Garlemald and Azys Lla

[Townowi]

Even though the 6th Legion is stranded on Azys Lla, and Regula van Hydrus is dead fighting Zurvan, one would think some officer that outlived Zurvan would become an acting legatus as well as a de-facto viceroy over Azys Lla since Garlemald is the only faction that has any claim over Azys Lla after Zurvan's death.

Notwithstanding the logistical obstacles to either using Azys Lla as a staging area for reinforcing Gyr Abania (and/or attacking Coerthas, Dravania or the Sea of Clouds) or exfiltrating the 6th Legion out of that location, could Azys Lla be regarded as Garlean territory in SB and beyond?

Also, was Garlean bureaucracy so slow that no replacement to the 6th Legion legatus, and/or viceroy over Azys Lla, was appointed over the course of both SB and ShB?

[Alexandre_Noireau]

If only Hydrus was still alive...
For a moment when i saw the first ShB trailer, "the history must be unwritten" part reminded me of him, i thought we would have to somehow bring him back in hopes of preventing or ultimately defeat Varis or prevent the Black Rose as he was his true friend and probably his death had something to do with him falling into madness. Also would have developed unukalhai more.

Azys Lla is in a time bubble right now, those imperials don't even know what's happening in the capital probably.

[Townowi]

How safe is it to assume that the 6th is only at a fraction of its strength in HW? If so, is it more likely to be a large or a small fraction?

Azys Lla is in a time bubble right now, those imperials don't even know what's happening in the capital probably.

And then I would expect whoever is currently the viceroy in Azys Lla (as of 5.3; I would assume the current viceroy to be in office since Regula's death) to become a champion of those Garleans who would rather remain neutral in the Garlean civil war.

Or, barring that, to become the leader of an isolationist "Garlemald remnant" faction if Garlemald does collapse in the future.

[TheMightyMollusk]

A big part of the reason the Empire was in Azys Lla in the first place was anti-primal technology. Regula noted that said technology was flawed, since the Warring Triad were awakening and breaking loose. Presumably nobody's bothered going back since. After all, they have plenty of Allagan ruins in their own territories, without having to put an airship fleet out over hostile territory, especially now that Ishgard isn't bogged down in the Dragonsong War anymore and can actually pay attention. We also know that the Garland Ironworks is still watching the place, since they detected that one Ixal who found his way in (see Fractal Continuum Hard), so there are still eyes in the sky. It's just not worth the risk right now, even without accounting for Zenos throwing the Empire into chaos.

Of course, the real reason is the time bubble, but.

[Townowi]

I get that Azys Lla is perhaps the most vulnerable Garlean province and its current viceroy has its hands tied, both militarily and politically. But why go through the trouble of getting a castrum built on Azys Lla if Garlemald didn't intend to occupy the region for the long run?

Also, what would prevent the current viceroy from getting the Eorzean Alliance (or at least Ishgard) to the negotiation table and surrender Azys Lla to it?

[Enkidoh]

How safe is it to assume that the 6th is only at a fraction of its strength in HW? If so, is it more likely to be a large or a small fraction?



And then I would expect whoever is currently the viceroy in Azys Lla (as of 5.3; I would assume the current viceroy to be in office since Regula's death) to become a champion of those Garleans who would rather remain neutral in the Garlean civil war.

Or, barring that, to become the leader of an isolationist "Garlemald remnant" faction if Garlemald does collapse in the future.

What viceroy? Azys Lla is an ancient Allagan research facility that few people even know exist that is completely empty of anyone other than some Allagan nodes and the trapped VIth Legion, it's not an Imperial province so it would have no viceroy - the VIth were basically marooned there due to Ysayle freezing the engines of the Gration resulting in the ship being stuck there permenantly with no way out. The Empire has never sent any further reinforcements to the place or even tried evacutating the forces stuck there, so it can be assumed they've been given up for dead, especially with Regula's death, the Empire probably considers his legion extinct and not worth bothering with anymore.

So they're just remnant forces there, just like the remains of Gaius's XIVth still holed up in their assorted Castri within Eorzea, strong enough to resist any attempts by the Alliance to clear them out, but not strong enough to do anything else but defend their walls accordingly. And the Alliance has more pressing matters with pushing back Garlean forces on the border with Islabard to worry about a bunch of remnant Garlean forces holed up in Eorzea who are now little more than bandits in Garlean uniforms.

[Cilia]

For Azys Lla to have a viceroy it would have to be a sovereign territory. Even assuming the Empire laid claim to Azys Lla, it's... just an excavation site.

