This week, a certain ahriman’s vision became a reality as SQUARE ENIX unveiled a new section of the official forums dedicated entirely to FINAL FANTASY XIV’s lore. In press releases, you’ll often hear of the Battle Team or the Event Team, but behind the scenes, the Lore Team has been working just as hard to make sure Hydaelyn (or is it Hydælyn?) has a depth of atmosphere and story that is truly up to par for the franchise. Now there’s a place to not only discuss their creations, but maybe even get some answers along the way!

So, what did we learn this week?

Well, regardless of whether you’ve been wanting to re-name yourself according to true Eorzean traditions or whether you’ve just been waiting for someone at SE to finally respond to your soap-box accusations that NPCs are named according to whatever keystrokes occur when Yoshi-P finally collapses of exhaustion upon his legendary Keyboard of the Luminary, you’ll want to check out…

Naming Conventions for All Races

For those aspiring Sea Wolves out there, the new Roegadyn Dictionary will certainly be an inspiration so long as you’re up on your nuances – and it couldn’t hurt to practice your pronunciation, either. The Miqo’te conventions, in particular, shed light on a complex social and family structure that quickly made these cat-kin the de facto fan topic of the week in a way I haven’t seen since they released the Coliseum gear…

Ménage à Miqo’te

The differences between the clans run a lot deeper than simply what time of day they prefer to be active; the very organization of their societies reflect the masculinity and femininity oft associated with the sun and moon, respectively. The Seekers of the Sun maintain large, patriarchal societies centered around, but not necessarily led by, a single breeding male (nunh) that secures whatever sized territory it takes to sustain the 20-to-50 females and few lesser males (tia) that follow him (though larger tribes may require more than one nunh). Meanwhile, the Keepers of the Moon are much more solitary, keeping to small groups of two or three families that follow a matriarchal lineage.

While new groups continue rise and fall, each clan also has some lines stretching all the way back to the great migration in the Fifth Umbral Era, so visit the full page if you’re interested – especially if you wish to connect your character to the existing tribes and families that require the use of apostrophes in their names. “But, Anwyll,” you’re probably asking because this is my article and I can make you say whatever I want, “if Miqo’te naming conventions require apostrophes, does that mean that Square Enix has made them legal text characters to use in our names?” You bet your fluffy tail it does!

And that leads us to a piece of information brought over from the Japanese forums about…

Clan Differences and Character Creation

There are some NPCs (F’lhaminn, for example) that seem to display features from multiple clans. What gives? Well, in some cases, you can chalk it up to small discrepancies between pre-release concepts and the final decisions. However, it also turns out that Eorzea has been a melting pot for long enough that you can expect some overlap between the clans where features used to be unique to one; and this will be reflected in the new character creation process, where you’ll have an array of options from both clans! Don’t worry, though; clans will maintain some distinctive features.

What else is on the menu!?

Well, that depends what you want. A short list of fictional Eorzean tomes of legend? Done!

Bears? No promises.

Another one of these articles detailing next week’s lore-forum revelations?

We’ll see…