I also had the thought of the Garleans possibly summoning a "primal Emperor", I think back in 4.3 when Maxima was talking with Alphinaud, and used the phrase "by the Emperor" where other characters might say "by the gods" - which makes me think okay, so Garleans might be 'godless' but they think of the Emperor with that same kind of reverence... what could possibly go wrong there?

And that's before we even got to the more recent revelations about what's actually going on in Garlemald.