Building a better Alphinaud

[CrownySuccubus]

I think the absolute last people I want to see return in 6.2 (besides G'raha Tia) are the twins, them and their father have probably had the run of Garlemald for some time now and I have no interest in seeing one of my favourite locations brought to heel under the ideals of Sharlayan democracy. They are no one to invade another country and then have a hand in setting up provisional governments. The overall way in which the conclusion to the region's story was handled leaves much to be desired but the involvement of the Leveilleur family only worsens the blow.

What purpose Alphinaud could serve in the Void is absolutely beyond me. Voidsent, I'd like to believe, are beyond his reach and unwilling to mediate with the scions. If they somehow yield and make peace with them then it is only a matter of time before the 13th is unified under the banner of yet another republic. This is not what I come to the game for. With each fallen nation the world gets more boring and the preaching about the virtues of individual liberty and democracies only becomes worse and worse.

Give us a new cast already, and stop ruining this game's world.

Once again, "another democracy" is absolutely no different than "another monarchy", no matter how many times you try somehow repeat this argument ad nauseam.

Also, calling the Levellieurs "invaders" (as I'm assuming the "no one" in that sentence was a typo, otherwise it makes no sense) is ridiculous in the context of Garlemald -- when all they do is go into a country and turn it into a province while usually getting rid of whatever royalty was originally in charge. It's ridiculous for the other dictatorships in the story, too. You can't be an "invader" when the country in question is aggressively trying to kill you.

[TaleraRistain]

I think the absolute last people I want to see return in 6.2 (besides G'raha Tia) are the twins, them and their father have probably had the run of Garlemald for some time now and I have no interest in seeing one of my favourite locations brought to heel under the ideals of Sharlayan democracy.

Did you...do...the role quest? Fourchenault offered Garleans sanctuary in Sharlayan. Some took him up on it. Some decided they wanted to try to rebuild and there was talk of getting their remaining Senate together. And some decided they wanted no part of either option and are going to the moon. In none of that did Fourchenault try to push any ideas of Sharlayan democracy and he was very much hands-off in how they wanted to run things, only offering to assist them in the endeavor they chose.

[Simple_Barghest]

Did you...do...the role quest? Fourchenault offered Garleans sanctuary in Sharlayan. Some took him up on it. Some decided they wanted to try to rebuild and there was talk of getting their remaining Senate together. And some decided they wanted no part of either option and are going to the moon. In none of that did Fourchenault try to push any ideas of Sharlayan democracy and he was very much hands-off in how they wanted to run things, only offering to assist them in the endeavor they chose.

No but democracy bad, so it existing in the same in-game boundaries means it got pushed.
/s

[TaleraRistain]

No but democracy bad, so it existing in the same in-game boundaries means it got pushed.
/s

Never mind that Garlemald was a republic before it was an empire and the senate existed from that time and was carried on. It just lost power in favor of the military, but they were still public officials who offered counsel to the Emperor. It makes sense that citizens would turn to them for some form of government, especially since most of the military legions (or maybe all? I'd have to check some stuff) are defunct now and they were the other major non-imperial power.

[aveyond-dreams]

With all due respect if you want to play in a game world full of republics and the sort, why not play games like Call of Duty which are more based off the real world? People play fantasy games because they want to experience something different. Why should an american teenager pick up and play FFXIV if it's just going to be a bunch of republics in game just like the one they live in real life? It doesn't make sense.

As I said above, they have no right and are nobody to try and cause regime change in Garlemald or have any say in their future. Sharlayan is under no threat from being invaded by Garlemald. Leaving the Garlean Empire with nothing but a faceless senate in order to continue to push the ideals of Sharlayan democracy was a mistake. It has robbed the region of the things that drew me towards it in the first place, but I suppose if what you want is to see your own real life ideals reflected directly in the game world then you'd have no issue with the current state of the writing.

I however do not. I want my fantasy world to remain as such. I do not believe that people who want the real world in FFXIV should be prioritized in this manner, there are fundamental pieces of world building that shouldn't be compromised in the way in which they are now. Garlemald should have remained a monarchy. There should be far more monarchies as well. Ilsabard as a whole was left underdeveloped by the decision to rush the conclusion of Season 1, and my confidence in the current state of affairs is at an all time low.

[CrownySuccubus]

With all due respect if you want to play in a game world full of republics and the sort, why not play games like Call of Duty which are more based off the real world? People play fantasy games because they want to experience something different. Why should an american teenager pick up and play FFXIV if it's just going to be a bunch of republics in game just like the one they live in real life? It doesn't make sense.

I however do not. I want my fantasy world to remain as such. I do not believe that people who want the real world in FFXIV should be prioritized in this manner, there are fundamental pieces of world building that shouldn't be compromised in the way in which they are now. Garlemald should have remained a monarchy. There should be far more monarchies as well. Ilsabard as a whole was left underdeveloped by the decision to rush the conclusion of Season 1, and my confidence in the current state of affairs is at an all time low.

Irrelevant question and argument. People play fantasy games for a large number of reasons, and the existence of some republics in a fantasy setting doesn't take away from the numerous monarchies and other oligarchal governments which also exist in the game. This is not a zero-sum where it's Oops, All Monarchies or nothing else.

As I said above, they have no right and are nobody to try and cause regime change in Garlemald or have any say in their future. Sharlayan is under no threat from being invaded by Garlemald. Leaving the Garlean Empire with nothing but a faceless senate in order to continue to push the ideals of Sharlayan democracy was a mistake. It has robbed the region of the things that drew me towards it in the first place, but I suppose if what you want is to see your own real life ideals reflected directly in the game world then you'd have no issue with the current state of the writing.

