Arenvald - Garlean half-breed?

[Iscah]

For talking to side characters at every opportunity before advancing the plot, one of my favourite scenes so far has been the quest (must have been in the lead-up to Ramuh) where you're in the Sylphlands and there are imposter versions of the Scions hanging around. Fun dialogue there!

Side note on Arenvald - I keep thinking he looks a lot like Scar from Fullmetal Alchemist. Dark skin, pale hair, X-shaped mark on his face, yellow shirt. Plus - I'm still only up to Heavensward, but - Ala Mhigo seems to be portrayed similarly to Ishval (Scar's homeland) as an invaded-and-destroyed nation. Could be coincidence, but enough similarities that I can't help wondering if it was deliberate, in a "let's make this minor NPC look like a character from something else" kind of way.

[Ametrine]

I think that's more from both Ishval and Ala Mhigo having similar real world roots.

Ala Mhigo, now that it's a more concrete place, is decidedly Turkish in it's inspiration.

[Eloah]

So I was posting in another thread and it lead me to this one. I just read this and from what I remember being said in the story it holds true. Arenvald wears face paint to cover tbe scars his mother gave him. Scars that got there because she ripped out his third eye. So even half-breeds can be born with the eye. My guess is, though it is speculation, his mother wanted to love him, and ripped out the one obvious reminder. But as he aged he probably started resembling his father and that was too much to bear. This mimics real life in a frightening way if true. And sheds some new light on Arenvald. I don't think it's been indicated yet but he very much might view himself as a mistake or burden, and the Echo is the only thing telling him otherwise.

[ObsidianFire]

Arenvald never had a third eye. His mom was paranoid that he was growing one when he was a kid so she cut up his forehead to prevent the third eye from growing in (which wasn't there to begin with). She eventually threw him out of the house onto the streets of Ala Mhigo when he was still a kid because she hated looking at him. One of the main reasons that he's more compassionate towards Fordola is because he sees that both of them are stuck between being Ala Mhigan and still having ties to the Garleans. And he knows how bad that can turn out.

That said, he says that the best thing that ever happened to him was getting out of Ala Mhigo and joining the Scions and while he does want Ala Mhigo to be freed from Garlean rule, he also doesn't want to stay permanently in Ala Mhigo because he's got so many bad memories associated with the place.

[Eloah]

https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Arenvald

This is where i got the info and all but the last line matches the lore book. The last line appears to be added in response to recent info, like from 4.1. Now either the info was misconstrued, or its accurate. Either way us as the audience know very little about half-breeds, and for all we know they could look entirely like one parent but have a defining feature of another, like Hilda's ears. Plus, why would his mother think he was growing an eye? Its been established she took care of him for a bit before her emotions got the better of her. But from the way Arenvald talks, while he has no "love" for the woman, things were good before he was cast out. The eye could of been the trigger. Maybe it was an eye, maybe a pimple, we wont know until we get solid confirmation.

[ObsidianFire]

I wouldn't trust the wiki that much. As it is it's right there in the dialog from the 4.1 quest The Darkness Below:

My father was in the imperial army, a man of Garlean blood. I trust you know what I mean when I say that my Ala Mhigan mother did not welcome my arrival?

As I grew, she would check my brow over and over, convinced that a spot on my skin was an emerging third eye─like the kind you see in pureblood Garleans. My mother did not care for this taunting reminder of my heritage, and took up a knife...
War paint serves to cover the scar.

In the end, she turned me out into the street, and I was left to haunt the alleyways of Ala Mhigo, a feral child who got what he needed through begging, cunning, or worse.

The best I can say about the years that followed is that I survived. But I hated the animal I'd become. Eventually, I left the city behind me, and joined a group of refugees bound for the other side of the Wall. It was then that I turned to adventuring, and that road led me into the company of the Scions.

And the 4.1 quest A Sultana's Strings:

In case you're wondering, I'm not planning on staying in Ala Mhigo. Too many bad memories. And besides, I like my new life.

[Eloah]

snip

This just proves what i said though.

[VargasVermillion]

half-breeds being able to grow third eyes would explain the massive variety of heights/proportions garleans were shown to come in based on the ones present on the prima vista.

[Theodric]

I would have liked to have seen him make peace with his Garlean heritage rather than simply his Ala Mhigan side. Perhaps in the future he can interact with some Garlean civilians and see the better side of Garlemald. As it stands, his arc feels unfinished...though I suppose that could be intentional.

[Ametrine]

Gotta understand his mother was raped by a Garlean soldier. Arenwald was a walking, talking, dependant on her trigger. Her abuse towards him is just another in the long line of the violence Garleans got away with.

I don't think Arenwald needs to come to terms with his heritage at all. He's plenty accepted it. It's been part of his own healing process.