Etymology of terms.

[Enkidoh]

Firstly, I think this an excellent thread.

Secondly, two names that are important aspects of FFXIV's story, Ascian and Eikon, are actually Greek words.

'Ascian' loosely means 'shadowless', they were supposedly a race of people who were believed to exist in Africa, which Eorzea is very loosely based on, and being in the Tropics, they would literally 'cast no shadow' when the sun is directly overhead (which near the equator happens twice a year), with the word entering English-language popular culture with Gene Wolfe's famous science fantasy novel series The Book of the New Sun (where the Ascians were actually humans of a far future Earth). In regards to the FFXIV version, the name had more importance in the original version of FFXIV where the few Ascians that actually were seen on screen (the now decanonized elezen Ascian Travenchet and a nameless wraith like 'bestial' Ascian seen in Thanalan) indeed did not cast shadows (in fact, Michael Christopher Koji-Fox even played into this by telling players to "find more Ascians in 1.0 by looking for people who didn't have shadows!" ).

Naturally though, this idea seems have been quietly dropped as the Ascians in ARR seem to cast shadows, so their name no longer really rings true, sadly (another reference to them not having shadows is their leitmotif composed by Nobuo Uematsu is literally called Without Shadow. )

As for Eikon, which here in FFXIV is the Garlean word for Primal, in the real world 'eikon' is actually the Greek word from which the English word 'icon' is derived, and means 'image' (the true meaning for 'icon' is an image of a religious figure or deity.) Which makes sense given that Primals are 'false gods' created from a strong will or idea, an image given flesh so to speak.