[Spoilers] Garlemald is a wasted opportunity

[Cleretic]

If you had read more than just one sentence of most post rather than immediately jumping to tell me off for being wrong you'd see I addressed Werlyt, and the he wasn't motivated by power. But okay, be a know-it all.

Fair enough, and I'm sorry, but I still feel like it's ultimately not likely or the right thing.

Mainly because we've already got the story of 'Gaius becomes leader of a nation that he tries to lead out of ruins'. What would we get out of him then becoming leader of Garlemald, other than increasing scale for a personal story that ultimately doesn't need it?

I could see him as something of a kingmaker for the question of who leads Garlemald, because he's still a reputable Legatus who was kind of ultimately proven right in his reasons to leave that post; while he wouldn't take the throne himself, his words would hold weight for whoever does get it. Who will be a very different person grappling with very similar questions to Gaius but having likely different answers, so we get some new energy.

[Antoine_Lenheim]

Probably unpopular opinion but if Garlemald rebuilds I kinda hope Gaius ends up ruler. He's gone through his regret, his redemption, his depression, and even turned down saving it in favor of not what it needs right now.

Like they did with Chai-Nuzz talking him into being ruler as the one suited for the job, despite his previous actions, I hope they do with Gaius. He already agreed to lead Werlyt back to better times. He was the only higher-up in Garlemald that detested outright destroying people (black rose, meteor, Ultima's last attack) and wasn't racist against non-Garleans when they conscripted people. Yes his actions were wrong, but he never saw it as 'conquer and destroy villain' mentality. He saw it as bringing people under one ruler, so all can prosper together. Even if his ideals were wrong to do, they weren't evil in themselves. People sometimes say he was Hitler, but Gaius was never against other people, he didn't want to make a one-race, he just wanted a one-empire.

So I think if anyone outside of Cid (and we know he won't want it) can build Garlemald back up, it'd be Gaius with Julius as a lead man, and the twins as advisors.

Just my hopes/thoughts.

Having Gauis to go back to rule Empire now that he is a changed man would indeed be the nice thing to have but one thing boggles my mind, are all rightful heirs of the throne are gone? Don't remember if Zenos slaughtered them all.

[Cleretic]

Having Gauis to go back to rule Empire would indeed be the nice think to have but one thing boggles my mind, are all rightful heirs of the throne are gone? Don't remember if Zenos slaughtered them all.

The main competition, Nerva, is unaccounted for. He was openly fighting and had supporters early in the 5.x patches, but fall out of the picture around when the Telophoroi start becoming a thing. We find his subordinates among the tempered in the march to Garlemald, but not him.

I'd say that such a figure would be notable in the absence of their death, since it would be a small thing to say he died off-screen and is prominent enough to not forget about... but, well, there's like four Ascians unaccounted for, and they write Endwalker like they never existed.

[Rosenstrauch]

The only heirs we've known about, Nerva and Titus Galvus, are MIA. The most appropriate way to describe their presence in Endwalker is probably "past tense". They are never seen, and a new female legatus is leading the IIIrd Legion in Nerva's place, so he might be dead, but is never actually stated to be so.

He might also be in hiding—there's a quest chain to reunite a Garlean child with his missing mother, who as it turns out was a maid in service to Nerva's family and is in hiding with "kin to the royal family". And when you pursue her, the only dead body you come across is that of a single royal guard, but you also don't encounter anyone alive other than the mother and a royal guard protecting her. But it's never actually stated outright that Nerva is in hiding, and the fate of the people the mother was hiding out with is never clarified.

It's weird.

[CKNovel]

I'm a machine enjoyer.
I see a train, I'm literally "OOOO TRAIN", dieselpunk is one of my favorite style.
And I love snow, so I already had a bias for Garlemald.

Yet... Garlemald was bland, the focus was more on the Garleans and their culture rather than their magnificent Toyota Varis.
I was expecting some damages, but not such devastation.

One of the biggest disappointment to me was Gaius, he was the best choice to talk to Quintus despite his reputation as a traitor.
I like the area, I loved how the survivors just struggle with their actual status. They lost everything and they want everything back. They were a bit too irrational in my opinion, "better the beast of the wild rather than those damn eorzeans".

The second disappointment was the lack of magiteck during the final days. We had one big scene where the garleans decided to work with Eorzea in order to survive together.
And that's it, we don't see them ever again doing anything relevant. Neither do we see the use of magiteck ever again.

I really hope later on we get to help with the rebuilding of Garlemald and to see the train back on rail. Literally the train lying there in the cold snow. I don't need collision, I only need it to be visual, but I want to see more trainsk, especially one in the wild.
I'd like a new Garlean area, a city like Doma where the survivors are gathering. And hopefully it will be named "Narshe". I liked Garlemald but I'm still very hungry.

