Category talk:Fomors

Is the statement true- that Shadows and Fomor are the same mob type? From what I've read, they're not. Fomors have Fomor Hate whereas Shadows do not have Fomor Hate. I may be wrong, but unless they changed how all Shadows get hate as well as Shadows move, I think they're different. Don't they each have different sets of moves?

If they are different (someone who's fought both can write this better than I can), one way of defining them is: if it is any race except Elvaan, then it's a Fomor. If it's Elvaan, it can be either a Shadow or Fomor-- Zoogelio-forgot-his-password

Near Eastern Fomors[edit]

I have a question--does anyone know if the Near Eastern Fomors are related in any way to the CoP Tavnazian Fomors' "hate" ?

As for if Shadows and Fomors are the same--yes they are. I believe Shadows in Eldieme and Fei'Yin are just the noble Elvaans buried in Eldieme who died during the attack on Tavnazia, unlike the Fomors of CoP who were merely footsoldiers. Whether they should be classified together depends on how you view their relationship. Are they like Tonberries to Cryptonberries or are they like Goblins to Moblins? I personally think that dark stalkers (shadows), CoP Fomors, and the Near Eastern Fomors should all be classified as Fomors, but I know everyone will just classify the two that have "Fomor" in their names as one.


Perhaps we can think of it like this: There is a dark stalker "superfamily" which is divided into Shadows and Fomors. We can also say the same for the "superfamily" Goblin, which is divided into Goblins and Moblins. --Jopasopa 19:46, 24 July 2006 (EDT)


And clots and slimes!!!! lol I agree --Chrisjander 20:41, 24 July 2006 (EDT)

Where is Atelloune when you need her? I think what they all share in common is that they are former heroes who fell in battle. I have no idea about the rules of Fomor Hate, do the Forors outside of the CoP area aggro according to this hate too? Until SquareEnix publishes something on this I don't think the question of what belongs were will be answered. By the way, I think the article needs updating since Fomors are not just found in Tavnazian now. They most be fallen heroes from other battles as well. --Pinkfae 10:42, 4 August 2006 (EDT)

No, the Near Eastern Fomors are not associated with the Tavnazian Fomor hate. I learned this early when I was walking around as PUP01 (and recently cleared my Fomor hate to help some friends with The Secrets of Worship) and then quickly getting mauled by a Fomor Thief in Wajaom. As for what Fomors are, I think they (dark stalkers/shadows included) are merely the cliche "too disturbed by their death (the battles in Tavnazia and the war between Aht Urhgan and Ephramad seemed harsh) to go to eternal slumber." Also, I am getting rid of the jobs listed for each of the weapon-specifc skills. We can only hope that the reader knows the difference between a dagger and a scythe. --Jopasopa 13:47, 7 August 2006 (EDT)

Oh, Fantasian...[edit]

Taking out Fantasian's ramblings. It really is not needed and not 100% factual (and I'm too lazy to edit his several grammar issues). And if it's the same Fantasian from Killing Ifrit, he was a troll who was banned and came back as, well...Naisatnaf. Not trying to cause any trouble here, I'm just trying to clean this page... Maybe I will try to condense it. (And I will also hope that Fantasian has changed for the better.) --Jopasopa 22:54, 20 August 2006 (EDT)

From the HistoryofVanadiel forums[edit]

Zeistriden posted a great compilation of information to discuss the nature of the undead and the differences between Shadows and Fomors. I think that it's a good read. Is it worth using some of this and incorporating some of the details?

http://www.shadow-ffxi.com/HistoryofVanadiel/forum/index.php?topic=66.msg491#msg491 Acker 19:19, 2 January 2007 (EST)

To simplify the above thingy: Fomors are spiteful spirits who are bound to this world because they have a purpose. I think these are the reasons they are bound (some possible spoilers).
Tavnazian Fomors: Want revenge on the Orcs and Gigas that killed them.
Ephramadian Fomors: Want revenge on the Empire.
The "Fallen" Fomors: Bound to this world...because they died charmed to the Lamiae/Merrows?
Ashu Talif Crew: Escaped the Underworld and want revenge on the Empire.

