Merchant's Tale from FFXIV, Part 1
Credit where credit is due. FFXIV's latest Variant Dungeon, Merchant's Tale, came out this week in Patch 7.45. There's been a lot of well-deserved criticism levied towards it already, because some of the most prominently marketed aspects of this new release - the gear, some of the bosses, etc. -- have been Orientalist caricatures that are demeaning, racist, and frankly rather disappointing. It's obvious why this is (sex sells and Disney's Aladdin sells; hence the "exotic" belly dancer gear, the blue genie of the lamp, the flying carpets, etc.), and I won't rehash those points here because that isn't the focus of this post.
The point is this: there's been some actual research & work that's gone into Merchant's Tale, and those facets should be recognized and praised and discussed, even as we are justly and rightfully denouncing the aforementioned Orientalism. I'm an Iranian-American; I may not be the best person to speak on this on account of how I am diaspora, but my grasp of Farsi/Persian and my cultural upbringing gives me enough background to recognize the work that Creative Unit 3 did put into this latest release. It's my personal belief that we should be encouraging more and better representation, not less and worse, and until matters & industries & reach improve enough that we can enjoy homegrown representation developed in the countries best suited to represent themselves, we ought to give companies feedback to encourage them to do better (hire natives and first language speakers, do their research, understand what not to do, etc.) rather than to become entirely avoidant ("why bother with representing this culture when we'll only get slammed for it") or, worse, to start disregarding our feedback entirely in favor of what sells best. There's enough good representation in Merchant's Tale that it's worth not losing sight of it, and I'm going to be covering all of those things in this post.
Be warned: spoilers await you.
Finally, before we start: please pray for the people of Iran.
The Framework
The first thing about Merchant's Tale to reckon with is that it isn't current-day Corvos, which is to say that it isn't FFXIV's closest analogue to the Middle East. It's Corvos as depicted by a fictional collection of stories. Sound familiar?
The tale in question also suffers from having countless versions:
One aspect of the story is about as traditional as it gets in folklore. A young man winning the heart and hand of a woman:
If there's any doubt as to what's happening here, the reward for unlocking all thirteen routes of Merchant's Tale is an eye mask that looks like sleepwear. Something you'd wear to bed.
And, of course, there's both the genie and the flying carpet(s) which call to mind Disney's Aladdin, based on Aladdin, a tale that originates in a certain collection of folktales. I'm not including the picture of the genie here, you've all seen it, but we will revisit the carpet later.
FFXIV's Merchant's Tale appears to be based on, or heavily influenced by, One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of mostly Middle Eastern stories. I say mostly because some are mostly inventions added to the collection at later times by Westerners. The prime example of this is Aladdin; look that up if you'd like more details.
The majority of stories found within One Thousand & One Nights aren't very well known in the public zeitgeist, and we can probably attribute a great deal of that to vast gulfs in culture and sensibilities (old vs. modern). The most common and universal aspect of the collection, however, is the framing device: the stories contained in the collection are presented as stories told by Sahrzahd (commonly known as Scheherazade) to her husband the king starting on the night of their marriage. She regales him with these stories throughout the night, and ends mid-tale each time come sunrise; intrigued and possessed by the need to know how each story ends, the king always delays her execution (long story, you can look it up) until the next day.
You could say that these are bedtime stories she tells him, which makes the Comfortable Eye Mask reward rather fitting; by the end of the collection, the king withdraws the planned execution of Sahrzahd, having learned a great deal of wisdom from her stories, and spares her life. This brings the tales to the end and, presumably, a return to normalcy... and a normal sleep schedule. Which again, a fitting parallel for the reward: once you've experienced all the stories within Merchant's Tale, you too get to sleep.
It's a shame that Square Enix appears to have based so much of this content on One Thousand and One Nights. There are less well-known works rife with potential for creative storytelling (Shahnameh is right there, Yoshida) but it's clear that they went this route because it's familiar enough to a general audience and popular enough that it will generate excitement. In short, it's not as risky and more of a sure bet.
This is important context moving forward, though, as we'll see.
Firouzeh: Turquoise in Abundance
One of the things which struck me about Merchant's Tale, as far back as late 2025 when Creative Unit 3 began showing it off, was the abundance of turquoise. You see it everywhere: a sky blue or robin egg blue color which makes everything in the content pop.
For those who aren't aware: turquoise (firouzeh, in Farsi/Spanish) has the English name it does because the French got their pierre turqueise (Turkish Stone) from the Ottomans... who in turn got it from the Persians, who were mining it and using it extensively in many walks of life!
I never thought I'd see so much blue! I immediately got my hopes up that perhaps this meant that the content was geared a little bit more my way than usual, in terms of representation, than I was accustomed to expecting from the hodge-podge Orientalist melting-pot depictions we are accustomed to seeing from the West where all of the various MENA/SWANA cultures get jumbled up together into a nonsensical ball of disappointment. I was not disappointed.
