I Don't Understand the Light Theme

[ApolloGenX]

I should say that when I said religious themes- I was really referring to style, not story.

Maybe it is just me... I just came back from Europe, where we saw so many churches.... the abundance of feathers and angelic creatures just reminds me of recurring religious iconography. In any case, the style seems to bend more toward light as a concept and less toward light as an element, imo.

[Kitya]

I should say that when I said religious themes- I was really referring to style, not story.

Maybe it is just me... I just came back from Europe, where we saw so many churches.... the abundance of feathers and angelic creatures just reminds me of recurring religious iconography. In any case, the style seems to bend more toward light as a concept and less toward light as an element, imo.

The creatures of the light have always looked like that, though. Think back to Amdapor Keep Hard's second and third bosses. They look like the sin eaters do, and that's an ARR dungeon.

[WhiteArchmage]

I should say that when I said religious themes- I was really referring to style, not story.

Maybe it is just me... I just came back from Europe, where we saw so many churches.... the abundance of feathers and angelic creatures just reminds me of recurring religious iconography. In any case, the style seems to bend more toward light as a concept and less toward light as an element, imo.

Because in XIV, Light isn't an "element" so to speak. There's only six elements: Fire, Water, Ice, Air, Earth, and Thunder. Astral ("Light") and Umbral ("Dark") are more like attributes, so any Light aspected monster or spell tends to lean more to the "Holy" instead of using Literal Light Spells (like what would be lasers). And SE has a thing of using said "Holy" designations for their Light spells, anyway: SD3 used Holy Ball and Saintly Beam for their tier 1 and 2 Light Spells, Alexander has a lot of religious imagery (Holy Judgement)...

[Edax]

I should say that when I said religious themes- I was really referring to style, not story.

Maybe it is just me... I just came back from Europe, where we saw so many churches.... the abundance of feathers and angelic creatures just reminds me of recurring religious iconography. In any case, the style seems to bend more toward light as a concept and less toward light as an element, imo.

Then how would you personally depict "light"? You need to design a lot of enemies and bosses around this concept.

[ApolloGenX]

Then how would you personally depict "light"? You need to design a lot of enemies and bosses around this concept.

Good question.... I suppose I was expecting things like

Luminous Shimmer
Gleaming Orb
Radiant Spark
Prismatic Warden
Lucent Guardian

Things like that... light based.

Although I am far enough along that they offered an explanation... of sorts.... except that I still don't understand what "primordial light" is, if not like an element. I suppose I was in a Secret of Mana frame of mind, where it is like an element.

[Kitya]

Although I am far enough along that they offered an explanation... of sorts.... except that I still don't understand what "primordial light" is, if not like an element. I suppose I was in a Secret of Mana frame of mind, where it is like an element.

It's a form of magic. Here on the source we called it astral energy, not light, with umbral being the equivalent dark magic. Straight from the wiki:

"Astral energy is the light-based polarity present in all six elements (see Chapter 4 of Essences & Permutations - A Treatise of the Six Elements). The opposite of Astral energy is Umbral energy. Astral energy can exist in all 6 elements, as demonstrated by the odd-numbered months of the Eorzean Calendar."

[ApolloGenX]

It's a form of magic. Here on the source we called it astral energy, not light, with umbral being the equivalent dark magic. Straight from the wiki:

"Astral energy is the light-based polarity present in all six elements (see Chapter 4 of Essences & Permutations - A Treatise of the Six Elements). The opposite of Astral energy is Umbral energy. Astral energy can exist in all 6 elements, as demonstrated by the odd-numbered months of the Eorzean Calendar."

Yes... and this is related to the explanation they give... I still don't see how it squares with the style of enemies. Aside from things being white... which I suppose is the thematic astral/white color palette, I don't understand the angelic/feathery theme, which to be follows more religious iconography as I stated than it does the overall description of polarity. Sure, some of it looks pretty neat, I am not saying that it doesn't... I just find the aesthetic a confusing choice.

[Kitya]

Yes... and this is related to the explanation they give... I still don't see how it squares with the style of enemies. Aside from things being white... which I suppose is the thematic astral/white color palette, I don't understand the angelic/feathery theme, which to be follows more religious iconography as I stated than it does the overall description of polarity. Sure, some of it looks pretty neat, I am not saying that it doesn't... I just find the aesthetic a confusing choice.

It makes equally as much sense as the voidsent who look like demons. Either way, as I pointed out previously, the light aspected creatures have looked like this at least as far back as ARR. So this isn't anything new, nor is it unique to the first, and the naming conventions are just related to the fact that the first used to worship the light as a religion.