CG Midlander

[NoloeTazier]

Great timeline. I can't thank you enough. Sorry if I appeared to be questioning your theory specifically; that wasn't my intention. I'm just immensely curious about the subject and I thought you might now some of the all-too-many questions.

Oh no it's all good. But yeah Ferne posted a while back that the Astral/Umbral Era lengths all just depend. I think the Fifth Umbral and Sixth Umbral were somewhat tied together, i.e. the Ice froze and then melted to cause Flooding. So the Fifth Astral was probably relatively short, just long enough for the Miqo'te tribes to come wandering in and settle. Then the founding of the Allagan Empire was around 5000 years ago at the start of the Third Astral Era, we can sorta 'divide' up the years since into the cycles. But yeah like Ferne said it all depends on the disaster and the ability to recover.

[JGwinters]

The game takes place in the realm of Eorzea, one of three continents that make up one larger super-continent (land mass); specifically, Eorzea consists of the main continent of Aldenard and its surrounding islands (the largest of which being Vylbrand, home to the city-state of Limsa Lominsa). Aldenard is connected to the other two continents via a land bridge in the north-east which will eventually lead to Garlean Imperial territory.

I'd just like to fix this, because translation errors proliferating like this is kinda annoying. :P Eorzea is not a continent, it's a cultural region (I believe the exact Japanese word used was 'cultural sphere'). Since the original report appears to be gone I can't prove this from the same source, but the Japanese clearly stated it, and I think even the other versions had it translated right. It's just the English one that screwed up. There's a thread concerning the continent/region thing where I think I might have quoted some of it if you need more.

Figured you'd have caught it, but apparently not? In the bit above you're identifying Eorzea as two things, a region consisting of a continent and its surrounding islands as well as a continent by itself. The continent is Aldenard as the quote says. :P The remaining two continents were identified with the ARR site, being Ilsabard and Othard.

[Anonymoose]

I'd just like to fix this

I actually have a little footnote in my version based on you pointing that out previously XD

Technically, I think you're right. Aldenard is the content (giant land mass discounting localized islands), Vylbrand is an island in the Aldernard...ian... region, and Eorzea is the "realm" that encompasses everything in that area. I think that's the term I'd use, "realm." However, practically, I don't think it makes much difference, as English tends to be pretty liberal with the word "Continent." Just look at Asia!

Still, though - at the end of the day, I like the term "Realm." Eorzea is a realm that includes the continent of Aldenard and adjacent island Vylbrand.

[JGwinters]

I actually have a little footnote in my version based on you pointing that out previously XD

Technically, I think you're right. Aldenard is the content (giant land mass discounting localized islands), Vylbrand is an island in the Aldernard...ian... region, and Eorzea is the "realm" that encompasses everything in that area. I think that's the term I'd use, "realm." However, practically, I don't think it makes much difference, as English tends to be pretty liberal with the word "Continent." Just look at Asia!

Still, though - at the end of the day, I like the term "Realm." Eorzea is a realm that includes the continent of Aldenard and adjacent island Vylbrand.

Hmm. I agree with you that the definition of a continent is pretty fuzzy at least for some. They were merrily mixing up cultural regions and continental plates with it when I gave up. Makes me wonder if the education in the US (most likely country of origin for forum posters afaik) is really that abysmal, this is very basic stuff. I don't agree that it doesn't matter though, no matter what your definition of a continent is, you're bound to be confused if you hear that 'the continent FF14's set on is called Aldenard' while at the same time hearing 'the continent FF14's set on is called Eorzea'. Whatever definition you use for continent, you're likely to use the same definition for both of those instances.

But glad to hear the famous lorebuff isn't likely to spread that mistranslation.

[Anonymoose]

Makes me wonder if the education in the US (most likely country of origin for forum posters afaik) is really that abysmal, this is very basic stuff.

Now that you mention it, I'm not sure if we ever did go into the nuances of the definition of continent aside from, "It means land mass, it only includes islands in a general sense when we talk about the big seven, and the difference between Greenland and Australia is arbitrary but might as well be gospel by this point."

Let us consider this confusion with a familiar real-world example - Japan. Is it part of Asia - or is it an island off of the coast of the continent of Asia in the subregion considered East Asia? These lines are quite blurry at times... but no, I shan't be spreading misinformation :P

I'll actually add that little footnote to the above post! Perhaps together we can secure a proper terminology before this thread is through! ^^

[Catapult]

I'll give you a better example and it is a time-worn debate:

"Are the Brittish Isles part of Europe?"

/argument

[Mjollnir]

I'll give you a better example and it is a time-worn debate:

"Are the Brittish Isles part of Europe?"

/argument

Sorry, do you mean the British Isles, the United Kingdom, or Great Britain?

[Catapult]

Sorry, do you mean the British Isles, the United Kingdom, or Great Britain?

Well played, sir, well played. I see you understand.

[Catapult]

This has been bugging me for a while, since I haven't been able to find a real-world comparison for Gridania's quasi-system of government... until I thought of one last night. What do you guys think of this comparison?

In the pre-kings history of Jewish society, God was the monarch and considered the supreme ruler. Offending God was considered life-threatening. God's law was administed by the priests of the clan of Levi. On occasion, when things got out of hand, God would send a judge to resolve a particular problem and restore order.

Now:
Replace "God" with "the elementals";
Replace "priests" with "conjurers";
Replace "the clan of Levi" with "padjali heritage"; and
Replace "a judge" with "one beckoned by the Wood".

Anyone care to nit-pick?

[NoloeTazier]

This has been bugging me for a while, since I haven't been able to find a real-world comparison for Gridania's quasi-system of government... until I thought of one last night. What do you guys think of this comparison?

In the pre-kings history of Jewish society, God was the monarch and considered the supreme ruler. Offending God was considered life-threatening. God's law was administed by the priests of the clan of Levi. On occasion, when things got out of hand, God would send a judge to resolve a particular problem and restore order.

Now:
Replace "God" with "the elementals";
Replace "priests" with "conjurers";
Replace "the clan of Levi" with "padjali heritage"; and
Replace "a judge" with "one beckoned by the Wood".

Anyone care to nit-pick?

lol none here, I guess that's about as good of an analogy we can get. I wonder if Padjal really live forever or if they just live for so long that it seems like forever. Also a tie-in with Urianger, you'd think if he had a hand in the Sixth Umbral that he would be a Padjal and extremely old. But then again we have no idea how long Elezen can live to be.