Okay, I've reworked those three according to some of the comments I've received so far. I've also come up with two more, which I'll add below. I've tightened the timeline on the first text while leaving the dates for all of them deliberately vague. I figure once they've been vetted and edited sufficiently and there's some communal agreement on the ideal order of events, we can slap some dates on them or leave them generally in a particular Era.
An Encyclopedia of the Beastmen & Their Ways & Relations
&
De potentia primorum (or On the Power of the Primals)
by Ariston Lecton
On the Power of the Primals is a sort of recently released appendix to an older eight volume study on the beastmen tribes called An Encyclopedia of the Beastmen & Their Ways & Relations that originally made its author, Midlander philosopher Ariston Lecton, famous and is already making waves in the academic community. Each of the first seven volumes presents Lecton’s findings on the beastmen tribes and their relations to the nearest city-state or historically inhabited site following decades of travel and thousands of interviews while the eighth hypothesizes on the reality of the Moogles and gives space for Lecton’s philosophical musings on the subjects collated in the previous seven volumes. Although its author has enjoyed great success, An Encyclopedia of the Beastmen & Their Ways & Relations has not enjoyed a wide readership given the impressive diversity of its content and the prodigious complexity of Lecton’s highly philosophical style. It is currently enjoying a resurgence of popularity following the publication of On the Power of the Primals, which is highly controversial and hotly debated and deals with a subject few other works have yet approached.
Summa aetheriae (or Summary of the Aether)
by Thaumond of Gelmorra
The otherwise nameless Gelmorran Wildwood known as Thaumond spent a large part of his adult life in traveling before settling in Sil’dih. During this time he met travelers from every corner of Eorzea and, based on hundreds of interviews and his own readings of countless works dealing with individual aetheric aspects and phenomena, he produced the huge Summary of the Aether shortly before his death on his return to Gelmorra. Some time later, young Duskfolk scholar studying for a time in Sil’dih before its fall, Honana Hona, made copies of the work which she circulated amongst her peers and colleagues in Ul’dah once she returned to that city. Initially well-received,the work has periodically fallen under criticism for its lack of firsthand observations and the apparent over-eagerness of its author, who, while undeniably thorough, is considered by many to be unorganized and highly theoretical. What’s more, the nature of its circulation led to the loss of certain chapters and, during the height of the text’s popularity, a sort of underground trade dealing in faked works and volumes by Thaumond appeared. Nonetheless,the sheer volume of information presented in the work has not been ignored and the text has become a cornerstone across a variety of different fields, usually read in conjunction with A Summary of Thaumond’s Summary, by Daga’sae Vho and Lero Faro.
A Summary of Thaumond's Summary
by Daga'sae Vho & Lero Faro
The Keeper Daga’sae Vho and Plainsfolk Lero Faro,companions and classmates, made the organization, interpretation, and overall editing and correction of Thaumond’s Summary their lives’ work. They dedicated years to exhaustively researching Thaumond’s own sources and attempting to verify or disprove many of the original work’s more outlandish theories. The effort spun into a large undertaking involving both authors and their extended networks of colleagues from across the academic landscape. The result of their effort was their own Summary which is considered by most serious students of the original work to be invaluable in grasping the conclusions and implications of its author. It is, however, criticized in certain circles for myriad reasons, from accusations of diluting Thaumond’s achievements and preventing readers coming to their own conclusions to cries of plagiarism and invention and even offense at the inclusion or exclusion of sections and chapters that many claim were not written by Thaumond himself.
The Great & the Small
by I'oahina Lahae
The Great & the Small is the young and Seeker poet I’oahina Lahae’s collection of highly mystical poetic treatments on all the races and clans of Eorzea and the twelve deities they revere. A beautiful literary achievement, several of the lovelier or cleverer couplets have taken on an almost anthemic importance to the more poetically inclined of each race. Lacking in serious academic credibility, the work remains popular for the beauty of its language and the strikingly optimistic worldview it presents of a highly idealized version of Eorzea and her gods. Â
O Dalamud
by Tylan Tolar
Now increasingly called Tylan the Calamitous, Tylan Tolar is the pseudonym of an unknown individual, presumably Hyur, who wrote an epic ode to the lesser moon Dalamud.Â
Now, after the Calamity, it is less read and its author has become a target of sarcasm, irony, and general disappointment and disillusionment. Copies are being preserved for the sake of historical value, but the formerly beloved O Dalamud has become a sore subject in the literary sphere of Eorzea,apparently diminishing the value of a great many works that cite or reference the poem in their own text.
