An Idiot’s guide to FFXIV lore (Updated for 6.0) [Spoilers]

 

Recently it came to my attention that I had not even really sat down with Final Fantasy like I have done with WoW and mapped out along a timeline all the various things which compose key events in the story, so I figured I’d put it together in one brief short of story here for you all!

Warning: The following contains spoilers for all of Final Fantasy XIV’s Lore and Main Scenario Quest, if you are not interested, please turn back now, and do not look back!

Sources for Further reading, fun, and profit (and a bit less snark and personal spin): 

- Mirke's Menagerie

SPOILERS BELOW (6.0 is Endwalker so it includes Endwalker Spoilers). 

A brief history of everything

The Ancient Convocation of 14

In the beginning there were a group of incredibly powerful beings known as Ancients who lived on what can be referred to as “the Source”, the true name of the "star" being Etheirys. Their civilization lived in peace, and they explored numerous facets of working with Aether and exploring the endless possibilities of art related to the manipulation of this substance.

Their society was ruled by something known as the Convocation of fourteen in which senior members of Ancient society would help in the overall management of instrumental matters. Members of this convocation were given titles to reflect their key job roles in the convocation. Titles included.

• Emet-Selch
• Lahabrea (The Speaker)
• Elidibus (The Emissary)
• Azem (The Traveler)
• Fandaniel
• Igeyorhm
• Loghrif
• Mitron
• Halmarut
• Deudalaphon
• Pashtarot
• Altima
• Emmerololth

The ancients were renowned for their use of creation magics and saw it as their duty to create a world filled with life of all variety. Though they also suffered from a bit of the Vogon bureaucracy and every creation had to go through a Bureau of the Architect. At the time most notable to the events of Final Fantasy XIV an ancient by the name of Hythlodaeus was the chief architect. 

Creations which merit further study but may not have been suitable for introduction to the greater world were contained within a sort of aetheric prison, Pandaemonium . 

Based on what is known, the Ancients had a number of talents that were held by many (though not all), including the ability to see an individuals soul. 

The beginning of the end 

Meteion, Dynamis Research Project

At some point during the history of Etheirys, one if it's greatest minds, and the future holder of the seat of Fandaniel, a man known as Hermes would go on to create a project using a more intangible form of energy known as dynamis. Dynamis is a form of energy distinct from aether and strongly affected by emotion and tends to be much weaker in the presence of aether. As such the vast majorities of it tend to be found outside of stars in space itself. Much like dark matter to matter, it technically comprises the majority of the known universe.  

The project was to make use of Dynamis as the primary energy source for the creation of an entity (referred to as an entelechies). Hermes created a group consciousness of entities using this dynamis which can be collectively referred to as "Meteia". Created at an ancient testing facility known as Elipis, the intention was to make use of the project to help better explore the stars on behalf of the ancients, to explore as Hermes explicitly put it "What the meaning of life was".

A single entity of the Meteia, Meteion, stayed with Hermes in Elpis in order to report the findings of her sisters traveling through space. Hermes did not inform the 

Time is a flat circle

Elpis, Ancient Research Area

It is at this point in time when a causality loop appears to occur (also known as a predestination paradox). IE An alteration occurs in a timeline that causes a future entity within the timeline to go back and actually cause said series of events. In this case, the player character and sundered soul of the seat of Azem, in a bid to help prevent an apocalypse occurring within their own time frame inadvertently begins to set in a motion a series of events.

In this case, the player character arrives in the past on the same day a member of the convocation (Emet-Selch) and his closest friend, arrive to see about determining if Heremes would be interested and capable of taking on the seat of Fandaniel.

During the events, after the previous holder of the seat of Azem, an ancient by the name of Venat, realizes that the Player Character has a magic placed on them that only she could have put in place and thus they must in turn be from the future. The player character will go on to explain everything they know about an series of events that would be occuring in the ancients not to distant future, the "Final Days". 

From the ancients understanding of the cataclysm that befell them, they had understood that a stillness of aether in the star's uppermost aether currents was causing something to begin calamitous events around those regions. In a bid to better understand what these currents might be and possibly forestall or even prevent the events, Venat, Emet-Selch, Hytholodaeus, and the player character speak Hermes as his expertise was on celestial aether currents and flight, to see if he might have some idea of a possible cause. 

