At the end Ishgard: theocracy and history, which conclude of it? (spoil)

[Jaywalker]

It has been argued that Christianity was a major factor in the fall of the Roman Empire. The most famous proponent of that theory was no one less than Edward Gibbon in his "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". Few current historians put much weight on that theory though.

It is also a myth that the European Middle-ages was "dark". Yes, some knowledge was lost after the fall of the western part of the Roman Empire but not much, and innovation and improvments continued apace during the period.
The Renaissance was mainly a continuation of the Middle-Ages, but with some major societal changes starting to take place in no small part due to the population loss of the Black Plague.

That's an interesting point on Christianity factoring into the fall of Rome. I would totally expect it to play a part (studied Rome and some of the Middle Ages, but I am currently very very very rusty and it was not my main focus) but it sounds like Gibbon is arguing that it was one of the main elements at work? Out of curiosity are most current historians largely of the opinion that Christianity played a role but that the role was less substantial compared to other factors, or that it was basically insignificant in the fall of Rome in light of where it was developmentally and what was going on in the Roman Empire?

Also very true on the Middle Ages as dark. Honestly that was a slip on my end. I know it usually is reference to lost information from Greece and Rome (although IIRC it wasn't across the board? IIRC Aristotle was still pretty big) but for some reason there I basically went dark --> black plague lol.

And yup true on the Renaissance! I was thinking a little of the specific mentality "if God gives you gifts you should use them as well as possible" that I remember hearing about at some point in the past.

Think you're reading too much into it.

You'd be surprised. These games reference things that can get pretty obscure (again I was crazy impressed by how they went over ideas from Kaballah) in very thoughtful ways, often with careful attention to detail. There's also plenty of stuff in Stormblood that does commentary on Japanese Imperialism, Communist Regimes, Nazi Germany, and other subjects in ways that are pretty obvious once you know what to look for. Not to mention references to Journey into the West, the four constellations, and other points that would be readily recognized by most Japanese audiences. FFXIV team is very educated and slipping stuff in is part of the fun.

Also it seems to be a thing in Japan that historical France in particular is considered super exotic and beautiful atm, so it makes sense there would be stuff tying to that and period Catholicism.