Mythology And History In FFXI

FFXI is largely based off of Mythology (greek, norse), symbolism, as well as some sprinkles of other passages from history in it. I noticed that many FFXIAH.com items have a source material for the background behind some items (and ffxiclopedia has source for NMs, etc) and thought it would be a great idea to mention certain aspects of the game that have borrowed from various legends and parts of history.

For instance, I have always noticed that "Sea" appeared to be someone's depiction of "heaven" (or outerworld space) - with Aerns being angels, and Yovra being UFOs.
The entire Adoulin story has many portions of Greek Mythology as well as some scriptural parallels, whether intentionally or accidental.
Odin, many of us know, is from Norse Mythology.
Many of the Avatars are based from Greek Mythology as well.

I was just interested in seeing what other aspects of FFXI were taken from different areas, and what they were. This is meant to be a discussion and not a Religion vs Atheism vs Mythology vs Evolution debate, so take that to another thread. I just thought it would be fun to learn where some of the other aspects of this game are derived from. Please share the parallel you have noticed with the appropriate source if you can.

While names are often lifted from religions... Here, like pretty much every FF, doesn't hold comparison to the actual divinities outside of possible physical appearance motifs. Usually.

Let's look at the avatars:

Carbuncle: a South American jewel spirit. Suprisingly appropriate. Anything else is not real mythos, but FFXI mythos. (Eg: bringer of rainbows etc)
Cait Sith: one of the fairy folk of the British Isles. Basically a magical cat. Another where form is accurate, but function (in FFXI basically Angels) is game-only.
Alexander: not a god. But the whole protection motif comes from the meaning of the name: "defender of men/man" why it's a robot is cause... It's been a robot before. At least in FFXI there's a reason for the robot form.

Fenrir: one of the sons of Loki in Norse Mythology. A giant wolf. He bears little resemblance beyond being a large wolf.
Odin: the All-Father of Norse Mythology. Aside from the horns and riding Sleipnir... Absolutely nothing like FFXI's primordial force of darkness and lord of demons... Namely that Odin is the principle force of good and order in Norse Mythology.
Atomos: um... Anyone's guess is as good as mine. It's not based on anything proper that I've ever heard of. Pure FF here.

Ifrit: Islamic "evil genies". The Djinn of Islam are similar to Angels and Demons, they are made of smokeless fire and can be good or evil. (Angels are made of light and can only be good.) The form is more Christian than Islamic since Islamic Djinn are more firey humans, but the fire idea is there.
Shiva: it's not Shiva. It never was Shiva. It will never BE Shiva. It's pure FF and not Hindi. At all. Originally a boss of triplets whose names were all plays on the word "shiver" which is written in Japanese as シヴァー "shivua". The joke doesn't translate well so we were given the Ice Goddess as Shiva. 0 relation to Hindi Shiva.
Garuda: Hindi giant, snake eating, mount of Vishnu. Not female. Aside from the wings, not much like the Hindu god.
Titan: the pre-Olympian gods in Greek Mythology. Being a type of god and not a singular one... There isn't anything to contradict. Though they were known for being rather large in size... And FFXI's Titan is a fatty... But that's about it.
Ramuh: Rama of Hinduism was an avatar of Vishnu. You wanna learn about Rama, go watch Sita Sings the Blues. There's a sort of tangential relation to lightning with Vishnu subsuming Indra and thusly Rama being associated with Indra... And Rama DID have that laser blasting bow he got from Shiva... But old man he was not (until was old and usually is depicted in his youth), Indra would have been more appropriate. Especially in other FFs where he gets to be king of the summons.
Leviathan: Jewish sea monster. Part of a trinity of "too big so יהרה killed them" representing the greatest of sea, land, and air animals. With Babylonian enslavement and control, Leviathan took on the qualities of Tiamat and became a seaserpent. So... Oceanic seaserpent. Check. That's all there is really.

Phoenix: a type of Grecian/Egyptian bird that immolates itself when it dies and rises anew from the ashes. So FF makes it a fire bird, which is a common misconception. The fire thing is only when it dies... And it's either it explodes itself, or throws itself into a flame. Phoenix in XI is actually a really creative way to present the death+fire concept. Because she's firey and in a state of perpetual death by being in fragments.

