Yeah, the paragon thing can go either way. Ascians is a good place to be suspicious since we learn about them at roughly the same time. The main thing I'm suspicious about is that the Archons and Paragons are spoken of in EXACTLY the same manner, down to the wording used in the game script.
You know, Eorzea is like a coin, from each side you get a different take on what everything is. I think the Ascian and Paragon thing is similar. Please keep in mind that when we talk about Paragon, it's always from the beastmen side of the coin. The first person's to mention the Paragons are the sylphs, which your Path companion overhears and gets the harebrained idea of trying to ask them for help.

Of course the beastmen admire the Paragons and think they're awesome because they brought them the ability to summon primals and fight the Empire. Heck, judging from Ferny-poos post, they the GODS of the gods! (see also: definition of Paragon, it's pretty high praise.) But is it really their nature to make war? Or is that their nature now that they've had their minds addled by summoning primals (chicken => egg) that they've decided to kill of the Empire. Are they merely pawns in a bigger war between the Ascians and the Empire? And if this is the truth, who is really behind the Empire I wonder.

Now in Toll of the Warden, we notice that the whole Primal summoning has started in earnest and now the beast tribes won't sell their crystals any more. Apparently this trend had only just recently started judging from Minfilia's dialogue. And you go there and the first thing the Amalj'aa and the Ixal try to do is see who has the strongest primal and --- guess who else pops up? An Ascian.

*Hiir adjusts her monocle*

It's elementary my dear Moose. The perpetrator always returns to the scene of the crime. I don't see Urianger creeping around the Ixal or the Amalj'aa. But wherever the beastmen are getting mixed up with primal fever, the Shadowless show up.