FFXIV Lore Tours - Labyrinth of The Ancients

Welcome to the inaugural FFXIV Lore Tour! Rather than offering you another mechanical dungeon guide, I'll be running through the various duties of the game whilst giving them the Ethys treatment verbatim. Every inch of the game is full of meaning and opportunity and although not every reference made could be stretched to a several-minute lecture, I think this will prove a great format to cover the smaller constituent details of the XIV universe.
This will be less formal in presentation than my other FFXIV series to date since I'm recording live without any kind of script but I'm confident that you'll learn something and I hope you enjoy it!
This video extensively contains my own commentary and editing and is intended for educational purposes.

[@vfaulkon]

"You'd think that by twelve months people would figure out to stand on the pads." Me, four years in the future: "HAAAAAAAAAAAA HA HA HA HA HAH AHAHAHAHA"

[@truthless4720]

My favorite part is when you kill "yours" and everyone runs off the platform and the other group is like "aaaaaaaaargh".

[@TheAuron32]

or they dont know how to look. the. fuck. away!!!

[@dylanvolckaert404]

Me, six years later: "La hee hee hee hee hee"

[@Pmak]

Still happening now 2021.

[@NeguraGhost]

Still happening in 2022. :D

[@Dervy]

I'm actually really impressed by the on-the-fly knowledge you have. Enjoyed this video!

[@brk1988]

This is the kind of FFXIV content I've been wanting to see for so long on youtube. All of your videos are superb man! The world is so rich with references and in game lore. Thanks for doing this and keep up the awesome work.

[@EthysAsher]

Thank you! I'm really glad you're enjoying it.

[@ohnospacey]

It's fascinating to watch this now and see the party make-up of 6/6/12 instead of today's 3/6/15. I also love how speculations of the lore have altered since this time, like with which dragons are the First Brood of Midgardsormr! Interesting how the common theory was that the Five-Headed Dragon in WoD was supposed to be Tiamat! That stands by D&D imagery, at least. :0 The connection to mastery over death is VERY interesting, knowing what we know now about the origins of the Allagan Empire. Your observation of the Garleans having similar designs to Allagan constructs is also much more clear now, I'd say! And here we are, six years later, and people still do not stand on the platforms. c8

[@kattalez]

I love these lore tours that you do and the mythologies and philosphy that you point out. Its fascinating and has me looking more into the background information myself.

[@fiercetigersoul]

Nice Ethys! Just subbed to you so I'm checking out your older stuff, very spot on!

[@FenderJReid]

Been looking for lore videos for a while, got my subscription, don't even play much anymore! And I like all the references, LoTR, Sandman etc.

[@DyneXvX]

I know this is one of your old videos but I wanted you to know I really enjoyed this. Well done sir

[@Shiina42]

That was really very enjoyable. And as stated by another commenter. I'm happy to finally see lore focused content on the game. Been hoping for this sort of thing for some time. And doing it in this kind of easy, off the cuff manner if a fun mix up to put alongside the more structured content. Also, I do quite enjoy the random little tangential slides into just more along the subject. It's really quite interesting. I'd never known about the rivers of Hades and such tieing with the last boss and the reskins further in. Really cool stuff. Fun to investigate how our pasts can influence and inspire creativity of the present.

[@eshbena]

The Allagans had cloning technology though, so Tiamat could have been cloned and that's the 5 headed dragon.

[@phoenixdown2621]

I'm frankly just impressed by the sheer depth of knowledge you have on most of these subjects... Did you study this stuff before making the video? Or do you just research it in your freetime? Did you study mythology in school?!

[@EthysAsher]

I tend to look into things that seem to make an allusion I'm not familiar with as new content appears, but I majored in Philosophy and classical literature through my undergrad - fields full of allusions to the same kind of content and sources - so a lot of it is just bouncing around the back of my head somewhere. I obviously spend a bit of time refreshing myself when I'm making my more formal and scripted videos but these ones have been pretty off-the-cuff so far, hence the few little things I've missed here and there.

[@Rhomagus]

Also, on the subject of Neil Gaiman's Sandman novels. Yoshitaka Amano, the illustrator and early character designer of the Final Fantasy series, did the artwork for one of his Sandman stories.

[@EthysAsher]

Oh damn I never knew, that's awesome! Every artist he brought on for that was amazing, it's been years since I read it last but that whole series really stuck to me

[@DracoSuave]

Five-Headed Dragon is called 'Five-Headed Dragon' because it's the WoD version of the boss "Two-Headed Dragon" but with five heads. It, like all the bosses in CT, are homages to FF3 bosses. If they have a dungeon with an homage to FF1, or a dungeon with an homage to FF8's Ultimecia's Castle, or FF9's Memoria, that's where I'd expect to find Tiamat.

