was enough for Gaius to finally turn on him ... but it didn't turn out quite so complex in the end, lol.

[Elladie]

I'm not sure if I'm mis-remembering this as well - or even possibly making it up - but wasn't it suggested by Ferne or someone that the name Dalamud was a corruption over time of the name Bahamut? In which case, perhaps it was widely known at some point in the past exactly what the 'moon' was?

[Anonymoose]

wasn't it suggested by Ferne <...> that the name Dalamud was a corruption over time of the name Bahamut?

Indeed, "Dalamud" mimics a natural warping of "Bahamut" over the ages.

Unless you play in Japanese. They went off on their own for that one.

In which case, perhaps it was widely known at some point in the past exactly what the 'moon' was?

In the Third Astral Era, that was probably so. Felling Bahamut would probably have been a massive PR victory for the Empire. Putting dragons on heraldry and fashioning Dreadwyrm attire might have been taken as a projection of dominance; finally having conquered the oldest and smartest lifeforms in the world.

But recall that in the time after Allag fell, the pursuit of higher learning and education beyond good, hard, honest work that pleased the gods was shunned. For many, it was a dark age without universities or printing presses. And then even once such things were embraced more openly in the Fifth and Sixth eras, you'd still have had three world-rocking disasters between Bahamut's capture and the 1572nd Year of the Sixth Astral Era.

Ferne is a fan of linguistics, and English (on which Eorzean is based) is a strange, tricky, organic, and interesting language that's been warped many ways that could inspire a fantasy word like Dalamud. Perhaps T becomes D in oral transmission. Perhaps a man secretly takes the forbidding fruits of learning and makes a copy of a book by hand, but makes a mistake - a letter is mis-read, mis-drawn, malformed. Perhaps ink fades or smudges or is rubbed off as tomes are stored, read, and sit around for ages. B becomes D. h becomes l.

I'm reminded of the word "nuncle" that was mistaken for a typo in early Heavensward. Long ago, English shared the Germanic sound "mein" for "my". Mine uncle became my nuncle. This one little transformation-via-mistake happened all the damn time. An otch became a notch. An ewt (from eft) became a newt. We're still doing this one in English TODAY. But that's a whole nother topic.

There are lots of ways a word can go awry over the years. Perhaps, if we could look back in time, we could see a snapshot of the transformation. For example, we might see a Fifth Astral Era scholar read aloud to a group of pupils a book hand-copied by a monk, confidently teaching the dangers of hubris with the parable of the Allagans and the consequences of the great sin, Dahamud. For them, Dahamud is every bit as accurate as Dalamud was for us.

Yet once the tales drifted too far and Bahamut was forgotten, replaced by Dalamud, loyal hound of the goddess Menphina, it would have been all but impossible to glean the truth.