More story about Gridania

So I've been hoping if we're going to get more story about Gridania. It is one of my favorite city state because of the nature and how peacful and quite it is compare to the other city state in Eorzea.

Though I've been wanting an expansion to revisit the starting city-states, I don't see that ever happening.

I appreciate in WoW how they have different phases of zones based on which expansion you're in. It would be nice to see a more thriving Gridania with additional instanced zones of the city.

I also love Gridania, but I don't think they're going to give it any more love.

The problem is most of the original 1.0 lore about the Eorzean citystates went out the window with ARR with all that retconning ensuring what we have now is completely different in many ways (Limsa was a literal pirate town putting on airs of semi-legitimacy, Ul'dah had a lot more mysticism and skullduggery going on amongst the wheeling and deeling, and Gridania was literally at the mercy of the elementals who were far more powerful and omnipresent in 1.0, where cutting the wrong tree could get you turned to stone or worse, made an outcast - Gridania certainly wasn't a calm and pleasant place to live before the Calamity that's for sure, speaking from personal experience as a 1.0 Gridanian player.).

As much as I would love to finally see some resolution to those old 1.0 storylines (for Gridania I want to finally know what was up with Khrimm and the 'secret mission' his parents and their band of exiles were up to in the Gelmorran Ruins), but I think that airship has sailed sadly.

Additionally it seems to me that the development team are, quite frankly, bored with Eorzea and the Source as a setting as a whole (this is why we got the Far East stealing the lion's share of Stormblood's story instead of Ala Mhigo, and why Shadowbringers and even parts of Endwalker took us to whole other worlds and even back in time - the development team are tired of Eorzea and the Source and want to branch out in new directions. Alas this means I think they're now pretty much done with the original citystates and so we'll probably not get much with new story involving them to be honest.

I don't know about that since Emet-Selch's reliable bucket list of locations for us to visit mention new areas in Eorzea, with it and Blindfrost being the only remaining locales.

But, yes. Honestly it's been my fixation lately in trying to find every crumb of Gridania and Shroud details I can.

I want the devs to really sink their teeth into the vacant holes in Moonkeeper and Duskwight lore and society, in particular. What little we have of is incredibly interesting, and Gridania's special brand of xenophobia is still going strong, and our Scion allies with the best connections are dead or helping run their direct rival nation of Ala Mhigo. Shoot, we know little of the Autumn War beyond Ala Mhigo getting their stuff handed to them and that any Ala Mhigan refugees looking for shelter in Grid are very unlikely to be accepted by the elementals because of said war. (You can find an Wildwood lady talking and showing off the carpenter's guid to a Highlander women, so some were allowed in, but she's the only vague example of such.)

I would lose my whole little mind if we actually got to go into one of those remaining Gelmorran settlements that are implied to still be around, but barely be hanging on.

Gridania's got all the potential for lore and more expansion over the other two cities because of how the MSQ has worked out. The Scions used to be based near Ul'dah and had many dealing with their leadership, and we've gone back to help Limsa with their primal issues and tribe relations several times. Most times we've gone to Grid it's to ask them to leave with us or work along side everyone else. Little one on one or things happening in Gridania's borders.

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Originally Posted by RedLolly

I would lose my whole little mind if we actually got to go into one of those remaining Gelmorran settlements that are implied to still be around, but barely be hanging on.

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Yeah, like, seriously: There's basically two minor NPCs who are trying to explore the ruins (Irielle and Rolandaix, who both hang around Issom-Har and have one and a half miniquest...), and the Palace of the Dead with its procedurally generated dungeon, and that's about it. As a Duskwight player, you're kinda left hanging in terms of in-game lore.

There are lots of sidequests there that cover it though. Even sidequests later in the game return to Gridania, such as healer role quests and White Mage quests. We also have Scholar's amdapor-related quests, numerous other jobs will mention their history in Gridania, seasonal events cover it as well, and so do dungeons there.

The lore in the long-term relates to wars and past calamities. I have thought that maybe an expansion could send us into the past to solve those calamities. Maybe it was us that solved those like we do everything else.

