With the release of Heavensward, Final Fantasy XIV is finally ready to stop retracing its footsteps (with better footsteps) and venture out into new territory. E3 2015 was the final stretch of pre-release promotion for 3.0, and it was there that we got a chance to sit down with Michael-Christopher Koji Fox (aka Fernehalwes) to talk about how the world of Hydaelyn continues to develop and dig into some of the unanswered questions and frequent debates from Versions 1 & 2 that yet vex the loremongers. (Okay, we admit it, we also asked a few things just to see what they’d come up with.)

Every question I’ve been asked since Fan Fest (that I couldn't find an answer to) was on this list, and at the simple cost of sounding (even more) ridiculous (than I actually am), I return to you with answers. Read on, and don’t forget to pass along your thanks to Koji Fox and Banri Oda for never passing up an opportunity to support and encourage this community.
The following transcription has been truncated and paraphrased in many places for the sake of conciseness and clarity. If you’d prefer to listen in on the full interview (which includes follow-up comments and casual discussion), we conducted it in such a way that you can become a fly on the wall by listening to the audio as an episode of Lorecast at the bottom of this page. No pertinent information has been removed from this write-up (in fact, some has been added), but everyone has a preference.

Fusionx: First things first, we haven’t talked since Fan Fest, before the closing ceremonies, and hell of a job on that, by the way. But now that we’ve done a little bit of praising… Did you have a hand in killing Nanamo!?
Koji Fox: As much as I wanted to... No, no. I had nothing to do with it. They actually had that in mind back at 2.0 launch, that they’d eventually take the story there. Yoshida-san and the other guys wanted something that was really dark and would shock the players.
Anwyll: In a recent interview, Yoshida mentioned the possibility of tie-ins with XV and perhaps, one day, even something like Blitzball. What’s the process like for integrating something into XIV that has an origin somewhere else?
KF: That’s really difficult. Usually, they’ll come to us and say, “Yeah, we want to do a tie-up with this, we want this in. Figure out a way to do it.†and we’re like Blitzball!? But it’s a challenge. Yoshida-san has said that he doesn’t want to use something because it’s been used in another FF; he wants to make it part of that world and feel natural in that world. If Blitzball ever comes, I’m sure he’ll come to us and say, “Okay, we got this thing where you’re in a big pool, throwing this ball around, and the controls are really wonky…†Hopefully the controls will be better in XIV … if there ever is a Blitzball.
F: Way back in 2010, Yoshida floated the idea of a reptilian demi-beastmen race – I think it was in one of the player surveys – and the Au Ra seem to be the eventual result. The concept art showed that they were referred to as draconian, but now they’re said to be demonic. What’s some background on that? Was this changed to prevent association with Shiva’s … relationship?
KF: The original concept was that we wanted to do something different than what we have in the game currently. We have our five races and they’re all fairly humanoid. Even the miqo’te – you have ears and a tail, but take them away and it’s still humanoid. We threw around the idea of the Viera, but, again, take out the ears and it’s humanoid. They wanted something that was a little bit more beastlike. So, you have the ideas of the dragons, and the wolfman art, and then you have the demon look. It went through a lot of different stages, and we tried to take the best of all of them. Of course, when you get the reptilian or draconian design, and you have the story of Heavensward focusing on Ishgard and the Dragonsong War, if you bring in som