Hydaelyn Role-Players

By boat, probably, I know. Still.

So here's a question to which I've been combing my brain for an answer. There's no justification for it in-game, so how did the Xaela get to Eorzea?

With the Raen, it's a fairly straightforward affair of having arrived with the Domans, or having arrived in Eorzea before the razing of Doma.

But with the Xaela, it's a little more complicated. How exactly would a Xaela from a landlocked tribe (like, say, the Mierqid, who dwell in the desert) have been able to make the same trek? Othard is ostensibly conquered by the Garleans which gives many Xaela cause to seek refuge, but a tribe that's lived its entire life inland would have no reason to know how to sail. In addition, many Xaela tribes are competitive with one another, sometimes violently so. Meanwhile, there's no real concrete evidence besides perhaps the description of the Malaguld tribe--Xaela tribes accepting Raen is apparently considered quite an uncommon occurrence--but it seems that the Xaela and the Raen don't particularly get along and therefore it seems a tad bit unlikely that a Xaela would be allowed to tag along with one of the Doman's ships. Not impossible, but unlikely.

Of course, the coastal tribes would have knowledge of seafaring. Whether or not they'd know how to construct and crew ships capable of crossing oceans is a question that's up in the air, but let's assume that they do.

I mean, it's not as if that aforementioned Mierqid Xaela could just go up to the Haragin and barter their way for passage, right? Or could they? Would the Haragin even do that? That option doesn't seem too terribly plausible to me either, not unless the Haragin are opening a ferry service. The only other tribes that are mentioned to reside along the eastern coast are the Jhungid and the Kharlu who are in a state of constant war, and ownership of those coastal lands are in flux so they don't exactly seem inclined to provide ferry services either.

This is a weird sort of hole that's in the Au Ra lore that's been bugging me since the Xaela were announced. It's like the writers of Square Enix wrote themselves into a corner in this regard and just hand waved it away. "Uh, they just did! It just kind of happened." Or the Xaela just jump off of Othard and land in Eorzea, I guess.

So, Xaela roleplayers, what'd your Xaela do to get here?

You're underestimating how refugee populations move.  They move hard, fast, and by any route available, often even if it's expensive, dangerous, and impractical.

Why?

Because the current options are worse, and the potential payoff, either in basic safety quality of life, is so exponentially better in theory that it's worth it.

You can look to a lot of RL examples of how refugee populations move, both across the sea and across deserts and hazardous war-torn areas, in RL right now in the news.  There's plenty of examples of people from desert areas and no ties to the sea jumping literally onto a ship to get the hell out of dodge right now in Europe/african relations (A lot of it is also laced with racist drivel, but that's another story).  

It happens. It happens A LOT, in RL and IG.  Refugee migration and influx is a thematic in FFXIV.  Domans, Al Migans.  There's so MANY people displaced by war, disaster, and suffering, that the Xaela are just another population who've been bent over a barrel by terrible circumstance and politics and maybe even other factors.

It makes sense.  The details of the why you have to hash out for yourself, sure, but that's something we all have to do with every char.

My Raen was traveling from Xaela tribe to Xaela tribe when the Garlean invasion hit. She happened to have a bodyguard at the time, so we agreed to have them embark on a two week excursion across the Steppes fleeing the Garleans towards the coast. They traveled at night and hid during the day.

Once they arrived at the coast, I sort've assumed there would be boats and captains for hire to port refugees away.

Now that you mention it though, the Garleans may have been watching the seas...

Anyway, I was playing it as 'sailing crews were whisking large groups to safety', not that my character was doing the sailing herself

As said you have to remember these aren't dudes leaving their homes for fun, these are refugees fleeing an oppressive empire. Sure many Xaela tribes probably stick around on the whole 'this is MY home screw those Garleans' style but if someone wants to leave for safer places there are tons of ways for it to happen. When it becomes 'get crushed under this empire's boot and die' vs 'leave, try to hold on to my culture, and return when I can liberate my home' a lot of dudes are gonna take the latter.

We know there are boats taking refugees from their lands, if you knew that when the totally not-nazi empire was breaking your door down it was just a matter of 'get to the coast, find a ship with a friendly captain' to avoid being crushed you're GONNA get there, even if you're in the middle of the desert.

My Xeala is a very traditional tribal type, she super hated that to get to Ul'Dah she had to ride in a hidden hold in a fishing boat with a bunch of filthy other tribes and cowardly Raen, but she did it, because she'd be fine to swallow her pride and take a bath later to get the stink of other tribe off her if it means having a chance in a safer land.

