In need of Garlean Lore

[Foofy]

My other headcannons:

1) Garleans look at greed as a meaningless and disgusting thing. Ul'dah is full of this and my character finds anyone who gambles or overall just greedy for gil to be disgusting and a waste. They see more power in everyone benefitting from something rather then one person. All for all or none for one type thing.

2) I also have her set that when a female joins the Garlemald's ranks that they are to be sterilized as to keep unwanted pregnancies out of the field and keep the soldiers concerns focused on their country rather then an unwanted child that can take a soldier from battle.

3) Pureblooded Garleans are often wed off by their families to others not for power or status but to keep bloodlines strong. Thus arrange marriages are a thing.

4) People who have served in the Garlemald often suffer from PTSD, prone to outbursts of rage, mentally instability, and more.

5) The Emperor is actually someone who will throw his own people at a spiked wall just so he could walk over it unhindered. He believes himself to be righteous in every means and isn't afraid to sacrifice his own people to ensure his win in the endgame.

[Berethos]

M
2) I also have her set that when a female joins the Garlemald's ranks that they are to be sterilized as to keep unwanted pregnancies out of the field and keep the soldiers concerns focused on their country rather then an unwanted child that can take a soldier from battle.

There's a couple things in the Lore Book that actually work counter toward this particular head-canon, I'm afraid.

One, the Pureblood Garlean population is not exactly a large one, mostly due to their area of origin - cold, harsh, unforgiving. Sterilizing females in a peoples who already have a smaller population than most isn't a sound strategic idea.

Two, the majority of the Garlemald army is actually comprised of conscripts which are actually deployed to areas away from their home soil, both as a means of keeping them from getting any funny ideas and should they decide to try and rebel then they are far from home and family. Ultimately, though, the Empire does have to keep the overall populace at the very least placated, if not actually content with how things are...and forced sterilization wouldn't be a strategy that would go over well. Better to send the pregnant individual home and conscript a new soldier, ultimately.

Related to the overall discussion, but a tangent from the initial part of my post...

Interesting to also note that while some of Theodric's theories/ideas on certain actions taken by the Empire are unconfirmed as "necessary" or "acts of desperation" (things like the response to the Doman rebellion, for example), he's actually right - the Empire itself was born out of desperation and the need to survive.

To elaborate on his earlier post - after being pushed into the cold climes of the northern area of the continent (and how that impacted their population) they survived the regular raids and conflicts from the other tribes through a mix of subterfuge (inciting conflicts between the other nations...possibly the pre-cursor to the Frumentarium?), employing Roegadyn Magi to bolster their own lack of magic, uniting the smaller tribes/villages around a central one, and basically using any tactic they needed to survive the more established and more powerful other tribes...and did this for centuries.

It was really only by chance that an engineer decided to try using Ceruleum as a fuel for a new type of engine in his workshop instead of a steam engine, and that the then Legatus Solus Galvus learned of it and saw how it could be applied to military technology. That decided edge, mixed with the strategy of offering subjugated nations a better life through the very type of technology that had bested them if they just followed the rules and served a new master, and a desire to avenge the centuries of conflict visited upon them by their once more powerful neighbors...and you have why they went from a small fish to controlling all of Ilsabard in about 9 years...

And that's also where it changed from survival and avenging to ambition (characteristics held by certain key individuals and military leaders, along with varying degrees of ruthlessness and often pride, and as those are the traits we've seen most when it comes to Garlemald it's what most think of when it comes to the Empire as a whole).

Really, they're more the Machiavellian antagonists with a complex history and set of motivations leading a diverse but ultimately controlled peoples, rather than an "Evil Empire."

[Foofy]

There's a couple things in the Lore Book that actually work counter toward this particular head-canon, I'm afraid.

-snip-

And this is why I came here, to stab all your minds with the book *scratches that one off the list*

That also makes me feel as if the arranged marriage thing to keep the bloodline pure definitely has backing as well.