A primal halted the Empire's advance after Ala Mhigo?

[Kyan]

Shiva has been seen in quite a bit of the artwork - The art book that came with the collectors edition shows her...If I was to speculate - and this is purely speculation, because I don't know enough about the history to say with any factual information, but with their proximity to Silvertear I would bet the Ishgardians have been keeping secrets behind their gates, maybe its not just beast tribes who summon primals?

It may explain where all that snow came from too

This has been a crack theory I've been harbouring in my mind, but reluctant to share considering the Yoshi-P statement, mentioned by others, of an "unseen beastman tribe". Then again, with Y'shtola's "private" conversation with the Admiral at the end of 2.2, I question "what is a beast man, and how are they different to the five races?" A beastmen race could simply be in the eyes of the beholder... I am certain that the Amalj'aa or Kobolds might consider us beasts for what we do to their kin. And consider Yugiri - we can clearly see she fears the prejudice her physical appearance inspires from the other races, yet we do not consider her a beastmen while she is clothed and masked, because she behaves like us. Would it be a different reaction from the Scions if she was unmasked during the story?

For now, I am going to assume that it is possibly the gigas. However, if it were Ishgardians trying to summon Halone... It could explain Shiva's Elezen appearance...