Raimdelle Reborn: The Neverending Bestiary

[RolandDebreton]

Compared my notes to your master:

Scalekin > Tortoise (Adamantoise, Giant Tortoise)

Vilekin > Ladybug (Ladybug, Little Ladybug); Firefly (Firefly – maybe extinct remembered from 1.0 classed as different that wisp); Sandworm (Sandworm); Slug (Slug, Hare); Yarzon (Bog, Sand Yarzon)

Wavekin > Gigantoad (Toad, Gigantoad, Nix); Snipper (Snipper, Clipper)

Confirmed from various leves except Firefly, that’s just a 1.0 throwback as I have no notes on them.

I’ve got notes indicating Bats are considered Cloudkin – I do not have a listed leve or text to prove it.

I also believe I’ve seen Dragonkin listed as a heading under Spoken by dev confirmation.

Edit:

Seedkin > Ochu (Microchu, ochu); Treant (Treant, Dryad, Treant Sapling); Sapling (Sapling)

[Anonymoose]

Compared my notes to your master:

We've come to a lot of the same conclusions.

The ladybugs were a little fuzzy, but based on the V1.0 items and cross-species quest names, eventually I came up with the Species "Weevil" and "Ladybug," and Genus "Beetle," towards which both genera make references (Carrion Beetle, Beet-Red Beetles Beat Red).

I, too, was unsure whether to put bats in cloudkin or beastkin, as far as Eorzeans are concerned. For now, I actually gave Eorzean naturalists the benefit of the doubt and went with beastkin (land mammals) despite their wingedness, as they categorized dodos as cloudkin despite their flightlessness. One of the bats is also named a wingrat, which implies they know of the winged rat nickname based on their mammalian nature, lol. Still, it could go either way in reality.

Dragons and I are still having trouble. Territorial Dragon and Svara are both referred to as "dragon" to name two. It might not even end up a genus name. Coincidentally, the two I just mentioned as an example were both referred to as wyrms in previous Final Fantasies, so the struggle continues. At least we know wyvern! Hey, wait, that refers to wyverns as a relative of dragons. And now I've gone cross-eyed.

Up to M now. Should be able to open the 0.1 version of that chart for discussion within a few days

Any idea how to tell an ochu from a microchu? This Microchu and Curupira, "an especially savage microchu," use both palletes (womp womp). Maybe the FATE just uses the wrong model? A lot of the other Ochu / Microchu line up. Maybe it was accidentally switched with Lazy Laurence, clearly a Microchu to match the named one... but then if the Ochu referenced in that FATE description is a genus and not a species, it's still correct, technically, and look, I've gone cross-eyed, again.

[Kyan]

Any idea how to tell an ochu from a microchu?

This one bothers me too. 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. Yet we see Alpha Microchu and other large Microchu in FATE, etc. Twelve be damned!

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

[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?

[Kyan]

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

Saw him chilling near Bluefog the other day! Some adventurer was beating on him, the poor sod.

Death Gaze are perplexing - to look at them I would assume they were vilekin much like our gnats! I do not think I would like to be a naturalist... I'd end up bald and drunk.

[Anonymoose]

...either they are being very sloppy with nomenclature or... that Voidsent is geographical demarcation...

It's all three of the implied possibilities at once, methinks. For starters, I think by now it's clear that the two year rush to develop ARR caused some lore nuances to fall through the cracks while the LOCs strived to keep English the most immersive and interesting version of the game (which I hear rumour that it is, so good job, team!). There are mistakes. We'll find 'em, they'll fix 'em. That said, "Voidsent" is most definitely an umbrella term. At this point in time, though, I don't think it extends to secondary labels like Hippos being "Voidsent Beastkin" or "Voidsent Cloudkin," for instance. These labels are based on an Eorzean naturalist's notes - denizens of the void need not conform our academic standards. To speak as an Eorzean, there is only one unifying factor among Voidsent: "They are not of Eorzea, do not belong here, and must be destroyed."

Nearing completion - just a few more letters to go. In the meantime: ELEMENTAL SPIRITS AND SPRITES

Any ideas? So far I just have them in "Other" with the Primals. The sylphs seemed to be adamant that there's a big difference between the void beyond the aether and the primals' existence amongst the aether. Considering Spirits and Sprites seem to just be sentient collections of aether, I haven't placed them in anything yet. I also had kind of a derpy epiphany (derpiphany?) while researching them. If you zoom in really close on an elemental, they look like little flying collections of aether in the shape of horned hyuran children - just like the padjal they choose! Right after my, "AHA!" wore off, I felt like this had to have been noticed by you fine lot before.