On the nature of Carbuncle

[Urthdigger]

Apologies if this has been asked before, but I'm curious about our favorite little summon. I was recently corrected when I referred to the Mor Dhona carbuncle as male, when in fact the arcanist who owns it says it is named Ruby and uses female pronouns. Now, I tend to use male pronouns, as Carbuncle prime in FFXI (with the player summoned ones being mere manifestations of his power) used male pronouns, albeit only in one CS.

In any case, I began to wonder if gender should even apply. I recall that Carbuncle is just a bundle of aetherial energy brought forth using diagrams in a grimoire. This would suggest they are soulless automatons, more an "it" than anything.

But then, on the other hand, we have the wandering Carbuncle of Mor Dhona, which exhibits behavior that suggests individuality. We have the yips they communicate with. This all suggests something closer to living creatures that are individuals rather than copies of one another.

So, thoughts?

[treuhavik]

The same could be asked of primals. As far as we know, they too are just masses of aetherial energy. Then again, most things exhibiting life tend to develop their own personality, and everything living is either made of or filled with aether.

[Anonymoose]

I've just been sitting back waiting to find the meaning in that little event. Is she just not very good with arcane geometry and gets a glitchy carby with a classic name? Or is she extraordinarily good with arcane geometry and gets to beta test the development of Ruby Carbuncle from the ground up using modified Emerald Carbuncle geometry?

They made six skins for the pet, one for each element; you figure they'd use them. I always wondered why we never got the red-gem carbuncle. Garuda-Egi is essentially a modified Emerald Carbuncle (wind carbuncle vs. vortex egi), ditto Titan-Egi and Topaz Carbuncle (earth carbuncle vs. crag egi). Their attacks are even the same with different names.

Following the convention pattern, there should eventually be Sapphire Carbuncle for Leviathan-Egi, Diamond Carbuncle for Shiva-Egi, and Iolite Carbuncle for Ramuh-Egi... which leaves Ifrit-Egi and the suspiciously absent Ruby Carbuncle... who should be red and headbutting things rather than an idiosyncratic Emerald Carbuncle wandering around Revenant's Toll.

I bet I'm just overthinking things again.

Don't even listen to me.

[Urthdigger]

Except she's only NAMED Ruby, and is still an emerald Carbuncle.

[Anonymoose]

Except she's only NAMED Ruby, and is still an emerald Carbuncle.

Well, if I was going to make a new carbuncle, I'd start with the formula for one that already existed and start tweaking it. If I tweaked the formula for Emerald Carbuncle and it didn't turn out like I planned, perhaps I'd get a derpy Emerald Carbuncle whose raison d'etre was to wander off, climb things, and yip at people.

Orrrr perhaps it's just a glitchy Emerald Carbuncle named Ruby that belongs to a lackluster Arcanist studying in Mor Dhona.

<flips coin>

"YOU GET DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT OR YOU'LL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS CUBIC ZIRCONICA CARBUNCLE."

[treuhavik]

Except she's only NAMED Ruby, and is still an emerald Carbuncle.

Yeah, it's a blue bunny-squirrel. I have some screenshots somewhere when I found him - resting just above his masters gaze, no less.

EDIT: Found it!




P.S. Please don't google "carbuncle" without a color-prefix. *shudders*

[myahele]

There are amateur arcanists on the the bottom level of the ACN guild training to control the Carbuncle. Some are teaching them combat skills, some are training them on how to identify the smell of materials and other's seem to not be able to understand their orders.

As for naming Carbuncles I guess it's probably common thing. You summon and get attached to this aetherical contruct and people will tend to name them; maybe even using gendered suffixes to refer to their individual Carbuncles.

[aisustrong]

always felt like a glowy cat to me

[Ashkendor]

always felt like a glowy cat to me

Sparkly green doom squirrel!

[TinyRedLeaf]

Some people name their cars in real life and, depending on the make or model, may even assign male or female pronouns to the vehicle.

Heck, we even name our warships, and usually think of them as "female".

So, why not for our favourite glowing bundle of aether?

By the way, I rather like the notion of being a bag of light than a bag of protoplasm.