This was a really good video! As someone who's been interested in not just FF14 lore, but lore of other FF games in general, there are some connections I'm still a bit curious about. I agree with your assessment of Nald'thal as a Libra, although symbology-wise as "the twin gods Nald and Thal", they, on the surface, appear as Gemini. Though I hesitate to fully remove their Gemini connection because there's a precedent for it in the past. In FF12, there are 12 Zodiac "Espers" and 12 Zodiac "Scions" that oppose them. The Esper for Gemini is Zalera, the Death Seraph, and Gemini in general is associated with the element of Death. The Scion that opposes Zalera is the familiar name "Emet-Selch, Angel of Truth." Indeed, most of the Ascians take their names from these same Scions from FF12's lore, and the Ascian's face-glyphs usually resemble the symbol of the Esper they came from. At first, when myths of the realm was still being released, my theory was that Nald'Thal was Emet Selch, and the rest of the 12 were also Ascians. However, that theory was disproven at the end of the questline, where it was revealed that each of the twelve were Ancients- but not the Ascians specifically. However, with Gemini already being established as having connection to death and the underworld, and Emet-Selch's identity as Hades, it's really hard not to look at Nald'thal, the twin gods of commerce and death, and not associate them with Gemini, since in Ul'Dah, they often associate Nald'Thal with the afterlife. Though your assessment of their personality in the raid tier as a Libra is pretty fair. And shuffling them over to be a Gemini would throw the rest of your assessments out of whack. I did feel like the symbolism and precedent among both FF14 lore and the lore of FF12 / Ivalice was worth mentioning.
Very interesting! I'm not as familiar with FF12 but that connection does make sense. Nald'Thal in FFXIV is commerce and the afterlife, but they are also depicted with the scales, just like goddess Themis. Themis is the holder of the scales of the Libra sign as an arbiter of justice and "weighing your souls" just like Nald'Thal. So it probably goes many ways for them. I feel like Nald'Thal has a lot of responsibilities, probably had 0 days off. Thanks for sharing the FF12 connection!
I'm happy I switched to Nald'thal for my OC since she's a Black Mage and was born on October so she's a Libra woooo! Also I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS AND YOUR CAT MAGE AVATAR!!!! Please keep up the great work!!! I look forward to more!! Hoping for a Black Mage one sometime! ❤❤❤❤
There are some parallels there too, and the western Zodiac is derived from the Greek gods. Having them tied to Tarot Cards, constellations, and them having birthsigns that are attached to the Astrologian that utilizes charts and so on altogether is very much on purpose. It's great world building.
It’s quite impressive. I wonder if they went from the ideas of the zodiac to make their Twelve idea, or if it went the opposite way ? Either way, cool video.
What's fun to me is that technically I picked my main WoL's birthday to match my own. I, irl, am a Scorpio, and the month in-game that matched mine was the 5th Umbral Moon of Fire. Umbral fire, being associated with Nald'Thal from what I could see in my research at the time, I picked that one, and given that he was, in-verse, the twin god of Death and Commerce (FFXIV, you're real for this one) and Scorpio is associated within tarot with the Death arcana, I was absolutely happy to go with it. But your association of Nald'Thal with Libra makes loads of sense, especially in the wake of the Endwalker Alliance Raid and their absolute association with Balance. But! For my first alt which comes from a character that technically also shares/shared my birthday, I decided to give her Rhalgr to reflect her Ala Mhigan heritage and association with comets/meteors as a Black Mage. And you went and assigned Rhalgr to Scorpio. It's fantastic.
Impressive video! As with your previous, you've clearly done a lot of work and research! Enjoying your videos so far! Quick question as you might have good input considering the research you've done: FF14 lacks a druid which is a class I like to play in other MMORPGs, I did used to main a WHM due to them coming previously being conjurers, using stone and air and connected to nature however after we got to the 13th they changed to light based attacks, away from nature. As such I've turned more to the SCH, using carbuncle as a "Fae pet". Id be interested to hear your take on things and your interpretation on which job you feel best suits that of a druid!
Scholar is really strange because it has a couple of terms related to sciences as well as being tied with the Fey. I believe in Japanese, the class is called Tactician, which is why some abilities are battle or war related in name. So it's like a battle strategist scientist with fey powers. I think White Mage at first was more like a Druid with Stone, Aero, and the removed ability Fluid Aura, giving them earth, wind, and water. And also their early job quests were closely tied to nature in ARR. However, it seems to have really gone away from this theme, pulling a lot of influence from Christianity as I talk about in that related video.
