Inconsistencies with the astrologian questline and the Durendaire family

[Iscah]

I don't think the third child has been named. Also they might still be pinning after Carvallain since Tataru did the whole you're going to take us for this price or I'll let your fam know you're alive bit when we went to Kugane.

And what a spectacular piece of blackmail that was! I loved that scene. (I feel like Stormblood had a lot less enjoyable character-interaction scenes than Heavensward did, but that one stands out. Though perhaps partly because I'd been eagerly waiting to see when Carvallain's past would become a plot point...)

Still, it's back to the same issue at the core of the puzzle - when referenced by sources outside of the AST questline, it seems like Carvallain is/was basically considered the only option for future count, and thus his absence is a major problem for them. (On top of, I hope, genuinely caring about what has happened to him!)


Though, I'm starting to wonder a bit deeper on exactly what Tataru said there, and what can be gathered from it. "Without him, the Count de Durendaire must look elsewhere for a successor...and the good Lord Jannequinard is one step closer to being the next in line..."

- again, if he has two other adult sons, why is he looking "elsewhere"? (unless it's 'elsewhere' than the very narrow field of one specific person, but it's not the impression I get from that phrasing.) *Can* he even look elsewhere? It's a hereditary title and has to go down the family line, doesn't it?
- still referring to him only as "Lord Jannequinard" and not mentioning his relationship to the others, leaving it open to potential miscommunication on where he actually fits in the family.
- confirms that there is *someone* in line between Carvallain and Jannequinard, if he's only "one step closer" now
- ...but why mention only Janne by name? (Other than the out-of-game answer of "because he's a known character", though it's fairly unusual to directly reference sidequest characters in the MSQ.) If the other brother is also a bad candidate for count, why not mention him too? If he's suitable, then the count shouldn't need to be looking for a new successor because his second-oldest son is right there - and has been for the last twenty years since the other one vanished.


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Also wondering, I've seen that some posts in this forum do get official responses - what sort of timeframe would that normally take to happen? Should I be hopeful of getting an answer to this?

[Vidu]

- again, if he has two other adult sons, why is he looking "elsewhere"? (unless it's 'elsewhere' than the very narrow field of one specific person, but it's not the impression I get from that phrasing.) *Can* he even look elsewhere? It's a hereditary title and has to go down the family line, doesn't it?

I am not sure how helpful this really is because even to me it sounds a bit like a "cheap" explantion in this context, but the reason I didnt stumble over that scene as much as you did is probably my german client because in german Tataru says the following:

"Armer Graf Durendaire! Er hat die Hoffnung nie aufgegeben, aber er hat natürlich keine Ahnung, dass sein Sohn noch lebt. Und dann geht es ja auch noch um die Nachfolge seines Hauses. Herr Jannequinard macht sich nun berechtigte Hoffnung, eines Tages das Haus zu übernehmen."

Which translates (more or less literal translation by me) as follows:
"Poor Count Durendaire! He never lost hope but of course he had no idea that is son is still alive! And then there is the question/matter of the succession of his house. Lord Jannequinard has now actual hopes to take over one day."

Its probably not the most colorful but hopefully accurate translation - and its a bit different than the english, I'd say.

"Looking elsewhere" becomes "the line of succession isnt a 100% clear at this point". It sounds a bit more like contemplating options and not so much having to find them first.
"One step closer" becomes "actual hopes" - to me the german text there always read like: They didnt really wanted Janne as Count and didnt expected him to have to take the position, so they sended him off to study (not an uncommon practise for second and third sons in rl noble families in the middle ages). They might still be looking for some "replacment" but Janne can now actually hope to be Count one day.

...not sure if this helps at all, but I found this thread really intresting to read and went back to check what the german dialouge said - and then noticed why that part never bothered me, so I wanted to share the possibility that maybe the english version is just a bit weird when it comes to phrasing!

[Brightamethyst]

- again, if he has two other adult sons, why is he looking "elsewhere"? (unless it's 'elsewhere' than the very narrow field of one specific person, but it's not the impression I get from that phrasing.) *Can* he even look elsewhere? It's a hereditary title and has to go down the family line, doesn't it?

For the how, adoption and other relatives (cousins, nephews, etc) are possible options. We don't know exactly how succession works here.

As for the why, any number of reasons. We already know that Janne doesn't really want the title, and his family probably doesn't want to give it to him either (lack of interest, involvement in that Sharlayan nonsense, etc.) If that's also true of the presumed middle son then it's not hard to see why the count would start looking for alternatives.


P.S. Hey Jess

[Iscah]

[German translation]

Thanks for that! So there's variation in the translations and exactly what might be implied by the wording. I did suspect that might be the case, but it's hard to tell without having access to multiple scripts (and the ability to read them!).

I wonder how the translation process works. Do the translators have a solid 'lore reference' to work with or do they just get handed that one story's script, where a deliberately-vague phrasing might get altered in the translation?


Overall I guess we'll get an answer to this eventually, as it's pretty clearly a plotline set to develop in the future, but I hope I don't have to wait for future expansions to find out what's going on... If nothing else, the correct timeline of the quest backstory needs clearing up.

P.S. Hey Jess

*waves*