(10-20-2017, 01:04 PM)Arashin Kujqai Wrote: Why did his tribe go all the way to Ishgard(and how frankly, they'd have to get through ul'dah or further up north where the garlean threat would likely have spotted them) just to find peace when he could have easily been in the steppe away from it all? Or is there some explanation he says why he came to Ishgard specifically or why he was a refugee, maybe to get away from the xaela tribes?
(10-20-2017, 05:54 PM)Suren Wrote:Lorebook entry on Sidurgu Wrote:As a child, Sidurgu lived with his family in a frontier town of Othard, until their settlement fell under the subjugation of the invading Garlean Empire. Unable to endure the stifling regime of their conquerors, his parents bundled him into a cart along with their meagre possessions, and fled into the wilderness soon after his sixth nameday. For five years they wandered, seeking a place to belong, before their journeys eventually brought them to Eorzea’s shores. Like many of their race, they found themselves drawn to the plains of Coerthas, where they hoped to adopt the nomadic ways of their ancestors… but neither fate nor the Ishgardians were kind to the Au Ra.
Molded by a life of tragedy, the displaced Xaela found himself well suited to the mantle of a dark knight. Now bereft of family, master, and fellow apprentice, Sidurgu wears his stern demeanour like a suit of armour, impenetrable to all perhaps but his young charge, Rielle.
A few things to point out: the Orl tribe doesn't appear to have been living on the Azim Steppe during the Garlean invasion. It's possible they could've lived on the "frontier" between northern Yanxia and southern Azim Steppe, an area where Garlemald might have gone. Also that it mentions that the Orl tribe hoped to adopt the nomadic ways of their ancestors further separates them from the other Xaela tribes we know of.
How they got there isn't exactly clear. They wandered for five years, which implies they traveled mostly by land routes through Garlean occupied territory. Did they just keep their heads down and act as travelling merchants? Did they avoid patrols the whole way to Eorzea? Did they only go so far and then come the rest of the way by boat? We don't know the specifics.
I'm also adding Sidurgu's own rendition of his tale to the lore book's:
Sidurgu Orl Wrote:The first Ishgardians to encounter Au Ra saw Dravanians. We had fled Garlemald’s armies only to come to a land where we were mistaken for another nation’s mortal enemy. They bared steel and came to kill us…but we did not die so easily. We spared them and sent them on their way…and how do you think they repaid our kindness? With fire and blood! With death for every man, woman, and child!
…I was about Rielle’s age when I came to Ishgard. My parents, they…they said we would find a better life here. When the Temple Knights we had shown mercy returned, they let us choose the order in which we would die. That would be their mercy to us, they declared.
I watched my parents kneel in the dirt. “Look away,†they said. But I could not. At last, when it was my turn, I knelt and prepared to follow them into death. I closed my eyes…but when I opened them, a man in black stood before me, hand outstretched. And so I took it. “Defend the meek.†“Punish the wicked.†…Mayhap it was all but a convenient excuse to indulge in vengeance. She deserves better than me. But there is no one else…
Sidurgu's version makes it seem like the Temple Knights either returned in greater numbers or took the Orl by surprise.
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(10-20-2017, 01:04 PM)Arashin Kujqai Wrote: Now Sidurgu supposedly was with the group of doman refugees that I thought was escaping the wrath of Garlemald's reign in the east...
Not the same group. According to the lore book entry, Sidurgu traveled with his tribe, the Orl, and this event took place many years before the recent Doman refugee exodus roughly a year ago. If Sidurgu is 26, and the tribe fled when he was six, this occurred 20 years ago in 1557. The same year Ala Mhigo was conquered. Five years of journeying to reach Eorzea places them reaching Ishgard in 1562. This coincides roughly with the 8th Awakening of Nidhogg, the razing of several Coerthan hamlets including Ferndale, and a severe rise in dragon attacks which prompted the Holy See to eventually withdraw from the Eorzean Alliance and close their gates to all foreigners. As Sidurgu points out, it was a very bad time for a black-scaled race of people to arrive in Ishgard.
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(10-20-2017, 01:04 PM)Arashin Kujqai Wrote: So it was to my understanding the Xaela pretty much easily overwhelmed Garlemald and they ended up giving up trying to take over the steppe because of the amount of effort and etc reasons it'd take. Xaela are a hassle cuz they're tough and the lands are made for toughies
Yes and no. It's suggested that the Garleans never actually made any serious attempts to occupy the Azim Steppe. There was no benefit in it versus the cost of going head to head with what the rest of Othard considered vicious warrior people. Similar to how Garlemald takes little interest in expending their armies to take over island nations unless provoked. The Empire is stretched thin as it is, they can't afford to fight everyone.
Yugiri Wrote:Oh, I assumed you knew. The Azim Steppe has been home to the nomadic tribes of the Xaela since antiquity. More than fifty roam these lands, and though they do not constitute a nation, there is a hierarchy of sorts, determined through ritual combat.
Lyse Wrote:If they're so busy fighting each other, you'd think the Empire would be able to march in and take the Steppe with ease. I wonder why they haven't...
Gosetsu Wrote:Perhaps they see little value in it, especially given the fierce reputation of the Xaela warriors who would fight tooth and nail to oppose them.
Yugiri Wrote:These lands were not made for men. The soil is thin, and the weather unforgiving. The Xaela found ways to survive, it is true. But they are made of sterner stuff than most imperials - conscript or citizen.
