AntiTower Speculation

[CyrilLucifer]

Oh, and just to be clear, I mean in the tower design process, not actually what happened in-game.

I would not be surprised if Omega was a part of how they were sealed, however, and they were probably transported to Azys Lla at a later time.
Plus, it leads up to a nice Dragon God Shinryu entrance at some point to compliment the FFV and VI references.

[Theodric]

-snip-

Sadly I can't shake the feeling that both Regula and Varis will end up dead fairly soon. Neither has received much in the way of attention so far - though ironically we've seen more of Regula than Varis. I find it rather bizarre that a bigger deal isn't being made out of the Emperor of Garlemald making his way to Eorzea. Yes, he's 'stranded' on Azyz Lla but considering that at least one FATE references reinforcements arriving from Garlemald itself one has to wonder why he hasn't just razed Eorzea to the ground given that he was directly assaulted during the events of 3.0.

Ideally I'd like to see both Regula and Varis remain antagonists in the long term, but since we're dealing with The Warring Triad I suspect they'll go all out with the FF6 references and just have the Emperor perish in Azyz Lla somehow. Which will then likely result in another succession war within Garlemald - which in turn will no doubt result in the Ala Mhigan Resistance growing bolder and throwing Eorzea's strength at Ala Mhigo in an attempt to reclaim it. I would like to hope that the story won't be as predictable as that but...without meaning to brag I predicted quite a few things back during 2.0's patch cycle that turned out to be correct.

I just want...more from Garlemald. I don't want them to be 'convenient plot villains' and I certainly don't want them to be 'Allagan Reborn'. I want them to be similar to the Archadian Empire in that they're actually not bad guys at all - they're simply heavy handed and have a few bad apples in positions of power. That would put them roughly in the same situation as most of Eorzea's city states. Plus if we ever do go to Ala Mhigo or Garlemald itself I'd much rather do so as an ally rather than an enemy. I think that would be much more interesting and it'd also allow us to explore Garlean culture and interact with genuine Garleans who are loyal to their people and homeland rather than those that have simply defected and aren't very 'Garlean' anymore.

[Belhi]

I think at least at the moment its hard to argue the Garleans, or at least their leadership, aren't the badguys at least for the foreseeable future. The lore is pretty clear in regards to their aggressive empire building and conquest and the treatment of subjugated countries most significantly showed by the treatment of Ala Mhigo. This is probably compounded by their caste system where the civilians of conquered territories basically are the lowest run of society with less rights than a citizen.

That said, I do think we will eventually ally with a faction within Garlemald and not just one or two rebels. Garlemald is a nation of factions and while Garleans seem to generally all follow the belief that expansion and conquest is their right and duty, I suspect there are more moderate groups not so convinced forced oppression of every nation and mistreatment of the people of those territories is the way to lead the world to a better future.

[Theodric]

To be fair it's possible that Eorzea would be better off under Garlean rule. The only real reason Eorzea hasn't imploded yet seems to be due to the Warrior of Light who in turn is just a convenient plot device to defeat whatever new threat happens to emerge on any given day. Even then the aftermath of the WoL's intervention isn't particularly pleasant. Ul'dah didn't change for the better after Lolorito's little game. Ishgard was revealed to be built on numerous lies and countless innocent people were murdered through the ages in the name of war. The Beast Tribes were driven to act the way they do now not simply through Garlemald's attempts at purging them but Limsa's inability to keep to agreements made in regards to territory. Ala Mhigo would likely seek to invade Eorzea to this very day if not for Garlemald's occupation.

If we do get a faction within Garlemald that is less eager to conquer then I hope it puts its people and homeland first and foremost. I don't want another Cid or Lucia clone who throws away all ties to their people and homeland purely to give Eorzeans convenient access to what is meant to be a very exclusive and formidable tool; namely magitek. Though I imagine people are sick of me posting about this around these parts, eh?

[CyrilLucifer]

To be fair it's possible that Eorzea would be better off under Garlean rule.

I understand that you like the Garleans as much I love the Ascians, but no, no I don't think you can really argue that. Eorzea is a place of magic and spirituality; Garlemald is absolutely not. It's less an issue of believing in a religion and more of an issue of do you believe that each individual has a right to choose their spiritual lifestyle, so long as it is not hurting anyone? Garlemald would remove those options, which I am fervently against.

The Spoken races are not the only races that matter, unless you think it's fair and justified for Garlemald to commit genocide on the beast races that aren't tempered. Because they will, as their policy remains such; that was part of the point of SE reintroducing them with the Vanu.

