Patch 3.4 - Soul Surrender

[Cilia]

Preeeeety sure it's not Livia... I mean, we pretty clearly killed her in the Praetorium, and if that's not enough Cid asks Lucia whether or not she was out for revenge against us for killing her sister.

Fakeout deaths have happened before (or: Nanamo visibly asphyxiating and then turning out to be fine cuz "it was just a sleeping potion lolz"), so I'm not ruling it out, but.

As for where Livia got her skills, up in the air but it's probably not the same place Yda did. Pureblood Garlean war orphan vs. (implicit) Ala Mhigan refugee turned Sharlayan scholar, their backgrounds are very different.

[Nalien]

I mean, they already played the "identical sibling with the same actor" card when they introduced Lucia, and that's not something you do when you want to bring back the exact character you killed off. I just like playing devil's advocate.

I'm just glad nobody is pointing out my blatant hypocrisy here... Livia is definitely dead, but Lahabrea is still around, right? Right?!

I don't even think it's meant to be intentional. They're just being far too vague - how did the Emperor know of the Archbishop's plan, for example?

I never really figured the Emperor even had a clue about Thordan... Was it ever implied anywhere that they were there to stop him? I always thought they were just there for the Allagan spoils... They could perhaps have some idea that Ishgard was interested in Azys Lla, though... Camp Cloudtop was likely set up by Thordan, at the behest of Lahabrea, so that they could get they Key, which the Vanu Vanu held on a sacred island before Bismarck ate it... Ishgard was friendly with the Vanu Vanu at first, after all... Garlemald shows up, just after access to Azys Lla, Lahabrea has Bismarck summoned to buy them time, Garlemald notices Ishgard is sniffing around too and just figures something is going on and monitors the situation... Would make sense that they were at least following us, given they waited for us to break the door down, and they'd have known we beat Bismarck surely? That we didn't manage to get straight in could only mean someone else took the Key from us... Only other force in the area, is Ishgard, heck the Vanu Vanu was Thordans airship flying off, so Garlemald must have been aware they were going to Azys Lla as well...

[Frederick22]

...maybe Livia sas Junius.
Why Livia ? Because, if you remember well in the past Livia faced Yda and she was shocked because they had the same Monk skills

So? That doesnt change anything.. both martial arts could have similarities...
Like no, is a 100% not Livia. First because is a .... this maske guy is a ... well a MALE..... . Some poeple want to believe is Gaius but its Ilberd.

Since the below part of his head is not coverd, its just a matter of time when our lalafells agents will be able to take screenshoots and reveal who is this misterious guy.

[CyrilLucifer]

I'm just glad nobody is pointing out my blatant hypocrisy here... Livia is definitely dead, but Lahabrea is still around, right? Right?!

Yes, but it's Lahabrea.

We're allowed to have thoughts like that about him.

[myahele]

Now that I think of it, what if we'll bump into the WoDs in Thanalan (after they defeat Ifrit?) AND then by the end of Xelphaltol after they defeat Garuda since we'll be busy fighting in the dungeons? The ruin behind the mask man looks like Qarn and that zone has: Little Ala Mhigo, Corpse Brigade and Zan'rak.

This is speculation, of course. But I do believe that the solo trial might very well be in Thanalan and that we'll see them twice this patch.

[PArcher]

I'm still holding on to the "the masked man is Gaius cause reasons!" theory >.>

[Theodric]

@Nalien: It's mentioned somewhere - in quest text, I believe - that the Emperor is specifically pursuing the Archbishop in an attempt to put a stop to his plans. It's likely that the Garleans already intended to head to Azyz Lla though and they became distracted once there...or simply decided to allow the Warrior of Light to deal with the Archbishop (just like they allowed the WoL to retrieve the key and remove the barrier barring entry to Azyz Lla).

It's never really explained how he knows such things though - especially since the Archbishop's betrayal/plan was known only to a select few. My theory back in 3.0 was that Lucia was feeding the Emperor information...though as it turns out she really is just a defector with a crush on Aymeric. Alas. I expected more of her, but I believe she's popular around these parts so I'll avoid ranting. She seemed to brush off her sister's death fairly easily though...which is disappointing. Especially if she was created for the sake of 'fan-service' to let a little bit of Livia live on.

Though they changed Estinien's model to be more 'pretty' to fit the sudden shift from 'gritty elves' to 'pretty elves' that Ishgard's story began to take so it's possible that Lucia was originally meant to be a darker character? Just pure speculation though!

[Frederick22]

@Nalien: It's mentioned somewhere - in quest text, I believe - that the Emperor is specifically pursuing the Archbishop in an attempt to put a stop to his plans. It's likely that the Garleans already intended to head to Azyz Lla though and they became distracted once there...or simply decided to allow the Warrior of Light to deal with the Archbishop (just like they allowed the WoL to retrieve the key and remove the barrier barring entry to Azyz Lla).

Plis evidence till ortherwise. The intentions of the archovishop and the garleans were very different, no one was tring to stop another one. Was just a coincidence.

[myahele]

It seems as if the Garleans suspected Ishgard to have Allagan relics stored, potentially the Key to Azys Lla itself:

My mission. 'Twas believed that Allagan relics of great worth were stored in the Vault, and I was sent to investigate. Though I was given little information at the time, I now suspect I was searching for the key we but recently lost.

I am more curious about the timeline of her infiltrating Ishgard, was it pre or post calamity? If post calamity it would make sense why they'd suspect Ishgard of having Allagan relics since Rivenroad was in Coerthas, then there's the obvious allagan ruins in Boulder Downs.

[Cilia]

With everything we know...

The Garleans did not go to Azys Lla to oppose the Archbishop. Their primary goal was to secure the untold stores of Allagan knowledge there - primarily the Primal sealing technology. Even if Ishgard did have Allagan relics in the Vault (which as far as we know they did not), by the time we meet her Livia has long since defected to Ishgard so they wouldn't know even if that were the case.

That said they would more than likely have opposed the Knights of the Round had the group hung around for more than 30 minutes or so in-universe. May have been a part of the Ascians' plans... but there's no way to know for sure.