Something else to keep in mind is that the majority of the Xaela are highly nomadic on their horses roaming over the steppes etc. I imagine that word could spread relatively quickly if it had to and if there was enough fear of being annhilated by the Garleans then they'd likely hoof it quickly to wherever there was a port and ships waiting to take them. 

There's also a few seafaring Xaela tribes that could likely have taken ship on their own or taken other tribes with them etc. Trading vessels that come and go from Othard and Doma regularly enough (which also means there's a relatively high chance of smuggling going on) plus with the Doman migration to Mor Dhona it wouldn't be long before more ships were sent back to look for survivors and refugees etc. In all of that the Xaela have quite a few options to get from point A to point B. 

The real question is how does this race of steppes-dwelling horsemen (and women) cope with likely having to leave their horses behind and go to the land of horsebirds? Not having wide open land to resume their nomadic lifestyle and so on? The psychological effects these massive changes would incur, as well, could be thought of. Many things to think on =)

Can't speak for the other tribes, but for fellow Hotgo players there's quite the justification built in since our entire tribe was massacred by a savage tribe. Seems like it'd be hard to just integrate into a new tribe unless it's one of the very specific ones that cater to bringing in loners, so it stands to reason that setting out on your own to survive would make sense. Finding themselves in Eorzea is certainly in the realm of possibilities.

I think the question posed by the OP is probably more, "Are there even ports and ships in western Othard that could and would ferry Xaela to Eorzea?" There's no doubt that many Xaela would want to get out from under Imperial rule; the question is not why but how, as in, "how does a Xaela go about getting off Othard and making his way to Eorzea?"

The continent of Othard has been under the Empire's control for a long time (approx. 60 years max, as new lore dates the Empire's conception at 1522) so no port under Imperial authority would willingly ferry Au Ra to Eorzea. The Domans got away with it because they rebelled and (presumably) either had their own ships or stole them... but Xaela tribes aren't as unified, and they're nomadic, and not all of them are coastal (many being landlocked in the steppes/deserts by choice), and whether the coastal tribes are capable of seafaring vessels is another question, as is "if not the coastal Xaela, then who?"


EDIT:

A quick review of the 51 tribes shows that only the Jhungid, the Kharlu, the Mankhad, and the Haragin tribes are coastal, and of these only the Haragin have ever built a seafaring vessel that took them to other lands and that was in legend. There are a number of river tribes that use small boats, but that doesn't qualify as seafaring.

(06-25-2015, 04:02 PM)Kayllen Wrote: [ -> ]Something else to keep in mind is that the majority of the Xaela are highly nomadic on their horses roaming over the steppes etc. I imagine that word could spread relatively quickly if it had to and if there was enough fear of being annhilated by the Garleans then they'd likely hoof it quickly to wherever there was a port and ships waiting to take them. 

There's also a few seafaring Xaela tribes that could likely have taken ship on their own or taken other tribes with them etc. Trading vessels that come and go from Othard and Doma regularly enough (which also means there's a relatively high chance of smuggling going on) plus with the Doman migration to Mor Dhona it wouldn't be long before more ships were sent back to look for survivors and refugees etc. In all of that the Xaela have quite a few options to get from point A to point B. 

The real question is how does this race of steppes-dwelling horsemen (and women) cope with likely having to leave their horses behind and go to the land of horsebirds? Not having wide open land to resume their nomadic lifestyle and so on? The psychological effects these massive changes would incur, as well, could be thought of. Many things to think on =)

Actually this was a thing with the Mongols.  

Too long out of the saddle and steppes and they went soft.  The moment someone wasn't relying on their horse and their survival skills they started to go native.

 It was a KNOWN problem with their forces, to the point that they'd cycle troops back home to the local hellscape that was the steppes to maintain being "Mongolian" in every terrifying stark sense of the word.  It's also one of the reasons Khan didn't invade India.  The climate would require tactics such as "Set up a settlement and base of operations" or "Attacking on foot" or worse yet "Working with the local populace to survive".  These were things that brought a mongol down to the level of a normal human being, which meant they'd start going native, soft, and weak, at least in Mongol eyes.

TLDR; Unless the Au Ra stay murdering and raiding and nomadic they're going to go native and 'softer' around the edges.  It might take a few years, or even a few generations, but there's a very real risk of the 'barbarian' becoming the next merchant, or butcher, or farmer, and never returning to the old lifestyle.

