About the Emperor [Major Spoilers for 4.4]

[Anonymoose]

He is here. Muhahahahahaaaaa

I was going to read the whole thread before I replied but I got distracted and then you noticed me before I updated said post. Fufufufu. I'll update this one.

Ascians are incorporeal and can only occupy bodies
Solus was not taken over by an Ascian. He was an Ascian. Yet he could have sex. I mean he has children. And his body aged over the course of his life.

I D E F K. I wanted to make a list of all the possibilities (and did elsewhere) and I just couldn't fully lock it in. The least messy interpretation I've found so far (the one with the fewest assumptions, throwing the fewest wrenches into our knowledge machine, such as "This overlord is still self-identifyng as Solus but he's not." or "Sometimes these entitites can just whip up a physical out of nothingness.") is that Solus was a Legatus and had a kid before being risen to the ranks of the Ascians or that because he still had his original host anatomy there was no affect upon reproductive faculties or if "mortal transmigration" (see Soul Shenanigans) really is a thing, it copies said host anatomy and ... I'm gonna wait for him to explain.

Ascians are named after the Scions of Light in Ivalice
This dude is named Solus zos Galvus. Sure that might be a pseudonym like Travanchet, but so far he is only known as Solus zos Gavlus

This is true. Travanchet was the name of a random Elezen adopted by the Ascian soldier.
On the other hand, his Ascian puppetmaster was still playing the part.

Pureblood Garleans are blonde
Half of Solus' hair is black and he founded the bloody nation.

I've been suspicious that all the blonde hair and blue eyes was just to evoke (from the audience) negative associations of "Ah, they're the racial purity folks." Essentially Garlean Malfoys. Now that this is firmly rooted (especially vis a vis the Optimates) we can see the actual phenotypes, lol.

[ObsidianFire]

The "Garlemald is also sort of good!" interpretation works mostly because some Garleans were tricked so hard that they wanted to make a better, more stable, more reliable, more benevolent Empire, unaware that that was never the intention or the point.

This.

It was hard before 4.4 and it is very hard after 4.4 to take the argument the Garlean Empire was started with good intentions and can be a mostly positive force in the world seriously. Now the idea is almost laughable. SE has taken what once was thought have the potential to be a morally grey situation and drop-kicked it off the cliff of "it's the big bad". The Garlean Empire might have been in "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" territory, but it's now firmly in the land of "we are trying to get to hell as fast as possible and are trying to bring as many people as possible with us". Fortunately, there are people being pulled down the road to hell who have figured out their current route is taking them to hell and that they really don't want to go there. The question is, will the guy charging into hell let them leave? My gut feeling is that he won't. They'll wreck his travel plans.

At this point, there's a very clear distinction in my head between the Garlean Empire and whoever supports it for whatever reason and everyone who wants out of it. The Garlean Empire is purposely flawed all the way down and the best thing to do would be to admit that, get rid of it and start over. Part of the reason the Garlean Empire is such a good game for the Ascians to play is that it's an amazing Xantos Gambit for them. The Empire stays together? They win; the empire spreads chaos in the countries that it takes over. The Empire is dissolved? They win; there's a power vacuum, which always results in chaos. No matter what the Eorzean alliance does, the chaos will always increase.

But at least if the Empire goes down, the Ascians loose the direct control they have over it, which is something that needs to happen, no matter who brings it down. In all honesty, the Garleans are a lot better off then usual in this case because they've already got an alternative government style to the Empire that did work until the Ascians messed with it. So at least there's that.

[Cilia]

This is where the fun begins!

Solus zos Galvus died of old age
Well he claims to have died, but he is an Ascian so he should be an immortal spirit. Speaking of which...

The implication is that "Solus" the Ascian possessed Solus the man at some point or another, then played out the part of a mortal man while setting up Garlemald to be an engine of conflict. However, mortal bodies only last so long, and at 80+ he only had so much time left before people would notice something was amiss. (80 is pretty old even by contemporary standards; without access to modern medicine, it would be virtually unheard of.) As such, he just let his body die naturally, then left Garlemald to its own devices confident it would continue wreaking havoc across the world.

Ascians are incorporeal and can only occupy bodies
Solus was not taken over by an Ascian. He was an Ascian. Yet he could have sex. I mean he has children. And his body aged over the course of his life.

Do we know he wasn't taken over by an Ascian? No.

What we do know is that it requires both the knowledge (of Ascians) and the gift (the Echo) to perceive and communicate with them unless they are possessing a mortal shell. It's possible they can will themselves to be perceptible by mortals even if not in possession of a body, but this is not known to be true.

And, as "Solus" was playing the part of a mortal man, he would have to act as mortal men do - have children, grow old, and such.

Ascians are named after the Scions of Light in Ivalice
This dude is named Solus zos Galvus. Sure that might be a pseudonym like Travanchet, but so far he is only known as Solus zos Gavlus

My current theory on this is that "Solus" is just a pseudonym or identity assumed by one of the Ascians, not his true name. That's why I usually (if not always) put his name in quotation marks when talking about him. We don't know which Scion of Light his true self is named after, but it's unlikely he's going to break the trend and everyone is just referring to him as "Solus zos Galvus" because they don't know his true name.

