[SPOILERS for 5.5 and 6.0] The Fate of the Garlean Empire

[Cilia]

Former Imperial provinces dissatisfied with Imperial rule will rebel; some will succeed, some will become fiefdoms ruled by warlord ex-Legates. The ones satisfied with Imperial rule (assuming any exist) will be unaffected.

As for the Empire itself, it's finished. After Zenos and Danny Boy's grand master plan is foiled, with the Imperial capital a smoking ruin surviving Garleans will be forced to rebuild or build a new capital; either way, being no longer in a position of real power (unless enough ex-Legates band together) and faced with the scorn of... pretty much the entire rest of the known world, it's very unlikely a new Garlean Empire will rise. Instead I expect it will revert to the small republic it was before Emet-Selch (a.k.a. Solus zos Galvus) influenced it to becoming the world superpower.

Personally I'm not expecting Gaius to have a hand in this because he's busy with Werlyt. Maybe I'm wrong.

[JeanneOrnitier]

Personally I'm not expecting Gaius to have a hand in this because he's busy with Werlyt. Maybe I'm wrong.

I don't think they would have brought Gaius back just for Werlyt, he's going to have a hand in the MSQ at some point and Garlemald's future seems the most likely thing. Whether he'll be the new leader or not (which I'm personally leaning toward, but either way), he'll definitely be involved in that plot.