(01-16-2014, 06:29 PM)ansemaru Wrote: It's pretty clear that "nature is inhuman", but the standards of morality as applied to "nature" in the universe of FFXIV are remarkably inconsistent.
Because last time I checked, incredibly powerful and capricious entities made of aether weren't the friends of the city-states.
In this case, they aren't capricious. Â In fact, they're incredibly lawful, especially for Nature-aligned creatures. Â They operate under a strict set of rules and guidelines. Â Just because those rules and guidelines don't really match with the way we think they should doesn't mean they aren't present. Â The Elementals in the game appear to operate more along the lines of the Celestial Courts (I am really only familiar with the Chinese version of this) than "random, wild nature deities."
Quote:But I guess because these ones are ~part of a tradition~ with Gridania and not associated with those mean nasty totally inhuman beast tribes, they should be revered and obeyed!
It's because Gridania made a deal with them. Â They have a contract. Â Note: they have a contract with the Sylphs as well, and have held to their end. Â The only Sylphs violating that contract are the tempered ones. Â They had a contract with the Ixal, but at some point it was broken (we don't know who broke it, or how it happened), and at this point, the Ixal aren't willing to negotiate further.
Limsa Lominsa had a contract with the Kobolds. Â Limsa Lominsa broke their contract, and Titan was the result.
Ul'dah doesn't have a contract with the Amalja'a, but we don't know whether it's because they've never tried or if it's because the lizard guys just really don't want to make peace.
Quote:I've done some digging. It seems an awful lot like the reason why elementals could manifest as readily in the Shroud as opposed to anywhere else had to do with the amount of aether concentrated in the region, not specifically because it is a holy land and they are the holy guardians of it.
Given what we know about Aether, how is it that because it's "aether," the land therefore isn't "holy"? Â I mean, with such a concentration of aether, wouldn't that sort of make the land itself...holy?
No one has ever said the Elementals themselves are holy, of course.
Quote:And, what do you know, after the aether of the world got disturbed, they suddenly started being a lot less powerful in said region. Who would have thought?
They're beings made of aether. Â The attempt to bind Bahamut involved summoning the Twelve into the real world - an attempt that stripped huge amounts of aether from the world, and would have likely destroyed Hydaelyn herself had it succeeded. Â Of course when that much aether is removed from the world - and part of it was specifically stripped from the Twelveswood - aether-based beings are going to have issues.
Quote:It could very well be that a lot of the religious and magical significance placed upon the Shroud has absolutely nothing to do with it being specifically relevant to the gods, and more to do with aetheric activity giving people who didn't know any better the impression that it was relevant to the gods.
Except that the Twelve and aether are very much intertwined.
![[Image: hFalP38.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/hFalP38.jpg)
