The Griffin

[Cilia]

I treat this kind of thing as detective work as it should be treated. I don't rule out possibilities, but try and gauge whether something is plausible or probable. The list of suspects are:

1. Ilberd. A highly ambitious man passionately driven to reclaim Ala Mhigo. Highly secretive given he is no longer welcome in Eorzean society after the debacle in Ul'dah, masks himself, hides, and uses proxies to evade both Eorzean officials and Garleans. Also has the Masks screen mail to avoid word of their activities getting out. Elidibus' description when handing over the Eyes ("A man of boundless rage and bottomless despair, in whose breast beats a heart which thirsts for vengeance.") suits Ilberd quite well. (Probable, though I am admittedly biased towards this suspect because I still want to give him more comeuppance for betraying us and dismembering my General.)

2. Gaius van Baelsar. A lot of dialogue referring to the Griffin suggests he's highly wanted by the Garleans, and a reason for his mask is speculated to be scarring. The Garleans certainly would be after him given the XIVth went rogue after the Calamity, and hiding his face would be paramount since, as a Garlean, there's no other way he could get the Ala Mhigans to work with him. All the other pieces fit, and yet a motive (beyond "It used to be mine and I want it back") is missing. Gaius was also in the exploding Praetorium with no escape route. (Plausible, but improbable.)

3. Unknown. As we've seen here, even seemingly insignificant sidequest characters can become important, and there are a lot of Ala Mhigan refugees we've helped. It's a reasonably safe assumption that anyone still around is not the Griffin, but beyond that... who knows.

4. New Character. Someone we've never met before. Even relying on his build is not an accurate clue; we can rule out Lalafell, Roegadyn, Au Ra, and Miqo'te for various reasons, leaving Hyur, Elezen, and Garlean. New characters gotta be introduced too, y'know!

[Geist]

I treat this kind of thing as detective work as it should be treated. I don't rule out possibilities, but try and gauge whether something is plausible or probable. The list of suspects are: [snip]

The scarring quote seems to be a potential red herring, really; take the way it was handled in V for Vendetta - the original graphic novel, that is. Alan Moore lets out the suggestion that the experiments originally performed on V might also have ended up disfiguring him, but it's never acknowledged in full.

That particular door in the narrative never actually gets thrown open in the novel, and it does certainly add up to the whole "masked man" mystique. "Keep 'em guessing" does work best, usually... and it's often a letdown when the mask goes off (Vader in the original trilogy, anyone?).

The "boundless rage and bottomless despair", "heart which thirsts for vengeance", the mix of charisma and passion and the theme of masks are most likely a throwback to numerous other well-intentioned extremists -- part of the recipe for one, anyway. He should be dressed in black for that, however, since Elidibus got the white chessmaster look covered already.

In the end, I'd wager that most signs point in Ilberd's direction, and that means a whole new lot of trouble is brewing (besides the Eyes. The EYES). We'll see...