New Year's Poem 2018

[Balipu]

Don't so sure that 5.0 will only be Isalbard/Garlean related. It could be like Stormblood where we visit the areas leading to Ilsabard and the new world/meracydia/nothern empty at the same time.

God I hope not. It's bad enough that a continent the size of Aldenard is reduced to two zones. I don't want that to happen again. Especially not with Meracydia.

[Fenral]

God I hope not. It's bad enough that a continent the size of Aldenard is reduced to two zones. I don't want that to happen again. Especially not with Meracydia.

Interesting that you say that, because the current expanded map shows three distinct areas beyond the current confines of Othard that look like they'll be distinct zones at some point, amounting to more than half of the revealed landmass. We'll probably be getting those next, along with whatever "surprise" areas they throw at us. Could be that whatever turning point we're headed for next commits us to Othard for the long-term, if only to increase the irony of all the "Eorzea" branding.

[KageTokage]

I'm hoping that it ends up taking two expansions to resolve the Garlemald conflict once and for all, because having the whole of Ilsabard and possibly the remainder of Othard condensed into one expansion seems a bit excessive.

[Balipu]

Interesting that you say that, because the current expanded map shows three distinct areas beyond the current confines of Othard that look like they'll be distinct zones at some point, amounting to more than half of the revealed landmass. We'll probably be getting those next, along with whatever "surprise" areas they throw at us. Could be that whatever turning point we're headed for next commits us to Othard for the long-term, if only to increase the irony of all the "Eorzea" branding.

Oh I hope so. Othard is a gold mine yet we only ever got to Yanxia and the Azim Steppes.

[Remedi]

I kinda have some problems with the claim that Varis had to be in league with his son simply because as the emperor he had to approve his plans as the role of emperor and local governor doesn't really works that way.
Local governors in an empire can do pretty much anything they want with how they administrate their provinces this is backed by the imperial administrator in ala ghiri and also it's historically true because The empror himself could not rule a vast landamass alone and has to choose ppl to delegate the government of provinces away from the capital, which sometimes led to said governors to move against their liege because they gained so much power that were able to overthrow the emperor (be it militar power o simple consensus with the overall population)
Also Zenos really had a sarcastic tone about his father while he was addressing his troops in the royal palace as such I wouldn't really say that they were of the same mind, not to Aulus was, according to him, ridiculed by his peers in the capital which fits with Zenos idea of choosing outcast moved by vengeance as his collaborators.
As such Until directly stated I would refrain from making such a claim

edit: To be precise Aulus said that his research were met with consternation in the imperial court and only Zenos supported him

[Cilia]

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Ordinarily I would agree, but for two things: power politics and the other language versions of the 4.0 stinger.

Garlemald is very vested in power politics as part of its Roman inspiration; this is easily shown by how Varis became Emperor by defeating his uncle, who was likely next in line to the throne but without the military track record Varis had got his claim contested. (In all fairness, this actually has some truth to it - one of the duties of the Roman Emperor was to lead the military, which caused... problems when the current Emperor had no interest in doing so, such as with Nero.) There is also no record of any Imperial openly denouncing the Meteor Project, but it is known that Varis clandestinely used the Ivy to try and stop it from coming to pass. The point is... just because Varis denounced Aulus' theories doesn't mean he wasn't interested in pursuing them; it's just that as Emperor, he has an image to maintain, and supporting a seeming crackpot like Aulus wouldn't have meshed well with that. Zenos, who thirsted for power without any other cares in the world, would naturally pick up the wayward scientist for him.

As for the other bit... senpai's commentary on the 4.0 stinger in other languages actually got me interested to go see what they said, and sure enough, in all but the EN version Elidibus more or less criticizes Varis for being so ruthless that he'd use Zenos, his own son, as a sacrificial guinea pig. Varis doesn't deny this. Added in with the fact that Varis seemed to be watching the final showdown on some sort of surveillance system, it's reasonably safe to assume that Varis knew what Zenos was up to.

[Remedi]

Tbh the Roman Emperors had to lead the military mostly because they were generals before, one of the problems of the empire was that the legions pledged their loyalty to their generals and not on Rome so military coups were quite common.
I think it's more likely that Varis started following Aulus project secretly after he got wind of what the echo could do from the remnant of the VIth legion and frankly speaking he has banned plays I don't think he cares much of his imagine.

To me he kinda reminds me of king Charioce from Rage of bahamuth virgin souls but we'll see

[Belhi]

He isn't banning plays. He is censoring them. If anything that suggest he cares a great deal about image since he is doing his best to supress any negative propaganda. If he didn't care he wouldn't be bothered what playwrights were saying about him.

[Remedi]

Well censoring them is not really helping on that department either, in fact is the quickest way to sow dissent.

That said my point is that assuming that he was in league with Zenos is a thing, saying that he had to is another, especially since Elidubus claim is hard to be considered a truth afterall he is working towards his agenda as such his words should be taken very cautiously.

[Theodric]

Varis may be ruthless, though it is unlikely that he takes pleasure in being ruthless. Zenos, however, actively tormented his own allies just as frequently as he tormented his enemies...and he most certainly was not working for Garlemald's benefit as he did very little to prevent not one but two territories to be liberated. That is precisely why his father branded his heir a monster. I also believe the '...' at the start of his speech writing off Zenos combined with his expression at the time is indicative of him feeling sadness for how things turned out yet keeping his guard up to prevent showing Elidibus any sign of weakness or hesitation.