So... just how big are tomestones?

[zeopower6]

It came to mind a few times but I thought I should post here. Have we had any in game representations of allagan tomes that show off how large or small they are? Or if we haven't, then just what size are they?

I have seen descriptions of their 'tiny size' despite holding so much information in them, so I wonder if they're smaller than expected.

[Atoli]

They are more like mini memory cards in terms of "how much data they can hold" than a piece of paper, (as in, the data is stored, not inscripted) from what I understand, so size doesn't really matter
Even if they are reeeaally tiny, they can still hold a lot of information.

Then again...
I've seen lots of people say "they must be tiny because we can carry 8000 of them around at once" but I think we have established by now that we have magical pockets that allow us to carry around a lot more than it would be possible

[Anonymoose]

Large/heavy enough to throw with some velocity - small enough to hold in your hand with a closed fist.

I suppose not all that different from your average USB stick.

Here's Cid throwing one at Gaius.

[Shadotterdan]

Yeah, I'm thinking they are like a particularly resilient usb stick or even SD card

[Frederick22]

They are suppose to work as a pen drive? XD

And where is the allagan PC substitute? I dont believe there are abailiable allagan PC somewhere to decipher it.

[Anonymoose]

They are suppose to work as a pen drive?

Exactly. Kind of. The information is read / written by computer equivalents, but (going by the French name memoquartz) the actual data storage medium is just regular old quartz crystal. It's possible to synthesize quartz and it can hold data engraved on it for millions of years.

And where is the allagan PC substitute? I dont believe there are abailiable allagan PC somewhere to decipher it.

There were some on Azys Lla and some in the coils, but I doubt many were salvaged by us. Garlemald (or at least House Darnus) seemed aware of how to decipher the data. But for all we know it might be as easy as having a cipher of the encoding language, a nice microscope, and some free time. Even Y'mhitra is able to work on deciphering them, though it's clearly a time-consuming process for her. But, again, who knows what the Sons of Saint Coinach have for resources, tech-wise.

[Frederick22]

There were some on Azys Lla and some in the coils, but I doubt many were salvaged by us. Garlemald (or at least House Darnus) seemed aware of how to decipher the data. But for all we know it might be as easy as having a cipher of the encoding language, a nice microscope, and some free time. Even Y'mhitra is able to work on deciphering them, though it's clearly a time-consuming process for her. But, again, who knows what the Sons of Saint Coinach have for resources, tech-wise.

Well.. we might knew of someone who may have acces to Azys La, right?
Someone with contacts, a big wealth and abundance of allagan tomestones.... xD

[Zohar_Lahar]

I've wondered if the Sons of St. Coinach are using magitek computers or some kind of magical incantation (similar in principle to that "decryption" spell Matoya used on that tome).

[Nalien]

They are suppose to work as a pen drive? XD

I've always viewed them more as compact and durable e-books... Hence tome-stones...

As others have suggested, I figure they're actually accessed through some form of magicks... It would make sense for the Allagan to work them that way, since it is much more convenient than having to go to a nearby terminal to access the data... You just find that magic on switch, and you probably get some form of holographic display, based on our other encounters with Allagan computing technology... This would perhaps explain why it's difficult for modern day scholars to read them, I imagine we're all fairly magically-inept compared to Allagan standards... It would also mean Garleans can't read them at all, instead they'd have to come up with a technological method to access that data, so they would effectively plug them into Magitek computers to read that data, which would also be a more efficient means of getting that data these days, hence their success with tomestones compared to Eorzeans.

I also refuse to believe bosses drop these things in the quantities we see... More so when you consider the reasoning behind everything rewarding them, is that Dalamud spread them everywhere... That's just a ridiculous amount if, per dungeon, we're getting 100 individual tomestones... Eorzea should be buried in these things and they'd be worth less than dirt... Don't even get me started on why Azys Lla dungeons yield similar/less tomestones, those places should be a gold mine for tomestones... I instead prefer to read "You obtain 100 Allagan tomestones of Esoterics", as "You obtain an Allagan tomestone, it contains 100GB of Esoteric data". Walking out of a dungeon with 3 or 4 is much better for my sanity, though I perhaps shouldn't bother trying to rationalize obviously game-y mechanics like that, I'd go insane trying to figure out how Eorzeas economy hasn't collapsed due to things like the Challenge Log...

[Toranja]

Think of Crystals. Like in Superman or just about any advanced sci-fi society. But opaque in our case.

How the hell they are able to read them... requires suspending a lot of belief.