Ask English Localization Lead Kate Cwynar Lore & Localization Questions

[Zol_blade]

Hi kate,

The game will receive a graphical update once 7.0 is out.

So, will the minimal prerequisites for FFXIV change?

If so, some of us utilise a patato pc to run the game at a reasonable frame rate. So, it would be fantastic if you could not make any significant changes to the specifications.

[Iscah]

2.-If it's not a "closed loop" how exactly did the events in Elpis play out without us there since we couldn't have possibly went there if the Black Rose killed us in the "OG" timeline?

In the Eight Umbral Calamity timeline where G'raha is woken up and sent to the First, the WoL perished before the Final Days could come to pass, meaning they couldn't have travelled back in time to meet Venat and tell her about it. How did the events in Elpis we played through ourselves unfold in this timeline without the WoL?

Jumping in ahead of the official answer on this because there's a simple explanation that a lot of people miss.

It seems that the split timeline is Y-shaped (only branching off at the events around Shadowbringers) and everything before that point is a single timeline.

We travel from the "good future" branch of the timeline to the past in Elpis, which is the past of the "bad future" as well.

Meanwhile, G'raha's actions in Shadowbringers establish a way for the good future to happen before the bad future ever comes to pass, so there is never a time where the loop can't be completed. Our other self does not need to go to Elpis at any point.

We probably do need to get an official statement at some point because people keep being confused by it, but it's not something that we don't have an answer for.

[Iscah]

Meta question: does the dev team want these forums to function well? Either the current moderation policy or the way it is being applied by the moderators is not functioning well. There are many threads that are clearly bait and/or set up to devolve into name calling or similar (like a current one setting off an LGBT debate not relevant to FFXIV, stirred up by an initial post accusing a Reddit community of being "political" about it). There is also no attempt by the moderators to stop people who bump up masses of posts at once, usually the same collection of threads about forum drama rather than the game, which stifles actual game discussion as other threads get lost in the deluge. It seems the spirit of the post is ignored as long as they stick to the letter of the rules, and it is incredibly hard to get moderators to act even if you report things.

[radelgirl]

In the most recent raid series, Athena references the seven hells when casting Ultima. Do the ancients also believe in the seven heavens/hells as Eorzeans do?

[SannaR]

During the post 6.0 Q&A of the live letter Yoshida was asked how the sundered races came about and that he would bring the topic up with Oda-San. Has there been any follow up?

[SannaR]

Why in the English version of the Codex entry for Zodiark and eluded by Erichtonios are the sacrifices have the usage of order by the Convocation when its not present in the other languages?

[Iscah]

The current lore for Hrothgar claims that the rarely seen women are revered as "queens" and there seems to be a Queen for each small tribe of Hrothgar, but this description seems at odds with what we have been told in the Bozja storyline which revolves around a central "Queen Gunnhildr" with no mention of lesser queens at all. Meanwhile, several Hrothgar characters have mentioned having wives and children, which seems at odds with the alleged queen system.

Will this lore be kept or altered once female Hrothgar are playable?

If altered, what will happen to the current rules basing Hrothgar surnames on their queen's name? Current characters can't be renamed so does it become a solidified surname stemming from an ancestral system (as, say, Mr Smith is not a blacksmith but his ancestors must have been)?

[SannaR]

Is the reason some people don't awaken to the echo due to being part of the new life/generation that was made by Zodiark after the 2nd sacrifice and thus wouldn't have memories of the Final Days?

[Iscah]

Was Misija originally going to be a Hrothgar before plans changed to have the Hrothgar/Viera split instead?

Other Roegadyn in the Bozja storyline have Sea Wolf names while Misija is the only one with a Hrothgar name.

[Iscah]

A meta request that is more of a UI issue but affects the readability of lore – can we please have some simpler "plain text" formats of the lore-heavy collection databases like the Unending Codex and Bozjan Field Record? The current ones (especially the field record) have a fairly small text field encroached upon by large images, poor-contrast watermarked backgrounds and even constantly moving animation along the bottom of the page. All this adds up to a text entry that needs lots of scrolling and cannot be easily skimmed.