Bahamut: nope. It's a giant fish in Hinduism. Not a dragon.

And that's JUST the summons.

And a fun "spoiler" for the finale:
Fortuna was revealed to be the girl in the center.
Fortuna is Roman Tyche.
Tyche is the Greek goddess of luck.
Fortuna has some fate aspect to her as well. (Since Roman Mythology existed before the Greeks... They just copied all the Greek Myths and ascribed them to their own gods... So sometimes you get fragments of the original divinity ala Fortuna being associated with fate and destiny.)

"Fortuna" is a lady on the marketing/promotion team for the game, not the girl in the center of the finale picture:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/46539-Devs-can-we-get-a-response-on-the-actual-future-of-the-game-please?p=546020&viewfull=1#post546020

Could go into detail about specific armor/weapons here as well.

Most RME weapons have basis in mythology. Take DRG for example. Gungnir was Odin's Spear. Rhongomiant is another name for Rhongomyniad, a spear wielded by King Arthur. Gae Bolg is the spear/lance wielded by Cúchulainn in Irish/celtic myth.

Ryunohige has no basis in Mythology, the name just translates to Dragon's Beard or Dragon's Wisker.

I could go on and on about Weapons in this game.

The history/mythology behind naming choices in FFXI has always been one of my favorite aspects of the game.

For all of you Blue Mages that love the job more than life itself..

You can actually go see the real-life Tizona:

Let's take a look to the mythological references in the case of relic weapons:

Excalibur: The legendary sword of King Arthur.
Ragnarok: An apocalyptic scenario in Norse mythology after which the world is said to be reborn. It includes a great battle among mythological figures, various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water.
Gungnir: The dwarven made spear of Odin.
Amanomurakumo (Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi): A legendary Japanese sword and one of three Imperial Regalia of Japan.
Mjollnir: The dwarven made hammer of Thor, said to be capable of leveling mountains.
Gjallarhorn: A horn associated with the god Heimdallr in Norse mythology. It was believed that Heimdallr's blow into the horn would mark the beginning of Ragnarok.
Aegis: A piece of animal skin or shield, said to be furnished with golden tassels and bearing the Gorgoneion (Medusa's head) in the central boss.

In addition to Tizona; Joyeuse, Oliphant, Almace, and I believe a few other weapons are from The Song of Roland, the story about the battle against El Cid as Charlemange and his army were leaving Spain.

They really liked naming their swords (and that horn)

Another (somewhat random) tidbit - in the KSNM battlefield "Moa Constrictors", the NM's are two Giant Moas.

A Moa is an extinct New Zealand flightless bird, similar in appearance to an Emu, but much, much larger.

They were hunted to extinction by the Maori before the country was colonized by English settlers.

I'm interested in the Voidwatch and SoA weapon and armor names. Toci's Harness, and the names of those 3 bodies. Everything in SoA, i can't find references to what language it is. Upukirex, Atoyac, Izhiikoh, Xuileato,Achuka,Hurkan, Tamax'chi Tojil, Dakuwaqa etc. i wanna say they're native american(would fit the whole nature/wild/pioneer theme)but I can't confirm.

The Adoulin stuff you mentioned is nahuatl.

I guess someone has to point this out, since you're bringing up storyline rather than all the various named armor and mobs:

Joseph Campbell's monomyth hypothesis

All/most of the Adoulin stuff is based of of Nahuatl/Aztec/Mayan myth/language.

Ryu-no-hige lit. Dragon's beard is the long flowing "whisker" or "tentacle" streaming from the mouths of eastern dragons which was considered an item of power and luck but was extremely difficult for a mortal to obtain.

Rhongomiant was the spear of Roland.

Vishap is a snake god.

Pteroslaver. Ptero=greek for lizard, slaver=someone who enslaves.

