Cool Facts in Encyclopedia Eorzea 3 (FFXIV Lore Talk)

It finally turned up: The Encyclopedia Eorzea 3! Today, I'm digging into the entire thing, picking out every cool little fact I think is worth highlighting, be they new facts, confirmations of ambiguous things, or just stuff I never noticed before!
There's not sections in this one, because I didn't make this video in a way that'd make that possible for me. But honestly, I'm not sure how useful they'd be anyway.
Questions, suggestions, other cool Encyclopedia entries worth telling people about? Drop a comment here! You can find me on Twitter at / cleretic , or at Cohost at cohost.org/Cleretic/ (when I remember to use it), or on Bluesky (which I remember even less) at bsky.app/profile/cleretic.bsk...!

[@SeikeKyu]

"The Ranso where the main race of Ronka, how did we not know this before?" Ah yes, the Shadowbringer's gatherer tribe questline. Its actually one of the few (if not the only) questline that actually has a different in-game lore implications based solely on the player's choice and it gives you the "Ronkan Historian" title for it's completion. The questline doesn't change drastically, but it does change how the NPCs view the history of Ronka. My friend and I were comparing the storylines based on the choices we were choosing at the time.

[@EinDose]

Yeah, I think the reason I didn't recall that might be because it's the only one of the Ronkan historical findings that isn't up to interpretation.

[@SeikeKyu]

@EinDose I am not blaming you, I just happened to know it greatly because I was happy to get a true gatherers beastmen tribe and noticed that it had Ronkan Lore which my friend is obsessed with (Ronka being an in game Mesoamerica/Olmec based culture). We split the story lines to get the two interpretations of the lore from that quest. One of many hours long discussions (and the only lore one) I have with my friend. It's one of those, good memories with a good friend sort of thing. But it did mention on a few occasions that Ronso was the main race from Ronka, with a Ronso king. The Vii were the protectors, the Quitari were the lore keepers, ect. The tribal quest was a lore drop for Ronkan history, but not anything major to the entirety of the game.

[@Inukipachuki]

This video helped me realize how unique a position FFXIV is when it comes to their lore. Ever-evolving and really disciplined in the way they write and develop things. Kind of reminds me of an interview with Yoshida, Ishikawa & and Bari Oda where one of them mentioned how when writing for expansions before Stormblood (Cuz Stormblood is when it was figured out how the ending of Endwalker was going to happen, I'm going to guess in outline form), they used "Answers" as their anchor point in writing the story in the previous expansions. Kind of reminds me of a certain anchor point we learned in The Twelve alliance raid. P.S. Is there any way to have a chat with ya btw? I'm curious about one day talking with ya about various topics within the FFXIV universe and about potential future expansion theories.

[@EinDose]

There are other games and series that have lore publications like this, like Zelda or WoW, but they're all known to be pretty thin and either filled with retcons or itself subject to retcons; FFXIV is one of the very few that's generally respected by the playerbase. And as for a way to contact me... I really should set that up, so I'll probably put an email down in the profile. But the best angle is probably Twitter or Discord, I'm 'cleretic' on both.

[@NemesisTWarlock]

Ah, finally! Been waiting for a solid coverage of EE3. Thanks so much!

[@MissMyce]

Fantastic video, I was listening while doing a hunt train this evening so I didn’t watch the actual text on screen but when I looked down all the text only jokes were funny so I’ll have to give it a proper watch later. I’m a huge fan of the ffxiv lore but also very dumb so I love videos like this, gonna spend the next few weeks working through ur backlog and looking forward to whatever else you make

[@Khalith]

With all the build up to Feo Ul, I expected them to be way more prominent. I thought they’d be our annoying fairy sidekick for a good portion of the entire expansion in fact. Then not a whole lot happens with them for a while as far as the msq goes and they were just meant for us to use our retainers.

