What do you think of Ala Mhigo?

I'm asking for opinions about a certain unexplored City State and speculation on what might happen when we inevitably go there?

Honestly?

I'm not particularly interested in Ala Mhigo in general. I'd rather go anywhere else on Hydaelyn.

I find its people constantly mentioning it to be obnoxious, and the entire invading Gridiania and then expecting Gridanians to help - then having a grudge against them for not doing so is just so, so absurd.

If another NPC uses "Ala Mhigo" as an excuse for their unacceptable actions, I'm going to scream.

While it logically makes sense as the next place we'll visit, as the last Eorzean city-state and rounding out the Aldenard subcontinent as well as the staging ground for Garlemald's seemingly inevitable war with Eorzea...

... it doesn't sound like a pleasant place, with or without the Garlean occupation. On top of that, Ala Mhigans constantly using the city-state's occupation as an excuse for myriad stupid actions is a bit grating.

I think it might be interesting, someone in another thread speculated about Ala Mhigan spear-men ship inspiring Garlean combat arts. Going out on a limb, but it could possibly be where Red Mage job is unlocked?
Though I agree with

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Originally Posted by CyrilLucifer

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While it seems like there is a LOT pointing to Ala Mhigo as our next course of heroic adventures, I'd prefer to explore other lands...Othard and Thavnair specifically.

I cant wait to see the big black gates. You know what I mean :p

Overhyped by whiney npcs. No interest unless I get to ruin any chance of them getting it back.

Oh they aren't all that bad. Wilred wasn't so bad once he got over his idiocy and his gramps seems pretty cool. The MNK npcs from the MNK job quests seem cool enough. Even the jerk Eric, has his positives. The Ala Mhigans are desperate and rather traumatised. That often leads people to be stupid.

I might add, the Ishgardians hardly sold themselves particularly well prior to HW either. None of the city states are spotless in that regard. Limsa is the home of pirates or former pirates, Gridania still has racial intolerance existing in its society, and Ul'dah has a extremely shady past. Ala Mhigo might have invaded Gridania but at least they didn't try to turn the population into zombies or to the best of our knowledge, enslave a sentient race of Giants and bury them all underground when they were no longer needed.

From what's shown ingame so far, unappealing at best. Potentially, though, far enough into its colonization it could be pretty cool. If the main city is no larger than our own city-states, though...

Each day I look upon the giant wall gating the city-state from the rest of Eorzea and I crave more and more to see what lies beyond.

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Originally Posted by CyrilLucifer

the entire invading Gridiania and then expecting Gridanians to help - then having a grudge against them for not doing so is just so, so absurd.

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That was more than 80 years ago though. Imagine if in real life Europe countries still acted like that, 70 years after the last WW.
So yes, not helping a citystate full of generations who had nothing to do with that war many years ago is kind of shitty behaviour on Gridania's side, tbh, especially since treaties were signed and everyone had been at peace for decades.

Now to answer the question:
I'm on the fence with that one. I know their home is occupied by the Garleans, but I'm so annoyed by all their bitterness and them acting so incredibly stupid at all times...
I saw the 1.0 main storyline where they tried to free Ala Mhigo with a group of..like, 20 people at most? And dragged my character into this. I saw everything that went wrong in the 1.0 MNK story (haven't touched MNK ever since, but I assume the story stayed pretty much the same). That was enough, so in ARR, I never even went to Small Ala Mhigo in Southern Thanalan. It's funny when the main story sends you there and all the NPCs say stuff like "oh yeah, hey, it's Meo, the one who has helped us so much!" and I'm like "I never talked to any of you because I didn't want to hear you moaning about your lost home."
The finale of 2.55 kind of sealed the deal for me where we found out that YET AGAIN Ala Mhigo-bitterness was the main motivator for the traitor. What a f*cking surprise -.-

BUT.
I'd really like to visit a city occupied by the Garleans! I always enjoyed the missions where you had to dress up as a Garlean or a beggar to not get noticed.
I'd love to see stuff like that return. Sneaking around a city would be very interesting and just for that, I'd like it if Ala Mhigo became open to us.

