Have the devs ever said where Ala Mhigo is analogous to?

[Omedon]

I always find such a hard time describing Ala Mhigo to people who don't play FFXIV. It feels like it's just beyond the tip of my tongue, like there's some commonly known real world historical reference just beyond my grasp, but while it's easy to call Kugane a "fantasy Japan" city, thus setting the mental picture for all in the far east, Ala Mhigo becomes this traffic jam of cultures that I feel I'm missing a clearer reference to.

Has an official word ever been given on just where Ala Mhigo is "drawn from" in inspiration? I feel like this is either so simply referenced that I'm discounting it or just so well done that it feels wholly original... what am I missing here?

[KageTokage]

The region is a mash-up of different middle-eastern countries, though I get strongly Turkish vibes from it in particular.

For instance, the Goreme region IRL is a dead-ringer for The Peaks in both architectural and geological features.

[Snorky]

Well I googled it after looking at images since I have not been there yet. And it seems some believe it's modeled after middle eastern.

[Theodric]

It's a blend of various different real world cultures rather than a distinct style. The names, for example, are Germanic and the original concept art for the region looked rather different to what we ended up getting.

Here's the original art in question:



To me it looks like it was originally meant to be rather cold instead of arid. Particularly based on the mountains behind the city.

[KayRadley]

It always came off to me as Middle Eastern, with a tiny hint of rural China courtesy of the Shaolin-inspired Monks.

[Omedon]

It always came off to me as Middle Eastern, with a tiny hint of rural China courtesy of the Shaolin-inspired Monks.

This sums up a lot of my confusion haha! I'm leveling monk now and I was like "wait... hang on... we're chinese now?"

[MikkoAkure]

It's a blend of various different real world cultures rather than a distinct style. The names, for example, are Germanic and the original concept art for the region looked rather different to what we ended up getting.

To me it looks like it was originally meant to be rather cold instead of arid. Particularly based on the mountains behind the city.

You can still have cold AND arid. In fact a lot of mountainous areas in the world are both including Tibet which is probably the most famous highland area in the world. Some Ala Mhigan NPCs mention how cold it is there so it seems like that's how it is. It's a shame we don't have white-capped mountains surrounding the landscape but then again it would be a little naive to assume that the zones we visit in the game look that way year round. And that's not the "original" concept art either, implying that it's old and unused. That's still the splash art if you log into the game while in Ala Mhigo.

Like all Eorzean hyur, highlanders have European names, in this case Germanic. They also all tend to have accents from the North of England to set them apart. But their architecture, weaponry, clothing, landscape, and geographical position on the edge of 2 continents shows that they have a lot of inspiration from Turkey. On top of that, like the Ottoman Empire, they have a history of being belligerent toward the rest of the continent and even gone to war with the Eorzean Alliance.

That all said, I think the original Eorzean 3 city-states generally are better written in regards to being their own thing without straight up copying and pasting real-life cultures in place of world building. To me, Doma felt a little lazy since they just took Tang China and then pretended it's actually Japan. And then Hingashi and Nagxia feel even lazier since they're just Japan and Vietnam ripped right out and pasted into our world with a few extra added fantasy elements but no real world building.

[KayRadley]

This sums up a lot of my confusion haha! I'm leveling monk now and I was like "wait... hang on... we're chinese now?"

The wonderful thing about fantasy is that there is a lot of leeway to mix and match real-world influences, like how Othard is a mix of Japan and China.

[KayRadley]

You can still have cold AND arid. In fact a lot of mountainous areas in the world are both including Tibet which is probably the most famous highland area in the world. Some Ala Mhigan NPCs mention how cold it is there so it seems like that's how it is. It's a shame we don't have white-capped mountains surrounding the landscape but then again it would be a little naive to assume that the zones we visit in the game look that way year round. And that's not the "original" concept art either, implying that it's old and unused. That's still the splash art if you log into the game while in Ala Mhigo.

There's scientific backing for that. Areas that are arid lack moisture in the air, which would otherwise absorb and retain heat. That's why real-world deserts can swing between scorching hot during the day and freezing at night.

[wereotter]

The geography of Gyr Abania is very similar in a lot of ways to the intermountain Rockies of the US, and looks in many ways a lot like where I grew up in Utah. This was even further reinforced to me with the major city being built on the shore of a very salty lake. However the art and architecture of the region isn't really what you'd associate with that part of the world, and is much more like what you'd see from a place like Iran.

There's also a little bit of a parallel to real world geography when you look at the world map of Hydaelyn, Doma is in the area around where you'd find China and Korea, Kugane is an island off that region where you'd find Japan, Obornne Monastery was in south-east Asia, Thavanair is an island off where you'd find India (which fits the style we've seen from there so far) Ala Mhigo would be in the Middle East, Sharlyan is in Europe, the New World that is referenced in the Blue Mage quests shows that the people there are dressed in styles similar to the American Indians, and even the genesis region of the game where we all come from? That's from a continent situated where Africa is today, and is even shaped similarly to Africa.

You can still have cold AND arid. In fact a lot of mountainous areas in the world are both including Tibet which is probably the most famous highland area in the world. Some Ala Mhigan NPCs mention how cold it is there so it seems like that's how it is. It's a shame we don't have white-capped mountains surrounding the landscape but then again it would be a little naive to assume that the zones we visit in the game look that way year round. And that's not the "original" concept art either, implying that it's old and unused. That's still the splash art if you log into the game while in Ala Mhigo.

Going back to my Utah point, this is exactly the case there too. It's a desert with hot hot summers, but still cold enough in the winter to get snow. Though the snow you're mentioning, at least in that region, is seasonal. So if we're in Gyr Abania in what's technically the summer or early fall, the snow would have melted, and wouldn't start sticking to the ground again until late in the year, and sticks around well into the later parts of spring.