Does the FFXIV Solar System Have Planets?

[Kacho_Nacho]

I absolutely love what the artists have done with our night sky. It is beautiful!

In particular, the decision to have all the stars of particular constellation the same color, just adds that much more to the sky. You can easily make out the main constellations of Ezorea, as opposed to real life, where you need to learn star charts in order to navigate the heavens.

Now, anyone familiar with astrology & astronomy knows more than the constellations are involved in the night sky. We also have the Moon and the planets.

So, when I look out at the FFXIV night sky, nothing leaps out at me as a planet. Was this just an oversight by the art dept. or is our world, its Moon, and our Sun the only occupants of our solar system?

PS I omitted the word "Other." The title should ask if we have other planets in our solar system. Sorry. lol

[Enkidoh]

There was a thread on the old 1.0 forum that discussed Hydaelyn's night sky (and many of the posters are actually professional astronomers and scientists) but I can't remember if there was any mention about other planets in Hydaelyn's solar system (personally I presume there would be, especially as residents of Hydaelyn use the word 'star' to also mean 'planet', including their own world), so your guess is as good as mine.

Either way, this is the thread I was talking about *alerts the Eorzean Astronomical Society by linkshell*

[Mysterysword]

residents of Hydaelyn use the word 'star' to also mean 'planet', including their own world

I find this such an annoying quirk, especially since stars and planets are two very different things. I'm pretty sure it stems from the fact that Japanese uses the same word for both terms. Doesn't make it any less annoying.

[Cilia]

I find this such an annoying quirk, especially since stars and planets are two very different things. I'm pretty sure it stems from the fact that Japanese uses the same word for both terms. Doesn't make it any less annoying.

It's nothing to do with Japanese... I don't think. "Star" is an archaic term for planet as well (the term being used frequently in astrology, Venus being referred to as the "Morning star" and "Evening star," etc). Given this game goes to considerable lengths to sound like a proper period piece (in the EN localization, at least) that such archaic language would be bandied about is hardly surprising. (I earnestly did not know that "anon" was even a word before I played this game, much less what it meant, and I like to think I have a pretty good vocabulary.)

[Wyssahtyn]

It does have something to do with Japanese, depending on the original dialogue. Hoshi (星), which means star, is often used to refer to planets as well in media like anime and video games for whatever reason. Dunno about more formal works. Example off the top of my head is in Advent Children when Sephy first shows up and monologues about his plan. He uses "kono hoshi" meaning "this star" (though it's referring to a planet).

Now that I think about it, it could just be an archaic way of referring to a planet. I dunno. Not exactly fluent in Japanese anymore.

[Mysterysword]

The English dub of Advent Children had no problems with throwing in "planet". The problem with using "star" for both actual stars and planets is that it's just confusing. And fine, be as archaic as you want, but when people can no longer figure out what you're exactly referring to, by looking the word up in a dictionary, you've crossed the line.

When referring to a planet as a star, you're using the definition of "star" as "a small luminous dot in the night sky, whether alone or as part of a constellation", not as "a ball of burning gas". It's therefore not technically correct for Eorzeans to refer to Hydaelyn as a star.

[Wyssahtyn]

The English dub of Advent Children had no problems with throwing in "planet". The problem with using "star" for both actual stars and planets is that it's just confusing. And fine, be as archaic as you want, but when people can no longer figure out what you're exactly referring to, by looking the word up in a dictionary, you've crossed the line.

When referring to a planet as a star, you're using the definition of "star" as "a small luminous dot in the night sky, whether alone or as part of a constellation", not as "a ball of burning gas". It's therefore not technically correct for Eorzeans to refer to Hydaelyn as a star.

Take it up with XIV's localisation team if you've got such a problem with it.

[Mysterysword]

Take it up with XIV's localisation team if you've got such a problem with it.

I would, but sadly, I'm not part of the Balmung/Gilgamesh 1%, so all my feedback forms go straight into the shredder.

Anyway, to answer the OP's question: Maybe, maybe not. It would stand to reason that there are planets chilling out (relatively) near Hydaelyn, but if Hydaelyn's any indication, planets are all sentient gods. Or maybe all sentient gods are planets, but not all planets are gods, sentient, or otherwise. If there are other planets, they're not the focus of the story, so they're not mentioned.

That aside, if there were other planets, Eorzeans should know. Early astronomers, on Earth, could tell the difference between planets and stars because stars tended to stay in one spot in the night sky, while planets moved across it.

[LineageRazor]

We don't know what the cosmology of FFXIV is like, but bear in mind that as a magical fantasy world, it doesn't have to follow a any of the rules that our real universe observes.

It is entirely possible that conflating the terms "planet" and "star" is reasonable - for instance, because Hydaelyn actually has no star for a sun, and what we see as the sun is just a tiny, hot ball that closely orbits the planet, much like its moon does and probably about as large. When we see another star in the sky, it, too, could be another isolated planet with a tiny, hot ball spinning around it - or, perhaps, the stars in the sky are completely different types of astral bodies. Or maybe stars are not bodies at all, but pinpricks in the giant shell that contains the universe and shields it from the infinite brightness outside of it. Though, certainly, there must be at least one other star-that-is-a-planet out there, because Midgardsormr specifically came from such an astral body. It may not be visible in the night sky, however.

The cosmology of FFXIV is limited only by the imaginations of the writers behind it. We really can't make any assumptions!

[Anonymoose]

Tangentially related by virtue of where the thread has been steered so far...

Though [Hydaelyn] is the name of the entire planet, the term is very rarely used by its inhabitants, for to understand the concept of a planet, one must first know of other worlds, and most on Hydaelyn do not.

Back when humanity was as ignorant of the cosmos as most on Hydaelyn are, lights in the sky were mysterious fixed objects ... aside from the seven that weren't. It cemented the number seven in history as a divine and useful number and became enmeshed with the gods themselves.

See the seven day week: Sun Day, Moon Day, Tyr's Day (Mars), Woden's Day (Mercury), Thor's Day (Jupiter), Frea's Day (Venus), Saturn's day.

The Seven Luminaries were known as the asteres planetai. "Planet" is literally short for "wandering star".