Thread: Revelations from Patch 3.56

It's also nice that Raubahn still has touchy feely sentiments for Ilberd after he unleashed what could've been a genocide, and an uncontrollable, indiscriminate one at that.

Hopefully Stormblood gives us many more scenes with the antagonists to better explain their motivations, thoughts and feelings.

It might. I think it's very hard to now say that the Empire is in any way responsible for breaking the cease fire. The city-states know who wrought the evil that unfolded (and how bad it could have been), and they're choosing to capitalise upon it to free one of their number, a state which has historically been very aggressive to its own neighbours. The only difference between it and Garlemald, at least in this respect as there are ideological differences, is that the latter succeeded. Nonetheless, I suspect Ala Mhigo won't be freed so easily and that Zenos may yet drive our "protagonists" into a wild escape into Doma. At least, I hope something along these lines is ventured. I am hoping for at least something that isn't an entirely Manichaean representation of the conflict between Eorzea and the Empire, with the plot twist from the Warring Triad factored in and built upon. They managed to do this with Elidibus and by extension, Zodiark. I still think they may be building up Zenos as the villain, to distance the Emperor from him and avoid making the Empire irredeemably wicked, whilst being free to do so with Zenos, if they pursue that route... perhaps future internal strife within the Empire may modify its willingness to work with the city-states in suppressing the primal threat.

In spite of the propaganda they feed themselves, the city-states are very weak relative to the Empire. Without the Scions, they'd be finished. Perhaps some, like Ishgard, or outside the Alliance, Sharlayan (old world), could mount a prolonged defence, but not most of them.