Eorzea or Etheirys?

[Enkidoh]

Eorzea is the continent where the 3 starting city states as was as Ishgard and Ala Mhigo are on. Eiteirys is the name of the planet as a whole.

It's not actually, as others have stated, Eorzea is not a continent, it's the region of the world that encompases the continent of Aldernard and the island of Vlybrand. Etheirys is the Ancient name of the world, before the original Final Days and the Sundering, after which people called it Hydaelyn. Think of it like how in our world the continents of Europe and North America are often called 'The West', it's a geopolitical region that is larger than a continent, but not a continent in itself.

Part of the confusion is unfortunately because of SE's original promotions for the original version of the game (version 1.0) always stated 'Eorzea' as the game's setting with the name Hydaelyn barely rating a mention (which, did make sense, given gameplay back then was restricted to Eorzea only and not Hydaelyn at large)., and this continued into ARR. And now with EW and the likes of Urianger immediately swapping to referring to the world as 'Etheirys' even when he has no reason or need to do so, it's made things even more confusing.

[Rongway]

the likes of Urianger immediately swapping to referring to the world as 'Etheirys' even when he has no reason or need to do so, it's made things even more confusing.

It's absolutely appropriate to his character, though. Of course Urianger is going to choose the ancient name over the modern one if he knows it. Nevermind that the majority of the world population probably doesn't even know the planet as "Hydaelyn" to begin with, choosing to call it "this star" instead.

[Hasrat]

It's absolutely appropriate to his character, though. Of course Urianger is going to choose the ancient name over the modern one if he knows it. Nevermind that the majority of the world population probably doesn't even know the planet as "Hydaelyn" to begin with, choosing to call it "this star" instead.

Oh great. I haven't even started EW yet, and already another reason to find him irritating.

Somebody get this man a book on social norms.

[Cleretic]

And now with EW and the likes of Urianger immediately swapping to referring to the world as 'Etheirys' even when he has no reason or need to do so, it's made things even more confusing.

Everyone who does that is from Sharlayan, and Sharlayan is an entire nation full of massive nerds. I firmly believe that every single Sharlayan would latch on to an obscure but technically correct term and just be itching for a chance to drop a 'well actually' when someone questions them.

It's also just got a purely functional purpose in Endwalker. A planet having the same name as a god is just fine in almost all contexts both fictional and non-fictional (we don't get confused between Mars the planet and Mars the god, after all), but Endwalker is a story where 'the planet Hydaelyn' and 'the entity Hydaelyn' are relevant and distinct figures with separate but intertwined story arcs. In that context, it's just easier to give one of them a new name to make sure there's no confusion.

Especially since it's a story being translated into multiple languages, so any linguistic tricks fly out the window. Like, I know in English you could conceivably shoot for a 'Mother Earth' angle and call them 'Hydaelyn' for the planet and 'Mother Hydaelyn' for the entity, but I don't know if that cultural context exists in, say, German. Also going for that angle would probably piss off the people who hate Hydaelyn, and in a story that's trying to set up an equalized dichotomy between Team Hydaelyn and Team Zodiark you don't want to rhetorically stack the deck any more than necessary.