No sooner does the Warrior of Light agree to accompany Y'nazqha the gleaner into this enchanted storybook than we get dropped into this gorgeous room, which is also bluer than I could dare hope or dream of.
Small side: Y'nazqha doesn't get the Story-Lover's gear treatment, but instead gets enchanted into the far more respectable Gemrise set from Dawntrail...
...which unfortunately does not offset Creative Unit 3 choosing to dress the tale's maiden in the oft-criticized Story-spinner's set:
It's not great, folks. There are so many culturally significant and appropriate and BEAUTIFUl dresses, outfits, and more for ladies from across countless cultures that Square Enix could be putting into the game.
Anyway, back to the blue. I ran into an immediate issue with my shaders, which -- to their credit -- Square did warn us about. I made some adjustments later, but you may see some slight differences in tone, hue, and warmth as a result between a number of these pictures. But the big takeaway is this: that interior is GORGEOUS. Somebody did the fuckin' work. In fact, they did so much goddamned work that two details immediately jumped at me.
First: the carpets have tassels and the seats are traditionally low to the floor, as is the furniture. Small asks, often lost in the wash when it comes to video games.
More importantly, however, I found myself asking, "Where is the samovar?" I could see the cup and pot on the table. I could see the kettle on the stove.
And that's when it clicked: the Middle East, Iran/Persia specifically, would not have had samovars at the time that this "ancient folklore" takes place. We only got them fairly recently, within the past few hundred years, from Russia. Square Enix paid enough attention to realize that there shouldn't be a samovar here.
Truly, they paid a good deal of attention throughout. The bazaar which you pass through? Carpets and rugs. Carpets and rugs galore. We're not done with carpets yet. Thankfully, none of these fly. I cannot stress enough just how much my family loves carpets, and all of the Iranians and Iranian-Americans with whom I'm familiar love carpets.
We'll touch more on aesthetic as we go, but it's time to discuss another important area in which the team paid attention to detail: language.
Farsi, Also Known as Persian
As it so happened, the first run I experienced with strangers took us down the bazaar and to the Anchorite at Corvos. This is a coastal beach section, and I'm not in a position to comment on the aesthetics here, having never had the opportunity to visit Iran; may I do so within my lifetime, inshallah! What surprised me, however, was the name of the final boss awaiting us at the end of that route.
Darya the Sea-Maid is presented as a mermaid with fairy-like wings, which is delightful enough on its own... but darya is Farsi for "ocean," and Farsi itself is a very poetic language. "Ocean, the Maid of the Sea" might sound repetitive to Western ears, but Darya khedmatkar-i darya has a certain charm to it that I cannot stop thinking about. It's lovely, truly.
Darya being a siren and being so focused on song & dance is also a delight, because song and prayer and our voices and our movement are so important in Iranian and Persian culture (I list both because there is a difference, we won't get into it here; may Iranians not of Persian background forgive me this trespass). We live, enthusiastically, and we enjoy and celebrate living.
While we're here, Darya also touches on faith and on fate. Something to keep in mind for later.
Finishing that first run was important, because Nazqha herself points out that the fiction we're exploring is not at all a one-to-one representation of true history:
We're not done, not by a long shot. Watch this post for more, because I've hit the 30-image limit on this post and there's so much more to cover. Reblogs appreciated, of course, but I do recommend holding them until I've gotten through everything. Please do note that I won't be reblogging or responding to any comments or tags or notes or reblogs until I'm completely finished, which may take several more posts.
Merchant's Tale from FFXIV, Part 2
More Farsi, coming through!
But first: the importance of tea. Not only tea but tea with honey.
And a quick glance at a gorgeous courtyard, one of many:
If there was still any doubt that this is highly inspired by One Thousand and One Nights, specifically Galland's Arabian Nights, behold: an analogue for Ali Baba and his forty thieves.
I was to be disappointed by this mention of a "monstrous bird," because I was expecting the Simurgh to show up at some point. The central path through the valley, however, just brings you to the Rukhkh, also known as the Roc (yes, that Roc, the big bird, not the yellow one).
Majestic creature, the Roc.
And I don't know what these creatures are supposed to represent, Nazqha, but I'll tell you what their name means.
Shamshir, of course, is Farsi for "sword." These are "sword-arms." What a cheeky pun and a clever throwaway reference to how these sugar gliders in-game strike at you.
Past the cute little animals is the central path's boss, which... again, Orientalist, not great, we should criticize this too.
There's no Farsi in use here, but I will note that "Fang of the Lion" yet again features that poetic sense and would work very well when translated. Roughly speaking, would it be Dandan-i Shir? Hmmm. Where have I seen Dandan before recently...
Surely nowhere of import. Moving on!
The swordmaster may not be dressed appropriately and we don't get their actual name, but she does speak with a certain cadence typical of this kind of folklore.
