How old is Gaius?

Cid looks like he's in his mid 30's or early 40's, and lore says that Gaius was his adoptive father and personal friend of Cid's father, Midas.

So, late 50's Gaius?

My guess is somewhere in the 50s or over by the time of his death. Which would also explain why a man of his reputation seemed underwhelming by the time of ARR, he was probably getting old. His first attempt on Eorzea was 15 years prior to the events of 1.0 in which he already earned lots of fame from his military experience imply that he was in the army for a long time.

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Originally Posted by VargasVermillion

My guess is somewhere in the 50s or over by the time of his death. Which would also explain why a man of his reputation seemed underwhelming by the time of ARR, he was probably getting old. His first attempt on Eorzea was 15 years prior to the events of 1.0 in which he already earned lots of fame from his military experience imply that he was in the army for a long time.

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No. He was underwhelming purely because of the plot device that is Hydaelyn's blessing. Just like with every other antagonist in the game so far, really. How I long for a battle akin to Beatrix from FFIX where the WoL gets thrashed for a change.

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Originally Posted by Theodric

No. He was underwhelming purely because of the plot device that is Hydaelyn's blessing. Just like with every other antagonist in the game so far, really. How I long for a battle akin to Beatrix from FFIX where the WoL gets thrashed for a change.

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You sure about that? gaius hasn't had a successful campaign ever since the agrius crashed and was once the most respected commander in the empire but ended up losing the emperor's favor to a theatrical madman. He was exiled from garlemald for disobeying a retreat order and tried to retake eorzea as a last desperate attempt to obtain his glory back. By the time of his death he was an old washed up commander who'd even get an acsians help to complete his mission, I'm sure gaius 15 years ago wouldn't of even considered that. I also don't think we even got hydaelyns blessing until the ultima segments, against gaius himself it was just us and the other 7 (mercenaries?) we brought with us.

One thing to note: FFX's Auron was in is 30s. Unless they look like a grandparent don't automatically try to match their looks to their age.

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Originally Posted by Dualblade

One thing to note: FFX's Auron was in is 30s. Unless they look like a grandparent don't automatically try to match their looks to their age.

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Well we can't base it of looks anyway, that'd give use a better lead. My guess is just relative to his reputation and that he invaded 15 years prior. you could make a pretty rough guess based on that. If he was in his 30s by the time of his death it would imply that he would of been very young through most of his career or a achieved a lot in a very short amount of time.

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Originally Posted by VargasVermillion

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If he was mid 30s or so he would be in the 18-21 range 15 years ago, lower 40s bringing it to 25-28. While the 18-21 range might be too young to be realistic, its still possible in fantasy. Personally I'd go with somewhere in the low-mid 40s though.

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Originally Posted by Dualblade

If he was mid 30s or so he would be in the 18-21 range 15 years ago, lower 40s bringing it to 25-28. While the 18-21 range might be too young to be realistic, its still possible in fantasy. Personally I'd go with somewhere in the low-mid 40s though.

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But remember he already had an established military record 15 years ago, implying he's been in the army for a long time, unless as i mentioned above he had an unrealistic number of achievements in a short amount of time.

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Originally Posted by VargasVermillion

But remember he already had an established military record 15 years ago, implying he's been in the army for a long time, unless as i mentioned above he had an unrealistic number of achievements in a short amount of time.

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He probably did have quite a number in a short amount of time, it wouldn't surprise me. Though we might not find out anything more then we already have till we go to Garlemald, if we do at all.

First off, I'm still not convinced he's dead.

Second, Gaius' primary method of operation was subterfuge and espionage.

Third, Gaius acted on his own due to the Civil war that followed Emperor Soluz's death.

Lastly, The Battle of Silver Tear Skies was the VIIth Legion not the XiVth. Neal's VIIth Legion was the "Strike Team" that lead frontal assaults where as Gaius was used to hold captured territory (ie Ala Mihgo).

As for his age, I always assumed mid to late forties since Cid looks to be in his Early 30s.

Maybe this is a question we could just ask the lore team about at some point, not like this has an major spoilers or anything. Except for maybe the lore book, who knows.

Gauis's age atleast could probably be told, the only reason I could think his military record might be off the table for answering from them would be with Ala Mhigo, incase it has something to do with its time to shine.

All else fails the lore book should hopefully be out in October right?

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Originally Posted by VargasVermillion

My guess is somewhere in the 50s or over by the time of his death. Which would also explain why a man of his reputation seemed underwhelming by the time of ARR, he was probably getting old. His first attempt on Eorzea was 15 years prior to the events of 1.0 in which he already earned lots of fame from his military experience imply that he was in the army for a long time.

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If it wasn't for Hydaelyn, we would have actually lost to Gaius in the Ultima Weapon. On the elevator, we can barely scratch the thing until Hydaelyn used her One Ilm Punch to remove the buffs on it. She also shielded us from the Ultima cast going off.

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Originally Posted by CGMidlander

By all means we should have actually lost to the Ultima Weapon. On the elevator, we can barely scratch the thing until Hydaelyn used her One Ilm Punch to remove the buffs on it. She also shielded us from the Ultima cast going off.

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Thats Ultima Weapon though, he's probably talking about the actual fight against Gauis.

Which to be fair to Gauis, even if he was starting to lose his touch it was 8v1.

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Originally Posted by Dualblade

Thats Ultima Weapon though, he's probably talking about the actual fight against Gauis.

