Encyclopedia II - Discussion

[DamianFatale]

There was a discussion post for lore in the first volume, but surprisingly it has been weeks after fanfest, and we still have not made a thread for the second one.

Enjoy this thread, and discussing its information. I only ask that we do so in peace, and genuine fascination.

[KageTokage]

Did it mention anything about the history of the Au Ra?

Namely in regards to when/why the Raen moved from the steppe into eastern Othard and what caused the Xaela to schism into their current tribal culture.

[ObsidianFire]

I'm making a list of things to discuss.

But to answer your question, it seems like the Raen just got tired of the Steppe being in a state of constant warfare all the time and just left for other parts of Othard and Hingashi. It's never actually said that the Raen were forced to leave by the Xalea. However, the Xaela have always liked warfare and given that they probably weren't about to stop fighting each other, the Raen's only option to have a more peaceful culture would have been to leave.

While it never says why the Xaela divided into tribes, we do know that Xaela culture was around as early as the 4th Astral Era and that Bardam was apparently the winner of the first Nadaam ever held. If I were to take a guess... the Xaela probably split around the 4th Umbral Calamity and the fall of the Allagan Empire. The fact that the House of the Croked Coin and the crystal in it were a huge part of Azys Lla and Dalamud's construction seems to indicate the Allagans were busy in the Steppe around the time of the 4th Umbral Calamity. With the Crystal Tower being buried, anything of Allagan origin would lose power and the distance between Othard and Aldenard is significant. So any Xalea in the Steppe would have been cut off from the rest of the Empire.

[DamianFatale]

Something that struck me interesting are the white Mol robes. They are not exclusive to their leaders. They are earned by the most skilled members of the tribe, and not allowed to fight in combat. This would be fun to roleplay.

[ChaoticCrimson]

There was lots to digest, but a few tidbits off the top of my head:

- Yotsuyu's full Garlean name was Yotsuyu goe Brutus (not sure if this was mentioned in material prior to the book coming out)
- The Fenrir we see in Snowcloak was basically just Ysayle's pet attack wolf she named after the legends, so technically there could be a primal version of Fenrir in the future
- The book acknowledges that the legends of Tsukuyomi in the context of Othard aren't terribly clear on gender, and that some interpretations did depict Tsukuyomi as a male. Don't have the book with me atm, but I believe the primal Tsukuyomi was female simply because the vessel for the summoning was a woman.

[CaesarCV]

I think that one particularly interesting bit would be the mention of how the Lambs of Dalamud may be returning, more than partially among the Au Ra of the steppe who worship Nhamma. There's some fun lore implications regarding that, and some very fun possibilities for other random plot events.

[YianKutku]

Working my way through my newly-arrived EE2 now, and I've spotted a few curious additions that seem like they're in there entirely to be future plot hooks. The Lambs of Dalamud being possibly active with the Au Ra, as mentioned above, is one.

One thing which did surprise me was that there's a beastman Saint: Saint Tataroon, a Qiqirn, of the Sapience leveplate. So far he's the only beastman canonized.

Also the records of a missionary expedition that ended up adrift and cannibalizing each other is kind of grim, but also strangely quick, given everything happened in the course of 24 or so days. One would assume they'd be able to last at least a few months, just for a regular ship voyage.

[KageTokage]

I think that one particularly interesting bit would be the mention of how the Lambs of Dalamud may be returning, more than partially among the Au Ra of the steppe who worship Nhamma. There's some fun lore implications regarding that, and some very fun possibilities for other random plot events.

I could see that potentially serving as the plot for a Bardam's Mettle hard mode, personally.

From the latter third of the dungeon it looks as though there's remnants of civilization in there and likely a good place for them to conduct their shady activities.

[YianKutku]

Page 48:

Other than a curious incident in which the ship was briefly detained in the Sirensong Sea, it is said that the voyage to the port city of Kugane in Hingashi was uneventful.

Koji Fox (Savage)

EDIT TO ADD: The Stormblood story recap in EE2 can be summed up in one word: "Alas".

Someone with access to the text files should ctrl-f and search how many times that word occurs.

[Berethos]

Also the records of a missionary expedition that ended up adrift and cannibalizing each other is kind of grim, but also strangely quick, given everything happened in the course of 24 or so days. One would assume they'd be able to last at least a few months, just for a regular ship voyage.

Did a quick check, and that particular voyage was only supposed to last 8 days or, give or take, and it seems they supplied the ship with that specific voyage in mind, running out of fresh food stores by day 10 and turning to wormy hard tack and (I think importantly) salted pork.

By day 16, they had run out of fresh water and had to start using rum.

Salty foods and alcohol typically make thirst worse and dehydrate faster, and so the rum only lasted a couple days.

And so in the end it isn't the flesh that they were cannibalizing, but the blood, which started sometime 3+ days (and thus is consistent with the amount of time one can go before they really start to need water) after the last of the rum had been consumed, which happened on day 18 of what was supposed to be a short 8 day trip.

Hope that clears up that timeline a bit and why the situation still works, despite taking roughly a month to play out from start to bloody finish.