Van Darnus Claims Innocense; Blames "the Void."

[Anonymoose]

Some interesting lore surfaced in a Localization discussion about a possible naming convention conflict that seems to be straight from the Raimdelle Codex's lost pages, so I thought you lore-lovers would like to take a peek.

Important quotes are abridged below (see link above for full versions), surrounded by a semi-canonical fake news article because I'm bored out of my twelve-damn mind between classes. If you find this kind of thing interesting, Ferne's whole post gives even more insight into Eorzea's mob taxonomy and history (which have sadly been quiet issues since release.)

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Article taken from a newspaper discarded on the streets of Garlemald.
Year One of the Seventh Umbral Era.

Anonyworth von Moosewick III, Esquire, recently sat down with an anonymous Fernehalwes to discuss the recent accusations that Legatus von Darnus may be responsible for acts of environmental terrorism abroad. Despite his assurances that any acts of aggression against the Eorzeans are within the legal boundaries set by the Empire in regard to victory against the False Gods, von Darnus stands accused of using magitek to a degree that threatens the environment in ways that may come back to haunt our nation.

The Anonymoose recently returned from Coerthas, asserting that the new species of monster, deemed 'Plasmoids,' recently appearing there is a direct result of actions taken by The White Raven. The Fernehalwes, who shall remain nameless, concurs.

Plasmoids [are,] in some circles, thought to be unstable manifestations of lightning-aspected aether, in others, to be a by-product of Garlean magitek technologies, though [are] most likely a combination of both.

At first, Legatus Van Darnus refused to answer his shellphone, but eventually forwarded The Moose's call to a Tribunus Atilus, who stated that the Legatus's official position remains that Plasmoids are likely just descendants of the common glowfly or perhaps came from the void like the wisps, as they use many of the same attacks. Fernehalwes rebuts, citing access to a surviving copy of the Raimdelle Codex from an Ishgardian nobleman's private collection.

It is widely known that special attacks are usually only used by members of the same genus.

Well, it has been noted that wisps (widely believed to be the spiritual remnants of long-deceased souls) and plasmoids ... display only limited cognitive abilities, and react to their surroundings driven more by primitive inherent tendencies than complex reasoning. Using these observations as a foundation for their theory, certain scholars have formed the hypothesis that ... wisps and plasmoids ... mistake the glowing fireflies of this world as brethren and instinctively begin emulating their actions.

Positive that Legatus van Darnus was indeed aware that his magitek forces were likely causing the genesis of these formidable foes, The Moose tracked him down in Western Thanalan and followed him to a local aetherite gate. However, when he attempted to question him, van Darnus held his gunhalberd high, absorbed the aether from the ground networks until the gate collapsed, and told Anonymoose that he would do better to go home.

The Moose obliged.

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This game has so much more going on than meets the eye, doesn't it? It may have been released incomplete, but I'll be damned if they don't have mountains of lore ready to go when there's content to use as a medium for it.

OTHER GOOD NEWS!

We understand that the LOC forum is probably not the best place to be releasing this info, as it can often be difficult to find, especially for those users who don't know to look here, as well as DE, FR, and JP users who might not be able to understand the posts even if they do manage to make their way here. Plans to expand the the Lodestone to include more lore-related articles are already underway, and your suggestions regarding in-game lore libraries have been relayed to the team.

Centralized bonus lore via the Lodestone!? Possible addition of more random lore books just hanging around Eorzea waiting to be read!? Ohoho, sign me up.