The Relic Weapons and justifying why the Jobmasters have them

[LiveVoltage]

@Morningstar1337

Yes and no. The lore of the relic quest conflicts with the first part I stated. The spear, the Gae Bolg, was basically the Dragoon womans fallen husbands lance. At first it wasnt the Gae Bolg but after several years of honing and fortifying it with powerful materials and metals, it became the modern Gae Bolg and she used that to kill the Dragon. Afterwards she abandoned the weapon, leading a life of cloth afterwards. (which would explain the fact the Ixal have it.)

This could also be a theory and its largely just head cannon but she could have been discovered as that she was the generations Azure Dragoon and after she went on her journey to forge the Gae Bolg and slay the wyvern who slew her love, other newer generations of Azure dragoons could have taken it up as a sort of tradition, forging a new spear for every generation of an Azure Dragoon in order to possibly replicate or just honor the Azure Dragoon who wielded the first Gae Bolg.

[Morningstar1337]

Okay so far we have:

• Thyrus: Unique, but loopholed via it's wielder aiding as a spirit.
• Stardust Rod: Mass-Produced
• Bravura: Mass Produced, but the blacksmiths that can make them died out. Also actually a style
• Sparhai: Mass Produced, but like Bravura the people that can make it are all dead.
• Curtana: Unique in name but there are two identical swords
• Holy Shield: Mass Produced, at least to match the swords
• Gae Bolg: Mass Produced, but there are only one for each Azure Dragoon

That still Leaves the Omnilex (though i think is mass produces, since the trophy mentions a "a copy of" before the name) Veil of Wiyu (I think it's unique) and Artemis Bow (betting on unique). That means that out of all the relics only Thyrus and Curtana so far are unique

[Anonymoose]

Omnilex was standard-issue among the Nymian Scholars, so if you have one you can have as many as you want (provided you know the secrets of the books shape as well as its contents). The Veil of Wiyu was unique, but nobody else had one, I believe. I know at least Tristan used Ifrit's Grimoire on account of Ifrit and Belias being part of his story. The Artemis Bow's story sounds unique, but it's entirely possible that Godsbows have been making similar bows in memory of Gilbert for years. The Gods' Quiver had it in their possession until one of their holdings was overrun by Ixal, who trashed the relic, so it would have been available for study and re-creation until only recently. Again, there's a functional excuse, but not a canonical answer (as far as I remember, I haven't combed over the bard story arc in a while).

Again, the stories leave a lot of open doors and mostly just make it sound like most of the weapons were of a traditional but lost design and that your character finds one of the more important examples of the traditional style.

[myahele]

I always thought thought generation of Dragoon were crafted armors and weapons unique to them. Sure, Gae Bolg once belonged to the legendary dragoon, but every dragoon is given a similar lance.

[TinyRedLeaf]

In the end, I think the cleanest way to look at the lore will be to assume that one great adventurer from each class guild gets tangled up in events that led them to take up the mantle of a "job of old" on their journey to banish the darkness. These adventurers then come together as one and work together, the "canonical party," so to speak, represented by the CG Party we see in SE's big cinematic. Each one person, each inheriting one job, then takes up the historical restoration of one relic, associated with that job, and upgrades it until it becomes the same as those that the Zodiac Braves wielded (and maybe beyond, who knows.

That's the way I interpret the lore as well.

And this seems to have been implied early in the storyline as well, when you meet the Mothercrystal for the first time. If you recall, there were other adventurers with you (or, at the very least, one other elezen and roegadyn) at the the time. So, it's not too far a stretch for me to imagine that those guys also went on to become the epitome of their respective classes and jobs.

Lately, I've also begun thinking further about some of the themes of the game, and one of the predominant motifs is the "Echo" itself. If you think about it, much of the game is about reviving old knowledge to renew the present and refresh hopes for the future, be it in terms of us adventurers recovering the skills of ancient predecessors, or delving into the depths of the Coils of Bahamut, or ascending the lofty heights of the Crystal Tower.

In a sense, we're all trying to re-create a realm that's an echo of halcyon days long past. I don't know how well this interpretation actually sits with canonical lore, but I do know that I personally like it enough to try working it into my personal "head-canon" for Lyland.

[Anonymoose]

In a sense, we're all trying to re-create a realm that's an echo of halcyon days long past.

I've had this thought, myself, but never went anywhere with it because of lack of evidence aside from "It sounds really cool." You might be more right than you know. Think about it; we're trapped in a repeating cycle of eras, but only seven cycles, and the ultimate goal of most factions so far is for that wheel to end on the world's "true form." Nael van Darnus thought it would "purify the world," and though we later learned that he was a puppet of Bahamut, who had a pretty specific idea of world purification, who's to say it wasn't also a warped version of his own goals? He himself was a scholar of the Divine Chronicles, and he confirmed in the Second Coil that (despite Bahamut's influence) he really did intend to perform an all out GUNDAM "colony drop" with the Meteor Project.

