Hydaelyn's Star

[LlenCoram]

I was fishing near Costa Del Sol today, when Memphina rose from the depths (minus her trusty hound) and I started watching her cross the sky. Fast forward to the middle of the day when I look up and realise I have no idea if our star has a name.

So, Ferne, does our star have a name? Our solar system? Galaxy maybe? Entirely pointless, I know, but has any thought been put into our place in the universe?


Also I realise now I'm not 100% if the greater moon is called Memphina, but I'm pretty sure... I do miss Dalamud some nights.

[Anonymoose]

Memphina

Menphina

[D]oes our star have a name? Our solar system? Galaxy maybe? ... [H]as any thought been put into our place in the universe?

I'm not sure what secrets are stored away at SEHQ, but to get an answer to this question in Eorzea, you'd probably need to ask an Ascian. Even the word "planet" is uttered very few times in the game, mentioned only by Ascians, Sharlayans, and (bizarrely) the common guards that explain what Aetherytes do (the gates were built by Sharlayans, though, so maybe there was some imparting of knowledge on those related to the project).

In a quote from the distant reaches of the ancient past (2010), "Though it is the name of the entire planet, the term is very rarely used by its inhabitants, for to understand the concept of a planet, one must first know of other worlds, and most on Hydaelyn do not."

For this reason, I wouldn't get your hopes up about deeper astrophysical exploreation.

In Eorzea in particular, considering the Sixth Astral Era was an intellectual dark age compared to the age of the Allag (Third Astral), you won't be like to hear much of this talk. The moon isn't just named Menphina, it's oft thought to be a physical manifestation of The Lover herself.

Oh? You've not heard of Dalamud? He is the faithful hound who forever attends to his mistress Menphina, whom you may know as the goddess who appearrrs to us mortals as the moon.

HOWEVER, even if Eorzeans might not know a name for the sun or moon aside from the names we give them relating to the Twelve, I can say this. Menphina is known as the Keeper of the Twin Moons, and we know that many consider the moon to be an incarnation of her. This would mean that, to Eorzeans, the sun would be an incarnation of Azeyma, who is our star's keeper.

[Enkidoh]

Menphina


I'm not sure what secrets are stored away at SEHQ, but to get an answer to this question in Eorzea, you'd probably need to ask an Ascian. Even the word "planet" is uttered very few times in the game, mentioned only by Ascians, Sharlayans, and (bizarrely) the common guards that explain what Aetherytes do (the gates were built by Sharlayans, though, so maybe there was some imparting of knowledge on those related to the project).

In a quote from the distant reaches of the ancient past (2010), "Though it is the name of the entire planet, the term is very rarely used by its inhabitants, for to understand the concept of a planet, one must first know of other worlds, and most on Hydaelyn do not."

For this reason, I wouldn't get your hopes up about deeper astrophysical exploreation.

In Eorzea in particular, considering the Sixth Astral Era was an intellectual dark age compared to the age of the Allag (Third Astral), you won't be like to hear much of this talk. The moon isn't just named Menphina, it's oft thought to be a physical manifestation of The Lover herself.

HOWEVER, even if Eorzeans might not know a name for the sun or moon aside from the names we give them relating to the Twelve, I can say this. Menphina is known as the Keeper of the Twin Moons, and we know that many consider the moon to be an incarnation of her. This would mean that, to Eorzeans, the sun would be an incarnation of Azeyma, who is our star's keeper.

Well, I'm liable to believe that there is at least some knowledge of cosmic mechanics in Eorzea - the Ishgardians particularly are shown to be tracking planetary and astronomical movements via telescopes, the old class-specific weapon for THMs was an astrolabe that featured tiny models of Hydaelyn with both Menphina and Dalamud clearly orbiting it, and the ACN class symbol is a celestial globe (a globe showing the movement of astronomical bodies), so even if the common man in the street might be ignorant of Hydaelyn's actual physical mass and how it moves through the cosmos, that ignorance definitely doesn't seem to be shared across the entire realm though. As Dalamud was clearly addressed as 'Menphina's loyal hound', that pretty much shows that to Eorzeans at least, the primary moon was called Menphina, after the goddess of the moon, and logic would therefore dictate the sun would accordingly be addressed as 'Azeyma' after the sun goddess (and my Enki's Guardian deity ).

And the kicker is the player themselves is shown a view of Hydaelyn from space in the opening scene upon clicking start for the first time. That's actually quite common throughout the series even in FF worlds which are shown to be stuck in the dark ages relatively technologically, where that world is shown from space as a very earth-like planet, presumably to establish some sense of familiarity to the player.

Damnit, we really need the 'Eorzea Astronomical Society' to be revived (I thoroughly enjoyed that thread.).

[axemtitanium]

Eorzean knowledge of astronomy seems to be extremely primitive. I remember (and found it hilarious) that one of the in-universe theories about Dalamud in 1.0 was that it was physically growing in size, rather than simply getting closer. Eorzeans evidently don't understand the concept of gravity/orbits/satellites and assumed that stars in the sky are just twinkly dots embedded in the skybox.

[LlenCoram]

Menphina

Ech, I knew I made a mistake. Not the one I thought I was making though!

Thanks for the answers too. It was really only a flight of fancy while fishing (It's so boring nowadays -_-), so I didn't really expect anything to come of it.

[MaethusXion]

Maybe Menphina was an Allagan? iirc they mentioned that it was the Allagans that put Dalamud up in the sky? Or they tried bringing it down, one or the other.

[Kayokane]

Maybe Menphina was an Allagan? iirc they mentioned that it was the Allagans that put Dalamud up in the sky? Or they tried bringing it down, one or the other.

I wouldn't be surprised if the whole pantheon of The Twelve were really prominent Allagans. I do recall that the furthest back the symbols of the twelve go (that we Eorzeans know about) is on Allagan tomestones.

as for Hydaelyn's Star, Azeyma is described as being the Goddess of the Sun, so therefor I would agree with our resident Loremonger's theory

[Arkghyom]

Menphina

/n/-> [+nas, LAB]/_ [obstruent, +cont]

An anterior coronal nasal /n/ changes into a labial nasal [m] when it is followed by a continuous obstruent [f] (Alpha rule [labial feature/labialization]-> assimilation.)

In other words, the grammar fetish you have is justified by political constructs of standardization, but the linguistic output says otherwise. Memphina :3

http://idiom.ucsd.edu/~bakovic/grad-...hart_v1102.pdf

PS I was bored, my apologies. <3

[Anonymoose]

An anterior coronal nasal /n/ changes into a labial nasal [m] when it is followed by a continuous obstruent [f] (Alpha rule [labial feature/labialization]-> assimilation.)

That's a lot of words I don't use very much, but does that say "Ns followed by Fs become Ms?"

I'm comfused by this imformation. It sounds umfit for universal emforcement. Simfully so. I comfess that I cannot comform to this comfinement whilst I have spoken otherwise since my imfancy. It'd be too paimful! TOO PAIMFUL. I CANNOT STRIDE FEARLESS INTO THAT IMFERNO.

[LlenCoram]

That's a lot of words I don't use very much, but does that say "Ns followed by Fs become Ms?"

I'm comfused by this imformation. It sounds umfit for universal emforcement. Simfully so. I comfess that I cannot comform to this comfinement whilst I have spoken otherwise since my imfancy. It'd be too paimful! TOO PAIMFUL. I CANNOT STRIDE FEARLESS INTO THAT IMFERNO.

I think it's more that, when spoken, the two letters tend to morph into a letter between the two :P.

Let's call it Mn.