Ask English Localization Lead Kate Cwynar Lore & Localization Questions

[Eriyu]

Hi, and thanks for this opportunity to ask questions!

It's established that the unsundered trio made the Convocation crystals after the sundering, so where did they get the memories with which to imbue the crystals? Are these memories complete, or even necessarily accurate?

[Eriyu]

There's a clearly established difference between beings with souls versus arcane entities, but where do other lifeforms fall within that dichotomy, such as plants and animals? Exactly how rare are instances of beings gaining souls like Alpha did? For example, the Ixal were engineered by the Allagans, but presumably they all have souls now?

[Eriyu]

Have the exact same souls been cycling through the Lifestream since life began on Etheirys, or are souls routinely created and destroyed through natural processes? As a follow-up, what did the "new life" intended for the third sacrifice to Zodiark entail exactly — Was it going to be simplistic life such as plants or animals, or newly-born souls (effectively, other people)?

[ranrannerson]

Whatever happened to K'lyhia and the Arcanist Guild's Guildmaster? Is there any chance we'll get to see them again?

[EgoCollective]

I have two questions:

Lore Question:

Last February, we received an answer as to why Zenos dreams of the Final Days, though with each passing patch bringing him up, and with 6.4 outright showing the WoL thinking of him I have to ask. Why was it deemed necessary for us, the player, to have this information if the WoL never learned of it and nothing ever became of it? Was this plotline going somewhere and did it get dropped, or will the WoL continue to contextualize Zenos and his past through further patches?

Procedural Question:

How do localization teams decide which information is left out or obscured? For example in the North American localization of Shadowbringers it was not as obvious as it was in other localizations (and the original Japanese) that Emet-Selch recognized the WoL's soul as Azem (something the Nier collab written by Ishikawa confirms). What was the reason behind this choice?

[Enkidoh]

Wll there ever be an explanation as to what the pixies really are, and why and how they keep turning into unintelligent beavers? (They're clearly not the souls of children, as a pixie shows up in Elpis and turns into a beaver later, so they're presumedly an Ancient creation, but the reasearchers there didn't even seem to know what they were or where they came from).

And on a similar note, what was up with the infamous shoebill which followed us around the First in Shadowbringers? I know it was long theorized that it was either Emet-Selch's familiar, or an avatar of him (given weight by the shoebill minion that drops in Amaurot), but it also again shows up in Elpis under test, and again no one knows who created it or why. So this mystery is another thing I'm dying to uncover the truth of!

[ranrannerson]

Are there any plans to update the ARR Tribe Quest NPCs' dialogue to account for the shift in the status quo when it comes to their people? I know it's a small thing but I really want to see what Novv thinks about the Sahagin having better relations with Limsa...

[Kozh]

Thank you for the opportunity.

So, the EN localization team is known for their "improvisation", for example: firmament item's description and sidequest/FATE name, which is good and all. However, some of us noticed that lately (to be more specific since ShB, though I do know about the case of EN middgarsomr being different than his JP counterpart) this "improvisation" has reach into the MSQ as well. It's not so obvious that it create different story, but some contexts have been either missing, added, or changed entirely. This resulted in confusion among us because some dialogue meaning and nuances are now different compared to JP, FR, and DE. Just a small example is Tempest's sidequest "Community Cohesion". The sidequest feature 2 NPC, namely <Patronising Amaurotine> and <Gentle Amaurotine>. Turns out in other localization, <Patronising Amaurotine> isn't their name, but actually it's (the equivalent of) <Charitable Amaurotine> (or "likes to help"). And they have additional line "The eyes of the collective are ever watching and weighing your worth" which, as far as I know, is absent in FR localization.

To summarize, I am wondering if the EN team will address this issue with us players or if they will do something about it for future contents?

[Ekoko]

Due to the flavour text within select items like the Puk Wings noting that they are carried as a talisman and/or good-luck charm by Dunesfolk girls, and the same for Rat Tails for Dunesfolk boys, is there any information to go with as to the how and why they became seen as good-luck charms?

If not, are there any other such charms for the other races?

[Ekoko]

Hi Kate, since we've gained access to Old Sharlayan within Endwalker, will we ever get any additional Roegadyn lore due to the close proximity of both Aerslaent and Nagyn/Origin?

Any lore for both Seawolves and, frankly the Hellsguard / Lohengarde in particular would be fantastic, particularly about the traditional culture within their homeland!