[Spoilers] Garlemald is a wasted opportunity

[Antoine_Lenheim]

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.

So you're basically okay with Empire's representation of being Ala Mhigo/Doma v2.0?

[Cleretic]

So you're basically okay with Empire's representation of being Ala Mhigo/Doma v2.0?

Personally, yes, because the interesting part of Garlemald is that it only appears to be 'Ala Mhigo/Doma 2.0' at first. What makes Garlemald shine is that you get there to find out that no, guns-blazing heroism and intervention is genuinely not welcome; it's not like Stormblood where you get through by just continuing to meddle, Garlemald genuinely does not want the help, and people would rather die than receive it.

Garlemald is the closest the game's ever come to genuine hostile territory as a zone, because not only are there the usual things/people that'll readily try to kill us, but even the people we're supposed to be helping don't want us around.

(Also, Bozja is the real 'Ala Mhigo/Doma 2.0', and it was fantastic.)

[Eriane_Elis]

Isn't it just part of the nation though? Wouldn't there still be cities (at least towns) still erect or am I misunderstanding it? As I see it, it's an opportunity to "rebuild" Garlemald like the Doman reconstruction. I'm also disappointed we didn't get to have the full garlemald experience and was really looking forward to it since ARR (well, stormblood since that's when I started playing) but I really wanted to see the city. We might have the luxury of seeing it one day but I feel like Garlemald is just going to be a wasteland and wasted potential because the devs seem to want to move away from Garleans and Ascians entirely.

[dynus]

Yeah, I think that's important to remember; this was just a part, and there's more. With the twins going to Garlemald, I have no doubt that it'll get some focus. The twins, Alphinaud especially, are pretty much the WoL's best friends since ARR. Even if they take a step back from the spotlight in the coming story, the most that'll happen is they get a downgrade from MSQ to Really Important Side Story characters.

[KageTokage]

I doubt Garlemald will ever be properly rebuilt any time within the game's lifespan, so if we do get some kind of restoration project I'm expecting it'll be creating a home for the estranged Garleans elsewhere.

I also can't help but feel slightly concerned about the fact that the Tower of Babil is still radiating that ominous red haze even in the wake of Anima's destruction.

[YianKutku]

I've been watching streamers play through the Garlemald section (well, I've been watching their edited highlights clips, at least), and the more I see that NPC accuse our character of killing her comrades in the Praetorium, the less sense it makes.

For one thing, we learn from Nero back in 3.x that every member of the XIVth present when Gaius was doing his Ultima Weapon plan (ie since the start of ARR) was now considered traitors and deserters, since Gaius went rogue. As far as we know, that edict was never rescinded, since Varis would have to be the one to do so, and I don't know if he ever got a chance. In the Reaper questline, we also learn that the remnants of the XIVth are still there, and apparently selling ceruleum on the black market to support themselves.

So this NPC, who claims to have been present in the Praetorium and witness to us charging through it, is now a member of the (presumably prestigious) First Legion, and somehow still blaming us for her her comrades' deaths, instead of being more concerned that she should technically have been executed as a traitor, as the XIVth did to the VIIth remnants after Carteneau.

And quite frankly, I find it highly dubious that we killed that many of her comrades, given how Praetorium runs are entirely rushing past as many of the enemy spawns as we can, and only fighting the ones with keycards. Even in the Magitek Armour sequence, our primary foes are automated robots.

Gaius ordering his airships to blast holes into the Praetorium, and later the Ultima cast, was far more likely to be the cause of the deaths than anything we did. I don't blame Gaius for Ultima, but I do blame him for the sections where he blew open holes in the building.

Personally, I would say a much more fitting accusation was if the NPC said Rhitatyn was her friend (or inspiration or some such positive relationship), or that her friends were part of Rhitatyn's guard delegation. Cape Westwind was a targeted assassination, and one we should be guilty of. It was necessary, but still an assassination.

