How does Garlean Armor Work?

[Soge01]

This has been bothering for the longest time but can't seem to find any information on the armor characters Gaius, Zenos and Hydrus all wore.

Zenos in particular has me scratching my head because of the ominous aura he can wrap himself in and imbue his katana with.

If anybody could help share any information on Garlean armor, even if its little I'd be really grateful! ^^

[Gula]

Could you be more specific?

Do you mean like, things that look like magic? Because I always thought Gaius turning gold in Prae worked like Gundams (at least in Destiny). When they're on, they're vibrant, when they lose power, the color drains.

[Cilia]

We learned in 5.3 that it has a data collection system installed in it that records the wearer's performance in combat; this is how they were able to install data into the new Weapons for the purpose of Oversoul.

Zenos' dark aura comes less from the armor and more from his legendary katana, Ame-no-Habakiri; during the first fight with him in Rhalgr's Reach he has only the Storm and Swell swords so the aura does not appear, and it isn't present in the second duel with him until he pulls out Ame-no-Habakiri. Most (if not all) of Zenos' magical abilities come from the use of enchanted weapons, though whether or not he's able to use magicks beyond Ascian-style teleportation hasn't been clarified.

As for the rest I presume they have some kind of cybernetic muscle system that enhances their wearer's physical strength, and with the right alloys can be made magic resistant. Other than that, what's the question?

[Stepjam]

And presumably the flaming Xs are related to their gunblades somehow rather than aether manipulation of any kind.

[VargasVermillion]

Other than the magic sword mentioned earlier in the thread it was mentioned in short story on zenos as a child that he learned to use aether infused crystals for aether based attacks, similar to how one would use aether infused cartridges as a GNB from an outside source if they can't aether infuse them themselves. A headcanon i have is zeno's big gun-chamber-sheath-thing has aether infused crystals or oils inside of it which magically enhance his weapons artificially.

As for gaius' gold infusion in the description for the gilded magitek armour mount (it's gold coloured in a similar fashion.) says that garleans started using gilded plating on such machinery to make it more resilient to magic attacks, i can only assume it's the same for gaius' armour. As mentioned above the orbs on the armour collect data from the wearer without their knowledge and can function similarly to a job crystal and there is also a spyglass on the helmets which serve to not obstruct their third eye.

[EdwinLi]

And presumably the flaming Xs are related to their gunblades somehow rather than aether manipulation of any kind.

The lore about Garlean Gunblades is that they use Ceruleum to power their gunblades.

Due to the lack of magical abilities the Garlean Empire discovery of Ceruleum as alternate source for magic allowed them to create their Magitek. The Azure Flames and blue color energy are the result of Ceruleum being used in their weapons and technology

The difference between Garlean Gunblade and Gunbreaker Gunblade is also due to what powers them as well. Gunbreaker Gunblades uses Aether Ammo which can be created by the user through their own magic thus providing unlimited ammo for the Gunbreaker to use for their Gunblade. Garlean Gunblades on the other hand use Ceruleum in their Gunblades to create Azure Flames for their attacks for both melee and range attacks.

Their combat use design is also different being Gunbreaker Gunblade is more defensive focusing on dispersing the Aether out of the ammo to create Magic Barrier so they can charge at enemies for melee combat or to infuse the Blade of the Gunblade for strong close range attacks or long range shock wave attacks but they can never fire solid bullets to harm enemies only to create magical barriers and infuse that aether released from the ammo into their blade thus all combat ability depends on the Blade only for Gunbreaker's Gunblades while Garlean Gunblade by design is more offensive focusing on utilizing both strong Melee and Range attacks by using the blade and infusing of Ceruleum into the blade for melee attacks and using the Gun Barrel aspect to fire power long range attacks that can create Azure Flame shots and explosions. This, however, prevents the Garlean Gunblade from having any defensive abilities as it is designed to be pure offensive.

The newest model of the Garlean Gunblade uses a Ceruleum Core to power its attacks so there is no need to reload the Garlean Gunblade. Gunbreaker Gunblade, by design and seen in the game cinematic, still requires the gunbreaker to load the ammo into the revolver cartridge part of their Gunblade.

You can basically compare the new Garlean Gunblade as a Semi-automatic Gun and the Gunbreaker Gunblade to be a manual Revolver

[Cilia]

The Garleans have been using ceruleum as fuel for a long time; it wasn't until Solus (Emet-Selch) introduced them to it that magitek became the cornerstone of their arsenal.

Gunbreaker gunblades are more evenly balanced, with both offensive and defensive capabilities. As one would expect from a tank class taking cues from VIII's Squall, GNB is the most offensively oriented tank class in the game to the point it's the only class with a(n up to) 6-hit combo via Gnashing Fang / Continuation. That does come at the cost of defensive options compared to other tank classes, but GNB still has plenty of those for themselves, other single targets, or the whole party.

Garlean gunblades are purely offensive, but it's debatable whether that's due to their design or the fact they aren't used by playable characters.

Regardless, Garlean magitek is all fueled by ceruleum; if it generates blue flames, it's probably ceruleum-derived. (Memoria Misera Varis does produce other colors, but that's not real anyway and the predominant color is still ceruleum blue.)

Zenos did use a crystal to force himself to manipulate aether in order to defeat (kill) his instructor, but it's unclear whether her continued doing so afterwards. That was the point behind Aulus' experimentation, and he has enchanted weapons in every battle to compensate for this "deficiency." However the dark aura is almost explicitly tied to Ame-no-Habakiri; it doesn't show up until Zenos pulls the aforementioned weapon out. As for his revolver scabbard, that bit was a touch of realism - katana (Zenos' adopted weapon of choice) dull very quickly, so the revolving scabbard lets him switch to a fresh blade to stay on the battlefield longer. (Considering this design choice, if anything I assumed the revolver scabbard has built-in sharpeners so while one katana is in use the others are being repaired, but considering he now exclusively wields magical weapons I'm not sure it's necessary anymore.)

[Brightamethyst]

Because I always thought Gaius turning gold in Prae worked like Gundams (at least in Destiny). When they're on, they're vibrant, when they lose power, the color drains.

Personally I like to imagine that Gaius just carried glamour prisms around all the time for dramatic costume changes.

[Enkidoh]

Also there is a distinct difference physically between Garlean gunblades and the hrothgar (GNB) version. Garlean gunblades are basically actual guns with an elongated bayonet extending past the gun's barrel, and more importantly, shoot actual bullets, thus they're more often used as long-ranged weapons, but can be effectively handled as an actual sword as well. Several MCH rifles are also designed somewhat like this.

The hrothgar version on the other hand, is basically the FFVIII version given FFXIV lore padding: it's just a sword with a fancy rumble pack attached, as in, the chamber is loaded with aether that ignites when the trigger is pulled and sends a tremor through the blade when the blade strikes a target, thus increasing the damage the strike causes (they're more accurately called tremorblades than gunblades), they're meant for close range fighting, although they can 'shoot' a blast of aether from afar as well rather like a gunshot (Lightning Shot).

Funnily the Garleans regard the hrothgar version as an 'antique' and obsolete design, where as the hrothgar in turn treat the Garlean version as a cheap knockoff.

[VargasVermillion]

Funnily the Garleans regard the hrothgar version as an 'antique' and obsolete design, where as the hrothgar in turn treat the Garlean version as a cheap knockoff.

This makes me think both weapon types have a history with allag, guns in general obviously would ofc.