Late to finding this video, but there is an old interview with Kenichi Iwao (1.0's World Planner) that might support one of your theories regarding the two small flags in the outlier grouping as being Sharlayan and Ala Mhigo's flags originally. Dengeki: “On the bottom left of the map, there are two flags slightly separated from the rest. Does this have something to do with the story?” Iwao: “That’s still a secret (Iwao laughs). But there are a few city-states that have fallen since the map was made, as well as new city-states that have come about. This map still shows the old city-states.” As for the rest of the smaller flags, Koji Fox later clarifies in Gamerescape's Lorecast#7 interview that these represent various guilds, noble houses, and banks which contributed money to Roddard Ironheart's mapping expedition. MOOSE: “There are 14 small flags on the Ironheart map released with 1.0. Are they all just filler?” MCKF: “Basically, when Mr. Ironheart went out on his journey to map the realm, he didn’t do it alone. He went alone, but he needed funding; it was a great undertaking. In addition to the large city-states, which he got approval from, he contacted guilds and lesser houses and asked for money. Those little markers are from certain houses and banks and other places that funded him, so they got a little spot on his map.” Finally, and not sure if this helps clarify the symbol's purpose, but the full, unclipped graphic to the right of the "In One Are Twelve" poem appears on page 5 of the Encyclopedia Eorzea. It appears to be a "halo'd" figure holding a greatsword in a similar manner as Thal, though an obviously different sword. He/she is flanked by white wings. The "halo" behind the figure's head might just be part of the background decoration, but it's possible it could indicate the figure as being one of Eorzea's 40 saints? Hope this helps!
That is actually really cool. I was thinking it could be something along that line because I was like "That icon clearly resembles a set of scales, but unlike the Immortal Flames, it lacks the extra touches... could it be related to wealth?" Yet on the same grouping is something akin to a ship in similar color scheme to Limsa's flag, making me think shipping, but since the two icons are both in the same cluster, it didn't make sense that that cluster of flags would belong to one city-state.
From an in-universe perspective, there's nothing wrong with maps changing over time. Geographic maps were revised heavily in real life all the time until the planet's geography was thoroughly documented via satellite photography. It stands to reason that Ironheart's Sixth Astral Era map was based only mostly on direct experience, with the unknown bits filled in with imagination. Thus, areas that were harder to get to like Dravania and the Garlean Empire (on account of, you know, being AT WAR with them) would have less detail and more Making Shit Up.
Isn't the 'Eorzean Crest' at the top of the map made up of elements from the crests of the four city states? The twin adders from Gridania, the crown from Ishgard and stylised versions of the Scales of Nald'thal and the crest of Limsa? Also, the partially cut off crest to the east, could that be the crest of Meracydia?
I would LOVE a huge in depth breakdown of the maps even more than this! There's a ton of things on n the maps that aren't talked about in this video... may be once 6.0 map comes out or even before it...
Long time Final Fantasy fan, but first time MMO and FFXIV player. Just wanted to say I've been ABSORBING your lore videos and 1.0 content videos since playing and it's been giving me awesome perspective of my MSQ playthrough of FFXIV. Thank you!
I can't remember where I read it but I saw someone speculate that the smaller flags in the lower left belonged to various trade companies, noble houses, and other entities who helped fund the map's creation, and that their presence on the map is a form of attribution.
I was about to comment this same thing. I thought I remembered reading on the 1.0 lore forums that they were the crests of Free Companies that helped in the map's creation.
We know the Grand Companies were formed IIRC from several free companies/factions (in lore that is) within their respective City States and even before the official formation of the Grand Companies those factions worked as (semi-)official military units for their city states. It's possible that those smaller flags repesent those factions, sadly we will probably never know.
Had to come back to this video and add some speculation. In Encylopedia Eorzea it stated that there were 12 city states in the fifth astral era before the main 4 took over before the war. There were 12 grouped together and then the two off to the side. (Not certain what the two were.) I remember Yoshi P saying that they had the story planned out for the ending of this story arc, which I believe was 5.0. So... It is possible that it was intentional as a hint about where we're going in 5.0.
