Abilities and mob names in Alexander: Gordias

[Keewee]

Hi everyone,

I'm always curious of the lore behind ability/mob names, so here are a few elements I have compiled for those interested. Feel free to contribute! Alexander is probably less lore-rich than other game content (by Thaliak, all these references to Caduceus/Hygeiea/Asclepios/Serpents/Medicine in coil!), but there are some interesting things.

First, Gordias! This guy is a famous mythological king of Phrygia (current Anatolian Turkey, close to Ankara), founder of Gordium city, and father to Midas. Not Cid's father, Midas nan Garlond, but king Midas. He is supposed to have thanked Zeus for making him king by creating a knot so intricate around his ox-cart (the so-called gordian knot) that noone could untie it. According to the legend, Alexander the Great, when visiting the city, "solved" the problem by slicing the knot with his sword. Well, Gordias is also this big always-hungry guy close to the tavern in FFXI Windurst, but I caaan't really see the link.

Skill names:

• German skills: Kahlstrahl and Blitzstrahl. Basically, cold beam and lightning beam.
• Protean Wave: while a standard English word, the word protean is not that often used as such. It comes from the Greek god Proteus, living in the seas (!), whose main ability was to change shape. This lead to the adjectives protean and proteiform, meaning "that can take various forms". Think about proteins, amino acid chains, whose main role in the body is to take specific forms to be used as "keys". The Protean wave refers to the fact that it goes in random directions, I'd assume.
• Judgement Nisi: this one is less easy. Basically, the term nisi refers to an exclusion principle, ni-si, "if not", "unless". A judgement nisi is a judgement which will be made final, unless a specific condition happens. In this case, both healers are judged and will die, unless they manage to stay far from everyone else for the duration of the debuff.
• Photon Spaser: a spaser is basically like a laser, a phenomenon of amplification using an excitation source, but this time not using photons but using surface plasmons, that is, electron oscillations. The fun thing in this is that spasers are not supposed to emit light (or photons). So what is a photon spaser? Why, a big badass attack, for sure.

Mob names:

• Faust: Well, so much to say about this one. He is basically a person who made a pact with the devil, and there are many variations on this, the best known being Goethe's Fausts. I'm a bit sad that no ability are linked to the mob name apart from the German language, this would have been a nice opportunity. Faust is also a FFXI doll notorious monster found in the Shrine of Ru'Avitau.
• Jagd dolls: jagd means "hunt" in German. I don't really think there is a link with the English word jagged. This is also a reference to the FF world of Ivalice, where the jagds are places where no laws take effect and mist density is high, and thus where people fight freely (and potentially die) and have trouble flying by airship. Note that Jagd Dolls are Delkfutt Tower doll enemies in FFXI.
• Living Liquid: this boss is a fun reference to the FFV boss Liquid Fire, who also takes one of three forms: body, hand or tornado.

Well, that's all I have for now, but let's discuss!

[Fenral]

So "Gordias" == "the Father." Original author of the Enigma Codex?

"Midas" -> Mide? Did her dad summon Alexander 3 years ago?

If I'm putting all this together... The overall "Alexander" allusion going on is that this "Alexander" is a quick-and-dirty solution (primal summoning) to a much more complex problem (the original Alexander ideal). Instead of actually working towards the goal outlined in the Codex, the Illuminati "chopped the knot" and summoned it as a primal instead. The desired result is achieved without taking all the steps needed towards what is, in all likelihood, an impossible ideal meant to be followed but never achieved, thus corrupting the end result.

I feel like we've had another story eerily similar to this in FFXIV already. Chalk it up to "author appeal," I guess. Maybe I'm imagining it...

[Zohar_Lahar]

I noticed the Manipulator shared ability names with the Chariot enemies in FFXI (who were also inside Alexander). Also I'm pretty sure Blitzstrahl and Kartzstrhl were attacks by Dol enemies from that game too (with Faust as a Notorious Monster doll).

[StarDrake]

I feel like we've had another story eerily similar to this in FFXIV already. Chalk it up to "author appeal," I guess. Maybe I'm imagining it...

Time flows like a river, and history repeats.

It really is one of the wider themes of the entire franchise - that without conscious intervention, the mistakes of the past will be repeated in other forms. It even extends to FF's spinoffs - just think about where the above quite is from.

[Mysteltain]

I do like all of the Germanic influences in Alexander, but I just hope people will actually start pronouncing "Jagd" correctly, haha.

[Keewee]

I just hope people will actually start pronouncing "Jagd" correctly, haha.

Well, while it is true the word is more often that not pronounced like a bit like "jagged" in the English community, it can be not obvious that the word is from German when you encounter it out of context, and I long thought it was a made-up word. Especially when it is associated with an English word, like in Jagd doll. At least with a Jagd Puppe mob, it would have been clearer.

Ah, Urianger.

[-Krypyonite-]

So "Gordias" == "the Father." Original author of the Enigma Codex?

"Midas" -> Mide? Did her dad summon Alexander 3 years ago?

If I'm putting all this together... The overall "Alexander" allusion going on is that this "Alexander" is a quick-and-dirty solution (primal summoning) to a much more complex problem (the original Alexander ideal). Instead of actually working towards the goal outlined in the Codex, the Illuminati "chopped the knot" and summoned it as a primal instead. The desired result is achieved without taking all the steps needed towards what is, in all likelihood, an impossible ideal meant to be followed but never achieved, thus corrupting the end result.

I feel like we've had another story eerily similar to this in FFXIV already. Chalk it up to "author appeal," I guess. Maybe I'm imagining it...

I really like this way of thinking. We know Mide is looking for a man inside of Alexander, or atleast the works of a man, my first thought were the usual, something like a loved one, but thinking of a father makes so much more sense. I dont remember the exact time of the codex but its around 110 years right? I dont know exactly how a Au'ra with 110+ years would look like, but Mide defently looks younger. It would make alot of sense, and defently a good story line if she was looking for her father/grandfather works and we actually meet Gordias himself.

[Fenral]

It really is one of the wider themes of the entire franchise - that without conscious intervention, the mistakes of the past will be repeated in other forms.

Except the other story I'm thinking of ended by finding a way to stop only the obviously calamitous repeat, leaving the perfect setup in place to repeat the original mistake that started it all. Can we please go to Eureka already?

Cid seems to be quite a bit more skeptical of blatant, unrealistic idealism this time around, though, so I wonder if he'll take a less passive role in the events that unfold from here on.

As for "Gordias," it's still too soon to say if he's an actual character or not, but we can at least be quite certain that "Gordias" is "the father" referenced the instance names in "Alexander: Gordias" (i.e. "The Fist of the Father").

[Mysteltain]

I never actually considered that Gordias might refer to a character as "the Father". I mostly saw it as a way to reference the Trinity in Christianity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), as Alexander has always been a Holy or Light based summon.

[Zohar_Lahar]

I never actually considered that Gordias might refer to a character as "the Father". I mostly saw it as a way to reference the Trinity in Christianity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), as Alexander has always been a Holy or Light based summon.

Well, Gordias is the father of King Midas. So I guess part two will take place in Alexander: Midas, with Fist/Cuff/Arm/Burden of the Son?

inb4 someone brings up Cid's daddy