What has happened to Vana'diel? (Spoiler)

[Catwho]

Canon wise Gilgamesh is ALWAYS the same person, he jumps from one plane to another using the power of the Rift and he is a good actor being able to display several personas from serious to goofy. And yes is one of the most powerful characters of the entire franchise... when he feels like it since he tends hold back a lot in most of his personas

Yep, he's one of a handful of characters in the franchise that can universe hop.

* Aforementioned Shantotto (her mini expansion was her developing the spell and it backfiring)
* Aforementioned Noctis (likely due to an Imperial experiment)
* Lightning (not just during her crossover, but also during her actual game)

We've gotten hints that Y'shtola may eventually find a way to travel between the shards via magic. If anyone in the XIV cast would be able to find a spell to go beyond just the Reflections but also to other universes, it would be her.

[Shadotterdan]

Just to reiterate, Shatotto from the black mage quests and relic is not the same as Shantotto. In the later black mage quests where you talk to her, she mentions confusion about the assumption that she has a habit of rhyming as a reference to Shantotto.

Also, technically Vana'Diel is destroyed. That world went through its own kind of sundering when it's mothercrystal was shattered into five pieces, and exists in a kind of less real state because of this. This is more headcanon territory, but it is my theory that that has led to a high degree of instability which is why there is so much in the game that involves other realities like Dynamis, the walk of echoes, Sea, wherever voidwalkers come from, promyvion, the summon crystals, escha, and so on and so forth.

[Iscah]

For anyone played since ARR, you would know that Vana'diel do exist in FF14's timeline and confirmed to be not one of the 14 shard.
This is evident in Black Mage's request line and first Black Mage relic weapon.
During the Black Mage soul stone the soul stone is referred to as "The Gem of Shatotto"

Aside of the point already raised that Shatotto is not Shantotto, the BLM quest line is only evidence that someone called Shatotto once existed in FFXIV's world. It doesn't prove that it's the exact same person once seen in another game.

[Jennah]

Considering that the narration seems to confuse "star" with "planet", I wouldn't be so sure that "Meteion explored the Universe" means "Meteion saw absolutely everything"

Not to mention that "Ultima Thule" is a medieval European expression metaphorically meaning "the furthest point from here in existence" - but literally meaning "farthest Scotland"... not exactly the most distant point, yes?

[Ransom]

Considering that the narration seems to confuse "star" with "planet"

I'm so glad to see someone else say this. It's the stupidest translation mistake ever and it grates on me like 10,000 nails on 10,000 chalkboards every time they do it. And everyone wants to defend it by pointing out that it's -technically- the correct translation of the precise Japanese word used. Be that as it may, it's still the wrong word to use in English. Precise word to word translation is what Google Translate does, not what we should see from human translators who should know better.

[Mirhd]

I'm so glad to see someone else say this. It's the stupidest translation mistake ever and it grates on me like 10,000 nails on 10,000 chalkboards every time they do it. And everyone wants to defend it by pointing out that it's -technically- the correct translation of the precise Japanese word used. Be that as it may, it's still the wrong word to use in English. Precise word to word translation is what Google Translate does, not what we should see from human translators who should know better.

Just gonna point out that "star" is an old timey way of referring to a planet. So, no... it's not stupid or a mistranslation, considering a lot of dated dialog the game uses. It's fits the world of the game perfectly.

[Ransom]

Just gonna point out that "star" is an old timey way of referring to a planet. So, no... it's not stupid or a mistranslation, considering a lot of dated dialog the game uses. It's fits the world of the game perfectly.

I'm sorry, but I reject this explanation too. Think about it: When ancient peoples called the planets they saw in the sky stars it's because they were too primitive to know what they really were, and how they varied from actual stars (save that their position in the sky wasn't 'fixed.') It would never have occurred to them to think of the world beneath their feet as a star, or of the planets in the sky as worlds. Therefore, in universe, either the people of Etheria are not advanced enough to know, in which case they wouldn't call their planet a 'star' because such a thing wouldn't occur to them, or they are advanced enough (which seems to be the case) in which case they wouldn't call the planet a star because they wouldn't want to sound like fricking idiots. Either way, in real life terms this is a translation error born of supposedly intelligent payed translators failing to pay attention to semantics and just stupidly running with the easy (but semantically wrong) direct translation.

[Mirhd]

I'm sorry, but I reject this explanation too. Think about it: When ancient peoples called the planets they saw in the sky stars it's because they were too primitive to know what they really were, and how they varied from actual stars (save that their position in the sky wasn't 'fixed.') It would never have occurred to them to think of the world beneath their feet as a star, or of the planets in the sky as worlds. Therefore, in universe, either the people of Etheria are not advanced enough to know, in which case they wouldn't call their planet a 'star' because such a thing wouldn't occur to them, or they are advanced enough (which seems to be the case) in which case they wouldn't call the planet a star because they wouldn't want to sound like fricking idiots. Either way, in real life terms this is a translation error born of supposedly intelligent payed translators failing to pay attention to semantics and just stupidly running with the easy (but semantically wrong) direct translation.

So you being ignorant of the origin of words and so on means something in a given piece of media is stupid, wrong, or mistranslated? Okay. If I sound snarky it's because I am. I'm also sleep deprived which makes it worse but w/e.

Given that it's clear the ancients are heavily based on ancient Greek culture and such, and the origin of the word planet is greek and meant star...
Asteres planetai or "wandering stars" for what ancient Greeks saw in the sky vs what they thought were asteres aplaneis or "fixed stars" (most Greeks thought Earth was this)... I say again, the use of the word "star" in the game to refer to Etheirys (since you can't even be bothered to get the name of the world right...) is correct.

Not having a large vocab or knowledge of the origin of certain things isn't a crime but for crying out loud, a quick google search lit anywhere could have told you this, come on. Even wikipedia (which isn't a credible source if you're writing a paper or w/e, so don't use it) gets this right.

[CaptainLagbeard]

Depending on how canon you wish to consider events... Long ago, this was a thing https://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...dens_Rhapsody/

[Jybril]

7.0 expac: Return to Vana'diel.

Actually...Would anyone want something like this?
I haven't played XI but I think it'll be cool to see the game in modern times.