Drachen german for dragon

The Song of Roland is not about El Cid. El Cid is featured in The Poem of the Cid (The Song of Cid), which came a little after. They are based in the same area but are about two different things. The first is Charlemagne's army is fighting the Muslims in Spain and eventually converting the region to christianity after the Franks promised to go back to France. The Song of Cid is about the Spanish re-conquering the region controlled by the Moors.

While both are similar in their plot they are from two different periods of time. (The song of Cid was written 100 years after Roland) Also, one of them is almost historically accurate (Song of Cid), where the other is based more on legend and only features the hinting of actual events and people. (Song of Roland)

Tizona, unlike Almace, is an actual sword that you can go see anytime you want. The other has never been proven to actually exist. (Joyeuse is a real sword and was used in French Coronations for years)

Almace is the sword of Turpin, Archbishop of Reims, given to him by Charlemagne.

http://kingarthur.wikia.com/wiki/Rhongomyniad

Not too much official text on it but it is Welsh and some more information can be found in the "Other Weapons" section of this page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excalibur

I've always particularly liked Nidhogg and Jormungand.





One day Nidhogg will chew through the roots of The Boyahda Tree, flying free and signaling the start Ragnarök, the end of the game. Jormungand will leave his perch atop Uleguerand Range and plunge Vana'diel into darkness!

Better make a Mjollnir.

the Ryunohige/Dragon Whisker is a very traditional Final Fantasy weapon name, though its appearance has varied widely, ranging from a Whip in Final Fantasy IV and V, and a spear in a variety of titles.

Mjollnir/Thor's Hammer has been a recurring weapon since FF1, as well as Excalibur and the Masamune. (the latter of which named for a famed swordsmith of the 18th century, since we've not talked about that yet.)

Yoichinoyumi (Yoichi's Bow) is another longtime Final Fantasy weapon named for a legendary samurai.

Himantes and Sphairai date back to ancient Greece (I think) and were essentially just leather hand wraps for boxing.

I'd swear one of these threads has popped up sometime in the past, maybe on a different forum.

You guys bring up some interesting points.

The avatars I was only slightly familiar with. Personally, I have always noticed an eerie resemblance between Ifrit and Baphomet, but that could just be my inner conspirator kicking in.

As for Cait sith - when WOTG released him in game, I did a little research. I was surprised to learn he was actually a real character, as per the wiki. I was impressed.

Something that always quite puzzled me in FFXI, though, is the Corsair job. I get that many jobs are derived from real-world influences. For instance, GEO is basically divination elementalist, as seen by the emblems on their armor, and the Idris symbol; Paladin is a white knight, Monk is a spiritual being that harnesses its power through meditation and intense mental training. I think they did a great job of introducing these jobs into the game with a relevant array of moves that compliment its skillset. But Corsair always confused me. I could never understand what Dice, Luck, and Cards had to do with Pirates. I could have been strongly deprived of this history in my days, so maybe I missed that point. I just didn't understand where the concept of the Pirate/Corsair had anything to do with those elements. If anything, Pirates were treasure hunters.

Back to the discussion - I also thought the Vagary drop from Hades was quite fitting: Tartarus Mail. Evidently, this is drawn heavily off of Greek Mythology as well, where Tartarus was basically an eternal place of torment for the lesser gods (or, as can be understood, superhumans). I thought this was interesting, because Hades actually is a greek term which, when translated, basically means "Common grave for men". In modern terms, its generally understood to be Hell, but a place where Humans are supposed to reside after death, and not "superhuman forces", as the FFXI character Hades represents.

Tartarus is an interesting term to say the least, as it is both used in Greek language, as well as the Bible (greek scriptures). In the Bible, it is not considered a literal place, but rather, an abased spiritual condition reserved for disobedient spirit creatures during the flood of Noah's day. Although the Biblical and Greek renderings of the word generally imply "darkness", the meanings are used in different contexts (one is a condition, the other is a place). Even still, there is a similarity between these two terms: Tartarus in both scenarios (greek and bible) both seem to indicate a term that was used ONLY for superhuman creatures, or gods (demons). Thus, the fact that the FFXI character "Hades" gives a "Tartarus Mail", its a very interesting backstory if you do the digging.

There was a thread a while back about FFXI and Real life. Not sure if its the same thing though.