Quote Originally Posted by Kyan View Post
Is Doma a city-state or a region of Othard? I'm not quite sure. But if you look at Eorzea, and how each city-state has a region, I am certain Doma would be the same.
Some reference to real-world history would be helpful here. We tend to forget that the concept of a "nation-state" is actually very modern, and did not become common until some 300 years ago.

While some countries like England and France were beginning to develop a "national identity" around the 1300s and 1400s, people in these places would still more readily identify themselves as subjects of a monarch, than of a "country" per se.

In other words, up until recently in history, loyalties were more personal than they were "national".

It was actually more common for prosperous cities to gain prominence, with a rare handful ascending into full-fledged land or maritime empires. In ancient times, we had the likes of Babylon, Rome and Athens. And in the Middle Ages, there were Italian cities like Venice, Florence and Genoa.

And in most of these cases, loyalties were usually pledged to the city, and not specifically to an area of land. It was only in a few rare cases that an area of land was readily identified with a "nation", like China, Japan or India.