Tales under the New Moon #5: Whispers from the Dark

[Anonymoose]

My baseless guess is that the stories were intended to be released during the Rising, but got delayed, and that July -> August might not have been enough comfort zone to be releasing stories set in Tural. Please look forward to next year? lol.

In the meantime, the topic of this one was a solid idea to go back for considering hells yeah Black Wolf we never touched much on the background of this part.

Lahabrea needling Gaius's resentment at the coming order to set up castra in Eorzea only to hide behind their walls and wait.

Frumentarium mentioned.

Black Masks mentioned.

Lahabrea
I entrust it to you, and no other. That this star might know the peace it once enjoyed...

Gaius van Baelsar
Your hopes for the star do not concern me, Ascian.

That is a killer interaction. Lahabrea pulling out a CLASSIC Ascian "I'm telling the truth but intend for you to misinterpret it" double-speak that Gaius should -- perhaps maybe even would -- have questioned if only his reply wasn't an honest reflection of state of mind at the time.

Gaius's loyalty to the Emperor, never addressed in his going rogue, here connected to "Solus's" foundational orders, not only mentioned, but used against him to inspire the act.

Recall that - in retrospect (we, and Square Enix at the time, probably, did not yet know the full state of the Empire's personalities and politics), Gaius's going rogue despite his loyalty to Solus perhaps makes more sense than it once did.

Gaius was willing to go act against immediate orders to serve earlier, higher-priority orders even in 1.0. As soon as Gaius detected Nael was deceiving Solus, he orchestrated his downfall at the hands of the Eorzean Alliance.

Impatience to conquer Eorzea and selfish ambition felt, to me, an insufficient explanation for that being the time and place he cashed out his loyalty.

But in retrospect - the Emperor bedridden and unable to rule, Varis coming to power, a conflict brewing between the Optimates and the Populares - Gaius was damned to lose regardless of who won. The Optimates didn't rule with Gaius's values - the strong had no obligation to rule the weak as (their idea of) benevolent patrons (unless they resisted in which case they were on the side of chaos and to be destroyed). The Opimates calling the shots in Eorzea would be disastrous, from his perspective. But the Populares would forsake their sacred charge to protect the star from the blight of the eikons entirely.

Perhaps he felt it was his only option to reclaim his strength and influence and restore his legacy, and that desperation set the stage for his successive moments of weakness - defiance, vanity, arrogance to the point of blindness in being taken in by a ruse he by all rights should have seen through.

Gaius and Lahabrea both being done in by arrogance leading to blindness and their own machinations destroying them is aces.

Lahabrea's "saturday morning cartoon" villain-ness addressed and connected to his own fading memories.

Lahabrea having a moment of reservation about Sabik and memories of his family trying to surface, all rejected in the name of loyalty to Zodiark and commitment to duty.

That was a pleasant surprise right from opening the Lodestone to the end.

Great, more Heart of Sabik stuff for my Auracite brain worms to chew on.

It was a solid five minutes after I had accepted, "perhaps the stories were delayed; perhaps we're giving it a year before doing Tural stories" before I considered connections to Ultima Prime Theory and perhaps subtle laying of foundations for it...but I'm with you, if for nothing but love of the game when it comes to conspiracy half-jokes that might pan out to come true.