Raimdelle Reborn: The Neverending Bestiary

[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?

[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?

[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.

[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.

[Anonymoose]

APOLOGIES FOR THE DOUBLE POST

Version 0.1 of the new chart is a go!

Some things to keep in mind:

• I started with the raw list of XIVMODELS visual archetypes, so there are some missing pieces I'll need to fill in now (especially the Spoken, which just have tonberries as a placeholder, atm).
• XIVMODELS isn't perfect. The game itself enables and disables some of the visuals, so you'll notice that both ram and ewe sheep on XIVMODELS have horns and the karakul look ridiculous. The links are just for informational purposes when identifying a species.
  
• Many names will change as we discuss improvements. I've tried to color code which things are known, which things are inferred, and which things are guessed/placeholders.
  
• Game mechanics and biology are not equal.
  • Some different "species" on this chart are simply one species exhibiting sexual dimorphism (Aldgoats, Antelopes, possibly Peiste). They may look different, use different attacks, and drop different items - but technically theyare the same species. How this is handled via the chart and via the wiki will be a case-by-case kind of thing until we build a way around it.
    
  • Some "species" are just unique variants of an existing species. Nether Nix, for instance, seems to just be a regular Nix changed by the poisonous environment of the Aurum Vale. I've kept some of them in the species column until we know for sure what mob they are, where they come from, what makes them different, and that they are indeed unique. For this reason, on the chart, some "unique visual variants" will appear as their own species and some will appear as variants of an existing one for now.
    
  • The "species" of Spoken will be different between this chart and the wiki. I won't bother going into loyalties, etc. on the chart, but on the Wiki, it makes sense to do so on occasion, for instance, grouping all Imperials together instead of dividing them by race due to their like map positions and item drops.
• Both this chart and the game are prone to errors. Sometimes, I will clearly have made a mistake, in which case you should point it out to me here and I'll fix it. Sometimes, the game will clearly have made a mistake, in which case you should point it out in the Localization forum. Ambiguous cases are always open to discussion.
  

[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.

[RolandDebreton]

Thought I'd toss these in here. I just finished slaying myself some voidsent, deepvoid spoken. I'd never seen voidsent spoken as a typology. I noted that I got blood from them as a quest reward to continue in this line of quests. I looked at the object before I dumped it onto the quest objective, it read, "Bottle of Spoken Blood - The warm blood of an adventurer whose adventuring days are now done. For some unknown reason, the humours will not coagulate."





It may be sloppy, but here were ashkin, spoken (which makes sense) who is also a voidsent... Methinks either they are willing to bend old Raimdelle's rules for story expediency, or voidsent is a "geographical" catch-all, just as ashkin is an undead catch all.

[Anonymoose]

deepvoid spoken ... Bottle of Spoken Blood ... Methinks either they are willing to bend old Raimdelle's rules for story expediency

Now that you bring it to my attention, the whole BLM story arc actually makes me very confused as far as mobs are concerned.

The first several quests deal with you being sent to close Planar Fissures between "this world and the next" (Yayake). The fissures seem to be mini Voidgates - aftershocks caused by the initial incident, perhaps. This implies that Yayake is simply making a mistaken assumption when she says they lead to the next world, they just lead to a different one: the Void, "a netherworld rife with shadow and monstrosity" (Ququruka). But that's part of the problem: though most of the monsters that come through the Voidgates are indeed voidsent, some are just undead.

What's up with the Ghosts (Deepvoid Soul / Void Echo)?

Ferne called ghosts Ashkin back in the day when we only had Bogy/Revenant ghosts. The Revenant Things FATE backs this up, saying that these are souls unaware of their death, unreturned to the lifestream, lost and violent. The names of most of them imply these circumstances. Corrupted Nimians were taken by the tonberry sickness, Betrayed Souls were killed by heretics in the Darkhold, Poisoned Peasants succumbed to the noxious fumes of the Aurum Vale. I can make excuses for a lot of things. Some mobs get accused of being from the Void when they're not. There's a dormouse in the Shroud named Deepvoid Deathmouse just because Gridanian's think it's unnaturally big. Maybe we can hit ghosts with a sword because aether gathers around the unsent soul and that's why it's a corporeal blob. Maybe it has an unnatural circulatory system with a little bit of blood we can beat out of it. But why does the ghost drop Voidsent blood when it's, as far as we've been told, an Ashkin? Devil's Advocate? Maybe the Bogy/Revenant is a creature of the Void and never had anything to do with our Eorzean dead in the first place. Maybe the names of the ghosts are just as misguided as the name of the mouse. Wisps are confirmed as being from the Void and Eorzeans believe they, too, might be the souls of the dead.