[@tenebraequeene]

i loved the hrothgar and (somewhat newish) viera lore! as a male viera i was pretty content. (even tho i knew about what they gave us). also, the ronka lore was nice! and i also was amused about the "unknowable horror" that is the Beaver, still LMAO. lastly, i'm your 900th subscriber! :D excited to see what you have in store! ^^

[@bendonatier]

I need to get my hands on all of the encyclopedias at some point, because if nothing else these are great. That said I'd love a video on blue mage at some point. It'd be a fun one leading into Dawn trail since we're going to the home of it, and if nothing else the spell book is like a mini fish log for lore tidbits. Thinking about that how bad is it, our in game lore references are a book on fish, the least respected spellcasting tradition, and someone else's travel journal.

[@EinDose]

And a bunch of military and historical notes about people involved in a squabble over a blasted wasteland.

[@kitsunehanyou09]

Thanks for sharing these great facts, it's honestly a treat and a great incentive for me to buy them! (wish I had the space though...)

[@burtwonk]

I got my copy but I don’t have much time to read right now, so I will gobble up any videos you want to make about the contents lol

[@rosebush9188]

It took some digging and a bit of math. But I was excited when I was able to peace together the Exarchs age from the encyclopedia. Being he is ruffly 116 years.

[@Aurwenn]

With all respect to the other lore channels i like the formar you delivered it in thia video moe

[@kataku8609]

Great Video!

[@Tom-Pendragon]

Thank you for this video.

[@sjacpswbs03162005]

Everything bozja would be hot, but I might be ok to wait for that to be half of everything Hrothgar

[@Wanderingsage7]

21:13 that seems on brand for Giott. So no mention about what the heck went on around Anog? Weird. Oh hey Ranjit. Good to know you joined forces with the ass who literally beat your charge to death.

[@ProfessM]

So the rats will eat all the damn catfish of the far east? Good. Good. Dammit Giott is still the best. Yeah I can see the old Jagd Doga in it when put side by side. Might be why I always fought it and not the beast. Does the book say if we invited any of the machinist gear cause people argue me we don't, but I thought we made at least a few.

[@EinDose]

It was speculated but never confirmed. The EE3's Machinist Kit pages describe the lineup as Skysteel's doing, with help from Garlond Ironworks and 'traditonal principles of Eorzean aetherology'. Indeed, the Automaton Queen is mentioned as having some inspiration from Holy See automated knights (I presume the various constructs from the Vault). The one thing that might've fed this is the Machinist's LB3 description in EE1, which is a direct quote from a nameless Machinist implying that they themselves made it.

[@ProfessM]

@@EinDose I see. Well until stated other wise I firmly sit in the camp that while not Cid or Stephanivien levels of inventing we do make some of our own gagdets and not just attacks. The idea that we are the Prime Machinist is why I gravitate to the job so much. That and during the Omega raid I explained something that Nero was talking about better then he did to my friends so they wanted my machinist to pull a Cid and just out smart the bastard.

[@TheViktorGaming]

woah I've seen you on the forums. Didn't know you had a channel!

[@EinDose]

I used to post the new videos on the forums, but I can see where traffic comes from and could tell that it wasn't really worth the effort to post, sadly.

[@25xxfrostxx]

What I realized while reading it: Getting old sucks, the font is small and I probably need bifocals. I was wondering about the conversation in the debate room in the phantom Amaurot... The debate that we witnessed was regarding the signs of the final days manifesting in some place far away. This implies that the ancients that we know weren't the only civilization on the planet as they considered this group being effected to be an "other" and they weren't sure on whether or not they should help them. Could this also mean that the other civilization may have been another species that one or more current race on the world descended from? As far as I know, the only species that we know were artificially created (usually by Allag) are non playable like the Naga or Ixal but the playable races have been represented on at least 2 - 3 other worlds.