Which to be fair to Gauis, even if he was starting to lose his touch it was 8v1.

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We don't know if he is supposed to be faceroll easy lore-wise, or if it's just because he's tuned for MSQ difficulty.

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Originally Posted by Kaiser-Ace

First off, I'm still not convinced he's dead.

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Okay, I can understand and hold out hope for myself there too.

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Second, Gaius' primary method of operation was subterfuge and espionage.

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Subterfuge/political maneuvering, etc. still on track.

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Third, Gaius acted on his own due to the Civil war that followed Emperor Soluz's death.

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This is where you start jumping the rails--we have no confirmation of Solus' death until post 2.0. We do know that Gaius is acting independently of the Garlean Empire though (much as Nael did in the waning days of 1.0)

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Lastly, The Battle of Silver Tear Skies was the VIIth Legion not the XiVth. Neal's VIIth Legion was the "Strike Team" that lead frontal assaults where as Gaius was used to hold captured territory (ie Ala Mihgo).

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I'm not sure where you picked any of this up, and I'm pretty sure it's incorrect. The VIIth Legion was in the Eastern theatre (probably Othard/Doma) in the beginning of 1.0 before Nael was dispatched to Eorzea with Meteor machinations. They are independent of each other except the whole being Garlean thing. Furthermore, while I'm not convinced the Agrius was in sole possession of the XIVth Legion (like the Gration seems to be distinctly VIth Legion)--but the VIIth Legion had NOTHING to do with the Battle of Silvertear Skies so far as we know. It should be the exact opposite of what you say--that the Battle of Silvertear was done by the XIVth Legion. However, the game never specifies it's anything but Garleans attacking Mor Dhona afaik.

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As for his age, I always assumed mid to late forties since Cid looks to be in his Early 30s.

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There's not a good way to guess this, but north of 40 is probably a safe bet.

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Originally Posted by CGMidlander

We don't know if he is supposed to be faceroll easy lore-wise, or if it's just because he's tuned for MSQ difficulty.

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Probably not faceroll easy (honestly not sure what his difficulty is at ilvl-50.) As well, I'd also say if Kaiser is right and he does come back he will be much harder as far as levels go, with justification that we didn't fight him full out (don't even take down his life bar all the way.)

Let me try to walk it back by year-span and we'll see if any sort of "big picture" arises.


0 Years Ago (5 Seventh Umbral Era)
Makes a second grab for Eorzea; is defeated.

5 Years Ago (1572 Sixth Astral Era)
As acting Viceroy of Ala Mhigo and continued Legatus of the XIVth, he's ordered to supplement Nael van Darnus' forces as he enacts the Meteor Project. Working as the lapdog of another Legatus weighs heavily on him, especially once he sees that Darnus is false but no longer has the clout to do anything about it. By this time, he's also slain nine aspirants to the Imperial crown. It's likely that these took place farther back, but I'm adding the grand total here just to be safe. Who knows if a few were post-Ala Mhigo on a weekend trip back to the Imperial Court, you know?

15 Years Ago (1562 Sixth Astral Era)
As acting Viceroy of Ala Mhigo and continued Legatus of the XIVth, he tries to take Silvertear Falls, knowing that it's a massive confluence of aether that could be used to summon deiforms like those that gave the Empire so much trouble in Othard. This attempt to make the invasion of Eorzea smoother goes horribly wrong, resulting in the loss of Agrius, the rapid appearance of primals, and a stalemate that would force the Empire to remain in Ala Mhigo. Gaius loses much of his momentum and reputation.

In this year, Midas nan Garlond dies, supposedly confessing to Gaius shortly before that he regrets how things turned out with Cid. After the Bozja Citadel incident, Midas dies and Cid defects.

20 Years Ago (1557 Sixth Astral Era)
Gaius assumes the seat of Ala Mhigo's viceroy after successfully overthrowing the city as Legatus of the XIVth Legion. This is the fifth city he has captured.
Cid sees what his working as an Imperial engineer as wrought.

In the cutscene of 20+ years ago, when Gaius puts his hand on child-Cid's shoulders, he already has his trademark Legatus uniform. How young is the youngest you could expect a Legatus to be? How long do you serve in Ilsabard to slay nine would-be usurpers? Garlemald united the Northern territories into the Empire around 1520. Unless Giaus is well over 70, the cities he captured were probably from Othard, yes? So you have to factor in some time served in the Eastern Theatre, as well.


He can't be that young, imho. I'd say at least in his 50s. At least.

-Likes Moose post before even reading it- Its starting to become automatic...

Anyways, it deserves that like for the info about Gauis's 15+ years ago info, so thanks! Yes, 50s does look to make more sense from a realistic standpoint.

Yea, I got Nael and Gaius' arivals backwards. (If I'm allowed an excuse, it's likly due to never actually "getting to The Path of The Twelve " story arc in 1.0) I was thinking for some reason they got here at the same time.

Want to know why Gaius was so easily defeated by us? The Ultima spell from Ultima was going to be our death-blow. However since we had the Blessing of Light to protect us, we survived. And Gaius also did not believe that us adventurers would get so strong as to easily defeat him. We caught him off-guard.

I'd say Gaius was in his 50's as well.

I'm inclined to agree with Naraku on this one. Even seasoned vets can become overconfident.

I don't think it would be a stretch to put him in his 50s or even early 60s. Look at Maat in FFXI, or Heihachi Mishima in Tekken. Plenty of elders can still whoop our butts.