Quote Originally Posted by Enkidoh View Post
If I can add a small detail to that Liadan - during the early Gridanian storyline, a gate guard in Hyrstmill clearly mentions that the Ixal originally tried settling in the Black Shroud (before the five races arrived in Eorzea), as they regarded the forest as a holy place, which they named 'Tequloia', only to be driven out by the elementals, forcing the Ixal to settle in what is now Natalan in Coerthas on the outskirts of Xephlatol.

When they saw the ancient Gelmorrans strike a pact with the elementals and were given the right to settle in the forest (the founding of Gridania), this enraged the Ixal who felt only they were the rightful settlers of the forest. Hence, a lot of the Ixal's animosity towards Gridania is just pure and out jealously over their treatment by the elementals and Gridania accomplishing what they couldn't. A lot of their rage is also a direct result of their summoning of Garuda - this was made quite clear in 1.0 when it was first mentioned that some of the beast tribes were becoming noticeably more hostile (ala, the Ixal and the amalj'aa), due to the summoning of the Primals corrupting them.

The already souring relationship between Gridania and the Ixal isn't helped also by the later's blithe disregard for environmental protection, cutting down trees to build the blimps they fly in, a enormous heresy of the worst kind in the eyes of the Gridanians, who treat every tree and bush in the forest with respect, due to the very real danger of enraging the elementals, even if the elementals' power is on the wane.
Now that's something I was really conflicted about since 95% of the quests in Gridania ask you to go chop something off, kill a wild animal or 20 since the forest is "overrun" by them.. no matter what every npc was saying at the end of the day I felt like I was doing the exact opposite. If Gridanians hadn't been building new outposts, villages and farms every 20 meters, those poor critters would have probably still had enough space to live in peace.