Fact check: Padjals

[Coda]

Hey guys, my character is a padjal and... Alright, alright, put away the pitchforks, I'm kidding!  But I do need some info for a frame of reference for an upcoming plot arc. 

 

Mostly, I'm hoping to find out how exactly the process works. As far as I'm aware, Padjals are just midlander hearers who are, for some reason, chosen by Elementals to be Padjal. But when are they chosen? Are they born with the horns and the inability to age past adolscence, or do they just stop aging when they're picked and start sprouting horns? 

 

What is the Gridanian government's role in the process? Since they exist essentially on the Elementals' good graces, I would assume they're invested in ensuring the process goes smoothly. Would Wailers show up on my doorstep to take away my newborn?

 

And finally, in regards to the padjal themselves. Do we know of anything specific in regards to a candidate's (for lack of a better term) state of mind during the process? Do the Elementals tell the hearer that they're going to be a padjal, or perhaps force them to understand/accept it?

 

I know these are highly specific questions, but if there's any hard data on the topic, I'd really appreciate it!

[Virella]

Uuuh seeming I'm still half waking up, and I'm too tired to properly answer it...

 

Sounsyy did make a lovely summary of all sorts of lore about padjals ect ect

 

http://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/showthread.php?tid=13421&pid=211679#pid211679

 

I'd imagine she'd probs will head into the thread herself once she spots it though. But this might be handy for the time being until Sounsyy, or someone else pops by who knows stuff about this

[Coda]

Oh hey, that's exactly what I'm looking for, I suppose I didn't search very well

 

But thanks! And thanks to Sounssy should she encounter the thread.

[LiadansWhisper]

Padjal are apparently born looking like normal babies and manifest the horns at some point later on (it's not clear when they appear, iirc).

 

As to the rest of your questions: we don't know. There are a lot of holes. But, logically, if the Elementals are choosing unborn babies, the babies probably aren't given a real yea or nay in the matter. As for how the Gridania government reacts, your guess is as good as mine. That's never been spoken of in quest text, as far as I'm aware. Perhaps Sounsyy will grace us with a lore drop.

[Sounsyy]

Virella beat me to posting, but I figured I'd drop in and just dump all of the Padjal lore I know here for easy reading.

 

 

 

Padjal Lore

 

Just as people were growing accustomed to their lives above ground' date=' a child was born to the house of Jorin. Curiously, the child had horns, and never seemed to age beyond childhood, no matter how many years passed. Most extraordinary of all, the child could hear the elementals' thoughts, and began to act as their emissary. With time, Gridanians came to realize the child was the selfsame blessing given to Jorin - a bridge betwixt man and elemental. These horned beings came to be venerated as Padjal, and continue to be born to Hyuran houses on rare occasions. To this day, they serve as honored leaders of Gridania.[/quote']

 

In Gridania' date=' there are those blessed by the forest. They are known as the Padjal. The touch of the elementals causes horns to sprout from their heads. They are ageless children, fluent in the tongue of the forest. It is the stuff of faerie tales, no?[/quote']

 

There was also a question about how a Padjal gets their name (considering they start off as Hyur).

 

There are several old Hyur families in Gridania which consistently (albeit rarely) produce Padjals. Those include the Senna, the Yan, and the Pesi families. (Note the family names still possess the Padjali linguistic roots).

 

When a baby is born to one of these families, he or she is given a "normal" Hyur name, as is the custom (i.e. Bryce Senna).

 

When it is learned that the child is a Padjal, they are given a new first name based off the ancient Padjali tongue, and accepted into Stillglade Fane for their indoctrination.

 

Eldest of three siblings of Padjali ancestry' date=' Kan-E serves as head of the Seedseer Council─the central governing body presiding over affairs within the city-state of Gridania. As is common amongst those born of the prestigious Senna line, Kan-E was blessed by the Twelve with the gift of prophecy, her visions hauntingly clear and detailed. Before reaching her sixth nameday, she had already predicted a devastating fire and a locust infestation, earning her remarkably early admission to Stillglade Fane. After becoming a Sister of the Twelveswood, it was not long before she had risen to Elder Seedseer and left Gridania to live in the forest with her siblings, where she served the city-state by communing with the elementals, maintaining the delicate balance betwixt man and nature.[/quote']

 

Q: How old is Kan-E-Senna? Why is she the only adult looking Padjal?

