[SPOILERS] No one seems to be talking about that OTHER huge event

[TankHunter678]

-snip-

1) The devs did outright state that the Eden raid story is tied to the main story in one of the live letters before Shadowbringers came out. It is a side story mechanically so as to go alongside the other events the patches will be bringing and not force people to have to complete the raid to move along the MSQ.
2) All we know of the Black Rose deployment is that Garlemald deployed it. Not anyone within specifically. Varis was also getting ready to deploy Black Rose himself, it was part of the discussion that him and Elidibus were having before Zenos crashed in on the party upset with the fact that Varis was even getting such a weapon ready. This means that anyone could have used it provided they had access to it and a reason to use it. Even Elidibus possessing a Garlean Legatus.
3) Emet-Selche made it clear that just getting rid of the lightwardens was not enough. With 90% of the planet tilted massively into the light does taking down a few lightwardens really do anything? It solves an immediate problem, that of the Flood being resumed but does not solve the fact the planet is still so full of light that it is set for rejoining.
4) There is no way for the Eorzean Alliance and Doman Alliance to be able to take on the full might of the empire and their airship fleets if Garlemald is unified. However if Garlemald is breaking down into civil war then it becomes easy for them to push in and trigger a panic deployment. Of the future after the deployment of Black Rose everyone starts turning on each other because no only are people dying to the weapon but the very land itself. Causing everyone to have to fight to survive and leading to every nation breaking down into ever smaller communities.

[Alleo]

1) The devs did outright state that the Eden raid story is tied to the main story in one of the live letters before Shadowbringers came out. It is a side story mechanically so as to go alongside the other events the patches will be bringing and not force people to have to complete the raid to move along the MSQ.
2) All we know of the Black Rose deployment is that Garlemald deployed it. Not anyone within specifically. Varis was also getting ready to deploy Black Rose himself, it was part of the discussion that him and Elidibus were having before Zenos crashed in on the party upset with the fact that Varis was even getting such a weapon ready. This means that anyone could have used it provided they had access to it and a reason to use it. Even Elidibus possessing a Garlean Legatus.
3) Emet-Selche made it clear that just getting rid of the lightwardens was not enough. With 90% of the planet tilted massively into the light does taking down a few lightwardens really do anything? It solves an immediate problem, that of the Flood being resumed but does not solve the fact the planet is still so full of light that it is set for rejoining.
4) There is no way for the Eorzean Alliance and Doman Alliance to be able to take on the full might of the empire and their airship fleets if Garlemald is unified. However if Garlemald is breaking down into civil war then it becomes easy for them to push in and trigger a panic deployment. Of the future after the deployment of Black Rose everyone starts turning on each other because no only are people dying to the weapon but the very land itself. Causing everyone to have to fight to survive and leading to every nation breaking down into ever smaller communities.

1. Something being tied to the main story does not mean that the main story is not resolved on its own. They could have easily just meant that after stopping the flood of light and saving the first we will bring back more lands thanks to our actions in Eden. (Its what Ryne wants too, to be able to rebuilt) Its also right now not that much more tied than other stories. Urianger even says that we are not allowed to tell anyone else outside of the small group. So as long as they dont make it necessary to do the next MSQ it cant be that important to the MSQ itself. Its more about helping the people further down the road. Ingame the Exarch is ready to send us all back and the whole time they talk about how defeating the Lightwardens will save this shard and the source. Why would he do that if it was not save? The reason he called us was to stop the rejoining, sending us back, especially at a point where nothing horrible is happening on the source makes no sense, if its still all in danger.

2. Seemingly Elidibus even when using the body of Zenos needed Varis "yes" to start it. We do had one scene where he was ready to act but Varis was silent on this and Elidibus told him to decide soon. That sounds like such a weapon would need high permission to be activated. I mean a lower officer also cant just activate an atom bomb in our world either. So for me it makes the most sense to have been Varis and since he is death and Zenos outright says that he wont use it, then it makes this very certain that the weapon is done for. I mean Elidibus on the moon seemingly has also dropped the plan and is now throwing another bunch of WoLs at us.

3. He said that it was not enough because we would be having that light inside. And of course if the people dont change they could fall back into being stagnate which could introduce more Light. But he was quite happy when he thought that we will turn and become a Lightwarden because we would then finally finish what he began and what we stopped. Yes there is still light in the empy which will make it hard to survive for a longer time but at the same time the sky seems to be fine too. I think this is truly just us trying to resolve the aftermaths and make the land habitable again. I mean if Eden was the part where it would finally save the shard wouldnt it be bad that this conclusion is behind a raid quest? One would do the MSQ and somehow never truly save anything but going with Ryne and the others on a side adventure would suddenly solve the main problem? And again the exarch would have sent us all home when the problem is not solved at all?

4. Well Garlemald was unified the whole time (well minus all the rebellions going on in the conquered lands) and seemingly even without us Eorzea was holding their ground, pushing for a stalemate. In the future that Urianger saw he said that Eorzea was not only able to hold their ground but to slowly turn it around and push them back. We cant forget that we are still fighting on Eorzean ground and not at the doors of Garlemald. In that future Eorzea was just able to slowly force the enemy to retreat further from the battlefield on Eorzea and that alone was enough for the black rose to being used. I think it just shows that Garlemald is not a unstoppable force they believed themselves to be and the alliance is made from several countries that are also mostly fighting on the grounds of their homeland. (And I would say that some of that recent saved countries would fight even harder) There is nothing in the story from Urianger that said that there was a civil war in Garlemald that helped the Alliance. They simply were able to turn around the battle slowly (and it would make sense that this happened because we and the scions were still there, seeing how we are a one-man-army ourself) but not so far that they defeated them or even were standing on the doorsteps of Garlemald.

[Lium]

3. He said that it was not enough because we would be having that light inside. And of course if the people dont change they could fall back into being stagnate which could introduce more Light. But he was quite happy when he thought that we will turn and become a Lightwarden because we would then finally finish what he began and what we stopped. Yes there is still light in the empy which will make it hard to survive for a longer time but at the same time the sky seems to be fine too. I think this is truly just us trying to resolve the aftermaths and make the land habitable again. I mean if Eden was the part where it would finally save the shard wouldnt it be bad that this conclusion is behind a raid quest? One would do the MSQ and somehow never truly save anything but going with Ryne and the others on a side adventure would suddenly solve the main problem? And again the exarch would have sent us all home when the problem is not solved at all?

I agree with you here. When I did the Eden series my thoughts were "this is essentially nation-building after a war." It's very important and will require a lot of hard work and dedication, and it's quite perilous, but the main threat has passed. This is the kind of stuff in movies that happen off-screen. Like after the rebels defeated the empire in Star Wars, the original trilogy was over. Rebuilding the Republic and dealing with the rest of the empire's forces and all of that happened in between films. It was told in comics, novels and video games. Same thing with Lord of the Rings after Sauron was defeated. The aftermath was left to the appendices.

That's kind of how I feel about Eden. It's important, but the main threat was actually Emet-Selch.