Wow, Sounsyy! Wow! I woke up and it's like Christmas but with Lore! Thank you so much for posting all that. I share so many of your conclusions and I'm about to lore dive the other forum posts you left here.
According to Kan-E-Senna, elementals can see into your emotions and know your heart, are sensitive to Woodsin created not just within the Shroud but beyond it as well. White Mage players are well-aware that A-Towa-Cant went on pilgrimages to cleanse taints beyond the Shroud because the Shroud is not an isolated bubble immune to the chaos of the external world. Taints from without make their way in to the Shroud through sources such as shared groundwater and I believe it would be the same with people entering the Shroud too. You see that in 1.0 with Yda, Papalymo and the adventurer entering the Shroud for the first time. (However the Shroud's also changed since the Calamity and I address that below.)
Quotes from the Lore seem to demonstrate this to me. Including: Zezekuta Wrote: "—they were among Gridania's finest warriors. They all fought nobly against the Garleans occupying Ala Mhigo. A necessary evil, I suppose. Yet all that violence doubtless served to compound their woodsin." And Miounne wrote: "From childhood, we forestborn are taught that bringing woodsin into the city brings the greenwrath upon everyone in it. There is no greater danger in all the wood."
Around level 25 MSQ, we see people being turned away in Quarrymill (considered the judging grounds for immigrants who want to live in the forest) probably based on the fact that their hearts are too steeped in violence, much like the quote from Zezekuta above. If you observe the emotional resonance of Meffrid vs. Albreda and take into account what Kan-E-Senna said about the elementals judging people by the state of their hearts, you can see the implicit connection. Albreda's heart is pretty calm; Meffrid is emotionally volatile. Albreda was allowed to live in Quarrymill; Meffrid is turned away. Even though Meffrid may have fought valiantly in the Resistance, my theory is that there's something about that violent experience that the elementals have deemed too dangerous to allow in the forest.
My other theory is that the reason the Coeurlclaws and Redbellies are rampant in the South Shroud is because the Hedge that is mentioned by O-App-Pesi in Sounsyy's post has been all-but destroyed during the Calamity, and the elementals are severely weakened due to aether being drained low everywhere in the world right now. So they are relying upon the Wood Wailers and Conjurers to continue to hound those who have a great deal of Woodsin because the elementals only have enough strength to come forth in times of great peril; such as one of the Conjurer quests in the South Shroud where you fight off Voidsent with the NPC Hearers.
However similar some of this is to a sentient dragon wishing to enter, I would imagine that the elementals have a very different concern with the nigh immortal and highly aetherically charged Dravanians because they are not common mortals who have short lifespans while running amok in the forest. I think it would also depend on how long the dragon wishes to stay.
This is the very real peril presented to the Shroud these days and it makes for an awesome roleplaying situation. So I present all these ideas to the OP for the day the dragon enters the Shroud.
There's one more topic of interest here and that's the continuing White Mage story through Coerthas from level 50 to 60. It's really important to know and just in case people don't want to see a spoiler about job quests, I'll put it behind a spoiler tag:
It also shows that something can happen well beyond Gridania that brings on the Woodsin without ever being inside the forest. I only present all this stuff as enjoyable lore tidbits for the OP to build story with and I hope it's helpful and gets some fun ideas stirring.
According to Kan-E-Senna, elementals can see into your emotions and know your heart, are sensitive to Woodsin created not just within the Shroud but beyond it as well. White Mage players are well-aware that A-Towa-Cant went on pilgrimages to cleanse taints beyond the Shroud because the Shroud is not an isolated bubble immune to the chaos of the external world. Taints from without make their way in to the Shroud through sources such as shared groundwater and I believe it would be the same with people entering the Shroud too. You see that in 1.0 with Yda, Papalymo and the adventurer entering the Shroud for the first time. (However the Shroud's also changed since the Calamity and I address that below.)
Quotes from the Lore seem to demonstrate this to me. Including: Zezekuta Wrote: "—they were among Gridania's finest warriors. They all fought nobly against the Garleans occupying Ala Mhigo. A necessary evil, I suppose. Yet all that violence doubtless served to compound their woodsin." And Miounne wrote: "From childhood, we forestborn are taught that bringing woodsin into the city brings the greenwrath upon everyone in it. There is no greater danger in all the wood."
Around level 25 MSQ, we see people being turned away in Quarrymill (considered the judging grounds for immigrants who want to live in the forest) probably based on the fact that their hearts are too steeped in violence, much like the quote from Zezekuta above. If you observe the emotional resonance of Meffrid vs. Albreda and take into account what Kan-E-Senna said about the elementals judging people by the state of their hearts, you can see the implicit connection. Albreda's heart is pretty calm; Meffrid is emotionally volatile. Albreda was allowed to live in Quarrymill; Meffrid is turned away. Even though Meffrid may have fought valiantly in the Resistance, my theory is that there's something about that violent experience that the elementals have deemed too dangerous to allow in the forest.
My other theory is that the reason the Coeurlclaws and Redbellies are rampant in the South Shroud is because the Hedge that is mentioned by O-App-Pesi in Sounsyy's post has been all-but destroyed during the Calamity, and the elementals are severely weakened due to aether being drained low everywhere in the world right now. So they are relying upon the Wood Wailers and Conjurers to continue to hound those who have a great deal of Woodsin because the elementals only have enough strength to come forth in times of great peril; such as one of the Conjurer quests in the South Shroud where you fight off Voidsent with the NPC Hearers.
However similar some of this is to a sentient dragon wishing to enter, I would imagine that the elementals have a very different concern with the nigh immortal and highly aetherically charged Dravanians because they are not common mortals who have short lifespans while running amok in the forest. I think it would also depend on how long the dragon wishes to stay.
This is the very real peril presented to the Shroud these days and it makes for an awesome roleplaying situation. So I present all these ideas to the OP for the day the dragon enters the Shroud.
There's one more topic of interest here and that's the continuing White Mage story through Coerthas from level 50 to 60. It's really important to know and just in case people don't want to see a spoiler about job quests, I'll put it behind a spoiler tag:
It also shows that something can happen well beyond Gridania that brings on the Woodsin without ever being inside the forest. I only present all this stuff as enjoyable lore tidbits for the OP to build story with and I hope it's helpful and gets some fun ideas stirring.