(08-28-2014, 01:44 PM)Zyrusticae Wrote: Explain to me how they would "lose", somehow, just because they don't need to leave their forest at any one point in time.
It isn't that they don't need to, it's that they CAN'T. Maybe we're all misunderstanding but we all seem to be fairly certain that the strongest fighting force Grid would have would be the elementals defending the shroud. They'd be forced to turtle up; Once they set foot out of their land, they'd be run afoul by either cannonfire or an allegedly-superior military force.
Ul'dah wouldn't need to invade. They could amass their resources and, using what's on hand and scraps of the empire, just create giant threshers to slowly destroy the Shroud itself. The Padjals might be teeming with powerful magic, but Ul'dah's the only place in Eorzea where you can learn to throw fire with your mind. I'm imagining huge, sweeping warmachines and buzzsaws, complete deforestation and squads of black mages cutting and burning. Eventually, and it might take a sea of spilled blood, the Shroud would be reduced enough that the REAL fighting could begin.
Arguably, that could stand to small benefit Gridania; Without the treecover, their archers could be of some use in defense. I'd like to think that the massive morale blow that comes from your homeland being turned to ash over a generation or three would do the bulk of the heavy lifting, though.
Edit: Dammit Nat and also Melkire.
![[Image: yEROfKO.png]](http://i.imgur.com/yEROfKO.png)
