Ixali Lore

[ansemaru]

Having played through the story of the game, and even having gone back and made an alt who started out in Gridania, I've found that there's an unfortunate paucity of lore in regards to the Ixal, their culture, behavior, and motivations. At least in 2.0, anyway.

 

I'm trying to write a character plot that involves the Ixal in a capacity other than "token local evil beastmen enemies to fight", and given the lack of information about what makes the Ixal tick, it's kind of frustrating- I don't want to end up breaking lore once a patch rolls around that gives them beast tribe quests and more backstory than "bird people who are the enemies of Gridania, really proud of their janky remaining feathers, no regard for the elementals/sanctity of the forest".

 

So my question is thus: What do we know about the Ixal? I'm particularly curious about information regarding them from 1.0, since I wasn't around to play it, and it's just generally harder to dig up than information from 2.0.

[LiadansWhisper]

From the Botany questline you learn that at some point, there was peace between Gridania and the Ixal, much like Gridania has with the Sylphs.  Obviously something happened to sever that peace, but it's never explained what.

 

Ixal are referred to as "cursed," and I believe it's implied that they once had wings and could fly, and that the curse is the reason they can't anymore.  That's why they build their balloons and whatnot.

 

Whatever actually happened, the Ixal seem to feel they got the raw end of the deal, and there's an element of betrayed rage to their behavior and interactions (at least from my point of view).  They seem to have a particularly personal hatred of Gridania, possibly blaming them for whatever happened.

[ansemaru]

Oh, that's very interesting for my purposes. I need to continue the Botanist questline, clearly!

 

Not exactly uncommon for Gridania to disenfranchise a race of beings, regardless of what initially caused it. Probably tied to the Ixal committing some kind of act that provoked the Greenwrath- or angered the conjurers of Gridania enough due to the risk of doing so. If they're indeed cursed, and not the victims of evolutionary trends- extensive tool use and "civilized" behavior is more convenient for those who've got their current body plan, rather than wings- the elementals seem like a likely cause of that. Could be that the Gridanians used the elementals as an excuse to drive the Ixal out and treat them as second-class. Or it could be that the Ixal angered the elementals and hold Gridania responsible for it.

 

Given that this story ties into some other groups that are variously discriminated against by the Gridanian establishment, this is extremely helpful to know.

[LiadansWhisper]

Not exactly uncommon for Gridania to disenfranchise a race of beings, regardless of what initially caused it. 

 

It actually is pretty uncommon for Gridania to do that.  The Elementals have to basically curse the person, at which point it's less that Gridania is disenfranchising them as it is that if Gridania does anything to help them, or allow them in their cities, they could invoke the Greenwrath on themselves (and thus find their entire society exiled from the Twelveswood).

 

I agree that the Elementals probably have something to do with it, though.

[Ildur]

The Ixali (Ixals? Ixal?) angering the Elementals means they would be targets of the Woodwrath and, therefore, they would be attacked by every living animal in the Shroud. Since they have at least one camp in the Shroud (we can argue there's more off-screen) and we never see them being attacked by the local wildlife, this is unlikely.

I think the most likely reason for the Ixal to have become hostiles towards Gridania has to do with Garuda, who is stated to be among the most hostile of the Primals. Perhaps she managed to temper a great number of them (just like Ifrit did with the Amalj'aa).

 

I also found this paragraph of lore in another webpage:

 

This aggressive mountain tribe claims the wind-blasted canyons of Xelphatol as their domain. Though their race has long since lost the capability for flight, the feathered beastmen are fervently proud of their vestigial wings. The Ixal stage frequent raids into the Black Shroud, and fell trees to offer in worship to their patron deity, the primal Garuda. Such behavior, however, leads to violent confrontations with the people of Gridania. "The Ixal are the sworn enemies of Gridania -- craven birdmen who live in the reclusive canyons and valleys of the eastern reaches of Abalatia's Spine. They oft breach the Hedge and trespass into the Twelveswood, foraging for plants or hunting small game. Theirs and ours is a timeless war. The scholars tell us that the stunted wings and coarse feathers of the Ixal are vestiges of a time when they could fly freely through the skies. But they were not content with their gift, and sought ever greater power to oppose the very winds that bore them. They learned to build ships full of air that allows them to move in great numbers, appearing suddenly from above to attack the unwary. For the nonce, it is all we of the Gods' Quiver can do to oppose them."