During the conversation, Meteion is relinked with her sisters in space as part of the greater Meteia consciousness and determines that in all other stars they visited the only conclusion to life was death and suffering. Being a creature of dynamis which is strongly influenced by emotion, this causes a sort of chain reaction in the Meteia, causing the entelechies to believe that because all life ends in suffering that the only logical course would be to simply end life sooner as not to prolong that suffering.

In an attempt to protect Meteion and prevent the Convocation from destroying the creation (As would have been a highly likely recourse given the ancients standard approach to creations which proved to be a threat), Hermes would in turn use a device in Elpis known as Kairos which was capable of altering memories. 

Hermes used this device to wipe the memories of Emet-Selch, Hytholodaeus and himself; however, he was unable to wipe the memories of Venat or the player character. In tandem Meteion would leave Etheirys to join her sisters to act as a sort of "Song of Oblivion" making use of Dynamis to corrupt Etheirys from a nest somewhere within the sea of stars. 

The Final Days

The Final Days

As a result of Meteion's corruptive use of Dyanmis slowly but surely penetrating Ethryis, the final days which the Player character had relayed Venat and Emet-Selch began to occur. With only venat being aware of the events that had taken place in Elpis, the corrupting nature of dynamis began to push through weakened portions of the star's outermost aetheric layers causing catastrophe to follow shortly there after. 

The result was the corruption of the Ancients creation magics, turning their creations into monstrositys which would wreak havoc and destruction upon the land. As dynamis is strongly influenced and empowered by emotion, the resulting panic and fear these smaller events caused would in turn allow a further swell of dynamis to overtake the star. 

Eventually the entire world was engulfed in this corrupting influence and all of creation magic began to give life to only more and more destructive and horrible abominations. 

Stop, Zodiark time. 

Zodiark, Astral Primal of Eternal Darkness

In a bid to attempt to stop the final days, the ancients were with the help of Fandaniel, identify that stillness in the star's celestial air currents was at minimum related to the corruption of their creation magics. As such they concieved a method to correct for this stillness. They did this by making use of the astral properties of aether (That which causes aether to be active). To do so they performed one of the first summoning's of this astral Primal, Zodiark.

To summon a primal of a power great enough to keep the celestial currents active; however, would require a massive amount of aether in turn. So the ancients decided to offer up half their population to do so. And thus, half of all ancients, including individuals like Hytholoadeus were sacrificed in order to bring forth Zodiark. 

With the celestial currents properly stirred, dynamis could no longer penetrate the star's outermost layers and the final days and corruption of creation magics was at least forstalled; however, the Ancients found themselves on a heavily damaged world. So they decided to sacrifice another half of their population so that zodiark could undo that damage. 

This decision was not without it's opponents. Venat, gathered a group of Ancients who opposed the summoning of Zodiark, and future plans by the remaining ancients to sacrifice future souls born into the world so that those whos souls had been used for Zodiark's summoning could be restored. To prevent this from coming to pass Venat and her small band would go on to summon a primal intended to challenge Zodiark, Hydalaen. 

It's only a paper moon 

The moon looking upon Etheirys

Realizing that Zodiark was still the only thing that was keeping the celestial currents of the star in motion, Hydaelyn could not destroy the being, rather the only choice was to imprison him so as to prevent further sacrifices from being made. It would not be possible, with Hydaelyn's own limited power to imprison Zodiark at his full strength and so instead Hydaelyn  went on to sunder Zodiark and Ethyris, resulting in 14 separate but intertwined stars including our own, the source. 

The binding was in turn placed in a large structure orbiting the first, known to the sources inhabitants as "The Moon" (Word of god states that each of the shards has it's own moon (despite the auspicious absence of such from the 1st skybox) each of which  contain a shard of zodiak). 

Predicting or perhaps knowing from memories Venat retained from the events in Elpis, the moon was given a second function should Zodiark come to be destroyed and the celestial currents could no longer be stirred. In such an event the moon could act as a large scale escape vessel. So Hydaelyn would go on to create creatures to maintain this vessel in preperation for the day such things came to past. These creatures would be known as Loporrits. 

With the world's sundering and Zodiark's imprisonment, the creatures of the 14 shards were left unaware of their shared history or ties to each other. Only Loporrits, a watcher left in place on the moon, and a few unsundered Ancients (Lahabrea, Emet-Selch, and later the member of the convocation sacrificed to summon Zodiark, withdrawn to help undo the sundering, Elidibus) were aware of what had transpired. 

As such the source would find itself with simply the name "Hydaelyn" 

There be dragons.

