Competing for the tenth rung

[Catapult]

Pudding:

These gelatinous creatures spawn in the agglomerations of residual matter that sometimes form in the void. Though able to mimic rudimentary sounds of speech in order to draw forth their prey, they are not thought to be especially intelligent beings. As a relatively low-ranked voidsent, flans occupy the tenth rung of the hierarchy.

Bomb:

This barely contained sphere of volatile gas and flame occupies the eleventh rung of the voidesent's hierarchy of twelve. Bombs must replenish their internal reserves of fuel in order to survive, and are drawn to consume any source of oil or fat that they encounter, be it plant, animal or man. Grenades, an even more explosive species of bomb, are a place higher in the hierachy, standing upon the tenth rung.

So, either there is a typo in here, or its possible for multiple voidsent to share a place in the hierarchy. Though I don't really see grenades and puddings getting along much if that oil-consuming thing holds true.

[Eloah]

It's possible for different "creatures" to share a place within a hierarchy. Think of it this way, as a hierarchy lowers, more "creatures" can fit into it. So there could be one "Boss", 2 "Sub-Bosses", 4 "Mini-Bosses", and a dozen "Adds". Think of the hierarchy as a rank system, multiple monsters can have the same rank, right.

[Fernehalwes]

Greetings Catapult!

Eloah has the right of it here─multiple voidsent can occupy a single hierarchical rung. While lower-level bombs are relegated to the eleventh, higher-level bombs (such as grenades) fall onto the tenth, which also happens to be populated with puddings (funfact: some pudding NMs are found on the ninth).

This hierarchical ranking is a system devised by Eorzean scholars of the void, based solely off their study of the largely unknown realm (much like how demonologists 'rank' demons), and it is safe to say that the voidsent themselves are probably not bound by the definitions that Eorzean mortals have placed upon them to make their understanding of that realm easier.

Hopefully in the future I'll have an opportunity to reveal more of the hierarchy in-game and maybe even sneak in a Lovecraftian quest about a void scholar who is sinks deeper into madness the more he learns of the TRUTH!

[Ethys]

This hierarchical ranking is a system devised by Eorzean scholars of the void, based solely off their study of the largely unknown realm

I knew it! As if the Ascians would give a damn about collecting a census... Thanks for the confirmation.

[Kaiser-Ace]

Not like the Ascians are void sent. It's not even clear if they're actually from it. Seems more like they're just echo users that achieved immortality by becoming incorporeal beings. So my bet is that at one time the Ascians were mortals with the Echo just like we WoLs.

[BLaCKnBLu3B3RRY]

please the Codex of Stone an in-game reality

[Eloah]

Yay, Fernehalwes mentioned my name, I feel special now. Now maybe he could get the developers to look at our job ideas, XD, lol. Thanks Ferenhalwes for the feedback.

[BLaCKnBLu3B3RRY]

i wonder if there any plans for an official bestiary. it would be cool to see one.

[Catapult]

Hopefully in the future I'll have an opportunity to reveal more of the hierarchy in-game and maybe even sneak in a Lovecraftian quest about a void scholar who is sinks deeper into madness the more he learns of the TRUTH!

But... but... I must know MORE...!
/twitch

[Anonymoose]

i wonder if there any plans for an official bestiary. it would be cool to see one.

The longer I work on my own bestiary, the more I realize it'd be a challenge for SE to make an official one anytime soon without undoing a chunk of the hard work they've done to make the in-game taxonomy top-down and flawed in the first place. Raimdelle was ... not infallible.

It is an oft-forgotten fact that Frandelont Raimdelle, famed naturalist, father of modern taxonomy, and author of the Raimdelle Codex, tried multiple times (without success) to classify the common duck─most obviously a cloudkin─as a spoken, believing their incessant quackings to be a highly developed language beyond the comprehension of mankind.

That said, it'd help clear up a lot. The game used to call gnats vilekin, now it calls them voidsent. Doblyns are now the silver ones instead of the yellow ones, which seem to be synthetics. Ghosts are called both voidsent and ashkin back and forth... Though, I do have a developing theory that Ashkin are primarily soul-less physical remains and certain voidsent are body-less spiritual remains (assuming that Eorzean naturalists aren't flat out wrong that wisps are spirits). Anyway, I digress. If a bestiary comes out in-game, it'll likely be after we've learned much, much more about the true nature of things. Until then, it's a collaborative effort.