Lorewise, why would the Gleaners' Guildship issue hunts in Elpis?

[Yuella]

"We don't like this creature, please go back to the past and cull them so they don't become numerous in the present"

[vexis58]

According to the quest that gives you access to those hunts, there's a scholar of mythological studies who believes "the creatures described in myths can be traced back to those that once existed in ancient times." She bemoans his impossible requests to collect samples of creatures that no longer exist, but is required to put said requests up on the board anyway.

[Cleretic]

According to the quest that gives you access to those hunts, there's a scholar of mythological studies who believes "the creatures described in myths can be traced back to those that once existed in ancient times." She bemoans his impossible requests to collect samples of creatures that no longer exist, but is required to put said requests up on the board anyway.

Yeah, I sort of get the feeling that these are completely unreasonable requests that are only technically, and possibly only jokingly, on the books.

"Oh, yeah, Professor Daniels has asked us to hunt Bigfoot. Well, put it up on the board and let it rot."

[Kranel_San]

"We don't like this creature, please go back to the past and cull them so they don't become numerous in the present"

Gameplay reasons. Not everything has to be explained through in-game lore.

Your character wasn't created out of thin air.
Mobs don't appear out of thin air once 5 minutes have passed
The Ixali doesn't attack the wood wailers every 10 minutes from the last failed FATE attempt
Your weapons don't glow because you dreamt about defeating the ultimate form of foes you fought in the past
Your character doesn't grow in age even though night & day cycles pass by each hour
You don't learn new skills and spells out of nowhere whenever an expansion decides to drop

Not everything has to be explained through in-game lore. Sometimes, you just have to contend with the gameplay reasons.

[Iscah]

Yeah, I sort of get the feeling that these are completely unreasonable requests that are only technically, and possibly only jokingly, on the books.

"Oh, yeah, Professor Daniels has asked us to hunt Bigfoot. Well, put it up on the board and let it rot."

And then the WoL comes along and is like "huh, Bigfoot. It's a little bit out of the way but it shouldn't be too hard to track one down."

[YueFairchild]

It's known to at least some Sharlayan scholars that WoL has a means to access the ancient world. "source: dude trust me" is kind of valid here. Are you gonna say the girl that saved the world is an unreliable narrator? Or are you gonna publish the paper and get back to studying?

[Vyrerus]

Some of the Sharlayan scholars are aware of the ancient world and time travel. I don't know if the one issuing the hunt requests does, but there was that couple in the crafting quests as well as the ones involved with Pandemonium. And I guess with post-EW, Pandeomonium rising up into the Aitiascope would put a lot more in the know about the old world.

[Cleretic]

Some of the Sharlayan scholars are aware of the ancient world and time travel. I don't know if the one issuing the hunt requests does, but there was that couple in the crafting quests as well as the ones involved with Pandemonium. And I guess with post-EW, Pandeomonium rising up into the Aitiascope would put a lot more in the know about the old world.

They're aware of the Ancient world in the same way that we're aware of, like, the Mesozoic Era. Most of the studium quests that bring up Elpis stuff (the gathering ones, namely) bring it up in sort of a theoretical way, like 'getting X would really prove my theory' while knowing that's an unrealistic expectation.

Time travel they similarly have a conceptual grasp on, what's muddier is how much access they themselves have to it. The Fisher questline's English translation implies they do and just weren't using it, while other languages are more saying 'I mean we knew what you just proved, but we didn't expect you to ACTUALLY prove it'.

[Denishia]

That was more the vibe I got too with the Fisher quest line, especially because it was the later quest after you would have used the Crystal Tower to time travel. I seriously doubt Sharlayan has their separate time travel device but it's completely plot irrelevant except for a through-away line. Now theoretical time travel and some minor experiments? Depending on the canonicity of the Astrology Job Quest, plausible. And how much they studied or knew about the Enigma Codex.