The Raimdelle Codex Alces

[Anonymoose]

Have we ever heard one way or the other about the gnat vilekin/voidsent confusion, though? Ark Ked makes it seem even muddier than ever.

It's funny you mention gnats, because I removed them from even the "This isn't very important." question list so I didn't have too many bestiary inquiries, lol. (I didn't want to have too many personal project questions at the cost of things people were actually interested in.) And yet I've made barely any progress on the gnats, shy of being a few yalms short of just accepting that they're voidsent now, or at least that Eorzeans are quick to incorrectly (but officially) deem that they are.

As you say, the Ark Ked continues to muddy the waters. Of course, not every monster in the Ark is voidsent. There's cloudkin that flew into the open hull (vulture, zu, griffin), ditto vilekin (wamoura) and what I think are wavekin skyfish (cetus, hybodus) and the elemental hydrosprites that came in with them.

As far as voidsent, We see the blackguards, hellhounds, and gargoyles come out of coffins, and the puddings come from voidgates summoned by Cuchulainn. Likewise, Echidna's Triad card calls her a voidsent in service to Scathach, which I suppose extends to her cobras (which technically make Allag's cobras synthetic voidsent or chimeric scalekin that just so happen to look exactly like void cobras? I don't know.)

Irminsul (the tree) seems like legitimate void-growth of some kind; it even uses "pulse of the void". The "Pagan" enemies (vine, shrub, knot) are extensions of Irminsul.

However, the morbols, I'd hazard, are just... morbols. Have we ever heard anything that'd put us in doubt as to the Morbol's nature? I mean, sure, perhaps an Allag-modified seedkin, but it's always been a seedkin, right? How did they get there? I don't know. Seeds hitching a ride on the wamoura? That just leaves Sawtooth, which seems directly related to Irminsul, and ...

Ark Ked

Now, gnats are explicitly called Voidsent in only one place, that I can find (FATE: Stopping the Spread). However, they're implied to be voidsent in many other places: You've got the bloodlappers that appear for the Demon Wall (both times), and the Void Jumper, which appears in two leves and one quest.

The quest, The Hidden Chapter, is actually one of those things that's easy to dismiss as a "Haw haw, dumb Eorzean!" bit of deliberate misinformation, as the other "voidsent" in this quest are bats as slugs (aka probably not voidsent). The leves, though, The Burning Reason and Throw the Book at Him both feature the same set of mobs - a gnat, a bomb, and a pudding - allegedly all voidsent. I'm going to have to personally do those leves and see if the gnats are blatantly called forth or might have just wandered into the area.

I still find it weird. 1.0 called them vilekin at every turn... (Protecting the Pilgrims, Netting the Gnats)

What changed?

I'd also love to know why there are Diresaurs in Turn 13...