World Map

[Enkidoh]

Speaking of old maps, is there any reason why we haven't found any maps of the world from the Allagans yet? Because I'm finding it really difficult to believe that a world-spanning empire could invent space-travel without having a complete map of the world. Why bother expanding towards space if there's land next to you that you haven't yet explored/conquered?

I am going to say a very guarded and reserved 'probably', because we know vast amounts of Allagan data still exists within their tomestones, however because of the constant geographical upheavals successive Calamities have wrought on the landscape, Allagan maps most likely would no longer be relevant - for that matter, it was stated early on in a low lvl Gridanian quest that maps made mere decades before were now obsolete and unusable because of the Calamity.

If the most recent Calamity was enough to warp the landscape so much that existing maps were unusable, imagine what three Calamities (apparently far more destructive than the Seventh Calamity was, which involved a global Flood, planet-scale earthquakes and apparently a worldwide blizzard), 5000+ years of geographical changes and shifting coastlines all would do to the geography of the world in general and Eorzea specifically? Thus if an Allagan map did exist, it would be nice for reference to see how things were once... but as a tool for filling in our collective knowledge of the planet? Not possible sadly...

Also, is Hydaelyn a round world? There's a reference to an equatorial line in a mention of Meracydia that I vaguely remember, but then nobody seems to have a globe of the planet, and the only "globe" there is in-game is a map of the stars.

Hydaelyn is confirmed through multiple sources to be a round planet - the very opening of the game after all shows it from space and it is clearly a spherical planet, this scene was also used in a pre-release trailer, a still from which is below:



Then there was the shot of the planet from the final moments of the 3.0 storyline in Heavensward,

when Elidibus is conversing with Evil!Derplander on Menphina (the primary moon) and you can see Hydaelyn clearly rising above the moon's surface, and it's again a spherical planet.

And finally the Astrolabe THM/BLM weapon (and it's lvl 50-60 clones) feature a model of Hydaelyn as it's 'gem' with tiny models of Menphina and Dalamud orbiting it, and again, it is round.

So that is pretty conclusive Hydaelyn is a spherical world like our own Earth (yes I know Earth isn't a perfect sphere, but to the untrained eye that isn't really noticeable ).

[Anonymoose]

Speaking of old maps, is there any reason why we haven't found any maps of the world from the Allagans yet?

As much as I try to keep things in-world unless there's overwhelming reason not to... there's overwhelming reason not to. For the dev. team to show us a world map would commit them to staying true to that world map. The less they show us, the less likely people are to cry retcon if game development happens and as they flesh things out they realize that they'd like to make some adjustments. We know the vague idea of the world map, Square Enix knows the vague idea of the world map, but the chance that it won't change at all is quite low. The Allagans probably have beautiful and thorough maps of what the world was like 5,000 years ago ... as far as our visible in-world experience goes, however, it's mysteriously never come up.

[LineageRazor]

The Allagans probably have beautiful and thorough maps of what the world was like 5,000 years ago ... as far as our visible in-world experience goes, however, it's mysteriously never come up.

Also worth considering is that there's been a couple of Calamities since the Allagans (including the one that ended the Allagans). While Bahamut's pansy rampage may have colored our expectations a bit, Calamities are SUPPOSED to be pretty serious affairs, and may have actually caused some significant changes to the world map. Allagan maps may now be too wildly inaccurate to be useful.

Allagan maps may be a common collector's item - and utterly useless for any practical purpose. So, no one bothers to mention them. Rowena probably has a few stashed away.

[Anonymoose]

Let me extend that metaphor further with my personal pet theory: Eorzea is the cradle of all intelligent life in Hydaelyn, the way Africa is the cradle of humanity on Earth.

Well, you've got me on board!

I'm also not ready to accept it as coincidence that Silvertear Lake is not far from the area of Africa we'd call the Cradle of Life.

[washbrook45]

What is the town to the East of Kugane? Cuyyo? Something like that? Anything about that place in the current lore?