Revelations from Patch 4.2

[Theodric]

Eorzea is largely protected from getting its hands dirty as various plot conveniences such as the Warrior of Light and Midgardsormr's timely intervention prevent its people from resorting to extremes in order to protect themselves either directly or indirectly. Now, if the Warrior of Light was not a thing and Primals were not defeated in a timely manner? Increasingly harsh measures would have to be taken against Eorzea's various Beast Tribes. Up to and included genocide, most likely.

This, of course, will no doubt be brushed off as mere speculation and a hypothesis. Still, there's a rather major elephant in the room that needs to be addressed by the plot moving forward. That major elephant in the room is that those who do not have the Warrior of Light to rely upon (either in the past or the present) have some tough decisions to make. Cold, hard logic proves effective in those scenarios - and whilst it may not necessarily be the right or ideal move to make, it's at least understandable to see why such decisions are made.

If only because most nations in Hydaelyn do not have the luxury of having their leaders foolishly invite Tempered into the heart of their cities and then emerge completely unscathed when a Primal is conjured forth as a consequence.

No, those nations who do not have the Warrior of Light to lean upon would have their leadership Tempered and/or slaughtered. Then the Primal would run amok until being put down...though not without an immense loss of life.

How this plays out in the future remains to be seen, though. As it stands, I feel like the story pushes a false, dangerous narrative that everything would work out for the better if only people relied on idealists. That's all well and good in theory, but in practice these idealists only succeed because...they have the Warrior of Light to lean upon. If they did not? What then? At some point, diplomacy and idealism twists into darker territory and a sense of putting one's people before all else. Garlemald and Ishgard (up until recently) are prime examples of this...and understandably so. In Ishgard's case, things only worked out the way that they did due to the Warrior of Light's intervention.