I made a 70-minute lore breakdown on FFXIV national politics. And it's only part one.

[Cleretic]

https://youtu.be/HY_-czrmIoM

I've been working away at this one for like a month, because I REALLY wanted to do this project justice: a present-day political breakdown of every nation in the game, including real-world inspirations, political structures, and current societal issues.

I ended up having to break it into two because it wound up so long, the Garlean Empire and its previously-occupied territories has to be its own separate video! Still, I'm loving how this turned out, and it's got a bunch of weird, neat facts both in-universe and out to learn from. When we're dipping into 17th century folklore, Greek philosophy, and modern political systems all in the one video, things get kinda nuts!

[KariTheFox]

Good video with a lot to chew on, it's good to have all this informstion in one place! I appreciate it.

I can't comment on it all, but one thing I wonder is about Hingashi - if they are Edo period Japan, maybe a Meiji Restoration style event is just around the corner for them - especially with an economically powerful Eorzean Alliance poised to control trade in the world economy now.

[Cleretic]

Good video with a lot to chew on, it's good to have all this informstion in one place! I appreciate it.

I can't comment on it all, but one thing I wonder is about Hingashi - if they are Edo period Japan, maybe a Meiji Restoration style event is just around the corner for them - especially with an economically powerful Eorzean Alliance poised to control trade in the world economy now.

Yeah, as I mention, that's likely what's going to happen next--and I say 'worry about Doma', because while we can't cast a lot of equivalent national actors for that period given inspirations are all over place and time, Doma is clearly China, and the Meiji Restoration period went pretty badly for China.

[KariTheFox]

Yeah, as I mention, that's likely what's going to happen next--and I say 'worry about Doma', because while we can't cast a lot of equivalent national actors for that period given inspirations are all over place and time, Doma is clearly China, and the Meiji Restoration period went pretty badly for China.

I wouldn't say Doma is "clearly" China - it feels more based off of Nara-Era Japan, where influences from Chinese culture and arcitecture were incredibly prevelent, and society was largely agaraian (Which seems to describe Yanxia pretty well). I just say that because the social structure of Doma is still very Japanese, since they have samurai serving under lords and all. (Unless Gosetsu was supposed to be a hingan samurai who just happened to be serving a Doman lord, it occurs to me that I'm not sure if thatidea is contradicted anywhere.)

Though the occupation makes it difficult to talk about Doma since we have trouble figuring out its social structure and relationship to other nations prior to Garlemald taking over.

[kaynide]

I wouldn't say Doma is "clearly" China - it feels more based off of Nara-Era Japan, where influences from Chinese culture and arcitecture were incredibly prevelent, and society was largely agaraian (Which seems to describe Yanxia pretty well).

More or less, yes. A lot of the entire region feels like areas of Japanese past eras or more famous historical happenings, such as the
Ruby Sea essentially being the Setonai sea pirates (the Murakami pirates, perhaps), combined with Urashima Taro/Momotaro’s Oni Island.

While the actual Doma city is very much like a Chinese Tulou, almost everything else feels very Japanese.

I think it would be more like saying “Doma is a Japanese fantasy rendition of China” much in the same way Xenia: Warrior Princess is a western fantasy rendition of Greece.

[Cleretic]

Yeah, I've got the Doma section of the next video drafted up, and you just sorta have to concede that it's super weird and unclear about real-world roots; a mashup of feudal China and Japan both, put in a situation that neither nation was ever really in.

I will say something that wasn't made super clear in-game, though: Doma's actually much bigger than just Yanxia, we just didn't visit most of it. That size and the fact it has a not-Mongolia just north of it basically signposts the intention of 'this is the setting's not-China', even if it's not really culturally or aesthetically clear.