I'm surprised people are so against it. I've been itching to go there ever since I leveled Monk, more than Ishgard. As for Ala Mhigans not seeming great pre-expansion...really? Did we so soon forget how Coerthas was populated mostly by either people who were brainless zealots, douchebags, or both in 2.0 vanilla? I even had a friend that referred to it as "high fantasy Noveria" for that reason. And then the excuse was "uhh dragon war" instead of "uhh Garlean occupation", and now people love Ishgard and have long-winded discussion on Ishgardian history and politics. If we get more focus on them I would not be at all surprised to see a similar shift.

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Originally Posted by RyuRoots

And then the excuse was "uhh dragon war" instead of "uhh Garlean occupation", and now people love Ishgard and have long-winded discussion on Ishgardian history and politics. If we get more focus on them I would not be at all surprised to see a similar shift.

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I don't know, I found Heavensward had the opposite effect on me. I found Ishgard far more interesting when we hadn't actually gone there. I didn't find its lore, or the Dragons, very appealing once I actually started the expansion up. I find this is often the case in expansions, with the exceptions I can think of in MMOs being CoP and ToAU in FFXI, both of which completely revitalized my interest in the game's lore.

But, to be fair, I've always been most interested in the Primal, Voidsent, Ascian, and magic-based lore rather than regional lore of XIV.

From the concept art, Ala Mhigo might be a nice-looking place. (I had a dream the other night of what it would look like and it looks quite similar from the concept art, it's a pretty nice place.)
The people however, no. Like others have said, they're incredibly whiney and rude. It might not be the best experience being there.

That i would be more sympathetic to the ala-mhigan's plight if they weren't utter twats who used "garlean occupation" as an excuse to be a nuisance.

domans are in a worse situation, and they're getting along just fine.

Honestly, we'll probably not be taking Ala Mhigo back for the sake of the Ala Mhigans, we'll be taking it back to push the Garleans out of Eorzea. Whatever you think of the Empire's policies it's still probably best to treat with them as an equal power that demands their respect.

Even then the city-state's been occupied so long that an entire generation, like Minfilia and Wilred, have grown up outside of it and probably won't have much attachment to the city once we get them back there and the reality shatters the fairy tales they were told by their parents.

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Originally Posted by FJerome

Honestly, we'll probably not be taking Ala Mhigo back for the sake of the Ala Mhigans, we'll be taking it back to push the Garleans out of Eorzea. Whatever you think of the Empire's policies it's still probably best to treat with them as an equal power that demands their respect.

Even then the city-state's been occupied so long that an entire generation, like Minfilia and Wilred, have grown up outside of it and probably won't have much attachment to the city once we get them back there and the reality shatters the fairy tales they were told by their parents.

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Maybe but for those like Wilred and most of the refugees, who haven't had a true home, finally getting their homeland back would be huge. There would be a cultural aspect of it too.

Saying that Minfilia doesn't seem to have a particular connection to Ala Mhigan culture but she has been raised by a native of Ul'dah since she was 12.

Thordan was right that the bitter truth would only create more problems and knowing and hoping SE liberating it would just make more problems for the native populace in Eorzean's sake of "Freedom".

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Originally Posted by Gaiussenpai

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Yeah. I really, really hope that the situation is morally complex. The Garleans are very cool and interesting and deserve more than to be viewed as being little more than a generic evil empire. Ala Mhigo fell due to its pride and a lot of horrific atrocities have been committed in the name of trying to reclaim it. Everything points at that continuing to happen - especially given what happened in Ul'dah with Ilberd. I say this in pretty much any thread that touches upon Garleans but I want to be able to ally with someone like Gabranth or Drace from FFXII. A Garlean that - whilst loyal to their people and homeland - stands up for injustice and works to eliminate some of the rot within their own society whilst also opposing those who slaughter innocent Garleans/civilians.

Cid and Lucia don't count because they aren't very 'Garlean' in my eyes. They've turned their backs upon their people and homeland.

Overall, though? Ala Mhigo makes me wary. I don't think I could stomach an expansion where Ala Mhigans are the focus. I don't find Highlanders and their culture to be particularly engaging. I know it's a matter of personal tastes but they're too similar to WoW's orcs for my liking and I ended up leaving that game because of how obnoxious the story became whenever orcs became a major plot point. If handled well, however, it could be pretty interesting. We'll need more than just 'Ala Mhigo' though. Perhaps we'll get Thavarian as well?

