Your starting city hardly matters...because It's not even displayed in game. What shows up is which grand company you "swear allegiance" to. That's more or less which city you are part of. If we're thinking XI terms.

Starting city is merely a place to put you when you first start the game.

Well, then there's the beginning story missions. Which is really the same in each city, just with different scenery. More or less a tutorial.