New Heavensward Short Stories!

[Belhi]

New story is up and we were all wrong! Its Nanamo and Raubahn.

I really, really hope we get to punch out Lolorito one day. Damn that little worm deserves it.

[Dalvy]

Okay, Nanamo needs to get her hands on Mhachi void magic. Pronto.

[Theodric]

I'm disappointed that they seem to be building up Lolorito as a villain - much in the same way I'm disappointed that they seem to be doing the same with Garlemald. I really, really hope that when we reach Ala Mhigo we end up siding with the natives who don't want to be liberated by Ilberd's or Raubahn's ilk because they're quite content to live alongside their Garlean comrades. Ala Mhigo would, of course, be full of Garlean civilians. Perhaps some will die, then we have an excuse to kill Ilberd and some of the more corrupt Ala Mhigans who seem to want to just rush in and displace every Garlean they see?

[Belhi]

I'm disappointed that they seem to be building up Lolorito as a villain - much in the same way I'm disappointed that they seem to be doing the same with Garlemald. I really, really hope that when we reach Ala Mhigo we end up siding with the natives who don't want to be liberated by Ilberd's or Raubahn's ilk because they're quite content to live alongside their Garlean comrades. Ala Mhigo would, of course, be full of Garlean civilians. Perhaps some will die, then we have an excuse to kill Ilberd and some of the more corrupt Ala Mhigans who seem to want to just rush in and displace every Garlean they see?

I don't expect any liberation of Ala Mhigo to be simple and it would be a shame if they didn't go into the issues of those who had been settled there for a long time. The flipside is that it has only been 15 years since Garlemald invaded and conquered Ala Mhigo so it's perfectly fair for those who were forcibly conquered or evicted to want their homes back. Just cause Garlemald has moved in family doesn't make their conquest any better or more justified.

On the flipside, the Garleans and the Monetarists have both been presented as Villians since the very beginning of the game. In the PLD story quests and in the Ul'dah intro the Monetarists are painted in a negative light.

Lolorito has been an ass in every interaction the WoL has had with him.

Strictly speaking though the WoL holds a neutral stance and is more driven by a sense of justice and generally in fighting a way to a better future for everyone. HW presented that well. We oppose the horde due to their indiscriminate desire to destroy Ishgard and all who dwell within but we are perfectly willing and open to working with dragons who are open to peaceful or diplomatic interactions.

I don't see the WoL letting Garlemald be simply because their approach contradicts what the WoL stands for and because their hubris is as dangerous as it was with the Allag.

[Daralii]

I'm disappointed that they seem to be building up Lolorito as a villain - much in the same way I'm disappointed that they seem to be doing the same with Garlemald. I really, really hope that when we reach Ala Mhigo we end up siding with the natives who don't want to be liberated by Ilberd's or Raubahn's ilk because they're quite content to live alongside their Garlean comrades. Ala Mhigo would, of course, be full of Garlean civilians. Perhaps some will die, then we have an excuse to kill Ilberd and some of the more corrupt Ala Mhigans who seem to want to just rush in and displace every Garlean they see?

Lolorito is a scheming bastard of a politician that's untouchable due to the law. Him being an antagonist is welcome.

[Anonymoose]

I'm disappointed that they seem to be building up Lolorito as a villain - much in the same way I'm disappointed that they seem to be doing the same with Garlemald. I really, really hope that when we reach Ala Mhigo we end up siding with the natives who don't want to be liberated <...>

Even since 1.0, Lolorito's been ... inconsistent. It's been clear that he's behind a great deal of manipulation of politics, subjugation of his own populace, and outright murder of his competitors from the get-go. Nanamo calls him a villain, and he's certainly hateful, but at the end of the day, most of his actions served one of only two possible goals - [1] promoting the stability of the city-state or [2] expanding his own power to do so. He's not a very complicated guy. Ul'dah is the only place he can live like he does, so he has a vested interest in preserving a specific status quo. He's the Anti-Nanamo.