I agree that it's hard to feel sorry for Ala Mhigo due to all they're rather violent disposition of the refugees we come across.

But I do feel sorry for them as a whole more than I do Ishgard.

My mom and dad are still there, behind the wall. Won't rest until I can find a way t'liberate my home.

My character was born in Ala Mhigo, a few years before the massacre at the monk temple. She and her father fled the city a few days after the massacre, as her mother was a monk (she was at the temple that day and is presumed dead) and her father thought that the people were going to murder them by association (they lived in a part of the city that was very loyal, at the time, to the King). They intended to flee to Limsa, but he was killed by Garleans near the Gridanian boarder and she made it alone. He views on her people were...overly negative as a result, and stayed that way until she had to visit Little Ala Mhigo. That's not to say they improved much,; she resented her people as they were now, trying to fight the Garleans instead of improving their lives. She respected Wilred for his attempts at bettering himself, and believed Ilberd could show their people they could be better than the sorry lot they'd become...but with his betrayal in the name of Ala Mhigo, her opinions returned to the hatred she grew up with.

She knows that, eventually, she will have to journey to the city, to fight the Garleans. And that is all she intends; she has no love for her people, believing that they best course may be to burn the place to the ground and start over.

/rp


Anyway, I'm interested to see what actually has become of the place. While I know there will be pockets of resistance either way, how the Garleans have treated the people will shape their reactions. If they're treated fairly well, they will resist us, insisting the Garleans are better. If they're not, the resistance will be greater, and a full-blown revolt will likely take place.

Unfortunetly, I suspect the liberation of Ala Mihgo won't be as 'morally grey' as some are hoping.

Here are the facts: Garlemald is opposed to the primals and trying to find a permamnent solution to them. They classify anything capable of summoning a primal as 'beastmen.' In HW, we found out their 'solution' to the primal problem was *genocide* of whoever they classified as beastmen.

And now thanks to the one-two puch of Ysalye/Shiva, and Thordan/the Knights of the Round, Garlemald now knows ordinary Eorzeans can summon primals. Take a guess as to what they are going to do with that information.

Argh, and now thinking about it, I'm suddenly worried about the Eorzeans currently living under Garlean control...I think things are going to get very ugly for them soon.

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Originally Posted by Theodric

Yeah. I really, really hope that the situation is morally complex. The Garleans are very cool and interesting and deserve more than to be viewed as being little more than a generic evil empire. Ala Mhigo fell due to its pride and a lot of horrific atrocities have been committed in the name of trying to reclaim it. Everything points at that continuing to happen - especially given what happened in Ul'dah with Ilberd. I say this in pretty much any thread that touches upon Garleans but I want to be able to ally with someone like Gabranth or Drace from FFXII. A Garlean that - whilst loyal to their people and homeland - stands up for injustice and works to eliminate some of the rot within their own society whilst also opposing those who slaughter innocent Garleans/civilians.

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They sent spy's into Ala Mahigo to stir up the problems it was having. Problems that could have been resolved possible. And no I highly doubt we will see such a person in the empire the only good Garlain is a turn coat.

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Originally Posted by Dererk

They sent spy's into Ala Mahigo to stir up the problems it was having. Problems that could have been resolved possible. And no I highly doubt we will see such a person in the empire the only good Garlain is a turn coat.

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A lot of people said the same thing about Ishgard and that if we ever went there we'd go to destroy the place. Nothing implies that Garlemald is without redeeming qualities - and the story/world building has remained morally grey throughout. We don't know what's ahead of us for certain but given that there's a guy on the lore team who created the likes of Vagrant Story, FFXII and FF Tactics (all games known for morally complex characters/plot points) I think it's fair to expect the Garleans to be more than just a generic evil empire.

A lot of people like the Garleans and find them much more interesting than most of the Scions. It'd be a major disappointment if the story shifts into generic good versus generic bad.

