The Emperor (A Dragonsong Spoiler)

[Delily]

Anyone want to guess why the new leader of a major antagonist empire would go to this length and meet the WoL directly?

It's in his interests? From his perspective, we stopped the XIV Legion post Meteor operation and have defeated the primals. I suspect he's got spies and knows of our victory over the Cloud of Darkness and Bahamut Prime. Ignoring us is a bad decision on his part. It's best to meet us and go from there. One of Gaius's faults was his hubris, he didn't acknowledge our strength until it was too late.

I won't be surprised if SE pulls the "Ascians are behind everything" reasoning again. After all Ishgard constant war with the Dragons seems to be caused by the Ascians from behind the scenes and I won't be surprised if it Ishgard was the ones who started everything in the Dragon Wars considering the words said in DragonSong hints of a distorted truth in Ishgard's history.

The Acians are behind everything; that's been established in every plot line. The overarching story of this game is Hydalyen vs. Zodiark. However, the Ascians do nothing but play on people's desires and faults, I don't think they directly instigate anything.

[Khaoticsuccubus]

DragonSong lyrics
Children of the land do you hear
Echoes of truths that once rang clear
Two souls intertwined
One true love they did find
Bringing land and heavens near
But flames that burn full bright, soon fell dark
Memories dimmed by shadowed hearts
In the waxing gloom did wane the lover's moon
Watching as their worlds drift apart
One soul's cry
A passion dwelling within
Sacrifice, a final plea to her kin
Yet this bond of hope, by treachery was broke
Scattering her words to the wind
Swelling over long,
seas of blood, are a song
And death an afterthought
To those who fight for naught
A throne, lying empty
A reign, incomplete
Alone, for eternity
A pain, without cease
Children of the land, answer this
Why must you turn to empty bliss
Tell me why break trust, why turn the past to dust
Seeking solace in the abyss
Tell me why create, a circle none can break
Why must you let go, the life you were bestowed
This I fear I'll never know
Never know

Technically we already knew Ishgard's distorted the hell out of their history from 2.4 That song is basically refering to what happened to the real Shiva and how Ishgard has completely forgotten (seemingly purposefully in the form of their doctrine) what they did wrong and the true reason their at war with the dragons. Whereas the dragons do remember and with how time works for them their hatred is still fresh...... I can't wait till HW comes out TT^TT

[TouchandFeel]

My guesses to plot stuff in 3.x.

- It is revealed that the Holy See is being manipulated by the Ascians and is corrupt. We, the WoL and our allies must confront the church and will end up deposing it and either help to give rise to a new leader for the city-state (Aymeric?) or turn it into a Republic of sorts in which the noble houses form the governing council. This is why there is a dungeon where we appear to be storming an Ishgardian church.

- Potential alternative to the above. The Archbishop is possessed/mind-controlled by an Ascian and needs a good @ss-whooping to have that control broken. When freed he comes to his senses and starts working with the WoL. Personally prefer the previous potential outcome.

- The white dragon that you see in the Dragonsong video is the "light" to Nidhogg's "dark". Perhaps they are the lovers that the song speaks of and used to be a mated couple or maybe siblings if the lovers were one of the dragons and the original Shiva. In the past when the people of Eorzea broke the " covenant", Nidhogg went all rage mode and decided that they deserved/needed to be wiped from the face of the planet because of this. The white dragon disagreed feeling such action was against the will of Hydaelen and was an abandonment of their duties, causing a split between them. This eventually leads the WoL and Iceheart (who is aligned/a follower of the white dragon) to go to them seeking their council or aid. This is what we see in the video.

- The new Garlean Emperor is moving forward with his plans to take Eorzea. He sees the current division and turmoil as an opportunity and perfect timing to press the advantage. However, he wants an ace up his sleeve to turn the tide even more in his favor, and so he has begun an expedition to gain control of a fabled weapon of the ancients, perhaps being the Triad as people think which is where the floating continent comes in. This could also link into the disappearance of Sharlyan, although I have another theory on that. Us meeting the emperor is probably going to be just a character introduction for the Emperor and some plot dump where he talks about how he will say stuff like Eorzea is weak and he will conquer it, etc etc.
The whole Empire thing will probably take more of a backseat to the Dragonsong War story, but will ramp up more towards the end of the 3.x cycle leading into the next expansion, potentially extending the world and story farther east towards Garlemond and adding Ala Mhigo as a city, potentially requiring the liberation of it first in the storyline for 4.x.

- The Ascians = evil thing will be thrown for a loop and their actions and reasonings will be put more into a grey area. The current leader, the one in white, seems to not want things to get out of hand and for the light/dark balance to be maintained. He has expressed discontent over some of the Ascians enacting their own plans and going too far, but he is really concerned about the discovery of being able to break the cycle of rebirth and kill Ascians permanently. The Ascians are the Warriors of Dark and the counterbalance to us the WoL. Both must always exist to balance each other out, being able to remove elements of that balancing by permenantly killing the Warriors of Light or Dark has long reaching implications for the stability of the world. This is why the leader of the Ascians meets with Auriangier, to discuss the ramifications of what has happened. I suspect that the more radical of the Ascians may rise up and depose the current leader, leading to some very very bad stuff. I also suspect that Auriangier knows more about the Ascians than he has been willing to divulge and may know all about the whole Hydaelen+WoL/Zodiark+WoD balance thing and has positioned himself in the Scions as a watcher to keep track of things and make sure that balance is restored or kept.

