Comments from the Devs

[Rocl]

The ash would be thousands of years old if you're talking about the Meltdown. Not sure if I buy that tbh

[Alkar]

I'm not sure about the Gigas.. at least the ones we have in the game right now. Every single beastman seems to have some sort of connection to its Primal even through abilities (the Ixal use Enaero, the Amal'jaa use Enfire, Syplhs spam Thunder, Sahagins have water based abilities and the Kobolds have various abilities named after Titan on top of spamming Stone spells) but the Gigas I've fought have absolutely 0 abilities or references to ice as far as I remember.
This could obviously be a Beta thing but it's also possible that the actual Gigas that summon Shiva aren't in the game yet.

[Oreth]

Suprised nobody has been really talking about Fenrir with regards the SMNs... Will he just be a monster in a FATE? Has it confirmed how he fits in the story? Would he even be considered a main primal by FF standards (Genuine questions as im not up on the whole FF backstory of many mobs beyond XI)

[Buffy]

For the record here's a freeroaming Gigas in XIV. I didn't take any pics of Copperbell for some reason, and I can only guess based on the placement in my screenshot folder, but this should be underground in Western Thanalan.

If they make a quest requiring 50 of this mob's helm.....I will start punching kittens.

[Viena]

I remember what Qufim looked like, but I also remember people saying that everything was ash rather than snow from the fallout that blasted the island to hell.

Since there's never any snow weather or any ice-related mobs (aside from the gigas) I figured it was plausible enough.

I can't imagine that being the case:

- Ash would be long gone.
- There's frozen lakes.
- It's located to the North of Jeuno, Jeuno is located to the East of Batallia Downs. This would place Qufim at around the same latitude than Beaucedine, which is North of Batallia.

As for why it doesn't have ice weather probably has more to do with an attempt to balance the variety of weathers within the world and limit the number of weathers per area rather than the game's lore.

[solracht]

Suprised nobody has been really talking about Fenrir with regards the SMNs... Will he just be a monster in a FATE? Has it confirmed how he fits in the story? Would he even be considered a main primal by FF standards (Genuine questions as im not up on the whole FF backstory of many mobs beyond XI)

We don't know anything about Fenrir beyond the artwork (or Cait Sith, for that matter).

I can't even begin to guess what their roles will be in this game.

[Cutriss]

I can't imagine that being the case:

- Ash would be long gone.
- There's frozen lakes.
- It's located to the North of Jeuno, Jeuno is located to the East of Batallia Downs. This would place Qufim at around the same latitude than Beaucedine, which is North of Batallia.

Jeuno is SE of Batallia. If you look at the Vana'diel maps, Qufim is actually at around the same latitude as the Norvallen region in general. Fauregandi is much further to the north, through Ranguemont Pass. You have to do some rather funky artificial lengthening of specific inter-zone areas to put Qufim at the same latitude as Beaucedine.

It's rather lol in general to talk about weather patterns in XI but if I had to take a stab, I'd say that the winds in that area run east-to-west. The high cliffs provide something of a rain shadow for most of the island, and it's rather small so it doesn't get a ton of precipitation, but Beaucedine gets something of a lake effect. It's not really snowy in Qufim, just cold and hard.

As for why it doesn't have ice weather probably has more to do with an attempt to balance the variety of weathers within the world and limit the number of weathers per area rather than the game's lore.

Yeah, I'll go with this. The main thing is going to be lightning because of Delkfutt's and Behemoth (even though BD wasn't added until ROTZ, I'm pretty sure they planned it this way).

They should've made the auroras more prominent/frequent though.

[Cutriss]

Double.

[Reve]

Suprised nobody has been really talking about Fenrir with regards the SMNs... Will he just be a monster in a FATE? Has it confirmed how he fits in the story? Would he even be considered a main primal by FF standards (Genuine questions as im not up on the whole FF backstory of many mobs beyond XI)

There hasn't been any info on Fenrir yet. It's possible he could be a Primal. There is some lore on Primals, but there is a still a lot of mystery about them. For example Good King Moogle Mog XII, is a Primal but he seems to be summoned using a different procedure from other Primals. Primals can also be found all over the world, not just in the continent of Eorzea. They seem to be sentient beings from the Aether, meaning there could be a whole slew of them.

Mourning their lost king and touched by his sacrifice, the moogles have since abstained from naming a successor to the crown, and ultimately were able to call him back to Eorzea using a mysterious summoning ritual. Unfortunately, while moogle legends describe Moggle Mog as a kind, benevolent presence, and while the moogles summoned him with the very best of intentions, ultimately once in Eorzea he is driven by the same urges that all other terrestrially-summoned Primals are - to collect and feast on ever-greater amounts of Aether, and to gain more and more worshipers to further solidify his being.

They all need to have some kind of aetherial energy to enter the realm. While most obtain the energy from crystals, there could be other ways to obtain the aether energy like the Moogles found. Then it seems that since Eorzea is brimming with this Aether, it makes all the Primals go batshit crazy, like some kind of junkie. Then the Elder Primals (Bahamut and Odin) seem to work on different rules as well.

[Eanae]

Qufim was in like a nuclear winter or something similar iirc.

[Raldo]

Just to further nix the ash in Qufim idea, even one of the quests has you interact with Trodden Snow.

[LD]

We don't know anything about Fenrir beyond the artwork (or Cait Sith, for that matter).

I can't even begin to guess what their roles will be in this game.

Their roles are to give FFXIV as many of FFXI and FFXII's art assets as possible.

[miokomioko]

I demand more FFXII assets. FFXI's generally look really dated next to all the complex/detailed new models (Pugils & crabs look particularly bland).

Speaking of, still no mimic artwork anywhere?

[Waraji]

We also got those FFXII Urstrix (Bird/Owl men), think I saw them in the latest Tour of Eorzea video right? Haven't seen them in game yet though, not that I've been looking.

[Raldo]

We also got those FFXII Urstrix (Bird/Owl men), think I saw them in the latest Tour of Eorzea video right? Haven't seen them in game yet though, not that I've been looking.

You talking about these?
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__...ight-ffxii.png

They're far east in E.Thanalan, amongst that crazy firey-looking crystal structure, along with a bunch of "Golden Fleece" (yellow Snurbles).

[miokomioko]

Yeah, they were pulled straight out of the Feywood, even still named Mirror Knights.

I wouldn't mind seeing stuff like Wooly Gators, or those sweet-ass reaper mobs.

[Vuitton]

Fancy looking Yagudo.

[Lucavi]

Just give me a big ol' T-rex stomping around some starter zone, eating up all the hostile mobs.

[Raldo]

Just give me a big ol' T-rex stomping around some starter zone, eating up all the hostile mobs.

Speaking of monsters fighting each other, I did notice a cool concept in a FATE in E. La Noscea with a bunch of Buffalos where, if you leave them alone, they start attacking each other. The description for the FATE is something like, there aren't enough females around during mating season, so they're all riled up.

[Izzy]

Speaking of monsters fighting each other, I did notice a cool concept in a FATE in E. La Noscea with a bunch of Buffalos where, if you leave them alone, they start attacking each other. The description for the FATE is something like, there aren't enough females around during mating season, so they're all riled up.

There's one in The Shroud area where the poachers/goblins are fighting each other and the point of the FATE is to take advantage of the fact they're fighting amongst themselves and take them both out!