Why was Sharlayan abandoned?

[Wilford111]

I've been going through New Game+ to brush up on lore that I've forgotten, and just arrived at the Dravanian Hinterlands. Now, I thought I remember reading that Sharlayan was abandoned because the Garlian empire had invaded it, but they're not here whatsoever. If the empire didn't take it over, then why did the Sharlayans leave? Did I miss something?

[Lihtleita]

once the garlean empire tried to invade eorzea (battle of silvertear skies + the fall of ala mhigo) they got scared and ran

edit: i know they did this to preserve "neutrality" but i still think theyre cowards

[Cleretic]

once the garlean empire tried to invade eorzea (battle of silvertear skies + the fall of ala mhigo) they got scared and ran

edit: i know they did this to preserve "neutrality" but i still think theyre cowards

I'm someone who really like a 'no hidden motives, just raw politics' angle every so often (especially in a setting where sometimes things are secretly weirder than that, it's nice to get confirmation it doesn't always turn out that way), so I honestly really want to just find out that it turns out that Sharlayan are just cowards who 'remain neutral' by running away from conflict.

[Stepjam]

I'm someone who really like a 'no hidden motives, just raw politics' angle every so often (especially in a setting where sometimes things are secretly weirder than that, it's nice to get confirmation it doesn't always turn out that way), so I honestly really want to just find out that it turns out that Sharlayan are just cowards who 'remain neutral' by running away from conflict.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was a purely political move. They are currently willing to let the rest of the world burn to stay neutral, so I'm not surprised that they'd retreat from Eorzea to avoid war (even though ironically Ishgard was largely untouched by the Eorzean/Garlean war).

[Anonymoose]

From the EE1

The Dravanian hinterlands attracted students from all across Eorzea, and grew as a beacon of knowledge and wisdom. Yet this was not to last. In 1557, tidings that Garlemald had captured Ala Mhigo reached the city. To the Sharlayans, the Empire was a threat to their very way of life. They had spent an age stubbornly resisting all war, and the imperial invasion of Ilsabard and Othard was a bane to the values they had held since Nyunkrepf's time. Sharlayan sent ambassadors to Garlemald with entreaties to stop their advance. They even strove mightily to parlay a peace, but all these pleas fell on deaf ears, and the envoys returned home empty-handed.

In the wake of the failed negotiation, Fourchenault Leveilleur and the faction he led within the Forum elected to forsake their colony. Following five years of elaborate and painstaking preparation, the plan to evacuate the settlement's entire population to the northern archipelago of their homeland was put into motion. In 1562, the city of Sharlayan became a maze of empty streets and buildings in the space of a single evening.

[Kesey]

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a "hidden motive" to abandoning the colony that isn't revealed until Endwalker.

[Iscah]

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a "hidden motive" to abandoning the colony that isn't revealed until Endwalker.

I'm fully expecting it – and wondering whether it has anything to do with the Antitower and what they found by burrowing into the aetherial sea.

The whole thing seems way too important to discover and then just abandon.

[Kesey]

I'm fully expecting it – and wondering whether it has anything to do with the Antitower and what they found by burrowing into the aetherial sea.

The whole thing seems way too important to discover and then just abandon.

Agreed. Even if this is a retcon, it still comes out smelling sus.

[Katie_Kitty]

I'm fully expecting it – and wondering whether it has anything to do with the Antitower and what they found by burrowing into the aetherial sea.

The whole thing seems way too important to discover and then just abandon.

yeah it's definitely pretty shady to me. The idea of digging down into the core of the world, discovering what is essentially a direct line to a being you consider a god, and then just... leaving it there seems really strange to me.

I'm just not sure if there's anything down there we don't know about. We've already been down there, so surely we've seen everything the Sharlayans did.

[Anonymoose]

The Antitower was constructed after finding deep subterranean tunnels (circa 1311) that seemed ideal for studying the aetherial sea. During the 1562 exodus, some had planned to destroy it on the way out but, as it was so valuable, they ultimately decided to lock it behind a ton of wards instead. After all, if you've been using it as a research observatory for over 200 years, how long could it possibly take - relatively speaking - for a war to wrap up? If y'all end up speaking some "Venat left the Mothercrystal if 1320 and has been hanging out in Sharlayan ever since" into existence... <shakes fist>