Something I noticed in the Fractal Continuum...

[Fenral]

I have a headcanon for Garuda that involves a certain someone coming out of stasis and getting sent 5000 years into the past. Don't ask me how my brain works, it's a mystery to me, too.

[LordLucavi]

I had always chocked Garuda's appearance up to the fact that when a group of people create a god, they usually do so in their own image so they can relate to it. Ifrit takes on a bestial appearance, like the Amjala. Garuda appears birdish, like the Ixal. The Kobolds work within the earth, and venerate it above themselves. Others can be chalked up to tradition within the FF series. Bismarck has always been a whale, even if the Vanu look like giant mutant thrushes.

Plus, it's been established that the primals aren't the actual primals, but the physical manifestation of the mental image of the creature, given power by prayer.

[Canadane]

So the Ixal dream of being able to fly is just to get home to Azys Lla?

[Fenral]

So the Ixal dream of being able to fly is just to get home to Azys Lla?

Yes. Post-Fractal Continuum dialogue with the Ehcatl Nine elder confirms this.

[myahele]

Wouldn't surprise me if a "friendly" Siren helped the Ixal escaped and that's how Garuda was remembered

[Frederick22]

I had always chocked Garuda's appearance up to the fact that when a group of people create a god, they usually do so in their own image so they can relate to it. Ifrit takes on a bestial appearance, like the Amjala. Garuda appears birdish, like the Ixal. The Kobolds work within the earth, and venerate it above themselves. Others can be chalked up to tradition within the FF series. Bismarck has always been a whale, even if the Vanu look like giant mutant thrushes.

Plus, it's been established that the primals aren't the actual primals, but the physical manifestation of the mental image of the creature, given power by prayer.

That the point, if primals are created by mortals's minds and given how beast tribe looks for something that looks like them or has a relation with them at all. Why garuda has humanoid aspects?

Garuda ( primal ) could be anything the Ixal wanted, but they choose a humanoid with ixali aspects and that can fly. Weird isnt it?

[CGMidlander]

So the Ixal dream of being able to fly is just to get home to Azys Lla?

It's a shame that it's not quite the heaven they believe it to be. lol
Just breathing the air in some parts of Azys Lla now would probably make them ill.

[Nalien]

My theory is that Garuda was an Allagan too. I also suspect the 'Lord of Serpents' or whatever it was from the Garuda mythos was a Chimeric construct.

At this point I'm more incline to consider the Lord of Serpents to be a Dragon... Perhaps even Midgardsormr himself, since we have absolutely no account of what he was doing during the Allagans reign. Given he survived the Battle of Silvertear Skies, I'm incline to think he could survive a fight with the Allag and a little nom-ing from proto-Garuda... Thordan does give us a prime example of people eating a Dragon and becoming slightly... power hungry...

With the Ixali being Allagan constructs, specifically working on repairing stuff like airships (hence their modern day affiliation with them)... I can picture a scenario in which a female Allag general/whatever lead a battle against Midgardsormr, similar to Silvertear Skies, with Midgardsormr trying to prevent flight. That's what the Lord of Serpents was said to have done, although it was for all creatures, not for airships. Fight ends much the same as Silvertear Skies, "Garuda" survives, as do a group of Iksalion. Those Iksalion venerate "Garuda" and become the ancestors for the Ixali.

I'm perhaps just trying to tie up two gaps there though... It bugs me that Middy is seemingly missing during Allag times, more so given where Crystal Tower is... If "Garuda" defeated him the same way Garlemald did, though? And a group of Iksalion were left in Mor Dhona, perhaps heading east to West Shroud... It depends where Ixali history starts, I suppose... If Ixali mythology goes as far back as Iksalion, then we have to tie it with Allagan history, if it starts after the Allag have gone, then we can't. My alternative, given the Vanu Vanus knowledge of Azys Lla (they warn us not to go there, they even held the Key), and their use of sanuwa, which are serpents, has me thinking the Ixali and Vanu clashed in the distant past. That gives no figure for who "Garuda" could be, though.

[Zohar_Lahar]

They really need to explore the beast-tribes backstories more.

[Fenral]

Like what the fractal is up with the Gigas? Who worship the Crystal Tower and seem to have some vaguely-Allagan symbols that have survived thousands of years? The only actual question we had about the place going in and it was never even hinted at.

Or are they actually former worshipers of Zurvan, who was sealed by the power of the Crystal Tower at some point, inspiring them to shift the focus of their worship to the superior icon? We can make up anything to go with what we have, which is essentially a 200-page redacted document with everything but "Crystal Tower" blacked out.