[LiadansWhisper]

The Ixali (Ixals? Ixal?) angering the Elementals means they would be targets of the Woodwrath and, therefore, they would be attacked by every living animal in the Shroud. Since they have at least one camp in the Shroud (we can argue there's more off-screen) and we never see them being attacked by the local wildlife, this is unlikely.

I think the most likely reason for the Ixal to have become hostiles towards Gridania has to do with Garuda, who is stated to be among the most hostile of the Primals. Perhaps she managed to temper a great number of them (just like Ifrit did with the Amalj'aa).

 

 

There's a statement that the Ixal make during the level 15 questline where they're trying to take out Everschade.  The problem is, I can't remember the exact wording.  What I remember of it is that they were expressing hatred of the Elementals themselves (blaming them for being exiled, etc), and the Gridanians for supplanting them in the Twelveswood.  I'd need to go watch the cutscene again to be sure.

[ansemaru]

Actually, relatedly: have we seen any examples of the Greenwrath actually being evoked post-Calamity? I've not completed the CNJ or WHM questlines, nor any of the archer or lancer ones, so I wasn't sure. It seems to me like it was much more of a tangible threat prior to the Calamity/in 1.0 than it is now.

[Ildur]

I understand the White Mage questline deals with the Greenwrath, but I have not personally done it.

 

There's one example of it during the main storyline, though: there's an Ala Mhigo refugee who has been targetted by the Green(wood?)wrath. The local wildlife hates him and the Gridanians refuse to help him or his fellow refugees. He even tries to leave them behind but gets attacked and you have to save him (from a goblin robber, which I don't think are part of the Elementals repertoire of creatures, so it was probably just a coincidence).

[ansemaru]

Mmm, I'm going to need to go back and rewatch that part- I recall kind of rushing through the Quarrymill quests to catch up to my friends in level.

 

But if the Greenwrath as it is is just "animals hate you", it's hardly the catastrophic fate it's made out to be by Gridania, is it?

[ansemaru]

To anybody reading this thread, I found a remarkably useful bit of information in regards to the Ixal from 1.0:

 

http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/%27Neath_Garuda%27s_Shadow

 

Seems they were exiled by the elementals before the Gridanians even arrived, due to overpopulation, and migrated out of the forest they consider holy. It was their living outside Tinolqa/the Black Shroud that resulted in their young being born flightless- not a curse from the wood itself, but the absence of a blessing. Or, possibly due to the aetheric nature of Xelphatol itself- it's a land we know nothing about, since the closest thing we've witnessed to Ixal territory is Natalan.

 

It also seems that though Gridania views them as enemies, the Ixali motive for summoning Garuda- at least initially- had nothing to do with waging war upon the forestborn. It was instead a ploy to reclaim their long-lost powers of flight, which failed rather dismally.

[LiadansWhisper]

Actually, relatedly: have we seen any examples of the Greenwrath actually being evoked post-Calamity? I've not completed the CNJ or WHM questlines, nor any of the archer or lancer ones, so I wasn't sure. It seems to me like it was much more of a tangible threat prior to the Calamity/in 1.0 than it is now.

 

The entire WHM questline revolves around trying to prevet the Greenwrath from happening.  Sadly, I feel like they treated the entire situation as a means to an end (i.e. they wanted a reason to make the character a WHM, and used rather spurious methods to make it happen) rather than a believable story.

 

But by the last quest, you come very close to having the Greenwrath happen.

[LiadansWhisper]

Mmm, I'm going to need to go back and rewatch that part- I recall kind of rushing through the Quarrymill quests to catch up to my friends in level.

