Heavensward Artbook Lore

[ExKage]

Perhaps we are having some type of language miscommunication issues...?

One thing to note about the Heavensward artbook is that just like Art of Eorzea, the smaller notes in Japanese are not translated. So there are captions on top of images like inside of the company workshop.

With the Count Fortemps, I was told the two images so Older Brother and Little brother but they don't quite look like Emmanelain or Artoirel.

Ravana is supposed to be aspected to fire O.o There is also something about the "Six Lower Heavens", I think they are related to the AST cards?

Taken from someone's tumblr

Y'shtola’s new outfit is more modern-looking cause Sharlayan has their “own sphere of culture”.
The brief for King Thordan’s design called for a sinister shape that embodied a lust for power. The artwork of King Thordan + the Knights of the Round was also colored to look like blood.
Neverreap is intended to look like a traditional Shinto shrine since it’s supposed to be a place where the Vanu talk with the gods.
There’s also art labeled “first son” and “second son” accompanying Edmont, and neither of which resemble Artoirel or Emmanellain. (The designs actually remind me of the Tales series - the older one looks with Asch from Abyss, and the younger one looks like Yuri from Vesperia.)

[myahele]

It seems that even the devs were not sure how to categorize the Au Ra since they called their concept "demon/draconic"

[Berethos]

For example, the art from FC says "it was not until we finalized the design for Azys Lla that I could work on this dungeon." That's all. Nothing else.

Not surprised - the NA store version of The Art of Eorzea had essentially the same amount of information. Mostly just short comments on various design elements, inspiration, or both.

On a related note...is there any difference between the versions that get sold on the NA Square Enix store and those currently available in Japan? I know they are supposed to start selling this new one in the NA store in February, but if they are essentially identical I'll probably go ahead and get it imported.

[CyrilLucifer]

On a related note...is there any difference between the versions that get sold on the NA Square Enix store and those currently available in Japan? I know they are supposed to start selling this new one in the NA store in February, but if they are essentially identical I'll probably go ahead and get it imported.

It'll probably be exactly the same. I imported it because the Yen is low and even with shipping it's cheaper than what you'd find in the SE store.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

It seems that even the devs were not sure how to categorize the Au Ra since they called their concept "demon/draconic"

I think the Au Ra WAS going to be draconic at first, but that would heavily clash against the 3.0 story where Ishgard is at war with dragons and it'd make little sense to have dragon players walking around Ishgard as if they are the sole exception. The DRK quests runs with it by saying how the Au Ra were mistaken for dragons and were attacked because of it.

[Naraku_Diabolos]

I think the Au Ra WAS going to be draconic at first, but that would heavily clash against the 3.0 story where Ishgard is at war with dragons and it'd make little sense to have dragon players walking around Ishgard as if they are the sole exception. The DRK quests runs with it by saying how the Au Ra were mistaken for dragons and were attacked because of it.

With Doma being more reminiscent of Japan and such, Au Ra were also described of having a demonic motif.

[ohmRICE]

Ravana is supposed to be aspected to fire O.o There is also something about the "Six Lower Heavens", I think they are related to the AST cards?

The Six Lower Heavens would fit more with Ravana than anything AST related actually. The Six Lower Realms in Buddhism: Hell, Hunger, Brutality, Arrogance, Humanity, and Heaven(Pleasure). Which goes along with Ravana's Buddhist naming theme and fits the bill of how the Onemind act as thralls to Ravana.

[Nalien]

Is there anything more about the Thordan arena? Specifically whatever was growing there...

A lot of detail seemingly went into something which has never even been mentioned... Prior to our fight with the Ascians, whatever it is is pulsating, a healthy red/pink colour. After they do the fusion dance, it stops pulsating and turns to a cold purple/pink. Finally, when Thordan shows up, it is either turned to stone, or completely destroyed (and it was growing on the now visible stones).

Kind of interesting that the area was originally designed as the interior for Dalamud, because that is more or less what I speculated when the Dragonsong trailer first gave a peak of the area... I figured it was a new Dalamud, and a new Bahamut was being "grown" inside it, in a similar way to how he was being reconstructed in Coil... Still, that's obviously not what it is, so what the hell is it? It goes from living, to dead, to gone in the finale of the story, it's such an odd little detail...

[Morningstar1337]

Is there anything more about the Thordan arena? Specifically whatever was growing there...

Maybe it has something t do with the Triad? The Research Facility was ont he flagship and the Singuarity reactor seems to have been where their aether was used to power everything else (Think Dalamud+Bahamut powering the Crystal Tower)

[CyrilLucifer]

snip.

That's actually an interesting question, because I noticed something new thanks to this.

The ARF has 4 pages dedicated to it, but there's nothing devoted to the Singularity Reactor exactly other than a brief sketch of how it looks unmarred, however, those roots? I'm not certain they're actually roots anymore. Not all of them, at least.

The side view of the arena shows what the "roots" look like when they're uncovered by whatever that biological substance is and they aren't entirely natural. They look like needles, or at least like they're supply energy into the platform. The same can be said of the "roots" at the top, they appear to be a complex wiring covered in some type of biological substance.

Edit: Here's the picture for you. This is the "uncovered" arena. The lighting on my camera is bad, but you can slightly see the tech at the top.



Edit 2: For comparison, here's it covered by the substance (you can see the gold Allagan tech underneath the red)


And the root description, for anyone who would translate it for us: