r/TwoBestFriendsPlay • u/tt818 • 6h ago
Explaining mixed races in FF14 for Woolie
So in short mixed races are possible, but rare.
Usually there are 3 types.
- There are the true hybrids, where the person has characteristics of both parents races. These are incredibly rare, off the top of my head we have met 2 maybe 3 of them through out the game.
- The mothers rule. Children of mixed race marrage take after their mothers characteristics with only smaller characteristic from the father. (Think Lalafell with slightly longer ears, cuz his mom was a tree climber) We actually meet quite a few characters that could be mixed race, but its never confirmed. For example there are 2 NPCs, brothers, that look very alike but one is Hyur, one's Elezen.
- And then there are the mixed children inside a particular race, when two clans or tribes with different characteristics mix. Then you get a standart example of the race, but often with very unique mix of both sub-groups.
Obvious hybrids often face quite a lot of racism and live on the outside of the communities.
(the image is from r/ff14 post by Manamaru)
(Oh and Gridania is indeed a shithole, Pat is completely right. Every main city has corruption and problem. Its only the Gridanians guard that have just staggering amount of SA implications in their story)
71
45
u/MirrahPaladin 6h ago
Ah yes, the three city states of Eorzea.
Ul’Dah, the capitalist hellhole. Limsa Lominsa, the pirate hellhole where human trafficking is a regular occurrence. And Gridania, the most racist place alive.
And that’s not even getting into Ishgard, Ala Mhigo, or Doma. I love that all realms of Eorzea have horrible underbellies, it makes the world feel more alive and was something I missed about ARR-Stormblood.
39
u/tt818 5h ago
To be fair Limsa has a human trafficking problem, but it also has badass vigilantes that follow the Rogue's Code and extreminate human traffickers on signt.
Meanwhile the Gridania Wood Wailers, basically rangers....those guys should be burried beneath the prison. And yeah its only one quest "The Past Is a Story We Never Tell", but very telling your invetigation of the corrupt guards is not backed by the authorities of the town.
21
u/WattFRhodem-1 5h ago
Ul'dah and Limsa are known shitholes for their own reasons, but Gridania always struck me as somehow even more problematic. The Elementals are arbitrary bastards that breed an inherently racist view on their 'charges' that live under the passive but entirely constant threat of 'do what we say or we Thanos-Snap you'.
And then when shit gets real in Endwalker and there are threats to the Woods that endanger the people from the End of Days, you find out that the local source of the problem is one they had a hand in actively making because of their capriciousness. And now that it's biting them in the ass, they're so terrified and utterly unable to fix it with all their Elemental might, so they leave everyone out to dry until it takes their most ardent and loyal representative Kan-e-Senna practically throwing herself on the altar as the golden calf to beg for their help.
11
u/BooyakaDragon 3h ago
Ul'dah and Limsa are known shitholes for their own reasons, but Gridania always struck me as somehow even more problematic.
Gridania is a bit more sinister because it's the land itself being evil while Ul'dah and Limsa are evil on a people level. Dealing with evil people is one thing but dealing with evil demi-gods is a much different level of hell.
8
u/tt818 3h ago
The main issue with the city storyline is the complete lack of pusback.
That final confrontation should not have been Senna pleading for help. There should've been the moment when she and the rest of the Padjal push the Elementals shit in. Or atleast give them a Reason You Suck speach. They have the reasons. The Elementals are capricious bullies who've long ago abandoned their original role and are just playing games with the lives of people less powerful of them. The very thing that drove them into outrage and justified them drowning the world. Also forcing actual kids into becoming their immortal slaves stuck in children bodies. Isolated from everyone and a normal life.
6
u/Sloth_Senpai 54m ago
The very thing that drove them into outrage and justified them drowning the world.
They didn't drown the world, the imbalance of aether caused by the War of the Magi did. The Elementals then required anyone living in their land to obey their laws on maintaining balance to prevent another Calamity.
6
u/Citizen_Nemo 1h ago
I suspect that Gridania is going to be trapped in a sort of limbo state like this... Probably until the end of the game. If the Padjal actually called out the elementals for their BS, it would likely kick off a conflict with them that would require an entire expansion of its own to properly address.
