Dalamud and today's picture on the Lodestone's entry

[Onizuka]

Hello again!

I'll ask this here, even if it's not properly text-related.

On today's entry on the Lodestone, Hunter's Moon: The Curse of Dalamud, besides the usual pleasure in reading more lore-related stuff (thanks for those!), I noticed something strange in the picture: there's a squirrel on a cliff, there's Dalamud (Eorzea's lesser moon) in glowing red like we're used to see, and there's another circular object next to it, with some kind of “spikes” around it.

So I was wondering: what is that Unidentified Flying Object next to Dalamud? This way, someone who doesn't know the backstory, might think that the squirrel is looking at the big moon of Eorzea (in red) and that object next to it is the lesser moon of Dalamud (not in red).

Maybe there's an easy explanation to this and I'm simply missing something on that UFO, so if other adventurers here have a clue, let me know. Or else, I'll wait for our voidsent fellas to shed some light.

Thanks!


P.S.: As a side note, thank you also for listening and bringing the crowns for localization's team posts back.

[Shyd]

inc PuPu?

[Armok]

What's the squirrel holding?

Doesn't look like an ear-ring?

[Archadius]

Don't be foolish, we all know that's the Darth Vader Van Darnus "Death Star" Meteor.

[Holland]

As far as I can see. The red big one is the moon, and the smaller one is Menphina's lover/Dalamud/Meteor w/e you may want to call it =p

Edit: regardless of what we see now in game, if were seeing Dalamud as the red one we should be able to see the moon even bigger right beside it, in my opinion.

[Lienn]

Holland is correct. The moon is Dalamud and the lesser moon is Menphina (or vice-versa...i always confound which one is who). Look to the sky ingame and you will always see both together. Menphina is the "moon's moon".

And yep, the dormouse is holding the earring described in the text...anniversary earring maybe @_@

[Onizuka]

Hmm, I'm not sure I'm following you... Let's round it up:

In Eorzea we have two moons, a big one, believed to be the embodiment of the goddess Menphina, and a small one, believed to be the Lover's loyal hound, Dalamud, as explained by the Miqo'te I'nairoh at Wineport during the sidequest “Moonstruck” (I talked about it in my Journal as well).

And if we stare at the night sky we can indeed see Dalamud (the small moon) that recently grew bigger and turned red, while “Menphina” (the big one) is always the same and I've never seen it red (yet). So:

Big and White = Menphina
Small and Red = Dalamud

However, in that picture on the Lodestone's entry, if we consider “that circular object with spikes” to be Dalamud, it's the big moon (Menphina, not Dalamud) to be reddish, so the opposite of what we actually see.

Do you see my point? I tried to explain it as best as I could.

But again, maybe I'm missing something... Too much heat in Thanalan...!

[Sav]

When I first saw the picture, I assumed the small spiked orb was Dalamud, considering the relative sizes of the two celestial objects.

I would have to agree with Holland. If the large red one is Dalamud, then where is Menphina?

[Anonymoose]

HEAR YE,
HEAR YE.
LORE-WHORE ANONYMOOSE COMETH TO ...
NOT HELP ALL THAT MUCH, THIS TIME, ACTUALLY.

It's still pretty hazy.

"It is commonly held that the larger of the two is the embodiment of Menphina, the Lover. The legends surrounding the smaller moon vary, though. While there are some who believe it to be Menphina's daughter, others swear that it is her lantern. However, the most popular tale tells us the moon is actually Menphina's loyal hound, Dalamud, ever vigilant in his watch over the goddess." - Sidequest NPC

To the Eorzeans that follow the last theory, Dalamud glows red when there is great threat to The Lover (Menphina). "The Moon," though nameless, is said to be the physical manifestation of this deity, and this is the only way we can perceive her.

Eorzeans believe that the red color Dalamud takes is a sign of the blood that the threat tends to spill, or the spilled blood of that thread after being attacked by The Lover's loyal hound.

What does this mean about the image?

Maybe the artist in question colored the wrong moon red. Hey, it happens - they're an awesome artist, not a lore semantics officer.

Or maybe, Dalamud was unable to protect his mistress this time...

Or maybe,

Maybe the Void-devs have the answer in whatever source it is that they consult whenever a localization turns out more vague than intended and we all barge in and set up a campfire in their forum so we can sit around it waiting for stories.

Can I get a copy of whatever manuscript that is, by the way? I'll pay cash money! I'll keep it secret (keep it safe)! I'll... let you set up a forum just for campfire sitters and I'll have to answer all of them! WE CAN CALL IT THE MOOSE LODGE.

[Onizuka]

Well, yeah, now that many of you also confirmed my initial though that something is not right (according to the story we know), there're only two options in my opinion:

1. The first time I saw the picture I thought the red moon was a close-up of Dalamud, as Dalamud is the only red moon, so that would mean that spiked floating thingie nearby is a new unknown object we were unaware of (until now).

2. After a while I also had a doubt it could be a mistake and in that case, yeah, Akihiko Yoshida-san colored the wrong moon.


So now we'll just have to wait for an official response from the loc team to unravel this mystery. Thanks for giving me your opinions, fellow lore-cravers, I don't know many adventurers on my World that are interested in Eorzea's happenings as I am, glad to see someone else is following this Great story thoroughly.