Lore question about Rowena's HoS

[Pondera]

So, I've been leveling my crafting skills over the past few weeks to the new SB cap, and have turned in enough collectables to Rowena to outfit, arm, feed, and supply an entire army with potions for burst damage. But I'm kind of curious now. These goods never show up to any other vendor in the game, so Rowena is not an industrial supplier, nor does she ever seem to take part in any of the major conflicts in the story, so she has no government military contracts either. What exactly is she doing with all this stuff that we're giving her?

[Tillie]

Rowena confirmed 5.0 primal.

[Vexander]

Its highly possible that Rowena supplies the Grand Companies directly and exclusively, and that the Grand Companies reserve these resources for their elite soldiers and higher ranking commanders. Just because we're providing her with goods to sell and distribute does not mean they'll necessarily make their way back to our hands or be available to us. She might even be selling to foreign nations. If Kugane is taking in things from her I imagine those imports are taken beyond the city into the actual nation, and we're not likely to get access to that.

[Avatre]

I say she is stockpiling because she knows Calamity 2.0 is eventually going to come around.

[Jelly_Baby]

What if Rowena is secretly army the Imperials?

Mind blown *explosion sound*

[Kai_Lee]

Rowena secretly takes the stuff we give her and sell it to the enemies to prolong the wars so she can continue to get rich.

[Celef]

Rowena confirmed 5.0 primal.

That would be the best primal ever !

[Zsolen]

I don't have any lore books, so correct me if/where I am wrong.

Possible Garlean perspective: Relying on a foreign merchant that does business with your enemies does not sound efficient. The Garleans have an empire, so they can gather, create, and supply items. Rowena cannot offer them any technologically superior items. The Garleans even have various foodstuffs, due to conquered provinces.

Possible Rowena's perspective: Rowena benefits from doing business with those that can manipulate aether. That is anyone that is not Garlean. Selling foodstuffs is unlikely to even be profitable. She would have to smuggle it and somehow keep it fresh. Many in Eorzea and the Far East have not been farming and herding as much, due to people joining rebel groups and enlisting. The armies of the city-states would also need to be well feed. There also is the recent wider opening of markets between the two areas, so different factions can buy equipment from her. It is a much easier sell.

[Mirateski]

I believe she sells at least some of the things to extremely rich people who have nothing better to spend their gil on than weird oddities.

It's a win-win for Rowena - offer compensation to adventurers in a HoS-exclusive token, sell for gil. She uses some of that gil to buy in odd items for her adventurer suppliers, mind, but mostly what she does is sit on a mad pile of cash, cackling while letting gil trickle down through her fingers.

EDIT - this is mentioned in the Primal Focus weekly I believe - it's mentioned there are some very rich, very eccentric buyers in the market for the totems you get when you beat up ifrit/ru/titan EX. You know, the ones crafted from black magic and beastmen bones. People are strange.

[Felis]

Her text during 1.0, where Rowena showed up the first time to give gear for allagan tokens from Leves NMs

The name's Rowena. I used to be a travelin' weapons merchant, till some noble from Ishgard saw my collection. Said I had me an eye for quality, and asked if I'd like to work for him, helpin' to barter his collection away for all manner o' rare artifacts.

This is how she started her own empire.

And that from gamerescape:

Once a weapons merchant in Ul'dah, Rowena worked to make friends in all the right places, and was soon able to shift her focus to antiquities. Though this brought her great fortune, she remains entirely single-minded in her pursuit of wealth. In this regard, she sees little difference between people and goods, and has lured many a brilliant tradesman and merchant into her service with the irresistible promise of coin. There are rumors that the Midlander woman wishes to one day make a foray into the world of Ul'dahn politics—though Rowena herself has not made these intentions clear.