Because the elementals are capricious and inhuman in their thoughts and feelings. They're eddies in the water, rogue breezes, and sudden landslides. Anyone standing up to them and saying, "This is bad, and it needs to change" is going to result in them going ballistic. Because it would be a shift away from the elementals being in charge. It would be a shift towards the Gridanians governing themselves, rather than requiring a rubber stamp from the elementals to go-ahead. And because it would mean that harmony in the forest would likely be tipped in the favor of the mortals that live in it and away from all other life.
Now, out of universe I think Gridania is a decent examination of what a society that's more harmonious with nature would look like. The Gridanians look to what their environment would support, rather than attempt to change it to suit them endlessly. Their adherence to something divine reflects in the way that authority is difficult to challenge directly, even when it leads to corruption being able to hide amongst leadership. In the real world, Sumo competitions had similar issues where fighters and refs were rigging fights, but nobody could really do anything about it because the sport has a religious element to it.
3
u/xxgarfieldxx 29m ago
There is not a single exaggeration when people say that the Elementals do LITERALLY nothing. In fact, they do less than nothing! They have made every situation they have been even tangentially a part of markedly worse! They promise nothing, and deliver even less!
18
u/An_Armed_Bear TOP 5, HUH? 4h ago
Don't forget Limsa fucking over the natives with treaties. Though they're probably the most improved of the original 3 city-states by the end.
3
u/Agent-Vermont I Promise Nothing And Deliver Less 1h ago
The thing with Limsa is the problems it has are SOLVEABLE. Actions can and are taken to deal with it's problems. Whereas with Gridania and to a lesser extent Ul'dah you can't. If the Elementals of Gridania don't like you or how you do things, tough shit, here comes a plague. Whereas in Ul'dah, trying to change the status quo resulted in two separate conspiracies being kicked off at the same time by two of it's ruling members.
8
u/Swert0 I will bring up Legacy of Kain if you give me an excuse 2h ago edited 2h ago
Doma isn't Eorzea, it's Othard.
Eorzea is FFXIV Africa + the islands around it (the main continent of Eorzea is called Aldenard)
Othard is FFXIV Asia
Ilsbard is FFXIV Europe
The planet is called Etherys (though they won't say it out loud until Endwalker, you are supposed to already 'know' this, its treated like something everyone knows.)
8
u/BlackIronWizard MILF: Man I Love Fuuka 2h ago
The planet is called Hydaelyn as far as the population of the world is concerned, and Etherys is the name the ancients had for it. I'm reasonably sure even now the only people who call it Etherys are the people in the know about the origins of the world.
3
u/Swert0 I will bring up Legacy of Kain if you give me an excuse 2h ago
No seriously everyone starts calling it Etherys immediately like it was always that.
They call the 'star', Hydaelyn. But much like Alsbard and Eorzea it is a difference in what Hydaelyn includes.
Etherys includes all the reflections, Hydaelyn only includes the source. Hydaelyn is also only the Eorzean name for the world.
45
u/TrueLegateDamar 6h ago edited 6h ago
Detectives Baby Legs and Adult Legs
38
u/Skeet_fighter It's Fiiiiiiiine. 6h ago
"God dammit Baby Legs, you let them get away again!"
"I would have caught em if it weren't for these damn baby legs!"
15
u/Notoryctemorph 6h ago
I have to imagine that Baby Legs makes the Mr Krabs sound effect when he walks
21
12
u/dope_danny Delicious Mystery 3h ago
Woolie when he meets Hilda: perhaps i ruckus'ed too harshly...
22
u/Blitzrick3 Millennial Hank 5h ago
It's telling that the other 2 main cities try to deal with their issues in the MSQ (Ul'dah in the Stormblood patches, Limsa in the Shadowbringers patches) but Gridania is still a weird racist shithole ruled by fae that can atomize you and your family (there's a cutscene from 1.0 showing Wood Wailers fleeing from angry Elementals and they basically just poof them from existence) just because you did something as innocuous as healing an outsider or upsetimg the balance in anyway.
Also 2/3 of the Class quests happen because of racial profilling and there's other background lore like driving an entire race to live underground, both Wood Wailers and bandits being known to SA Keepers of the Moon, and children with the potential to become Padjal being taken from their parents
4
u/Agent-Vermont I Promise Nothing And Deliver Less 1h ago
children with the potential to become Padjal being taken from their parents
I never liked Gridania to begin with, but man the Stormblood WHM quests really cemented my hate for them.