Garlean magic users are very rare due to genetics
Since Solus is an Ascian overlord he is probably capable of magic beyond what we have seen before. So his children should also be good at it,

If "Solus'" mortal body was just a normal Garlean man, this wouldn't be true. If he were somehow able to have children without a mortal body, then... perhaps the royal line would be capable of some degree of aetherial manipulation, but who knows?

Pureblood Garleans are blonde
Half of Solus' hair is black and he founded the bloody nation.

I believed this as well, but Gaius the Shadowhunter and Maxima both have brown hair. And not to nitpick... but since this "Solus" seems to be an aetherial construct in the vein of Nabriales, there's no reason he couldn't have whatever hair color he wants. It also looks purple-ish to me, not black, and there's only a white stripe, not half-and-half.

The ideals of Garlemald are all.....
LIES!!!!! Poor Theo

The funny part in regards to... certain posters is that they argued so hard in defense of many actions that could be called morally questionable at best... only to find out that the reasoning behind those actions were nothing but a bunch of meaningless lies!

If you don't think this is funny, you're taking yourself too seriously. Plus it's just fiction! He he he he heh...

If you die, that's it
Apparently Solus was summoned back from death by Elidibus when Lahabrea messed up. Wether that was 2.0 or 3.0 we can only guess

"Solus" never died, he just "retired" from his then-current role - probably to go work on other projects until Elidibus called him back. Since it's to get things back on track after Lahabrea's "crowning act of idiocy," and Elidibus didn't seem particularly irritated with him for his failure during 2.0, it was probably after 3.0 and Lahabrea getting himself (and Igeyorhm) killed.

Solus may not have agreed with Nael's plan to throw Dalamud at Aldenard
Considering what he is I think he was totally on board with the whole shebang.

"Solus" always agreed with it.

The main villain of 5.0 will be Fake Zenos, True Zenos, Varis, The voice guy.........
Nah. It will be Solus.

Maybe. He's definitely going to be a villain in 5.0, but whether he's the main one remains unknown.

[Anonymoose]

This is where the fun begins!

You're 100% sure that Solus zos Galvus the man and "Solus zos Galvus" the Ascian are separate entities? Solus zos Galvus was born a man, died a man, and was replaced by an Ascian of unknown identity who is continuing to go by his old, dead puppet's name, and is continuing to self-present with his old, dead puppet's body, for reasons unknown? Are we able to conclusively rule out all other possibilities at this time?

Everyone seems to understand exactly that the implication is but none of the lessons given when educating others about it seem to line up.

It's just proliferating and exacerbating that initial confusion, imo.

I'm going to take a moment to go back and re-read and see just how many walls we can feel out.

[Risvertasashi]

There is one question that bugs me.

Previously... as far as I've been able to tell, Ascians take on the appearance of the body they take over. Even as recently as Zenos-the-Ascian showing up this holds true.

Solus gets shot... and respawns just like that. Exactly as he was before. Without seemingly having a need to take over a body; or if he did, altering the appearance to look exactly as before.

Is this also a broken/new rule, or did I miss something somewhere along the line?

[SynthielLyrin]

... what could actually be a broken rule now is that wasn't it said by an Ascian that only the ones from -our- Shard can be comfortably walking around here? So, what gives with Solus if he was in retirement? Was he also from our shard, and therefore we had 3/14? Or does he get a new pass?

[Keever]

[...]

When Nabriales is ejected from his host body following the fight in the Chrysalis, his fleshless form appears above it, looking identical to the host body, sideburns and all. What happens with Solus is in line with that.

My hypothesis for now, if only because it seems to explain all these instances most neatly, is that we usually perceive Ascians' fleshless forms as looking identical to the last host they possessed. We know that Ascians' appearances are affected by expectations in some way thanks to Elidibus' spiel in patch 2.1 explaining why Tataru was unable to see him: "Knowledge dictates expectation, and expectation colors perception." (English localisation lead John Crow [A.K.A. Corvinoobus] explains in an interview here that this line was also written in this way to hand-wave away the differences between current Ascian depictions and the shadowless Ascians in 1.0.)

[ObsidianFire]

He has to be from our Shard. If "Solus" was possessed by an Ascian, it would have happened back when Ascians could only get to the Shard they were originally from. If Solus is not possessed, but became an Ascian, he's from our Shard anyway like everyone born on our Shard is. Both theories on him give the same answer in this case.

[Anonymoose]

I'm still working up the analysis of the speech but since you're all working in the same vein here for the moment:

Don't forget what Nabriales said: Specifically of the fourteen overlords that exist in 2.50, only Lahabrea is from the Source.

[Iscah]

I'm still working up the analysis of the speech but since you're all working in the same vein here for the moment:

Don't forget what Nabriales said: Specifically of the fourteen overlords that exist in 2.50, only Lahabrea is from the Source.

Could that make it possible that IF Solus the man directly became an Ascian, he's outside that count of fourteen? Can there be more than fourteen / one-per-shard at a time? Perhaps he's been promoted to "overlord of the Source" because Lahabrea got killed and they needed a replacement for the position.

Also is Elidibus an "overlord" or is emissary a separate position?