[@EinDose]

My argument with that debate on... well, the debate, has always been that there's no real evidence that it's a 'far away' that's in their borders or not. If Amaurot is Washington D.C., it's impossible to tell if they're talking about Honolulu or Tokyo. Neither exactly reflects well on them, granted, it's just negative in different ways. We do have confirmation from the latest fanfest lore panel that the ancient world was effectively a one-world government, though. I don't think there's any reason to believe that the other settlements/locations alluded to in the ancient world (not just that, but the various Azem-involved short stories) aren't just more ancients, though. I mean, we otherize and distance ourself from other humans all the time; why must a species difference exist for the Ancients?

[@25xxfrostxx]

@@EinDose They came off as so eutopian and convinced of their superiority that I sort of pictured them as a bit of a monolith. Then again the only ancients we actually encounter are in administrative positions or work directly in the field of the feature of their society they were the most proud of, creation magic, so the example is definitely biased. Though in a society that shuns expressions of individuality as it makes you stand out from the whole, there would likely be some factor that would create an us and them factor. It's also entirely possible that it's not something the writers really even considered.

[@elgranespejo]

Gotta say, love you content! Please set up a patreon

[@EinDose]

I've thought about it, and I want to reach a particular bar before I do. I admit I'm maybe over-focusing on the optics, but there's times when it does and doesn't feel right to launch one.

[@bolladragon]

Damn, Vaulthry killed the Minfillia before Ryne when he was 13. Any note on how Ranjit handled that?

[@EinDose]

Unclear, even his short story is silent on his emotions at that point. But, y'know, probably not GOOD.

[@HezrouDhiaga]

This actually makes me want to finally break my wallet and buy these books

[@1701Rafael]

Here something that confuses me reading this book. The Draco/Monitor is a scalekin that exist in the first of Lakeland. "It earn it name for it resemblance to dragons of legend." was that a name Sharlyan gave it? Or were there dragons in the First? If there were dragons in the first, how did they get there? We had always assume Dragons arrived after the sundering.

[@EinDose]

There are a few 'dragon' enemies in the First, but they're not DRAGON dragons. The one that I always remember is a trash mob in Grand Cosmos, that's actually an animate statue. Most of them are artificial, like the gwibers. The general read is that dragons are an actual not-real myth in the First, so we keep seeing/fighting innacurate artist depictions rather than the real deal.

[@1701Rafael]

@@EinDose got ya. that was always confusing when reading it

[@auranah_was_taken]

7:04 Do we find out exactly what snae ling means? 😆

[@EinDose]

Sadly, Snae Ling remains a mystery! So does Ealad Skaan.

[@siyrean]

of course the limit breaks are not going to say dynamis when they had no concept of its existence, doesn't change that the attacks strength is augmented by it. Can't just decided that the Endsinger, a creature that's an expert in dynamis, is wrong because its inconvenient.

[@EinDose]

The EE3 has entire pages on dynamis, that come two hundred pages BEFORE the new job LB3s. The in-universe writers know about it. I'm aware that the Endsinger plausibly calls the Final Day LB3 dynamis, but I would put forward that in that space, EVERYTHING is fuelled by dynamis. It's not that all LBs are dynamis, it's that specific LB3.

[@siyrean]

@@EinDose its also mentioned in Elpis. unless you're arguing that its a contextualization that didn't exist before EW, then i would agree, the writers have said the concept didn't exist till they were writing EW. But it exists now and has used in game in reference to limit break at 2 separate points.

[@EinDose]

@@siyrean No, you've got me the entire wrong way around. I'm saying that EE3 is written with full context that dynamis is a thing, and yet 3/4 of its limit breaks are clearly not dynamis. Elpis is a funny example, too, because the Trust partners in Ktisis can't use dynamis, but can use limit breaks. And one of them directly calls out his power source for it as aether.

[@TheIvoryDingo]

​​@@EinDose Not the original commenter, but personally I would say that it's plausible for Limit Breaks to be primarily based in Aether with some non-verifiable aspects having a connection to Dynamis. I mean, it's not as though the in-universe writers have tools to detect whether something uses/influences Dynamis.