Barring a lore nuance that I've overlooked, I believe the ghosts may be an oversight - a mistake. I still don't think SE would willfully misguide us about game mechanic basics. If anybody's wrong, I'd expect it to be Eorzeans. This leads me to believe that Eorzeans may be mistaken about the mouse, Eorzeans may be mistaken about the wisps, and Square Enix may be mistaken about Ashkin ghosts coming out of a Voidgate and dropping Voidsent blood. Especially in light of...

What's up with the Zombies (Deepvoid Pikeman / Deepvoid Wizard)?

Under the Armor identifies Zombies and Skeletons as Ashkin. Even if we assume that Ferne and Raimdelle are wrong and bogies are just hairless floating snurbles, what are zombies doing coming out of a Voidgate? At least this time they drop Spoken blood. That makes sense. Zombies were one people, people are Spoken. Nobody said the blood had to be fresh. Makes you wonder, if the ghosts' bodies are a new corporeal form on a Spoken soul, is it Spoken blood? Maybe the item name was misidentified. Clearly the fissures just want any blood. But then why are two types of Eorzean undead people coming out of the Voidgates!?

Other monsters that come through the fissures (for the sake of completeness):

• Deepvoid Scamp - Imp - Voidsent ✓
  
• Ahriman - Ahriman - Voidsent ✓
  
• Planebreaker - Demon - Voidsent ✓
• Void Lantern - Wisp - Voidsent ✓
• Void Plasma - Gargoyle - Voidsent ✓
  
• Void Trumpeter - Demon - Voidsent ✓
  
• Barbatos - Gargoyle - Voidsent ✓
  
• Void Tyrant - Death Gaze ... ?

I don't know what Death Gaze are. They look Voidsent as all get out, despite sharing many features with the Scalekin Aevis (they were both versions of Plate Wyrms in FFXII), and mega despite the fact that the Simurgh FATE outright calls them Cloudkin. Anyway, most of the monsters that come through are indeed Voidsent.

So - we only have two Ashkin anomalies to deal with - and it clearly runs deeper than Eorzeans' habit of just slapping the name "DEEPVOID" on anything having an 85% chance or better of having tumbled down the snurblehole from the Ascian realm. Maybe the quest just needs some polish. I mean, it already suffers from major, "Is it Magic or Magick in FFXIV?" syndrome.

UNLESS THE ZOMBIES AND REVENANTS WERE JUST IMPS IN GLAMOUR ALL ALONG!
OHOHOHO!

In the end, though, I feel obligated to say, since I spent so much time picking at it, that this is still one of my favorite story arcs in the game. A gifted thaumaturge allying with beastmen in a time before tempering only to have his hubris with powerful magicks rip open a hole to the void resulting in his friends being torn into their aetherial components which were then devoured by a voidsent entity in order to make his corporeal form... how black mage is that? Big thumbs up. Awesome tale.

Conclusion
Travanchet totally sent The Key, whatever the hell it was, through a Planar Fissure to the Void.

Thread-relevant Conclusion
TBA

Silver Linings
Because it's such a vague class, I keep just throwing anything that's animate and bound to something into the soulkin column even though I have reservations about them. Looking into the Ashkin made me realize that Bockman, a Dullahan, is said to be an undead revenant. This fits with past Dullahan in the franchise. Perhaps Eorzeans were wrong about the "ancient golem" part of their theories. Maybe, unlike the ghosts, these revenants know they're dead, and they're just downright vengeful about it... I'll move them to Ashkin for now. Progress! I still wonder about Golems, though... Why only with certain magicks only during umbral eras? An Ascian summoned one, maybe it's void magicks. Let's move them to voidsent for now. PROGRESS! ... Hm. I'm gonna need to do some digging on what the statues in Qarn are. Haunted? Magicked? There's a golem there... Something new to focus on at least.

Thanks again, Roland!

[RolandDebreton]

I'm on my smartphone so my access to quest log research is limited. That being said, didn't our illustrious archon Urianger sic a golem on us nigh on the end of the Seventh Umbral Era? Or did he sic us on it? I'm unsure of whether he was still testing us, but I seem to recall some measure of explanations with the appearance of this new creature.