There's a couple of things that stick out for me: 1: The Heraldry on the upper-left corner looks like the bottom half is a suit of armor, while the top half could possibly be a moogle in front of a table. I'm not sure, that's just what it looks like. 2: The Serpent (Ophiuchus?), if it means protection, on both sides of that crest, one of those serpents is also on the lower-left corner. To me this reads that 12 are protected/a protectorate by the 4 city states, while the two to the right side of that serpent are independent, or maybe belligerent. (Note there's no Garlean crest either on the V1.0 map.) 3. Sharlyan and Ala Mhigo were likely not given crests on the V1.0 map because they were simply not in the game's resources. At the beginning of V1.0, regardless of which city you start in, you don't fight any Garleans. Limsa Lominsa has the Jellyfish fight, Ul'dah has the fight with the Gobbue (and the chain of events that leads to F'lhaminn and Minfilia being canonically part of V2.0), and then there is the Gridania opening which has the Moogle Band freeze-frame while running from the Treant. Had 1.0 gone in the direction I think it would have gone (remember V1.00 effectively ended at level 30) we probably would have still gone to these places, but under different circumstances. Like my theory with Ala Mhigo, was that the needed lore was absent during V1.00. Even the Wiki with this lore information says that Ala Mhigo attempted to invade Gridanaia, thus the "4-city states" banded together against Ala Mhigo. Most of the Yoshi-P/V2.0 lore tells us what happened in the aftermath of that. With some more digging into the before Yoshi-P version of the game client, it might be possible to find some of these lore threads, maybe even different versions of the map. But I think ultimately V1.00's original direction likely didn't involve the Garlean Empire up front. Having recently seen how Coil's story lines up with V1.00, I'm almost sure that Nael van Darnus was written into, and subsequently out of V1.00 for the Dalamud storyline. All the Allagan Empire stuff, likely was not on V1.00's roadmap. Also there's an interesting thing in V4.00 that isn't well explained. That Ark in the middle of "The Peaks" map, is pre-Sharlayan. If this was an important thing, why isn't it on the world map? Now take a look at the map again. It's there. In the lower-left area above the 4 city states. See that "boat" image looks exactly like that ship. Who knows, perhaps the Lore for the entire game was written pre-V1.00, and the only shoe-horned bit was the Dalamud story in order to end V1.x and some of the Bahamut/Allagan stuff retro-fitted to fit this story. The twins take Louisoix's place in the main story.
the smaller flags iirc (i had the CE edition with the "making of" disk) and eorzea was built up from smaller city states into the large 4 we saw today. like bela'dia sil'dah and then ul'dah. and the smaller flag represent those city states. If you look close 1 of the flags is glamorra/amdapori. my guess is the smaller flags represent the city states to exist in each era. as there are set of 5. Just my guess.
There's a third red marker. Look Left of the octopus on the far right and then below the ship. This would seem to lend further credence to your trade route idea as that's an island.
The impression I immediately got from those little flags was that those would be the flags of other nations across the world, grouped into either alliances or location.
What about the flag/crest found in the unused underground settlement in Limsa? I can't remember which episode it was, i think it was a Remnants one, but that may provide a clue regarding the smaller icons, or may be another mystery if it isn't on the map either...
My theory of the group of smaller flag groups were the smaller city states of long ago...OR just to illustrate free-company banners associated to a city state... (it was a thing to custom-make your own crest/ banner in any design back then in 1.0)
way i see it there are 4 sets of smaller flags, which are i assume are houses, smaller settlements or people under each of the main city states since there was 4 of those as well, and ala mhigo and sharlyan are the ones on the right because they didn't fall under any of the city states
I think we need to travel to the past and rediscover all the lost places like the two nations that make Uldah now. The flags revealed.... I loved Wings of the Goddess in FFXI.
Really late and probably mentioned already but the 1st flag in the smaller ones is Doma I'm sure, so possibly the others are ment to represent other nations in the whole world, which wouldn't be rare for maps as helps to identify on coming ships by there raised flags
I wonder if the person that came up with “yalms” played Anarchy Online, cause the main flying “mount” in that game is called a Yalmaha and often shortened to just Yalm. The scale was pretty messed up on them, like it was a flying vehicle but there’s no way your character could comfortably fit in it.
In regards to the red flag near vesper bay, could it be the flag/crest for the East Aldernald company, lolorito's facility? Isnt vesper bay owned by him?
Those ships seem to be going west from La Noscea - isn't that the way to the New World? The blue-white-blue flag might represent that. I also wondered if that might be the flag of the South Sea Isles, since we know they trade with Eorzea and have ties to Limsa. Also, the left-most minor flag on the top row looks almost, but not quite, like the flag of Doma.
considering the ul'dah trading company we have in game, is a play on and homage to the east indian trading company from actual history. who knows, maybe next xpac we finish up business with garlemald then its off to the "new world" in the xpac that follows.
