We should ally with the Garleans

[MilesSaintboroguh]

I'll say it again:


The empire to this very day is STILL expanding its influence and territory into other lands. Ala Migho and Doma fell to the empire, forcing its people to flee or die trying to fight them off. You see several people from Little Ala Migho wanting to fight the empire to reclaim their homeland in the early parts of 2.0 because, duh, it's their homeland and they want it back. The Au Ra were forced to flee because the empire took over and the Au Ra, along with the rest of Doma, could not succeed in fighting the enemy off, so now they have no home. You have two nations whose people are either dead or scattered across the realm and their lives completely changed forever all because a bigger force saw their land and said "I want that and you will give it to me!"


You can say "not all Garleans are bad" all you want to, but until the story starts showing more of those, then I hold no sympathy for a collective force that want to take over other regions just to have more land to themselves. Actually, I find it hilariously ironic that we have people defending the empire on the view of "they're not all bad!", but the same people will gladly turn the other way if a group of beastmen that are not primal worshipping gets curb stomped by the empire because, in the empire's eyes, "all beastmen are bad, they worship primals, and must be purged". Huh...and people wonder why I show more sympathy for beastmen than the empire.


We already had one head honcho from the empire that freed Bahamut and another who consorted with an Ascian to get an ancient Allag weapon just so he and the rest of the empire can use it to further expand their borders (oh and slay more beastmen cause lol primals again), plus we have the emperor who is apparently more ruthless than the last guy and wants to continue the empire's expansion into other territories. At this point, everyone (whether on the forums here or other places) seems to want to side with the empire just to stop being the good guy or wants Squares to start splitting the story in two so that people can join the cool evil dark side (and boy do I remember the few threads that popped up where people wanted to be with the Ascians and be the warrior of darkness for no reason other than being "not a good guy")


After all I have listed, I implore you! Please show me what makes the empire "not evil" or are worth "siding with". And this is not sarcasm. I really do want to see what makes the empire so worthy of sympathy or not so bad. Please.

[Shalan]

The empire to this very day is STILL expanding its influence and territory into other lands. Ala Migho and Doma fell to the empire, forcing its people to flee or die trying to fight them off.

An empire is generally a massive thing made up of subjugated populations. The moment it stops moving and conquering is the moment that the cracks in its foundations really start to damage the overall structure.
An empire must be conquering in order to bring in more money, resources, slaves, and give reasons for new technologies. The Garleans, like the Romans, use subjugated populations to man their armies, sending them far from their homes as an Empire unit to fight other nations in order to both prevent unrest in their home areas as well as show them the superiority of their own culture and technology so those subjugated populations they have fighting may one day join the empire proper. Many of those Garlean troops probably don't even want to be there, but if they don't fight their families will likely be raped, slaughtered, and enslaved.

So of course they're going to continue expanding their influence. It's literally expand or die a slow death for them which can leave some places in worse shape than before the empire came as they'll have grown too dependent on the empire.



I would simply like to play in the Empire because I like empires. Empires tend to be more organized, make many large and fascinating structures as shows of power, leave a bigger impact on the world, and are constantly moving and improving on themselves to stay in the game. Yes, they usually commit atrocities in the process of expansion but just about every nation and country in history, both in game and IRL has. If we want to sling stuff around about being evil, I guess we stop playing from Ul'Dah, what with enslaving giants and undead dust and all.

In the end though it's not a matter of them being good, bad, evil, or worth siding with. I just want to be a part of that machine that fascinates me so.

[Xanikk999]

snip

The roman empire is the well known empire like you stated but it is hardly the typical case. They needed to keep expanding otherwise they wouldn't be able to support their lifestyle and pay their legions. Without the plunder economy they relied on they would have dissolved into civil war much sooner.

However that isn't the only way an empire can function. They can expand to a certain point and stop expanding without imploding on itself, not right away anyway. The Ottoman empire would be a very good example of that. They stopped expanding after the 17th century but they had at least 2 centuries of relative peace before their territory started fracturing starting with Greece. The point I am trying to make is an empire can exist without a plunder economy like the romans.

[VargasVermillion]

Empires

Sums up why I'd like to do the same, there's something about an empire that fascinates me as well. If I were to rp I'd be happy to just be some guy who fights in an imperial army, The unity and the grandiose structure that comes with it is cool to me. Plus I imagine garlemald being similar to Arcadia from XII in that at the end of the day it's just another nation with identifiable people living in it's borders.

[Samcaesar]

Snip

Genocide and the suppression of religion won't end the Hydaelyn's suffering. Shoot, look at the Domans, I really doubt the Garleans were doing them any favors. Like.. To be honest, the answer to the beastman problem isn't annihilating them, it's the echo and the ability it grants us to see the world from other's perspectives. It's a mutual understanding and a hope to solve both the Races of Man and the Beastmen's problems that's the right thing, not just killing every beastmen and anyone who worships a god (Cause you know.. Gridania, Limsa Lominsa, and Ul'dah really love the guardian deities of their city states).

Snip

The elementals are an incredibly dangerous force (Greenwrath is some scary stuff) and they did cause the 6th calamity if I'm recalling correctly. Each city state has a lot to deal with their religion, Limsa Lominsa's live their lives according to the whole "Til see swallows all" myth (Which is apart of the Navigator's various stories if I recall correctly) and Ul'dah's association with Nald'Thal. You can separate the Eorzean from their religion, but you can't separate the religion from Eorzea.

I personally hope the story addresses some sort of narrative featuring the Elementals chilling the heck out, but I'm fairly sure the answer to the problem isn't "Destroy the elementals and Gridania's way of life!", because the last thing we need is to spurn an 8th calamity from making a force inherently with Hydaelyn mad.

Snip .

Far be it from me to defend Ul'Dah actions (Or any city state to be honest), but none of the city states are engaging in the sort of things that the Garlean empire is, no where near the brutality and scale. The Garleans (And empires in general) have that inherent problem, they aren't sustainable unless if they keep conquering, and let's be honest here, being under Garlean rule isn't fun. The narrative is attempting framing what the Garleans do as wrong, it's the meta reason why we and Eorzea oppose them. Gotta ask though, why are you fascinated with such a broken horrid machine? You can observe a death trap and learn the parts about it without stepping inside it.