How many legions are left and what is the status of them?

[ObsidianFire]

It's worth pointing out that Garlemald, the Republic, was around for 600 years before it became an Empire... and that it was onlywith Emet-Selch... basically sabotaging it by design that it became an Empire to begin with. So, somewhere there's some set of laws for what Garlemald's Republic was like... and those laws seemed to have more or less worked for a good long while. Taking Garlemald back to those probably wouldn't be the worst way to have Garlemald end up.

Pre-HW Ishgard was not a Republic. The people making all the decisions for Ishgard was the Four High Houses and the Church; it was very classiest with the richest people making decisions for everyone else (which is why Ishgard has so many stories about economic classes mixing not being a good thing). It is only in post-HW that Ishgard has become a Republic. So if anything... both Isghard and Ala Mhigo are following in the old Garleian Republic's footsteps with their governing styles. There's some irony there for you.

My thing with Gaius is... he really has no reason to know anything but the Garlean Empire's way of thinking, and yet somehow, he does. Doing the math shows he was born two years after Garlemald became an Empire and it would have been in an military expansionist state for his entire life. And I really don't want to think about what growing up in such an environment (think of the propaganda!) would have been like from a Garlean's pov when it comes to... basic things like human decency to people who aren't like you. I'm honestly more surprised that the biggest overall issue with Gaius is that he's culturalist rather than that he's racist. Because I legit don't know where he would have picked up the idea that racial differences don't make any real difference, but cultural differences do (the kicker being that cultural differences do matter, just not in the way Gaius thinks they do). The vast majority of other Garleans we meet are really racist and Gaius somehow isn't (anywhere near the degree they are at least). And Gaius is older than every Garlean we meet too (except Emet-Selch). If anything, you'd think he'd be worse about all of that stuff than the other Garleans we meet.

I honestly really want to find out more about Gaius' backstory before he became the Legatus of the XIVth Legion, since... he's not as bad as most other Garleans are in a way that makes me think something happened to him to make him think differently enough that he can be reasoned with at all. It's kind of like hearing about someone who grew up from childhood to adulthood in Nazi Germany but somehow didn't pick up on the idea that race mattered, but culture did. Which is to say, it makes me want to know how/why they came to that conclusion because that doesn't sound like what you'd expect to happen in that situation.

[Kiurai]

I feel like the republic governing model is still somewhat around, I doubt the emperor didn't heed some of the wills of the political parties that we know do exist, they have power and I'd expect that some ideals of the republic still exist. Ultimately, I'm not convinced that mass liberation and Garlean reformation will be the endgame I think reformation will happen but I can't see all the territories becoming independent that's like a power vaccum waiting to happen but hey idk just theories afterall

[ObsidianFire]

We do know from the Lore Books (the first one I think) that the Garlean Senate is still around and that it technically advises the Emperor. However, the reality of the situation is that the Emperor (Emet-Selch for most of this) and the military really have all the political power and the senate has... almost no political power anymore. As it is, we see the Legatai doing whatever the hell they want with people who are technically Garlean Citizens and Garlemald has been in a "make makes right" mentality for... over a generation by this point. It's going to take... a lot of work... to overturn that idea. Emet-Selch was ironically better than Varis (and certainly Zenos) was about this in a sense as Emet-Selch at least liked promoting the idea of the arts as a valid thing for Garleans to be into (and not even "approved" art at that). Varis... shut all that down in favor of a much more... militant... take on government as a whole. Hence why the Prima Vista ran to Hingashi in Stormblood...

There will undoubtedly be a power vacuum in Illsabard once the Garlean Empire goes under. In some respects, the provinces outside Illsabard are in better shape as they weren't conquered so recently they don't have an idea of what their own personal national ideals were before Garlemald took over and most of them want to go back to those in some size, shape or form. Conquering Illsabard was what caused Garlemald to declare itself an Empire in the first place, so... I'd expect at least some people in the conquered provinces to identify as culturally Garlean rather than whatever country they used to be. And that's not even getting into all the Garleans (racial or cultural) that would have been born outside of the Garleand homeland. The absolute worst thing that could happen would be if the conquered countries wanted to conquer Garlemald itself in turn as payback for being conquered (think the Treaty of Versailles after WWI and the economic mess that made of Germany). Either way, there's no way there isn't going to be a political mess in Illsabard to sort through once the Empire finally collapses.

[RyuDragnier]

My thing with Gaius is... he really has no reason to know anything but the Garlean Empire's way of thinking, and yet somehow, he does. Doing the math shows he was born two years after Garlemald became an Empire and it would have been in an military expansionist state for his entire life. And I really don't want to think about what growing up in such an environment (think of the propaganda!) would have been like from a Garlean's pov when it comes to... basic things like human decency to people who aren't like you. I'm honestly more surprised that the biggest overall issue with Gaius is that he's culturalist rather than that he's racist. Because I legit don't know where he would have picked up the idea that racial differences don't make any real difference, but cultural differences do (the kicker being that cultural differences do matter, just not in the way Gaius thinks they do). The vast majority of other Garleans we meet are really racist and Gaius somehow isn't (anywhere near the degree they are at least). And Gaius is older than every Garlean we meet too (except Emet-Selch). If anything, you'd think he'd be worse about all of that stuff than the other Garleans we meet.

It may be how he was raised. If the writers wanted to throw an explanation, it simply could be that he was raised by a family retainer who was not Garlean, which would eliminate racial differences in his mind. Cultural differences makes sense, considering how engraved certain things can be in cultures. Look at how deeply faith in the elementals is rooted in Gridania, compared to the free spirit of Limsa and the "money means everything" culture of Ul'dah.

