We are brutal to the beast tribes

[Cleretic]

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.

Yeah, Duskwight are an almost frustrating subject, because the subject of Duskwight and Gelmorra are constantly almost relevant, but never quite center-stage. I actually really liked that quest, because remember that the Totentantz (because remember, against all odds it turns out the dancing actually was something shady) is essentially a corruption that sets in for populations that have a lot of fear and anger, but not in a form where they can fully exorcise it in their own actions. They put the Duskwight's marginalization on the same level as Ishgard's lower class, Ul'Dah's refugee community, and Ala Mhigo's war wounded, which is the right scale to put it on, but it feels like there's always been a reluctance to face it head-on.

And it's something I always wondered about being something of a 1.0 influence, too. Beyond the Elementals being generally more terrifying in 1.0, they also gave Gelmorra a bigger treatment; not only did it have a third dungeon that didn't make it into 2.0 (The Mun-Tuy Cellars), but the currencies and materials for endgame stuff were from Gelmorra. We know nearly nothing about what 1.0's original post-release plans were, but it seems plausible that their endgame would have been as focused on Gelmorra as ARR's was on Allag. That probably got moved away from originally to have the endgame be more starting-town-agnostic, and then perhaps got sidelined over time because 1.0's setting and worldbuilding was significantly darker than where the live game would end up going. I wouldn't be too surprised if it's been left on the shelf because they don't know what to do with it.

[Hasrat]

Yeah, Duskwight are an almost frustrating subject, because the subject of Duskwight and Gelmorra are constantly almost relevant, but never quite center-stage. I actually really liked that quest, because remember that the Totentantz (because remember, against all odds it turns out the dancing actually was something shady) is essentially a corruption that sets in for populations that have a lot of fear and anger, but not in a form where they can fully exorcise it in their own actions. They put the Duskwight's marginalization on the same level as Ishgard's lower class, Ul'Dah's refugee community, and Ala Mhigo's war wounded, which is the right scale to put it on, but it feels like there's always been a reluctance to face it head-on.

While the dance did justify suspicions, I still call it backwards. And in the end, despite full awareness that it was a form of possession causing violent actions, I still say they did nothing truly criminal to justify apprehension. The Adders detained them for a perceived crime they weren't even willingly committing. And that's where the quest leaves them, no closure beyond treating them like the criminals they're made out to be.

Gridania is wack.

[MediocreIndigo]

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

Yeah, I'm hoping that the MSQ addresses this in the future. The Endwalker tank role quests touch on the elementals a bit but personally I don't think they really went far enough.

[Hurlstone]

We spend a lot of time being show the horrors of the Garlean Empire and what its like under their authoritarian rule, and rightly so, but most of Eorza’s main cities have their own gaping issues that rarely got touched upon. The way Beast Tribes are treated is of course big glaring issue, but Ul'dah is corrupt beyond redemption at this point, and the writers attempts to address this have been offensively poor. Gridania has a real dark current under its serene exterior with how other races are treated, let alone the beast tribes, and oh yeah there are the Elements which rule through fear and sounded TERRIFYING in 1.0. Limsa Lominsa, despite being a nation of pirates, is actually the one that has been developed best. We have Y'shtola calling Merlwyb out on their treatment early on, the story with Ga Bu and eventually Merlwyb goes out of her way to try and make peace with them and the waring pirates under her control. Still not perfect by any means, but I would have liked Gridania and Ul’dah get more attention like that.

Not saying it is necessity a bad thing either that the cities are like they are. I rather like how grey their histories are, makes it more interesting but its strange how we have entirely up-heaved the way many of the expansion based cities but done little with our homelands. We end a war in Ishgard and help it move on to a more fair way of life free of theocracy. With Ala Mhigo we help that city start to move on to a home that is not ruled over by someone on a throne. In Eulmore we literally topped its leader who was FEEDING ITS OWN PEOPLE TO THE POPULATION and help bring civilian rule. Heck when we help free Bozja they decide to keep some of the Garlean laws because they had some real issues with equality prior to their invasion! We get to really help these places and make changes for the better, so its just kinda ashame we are not doing more to make the starting cities better.

[EaraGrace]

While the dance did justify suspicions, I still call it backwards. And in the end, despite full awareness that it was a form of possession causing violent actions, I still say they did nothing truly criminal to justify apprehension. The Adders detained them for a perceived crime they weren't even willingly committing. And that's where the quest leaves them, no closure beyond treating them like the criminals they're made out to be.

Gridania is wack.

Gridania definitely would benefit from more focus. Ul’Dah and Limsa have gotten their time in the limelight and some focus on Gridanias failings would do a lot. The tank role quest could’ve been part of that as well but… well...

[Hasrat]

I'd even go so far as to argue Gridania is the most insidious, for how subtle it can be. Ul'Dah is very clearly corrupt, a natural result of their accumulated wealth, with a history that just gets darker the more you dig. But there's no question about it from a very early point. Limsa is a city of pirates, of course they're going to have issues, and good on them for putting in the work to make things better. But Gridania, it's far too easy to gloss over what their problems are under the facade of peaceful and serene forest folk. "Poachers are bad, save the trees, live in harmony with nature, yup, this all sounds perfectly reasonable and acceptable, these people must be doing it right."

[SentioftheHoukai]

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 tresspassers 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.

Sometimes I wonder why the heck Gaia's Wrath isn't featured more heavily. Guess human supremacy is a more important topic to be put it the spotlight. For me, if nature quite literally strangled me for kicking over an anthill I'd take much more care not to be careless in the woods. If only for practicalities' sake. I'd rather keep living.

[Dikatis]

Sometimes I wonder why the heck Gaia's Wrath isn't featured more heavily. Guess human supremacy is a more important topic to be put it the spotlight. For me, if nature quite literally strangled me for kicking over an anthill I'd take much more care not to be careless in the woods. If only for practicalities' sake. I'd rather keep living.

Well, the reason in 2.0 is because the elementals got seriously neutered when the Twelveswood was torched by the Calamity. The entire West Shroud was leveled and burnt to the ground and the elementals have been reduced to only sending treants and angry animals at those who commit woodsin. This is why the Wood Wailers and Gods' Quiver are feeling so overwhelmed at the start of 2.0 and the entire South Shroud is overrun with poachers who normally would've been dusted by the elementals.

[Neoyoshi]

There are much worse fates then death for a Beast Tribe.

[Cleretic]

Well, the reason in 2.0 is because the elementals got seriously neutered when the Twelveswood was torched by the Calamity. The entire West Shroud was leveled and burnt to the ground and the elementals have been reduced to only sending treants and angry animals at those who commit woodsin. This is why the Wood Wailers and Gods' Quiver are feeling so overwhelmed at the start of 2.0 and the entire South Shroud is overrun with poachers who normally would've been dusted by the elementals.

And on a more meta level it's because the ARR-onward developers didn't want to do that story. There was a big change in tone and direction between 1.0 and 2.0, and this was just part of it. My guess is the reasoning had three facets.

1. During ARR they didn't know they'd get to do anything else, the project was just 'make sure there's something not-shameful that we can call FFXIV'. That means focusing down the main story, which means filing off some of the more prevalent further content hooks 1.0 had.
2. Take away any inherent starting-zone bias in potential later content. 1.0 was setting the Shroud up to be the core of the endgame, which would make the people who started elsewhere feel a bit second-class. Basically the reason Revenant's Toll exists.
3. Just straight-up tonal difference. I don't know what 1.0's plans for the Shroud were exactly, but given the live game scaled back a bunch of the dark elements in 1.0 it's entirely possible that whatever was planned was just NOT something the new developers wanted to touch.