About the Emperor [Major Spoilers for 4.4]

[Ramesses]

Well... somehow, he's managed to pull of that youthful look. The chap looks like an 88 year old alright... (the sarcasm, right?)... open below if you've finished the 4.4 patch.

[SaitoHikari]

What i really want to know is: how far in advance was Solus's true nature planned? Was this something that came up with 3.x/4.x or is this something going all the way back to the game's reboot?

I recall reading an interesting comment on Reddit that points to Solus' true nature most likely going all the way back to at least the battle of Silvertear Lake. Consider some of the most major things that Garlemald had done throughout the game's timeline.

1) Why invade Silvertear Lake? The conflict broke some kind of seal over the lake, and released Primals into the world. Back then, we thought the Garleans wanted to secure it in order to safeguard themselves for a future conquest or to prevent all primal summoning period. But assuming Solus was already an Ascian at the time, the disastrous result was intended from the very start.

2) Why even greenlight Project Meteor when Garlemald had already known of the dangers of harnessing Dalamud's power (from that one research city being wiped out)? This makes a lot more sense with Solus being an Ascian. He already knew of the true nature of Dalamud, since the Ascians had a direct hand in assembling it. It's entirely possible that he lured Nael into becoming tempered by Bahamut, thus being a scapegoat to hide what we can now assume to be Solus' very direct role in the calamity.

A lot of the past decisions of Garlemald that were previously assumed to be a 'noble ends justify the means' sort of thing were really all lies that were intended to have a different outcome entirely.

I would say it is entirely likely that Solus being an ascian was probably something that was set in stone by the development team for a very, very long time. It cannot have been mere coincidence that the plot overall has outright avoided directly talking about Solus until now, this was the major twist in the story that changes literally everything we know about Garlemald.

(There's also the topic of Azys Lla, probably forgotten by most at this point. Consider that Lahabrea wanted to do something there, but had utterly screwed up so badly for Solus to literally come back from the dead - which calls into question exactly what Lahabrea's true goal was. While the Garleans weren't directly involved in the plot, I imagine the Ascians were attempting to manipulate Varis and Regula into becoming part of their equation just in case. Consider that the Ascians made zero effort to stop Regula's Legion from interfering at Azys Lla, and that Regula outright said that the sealing technology he found did not prove to be reliable enough to risk bringing back to Garlemald. Maybe Lahabrea's true goal there was to release the Warring Triad, which the VIth Legion almost did by accident long after Lahabrea's defeat.)

[Cilia]

It's plausible Solus was planned to be an Ascian, but how probable it is I'm not so sure of.

On the one hand, it neatly fills in a lot of the gaps in regards to the Empire - why it's using methods counterproductive to its stated ends, why it's directly responsible for a Calamity, why its actions are indirectly responsible for the primals plaguing Eorzea, etc. All of this is easily explained by "Solus was an Ascian and these ends were Garlemald's true aim."

On the other, it seems to come entirely out of left field. While I had pointed out the inconsistencies in the Empire's logic numerous times, absolutely nothing suggested Ascian involvement, and we were told Ascians weren't behind the Empire. It can all pretty easily be explained by Hanlon's razor, as well.

(Also Lahabrea's goal with Azys Lla was likely to get King Thordan supercharged, temper Isghard and the rest of Eorzea, then bring them into conflict with the Empire, which would cause a lot of chaos. The Warring Triad being freed and causing mass devastation was likely a backup, though since Elidibus dispatched Unukalhai to help us stop them, whether or not it's one that would benefit the Ascians' cause is highly contentious.)

So while Solus being an Ascian and the Empire's true aim is to cause chaos not bring peace (through tyranny) neatly explains a lot about the Empire, whether or not it was planned from the beginning I'm not so sure of. (Remember Hanlon's razor!)

