Can we burn Ul'dah to the ground?

[IndyPendant]

I'm restarting the MSQ on an alt, and seriously, that cesspit needs to be cleansed.

If we start there, our introduction to Ul'dah is of a guard planting drugs on us to get us to "pay a fine" to avoid prison. As the MSQ progresses, we see a few instances of naive people trying to do good and almost getting killed for it, needing the WoL to save their lives. If we do sidequests and talk to non-MSQ npcs, we get numerous instances of outright starvation, utter brutality to the poor, and the rich elite celebrating their luxury on top of it all.

And then come the Copperbell Mines.

One of the so-called good-guys we meet says: "Our ancestors used magic to outright enslave a race of giants and force them to mine for us. When that magic started to break down the giants rebelled, so our ancestors buried them alive for over three hundred years. Well, our rich leaders have decided they want that mine's ore again. In our greed we accidentally set the giants free and they're rampaging around because they're upset with us. We didn't know they were still alive down there, but we're certainly not going to try to help them, that would take too long and cost too much. The most important thing is they're keeping us from our ore, so we want you to go in there and murder all the escaped slaves so our rich can get richer."

The final boss breaks down a wall, yelling about finally being free, so he's clearly not a ravening beast, we can communicate with him. We don't even try, we immediately attack him. While fighting for his life against us, he nevertheless still stops to free another of his people, and that one doesn't even fight us, instead running off to try to free more, and I can't stress this enough, former slaves from centuries-long imprisonment.

We murder them all. For coin and prestige.

...Are we the bad guys?

[Kranel_San]

What have I done? BURN UL'DAH! JUSTICE FOR THE GIANT RACE!

[Kuroka]

What have I done? BURN UL'DAH! JUSTICE FOR THE GIANT RACE!

The irony how uldah is run by lalafell xD

[Shibi]

The irony how uldah is run by lalafell xD

The truth is, the entire star is. Just the big races don't realise it.

[SenorPatty]

I'm restarting the MSQ on an alt, and seriously, that cesspit needs to be cleansed.

If we start there, our introduction to Ul'dah is of a guard planting drugs on us to get us to "pay a fine" to avoid prison. As the MSQ progresses, we see a few instances of naive people trying to do good and almost getting killed for it, needing the WoL to save their lives. If we do sidequests and talk to non-MSQ npcs, we get numerous instances of outright starvation, utter brutality to the poor, and the rich elite celebrating their luxury on top of it all.

And then come the Copperbell Mines.

One of the so-called good-guys we meet says: "Our ancestors used magic to outright enslave a race of giants and force them to mine for us. When that magic started to break down the giants rebelled, so our ancestors buried them alive for over three hundred years. Well, our rich leaders have decided they want that mine's ore again. In our greed we accidentally set the giants free and they're rampaging around because they're upset with us. We didn't know they were still alive down there, but we're certainly not going to try to help them, that would take too long and cost too much. The most important thing is they're keeping us from our ore, so we want you to go in there and murder all the escaped slaves so our rich can get richer."

The final boss breaks down a wall, yelling about finally being free, so he's clearly not a ravening beast, we can communicate with him. We don't even try, we immediately attack him. While fighting for his life against us, he nevertheless still stops to free another of his people, and that one doesn't even fight us, instead running off to try to free more, and I can't stress this enough, former slaves from centuries-long imprisonment.

We murder them all. For coin and prestige.

...Are we the bad guys?

*Stoically nods and brings a fist to palm*

[Vidu]

...Gridania and Limsa arent much better - and neither are any of the other nations.

We might not be "the bad guys", but we're certainly not the good guys either - its a huge part of the FFXIV lore and story that there are no "good guys" and "bad guys", only guys trying to get by.

[Mimilu]

...Gridania and Limsa arent much better - and neither are any of the other nations.

We might not be "the bad guys", but we're certainly not the good guys either - its a huge part of the FFXIV lore and story that there are no "good guys" and "bad guys", only guys trying to get by.

I would say that Limsa and Ul'dah are at least on the road to getting better after the MSQ.
Gridania hasn't been shown to change much, with some of its populace still being xenophobic towards outsiders and racist towards Duskwights and Keepers of the Moon. We're only luck that Elementals were weakened after the Seventh Umbral Era and aren't using the Greenwrath all willy-nilly.

[Vidu]

I would say that Limsa and Ul'dah are at least on the road to getting better after the MSQ.
Gridania hasn't been shown to change much, with some of its populace still being xenophobic towards outsiders and racist towards Duskwights and Keepers of the Moon. We're only luck that Elementals were weakened after the Seventh Umbral Era and aren't using the Greenwrath all willy-nilly.

After completing the tank role quest in Endwalker I pretty much just wanted to see the forest burn - if theres one thing the questline shows its that the Elementals and Gridanias alike are heartless children.

Spoilers for the tank rolequest in Endwalker ahead:

During the quest you discover that the Blasphemy thats troubling the forest is a former Padjal named Ea-Sura - why former? Because as a child he lent a helping hand to a stranger who presented himself as someone in need and with no ill will. Ea-Sura showed that man to the Guardian Tree, because said stranger claimed that he wants to pray for a painless birth for his wife there. Turns out, stranger wanted to harm the Guardian Tree, so the Elementals kill the stranger and strip Ea-Sura of his gift as a Padjal - it should be noted that before this Ea-Sura was very devoted to the forest and eager to serve it as Padjal. Kan-E-Senna takes it one step further and banishes Ea-Sura from the forest.
Ea-Sura eventually ends up living in the forest in hiding, finds the love of his life, gets married and settles down... aaaaand then his wife dies.
And even knowing all this, Kan-E-Senna still doesnt seem to understand what the problem really was... Gridania might be a nice place to live in... as long as you're the correct race - no Duskwight or Keeper, please - and as long as you dont anger the Elementals, even by accident. And neither of those things seems to be changing.

[KizuyaKatogami]

...Gridania and Limsa arent much better - and neither are any of the other nations.

We might not be "the bad guys", but we're certainly not the good guys either - its a huge part of the FFXIV lore and story that there are no "good guys" and "bad guys", only guys trying to get by.

Tbh this is why i find it funny when people get all triggered over the Garleans. The city states themselves are pretty bad as well. Just take a little looksy into Uldah’s history to see that they literally zombified an entire opposing city.

[Vidu]

Tbh this is why i find it funny when people get all triggered over the Garleans. The city states themselves are pretty bad as well. Just take a little looksy into Uldah’s history to see that they literally zombified an entire opposing city.

It only gets "worse" when you look consider that the reason Garlemald is in the middle of an almost unhabitable snowland is that they were forced to basically flee there after they were constantly attacked and driven out of their homelands by people who were able to use magic and thus had a huge advantge over the Garleans (until Magitec became a thing) - so yeah, even the "bad guys", bei their Garleans or Ascians, arent just the black to our white...