I feel the Gunbreaker has one of the more interesting class lore entries out of all the combat jobs in Eorzea. It plays a key role in world-building and directly helps improve some story aspects of the main narrative in Final Fantasy XIV.
Moreover, the class lore takes inspiration from semi-real-life historical figures as well. Drawing parallels from it to really drive home the point.
So what is the deal with the sword-gun-wielding class in Final Fantasy XIV?
Now, Gunbreakers were once the appointed royal guards of Bozjan, a historical region which is now under Garlean rule. These royal guards, skilled enough to wield the gunblade, were frontline warriors capable of not only breaking through enemy defenses but also providing defensive aid to their own comrades.
This was possible with the unique melee and firearm fusion that the gunblade provided. The weapons are fueled by aether ammunition, known as cartridges, which allows a gunbreaker to use their own aether to either overcharge their melee strikes to dish out devastating blows or pull the trigger to create many different effects in battle.
Allowing it to be the perfect mix between offense and defense.
The Gunbreaker lore in Final Fantasy XIV
But which part of the gunbreaker history parallels the real-world history?
Well, it would definitely be the name! Yes! The way the gunblades, a gunbreaker’s weapon, gains its name is eerily similar to how historians believe real-life guns got their own name!
It all starts with the name Gunhildr. In our own world, Gunhildr was once a Norwegian queen who, according to historian Jenny Jochens, was known for her “power and cruelty, she was also admired for her beauty and generosity, and feared for her magic, cunning, sexual insatiability, and her goading.
It is largely believed that during the old days many ballistic arms were given the names of certain historical figures, which is how a certain large ballista was given the name Domina Gunilda, which was mounted at Windsor Castle during the 14th Century, and it eventually led down to the modern-day coinage of the term “gun”.
Similarly, in the history of FFXIV, as we can know from the Gunbreaker questline, the term gunblade itself was derived from the then queen of Bozja, Gunnhildr.
From Radovan’s dialogues, we know that the gunblade was originally developed in the Third Astral Era. The queen Gunnhildr was closely guarded by loyal soldiers known as the “Gunnhildr’s Blades,” Meanwhile, the Allagans were developing firearms capable of launching projectiles over great distances. As they were similar in appearance to the gunblades, they were simply referred to as “guns,” a term which is now commonplace across Eorzea.
