Goodfellow

Not to nitpick in turn, but I think the "Not of Elderscrolls" isn't so much a refrain from breadth, but of content. Nearly every book in the Elder scrolls (I'm counting Dagger fall and up) contains between 20-30 lines of text, some more, some less. Of course i'm not OP so I can't speak as to exactly what he was meaning, but that is my understanding. providing a synopsis, titles and short excerpts was the goal. I do how ever like some of the names you put forward. I've been toying with "Eorzeaning" some of my own text books left over from Uni, and maybe some of the ones I have through work. Actually, "I'm not expecting anything on the level of The Elder Scrolls here" was in reference to the original question that I asked, not the awesome project that this thread has morphed into. I very much so like the direction that it's moving and I hope we can all keep interacting and responding to one another, filling out corners of our own little world-within-the-world.

Is it something your character wrote or a background text?

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an older eight volume study on the beastmen tribes called An Encyclopedia of the Beastmen & Their Ways & Relations that originally made its author, Midlander philosopher Ariston Lecton, famous and is already making waves in the academic community.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. 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. 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.

I read about the more recent appearance of the Primals shortly after posting this and assumed someone would bring it up (which I appreciate). I'm going to reduce the girth of that particular work and make it more of a study of the beastmen tribes, with more of an addendum about the Primals, to make it more believably fit within the time-frame. As for the Gelmorra-Ul'dah timeline, I was a little mixed up on the timeline. I think the Sil'dih substitution could probably work, and maybe that particular work should be a little more fragmentary in modern Eorzea due to time passed and the disappearance of both Gelmorra and Sil'dih. The companion book could then also be in part or initially an attempt to reconstruct the original work by Thaumond. Thoughts?

Alright folks, I'm back in town and I've got a couple of ideas (titles, authors, and basic outlines) that I'd like to share with you, one and all. I invite all input and ideas from whosoever is interested in the subject (similar and different). If this sort of thing is going well, once we've been sufficiently vetted, we can make the wiki a reality and start working some of our productions into our RP. Here's my first three contributions: De potentia primorum (or On the Power of the Primals), by Ariston Lecton -A twenty-two volume encyclopedia on the Primals,penned by a famous Midlander philosopher. Every pair of volumes presents Lecton’s findings on the Primals and the beastmen tribes that summon them following two decades of travel and interviewing. The twenty-first volume treats the Egi and the final is a collection of Lecton’s philosophical musings on the subjects collated in the previous twenty-one volumes. A massive undertaking, On the Power of the Primals never achieved wide circulation due to its enormous volume and the prodigious complexity of Lecton’s highly philosophical style. It is incredibly rare to find all twenty-two volumes collected in the same place and it is much more commonly preserved by pairs of volumes at institutions of learning across Eorzea. As such, very few may claim to have read the opus in its entirety; instead, most individuals’ familiarity with its contents comes by way of bibliographic citation and reference in other, arguably simpler works. 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 Ul’dah, where he met travelers from every corner of Eorzea. 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. 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. 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 and 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. (I've done some edits and so struck through these introductions so as to prevent confusion with the new post)

But barring that eventuality, we're saying that MND is where it's at for going SCH right now?

@Olofantur: I think some limited IC peer editing could be very cool, as could some development symposium-style. And feel free to message me, but I'm good with working with the community here in the thread, too. @Zope: Good points, and it fits with the short of organizational structure that I think is coalescing as we discuss it.

Haha that sounds great. Some titles I'm thinking about/working on for background filler so far: Summa aetheriae, which would be an overall treatise of the workings of aether, and De potentia primorum, a sort of foundational theological text concerning the Twelve. I'll be out of town this weekend, but I can have some summaries and background up for them. I doubt I'll go down the road of writing out text for them explicitly just yet, but more just to name drop them for flavor. In my mind so far they're huge, multi-volume collections in the vein of Aquinas' Summa theologicae, maybe with a couple volumes lost (future adventure hooks), and mostly recomposed from quotations and references made by other ancient authors. As an aside, I can't figure out how to fix my signature and the more active I become on the forums, the more it bugs me. Halp? Yeah, I don't want to ignore what's already out there (I was particularly impressed by Kannadi's contributions), but I think reorganizing it somehow into a clearer or more inviting format like the Duskwight wiki might be a good idea. Myself? Not a wiki wizard; I'm more of an ideas guy.

