I just got into FFXIV and am playing through the Stormblood expansion. When I first came across the Ananta the name sounded very Sanskrit and it means 'One who sleeps eternally', a title for one of the gods of the Hindu pantheon. As I played through it they introduced the Qalyana and their primal Sri Lakshmi who is the goddess of wealth in Hindu mythology. I was curious to see how they implemented it in game and was thrilled to find that they included the white elephant!
I was just roaming around the Qalyana Nilya (Nilaya in Sanskrit meaning residence) and was so surprised to find that they named all the classes after the caste system in India. The mages were named Brahmins who are priests in India, the bowmen were Shudra or workmen and the warriors were named Kshatriya who were warriors in ancient India. I was so surprised that a Japanese videogame company had put this much thought and effort to understand a foreign culture and implement the names and lore in-game in a very respectful way and as true to the original lore as possible. It would have been very easy to simply take the names and lore and warp it to the point where I wouldn't recognise it but this implementation is simply amazing!
I was also pleasantly surprised by Sophia holding Chintamani, another legend from India (Chintamani loosely translates to 'peerless gem' or 'perfect jewel'). Something that worked so perfectly with Sophia's theme of perfection and balance. Even the name Qalyana is rife with meaning (Kalyan meaning prosperity)!
SE continues to surprise me with its lore and great sensitivity to the mythologies and cultures they incorporate into their world, Ishgard was an amazing example of using Norse mythology. The inclusion of the Ananta and their primal greatly improved the vibrance of the FFXIV world for me just as much as the inclusion of the Kojin and other entities from Japanese mythology.
EDIT: Don't even get me started about the names of the Qalyana! Those names like Nisha and Jayanti are still very much in use and are quite popular! One rarely finds inclusion of SEA culture in videogames and this was very refreshing even as an Anglophile.
submitted by /u/Sharp_Iodine
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I was just roaming around the Qalyana Nilya (Nilaya in Sanskrit meaning residence) and was so surprised to find that they named all the classes after the caste system in India. The mages were named Brahmins who are priests in India, the bowmen were Shudra or workmen and the warriors were named Kshatriya who were warriors in ancient India. I was so surprised that a Japanese videogame company had put this much thought and effort to understand a foreign culture and implement the names and lore in-game in a very respectful way and as true to the original lore as possible. It would have been very easy to simply take the names and lore and warp it to the point where I wouldn't recognise it but this implementation is simply amazing!
I was also pleasantly surprised by Sophia holding Chintamani, another legend from India (Chintamani loosely translates to 'peerless gem' or 'perfect jewel'). Something that worked so perfectly with Sophia's theme of perfection and balance. Even the name Qalyana is rife with meaning (Kalyan meaning prosperity)!
SE continues to surprise me with its lore and great sensitivity to the mythologies and cultures they incorporate into their world, Ishgard was an amazing example of using Norse mythology. The inclusion of the Ananta and their primal greatly improved the vibrance of the FFXIV world for me just as much as the inclusion of the Kojin and other entities from Japanese mythology.
EDIT: Don't even get me started about the names of the Qalyana! Those names like Nisha and Jayanti are still very much in use and are quite popular! One rarely finds inclusion of SEA culture in videogames and this was very refreshing even as an Anglophile.
submitted by /u/Sharp_Iodine
[link] [comments]
Continue reading...