Small aside: this swordmaster is of the Unyielding Blade tradition of Corvos, an ancient school which was snuffed out by the Garleans when they invaded as conquerors. Nazqha rightly points this out and it's a subtle reminder that the game does have things to say on the subject of colonial-imperialism:
That was run number two. Run number three for me was the leftmost path, which leads to a palace. On the way there, though, you encounter an apple orchard and some... strange flora. Why is this thing named "Bandari Weed?" Bandari means "of the port," with bandar meaning port. This is typically a reference to southern region of modern day Iran which faces the sea.
As for fauna, this game really wants you to internalize that this is the monstrous rukh (Roc) and not the noble Simurgh.
The palace is gorgeous, by the way. Remember all that talk about firouzeh/turquoise?
As we've seen from promotional material, there's grapes aplenty here. But did you know there's honey, too?
This is a reference to wildflower honey. Asal is delicious in all its forms, folks! And Nazqha agrees!
I'm not gonna dwell on the interior of the palace, folks. It's gaudy, it's filled with riches, it's the sort of Orientalist depiction used to fuel European fantasies about the exotic.
What I want to get to is this lady, the boss of the left path. Put aside her Orientalist depiction for now and pay attention to her name:
Speaking of this pari, we've heard of her before in the description of the Mogstation's Magicked Carpet mount:
Pari is a difficult concept to explain. The closest I can come is if you crossed a fairy with an angel and ended up with a winged wicked little gremlin of mischief. They're supernatural beings loaded with enchantments. You can think of the jinn as the Arabic answer to the Iranian & Persian mythology's pari. We're talking old mythology here, Zoroastrian and older, far outdating Islam.
Summon forth your magicked carpet. Fantasy will set you free. Finally.
It is said an ancient king of Corvos, upon conquering a tribe of faeries, bid the faerie queen weave her magicks to forge an object the likes mankind had never seen. The queen was executed shortly after presenting the king with a flying carpet. This is not that carpet, but at least no one was slain in its creation.
I'm not going to dwell on the fight itself much. It's neat that she's depicted as lazy, preferring to make her enchanted servants do most of the work, and and it's neat that this reflects as "the boss moves very slowly except when it's time for her mechanics," but the servants in question are all flying carpets. Sigh.
That said, though, mashallah, someone took the time to actually stare at a Persian rug. Look at this beauty:
And in case we need confirmation that this pari was indeed the same fairy:
The left path doesn't hold much more for us in terms of language, but there is a specific path which can be taken that leads to a bird's nest. A wind sprite attempts to steal the babies' food, and if you intervene... Mama arrives in time to save you from the sprite's wrath. Could this be a subtle nod to the Simurgh? I ask because the bird later comes to your rescue during one version of the pari fight.
Curiously, these sprites are listed as "Capricious Chambermaid" in dialogue. Ensorcelled women, perhaps? Who knows.
Okay, putting aside that this creature was summoned as a primal against the Garlean Empire and later become the inspiration for the Sapphire Weapon...
That brings us, more or less, to the final hidden route and the secret boss of Merchant's Tale: the Deadly Dandan.
For generations have the seafaring peoples of Corvos passed down the legend of this wicked wavekin, embodiment of all things great and terrible. Yet so tremendous was its perceived power that it was once summoned as a primal in a desperate bid to defeat the Garlean Empire.
I mean, look at it...
Defeating the hidden boss takes you to an ancient coastal village.
This thing's name is The Deadly Tooth. Someone did their fuckin' homework again, because while dandan means "tooth," dahan means "mouth," and so we have a slight stealth pun in this thing being not only the Deadly Tooth but... Listen, if you read it as dahan-dahan, then this thing is the Deadly Mouth-Mouth and it's got two giant mouths right fuckin' there. This tickled me pink!
I cannot stress enough how much we love our carpets and the talented people who make them.
Anyway, I've hit image cap again, but the important takeaway is that you return the pictured plate to the maiden of the tale. She shares with you her story, that her first beloved returned home to strike down this fell beast and save her & her village from its presence, but that he failed, and she lost him, her family, and more. The return of this keepsake touches her heart in a way that no other prizes won throughout Merchant's Tale ever could.
There's a lot more that I could say about this content. I've finished the Advanced version and gotten to see the pretty interior courtyard to which you're treated for the purposes of opening your loot chests. I've yet to tackle the Criterion or Criterion Savage versions. There are so many details to notice on each subsequent run of the Variant Dungeon.
Yes, there's a lot of Orientalism at work. Folks will notice that I didn't cover the genie of the lamp at all, and that I've skipped past a lot of other things either in the interest of time or because others have covered them better.
But I really do believe that Creative Unit 3 put some genuine research, thought, and work into this. They deserve to be encouraged for doing so even as we criticize them for their failings with regards to the gear and other aspects.
Thank you for reading. Khoda hafez.
