The Raimdelle Codex Alces

[twilitfall]

It's really late for me, but I seem to recall a particular Aevis in Snowcloak called the Dove Aevis. (I'll revisit this when I'm not dead tired.)

[sciencebot]

Well, it's delightful to hear it's still due for an update someday when it's less messy; Alces is probably my favorite FFXIV thing going! Best of luck figuring out what the heck an Anala is.

I have a strong suspicion that the anala are relatives of the ananta who have adapted to volcanic environments.

The big things that make me think otherwise are the hands and the locales. The Ananta have regular human hands, the Anala have these giant claws with two thumbs and two fingers between. The tails are pretty different too, as well as the whole skull situation.

Plus the Ananta are confined to a relatively average area of Gyr Abania, but when we first see the Anala it's all the way west to the middle of Dravania-- they're up in Sohm Al's depths -- and then when we see them again in Othard, they have the bulk of three continents between them. Which seems like a lot of travel for some dudes whose primary motivator seems to be "settin' stuff on fire"!

Typically other Spoken and tool-users like the Opken don't have quite as large a range unless they're out building boats or what have you. Usually the only things that make that kind of distance are flying creatures like Hydobus from Void Ark and its relatives in the Ruby Sea, swimming ones like abundance of crabs in either locale, or elemental or voidsent type situations.

Where that leaves us... I have no idea! They show up alongside the Anila, Dhara, and Apa in the Lost Canals, which seems like a selection of weird new elementals, but it's hard to be super sure about it on just that kind of evidence. It's pretty weak! Who knows?

[Mholito]

snip

I believe the anala are an adaptation of a much more widespread species that has since gone extinct. My reason for that is because of the large distance between known colonies. Unless their capabilities for long-distance travel is much greater than it appears, I find it highly unlikely that all currently known colonies originated from the same area. Therefore, it seems more likely that certain groups of "proto-anala" either chose to move towards volcanic territories for some reason, or that they were already living there before the volcanoes appeared.

There is also the possibility that they might be some kind of golem, though the fact that they wield weapons hint at a higher level of inteligence than what we've seen from golems so far.

[Phyllo]

This a great project here and i love how it really gives off an encyclopedia feel, however I'm not really fond of the Google sheet looks, I can't guarantee much (because I suspect it'd require a tremendous amount of work) but if you ever want to give it some better appearance, like a pseudo old grimoire styled encyclopedia looks, I have a few notions of infography and other stuff, I could look into it if you're interested

[Anonymoose]

I can't guarantee much (because I suspect it'd require a tremendous amount of work) but if you ever want to give it some better appearance, like a pseudo old grimoire styled encyclopedia looks, I have a few notions of infography and other stuff, I could look into it if you're interested

I can at least explain the why for the spreadsheet presentation and you can tell me if you have any ideas.

See that (Public) at the end of the sheet name? There's also a (Private) version that is much, much bigger and much, much, much more complicated. It lists all 5000+ mobs in the game and the 1500+ unique visual variants that are potentially different species (the number of actually different species is a fraction of that). The private version allows me to ensure that all the new mob names / species are added during a new patch, sort the complete list by virtually any variable, and make expedient edits. The (slightly) more publicly presentable public version, which is organized more by how we think than how machines think, is then generated directly from it.

Detaching it from spreadsheets entirely would likely require a third jump. I've just yet to figure out a way to do that that's not, like... a lot more labor.

That said, this public sheet is more or less a reference guide for wikis and databases (if they so choose to use Codex Alces as their foundation for mob classification). The sheets took a while to build, but it's nothing compared to using it to build the larger bestiaries. But (at least at Gamer Escape) we're gonna try!

[Phyllo]

Alright fair enough, I knew there was a lot of work behind it as I said I already suspected it but I didn't thought it'd be to that extent x3
As for the idea I had in mind was a way to make an actual website out of it, with proper design while keeping all the backstage work as close as it is to avoid unnecessary additional workload, but now that you have told me this, even without seeing tho whole private part I can already imagine its size and it makes me start to wonder if it can be and how to make that without requiring a massive amount of work as you said.

That said if you ever find a way I'd be glad to help if it's within my abilities of course x)

[Anonymoose]

I do believe the reference chart is just about updated for 3.3, minus the BOLO mobs marked with a ◎. We didn't add very many this time around, which is nice. However, we still have a decent chunk (35-ish) of mobs that I've never seen or don't have a complete pool of names to pull a best-guess from. Please let me know if you find any.

