Valence

When you say it beats paying the Sekiseigumi, keep in mind that the Sekiseigumi is a very peculiar group that serves as a police force specifically in Kugane and its port district, under the authority of the Buhen clan. The Sam quests also imply that anybody with enough skill, determination and honor can pretend to one day become part of it, no matter their origins, which puts the samurai serving under the Sekiseigumi as lesser samurai due to their rather weird non noble caste status (Samurai are like historical Japan, the ruling warrior caste, at the service of their lieges). This also seems to be the case in Doma, where the samurai caste serves the Rijin clan (the ruling clan), and the people are asked therefore to trust in the Samurai. 1. To add to what Kieron said: Hingashi is ruled by the bakufu (entrusted to the Mitsurugi family, which symbol is also the Mon of Hingashi). The emperor Reigen however, is the legitimate autority, much like it was during Edo and whatnot). Kugane is located on the smaller islands of the two, Shishu (Koshu being the biggest with the capital, Bukyo). 2. I'm sure doman people can be found in Hingashi, especially around Kugane. You just have to keep in mind that Hingashi is very reclusive and mostly closed to outsiders everywhere else than in the port district of Kugane, so it's hard to tell ultimately if domans immigrated there easily. If they did somewhere in the past, especially when the whole Island was still going through the Age of Blood (RL equivalent: the Tengoku period), it's hard to tell. Either way, becoming a Bugyo, or even a Daimyo, as a non native sounds hard to believe to me. 5. Language is hard to say. Some think it's mostly a common hyuran tongue mixed in with archaism from Hingashi, but ultimately it's very hard to tell, especially since the game to us is translated from japanese (where eorzean also appears japanese), to english (where hingan and doman also appears english, with some archaic hingan terms like ijin, bugyo, geiko, etc). 6. The english translation doesn't use those and I believe it to be a fault of taste to use them. The translation uses plenty of made up japanese-ish words as said above, but not common untranslated phrasing like arigato, and especially suffixes like -san, -dono and -sama and whatnot to my knowledge. They just translate that by bowing a lot and using all kind of far eastern manners, or translated honorifics (your honor, my lord, etc). The most important rule though, is doing what you like, what fits your style, and what fits the people you play with. 7. I don't see why not. Ninjutsu in lore mostly revolves around the art of well... doing ninja things, being sneaky, assassinating or whatever else. But most of all, it's the art of summoning through pentagrams and lengthy incantations. The mudra techniques drastically reduce the process to a few hand signs, but also reduce the panel to what shinobi can actually do by using those shortcuts (you can see some summoning from ninja mobs in the Kugane castle instance for example). The weapons used in my opinion, are way less important, and if shinobi are anything close to their RL counterpart, then weapons, unlike katanas, are considered as tools first and foremost.

Well it depends already what kind of astrologian you want to roleplay. There is 3 major kinds I can think of: - Ishgardian astromancy is mostly a "science" based around observing stars in order to predict the coming of the Horde, dragon invasions. This art has been practiced for centuries and has very little to do with astromancy, the job ingame. It's also declining now obviously since the Dragonsong War is over, but maybe they're still observing the skies for other things. - Sharlayan astromancy, is the real art that relies heavily on tarot readings and time magics. This is basically what the ingame job is, and it's just starting to make an appearance in Ishgard without being hunted by inquisitors, for once. It has been accepted, but it's barely in its infancy there. If you really want to go deep into astromancy, with seniority and whatnot, the only place to find it without too much trouble is Sharlayan. You can find all races in Sharlayan without any issue also. - Othardian geomancy, which is a far eastern cousin to astromancy, and instead of being focused on the stars and heavens, is focused on the Earth and elements. Seems to rely heavily on protection glyphs, shields and barriers, among other things. Obviously roes are a thing in Othard, they're not sea wolves but far eastern roegadyns (but can use the same character models ingame).