To add one theory to the red map markers at sea it could be marking locations frequented by pirates due to many hidden coves, inlets or small islands to hide in and around or some other sort of danger at sea like shifting shallow sea bottoms or dangerous currents.
My first thought with that was "Then why aren't there any around La Noscea?" but I thought again, and realized they'd pretty much just have to paint the entire coast red. Which would not be attractive and could potentially alienate your allies in the alliance.
About the crest: There's really nothing about the squiggly-bits to suggest that they're serpents aside from the fact that they're squiggly. They look more like horns, a pretty common symbol in things like this. They could be implying strength or protection. The "crown" honestly looks way more like a palace to me. Either way it could merely be a reference to Ul'dah, which could work with the theory that the squiggly-bits are serpents, a clear reference to Gridania's Order of the Twin-Adder. Then if the "crest" is a shield (Ishgard's knights) and the red squiggly-bits under the white ones are waves (Limsa's pirates) that makes the whole thing one big representation of Eorzea's unity. Or the "crown" could be a cathedral, a clear reference to the Twelve that watch over the nation. About the flags: The fact that one of them is used to label that fleet of ships makes it pretty clear to me that they're for various guilds, broken up by category. The box containing the flag that's on the ships would be the nation's four major trade guilds, or possibly even old generalized representations for the Disciples of War, Magic, Hand, and Land. (The ships' flag being for Land, making that fleet fishing ships.) It's also possible that the mysterious red box could be a way-too-small version of the red flag in the second grouping, possibly tagging that group as trade guilds instead. The fact that the two on the right are separated from the rest by such an extent could imply that they are indeed meant to represent Sharlayan and Ala Mhigo, two nations that fell out of Eorzea proper but are still on the map. If we go with the idea that the white squiggly-bits are horns, it could be a representation that they are outside of the protection granted to the nation's guilds. (Although this specific squiggly-bit DOES look more serpentine. Possibly a sign of aggression, since it would be facing the guild flags?)
If you ask me, the crest looks more like Ifrit... like the Red long horns and the white horns which represent his horns (im very good at descrbing) the centre part is his head and then he has a crown.
I wonder if they could represent certain groups or companies (military/civilian) working within Eaorzea's three city states with independent groups or organizations listed to the side. They could also be defunct nations.
Hey, I'm sure I'm late to the game and someone's mentioned it by now...but of the little flags, the one on the far left (top row) that looks like a shield kinda with a flange sticking off to the left and possibly a sword crossing it vertically in the center, all gold on red... ...I've seen that somewhere before. I cannot, for the life of me, think of WHERE, but I know I've seen that symbol before. Probably in-game (FFXIV) as opposed to somewhere else in real life, but that just looks so damnably familiar. I'm sorry I can't think of WHERE, though. It just looks so familiar......
Well game developers do make a lot of avenues where the game would of gone in future expansions or patches and that what most of the stuff is. It is cool to see want could of been in the game though
just finding this video. Not sure if this has been solved or if this is still something people are having fun with, but perhaps the smaller flags in the footer represent companies?
Could the flags below the 4 main ones represent the various pirate crews that came together to form limsa, as the ships sailing from limsa could be one of those pirate fleets, with the two that are seperated showing they belong to outlier factions??? the world...may never know...
Regarding the map changes around Ala Mhigo... could it simply be Omega's arrival that 'burnt it all' ? Maybe it is just me not seeing properly but I do believe the hole in the mountain made by omega appears right between the 'r' and the 'A' of Gyr Abania. Perhaps some NPCs talk about it in the Fringes... or perhaps not. Also top left, another dragon appears pointing at some sort of... typhoon ? I like typhoons !
I wonder if the crown in the crest suggests that the mapmaker was based in Ul'dah? A cursory search online didn't turn up anything along the lines of an in-game crest (that's more your department, Speakers Network), but they're the only thing we have similar to a monarchy that wouldn't consider Ala Mhigo relevant in a map. And deserts have snakes...I mean, everywhere in Eorzea has snakes, but I live in a desert, and we're well-known for having snakes. So it could be a reasonable crest for Ul'dah.