And that's it so far.
An Encyclopedia of the Beastmen & Their Ways & Relations
&
De potentia primorum (or On the Power of the Primals)
by Ariston Lecton
On the Power of the Primals is a sort of recently released appendix to an older eight volume study on the beastmen tribes called An Encyclopedia of the Beastmen & Their Ways & Relations that originally made its author, Midlander philosopher Ariston Lecton, famous and is already making waves in the academic community. Each of the first seven volumes presents Lecton’s findings on the beastmen tribes and their relations to the nearest city-state or historically inhabited site following decades of travel and thousands of interviews while the eighth hypothesizes on the reality of the Moogles and gives space for Lecton’s philosophical musings on the subjects collated in the previous seven volumes. Although its author has enjoyed great success, An Encyclopedia of the Beastmen & Their Ways & Relations has not enjoyed a wide readership given the impressive diversity of its content and the prodigious complexity of Lecton’s highly philosophical style. It is currently enjoying a resurgence of popularity following the publication of On the Power of the Primals, which is highly controversial and hotly debated and deals with a subject few other works have yet approached.
Summa aetheriae (or Summary of the Aether)
by Thaumond of Gelmorra
The otherwise nameless Gelmorran Wildwood known as Thaumond spent a large part of his adult life in traveling before settling in Sil’dih. During this time he met travelers from every corner of Eorzea and, based on hundreds of interviews and his own readings of countless works dealing with individual aetheric aspects and phenomena, he produced the huge Summary of the Aether shortly before his death on his return to Gelmorra. Some time later, young Duskfolk scholar studying for a time in Sil’dih before its fall, Honana Hona, made copies of the work which she circulated amongst her peers and colleagues in Ul’dah once she returned to that city. Initially well-received,the work has periodically fallen under criticism for its lack of firsthand observations and the apparent over-eagerness of its author, who, while undeniably thorough, is considered by many to be unorganized and highly theoretical. What’s more, the nature of its circulation led to the loss of certain chapters and, during the height of the text’s popularity, a sort of underground trade dealing in faked works and volumes by Thaumond appeared. Nonetheless,the sheer volume of information presented in the work has not been ignored and the text has become a cornerstone across a variety of different fields, usually read in conjunction with A Summary of Thaumond’s Summary, by Daga’sae Vho and Lero Faro.
A Summary of Thaumond's Summary
by Daga'sae Vho & Lero Faro
The Keeper Daga’sae Vho and Plainsfolk Lero Faro,companions and classmates, made the organization, interpretation, and overall editing and correction of Thaumond’s Summary their lives’ work. They dedicated years to exhaustively researching Thaumond’s own sources and attempting to verify or disprove many of the original work’s more outlandish theories. The effort spun into a large undertaking involving both authors and their extended networks of colleagues from across the academic landscape. The result of their effort was their own Summary which is considered by most serious students of the original work to be invaluable in grasping the conclusions and implications of its author. It is, however, criticized in certain circles for myriad reasons, from accusations of diluting Thaumond’s achievements and preventing readers coming to their own conclusions to cries of plagiarism and invention and even offense at the inclusion or exclusion of sections and chapters that many claim were not written by Thaumond himself.
The Great & the Small
by I'oahina Lahae
The Great & the Small is the young and Seeker poet I’oahina Lahae’s collection of highly mystical poetic treatments on all the races and clans of Eorzea and the twelve deities they revere. A beautiful literary achievement, several of the lovelier or cleverer couplets have taken on an almost anthemic importance to the more poetically inclined of each race. Lacking in serious academic credibility, the work remains popular for the beauty of its language and the strikingly optimistic worldview it presents of a highly idealized version of Eorzea and her gods. Â
O Dalamud
by Tylan Tolar
Now increasingly called Tylan the Calamitous, Tylan Tolar is the pseudonym of an unknown individual, presumably Hyur, who wrote an epic ode to the lesser moon Dalamud.Â
Now, after the Calamity, it is less read and its author has become a target of sarcasm, irony, and general disappointment and disillusionment. Copies are being preserved for the sake of historical value, but the formerly beloved O Dalamud has become a sore subject in the literary sphere of Eorzea,apparently diminishing the value of a great many works that cite or reference the poem in their own text.
And that's it so far.
