So the devs said that the Dragonsong War...

[MilesSaintboroguh]

The story is always going to show Garlemade as a nation of conquerors with a few deserters that disagree with them. Most video game stories are as simple as that and I don't expect us (player or in character) to suddenly start sympathizing with a nation that wanted to conquer everything and use forbidden ancient technology that seems to get everyone screwed. Heck, 3.0 even showed the empire willing to slaughter beastmen in general just on the off chance that the good ones would turn bad and summon primals and that is just wrong to me (plus I love the Vanu Vaanu)


As for the potential on how 3.0 could end, I would say yes and no to the theories provided. It sounds simply too big to wrap up in the remainder of 3.0's life. It's more plausible for it to be stretched out to later expansions.

[Kallera]

If the plot does go into that direction, I'd rather not see the plot turn us into the boring invincible hero that unites Eorzea and conquers Garlemald without so much as our reputation getting dirty. Never been in it, but I'm pretty sure that's not how war works.

But tbh I'd rather be surprised with something else entirely. Given the...limitations, i don't see 4.0 in the same light i once viewed 3.0, it needs a shake up, not formulaic stuff we all see coming as clear as their update schedule.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

If the plot does go into that direction, I'd rather not see the plot turn us into the boring invincible hero that unites Eorzea and conquers Garlemald without so much as our reputation getting dirty. Never been in it, but I'm pretty sure that's not how war works.

But tbh I'd rather be surprised with something else entirely. Given the...limitations, i don't see 4.0 in the same light i once viewed 3.0, it needs a shake up, not formulaic stuff we all see coming as clear as their update schedule.

Though I rather not see a "hah I beat you cause the plot said so, despite everything you did before that" scene either.

[Theodric]

Honestly, it'd be easily solved if they just went ahead and didn't cave into fan pressure. I'm almost certain that's what happened with Nanamo and Aymeric. Having both of them perish for being too idealistic would have reinforced the message that we can't save everybody and that sometimes our actions, whilst just, will have major consequences.

Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy XII are amongst my favourite games. Why? Because the heroes one in the end but it was a very bittersweet victory with important characters dying along the way and entire cities falling into complete chaos. Even the 'enemy' factions had characters who were redeemed or boasted redeeming qualities.

[Nalien]

The story is always going to show Garlemade as a nation of conquerors with a few deserters that disagree with them. Most video game stories are as simple as that and I don't expect us (player or in character) to suddenly start sympathizing with a nation that wanted to conquer everything and use forbidden ancient technology that seems to get everyone screwed.

I would imagine that we might end up sympathizing with Garlemald, the nation, but not Garlemald, the leadership. Similar to how we don't go "Thordan VII was a jerk, we should destroy Ishgard", I'd guess we go to Garlemald (perhaps invited in a similar manner to VI), meet the people and see that they are fine, perhaps with the leadership arguing that the ends justify the means. If the Garlean people are essentially good, and not cutthroat pirates or people who'd sell their own mother (hinthint), then that would make for a compelling development. Obviously we'd see no beastmen, and that would probably be a sticking point for our continued disagreement with them, but there is no reason for them to display the entire nation as warmongering maniacs.

I'd actually quite like to see Garlemald handled similarly to Aht Urhgan in XI. A more antagonizing leadership (actually, save one princess, Aht Urhgan had a pretty horrible leadership... Heck, they were at war with the Far East and thus Tenzen, which made visiting there a bit awkward at first), but we work with the people there regardless, because they've not really done anything wrong. While Aht Urhgan had a beastmen problem that we just dealt with in combat and nothing more, it would be nice to have a situation similar to Whitegate and various tribes, but that we deal with similarly to the Dravanians as well. We fight the "bad" ones and try to reason with the "good" ones, all the while attempting to stop the leadership making some big mistake.

[Morningstar1337]

...and not cutthroat pirates or people who'd sell their own mother (hinthint)...

You forgot the tree-hugging xenophobes :P. If you;re gonna trash the city-states, then don't leave anyone out.

On-topic, I can see something like this happening, They did it once with the Archadaen Empire in XII. Of course the differnce thus far lies in motivations. Vayne did what he did in a bid to free man from the shackles of gods in control of history, but he himself had a sympathise from within that group. While Garlemald's relationship with the supernatural is the reverse. A supernaturual force manipulating them wither than working with them to break them from this cycle (and ended relatively soon regardless)

On a side note, XII seems to be about what happened if the heroes were manipulated almost to the point of being villains, but ultimately reject that path. XIV seems a little black-and-white (So far, and yes I amid that there had been some greys in Heavensward, and that there were some greying aspects as far back as Copperbell)

In the end, I think that Ishgard would be a proof of concept. A test to see if the WoL is able to help solve the political issues of a state (Key-word being help), with sucess in Ishgard likely leading to similar results in Ala Mhigo and potentiality Garlemald.

[Nalien]

You forgot the tree-hugging xenophobes :P. If you;re gonna trash the city-states, then don't leave anyone out.

I've never really seen Gridania as that bad. The worst I can probably say about them is they're an entire nation suffering from Stockholm Syndrome... That they keep most outsiders away is more for their own safety, since the Elementals are fairly temperamental... Better to come off as potentially xenophobic than let innocent people get spirited away for an honest mistake, and better to come off as a tree-hugger than to be spirited away yourself... As a whole though, the nation has fairly friendly people and is the only one of the three (now four) to actually have a stable leadership.

The Elementals have been a lot less antagonistic than in 1.0 though, heck they even helped us save Y'shtola, so I'm incline to even forget about the whole "worship or die" mentality that Gridania seems to have...