Crystal War

[Elvier]

I have been having fun reading about the crystal war and wondering if we will get to participate in some of the major battles they talk about.

Saw this and wanted to share the illustrators inspiraton with you:

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Karaha-Baruha Illustration by Mitsuhiro Arita

This is the Bayeaux Tapestry. It tells the tale of William the Conqueror.

http://www.bayeuxtapestry.org.uk/Index.htm

 

[Zeri]

Heya Elvi, you asked me if I saw this last night, and I did. Thanks for finding this cool tapestry! It's nice to see some of the many influences the FFXI artists had. Just not sure what to say about it since it is such a close match stylistically.

The artists are very well versed in the art and styles of various cultures, so it's a fun self-mini game to see if you can tell where they came from. Sandoria is clearly modeled after Medival Europe. Bastok is inspired by the western Industrial Revolution for the hume anyway. For Galka, while nothing left of their original kingdom, they seem to be a mix of native american, hindu, and some African-American issues smattered in. Windurst is a little harder to tell because it looks to be a mishmash of things. Some Mayan, some Tibetan, and god knows what else so it's probably the most "fictional" of the cities if you ask me. Mithra and their home of Kazham is an interesting mix of Polynesian/Ainu and maybe some Mosuo.

As a linguist their names never cease to fascinate me. Elvaan names are clearly based on common french sound combinations. Galka adj-noun combinations with animalistic themes. Tarutaru names make lots of use of alliteration and rhyme, may or may not be hyphenated depending on length. Mithra often have both first and last names to show the matriarchal nature of mithra (nanaa and romaa migho, etc). That and it allowed them to shove more h's into their names. Mithra, while lacking reasoning, still follows a pattern. Double certain letters and throw in silent H's wherever possible. Hume will vary, but within the normal vanadiel areas follows general english sounds. Once you hit aht urghan it's a whole new ballpark...

Once you hit aht urghan, Elvaan and Hume take on Mithra name traits of excessive silent H's and double vowels. Galka and Taru for the most part remain the same (there are some exceptions). But Hume and Elvaan completely lose their old naming schemes. That kind of makes me sad, but I think all the H's and impossible to pronounce letter combinations they include lends to the "Exotic" nature of the area. I fully expect to see new NPCs in WotG retain the old scheme. That or I kick em! =^.^=

 

[Pussenboots]

Are you a cunning linguist?
Phonetically speaking, taru names are a nightmare, even for a child as the morphemes tend to follow some of the harder muscle sounds produced by the mouth. Still fun never the less.

 

[Varda]

I always thought it was cool that you could tell Taru males and females apart by their names, just by the way they rhymed. Sometimes that's the only way since you can't see any distinguishing features through some armor types.

 

[Zeri]

I always thought it was cool that you could tell Taru males and females apart by their names, just by the way they rhymed. Sometimes that's the only way since you can't see any distinguishing features through some armor types.

You mean can't see any distinguishing features PERIOD. Taru have no genders. As far as I'm concerned, they reproduce by magic. They do an incantation and a taru dance, and magically a party ball like Super Smash Brothers appears in the sky. Just instead of a light saber a baby taru pops out. That's my story and I'm stickin to it!