Those red markers could be the boat from vesper bay to idyleshire in 1.0 being the only legit way to get that far out? Though It could now be used for one of your ideas in today's state of the realm. Just my thought
to me that thing on the eorzean crest looked like a crystal with a crown a crown on it, but not the thing you pointed out in the video. its more of a... one of those crowns with bows? the crystal in particular reminds me of the icon used for the warrior of light on the map, as seen in the cutscenes for operation archon and the times in stormblood while you're taking the boat to kugane, for example. the crystal here obviously doesnt represent a wol here but it could be for hydaelyn... eorzea's a land blessed by the gods, and in that way its like a crown jewel i guess? but im probably looking too much into it, haha
The crest under the eorzea name looks like one of the masks that the judges wear (I call them judges cuz that's what they we're in ff12, can't remember if that's what they're called in 14 cuz I'm not very far in the game yet)
I think all the 'little' flags are representative of the foreign powers who are not on the map currently and the grouping represents their allianced to the citystates of The Three Great Continents. (e.g. Expansion citystates).
This opening, so over dramatic. I LOVE IT! XD! Edit: HERREGUD!! Som om jeg ikke kunne bli no' mere nysgjerrig!! Takk ska du ha. XD But in all seriousness, this is just OOzING with mystery and I just love how far you stretched this, I dont think you stretched it, FAR ENOUGH! I'd love it if we one day got to go visit the twin's town, and family.^^ Also, apparently Y'shtola is also from Sharlyan (I replay the game a lot), so I wonder if her Y tribe is somewhere up there. Argh, I just want more lore!! I feel like the smaller flags could totally have been houses, and that this carried over in HW with the houses of the nobles there. There are some higher ranked families, but not that many. Very few actually. Hmm, it's mystifying. Love your videos, take care of yourself! !
1.0's shameless copy/past linear appearance is hurtful to watch. I remember when I took a step outside a large city-state in ARR (since I only been playing now for 3 weeks) I noticed the clouds and skies to be exact same copy/paste over small cubicles, which led me to these videos as I was wondering if more was such. They did draw the map making it look less copy/paste.
I get more of a church then crown in that flag crest. Also the tiny flags makes me thing guilds for some reason. Or Free Companies of great worth? Either way I am going to stare at this map more.
It could be. 8 DOH jobs + 3 DOL jobs + 1 DOL job that didn't make it into the game adds up to 12. Just that leaves the 2 to the right side of the serpent, maybe additional jobs that are outside the cities? Let's check the math on that. 4, 3, 2, 3, and the 2 to the right. Alchemist, Goldsmith, Weaver and Miner are in Ul'dah Armorer, Blacksmith, Culinarian, Fisher are in Limsa Lominsa Carpenter, Leatherworker, and Botanist are in Gridania. So that's, 4, 4,3. Sheparding was located outside of the 3 cities. So this doesn't quite line up.
Kisai Yuki yeah unless they had way more jobs planned your math makes sense. But it was an idea I tossed out while trying to fall asleep lol. Oh well at least we know one less thing they could be.
![[FFXIV] Hengr's Crucible (Unused 1.0 Dungeon) | SoaR](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/CzpFEIt-u30/mqdefault.jpg)
![[FFXIV] Hengr's Crucible (Unused 1.0 Dungeon) | SoaR](/img/tr.png)
![[FFXIV] Ul'Dah - 1.0 vs ARR | RoaR | Part 1 | Steps of Nald](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/iqKTwLwBlP4/mqdefault.jpg)
![[FFXIV] The 1.0 Allagan Empire | RoaR](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/r87PZIhZ_vY/mqdefault.jpg)
![[FFXIV] Bloodshore Hollow (Unused 1.0 Dungeon) | SoaR](/img/n.gif)
Late to finding this video, but there is an old interview with Kenichi Iwao (1.0's World Planner) that might support one of your theories regarding the two small flags in the outlier grouping as being Sharlayan and Ala Mhigo's flags originally.
Dengeki: “On the bottom left of the map, there are two flags slightly separated from the rest. Does this have something to do with the story?”
Iwao: “That’s still a secret (Iwao laughs). But there are a few city-states that have fallen since the map was made, as well as new city-states that have come about. This map still shows the old city-states.”
As for the rest of the smaller flags, Koji Fox later clarifies in Gamerescape's Lorecast#7 interview that these represent various guilds, noble houses, and banks which contributed money to Roddard Ironheart's mapping expedition.
MOOSE: “There are 14 small flags on the Ironheart map released with 1.0. Are they all just filler?”
