(07-06-2016, 12:27 PM)Yssen Wrote: There is a large assumption running around that The Elementals are benevolent, largely because the Grids say they are. The Grids are... less than reliable narrators/sources when it comes to this. When you look at a lot of the ways The Elementals work going all the way back to 1.0, you get very "IF YOUR GOD TELLS YOU TO BURN CHILDREN, THEN IT IS EVIL!" vibe.
(07-06-2016, 12:42 PM)Kilieit Wrote: You're assuming that the Elementals are
A) logical
B) reasonable
C) nice.
None of these have been demonstrated to be true. ;D
It's quite possible that they're pissed off at Gelmorra for existing in the Shroud but outside of their reach, for example. Or at specific Gelmorrans for being the offspring of someone who cut down a tree once a thousand years ago; and, by association, everyone who's ever had physical contact with that family, or talked to them, or passed them in the street. Or just because they felt like it today.
Think "Fair Folk", not "benevolent forest gods".
Uh...
I'm not assuming anything. I just see absolutely no reason whatsoever for the elementals to be pissy about people underground. Or else they would have sent the Ixali to do their dirty work with the old Gelmorans just when they installed there, the same way that in your scenario they send Gridanian dealing with the duskwights that stayed behind.
I don't think that makes sense and the fact that they never sent the Ixali to genocide the whole race of Gelmorans before makes me more inclined to believe that the decision to wipe the Duskwights left behind was taken purely on the Gridanian side. As everyone knows, what Hearers say...
Actually, I would tend to say that telling that the Elementals sent the Gridanian do that, or told them to do so, would actually be pretty part of the realm of assumptions there. I don't recall having read anything in the lore to have stated that... But maybe I'm missing something?
In any case, that looks a lot more like a political decision rather than a mystical one born out of Greenwrath stuff or anything. I don't see elementals dealing into political decisions. Elementals always seemed to be pretty grey and neutral and only concerned and reacting against what threatens the balance of their wood/biosphere. No righteousness, no evilness whatsoever.
(07-06-2016, 02:57 PM)Shoshopu Wrote: According to the lost interview Sounsyy is citing, the Elementals were actually okay with the Duskwights continuing to live underground.
If that's the case, you ask, why did the Wildwoods and Gridanians respond the way they did to the Duskwights' decision to remain underground? The simplest answer is probably just your garden variety racism. Racial/clan schisms probably already began while they were still underground, when the elezen who would go on to become the Duskwights started to dig deeper. Being allowed to come to the surface was just reason enough for those on the surface to act out on their racism.
I mean, in the real world people do horrible things to eachother all the time for absolutely no justifiable or logical reason, and come up with their own justifications for it, too. I don't see why Gridanians' racism needs to be explained by the Elementals. This is how Gridanians justify their actions today, of course, but that doesn't mean it's actually true.
While racism goes a long way explaining and leading to all sort of atrocities like genocides, I fear that's rarely enough of a reason to start such a wildfire in itself though. That's why I'm interested to know about it actually. It's probably based on a hefty dose of racism, but something, a spark, must have ignited the whole powderkeg here.
