(09-22-2015, 01:01 PM)Val Wrote: I don't really think we should take comical flavor text clearly meant to be a joke as a serious entry to lore, though. SE has a big history with throwing things in their games just to justify an action/event/whatever that doesn't need to be. The cephalopod seems to be more a joke name than anything else, an allusion to the real world myth rather than anything in game.
That's my take from it, at least
So... we can cherrypick the lore now based on whether or not we feel the mass culling of unfortunately named flying cephalopods is humorous or not?
There's a metric tonze of lore that comes from item descriptions, fishing lore, and mount/minion text. I don't see anything about the Vampiric Tapestry's text that was "clearly meant to be a joke." What it shows is that Ishgardian people are as superstitious as the rest of Eorzeans and will drive a stake through a creature's heart just because of its name. Similar to how Ishgardians culled Au Ra because of their draconic appearance.
If we are to discount these texts, we're also discounting the lore which gave us the name of Nanamo's father, the fact that Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn discovered the New World in 1556, and that during the War of the Magi, the Mhachi rode into battle on the backs of enchanted Manta Rays, which they called Magic Carpets.
Do we discount those as well? "If it's humorous, it's not canon" also eliminates the lore bomb that Ul'dah zombified Sil'dih to end the War of the Sisters 400 years ago. And if Events aren't canon we lost a lot of lore about Paladins and the Thorne Dynasty. I mean... do I really need to go on?