MCKF: “Basically, when Mr. Ironheart went out on his journey to map the realm, he didn’t do it alone. He went alone, but he needed funding; it was a great undertaking. In addition to the large city-states, which he got approval from, he contacted guilds and lesser houses and asked for money. Those little markers are from certain houses and banks and other places that funded him, so they got a little spot on his map.”
Finally, and not sure if this helps clarify the symbol's purpose, but the full, unclipped graphic to the right of the "In One Are Twelve" poem appears on page 5 of the Encyclopedia Eorzea. It appears to be a "halo'd" figure holding a greatsword in a similar manner as Thal, though an obviously different sword. He/she is flanked by white wings. The "halo" behind the figure's head might just be part of the background decoration, but it's possible it could indicate the figure as being one of Eorzea's 40 saints?
Hope this helps!
That is actually really cool. I was thinking it could be something along that line because I was like "That icon clearly resembles a set of scales, but unlike the Immortal Flames, it lacks the extra touches... could it be related to wealth?" Yet on the same grouping is something akin to a ship in similar color scheme to Limsa's flag, making me think shipping, but since the two icons are both in the same cluster, it didn't make sense that that cluster of flags would belong to one city-state.
Clearly the two snakes are Twin Adders, the crown represents the Sultanate, and the crest is Limsa. So its just the symbol of the Eorzean Alliance.
From an in-universe perspective, there's nothing wrong with maps changing over time. Geographic maps were revised heavily in real life all the time until the planet's geography was thoroughly documented via satellite photography. It stands to reason that Ironheart's Sixth Astral Era map was based only mostly on direct experience, with the unknown bits filled in with imagination. Thus, areas that were harder to get to like Dravania and the Garlean Empire (on account of, you know, being AT WAR with them) would have less detail and more Making Shit Up.
Isn't the 'Eorzean Crest' at the top of the map made up of elements from the crests of the four city states? The twin adders from Gridania, the crown from Ishgard and stylised versions of the Scales of Nald'thal and the crest of Limsa?
Also, the partially cut off crest to the east, could that be the crest of Meracydia?
I would LOVE a huge in depth breakdown of the maps even more than this! There's a ton of things on n the maps that aren't talked about in this video... may be once 6.0 map comes out or even before it...
I legit have spent a solid two weeks attempting to get 1.0 to work again because of you. Thanks
Long time Final Fantasy fan, but first time MMO and FFXIV player. Just wanted to say I've been ABSORBING your lore videos and 1.0 content videos since playing and it's been giving me awesome perspective of my MSQ playthrough of FFXIV. Thank you!
I can't remember where I read it but I saw someone speculate that the smaller flags in the lower left belonged to various trade companies, noble houses, and other entities who helped fund the map's creation, and that their presence on the map is a form of attribution.
I was about to comment this same thing. I thought I remembered reading on the 1.0 lore forums that they were the crests of Free Companies that helped in the map's creation.
We know the Grand Companies were formed IIRC from several free companies/factions (in lore that is) within their respective City States and even before the official formation of the Grand Companies those factions worked as (semi-)official military units for their city states. It's possible that those smaller flags repesent those factions, sadly we will probably never know.
red markers you talked about at the end could be the signs where groups of The Scions of the Seventh Dawn located
Had to come back to this video and add some speculation. In Encylopedia Eorzea it stated that there were 12 city states in the fifth astral era before the main 4 took over before the war. There were 12 grouped together and then the two off to the side. (Not certain what the two were.) I remember Yoshi P saying that they had the story planned out for the ending of this story arc, which I believe was 5.0. So... It is possible that it was intentional as a hint about where we're going in 5.0.
There's a couple of things that stick out for me:
1: The Heraldry on the upper-left corner looks like the bottom half is a suit of armor, while the top half could possibly be a moogle in front of a table. I'm not sure, that's just what it looks like.
2: The Serpent (Ophiuchus?), if it means protection, on both sides of that crest, one of those serpents is also on the lower-left corner. To me this reads that 12 are protected/a protectorate by the 4 city states, while the two to the right side of that serpent are independent, or maybe belligerent. (Note there's no Garlean crest either on the V1.0 map.)
3. Sharlyan and Ala Mhigo were likely not given crests on the V1.0 map because they were simply not in the game's resources. At the beginning of V1.0, regardless of which city you start in, you don't fight any Garleans. Limsa Lominsa has the Jellyfish fight, Ul'dah has the fight with the Gobbue (and the chain of events that leads to F'lhaminn and Minfilia being canonically part of V2.0), and then there is the Gridania opening which has the Moogle Band freeze-frame while running from the Treant.
