We are brutal to the beast tribes

[MoofiaBossVal]

Here in the United States, we hanged horse thieves. A man's horse (or in this case, his Chocobo) is his life. It is what allows him to plow his fields. It is the difference between being able to ride into town to call for help, and his family dying of an illness or being killed before he can run back. A horse was a hefty investment that was nothing to scoff at (people who couldn't afford a horse had the ask a neighbor if they could use theirs). If you deprive a man of his horse, you deprive him of his life. Hence, horse theft was a capital crime. With Chocobos being the horses of this world, dealing out capital punishment to Chocobo egg thieves seems pretty normal. In addition, helping a thief get away makes you an accomplice to his crime. All in all those thieving Qiqirn got what they deserved.

[Necrotica]

Here in the United States, we hanged horse thieves. A man's horse (or in this case, his Chocobo) is his life. It is what allows him to plow his fields. It is the difference between being able to ride into town to call for help, and his family dying of an illness or being killed before he can run back. A horse was a hefty investment that was nothing to scoff at (people who couldn't afford a horse had the ask a neighbor if they could use theirs). If you deprive a man of his horse, you deprive him of his life. Hence, horse theft was a capital crime. With Chocobos being the horses of this world, dealing out capital punishment to Chocobo egg thieves seems pretty normal. In addition, helping a thief get away makes you an accomplice to his crime. All in all those thieving Qiqirn got what they deserved.

Sure if we killed the actual thief and accomplices. We didn't. We went and butchered random members of the same species.

[Cleretic]

Mine isn't guilty of this particular act though, this is level 10 MSQ stuff for those that started in Gridania, and I didn't start in Gridania.

In fact, I just checked, there is no equivalent act in the other two intros! We kill some goblins in Limsa's, but they're explicitly muggers, and surprisingly an Ul'Dahn WoL leaves the regional intros without ever having killed anything you could call a 'beastman'. Granted, we're all forced into being complicit with the events in Copperbell Mine anyway, so no WoL leaves with completely clean hands. But if you're up for being picky, it's a Gridanian WoL that's got the dirtiest, albeit only by four bodies--which sounds like a lot, but remember how much we've done by the end and four more bodies is practically a rounding error.

Here in the United States, we hanged horse thieves. A man's horse (or in this case, his Chocobo) is his life. It is what allows him to plow his fields. It is the difference between being able to ride into town to call for help, and his family dying of an illness or being killed before he can run back. A horse was a hefty investment that was nothing to scoff at (people who couldn't afford a horse had the ask a neighbor if they could use theirs). If you deprive a man of his horse, you deprive him of his life. Hence, horse theft was a capital crime. With Chocobos being the horses of this world, dealing out capital punishment to Chocobo egg thieves seems pretty normal. In addition, helping a thief get away makes you an accomplice to his crime. All in all those thieving Qiqirn got what they deserved.

I would not be so extreme, but broadly I do think it's also useful to remember that, yeah, Eorzea isn't exactly 1:1 with the morals of 2022 western society. This is especially true in ARR, where the writers were still holding to the 'dark fantasy' worldbuilding that 1.0 left them with; Game of Thrones, Skyrim and and The Witcher were basically setting the tone for fantasy stories at the time.

That doesn't exactly excuse 'go out and kill indiscriminately', but what might be worth pointing out is that the mobs in question are qiqirn scramblers. Now I don't know exactly what the act of 'scrambling' means in this context, but given this isn't even the only time egg theft turns up in the Gridania intro story*, I'm guessing they might've 'scrambled' more eggs than just this one.

*Probably also worth taking into account, the other time an egg is stolen it's by an elezen. And we killed him, too, so apparently Gridania WoL was not discriminating.

[Mimilu]

Mine isn't guilty of this particular act though, this is level 10 MSQ stuff for those that started in Gridania, and I didn't start in Gridania.

Gridania is kind of in a weird place compared to the other two starter cities.
Limsa and Ul'dah both have shady and bloodied histories but, as the MSQ progresses, are working to make right their past wrongs.
Gridania really hasn't done that. Due to the calamity, the elementals are weaker then they were in 1.x, meaning they can't use the Greenwrath, so the threat of being disintegrated is gone and that's pretty much it. They're the only nation to not only have problems with a beast tribe, the Ixal, but with two playable race clans, the Duskwight Elezen and the Keeper of the Moon Miqo'te, and will not allow Ala Mhigan refugees into the city proper.
It kind of feels like the writing team "forgot" about these things so Gridania could be "the nature waifu" place. :B

[MikkoAkure]

That doesn't exactly excuse 'go out and kill indiscriminately', but what might be worth pointing out is that the mobs in question are qiqirn scramblers. Now I don't know exactly what the act of 'scrambling' means in this context, but given this isn't even the only time egg theft turns up in the Gridania intro story*, I'm guessing they might've 'scrambled' more eggs than just this one.

To add to this, one thing that the OP forgot to mention is that these Qiqirn are camped next to a road and all aggro. These Qiqirn may not be innocent of that crime, but they're not innocent Qiqirn we're butchering either. They will attempt to kill you on sight (unless you're more than 10 levels above them).