[Balipu]

I'm hoping he's practical enough to realize that the person who slaughtered 3-4 of his generals, defeated 6 primals, and defeated a weapon designed to kill said primals is probably someone you'd want to negotiate with and give a wide berth.
Sure, but we are still a random andventurer with no actual political affiliation. It can't be considered a diplomatic meeting. The only one who every had any political pull on our side is girlpants, who has the worst judgement in all of Eorzea.
If he's hellbent on conquering and subjugating Eorzea, and if he opposed the Meteor project, then there are more effective methods that brute force at his disposal, especially since he's shown evidence so far of being the type of ruler to manipulate outcomes in his favor.
This was true for Gaius as well.
It's also in his best interest to either ensure the Dragonsong war continues (thus distracting the Ishgardian troops) or ends in the Dravanians' favor (as said dragons, to his knowledge, made no promises with any Eorzeans for support against the Garleans, while at least one Ishgardian House has at this time).
But Varis has no way of knowing that the dragons won't sweep over the entire globe once Ishgard is defeated. Even if Lucia is spying for him, Ishgard thinks of dragons as mindless murderering monsters.
Hell, even we can't be sure that there aren't millions of dragons that can't be reasoned with, and would just want to see the world burn.
Plus while his generals didn't manage to take out the Eorzeans, Gaius/Nael's ships DID manage to, as far as he knows, take out the grand daddy of all dragons.
At the cost of the whole invasion army that was supposed to conquer the entire continent. I'm sure the Emperor has better ways to spend the national budget. Like Healthcare or tourism.
It's really quite intriguing to consider which route he'll take, and even moreso to wonder just how much he knows of or is involved with the Ascians.

If he has Ascians as advisors he probably has no idea how dangerous they really are. Lahabrea was open about his indentity as an Ascian and showed Lahabrea his Thancred face confirming that he can take over people and still Gaius was surprised when it turned out Lahabrea played him for a chump.

[AnaviAnael]

Emperor: I am your father.
WoL: ?!

WoL: But, I'm a miqo'te/roegadyn/lalafell/elezen/au ra?!?
Emperor: *Shrug* I got around.

[kyuven]

If he has Ascians as advisors he probably has no idea how dangerous they really are. Lahabrea was open about his indentity as an Ascian and showed Lahabrea his Thancred face confirming that he can take over people and still Gaius was surprised when it turned out Lahabrea played him for a chump.

1) We don't have a political affiliation, but the fact that we're supposedly wantedcriminals yet 2/3 of the major factions of Eorzea aren't lifting a single finger to pursue us and are, in fact, providing us support even afterwards shows that we at the very least have influence, given that Merlwyb and Kan-E are willing to take our word over the monetarists. Speaking of, they and the crystal braves (minus Ilberd, who we all know is in for a reckoning) are terrified of us. Taking all that into account and likely BECAUSE of our lack of direct political involvement with a single faction makes us ideal to at least make an attempt at negotiation. Since we've personally thwarted his country's plans at almost every turn and been personally responsible for dismantling his countrymen's plans, it's worth it to at least TRY negotiation for non-interference.
2) We actually don't KNOW what he knows about the Dravanians. For all we know, he knows about their sapience. And while yes it did cost him an invasion fleet to take down Midgardsormr, there aren't many dragons that even come close to being as strong as Middy. He could be figuring that if he helps them with their revenge, they'll leave his force alone since the Dravanians really don't have much interest in conquest so much as extermination. And he could also figure that if they DO win, it'll be costly and he can just have his forces mop up the remains. Conversely, he knows that if the Ishgardians win, they'll almost immediately side with the Eorzean Alliance to push him out, since their pretext for non-interference is gone.
Which also plays into why he would attempt to negotiate with us. From the Dragonsong trailer and other sources, it appears we'll at least be LISTENING to Ysayle and the big white dragon on the cover. Since the meeting with the Emperor appears to be on a floating island, which means it'll be well into the HW story (as we have to earn flight first to be able to get there) we could end up drawing his attention by taking actions on the side of the Dravanians for whatever reason, giving him more reason to try to coax us away from the Ishgardians' side to allow him to invade.
After all, there IS plenty of evidence that he might run things better than the Ishgardians are...though that would come at a terrible price as it would give him a foothold into Eorzea.

But really, he could just be trying to play both sides like we might end up doing. Except instead of trying to sue for peace, he's trying to keep the war going. Which is ALSO what the Ascians would want (they seem to want to cause strife that would goad people into summoning more Primals) but for different reasons.
Actually, it seems to me the Garleans might be coming into conflict with the Ascians, as while their methods are the same, the end results they want are complete opposites.

[Balipu]

snip

You make good points but I think you give too much credit to a guy whe only saw for a few second staring silently. He could be anything. A mustache twirling comic book villain like Teledji, a sort of anti hero or a complete monster scarier than Odin in the middle of the Sylphlands.

The context of the meeting could be interesting. We are deep within Dravania. It begs the question why we are meeting there and not in Ishgard? Or Garlemald for that matter? Maybe even Ala Mhigo? And if he is meeting with us behind Ishgard's back, how on earth did he get there unnoticed?
Varis raises a lot of questions.

[Balipu]

And the emperor finally speaks. I wonder who "those creatures" are.

[Draxxion]

And the emperor finally speaks. I wonder who "those creatures" are.

Either the Dragons or Primals. I'm leaning towards the Primals here. Mainly because of what we know about them and what they are capable of doing.

[ChillbroSwaggins]

All I know is that I better get a for realzies chance to ditch the Immortal Flames for the Garlean Empire. I'd much rather be a Garlean than anything else really. Besides, gunblades bruh.