Category:Gridania: Difference between revisions

Gridania
Wood's Will Be Done
Leader		Kan-E-Senna
Ruling Body		Seedseer Council
Patron Deity		Nophica, The Matron

In the eastern reaches of the Aldenard landmass, home to vast, dense woodlands and coursing rivers, lies the forest nation of Gridania. The cityscape is a mosaic of labyrinthine waterways and great wooden structures, so gracefully constructed they seem a part of the surrounding environment.

The Gridanian emphasis on natural harmony has led to its preeminence among Eorzea's city-states in trades such as forestry, agriculture, carpentry, and leatherworking. Gridania is also home to the Wood Wailers, a militant band of polearm-wielding sentries charged with the protection of their homeland.

The favored goddess of the citizenry is Nophica, the Matron, but great faith is also placed in the wisdom of the Seedseers—young oracles who guide the nation based on the will of the forest's elementals.

History

Blood Between Men

In the latter 7th century of the Sixth Astral Era, the second migration of Hyur came upon Eorzea, forcing Elezen from their lands and into the Black Shroud. The elementals looked upon these settlers as intruders, and sought to purge their presence from amongst the trees. Surviving accounts of this period describe chaos; the Elezen lacked knowledge of the elementals' existence, and knew not what attacked them. In time, they realized what had befallen their people, and sought respite from the merciless onslaught in the caverns deep beneath the forest. They escaped annihilation- but at the cost of many Elezen lives. Fifty years later, population grown pushed the Hyur to enter the forest as well. Upon finding people already ensconced underground, they challenged the Elezen for ownership of the habitable caves. Quarrel soon led to conflict, and the two races came to cross blades time and again.

Gelmorra

Though this conflict raged for decades, overtures towards peace had begun by around the year 740. Realizing they had a common goal in avoiding the elementals' hostile gaze, the Hyur and Elezen put aside their differences. The two war-weary races sealed a pact, that both might prosper beneath the Twelveswood. The fruit of their alliance was Gelmorra, a great subterranean city. For three centuries, the Elezen and Hyuran laboured to expand their home, burrowing between natural caves and shoring up the passages with walls of stone. In time, Gelmorra's intricate network of tunnels would come to put any antlings' nest to shame. Around 1020, however, a great change came over the Twelveswood. Since times of eld, the elementals had allowed the Ixal to live within their forest. Yet suddenly, they cast the beastmen from the Shroud. What caused such a radical change in the elementals? The commonly accepted reason is that the Ixal population had grown too great for their area of the forest to support. For this defiance, exile was their reward. When the Gelmorrans learned of this, they realised that a chance was upon them to negotiate for land above ground. Those verse in the magic gathered, seeking a way to commune with the elementals through their art.