Revelations from Patch 4.5

[ObsidianFire]

MSQ

Summary of the MSQ: Which of these two major Garlean players do you want to go into Teeth-Clenched Teamwork with?

Option A: Former legatus who tried and partially succeed at tanking over Eorzea only to find out he got manipulated by the Ascians when they used his superweapon to break part of the world which resulted in a lot of the people who followed him getting killed. He's now on a revenge quest to personally ensure the Ascians don't do that again to anyone else.

Option B: Current emperor who is being manipulated by the Ascians and is trying to use all that to his advantage so that a combined world has a chance to decided what its own fate should be. To bad that involves killing billions of people and remaking the world as we know it, but hey, at least mankind is free of the gods finally.

This entire MSQ felt like it was setting up Gaius and Varis as representing the two different directions Garlemald can go. And one of them has a lot saner goals then the other one does.

Gaius

Not surprised at all to be honest. Gaius never did like it when people died for no good reason. For someone who does care about what ends he is working towards, he cares a lot about the means he uses to bring those ends about.

What is interesting is that Gaius says he doesn't yet know if it's really the Emperor or the Ascians who are running Garlemlad currently. I would not be surprised to see his motives for hunting the Ascians down change once he finds out what Varis' goals are and that functionally, there's not a difference between their goals. As Nanamo put it, "Such a man is not fit to govern" and we all know what Gaius' opinions about those kinds of people are.

Probably the most interesting line he says is the "your deeds in Hydaelyn's name have upset the balance" line. This is probably the first hint we have in 4.5 about why the Warrior of Light would become the Warrior of Darkness. It also raises a bunch of questions. Do the deeds upset the balance if they aren't done in Hydaelyn's name? What if they're in someone else's?

Varis

As amusing as the parley scenes is, I don't think that's really the important scene about Varis. The scenes with him and Solus in the plant reveals a lot more about him then I excepted. Mainly that it seems what he is more annoyed with isn't the Ascians goals of a Calamity, but how those goals harm Garlemald. He wants Garlemald to succeed and does not care who dies in the process so long as is isn't Garlemald.

I'd also say Varis has his own particular brand of crazy. Cloning Solus before even knowing Solus was an Ascian. Not having a problem using Black Rose. Doing whatever he did to Zenos. I'd say Varis is as crazy as Zenos is, it's just that Varis' brand of crazy is a lot easier to hide in most cases then Zenos' is. From the sound of it, Varis was a full on "ends justify the means" kind of person long before he found out about the Ascians.

Solus also gives us the first hint of Light being an enemy force against us. From the sound of it, the Flood of Light on the 1st Shard is doing something to the Source's aether, it just wasn't immediate. And Solus is going to take advantage of it. Thinking about it, the "expunging all life" line is a really good description of the effects of Black Rose. Only Black Rose isn't "light". Solus seems to want to make Black Rose "light" in some way though, so... yeah... If it turns out that there isn't a Flood of Light going on anywhere we had to fix, but that line is really about oh... a Light-aspected Black Rose being the agent used to cause the next Umbral Calamtiy... I wouldn't be surprised. What does seem to be clear is that the light-related problem is going to be because of Ascians yet again and not the Warrior of Light doing their job too well.

As far as the parlay goes... I don't think Varis is faking anything because of how the scene with him and Solus went. Solus seems cofident that Varis will do what he wants him to. And Varis has always been arrogant ever since we first ran into him. That said, Varis gets a A for short-term negotiations and an F for long-term ones. As good as he was at talking about recent Eorzean history, he forgot the defining moment of the current era, the 7th Umbral Calamtiy. Eorzea got hit hardest by that. And if Varis knew Eorzea's history as well has it seems he does, he'd know Eorzea gets hit hardest by all the Calamities we know about. Trying to sell the idea of six more calamities to Eorzea is... laughable honestly. They know better then anyone what a calamtiy actually means. Varis basically gave away that he doesn't care about anything outside of Garlemald to them.

Probably the biggest take away from the parlay is that Varis doesn't think humanity as it currently is can stand up to the Ascians. And he all but says that in front of someone who has killed two of them. The Warrior of Light and the Alliance know that humanity is strong enough to take the Ascians on. They don't need to do anything crazy like combine all the shards to stop the Ascians from meddling in human affairs. The icing on the cake is that the Warrior of Light just came from talking to someone else who has been taking on the Ascians and is a Garlean themselves.

One of the really concerning things about what he says is the line about creating an army that would battle the servants of Darkness and Light. The servants of Darkness are probably the Ascians, but the Servants of Light? I'm pretty sure that's us, as people who work for Hydaelyn. I'm kinda wondering if Varis is thinking of going after us next once the Ascian threat has been dealt with. In his mind anyway.

I do like the Alliance all agreeing to stand against Varis. So much for their differences being divisive...

Ivalice Raid

Nice explanation for Ultima's existence. And it again runs into the whole plane/planet/star overlap in Omega. Also, it makes it sound like Ultima is like Omega and Midgardsormr where it's an alien that got the Hydaleyn before the Allagans got there. Given that there's hardly any historical records from before the Allagans, there's very little chance we'll ever know where exactly Ultima came from. Although I now am wondering what it is about Hydaleyn that attracts aliens to her... Also... Hydalyn imprisoned Ultima... who else does that sound like?

Oh boy... the Zodiac Braves knew not only about Hydaelyn but Ramza was a Warrior of Light. I think it's safe to say that with Ramza and Tenzen both being Warriors of Light in different eras that Warriors of Light pop up whenever Hydaelyn has need of them. Ramza and Co. also follow the Warriors of Darkness's example and go back to the aetherial sea once Ultima is finally defeated.

I do like all the hanging plot threads left over. Here's to hoping that Dalmasca gets a Scholastic type series of Side Quests about it in 5.0!

Things from the trailer that haven't come up yet

The "Lord Hein and Commander Hext have taken their troops to provide support, but we don't know how long they can hold out." line.

Any scene involving Elidibus/Zenos and Elezen/Zenos interacting with the WoL and Co.

Any scene with Varis in the Garlean throne room.

The "Soon, we will throw wide the gate." line by the Voice.

The last scene with the WoL in the circle diagram

All I can say is... next MSQ is probably going to have one dozy of a cliff-hanger since this MSQ didn't...