[Spoilers] Garlemald is a wasted opportunity

[SaitoHikari]

I'm willing to bet that at least one of the remaining Legions had probably gone exploring beyond the Three Great Continents, and may have made its way to the other two major landmasses only to later return and find that things had gone to hell in Garlemald. They would probably be our ticket to reaching those lands.

[Denishia]

I'm willing to bet that at least one of the remaining Legions had probably gone exploring beyond the Three Great Continents, and may have made its way to the other two major landmasses only to later return and find that things had gone to hell in Garlemald. They would probably be our ticket to reaching those lands.

oooh I like that! and that gives the developers a reason to have the Garlean magitek-style mobs in a 7.0 zone so those assets can still be used

[LystAP]

Current Status of Garlean Imperial Legions:
XIVth: formerly led by Legatus Gaius van Baelsar; went rogue on the legatus' orders attempting to conquer Eorzea, but failed. All but destroyed in Operation Archon, survivors are holed up in various Imperial Castra across Eorzea. Former legatus van Baelsar survived but deserted, and now leads reconstruction efforts in Werlyt.

If I recall the Reaper quests, remnants of the XIV are engaged in a sort of black market trading in Eorzea, acting as competition to the local Ul'dahian monopoly. They could desert and return home, but they find it more valuable to remain in Eorzea, and use the imperial infrastructure there to produce ceruleum and sell it at a profit in exchange for money to send back home. It's illegal to sell things to the imperials, but the law didn't have anything against buying from them, and the high demand for ceruleum meant the risk is worth it due to the profits involved.

[Bright-Flower]

If I recall the Reaper quests, remnants of the XIV are engaged in a sort of black market trading in Eorzea, acting as competition to the local Ul'dahian monopoly. They could desert and return home, but they find it more valuable to remain in Eorzea, and use the imperial infrastructure there to produce ceruleum and sell it at a profit in exchange for money to send back home. It's illegal to sell things to the imperials, but the law didn't have anything against buying from them, and the high demand for ceruleum meant the risk is worth it due to the profits involved.

They're garlean defectors but I don't think it was specified that they were specifically from XIV legion or anything. Just garleans in general.

[LystAP]

They're garlean defectors but I don't think it was specified that they were specifically from XIV legion or anything. Just garleans in general.

They're named stragglers, which considering where she says this, most likely mean the garrison at Castrum Meridianum, which is part of the XIV legion. There's nothing that indicates that they're defectors, but they are working with defectors, such as the Lemures, to make the trade.

Honestly, if I recall previous lore, almost all of the garrisons in Eorzea have essentially been abandoned to their own devices. None of them have technically defected or surrendered, it's just that Garlean command hasn't bothered with them at all. And now with the events of Endwalker, they might as well be completely cut off from the rest of the Empire.

[Antoine_Lenheim]

I felt like Garlemald was handled well. As this avenue of story telling allowed them show unique situation the people were in without the overreaching political power that has overshadowed much of the story.

Most other story paths to Garlemald would have needed a direct invasion of Garlemald and would have slowed the momentum of the story if we had to invade full scale. To take this thought further, I see this avenue of the story as the most interesting because it's a Japanese company showing us a fantasy retelling of Americans coming to Japan after the drop of the atomic bomb. The allegory can't be lost here because of it's ability to show humanity on both sides of the conflict.

Their most important story will be what comes after this. We clearly have a patch story coming where we'll visit Jullus and the twins. And maybe Gaius will be involved. At this point I'd be disappointed if we didn't reconstruct Garlemald.

It did show that unique situation and made us be symphathetic with Garleans but at the cost of total destruction of Empire's culture and technology and a lot of the people has been waiting to finally travel there to actually see their culture and technology. Instead we got YET ANOTHER desolated zone with refugees that we need to save and then, apparently, help to rebuild. Quite a cheap way if you ask me.

[RyuDragnier]

It did show that unique situation and made us be symphathetic with Garleans but at the cost of total destruction of Empire's culture and technology and a lot of the people has been waiting to finally travel there to actually see their culture and technology. Instead we got YET ANOTHER desolated zone with refugees that we need to save and then, apparently, help to rebuild. Quite a cheap way if you ask me.

Corvos is still an option for that. It's been name dropped too many times for it to not be an explorable zone of some kind in the future.

[Antoine_Lenheim]

Corvos is still an option for that. It's been name dropped too many times for it to not be an explorable zone of some kind in the future.

I sort of forgot about what it is and had to google lol. But sounds promising I guess.

[Denishia]

The point about not seeing Garlemald with its citizens living in comfort and advanced technology, sheltered from the suffering of those that aren't them, in their towering modern urban city pre-destruction, makes me realize that it helps Elpis to stand out.

[Kesey]

It did show that unique situation and made us be symphathetic with Garleans but at the cost of total destruction of Empire's culture and technology and a lot of the people has been waiting to finally travel there to actually see their culture and technology. Instead we got YET ANOTHER desolated zone with refugees that we need to save and then, apparently, help to rebuild. Quite a cheap way if you ask me.

I'm sorry if this comment sounds aggressive, but claiming the way the story expressed this zone as cheap and as another zone with refugees seems show a lack of empathy. This empire's people have suffered through this long war too and karma destroyed their civilization. Sitting on the other side of Endwalker, I think about these choices to show Garlemald this way and it feels inevitable.