Questions About XII Characters in their XIV Versions

What's the timeline/continuity of the FFXII characters and their FFXIV versions? Who's still here? Who's alive or dead? How old are they?

I think I read that Ashe and her arranged marriage spouse in their XIV versions are now siblings instead or something? And I think someone said they're both dead?

Fran is still here of course. I haven't seen any mention of Balthier, Vaan or Penelo?

Basch and Gabranth are where I'm mostly getting confused though. I thought that, whatever events of XII have been reinterpreted for XIV, happened a long time ago, and that Fran was the only character left, the others having passed away long ago. But when I finished the Bozja story, they said a character was trained by Basch (I can't remember who, Lyon?). If that's the case, does Basch still live, and has he yet to leave the empire? Is he still a middle aged man? Or are Basch and Gabranth now elderly in this current time?

Okay, so the first thing you need to know is this: There is no shared continuity between Final Fantasy XII and XIV. The names and appearances of characters in the Return to Ivalice and Save the Queen storylines are references to those from past Ivalice games, but that's as far as it goes.

Fran is a member of Lente's Tears, a resistance faction allegedly led by the Princess of Dalmasca—how this is possible when she's supposed to be dead has yet to be shown. Ashe and Rasler, the deceased Princess and Prince of Rabanastre, are fraternal twins rather than wife and husband. Balthier was originally intended to appear during the Return to Ivalice storyline, but he was cut for some reason and all that remains is his clothing, which is the Ranged DPS set from Orbonne Monastery. Vaan and Penelo have not, and likely will not, make an appearance—the closest Vaan gets to doing so is his Tactics A2 clothing being used for the Melee DPS gear in the Ridorana Lighthouse.

Basch fon Ronsenburg is Basch van Gabranth here, and Noah fon Ronsenburg AKA Judge Gabranth is Noah van Gabranth. They are a father/son duo rather than brothers, the former having died somewhere in the neighborhood of over 30 years ago and the latter stepping up to replace him as the Legatus of the IVth Legion, just in time for the brutal subjugation of Dalmasca. He was fairly young at the time, and is in his 40s/50s now.

An important thing to know first is that in the normal Ivalice Alliance games, the chronology goes FFXII in the past and FFT happens later in the timeline, while in XIV it's reversed.

As for the XII to XIV changes, here's some:

1. Rasler and Ashe aren't betrothed here but brother and sister, prince and princess of Dalmasca. Both were supposedly killed during the fall of Rabanastre 30 years ago.

2. Ba'Gammnan was not initially a mercenary but a guard captain who's failure to save Rasler and Ashe drove him off the deep end.

3. Garlemald, in place of Archades, conquers the kingdom of Landis years prior to Rabanastre.

4. Related to #3, in this version Basch fon Ronsenberg and Noah/Judge Gabranth are not twin brothers but father and son. Basch became a Legatus of the Garlean Empire after they took Landis and his son reached the rank as well, dubbed Noah van Gabranth.

5. Fran is a higher up member of the Dalmasca resistance and mentions taking orders from the "princess", but the game notes that if it is the same Ashe as the princess, who would be much older and dead.

6. At one point the developers planned to have Balthier be the contact in the Dalmascan resistance before using Fran instead, so it's up in the air on if he's around in some form.

7. Vaan and Penelo are still up in the air, perhaps they in some form are part of the resistance, but seeing how they were essentially street rats who got roped in to a greater scheme its tough to say what role they would play.

8. While not entirely XII related but still Ivalice, in this continuity the city of Lea Monde (the main location from Vagrant Story) is not a monster infested ghost town harboring the Dark, but the current seat of the IV Legion and Noah Van Gabranth's rule now that Rabanstre is in ruins.

There is/was a theory floating around that the "princess" Fran talks about could be Ashe or Rasler's daughter, which would fit the whole "Basch and Noah gone from twins to father and son" and just HAPPEN to be named
Ashe like her mother/aunt; or she could be an original XIV character just BASED on Ashe and she's called a "princess" for some unrelated reason like being the daughter of high-ranking military, like Rinoa was in FFVIII.