That doesn't mean the Gridanians aren't extreme though, kill a rat without proper authorization and you're as good as dead in the eyes of the law. They do have somewhat of a reason for it, and it's the fact that up until 5 years ago, they were at the mercy of the Elementals and Gridania was only allowed to exist as a guest. The Elementals are all about preserving the balance of the forest and should you unbalance it, you'll face their wrath. It's part of why the Wood Wailers wear masks. Back in 1.0, besides hiding their identity they were used in a ritual to cleanse Woodsin. But should the Elementals eventually regain their power, they can and will destroy anyone who doesn't play by the rules and the Gridanians are severe so that doesn't happen and the Elementals don't decide they're more trouble than their worth and erase the city. The last time the Elementals got mad, they flooded the whole world.

[ReynTime]

Ah, Necrotica's back on her 'the WoL was a bad person during ARR' kick.

This is why the prospect of being an adventurer accepting jobs and bounties for quick pay is far more interesting and open than the concept that adventurer = automatic good guy.
The idea that we did some bad shit in the past because we were still trying to make a living with what job we could is very believable regardless.

[Misplaced_Marbles]

That doesn't mean the Gridanians aren't extreme though, kill a rat without proper authorization and you're as good as dead in the eyes of the law. They do have somewhat of a reason for it, and it's the fact that up until 5 years ago, they were at the mercy of the Elementals and Gridania was only allowed to exist as a guest. The Elementals are all about preserving the balance of the forest and should you unbalance it, you'll face their wrath. It's part of why the Wood Wailers wear masks. Back in 1.0, besides hiding their identity they were used in a ritual to cleanse Woodsin. But should the Elementals eventually regain their power, they can and will destroy anyone who doesn't play by the rules and the Gridanians are severe so that doesn't happen and the Elementals don't decide they're more trouble than their worth and erase the city. The last time the Elementals got mad, they flooded the whole world.

But when you consider everything happening in the South Shroud specifically without even looking anywhere else and considering how little the elementals and their little servants care about things happening there, i do wonder what the Gridanians are afraid of. The elementals are basically nothing but a not-so-old folktale meant to scare children to good behaviour.

[MikkoAkure]

But when you consider everything happening in the South Shroud specifically without even looking anywhere else and considering how little the elementals and their little servants care about things happening there, i do wonder what the Gridanians are afraid of. The elementals are basically nothing but a not-so-old folktale meant to scare children to good behaviour.

They're that way now, but won't stay that way forever. Just 5 years ago in-story before the Calamity in 1.0, things were a lot more frightening with the Elementals. The Elementals could and would kill people outright for not doing approved things.

From what little I can remember from 10 years ago when I did the 1.0 Gridania storyline, you're randomly walking through the woods when you hear the Echo and time travel to the past right when Yda and Papalymo break the Hedge barrier and pissed off the Elementals by merely existing within the boundaries of the Shroud. The Elementals sic a bunch of wolves and eventually a treant on you until a padjal and some moogles come by to save you. You then spend the next part of the parts of the storyline that take place in the past by making a mask to dance your curse away in the eyes of the Elementals all while dealing with an angry atheist kid who doesn't think the Elementals are real. The kid decides to set a tree on fire to prove it and the Elementals decide to turn him into stone for his trouble. He gets better, but because he was a jerk, he's a danger to the whole city's existence and he's banished from Gridania to become a "wildling" I think the term was, who you bump into later on as an adult in the present timeline. 1.0 story was weird.

[Hasrat]

They're the only nation to not only have problems with a beast tribe, the Ixal, but with two playable race clans, the Duskwight Elezen and the Keeper of the Moon Miqo'te, and will not allow Ala Mhigan refugees into the city proper.

Oh hey, someone remembered us Duskwights exist.

Yeah, I'd chalk this up as a Gridania thing more than a WoL thing.

And no, I wouldn't say the writing team has forgotten anything. Look no further than the much more recent DNC job quest that takes place in Gridania, where we are petitioned by an Adder to confront a group of Duskwights for the heinous crime of... gathering together. By the end, they remain detained under baseless suspicion of plotting insurrection.

[Dikatis]

But when you consider everything happening in the South Shroud specifically without even looking anywhere else and considering how little the elementals and their little servants care about things happening there, i do wonder what the Gridanians are afraid of. The elementals are basically nothing but a not-so-old folktale meant to scare children to good behaviour.

You uh... haven't seen how they were treated in 1.0, huh? A boy in 1.0 didn't believe in the elementals and to prove it, dug an axe into a tree and set it on fire. The elemental, thoroughly pissed at having its tree attacked, petrified the boy. He was lucky to have the immediate intervention of two seedseers, including E-Sumi Yan, to beg the elementals' forgiveness.

When there isn't a seedseer around to placate the elementals, well... people start getting disintegrated left and right.

Their anger at the destructive use of aether that tipped the elemental balance is also believed to have been the straw that broke the camel's back regarding the Sixth Umbral Calamity, triggering a planetary flood of Biblical proportions. The Twelveswood is the elementals' home first and foremost. They're the cranky landlords who allow Gridania to exist in exchange for protection and careful use of resources. Pissing them off is just asking to get dusted.

The reason why you don't see the elementals as much in 2.0 onward is because they were gravely weakened by the Seventh Umbral Calamity that torched much of the Twelveswood. As such, they're no longer able to directly punish trespassers and transgressors for their woodsin, instead stirring the local wildlife and awakening treants to viciously attack any human-shaped thing near the point of injury. So even then, their presence is felt, and they have enough power to do great things like pull someone out of the lifestream or nullify an otherwise fatal toxin when asked and given proper compensation.