A fight for Azys Lla storyline

[Townowi]

While, for now, Garlemald may be content with its situation on Azys Lla, having de facto dominion, or at least claims, over it but with an entire legion stranded there, it may well be that, at some future point, some successor to Regula could finally be appointed as either the legatus of the 6th Legion or the viceroy of Azys Lla (likely to both positions) and have their sights set on Tiamat, and troubling the peace between man and dragon. However, I don't have more ideas for how to make such a storyline work beyond these two arcs:

1) The Gration (a dungeon): you pose as some Garlean dignitary, ostensibly for inspecting damage to the ship, in an attempt to destroy the Gration and make it look like a mutiny

2) The Aetherochemical Research Facility (hard): cornered, the viceroy of Azys Lla makes a last stand at the ARF and is fought as a last boss. (I would prefer the resulting dungeon to be harder than the ARF normal)

The viceroy of Azys Lla could be a relative of another Garlean character but beyond that, give it some redeeming quality. Maybe the viceroy could be appointed there as a trial of fire for the highest echelons of Garlean government, or as a last chance for an official who's falling out of favor.

[Gula]

I think 1 is just the quest chain to rescue Minfilia and Tataru. Also sneaking in to rescue the citizens in Yanxia. At this rate you'd think they'd have better security for personnel entering.

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

At this point, I'm not sure the Empire can afford to divert manpower to look around Azys Lla for possible superweapons. They're recovering from another civil war and now they're embroiled in a full-on conflict against the Eorzean Alliance as well.

[Enkidoh]

Indeed. The VIth is now virtually extinct officially, given Regula's death, and the Gration is permenantly immobilized due to Ysayle's final sacrifice freezing the engines dead. So the Empire would have to divert a lot of resources to recover the ship and it's contingent of troops, which given their civil war and how Zenos has now seized control, they're simply not going to bother with it.

So the troops there are forever marooned, becoming yet another Imperial remnant force in Eorzea like the other Castri.

[Vyrerus]

I don't think they're really marooned at all. They have dropships and such still, like the ones they used to ferry Regula over to the ARF. They use those for long range travel all the time. Heck, Zenos used a Sky Armor to fly from Gyr Abania to the Garlean capital lol heh.

It's really just the Eorzean castrum silliness all over again. Because they are there for gameplay purposes, hunting logs, quests, overworld mobs, and fates, they are rooted there forever :P

Considering they are there for so long unhindered, I don't get why they can't fix the Gration with the technology held within Azys Lla. Would personally love to seem them bungle into trying to control Tiamat only to rouse her to anger and action or something.

[KageTokage]

It's always kind of bugged me that the castrums in Western Thanalan and Eastern La Noscea basically have to be left alone for gameplay purposes because realistically I'd think the respective factions governing the regions would've wanted to tear them down or at least occupy them.

[Gula]

It's always kind of bugged me that the castrums in Western Thanalan and Eastern La Noscea basically have to be left alone for gameplay purposes because realistically I'd think the respective factions governing the regions would've wanted to tear them down or at least occupy them.

I think it's something overlooked and can't be helped. Even with the time bubble logic in mind, to have several castrum across Eorzea to Doma remain occupied and openly hostile after the destruction of Praetorium, the defection of Gaius, the death of their liege and on top of that, the liberation of both Doma AND Ala Mhigo is extremely far fetched. I mean, days passing is canonical no matter how far you reach to say it happened in a short span. Even if there was no word of what happened, the radio silence and no investigation is very stupid.

I don't think about it too much when I'm running up and down, collecting materials to make glasses. But it still makes 0 sense.

[Townowi]

I wouldn't say the 6th is officially dead, just stationed on Azys Lla (Garlemald knows about it being stationed there since Regula's death or even earlier). Just that the amount of resources required for the Garleans to open a supply line to Azys Lla made it so that whoever succeeded Regula as either the 6th's legatus, the viceroy of Azys Lla (Regula was only viceroy of Azys Lla de facto without having been officially confirmed de jure) or both had a lot of autonomy, as well as challenges, so the current viceroy of Azys Lla would likely be either someone given a trial of fire for the highest echelons of Garlean government or an official that was falling out of favor but still given a last chance.

If the 6th somehow survived a possible collapse of Garlemald because of its isolation from the rest of the world, that place could be the core of a "Garlean remnant" storyline instead, which would still result in Azys Lla being fought over, with Ishgard being the Alliance faction that has the most vested interest in the region.

Now, how many casualties the 6th has sustained in an attempt to secure Azys Lla for Garlemald there has been no indication. Just that Azys Lla is Garlean territory for the time being. However, any "fight for Azys Lla" storyline would depend on it as to how much force to deploy to drive the Garleans out of Azys Lla, and which allies to rally.

[Townowi]

Or maybe have some story around an ARF hard dungeon to be about some trap the current viceroy of Azys Lla could lay on the player, luring it to the ARF under the guise of negotiating a surrender of his/her province to the Eorzean Alliance, but instead trying to kill him, believing the player to be responsible for Regula's death. (And/or being the Khagan of the Azim Steppe if the player is still the Khagan by that point).

Now, I acknowledge that Azys Lla is perhaps the most vulnerable Garlean province, and surrender may be a sensible option for the viceroy in the current situation. As would defection.

One last thing: if it was to become a story for a hard version of the Aetherochemical Research Facility, the dungeon should ideally be harder than the normal version. Maybe even feature some EX-level DPS or healing checks.

[Catwho]

The only major thing that would need to be changed is the books for the ARR relic weapons that require open world Imperial soldiers (which proves that the entire thing is a scam anyway, since no "ancient tome" would ask you to kill members of an occupying force that has existed for less than 20 years) and any hunt marks or hunting logs that call for them. That said, the amount of recoding required to have the Castrums switch to "empty mode" after you pass a certain point in MSQ, probably during Stormblood, would be more trouble than it's worth. At this point they have the technology to change the zone itself depending on your progress in MSQ, but mobs appearing or disappearing requires specific flags and I don't think it impacts any of the open world mobs. So recording the Castrums to not be crawling with foot soldiers would be such a major undertaking...... I can see why they felt it was easier to simply leave them be.

That said, if Garlemald is ever defeated "for good" then it might be worthwhile to figure out whatever programming trick they need to have the abandoned legions finally pack up their bags and go home, and have the relic or hunting logs spawn only the needed soldiers in the area until those flags are cleared.