[@Salt_Mage]

Speaking of Memoria, it would make a fantastic "Caverns of Time" style dungeon hub.

[@zithariya9667]

This is super insightful and interesting dude. For sure keep these up. Always wanted to learn about where these enemies were getting their names from. Cheers

[@EthysAsher]

awesome, thanks for the feedback :)

[@Edge2177]

Piroboli were mythological living stones that could be found near volcanoes and when brought near each other would burst into flames.

[@EthysAsher]

Thank you! That's awesome. I knew a name like that had to be referring to something.

[@OnionBun]

yep, the FF wikia had that. here is another link: bestiary.ca/beasts/beast536.htm that just goes more into the idea of that kind of thing.

[@rueceless7580]

6:58 Amiga Weapon? =D Awesome video-very informative, the lore of FF14 is every interesting it's great to hear more about it.

[@tjpoe]

Such a great idea. Takes my mind of the monotony of the runs.

[@cybersurgeon1261]

Puroboros has an interesting Greek definition, if it at all helps. Puro is the transliteration for νησί in Greek, which is a word for island. Boros in Greek is a suffix based on the word βιβρώσκειν, or to eat, giving the Puroboros the translation of Island Eater. Not sure how it relates to the bombs in the Allagan structure, however it does denote an interesting use of bombs by the Allagan civilization as potentially a weapon of mass destruction, and the ones inside the Crystal Tower are surplus supply. Great vids, by the way.

[@Jaesais]

This is an Awesome series idea, I really look forward to seeing the new ones for shadowbringers :o

[@jupiter4602]

"the garleans have prototyped a lot of their designs from allagan technology" yeah and i bet both of their blueprints are signed with the initials "E.S." 😏

[@IRCannonFodder]

You missed the Nemesis during the Thanatos fight. Nemesis was the Greek goddess of revenge and vengeance, sister of Thanatos.

[@KitsuneRagnell]

I love FFIII (the real FF3) and even I learned a lot. Thank you.

[@motownsc]

all tho your videos are packed full of info as always, this kind of off the top of your head style seems to lack focus on subject to subject, with that said, love the idea of lore tours, could be done not just for raids but even normal dungeons as well. best of luck on the grind.

[@EthysAsher]

I'll make sure that I bring coffee with me instead of water next time and see if I come out less scattered. Thanks for the feedback and like I said in the vid, doing these isn't going to be at the expense of my more polished and quality series.

[@Rhomagus]

Interesting take on Atomos referring to the "membrane of the atmosphere". That's a decent way to consider him an interloper between dimensions, but I'd also consider just consider something so small it's uncuttable to be in a different dimension, as in physical dimensions, so thusly, Atomos would be this interloper of physical dimensions. I think when you're talking about atomic theory the concept of dimensions eventually comes up when considering quantum theory or string theory, so Atomos "uncuttable" would still apply.

[@EthysAsher]

I like that angle, and Atomos is definitely an important consideration or even a great big spanner when considering the metaphysics of Hydaelyn... but if group A would only keep 4 people on that damn pad I'd be able to cut him!

[@Rhomagus]

LOL

[@EthysAsher]

+Sepp Grayve oh of course, I knew that there was a connection through Nael and Gaius, must have been the last thing on my mind. Thanks for sharing though, that's a great article.

[@ShadyGrove14]

Nice job! Keep the lore coming!

[@PaulaVieira]

One thing I don't often see brought up in relation to Atomos, is whether its name isn't a mistranslation of Atmos, from Atmosphere. Much like how "Atma Weapon" was a mistranslation of Ultima, because of the peculiarities of Japan's syllabic writing system. Considering its main attacks revolve around wind-- swallowing wind, etc -- it's probably meant to be a representation of atmospheric phenomena.

[@PaulaVieira]

+Paula Vieira Oh, you did bring it up as soon as I unpaused. I scrolled through the comments and didn't see anything about it so I just assumed you hadn't. Whoops!

[@coriohttv]

awesome video! subscribed, looking forward for more :D

[@DrazzyDrazzan]

Thanks for this, I loved it. Do you think you will do one for each Dungeon too? Or at least while running the HMs for your Zodiac Items? The game's quests are good for getting you into Dungeons fast, but they don't explain the details of the Dungeons and Lore behind it, and not even mentioning real-world lore, just XIV lore. Take for example The Lost City of Amdapor, it would be great to talk about them along with the other mage cities of old, and what they may have done, what happened in there, etc. Is this something you would look at doing too? :) Cheers!

[@EthysAsher]

I plan to be doing this for pretty much all the dungeons eventually, yes; and I'm sure I'll end up talking about the amdapori a lot more in my more formal vids, there's a lot hinted about them and very little explicitly said.

