[spoiler] empire might vs eorzea might

[Theodric]

What life would have been like under an Eorzea ruled by Ala Mhigo is both unknown and unknowable.

Which is exactly why I think it makes for interesting speculation.

[Belhi]

Which is exactly why I think it makes for interesting speculation.

That is very hard to tell, particularly since your talking about a war that occurred 100 years prior. We only know so much about the parties involved. I also suspect that Ala Mhigo wouldn't have ended up conquering all of Eorzea. Annexing Gridania would have probably been as much as they could have managed while still protecting their northern border. After all they would have still had to hold Gridania in the wake of that which might have gotten difficult if the Elementals had become troublesome. Taking Ishgard, and Limsa would have been a much harder task as Ala Mhigo wasn't a great naval power and they would have needed to defeat Limsa at see to get their armies across the strait and Ishgard was already highly fortified and questionably worth the trouble. Ul'dah would have been quite the prize but would have time to build up substancial mercenary forces as well as potentially make deals with Ala Mhigo's enemies in Ilsebard. Added to that, Ul'dah fights very dirty. The last war they had they turned their enemy army into Zombies.

If Ala Mhigo had had the military strength to pull it off, its hard to say. Again, it would come down to who was in charge. Conquest is rather a jerk move regardless, even though in Ala Mhigo's case there was economic drivers forcing their hand. Manfrid seemed to be more interested in securing viable lands to keep Ala Mhigo from going into decline than building an empire. Also Culturally the difference probably wasn't as severely different. Certainly not the same but the social and religious structures were definitely more in line with their Eorzean neighbours.

[VargasVermillion]

My current theory on the provinces that are treated well is related mostly to what they can actually provide. Doma was primarily a tourist destination before the first rebellion and Ala mhigo has even less to offer save for labor and soldiers, and that's pretty much what they got out of it.

[uvuvwevwevweonyetenyevweugwemu]

Conquerer like Garleans rather assimilate their political view, put economic pressure so they can recruit and maintain the area. Conquest wouldn't be the reason for Ala Mhigo.

Culturally the difference probably wasn't as severely different. Certainly not the same but the social and religious structures were definitely more in line with their Eorzean neighbours

They certainly view things differently, last CRP job quest highlights this:

Every time we try to reach out to them, how are we repaid? With hostility. Take the tea party Captain Gairhard arranged for us for example. We attended hoping to turn over a new leaf.

They, however, clearly came for different reasons entirely because the moment we sat down, they served us Ala Mhigan tea!

Every day we Ala Mhigans bleed and fight and die to protect this country, and yet the Gridanians still regard us with the same suspicion and resentment that they do beastmen.

[Belhi]

Conquerer like Garleans rather assimilate their political view, put economic pressure so they can recruit and maintain the area. Conquest wouldn't be the reason for Ala Mhigo.


They certainly view things differently, last CRP job quest highlights this:

I am not saying they don't have differences, only that the differences aren't as extreme. The social and religious structures of Garlean society are way more different and extreme than Ala Mhigo and Gridania. I might also point out that that quest ended with both parties coming to realise they actually had quite a lot in common.

[Cilia]

My current theory on the provinces that are treated well is related mostly to what they can actually provide. Doma was primarily a tourist destination before the first rebellion and Ala mhigo has even less to offer save for labor and soldiers, and that's pretty much what they got out of it.

Which then raises the question of why they were conquered in the first place. If Doma and Ala Mhigo weren't able to provide much for the Empire, why conquer them at all (beyond Ala Mhigo's strategic value as a gateway to the rest of Eorzea)?

[ObsidianFire]

In the Lore Book, it says that Ala Mhigo is where a lot of magitech factories are located, mostly manned by native Ala Mhigans. And pretty much everything made in them is shipped back to Garlamald. Ala Ghiri making arak with materials shipped in from Garlemald only to ship the finished product back to Garlemald is probably also the norm as well. So at the very least, Garlemald doesn't have a problem with creating industries in concord territories so long as they (the Garleans) benefit from it the most.

[Hinoto-no-Ryuji]

Which then raises the question of why they were conquered in the first place. If Doma and Ala Mhigo weren't able to provide much for the Empire, why conquer them at all (beyond Ala Mhigo's strategic value as a gateway to the rest of Eorzea)?

