Hey, I wrote that first one!

I wasn't necessarily writing it super seriously, but it was a good chance to shine a light on the fact this wouldn't actually be super weird. Gridania is near the exact reverse of the temperament you expect from the aesthetic they put up. You expect 'elven forest hippies' like near every other setting with forest elves, and that's almost true, but... no, Gridania is not afraid to crack some skulls. Of all the core three city-states they're the most plausibly militaristic, with both the history to back it up and the overall nature of 'mess with us and you regret it' (even if they can't necessarily back that up these days as well as they could in 1.0). They might not own those cannons, but they are exactly the Alliance member I'd expect to have some scary war machine or technique that could tear apart some opposing forces before they knew what was going on.

Quote Originally Posted by MikkoAkure View Post
The Autumn War was also over 100 years ago in 1468, no one is alive from that time. If the calamity hadn't happened, we would be in the year 1577/8 depending on who you talk to. The maximum age for an elezen is said to be 120, but per the writers, no one actually reaches maximum age for their race and medieval lifespans are in effect in this universe. While a few extraordinary or well-off characters can and do see old age, the average Eorzean dirt farmer would be lucky to see 50 regardless of race, but we don't see many of those types since they're not as interesting to populate the screen with.
I was slightly off the mark with it being 'grandpas fought in it' years ago, but given that Gridania is actually where a lot of the Wildwood elezen of Eorzea live and so presumably see long lives, not to mention the effectively-immortal Padjali and the ageless Elementals. Culturally speaking, Gridania are definitely still mad about it; in fact, that very fact comes up in the Stormblood Carpenter questline, and is the main focus of Stormblood Bard.