When did the Lalafell originally come to Eorzea?

[yuyunori]

Sorry if this question has already been answered, but is there any official lore explaining when the Lalafell originally arrived in Eorzea, particularly the Dunesfolk? I know the Lalafellin homeland is an island in the seas south of Eorzea, but I can't seem to find anything indicating when they first traveled from this island to the Eorzean mainland. I've read that Belah'dia was primarily ruled by Lalafell, and was founded by survivors/ancestors of the mages who fought in the War of the Magi, which seems to imply Lalafell were present in Eorzea during the War of the Magi, so I assume they've been around since at least the Fifth Astral Era. Is there any material that pinpoints a more specific range of time?

[myahele]

The lorebook says that Lalafellin sailors 1st arrived in Vylbrand around year 500 of the 5th Astral Era and from there eventually established Nym and I think even Mhach.

When the Umbral calamity hit, the Nymian survivors fled back to the Southern Islands while the Mhachi ones went to the mountains and eventually to Thanalan founded Bela'Dia and these ones are also the descendents of Dunesfolk Lalafells.

[RobinFulke]

There's an interesting rumor that came about because of the flavor text of Aetherochemical Compound #666 which reads "When a specimen of what, at the time, was thought to be compound #123 began sprouting tiny...decidedly Lalafellin...hands, no fewer than three Sons of Saint Coinach naturalists turned in their resignations with the organization and have since disappeared from the public eye."

This has led some to believe that Lalafells were in fact an experiment of the Allagans, which given the Fractal Continuum's enlightenment on Allagan Bioengineering, this wouldn't be too far of a stretch to believe.

[Shurrikhan]

There's an interesting rumor that came about because of the flavor text of Aetherochemical Compound #666 which reads "When a specimen of what, at the time, was thought to be compound #123 began sprouting tiny...decidedly Lalafellin...hands, no fewer than three Sons of Saint Coinach naturalists turned in their resignations with the organization and have since disappeared from the public eye."

This has led some to believe that Lalafells were in fact an experiment of the Allagans, which given the Fractal Continuum's enlightenment on Allagan Bioengineering, this wouldn't be too far of a stretch to believe.

My only question would then be whether they were originally intended as sustenance or labor for small spaces...

[Belhi]

I think regardless the races have moved around a lot which makes finding origin points tricky. Miqote for example existed on Eorzea prior to the rise of the Allag in the third Astral Era but were driven from the continent due to discrimination by the Allag.

[LineageRazor]

There's an interesting rumor that came about because of the flavor text of Aetherochemical Compound #666 which reads "When a specimen of what, at the time, was thought to be compound #123 began sprouting tiny...decidedly Lalafellin...hands, no fewer than three Sons of Saint Coinach naturalists turned in their resignations with the organization and have since disappeared from the public eye."

This has led some to believe that Lalafells were in fact an experiment of the Allagans, which given the Fractal Continuum's enlightenment on Allagan Bioengineering, this wouldn't be too far of a stretch to believe.

This quote actually lead me to believe that the Allagans performed human experimentation on Lalafell, and the Compounds were the results. I was actually quite surprised to get online and see that folks had come to the opposite conclusion, that Lalafell had originated from the Compounds.

Given what we know of the Allagans, it doesn't seem a stretch to believe that they would have cheerfully experimented on Lalafells. As noted above, Mi'qote were also discriminated against - and given that G'raha's "royal bloodline" is evidence of genetic experimentation in his family line, they were experimented on as well.

[StarDrake]

Yes, if the Lalafell are not chimerical creations themselves (though there is a bit of circumstantial evidence of this in their comparatively unusual biology), then they were the victims of experimentation. With the records we have, though, it's impossible to tell which is which.

But yes, horrible aetherochemistry experiments aside, the earliest actual record of Lalafell coming to Eorzea is early in the 5th Astral, and they were indeed crucial in founding both Nym and Mhach. In fact, the lorebook now seems to posit that Dunesfolk are native to Eorzea - they are, to a man, descendants of the Lalafells of Mhach and their eyes are unique among other Lalafells, with the heavy insinuation being that the original colonists were all what we would today classify as "Plainsfolk".