 

But if the Greenwrath as it is is just "animals hate you", it's hardly the catastrophic fate it's made out to be by Gridania, is it?

 

It can be as simple as "the animals hate you," and as massive and violent as the land eating you.

 

Edited to Add: Basically, from what I gathered from the quests I did in the Shroud, Greenwrath can be called on an individual, or it can be called on a people. Either way, it generally ends up in the victims being extremely dead or driven out of the forest. It's one thing for, say, all the squirrels to have a beef with you. But if every single creature of the forest - including the trees and the rivers, etc - was after you, along with the spirits of the forest itself, you would have a serious problem.

[LiadansWhisper]

To anybody reading this thread, I found a remarkably useful bit of information in regards to the Ixal from 1.0:

 

http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/%27Neath_Garuda%27s_Shadow

 

Seems they were exiled by the elementals before the Gridanians even arrived, due to overpopulation, and migrated out of the forest they consider holy. It was their living outside Tinolqa/the Black Shroud that resulted in their young being born flightless- not a curse from the wood itself, but the absence of a blessing. Or, possibly due to the aetheric nature of Xelphatol itself- it's a land we know nothing about, since the closest thing we've witnessed to Ixal territory is Natalan.

 

It also seems that though Gridania views them as enemies, the Ixali motive for summoning Garuda- at least initially- had nothing to do with waging war upon the forestborn. It was instead a ploy to reclaim their long-lost powers of flight, which failed rather dismally.

 

That doesn't quite fit with the 2.0 Botany questline, which made it clear that there was peace with the Ixal, and now there's not, and that something happened to cause the rift.

 

It's possible that the "something" was the Ixal trying to regain their flight (i.e. summoning Garuda), but like I said, they never explain what the incident was that caused the rift.

[Ildur]

That's quite a useful bit of data!

 

The Greenwrath is actually kind of catastrophic. People who are target of it draw nature's wrath, whose most obvious manifestation is animals trying to kill you (and anyone who gets in the way).

Additionaly, it looks like in 1.0 when the player arrived at Gridania, there was a whole questline dedicated to purifying one of the woodsin (which is exactly what it says on the tin: sins against the woods) and thus not being target of the Greenwrath. It was implied that all outsiders had to take part of this ritual if they wanted to stay in Gridania. But since the player never does this on the storyline, we can assume this practice has been dropped. The reason for that might be that the Elementals are just too weak after the Calamity, though it could also be that it just got retconned and is not part of canon anymore.

Source.

 

There's also apparently something called a "wildling", which is basically an undead: a soul claimed by the elementals and cursed to roam the Shroud. Since there's none in ARR, as far as I can tell, they are pretty uncommon or they got retconned out of existence.

[ansemaru]

It seems like there's a lot of evidence suggesting that the Greenwrath is considerably weaker than it was prior to the Calamity. Given how much of a catastrophic impact it had on the environment in general, it makes sense that the elementals would be less able to punish/drive out those they deemed a threat in their current state.

 

But that's sort of tangential to what seems like a pretty valid/interesting point- there's inconsistency between the 1.0 Ixal information in the Raven, and the information provided in the Botanist questline. It could be retconning, or one of the sources being an unreliable source of information. Or, like mentioned upthread, it could be the summoning of Garuda that made the Ixal the enemies of Gridania and caused them to break the peace.

[Lalili Lali]

A tiny thing:

 

Tempered individuals tend to take on some of the characteristics of their patron primal - although often in rather twisted ways. (This is mentioned in ~level 24 story quests.)

 

If you're interacting with tempered Ixali, they're going to take on some of Garuda's qualities. She's known for being bloodthirsty and capricious.

[ansemaru]

I was aware of the tempered individuals taking on Primal qualities! The Ixal in question are followers of Garuda, but not specifically tempered by her, so they're not likely to be specifically bloodthirsty or fanatical.

[Sounsyy]

Most has been covered but I wanted to fill in a couple things in this thread.