It happens. To what extent we don't really know, but we have examples ingame, like Minfillia adoptive mother, F'lhaminn who is a Seeker of the Sun Miqo'te (with Keeper features). She didn't change her daughter's name obviously since she took her when she was already a teenager, but I see no reason not to for other cases.

The lorebook 2 describes Dalmasca as a melting pot of races and cultures and a laissez faire mentality. 25% of others is quite huge also. I also want to point out that so far I have never seen the lore telling that a race was a big no go for any single place, Ishgard included (Coerthas had some miqo'te NPCs, Sidurgu proces that even xaelas can live here even if probably very exceptional, etc). Also apparently Koji told a friend at fanfest that for the far east in othard, it wouldn't be surprising to see Keepers of the Moon in Hingashi for example, since they tend to like reclusive and secluded areas and whatnot. And yet, even the game has to show miqo'te, elezens or lalas native to the far east. Hingashi of all places. In short my point is, it's not a binary answer. Aim for something that makes sense rather than looking for lore hard answers, because you'll find none in my opinion. Try to work with what we have right now on Dalmasca. My advice when dealing with limitations of the lore, which to be quite honest, is a thing in almost all situations even in well covered areas of Eorzea, is to stay open and not go into too many unecessary details that try to force the setting to what you're after, so even if lore evolves and gets fleshed out more in the future, you're mostly covered.

Crystals and shards are usually used more widely in Eorzea as an energy source doing specific things depending on its aspect. Fire shards will heat, ice shards will cool things, etc. They're not only used by crafters and artisans, but for pretty much everything in every day's life. This is why city states need them so much and had to trade them for other goods with beast tribes, that don't use them a lot (except now they don't want to trade anymore, they actually need them for summoning their primals). You might find actually more info in there

Minor nitpicking for sure but Sui-no-sato is a unicorn, like many ingame examples. Most of the Raen communities are NOT isolationist, and are actually part of doman and hingan societies.

Well if you're thinking along the lines of homonculi, I am not quite sure if we have anything in lore on that. However we can already through advanced alchemical techniques bring back personas from the dead (strongly suggest playing or watching the lvl1-50 alchemy questline) for them to briefly interact again with the living. It's also possible to create a soul from scratch as seen in the HW anima weapon series. It requires a long, expensive and very gruesome work on making condensed aether grow, and get affixed to what will give it sapience. Of course, you can imagine that a weapon, even with incredibly expensive, rare and intricate materials as asked by Gerolt here, is infinitely easier to create than a true, organic living being. Allagan aetherochemistry though, used to create chimeras, homonculi of sorts, and could also clone people. It was in essence aetherology brought to a molecular level (like modern chemistry and biochemistry/DNA manipulation, but encompassing much more than just that). Undead and zombies are definitely a thing, but that would be necromancy (on which we don't have much info). You can also attach tortured, wandering souls that didn't get back to the lifestream to corpses, and animate them (cf Palace of the Dead).

Hingashi Far eastern hyur: 50% Far eastern roegadyn: 15% Au ra raen: 10% Other: 25% Doma Far eastern hyur: 60% Far eastern roegadyn: 20% Au ra raen: 10% Other: 10% Make of it what you will. Kugane is a trade city of commerce that is the only window between the nation of Hingashi and the rest of the world. It's literally bubbling with countless races and nations living together with hingan local customs. The port and docks are probably the best way to get opportunities to hear and see about the outside world for anyone being raised in that city, or at least in the foreign district (what we have ingame in front of the huge city gates proper). You can also imagine a lot of different jobs having to do with all the commerce happening around, and who could shelter your character, teach her their trade (or not), etc.

While I don't exactly know the reasons behind this, FF planets have been referred/translated as Stars as far back as FF9 iirc and not just in the english translation. It was planet in 7 though so it seems to mostly depend on the universe they're trying to picture (high fantasy magical vs high fantasy science fiction maybe).