 

MCKF: Her age is- and I wrote this down - she is in her late twenties. But again, that's her spiritual age. As you know, the Padjal all physically stop growing at about 10-11 years old. That's why they all look like children. But they live full lives so you'll have people who look like children but are actually 40, 50, 60 years old. In the case of Kan-E-Senna - and up until the end of 1.0 it was E-Sumi-Yan that was the Elder Seedseer that was in control of Gridania, but when the Grand Companies came out, Kan-E-Senna, who was in the forest communing with the Elementals at that time, came back to take over the Grand Company.

 

The thing is in the other city-states you have Merlwyb, y'know kickass, and in Ul'dah you have Nanamo who is Seventeenth in her line, you got Raubahn who's like rrrrrrrrrrr! And so you have these really strong leaders in the other city-states and then here... Y'know people in Gridania understand that their Elder Seedseers are really powerful but for the rest of people they're like 'that's just a kid you can't take these people seriously' and so again, her making herself appear older is to present herself to the people of the other nations so they will take her seriously. She's basically making herself look older than she really is so people will take her seriously. Spiritually she's in her late twenties. Physically in her early teens.

 

Eldest of the Padjal in Gridania' date=' Brother E-Sumi-Yan claims that he stopped counting the number of years in his life after his hundredth nameday. As such, scholars can only speculate as to his actual age, though many believe him to have seen no fewer than two hundred and thirty summers. Regardless, his knowledge is rich and deep, and he has used it well in educating a great many young Padjal. He is well suited to his present position as master of the Conjurers' Guild.[/quote']

 

We conjurers hear the whispers of the elementals' date=' and see to it that their will is made known to all Gridanians. That is why many of our order regularly journey deep into the forest. Fortunately for you, Brother E-Sumi happened to be in the midst of one such visit when you were attacked.[/quote']

 

The Padjal. Our kind were entrusted as sole shepherds of the now-forbidden art' date=' to serve as healers and bringers of peace while ensuring that this great power would never again be misused.[/quote']

 

The conjurers teach us that elementals of the Twelveswood are not instruments of war' date=' and no attempt shall be made to use them as such against the Empire.[/quote']

 

The Seedseers

Amongst Gridania's conjurers, those elite few who can sense the voices of the elementals are known as Hearers. As leaders to these Hearers, Seedseers are reportedly the mightiest men and women of their age, and called to duty by the great one - eldest of the Twelveswood's ruling spirits. As one might expect, almost all Seedseers are Padjal - attuned as they are to the will of the elementals. While it is rare for more than one Seedseer to exist in any given period, history holds numerous exceptions to this rule. In the present day, for instance, Gridania has three Seedseers: Kan-E, Raya-O, and A-Ruhn, all siblings of the Senna line.

 

The Seedseer Council

The Seedseer Council is a forum for Hearers to share what they have learned from the elementals, and decide matters of state. In effect, the Council is the highest power in the land, and the arbiter of Gridanian law. One must wonder, therefore, why they conduct their business at the Lotus Stand, an outside area with no roof. Scholars contend taht this is for the benefit of the elementals, so they may watch the proceedings. While decisions are put to a vote, policies sometimes reflect the will of the elementals more strongly than the opinions of Hearers. Following the Calamit, however, this system has changed. Faced with the challenges of the Garlean Empire and rebuilding, Gridania could scarcely afford time spent in debate. Thus, the Council has vested its full power in Kan-E-Senna until such a time as the danger has passed.

 

Timeline

1081 - Brother Jorin's wife bears him a son, who is born with two distinct round bumps on his head.

 

1084 - The curious knobs on the head of Jorin's eldest son grow into horns. He soon displays an ability to prophesy natural events—great rainstorms, blight in the apple orchards, and a plague of catfish—and is celebrated as a child of the gods.

 

1093 - Jorin's eldest son stops aging, and is feared to harbour an unknown sickness. The child refutes this, declaring it a sign that the elementals have chosen him as a mediator between the forest spirits and man. He discards his birth name and takes to calling himself I-Ohok-Pota, which he describes as the sound made by the aetheric waves when the elementals speak unto him. Henceforth, Jorin and his children adopt the surname Pota.

 

1117 - The child of a Hyuran family in Gridania is the second to be born with horns. I-Ohok-Pota offers to take the child in his care, bestowing upon the child the name of U-Kote-Num. Henceforth, the horned children of Gridania come to be known as Padjals, and are raised with great care in the Stillglade Fane.

