I would guess that the Murlocs cerimoniously tear their center fin when they come of age or something (maybe they can't have tatoos?). Regardless, you don't see bad, bad fluff like this in FFXI. First and foremost your character is a certified, professional Adventurer, not a well-meaning civilian. Quest givers often ask you if you're an Adventurer, so basically you are a freelance government-sanctioned mercenary. Second all the fetch quests as well as the missions that involve fetching all have a good reason, and/or you only need to aquire one or few of an item;
An old woman wants a spice from a plant which grew in the supposedly destroyed Cape Riverene. She doesn't explicitly ask you to go and risk your life to get some regardless of whether the spice must flow or not, but if you come across some she'll reward you. Of course the only place to find it is in the Cape, a series of floating islands. You trade one spice for one cash reward.
A guard in the castle jail is allergic to sunlight and needs you to fetch a Beastman Blood vial for him to make a salve before he gets lynched on suspicion of being a vampire. Ironically the reward is a scroll of Drain.
A townsman outside the jail is scared from rumors of a vampire and wants two Shaman Garlics, which are far stronger than the domestic variety, dropped by Orcish Shamans. Cash reward.
There is a quest regarding a stolen purse. You track down the Mithra responcible in her hideout in the wild, who denies being the thief, so you return to the town guard who picked up a button from the crime scene. That button matches a button missing from the Mithra's shirt. The Mithra peacefully hands over the purse, not wanting to risk her neck going toe to toe with an Adventurer, which you return for a cash reward, then report to the guard who puts out a warrant for the Mithra's arrest. If you talk to the Mithra again she says she's moving on to another city until the heat dies down.
No head collecting, no wax candles, no marbles.
To be fair, however, there are no people bandits, they're all beastmen. There are some 'Go kill beastmen' quests, but they're all related to some personl vandetta (X Beastmen killed my friends, bring me X Beastman helmets and I'll reward you), or sometimes said items are black market goods (Yagudo Bead Necklaces are highly valued in the Far East for reasons unexplained, but there's a treaty between the locals and the Yagudo).
There are 'go prove there's a Beastman presence in this Beastman infested area' missions, but that's generally you looking for proof of specific activity, an individual Beastman, or signs of beastmen who are out of place - finding Orc Scale Armor Peices (again, you only need ONE) in the Goblin-held King Ranperee's Tomb is one of the early Sandorian missions. Bats drop these scales, not Goblins, because FFXI doesn't have crows or ravens I'm guessing...
You don't, however, need to turn in Goblin helmets to prove that there are Goblins there.