From what i've heard it's pretty hard to create characters on Mateus, it's in a perpetual state of temporary creation locks with very small windows of opportunities like Balmung used to be before being changed to congested and walled off. But do not fret, a little after the datacenter split happens, the world visit feature will be implemented and will allow to jump between servers of the same DC. The Crystal DC will probably turn into the unofficial RP DC.

Lore is fairly telling for Gridania, Ul'dah. It's rather nebulous for Limsa, and outright unknown for Ishgard now that it has opened its gated and changed its government and religion to the core. One thing is sure though, it's certainly different depending on the city state (and yes, in Uld'ah, enough coin can buy you citizenship, or anything, up to a seat in the Syndicate if you're wealthy enough).

Weapon enhancing spells are very common in Eorzea. Those are called enthunder, enfire, etc. They basically transfer a magical property to the weapon attacks, like a burning sword, or a spear crackling with levin, etc. This is also one of the classical FF jobs seen in some other titles (Spellblade). Even gladiators are known to use other variants in the forms of Flash, the ability that concentrates aether on the tip of their weapons to provoke a blinding light. Enhancing martial prowess though is usually done through various means depending on the medium the job user relies on to draw their aether. Monks will directly tap into the energy/aether flowing through their chakras and channel it through their bodies for example. Dragoons will use it to jump yalms into the skies, etc.

They also love cheese. Very pugent cheese. They use a lot of herbs but I'm not sure those go into their diet. They at least use them for their masks to purify the air they breath and give it a better smell (it smells bad for them). I'm sure I'm forgetting things, that's all I can recall on top of my head.

Speaking here about the most expensive wine on Hydaelyn (or one of the most sought after), the Sud Viandja. It's compared to the price of a house in the Mist (so about 3M to 40M), so that would at best be "worth a birdhouse in the Mist". With this in mind I feel more compelled not to take too seriously the price inflation of a lot of consumables ingame.

Thanks, I couldn't be bothered to rewrite down everything I read during the quests themselves!

It's totally possible of course. We are also starting to get a reasonable amount of lore on Dalmasca and Rabanastre. Keep in mind that Rabanastre was the seat of the imperial regional authority under garlean occupation (which still continues so far) until the uprising caused by the Doman liberation got crushed and the city razed recently.

Miqo'te origins are toublesome because ingame lore speaks about an origin in Meracydia, while the first lorebook mentions Ilsabard frozen areas. It is possible that one of the subrace came from one side and the other from the other locale? Either way, we don't seem to find them in the Far East so far. Either way Dalmasca racial ditribution mentions a 25% of "others", which could or could not include miqo'te. The same way that Doma's includes 10% of others and Hingashi 25% of others, yet we have not seen a single one of these "others" in the case of Doma unless they point at Lupins specifically (probably includes them at least), and in the case of Hingashi it probably includes the melting pot of the trading enclave of Kugane. So in short, we don't know shit. Anyway, traders are a thing, and Dalmasca is described as a melting pot of cultures and races, more than any other city state / nation. It's what defines its cultural legacy. Make of it what you will.

http://xivdb.com/lore-finder

It's ultimately hard to tell because I don't remember much lore about that. When high amounts are mentioned in quests, like for example when Ascillia ends up at Phrondale's for medical care in 1.0, they just talk about "a lot of money" without giving specifics. The only thing we know for sure if I remember correctly is that teleporting fees are usually seen as quite prohibitive, especially if you port often (presuming that you can do it often or even do it period in the first place... not given to everybody). I tend to assume that 100 gil for a small distance teleport is already a certain sum of money, especially for the average joe.

We had way more lore on xaela before 4.0 hit than we have currently on Viera. SB didn't fundamentally change anything. If people had to retcon things, it's mostly because they didn't pay enough attention to the lore in my opinion. We even had already our first lorebook to complement what we knew on Au'ra. The only thing I've seen happening on my side was some obvious adjustment especially on Dotharl players since the tribe description wasn't mentioning their spiritual side at all.

