Revelations from Encyclopaedia Eorzea III

[Iscah]

The third lorebook has arrived! Share any interesting details here!

Given that this is not a narrative, I don't think spoiler tags are necessary in this case.

[Tsiron]

Minfilia continues to know nothing but suffering

[Cleretic]

Minfilia continues to know nothing but suffering

For people who haven't read it (which technically includes me, mine's coming with a nebulous delivery date, but I have seen the popular spoilers): The Minfilia before Ryne was beaten to death by a young Vauthry when they were both somewhere in their early teens. Which... god damn.

I actually kinda like learning it, though, because it fits exaclty how I've always read Eulmore, as basically a medieval/renaissance fantasy take on a post-apocalyptic 'have and have nots' city (think Immortan Joe's kingdom from Fury Road). Vauthry doing something like this tracks completely, since I can see that scene perfectly in both its possible inspirations.

As for the stuff I've seen that's not related: So far my favorite is that Giott's hammer is filled with liquor for emergency consumption. This makes it as unwieldy as you imagine, which is why she occasionally drops it and goes hand-to-hand.

Also, while I broadly agree with the 'we don't need spoilers' call here, I can think of one exception, because it seems like we might have info on one character we've never seen:

The head of the Gleaners' Guild is a hrothgar we've never met. So he might come up at some point next month.

[SannaR]

That the current working theory about Reaper avatars is that the reason why they can mesh so well with their reaper and can allow them to go into the avatar state is that the avatar is that person's shard from the 13th.

[JepMZ]

Glad, I guessed correctly. I just read that part just now. And here people thought it was Golbez lol

They repeatedly say Ryne is in fact Minfilia's reincarnation, and yet in-game Hydalyn brought her soul to the Source herself and we briefly have met her soul again helping us. A bit confusing. Perhaps Ryne really is her shard too, maybe, in order for the reincarnation comment to be technically true

[CNitsah]

That the current working theory about Reaper avatars is that the reason why they can mesh so well with their reaper and can allow them to go into the avatar state is that the avatar is that person's shard from the 13th.

How does that work with the WoL? It was not really subtlely implied in 6.4 and 6.5 that the real Golbez is the Azem shard of the 13th.

[edit]
didn't we have a spoiler tag?

[Cleretic]

p38:



I think it should be "secrete"?

No, 'secret' in the verb form basically means 'to hide a thing'; it's a generally pretty archaic term, so you mostly see it in fantasy and period settings now. 'Secrete' is DEFINITELY wrong, unless that crystal is... significantly grosser than we were ever told. That's a very different verb.

How does that work with the WoL? It was not really subtlely implied in 6.4 and 6.5 that the real Golbez is the Azem shard of the 13th.

[edit]
didn't we have a spoiler tag?

We do have a spoiler tag (it's [ HB ] without the spaces), but as mentioned in the OP, there is no point to actually spoiler-tagging anything in this thread, because it's all basically extra flavor text for stuff we've already had for months-to-years. I exercised a bit of an exception given there's a character that seems likely to come up next month that hasn't appeared otherwise, but there's no point spoiling anything about stuff that's already in the game; if you're looking at the EE3 and/or people talking about it, you've already signed that waiver.

But to answer your question: The Avatar being their Reaper's shard is a theory described as 'both unverified and unverifiable'. To me, that reads as the writers saying 'we're never going to answer this, here's the biggest hint for people who are looking for that, but decide on your own favorite reading'.

And I think that works because it just does not matter. We have a lot of potential contenders for the Thirteenth's Azem shard: The Avatar, the CoD of Darkness, Golbez, Zero, Diabolos, Other Golbez, Cagnazzo, that one Hecteye; pretty much every single named voidsent is a possible answer... and any confirmation would change or deepen exactly none of them. What's the value in even answering the question at that point?



(Personally, I think it means much more interesting things for Zero and Zenos than it does the WoL; that was always an atypical relationship, but this adds some interesting potential angles about it.)

[Iscah]

Skimming through the new information on naming conventions and character names, a few things have stood out.

Peoples of the First (p.083)

Humes and elves have "almost identical" naming schemes due to cultural mingling. I had suspected this was the case but it is good to have confirmation.

Mystel... well, the answer to that long-standing puzzle feels a bit invented after the fact, but the two parts of names we know them by are apparently given name and birthplace (in different order by gender) despite none of them having names resembling known place-names, plus an additional Keeper/Mithra-style surname that isn't ever touched on in the game. But then the second half of the paragraph says "recent generations have found their identities in family history or places of significance" which maybe sounds like a shifting towards hereditary second-names instead of directly getting named for their birthplace?

Galdjent and Drahn (being the two races of Voeburt) were already clearly using the same set of names, but EE gives us surnames for them, which are a small set of clans and houses specific to each race.

Dwarves -- it sounds like Tholl and Gogg are the only two tribes. Rather than surnames, they identify by giving names of their parent and grandparent of the same gender.

Viis have abandoned surnames because they used to be taken from their villages, but now Fanow is the only village left as all the others were lost to the Flood.

Ronso names are divided into "imperial" names from the age of the Ronkan Empire, which are the names taken from FFX Ronso characters and used for place names around Ahm Araeng, and the more common names "influenced by trends of the common tongue". (In reality, which the in-universe book can't reference, Ronso characters seem to be using Icelandic names.)

Zun names -- first part is a gendered social status thing, surname is individual with some limitations.

Ondo given names finish with a sound produced by the gills. Surname is social status.


...I was going to write more but the need for sleep has caught up with me.

One last thing which isn't lore-based but stood out -- the "Fae Sickle" illustration on p.245 isn't using the Fae weapon colour scheme but the Castrum Abania gold/pink/green. We never actually got sage and reaper weapons added to Castrum since they're outside the level range for those jobs, but I wanted them because I love those colours, and it's both lovely and frustrating to see that the design actually exists for it.

[MikkoAkure]

It finally arrived later than advertised but after skimming it there's a few interesting things I picked up.

Viera lifespans are said to be 3 times a Hyur's lifespan now, settling the debate after a Viis mentioned being able to live 3 times longer than Urianger and more matches up with the Dramaturge's 240.

Viera men are shorter either due to poorer nutrition or natural selection to move quicker and stealthier in the jungle. I think I might go with the first one myself.

Viera wear high heels to "always be ready on their toes" sure...


Werlyt being included was an unexpected surprise. I was hoping for more on Corvos and the other Ilsabard territories captured by the Garleans but I guess they're going to save that for a later expansion. I was also hoping for a little more on the history of Garlemald but I guess what we received in the other books is what we've got.


Edit: The missing Vth Garlean legion gets a mention in that it was mostly wiped out in the Bozja Incident.