Your Thoughts On "Encyclopaedia Eorzea" Books?

[Anonymoose]

I am an absolute sucker for "world companion" books. That means, though, that I'm easily embittered when the books are slapdash cash-grabs or outsourced hack-jobs. A lot of world-companions are letdowns. The Encyclopædias Eorzea blessedly are not. They're what a world-companion should be - a wealth of concept art and production blurbs stitched together and fleshed out into a coherent, thorough, thoughtful flow by the people who make the game itself. Quality-wise, they're the lore equivalent of Soken's "every track I made for this expansion" bluray soundtracks, and everyone who can should pick 'em up.

Alas... like all Bibles... they are not completely infallible.

When all is said and done, I have half a mind to fan-publish a classical style ERRATA supplement; a small packet noting errors and changes, or maybe even highlighting some of the deliberate misinformation the book's in-world tone spreads.

[SannaR]

Not, showing any bias there, eh moose? I jest. I love the Eorzean Encyclopedias. We need a third one. I love compendiums. As long as they're not a hot mess and written by someone who doesn't know how that world works. Like the 3 or 4th Mass Effect book that is still being rewritten? though more likely as forgotten and some day I'll just have to suck it up and by a copy of it even though it's regarded as not cannon.

[Anonymoose]

Not, showing any bias there, eh moose

Hey, I didn't even lavish praise for that the second book seemed to have noticeably higher error-catch rate and that whatever was added to the text screening process was a great idea and they should keep doing that.

[SannaR]

Hey, I didn't even lavish praise for that the second book seemed to have noticeably higher error-catch rate and that whatever was added to the text screening process was a great idea and they should keep doing that.

That's why I did say I was just teasing. Same about keeping up with the improvements if/when they put out a third book.

[Anonymoose]

Don't forget to let us know your review of them after you dig in!

To be honest, I'd love to see a collection of these - even if only sold in occasional limited runs - with matching size and bindings - for the entire Final Fantasy history. Can you imagine having a shelf with them all in order? Uniform height, uniform texture... Encyclopædia Spira... Encyclopædia Ivalice... Would have to be creative for the unnamed ones, lol.

The answer is always more lore.

[VictorTheed]

I am an absolute sucker for "world companion" books. That means, though, that I'm easily embittered when the books are slapdash cash-grabs or outsourced hack-jobs. A lot of world-companions are letdowns. The Encyclopædias Eorzea blessedly are not. They're what a world-companion should be - a wealth of concept art and production blurbs stitched together and fleshed out into a coherent, thorough, thoughtful flow by the people who make the game itself. Quality-wise, they're the lore equivalent of Soken's "every track I made for this expansion" bluray soundtracks, and everyone who can should pick 'em up.

Alas... like all Bibles... they are not completely infallible.

When all is said and done, I have half a mind to fan-publish a classical style ERRATA supplement; a small packet noting errors and changes, or maybe even highlighting some of the deliberate misinformation the book's in-world tone spreads.

Not sure if you realize it or not, or even care, but a statement like, "Alas... Like all Bibles... They are not completely infallible. ", Is very offensive to us of the Christian Faith.

Other groups get inclusive treatment around here and I would ask the same for those of us whose life and identity is rooted in The Bible.

You or anyone reading this can respond by attacking me, my belief system or by trying to pull me into some debate over theology but your waisting your own time cause I won't respond, I'm not trying to talk down to you cause I actually respect u for your lore knowledge you provide the community but I just thought I'd bring this to your attention.

[Iscah]

Not sure if you realize it or not, or even care, but a statement like, "Alas... Like all Bibles... They are not completely infallible. ", Is very offensive to us of the Christian Faith.

However divinely inspired you believe the text to be, Bibles are ultimately physical books produced by human beings and are not invulnerable to errors.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_errata

[Enkidoh]

Ooooh boy, this thread has gone off the rails...

I just want to point out that the context of 'bible' I used in my original post was referring to it's use as a literary term, that is, a document made by the creator of the work that is used as a master guide for the work's concept that includes things like character names, setting, plot details, and, when creating fictional worlds and universes like games, that includes the lore of that world, so that contradictions do not occur, especially when others later make their own works connected to it (spinoffs, sequels/prequels etc). Related to this is the term used to describe something that is considered true or accurate to that work, as 'canon'.

Like it or not, the English language has preempted religious terms into everyday use, and Moose was quite right in stating something that is written by humans to not always be as accurate or true as we would like to believe regardless of your own religious beliefs (and this is not the place to get into a theological debate, we're talking about a fictional universe here).

And before you pass judgement, the very word 'bible' is derived from the Greek word byblos, that literally just means 'book' (related English words are bibliography and bibliophile), so hence it's adoption into the English language as a word for a literary document used by writers to ensure ongoing story development does not contradict earlier ideas already set out in their concept.

[Kesey]

I like the idea of the lore books. The art is great and the information worth indulging if you like the lore.

But what turns me off them is the idea they are written "in-universe" by someone in the game. And as such, because someone in-universe can't know everything, is easily retconned for story telling purposes. So they hold little weight as evidence of lore because they can be easily changed.

I know this is done to save work on the writer's end, but wouldn't it be nice to know things for sure?

[Anonymoose]

wouldn't it be nice to know things for sure?

"How it really is" changes a lot behind the scenes, too, though.

When we sent the Warriors of Darkness home, the dev. team "knew for sure" that was the end of their story.
Then they wrote Shadowbringers, lol.

In-world observers being able to report "accurate" things while not being infallible is how the game avoids out-of-world retcons.