Midgardsormr last dragon of the dragonstar

In another part of space known as the Dragonstar, a war was raging between the dragons and a species of mechanical monstrosities known as the Omicron would result in the destruction of nearly all dragons present. 

A dragon known as Midgardsormr, fled the star and found himself being chased devilish little superweapon known as Omega. Though Midgardsormr could keep Omega at bay, he was keenly aware this his opponent’s ability to regenerate would eventually result in defeat.

Fleeing the dragonstar with the last seven eggs he had, Midgardsormr would eventually come across the source. Striking up a deal with Hydaelyn, he and his children would hide on this world and restart the dragon population there. This “First Brood” included

• Tiamat
• Bahamut
• Hraesvelgr
• Nidhogg
• Ratatoskr
• Azdaja
• Vrtra

Calamitous Rebirth

A demonstration of a rejoining

With Zodiark sealed, the three remaining unsundered ancients went about making it their job to undo the sundering. In order to do so they began recruiting others to their cause, making use of  soul stones for the fourteen members of the convocation save one (Azem, who did not agree with the Convocation's plans). These souls stones were created by the three unsundered using their memories of the members of the convocation. 

They would do this by overwhelming one of the 13 shards with a given type of Aether which would begin to trickle into the source, eating away at the barrier between the source and the given shard. By triggering some sort of disaster in tandem on the source which may shatter the barrier completely the overwhelmed shard would simply rejoin with the first. 

Their first attempt at this was an abject failure and resulted in what is known today as the "World of Darkness" as they did not at the time realize they would need to trigger an event on the source so that the Aether may flow through unabated. 

The Empire of Allag

Xande, Emperor of Allag

It is important to note that there were “calamities” prior to the Allagan empire; however, this is the first real ‘Empire". [NOTE: There is a strong implication [1] that Allag is actually predated by Ivalice as the first real 'empire' but Allag is the only one the lore consistently points at]. 

It is implied that prior to the Allagan empire they had been successful in this three times, managing to rejoin the Second, Fifth, and Twelfth shards

To attempt to better achieve their goals the unsundered ancients began influencing fledling empires. One such empire was the empire of Allag under this influence had managed to spread across the whole of the source in terms of power. This empire also managed to master the art of binding and funneling energy from primals as well as bioweapons, the ability to traverse some of the celestial sea, and more.

It is likely that a key source of the empire's technological advancement was in thanks to the discovery of the weapon "Omega" which had followed Midgardsormr to the world and crashed there in a not so graceful manner allowing reverse engineering. There is also no doubt that the Ascians (The name by which the unsundered ancients had become known), having passed along the soul stone for Fandaniel to one of Allag's chief scientist, Amon, contributed. 

Under a powerful emperor named “Xande” they were able to achieve great things; however, upon his death the empire stagnated somewhat. Using Allag’s nearly endless pool of resources and knowledge, Amon would go on to ressurect Xande to try and keep the empire ever expanding and growing. 

Shortly after his resurrection, in a bid to finish his “plan” and perhaps in a streak of exestintial dread to conquer the whole of the source (and or wipe out all of existence), Xande began moving pieces into place so he could shatter the walls between reality and the “World of Darkness”.

Xande wished to let that wall shatter so that a flood of the 13th's aether starved population might come about to simply destroy the world. To sure up the power needed the Elder Primal Bahamut (Not to be confused with the actual dragon) was shoved into a giant power sucking pokeball known as Dalamud (yeah that comes up again) and placed above the Crystal Tower.

However, as they always do, things went south and the whole experiment backfired, and a series of earthquakes wiped out the Allagan’s and their empire.

Skipping ahead a bit – The war of the Magi

The Weeping city of Mach

Following the fall of the Allagan empire, three powerful city states would eventually rise from the ashes (also do not mind another calamity somewhere in between which resulted in the sixth shard rejoining the source). These city states Nym, Mhach, and Amdapor were relatively powerful empires, though not near the power achieved by the Allagans.

Well, they got to fighting as one was want to do, the mages of Mhach specializing in void magic first snuck a galley into the sea faring nation of Nym. The galley contained a voidsent who spread a plague amongst its people that would become known as the “Green Death”. This plague would transform the inhabitants into tonberries (real short end of the stick if you will).