Yeah, I just looked up the Duskwight Clans page and some sort of summary format like that could work. And your second point would add a lot of flavor. Not just faux-heavy academic works, but all sorts of silliness to accompany the seriousness. While trying to maintain the lore as best we can, if there is anything that falls too far outside to be acceptable, we just call it fiction or say it's been debunked. After all, in our own world we don't just read and study things that everyone agrees are true (what a white whale that would be). And several of the books under the literature tag could be linked through the summary page, as well. We could add and make distinctions between "side-canon" and "character-penned."

@Olofantur - Thanks for the link. It's a start. Maybe we should start peppering our RP with more literature along the lines of what @Nimarhie brought up. And if we make a slight effort to remember a title or two from these conversations, we might, as a by-product, start producing a canon of reference material. Like I said before, it's great for our characters to write things. Lolotaru will eventually (and could be interested in your project, Olofantur, although I didn't play 1.0), but coming up with some background works (not taking them as SE-level canon, but our own RPC microcanon) might just give some cohesiveness to our disparate invented academic environments. Now, if SE would just give Eorzea a few libraries...(another thing for us to solve when we get housing?)

Alright, first of all, I'm not expecting anything on the level of The Elder Scrolls here, but I am wondering something. Are there any well known books in Eorzea (or anywhere in Hydaelyn, I guess)? For those of us with scholarly characters, it would make sense for there to be a sort of established or semi-established (de jure or de facto) academic canon; great works that no one could call themselves classically educated without having first read them. They don't have to be physically available in-game, but is there any mention of that sort of thing? On Aether by What's-his-name or What's-his-face's Primal Primer or anything? And if not--and I'm asking this honestly, noob that I am--should we invent some? Not write out whole tomes, obviously, but should we supply titles and basic ideas around some famous books that all of our characters would have read? Or is that presumptuous on the part of the player community? That excludes, of course, any works written by our own characters (the authors of which Lolotaru would be thrilled to meet, insatiable bibliophile that he is). Anyroad, I wanted to see what the community knew/thought. Thanks folks!

My app isn't even in yet, but those changes sound cool.

Ah, I see. Thanks!

Hey folks, I've got a question about the Primals. Namely, are they an exclusively Eorzean phenomenon? Or are other parts of Hydaelyn a drain on the Lifestream as well?

Character Name: Lolotaru Lalataru Character Gender: Male Dunesfolk or Plainsfolk: Dunesfolk Time Zone: Central What Rp are you seeking? I'm pretty new around here, so I'm just looking to get involved, make some friends and connections, take Lolo out for a spin. http://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/wiki/index.php?title=Lolotaru_Lalataru

As a fellow altaholic, just let me tell you: we do not have a problem. Very creatively done, all the concepts.

I've got another question. This time about Seekers of the Sun. How do nunhs refer to "their" females? As their females, their women, their wives, or something else?

All very helpful to know.

Excellent. Much appreciated. Do we know if there is still some amount of resentment towards Ala Mhigans by other Eorzeans today?

Ala Mhigo. Specifically, rebellions/revolts. I'm wondering a little bit about how many there have been and when? Also, what was the perception of Ala Mhigo before it fell to the Garleans? And now, I suppose? They were conquerors, after all.

So we'll have five days to make our transfers. Great. When are those five days?

That's about what I thought. Thanks.

Hey folks, back again with another question. I'm aware of the alternate names for measures of time (bells, suns, moons, etc.), but I keep seeing people mentioning "cycles" on their wikis. Now, I get that they're referencing years,but is "cycle" the in-game term fora year or is that an overextension of the vocab by an enthusiastic community?

Okay, working on some background information for several characters and I've come up uncertain on one point in particular. As we know, each race is subdivided into two distinct clans. Now, without reference to interspecies relationships, is crossbreeding between clans possible? I.e. Lolotaru having a Dunesfolk father and a Plainsfolk mother? I assume so, but wanted to be sure.