Besides which, given the Ironworks was able to retrieve the G-Warrior from Azys Lla... whatever's left of the VIth up there clearly does not have much authority, if any. Yes, there is a makeshift Castrum up there, but they have no plans, no backup, no means of escape... nothing. They're just stuck there. If the Alliance wasn't busy fighting the main host of the Empire they could probably get rid of them; and what reason would Ishgard (or the rest of the Alliance) have to give the remnants of the VIth sovereign control of Azys Lla anyway?

[YianKutku]

What viceroy? Azys Lla is an ancient Allagan research facility that few people even know exist that is completely empty of anyone other than some Allagan nodes and the trapped VIth Legion, it's not an Imperial province so it would have no viceroy - the VIth were basically marooned there due to Ysayle freezing the engines of the Gration resulting in the ship being stuck there permenantly with no way out. The Empire has never sent any further reinforcements to the place or even tried evacutating the forces stuck there, so it can be assumed they've been given up for dead, especially with Regula's death, the Empire probably considers his legion extinct and not worth bothering with anymore.

So they're just remnant forces there, just like the remains of Gaius's XIVth still holed up in their assorted Castri within Eorzea, strong enough to resist any attempts by the Alliance to clear them out, but not strong enough to do anything else but defend their walls accordingly. And the Alliance has more pressing matters with pushing back Garlean forces on the border with Islabard to worry about a bunch of remnant Garlean forces holed up in Eorzea who are now little more than bandits in Garlean uniforms.

The "Scared Sylla" FATE implies that supplies and personnel are still being ferried over to Azys Lla, since it involves the titular Sylla mal Albinus being a "senior magitek technician" from Garlemald being sent in to check on the location of Castrum Solus. Given that Garlemald was (at least at the time bubble period of Heavensward) willing to send people in, and high-ranking officials at that, it would be reasonable to assume they would be willing to evacuate people out.

[VargasVermillion]

I would assume a lot of their recent allagan based constructs and the tools used to temp bind shinryu were from azys lla, we can only assume that they are essentially time bubbled until the story explicitly mentions them. My theory is they are simply told to remain there and collect tech/data on allag and send it back to the empire. As for the XIVth, the story did mention they were more or less marooned however that was even before the ivy stuff came in and we can probably assume that even though they are just being left there they probably act as a spy agency of sorts or even just remaining there as convenient reinforcements if the imperials decide to invade again .

[Cilia]

OK, now that I'm not tired with 15 minutes before my usual bedtime...

Garlemald does not have sovereign control over Azys Lla. It has an archaeo-technical excavation outpost there, which would be closer to an Antarctic research center in real life. After the events of the Warring Triad arc, they probably left a skeleton crew on the Gration to prevent it from falling into Eorzean hands and got the heck outta dodge. It's not impossible for them to have gotten cruisers up there and evacuated everyone else; it's even implied van Hydrus' body was shipped home to be buried after the Zurvan battle.

Again though, Garlemald does not have sovereignty over Azys Lla. It's mostly wilderness after a fashion, inhabited by Allagan mutant creations, robots, and escaped research subjects. There is no civilian population and no governmental system to speak of; therefore, there is no viceroy. There's the lingering remnants of the VIth Legion, a few oddballs hanging out in the Helix like Ardashir and Gerolt sometimes, and that's it. The VIth doesn't even have access to most of the Allagan facilities, if any at all.

It's unclear how long it takes for a Legion to get a new legatus (speed of plot, really); van Darnus died for most intents and purposes at the climax of 1.X, and van Varro wasn't known to be her replacement until 5.3!

The Eorzeans would undoubtedly contest any assertion of sovereign rule over Azys Lla by the VIth; they have a field excavation site there, not a state of any sort at all, and the only reason they're still there in any capacity is because the Gration is dead in the air. (Why they don't just tow it back I don't know...) The Alliance has no reason at all to give them sovereign rule of the territory either, and given they're aligned with the Empire it would be extremely counterproductive to their interests to do so.

Shinryu was temporarily bound first by Papalymo's sealing spell, then by Omega until he was released by Zenos. Azys Lla never factored into Shinryu in any capacity.

The XIVth Legion has a very different situation to the VIth. Having followed van Baelsar on his attempted conquest of Eorzea against Varis' orders during 2.0, they are wanted for desertion and treason in Garlemald; they'd be killed even if they could go back. It's why Nero lives as a drifter post-2.0 until informally throwing his lot in with the Ironworks. Considering the state of the Empire post-5.3 though... they really are just bandits in Imperial uniforms at this point.