Depending on what happens on the last tier of Bozja, and if Matsuno signs on for it, we could see more of Ivalice in 6.x.

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Originally Posted by Rosenstrauch

Vaan and Penelo have not, and likely will not, make an appearance—the closest Vaan gets to doing so is his Tactics A2 clothing being used for the Melee DPS gear in the Ridorana Lighthouse.

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At this point in time I would like to offer up a brief prayer of Thanksgiving and a fervent heartfelt beg to all the gods willing to listen that Vaan NEVER EVER EVER be used in this game.

It could be said the roles of Vaan and Penelo went to Ramza II and Alma II.

I wouldn't say that, Ramza and Alma aren't really involved with the resistance portion of the story, just the Zodiac Braves portion, and being thespian nobility in exile is kind of the opposite of war orphan street urchins.

I like Vaan well enough, he fit a very important role as the commoner in a grand story. If all the characters were princesses, knight captains, elfin rabbit girls, or nobility disguised as sky pirates it would lose a sense of grounding. He was also important in contrasting with Ashe while they underwent parallel character arcs. Both lost a loved one to the Archadian Empire, both have ideas of revenge against them, and both were being groomed by the Occuria to use the power of the sun cryst to destroy the empire and strengthen the hold the Occuria had over mortals. When Ashe looks at the Occuria-created ghost of her dead husband Rasler, Vaan mentions seeing someone that looks like his dead brother Recks, which is important because none of the other party members can see this figure at the time, showing that the Occura had more than one iron in the fire of who they would make the new Dynast-King.

Vaan's character growth and experiences makes him realize that while he hates Archades, destroying them won't bring his brother back and will only result in more death and sorrow, which finally gives Ashe the push she needs to destroy the sun cryst and keeping the Occuria from ever bestowing its power on those they choose to enact their will.

It'd be cool if Vaan or Reks showed up as soldiers. Maybe they were are soldiers for Ashe's resistance. Or maybe they now serve Gabranth, having given in to despair and/or persuaded by Gabranth's charisma and ideology. Could have a tense scene where the heroes try to persuade them to defect and join their cause.

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Originally Posted by WhiteArchmage

Depending on what happens on the last tier of Bozja, and if Matsuno signs on for it, we could see more of Ivalice in 6.x.

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Thank you everyone for your answers, that helps clear up a lot of confusion I had. Ya, I was wondering like, is the Bozja/Ivalice story really going to wrapped up in the last Bozja section next patch? It seems like a lot to cover, and would be a bit anticlimatic to just have it all end there with a "We defeated the IVth! Bozja and Ivalice are saved! Yay!" I wonder too if this story will continue into 6.x in another side content, or if we'll even go to Ivalice or Bozja in 7.0 or something? It just seems like liberating two whole nations by the end of this Bozja story arc we currently have would be too short a narrative.

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Originally Posted by Hank_Hotspur

I like Vaan well enough, he fit a very important role as the commoner in a grand story.

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Ya, that's true. Vaan's character is very important in XII's story. It'd be very poor writing to have a story about imperialism, only to have it told from the perspective of the better off/rich people of the nation being occupied, and not cover how imperialism affects the lower class.

I'm guessing that Vaan, Penelo, and Bathier won't make an appearance in XIV. I think they've probably used the characters they wanted to by this point, since the Ivalice raid series continued into the Bozja resistance story, they probably would have at least mentioned them by this point, like how Ashe has been at least mentioned.

Balthier was originally going to be the one showing up in the Orbonne quests before they chose Fran, if I remember right. Pretty sure they said that in a Live Letter. Though obviously that didn't end up happening.

Did they ever said when the princess became active again? Was it super recently (which is like a bit less than a year) or was she active 5 years ago?

The Field Records for Fran state that the princess awoke 30 years after the fall of Dalmasca to Garlemald. They don't give an exact time on when she awoke, but those same field records mention that the events of the Ivalice raids take place during the same year, as it mentions that Fran hadn't seen Ba'Gamnan's crew for 30 years. So the princess has, at least for all intents and purposes, been awake for less than a year (as far as game time is concerned).