Nael deus Darnus

[VargasVermillion]

This is a long way off but perhaps we'll meet someone within the darnus family later on in the story, maybe a certain under cover garlean knows more? garlean expansion? Guess we'll have to just wait and see.
EDIT: The line where he mentions the despair he felt as a 'frail child' may be expanded upon. Would be strange to throw that in otherwise.

[Nalien]

The line where he mentions the despair he felt as a 'frail child' may be expanded upon. Would be strange to throw that in otherwise.

That... Perhaps makes me think it was simply his mother...

Nael van Darnus>> The weak can do naught but weep under the pall of their own misery. As did the frail child I once was...

Tales are oft told in hushed whispers of van Darnus’s swift rise to power upon the abrupt death by illness of his sire, whose body had no sooner grown cold than his closest aides were put to death.

What exactly did he have against his fathers aides and/or father? Did he perhaps lose his mother because of them somehow? That would certainly explain his misery as a "frail child" and his apparent bloody rise to power. Perhaps Bradamante simply reminded him of his mother in some way, although the fact that he supposedly slew her makes that even more dark, though could explain the namesake.

Oh, and it's perhaps worth considering that the entire van Darnus plot line was heavily influenced by Final Fantasy VII, with Nael making a fair few allusions to everyones favorite mommies boy. Rather than his mother being the source of his madness (since that was Bahamut), perhaps this time his mother represented his last shred of sanity. Hence the mix up upon his defeat.

[VargasVermillion]

Perhaps Bradamante simply reminded him of his mother in some way, although the fact that he supposedly slew her makes that even more dark, though could explain the namesake.

Could of been an honor bound duel or something, we know little of the circumstances behind the fight he had with Bradamante or garlean culture as a whole for that matter.

[Anonymoose]

What exactly did he have against his fathers aides and/or father?

This is an inference, so don't take it as the whole story, but it looks like it was just to get them out of his way. Withing risking becoming a rambling mess by getting too deep into it, House Darnus was descended from Allag and had access to a lot of information and recovered relics. Nael's father used it to revive magitek in a way Garleans could use and helped found the Empire upon it. One of the relics, the Lunar Transmitter, was restored in such a way that Nael was there the first time it was activated and he was enthralled by Bahamut, who very gently twisted Nael's own ambitions (recreate Meteor, destroy Eikons) to result in the elder primal's freedom via the fall of Dalamud. Using the Lunar Transmitter to re-create meteor was ambitious and ruthless. The way Darnus' story is told, it sounds like it may be as simple as that the elder Darnus would have in some way prevented either Nael's rise to power or persuasion of the Empire to act on his plan, perhaps by refusing to let their family's legacy be used in such a horrible way, perhaps because he knew something about Nael's change, I'm not really sure.

That... Perhaps makes me think it was simply his mother...

Hm... Interesting... /chinscratch

Perhaps Bradamante...

I haven't entirely let go of the search for a clue here, but so far nothing lights the bulb, so to speak.

Could it be the one who killed Bahamut?

If it was a non-Garlean, or pre-Garlean, from Bahamut's time, we'd have a whole boatload of new questions about that third eye.