To counteract Mhach’s nonsense the mages of Amdapor began developing powerful white magics to counteract the black magic of Mhach, the culmination of which was the containment of a particularly problematic voidsent summoned by Mhach (Diabolos). But as with all things this helps illustrate a story of “All things in moderation”. The inane amounts of white magic used to pull off this little trick apparently angered the elementals, namely Oha-Sok. Though it is entirely possible Oha-Sok simply took credit for this as a means of keeping the future residents in check

As a result, a massive flood came in to wipe out... well, everything. To save their civilization, the people of Mhach built a “void ark” to ferry them and their people to the floating city of Dun Scaith. Problematically when you attempt to power your escape boat on powerful void sent like Scathach you may run into problems when she gets free. So to keep her and a host of other voidsent from getting free the mages aboard the void arc sacrificed themselves.

Thus, the inhabitants of Mhach never made it to their intended destination. Of course, this being a calamity, also resulted in the Tenth shard rejoining the source.

A tale of… vore?

Hraesvelgr and Shiva

So, after the mess that was the great flood, the beginnings of most of the major empires today would start. In the north a group of Elezen would settle in a land called Coerthas and begin the creation of an empire that would later be known as “Ishgard”. There they found some dragons and as the wont of everyone involved some fighting started.

Luckily for lovers of peace however when a Dragon and an Elezen love each other very much, sometimes the dragon eats the Elezen so their souls can fuse. Apparently, this delectable tale of love inspired a truce amongst the land.

Sadly, dragon’s eyes are filled with everyone’s favorite power source, aether, and a king of the elezen people named Thordan figured this out. So, they snuck up on one of the first brood, Ratatoskr, and ate her eyes. This in turn irritated one of Ratatoskr’s siblings, Nidhogg. And thus, a tale of fighting began that would become known as the Dragonsong War.

Do not ask the citizens of Ishgard about this though. See when the King and his men attacked Ratatoskr, not many of them lived to tell the tale. And so those that returned would go on to form the four great houses of Ishgard and gave a SLIGHTLY different retelling of how events unfolded.

Setting the stage.

Dalamud - The second moon

You remember Dalamud right? That pokeball that the Allagan empire jammed above the Crystal Tower to act as a power source to bring in the Void Cloud? Yes, well there is a new empire on the block, and they call themselves the Garleans. Unlike the average inhabitant of the world, the Garleans cannot use magic and so instead they have begun to make use of a combination of magic and technology handily referred to as “Magitek”.

The Garleans had been on a march across the lands under the influence of one Solus Zos Galvus, or as he is better known Emet-Selch’s newest vessel. In conjunction with their new leader and the suspiciously recent discovery of a power source known as ceruleum, They would go on to conquer the lands of Southern Othard and Ilsebard as well as Doma.

Meanwhile on the continent of Eorzea there were 5 primary city states in the ruins of Nym and Ampador which in turn had been sitting on the ruins of Allag themselves. These city states were

• Ala Mhigo
• Gridania
• Limsa Lominsa
• Ul’dah
• Ishgard

The five city states had become embroiled in a brief war known as the Autumn War between Ala Mhigo and the rest. Following this Ala Mhigo had an even worse time with a rather insane ruler, King Theoderic, whom history seems to be universally agreed upon was a paranoid dick. He even went so far as to purge many of his own people including a group of monks known as the fist of Rhalgar, afraid they might one day oppose his reign.

Taking advantage of the unpopular king, the Garleans managed to incite a fair bit of unrest and captured the city state, though a primal apparently stopped them from going much further. Realizing that to take over the land they would need to hold the basic nexus of atherial energy, the Garleans attempted to assault Mor Dhona.

Problematically for the Garleans, no one tipped them off that this is where Midgarsormr happened to be snoozing at the time, and their massive fleet of airships quickly found itself embattled with the great Wrym. The resulting battle killed the great Wyrm and resulted in a permanent contamination of Mor Dhona.

Operation Meteor

The 7th Umbral Calamity

The year is after colony 195… wait no, wrong script.

Now believing that Eorzea was too much of a pain to conquer the Garleans instead opted to simply drop what they thought was a moon on it (Dalamud). As one might imagine it was in fact no moon, but a shell around an elder primal who was none to happy when the shell cracked. Released from its thousands of years stuck serving as a battery it unleashed unholy hellfire upon the lands below in what would soon become known as the Seventh Calamity (Note: this caused the 7th shard to rejoin with the first, and for the Ascians there was much rejoicing).

