FWIW the Scions (or more specifically, the Circle of Knowing, which is the Sharlayan faction within the Scions) are, like, officially among the chillest Sharlayans ever. They're the most prominent faction of Sharlayans who didn't abandon Eorzea overnight to its fate when it looked like bad things might be happening there. The rest were - as Valence said - like "lol, bye" and now largely refuse to have anything to do with Eorzea (that isn't strictly based in them observing and recording what goes down), despite once being considered one of its five city-states. They won't send aid, they won't give counsel, and they certainly won't provide their knowledge for Eorzean use.
But we do have individual Sharlayans occasionally showing up, from the motherland, in Eorzea - like Leveva (AST chain) and Krile (MSQ). So it's not like there's a total ban on ever visiting the place, and it's not like no Sharlayan ever would ever have a motivation to travel there.
...probably helps that two of the Circle of Knowing are Eorzean by birth, and are only considered "Sharlayan" because Master Louisoix brought them to the colony to be educated... (There are definitely some colonialist overtones there if you look. What Valence said about Sharlayans being arrogant is right. Even the benevolent Louisoix, held up as a hero across Eorzea, had hubris - in assuming that removing what must have essentially been children at the time from their natural culture to "give them a proper education", because obviously native Eorzeans aren't capable of doing that, was what was best for them.)
Anyway, context out of the way -
We also see a couple of young Sharlayans choosing to travel to Eorzea, and though they have their own reasons (they're Louisoix's grandkids lmao), it again emphasises that Sharlayans are allowed to travel to Eorzea (and also lets us know that age of majority in Sharlayan is 16). And there's a lot of draw for any person who hasn't become jaded yet, especially the young and impressionable - Eorzea is a land of gods and monsters, heroes and disasters, and even someone raised in the Sharlayan tradition might think a life of adventure in Eorzea seems more exciting or at least like it's worth studying close-up.
If you want "voraciously curious with no obvious angst", then the backstory I'd recommend would be young, Sharlayan, grew up reading history books about Eorzea (which read like storybooks), decided to visit once they had the opportunity, and here they are. Sharlayan education primed them for treating everything and everyone with a relentless hunger for knowledge, so they'd be eager to learn as well as exploring/having adventures.
There's the opportunity for undercurrents of "reflexively thinking she's better than Eorzeans", but they're more or less optional... the thing you're liable to run into even with a relatively pleasant Garlean-related backstory is a lot of player-characters have very large and obvious problems with anything Garlemald-shaped, so you might end up being antagonised by other players if your character shows sympathies towards Garlemald. If "she doesn't understand why everyone's being so hostile" is something you want to run with, go for it; but if you'd rather have a less ICly polarising backstory then Sharlayan is a safe bet.
But we do have individual Sharlayans occasionally showing up, from the motherland, in Eorzea - like Leveva (AST chain) and Krile (MSQ). So it's not like there's a total ban on ever visiting the place, and it's not like no Sharlayan ever would ever have a motivation to travel there.
...probably helps that two of the Circle of Knowing are Eorzean by birth, and are only considered "Sharlayan" because Master Louisoix brought them to the colony to be educated... (There are definitely some colonialist overtones there if you look. What Valence said about Sharlayans being arrogant is right. Even the benevolent Louisoix, held up as a hero across Eorzea, had hubris - in assuming that removing what must have essentially been children at the time from their natural culture to "give them a proper education", because obviously native Eorzeans aren't capable of doing that, was what was best for them.)
Anyway, context out of the way -
We also see a couple of young Sharlayans choosing to travel to Eorzea, and though they have their own reasons (they're Louisoix's grandkids lmao), it again emphasises that Sharlayans are allowed to travel to Eorzea (and also lets us know that age of majority in Sharlayan is 16). And there's a lot of draw for any person who hasn't become jaded yet, especially the young and impressionable - Eorzea is a land of gods and monsters, heroes and disasters, and even someone raised in the Sharlayan tradition might think a life of adventure in Eorzea seems more exciting or at least like it's worth studying close-up.
If you want "voraciously curious with no obvious angst", then the backstory I'd recommend would be young, Sharlayan, grew up reading history books about Eorzea (which read like storybooks), decided to visit once they had the opportunity, and here they are. Sharlayan education primed them for treating everything and everyone with a relentless hunger for knowledge, so they'd be eager to learn as well as exploring/having adventures.
There's the opportunity for undercurrents of "reflexively thinking she's better than Eorzeans", but they're more or less optional... the thing you're liable to run into even with a relatively pleasant Garlean-related backstory is a lot of player-characters have very large and obvious problems with anything Garlemald-shaped, so you might end up being antagonised by other players if your character shows sympathies towards Garlemald. If "she doesn't understand why everyone's being so hostile" is something you want to run with, go for it; but if you'd rather have a less ICly polarising backstory then Sharlayan is a safe bet.
![[Image: tUzrT.png]](https://puu.sh/tUzrT.png)
