Character Creation Has A Race Problem

[Enla]

Yes, that's Kugane. In Hingashi. What's this Japan you're talking about? Nobody there has heard of it.

This. While think you'd be hard pressed not to link Kugane itself to Bakumatsu-Meiji era Japan with it's Shinsengumi analogue in the Sekiseigumi, closed port, and Meiji inspired building aesthetics in the diplomatic quarter - at the end of the day it's /not/ Japan. Japan never had airships. Japan never managed to keep it's autonomy in only having one port open and the rest of the country closed. Nor did it have turtle and fish people running around and causing a ruckus either. Kugane, Doma, and the Steppe all follow the self same tradition this MMO has of taking inspiration from other places and using it to influence the design of set pieces with inspiration from Japan, China, and Tibet as well as Mongolia on frank display. Yet that inspiration doesn't mean that they are precise analogues, anymore than Ul'dah is an analogue for the Middle East or Ishgard for Europe.

Just because some of the references are more overt does not mean that the lore that differentiates those places is any less important to consider. Especially since Final Fantasy has a history of taking real world places, mythology, and many more things and twisting it to suit it's purposes for the narrative and making it something entirely new.