About the Emperor [Major Spoilers for 4.4]

[Remedi]

Don't forget that in lore Garleans do have better qualities than the other races in their phisique, their only problem is their inability of use magic, which they supplement with superior strenght, field of vision and ingenuity.
Not really that hard to make them feel supeior to the others.

In fact i would like to have more specification about the oppression of the Garleans that supposedly they had before.
Since they've been written as being superior in body, they shouldn't have been so much oppressed by the ppl near them especially if the hint of coming from the clockwork city is true, because that would mean they would already be more advanced in technology and easily overcome the magic of their enemies with warmachines

[SannaR]

If our Gaug is anything like it's Tactics version then it's safe to assume that they brought on their own destruction which set them back to something like the bronze age which of course was less tech advanced than everyone else in the area.

[Cilia]

Whoa whoa whoa... bringing up Na- er, 1940's Germany and comparing it to Garlemald is bound to make... certain posters... rather unhappy. While I only find the comparison slightly distasteful due to what I perceive as similarities, it's been brought up before and some people really don't like the comparison. Just... tread lightly.

Lies by omission are still lies - and "Solus" lied about a lot more than the Burn and eikons.

Lie: The Burn was caused by eikons.
Fact: Allag did it. (Eikons might be able to cause a similar phenomenon.)

Lie: Religion invariably leads to eikon summons.
Fact: Not a strict truth, and certainly less likely (if not impossible) prior to Silvertear.

Lie: Garleans are superior to other races in every way save their inability to wield magicks.
Truth: Not scientifically proven; the source for this idea (Aulus) is undoubtedly biased.

The big one, though?

Lie: The Empire's mission is to stamp out eikon summons and bring order to the world.
Truth: The Empire's mission is to cause eikon summons and bring chaos to the world.

That last bit is what causes so much friction between Varis and his, er, handlers. Varis genuinely believes in the ideals (lies) he was brought up to believe in; now knowing they're lies, it's anyone's guess whether he'll turn his back on those ideals or try to make the fictional narrative into reality. The same goes for any Imperial supporter who ardently believes in the Empire's ideals, assuming they were to find out the truth.

[Remedi]

The lie about eikons was said later to reinforce their conquest as a crusade.
His first edict was:
"No lands must remain beyond our grasp. Go forth. Conquer. Rule"

This was said before, this sparked the conquest, they came to the burn after their imperialism started. Perhaps this is when the switcheroo happened if there was one.
Unless that line is now to be considered omitted, that was the spark, he lied later about the primals.
Let's not forget this because, it seems we are are considering the lie about the burn as the spark for Garlemand imperialism which wasn't.

[ObsidianFire]

It might not have been the spark of Garlean Imperialism, but it made that Imperialism much more palatable for the people who were on the fence. Imperialism is hard to pull off when a significant portion of the conquering empire think the Imperialism isn't necessary. So Solus gave everyone a semi-legitimate reason for the Imperialism.

Finding out Souls lied about the generally accepted reason for the Imperialism will make the most difference for the people who wonder how necessary the Imperialism really is and the people who need a good reason for the Imperialism in the first place. For the people who always supported it, it's not going to make that much of a difference.

That said, it is probably going to make a bigger difference then we think it will. Out of the all the Imperials we've met, finding out about the truth about the primal situation has caused most of them to change their approach to the entire situation. The only Imperials we've met who didn't care about why Garlemald is doing what it is doing either didn't care about Garlemald at all (Nael, Zenos) or were obsessed with something else (Asahi). So getting out the truth of the situation is something that needs to happen. There's a very high chance that doing that will cause Garlemald to at least stop trying to conquer countries while they figure out what they should be doing about the situation.

[Cilia]

While stopping eikons and saving the world in so doing was not a part of the Empire's founding ethos, it has been the narrative used to legitimize the Empire's ceaseless attempts at conquest and the outlawing of any and all religious practices ever since it was spun. Take that away and it becomes naked cruelty, ambition, and greed.

Stopping primal summons is important, but the Empire's brazen aggression is going to cause them, not prevent them. Turns out that's the intended effect.

[Balipu]

Now the question is: What is the Ascian plan for Garlemald? How long should it keep going? Did they ever plan the truth getting out? Maybe that's why it was revealed to Varys? There is bound to be an uproar and Empirewide chaos. Maybe that causes the calamity the voice guy wants to avert.

[Iscah]

Maybe that causes the calamity the voice guy wants to avert.

The Calamity the voice guy allegedly wants to avert.

There's no guarantee that he's any more trustworthy than the Ascians whispering to the beast tribes "go on, summon your god and have your vengeance before your enemies destroy you".

[Alleo]

In fact i would like to have more specification about the oppression of the Garleans that supposedly they had before.
Since they've been written as being superior in body, they shouldn't have been so much oppressed by the ppl near them especially if the hint of coming from the clockwork city is true, because that would mean they would already be more advanced in technology and easily overcome the magic of their enemies with warmachines

I wonder that too and kinda question if maybe Ascians even had a hand in that too? I mean they are known to play the long game and maybe saw a race of people that are without the ability of magic as a great way to throw them against the primal problem in the future. Maybe they even gave the other tribes the means to push them back and later when they were still hating this and feel vengeance for that they come in and have a mass of people following them to get their revenge.

(I am also of the opinion that if its fine to compare them to other rl countries and empires that it should be fine to compare them to more recent ones too. And imo the parallels are there, especially in the part of a country that feels oppressed and one person coming in and giving them the means to be and to feel superior, giving them a common enemy and thus having the masses behind them to go to a huge war.)

The lie about eikons was said later to reinforce their conquest as a crusade.

This is true and I believe that they used primals after all the time either because they were finally going near the countries that have big amount of aethers thus are more likely to summon them or because the people in Garlemald might have grown tired of going to war just for the sake of conquerings others. Maybe that might even be the time where the Populares appeared (as the voices that dont want to fight anymore, since that always means death and suffering for their side too) and thus Solus used the primals as a way to drown out these voices and to give them a motivation to fight once more.

[Remedi]

I wasn't saying that the lie about primals wasn't useful in uniting Garlemand in a crusade, what I meant is that Garlemand already had imperialistic wiew and idea of saving the savages by making their life better under their wiser rule (and also a little bit of revenge for the oppression of the near state), though we know full well that it's a sentiment not shared by all Garleans since they've shown to be either caring of their subjects or monsters, but this is a realistic part of empires in history.

I'm not convinced that the populares aren't imperialistic themselves, there are other ways to gain control of nations outside of an hard conquest, in fact Gaius stance in the 4.4 sting would make him lean towards a populares position, since he says that an unjust rule of oppression will lead to rebellion. If the Garlean in the prima vista was a tease towards the presence of the populares, it is very likely that their aim is a rule of Garlemand over all by politics and not by military conquest, he does seems to imply that Garleans have a savior complex.
Frankly the way the peace treaty was worded to Doma it made it clear that Hien had his hand forced, peace negotiations are made on equal footings and Doma was not able to make demands, actually he was made an offer they couldn't refuse in exchange of friendship and I doubt they used the word friendship randomly there


@Alleo I don't know if the wikia uses the infos from the lorebook, though since it narrates some parts it seems so, but Solus had the eikon edicts after reaching the Burn and "witnessing" what happened there, which was 6 years after the start of the imperial campaign of annexation of lands, which apparently was after the fall of Dalmasca. maybe someone can confirm.