Scholar JP name is 学者 (gakusha) which translates to "person of learning" (i.e. a scholar). The war mage theme I believe stems from Nymian lore of Royal Marines which comprises of marauders and mages who heal and cast tactical spell during battle. IMO an image of a mage who studies both art of healing and art of war holds up for someone who call themselves a scholar :) WHM and BLM used to cover the six elements of magic in the game (WHM takes earth, wind, and water and BLM takes fire, ice, and lightning) initially, which I personally like more than the current rendition (where BLM continues the same theme while WHM drifts to a more priest-inspired theme). Anyway I really enjoy your research on your recent FF14 topics so far! Thanks for the hard work.
@@tgcrusade Thanks for the explanation. I wonder why they decided to take the route they did with WHM seeing how connected it was to in-universe aspects, especially with the elements.
I really loved AST during stromblood and it is a shame they took away the option of many different effects on the cards, because I feel like that was what made the class interesting. There lore in AST is amazing and complex and I really wished the same could be said about AST gameplay too but alas, they changed it to more simple :'( I started to main late Stromblood but after going through shadowbringers with AST and getting the feel on the new playstyle I felt it became stale...
This is a nice theory and I love your videos, but I'm sure that the 12 are based on a variety of real-life mythological gods, rather than the zodiac. I do see Halone, being the goddess of vengence, sharing a lot of Scorpio traits. I think it's more fitting to switch her with Rhalgr in this comparison.
It's all very connected throughout centuries of development. The western Zodiac is based around twelve Greek gods. Aries comes from Ares for example. Each sign IRL is actually linked to a respective god in Greek mythology. So having the 12 in game also do so is how their connections tie together.
Spotted the homestuck reference with the color scheme used for the western zodiac in the thumbnail 🎉
This was a really good video!
As someone who's been interested in not just FF14 lore, but lore of other FF games in general, there are some connections I'm still a bit curious about. I agree with your assessment of Nald'thal as a Libra, although symbology-wise as "the twin gods Nald and Thal", they, on the surface, appear as Gemini.
Though I hesitate to fully remove their Gemini connection because there's a precedent for it in the past. In FF12, there are 12 Zodiac "Espers" and 12 Zodiac "Scions" that oppose them. The Esper for Gemini is Zalera, the Death Seraph, and Gemini in general is associated with the element of Death. The Scion that opposes Zalera is the familiar name "Emet-Selch, Angel of Truth." Indeed, most of the Ascians take their names from these same Scions from FF12's lore, and the Ascian's face-glyphs usually resemble the symbol of the Esper they came from.
At first, when myths of the realm was still being released, my theory was that Nald'Thal was Emet Selch, and the rest of the 12 were also Ascians. However, that theory was disproven at the end of the questline, where it was revealed that each of the twelve were Ancients- but not the Ascians specifically.
However, with Gemini already being established as having connection to death and the underworld, and Emet-Selch's identity as Hades, it's really hard not to look at Nald'thal, the twin gods of commerce and death, and not associate them with Gemini, since in Ul'Dah, they often associate Nald'Thal with the afterlife.
Though your assessment of their personality in the raid tier as a Libra is pretty fair. And shuffling them over to be a Gemini would throw the rest of your assessments out of whack. I did feel like the symbolism and precedent among both FF14 lore and the lore of FF12 / Ivalice was worth mentioning.
Very interesting! I'm not as familiar with FF12 but that connection does make sense. Nald'Thal in FFXIV is commerce and the afterlife, but they are also depicted with the scales, just like goddess Themis. Themis is the holder of the scales of the Libra sign as an arbiter of justice and "weighing your souls" just like Nald'Thal. So it probably goes many ways for them. I feel like Nald'Thal has a lot of responsibilities, probably had 0 days off.
Thanks for sharing the FF12 connection!
A cat with a wizard hat, you have my interest.
Your content is so cool! Please keep it up!
Thank you!
lovely video! i wanted to go into sage for my government-mandated healer class, but i'm tempted to choose astrologian instead!
Super excited to see this, I main AST and I love astrology in general so thank you!
I'm happy I switched to Nald'thal for my OC since she's a Black Mage and was born on October so she's a Libra woooo! Also I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS AND YOUR CAT MAGE AVATAR!!!! Please keep up the great work!!! I look forward to more!! Hoping for a Black Mage one sometime! ❤❤❤❤
Oh my god your cat avatar is the cutest thing I've ever seen, I'm so jealous right now
Oh thank you!
This was very cool and i have petted my cat today but i will give her extra
I will be honest, I always chuckled on zodiacs, I am an Aries and the farthest thing from what you just described XD
Great videos!
