Quechua/Inca influence in Dawntrail lore

[Fenral]

Lol yes that wheat tortilla! I confess as a certified gringo I'm not fond of most Tex Mex or Northern Mexican dishes and don't have a familiarity with the central, southern, or even west coast cuisine (a special hatred of Hatch chilies) - but I already have a shortlist of favorite dishes I want included in the 100 CUL expert recipes, and if we don't get sopapillas, churros, and at least two different types of tamales (ideally the version I'm familiar with and then one of the recipes versions that uses plantain leaves) I will riot.

As a Mission Street kid, I will accept whatever stain on my soul is left by the lack of proper cultural sensitivity, all I ask for is a burrito. Or a few burritos. Churros are from mainland Spain, though. (Or even older, the history is surprisingly complicated.)

[Denishia]

My college years were spent eating out at local Mexican restaurants to the point that cheese enchiladas still turn my stomach because I ate it so often- so I'm perversely hoping that dish will be the 8.x raid food or better yet the DoL/H expert dish to re-create my misery.

The fallen Urqopaca empire interests me so much, but I have no idea if it will turn out to be all that important to Dawntrail. For every Allag we have plenty of Ronkas and Beladiah/Sil'diah that are only relevant for a single zone flavor and one or two dungeons max - and then there's poor Voeburt without even a proper dungeon.

[WhiteArchmage]

There is already a New World Burrito housing item that made my soul die a little. I can't technically complain since pre-hispanic gastronomy was wildly different than the fusion that happened during the colonia, so I'll just have to bear it since historical accuracy for food items went out the window way back in ARR, if not all the way back in 1.0. (Although, seriously, look up nixtamalization and the history of pozole, in fact about nixtamalization there's an entire story about bringing corn to Europe without the proper techniques the natives used to process it and hilarity -and malnutrition- ensued)

I also hope Urqopacha is more than background flavor, I've mentioned elsewhere that the team is very reticent to let go of Allag but this really is the best time to serve divorce papers and start collecting some Pachan Tomeliths of Cosmology.

...what? can't people oceans apart come up with similar ideas? it's happened before!

[Denishia]

The lack of nixtamalization leaving to pellagra was something that happened due to poor nutrition and ignorance about proper corn/maize processing in the US- I want to say Southeast- and didn't happen in Europe as much, but I forget what dietary difference alleviated the cases. And I've yet to see a kitchen sink fantasy setting that does its dull diligence about the pre-Colombian Food Exchange. That teosinte was originally cultivated for alcohol and not as a cereal grain does amuse me for some reason, though I also find it interesting that the studies of Neolithic Mesoamerica suggest that the teosinte that was domesticated to become corn did have larger kernels that the wild surviving variant (of course not anything like the corn we have today).

Surely the only part of Allag that they haven't milked to death is to develop more their rivals and enemies, as they did a little bit with Bozja. More Meracydia and the rebels that were working to topple the empire. I don't want there to be nothing more in the MSQ involving Allagans because I want to go to Meracydia - but that and Corvos is the only place I want to see Allagan ruins and enemy models. And since Alliance Roulette dropped me in Syrcus Tower again, I saw the blue mamool ja mobs but I think those can exist without requiring that Allag had also been to and conquered part of Tural. XIV is thankfully realistic in having long migrations and small groups traveling all over the place.

But we need a new Ancient Empire with ruins to explore, and a new empire faction to replace the Garleans and Ascians, and Tural is a mostly blank slate to start adding.

And I would LOVE Pachan Tomeliths XD

[Ajay_panda]

I'm fairly sure the plateau mountains will be tepui, the famous flat-topped mountains of Venezuela, but I'm not sure if they will be their own zone, a dungeon, or part of one of the other places we already know about.

Just wanted to point out that Tepui is associated with both Venezuela and Guyana. The Guyana inclusion would be particularly relevant as Guyana was one of the major places considered to be the home of El Dorado, or rather Manoa on the shores of Lake Parime (according to the writings of Sir Walter Raleigh during his search for the fabled city). For this reason, my assumption is that the golden city might be somewhere in that region.

[Ajay_panda]

According to one of the lores regarding the golden city, it was supposedly located on the shores of Lake Parime. Some historians believe that Lake Parime wasn't an actual lake and was rather just the savannah regions of Guyana inundated during the rainy periods. So we could get a savannah-type zone. This would of course depend on which of the El Dorado lores they intend to follow for FFXIV's version.

[Ajay_panda]

Yep- and that Tululiyoll have some strong SEA influences and it's fantasy and one with primarily Japanese writers at that (and the three things that keep circulating in my head are how Tokyo Disney changed the Indiana Jones ride from themepark fantasy Asia to Central America to be more exotically appealing to the audience, old series The Mysterious Cities of Gold, and that One Piece also used the El Dorado tropes. Dawntrail and One Piece has already been joked about with the teaser trailer and it will only increase.)

Lol yes that wheat tortilla! I confess as a certified gringo I'm not fond of most Tex Mex or Northern Mexican dishes and don't have a familiarity with the central, southern, or even west coast cuisine (a special hatred of Hatch chilies) - but I already have a shortlist of favorite dishes I want included in the 100 CUL expert recipes, and if we don't get sopapillas, churros, and at least two different types of tamales (ideally the version I'm familiar with and then one of the recipes versions that uses plantain leaves) I will riot.

The game has done so many desert biomes already and peppered them with the Americas' cactus, so I have this sinking feeling that there won't be a Tural equivalent to the Chihuahuan and Sonoran Deserts unless the curve ball for the City of Gold is using the ancient pueblos for some fancy gold SF/Fantasy version of the cliff side metropolis. I still think the emphasis on the updated grass engine overall means that we will get a mostly pampas/grassland zone map for the 3rd or 4th zone, so we will get 'fantasy Argentina'. And if we don't, then a zone in North Tural, be it a later expansion or exploratory zone will give us the Great Plains. Something for me to shrug and go "close enough".

Still holding out to my theory that our endgame hub will be at least partially inspired by Tenochtilan in that wherever it is will be very high up in the mountains instead of coastal and have canals, a lake, and floating gardens bisecting it. The floating gardens and boats could also be blended with the Vietnamese floating markets. Though I also think whatever "Secret City of Gold" we find won't be the hub but the 5th or 6th map.

I'm holding out hope that my country (Guyana) will inspire the endgame zone. It's the cultural enigma of South America, contains a portion of the Amazon, is the bridge between the Caribbean and SA, and its associations with the search for El Dorado. As such, in-game, it could be a great blend of various aesthetics from various in-game cultures, meaning the devs could go thal's-balls to the wall in terms of what to include.