Raimdelle Reborn: The Neverending Bestiary

[Anonymoose]

I am certain there is a leve/FATE/npc that informs you that microchu are technically "baby ochu" and thus not really being two separate things.

That sounded like a good place to get some perspective, so I went looking.

In one season, a single ochu can produce over a hundred seeds, which, as the creature makes its way through the forest, are oft caught on the moss growing on tree trunks. If left to germinate, the seeds give rise to microchus─a vile plant which has the tendency to sap the soil of its nutrients, leaving little to none for the other foliage. To keep the microchu population in check, the Greatloam Growery seeks botanists to search mossy trees for these seeds and bring them back to the guild for proper disposal.

That's indeed one way to interpret it. To play devil's advocate, if the "ochu" in question is the genus, another interpretation might be "[Ochu & Microchu] can produce over a hundred seeds and there are microchu seeds everywhere. Go pick them up." Funny enough, as you pick them up during the quest, they're called Ochu Seeds. Perhaps the idea is that the ochu genus has a tendency to do this, and right now the microchu species is actively doing it?

It can sometimes be hard to tell which mobs are actually cousins, which are just at different stages of the life cycle, and which are just exhibiting sexual dimorphism. To save time for now, I've been treating all different visual archetypes as species and making it clear that "species" is a game mechanic term, not a biology term.

Perhaps if we finish the chart, we can convince the Lore Gods to throw some confirmation/correction/clarification/expansion at it over time.

Can we not all pool our crystals and wish really hard for Raimdelle to return to Eorzea - if not for a little while?

I can't help but imagine he'd be frustrated by what the Calamity did to his life's work, if for no other reason because we have way more voidsent now.

WHAT THE FACHAN IS THAT!?

EDIT:
Update: Up to S.

Here's an annoying one: Death Gaze. There's only one Genus/Species and it's plainly named Death Gaze, but the Simurgh FATE refers to it as a Cloudkin, in The Voidgate Breathes Gloomy (BLM), it comes out of a hole to the Void (which I thought was Ashkin, but hey maybe not), and it shares a lot of visual features with the Aevis, because Aevis and Deathgaze were both plate wyrms in FFXII.

[RolandDebreton]

Here's an annoying one: Death Gaze. There's only one Genus/Species and it's plainly named Death Gaze, but the Simurgh FATE refers to it as a Cloudkin, in The Voidgate Breathes Gloomy (BLM), it comes out of a hole to the Void (which I thought was Ashkin, but hey maybe not), and it shares a lot of visual features with the Aevis, because Aevis and Deathgaze were both plate wyrms in FFXII.

This all goes to my current theory that either they are being very sloppy with nomenclature or... that Voidsent is geographical demarcation rather than species demarcation, i.e. Voidsent Hippogryph is cloudkin (or beastkin?!) from the void/voidsent, Flan is Spoken from the void/voidsent.

Speaking of, 'what the Fachan....' where is our ahriman pal?

[RolandDebreton]

Elementals, I was just talking about those fellows in another forum.

They do not fit the measure of any of the traditional biological subsets (Wavekin, Beastkin, Cloudkin, Scalekin). They could be argued to be of a type of Spoken, though I'm certain that they are not Ashkin (they do not profile as classical undead). I'm thinking they can't fit a heading like Forgekin, so the closest they come to Bloodless Regnum is Soulkin, but Ferne's early words on Soulkin and their beholden nature makes me wonder.

I will say that the Regnum of Transcendent has a fascinating name. Voidsent is but a Class to the larger Regnum. At present on my notes I have placed as an uncertain field a regnum Primal, with classes of Elder Primal and Primal.

Long story short, I've made up my own fields at present. I currently have a class of unknown bloodless simply known as Elementals that includes Elementals proper and Elemental Sprites.

[Anonymoose]

They could be argued to be of a type of Spoken

They certainly do speak... Hmm...

The closest they come to Bloodless Regnum is Soulkin

Before we knew what that meant, that was our first assumption about elementals; I've since backed off that idea, as well.

I will say that the Regnum of Transcendent has a fascinating name. Voidsent is but a Class to the larger Regnum.

This is an interesting thought, actually. Both the Version 1.0 game mechanics and the list provided by Fernehalwes implied that the 3 Regnum / 11 Class system could accommodate all of the mobs existent at the time, which included both primals and elementals. But let us pretend that this isn't the case for a moment... Voidsent transcend our realm, but the Great River of Aether, the Lifestream, transcends the corporeal, as well. We're told that revenants and bogies are spirits that never found their way back to the stream and must be sent from the corporeal realm. What if there was a second class of Transcendent or Bloodless for beings of aetherial coalescence? Primals, sprites, elemental spirits...

I certainly can't add it to the chart, because too quickly does speculation become fanon, but it's an interesting idea.


Also, I found the source for the tidbit about the Voidsent umbrella I mentioned earlier:

Very little is known about the void other than that the laws that govern our realm do not always apply. In addition to one-eyed monstrosities, peculiar balls of fur, and nightmarish demons, oddities such as floating orbs of energy also periodically break through the boundaries that separate this realm from the void. Make no mistake, however, everything through those rifts does not belong in Eorzea and must be destroyed.

