Typing away from my computer here, so I can't double check and link my sources, but I'm playing a character with Sharlayan ancestry as well and I make sure to gobble up Sharlayan lore wherever I can. 
From memory here...Matoya and the AST quests provide good hints as to the social hierarchy of Sharlayan. There is a council -- the Forum, I think it's called? -- of higher-ranking scholars who oversee all works and who decide whether or not research on a particular subject can continue to be undertaken. The Forum has enough power that they can force you out of society if you piss them off enough, or elevate you if they like your work. They're also known to confiscate and censor what they find threatening. It sounds like in recent years, with the rise of Garlemald especially, Sharlayan censorship is on a sharp rise. They're very jealous with their information because their magic/magitech is the only thing that could realistically rival Garlemald in power. However, it would appear that they don't want a war at any cost, probably because it would result in a ton of lost knowledge, so instead they've become isolationist.
Because of all this, it could be very easy for a Sharlayan scholar to "fall from grace", as it were, rather quickly. And if the Forum dislikes you enough, you're gonna stay on the bottom. You can even be exiled and killed for undertaking the wrong research -- they do have their assassins and their crooked lawmen, and they'll send them as far as Eorzea to shut down dissent. In any case I would say yes, your backstory would still work!
I highly, highly suggest leveling AST. Even if you never play it, it's a good source on Sharlayan political lore in general.
From memory here...Matoya and the AST quests provide good hints as to the social hierarchy of Sharlayan. There is a council -- the Forum, I think it's called? -- of higher-ranking scholars who oversee all works and who decide whether or not research on a particular subject can continue to be undertaken. The Forum has enough power that they can force you out of society if you piss them off enough, or elevate you if they like your work. They're also known to confiscate and censor what they find threatening. It sounds like in recent years, with the rise of Garlemald especially, Sharlayan censorship is on a sharp rise. They're very jealous with their information because their magic/magitech is the only thing that could realistically rival Garlemald in power. However, it would appear that they don't want a war at any cost, probably because it would result in a ton of lost knowledge, so instead they've become isolationist.
Because of all this, it could be very easy for a Sharlayan scholar to "fall from grace", as it were, rather quickly. And if the Forum dislikes you enough, you're gonna stay on the bottom. You can even be exiled and killed for undertaking the wrong research -- they do have their assassins and their crooked lawmen, and they'll send them as far as Eorzea to shut down dissent. In any case I would say yes, your backstory would still work!
I highly, highly suggest leveling AST. Even if you never play it, it's a good source on Sharlayan political lore in general.
Eliane Dufresne
The Dufresne Bellworks
The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.
The Dufresne Bellworks
The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.
