Quote Originally Posted by PawPaw View Post
Agreed that many of the people of Elpis felt more human to me than the people of Eorzea.
I had the exact opposite impression. What stuck out to me was their obsession with purpose. And how if that purpose was fulfilled, they felt they had nothing more to give and would move on to the aetherial sea. Venat hints at this because others were surprised when she stepped down that she didn't go on to death. But even she was obsessed with purpose. She wasn't sticking around because she had found a new one. She was on the same purpose she had been on.

Contrast this with Eorzeans, someone like Severian. Severian is the alchemist guildmaster and in the ARR storyline he's obsessed with the purpose of bringing his dead love back to life so he can tell her his feelings. You help him do this. Does he go off and die then? No, he remains the alchemist guildmaster and finds something else to devote his time to. And Eozeans do that all the time. Some might work at a purpose their entire lives but many others fulfill a purpose and a find a new one. That felt very human to me. The Ancients not seeking out a new purpose and the implication that was normal in their society and that they looked askance at those who didn't do that was what felt inhuman to me.