I always hear differing stuff about dark stalkers (Shadows), but after hearing that they are Elvaan forced to be undead thingies... I'm beginning to think they're only closely-related to Fomors because they are the closest undead to the living. --Jopasopa 19:46, 2 January 2007 (EST)


I thought the Shadows existed because they were dead Tavnazians (like the NMs fought for the original AF quests. Weren't they Tavnazian royalty?) and wanted to kill citizens of the nations that betrayed them (i.e. Adventurers from Windurst, Bastok, and San d'Oria). Kinda creepy to think that little nation was blown to kingdom come and a good chunk of its population turned into Fomors or Shadows.


Also, only Elvaans can be Shadows, but any of the 5 races can be Fomor. --zoogelio-forgot-his-password 23:02, 2 January 2007 (EST)


Someone who did the Spiral Hell quest can maybe confirm? (Heard that gives some backstory behind the dark stalkers.) --Jopasopa 15:58, 3 January 2007 (EST)

Weakness[edit]

The weakness given here (fire) is incosistent with the indvidual Fomor pages (light) (and the Hydra pages say Fire/Light since they were once considered dark stalkers). Could someone change this to the correct weakness(es)? One thing to consider is that Fomor BLMs/RDMs use Blaze Spikes, and a monster never really uses a spikes spell that is its weakness and in fact tends to use the element it is closer to, for example: Undead: Ice Spikes (the only dark spikes spell), Mamool Ja: Shock Spikes (partner with wind, their element), Trolls: Blaze Spikes (their element, Lamiae: Ice Spikes (partner of water, their element). But then again, those were ToAU beastmen so they're different. Plus, Moblins, Demons, Antica, Tonberries, Goblins, Ahriman, Imps, Hecteyes, and Flan all use Blaze Spikes, so that can be the "default" spikes spell for non-undead (and Fomors are special undead, very close to beastmen), excluding the "main 3" (Orcs/Quads/Yags) and the main 3 of ToAU (Mamools/Trolls/Lamiae). --Jopasopa 10:06, 25 January 2007 (EST)

I'd just like to mention that I used Hide in Phomiuna Aqueducts today and it worked o.O And I've been fighting fomors for the better part of 2 hours, so hate wasn't low. THF 75 when I did it, but still, if they aggro by sound, it shouldn't have worked period. Perhaps there's some other kind of hate mechanic at work here? --Kaalitenohira 02:36, June 28, 2010 (UTC)

Hydra?[edit]

I don't think the Hydra should be listed in this category. They look like Shadows and act like them, and they existed before the Fomor race even appeared... So, move over to Shadows? --Eithin 19:09, 14 February 2007 (EST)

They use abilities from both families apparently, and who's to say they existed before Fomors appeared? They may be the first appearance of Fomors. Although FFXIclopedia typically divides monsters by ability, SE seems to consider the family as one, as can be seen by: A) I remember in a minor update or something in the past they corrected certain ToAU Fomor aggroing or something, and they called them "Shadows (Fomors)" I think. B) Fomors have yet to get their own battlefield, and most monsters get at least 1 BCNM/ENM/ISNM/etc. (with a few exceptions). C) Fomors do not give blue mages any spells. (Most monsters give at least one, with a few exceptions, most of which are NM-only families, have no TP attacks, are new, or are somehow unique.) This kinda leads to a discussion as to whether we should classify them together, but like I said earlier it seems that FFXIclopedia generally organizes stuff by monster ability.

Anyway, things that point towards them being Shadows/Dark Stalkers: Elvaan only, although I'm not sure that's really a good reason.

Things that point towards them being Fomors: Have the naming convention of most Fomors, although is that really a good argument?