I hope the Ala Mhigans summon Rhalgr (or a primal incarnation). I was so hyped up to kill see Halone this expansion and it never happened. I pretty much anticipate us going there because we find out a couple of friendly characters that we've been looking for are aiding the resistance. The resistance is gonna need either Rhalgr or like Omega or something. We'll have to go beat them and the Garleans up basically.

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Originally Posted by Brannigan

The resistance is gonna need either Rhalgr or like Omega or something. We'll have to go beat them and the Garleans up basically.

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Let's be honest here: why do we need them to summon a God when you're basically a walking nuclear weapon already? Even Elidibus says you're "encroaching on the realm of the Gods."

Unless we lose our Blessing again for some reason, or we get neutered, story-wise, they can just point and shoot us and the problem will be solved. No need to let them summon.

I went into Ishguard assuming, even since 1.22 when I join FF14, that The Archbishop was evil ala FF10/13 and with the intention of proving it, wreaking the status quo, and waking these morons up to the "Real World" once and for all.

Surprise surprise, that's exactly what happened. And I'll continue to enjoy it as I proceed to completely destroy Thorden's hypocritical Orthodoxy and reveal Thorden the 1st for the scum bag traitor he was.

As for Ala Mihgo, the fault on it's conquest lies with the Ala Mihgans them selves and their "King of Ruin" that left them wide open to invasion. So it will not surprise me at all if we get to Ala Mihgo and everyone there is perfectly happy with the Garlen Occupancy and doing better than when they were assimilated. Thus dousing the hopes and dreams of people like Ilberd (Who I still intend to hunt down and kill) as their hopes for a "Free" Ala Mihgo turn out to be their own twisted desires projected on people who neither miss nor want the old ways.

Then, Cue Head Cannon, we find Gaius van Belsair there alive and well ruling as ala mihgo's new reagent and completely disillusioned with the empire to the point that he and the XIVth Imperial Legion join with us and his Ala Mihgan Subjects to push the Empire out of Eorzea once and for all.

I think the story risks becoming very stale if we end up with a situation where the Warrior of Light appears, shakes up the foundations of yet another nation and gets even more powerful. I want to see Ala Mhigo and Ishgard be even worse off as a consequence of intervention. Realistically speaking that's what happens when a nation's structure suddenly changes. For all the talk about bringing forth 'change' in the real world and eliminating 'corruption' quite a lot of people would suffer terribly if their government suffered a complete collapse. It's no different in a fantasy setting.

As for Gaius? We didn't see a body, true, but...as much as I liked him I wouldn't want to see yet another character brought back from the dead. Besides - if he was written to defect and abandon his homeland and people then he'd be defanged and lose a lot of his appeal.

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Originally Posted by Theodric

As for Gaius? We didn't see a body, true, but...as much as I liked him I wouldn't want to see yet another character brought back from the dead. Besides - if he was written to defect and abandon his homeland and people then he'd be defanged and lose a lot of his appeal.

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I'm not so sure. 1st off, Nanamo doesn't count as "Back From the Dead". The NPCs were calling BS on that even in the post 2.55 dialog. If he survived that'd be the first actual "Back from the Dead" character as we actually DID assume we killed him. As for the proposed betrayal I suggested, I was thinking more of a scenario like Agent Smith from The Matrix where his betrayal was as a grab for his own power not because he was a good guy. After all, the revolution is the reason him and his forces were left high and dry. And with the new Emperor supporting the idea of using Azys Lla's Warring Triad, not unlike Nael using Dalamild, Gaius would be more likely to turn on them and seek to rule Garlemauld himself since he's by and far the ONLY Legatus that actually believes in Merit over Blood Status (Which is why the Garlean "Meritocracy" is a total scam).

I mainly want to see our (In my view) Greatest anti-thesis to be a recurring antagonist instead of a one off villain like Teledji and Nebralius. Gaius could have easily been our ally instead of the scions under different circumstances.

Also, for those that didn't know, I liked Gaius as much as Fenral liked G'raha Tia. Everyone has an NPC that sticks with them. lol

Ala Mhigo itself doesn't yet interest me as much as the idea of going to a Garlean Empire controlled territory. I think my dream scenario would be an expansion based on a war with the Empire, with Ala Mhigo as the front lines, but I fear that instead the Empire will, for whatever reasons, pull out of Ala Mhigo before our arrival.