I suspect you're right about Garlemald, though. I'm sure plenty have grown to embrace a certain perspective on Imperial rule. You'd have to be at least 25 or 30 to remember the carnage of the sacking of the city, but that enormous gap in the local population whereby a lot of the military-aged of five years ago vanished is probably still fresh in a few minds. Liberation could be an invitation to civil war... but Garlemald can't be allowed to maintain a foothold in Eorzea. We'll need some sort of catalyzing event to unite them against the Empire. Imho, those two things in combination make for a good place to start for the political angle of 4.0, lol.

That said, I didn't expect the final story to be Nanamo. But it was a good choice.

There has been so much speculation and attempted unraveling of the motivations, and this clears up all of them. We can see how it all unfolded, from Cartenau being what tipped Teledji past the brink to why Ilberd was so unreliable, and what Lolorito was thinking at each stage of the clean-up. We also, if you notice, know that Nanamo has her own memories and is acting as herself, dispelling any doubts that she indeed is Nanamo Ul Namo, meaning that the only conspiracy theory left is that Heartstrike is involved. Imho, it looks like SE's sanding off a few of the rough edges on the fact that the intersection of marketing and storytelling destabilized the invocation of certain tropes in a satisfying way. Owning it and moving on, I guess, lol. At least I'm still pretty confident that Nanamo's worth more to the later story alive than dead, though I won't recant that, imho, we lost some of that profit paying off a bad check.

[Theodric]

Yeah, I'll reserve my full judgement for when we see more in the future. The Dragonsong War gives me hope that things won't be morally black or morally white when we address Lolorito and Garlemald directly. It does seem like 4.0 is going to be bringing us to Ala Mhigo. Hopefully we'll see more of Limsa and Gridania, though, since a lot of the political stuff seems limited to Ul'dah at the moment.

[Anonymoose]

Hopefully we'll see more of Limsa and Gridania, though, since a lot of the political stuff seems limited to Ul'dah at the moment.

I feel like Gridania, being right next to Gyr Abania, could get some political focus during a hypothetical reclamation of Ala Mhigo. And, if we're ever to get to Thavnair, the Far East, or the New World, we'll probably need Limsa Lominsa to get involved. We won't be at a total loss of excuses to bring familiar environments back into focus, at least. We also never quite helped them deal with their beastmen problems. Xelphatol, O'Ghomoro, the Indigo Deep, and Paglth'an all remain unexplored, and beastmen civilization is going to be completely uprooted when we repel the Ascians and attempt to help the tribes purge the tempered and retake the reins of their own culture.

[Belhi]

I feel like Gridania, being right next to Gyr Abania, could get some political focus during a hypothetical reclamation of Ala Mhigo. And, if we're ever to get to Thavnair, the Far East, or the New World, we'll probably need Limsa Lominsa to get involved. We won't be at a total loss of excuses to bring familiar environments back into focus, at least. We also never quite helped them deal with their beastmen problems. Xelphatol, O'Ghomoro, the Indigo Deep, and Paglth'an all remain unexplored, and beastmen civilization is going to be completely uprooted when we repel the Ascians and attempt to help the tribes purge the tempered and retake the reins of their own culture.

Strickly speaking not all the beastmen tribes sound like they are heavily tempered. After all it would seem somewhat pointless for a Primal to temper willing worshipers, particularly if it requires Aether to do so which I suspect it does.

The Sahagin in particular don't seem to have suffered any particular impact on their culture from Leviathan. I sounds mostly operational. Its just the necessity for survival has placed them in direct conflict with Limsa. I'd say the Ixal and the Amal'jaa are the ones most deeply effected by their primals. In the Amal'jaa's case we know that borrowed power from Ifrit has undermined the culture of honor that existed originally with the Amal'jaa.

[Ayuhra]

I actually wouldn't mind seeing Lolorito built up a bit. The reset button being hit on Ul'dah made me salty. It still has me a bit salty. But right now that whole arc is one giant plot cul-de-sac. If the nonsense from the end of ARR can actually turn into something then I approve... Well, something other than the breakdown of the sultanate which seems like it was in the cards anyway.