Printing In Eorzea, and Linkpearl Recording

[Diyne]

I don't want to get too technical into this, but I think it might wind up being so. I have 'two' questions here, and thought it might be better to condense it into one thread, instead of making multiple.

How advanced are Eorzea's printing capabilities? I'll assume, looking at numerous fliers across Eorzea, knowing we have newspapers, as well as text within key items and such, that printing technology exists quite abundantly. Where is Eorzea in that technology? Renaissance era? Will we ever see the shops of our beloved Eorzean printers in the game?

On another note, I sort of raised personal (though silent) questions in 1.0 when we had Gramophones in a particular quest, as well as 'boy bands' using linkpearls to distribute their music to Eorzea. How is music distributed most readily? Do bands get together with hundreds of linkpearls laying in front of them, and record their music? Do they use one main linkshell, and record it onto multiple linkpearls? Do they use an actual gramophone technology, or is it more a strange hybrid gramophone that plays linkpearl audio transmissions? Do tropes of musicians even record music?

Can linkpearls even record sound? If I recall correctly, the Garleans were 'dropping' linkpearls around in 1.0, which were spewing propaganda. Were these per-recorded messages, or was it an occasion stream of 'live' content?

[Kyan]

Great questions.

Regards to the recording of music - well, if they can record/compare aetheric waves and readings, I'm sure they could easily to the same for sound waves, right?

[Grayve]

Linkpearls are basically radios, per Cid. He describes them exactly like real world two way radios (or cell phones) , only to give and say they use aether since the Warrior of Light is just staring blankly at him. Presumably, this means they are Garleanian in origin, being technology not magic. Whether the city states manufacture their own, or if the Ironworks makes them all and distributes them to the Grand Companies is unknown. They seem more advanced then the rest of Eorzean tech.

As for printing presses, all three city states have their own newspaper and reporters, which leads me to think they have presses. Presumably, they can't use scribes to hand write enough newspapers to the general populace.

[Diyne]

They are described similarly to radio--however, Garlean's do not generally seem to use linkshells for communication. (At least, that's what I've gathered from the story, besides their use of them for propoganda purposes in 1.0?) Maybe there's something more to it? They have their own magitek communication that seems to be more similar to an actual radio, as is shown being interfered with by adventurers and the city states repeatedly. If they could all easily use linkpearls, why do they have a need to have other communication devices that are constantly inhibited by the Eorzeans?

Do linkpearls require at least some form of aetheric manipulation by the person using it? If that were the case, then pure-born Garlean's could not use them. I feel like, if that werethe case, linkpearls probably would not be popular with Garleans. Really only conscripts could use them, and that could cause problems if the conscripts decided to defect or rebel. Are they worried about their enemies spying on them, via a linkpearl they found on a soldier? I would think it wouldn't be too much harder to steal a conscripts radio, and do the same thing.

Though, we've also seen Garleans intercept linkpearl transmissions. Though I call hacks on that, as Nero is of similar technical genius as Cid.

[Grayve]

Spoilers.



Well, the 2.4 storyline regarding the spy involves a jamming device, which I believed was for linkpearls. I don't recall if they used the name linkpearl, though. It was clearly the city states were blocking long range communications of the garleans.

Also, I -think- Maggie (our magitek armor) has a built in communications device.

[subteraneanbird]

A large segment of the MS right before level 50 involves you setting up a way to disrupt Garlean communications to make your Castrum hijinks easier. It seems like EVERYONE uses them for communication, which makes me think they aren't Garlean exclusive. Could they have adapted them or enhanced them? Absolutely. But the base method seems identical.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Where is Eorzea in that technology? Renaissance era?

We have airships. Airships. The goblins also have tanks. And the Garleans are capable of deploying weapons of mass destruction.

I think it's fair to say that Eorzea enjoys many of the modern conveniences we do today, except transposed into fantasy, magical terms. Hence the Eorzean equivalent of our radios and telephones, the linkpearls.

But Reinassance-era "technology" would probably be a good guess as to where their printing capabilities are. Mind you, block printing was already common in Europe by the 1300s. The Gutenberg printing press was invented in the 1430s. Mass printing became common in the 1500s. This was also the time of Leonardo da Vinci, who, among other things, conjured up designs for airplanes and tanks.

So, yeah, I reckon Reinaissance Europe is as good an analogy for "present-day" Eorzea as any.

I'm more curious about the state of plumbing in Eorzea, actually. No toilets around. If we could smell the world, Eorzea would probably stink to the high heavens.

[Lukha]

We have tubs and fountains, though, so obviously there's some sort of plumbing in use. And don't all the inn rooms have doors leading off to the side? I assumed that was the bathroom.

[Diyne]

We also have aqueducts and such. That big long arch thing in Mist is an aqueduct, and apparently brings water to each house in the residential area. (At least, that's what is said in the artbook.) Privies have also been referenced a few times in different places. However, I'm not sure if those are outhouses, or actual toilets with plumbing.

As for the Garleans using linkpearls: It does not say that they use linkpearls in that MS questline. Cid simply says "Imperial forces communicate at a distance via electromagnetic waves. Simply put, voices are borne upon aetheric lightning energy that permeates the air." I think they might have some other form of magitek based communication device, moreso like a radio. (And maybe a bit more advanced than a linkpearl.)

[Enkidoh]

As for the Garleans using linkpearls: It does not say that they use linkpearls in that MS questline. Cid simply says "Imperial forces communicate at a distance via electromagnetic waves. Simply put, voices are borne upon aetheric lightning energy that permeates the air." I think they might have some other form of magitek based communication device, moreso like a radio. (And maybe a bit more advanced than a linkpearl.)

They do use linkpearls - 1.0 stated they were dropping them from airships to broadcast Imperial propaganda in version 1.0, and the scenes of Imperial soldiers communicating in ARR showed they had the exact same mobile phone-like tone that the player's own linkpearl had as well (not to mention Nero was clearly able to hack into the player's linkshell feed with Cid in the Praetorium, showing that the Garleans are intimately familiar with the technology). And linkpearl are radio devices - like radio they're prone to interference and signal drop outs.