Your Thoughts On "Encyclopaedia Eorzea" Books?

[Iscah]

...So they hold little weight as evidence of lore because they can be easily changed.

I know this is done to save work on the writer's end, but wouldn't it be nice to know things for sure?

It's not to "save work", it's a necessity of their work in publishing a lorebook for an ongoing story.

Suppose the Heavensward-era Volume 1 cane out with a 100% true and accurate history of the world - the elder primals Hydaelyn and Zodiark; Amaurot; the Final Days... there's no way that would happen even if they have every single mystery mapped out and will never need to retcon anything.

The lorebooks still hold value, but it's the value of gathering up everything the characters (and therefore we) currently understand about the game-world and organising it in one place. It's invaluable for lore discussions and fact-checking even if it doesn't have all the answers.

Perhaps it's the difference between a lorebook for a game focused on world-exploration versus one focused on storytelling.

[montego200x]

I am an absolute sucker for "world companion" books. That means, though, that I'm easily embittered when the books are slapdash cash-grabs or outsourced hack-jobs. A lot of world-companions are letdowns. The Encyclopædias Eorzea blessedly are not. They're what a world-companion should be - a wealth of concept art and production blurbs stitched together and fleshed out into a coherent, thorough, thoughtful flow by the people who make the game itself. Quality-wise, they're the lore equivalent of Soken's "every track I made for this expansion" bluray soundtracks, and everyone who can should pick 'em up.

Alas... like all Bibles... they are not completely infallible.

When all is said and done, I have half a mind to fan-publish a classical style ERRATA supplement; a small packet noting errors and changes, or maybe even highlighting some of the deliberate misinformation the book's in-world tone spreads.

I would absolutely love an errata supplement from you. You have an excellent eye for detail, paired with your wealth of lore knowledge. I was fortunate enough to get a later printing of EE1 (Japanese copy, but the text is in English) that fixed many of the errors you pointed out in the bug report thread.

[ItMe]

I'm a sucker for books like this and they could not make the encyclopedias comprehensive enough for me.
I'd have gladly paid double had they added more. I have the ShB artbook too (well, my fiancé does) and while a lot of love clearly went into making these books, I was hoping for something that really went all out and it feels like they really had to be reeled back in so they could be sold at a more reasonable price.
However, the way they screwed over the staff that actually made the books... I'm not surprised we'll probably never get a 3rd encyclopedia and shame on SQEX.

[TheMightyMollusk]

My only complaint is that side stories that aren't complete before one book came out aren't picked up in the next. So they're a little light on things like Alexander and the Warring Triad, as the first book was published before they were finished, but the second left them out.

That said, I'd still be all over a third volume to flesh out the First.

[b00]

However, the way they screwed over the staff that actually made the books... I'm not surprised we'll probably never get a 3rd encyclopedia and shame on SQEX.

How did they manage to do that? I've only just recently started looking more into the lore behind this game, and the encyclopaedias look awesome.

[DrWho2010]

IIRC, they weren't given extra time or time off their normal duties to make the lore books. They decided to take on the extra work on top of their normal day-to-day duties.

[Baxcel]

I'm suppose to be getting the EE volumes 1&2 as a birthday present since before April.. been on waiting list for them and the tonberry plush (small one) hopefully they restock soon

[SannaR]

How did they manage to do that? I've only just recently started looking more into the lore behind this game, and the encyclopaedias look awesome.

I'm not sure what they mean as they did the first one for the love of the lore and players. About the same happened with the 2nd one while also bringing on players like Moose for edits and such.

I still need to get my own copy of the first one and would love to have a third one that covers ShB and 6.0. I just am not sure how they'd go about the story bits since at least for ShB would maybe need to be written by some of the Scions as normally it's written by an anonymous scholar unless we want to say the WoL transported the book around. Which would be possible.

[Rannie]

I'm not sure what they mean as they did the first one for the love of the lore and players. About the same happened with the 2nd one while also bringing on players like Moose for edits and such.

I still need to get my own copy of the first one and would love to have a third one that covers ShB and 6.0. I just am not sure how they'd go about the story bits since at least for ShB would maybe need to be written by some of the Scions as normally it's written by an anonymous scholar unless we want to say the WoL transported the book around. Which would be possible.

Or it was written based off of the accounts of the Scions... kinda like they were interviewed for stuff

[SannaR]

Or it was written based off of the accounts of the Scions... kinda like they were interviewed for stuff

Yes, that would work as well. Though I'd hate to be the person who gets the job of interviewing Urianger.