Who is Alphinaud and who is Gaius?

Sorry if the title seems weird.

I'll start with Alphinaud. So Alphinaud shows up with his sister, kinda randomly, in Uldah, Gridania and Limsa. And his sister goes MIA, till like Coerthas, and then disappears again.

Now Alphinaud is a general commander of the blue crystals? Why? He's a child? What makes him so amazing, like, what has he really done? He's everywhere but does he ever actually do anything?

I know he is the granchild of Louisoix, but does that even matter? Where is his mother, or father?

And Gaius, who exactly is he? Is he stereotypical bad guy? Are the Garleans evil by nature or is Gaius just a section of that. I'm in the part of the story where there is a new Garlean Emperor and I groaned a little at that, he at face value, just looks like another Gaius? Big bad military man.

So were there no repercussions for the Garleans? I mean they tried genocide, and we beat them. Shouldn't they be a defeated nation now? Weak, running, trying to negotiate a truce?

Why did Gaius even want to conquer the world? Was it really just 'this world needs a strong leader to eliminate the weak'? And somehow that mentality allowed him to amass thousands of elite soldiers and the most expensive magitek ever?

I don't get, but I don't know that much lore.

Please, any info is helpful.

Edit: Reading this it comes across as bashful, sorry I don't mean it that way, I just don't understand the lore.

You are gonna notice a lot of absent mothers in this game and I don't know what else to tell you! We are still wondering why Alphinaud is the way he is!

Alphinaud is the grandson of Louisoix, a Sharlayan sage who came to Eorzea in order to try and forestall the Seventh Umbral Calamity that played out during Legacy. During 2.x he is largely leveraging his grandfather's influence to get his way. He's also an academic prodigy from one of the most prestigious schools in the known world, along with his sister Alisae.

He's rather vainglorious during that time period, but the Crystal Braves betray the Scions during 2.55, and the experience is humbling enough that he has largely left said vainglory at the door since.

You do get to meet their father Fourchenault much later in 5.55, and their mother is mentioned, but not seen.

Gaius hails from the Garlean Empire, a fascist... empire from another continent to the far north. Their race, the Garleans, are incapable of using magic and were pushed to the inhospitable territory they now call home, so they eventually developed magitek to even the scales and feel they have an axe to grind with everyone else because of it. Their emperor has outlawed religious observation of any kind due to the dangers posed by primals, further decreeing they must conquer the world to completely stamp out the threat posed by primals, and they follow a very "might makes right" philosophy due to their harsh homeland and the circumstances that led to their militarization.

Of course, very little of that is so simple - the first Garlean Emperor was actually an Ascian in disguise, who quickly revolutionized Garlemald into the warmongering and oppressive empire it is today by introducing them to magitek and spinning various lies.

In regards to Gaius, he is one of the better Garlean legates - he follows the meritocratic values preached by the Empire unlike many of his contemporaries. He survived his defeat in 2.0, reappears in 4.4 / 4.5, and is the main protagonist of 5.x's "Sorrow of Werlyt" trial storyline, having learned both the error of his ways and the lies spun by the first Emperor. He now seeks to make amends and save his adopted children from one of the most unhinged legates thus far.

Addendum: the XIVth Imperial Legion was defeated. Garlemald has 13 more waiting in the wings; besides which the XIVth went rogue during the events of A Realm Reborn. You will meet more legates, and the Emperor himself, in due time.

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Originally Posted by vormela

You are gonna notice a lot of absent mothers in this game and I don't know what else to tell you! We are still wondering why Alphinaud is the way he is!

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I don't think Alphinaud being the way he is in ARR is mysterious at all.

He's the child of a very rich and influential family, with a grandfather who was famous and beloved and a father who's an important figure in the Sharlayan government, and graduated from a world-famous prestigious university at 16 years old. Of course he'd be a smug know-it-all when we first meet him.

Right, and they just met Varis in patch 2.4 Tendrils of Intrigue. So what are we supposed to say without giving things away? Part of the story they will go through involves moments with Alphinaud et al. that further elucidate on their characters.

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Originally Posted by vormela

Right, and they just met Varis in patch 2.4 Tendrils of Intrigue. So what are we supposed to say without giving things away? Part of the story they will go through involves moments with Alphinaud et al. that further elucidate on their characters.

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You are introduced to Varis through a cutscene in 2.4, but you don't actually meet him until early in the second act of Heavensward (3.0).

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Originally Posted by Cilia

Alphinaud is the grandson of Louisoix, a Sharlayan sage who came to Eorzea in order to try and forestall the Seventh Umbral Calamity that played out during Legacy. During 2.x he is largely leveraging his grandfather's influence to get his way. He's also an academic prodigy from one of the most prestigious schools in the known world, along with his sister Alisae.

He's rather vainglorious during that time period, but the Crystal Braves betray the Scions during 2.55, and the experience is humbling enough that he has largely left said vainglory at the door since.

You do get to meet their father Fourchenault much later in 5.55, and their mother is mentioned, but not seen.