[@derektucker8735]

nice camus reference. myth of sisyphus is incredible.

[@syrusmarks1]

Getting into the biblical behemoth that was mention. I think you were right with the reference. The book was right as well. I believe it was more commonly known as the bronchioisorus (butchering the spelling) it had a tail like a cedar tree. Legs like iron. It also mentions leviathan that are more akin to dragons. And theirs another dinosaur that it references but I forgot. Cheers mate.

[@AshramIndustries]

Something you didn't mention about specific enemies but that I feel the need to add: Valefor is the name of a demon within the Ars Goetia (also known as the Lemegeton or the Lesser Key of Solomon) - listed as number 6 within this tome. He is depicted as a lion with the head of either a donkey or a man, and is a king of thieves (his rank is Duke). And to correct what you said about the Vassago: Vassago is not a queen of thieves, nor is Vassago a woman - Vassago (number 3 in the Ars Goetia, rank of Prince) is a demon that, when commanded, can tell the summoner of events both past and future. Vassago can also find lost items, and is generally good-natured. Also, you completely neglected to mention anything on Nemesis, so I'll help you out here: Nemesis, also known as Rhamnusia or Adrastea, is a spirit of vengeance towards those fools who dare think themselves higher than the gods. She is also the child of Erebos and Nyx, which would make her the sister of Thanatos and Hypnos. And finally, a fun factoid for you, since you may not be aware of it: Hypnos is also known as Somnus in the Roman mythos; the Roman namesake also happens to be the name of a powerful and dangerous herb in Eorzea that lulls the imbiber into a deep (and often fatal) sleep. It's mentioned in a number of questlines (Ul'Dah and Limsa in particular, though Ul'Dah probably has the most mentions of somnus within its quests), and is considered an illegal herb throughout the entirety of Eorzea (think of somnus akin to Eorzean Crack/Cocaine). Anyone caught in possession of the somnus herb is either fined or jailed for quite a long time (the latter only occurs if the culprit can't pay the fine). In Limsa, they actually train Carbuncles down in the basement to sniff out somnus in merchant crates (unrelated but I found it kinda funny).

[@EthysAsher]

yeah, I did know about the Eorzean Somnus reference and that's a fun one, I should have caught Nemesis and would have talked more about Valefor but I was hurrying onto the homonculus since I was expecting that to take me several minutes D: a dungeon with this much material made this really hard to keep up and without telling the whole alliance to slow down I was bound to miss something! Thanks for taking the time to fill the gaps though, excellent feedback as always Ash.

[@AshramIndustries]

Ethys Asher Trust me, it's a passion of mine (and one I often get harassed/bullied for). Knowledge of history and mythology actually helps to fuel the creative process when making stories or characters - indeed, one who possesses a degree in World History and/or Mythology could actually land themselves a job as a Creative Director/Writer for any game company, provided they have the creativity that comes with it. In fact, a lot of SE's veteran alumni staff have degrees in things that have nothing whatsoever to do with video games; the biggest example being the legendary Nobuo Uematsu, who majored in English of all things. Naoshi Mizuta, who does the music for FFXI ToAU and up, has a degree in law and economics. You find that a lot of the Japanese "game dev champions" have an education in things that don't relate to gaming; this is akin to how NFL players often have degrees that have nothing to do with football - it's considered a backup career for them, in case their main venture of interest fails hard.

[@EthysAsher]

AshramAstarcia Well Myth and History are my jams but formally my degrees are in Philosophy and Writing so there's an interesting tidbit about Ethys.

[@AshramIndustries]

Hahaha, I hear ya.

[@Sensiav703]

Oh, don't you worry. People forget about the button at the Atomos phase to this very day. I'm sure that will continue until FF14's inevitable death.

[@truthless4720]

Pretty sure the puroboros are just an alternative typing of the piroboli - mythological ancient fire stones that burst into flame when brought together.

[@bradleygrzeskowiak6045]

it could be Purphoros. Obviously MTG. However Purphoros in greek means torch bearer.

[@ebrules]

You're a bit off with the Leviathan and Behemoth stuff. Leviathan and Behemoth are both implied to still exist in the time of Job, nothing's in past tense in the verses describing them, it's more about how foolish it is to try to treat them like other creatures, "could you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook" and stuff like that. So, more likely, they were more a type of creature rather than two specific beings. (And there's nothing involving them being slain by God anywhere, so that may be more of a folklore thing, like Lilith et al.)

[@tristantoole7363]

It's not the book of "Jawb" like where you work 9-5. It's "Joe-b" and rhymes with Jeff Loeb (you mentioned Sandman, so I assume you read DC comics).

