Hydaelyn Role-Players

Having played through the story of the game, and even having gone back and made an alt who started out in Gridania, I've found that there's an unfortunate paucity of lore in regards to the Ixal, their culture, behavior, and motivations. At least in 2.0, anyway.

I'm trying to write a character plot that involves the Ixal in a capacity other than "token local evil beastmen enemies to fight", and given the lack of information about what makes the Ixal tick, it's kind of frustrating- I don't want to end up breaking lore once a patch rolls around that gives them beast tribe quests and more backstory than "bird people who are the enemies of Gridania, really proud of their janky remaining feathers, no regard for the elementals/sanctity of the forest".

So my question is thus: What do we know about the Ixal? I'm particularly curious about information regarding them from 1.0, since I wasn't around to play it, and it's just generally harder to dig up than information from 2.0.

From the Botany questline you learn that at some point, there was peace between Gridania and the Ixal, much like Gridania has with the Sylphs.  Obviously something happened to sever that peace, but it's never explained what.

Ixal are referred to as "cursed," and I believe it's implied that they once had wings and could fly, and that the curse is the reason they can't anymore.  That's why they build their balloons and whatnot.

Whatever actually happened, the Ixal seem to feel they got the raw end of the deal, and there's an element of betrayed rage to their behavior and interactions (at least from my point of view).  They seem to have a particularly personal hatred of Gridania, possibly blaming them for whatever happened.

Oh, that's very interesting for my purposes. I need to continue the Botanist questline, clearly!

Not exactly uncommon for Gridania to disenfranchise a race of beings, regardless of what initially caused it. Probably tied to the Ixal committing some kind of act that provoked the Greenwrath- or angered the conjurers of Gridania enough due to the risk of doing so. If they're indeed cursed, and not the victims of evolutionary trends- extensive tool use and "civilized" behavior is more convenient for those who've got their current body plan, rather than wings- the elementals seem like a likely cause of that. Could be that the Gridanians used the elementals as an excuse to drive the Ixal out and treat them as second-class. Or it could be that the Ixal angered the elementals and hold Gridania responsible for it.

Given that this story ties into some other groups that are variously discriminated against by the Gridanian establishment, this is extremely helpful to know.

(01-14-2014, 08:08 PM)ansemaru Wrote: [ -> ]Not exactly uncommon for Gridania to disenfranchise a race of beings, regardless of what initially caused it. 

It actually is pretty uncommon for Gridania to do that.  The Elementals have to basically curse the person, at which point it's less that Gridania is disenfranchising them as it is that if Gridania does anything to help them, or allow them in their cities, they could invoke the Greenwrath on themselves (and thus find their entire society exiled from the Twelveswood).

I agree that the Elementals probably have something to do with it, though.

The Ixali (Ixals? Ixal?) angering the Elementals means they would be targets of the Woodwrath and, therefore, they would be attacked by every living animal in the Shroud. Since they have at least one camp in the Shroud (we can argue there's more off-screen) and we never see them being attacked by the local wildlife, this is unlikely.
I think the most likely reason for the Ixal to have become hostiles towards Gridania has to do with Garuda, who is stated to be among the most hostile of the Primals. Perhaps she managed to temper a great number of them (just like Ifrit did with the Amalj'aa).

I also found this paragraph of lore in another webpage:

Quote:This aggressive mountain tribe claims the wind-blasted canyons of Xelphatol as their domain. Though their race has long since lost the capability for flight, the feathered beastmen are fervently proud of their vestigial wings. The Ixal stage frequent raids into the Black Shroud, and fell trees to offer in worship to their patron deity, the primal Garuda. Such behavior, however, leads to violent confrontations with the people of Gridania. "The Ixal are the sworn enemies of Gridania -- craven birdmen who live in the reclusive canyons and valleys of the eastern reaches of Abalatia's Spine. They oft breach the Hedge and trespass into the Twelveswood, foraging for plants or hunting small game. Theirs and ours is a timeless war. The scholars tell us that the stunted wings and coarse feathers of the Ixal are vestiges of a time when they could fly freely through the skies. But they were not content with their gift, and sought ever greater power to oppose the very winds that bore them. They learned to build ships full of air that allows them to move in great numbers, appearing suddenly from above to attack the unwary. For the nonce, it is all we of the Gods' Quiver can do to oppose them."

(01-14-2014, 08:30 PM)Ildur Wrote: [ -> ]The Ixali (Ixals? Ixal?) angering the Elementals means they would be targets of the Woodwrath and, therefore, they would be attacked by every living animal in the Shroud. Since they have at least one camp in the Shroud (we can argue there's more off-screen) and we never see them being attacked by the local wildlife, this is unlikely.
I think the most likely reason for the Ixal to have become hostiles towards Gridania has to do with Garuda, who is stated to be among the most hostile of the Primals. Perhaps she managed to temper a great number of them (just like Ifrit did with the Amalj'aa).

There's a statement that the Ixal make during the level 15 questline where they're trying to take out Everschade.  The problem is, I can't remember the exact wording.  What I remember of it is that they were expressing hatred of the Elementals themselves (blaming them for being exiled, etc), and the Gridanians for supplanting them in the Twelveswood.  I'd need to go watch the cutscene again to be sure.

Actually, relatedly: have we seen any examples of the Greenwrath actually being evoked post-Calamity? I've not completed the CNJ or WHM questlines, nor any of the archer or lancer ones, so I wasn't sure. It seems to me like it was much more of a tangible threat prior to the Calamity/in 1.0 than it is now.

I understand the White Mage questline deals with the Greenwrath, but I have not personally done it.