To reply to Kyan's Void-related ideas (which could totally be expanded upon in one of the void threads)

I do not feel that [the Void is] just "beyond" the aether, but rather from a "different" source of aether or Lifestream <snip> Perhaps it is more like the torn world from Final Fantasy Dimensions when the Crystal shatters... In our game of XIV, perhaps Hydaelyn is the light half, and Zodiark the dark half, yet they were actually once one whole crystal and one whole, complete, world. <snip> in a chaotic state of Umbral and Astral as they are fighting to remerge/separate themselves. This idea of a "torn world" might lay credence to what the Ascians have said to us through the plot, of fighting for the same cause.

I, too, got a very "Warriors of Light and Darkness" vibe off of this whole thing, but have hesitated to take that theory further before any confirmation of that is made. It's fun to speculate, but anything beyond that massive assumption is a house of cards just waiting to happen. If we were right about the World of Light and the World of Dark, the one crystal split into Astral and Umbral halves would fit perfectly with the story so far.

The ascians did speak of the world "regaining its true form," but then again they also talked about how the open door to the void would flood our world in darkness and burn Hydaelyn out of existence, which sends a very different message. It's hard to say whether the goal is the merging of Light and Dark into True, or just the balance of Light and Dark. As I said, I've yet to think about much of it yet.

The beings from the Void seem to have their own aether when they die, which is foreign to our world and rejected by our Lifesteam.

This is one of the leaps in logic I was just referring to; is there anything we can point to when we say they have dark aether and that dark aether is rejected by our lifestream? Granted, if Zodiark is indeed the dark crystal, and crystals are made of aether, it makes sense that they could have a "dark corporeal" world (though, again, we're already on tier two of that house of cards with that assumption).

The thing is, we keep getting told that it is a void where corporeal rules of physics do not apply. Even the Ascians call it "the void." Is it truly dark aether they they expel, or is it the aether they've consumed while here combined with the energy of their void essence? Hydaelyn aether is a voidsent's favorite snack, and as we say to all the dead and dying, you can't take it with you.

If I remember correctly, part of the Seventh Umbral Era story arc was that Atomos couldn't manifest corporeally until it had consumed our aether. It's a little fuzzy, but I remember this being a big thing back in the day ... Batraal was the same. The massive crystal deposits in the Darkhold caused a thinning of the veil between realms, which he slipped through before consuming said aether and manifesting as a gargoyle... I'll have to get back to you on that. This is 2011/2012 stuff.

Still, I'm just exploring the other side of the coin - I have no idea what's up on the other side of the rift.

I could go back and forth all day.

how exactly can Ascians use teleport magics if they can't return to our Lifestream if they are not from our world?)

That's a good question. They have a unique, violet teleportation animation and the gate to the void stands wide open. Perhaps they jump out of our realm and back into it? Or ride our foreign lifestream themselves? No idea.

Only a few more mob models before I start adding Spoken and polishing the list before opening it up to advice, discussion, and the pointing-out of oversights! Just need t-... ah, balls. The condor/vulture/buzzard things... and the Ziz/Axebeak things... I've been dreading these two.

[Gwaeron]

I was reading through the bestiary earlier and, coincidentally, stumbled upon the Elemental genus.

Now I can't remember what I've read about the elemental sprites in FATEs and guildleves, but are sprites elementals? Because they sure don't look anything like the actual elementals that were called elementals rather than sprites in v1, http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/im..._Elemental.png

I was also under the impression that these elementals are the ones connected to the Twelveswood and the hearers and seedseers, but only sprites are even mentioned in the genus category page, not elementals, still it says

They are revered by the citizenry of Gridania and it is by their grace that the city-state continues to exist.

Did the elementals just change form to sprites after the calamity?

[Anonymoose]

Now I can't remember what I've read about the elemental sprites in FATEs and guildleves, but are sprites elementals? Because they sure don't look anything like the actual elementals that were called elementals rather than sprites in v1, http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/im..._Elemental.png

No, they're not all that alike. It's the way in which they are alike that made me assume they might be in the same category.

Elementals are in everything. To give an example, in the Seventh Umbral Era storyline, on the body of a slain Garlean soldier was a letter written in a code unlike anything they'd ever used. Though the code itself could not be broken, the conjurers of Gridania communed with the elementals in the ink and fiber of the letter to determine that the soldier was a double agent, a member of the Ala Mhigan resistance, and a noble spirit. What makes the elementals of the Twelveswood (Spirits of the Wood) special is their age and power, which are said to be unmatched by those anywhere else. Now, if Elementals exist in all corporeal things, and the corporeal realm is built from the basic aetherial unit...

Unlike men and other creatures bound in temples of flesh, the elementals are beings of pure aether. Recognizing this, the mages of eld reasoned that their talent for aetheric manipulation might allow them to commune with these theretofore enigmatic entities.

And this brings us back to Sprites.