Had 1.0 gone in the direction I think it would have gone (remember V1.00 effectively ended at level 30) we probably would have still gone to these places, but under different circumstances.
Like my theory with Ala Mhigo, was that the needed lore was absent during V1.00. Even the Wiki with this lore information says that Ala Mhigo attempted to invade Gridanaia, thus the "4-city states" banded together against Ala Mhigo. Most of the Yoshi-P/V2.0 lore tells us what happened in the aftermath of that.
With some more digging into the before Yoshi-P version of the game client, it might be possible to find some of these lore threads, maybe even different versions of the map. But I think ultimately V1.00's original direction likely didn't involve the Garlean Empire up front. Having recently seen how Coil's story lines up with V1.00, I'm almost sure that Nael van Darnus was written into, and subsequently out of V1.00 for the Dalamud storyline. All the Allagan Empire stuff, likely was not on V1.00's roadmap.
Also there's an interesting thing in V4.00 that isn't well explained. That Ark in the middle of "The Peaks" map, is pre-Sharlayan. If this was an important thing, why isn't it on the world map? Now take a look at the map again. It's there. In the lower-left area above the 4 city states. See that "boat" image looks exactly like that ship.
Who knows, perhaps the Lore for the entire game was written pre-V1.00, and the only shoe-horned bit was the Dalamud story in order to end V1.x and some of the Bahamut/Allagan stuff retro-fitted to fit this story. The twins take Louisoix's place in the main story.
the smaller flags iirc (i had the CE edition with the "making of" disk) and eorzea was built up from smaller city states into the large 4 we saw today.
like bela'dia sil'dah and then ul'dah. and the smaller flag represent those city states. If you look close 1 of the flags is glamorra/amdapori.
my guess is the smaller flags represent the city states to exist in each era. as there are set of 5.
Just my guess.
I find it kinda interesting that next to the small flags under the eorzean alliance flags is one of the snake things from the crest.
Would love to see an update to this going over the differences with the updated map in Endwalker and Dawntrail.
There's a third red marker. Look Left of the octopus on the far right and then below the ship. This would seem to lend further credence to your trade route idea as that's an island.
The impression I immediately got from those little flags was that those would be the flags of other nations across the world, grouped into either alliances or location.
What about the flag/crest found in the unused underground settlement in Limsa? I can't remember which episode it was, i think it was a Remnants one, but that may provide a clue regarding the smaller icons, or may be another mystery if it isn't on the map either...
My theory of the group of smaller flag groups were the smaller city states of long ago...OR just to illustrate free-company banners associated to a city state... (it was a thing to custom-make your own crest/ banner in any design back then in 1.0)
way i see it there are 4 sets of smaller flags, which are i assume are houses, smaller settlements or people under each of the main city states since there was 4 of those as well, and ala mhigo and sharlyan are the ones on the right because they didn't fall under any of the city states
I think we need to travel to the past and rediscover all the lost places like the two nations that make Uldah now. The flags revealed.... I loved Wings of the Goddess in FFXI.
Only intense, focused Geomancy can tell us for sure.
Really late and probably mentioned already but the 1st flag in the smaller ones is Doma I'm sure, so possibly the others are ment to represent other nations in the whole world, which wouldn't be rare for maps as helps to identify on coming ships by there raised flags
Those damn sound effects make it sound like your uncovering some secret conspiracy super ominous
I thought the Eorzean map title crest was a ram with a crown or a judge/magister/garlean dude with a crown.
Ah yes. King Ramses of Eorzea. His Majesty the Ram. Ruling Eorzea with an iron hoof.
Speakers Network Lukiel......I think I chuckled a little too hard at your response XD
May King Ramses rise again!!
To me it looks more like a behemoth's head. Head in the middle, with the two large horns.
And I'm pretty sure the "crown" is a palace of some sort.
I was thinking mammoth
I wonder if the person that came up with “yalms” played Anarchy Online, cause the main flying “mount” in that game is called a Yalmaha and often shortened to just Yalm. The scale was pretty messed up on them, like it was a flying vehicle but there’s no way your character could comfortably fit in it.
We may never know until more of the world is visible on the map.
Those little red marks are interesting though.
In regards to the red flag near vesper bay, could it be the flag/crest for the East Aldernald company, lolorito's facility? Isnt vesper bay owned by him?