There's one example of it during the main storyline, though: there's an Ala Mhigo refugee who has been targetted by the Green(wood?)wrath. The local wildlife hates him and the Gridanians refuse to help him or his fellow refugees. He even tries to leave them behind but gets attacked and you have to save him (from a goblin robber, which I don't think are part of the Elementals repertoire of creatures, so it was probably just a coincidence).

Mmm, I'm going to need to go back and rewatch that part- I recall kind of rushing through the Quarrymill quests to catch up to my friends in level.

But if the Greenwrath as it is is just "animals hate you", it's hardly the catastrophic fate it's made out to be by Gridania, is it?

To anybody reading this thread, I found a remarkably useful bit of information in regards to the Ixal from 1.0:

http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/%27Nea...27s_Shadow

Seems they were exiled by the elementals before the Gridanians even arrived, due to overpopulation, and migrated out of the forest they consider holy. It was their living outside Tinolqa/the Black Shroud that resulted in their young being born flightless- not a curse from the wood itself, but the absence of a blessing. Or, possibly due to the aetheric nature of Xelphatol itself- it's a land we know nothing about, since the closest thing we've witnessed to Ixal territory is Natalan.

It also seems that though Gridania views them as enemies, the Ixali motive for summoning Garuda- at least initially- had nothing to do with waging war upon the forestborn. It was instead a ploy to reclaim their long-lost powers of flight, which failed rather dismally.

(01-14-2014, 08:38 PM)ansemaru Wrote: [ -> ]Actually, relatedly: have we seen any examples of the Greenwrath actually being evoked post-Calamity? I've not completed the CNJ or WHM questlines, nor any of the archer or lancer ones, so I wasn't sure. It seems to me like it was much more of a tangible threat prior to the Calamity/in 1.0 than it is now.

The entire WHM questline revolves around trying to prevet the Greenwrath from happening.  Sadly, I feel like they treated the entire situation as a means to an end (i.e. they wanted a reason to make the character a WHM, and used rather spurious methods to make it happen) rather than a believable story.

But by the last quest, you come very close to having the Greenwrath happen.

(01-14-2014, 09:00 PM)ansemaru Wrote: [ -> ]Mmm, I'm going to need to go back and rewatch that part- I recall kind of rushing through the Quarrymill quests to catch up to my friends in level.

But if the Greenwrath as it is is just "animals hate you", it's hardly the catastrophic fate it's made out to be by Gridania, is it?

It can be as simple as "the animals hate you," and as massive and violent as the land eating you.

Edited to Add: Basically, from what I gathered from the quests I did in the Shroud, Greenwrath can be called on an individual, or it can be called on a people. Either way, it generally ends up in the victims being extremely dead or driven out of the forest. It's one thing for, say, all the squirrels to have a beef with you. But if every single creature of the forest - including the trees and the rivers, etc - was after you, along with the spirits of the forest itself, you would have a serious problem.

(01-14-2014, 09:10 PM)ansemaru Wrote: [ -> ]To anybody reading this thread, I found a remarkably useful bit of information in regards to the Ixal from 1.0:

http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/%27Nea...27s_Shadow

Seems they were exiled by the elementals before the Gridanians even arrived, due to overpopulation, and migrated out of the forest they consider holy. It was their living outside Tinolqa/the Black Shroud that resulted in their young being born flightless- not a curse from the wood itself, but the absence of a blessing. Or, possibly due to the aetheric nature of Xelphatol itself- it's a land we know nothing about, since the closest thing we've witnessed to Ixal territory is Natalan.

It also seems that though Gridania views them as enemies, the Ixali motive for summoning Garuda- at least initially- had nothing to do with waging war upon the forestborn. It was instead a ploy to reclaim their long-lost powers of flight, which failed rather dismally.

That doesn't quite fit with the 2.0 Botany questline, which made it clear that there was peace with the Ixal, and now there's not, and that something happened to cause the rift.

It's possible that the "something" was the Ixal trying to regain their flight (i.e. summoning Garuda), but like I said, they never explain what the incident was that caused the rift.

That's quite a useful bit of data!

The Greenwrath is actually kind of catastrophic. People who are target of it draw nature's wrath, whose most obvious manifestation is animals trying to kill you (and anyone who gets in the way).
Additionaly, it looks like in 1.0 when the player arrived at Gridania, there was a whole questline dedicated to purifying one of the woodsin (which is exactly what it says on the tin: sins against the woods) and thus not being target of the Greenwrath. It was implied that all outsiders had to take part of this ritual if they wanted to stay in Gridania. But since the player never does this on the storyline, we can assume this practice has been dropped. The reason for that might be that the Elementals are just too weak after the Calamity, though it could also be that it just got retconned and is not part of canon anymore.
Source.

There's also apparently something called a "wildling", which is basically an undead: a soul claimed by the elementals and cursed to roam the Shroud. Since there's none in ARR, as far as I can tell, they are pretty uncommon or they got retconned out of existence.

It seems like there's a lot of evidence suggesting that the Greenwrath is considerably weaker than it was prior to the Calamity. Given how much of a catastrophic impact it had on the environment in general, it makes sense that the elementals would be less able to punish/drive out those they deemed a threat in their current state.

But that's sort of tangential to what seems like a pretty valid/interesting point- there's inconsistency between the 1.0 Ixal information in the Raven, and the information provided in the Botanist questline. It could be retconning, or one of the sources being an unreliable source of information. Or, like mentioned upthread, it could be the summoning of Garuda that made the Ixal the enemies of Gridania and caused them to break the peace.