Do Puppetmasters exist in Ezorea?

[Jkap_Goat]

So I was looking at Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia Where they showcase Aphmau, and they show her briefly asking the other Final Fantasy characters if they seen her automaton. For those who are not Familiar with Aphmau, she is from FFXI, a key character from Treasures of Aht Urhgan expansion and a Puppetmaster.





As she talks to the other characters, Papalymo asks " isnt that a puppet weapon?" And he's from Ezorea, he also seems knowledgeable about puppets

Also Opera Omnia is cannon as far as I'm concerned, so do they exist?

[Mhaeric]

Gigi. Hildebrandt story. Goldsmith guild. They exist.

[Pepsi_Plunge]

Well, a Puppetmaster is someone who summons/creates and commands inanimate puppets. If you look at the lore bits we get from some minions about how they were made/came to life or what backstory they generally had, I would say that people classified as Puppetmasters indeed exist. There are a lot of hints in those texts, actually. There is also the Hildebrandt questline. And then there is, of course, "Lord of Verminion" in the GS where you actually participate as a puppetmaster yourself.

[Eloah]

While not stated or named directly, through inference we know that "Puppetmaster" is a thing in Eorzea.

[Iscah]

Now I'm curious whether Papalymo thinks Vivi looks like a mammet.

[Brightshadow]

Now I'm curious whether Papalymo thinks Vivi looks like a mammet.

Vivi is a puppet...it is explained in FF9.

[Eloah]

Vivi is a puppet...it is explained in FF9.

Vivi in 9 wasn't a puppet, at least not how I think you're referencing it. It was established that he was different from the other Black Mages, being the prototype and all, and unlike the others, he had free will and sentience from the start of his life; since he was lost right after his creation. Remember Vivi's whole story arc is about existentialism ("How do you prove that you exist...? Maybe we don't exist...") and he acts as a grounder for Zidane when he goes through a similar issue.

To clarify, he was designed to be a puppet, but didn't become a puppet. Think of it like Johnny 5 from Short Circuit.

[Iscah]

Vivi is a puppet...it is explained in FF9.

While it's made clear in the end that he's some kind of artificial being, a great deal of discussion goes into whether he's human or not - suggesting that he looks human to the other characters in the story.

[LineageRazor]

Eorzean Mammets use the same model as the puppets from FFXI, but in this game they appear to be entirely autonomous, rather than directly controlled by a puppet master. They're basically just robots. (Though, to be fair, the puppets in FFXI were pretty autonomous as well; at least, Aphmau's were.) I believe the techniques for creating them are a lost (or at least, dying) art, as Mammet cores are difficult to come by.

If there are any individuals in FFXIV that guide and manipulate Mammets Puppetmaster style, we have not seen any sign of them, but there's no real reason they couldn't exist.

[Enkidoh]

Eorzean Mammets use the same model as the puppets from FFXI, but in this game they appear to be entirely autonomous, rather than directly controlled by a puppet master. They're basically just robots. (Though, to be fair, the puppets in FFXI were pretty autonomous as well; at least, Aphmau's were.) I believe the techniques for creating them are a lost (or at least, dying) art, as Mammet cores are difficult to come by.

If there are any individuals in FFXIV that guide and manipulate Mammets Puppetmaster style, we have not seen any sign of them, but there's no real reason they couldn't exist.

^This. Mammets are actually fully autonomous (with their 'brain' a kind of clockwork computer called a Mammet Core, this is what gave 'Maggie' the magitek armour her sentinence). Unlike in FFXI where it was explicitly stated that PUPs were in full control of their automatons, directing their movements and functions by remote controls on their hands). As LineageRazor above said though, that does not necessarily mean there is no potential equivelant Discipline to PUP in Eorzea, we've just never seen one.

Also, the lack of a visible PUP Discipline may be deliberate, given in previous Astral Eras automatons like golems were used in warfare to devestating effect and an abandonment of such a use for mammets might have been a result of the anti technology/magic purge in the early Sixth Astral Era, resulting in mammets being only used for mundane tasks like entertainment once Eorzean society recovered and started to reclaim lost arcane arts like magic and technology. Perhaps it's just as well.

That's my idle speculation though so take that with a healthy dose of NaCl.