I'd probably say that Ala Mhigo's primary value was absolutely as a regional foothold, and even if the surrounding region held zero value for the Empire, I wouldn't expect them to back down from an occupied territory unless absolutely necessary. Sure, it's not actively providing the Empire with much, but they've got it already and it's not costing much to hold it and now they can say their empire spans the Three Great Continents! Besides, ceding held lands looks weak. And, as ObsidianFire points out, they were using it as a center for manufacturing plants too.

As for Doma, we can probably assume that it serves the same purpose for East Othard; even if there's no direct use for the lands beyond conscription and resources for manufacturing, some kind of permanent base of operations in the region means they get to consider it a part of the Empire, and Doma really seems to be the only major city. I don't have my book here to give direct citations, but I believe Doma was the longest holdout against Imperial conquest of the continent as well, no? Occupying it directly (or bringing its leader into line, as they did before the uprising) probably sent a pretty strong message to the normal folk.

[Belhi]

I suspect that Doma and Ala Mhigo were both taken as part of Solus's desire to have all three continents completely under Garlean control. It was more to do with establishing total domination of the mainlands as a legacy as much as the value they held. Ala Mhigo specifically would have been Garlemald's path into Eorzea. It holds the only safe land route to into the continent from Ilsebard and provided the Garlean air fleet at staging ground to reach across the rest of the continent. Its just that between Midgardsormr and the Primals the goal of conquest of Eorzea ground to a halt. Midgardsormr stoped dead their original invasion and the Primals created a situation which made Eorzea a problematic quagmire to conquer.

[silentwindfr]

the beastman didn't start to summon them primal right after the seal was broken, you know?

even in the V1 it was not that old that they did start to summon them... plus beastman in the empire don't have as much freedom as you think, summoning a primordial recquire something that is hard to get the hand on outside eorzea, large quantity of cristal. empire keep well them transport inside the empire, i doubt beastman can steal the quantity of cristal enough for call upon a primordial.

the only reason the empire didn't launch an attack against eorzea after the first invasion is solely because the empire was hit hard by this attack and most of them fleet was destroyed, leaving the transport of troops in bad shape. the empire had simply no means to secure an easy victory over the city states... then instead to to launch another attack, they simply did fortify them position while rebuilding them fleet.

later Gaius with his 14th legion did receive from the emperor the mission to conquer the eorzea, nael was working on his side on the meteor project, but not gaius.... while the V1 they did crush another attemps of rebellion alla mighan in mor d'hona (that give a superb CS of the V1) when gaius was preparing the invasion, nael movement begin to become more strange and strange, until the battle cartaneaux... where well we all know how it did end, bahamut appearing, most of the troops of both side did take hit from his apparition.
and at this time, why the empire didn't use another legion for invade while eorza was still burning? because the emperor did die leading to an heritance strife over the throne... nothing more, plus the empire was growing un happy of the campaign in eorzea only resulting in defeat. one by midgarsorm and his dragon and the second by nael and bahamut. nothing more...

leading to less and less support for gaius, placing the 14th legion in a dire situation, able to create fortication into the territory of the 3 city states, but unable to invade them. that is the period between the V1 and the V2.
at the start of ARR some "support" did arrive from the empire (nero and the two other) but it was still in middle of the political strife for the throne (the new emperor did get his crown around the start of HW)

and yes the new emperor goal was the suppresion of the beastman, in a form of purge. it can give you a good idea of how they deal with beastman in them empire, not because the empire was attacked by primal... but because they did learn about the power of the beastman summoning in Eorzea (remember how it was used in the 2.0 by gaius), since garleman people can't use magic, it's a threat with this much power, then the new emperor have for goal to make sure the "barbarian" don't summon them primordial.

the primal wasn't the reason of why the empire didn't launch another invasion, (well technically yes since bahamut was a primal and he did hit badly the 14th legion), the primal trouble was something only eorzea was facing in the V1... mostly because only eorzea had a large quantity of cristal available since the place have more ether than anywhere in the planet... (in the V1 at least that what we was said)

ps: here the video about gaius battle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h8TKeXk5eA