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Originally Posted by Alisa180

Unfortunetly, I suspect the liberation of Ala Mihgo won't be as 'morally grey' as some are hoping.

Here are the facts: Garlemald is opposed to the primals and trying to find a permamnent solution to them. They classify anything capable of summoning a primal as 'beastmen.' In HW, we found out their 'solution' to the primal problem was *genocide* of whoever they classified as beastmen.

And now thanks to the one-two puch of Ysalye/Shiva, and Thordan/the Knights of the Round, Garlemald now knows ordinary Eorzeans can summon primals. Take a guess as to what they are going to do with that information.

Argh, and now thinking about it, I'm suddenly worried about the Eorzeans currently living under Garlean control...I think things are going to get very ugly for them soon.

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This here is why I believe, should Gaius still be alive, that he'd go rouge against the current emperor for the same reason he went rouge on Nael van Darnus when he tried to "Purify" (Read eradicate) Eorzea by dropping dalamud on them. Gaius is openly opposed to mass senseless genocide. Even stating that The Meteor Project would leave nothing to rule but ashes and ruins. Conquest can and has been done with out Genocide as the XIVth was responsible for conquering Ala Mihgo with very little blood shed involved (Compared to what a mass siege would cause). So the Emperor potentially condoning the complete annihilation of Eorzea's people would definitely be met with opposition by the former Legatus of the XIVth imperial Legion. Now, weather he lives to dispute the emperor's genocidal plans is admittedly wishful thinking at best. But I've made crazier theories that hit the nail on the head. lol

I'm mixed. I love the concept art we have seen of Ala Mhigo , but the people we have encountered from Ala Mhigo save a handful of people, have been complete and utter dumbasses who defy all common sense for the sake of their homeland. I get it, you guys are patriotic and you want to reclaim what's rightfully yours, but you guys are really not helping your case with all the thievery, backstabbing, hostility and assassinations you do.

Unless the expansion gives me an excuse to put a knife through the traitors and idiots who constantly scream "For Ala Mhigo!!!" as a justification for their actions.

(This post is ironic considering I'm a Highlander, and most Highlanders seem to originate from Ala Mhigo.)

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Originally Posted by DragonSlayer45

Unless the expansion gives me an excuse to put a knife through the traitors and idiots who constantly scream "For Ala Mhigo!!!" as a justification for their actions.

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I'm all good with the Liberation. But for all we know radicles like Ilberd and that Monk moron from the 30-50 quest line are the reason Ala Mihgo was conquered so easily so I have MAJOR reservations about just handing them a thrice broken society to ruin all over again. At least Aymeric has the support of the people. It's just religious Zealots like from 3.1's MSQ that can't be trusted. And they're the ones we're ousting anyway. I knew the minute I landed in Ishguard after leaving Azys Lla that we'd have to forcibly remove most of the old status quo from power. I'll in the mean time be keeping a close eye on house Dzemael as they seem to have the most to lose with the new order.

I love how we want to save ala mihgo, but not the ala mihgans who want it to be saved. Them being put on the sidelines of power after trying to get their case heard just seems like the political bs that would happen from war.

Or the opposite could happen and we end up displacing the current generation there, but either way I'm not expecting Eorzea to welcome its new nation near as well as Ishgard.

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Originally Posted by Kaiser-Ace

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Well, Widargelt got better. I haven't done the Monk 50-60 quests so I don't know if he ever goes back to being a radical trying to reclaim Ala Mhigo, but he seemed to have realized the error of his ways by the end of the 50 quest.

As for Aymeric, we could be introduced to a charismatic Ala Mhigan character in the same way we were introduced to Aymeric, who was introduced fairly late and before then there weren't a lot of Ishgardian's who could vouch as "friends." I think it isn't exactly fair to single out all Ala Mhigan's as hostile radicals since we've seen from throughout A Realm Reborn that there are a lot of good-hearted people from Ala Mhigo who just want to go back home. It'll be like calling every Ishgardian a religious zealot who let the church control everything they do, when we've seen in Heavensward that's simply not the case.

