What lore do you ignore?

[Iscah]

It's something I don't think XIV will ever go into but it'd be the perfect excuse for a gender dysphoria story, as a Viera believing their whole life they were one sex just for puberty to hit them with the other one. However, this sounds too... complicated that I don't think CBU3 will attempt to try.

The thing is, they're not going to "believe" they're either sex until they reach the age where they develop and find out what they are. Before then, they might have particular hopes or about what they'll become, but they're not anything yet.

Personally, I think the fun part to play with is how they would regard this foreign-to-us approach to biology and gender perfectly normal, while our normal is bizarre to them.

At least as I headcanon it, my Viera is still rather unsettled at the prospect of other races' children having visible genders from birth – to him, it's as if they were born with adult features

[Anonymoose]

On the Livia topic, I think the assumption comes from the context of the rest of ARR's dialogue, not that one line in a vacuum. From Nero saying "Beware a woman in love." in the Ifrit arc to Livia shouting about how Gaius's (depending on the language in question) will, lips, body, etc. belong solely to her, there's a great deal of focus on a more-than-chain-of-command connection between the two, so in my opinion it did (at the time) appear intended to be a suggestive (but not explicit) line from Gaius, especially given how he waited until everyone else was gone to say it and the text had an ellipsis lead-in. I'm not surprised people made that assumption, but then again - as I said - I was one of the people who thought it looked suggestive by design in the first place. If the writers want to say it was all one-way and all in Livia's head, in retrospect, then that's the lore, now, regardless. Whether that was intended all along or InTeNdEd aLl aLoNg, I don't think we'll ever know for sure barring an official comment (which if nothing else would have a lot of entertainment value, lol).

[typeaxiom]

I'm pretty much ignoring the entirety of the last EW alliance raid plot. As far as I'm concerned, everyone is still around and my WoL has new friends.

[Lousis]

Everything, mostly because all of FFXIV's setting + Lore would drastically improve had it been set in Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. Evil Emperor Zurg > All FFXIV antagonists.

Also solves the Sundering debate by having it as a result of the Heed 'infecting' the Star's very Aether core with Profane rituals, forcing the surviving Ancients off to another planet(guideded by Hades) while Venat sunders the planet to prevent the Star from falling into Heed hands. Zodiark was conceived to fight off the Heed(which worked) but was unfortunately semi-compromised by the machinations of the Invaders once the Heed were fully driven off from the world. Hermes while excited to meet his first alien species/race, was unfortunately the first to be killed by Guzelian himself.

Meanwhile the Meteions basically continue to find new species to meet whilist documenting other stars to understand each culture, not knowing the first alien species that they introduce to Etheyris would also be their last for several millennias. On the plus side, thanks to the Little Green Men(LGM)s the Meteions could manage their Dynamis alot better.

[Ancalagon_Blacktalon]

I personally ignore job stones, I understand their gameplay purpose but on a story level the idea of "get this rock and you know immediately how to do all of this specific stuff" is pretty dull to me personally. The stones with the memories of the ascians at least serve some kind of practical purpose that is brought about by the vast time abyss their job is taking, but most of the time in the job quests the stone is just There for gameplay purposes.

[Keichi]

I personally ignore job stones, I understand their gameplay purpose but on a story level the idea of "get this rock and you know immediately how to do all of this specific stuff" is pretty dull to me personally. The stones with the memories of the ascians at least serve some kind of practical purpose that is brought about by the vast time abyss their job is taking, but most of the time in the job quests the stone is just There for gameplay purposes.

That is not correct.
It is stated, that the stones help to learn things faster.
Whe see it by Alphinau, who needed some time with the stone of his father to learn the Sage skills. And that is even counted as fast.
Whe see, how the stone needs time, because whe obtain new skills after some lvl happens. And by the older jobs is it even stated, that the stone obtain new power/awakening new power, after the class quest is finished.
And now are the stones in a state, where they learn from us.

[nukemind]

How Allag fell. Basically the idea that a single Earthquake led to the collapse of a civilization (and yes, it had rot, don't get me wrong), and that all that tech was lost.

There had to be more. I like the idea that there was *some* Dynamis... or something like it. Even in the worst of the Roman civil wars, and the ensuing conquests of Rome, much if not all tech was preserved, contrary to what the term "Dark Ages" would tell you. It's just it became decentralized with lots of petty kingdoms.

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Secondly, and more importantly, the timeline. We have literally taken multi month (?) ship rides, traveled all over the continent, fought a dozen if not more primals, rallied armies multiple times... and it's been like a year? I think 4-5 years, at minimum, should be expected- if not more. Not least with the formation of the Crystal Braves, the Doman War, Ul'Dah's reforms, and more.

At current each expac would be months and that just... doesn't fit. If anything taking "real world" time into in game would make sense to me.

[Bun_Vivant]

Even in the worst of the Roman civil wars, and the ensuing conquests of Rome, much if not all tech was preserved, contrary to what the term "Dark Ages" would tell you.

Concrete, a major technology for buildings and fortifications, was lost when Rome collapsed. Other technologies may have been as well -- indoor plumbing perhaps? -- but concrete is the one that stuck in my head.

"Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water,[1] and is the most widely used building material. Its usage worldwide, ton for ton, is twice that of steel, wood, plastics, and aluminium combined." -- Wikipedia, "Concrete"

[nukemind]

Concrete, a major technology for buildings and fortifications, was lost when Rome collapsed. Other technologies may have been as well -- indoor plumbing perhaps? -- but concrete is the one that stuck in my head.

"Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water,[1] and is the most widely used building material. Its usage worldwide, ton for ton, is twice that of steel, wood, plastics, and aluminium combined." -- Wikipedia, "Concrete"

Yes and no- lack of access not lack of knowledge. For a similar reason the Coloseum was cannibalized for resources- it wasn’t a lack of knowledge in how to precisely cut stones but rather it was an easy resource and quarried stone was hard to access.

Make no mistake even the “barbarian” kingdoms like the Franks, the Visigoths, the Suebi, the Lombards who conquered Italy, and many others advanced technology- they just existed in a fractured world as opposed to a world with a singular power structure.

Likewise even with the loss of the CT, the earthquake, the revolt… many major powers had a cacophony of tragedies. Look at China- multiple dynasties fell, warring states would emerge, but technology and progress still marched forward. Qin rose and was replaced, Han rose and eventually fell. Yuan, Ming, Qing- even when at times half or more the population died and the seats of power were razed technology didn’t regress but rather progressed.

Likewise one of the major reasons we view the post Roman world as being backwards (and as mentioned elsewhere- Rome survived until 1452 in the form of Eastern Rome) was that major projects weren’t as common. But what architecture we do have is often more advanced than the Romans, just as the armor and weapons advanced. And while ancient healthcare wasn’t great yes that too was advancing, though slowly until times such as the enlightenment.

Edit: I’m kinda passionate about this as while I am a (soon to be) lawyer now before I went for my grad degree I got a degree in history and taught it for a bit. If the pay would allow me to take care of two aging parents I would have continued.

Contrary to popular cultures no matter how many calamities befall a nation large ones (ie: existing as more than a city state) don’t just disappear even if conquered.

Probably the only example of true tech regression I can think of, that would be similar at all to Allag, would be the Mongol conquest of the Middle East, when literally every book in the House of Wisdom was thrown into the River, with spectators saying the River “ran black with ink”. Likely apocryphal, but the point is to have such regression basically every last book and manual had to be destroyed.