Some Othard questions... geography, lore and customs

[TinyRedLeaf]

Actually Raen Auri names appear like regular japanese name + surnames on the character creator screen, randomizing the names... But you're right about what we actually see ingame with Yugiri and Oboro..

It should be noted that Yugiri and Oboro are shinobi, and that may explain why they don't appear to have surnames. It could be the case that the ninja relinquish their family ties upon adopting their profession. At least, that's how I have rationalised it (I seem to recall that Yugiri's actual surname has been revealed, but I may be wrong).

In any case, there's also Yuki of the Yatsurugi clan in Hinganshi. Her surname is her clan name, which she retains despite having learnt ninjutsu. Her name literally translates into (Princess) Snow of the Eight Blades.

[Brightamethyst]

Yugiri's last name is Mistwalker, but it's not clear if that's actually a family name, or just some sort of ninja title.

[Keever]

It's worth mentioning that the names of many Far Eastern Hyur and Roegadyn NPCs in-game are actually found in the list of automatically-generated Raen names at character creation. Examples of this include Isse, Rasho, Kotokaze, and even Kaien and Hien—all are possible Raen forenames from the character creation randomiser.

(This also applies to some of the few Far Eastern family names we have heard of, such as Naeuri.)

From this, it seems like we can probably gather that the 'Raen' naming conventions are really conventions that can be applied to Hingan and Doman culture more generally.

[Iscah]

The other thing with names is that the character names displayed in battle (Yugiri Mistwalker, Oboro Moonrise, etc.) are not surnames but epithets - and the same is done for Eorzean characters. (eg. Haurchefant's surname is Greystone but he will be "Haurchefant of the Silver Fuller" in battle instances.)

The lorebook lists both surname and epithet for job-quest characters. So from that, the ninja quest characters' full names are Oboro Torioi and Karasu Kanshi.

Lorebook volume 2 will probably list the proper surnames for Yugiri and Gosetsu.

[Enkidoh]

Yanxia/Doma's Chinese influence as well as being inspired by historical Japan is very much in keeping with the game though, as many of Hydaelyn's nations are a mash up of multiple real life places or historical nations, rather than simply being one fantasy counterpart culture, and Doma is no different.

After all, look at Ala Mhigo/Gyr Abania: Moroccan/Middle Eastern architecture, but Scottish/Gaelic culture/naming customs and even a little bit of Australian culture thrown in for good measure (the later in the form of Ala Mhigo's national anthem being almost a dead ringer for Australia's anthem, both are nations founded by outcasts who stubbornly managed to turn a virtually uninhabitable wasteland into home, and have given rise to more than a few talented soldiers). ).

[Raikai]

The information regarding Raen naming conventions was taken from the Race Naming Conventions thread that is pinned at the top of the lore forum. Not even sure what you're trying to correct me on anyway.

Sorry, didn't mean to sound rude or anything! It is that I was checking the Raen random name generator and it didn't give me out any of the examples you put on, but just japanese traditional surnames, and not anything like Mistwalker or Moonrise, so I got a bit confused if the name generator itself was not up to par with the lore.

[Cilia]

The names seen from Doman characters before our journey there have two possible explanations:

1. They're adopted pseudonyms. Considering all the Domans we met before going to Othard were ninja, having a pseudonym makes perfect sense.

2. In Yugiri's case, she's an exile from Sui-no-Sato, so is unlikely to have a "real" surname.

The name generator spits out names proper for Raen and Doman Hyur as well.