The great primal was stopped thanks to the work of a Sharlayan fellow by the name of Louisoix who was able to make use of the cloud of aether and the prayers of the people in order to transform himself into Phoenix taking down Bahamut and plummeting the both of them into the core of the planet.

The damage caused by this was rather hard to grasp. Ishgard and all Coerthas were plunged into a near eternal winter and the Dravanian Horde (those angry dragons) began taking out outpost and colonies along the border. It also resulted in dredging up quite several sites that had previously been buried. This included the Crystal Tower of the Allagan empire, the Wanderer’s Palace from the City of Nym, and the Carteneau flats that served as the resting place for Omega.

And that is where we come in!

The Mothercrystal

5 Years after the fall of Dalamud, you, the player character step onto the scene. Possessing an ability called the echo, which is strongly tied to Hydalyn and seeing a meteor storm thus triggering your soul's  (The Convocation Member Azem) latent memories of the final days. The hero of the story quickly gets swept up in the world’s internal politics. Recruited by a group known as the Scions of the Seventh dawn, you will go on to unlock the mysteries of the world and use the echo to help take down some of the worlds more problematic opponents.

Your quest would go on to restore the relationship between the isolated Ishgard and the other city states. You help to quell their war with the dragons revealing to both sides what had really happened all those years ago. Then you go on to help cement rebellion in Doma and Ala Migho to force the empire to fight on two fronts, effectively turning the tide of the war in the favor of the various resistance groups.

At each turn (so far) this has been against the interference of the ascians who’s goal is to reunite the world (which would subsequently result in the death of anything NOT ascian).

Aether and you – how to sleep through church.

Aetherial Chart

Tl;dr edition – this is the source of magic / mana / whatever you want to call it. Much like the force it weaves its way through everything and if you find yourself completely drained of it you’ll probably die, but if you get too much of it, you’ll find yourself rather poisoned.

It comes in six primary flavors Ice, Water, Wind, Lightning, Fire, and Earth and finds itself drawn towards either an astral or umbral state. Think of astral as "active" and umbral as "passive" thus some elements tend to be in one state more then the other. When an era is called "Astral" it's meant to show growth or activity, umbral of course meaning decay, or stasis. 

The elements can be EITHER astral or umbral aspected. (A rushing water like a wave would be an astral water where as something like a stagnet unmoving pond would be umbral water). 

Light and dark itself are also tied to the various states, though not in the way you might think. Light is tied to Umbral aspects while Dark finds itself more tied to Astral aspects. This is because light acts as a stasis, a void of aether where as dark is an abundance of all aethers. (Think color theory with paints on a white canvas). 

Aether tends to be released from the body upon death and the more violent the death the more Aether released. It will then drift along until it pools up into crystals.

This has interwoven itself into the religious beliefs of the peoples of Hydaelyn resulting in a set of deities being paired with each of the 6 aspects (EG Halone and Menphina are tied to ice). In addition, each of the cards drawn by astrologians also tie back to the elements and each represent a “heaven” created by the twelve gods. (EG “The Balance which is tied to Azeyma which is in turn tied to fire / the sun).

They are tied in the following.

• The Bole (Earth)
• Nophica
• Althyk
• The Balance (Fire)
• Azeyma
• Nald’thal
• The Spire (Lightning)
• Byregot
• Rhalgr
• The Arrow (Wind)
• Llymlaen
• Oschon
• The Ewer (Water)
• Thaliak
• Nymeia
• The Spear (Ice)
• Halone
• Menphina

According to legend the Twelve were the original residents of Eorzea and the moogles served as their servants until the various wandering tribes (The Elezen, Miqo’te, Lalafell, Roegadyn, and Hyur).

Primals, and how to summon them.

Ravana, Primal of the Gnath

Primals, simply put, are the hopes and dreams of a group made manifest through massive amounts of Aether. They are fundamentally creation magics no different then those used by the ancients and often in game the ones we encounter were summoned only because their summoners were taught their creation magic by an Ascian. 

When there is enough Aether in a given point and enough sapient beings putting their hopes, dreams, angers, or any variety of strong emotions into that point a Primal can be summoned. Throughout the first expansion this was demonstrated by the beast tribes, who when pressed, would summon their primals to defend themselves.

It was later expanded to show that virtually anyone who put enough thought into the matter could accomplish the same. Be it Ysayle taking on the role of Shiva or the knights of the Holy See taking on the role of Thordan and his knights.