Also to note that Mysterytour classifies them as Fomors. --Jopasopa 19:26, 14 February 2007 (EST)

I am unsure. They do seem to use both abilities - and Jopa brings up a good point - who is to say Shadows aren't the first Fomors? I think that character wise they both exist as souls left behind because the body is killed during a battle... Now the Shadows and Dark Stalkers etc are found where? Mostly in the San d'Oria related regions - I know two NMs are found in Outer Horatio Ruins but the rest are found in the areas originally controlled by san d'Oria which would mean that of course all of them would be in Elvaan form - since back then - who was being killed in those regions but Elvaans... While in the newer regions found in CoP where the Fomors are found are all races... Now on the other hand - the Dynamis Hydra were created with Dynamis - which was in the Rise of the Zilart expansion pack... Unless of course they weren't added til an update to that pack which is highly possible seeing as in the beginning I didn't do Dynamis so I don't know if they were always in it or not - it appears to me that they are only found in the higher level Dynamis not the original cities? Soooo - okay so Shadows and Hydra were created relatively the same time or rather a little later than the original shadows? Or rather since some shadows are found in the beginning areas - maybe Shadows were with the game pre-zilart and it's an evolutionary process of Shadows > Hydra > Fomors? I mean Shadows currently only have one TP move listed and that is Dimensional Death... Hydra use?? And Fomors use this expansive shit-list of Moves. So its easy to say that Shadows were just the beginning... Fomors are just a more intricate form of Shadows and therefor so are Hydra? I just don't know as much about Hydra as I would like to... What do you think? --Nynaeve 22:05, 14 February 2007 (EST)

Hmmm... I thought Mysterytour classified them as Shadows. But yes, they do use all the the Fomor family attacks. Also they have specific jobs just like the "Fomor XXX" found in CoP and ToAU zones. On the other hand, they are all Elvaan and their NMs are named in the San d'Orian, French-like style whereas Fomors are thought to be from the Gaelic mythology... So by FFXIclopedia's conventions it would probably be best to place them in the Fomors category, maybe in a subcategory for Hydra? I know I would prefer calling them Hydra in articles like Dynamis Beaucedine. --Eithin 06:48, 15 February 2007 (EST)

Yep, knew this thing would kinda lead us in circles... I wouldn't mind calling them Hydra in Dynamis pages. I think I did something similar in the Besieged/Enemies in Besieged page. I think I classified Flame Eruca as eruca, Assault Bhoot as bhoot, etc. so people reading it would be prepared more for a eruca/whatever rather than your average crawler/whatever, but the links still lead to Category:Crawlers, etc. Maybe "Hydra Corps" would be better, as Hydra might make one think we are talking about the Hydra "family" (it might be a family if they add more in Hazhalm Testing Grounds). --Jopasopa 11:15, 15 February 2007 (EST)

Yeah, that's why we could put them in a subcategory to Fomors, to give them the "status aparte" that (I think) they deserve ;p --Eithin 15:20, 15 February 2007 (EST)

Your French/Gaelic comment got me thinking... it seems Shadows/Fomors have evolved over the years:

Original (and some Zilart) Shadows: Are a lot like skeleton undead where they can come in multiple types but yet still have the same name. Normal names are mostly undead stuff, wile NM names are French/Elvaan.
Origin: Forced to become a shadow by other shadows

Zilart (Hydra Corps) Shadows/Fomors: Predecessors to pure Fomors. Normal names are a lot like later Fomors, while NM names are a lot like the previous.
Origin: Roamed Dynamis until they went insane.
New abilities compared to previous dark stalkers: Have the abilities of future Fomors; unknown if they would have dropped gil or linked if they appeared outside of Dynamis.

Promathia (Tavnazian) Fomors: Named a lot like regular beastmen. NMs names are more Gaelic.
Origin: Their spite bound them to Vana'diel? Wanting revenge bound them? Refused to die?
New abilities compared to previous dark stalkers: Drop gil, have "Fomor hate"; sometimes act like they are in a party; do not have Dimensional Death; seem smarter than previous dark stalkers (at least the original)

