Quote Originally Posted by Lium View Post
My Au Ra ninja is named Yu Daiyu... But I think her name should actually be Yu Daiyu Huanghou. Which would mean the "Black Jade Empress" if I'm not mistaken. Is that correct?
I think this thread has well and truly lost its original purpose of being about FFXIV-lore-based names. Not that I particularly mind, as I've always felt that there should be a subforum for role-players, and a thread for name suggestions would very much belong there.

Now, as for the above question, please don't go with "Huanghou" ( 皇后 ), because that's a title, not a name. An individual would never refer to herself as "Empress" unless it's her intention to sound unseemingly arrogant, and also a bit silly. It's a bit like introducing yourself this way: "Hi, I'm Lord John Smith"; or even "Hi, I'm John Smith, but that's Lord Smith to a peon like you."

For a more detailed discussion on Chinese mythology, folklore and astrology:

As for the Jade Empress ( 玉皇后 ) of Chinese mythology, she's more often known as Tianshang Shengmu ( 天上聖母 , literally the "Heavenly Mother"), or more simply as Mazu ( 媽祖 , literally, the "Ancestral Mother"), the patron saint of sailors. It may come as a surprise to foreigners, but the Chinese don't particularly care much about cosmology, and while there is a pantheon of Chinese gods, they aren't directly related to the creation of the world (that's a separate myth altogether).

The Jade Emperor and his heavenly court exist mostly as a mirror to the Imperial Court on earth, but the gods are by and large detached from mortal affairs, unlike the Greek gods, for example. That is to say, the Jade Empress, like the Jade Emperor, plays only a minor role in Chinese religion, if at all.

Meanwhile, I must say this is the first time I've ever heard of the Zi Wei Star ( 紫微星 ), so thanks for introducing me to Zi Wei Dou Shu ( 紫微斗數 , or "The Empyrean Matrix: Purple Star Astrology"), an esoteric branch of Chinese astrology. When it comes to fortune-telling, Fengshui ( 風水 ), or geomancy (itself heavily influenced by Taoism and the Yijin [ 易經 ], ie, the Book of Change), matters much, much more to the majority of Chinese, in most practical situations.

What FFXIV lore-mongers may find particularly interesting, though, is that Purple Star Astrology involves 14 stars, each representing one or two classical Chinese elements in either yin (dark, ie, umbral) or yang (light, ie, astral) polarity. Sound familiar?