I think it was my fault for not clarifying what I meant.

I'm clear on the "whys". Loads of Xaela have lots of motivation to leave Othard. The question is "how". Othard is several thousand malms of ocean away from Aldenard. Barring things like the Garlean navy or sea monsters or what have you, that's not exactly a journey one can make easily, and the means to do so would, I imagine, be limited among the Xaela. Further more, desperation may be highly motivating but it doesn't conjure willing sea captains or oceanworthy vessels out of thin air.

I suppose in the end it's a completely inconsequential and needless facet to mull over, but the inability to provide an adequate answer to such a simple question has bothered me quite a bit.

Was it Lominsans? Do Lominsan ships have cause to travel thousands of malms to Othard waters, when they know that Othard is under Garlean control? Pirates, maybe? Garlean conscription?

From what I understand is, Othard and Doma are to the east of Eorzea, and was the first neighbor of the Garleans homeland of Ilsebard(sp?). From there they pushed to Ala Mhigo and then into Eorzea. 
Xaela themselves inhabited most of the western side of Othard, where Doma was on the far east. Doman refugees, and Raen like Yugiri required ships to get to Eorzea. Going through the steppes and deserts would have been a death sentence, and increased risk of running into Garlean forces.

It's quite possible that when the Empire was conquering Othard, many Xaela tribes scattered westward towards Ala Mhigo/Eorzea, and eastward towards Doma(there are Raen friendly tribes of Xaela).

There's a lot of ground to cover, and tribes of people who are well-known to be nomadic may have an easier time staying ahead of the Garlean army, with less resources, and being as they are were probably very slow to make themselves known to the natives of Eorzea.

There's an NPC Xaela in Ishgard, I believe, who talks about his first time coming to Ishgardian lands and how they had already branded him an enemy because of his features, and the whole nine-yards.

(06-25-2015, 04:20 PM)Nero Wrote: [ -> ]Was it Lominsans? Do Lominsan ships have cause to travel thousands of malms to Othard waters, when they know that Othard is under Garlean control? Pirates, maybe? Garlean conscription?

There is a crew of pirates called the Kraken's Arms, featured in the level 2 Limsa Lominsa sidequest "Licensed to Reave", which, if I recall correctly, goes to Othard regularly to obtain Doman spices and Garlean... supplies. If they do go there often, it wouldn't be totally impossible that they might sneak some refugees out of there.

Aside from that, the pirates of Limsa Lominsa apparently make their living by going after Garlean ships that have wandered too close to the city state. I'm not terribly knowledgeable about how the Garleans do things, but there might be some Au Ra on the ship as prisoners/slaves/etc. being moved from one place to the other? In which case the Lominsan pirates might hopefully take them in.

Hopefully I'm not totally wrong on this, as it could be interesting to incorporate in some background story...

Well, Raen and Xaela both showed up in game at the same time, when the expansion hit. If you take that as canon (because hey, why not?) and assume that both bloodlines arrived in Eorzea ICly at the same time, then the how is clear: They arrived with the Doman refugees, same as the Raen. The Doman rebelled and were able to get away, but they probably didn't rebel in order to take ship out of there. They probably rebelled to hold their land. Leaving was their last-ditch retreat. I could imagine them possibly holding out for a year or more while the Garleans got together the force that would finally crush them. This would give time for word to get out about this hold-out nation. Time for Xaela refugees to flee to Doma. And then, when the Garleans finally did conquer Doma, some of these Xaela would be able to get out on the same ships that took the Doman and Raen refugees.

(06-29-2015, 01:47 PM)C Wrote: [ -> ]Well, Raen and Xaela both showed up in game at the same time, when the expansion hit. If you take that as canon (because hey, why not?) and assume that both bloodlines arrived in Eorzea ICly at the same time, then the how is clear: They arrived with the Doman refugees, same as the Raen. The Doman rebelled and were able to get away, but they probably didn't rebel in order to take ship out of there. They probably rebelled to hold their land. Leaving was their last-ditch retreat. I could imagine them possibly holding out for a year or more while the Garleans got together the force that would finally crush them. This would give time for word to get out about this hold-out nation. Time for Xaela refugees to flee to Doma. And then, when the Garleans finally did conquer Doma, some of these Xaela would be able to get out on the same ships that took the Doman and Raen refugees.

Sadly, i think the raen 'arrived' about a year earlier in lore time when Yugiri arrived with the rest of the Domans, hey just.. kept hidden as she did.