Reconstructing Eorzea's geological history.

[Yrusama]

Of course... a lot of these changes were actually caused by real world circumstances, so it's unclear how much of the 1.0 geography has actually changed as far as the Eorzeans are aware and how much we're supposed to consider retconned into its new 2.0 form.

This. Nobody knows for sure yet, but I'm willing to blame Atomos in large part for the landscape reshaping. If what looked like direct hits from Bahamut didn't even phase Ul'dah, not even Megaflare could cause such a drastic shift in the layout and makeup of each region.

One thing to note that will invariably be true no matter how much the maps change: even accommodating the time distortion (1 day = roughly 1 earth hour), and extrapolating the size of unseen regions as generously as possible, Eorzea is nowhere near the size of the United States, let alone a continent like Australia. It's likely closer to the collective landmass of Japan, if I were to guess (total shot in the dark, I know), yet somehow it has a much broader biome range for its size. Snowy tundras and arid deserts (neo-Coerthas and neo-Thanalan) are at most 10 malms (miles) apart. Surely any anomalous mineral deposits can be forgiven under the circumstances.

Not that we should nitpick this "region" for being too small a continent for the world it's on. This scale simply makes more sense in games. It's better to assume that we, even the Lalafell, are giants.

[Catapult]

Thinking more about Silvertear... the whole lake seems to be surrounded by small mountains, so even if there is no outlet or inlet, could it be filled just as a giant rain or groundwater reservoir? It also seems that the situation in 1.x was that the Falls had pretty much dried up. They were labeled off on the west side of the map but no (surface) waterway connected them to the Lake. Compare this to the intro movie showing their state before the Battle of Silvertear Skies where it was practically Victoria Falls in scale.

And it might be possible the central island where the Keeper of the Lake is is a direct consequence of the Keeper' formation. I watched through the intro movie again and it's hard to tell whether the Agrius is touching down on land or if its pure water, but its conceivable the crash itself and resulting aetherial explosion uplifted some of the surrounding land.

I'm pretty confident the island was there before the fall, but you've made me want to take a closer look at the intro video now regardless, as it does beg the question how Silvertear was so huge in the first place and then stopped.

I am unforunately no moose foutain of knowledge, however. I do certainly have in my memory at least on NPC that mentions that Thanalan was once a more lush and green place. In fact if memory serves me it was a gridanian who said it, attributing the desertification to the fact that the denizens of Thanalan would effectively hunt their Elementals.

I see more racism and less Geology there... >_>

The earth-elemental umbral era, anyone?

Nice one!

Snowy tundras and arid deserts (neo-Coerthas and neo-Thanalan) are at most 10 malms (miles) apart.

...time for me to pull up my maps and actually measure the 1.x landscape.

[Xeia]

I am unforunately no moose foutain of knowledge, however. I do certainly have in my memory at least on NPC that mentions that Thanalan was once a more lush and green place. In fact if memory serves me it was a gridanian who said it, attributing the desertification to the fact that the denizens of Thanalan would effectively hunt their Elementals.

I see more racism and less Geology there... >_>

While the explanation for it does sound like the Eorzean version of racism on behalf of the Gridanians, many folk-tales do have basis in fact. So while it may or may not be the case that Thanalan dried up from killing elementals, this does still seem to support the idea that it was once fertile rather than arid.

[Myranda]

Some interesting new text on the ARR hype pages for DoL:

Miners are responsible for the excavation and handling of Eorzea's mineral wealth, be it ores, fossils, precious stones, or otherwise. To fully master the advanced techniques developed by the great mining nation of Ul'dah, they undertake a wide range of tasks, from the meticulous prospecting of the most minute deposits to large-scale civil engineering. Many miners subscribe to the theory of continental drift, and take for their patron deity Oschon the Wanderer.

It seems our Eorzean counterparts are also quite versed in their geophysical learning.

[Catapult]

I noticed that as well. Anyone who has studied continental drift will tell you that it got treated much like the "theory" of smoking causing lung cancer did in its early days. Experts originally shrugged it off as silly before being gradually brought over on the merit of the evidence.

So if miners are subscribing to the "theory" of continental drift, we're talking about a world that is beginning to come to terms with whole-of-planet concepts. Starting of course, because we've been told most Eorzeans wouldn't really understand what you're talking about if you described Hydaelyn as a planet.

Many miners would take an interest in this theory, as it has implications for how and where ore bodies can/will form and be accessible.