Quote Originally Posted by Theozilla View Post
So that's why I view Meracydia is probably meant to be analogous to the southern half of Africa (or sub-Saharan), in addition to being the origin of sesame seeds (most sesame seeds varieties in the real world come from Africa) and containing megafauna like Hippos. But I think it could also maybe have some Australian influences as well (to a lesser extent than the African ones), as Australia is known for having some of the world's most deadly/poisonous/venomous organisms. Also if you look at the Meracydian continent on the globe, one can see it has a sizable island off its eastern coast (which could be analogous to Madagascar and/or New Zealand).
One thing that's odd is that while Ul'dah definitely has a lot of North Africa vibes, especially with that 1 dungeon with the ruins, Meracydia was said to have Sphinxes as well as the Benben stone, which comes from Egyptian myth and is another name for the top of a pyramid. Another creature the Allagans made specific to Meracydia is named after an Egyptian cultural artifact (shabti).

I have noticed though that 1.0 was more generically fantasy while in 2.0, the writing team seems to take directly from real world cultures. The analogues to the real world seem to be much weaker in Eorzea. Turks from the North of England, Welsh people living in the dark forest, French Elezen in the mountains fighting dragons. Real-world parallels can be neat since it helps us connect to the fictional world, but sometimes I feel like it can be a little awkward. Like how Doma exists inside of a region with a Chinese name and they have Chinese architecture and the main instrument of the region's theme is an erhu, but everyone has Japanese names and they have samurai and ninjas. And 1 of only 3 Nagxian NPCs we ever meet has blond hair and blue eyes despite the fact it's supposed to be fantasy Vietnam.