Japanese FFXIV-specific terms

[Anonymoose]

It's a back-and-forth kind of thing. Canonically speaking, "the common tongue of the Hyur" is really just English, but like Rongway said, katakana can represent any foreign or made-up word and Final Fantasy pillages every mythology for inspiration. The word "Eorzea" is based on the Old English term for "Earth" (Eorþe). Aether comes into the mythology via Eorzea being based very loosely based on Greece in the lead-up to invasion by Persia, so there are many Greek references in that geographical region of the game. Though our "Persians" are more like Romans. And our Greece is where Africa would usually be. (Because Eorzea is the cradle of life allegedly.) It's a very organic, systemic world-setting.

But yeah, there's a lot of English in there. A number of things even originate in EN and are localized back into JP.

[Iscah]

Aether comes into the mythology via Eorzea being based very loosely based on Greece in the lead-up to invasion by Persia, so there are many Greek references in that geographical region of the game.

Is there an official source for that particular reference? Aether (or ether) is a common concept as the "fifth element", and the name could easily be picked without any intention to have an Ancient Greek-inspired setting.

[Anonymoose]

Is there an official source for that particular reference? Aether (or ether) is a common concept as the "fifth element", and the name could easily be picked without any intention to have an Ancient Greek-inspired setting.

There is, indeed! Just in case all the circumstantial evidence wasn't entirely persuasive, the original director (Hiromichi Tanaka) and world lore developer (Kenichi Iwao) just flat-out admitted it back in the day, lol.

FINAL FANTASY XIV takes place in a realm known as Eorzea.

Eorzea is one of three continents that make up a giant land mass.

Eorzea consists of Aldenard and its surrounding islands.

Aldenard is connected to the land mass containing the other two continents via a land bridge.

Eorzea contains several independently governed city-states, like those found in ancient Greece.

And just like those in Greece, the ones in Eorzea have a long history of war and alliances.

The few that have lasted longest are the thalassocracy of Limsa Lominsa, the commercial sultanate of Ul'dah, and the forest city-state of Gridania, which some users have commented reminds them of an ancient Japanese polis.

However, the powerful and aggressive Garlean Empire has begun their slow advance on the city-states, making the current situation in Eorzea similar to the months before the Persian Empire marched on Greece.