Revelations from Patch 6.4: The Dark Throne

[Kesey]

Gridania is at a very bad place of "Well, everyone here is familiar with Shinto so we're not going to explain it, it's all fine because the Elementals are the kami and we know the delicate balance between mankind and kami" and then Othard took all of that and actually explored and explained it and left Gridania as a "well... just don't think about it"

#JusticeForGridania

No Gridania is supposed to be a pre-medieval German town. The elementals are worshiped like the Germanic tribes that worshipped nature. "The elementals" aren't Shintoism or kami, it's more like a sentient will of mother nature. The Padjal white mages are more aligned with druids that led that religion who spoke to the people the will of nature.

Did you also not find it funny that all the "christian" holiday events get held in Girdania? You know the same christian holidays that were adopted by the church to replace the pagan holidays practiced by the same people following a germanic nature religion.

[Cleretic]

No Gridania is supposed to be a pre-medieval German town. The elementals are worshiped like the Germanic tribes that worshipped nature. "The elementals" aren't Shintoism or kami, it's more like a sentient will of mother nature. The Padjal white mages are more aligned with druids that led that religion who spoke to the people the will of nature.

Did you also not find it funny that all the "christian" holiday events get held in Girdania? You know the same christian holidays that were adopted by the church to replace the pagan holidays practiced by the same people following a germanic nature religion.

Actually there's a hell of a lot of Shintoism and kami in the depictions of the Elementals and the conjurers, hearers and White Mages that tend to them. It's basically Shinto beliefs dressed up in European fae story aesthetics (the specifics brought up to me were actually more Celtic than Germanic though)--which generally aren't a world away in the first place in terms of personifying and respecting nature, but you can see the minute specifics come from Shintoism.

Which is also why we won't fight or antagonize the Elementals; the story comes form a place of general cultural respect for that concept. I know nobody mentioned that, but I feel it's worth saying.

[MikkoAkure]

No Gridania is supposed to be a pre-medieval German town. The elementals are worshiped like the Germanic tribes that worshipped nature. "The elementals" aren't Shintoism or kami, it's more like a sentient will of mother nature. The Padjal white mages are more aligned with druids that led that religion who spoke to the people the will of nature.

It hasn't come up really since 1.0, but the original Gridania lore established that elementals are everywhere and in everything, not just in the Twelveswood. There was a quest where a hearer asked an ink elemental about the person who wrote them onto a piece of paper. Not sure if that's been retconned or just hasn't been discussed or delved into since, but Gridania was at least originally set up on elementals=kami.

Elementals still exist as combat enemies outside of the Twelveswood so there's still that at least.

Did you also not find it funny that all the "christian" holiday events get held in Girdania? You know the same christian holidays that were adopted by the church to replace the pagan holidays practiced by the same people following a germanic nature religion.

I don't think that means anything. Christmas, Easter, and Halloween are mostly in Gridania because the environment suits the area better. Some of the first ARR holidays were in all 3 cities at once. The first solo-city ARR holiday I can remember was Valentines Day in Limsa only. And I'm pretty sure there was a Limsa-only Halloween too because I remember a cutscene with the Great Pumpkin there.

I think it just ended up that way rather than there being a purposeful reason. Ul'dah and Limsa aren't connected to Japanese culture at all but they monopolize the Japanese holidays now.


Anyway, the biggest problems Gridania has in its storytelling is that it's very exclusive, isolationist, and has no ports. So it's not going to be the center of anything at all like how Limsa Lominsa and Ul'dah are. People don't gather there, so there's no reason for wide-ranging quests to start there either, except for the end of HW/beginning of SB and only because something was happening in the Garlean-conquered parts of the forest and the enemy was right at their doorstep. Now that's been taken care of, there's absolutely no reason for the game's overall narrative to go there again unless the writers force it.

And an issue I personally have is the fact that the writers decided to write off every monster or supernatural phenomena and even migratory birds for some reason as "an Ancient did it" really diminishes the world in my view. Ancients being responsible for the Elementals really did them dirty and I preferred them as beings that just naturally existed in this world but gathered in the Twelveswood due to the amount of aether.

[Cleretic]

Elementals still exist as combat enemies outside of the Twelveswood so there's still that at least.

Not quite; in 1.0 they were (and famously were level 90 in a game with a level 50 cap), but in the live game the sprites seem to have stepped in to fill that role, maybe to make clearer that distinction.

Elementals in the live game have only appeared outside Gridania in Eureka and Elpis, not being hostile either time. An enemy using (one of) their models appeared in the Aetherfont under a different name, too, I'm not sure what to make of that one.

[Iscah]

Elementals in the live game have only appeared outside Gridania in Eureka and Elpis, not being hostile either time. An enemy using (one of) their models appeared in the Aetherfont under a different name, too, I'm not sure what to make of that one.

The "ice slave" adds from Rabanastre's first boss also use the elemental model.