Revelations from PAX West 2017

[Anonymoose]

What struck me most was the comment about him not hating the 6 races...

To be fair the Sylphs themselves don't hate the races, themselves. The Ixal, Amalj'aa, Kobold, and Sahagin were manipulated in 1562 to see the "faithless and unclean" city-states as the reason the Ascians had come to Eorzea, when in reality the Ascians were the Paragons who taught them how to summon "to defend themselves" all along. By the time this came to light, it was too late - that narrative had already been "validated' by Ascian attacks, primals had been summoned, tribes had been tempered. The cities and the tribes ended up at each others' throats and they still mostly hate each other.

The Sylphs saw these tribes as an example and failed to heed the advice of the Paragon, believing that primals cloud minds and darken hearts. However, between the invasion of the Empire, the Calamity, and the unpredictable and often reckless whims of man, a group of Sylphs ended up coming around to the idea of summoning Ramuh in self-defense. The mindset of the summoners would result in a primal that was primarily of and for the wood. Moreover, they believe that Ramuh is as just and wise as he is powerful, so his behavior would be tempered by this, as well - especially when summoned for defense. The tempered Sylphs are those that were either too close to Ramuh for too long or specifically requested that he bless them to share in his power. It did cloud their minds and darken their hearts, to a degree, however. Their drive to kidnap and force the other Sylphs into the levinlight is a misguided yearning for unity.

That said, Ramuh has always been weird. He's clearly based on memories of an Elezen. He's clearly the spitting image of how Sharlayan artists imagine Rhalgr. He's explicitly stated to be "a god of man". And the Crystal of Light implies some former allegiance to Hydaelyn Herself. I suspect that the missing link is somewhere in the old tales of the Old Man of the Woods.

Urianger
Ramuh, beloved primal of the sylphs. Rooted is he in the laws of eld, the stern arbiter of the forest.
Legend hath it this thunderous entity appeareth in the guise of an elderly sage. Thus doth history oft speaketh of the “old man of the woods.”

As an initial guess - that this mythical figure was actually an Archon. This would explain pretty much everything; how he got tied up in the mythology of a god, why he looks like a mortal man, that he's near Ala Mhigo, and that at some point in the past he gifted the Sylphs a crystal. It would also explain how he knows so much of the past (think of how much we have learned as Her chosen) and how that wisdom, by way of his essence being at the heart of Ramuh's summoning (like Garuda and the Allagan General), was passed on to a primal believed to be wise.

[Balipu]

I did! It gives me further hope that common ground can be found in the future, especially when we see more of the territories that aren't ruled by the likes of Zenos.

I immediately thought of you when I heared that part.

[Theodric]

I immediately thought of you when I heared that part.

I'm flattered!

[Hinoto-no-Ryuji]

Is there anywhere I can watch the Koji panel? Japan Time isn't kind to North American streams, and it sounds like quite a bit was discussed for each answer.

[FJerome]

Is there anywhere I can watch the Koji panel? Japan Time isn't kind to North American streams, and it sounds like quite a bit was discussed for each answer.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/171741200?t=2h

[Dalmacus]

1.0 Papalymo voice was from nolan north omg that guy is talented!

[Zohar_Lahar]

You know, we have generally assumed that Ramuh was a adoption of the imagery of Rhalgr used by humans that the Sylphs copied. Wouldn't it be interesting if it turned out it was actually the other way round.

At the very least, it should lay to rest the complaints over the Griffin not summoning Rhalgr (since you already fought him).

[YianKutku]

Minor correction:

A reverse example, in Yanxia, The Swallow's Compass (a reference to geomancy) is "Kaien's Tomb" which where there's a double-meaning involving the king of Doma.

It's Gan'en's Tomb, for the first King of Doma. Katakana is ガンエン.

Koji Fox elaborates that Japanese players seeing it would understand the reference to 岩燕, which means "cliff swallow" (it's literally the words for rock "岩" and swallow "燕"), but read as a name. It would be difficult to localize into English, though, so he just took the "swallow" part of it, and added a reference to the feng shui compass.

(Completely unrelated tangent: I'm always puzzled by the way feng shui in the game is translated as "geomancy", which is like saying FFXIV and FFXV are the same thing. Technically not untrue, but...)

[Anonymoose]

Minor correction:

Thanks! I knew that was definitely wrong but I had to keep typing, lol.

EDIT: Heh, out-of-context that line sounds like it explains a lot of things...

[Zohar_Lahar]

(Completely unrelated tangent: I'm always puzzled by the way feng shui in the game is translated as "geomancy", which is like saying FFXIV and FFXV are the same thing. Technically not untrue, but...)

Isn't that what the Geomancer job was always called in Japanese versions?