Aht Urhgan (Near Eastern) Fomors: The Fomors outside Al Zahbi are named like the previous (are these Ephramadian or Imperial?), the Imperials in Arrapago Reef are named a lot like skeletons/Qutrubs when their names vary by job, and the pirate Fomors are named like the original shadows (and have varying jobs and appearances) but present themselves like beastmen the most (even coming in 4 jobs, like a lot of beastmen; the Fomors outside Al Zahbi also come in 4 jobs). NMs (at least for the pirates) are named a lot like typical once-normal (usually now undead or something similar) monsters (comparisons: Corrupted Yorgos (Skeleton), Burned Bergmann (Ghost), Pining Abazohn (Qutrub), Vile Wahzil (Soulflayer)).
Origin (Fomor Pirates): Escaped the underworld
New abilities compared to previous dark stalkers (Pirates): JA aggro from some; aggro/link no matter what (except in Caedarva); seemingly link with certain imps (other way around?); behave a lot more like beastmen
Origin (Ephramadians): Seem to be similar to Tavnazian Fomors
New abilities (Ephramadians): Similar to Tavnazian Fomors; no parties
Origin (Imperials): Lamian experiments
New abilities (Imperials): Seem to be able to work with living humans; similar to the above

So, I updated those things with new abilities with origins/new abilities. It seems abilities seem to vary on origin/location, with origin playing a pretty big factor. One thing I forgot to consider when I changed Hydra members from Shadows->Fomors was that Vanguard Goblins had the abilities of Moblins, so I would say they are shadows...

Maybe this is how we can categorize them: There is a dark stalker superfamily, which is divided into the shadow and Fomor families. The shadow family is divided into shadows and the Hydra Corps subfamily, and the Fomor family is divided into the Tavnazian, Ephramadian, Lamian, and pirate subfamilies. I guess what would define "shadow" and "Fomor" is that shadows went from alive->undead and Fomors go from alive->dead->undead. ...Whew. --Joped 15:54, 22 February 2007 (EST)

What may explain the Hydra special abilities, is that they were a special combat unit assembled during the War. After a mission at Castle Zvahl, they and their enemies somehow woke up in an area that looked like Beaucedine, except time didn't pass and there was no day or night. They wore special weapons and armour for their mission. The members of the Corps that were killed probably got stripped of their incredible gear by the enemy, which is why we can find AF2 and relic weapons in Dynamis today. The unslain remainder of the Hydra Corps still resides in Dynamis Beaucedine. The special attacks they have are probably related to their background as an elite military unit, which is why the CoP and ToAU Fomors (spirits of fallen warriors) are also capable of using them. The regular stalker type mobs found in Eldieme for example were probably normal people without any military backgrounds, and so they weren't capable of any special combat abilities. The Elvaan origin of the Hydra Corps is due to the fact that, despite being a multi-national force, almost all of it was made up of San d'Orian knights, who were of course all Elvaan. Still, the name "Fomor" with its relation to Gaelic mythology seems much more correct for the Tavnazia and Aht Urhgan (sea-related) areas than for the Hydra Corps... even though technically they're the same class of mobs. --Eithin 10:34, 25 February 2007 (EST)

Oooh, makes sense with the whole "shadows not trained in combat". Yeah, normal shadows were Tavnazian nobles. The original ones were like Fomors--spiteful about their death but they increase their numbers via potions. I wouldn't mind switching HCorps back to shadows, now. It might be more correct since Dynamis was a place they seemed to have tested CoP Goblin/Demon abilities, too. Also, I'd imagine the reason Fomor NMs have mythological names is because they weren't supposed to be as well known seeing as how they were simply soldiers. And it is also mentioned that AF2/relic armor/accessories were created by craftsman for the purpose of the war (and probably mostly for Hydras). Relic weapons were sentient weapons that belonged to famous people and were trusted with the Hydras.

Anyway, what would you prefer: Hydras as shadows or Fomors? --Joped 11:43, 25 February 2007 (EST)

Well... other than their ties in appearance, there is not much that connects the Hydra Corps, Tavnazian/Eastern Fomors and Ephramadian Shades with each other... so what I think now is that they should either be an "elite" subcategory to Shadows, or else all be a separate category under the Undead system, since they are still very different from regular Shadows.
Edit: This reminded me of Goblins and Moblins. Moblins are technologically more advanced, and although they are very much like Goblins, they have more sophisticated combat abilities such as Paralysis Shower. --Eithin 17:04, 25 February 2007 (EST)

I'd say whether or not the Hydra Corps have their weapons "sheathed/unsheathed" whether engaged or not would play a factor in classifying them. --Joped 19:36, 2 March 2007 (EST)

Formor Hate ToaU[edit]

The statement that the formers in the AU area's do not give Formor hate is not true... Those formers do have Formor hate and to date there is no method to reset or lower it. I killed about 10 of them and since then they aggro me no matter what and after killing about 2000+ beastmen from the ToaU areas the Formor hate never lowered or vanished.