Those ships seem to be going west from La Noscea - isn't that the way to the New World? The blue-white-blue flag might represent that. I also wondered if that might be the flag of the South Sea Isles, since we know they trade with Eorzea and have ties to Limsa.
Also, the left-most minor flag on the top row looks almost, but not quite, like the flag of Doma.
considering the ul'dah trading company we have in game, is a play on and homage to the east indian trading company from actual history. who knows, maybe next xpac we finish up business with garlemald then its off to the "new world" in the xpac that follows.
Enjoying this in 2024!
To add one theory to the red map markers at sea it could be marking locations frequented by pirates due to many hidden coves, inlets or small islands to hide in and around or some other sort of danger at sea like shifting shallow sea bottoms or dangerous currents.
My first thought with that was "Then why aren't there any around La Noscea?" but I thought again, and realized they'd pretty much just have to paint the entire coast red. Which would not be attractive and could potentially alienate your allies in the alliance.
The Minor flags are most likely to represent the Islands and Isles around eorzea. Sharlayan, Thavnair, Vylbrand, etc.
About the crest:
There's really nothing about the squiggly-bits to suggest that they're serpents aside from the fact that they're squiggly. They look more like horns, a pretty common symbol in things like this. They could be implying strength or protection.
The "crown" honestly looks way more like a palace to me. Either way it could merely be a reference to Ul'dah, which could work with the theory that the squiggly-bits are serpents, a clear reference to Gridania's Order of the Twin-Adder. Then if the "crest" is a shield (Ishgard's knights) and the red squiggly-bits under the white ones are waves (Limsa's pirates) that makes the whole thing one big representation of Eorzea's unity.
Or the "crown" could be a cathedral, a clear reference to the Twelve that watch over the nation.
About the flags:
The fact that one of them is used to label that fleet of ships makes it pretty clear to me that they're for various guilds, broken up by category. The box containing the flag that's on the ships would be the nation's four major trade guilds, or possibly even old generalized representations for the Disciples of War, Magic, Hand, and Land. (The ships' flag being for Land, making that fleet fishing ships.) It's also possible that the mysterious red box could be a way-too-small version of the red flag in the second grouping, possibly tagging that group as trade guilds instead.
The fact that the two on the right are separated from the rest by such an extent could imply that they are indeed meant to represent Sharlayan and Ala Mhigo, two nations that fell out of Eorzea proper but are still on the map. If we go with the idea that the white squiggly-bits are horns, it could be a representation that they are outside of the protection granted to the nation's guilds. (Although this specific squiggly-bit DOES look more serpentine. Possibly a sign of aggression, since it would be facing the guild flags?)
If you ask me, the crest looks more like Ifrit... like the Red long horns and the white horns which represent his horns (im very good at descrbing) the centre part is his head and then he has a crown.
I wonder if they could represent certain groups or companies (military/civilian) working within Eaorzea's three city states with independent groups or organizations listed to the side. They could also be defunct nations.
Hey, I'm sure I'm late to the game and someone's mentioned it by now...but of the little flags, the one on the far left (top row) that looks like a shield kinda with a flange sticking off to the left and possibly a sword crossing it vertically in the center, all gold on red...
...I've seen that somewhere before.
I cannot, for the life of me, think of WHERE, but I know I've seen that symbol before. Probably in-game (FFXIV) as opposed to somewhere else in real life, but that just looks so damnably familiar. I'm sorry I can't think of WHERE, though. It just looks so familiar......
Well game developers do make a lot of avenues where the game would of gone in future expansions or patches and that what most of the stuff is. It is cool to see want could of been in the game though
I think the smaller flags represents free or trade companys in Eorzea.
Our world would be infinitely more interesting if our world map changed from time to time.
just finding this video. Not sure if this has been solved or if this is still something people are having fun with, but perhaps the smaller flags in the footer represent companies?
Is that tiny flag on the left Doma
Could the flags below the 4 main ones represent the various pirate crews that came together to form limsa, as the ships sailing from limsa could be one of those pirate fleets, with the two that are seperated showing they belong to outlier factions??? the world...may never know...
Regarding the map changes around Ala Mhigo... could it simply be Omega's arrival that 'burnt it all' ? Maybe it is just me not seeing properly but I do believe the hole in the mountain made by omega appears right between the 'r' and the 'A' of Gyr Abania. Perhaps some NPCs talk about it in the Fringes... or perhaps not.
