Yet Another Thread About Words

[Mysterysword]

So while casually trawling through levequest descriptions for lore, I come across instances of "it must be Thursday" and "the human touch".

I was previously unaware that Eorzea shares the same names for the days of the week that we do, especially seeing as how they have an 8-day week, leaving me to wonder what they call the eighth day.

I was also unaware that "human" was a word in use in Eorzean terminology, although I can't really think of a synonym for it when used in this context.

Anyone mind providing any insight into this, as well as specific examples of when it is mentioned in in-game text?

[Anonymoose]

The former is a reference that implies that the world is about to end.

“This must be Thursday”, said Arthur musing to himself, sinking low over his beer, “I never could get the hang of Thursdays.”

The word "human" is rare in XIV, but it does exist - always as an adjective for the qualities of people as a whole. Human touch, human voice, human history, etc. It's easier than trying to refer to a varied group of races, especially now that "The Five Races" have a sixth and potentially more.

When it comes to nouns they often use "mankind", instead. (NOTE: Unless I'm mistaken, the Old English, "mankind" is not necessarily a gendered word. Mann was an individual, a person. Wer specified male.)

Eorzea does have an 8 day week, and they take their names from Final Fantasy XI. Assuming the cycle starts with Ice as the Dusty Tomes implied, and assuming Astral comes before Umbral like it does with the months rather than the eras, it's:

• Iceday
• Watersday
• Windsday
• Lightning(s?)day
• Fire(s?)day
• Earthsday
• Astral(s?)day
• Umbral(s?)day

But the order has never been confirmed.

[LineageRazor]

While the "Thursday" thing may be a Douglas Adams reference, I'm guessing his writings were never actually published in Eorzea. XD

Was it an actual character who spoke the word? Or was it the name of a quest or a Leve or whatever? If it's a quest name, there is no lore to it. Quest names are riddled with puns, pop-culture references, and so on and so forth, and have nothing to do with the lore of the game.

If it's an actual NPC referring to Thursday, though, that's worth thinking about. Perhaps it's a turn of speech that originated from a culture that went by a different calendar? An oddball one with SEVEN days in a week, instead of the obvious eight. (Can you even imagine a seven-day week? What kind of backwards culture would divide ANYTHING so important into seven? It just doesn't make any sense!)

If Thursday appeared in the quest description, though... That's hard to say. Most quest descriptions are written as though an in-game NPC could be narrating it, so I'd guess I'd consider it to still be lore-relevant.

[Mysterysword]

Thanks for the reply, I sure hope the lorebook can clear up the questions as to Eorzea's calendar.

The Thursday line came from the description of a WVR levequest. Not sure which one, but you can find it at Eustace in the Quicksand. The levequest description appears to be written as if it's being spoken by Roarich, and the line, IIRC, goes "Master Gegeruju is in love, it must be Thursday." I suppose it's just a throwaway reference, but a bit of an odd one to make.