The tatoo

[Morningstar1337]

Okay, so far there is a certain tatoo appearing on most the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, the only people that Don;t have it are Minfillia and the WoL (assuming that isn;t a Legacy thing), you could claim that it is the emblem of one of the groups that made up the Scions of the 2th Dawn...expect that G'hrara also has the same tatoo, (though I forget if there was overlap between the Circle of Knowing and the Sons of Saint Coinach)

The question is (Besides if players can wear the tatoo) if what the tatoo is.

[Enkidoh]

It seems to identify the wearer as a member of Sharalyan's 'Circle of Knowing', the renegade group of scholars and researchers from the Sharalyan homeland led by Louisoix. They were originally a separate group to Minfilia's organization, the later known as the Path of the Twelve which were regular Eorzeans who had become awoken to the Echo. After the Calamity though and Louisoix's disappearance, the remaining members in Eorzea sought Minfilia out realizing that those with the Echo would be the best ones to ally with against the revived Primal threat. Hence why Minfilia and the other Scions don't have tattoos - it's a legacy of the Archons' Sharalyan origins.

[Belhi]

Its actually a Shalayan thing that shows the person is an expert in their field. They talked about it in a Lore Q&A once. The Archons are all students of Louisoix, as was Moenbryda, thus follow Shalayan tradition. If we actually visited the Shalayan homeland, we would probably see the markings a lot.

Of course, this raises the question what exactly Yda's field of expertise is. Martial traditions maybe?

[Anonymoose]

At Fan Fest '14 (Vegas), there was a lore panel in which Koji said there'd be a hint about the meaning of the tattoos in 2.4. Then, when I didn't find any such hints in 2.4, I scoured through all of the dialogue until I had enough pieces to put it all together.

TL;DR the neck tattoo is for Sharlayans who are considered masters of their field by academic authorities, aka "the sages", and the eye tattoo marks those who ally with the Scions of the Seventh Dawn in the interest of saving Eorzea from the primals, Ascians, etc.

Full Version: The Lore Train: Inked

[Fenral]

TL;DR the neck tattoo is for Sharlayans who are considered masters of their field by academic authorities, aka "the sages", and the eye tattoo marks those who ally with the Scions of the Seventh Dawn in the interest of saving Eorzea from the primals, Ascians, etc.

That the only person outside of MSQ to wear the latter not only has no declared connection to the Scions but also gave a giant "screw you" to pretty much any possibility of actually cooperating towards those objectives still kind of makes me question if that's what it really means, though. I even considered the possibility of it having less meaning than we've given it, but that it hasn't shown up on any new faces since tells me that it's pretty specific to something.

One bit of (joke) production art has it labeled as the "Crest of Sharlayan," but that is the only time I have ever seen named in official materials, let alone depicted at all. It's curiously absent from published artwork of the Scions, even after 2.0, and we know the art team has no problem with small details. I'm pointing this out just in case the actual name of the symbol proves to be meaningful enough that they didn't want it printed in art books before being confirmed in game.

Did somebody mention Zodiark?

[Tenkuu]

Very interesting. I had no idea that rather than being specific to our Scions, it's specific to specialists of Sharlayan in general.

[Rocl]

neck tattoo

It doesn't have to be on their neck! (Though it's most common there) As I recall Louisoix has an additional tattoo on his forehead (perhaps indicating a 2nd degree??) and Rammbroes has one on the back of his head w/o neck tattoos

(I like Rammbroes, okay? He deserves some respect)

[Fenral]

In response to Moose's musings in the last iteration of this thread, the new trailer for 3.1 is out, and the Lalafemme assumed to be Krile seems to be entirely unbranded. Not sure if that means anything (though I trust both of our abilities to stretch it), just thought it was worth pointing out.