[@DarkwaverStudios]

6:41 Is it bad that I can picture this in my head to an extent (since we don't know exactly what Omega looks like)

[@NaohMkS]

I miss internal release

[@YazzPott]

Ethys, why is there a player yelling "HOUSE!" over and over? I get the context, as in get to safety, but is there any reason for that word in particular?

[@Kinsata]

Ethys Asher On the right action bar, there's an arrow there, and I think I saw it expand when you clicked it? How the heck do you do that? Been scouring macros to see how to do it, haha.

[@EthysAsher]

I use the following macro on one of my horizontal bars and just have 2 vertical ones lined up and hidden: /hotbar display 8 on /hotbar display 7 on /wait 4 /hotbar display 8 off /hotbar display 7 off Then I put my classes etc on bars 7 and 8 - easy!

[@Kinsata]

Nice, I'll give it a try next time I log on! Thank you! :)

[@softouji]

Ooof back when each alliance had 2 tanks!

[@truthless4720]

Pyrobolus is latin for "bomb".

[@Sparanda314]

Hello from the future. Glad to see people were still awful at this game way back then too.

[@DracoSuave]

Puroboros is a corruption of the greek for 'Fire-eater'

[@Ultrhan]

uh, you are wrong about dira. Direct translation is "He will say ..."

[@marcin90t]

i enjoyed this video and its for i have to say though it fell off at the end a bit maybe you where focused on the bos :P or there wasnt much to say but here are my 2 cents. Keep up the good work on all your vids

[@EthysAsher]

Playing it back I did kinda clock out a bit there, huh? I'm not used to talking to myself for half an hour straight, next time I'll bring coffee. Thanks for the feedback.

[@marcin90t]

in one of your vids i saw that you got a parrot (bird) talk to him xD

[@EthysAsher]

Good idea on paper, but I can hardly open my mouth without Poe either interrupting me or trying to climb into it. I might let him commentate a short vid sometime.

[@marcin90t]

haha :)

[@GrayveStone]

Just thought I'd share this bit, since you discussed the Garlemald Empire copying the design of the Allagans. gamerescape.com/2013/08/21/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-white-raven/ Through these conflicts arose that generation’s distinguished generals, and among these warriors who had risen to the rank of legatus was the father of Nael. The elder Darnus possessed not only patriotism and skill, but secrets guarded by generations of his family’s house-secrets of the fallen Allagan Empire.

[@namebn]

My team one shot everything, but I had a 2 and a half hour queue time.

[@Henri-email-archive]

SO THEY DID CHANGE ACHARON TO PHLEGETHON I Thought I was insane

[@AmellsGrace]

tfw you wipe on king behemoth

[@ChouhouinNeko]

and now we run it every week for ATHER OIL

[@grandimister]

More Videos!!!

[@BaratoneBass]

someones already brought up piroboli by now right?

[@DangerBay]

Cool

[@nynick83]

8 years later and people still don’t stand on the pads!!! Lol

[@davidshirley4346]

Pyrobolus is the Latin word for "Bomb".

[@rebirthseph]

There was a lot of fluff in this. Any chance in future videos you could edit out any ramblings?

[@EthysAsher]

I have a couple of really polished series running where everything is scripted and precise, the idea of this one is that I am literally just thinking aloud. So yes at points I was scattered as hell and I should work on that next time, but if you want something terse, check out the Armoire! kzbin.info/www/bejne/mH_cfpaXps6Vg9k

[@a_lethe_ion]

puboroubos-> oroubos? the self-eating snake that will destroy itself and therefor the world? as a name for a rather suicidal bomb..I´d say fitting

[@EludeStalwart]

How many ppl? Hmm... Lol! 16:45

[@LycIrisAurora]

watching at the end of 2018...people STILL wiping to dumb things in LOTA

[@overnightsiren]

Nidhogg? There's a Nidhogg in XIV?

[@WarblingMarbles]

I believe he's mentioned in the Dragoon questline, and iirc it's believed that Nidhogg/Nidhoggr has been able to control Estinien (your token rival during the job quest) through his armor or something. It's been a long time since I actually went through the DRG questline, but I do distinctly remember mention of Nidhogg.

[@acedianPianist]

Kaori Kyoku Spoiler alert incoming, but... aeogiherg;oiqhrgopoiwqhgqpwoeighqpowghpiqhj'eqhoqjrh['qjpoq3h'hpoqwgpowqrjhaerhyqjw2ehwerjhw It's also, for the moment, agreed on that Nidhogg is the one who 'roared' and called upon the Dravanian Horde to start assaulting Ishgard in the latest patch. However, it is just as likely to be one of the other seven children of Midgardsormr.