I loved every part of this video. In depth and thorough
I've watched all your ability terms videos and they have been very informative and entertaining. Well done, Mr. Kitty!
I'm glad they are enjoyable. Thank you
I had always related the 12 to the gods of Olympus. There have always been 12 of them in power, even when Hestia was replaced in favor by Dionysus.
There are some parallels there too, and the western Zodiac is derived from the Greek gods. Having them tied to Tarot Cards, constellations, and them having birthsigns that are attached to the Astrologian that utilizes charts and so on altogether is very much on purpose. It's great world building.
It’s quite impressive. I wonder if they went from the ideas of the zodiac to make their Twelve idea, or if it went the opposite way ? Either way, cool video.
I thought it was awesome, all of the 12 lining up with the actual real world zodiac signs just blew my mind XD
What's fun to me is that technically I picked my main WoL's birthday to match my own. I, irl, am a Scorpio, and the month in-game that matched mine was the 5th Umbral Moon of Fire.
Umbral fire, being associated with Nald'Thal from what I could see in my research at the time, I picked that one, and given that he was, in-verse, the twin god of Death and Commerce (FFXIV, you're real for this one) and Scorpio is associated within tarot with the Death arcana, I was absolutely happy to go with it.
But your association of Nald'Thal with Libra makes loads of sense, especially in the wake of the Endwalker Alliance Raid and their absolute association with Balance.
But! For my first alt which comes from a character that technically also shares/shared my birthday, I decided to give her Rhalgr to reflect her Ala Mhigan heritage and association with comets/meteors as a Black Mage. And you went and assigned Rhalgr to Scorpio. It's fantastic.
It's really cool how it all connected together! I've always personally liked Thaliak, maybe for obvious reasons 😹
Impressive video! As with your previous, you've clearly done a lot of work and research! Enjoying your videos so far!
Quick question as you might have good input considering the research you've done: FF14 lacks a druid which is a class I like to play in other MMORPGs, I did used to main a WHM due to them coming previously being conjurers, using stone and air and connected to nature however after we got to the 13th they changed to light based attacks, away from nature. As such I've turned more to the SCH, using carbuncle as a "Fae pet". Id be interested to hear your take on things and your interpretation on which job you feel best suits that of a druid!
Scholar is really strange because it has a couple of terms related to sciences as well as being tied with the Fey. I believe in Japanese, the class is called Tactician, which is why some abilities are battle or war related in name. So it's like a battle strategist scientist with fey powers.
I think White Mage at first was more like a Druid with Stone, Aero, and the removed ability Fluid Aura, giving them earth, wind, and water. And also their early job quests were closely tied to nature in ARR. However, it seems to have really gone away from this theme, pulling a lot of influence from Christianity as I talk about in that related video.
Scholar JP name is 学者 (gakusha) which translates to "person of learning" (i.e. a scholar). The war mage theme I believe stems from Nymian lore of Royal Marines which comprises of marauders and mages who heal and cast tactical spell during battle. IMO an image of a mage who studies both art of healing and art of war holds up for someone who call themselves a scholar :)
WHM and BLM used to cover the six elements of magic in the game (WHM takes earth, wind, and water and BLM takes fire, ice, and lightning) initially, which I personally like more than the current rendition (where BLM continues the same theme while WHM drifts to a more priest-inspired theme).
Anyway I really enjoy your research on your recent FF14 topics so far! Thanks for the hard work.
@@tgcrusade Thanks for the explanation. I wonder why they decided to take the route they did with WHM seeing how connected it was to in-universe aspects, especially with the elements.
This is SO cool I love how in depth you go into the connections and in every video I am genuinely learning something new!
Thank you. I'm glad you enjoy them.
love your videos
Very informative. Thank you!
I really loved AST during stromblood and it is a shame they took away the option of many different effects on the cards, because I feel like that was what made the class interesting. There lore in AST is amazing and complex and I really wished the same could be said about AST gameplay too but alas, they changed it to more simple :'( I started to main late Stromblood but after going through shadowbringers with AST and getting the feel on the new playstyle I felt it became stale...
Very cool!
This is a nice theory and I love your videos, but I'm sure that the 12 are based on a variety of real-life mythological gods, rather than the zodiac.
I do see Halone, being the goddess of vengence, sharing a lot of Scorpio traits. I think it's more fitting to switch her with Rhalgr in this comparison.
It's all very connected throughout centuries of development. The western Zodiac is based around twelve Greek gods. Aries comes from Ares for example. Each sign IRL is actually linked to a respective god in Greek mythology. So having the 12 in game also do so is how their connections tie together.