A review on the name of the planet (EW spoilers)

[Gemina]

While only tangentially related, I know that calling the planet the 'star' is a real-world language thing. I've forgotten if the root was in Japanese or in ancient western societies, but I have heard in discussions about the game that calling the Earth a star was a 'thing' back before we really understood astronomy, so FFXIV borrowed that as a way to give the script some of that good old-timey gravitas. 'We have to save our star' has a bit more of a mystical weight than 'we have to save our world'.

Star can be a catch-all term to refer to any celestial object in the night sky that emits its own light. True hundreds of years ago, and remains so today. Earth would appear as a bright blue star to far away planets starting with Mars or Venus. However, my comments were derived off modern day terminology. But if I was to point out a planet to someone while sky watching, I would very likely say something along the lines of, "See that red star over there?"

Astronomy still is a mystical realm imo, as our civilization is still too young and has not advanced enough to grasp the universe beyond anything but that.

[SannaR]

In line with all that, post EW, I thought… why wasn’t the name of the planet Hydaelyn..? Like, why would even Venat need a new name for herself once she assumed “primal form”? I had always thought she just assumed the name of the planet in the vein of “I am become Gaia”. And if she was to become the will of Ethyris itself, why not just call herself Ethyris?

I get Zodiark as it is an original creation where someone was put into it to be the heart..but Venat..?

….my thoughts are that the devs just wanted everything related to Hyd and Zod over and done with entirely.

To go along with what we told her I guess. How else do you keep your name in the minds of people while not wanting people to have to give prayers to you? We don't know how often people awoke to the echo during the time in-between the ramp ups to calamities where she if not at times Elidibus caused star showers type visions. I'm sure after some point in time after the sundering when the memories of the presundered world became murky the best guess as to what the name is world I guess would be those echo users. Depending on how quickly any information and memories of the presundered world deteriorated happened of course.

[Enkidoh]

We don't know how often people awoke to the echo during the time in-between the ramp ups to calamities where she if not at times Elidibus caused star showers type visions.

1.0 gave a hint that in the 'calm' periods during Astral Eras it seemed to be very uncommon people for people to be awoken to the Echo, with a sudden 'rush' of new Echo users appearing being a strong indication a Calamity was approaching - Minfilia even stated this during 1.0's main scenario, that "after years of naught but rumours the past several moons have seen the hill of reports (of those awoken to the Echo) on my desk grow into a veritable mountain," so in between Calamities it was probably more "someone might inadvertently awaken to the Echo occassionally" without any influence from Hydaelyn.

Hydaelyn almost definetely knew when a Calamity was going to occur because of the aetherial flow suddenly occurring from a Shard back to the Source going from a trickle to a torrent as the Ascians schemed in the background to "upset the apple cart" so to speak and prime the two for a Rejoining, so the above "mass awakening to the Echo" was usually accurate that things were about to go very, very bad indeed.

[Cleretic]

1.0 gave a hint that in the 'calm' periods during Astral Eras it seemed to be very uncommon people for people to be awoken to the Echo, with a sudden 'rush' of new Echo users appearing being a strong indication a Calamity was approaching - Minfilia even stated this during 1.0's main scenario, that "after years of naught but rumours the past several moons have seen the hill of reports (of those awoken to the Echo) on my desk grow into a veritable mountain," so in between Calamities it was probably more "someone might inadvertently awaken to the Echo occassionally" without any influence from Hydaelyn.

Hydaelyn almost definetely knew when a Calamity was going to occur because of the aetherial flow suddenly occurring from a Shard back to the Source going from a trickle to a torrent as the Ascians schemed in the background to "upset the apple cart" so to speak and prime the two for a Rejoining, so the above "mass awakening to the Echo" was usually accurate that things were about to go very, very bad indeed.

Although remember that 1.0-only content isn't exactly reliable information and is prone to be retconned whenever convenient or appropriate. We do know of Echo-havers completely disconnected from any Calamities chronologically; Tiuna in the First, Tenzen in the Four Lords questline, although neither of them were noted as such at the time.

My feeling is that it's not just that the Echo is rarer outside of turbulent times (although it might be, given what we know is needed to awaken it), but that it's also much less likely to be recorded and documented appropriately. Again, Tiuna and Tenzen were just thought to be an oracle and great warrior respectively, maybe people among the original Knights Twelve or something had the Echo and it's just that nobody thought to check?

[kaynide]

While only tangentially related, I know that calling the planet the 'star' is a real-world language thing. I've forgotten if the root was in Japanese or in ancient western societies, but I have heard in discussions about the game that calling the Earth a star was a 'thing' back before we really understood astronomy, so FFXIV borrowed that as a way to give the script some of that good old-timey gravitas. 'We have to save our star' has a bit more of a mystical weight than 'we have to save our world'.

Modern Japanese still uses this;

The Kanji for Star (pronounced a few different ways, but as a sort of Adjective is "-sei"..pronounced "Say")

So, the Planet is "WakuSEI", or Mars is "KaSEI" (Fire + Star). Shooting star/Comet (and also Mercury, oddly enough) is "SuiSEI" (Water + Star)

Indeed, both Planet and Star translate to the kanji "星", which is pronounced either "Hoshi" or "WakuSEI"

I like to think they translated from JP to English and just liked the idea/archaic feel of using "star" for "planet".

[WhiteArchmage]

With the Unending Codex in 6.1, we actually have an answer to this now

The chosen few also spoke of being summoned to the heart of the star where, according to their testaments, awaited a pure and towering crystal. It is likely that said testaments gave rise to the appelation "Mothercrystal," as well as the usage of the word "Hydaelin" to refer to the star itself, though the precise point at which these terms became commonplace remains unknown.

It sounds more like it was an unintentional side-effect of Hydaelin's Call across millennia, people just... thought the planet would share the same name, when they understood what a planet was in the first place.

[Kranel_San]

With the Unending Codex in 6.1, we actually have an answer to this now



It sounds more like it was an unintentional side-effect of Hydaelin's Call across millennia, people just... thought the planet would share the same name, when they understood what a planet was in the first place.

Satisfying answer and an oversight by me. I should have realized this way earlier but thanks for sharing it!