As for Ilberd, I have a swarm of theories about him. One of them being if Square Enix is indeed setting up 4.0 as the Ala Mhigo expansion, I have a feeling they are setting Ilberd to be the main antagonist of that expansion and I have a strange feeling the whole plot line about summoning Rhalgr is going to resurface. He's already said there's nothing he wouldn't do to take back Ala Mhigo, and that probably includes selling his soul to becoming a primal incarnate similar to Shiva and Thordan.

Not a big fan of recycling plot lines, but I just have a feeling we haven't seen the last of the whole human becomes primal plot line yet.

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Originally Posted by DragonSlayer45

As for Aymeric, we could be introduced to a charismatic Ala Mhigan character in the same way we were introduced to Aymeric, who was introduced fairly late and before then there weren't a lot of Ishgardian's who could vouch as "friends." I think it isn't exactly fair to single out all Ala Mhigan's as hostile radicals since we've seen from throughout A Realm Reborn that there are a lot of good-hearted people from Ala Mhigo who just want to go back home. It'll be like calling every Ishgardian a religious zealot who let the church control everything they do, when we've seen in Heavensward that's simply not the case.

As for Ilberd, I have a swarm of theories about him. One of them being if Square Enix is indeed setting up 4.0 as the Ala Mhigo expansion, I have a feeling they are setting Ilberd to be the main antagonist of that expansion and I have a strange feeling the whole plot line about summoning Rhalgr is going to resurface. He's already said there's nothing he wouldn't do to take back Ala Mhigo, and that probably includes selling his soul to becoming a primal incarnate similar to Shiva and Thordan.

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I've not completed the lvl 50 Monk quest yet I just know from some carrier Monks I run with that it has a diffrent set of NPCs that you're aiding. The Temple of something or other. But I will agree that I'm likely not giving the Ala Mihgans a fair chance. After all, till Aymeric was introduced I though we were going to end up crashing and burning the whole place but that turned out morally grey in an extreemly realistic way. (As a lot of the polotics in the game end up) so it's just as likely that the Order of Rahlger, Temple of... Light or what ever, and The people of Little Ala Mihgo will eventually cause us to be introduced to an Ala Mihgan Aymeric that's as far away from Ilberd's ideology as Aymeric was to Thorden's.

One problem I still see with the whole "freeing Ala Mhigo" deal is that all the young citizens got rounded up and indoctrinated to hate and fear the Primals, us, and everything that has to do with us, from earliest childhood on.
So even if we go there, there's a good chance half of the populace is gonna be our enemy thanks to the Garleans :x

The Crown Prince and last known royalty is still around and should be roughly Aymeric age. He was hidden in one of the Sect of Light Monasteries as a child prior to the order's own massacre.

If we're going by tropes, it would not surprise me if this prince is the one leading the Resistance and seeking to reclaim his and his people's Home

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Originally Posted by CyrilLucifer

Let's be honest here: why do we need them to summon a God when you're basically a walking nuclear weapon already? Even Elidibus says you're "encroaching on the realm of the Gods."

Unless we lose our Blessing again for some reason, or we get neutered, story-wise, they can just point and shoot us and the problem will be solved. No need to let them summon.

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Well there is one character from Ala Mhigo that hates us already, even if we offer to help, I think his feelings about us and Raubahn would fester into rancor and make him as unresonable and revenge-crazed as Nidhogg, but against the garleans for taking his home and the WoL, Raubahn and Lolorito for "aiding the Garleans in keeping Ala Mhigo"

If anyone is likely to reject our aid and attempt a repeat of the Rhaghr summoning, it seems to be Ilberd

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Originally Posted by Morningstar1337

Well there is one character from Ala Mhigo that hates us already, even if we offer to help, I think his feelings about us and Raubahn would fester into rancor and make him as unresonable and revenge-crazed as Nidhogg, but against the garleans for taking his home and the WoL, Raubahn and Lolorito for "aiding the Garleans in keeping Ala Mhigo"

If anyone is likely to reject our aid and attempt a repeat of the Rhaghr summoning, it seems to be Ilberd

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Thus why he needs be put down like the rabid dog he is. And the rest of the Crystal Braves he's allied with too.