Sorry if the title seems weird.

I'll start with Alphinaud. So Alphinaud shows up with his sister, kinda randomly, in Uldah, Gridania and Limsa. And his sister goes MIA, till like Coerthas, and then disappears again.

Now Alphinaud is a general commander of the blue crystals? Why? He's a child? What makes him so amazing, like, what has he really done? He's everywhere but does he ever actually do anything?

I know he is the granchild of Louisoix, but does that even matter? Where is his mother, or father?

And Gaius, who exactly is he? Is he stereotypical bad guy? Are the Garleans evil by nature or is Gaius just a section of that. I'm in the part of the story where there is a new Garlean Emperor and I groaned a little at that, he at face value, just looks like another Gaius? Big bad military man.

So were there no repercussions for the Garleans? I mean they tried genocide, and we beat them. Shouldn't they be a defeated nation now? Weak, running, trying to negotiate a truce?

Why did Gaius even want to conquer the world? Was it really just 'this world needs a strong leader to eliminate the weak'? And somehow that mentality allowed him to amass thousands of elite soldiers and the most expensive magitek ever?

I don't get, but I don't know that much lore.

Please, any info is helpful.

Edit: Reading this it comes across as bashful, sorry I don't mean it that way, I just don't understand the lore.