We've all been through the Battle of Cartenau, an epic fight between Garlemald and the united nations of Eorzea. Something I missed.. what was Ishgard doing, now? Busy fighting dragons, surely.
But would they just idly stand by and "mind their own business" while the Garlean threat is that obvious, having conquered two continents already and took a good bit of Eorzea while at it?
Anyone knows more?
What was Ishgard doing?
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08-23-2013, 07:22 AMTaeliaWhat was Ishgard doing?
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08-23-2013, 07:59 AMAnonymooseThis is a question on a lot of minds. They joined the restoration of the Eorzean Alliance in 1562 and then, as soon as they saw the Garlean advance halt, dropped out to go do their dragon thing and locked the gates. Why not rejoin when the Empire resumed the march? It seems to be that their war against the dragons has stretched their resources too thin. They couldn't even reclaim the Dzemael Darkhold (a fortress built by one of their highest noble families, abandoned mid-construction when the high aether concentration wore the veil between realms too thin and Batraal came through) without the help of the Grand Companies.Quote:
Originally Posted by Taelia
Makes you wonder if something more sinister is afoot, though. Final Fantasy has a thing for large cities, nobility, and religious leaders being antagonists; and Ishgard is Jeuno with a pope. Hmmmm... -
08-23-2013, 01:20 PMIchi
It is possible that they have been even busier with the dragons than we could imagine. I think their resources are stretched pretty thin right now. If you notice there is an entire region to the Northwest of Eorzea left unexplored that seems to be populated by Dragonkin. I believe Ishgard has been fighting to maintain Coerthas and unable to mount an insurrection into Dragon territory. I believe that is where we will come in come the expansion.
While im on the topic of unexplored areas on the world map. We also havent gotten to see the top half of La Noscea on the other side of the volcano. also we don't have much on the region of Ala Mhigo and further Northeast the Garlean Empire itself.
As i love speculations on lore particularly, I'll also point out that Eorzea looks a lot like Africa "the cradle of civilization" (alright i know Africa is not that but it's where the first homo sapiens came from). Eorzea is a logical starting point. Relative to the possible size of the rest of the planet... we probably could speculate forever and not be too far off. -
08-23-2013, 01:27 PMNoloeTazierHopefully Northern La Noscea will be Mount O'Ghomoro and a Volcano zone. And I don't want to spoil too much about Ishgard, but you can learn a lot by talking to NPCs. They've been busy since the destruction that Dalamud brought upon Coerthas. Lots of castles.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ichi
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08-23-2013, 09:35 PMCatapult
My personal speculation is that the Archbishop of Ishgard, being engaged in a religion that sees dragons as a mortal enemy, knows more about their foe than the average individual.
Enough to purposefully threaten with exile out a theologian who proposed the dragons may have a primal they revere like a god.
If he had an idea of what was going on, that could be reason to bunker down... just speculating here, mind you. -
08-31-2013, 05:32 PMStianGold
Well i dont know so mutch of the story of Isghard but somenthing i know is that they left the Alliances.
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09-02-2013, 11:39 PMMeliae
if you do the quests in Coerthas area you learn that they have been busy with dragons and who have been infiltrating into Ishgard and killing people. so it seems the war with dragons is at point of no return.
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09-04-2013, 02:34 PMMalistaire
The NPCs also mention LOTS of in-fighting between the main houses. It's probably safe to say that they haven't gotten involved because there is a power play of sorts going on internally. My current class is level 38 and doing every quest in Coerthas because the lore and story are fascinating. No FATE grinding for me (at least until my next class)!
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09-05-2013, 06:23 AMSaikou
Spoilers for Coerthas Quests ahead.
You learn that the Ishgardians are very proud and do not believe that the problems of other nations are of concern to them. You can make a lot of inferences about why Ishgard didn't get involved with the war against The Garleans and the attempts to stop Dalamud's fall. There is a lot of one-upmanship among the High Houses of Ishgard, only a handful of whom have holdings in the part of Coerthas we have access to. In dealing with them, we find that they take their guardian deity, Halone, very seriously. You find out that Ishgard proper is actually called "The Holy See of Ishgard." This same title is used for Vatican City IRL. Ishgard is ruled by a High Priest. One quest seems to indicate that Ishgard's war against Dragon-kind, called The Dravanians, has been going on for at least 3 generations. I don't know how this interacts with the timeline and when Ishgard joined the Eorzean Alliance to keep Ala Migho in check. -
09-05-2013, 06:24 AMSaikou
Most of Ishgard is singularly focused on the war against the dragons, which they see as a holy war to which outsiders have no business interfering in. Indeed, one quest has a high ranking Knight of Ishgard saying, in no uncertain terms, that it would shame Ishgard to hire sellswords or adventurers to help their cause. And yet, for gameplay purposes, the High Houses that become indebted to you will offer guildleves at specific locations of Coerthas just like any other region of the game. This may be for game mechanics more than to follow the lore, as the Knights guarding the gate of Ishgard proper are adamant that they will be taking your head if you try to enter the city without permission.
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09-05-2013, 06:30 AMSaikou
Ishgard proper also doesn't believe that provisioning its southern borderlands is an efficient use of resources. One NPC laments that the Ixal, moving into the region, won't be thought a significant enough threat compared to the Dravanians in the north. Perhaps because of Ishgard proper's decision to leave South Coerthas to the High Houses, the Dravanians have destroyed 2 heavily fortified outposts in South Coerthas that are furthest north. The sudden, localized change in weather to the region has made life very difficult for the High Houses living in the south. Again, the main city is unsympathetic and is singularly focused on its war with the dragons since there ARE NO GARLEANS IN COERTHAS. I have to infer that even if there was a Garlean presence in South Coerthas, Ishgard would likely be apathetic about it just as it has chosen to be apathetic about the Ixal incursion.
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09-05-2013, 06:30 AMSaikou
We learn, essentially, that the Ishgardians have been too busy and too singularly focused on killing Dragonkin and Dragonkin sympathizers to lend a hand to Gridania, Ul'dah, an Limsa Lominsa. Also, they just don't seem to care about anything else happening outside of their holdings because of their holy crusade against the dragons. Their prideful arrogance is similar to that of San d'Orian NPC's in FFXI. Maybe Ishgard will come to respect adventurers and The Scions of the 7th Dawn if we defeat Bahamut, an Elder Primal in the form of a Dragon? I can only speculate. I'm level 40 now and not entirely finished with questing in Coerthas, but this is what I have been able to glean based on my experiences.
(Ugh, I wish there wasn't a 1000 character limit) -
09-05-2013, 07:04 AMOrophinYou can edit your posts to bypass that by the way. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Saikou
Ishgard definitely has some internal problems. Those listed above and:
You find out through the main story that a Dravanian has stolen the identity of a Confessor newly come to Ishgard and has been condemning innocents to death.