I haven't stumbled across an explanation of exactly what they are, but properties they have include being aspected to the aetherial elements, feeding on aetherial concentrations, becoming corrupted themselves by consuming corrupted aether, possessing a core that temporarily holds a strong manifestation of that element, generation of luminous crystals, and at least semi-sentience that results in attacking passers-by and activities that are deemed "mischievous." They sometimes seem to generate on their own in the field, sometimes are summoned by magick. Would these not also seem to be aetheric beings of some kind?

[Orophin]

And this brings us back to Sprites.

I haven't stumbled across an explanation of exactly what they are, but properties they have include being aspected to the aetherial elements, feeding on aetherial concentrations, becoming corrupted themselves by consuming corrupted aether, possessing a core that temporarily holds a strong manifestation of that element, generation of luminous crystals, and at least semi-sentience that results in attacking passers-by and activities that are deemed "mischievous." They sometimes seem to generate on their own in the field, sometimes are summoned by magick. Would these not also seem to be aetheric beings of some kind?

By this definition they sound very similar to Primals in nature, although being "mischievous" moreso than malicious in the case of Garuda, and to a lesser extent, Ifrit. (hard to tell which is worse though honestly. One is batshit crazy while the other wants his followers to kidnap people and convert them into thralls)

2.2 will finally reveal Leviathan so we'll see what kind of personality (s)he has. The Sahagin seem to have always been very hostile towards the people in Limsa Lominsa, but I wonder if this was always the case or if there's another side to the story as there was with the Kobolds.

[Lusavari]

2.2 will finally reveal Leviathan so we'll see what kind of personality (s)he has.

Lord = Male
Lady = Female

They're equivalent ranks like Duke and Duchess, King and Queen, Emperor and Empress....

Leviathan has always been a male, and since he is Lord of Whorl, you already know Leviathan is a male Primal.

Also, according to the promotional site, he's pretty savage and territorial.

[Gwaeron]

I've been wondering about elementals and sprites, for some reason I always pictured the things seedseers communicate with to look like the old elementals. The appearance of sprites and disappearance of faerie-like elementals confused me, but I do remember the ink and parchment thing and the idea that they don't necessarily have any form at all makes a lot of sense (so much that it makes me wonder why I hadn't realised it sooner).

I'm also curious about spriggans, Raimdelle's Codex says "Spriggans are neither sprites nor faeries, but share similarities with both," other than the sprites' (sometimes) mischevious nature I can't think of many similarities. Same thing goes for faeries (assuming it's the SCH type faeries). Any idea what Raimdelle meant?

[Anonymoose]

I always pictured the things seedseers communicate with to look like the old elementals.

Me, too. Well, really, I imagine them communicating with invisible whispers on the wind and implicit feelings, but if those voices chose to manifest themselves, I would imagine that they'd be like our old Elementals. Their full name was Elemental Spirits, which is why you'd see unaspected elementals with names like Spirit of the Wood. I think there's a border, though I'm not sure just how thick, between elemental sprites and elemental spirits.

Raimdelle's Codex says "Spriggans are neither sprites nor faeries, but share similarities with both," ... Any idea what Raimdelle meant?

This all ties back to real-world mythology more than in-game lore. Spriggans in mythology are like the spriggans in-game, mischievous and thieving. However, in real-world mythology, they're a type of sprite (faery). This terminology was linked to them before the FFXI-style elemental sprites became visible in Eorzea, so even though the word sprite is used in both scenarios, I think they reference different things. Spriggans are a type of Soulkin - their genus once had an independent mind, but some invasive secondary force has taken over. They are compelled to form an attachment with a stone and have no will to live without it. The type of stone they carry even influences what abilities they're capable of using.

By this definition they sound very similar to Primals in nature

I'm not gonna lie, this connection crossed my mind, as well. Twas the syphoning that set off that alarm. It's a pretty big leap to make, but IF there was a house of cards to be built, I might say that this adds support to the theory that there might exist an "Aetherial Convalescence" class encompassing primals, elemental sprites, and elemental spirits...

The Sahagin seem to have always been very hostile towards the people in Limsa Lominsa, but I wonder if this was always the case or if there's another side to the story as there was with the Kobolds.

Not always. They used to be more of a nuisance than anything else - some cut fishing nets here, a stolen buoy there - but that's about it. Around the same time as the Starshower and the Fall of the Keeper in 1562, the Sahagin changed - a transformation Sisipu directly linked to the appearance of Swallowtail Roam and the theft of the Key from its protection. We can make the assumption that their transformation was due to Leviathan, and this is around when the Serpent Reavers came to power as well. We now know that the Reavers have been Drowned (read: tempered), so it all fits. 1562 the Ascians show up, present themselves as the Paragons, scare the beast tribes into summoning their primals, and voila. Murderous Sahagin and rampaging Reapers. In fact, it fits so well that Square Enix could cut the whole Treasure of Swallowtail Roam arc out entirely and glue the ends together. That's the bit I'm curious to see... The mystery of the Key has driven me nuts since 2010, can you imagine if they cut it out and glazed over it? Talk about the ultimate, "Oh, come on!" moment (though if Sthalmann comes back, I suppose I could stand a little more toiling about the Key)...

EDIT:
All of the XIVMODELS genera/species have been listed and given tentative names. Going to clean up and proof-read a bit, delete the old wiki sandboxes, and open it up.