Finally in the start of Stormblood we see someone purposely go out of their way to combine a huge amount of aether with a lot of amped up emotions to summon Shinryu. These beings are NOT the originals upon which they are based, but rather simply the summoners interpretation of those beings.

For example, Bahamut (the Primal) was Tiamat’s interpretation of Bahamut after the real Bahamut had been slain with the Allagan forces were pushing into the final unconquered land of Meracydia. Distraught by the loss Tiamat as tricked by the Asicans into summoning this interpretation.

To ensure the interpretation of Bahamut always remained fueled with that anger and wrath Dalamud was filled with dragons that were kept constantly tormented so their thoughts and prayers might fuel the primal further.

Primals tend to "Temper" those who summon them, using their own aether to effectively overtake the aether of the summoners and thus control their will. Even the ancients who summoned Zodiark no doubt suffered from tempering. Thought it is explained by the lopporits it is possible to summon a primal without tempering as it is, after all, simply creation magic. It simply requires far greater control and clarity rather then the zealotry used by those the Ascians taught.  

Who, what, when, where why?

Map of Hydalen

The Places

• Aldenard (Eorzea) – The continent the player character is likely most familiar with. Based on all lore present there are not in fact any native species with anything living there having migrated to the land at some point.
• Technically Eorzea encompasses the islands surrounding Aldenard in addition to the continent itself.
• Othard – In the game it is simply referred to as “The far east” this is home to the city state of Doma and kingdom of Dalmasca as well as being the home to the Au Ra and Viera
• Broken up into a North and South, Northern Othard is where the majority of gameplay takes place while Southern Othard is said to be the location of Dalmasca and the ancient empire of Ivalice. 
• Ilsabard – “The Near East” is home to the island of Thavnair as well as being the home of Garlemald, the home of the Garlean empire. This happens to be the home of the Lalafell, Garleans, and Hrothgar
• Meracydia – Little is known beyond the fact that this is where the Allagan empire ran into the likes of Bahamut and that to this day not many can get close without getting attacked. The game seems to suggest this MAY be the ancestral homeland of the Elezen.
• "The new world" - No seriously that's its name and we know virtually nothing about it, save that apparently it's the home of Blue Mages and to the west of Eorzia.

The Major Players

Gridania, one of the Eorzean free companies. 

