Quote Originally Posted by Berethos View Post
I'd appreciate you responding to my main point, which you conveniently edited out of your response. The bit about sins of the father was more glib than serious - the question about how many pure-blooded Garleans actually suffered through the unjust persecution their people did are alive (and more importantly) in positions of power in modern Hydaelyn.

It's an important distinction - their persecution does explain and to an extent justify why they pushed for Magitek and why they pushed to conquer those that had conquered them...but that was completed 50 years back.

How much sway should that still hold in justifying their current actions, especially if those actions have been against nations that weren't part of the group that persecuted them in the first place? How many current Pure-blooded Garleans can be "justified" in their racism towards others, when chances are many of them grew up in the Empire, not the tiny nation that had to fight to survive?
I mean when you say "should" you're appealing to a specific moral standard. I don't even believe that a group needs a specific abstract justification to hold its own interests over those of another group. It can aim at supremacy with or without a legitimising narrative behind it, much like the Optimates are probably doing, although an awareness of their own history has probably rendered them deaf to protests by the territories they conquered, throughout which the style of their rule varies. Back then, the development of magitek and use of ceruleum enabled them to stabilise their position. Now, it is more a matter of eradicating eikons for good. I would not be surprised if Bahamut's tempering of Eula has emboldened their resolve.