Likewise, the Ascians speak nonstop about "returning the world to its true form" and how we might see eye to eye if we weren't so ignorant. If we were trapped in something unnatural and needed to return the world to its rightful state, your theory would make a lot of sense, specially if every time you failed to do so, the world was further warped and twisted, turning civilizations into beastmen, creating primals, etc. etc.

The only thing that would need some fleshing out is how the deities fit into this - The Twelve, Hydaelyn, Zodiark - when the "true world" was finally created, whose outcome is the best? I mean, probably The Crystal, knowing Final Fantasy but, hey...

Of course, again, there's not much evidence for anything at this point, but at the end of Chapter 1, when all the first theories go up, someone always has the right theory from day one, just incidentally. Wonder who it'll be for XIV ^^

[Lucke]

I interpret the Curtana story in that you actually do find the real, legit Curtana. However over the years it degraded to such a point that it's garbage now and unusable. You take the Curtana to Gerolt who says it's beyond repair, but instead of repairing it, you transfer the....."essence" into that base weapon he wants you to get him.

All the trials you do is a way to repair/reawaken the essence and acclimate it to the base weapon which slowly takes it over and reverting it's form. I haven't done the other relics except Omnilex so I dunno if that story matches others.

The base weapons all have a piece of the relics of old and thus inherit their legacies. This IS Final Fantasy, stuff doesn't need to make sense.

[TinyRedLeaf]

The base weapons all have a piece of the relics of old and thus inherit their legacies.

Yup, it's essentially the same as well for the summoner's relic, the Veil of Wiyu. The original was recovered from deep within the Sylphlands, close to where its owner, Wiyu, was said to have died while fighting Odin the Dark Divinity. And just like Curtana, the original Veil was in a terrible condition, and its essence had to be transferred to a new host.

The concept of "essence transfer" isn't too hard to work around — I like to think of it as a more advanced form of materia conversion and melding. Just that, in this case, we're not working with aether-filled materia, but the raw materials of the relic itself.

And like what I said above about the "Echo" as an overarching theme in FFXIV's story, the whole business about our relic weapons really boils down to a restoration of the old to renew the present, and refresh hopes for the future. In other words, our signature weapons are literally echoes of the past.

[LiveVoltage]

Interesting Tidbit about the Draken Mail/armor I found for lore reasons.

Apparently, the Draken Mail is holy or sacred and is imbued with magics of Dragoon's past and a set is crafted for every generation of Azure Dragoons. The Draken mail, pending on who you ask, is a required piece to complete the power of an Azure Dragoon and it allows the user to perform Dragonfire Dive, an extremely powerful and high level technique exclusive to the Azure Dragoon and few high level Dragoon's.

My head cannon though kinda believes that a bunch of bs though. Regardless if you are an Azure or not, you should be able to perform high level techniques like Dragonfire Dive, even if you dont have or wear the Draken mail, as long as youre strong enough as a Dragoon to use and perform it. This head cannon is further enforced by the fact that you can still use Dragonfire Dive, even if you wear diffrent armor aside from Draken Mail, like Austrum Mail or the High Allagan gear.

[ColdestHeaven]

Interesting Tidbit about the Draken Mail/armor I found for lore reasons.

Apparently, the Draken Mail is holy or sacred and is imbued with magics of Dragoon's past and a set is crafted for every generation of Azure Dragoons. The Draken mail, pending on who you ask, is a required piece to complete the power of an Azure Dragoon and it allows the user to perform Dragonfire Dive, an extremely powerful and high level technique exclusive to the Azure Dragoon and few high level Dragoon's.

My head cannon though kinda believes that a bunch of bs though. Regardless if you are an Azure or not, you should be able to perform high level techniques like Dragonfire Dive, even if you dont have or wear the Draken mail, as long as youre strong enough as a Dragoon to use and perform it. This head cannon is further enforced by the fact that you can still use Dragonfire Dive, even if you wear diffrent armor aside from Draken Mail, like Austrum Mail or the High Allagan gear.

While the technique Dragonfire Dive and the Drachen Mail do share the same cause -which would be the Dragon Eye recognizing your valor, thus bestowing its power upon you once you best Estinien- they are independent. The Drachen Mail was not given to you because you were not ready yet to acquire it, and the moment you were ready to wear it happened to be the very same moment you were ready to master this technique.

In "monk stories" (not FFXIV monk storyline specifically) it is not hard to imagine at least one in which the master teaches a pinnacle technique to his pupil - and when the pupil masters it, he is deemed worthy to wear some sort of bandana or belt.