• The Garlean Empire – An empire suffering from a case of the facisms where there is a “Pureblood” line (Garleans). They are easy to spot with that weird third eye on their forehead and they cannot cast magic. They will often take others into their ranks to work as slaves of the empire or battlefield fodder.
• Dalmasca – A kingdom that little is known about. With a capital located in Rabanastre most of the citizens had abandoned the area following it's near total annihilation at the hands of  Garlean empire having grown tired of putting down revolts. Situated in the Southern Part of Othard
• Doma – The home of the ninja and geomancer, Doma was a city state born along the banks of a river in Yanxia known for fertile farmlands and artistic endeavours. Conquered by the Garleans it was one of the primary locations for Stormblood and is one of the kingdoms which the player character will inspire into rebellion.
• Limsa Lominsa – Someone plowed a ship into an island off the coast of Aldenard called Vylbrand by a group of Roegadyn refugees from a land called Aerslaent. Well known for piracy it is only recently that the act has died down in favor of trying to make peace with the other city states. The Miqo’te Seekers of the Sun and Midlander Hyur who came to dwell in the city state likely owe their ancestry to forced labor aboard pirate ships in years past.
• The Kobold beast tribes predate the city state by some margin and there is a second beast tribe, the Sahagin, who have claimed a place in western La Noscea.
• Home to the Grand Company “The Maelstrom”
• Gridania – After the royal screw up that was Amdapor, the elementals of the forest of the black shroud laid down some heavy ground rules for anyone looking to move in. Gridania’s history begins with a subterranean agreement between Hyur and Elezen who migrated from the caverns to what is today Gridania.
• The Ixal originally laid claim to the forest before the elementals sent them an eviction notice. As such they spend a fair amount of time trying to reclaim what is theirs
• Not every elezen wanted to leave the nice subterranean city state and so they are now known as the duskwight. There also appears to be clans of Miqo’te known as the Keeprs of the moon who simply lived the in the black shroud as well. Both face discrimination from the Wildwood Elezen (those who left the caves) and Hyur who went on to form Gridania.
• Home to the Grand Company “The Twin Adders”
• Ul’Dah – Originally starting as a nation called Belah’dia, there were two city states which composed the nation. They got into a bit of a tuff known as the War of the sisters. With a bit of alchemy one of the city states had its entire army turned into undead, the other (and victorious city state) was Ul’dah. The city state has a series of Sultinates and dynasties with a powerful mercantile guild known as the syndicate generally running the politics behind the scenes.
• Home to the Grand Company “The Immortal Flames”
• Also, home to a beast tribe known as the Amalj’aa despite the best efforts of said grand company.
• Population has shifted with a great many of Ala Mhigo’s refugees making their way there.
• Ishgard – A highly religious land which found itself embroiled in the Dragonsong war and trapped in a rather eternal winter thanks to the effects of the 7th Umbral Calamity. The population is almost entirely comprised of Ishgardian Elezen.
• Ala Mhigo – Never well known for its farming, the lands of Ala Mhigo were always fairly resource starved, leading to fairly constant fighting amongst the populace until the city state was united under one Anshelm Cotter. Most well-known for its attack on the other five city states under King Manfred and then subsequent poor time under king Theodoric.
• Home to the Ananta and Qiqirn beast tribes
• Population is primarily Highlander Hyur, with a small number of Seeker of the Sun Miqo’te and Hellsguard Roegadyn.
• Sharlayann – The nerds of the Final Fantasy world and adopting a prime directive even the Federation would be jealous of, the Sharlayan’s live in a chain of islands north of Eorzea. They also created a small city state in Dravania, though they abandoned it when Ala Mhigo fell. Notable inhabitants include basically everyone the player character is involved with.
• Hingashi – A city state which sits on an archipelago east of Othard, it has long since declared its neutrality in the war with the garleans and maintains a strict policy of isolation. Only a single port has remained open, Kugane, to allow for foreign trade.
• Odd in that apparently there aren’t many Allagan artifacts in the area.
• Radz-At-han – Another neutral city state on the island of Thavnair that is infamous for alchemy in the modern sense. It acts as a hub of trade between Eorzea, Garlemald, and Hingashi.
• Bozja – Home of the Hrothgar, Bozja has been around since the Allagan empire, and though the 4th umbral calamity most certainly put an end to the kingdom, the city state has largely stuck around as a peaceful neighbor. It would go on to be conquered by the Garlean Military.
• The city itself was vaporized in the lead up to operation meteor in which the garleans were experimenting with tampering with Dalamud which caused a massive energy release which destroyed the city.

The “Jobs”.

The Jobs of FFXIV

Jobs in the game seem to be passed through little stones called “Job Crystals” which are basically aetherical collections of the memories of those who did the job before you. Some of these job crystals are easier to get a hold of then others. For instance, a Paladin’s job crystal would normally only be handed out to those who were sworn to protect the Sultana while a Bard’s job crystal would likely be handed out by the order of the twin adders to help with the somewhat lost art of “Battlesongs”

Some Jobs are even considered illegal including the white and black mages because of what happened with Amdapor and Mhach. Others likely simply do not exist anymore or if they do it is it is severely limited numbers. Most of the jobs, save perhaps machinist, are going to have member numbers in the low hundreds at absolute best and perhaps only 1 to 5 at worst.

The prerequisite to the jobs (Mauraders / etc) are likely common place however and so they would not be as odd to stumble across.

The "Echo" and "Blessing of Light" 

Minfilia, one gifted with the echo

The Echo as we know it, is a gift held by a number of individuals, and is simply the act of witnessing a meteor storm to stir the sundered Ancient soul within to remember the final days, awakening some of that power. It results in a number of side effects, the most well known of which is the ability to percieve other's memories, as well as comprehension of all languages (represented by the squiggly text dialogue boxes). 

Krile's use of the echo mirrors that of Emet-Selch and Hytholdaeus in an ability to see the souls of others as well as the souls in the life stream. For others still it allows them to perform acts of metempsychosis (Moving to a new body after death). Ellidbus explains that all of these scenarios are simply the awakening of ancient powers and thus memories. 

The echo is also said to prevent tempering by Primals, though, that appears to simply be a Traveler's ward that Hydalaen places upon those who can hear her thanks to the echo and should largely be considered separate from the echo. 

Summary

I hope this helps clear up the FFXIV lore just a bit, I know it can be a lot to take in, but my hopes are that perhaps this sheds a bit of light on the world overall for those who want to get into the roleplay aspect of the game.