Well, there are the lore books and a few youtube videos, but there is also history dumps via a historian for the mnk job quests that goes over some things involving the military conflicts between Ala mhigo and Gridania. Also, Hydalin is like a mirror and shattered) or a child taking its favorite shows and toys, games, and cartoons and mashing them together in a crossover event and then it gets into a fight with its sibling about the story and overall dierction et cetera. that is like the best explanation for FF14 I can like think of