[Theodric]

Regula had a number of enemies in Garlemald despite his honourable nature. Some thought he had been promoted purely based on his friendship with the Emperor...yet in reality he had worked hard to remove corruption from within the 6th Legion. I wouldn't be surprised if his demise was orchestrated by the Ascians - to isolate Varis. One of the key points to know would be whether or not Varis confided in him regarded the origins of Garlemald - he was extremely passionate about the Emperor, after all. He wasn't willing to leave Azys Lla with flawed sealing technology, so if he knew of Varis' plight it'd add an extra layer of depth to his mission and explain his final words to the Warrior of Light about the Emperor having need of the WoL.

I do hope we get to see more of him in the future through the use of Echo flashbacks. He had a great design and brilliant voice acting...and I'm not entirely convinced he wasn't just killed off to make room for a certain someone based purely on fan service. Especially with recent plot revelations...he would have been the perfect character to set the Warrior of Light and Alphinaud on a path to meet with the Emperor himself, after all.

[Remedi]

I doubt that Solus was planned to be an ascian since back then, since he comes from Tanaka vision and we don't have evidence of what he wanted the ascians to be nor I know if they were a Tanaka addition or Yoshida's one.

That said I don't think we can really say that ascians want primals to wreck havoc, each time we destroy a primal they have said that it is to their gain and according to Alisae repeated killing of primals might make beast tribes willing to serve another god.
Remember they used the Warriors of Darkness to do the primal slaying for them.
Also they gave the Meracydians way to summon primals while also teaching the allagans how to constrict them according to Hraesvelgr, though I question that quote considering what has happened, but it does seem that they seek the chaos created by the conflict rather that pure destruction and an oppressive force which might entice ppl into serving zodiark

[ObsidianFire]

From what I remember, Regula isn't liked in the military because although he was really good at what he did, the only person who recognized how good he was was Varis. The current establishment (probably Solus' establishment) weren't the ones who gave him the rank of Legatus; that was all Varis' doing. So many people who were in power when Solus was in power, probably don't like Regula. And that happened before the War of Succession happened. He's a good example of how Varis was already trying to do things differently then Solus was even before he found out what Solus really was. As much as I can see the Ascians not wanting Regula around, it's more probable that normal political enemies of Varis want him out of the way. It certainly doesn't look like Regula dying was anything planned. It just happened that way since Regula isn't stupid enough to let Echo-using individuals get killed.

Regula has always rubbed me the wrong way with how and why he "allies" with the WoL. The only reason I saw him "allying" with the WoL was because Regula's gamble that Allagan Neurolinks would work against primals turned out to be false. It's a desperation move for him because he has to have something to bring back to Varis about the primal threat. That the Echo the WoL has is effective against primals is an acceptable substitute. It's also not until after Zurvan starts tempering people that Regula "allies" with the WoL. Up until that point, he wanted to kill the WoL because of how well they were interfering with with his goals. He switches his stance towards the WoL so quickly and under such duress I can't take it seriously. It feels very much like he's only interested in the WoL for their ability to deal with the primal situation.

The other that makes me suspicious of Regula is that he's basically Varis' enforcer. He's blindly loyal to him and is the one Varis puts in charge of rooting out corruption in the Empire. This gets really tricky to think about as on the one hand, that might be some of the corruption Solus let grow. On the other hand, it might be the Populares which Solus probably doesn't like and Varis doesn't like either since he was with the Optimates. I'm almost certain that Regula is talking about Varis with rose-tinted glasses. Remember, he's the one Varis has favored this whole time and is loyal to Varis because of that.

I have a hard time seeing Gaius as a replacement for what Regula's role could have been. Regula is too close emotionally to Varis to try to view what Varis is doing impartially and he doesn't have anywhere near Gaius' knowledge of what is really going on with primal summoning. If Regula is Varis' "yes man", then Gaius is almost the opposite. Varis found out that Giaus was planning to invade Eorzea with the help of the Ultima Weapon and ordered him to stop, and then when that didn't work, order the Ivy to undermine his efforts. I highly doubt Gaius is going to be bothered by calling Varis out on what he's doing. The other thing Regula doesn't know about is the Ascians. Or at least, he ever mentions them when the stakes get high enough. Much like Gaius, most of Regula's character development happens in the last scene with him, and in Regula's case, it's all about how Varis will need the WoL to combat the Primal threat. Giaus' last scene is all about how much the Ascians screwed Giaus over and how much that ticked him off. He's got every reason to want to know about them as much as possible. If Regula was our "in" with Varis, I highly doubt we'd be finding out about the Ascians anytime soon as he simply doesn't know what to look for or understand how much they can twist their words.