[VargasVermillion]

Also the empires overall idea they like to sell is everyone can get a piece of the imperial pie if they worked at hard enough, only for most garleans to abuse this. Maybe gaius gained more knowledge into how unfair the system is to non garleans through his habit of adopting orphans regardless of their birth, it'd be interesting to see a young gaius and if there were any experiences that shaped his world view, or perhaps he just thought more logically about the empires ideals while most would abuse the system once they gain some form of power. We also have seen little of the populares side and there are some legatus' in that camp so not all of them would be racists, just the ones we've seen so far...but then they could be just as racist, just against expansionism.

[LineageRazor]

My thing with Gaius is... he really has no reason to know anything but the Garlean Empire's way of thinking, and yet somehow, he does. Doing the math shows he was born two years after Garlemald became an Empire and it would have been in an military expansionist state for his entire life. And I really don't want to think about what growing up in such an environment (think of the propaganda!) would have been like from a Garlean's pov when it comes to... basic things like human decency to people who aren't like you. I'm honestly more surprised that the biggest overall issue with Gaius is that he's culturalist rather than that he's racist. Because I legit don't know where he would have picked up the idea that racial differences don't make any real difference, but cultural differences do (the kicker being that cultural differences do matter, just not in the way Gaius thinks they do). The vast majority of other Garleans we meet are really racist and Gaius somehow isn't (anywhere near the degree they are at least). And Gaius is older than every Garlean we meet too (except Emet-Selch). If anything, you'd think he'd be worse about all of that stuff than the other Garleans we meet.

It's worth considering that Solus DID include provisions for allowing the "lesser races" a way to rise to success in Garlean society, which implies that he sees some value in them. In reality, it was probably to keep conquered nations pacified, and to encourage loyalty in the ranks of the conscripts since military participation was one way to earn citizenship. Uniform oppression allowing no hope aside from rebellion pretty much guarantees rebellion - but allowing a portion of the conquered to live in comfort ensures that the country remains divided and much easier to control. While it's very likely that Solus encouraged a culture of racial superiority, he did it in SUBTLE ways. He likely never encouraged his troops to torment the conquered; they did that on their own. Instead, he did things like limit the levels to which non-Garleans could rise in society ('sas' is the highest rank a non-Garlean could achieve, a rank held by Rhitahtyn before his death) - the very fact that a limit exists implies without outright stating that Garleans are the superior race.

Gaius, on the other hand, could well have taken Solus's ideals at face value - the fact that there is a limit to their advancement is not as important as the fact that they're able to advance at all. He might have seen this as indication that Solus saw the potential for greatness in the lesser races, and could well have incorporated that into his own philosophies. It is unlikely that he was unaware of the racism and cruelties perpetrated by other Garleans (even if the sadly sub-par writing of the Werlyt stories implies that yes, he really was blind to it all), but held himself to a higher standard, and a standard he believed the Emperor held to as well. He probably considered leniency to the racists to be a necessary evil; purging them all now would leave the military too weak to properly conquer the other nations that needed conquering. But once that task was finished and all or most of the world was under Garlean rule, there would be ample opportunity to bring folks in line.

[DreadCrow]

I honestly really want to find out more about Gaius' backstory before he became the Legatus of the XIVth Legion, since... he's not as bad as most other Garleans are in a way that makes me think something happened to him to make him think differently enough that he can be reasoned with at all. It's kind of like hearing about someone who grew up from childhood to adulthood in Nazi Germany but somehow didn't pick up on the idea that race mattered, but culture did. Which is to say, it makes me want to know how/why they came to that conclusion because that doesn't sound like what you'd expect to happen in that situation.

It's really not that much of a stretch, considering that the Garlean Empire is heavily based on the Roman Empire. On paper, ethnicity didn't matter to the Romans. The only thing that matters is where or not you're Roman. In reality, things were a lot more complicated to say the very least... But considering that Gaius has shown to have a very idealized view of the Empire, it's likely that he genuinely believed that you can "civilize the barbarian". It's also worth noting that even though he's a complete sociopath, Zenos doesn't care about race either. So I don't think that the idea of "culture not race" is that alien to the Garleans. It's just that pure-blood Garleans hold a lot of power and like most people in positions of authority, their primary goal is to keep other people from rising up.

[VargasVermillion]

It is unlikely that he was unaware of the racism and cruelties perpetrated by other Garleans (even if the sadly sub-par writing of the Werlyt stories implies that yes, he really was blind to it all).

He has acknowledged the racial prejudice in ARR when he chastises his men for "abandoning" Rhitahtyn and his first assumption was that it was because of his birth. Another detail is gaius' legion likely encouraged other races more than most so he at least attempted to build his legion around his values but as we've been shown many garleans within that chain of command abuse their position over 'lesser' races behind gaius' back.

[YianKutku]

He has acknowledged the racial prejudice in ARR when he chastises his men for "abandoning" Rhitahtyn and his first assumption was that it was because of his birth. Another detail is gaius' legion likely encouraged other races more than most so he at least attempted to build his legion around his values but as we've been shown many garleans within that chain of command abuse their position over 'lesser' races behind gaius' back.

Which becomes much less impressive when we have the IVth Legion as another example now.

[VargasVermillion]

Which becomes much less impressive when we have the IVth Legion as another example now.

The IVth is the most interesting and fleshed out legion so far but It feels cheapened by the fact it's breaking the rules established in the lore that non garleans can't be legates. I'm hoping for some kind of explanation that makes sense cause it seems like a lazy retcon, especially when it's implied to be the case even before garlemald was officially classed as an empire.