You see, Gridania is the one city state that really suffered a lot in the transition from 1.0 to 2.0. Ul'dah and Limsa still have most of their stories intact, and as such have a lot of characters and focus in the current game's main story, particularly regarding their internal conflicts. But Gridania's central internal conflict was mostly written out of the game thanks to the Calamity, making its story lose a little of its bite and make less sense. This is a shame, too, since I think it is really the most interesting of the city states.
You see, when Gridanians talk about the "will of the elementals", as they do to justify their refusal to accept many Ala Mhigan refugees, they are not talking about some abstract force or a desire for harmony and peace for peace's sake. They are talking about an immediate threat to their society's very existence. Gridanians cannot defy the elementals, even if they wanted to.
You see, the Gridanians do not rule the forest. The trees rule the forest. The elementals exist as being of pure aether, but they are as real as people, and act purely in their own self-interest. For thousands of years, they simply killed anyone, man or beast-man, who even tried to live in the forest. It is only thanks to the Hearers, who negotiate with the elementals on mankind's behalf, that the elementals permit people to live in the forest. To emphasize, people live there because the trees give them permission to do so, and ever since Gridania was founded there has been a genuine risk that the elementals would revoke that permission. This is why Gridania does not have a government, and instead has a group of people who convey the will of the elementals who serve in place of a government.
The people of Gridania, regardless of race, are second-class citizens living in enclaves within a potentially quite hostile state. The areas they are allowed to live in are particularly designated, and even native Gridanians are highly restricted in what they are allowed to do within the forest. Gridanians who break these rules risk the Greenwrath, the anger of the elementals, and enraged elementals kill people, often indiscriminately. In 1.0, the hero even has to fight against an elemental that enrages and tries to kill a rebellious child and everyone around him. Later events feature cases where, in response to Garlean forces invading the forest and damaging the trees, the elementals start killing every person they can, both Gridanian and Garlean alike. In other words, the elementals enforce the rules they place upon the people of the forest with acts of indiscriminate collective punishment. The average Gridanian has to live with the knowledge that they might be killed if someone else hurts the forest. Gridania can be compared to, of all things, an apartheid state where people live subordinate to alien and inscrutable beings. I'm a little uncomfortable using that analogy, but it I struggle to think of any alternative words for the situation.
A Realm Reborn walks back many of these elements, particularly in how it defangs the elementals and heavily de-emphasizes the threat of their displeasure, but it is still there to some extent, particularly in the White Mage questline. Moreover, the effect of living in this society is still heavily reflected in the mindset and culture of the Grdianians, from their clothes (all the masks exist to disguise them from the elementals) to how they treat other people and races. The emphasis on the inborn talents of the Padjal and the Hearers has created a caste-like society. Fear of outsiders invoking the Greenwrath has led to general xenophobia and isolationism, and has resulted in oppression of the nomadic Keeper of the Moon Miqo'te. And the cruelty inflicted upon the people of Gridania is reflected by their cruelty towards beastmen. And this leads to a quest where you are asked to go kill the first three Qiqirn you see as an act of collective punishment for the crime of breaking some chocobo eggs.
Gridania is as interesting as it is messed up and toxic. Its easily as twisted as Ul'dah or Ishgard, but sadly the story doesn't really focus on it anywhere near enough, and might not anytime soon.