[MikkoAkure]

Current Status of Garlean Imperial Legions:

Ist: refugees in Garlemald, formerly led by the late Quintus van Cinna. Now under the de facto leadership of Jullus pyr Norbanus.
IInd: Unknown.
IIIrd: led by Vergilia van Corculum. Cured of tempering to Anima; status otherwise unknown.
IVth: went rogue and attempted but failed to establish dominion over Bozja / Dalmasca under the orders of their legatus, Noah van Gabranth. Status otherwise unknown.
Vth: Unknown.
VIth: dispatched to Azys Lla to unearth Allagan eikon binding technology, but deemed Allagan methods unworthy; Legatus Regula van Hydrus killed in action. Status otherwise unknown.
VIIth: formerly led by Nael van Darnus, who saw the Meteor Project to fruition in 1.X; routed by the Seventh Umbral Calamity, Legatus van Darnus killed in action. Reformed under the leadership of Valens van Varro and stationed in Werlyt, but Legatus van Varro was defeated and killed by defector Gaius Baelsar. Status otherwise unknown.
VIIIth: Unknown.
IXth: Unknown.
Xth: Surrendered to the Grand Company of Eorzea. Leading Legatus and status otherwise unknown.
XIth: Unknown.
XIIth: formerly led by Zenos yae Galvus, stationed in Gyr Abania and Yanxia. Uprisings against Imperial rule saw the legion ousted from its provinces; survivors taken as PoWs. Former legatus yae Galvus complicit in starting the civil war that all but destroyed the Empire, stripped of his title and given the disgraceful "viator" instead.
XIIIth: Unknown.
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.

According to the post-Bozja field notes for Gabranth, 1/3 of the IVth was killed in battle and the remaining 2/3 are PoWs.

I can't remember if it was said that the Xth legion was from Corvos, but there'd be a legion there to begin with, and others in whatever other occupied territory they have. I also thought I remember something about Garleans in the Far West mining ceruleum so it would stand to reason a legion went there too to fight the natives.

Speaking of Corvos, it's kind of weird that it's considered the "Garlean homeland" when we know that there were miqo'te living there 5200 years before the Garleans were kicked out. I wonder if the Ascians edited their textbooks.

[ElizanderNorisse]

Would be nice to know what happened to Nerva and Varis's bodyguards Annia and Julia, especially to those two after what happened in 5.0

[LystAP]

Speaking of Corvos, it's kind of weird that it's considered the "Garlean homeland" when we know that there were miqo'te living there 5200 years before the Garleans were kicked out. I wonder if the Ascians edited their textbooks.

Miqo'te live everywhere. The Garleans were probably centered around a specific region of Corvos, and didn't often venture far, which makes sense considering the discrimination against them. This was also probably before the Garleans got interested in Allagan technology. Raha's ancestors would have just been another tribe with their own customs. The Garleans only got interested in Allagan technology after they got magitek.

[MikkoAkure]

Miqo'te live everywhere. The Garleans were probably centered around a specific region of Corvos, and didn't often venture far, which makes sense considering the discrimination against them. This was also probably before the Garleans got interested in Allagan technology. Raha's ancestors would have just been another tribe with their own customs. The Garleans only got interested in Allagan technology after they got magitek.

The old Garleans were made up of multiple different tribes. The only confirmed location where one of them lived was the tribe that created the city of Goug which is south of Dalmasca in the Valnard Sea and leads ships to Valnain, which is a distance from Corvos and would mean that the idea of a central homeland is a little tricky if they were already spread out. It's possible though that they became refugees in Corvos, as Goug was thousands of years ago and would have been before the Garlean emigration 800 years ago.

As far as the miqo'te of Corvos go, we know for a fact that that same group has been there for 6000 years because that's where Princess Salina gave the miqo'te Desch the Allagan eye and his people stayed until House Darnus came and they were scared of being discovered.

Speaking of House Darnus, I don't believe that the Garlean interest in Allag began with magitek since Nael was described in the EE as having been the "heir to the secrets of her family - secrets of the fallen Allagan Empire". I thought I remember Nael herself mentioning that her family goes all the way back to Allag, and it was definitely them who donated the artifact that led to the Meteor Project, but I can't remember when that was mentioned. The Garleans were always messing around with technology. They had guns in Garlemald before they were an empire and before magitek, and thousands of years ago created the city of Goug, filled with robots and contraptions.