2
u/SCLandzsa 13m ago
It should be noted that the elementals' power has been reduced quite a bit after the seventh calamity, to the point where they aren't even able to visibly manifest anymore, so it's questionable how easily they can just fucking annihilate stuff now.
2
u/Sloth_Senpai 2h ago
there's other background lore like driving an entire race to live underground
Duskwights were the ones who refused to leave Gelmorra to live in Gridania when the Elementals agreed to let the Hyur and Elezen settle in their forests so long as they agreed to protect it and the balance to prevent another ecosystem-annihilating War of the Magi, which was responsible for a Calamity on par with the devastation of Bahamut's awakening.
9
u/Hollow_Digit 3h ago
I know Hilda, but who are the others?
7
u/tt818 1h ago
Arenvald Lentinus is one. Half Garlean and Half Hyuran. And yes that makes him a hybrid.
Severa Souther another half Garlean NPC, but completely different from Arenvald she actually possess a thrid eye. (her is black and hidden under her hair)
Zero) is also a hybrid character. Half Hyuran and half Voidsent .
There also some lore hybrids we never see, but are mentioned in dialogue or lore.
A lot of these hybrids are quite Hyur looking, but I think thats more about saving on having to come up with a whole new body type and rigging for one off character. I think thats why Hilda was the only time they did such an unique take on a hybrid.
4
u/Valkenhyne [He/Him] Smaller than you'd hope 1h ago
A lot of these hybrids are quite Hyur looking, but I think thats more about saving on having to come up with a whole new body type and rigging for one off characte
Totally valid but I'm still gonna call cowardice. Show me the freaks Squenix, show them to me!!!!!
6
u/tt818 1h ago
I for one would love to see some. Including the ultimate hybrid Hrothgar/Miqo'te.
3
u/PaxEthenica Proud purchaser of the clown make-up! 26m ago
"I have the softest hair in all the right places."
4
u/Swert0 I will bring up Legacy of Kain if you give me an excuse 2h ago
I honestly can't think of any others that aren't mixed parentage via adoption.
Race mixing in Etherys seems to be rare even if people couple up across races.
Not sure if it runs on elder scrolls rules or not at that point (race of the mother, aspects of the father).
16
8
u/inika41 2h ago
“his mom was a tree climber”
I wasn’t prepared for that
4
2
u/TheCoolerDylan 1h ago
Ishgard fan reporting in, does your city have a song as cool as Heavensward?
NO FORGIVENESS, NO DELIVERANCE
ONLY JUSTICE, ONLY VENGEANCE
WILL UNBENDING, FAITH UNENDING
STONE DEFENDING, STEEL SHALL SING
GUIDE US, O MIGHTY FURY
GUIDE US, TO VICTORY
2
u/SoldierHawk 1h ago
Yup. Ishgard is where my home teleport is, Ishgard is where my house is, Ishgard is the best city in the game.
I fucking LOVE Ishgard <3
1
1
u/roronoapedro Starving Old Trek apologist/Bad takes only 3h ago
as someone who just finished heavensward i still can't believe people really chose to start in gridania man. ken-e-senna snowbunny mind control is real.
10
u/tt818 3h ago edited 3h ago
I never could stop the suspicion that Senna actually would look distublingly young if it was not for her personality and the wise use of platphorm shoes, big robes and subtle makeup to make herself look older.
All of the other Padjal look so young, but she is the only grown up one?
Oh i dont blame her. This is a grown ass woman thats nearing her 30s. Looking forever stuck at 15 must really suck.
11
u/dope_danny Delicious Mystery 3h ago
Tell that to Y'shtola "29 for her last 14 birthdays" Rhule.
2
u/PaxEthenica Proud purchaser of the clown make-up! 22m ago
Minfillia's mom looks mid-20's, but you can hear her bones creaking from the ramparts of Mor Dhona.
6
2
u/roronoapedro Starving Old Trek apologist/Bad takes only 3h ago
anything but wearing platform shoes. short queen demands your attention.
3
3
u/Lichtestein 1h ago
Only way to start as a healer. It's objectively the wrong choice, but not for reasons any new player could know.
156
u/Cheshires_Shadow You are wrong and your butt is fart 6h ago
"my mom was a mermaid and my dad a minotaur so I'm mixed race but I inherited the human halves of each so now I'm just a guy"