[Atamis]

Bit disappointed myself. I was expecting much given they only give us 1 zone of a region anymore and it has to be relevant to the story for some reason. But finally setting foot in the capitol for it to be an abandoned husk barely bigger than idleshire was a bit silly. The trains were awesome, the oil platform was cool, i was immensely curious where the highway went, but there was almost no world building going on in the zone. What do they eat? there wasn't any food processing places, is it truly tundra all year round? what did tje original inhabitants eat? Where were all the airships? where are the airship docks or factories? where were all the magitek mecha manufactured, repaired or stored? The imperial palace apperenly had extensive biological facilities but that never came up, where were the weapon prototypes or facilities that were apperenly around here? Two throw away randos and anima wasn't a good replacement. (Side note, i I feel like this was a waste if Anima and her original story)
Still waiting in Garlean armor and weapons, the chainsaw weapons are definitely not the same gunshields and the like we've grown used to. The winter armor was a nice touch just silly we only ever see it in this once place and it lacks any of the defining features their armor had.
I wish they weren't so adverse to adding zones. Why not make 1-3 other regional zones not tied to msq just for fates or a way to level the new classes and just has a small story centered around the region.

[Bright-Flower]

The main competition, Nerva, is unaccounted for. He was openly fighting and had supporters early in the 5.x patches, but fall out of the picture around when the Telophoroi start becoming a thing. We find his subordinates among the tempered in the march to Garlemald, but not him.

I'd say that such a figure would be notable in the absence of their death, since it would be a small thing to say he died off-screen and is prominent enough to not forget about... but, well, there's like four Ascians unaccounted for, and they write Endwalker like they never existed.

I suspect they didn't have time to fit Nerva into the Garlemald msq and one of the patch stories may deal with him.

While EW's patches will be a new story and not leading to a 'second climax' in the same way as prior expansions, I could still see them exploring the fallout in different zones, or checking in with different areas with the scions in the patches while waiting for 7.0 to come.

I'm kind of hoping they don't keep with the monarchy though. Garlemald was a republic before Emet-Selch came along, I'd rather see them pick up those roots rather than continue having an emperor.

[Antoine_Lenheim]

Bit disappointed myself. I was expecting much given they only give us 1 zone of a region anymore and it has to be relevant to the story for some reason. But finally setting foot in the capitol for it to be an abandoned husk barely bigger than idleshire was a bit silly. The trains were awesome, the oil platform was cool, i was immensely curious where the highway went, but there was almost no world building going on in the zone. What do they eat? there wasn't any food processing places, is it truly tundra all year round? what did tje original inhabitants eat? Where were all the airships? where are the airship docks or factories? where were all the magitek mecha manufactured, repaired or stored? The imperial palace apperenly had extensive biological facilities but that never came up, where were the weapon prototypes or facilities that were apperenly around here? Two throw away randos and anima wasn't a good replacement. (Side note, i I feel like this was a waste if Anima and her original story)
Still waiting in Garlean armor and weapons, the chainsaw weapons are definitely not the same gunshields and the like we've grown used to. The winter armor was a nice touch just silly we only ever see it in this once place and it lacks any of the defining features their armor had.
I wish they weren't so adverse to adding zones. Why not make 1-3 other regional zones not tied to msq just for fates or a way to level the new classes and just has a small story centered around the region.

About armor, I think you can gather a whole Imperial set from lv 83 dungeon, should be for each job as well.

Aside from it, agree with everything you mentioned. Garlemald is one big rushed disappointment. There is hope though that they maybe cover it more in future patches!

[dynus]

While I agree the region could have been more, I think it's important to remember this region has gone through two civil wars in about (at most) two years, had a majority of its population tempered, and was forced into hard labor by Fandaniel and Zenos, who probably didn't give a rat's behind about whether or not they could survive said labor. A lot of things were torn down to make the Tower of Babil.

With all these things in mind, I'm not surprised this is what we got.

[Cleretic]

While I agree the region could have been more, I think it's important to remember this region has gone through two civil wars in about (at most) two years, had a majority of its population tempered, and was forced into hard labor by Fandaniel and Zenos, who probably didn't give a rat's behind about whether or not they could survive said labor. A lot of things were torn down to make the Tower of Babil.

With all these things in mind, I'm not surprised this is what we got.

Agreed, and probably also worth noting, I imagine Garlemald will get the lion's share of patch 'cleanup'. I feel like it's gonna be the Doma of Endwalker, getting a lot of content around seeing the nation pick itself back up. After all, there's some story to tell about Thavnair recovering from the End of Days, but generally speaking we know the trajectory of that rebuild; there's some story in Sharlayan learning not to be isolationist and to work with other nations, but that's not necessarily a thrilling tale by most metrics (not me, though, I've been wanting a Dry Fantasy Politics patch for years). But there is A LOT of interesting questions to ask and conflict to be mined from Garlemald finding a new leader and a new outlook.