PhantasticPanda

This bit is actually incorrect. The majority of the living Scions of the Seventh Dawn do not actually possess the Echo. Only the minor npcs who were present in the Waking Sands prior to the imperial purge in the early ARR story quest, such as Una Tayuun. These members were part of Minfilia's Path of the Twelve in 1.0, who were all Echo Walkers. When the Path merged with the Circle of Knowing (the Sharlayans under Louisoix like Yda and Y'shtola) to form the Scions, they began recruiting non-Echo adventurers. The Sharlayan members of the Circle of Knowing do not have the Echo with the exception of Krile. Also it's been noted that Limsa's Company of Heroes were not Echo users and defeated the primals by throwing large numbers at their foes with only a few surviving each fight to tell the tale. Ooooh. Okay, I didn't know that. *begins to reconfigure mind*

The Echo is rather "common". To my knowledge and interpretation, almost all Scions of the Seventh Dawn (including all those no-name NPC you see in the Waking Sands) has the Echo, because it is what gives them protection from being tempered by Primals, their primary threat they're usually sent to deal with. I wouldn't be surprised if the Company of Heroes were Echo-users as well considering they faced primals without being tempered.. The WoL is... Well, the Warrior of Light. So it all comes down to how you play it and play it fairly. So to summarize a little bit of what I said, I believe the Echo is pretty common, but not all are willing or capable to be "great heroes"

MIssing purrrrrsons

*spreads arms out and swan dives into the lost city* did someone need a mage?

No Longer Ignored I'LL SAVE YOU THIS TIME, I PROMISE

Signing up Zanzan for Day 1 for the crowd! (Because he didn't suffer enough from being body blocked by Roegadyns the first time...)

Highbridge Kidnappings! NOT MAH KIDS!

I'm covered mostly on the Black Magic side but I think they used the terms White and Black Magic because players are more familiar with that those names, rather than calling it Thaumaturgy and Conjury, since they pretty much practice lesser forms of it.

I'm so happy, like EXTREMELY HAPPY. Since launch, I and a couple other friends have RP'ed as a family of mages. A parent and two siblings. They were homeschooled in not one but multiple schools of magic (which a different specialization between each sibling of course). But another thing they were trained in was agile and close-combat competence with the use of magic. Zanzan was even gifted with his father's sword and his sister uses blades as well as has been training ever since. IT'S GOING TO BE GREAT

Hawker's Alley Havoc! With Zanzan! While I wanted to try out for Millioncorn since half of Zanzan's family are farmers, alas, its scheduled on New Years!

Limsa Lominsa looks great (and more people should hang around here...) Zanzan gets caught being lazy on a daily basis... Sorry Qara A home invasion from my FC neighbors, A Realm Reborn...

Get out. (jk love you, bro)

Action Block 12 Purreeaz and CAT AND MOUSE

I thought the theory is pretty strong. I only hope that they'll dive into more. But I understand why the lorebook simply cannot contain every single detail of lore. Other than it possibly becoming a 2000 page book instead, it is quite possible that a lot of lore is being "reserved" for future content. Imagine the impact of say, Au Ra were really dragonspawn, then in an Othard-based expansion, we would have a slow build up to discover, gasp, draconian artifacts. The impact would be greater when we, the players, are left in the dark, rather than have it stated in the lorebook, ruining the surprise in the future. In the Live Q&A, it was said that Stormblood could have its own lorebook, with additional content outside of the stuff we have. I look at this first lorebook as a foundations to more lore discoveries.

Signing up for Wooden Ships and Iron Men!

We should also consider the passage of time when it comes to the game world and as the MSQ develops. Take the lorebook as present tense, with the lore of the world at this point, 3.4. The beginning WHM storyline takes places 2.0, and since then, three years have passed, and there's a lot that can happen in three years, especially with the effects of the Calamity still present on Eorzea. Its not static, and the workings of the world can change. In this case, maybe the Padjal saw fit, in a world spiraling towards chaos with the WoL being that barrier, to begin teaching White Magic again but with, as stated, careful instruction. Anyone that would try to take up White Magic would no doubt have to go through the same philosophical and mental training as conjurers do plus more. It would be hard to believe a fledgling character would suddenly be adept at White Magic by the time 4.0 rolls around but more realistic to say by the time maybe 5.0 or even 6.0. Edit: Also, what's up with all this strict regards to the lore? I find myself an avid follower of the lore, and do my best to avoid any sort of lore-breaking, or minimum lore-bending, but as roleplayers, we often work around the holes in lore, supported by the existing lore, to come up with new and interesting concepts. If we don't, it would be a pretty bland environment.

