Gaius's Intentions

[Enkidoh]

I just looked through the screenshots I took of that scene when I first ran the Praetorium, and you're right, there actually does seem to be a small green ball of aetheric energy that just floated around the party while Lahabrea does his big 'the reason you suck' speech before leaving Gaius to renew his assault on the party.

Considering when the dust clears after he unleashed Ultima, he directly mentions Hydaelyn as having exhausted Her energy to protect the player's party, and given the fact Hydaelyn clearly helps the player during the Ultima Weapon fight (by drawing out the Primals' essences each time Gaius tried using them)... could it be an aspect of Hydaelyn Herself? I'm not saying it is, as there's no evidence other than what I just mentioned, but it does seem very suspicious.

Damnit, now I'm going to be thinking of this for days...

[Nahara]

could it be an aspect of Hydaelyn Herself?

Doubtful. The particle effect is off to the side, clipping through our view of the landscape as the scene takes place. Think of it like the particle effect of a lamp appearing over the wire frame of the lamp, as if the light was outside of the lamp, rather than inside shining out.

From a game-design standpoint, it also doesn't make much sense to have it there. Sure, Hydaelyn talks to us during the fight and the following one, but if SE really didn't have a way for those text boxes to appear on screen without the use of some in-game model for it to come from, it's much easier to make said object some invisible and/or textureless ball off to the side or in the floor, rather than create something AND give it a particle effect, just so a few lines of dialog can come from it.

On top of that, the color of the orb itself looks like the same teal particle effects of the Ultima spell, so it could be glitched particle effects of that, too.

[PArcher]

On top of that, the color of the orb itself looks like the same teal particle effects of the Ultima spell, so it could be glitched particle effects of that, too.

I can't remember if its the same in the Praetorium fight, but I'm pretty sure in Ultima HM the green orbs (not purple tethered ones) and Defractive Laser are the same color as the green particle in the CS. So maybe its just aetherplasm floating around as a result of Ultima going off.

[Viridiana]

Considering when the dust clears after he unleashed Ultima, he directly mentions Hydaelyn as having exhausted Her energy to protect the player's party, and given the fact Hydaelyn clearly helps the player during the Ultima Weapon fight (by drawing out the Primals' essences each time Gaius tried using them)... could it be an aspect of Hydaelyn Herself? I'm not saying it is, as there's no evidence other than what I just mentioned, but it does seem very suspicious.

I did consider that, but I reasoned that an Ascian standing right there would probably notice something amiss if Hydaelyn were floating around. And yet, everyone just ignores the floaty green ball of light. . .