I will always support Gridania/Shroud story ideas, there's just so much untapped potential and lack of elaboration, even with the nuggets of lore sidequests have given.

- Potential to rebuild the blocked off sections of Old Gridania.
- Let us go to Gelmorra and more personally explore the subterranean biome that's beneath the shroud.
- Give us an updated map of the West Shroud and let us go there again.
- Duskwight and Keeper Miqo are horrendously underrepresented. Since they're exclusive to the Shroud, make it relevant again and give us the chance to actually encounter these settlements and cultures.
- Make the elementals relevant again. They could potentially be regaining a lot of power with the chaos that has been happening to the world's aether or through discoveries about Gelmorra, and could be a real threat or ally.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

There are lots of sidequests there that cover it though. Even sidequests later in the game return to Gridania, such as healer role quests and White Mage quests. We also have Scholar's amdapor-related quests, numerous other jobs will mention their history in Gridania, seasonal events cover it as well, and so do dungeons there.

The lore in the long-term relates to wars and past calamities. I have thought that maybe an expansion could send us into the past to solve those calamities. Maybe it was us that solved those like we do everything else.

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And I've done all of that and still noticed how undercooked Shroud and Shroud local people's lore is over the other regions. All other regions have that exact type of side content, too.

There are confirmed hidden, underground settlements, and the only Dusks and Moonkeepers we get to deal with are either not in stories that deal with their histories, are villains, or are victims of racists. It's actually a problem.

I recall being really excited that we got to get to a Dusk settlement that was primarily underground in the Dancer quests, but don't pass the entrance, and it's specifically about how miserable and bitter the people around are because of the racism and what they have to do to survive. It's all stuff we knew.

Then there was that Moogle Mail quest involving a Couerl Claw poacher and their "king," but everyone leaves that questline wondering why that set of Moonkeepers are living under an evil copy of the Nuhn and Harem lifestyle of Sunseekers. (He's clearly manipulating the women to live under him instead of actually being a worthy leader and father because of how poorly they're treated by outsiders.) So we don't actually get to interact with the matriarchal families Keepers prefer. And also, good ol fashioned racist threats of murder towards the Keepers involved and violent retaliation as a result.

Shoot, we know Duskwights often move to Ishgard because they aren't immediately tagged as evil for being grey, but even that's not great since Ishgard expects conversion to Halone's church and have zero issue witch hunting anyone, no matter your rank in society, even in question of heresy. (Which we experience ourselves as players several times!)

It's bad. We VERY BADLY need an instance where they're just people and not generic mobs or second class citizens. It just feels bad that Garlemald is getting better social support than Gridania's own citizens based on the Elementals' opinion and racial lines.

That could be a big story within a future expansion on its own!

i would like more of gridania and dusk elezen.

and its not like there arent enough places in eorzea where they could put new maps. of course not only in gridania.

another forest map with a dusk elezen settlement. would love that so much!
but they could also make some kind of underground map where the cobolds live with huge caves.
northern coerthas where the unicorns live.
a mountain region where the giant tribes live.
we have the pagl'than and xelphatol dungeons but there could be more of these areas too.

i know its not really their thing since it needs more work, but its time for a multilayered area in the mountsins or underground!

i wouldn't say no to more gridania lore :)
limsa and uldah are gnawed bare already! ...tho 1.0 versions of them too sounded way more bonkers than we have today.
can we just have sense of danger brought back to eorzea?

arr was most necessary change but i might be lil more into lore if arr lore about the world was as bizarre as 1.0 lore about the world.
i do like bizarre lore in my media pieces.

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Originally Posted by RedLolly

Then there was that Moogle Mail quest involving a Couerl Claw poacher and their "king," but everyone leaves that questline wondering why that set of Moonkeepers are living under an evil copy of the Nuhn and Harem lifestyle of Sunseekers. (He's clearly manipulating the women to live under him instead of actually being a worthy leader and father because of how poorly they're treated by outsiders.) So we don't actually get to interact with the matriarchal families Keepers prefer. And also, good ol fashioned racist threats of murder towards the Keepers involved and violent retaliation as a result.