Going back on topic, one must consider The Order of the Knights Dragoon as a military branch of the Ishgardian. Special forces sent to do missions, often suicidal, with specific objectives relating to combating dragons. It even says the mortality is higher than any other fighting force of Ishgard. The lore book uses the words that I should emphasis on. "Compromised of *normally* 30 dragoons" and "only 10 in active service." Combine both these facts together, with the common workings of a military order, is that while there aren't many in *active* service, it may all be possible that there are many Dragoons on reserve to fill for the dead and the injured. I also doubt Trainee Dragoons count as active service members when they're prone to breaking their legs during jump training as stated in a levequest. With the Dragonsong War over, there's not a big reason to keep as many active Dragoons around with many being on reserve for states of emergencies. (I doubt only 30 dragoons fought during Horde attacks when they're supposed to be the first line of defense). No one has to recon being a dragoon. But a curveball is still thrown that many dragoons have been placed into a state of inactivity. But again, they are still a dragoon. Get a desk job, "retire" to adventuring or like (hell I forgot his name) the dragoon trainer that stepped down as the Azure dragoon to be a regular temple knight again. Though as others have said, there's no shame in a bit of lore bending. For plots, maybe there's a reason for a dragoon to be in service. Maybe the 10 are proccupied with other duties and more are taken from the reserves. Up to you!

I'd still consider the Doman "language" as a dialect of the Common language now that the lore book is out stating out. As Virella points out, dialect can make a huge difference in communication, even when in a locale that relatively small. I'm Vietnamese. The whole country of Vietnam is relatively the same size as California. It consists of two or three distinct dialects. But I was American born and only exposed to the Central dialect that my family speaks. When I would visit Vietnam, I would have no trouble understanding my family in Hue and the central region. But when I would travel to the South to meet extended family, I could hardly understand them. They have their own slang, and their own pronunciation of our alphabet. I can still make out words and a few phrases, but just in general, its almost like speaking another language. We should also consider what sort of language Eorzean is. We commonly revert it to English because of, well... the game is localized in English and because of naming conventions though that's more to emphasize cultural influences and inspiration. But for Japanese players, everyone would be speaking Japanese in place of "Eorzean". It could be a TOTALLY different language but you know, imagine the time and resource to develop a new language for a Fantasy game then getting voice actors to learn that.

For the 2.0 storyline, yea, its easy to see it that way. But as someone else said, 1.0 really shows more depth into the Garlean characters. Here's a video on Gaius! (Skip to 2:53 for the real start of the video) Back on topic, no loyal Garlean here but I wish you all good luck in your search for RP and be prepared to be put on a hitlist.... Just kidding... Maybe... \o

Towards the surnames that Gegenji mentioned, those are most likely titles as Jana said. Remember, we're dealing with NPCS that are ninjas/shinobi. Not exactly normal average day Domans. It's probable that those titles are to hide their "true" identity or origin. In terms of naming your Doman, I do believe you can safely still do either method of a title or the same conventions that Raen Au Ra use. http://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Raen

I'll sign up Zanzan for Roe Country For Old Men

*robotic voice* I am interested. In seriousness, I am .

Double post!

Imma sign up for the first action block on August 18th!

While I make up my owns spells from time to time, my character having some signature ones that aren't overly complex or powerful, but still unique to him and his style of spell casting, I still use in-game spells as inspirations. While I don't explicitly state that say for example, Zanzan is casting Fire III now! Instead, I would emote that the air around a target would suddenly grow unbearingly hot before the air would combust into flames. Not only am I tailoring the emote in a way that describes how the spell looks like in-game, but also giving cues or hints for the target for them to avoid being engulfed in fire since its not a projectile spell. Another example would be my character casting a miniature version of a Flare. He would throw out an small orb of fiery light, nothing too threatening. Though once it reaches its target, the air would feel frigid and cold as all the surrounding heat and aether are sucked into a central point (the fire orb) before exploding out into a flare. Its a Black Mage spell, so it would make sense for it to affect the environment in such a way, and the spell effects does look like a thermic implosion!