Encyclopedia Eorzea THREE

[MikkoAkure]

Heads up to other lore forum goers, pre-orders for EE3 are up on the SE Store:https://sqex.to/Snrq9

The third volume of the official FINAL FANTASY XIV lore books, written and compiled by the FINAL FANTASY XIV development team! This deluxe hardcover tome comprises records of adventures that transcend the bounds of space and time, from the ancient world to the very stars above.

Offering an astonishing amount of information covering the Shadowbringers and Endwalker expansions, this third volume of Encyclopaedia Eorzea brings readers further into the realms of the global hit video game. Hundreds of richly illustrated, full-color pages present detailed explorations of the events that occurred in Etheirys, Norvrandt, and the sea of stars, as well as comprehensive descriptions of their histories, peoples, lands, and more.

An unending source of knowledge and inspiration to all those who seek truths across and beyond our star.

Includes an exclusive item code for an in-game Wind-up Fourchenault* minion!

[SannaR]

Ahh so they'll probably show it off at Fan Fest as last time we only were shown an empty book.

[Rannie]

I'm glad they're finally bringing it out. As soon as I'm able to afford it, I'm definitely going to be buying it to go with my other two.

[Aneshda]

What are you supposed to do with a Book that says something that is different / changed in the game or becomes completely meaningless because it is changed afterwards?

[thegreatonemal]

What are you supposed to do with a Book that says something that is different / changed in the game or becomes completely meaningless because it is changed afterwards?

The books are written from the perspective of scholars in the game. If something happens in 6.5 that cancels something that shows up in the lore book it just means that that thing was understood as X at the time the person wrote it. They have since been proven wrong.

[Cleretic]

What are you supposed to do with a Book that says something that is different / changed in the game or becomes completely meaningless because it is changed afterwards?

As someone who owns both of the first two, and checks them quite constantly, you'd be surprised how little changes! In fact, a quick check through volume 1's content (released during HW's patches), out of the 303 pages of this book, I count six pages that actually have 'meaningless because of changed' info. One on the Ascians, one on the Warriors of Darkness (neither of which is actually saying outright incorrect info, just outdated to the point where they're not reliable sources on the subject), and four on jobs that mention at least one ability that's been removed in the interim. And none of those pages are completely worthless as a result; everything else about the jobs is accurate, the WoDs are mostly telling the truth aside from names, and the Ascian page has info on a few members that's still both accurate and not elaborated on elsewhere. I'm pretty sure there's no content in volume 2 hit by the same thing, at least at a glance.

Something that's really striking about FFXIV's writing compared to similar media that tells ongoing stories over a long period is that it sticks almost entirely to what I've seen called 'additive retcons'; basically, 'there was more to this part than you first thought' (as opposed to subtractive retcons, or 'nuh-uh, that didn't happen'). Maybe it's because they've largely stuck to a generally stable group of writers working on a singular story. But the end result is that there's no part of its storytelling and lore that you can just tear out and go 'not true anymore'; that's definitely not true of other MMOs like this, and frequently not true of storytelling with similar situations like superhero comics.

Needless to say, I'm very excited about volume three!

[shadowclasper]

Something that's really striking about FFXIV's writing compared to similar media that tells ongoing stories over a long period is that it sticks almost entirely to what I've seen called 'additive retcons'; basically, 'there was more to this part than you first thought' (as opposed to subtractive retcons, or 'nuh-uh, that didn't happen'). Maybe it's because they've largely stuck to a generally stable group of writers working on a singular story. But the end result is that there's no part of its storytelling and lore that you can just tear out and go 'not true anymore'; that's definitely not true of other MMOs like this, and frequently not true of storytelling with similar situations like superhero comics.

Needless to say, I'm very excited about volume three!

Was just thinking this last time I compared my ffxiv book to my wow lore compendium, which has vast swathes of retconning. Yoshi p really focused on getting all their notes right from the start and hard focusing on them, keeping the story consistent and not just ignoring past lore on a whim

[DrWho2010]

Then you just accept it as is for what it was at the time of publication.

[WhiteArchmage]

We also got our first look at Fourchenault way back in EE1 and nothing about Sharlayan has changed (at least not in any substantial way) as to make the book "meaningless". The Lore team is generally that good with consistency that the times when they do retcon things stand out (looking at you, Echo/Blessing of Light).

Honestly, I'm mostly surprised at how little the Basic Aetherology section has changed with ShB and EW, and what details HAVE changed (namely, it still refers to the planet as Hydaelin) is such a non-issue because it reflects the current understanding at the time and STILL got the basics of the Mothercrysal right (namely, a mass concentration of aether), with the misunderstanding of using Hydaelin to refer to the planet is supported in Her entry Codex entry.

Also, the sum of knowledge expands and changes in real life, I wouldn't expect the Encyclopedia Brittanica from 1920 to hold the same scientific understanding as the one from 2020, and in-game we're living through an Age of Discovery. I'm somewhat hoping EE3 gives us a native name for The New World (if that's indeed where we're going in 7.0) so we don't have the colonizer moniker the rest of the game's lifespan.

[Cleretic]

We also got our first look at Fourchenault way back in EE1 and nothing about Sharlayan has changed (at least not in any substantial way) as to make the book "meaningless". The Lore team is generally that good with consistency that the times when they do retcon things stand out (looking at you, Echo/Blessing of Light).

Even the Echo/Blessing was more of a localization thing than the original writing; in the Japanese script Midgardsormr's big post-Keeper of the Lake scene distinguishes between them off-handedly (and crucially, alludes to both of them being a form of protection), and in English that part was obfuscated to the point of basically not being there because of that scene being written extremely differently. That caused a uniquely weird situation where in Japanese, that distinguishing is a stated but dormant fact that got built on much later, similar to something like the Creeping Death, while in English they just sorta didn't get the chance to correct the record until it was too late.

Yes, it's still about as annoying, but it's also way weirder than just 'retcon'. (I'd also say it's a credit to the writers that even the worst of these only reach the level of 'annoying'.)

And similar to Sharlayan, the EE1's info on Ala Mhigo and Garlemald is only 'inaccurate' because it can't reflect the events of the story written afterwards, it's all pretty the money for what we'd go on to see in Stormblood and Endwalker respectively. And similar to Fourchenault, EE1 had a portrait of Solus Galvus that was used as the basis for his appearance in the Bozja storyline. It also has a table of every Garlean title except 'viator' (which was made up on the spot so fair enough), which you can find mirrored on the internet these days, but it came from there, and describes a lot of titles that we would only see in the game afterwards, like 'bas', 'goe' and 'nan'.