Thread: Patch 3.4 - Soul Surrender

Originally Posted by Nalien

Didn't we kinda, you know, kill Livia though?

Yeah, with the same skills we used to fight Raubahn in a just-for-the-funsies exhibition match where absolutely nobody was seriously hurt. Actually, we hit Raubahn harder.

So by whatever laws of RPG damage application that allow me to stab, poison, electrocute, and assassinate a major political figure "for fun," she could have survived, I guess.

I mean, they already played the "identical sibling with the same actor" card when they introduced Lucia, and that's not something you do when you want to bring back the exact character you killed off. I just like playing devil's advocate.

Originally Posted by Fenral

I mean, they already played the "identical sibling with the same actor" card when they introduced Lucia, and that's not something you do when you want to bring back the exact character you killed off. I just like playing devil's advocate.

I'm just glad nobody is pointing out my blatant hypocrisy here... Livia is definitely dead, but Lahabrea is still around, right? Right?!

Originally Posted by Theodric

I don't even think it's meant to be intentional. They're just being far too vague - how did the Emperor know of the Archbishop's plan, for example?

I never really figured the Emperor even had a clue about Thordan... Was it ever implied anywhere that they were there to stop him? I always thought they were just there for the Allagan spoils... They could perhaps have some idea that Ishgard was interested in Azys Lla, though... Camp Cloudtop was likely set up by Thordan, at the behest of Lahabrea, so that they could get they Key, which the Vanu Vanu held on a sacred island before Bismarck ate it... Ishgard was friendly with the Vanu Vanu at first, after all... Garlemald shows up, just after access to Azys Lla, Lahabrea has Bismarck summoned to buy them time, Garlemald notices Ishgard is sniffing around too and just figures something is going on and monitors the situation... Would make sense that they were at least following us, given they waited for us to break the door down, and they'd have known we beat Bismarck surely? That we didn't manage to get straight in could only mean someone else took the Key from us... Only other force in the area, is Ishgard, heck the Vanu Vanu was Thordans airship flying off, so Garlemald must have been aware they were going to Azys Lla as well...

It's not Livia...

I mean, for starters the figure is quite clearly male and heavily tanned at that. Garleans are also pale skinned and given that we've seen what Lucia looks like we know that her sister was also a Pureblood Garlean...and she's also been repeatedly referred to as deceased.

Bringing her back would be pointless. It would just cheapen death in this setting further and obliterate her established personality.

Wildargelt is also a few shades paler than the figure in the mask. So it's more likely to be Ilberd or a completely new character. I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be a surviving member of the royal family. FFXIV has a habit of drawing heavy inspiration from previous FF titles and a character such as Ashe from FFXII would be plausible.

I just hope we don't have to stomach a one sided story where the Garleans are turned into one-dimensional bad guys. The situation surrounding Ala Mhigo is very complex and with Garleans now having lived alongside the Ala Mhigans for over two decades it makes sense that many people would not wish for the status quo to change.

Rabanastre was occupied for less time in FFXII and there was a particularly memorable quest where an Imperial handed out a contract to eliminate a monster to protect the people of Rabanastre. I'm hoping we get to see stuff like that for a change - especially since the lore has already established that Garlemald values order and seeks to learn from the culture of the nations that they occupy. Oddly enough we haven't seen much of that - because for whatever reason the developers have seen fit to focus on having Garlemald be overly aggressive and destructive.

I don't even think it's meant to be intentional. They're just being far too vague - how did the Emperor know of the Archbishop's plan, for example? There's a lot of mysteries and plot points surrounding Garlemald that have yet to be addressed and hopefully 3.4 will be the start of more moral complexity.

It's odd, though - Garlemald has been fairly 'quiet' during 3.0's patch cycle. Which means that Regula's side story may tie into the MSQ in the future. Yet we're now moving to focus on the Ala Mhigan Resistance and the Warriors of Darkness...with the latter not being affiliated with Garlemald other than a brief phrase used by Elidibus who states that the Garleans will 'play their part'. Which suggests manipulation...

There's also the patch title to consider: we know that the titles tend to refer to multiple meanings - so it could be that the Ascians and Warriors of Darkness have surrendered their souls - but then it could also refer to the Au Ra sealed away within Alexander. Yet what about Regula? Perhaps Sophia encourages him to surrender his soul? It's clear that they're building him up for something...but we'll be dealing with Zurvan during 3.5 and then...what will become of Regula? I still think he could end up becoming a major antagonist for 4.0.

Preeeeety sure it's not Livia... I mean, we pretty clearly killed her in the Praetorium, and if that's not enough Cid asks Lucia whether or not she was out for revenge against us for killing her sister.

Fakeout deaths have happened before (or: Nanamo visibly asphyxiating and then turning out to be fine cuz "it was just a sleeping potion lolz"), so I'm not ruling it out, but.

As for where Livia got her skills, up in the air but it's probably not the same place Yda did. Pureblood Garlean war orphan vs. (implicit) Ala Mhigan refugee turned Sharlayan scholar, their backgrounds are very different.