 

Ixali were allowed to live within the Twelveswood roughly somewhere around the same time that Gelmorrans were allowed to live above ground. The Ixali and Gelmorrans inhabited the forest peacefully. There was a 1.0 quest stating that this all happened circa the year 1022 of the 6th Astral Era. Now, for reasons that weren't completely expanded upon in 1.0, the Ixali were banished from the Twelveswood about 400 years later. I think it was something like they started taking more from the Wood than was offered? Probably something to do with the Ixali cutting down a ton of trees as offering to their Primal God Garuda. 

 

Anyways, the Elementals banished them, and the Ixali were forced to leave "Tinolqa" (Blessed Forest in Ixali tongue) or else face the Greenwrath. They took up home in Xelphatol, but they greatly resented the Gridanians who were still allowed to live among what the Ixali consider their Holy Land. This resentment probably turned even nastier when the Ixal children began to be born without feathers, as a result of living in the mountains. They lost the ability to fly and began raiding the Twelveswood to cut lumber to create flying machines called Dirigbles. 

 

 

Also saw some stuff in here about Greenwrath and Wildlings...

 

Greenwrath is actually a lot scarier than just animals attacking you. The forest is against you. It will lead you astray, get you hopelessly lost, even eat you if something else doesn't get to you first. All living things within the Wood can sense the Greenwrath, and it infuriates them. 

 

There's something accrued by everyone who sets foot in the Twelveswood called Woodsin. (Think of it like Tonberry's Rancor but for the Wood.) If you get enough Woodsin, you risk envoking the Greenwrath. To sum it up, it's the Elementals Grudge wishing to destroy you because you've done something terrible in their eyes. And while the Elementals aren't really around in 2.0 and they seem kind of easily consolable and cuddly, I encourage you to check out some quests from 1.0 that demonstrate what happens when you tick off an Elemental. It's pretty terrifying. 

 

> 

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Closely related to this topic are the Wildlings. Wildlings are those taken by the Elementals, usually after envoking Greenswrath, but not always. Wildlings basically are soulless shells of people wandering the Wood for the rest of their days doing the Wood's bidding. They can never leave the Wood. You encounter quite a few in 1.0 Grid Storyline. And in the Beckon of the Elementals video I linked above you can see the boy Krimm start to turn into a Wildling. In the 1.0 CNJ storyline you get to meet a conjurer named Morys, who was taken by the Elementals as a boy. He lost all of his memories and was found wandering the Woods. When the Conjurer's took him in, they found that he could communicate with the Elementals extraordinarily well, so they trained him in Conjury, and he carries out his Wildling sentence by healing the forest as a Conjurer. E-Sumi-Yan keeps the fact that Morys is a Wildling a very tightly kept secret though.

 

 

EDIT: Also, interesting side note. The masks worn by the Wood Wailers are actually for protection against Woodsin. The mask takes the Woodsin instead of the Wailer. However, the mask can break, be defective, or becomes ineffective if too much Woodsin is absorbed.

[ansemaru]

E-Sumi-Yan doesn't seem all that soulless to me. Sure that's the best way to describe a Wildling?

 

And okay, I think I'm starting to see the point about the Greenwrath- at least in 1.0. There's a marked difference in how it functions prior to the Calamity and after the Calamity, though.

[Sounsyy]

E-Sumi-Yan doesn't seem all that soulless to me. Sure that's the best way to describe a Wildling?

 

And okay, I think I'm starting to see the point about the Greenwrath- at least in 1.0. There's a marked difference in how it functions prior to the Calamity and after the Calamity, though.

 

Woops, I wrote that a bit confusing. No, E-Sumi is not a Wildling. The Wildling Conjurer's name was Morys. Edited.