[@UltaFlame]

Heya cleretic, how's you eo solo going?

[@EinDose]

On a bit of a backburner, it's a bit hard to keep up morale given how much can be reliant on that really early stretch. I'll probably work on it more in 6.55, once a couple other goals are done.

[@gamer_debbie]

Fantastic job! If you ever want to collab, please let me know! I'd love to talk FFXIV with you sometime!

[@EinDose]

I'd actually be interested in that! Ways to contact me are in the About page, now!

[@edatihtiaz8018]

Well considering Leena is 33 it shows that the exarch “Graha Tia”was likely on the first before vaulthrey was born. Theres many photos of Graha with a child Leena. Which would be before any sin eater was on the world. Considering Vaulthrey was the first sin eater.

[@EinDose]

The Exarch and Crystarium have been on the First since eight years after the Flood of Light, so Exarch's only been around for a shorter time than the fae and some of the viera.

[@cheesybutters5053]

I am pretty sure Vauthrey isnt the first sin eater, given I want to say that what emet used to convince vauthrey's parents to let him turn vauthrey part lightwarden was that he could control the sin eaters. Not to mention they explicitly say that the sin eaters arrived shortly after the flood iirc

[@gothicshark]

hello new lore reader... cool Take a like & a subscribe.

[@AMurderOfCrows]

While there was vocal dissent about the massive sacrifice, Venat and her crew were basically extremists. Venat purposefully collected followers who were well placed to get what she needed done thanks to her foreknowledge of what was coming. She went and made sure she had an inside man with Lahabrea (Menphina) and access to extensive concepts that no one else had (Byregot) as well as people who idolized Azem and thus would be easy to sway since she could utilize their adoration of Azem as a tool for manipulation. This essentially makes her and her closest followers a death cult -- she had to sit these people down and tell them that for the world to live, she had to kill everyone on and let them "survive" in pieces, and thirteen people went "yeah, I'll do the very thing I'm protesting against to kill the world, no big deal." She utilized the schism in the people to her own ends, recruited people to subvert the government, and killed her entire world to 'save' it. Wild how many people are ignoring this information to give Crystal Mom a pass.

[@acehigh31]

well it did save the world from complete destruction. plus souls are real in ff14 and they weren't destroyed

[@AMurderOfCrows]

We actually have no proof of that. Zodiark was doing what it was supposed to. Venat's prime argument was "this could happen again, so we should destroy the world before it happens." Also, ask all those ancients whose souls were shattered if they were okay with the people they were becoming broken glass mosaic at Venat's hand. Pretty sure the reason that her plan was kept to herself is because she knew that speaking or against sacrifice was one thing, but as what she was proposing was preemptive genocide so that PIECES of her peoples souls would survive would have gotten her slammed into pandemonium along with the other dangerous monsters. And she has no care for the shards or plans to save them. Thanks to her foreknowledge she even knew that they would be sacrificed and destroyed to strengthen the source and so made no plans to save them or the shards of her people on them. She made sure Emet-Selch and company survived because she knew that they had to reach that point to be able to reach the acceptable power level to survive the Endsinger, but still made sure Emet-Selch was in the Source's aetherial sea because "he may yet have a part to play." She didn't even think that WOL could pull this off and made sure that the man who loved Azem would be there as ringer!

[@EinDose]

@@AMurderOfCrows I mean, Emet-Selch thinks that Venat's plan worked when his wouldn't have. That's the best testament you'll get that she was onto more of a something than they were. The Convocation's plans even back then were to feed people into a god to solve their problems. I don't exactly think non-extreme options were on the table anymore. I don't think you can vote the End of Days out of office. Also... I would actually argue Zodiark WASN'T doing what it was supposed to. It was made to shield the planet, they just piled on extra responsibilities to it.