Gridanian Religion vs Reality: How much do the Hearers really hear?

[Enkidoh]

In the 2.0 Botanist Guild questline, Fufucha says that the Ixal actually did co-exist in the forest besides the Gridanians, long ago.

I haven't levelled BTN yet so I wouldn't know, but that blatantly contradicts all previous information stated about the Ixal, stating that they woke the greenwrath before Gridania was settled and were driven out, which resulted in their long standing grudge towards Gridania, whom they regard as interlopers in their wood. Specifically, an early quest in Hyrstmill mentions this clearly. Considering Fufucha was something of a scatterbrain in 1.0, I'm liable to not take anything she says too seriously to be honest.

See, this is the reason I wanted to look at this from the non-Gridanian Keeper-of-the-Moon perspective because we don't get to see much of it in the game and yet they're living in the Shroud too. I'm starting to think that the reason they don't seem to worry as much about the Will of the Elementals is because they're actually taking far, far less from the Black Shroud and so are a lot less likely to draw down the Green Wrath. They're hunter-gatherers who live in small, nomadic settlements, that's a lot less taxing to forest than a big city with multiple satellite villages, farms, ranches and fortresses. Gridania's actually asking a great deal from the Shroud, that may be why they have to be so polite about it while the Miqo'te can "poach" with abandon with no real consequences. A few antelope here and there isn't much compared to, say, the amount of trees that must have been felled to build the Lavender Beds.

Well, firstly, there are clearly Moonkeepers living and working within Gridania itself, so you're making the mistake of regarding all Moonkeepers as thieves and brigands, which they're not. The official FFXIV website actually mentions this - that in recent years many Moonkeepers have been accepted into Gridanian society. I've seen a few Moonkeeper Wood Wailer and God's Quiver npcs for instance.

But the fact is, the poachers existence in the Black Shroud is actually illegal - the storyline clearly states this. The only reason they've been getting away with it is because the Wood Wailers and the God's Quiver are taxed for manpower as it is with the Ixal raids becoming more commonplace - hence why there's so many FATEs and battlecraft levequests in the Black Shroud that deal with deal with poaching - Gridania has no choice but to turn to adventurers to deal with the poaching problem.

As for the Lavender Beds, it was stated clearly that the elementals approved of it's construction, and as it is it's geography is still very natural - landscaping of it is at a minimum so it's not like they moved in with magitek bulldozers and razed the place.