[Alleo]

The other that makes me suspicious of Regula is that he's basically Varis' enforcer. He's blindly loyal to him and is the one Varis puts in charge of rooting out corruption in the Empire. This gets really tricky to think about as on the one hand, that might be some of the corruption Solus let grow. On the other hand, it might be the Populares which Solus probably doesn't like and Varis doesn't like either since he was with the Optimates. I'm almost certain that Regula is talking about Varis with rose-tinted glasses. Remember, he's the one Varis has favored this whole time and is loyal to Varis because of that.

I agree with your view on Regula. On one hand I was sad that he was already killed (and in a side story too..) because he seemed to be an interesting character but at the same time I doubt that he was the shining example of honor too. Being devoted to someone can turn out bad quite fast if that person sticks with someone even if they are doing horrible things.

Thus next to his sacrifice, we also should remember that he was more than ready to murder our Vanu friends right in front of our eyes, while they were weaponless and while we told him that they did nothing wrong. Yet Varis said to kill them thus he would have. He also tried to kill us on Azys Lla and lets not forget that he was in charge of the air ship and as soon as we took out the barriers he was ready to shot us all down, which would have been our death. So yes the turn around was probably only because he could not defeat them without us. He still called us names and I am not sure if he would not have killed us after that if Varis had said so. Such a person can be an ally if the person they are loyal to are trying to be our ally. But otherwise if they are not they might still do the wrong thing just to stay loyal.

Gaius does not have this loyality anymore thus he could be our true ally in this.

[Remedi]

Warring triads story is not a side story according to the devs, but remember that Unukalhai tried to have us eliminate Regula, then remember who was the master of Unukalhai.

Considering the actions of Elidubus so far, either he's the greatest lucker ever written or he is already 2 steps ahead of us

[Simba_Tia]

I'm probably way off base but since zodiark is the mirror image of Hydaelyn, I think the ascian overlords to be the equivalent to the 12. Building from this I believe that Elidibus is the equivalent to Menphina. All the lesser ascians then fall into the category of those that have the echo out there. When her and zodiark lived together as one and were a bickering couple always fighting with each other, eventually he started beating Hydaelyn and she threw him out on his ass. This ended up essentially being the ff version of the big bang. But do to the nature of the creation, it was formed more as Hydaelyn would have wanted it. This meant that all the beings that zodiark had created were not allowed to be born as mortals. The only way that zodiarks echo champions were able to possess mortal form was to take and desecrate those that had already passed. However just like the warrior of light is a champion of hydaelyn of power and ability far beyond most of her other champions, the ascian that is solus is his polar opposite. Due to this he was able to break any restrictions about ascians having to possess a mortal and instead be born into an ascian. Just like its said that those with the echo return to an aetherite after they die in a new body, a similar occurance is happening with solus. Which is why he is instantly reborn in the a new body that is identical to his old one without possessing a new individual.

[Alleo]

Warring triads story is not a side story according to the devs, but remember that Unukalhai tried to have us eliminate Regula, then remember who was the master of Unukalhai.

Considering the actions of Elidubus so far, either he's the greatest lucker ever written or he is already 2 steps ahead of us

The triads are still not necessary to further do the main story so anyone that does not do it will never know that he is death. Also as far as I can remember, didnt he want us to stop Regula and his soldiers because they were kinda trying to release the triads or use them for their own gain?

If Elidibus is two steps ahead of us why are we able to stop his plans that often and why should he be so worried that he calls Solus back and now plays directly in the "game" too?