From "Coming to Terms," 2.4 content:
From the resulting cutscene, again, 2.4 content:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXB8bmZOY2s
I could go on, dig through older 2.x content for more, and certainly find quotes from newer content, but this is a good starting point.
It is very fair, well, and good to say that Ishgard's conflict with the Dravanians has them stretched too thin. Aymeric even notes to Alphinaud that they have no knights to spare (I'm assuming this means all the lancers, dragoons, and such posted to Coerthas are not up to snuff to qualify) since said knights are all occupied. This can certainly be extended to their not wanting to provide aid in the way of supplies and provisions.
...but still, this all paints a very xenophobic picture. For DECADES, Ishgard has been closed off, playing a very isolationist policy. They haven't let anyone new in. They haven't accepted aid. They haven't lent aid. Not until Aymeric, having worked his way up to his influential position from lowborn status, decides to do his best to change all that... and even then, he is acting against formal policy.
They have justification for acting this way, we just don't know what it is yet (my bets are on the long-game that the Ascians are playing by influencing the Holy See). That, however, does not excuse the behavior for what it is, which, again: isolationist with xenophobic undertones.
I'll take a moment for a very minor point of speculation and conjecture: where are the Ishgardian Roegadyns and Lalafells in addition to the Ishgardian Miqo'te? We'll have to wait until 3.0 hits and Foundation opens to us to find out, but I'm going to hazard a guess and say that you won't find many, if any, of those three races in the upper echelons of Ishgardian society.
I'd go digging for the undertones of racism, but I don't recall exactly which quests they were in and there's a ton to go through, MSQ and otherwise. I'm at work. I might dig for it tonight or this weekend.
EDIT: Sounsyy mentioned above, and it's from 1.0 lore I believe, that the four main Houses are all Elezen in origin.
EDIT 2: Huh. Garlean model with eye for Lucia. That confirms the circlet speculation.
EDIT 3: "Xenophobia" here is merely "fear of outsiders," not "fear of aliens" in the racist sense.
Quote:Minfilia:
She has. Yet welcome though these overtures are, I cannot help but wonder what prompted them. The Ishgardians have spurned all contact with the other city-states for decades. Why reach out now?
Quote:Alphinaud:
...Friends of convenience who withdrew from the Alliance as soon as the imperial fleet was routed at the Battle of Silvertear Skies.
Minfilia:
...Since which time, their borders have remained closed to all outsiders.
Alphinaud:
They have rejected every one of their former allies' calls to reopen dialogue, turning a deaf ear to their neighbors' pleas even when the Calamity loomed large.
And on the fields of Carteneau, where brave men and women laid down their lives in defense of the realm, their banners were conspicuously absent...
From the resulting cutscene, again, 2.4 content:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXB8bmZOY2s
Quote:Aymeric:
Concerns have been raised over the supplies House Fortemps has offered to Revenant's Toll. These have led to calls for restrictions on the provision of aid to foreign powers.
I could go on, dig through older 2.x content for more, and certainly find quotes from newer content, but this is a good starting point.
It is very fair, well, and good to say that Ishgard's conflict with the Dravanians has them stretched too thin. Aymeric even notes to Alphinaud that they have no knights to spare (I'm assuming this means all the lancers, dragoons, and such posted to Coerthas are not up to snuff to qualify) since said knights are all occupied. This can certainly be extended to their not wanting to provide aid in the way of supplies and provisions.
...but still, this all paints a very xenophobic picture. For DECADES, Ishgard has been closed off, playing a very isolationist policy. They haven't let anyone new in. They haven't accepted aid. They haven't lent aid. Not until Aymeric, having worked his way up to his influential position from lowborn status, decides to do his best to change all that... and even then, he is acting against formal policy.
They have justification for acting this way, we just don't know what it is yet (my bets are on the long-game that the Ascians are playing by influencing the Holy See). That, however, does not excuse the behavior for what it is, which, again: isolationist with xenophobic undertones.
I'll take a moment for a very minor point of speculation and conjecture: where are the Ishgardian Roegadyns and Lalafells in addition to the Ishgardian Miqo'te? We'll have to wait until 3.0 hits and Foundation opens to us to find out, but I'm going to hazard a guess and say that you won't find many, if any, of those three races in the upper echelons of Ishgardian society.
I'd go digging for the undertones of racism, but I don't recall exactly which quests they were in and there's a ton to go through, MSQ and otherwise. I'm at work. I might dig for it tonight or this weekend.
EDIT: Sounsyy mentioned above, and it's from 1.0 lore I believe, that the four main Houses are all Elezen in origin.
EDIT 2: Huh. Garlean model with eye for Lucia. That confirms the circlet speculation.
EDIT 3: "Xenophobia" here is merely "fear of outsiders," not "fear of aliens" in the racist sense.