Also top left, another dragon appears pointing at some sort of... typhoon ? I like typhoons !
I wonder if the crown in the crest suggests that the mapmaker was based in Ul'dah? A cursory search online didn't turn up anything along the lines of an in-game crest (that's more your department, Speakers Network), but they're the only thing we have similar to a monarchy that wouldn't consider Ala Mhigo relevant in a map. And deserts have snakes...I mean, everywhere in Eorzea has snakes, but I live in a desert, and we're well-known for having snakes. So it could be a reasonable crest for Ul'dah.
Well Coerthas consists of 3 houses. Possibly a left over?
Those red markers could be the boat from vesper bay to idyleshire in 1.0 being the only legit way to get that far out? Though It could now be used for one of your ideas in today's state of the realm. Just my thought
the flags colours look like the grand company ranks. I think they have to to with the city state militaries.
to me that thing on the eorzean crest looked like a crystal with a crown a crown on it, but not the thing you pointed out in the video. its more of a... one of those crowns with bows? the crystal in particular reminds me of the icon used for the warrior of light on the map, as seen in the cutscenes for operation archon and the times in stormblood while you're taking the boat to kugane, for example. the crystal here obviously doesnt represent a wol here but it could be for hydaelyn... eorzea's a land blessed by the gods, and in that way its like a crown jewel i guess?
but im probably looking too much into it, haha
The crest under the eorzea name looks like one of the masks that the judges wear (I call them judges cuz that's what they we're in ff12, can't remember if that's what they're called in 14 cuz I'm not very far in the game yet)
I think all the 'little' flags are representative of the foreign powers who are not on the map currently and the grouping represents their allianced to the citystates of The Three Great Continents. (e.g. Expansion citystates).
What if the unknown smaller flags under the Eorzean alliance were from city states once free but now part of the Garlean Empire?
Couldn't those red flags represent a fast travel route for something not yet released?
The green flag on the right looks like the one for Doma
This opening, so over dramatic. I LOVE IT! XD!
Edit: HERREGUD!! Som om jeg ikke kunne bli no' mere nysgjerrig!! Takk ska du ha. XD
But in all seriousness, this is just OOzING with mystery and I just love how far you stretched this, I dont think you stretched it, FAR ENOUGH! I'd love it if we one day got to go visit the twin's town, and family.^^ Also, apparently Y'shtola is also from Sharlyan (I replay the game a lot), so I wonder if her Y tribe is somewhere up there.
Argh, I just want more lore!! I feel like the smaller flags could totally have been houses, and that this carried over in HW with the houses of the nobles there. There are some higher ranked families, but not that many. Very few actually. Hmm, it's mystifying. Love your videos, take care of yourself! !
1.0's shameless copy/past linear appearance is hurtful to watch. I remember when I took a step outside a large city-state in ARR (since I only been playing now for 3 weeks) I noticed the clouds and skies to be exact same copy/paste over small cubicles, which led me to these videos as I was wondering if more was such. They did draw the map making it look less copy/paste.
I get more of a church then crown in that flag crest. Also the tiny flags makes me thing guilds for some reason. Or Free Companies of great worth? Either way I am going to stare at this map more.
It could be. 8 DOH jobs + 3 DOL jobs + 1 DOL job that didn't make it into the game adds up to 12. Just that leaves the 2 to the right side of the serpent, maybe additional jobs that are outside the cities?
Let's check the math on that.
4, 3, 2, 3, and the 2 to the right.
Alchemist, Goldsmith, Weaver and Miner are in Ul'dah
Armorer, Blacksmith, Culinarian, Fisher are in Limsa Lominsa
Carpenter, Leatherworker, and Botanist are in Gridania.
So that's, 4, 4,3. Sheparding was located outside of the 3 cities. So this doesn't quite line up.
Kisai Yuki yeah unless they had way more jobs planned your math makes sense. But it was an idea I tossed out while trying to fall asleep lol. Oh well at least we know one less thing they could be.
I love you man
This would get SE to finish some content from before. But not complete go back to the apparent 1.0 disaster.
I've been wondering, do the Japanese watch your episodes in decent numbers?
Maybe we would have crossed the Sea?
hiyaa o/
So...uh...we gonna talk about Dalamud in the outtro?
Lucky Stampede talk about it?
Thought this video was on how to read the HORRIBLE FF14 map IN GAME. Not this useless Eorzea map history.