Ishgard' s archbisschop

[Catapult]

I'm certainly in agreement that Ishgard's isolationism since not long after the fall of the Keeper is significant and do like the idea of it being linked to Shiva's influence.
The appearance of Midgardsormr would have likely been viewed as a major event, which could have led to some significant prayer to their guardian deity, the warrior maiden of ice.

(And Moose, please don't eat your hat, because darksteel isn't good for you.)

[Toranja]

As Gaius was working with Lahabrea, I believe Ishgard is working with the Ascians and Garlemald.

For the Ascians, Ishgard would be a logical and appetizing target. All that religious fervour screams SUMMONING. As behind the scenes manipulators, they would steer this zeal to convince the people of Ishgard to summon their deity, as they influenced the Ala Mhigan youth in Southern Thanalan.

After striking down Ala Mhigo, The Empire advances towards Silvertear Lake and strikes down a Dragon King, Midgardsormr. As they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Having dealt such an admirable blow against their sworn enemy, they take a passive attitude towards Garlemald.

The two things don't need to be necessarily connected. However, given Ishgard drops the Alliance and neglects the summons to meeting regarding Gaius' ultimatum and adding Lahabrea's collaboration with Gaius, seeing a consortium between Garlemald and Ishgard having Lahabrea as their liaison, doesn't seem all that unlikely.


I have to disagree with the tempering and summoning talk about Ishgard. Regarding the tempering, I see no comments from Eorzeans mentioning a change in Ishgard's behaviour as they observed with the tribes. As for the summoning, our Scions friends did not detect any disturbance in the aether to suggest a primal (or a God, for that matter) had been summoned in Coerthas.

[Alenore]

After striking down Ala Mhigo, The Empire advances towards Silvertear Lake and strikes down a Dragon King, Midgardsormr. As they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Having dealt such an admirable blow against their sworn enemy, they take a passive attitude towards Garlemald.

Then they should ally with Dragons to take down Garlemald, since they invaded both Dzemael Darkhold (an ishgardian fortress) and Aurum Vale (mythril mines).

Now I agree they might try to summon Halone, that'd be cool.

[Enkidoh]

I can't remember where I saw it, but I remember reading somewhere here ages ago that Ishgard had actually signed a neutrality treaty with Garlemald and that was the reason for their sudden pull-out of the Alliance after Silvertear Falls and their continuing closed border policy. It does make sense in any event, especially when framed with a story element from 1.0, where the Empire dropped linkpearls on the Eorzean citystates encouraging them to accept Imperial rule and to assist the Empire in the extermination of the beast tribes (and by extension, their Primals).

Considering Ishgard has long been at war with the Dravanian Horde, it's entirely possible that the Empire saw Ishgard's zealous war against the dragons, and decided not to interfere with Ishgard at that stage. Where as the other three city states were indecisive when it came to the beastmen problem and hence, Gaius felt only he could solve that issue, by conquering Eorzea and destroying the beastmen and their Primals himself.

Anyway I've never seen it mentioned anywhere so it's probably just a fan theory that I read, so take it with a grain of salt. But it does neatly explain a lot of things about Ishgard so it's too tempting a theory not to discount.

[Xmbei]

Sinister I knew something had to be going on, I had a theory somewhere that the clean prison chambers we see the ascians talked in probably were probably there, left cryptic for spoilers!

[Xmbei]

So starting to lean to Dragons being the protectors of Eorzea and fight the ascians and their influence. Plus those deemed as threats (post 2.3 story) with Midgardsormr being the seal of the primals guardian and long hatred of a potential threats such as Ishgardians founders attacking them, and ascians possibly corrupting Bahamut. So excited for more information in 2.4 that ending was better than Revolution was.

[Orophin]

Since this topic isn't tagged for spoilers:

Clearly the Ascians are orchestrating everything going on in Ishgard. For how long this has been going on, who knows? It's pretty clear now why the Ishgardians refused to join the Eorzean Alliance during Dalamud's descent though. I'm not so sure the Ascians have a direct hand in the heretics. (which seems to be a pretty general term, since Shiva seems to be controlling some, while there are others who appear to side with dragonkind. I think "heretic" is anyone that doesn't abide by the Papacy)

After mulling this over, if the Ascians have this sort of influence over people such as an Ul'dahn Syndicate member and the holy leader of a nation, why haven't they tried to interfere with the other nation leaders? Is it because the adventurers and Minfilia are in such constant contact with them that we would eventually see through their ruse?

[Xmbei]

Since this topic isn't tagged for spoilers:

your second question is really good, and a wonder, maybe they are come to their senses? but that is rather good! Hopefully we find out in 2.0 or 3.0 since the ascian story is supposedly going into 3.0