Originally Posted by
remy5623
I know it's been a while, but I want to clarify this further for anyone who stumbles upon this thread:
Actually, you don't even have to talk to the nation's starting NPC. You can if you'd like to change your allegiance - for example, you can talk to Adelbrecht to start the Bastok initiation quest and officially join Bastok in the Shadowreign era (which doesn't change your allegiance in the present-day). However, once you've done the initiation quest of any nation (The Fighting Fourth, Steamed Rams, or Snake on the Plains), you can jump straight into the Wings of the Goddes storyline for any other nation. I joined San d'Oria, and I haven't changed my allegiance, but I've been doing the quests for San d'Oria, Bastok, and Windurst simultaneously.