MUSING AHEAD

Wind-aspected flans I still don't have a good name for; I've been calling them meringues, but that's meaningless headcanon.

I'm not very comfortable with the name or taxonomy of the persona (black ghost made of faces). The Hunter-scholar of northern Thanalan seems sure it's an ashkin, so that's where I've put it for now. Still, Weeping City added a second version of this (in white) and called it a Mhachi Ghost. There are too many ghosts and not enough information for what they are (or even what they're thought to be). We've got the bogy (and revenant subspecies), which are called voidsent and assumed to be restless spirits. We've got the bhoots, whose genera names are still murky and how they differ from the bogies I have no idea. And we've got the "personas" ... maybe ... depending on the Hunter-scholar. And that's not even mentioning wisps. I dunno. Keep an eye out.

The slimes are starting to be cleaned up a bit, though I still don't have a good name for the yellow or purple ones. Despite the fact that they're probably voidsent related to the pudding and hecteye, I've been naming them after various bodily fluids as seems the trend.

I still can't settle on a name for the white aevis. That is all.

Did anybody notice Forgall's movements closely resemble the FFXI Dvergar? ... Chair-demons incoming?

ANYROAD...

As always, I encourage you all to correct me, report bugs, or argue cases.

Polish polish polish.

[tymora]

Yeah, my first thought was...Pandemonium Warden is here. (On Forgall)

[anubisgod89]

Just noticed that the Hippogryphs appear to have accidentally migrated over to the Voidsent category instead of the cloudkin one (not sure if that was intended?)

Also, the megalotragus is in voidsent as well - I'd have figured it to be beastkin, but maybe not? I'm a bit curious about them in general - in the Aquapolis they're always grouped with an auroch, so I'm assuming the floors are trying to match like-creatures with like-creatures....

....although bilokos arrive with baby sasquatches, so maybe I'm entirely off base.

Since I'm in the voidsent section, I presume entities like Anantaboga in Amdapor Keep NM are also dahak, along with the Valefors in Labyrinth of the Ancients?

[Rocl]

Just noticed that the Hippogryphs appear to have accidentally migrated over to the Voidsent category instead of the cloudkin one (not sure if that was intended?)

This is actually a point of contention between me and Moose, so I can assure you that it is wholly on purpose. I cannot recall his reasoning (nor mine against) but I have memory of the discussion.

Also, the megalotragus is in voidsent as well - I'd have figured it to be beastkin, but maybe not? I'm a bit curious about them in general - in the Aquapolis they're always grouped with an auroch, so I'm assuming the floors are trying to match like-creatures with like-creatures....

Megalotragus had previously only appeared in Amdapor Keep (Hard) and based on their aldgoat model skeleton, the assumption of being some sort of voidsent possessed beastkin didn't seem unreasonable. With their use in Aquapolis I too had been pushing for their reclassification. However we have to be careful with Aquapolis though because....

....although bilokos arrive with baby sasquatches, so maybe I'm entirely off base.

There's some odd mixing in Aquapolis for sure... a dullahan arrives with polis magus, viking and centaur which are carbon copies of their Antitower brethren. Another wrinkle to the rather annoying anomaly of those animated armors.

Since I'm in the voidsent section, I presume entities like Anantaboga in Amdapor Keep NM are also dahak, along with the Valefors in Labyrinth of the Ancients?

This sort of answers Morningstar1337's musings as well: the genus is rather model specific. Kuribu and Winged Lion are probably some form of golem, aye, most soulkin would be similar. Anantaboga and Valefor both use the same model, and based on the Summoned Dahak in the Weeping City of Mhach we know that their name is "Dahak." A Moraby Mole and a Snapping Shrew are both moles, non? The same is true here.

Since Kuribu and Winged Lion are (so far) a unique golemization of statues, they remain unique in the bestiary due to the model difference. The only time different models are listed in the same Genus are when they're clearly stated to be the same creature in different life stages. Wamoura/campas, anzu and cockerels and pullets, etc. (And I mean, the way the bestiary is currently set up the young zu are listed are a different species than their mother, which is clearly probably not how real science works.)

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT MOOSE. I just try to help him with this project and I know he's having a bit of technical issues lately so I'm trying to be useful!