The Garlean Emperor? (Patch 2.4 spoilers)

[VargasVermillion]

Is it wrong to think it could be the Son of Zos Galvus? I mean empires are passed down through blood. And I'd like to point out the possibility that it could very well be Gauis with out his helmet. After all The Black Wolf is only MIA, we never found his corpse. Though I also theorise Gaius is Lahabrea's new host but that's a diffrent theory for a diffrent thread.

Pretty sure if gaius was alive he wouldn't return to garlemald much less become emperor since he attacked eorzea against the emperors decision in hopes that he could conquer it to gain favor, but since he failed he would probably be put to death. (Nero is currently in exile from garlemald So I assume it would apply to gaius as well.)

[Enkidoh]

I'm pretty sure it was stated in the past Solus had no living successors, as he had all rival claimants (read, relatives) executed in order to consolidate his grip on power (Gaius himself was said to be responsible for killing at least nine separate heirs to the Imperial throne under Solus's orders - his gunblade was named after this).

The War of Succession all but screams that - with no legitimate heir to the throne left alive, it's left to pretty much anyone with enough power and ambition to fight their way onto the throne - I got a certain Romance of the Three Kingdoms vibe with that scene in the trailer. I wouldn't be surprised if that 'new emperor' is just an ambitious Legatus turned warlord who has seized the Imperial throne in the chaos. But I guess we'll find out.

[Fatestorm]

The War of Succession all but screams that - with no legitimate heir to the throne left alive, it's left to pretty much anyone with enough power and ambition to fight their way onto the throne...I wouldn't be surprised if that 'new emperor' is just an ambitious Legatus turned warlord who has seized the Imperial throne in the chaos.

Yes, precisely. The War of Succession is canon in the story patch with the Doman Exiles. A quote from Yugiri:

"When the war of succession broke out in Garlemald, we espied an opportunity to free ourselves from the yoke of imperial oppression."

It's obvious that the Solus zos Galvus is dead; it is interesting to speculate whether the heir who has emerged in the patch is his blood heir or a Legatus founding a new dynasty.

[Koti]

I'm kind of all for this cloning idea. Only cause Garlemald does love to backward engineer Allagan tech and given Solus was sick, why wouldn't he have a team try to backward engineer that?

Though I do admit, I'd love to see Gaius again, where he isn't being f'ed by the Ascians jedi-mind trick ways and maybe see him how he was back when Nael was doing his Bahamut-controlled thing on Eorzea with only Gaius going: "I'm on to you Nael. >:|"

(which for those who didn't get a chance to play 1.0, Gaius actually kinda helps you by taking down a few of 7th Legions Airships and tossing you the plans for the transmitter. Which is why knowing his history from 1.0, I am pretty sure like, so many others-- that he isn't dead. Just chillin' somewhere, licking his wounds as he plots to get revenge on the Ascians.)

[myahele]

Wow I had no Idea Solus would put his own relatives to death. Since he killed off any blood relatives I am also inclined someone like Solus was so full of himself that he believed only he can and should rule Garlemald.

Since they like copying Allagan tech it really wouldn't be too farfetched if that's his clone not unlike Emperor Xande we fought.

Due to there being a succession war it may be that most people dont acknowledge the clone, or maybe even Solus himself thought the clone wasn't worthy, thus not named heir

[Razard]

I found this on a wikipedia article (lol) on the Order of Succession irl. I thought it was interesting.

Succession Crises
When a monarch dies without a clear successor, a succession crisis often results. For example, when King Charles IV of France died, the Hundred Years War erupted between Charles' cousin, Philip VI of France, and Charles' nephew, Edward III of England, to determine who would succeed Charles as the King of France. Where the line of succession is clear, it has sometimes happened that a pretender with a weak or spurious claim but military or political power usurps the throne.

I know this is Final Fantasy, but I thought it might give some context and something to chew on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_succession

[Anonymoose]

Something to add in case it was missed by anyone, it's not only the helm Galvus and the new Emperor share. The same dragon that's fairly obvious on the new Emperor's surcoat is subtly repeated on the outside of Galvus' cape (which the new guy seems to also have). There are so many possibilities I hesitate to even speculate on which might be more likely than any other. You've got that it could be an Echo, you've got that it could be Gaius (though his story does truly have a beginning, middle, and end if you look at him big picture and you don't want to run him into the ground until he's not cool anymore), you've got that it could be a fresh baddy, and you've got that, much like Darnus, he could be of some Allagan origin, be it as simple as a descendant or as fantastical as a clone or someone recently pulled out of Crystal Tower-esque cryosleep.

I just want to know - why the dragons? Everything always comes back to the dragons. Ishgard's fighting dragons, the Allag enslaved dragons, the Sharlayans built in dragon territory, the Garleans got their asses handed to them by dragons and yet wear dragon iconography like the Allag did... Tainted by FFXI, I keep wondering if maybe this is going full Jeuno, with the Allag playing the Zilart playing the leaders of a contemporary nation, and Bahamut playing... Bahamut. The Zilart society was split in twain, why not the Allag? Zilart and Kuluu - Allag and Ascian... Maybe that's why the Garleans have no magick? Aaaand I should have stopped talking 5 lines ago.

I'm not even going to approach theory until I've seen what 2.4 has to offer.

[Toranja]

After Gaius' defeat, someone must have made a stride towards the throne. Throughout all these patches, the new Emperor must have been consolidating his power.

On the other hand, Galvus theme was stated to be immortality on the website. Immortality isn't worth much, if you don't attain youth as well. If he is a clone or some Ascian trickery is also a likely hypothesis.

Plot wise, the first hypothesis works best.

[Kuwagami]

snip

Immortality doesn't mean you can't die. You're just immune to time's effect. If you achieve it at an old age, you'll stay forever at that age.

You still can get poisoned, stabbed to death, etc...

[Torquil]

The look is not dissimilar to Nael van Darnus (maybe...assuming we actually know what they look like, it's questionable how authentic what we see is). So could be a relative, or long silver hair could just be common amongst true blooded Garleans. Hard to know, we've only seen three or so.