 

1123 - I-Ohok Pota, who had already been serving as Gridania's de facto political leader, officially assumes the role at the behest of the Seedseer Council, and is conferred the new title of Elder Seedseer.

 

1181 - I-Ohok-Pota celebrates his one-hundreth nameday, though his appearance remains that of a boy of ten summers.

 

1353 - I-Ohok-Pota passes away peacefully in meditation at the age of two hundred and seventy-two. To the end, he showed no signs of sickness and is believed to have died of old age.

 

 

Known Padjal / Padjali Family Names

 

-Senna (Kan-E-Senna, A-Ruhn-Senna, Raya-O-Senna)

-Pesi (O-App-Pesi)

-Yan (E-Sumi-Yan)

-Cant (A-Towa-Cant)

-Por (O-Guna-Por)

-Kotor (E-Una-Kotor)

-Nene (O-Isam-Nene)

-Inik (Ak-Inik : Ak being the honorific prefix attached to a deceased member of a house)

-Mena (Ak-Mena : Ak being the honorific prefix attached to a deceased member of a house)

 

Lore Book:

-Pota (I-Ohok Pota)

-Num (U-Kote-Num)

 

 

External Links

 

-Padjal Naming Conventions

-Union of Gelmorra (THEORY)

[Valence]

We know or suppose that they are not only issued from Hyur, right? Just that the most prominent families are?

[LiadansWhisper]

We know or suppose that they are not only issued from Hyur, right? Just that the most prominent families are?

 

There's speculation thst A-Towa-Cant was of Duskwight heritage, but we have no firm confirmation on that afaik.

[Yssen]

We know or suppose that they are not only issued from Hyur, right? Just that the most prominent families are?

 

There's speculation thst A-Towa-Cant was of Duskwight heritage, but we have no firm confirmation on that afaik.

 I can grant the idea that Elezen heritage for Cant might be possible (though recently we have been shown that all the Pajal whose ears we can see are pointy), but Duskies are Duskies because they rejected being allowed on the surface in exchange for living under the Elemental's rules. This does not rule out the possibility, but it does sorta make the theory much less likely.

[LiadansWhisper]

We know or suppose that they are not only issued from Hyur, right? Just that the most prominent families are?

 

There's speculation thst A-Towa-Cant was of Duskwight heritage, but we have no firm confirmation on that afaik.

 I can grant the idea that Elezen heritage for Cant might be possible (though recently we have been shown that all the Pajal whose ears we can see are pointy), but Duskies are Duskies because they rejected being allowed on the surface in exchange for living under the Elemental's rules. This does not rule out the possibility, but it does sorta make the theory much less likely.

 

It's based on his appearance, which is not consistent with an Elezen of Wildwood heritage.

[Yssen]

We know or suppose that they are not only issued from Hyur, right? Just that the most prominent families are?

 

There's speculation thst A-Towa-Cant was of Duskwight heritage, but we have no firm confirmation on that afaik.

 I can grant the idea that Elezen heritage for Cant might be possible (though recently we have been shown that all the Pajal whose ears we can see are pointy), but Duskies are Duskies because they rejected being allowed on the surface in exchange for living under the Elemental's rules. This does not rule out the possibility, but it does sorta make the theory much less likely.

 

It's based on his appearance, which is not consistent with an Elezen of Wildwood heritage.

The only way to be 100% positive on that end these days is whether or not he has a face tatoo or a beard. On the wildwood end, whether he has ear clasp things. Beyond those two difference and some of the more obvious differences in skin tone (Wildwoods cannot be blue! Bwahahahahaha!) There really is not that much difference. Then again, the Elementals are dicks, and co-opting one of the proud defiant into one of their direct servants whether they like it or not is ABSOLUTELY in the wheel house of dick moves they would make. ;p

[LiadansWhisper]

The only way to be 100% positive on that end these days is whether or not he has a face tatoo or a beard. On the wildwood end, whether he has ear clasp things. Beyond those two difference and some of the more obvious differences in skin tone (Wildwoods cannot be blue! Bwahahahahaha!) There really is not that much difference. Then again, the Elementals are dicks, and co-opting one of the proud defiant into one of their direct servants whether they like it or not is ABSOLUTELY in the wheel house of dick moves they would make. ;p

 

The only real way to be 100% sure, I suppose, is if they finally decide to tell us one way or another.

 

But you know SE! They'd rather JERK US AROUND and make us speculate.

 

Jerks.