ishgard

[Cilia]

See, my only issue with that is I don't think Ysayle is so easily manipulated by the Ascians, she's so far the only one in the story to have the Echo and not be a Scion, with also direct knowledge of Hydaelyn as well saying something along the lines of "Don't squander Mother's gift" to the PC. Honestly, I think she's quite aware of the Ascians and their purpose, especially after the whole Shiva incident, and probably distances herself when she can from them. Why would Aymeric call shenanigans on the events? Raubahn did and we know what happened to him (Where how plausible it is or not :P). Aymeric really doesn't have a reason to shove himself into the midst of an Ul'dah/Eorzea conflict, even the leaders of the other GC (Or well their men) didn't want that.

After we depose the Pope (If we do), which both Aymeric and Haurchefant like being men of faith and all, why wouldn't they betray us? Remember, Haurchefant didn't disobey the church during that Coerthas incident, he just thought that the one guy was framed, if he was an actual Dravanian cohort he'd want him at the bottom of the ravine like anyone else. They still hate dragons and Dravanians.

What I meant is that Ysayle is Dravania's mouthpiece, or Nidhogg's if you want to get more specific, not the Ascians'. We've yet to actually speak to a dragon besides Midgardsormr, who probably does so telepathically, so it can be inferred the average dragon isn't capable of conversing with the Spoken races. The Ascians just gave Ysale the push to be the Dravanians' mortal speaker - their mouthpiece, so to speak. In regards to being manipulated by them, well... you know what they say about madness.

Anyway, Aymeric and Haurchefant are a bit ambiguous on whose side they could end up on, but I'd bank on them turning their backs on the Holy See given the right provocation. While neither of them outright break laws or disobey orders, they seem much more reasonable than the rest of the Ishgardian authorities, and judge people on merit and action over their words. Aymeric outright tells you so when you meet him, with something along the lines of this:

Do you know what sort of man becomes Knight-Commander of the Temple Knights? A man who comes from good stock (high birth). I did not, and yet here I am. I made it this far because I quickly learned to tell the difference between words, actions, and intentions.

There's also Lucia, his second-in-command who isn't even of Ishgardian birth and yet he trusts her with his life. Aymeric has fought tooth and nail to get where he is and trusts people based on their actions over their words. So while he might subscribe to the Ishgardian state religion, like Estinen he seems to be one of the few with the strength to throw away everything he's believed in and accept the harsh truth that everything he's been brought up to believe is all a sinister lie. (Then again he might not be, since he'd be throwing away his life's work. Time will tell.)

Keyword here is seems. (I try to avoid dealing in absolutes unless I have verifiable facts to back them up.)

Pretty sure he'd call shenanigans on Teledji Adeledji's accusation because, as anyone who's spent time dealing with Ishgard knows, they barely have the manpower to keep the Dragonsong War going. There is no way they could spare the manpower to go conquer the rest of Eorzea, and doing so would not help evade the dragons' wrath. The exact accusation is that we were going to "charm [Ishgard] into invading [the rest of Eorzea]," but I'm still pretty sure he'd call shenanigans; that's one of the most bullshit accusations anyone could possibly make, something both Yda and Papalymo gladly point out.