 

But yeah, we haven't (yet) seen the Wood get angry in 2.0. It could be that the Elementals were severely weakened by the Calamity, but it could also be that there hasn't been much activity in the Twelveswood to envoke the Greenswrath like in 1.0. Gotta remember that 1.0 was a living game at the time and a lot of crap was going down. Burning trees, Garleans attacking the forest, Garuda summoned inside the Twelveswood, Hedge Trees being attacks at every turn... Also the Black Shroud was a much scarier place in 1.0. Much darker.

[ansemaru]

Hrm. I'm getting the impression that the difference is either one of two things:

 

• Square telling but not showing. The writing continues to imply that the Greenwrath is a major threat to avoid, but events in the game do not ever show the exact consequences of invoking it. If this is the case, we're meant to take these words at face value, regardless of the lack of tangible demonstrations that the Greenwrath and elementals are the same as they were in 1.0.
  
• Square using the discrepancy to imply that the elementals were weakened by the Calamity. The reason behind the Greenwrath hardly showing up in tangible form in 2.0 could be entirely an intentional way of showing how much the Calamity changed the world, rather than a weak point in the writing of the game.
  

I'd prefer to believe the latter, rather than the former, but it could honestly be either. All we know for certain is that there is a marked difference in how the Greenwrath is demonstrated in 1.0 versus 2.0.

 

...goodness, this got off-topic. Back to the subject of Ixal...

 

It seems like there are a few different versions of what forced them to leave Tinolqa/the Twelveswood and why they were once at peace with the Gridanians but no longer. And all of them appear to be based in canon sources. How frustrating.

[LiadansWhisper]

That's quite a useful bit of data!

 

The Greenwrath is actually kind of catastrophic. People who are target of it draw nature's wrath, whose most obvious manifestation is animals trying to kill you (and anyone who gets in the way).

Additionaly, it looks like in 1.0 when the player arrived at Gridania, there was a whole questline dedicated to purifying one of the woodsin (which is exactly what it says on the tin: sins against the woods) and thus not being target of the Greenwrath. It was implied that all outsiders had to take part of this ritual if they wanted to stay in Gridania. But since the player never does this on the storyline, we can assume this practice has been dropped. The reason for that might be that the Elementals are just too weak after the Calamity, though it could also be that it just got retconned and is not part of canon anymore.

Source.

 

There's also apparently something called a "wildling", which is basically an undead: a soul claimed by the elementals and cursed to roam the Shroud. Since there's none in ARR, as far as I can tell, they are pretty uncommon or they got retconned out of existence.

 

:-\  Am I the only one sad that flavor stuff (like having to purify yourself of the woodsin) got taken out in 2.0?  It makes me so sad.  :-\

[ansemaru]

Honestly, I'm pretty fine with Gridanians having less of a leg to stand on in justifying their xenophobia.

[Ildur]

I am sad that it doesn't even get mentioned. Maybe it is hidden in some inconsequential NPC, but who knows? The Greenwrath is an interesting concept for roleplay and if there were more information about it in ARR we could use it more effectively. But right now, some things might or might have not been retconned, and some things might or might have not changed. It's hard to say.

 

Back on the subject of the Ixali: the Elementals seem to have a policy with those that live in the Twelveswood that asks them to return what they take from the forest. If you want to cut down 10 trees, you have to plant 10 new ones. I imagine other things would work like some kind of barter (because I'm not sure how you would return consumed food, for example). It's likely that the Ixali were breaking this rule in some way. The specifics of it can be assumed to have been lost to history and, if there's more than one version, we can pretend all of them are product of an in-universe lack of data about the matter.

[ansemaru]

What I'm also beginning to realize is that the majority of information about the Ixal concerns why they're antagonistic towards Gridania and vice-versa. While it is useful for me, what would be most useful would be more concrete information about Ixal culture, behavior, speech patterns, beliefs... Anything about how they act in a capacity beyond "GRR FORESTBORN" and "OH GARUDA YOU'RE AWESOME WE'RE GOING TO KEEP SUMMONING YOU". But I suppose I'm just going to have to wait until we get beast tribe quests regarding them for that sort of stuff. It's how we got actual concrete data on the Amalj'aa and their culture, after all.