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This one still annoys me to no end because not only could I have gutted that "king" three times over before he even got near the sister he was threatening (IE: he's a a pathetic obstacle the game WAY overblows in danger levels), but making the biggest piece of Keeper representation in the game "Seekers but harem is evil" is not only lame, but runs COMPLETELY opposite to how Keepers are supposed to be matriarchal. By all accounts that man should have been "taken care of" before I even knew he existed, or for however much the game wants to give me feel-good vibes for helping with some of Ul'dah and Limsa's problems (and I do indeed enjoy the "street level" heroics of helping out the Ala Mhigan refugees for example), I feel like I haven't done ANYTHING for Gridania beyond show up for seasonal events (which become increasingly awkward, especially the Valentine one, knowing someone like the Couerl Claw King is still out there emotionally manipulating and sexually exploiting Keeper women just a couple of load screens away.)

It can't be THAT hard to give us a wrap-up quest to turn him into a pelt throw rug, but then it would be nice in general if I could "truly" complete a lot of FATEs in the world because it feels so wrong knowing that certain mobs/NPCs are forever trapped never knowing peace or freedom because game mechanics say they need to respawn every few minutes.

Yeah, with all the work the devs have done to show how and why Seeker women WANT to live with a Nuhn (the standard set for the Nuhn men in physical prowess, intelligence, and compassion is otherworldly high and if he slips at all or a another man proves his better, the harem is *expected* to abandon him. Plus neither men and women Seeker HAVE to live by that system if they choose not to.)

So stumbling into what's become of the Couerl Claws and that pathetic excuse of a sperm doner "king" that has those women brainwashed because he's damn good with a sword, but then seeing the reason he gets away with it is because those women can't get help and are likely green wrathed for being poachers, too, burns me up. It's such a vile story we just never got to Warrior of Light our way through to help the victims and ugh.

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Originally Posted by RedLolly

Yeah, with all the work the devs have done to show how and why Seeker women WANT to live with a Nuhn (the standard set for the Nuhn men in physical prowess, intelligence, and compassion is otherworldly high and if he slips at all or a another man proves his better, the harem is *expected* to abandon him. Plus neither men and women Seeker HAVE to live by that system if they choose not to.)

So stumbling into what's become of the Couerl Claws and that pathetic excuse of a sperm doner "king" that has those women brainwashed because he's damn good with a sword, but then seeing the reason he gets away with it is because those women can't get help and are likely green wrathed for being poachers, too, burns me up. It's such a vile story we just never got to Warrior of Light our way through to help the victims and ugh.

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It's even more egregious because it's part of the post-ARR content. So it's not like we ran into this level 29 twerp when we were still an up and coming adventurer and didn't even have a job crystal yet, he made the mistake of showing up in front of us AFTER we had just dunked all over the Ultima Weapon and Black Wolf, he should be a SMEAR right now.

And even if you WANT to seek out and kill him during his FATE (which rarely pops for whatever reason), not only does it make no difference in the actual side story, but it's not a FATE that's easily soloable due to the sheer density of enemy mobs surrounding his cowardly ass in a very closed space (he even spawns ADDITIONAL ones once he gets weak enough) where you would be, tragically, killing a lot of those same Keeper women he keeps bound to him. So there's a good chance you'll try, get KO'd, and get to seethe about that too. (Signed; A seether who tried.)

There's no satisfaction from a story or gameplay perspective and you just get to be mad about this ridiculously successful, nigh-untouchable, low-level villain.

While not a replacement for the need to revisit Black Shroud lore with real quests or areas and such, they COULD expand that Unending Codex and turn it into a proper lore archive instead of a really bad post-Endwalker story recap tool.
If the team was willing to put some effort into it, you would unlock the codex very early and unlock extra entries of local lore and information based on optional quests, FATES or duty completion. Including more lore from existing/past MSQ locations without having to dedicate more MSQ to it.

8.0 could do with a side quest series of the 3 starter zones, pure nostalgia bait, lore drops and just people (NPC) watching with the Scions or Erenville.

Would be a nice place for a Variant dungeon. Or two or three. lol