Answers About the Archons

[Rannie]

This was clearly shown in the 2.55 story when

Papalymo offered to stay behind to slow down the pursuing Brass Blades and Crystal Braves to allow the player, Minfilia, Thancred and Y'shtola to escape, Yda unhesitatingly remained by his side to help him, not willing to let him sacrifice himself without her there too. I must admit I tore up at that scene, being Gridanian aligned in both 1.0 and ARR and having known them since the very beginning of my journey in FFXIV it was like saying goodbye to close friends. ).

But I digress...

Err it was the other way around yda said she would stay and let the rest escape then Papalymo spoke up to say he would stay with her then she smiled. At least that was the gist in English if the other languages changed it up I don't know.

[Samcaesar]

This makes me wonder, what was Yda's field of expertise suppose to be? Thancred I could make a few guesses at but Yda leaves me completely in the dark. She doesn't strike me as the sciency type. Maybe she has a knack for ancient dialects or something.

Maybe she's a scholar of martial arts, like studying forms and history of the various martial art groups? It'd make sense given her class and some groups in the world like the Fist of Rhalgr.

[lololink]

Maybe the title sage is given to all those who are deemed worthy in any skill, may it be science or martial skills, meaning that Yda is considered a master in pugilism and Thancred in swordmanship or spying.

It could also be that they all studied with Louisoix and while they aren't all expert scientist they received that brand to reward them for helping as assistants.

[Fenral]

It's not my place to share Moose's excellent writeup, I'll leave that for him, but I did think it important to share a little goodie I found at my local library. Major Heavensward spoilers ahead:

We can, indeed, close the book on the meaning of this symbol: Archon of Sharlayan. Not that there were many doubts left.

Which leaves that other mark still totally unexplained. I still don't really buy the "Brand of the Scions" explanation, not only because of that guy I never shut up about, but also because neither Minfilia nor Urianger wear it. But that doesn't make it meaningless, either, because...


Whatever it means, we do know it remains an important symbol to Y'shola, so we can assume it still has some important meaning left to be revealed.

[Anonymoose]

I still don't really buy the "Brand of the Scions" explanation, not only because of that guy I never shut up about, but also because neither Minfilia nor Urianger wear it.

Don't labor too, too hard to believe it; I did make sure to get confirmation that I was right before shouting it from the rooftops (I'm pretty paranoid about misinformation outside of the forums). The "eye" tattoo is for people who've pledged to aid the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, but they don't have to get it as a tattoo; they can choose whether to get inked or stitched or painted or dyed or whatever (if they choose to wear it). Moenbryda went all out; Y'shtola just wears it on her shirt (as does Urianger on his left shoulder, btw). G'raha is the historian appointed by the Students of Baldesion to assist the Sons of Saint Coinach, and the Students of Baldesion are allies of Minfilia (you don't send dark crystals and research the Rejoining for just anybody). I never did find it on Minfilia, either, though, lol.

[Fenral]

I did make sure to get confirmation that I was right before shouting it from the rooftops

Okay, that is the part that wasn't made clear in the writeup. From how it was written it sounded like just a well-educated guess.

Still weird that only one extremely specific character outside of the MS wears it, if that's the case, but I'm wondering if Cid may start to feel differently about certain people, certain levels of technological readiness,

now that we've basically handed the empire a GIANT ALLAGAN DEATH-FORTRESS on an Aurum Regis platter, along with maybe the three worst Primals in history.

Time will tell, I suppose.

(as does Urianger on his left shoulder, btw)

Actually, I just talked to him, and it isn't there. Granted, I've fought invisible Bahamut Prime, so it could just be a texture bug, but it seems to be one that happens every time I talk to him (much like my friend Invisible Bahamut Prime).

[Fenral]

Turns out you can find Lore in the most unlikely places. Browsing General Discussion at random, I noticed something in a link to an old piece of concept art.

Relevant detail:

Apparently, that "eye" tattoo is called 「シャーレヤンの印」 (the "Crest of Sharlayan"), at least internally. Doesn't really answer much on its own, if we can even consider anything on the above canon.

If we can... I guess we can see it as a patriotism thing? We don't see it on people like Louisoix or Matoya, who deliberately (and bitterly) cut ties with the motherland, but we do see it on the Scions who once left with Louisoix but sorted things out with the motherland between 1.0 and 2.0. Moen and G'raha are (were? ) in Eorzea for presumably the first time, but each seem to have done their own bit of traveling and probably wanted it as a reminder of where they came from. We also don't see it on Ala Mhigo-born Minfilia, because she's a foreigner.

Just leaving this here for reference in case it comes up again, or we start seeing it on actual disposable guest characters before too much longer.

[Enkidoh]

I especially wouldn't take that piece of art seriously though, as it was just a big April Fools Joke by the development team back during the Beta Test (when the forums were constantly going on about wanting a new race in the game (this was before the au ra had even been thought of), and because players were constantly requesting the Ivalice games' bangaa and viera races to be added, the development team jokingly fused them to create the vianga race, which that pic was supposedly 'super confidential concept art' of. Except it was a giant piece of humbug on the development team's part.

No doubt the Scions' 'eye' symbol appearing on it was just a means to further the joke in ways only Yoshi and the rest of the development team knows.

[Fenral]

Yes, I'm aware the Viangaa concept was a joke. Just thought it was worth pointing out that, ironically enough, this is the the only piece of released concept art I've seen to depict the symbol at all, and it is quite plainly labeled.

[Zohar_Lahar]

I have a good question regarding that eye symbol: Why does it look so much like the Yevon symbol fused with a vague outline of Zodiark (the esper)?