[Kallera]

Eh...why do I feel like a war on Garlemeld is not going to end well for either Eorzea or the Garleans? I mean, it could be done in game, but ...this won't just be smacking around the scheduled soldiers. we're going to be committing a fair chunk of the nastiness of war...

[Fenral]

I always did think it strange that an empire that fell 5000 years ago is handled as a bigger threat than the one on our doorstep. If Regula van Hydrus is going to pull a Kefka, perhaps the solution to Garlemald's threat-level issues would be solved if he unmasked himself as an Allagan, and head of whatever internal faction gave the green light on van Darnus's Meteor project. Suddenly the deactivated Allagan tech we've been sighing with relief at comes alive, in fully capable hands, and the last Allagan descendants unite to usher in a new era of peace by ending the pointless conflicts that divide us, by force if necessary. The remaining loyal Garleans take a step back and realize "Oh, is that how we look to the rest of the world?" and we enemy mine our way through the gates of Garlemald.

[Februs]

I see, then that means that Omega is a possible factor in how the Triad was sealed.

This is assuming that the Allagan Empire actually had a hand in sealing the Triad in the first place. If they did, then Omega seems like the best candidate for the job, but it's also possible that the Allagans simply found the Triad and moved them to Azys Lla (similar to FFVI). We don't really know much about the FFXIV version of the Triad, so it's hard to say.

Personally, I'd like to see Omega snake its way back into the plot, and this seems to be a good opportunity. However, I don't see Omega making any serious appearances any time soon, just from a technical standpoint. We still have a lot of unresolved plot points to work through. The Waring Triad and Odin are the two that would seem most pressing. We already know that the Triads will be upcoming Trials, but we still don't know where they're going with Odin. Given that both Odin and Omega could be seen as Trial or Raid material, we could be waiting for a good long time (4.0 or later). I can definitely see one of them ending up as the next 8-man Raid in the future. It will be interesting to see which direction they take with each of them.

[Cilia]

I always did think it strange that an empire that fell 5000 years ago is handled as a bigger threat than the one on our doorstep. If Regula van Hydrus is going to pull a Kefka, perhaps the solution to Garlemald's threat-level issues would be solved if he unmasked himself as an Allagan, and head of whatever internal faction gave the green light on van Darnus's Meteor project. Suddenly the deactivated Allagan tech we've been sighing with relief at comes alive, in fully capable hands, and the last Allagan descendants unite to usher in a new era of peace by ending the pointless conflicts that divide us, by force if necessary. The remaining loyal Garleans take a step back and realize "Oh, is that how we look to the rest of the world?" and we enemy mine our way through the gates of Garlemald.

I actually wouldn't be opposed to someone going Kefka, but would only really be OK with it if they used the Black Mages mix of Dancing Mad for the boss theme.
The way I see it, one of two things are going to end up happening with the Triad and Garlemald:

• Using information from Azys Lla, the Garleans replicate the magitek infusion from VI, albeit at the prototype stages Kefka used. van Hydrus is the first test subject, but like Kekfa it goes awry, and he goes completely butt-kupo insane and we have to put him down. Varis escapes with the tech, though... now the Garleans can use magic, and we have to deal with them.
• Same as above, except Varis uses himself as the test subject (cuz, as leader, he has to be the strongest!). Again, it doesn't work and he goes butt-kupo insane, and van Hydrus pulls a Leo, defecting along with the VIth to Eorzea but retaining his distinctly Garlean identity. We have to fight Varis as the final boss of 3.5.5, but he escapes to Garlemald, and again the stage is set because he has an army and is completely off his rocker with power.

As for why Allag is handled as a bigger threat? They aren't really, it's just that all the crap they left lying around is extremely dangerous and always getting into the wrong hands. Almost literally everything that goes majorly wrong is because "Allag something." Dalamud, Ultima Weapon, Syrcus Tower, Omega, Azys Lla... pretty much everything can be blamed on (the Ascians egging people on to discover) leftover Allagan crap. The only thing that can't be is the Void Ark.

[Kallera]

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As for why Allag is handled as a bigger threat? They aren't really, it's just that all the crap they left lying around is extremely dangerous and always getting into the wrong hands. Almost literally everything that goes majorly wrong is because "Allag something." Dalamud, Ultima Weapon, Syrcus Tower, Omega, Azys Lla...

The problem with this(and its a fixable problem, really) is that it starts to make any non allagan threat seem minor, the allagan stuff is just wasted on Eorzea, when in any other situation it probably wouldn't be.

Omega kinda plays into this, assuming it doesn't saunter off to Garlemeld while no one is looking. Just what is Eorzea doing with all the allagan stuff that happens to be found on their territory? With the idea of faving such a powerful enemy in war possibly in the works, could we be tempted (or desperate enough) to go down the same road they did?