Gaius hails from the Garlean Empire, a fascist... empire from another continent to the far north. Their race, the Garleans, are incapable of using magic and were pushed to the inhospitable territory they now call home, so they eventually developed magitek to even the scales and feel they have an axe to grind with everyone else because of it. Their emperor has outlawed religious observation of any kind due to the dangers posed by primals, further decreeing they must conquer the world to completely stamp out the threat posed by primals, and they follow a very "might makes right" philosophy due to their harsh homeland and the circumstances that led to their militarization.

Of course, very little of that is so simple - the first Garlean Emperor was actually an Ascian in disguise, who quickly revolutionized Garlemald into the warmongering and oppressive empire it is today by introducing them to magitek and spinning various lies.

In regards to Gaius, he is one of the better Garlean legates - he follows the meritocratic values preached by the Empire unlike many of his contemporaries. He survived his defeat in 2.0, reappears in 4.4 / 4.5, and is the main protagonist of 5.x's "Sorrow of Werlyt" trial storyline, having learned both the error of his ways and the lies spun by the first Emperor. He now seeks to make amends and save his adopted children from one of the most unhinged legates thus far.

Addendum: the XIVth Imperial Legion was defeated. Garlemald has 13 more waiting in the wings; besides which the XIVth went rogue during the events of A Realm Reborn. You will meet more legates, and the Emperor himself, in due time.

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Oh my.

That is fascinating. I wonder if they planned that from the start or just felt the lore needed more added to it and it made for good writing etc down the line?

Thanks for that.

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Originally Posted by Yvresse

I'm in the part of the story where there is a new Garlean Emperor and I groaned a little at that, he at face value, just looks like another Gaius? Big bad military man.

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I recommend catching up on the rest of the story before asking these questions tbh. In any case, the reason why Alphinaud was important early on despite being a dumb arrogant kid is because of his association with the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, who have a close working relationship with the leaders of the Eorzean nations.

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Originally Posted by Yvresse

Now Alphinaud is a general commander of the blue crystals? Why? He's a child?

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Historically in real life there's been multiple child princes/kings/emperors/nobles, so him being the commander of a squadron, specially one backed up by "the bank" doesn't seem too farfetche'd.

Op: a lot of this stuff plays out in the main story. The characters evolve and their motivations/capabilities become more apparent.

Yes, it was weird to see Alphi in charge of the Crystal braves (I agree there), but despite what we see on camera, Alphi is quite gifted with diplomacy…though he makes some colossal screw ups ;) growing pains, I say.

As of 2.x, others have pretty well laid it out, but short version: Alphi is basically trying to find his place/further the Scion agenda, whereas Gaius is just doing what he feels is correct to bring peace to the world (aka stop the primal threats).

As for why primals are such a big deal, and why the empire has been spurred to fight them..that’s a later detail!

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Originally Posted by kaynide

As for why primals are such a big deal, and why the empire has been spurred to fight them..that’s a later detail!

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This is actually explained very early in the story.

Primals are a big deal because they are false deities that drain the world of aether (energy) just by existing on the material plane, and further because they have a tendency to temper (brainwash mind-slave) people in order to give them an anchor on the material plane, thus ensuring they will still exist even in the aetherial sea. (The desire to temper is considered a core feature of primals when first introduced, but numerous primals since introduced have shown an aversion to or apathy toward tempering.)

The Garleans were spurred into opposing them because the first Emperor, Solus zos Galvus, saw the devastation that results from repeated summons / prolonged primal presence in the form of the Burn, a large swathe of land completely drained of aether, which reduced it to a desiccated wasteland.

Hide boxes are spoilers - don't click on them if you don't want to be spoiled.

The reality is that while most of the above is indeed true, the Burn was not created by primals - that was one of the key lies spun by Emet-Selch (a.k.a. Solus zos Galvus) to start the Garlean war machine in perpetual motion. The Burn was actually created by an ancient Allagan device (located on the Azim Steppe, as "The House of the Crooked Coin") that drained the aether out of the land so it could be excavated and launched into the sky, becoming what we know as Azys Lla (visited at the climax of Heavensward and sporadically thereafter). The device was left on because the Third Umbral Calamity all but annihilated the Allagan civilization. Emet-Selch is aware of the truth, however, because he was the one who set up Allag as well.

That said the Garlean method of dealing with primals, like many things about the Garlean Empire, is designed to be counterproductive. Not only does the military conquest move people to summon out of desperation, the enforced atheism and brutal rule further engenders summoning in bids for liberation.

While it's said early on that all primals desire to temper people and stay on the material plane to amass as much power as possible, numerous primals since introduced do not display this behavior. Ramuh tempers only those in his immediate vicinity upon summoning (as he can't control that) and those sylphs who ask him to do so, and gracefully accepts his defeat knowing he is a danger to the material plane. Bismarck appears too bestial to temper people. Not only does Alexander never temper people, he engineers his own defeat in a(n almost literal) game of 4D chess and then seals himself outside of spacetime. Susano'o is more interested in getting a good fight than tempering people or being worshiped, and also gracefully accepts his defeat. And Shinryu is too consumed by a lust for violence to bother with things like worshipers; he actually does try to temper people, once, but only gets the PC and Zenos in his crosshairs, both of whom are immune to tempering anyway.