Well, there is Y'mithra and her allagan book familiar I guess. And the Immortal Flames dedicated squad although they're still in their infancy/learning. SMN is far from being the worse in terms of teachers. Neither is WhM even if you can't really justify that the Senna white mages would teach you in the first place. Red mage is a real issue since there is only one surviving teacher in the world currently. SCH can also be a problem unless you find a lucid tonberry teacher I guess. More generally for restricted or lost jobs, the teachers are scarce and often a couple of famous NPCs, which isn't always very suitable to RP characters. Self teaching is probably worse, but it's almost always a strong option if you're willing to come with all its shortcomings (you'll be an amateur dabbling in the art, it will be gruesome teaching full of dangers, etc). Some job quests (like RDM) explicitly tell about repositories other than soul crystals for the art, scattered around the world (one of the RDM sources can be found in Ishgard library of all places). It's a lot about spending years chasing after myths and legends really.

Well consider me stumped then. I stand corrected, I totally forgot those quotes. Machinistry does indeed combine magitek with aetherology. The Skysteel used to also be a big producer of heavy equipment for Ishgard military. The Magitek Reaper Armor actually uses magitek weapons. The main cannon is hard to tell, but the secondary weapons are photon streams. Nero's personal Armor also makes use of several variations of the main Magitek Cannon: Diffractive Magitek Cannon (a scattered shot) and a High-powered Magitek Cannon being an overload of the main cannon dealing a huge beam of energy instead. As seen here There is also a quest in the Fringes where you're asked to use a modified Reaper armor to fire electrical arcs on quest targets. Arcanists, like all casters, have to get a clear picture on their head of what they are trying to cast. Since it's final fantasy, and reinforced by the Polyglot trait of black mage, as well as silencing abilities, spells require the caster to speak in order to manifest said spells. Conjurers and Thaumaturges then use their canes and staves as mediums to channel aetherial energy. Arcanists use the ink in their books that just conveniently represent their spell repertoire indeed, where arcane geometries are what define every spell they use.

Magitek is a word personally tailored by Solus when he became de facto emperor of his new empire of Garlemald and decided to be the patron of a promising engineer that came with the combustion of ceruleum, thus creating the first ceruleum engine. The garleans having always lacked in the magic and aetherial manipulation department, he coined the word as a way to replace magic by technology, thus Magitek: a technological way to come on par with magic. Magitek primarily concerns garlean technology based on ceruleum. The only magitek contraptions "commonly" (not that common though) used in Eorzea so far are mostly ceruleum engines used in Highwind Skyways airships or more generally still handcrafted things incorporating said engines (like the infamous ship of captain Carvaillain having a secret ceruleum engine under the deck). Rowena's commissioned ironworks sets, or the recent scaevan sets, are also using magitek. Another example: the falcon mount is Magitek, but Garlond's manacutters certainly aren't since they don't use any ceruleum engine but just eorzean traditional wind crystals (that's my take on it anyway). To be honest it can almost always boil down to "Does it uses a ceruleum engine? Then it's magitek". Note that Death Claws are magitek only because they run on a crude ceruleum source of power, but the technology inside is aetherochemical, which is a widely different beast (allagan). Ishgard industry is quite advanced in regards to most of Eorzea free cities, but it's mainly based on brute force and mechanical devices rather than ceruleum. They make heavy use of firesand to power their cannons and dragonkillers, but not ceruleum. Any old machinist soul crystal would work for a machinist aetherotransformer. Problem is, the job is brand new, so there is none of those around. Soul crystals come into being by being manufactured. Since apparently it's widely possible by today's eorzean standards since Haillenarte's Skysteel manufactures them for machinists, it's possible to craft empty soul crystals. The soul crystal technology is an allagan invention that was at its origin used by summoners of old.