Formers in ToaU do give Formor hate! However it is not linked or related to Formor hate of Zilart or COP areas, it is totally separate.

You mean they aggro through Sneak? --Eithin 15:06, 15 February 2007 (EST)

Yes, after killing ToaU Formors in Thickets or Woodlands they will aggro you with low HP and they will aggro you through sneak, even with as low as 10 kills my hate level is high enough that silent oils will not provide any protection from detection.--Justis 21:36, 28 February 2007 (EST)

I think what it means is that ToAU Fomors will aggro no matter what you have killed in the past. I have gotten aggro from the Fomors in Bhaflau/Wajaom on one of the first days of ToAU, so I can confirm that those do not aggro (at first) based on hate. I have never killed the Fallen Imperials in Arrapago, I'm not sure if I have gotten aggro from them, though. I'd imagine that they act more like a typical monster. I think I may have been aggro'd by Ephramadian Shades before, and I'm pretty sure that was before I had killed any ToAU Fomor (except for maybe 1 Fomor BST, but I think we zoned that).

Also, if there were ToAU Fomor hate, I doubt it would be lowered by killing ToAU beastmen, since the guys we are dealing with were Ephramadians killed by AU hundreds of years ago. Except for the "Fallen" series of Fomors, those would probably be lowered by killing stuff related with the 3 ToAU beastmen forces, particularly the beastmen, and even more specifically Lamiae/Merrows. But I really don't think they have any kind of hate. I might test some of this out with my MNK1 along with reports of imps having Truesound. --Jopasopa 16:58, 15 February 2007 (EST)

The Shades in ToaU areas dont have any hate system like the actual Formors do, ive killed hundreds of the shades while skilling up Parry and sneak still works fine around them, I cant confirm if they would not aggro without sneak becuase all in ToaU are DC even the lowest Tier ones at 75 and naturally aggro so sound regardless.--Justis 21:36, 28 February 2007 (EST)

I con confirm that without ever killing a single formor, anywhere, every, my character still got hate from ToAU formors.--Sikekiz 16:09, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

Fomor Party Behavior[edit]

- cannot Carby pull without aggroing entire fomor party - parties respawn together, never by themselves - sacrifice pull supposedly does not work, not sure if that is based off distance or absolute

Has anyone been able to find a way to pull the mobs separate? I remember back in the day doing missions that we were able to do this but forgot the method (unless we were delirious) - does anyone else have any input on this?

We were able to take on the PLD,SAM,RDM party with only 6.

NIN/DNC pulled FomorPLD (stayed alive w/ ease - had haste) WHM ES slept the FomorSAM (2nd NIN voked to keep it off of WHM) our SAMx2 & our PLD attacked FomorRDM FomorSAM woke a little before we killed FomorRDM Easy pickins

Bst can pull one member of the party, leave pet, run and recharm. Only initial mob will follow as long as Bst and pet are only ones with hate. Chrisreeves 19:30, September 24, 2009 (UTC)

Fomors and Shadows[edit]

I don't think Shadows should be placed under the "Subspecies" section. The picture in the Fomors' page belongs to a Shadow, and that should be changed. Shadows are a kind of undead that have their weapon drawn, unlike Fomors. Even in the special cases in which they share some of their special attacks, they're easily recognizable.

Dynamis Hydras[edit]

It should be noted that Hydras use both Fomors' appearances and abilities, but they are NOT undead. They don't aggro by having low HP and they CAN be drained and aspired.

This article uses material from the "Category_talk:Fomors" article on FFXIclopedia and is licensed under the CC-BY-SA License.