Possibly silly question about Jess...
Prior to meeting Varrus what was Jess' attitude to Elezen in general?
Did she see herself, as a Hyur, having an equal status to the Wildwood Elezen of Gridania. Did she make any distinction between them and the Duskwight Elezen? Especially given the apparent propensity towards brigandry by the latter?
How was this impacted by Varrus' arrival? Presumably this was one of the first times she'd met an Ishgardian Elezen, so perhaps she was surprised by the cultural differences between Gridanian Wildwood Elezen and their less aboreal cousins from the Holy See?
Oh this is a fun question, thanks Mimble!
So Jess has the fun of not only being a Hyur raised in the Shroud, but a Highlander and an Ala Mhigan refugee at that. So she definitely very much felt different from the Elezen around her, and even from other Hyur. The Elementals, of course, had deemed that the refugees were unwelcomed, and as such she and the others were shunned and left to fend for themselves.
Being the youngest of the group, she was looked after by all the rest, and when she spoke of the Echo to the others, they took her to the local hearer, who at first thought perhaps she was hearing the voice of the Elementals and maybe she was a Padjal. But just as soon as it was discovered she wasn't, the locals had little use of her and pretty much discarded her like the rest.
All of that of course left her feeling very unwelcomed and unfriendly towards the local Elezen, and the Hyur as well. She grew up thinking they had proverbial sticks up their asses. That attitude definitely didn't improve when she began working at the tavern, and had to now serve those same Elezen, only this time while they were drunk and behaving as such.
As such, when she first saw Varrus, she fully expected him to be just the same as the others - and thus was incredibly confused when he was instead polite and charming and annoyingly handsome.
Though all of her negative feelings towards him disappeared pretty quickly once he showed her his lance (while training, not like that) and told her he was a dragoon from Ishgard. That pretty much filled her with a childlike wonder as she wanted to ask him a million questions about his home and his experiences.
She's since become a lot more forgiving towards the Gridanians, and much less enthused about Ishgardians (and that's another story).
Thank you for the fun question! You always ask the coolest things.
