Azim Steppe

[ObsidianFire]

There's a sidequest that involves the House of the Crooked Coin. And it raises more questions then answers. Apparently the Xalea, particularly the Dorthal, believe the giant crystal structure inside is a piece of Nhaama's essence. The Dorthal also believe that if they commit suicide by throwing themselves into the cavern that houses the crystal, they will join Nhaama and break their cycle of reincarnation. So yeah, until more information comes available (looks at the Lore Book Vol. 2) it looks like there might be part of a goddess in there. How did it get there? *shrug*

The Dawn and Dusk Thrones are a lot more mundane. Both have sightseeing log entries associated with them. The Dawn Throne was built by the Xalea on the spot Azim created a mortal form for himself. The Dusk Throne was built where Nhaama made a mortal form for herself. If you look at a map of the Azim Steppe closely, you'll see the The Dusk Throne isn't actually in the Azim Steppe, but is in the Nhaama Desert. It's fairly common for desert ruins to get buried in sand due to dust storms (look at some very early picture of the Great Shinx) and it looks like that is what is happening to the Dusk Throne. I feel like this is one of the cases where the scale of the maps is way off and the Dusk Throne would probably be much further from the Dawn Throne if the map scale was correct.

Stuff I want to know more about... Bardam, the boss of Bardam's Mettle, looks a lot like a low-tech version of Alexander. So which came first? The stories of when Alexander, Dyne and Myde showed up in the past or Dyne and Myde basing Alexander off all the low-tech robots they already knew about? And speaking of Bardam, the real one... anyone else think he's a good candidate for an early WoL?

The Chuluu enemy... this reminds me a lot of the idea behind soul stones. For a refresher, a Chuluu is a tablet on which the history of Xalea warriors are caved to commemorate them. Sometimes this is done a bit too well and the tablets try to carry out what is carved on them. So you've got people recording information on stone and then the stone being a source of instructions for something. Sadu even uses two Chuluu as a power source (or instruction manual?) to cast Meteor. I kinda wonder if they're proto-Soul Stones or if Soul Stones are the "evolved" form of them.

Nhaama and Azim. This set of gods is a bit weird compared to the other ones we've run into. The Twelve in the Eorzean Mythos create the world and then leave it for the the Heavens. The primals were originally called primals because they were the primary force behind the creation stories of the beast races. The kami live in divine objects and it's very murky whether the object becomes a kami, the kami moves into the object, or a mix of both. In any case, all those stories start with the gods in the world and end with them either staying it it or leaving it.

Nhaama and Azim don't start in the world; they start in the heavens (as the sun and moon) and then come down to the world where they make corporeal forms for themselves. They aren't involved in creating the world like The Twelve are and they don't inhabit objects like kami do. After making corporeal forms for themselves, they have children somehow and then leave for the heavens again. Well... not quite. The Dorthal think some part of Nhaama's essence is still in the House of the Crooked Coin. And the Oronir think Azim purposely had children outside his own people to leave part of himself behind to protect Nhaama's people.

I just think it's rather odd that you've got one mythos that has really no creation myth in the traditional sense and swaps the locations of the gods. The gods forming bodies for themselves is also noteworthy. The only time we see gods take "corporal form" is when a summoning happens. Only apparently Nhaama and Azim do this to themselves. I'm kinda wondering if long before the Au Ra split, they did summon Nhaama and Azim. And then managed to keep part of Nhaama's aether in Hose of the Crooked Coin somehow.

[Astrid_Stormborn]

Nhaama and Azim. This set of gods is a bit weird compared to the other ones we've run into. The Twelve in the Eorzean Mythos create the world and then leave it for the the Heavens. The primals were originally called primals because they were the primary force behind the creation stories of the beast races. The kami live in divine objects and it's very murky whether the object becomes a kami, the kami moves into the object, or a mix of both. In any case, all those stories start with the gods in the world and end with them either staying it it or leaving it.

Nhaama and Azim don't start in the world; they start in the heavens (as the sun and moon) and then come down to the world where they make corporeal forms for themselves. They aren't involved in creating the world like The Twelve are and they don't inhabit objects like kami do. After making corporeal forms for themselves, they have children somehow and then leave for the heavens again. Well... not quite. The Dorthal think some part of Nhaama's essence is still in the House of the Crooked Coin. And the Oronir think Azim purposely had children outside his own people to leave part of himself behind to protect Nhaama's people.

I just think it's rather odd that you've got one mythos that has really no creation myth in the traditional sense and swaps the locations of the gods. The gods forming bodies for themselves is also noteworthy. The only time we see gods take "corporal form" is when a summoning happens. Only apparently Nhaama and Azim do this to themselves. I'm kinda wondering if long before the Au Ra split, they did summon Nhaama and Azim. And then managed to keep part of Nhaama's aether in Hose of the Crooked Coin somehow.

We haven't even touched on the Mol tribe's "Elder Gods", although being just another name for kami is a possibility there.

Maybe we'll get some more insight on the Steppe side of things with the next round of Tales from the Storm.