We should ally with the Garleans

[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.