I mean, technically speaking...Garlemald lost. If we're adhering to a medieval-esque standard of nations and war (as you claim to want), then the moment that Garlemald was no longer able to defend itself and surrendered to the Eorzean Alliance, the latter technically had the "right" to do whatever they want. They could have carved up the area like Europe did Africa or East Asia. The fact that the EA leaders are giving the people ANY autonomy on how they want to rebuild at all is pretty progressive from a modern standpoint.

And like I said before, if that ruins the game for you, then oh well. You won't be the first or the last to be displeased.

[MikkoAkure]

As I said above, they have no right and are nobody to try and cause regime change in Garlemald or have any say in their future. Sharlayan is under no threat from being invaded by Garlemald. Leaving the Garlean Empire with nothing but a faceless senate in order to continue to push the ideals of Sharlayan democracy was a mistake. It has robbed the region of the things that drew me towards it in the first place, but I suppose if what you want is to see your own real life ideals reflected directly in the game world then you'd have no issue with the current state of the writing.

I however do not. I want my fantasy world to remain as such. I do not believe that people who want the real world in FFXIV should be prioritized in this manner, there are fundamental pieces of world building that shouldn't be compromised in the way in which they are now. Garlemald should have remained a monarchy. There should be far more monarchies as well. Ilsabard as a whole was left underdeveloped by the decision to rush the conclusion of Season 1, and my confidence in the current state of affairs is at an all time low.

The twins had nothing to do with Garlemald's government at all and their father said "well there's some senate members who are still alive, they're better than nothing, let's get everyone to them and get together to rebuild the country".

Garlemald for all intents and purposes currently does not exist as anything more than a smoldering ruin and a bunch of refugees. The entire royal family was wiped out by infighting, which also destroyed the entire country. Some senators happen to still be alive and that's the closest thing the survivors have to anything closely resembling a civilian government. Garlemald was also a republic for 600 years. 60 years of a ghost with an emperor hat doesn't change that and it ended up giving them the destruction of their society. Sharlayan had nothing to do with their choosing a republic when they first created their senate and all Fourchenault is doing now is trying to find someone in charge so that the Garleans can rebuild themselves without outside interference because Sharlayan is all about non-interference.

I'm not sure where you get all these ideas from, but if you keep repeating the same thing over and over, it doesn't make you right.

Limsa Lominsa, O'ghomoro, Gridania, Xelphatol, Ul'dah, Paglth'an, Dravania, Idylshire, Thavnair, Doma and its many petty-kingdoms, the Azim Steppe, Hingashi, Dalmasca, Nagxia. These are not republics.
Sharlayan, Ishgard, Ala Mhigo, Bozja, Garlemald. These are republics. 2 of those have been republics for centuries and 4 are coming off of having extremely terrible regimes with no one left to continue the old ways.

The number of non-republics still outweighs the number of republics in the game. Then there's the old imperial remnant provinces, but we don't really know how those will go. I'm sure the majority of them were monarchies but when a giant empire comes in and destroys your country's government and kills off the royal families, they tend to not be monarchies anymore. It's funny that you keep talking about fantasy elements disappearing in the game but yet you support Garlemald who was actively destroying them. Besides killing off mages and knights in Landis, they also have oil refineries, very sci-fi forts and buildings with screen displays, airships, guns, robots, and even skyscrapers and modern day cars and trains.

Even if we had the rest of Ilsabard in an expansion set in the first half of Endwalker, nothing would have changed because we already know that all of Ilsabard is ruled by Garlemald. There's no room for any other monarchies there and the end would have been the same with Garlemald falling and Varis's corpse turning into Anima. It would have just been the usual "Garlean technology on top of whatever was there before that wasn't already destroyed", and a lot of unique elements like Landis's magic knights all dead or turned into Garlean soldiers.


Another thing to add is that nothing has changed to the casual observer in Ishgard. They weren't a "traditional, medieval monarchy" before, just a theocracy. The people themselves chose not to trust the church anymore and the church did all of that themselves. The lords still have power, but they can no longer force the peasants to do their bidding with the backing of the church now that the peasants have guns and ideas and there's no more existential threat about to wipe them off the mountainside. But there's still castles, knights, mages, and tons and tons of grey stone. It's just that there's no more elf pope on a throne and the lords and the peasants get together behind the scenes to squabble about government but it's not like we can see that, nor do we really hear anything about it at all after the storyline is over anyway.

[CrownySuccubus]

snip

Before it's brought up as a nit-pick, there's also post-Vauthry Eulmore and the Crystarium.

I don't think you missed them on purpose. But just FYIing.

[MikkoAkure]

Before it's brought up as a nit-pick, there's also post-Vauthry Eulmore and the Crystarium.

I don't think you missed them on purpose. But just FYIing.

I forget the First exists most of the time, tbh.

Crystarium was a non-republic before. Not sure what they are now. Eulmore is the only real republic on the First. The Viis, Ondo, Dwarves, and Il Mheg all seem to be variations of monarchy or chiefdom. I also forgot about the Indigo Deep on the Source, which was a monarchy and will probably be one again once they have a new queen. Then there's the Gnath which are a... thing... and their supreme ruler is still kicking.

[tokinokanatae]

I’m not really sure where this assumption that Alphinaud would be tied to the Void subplot were he to make an appearance in 6.2 is coming from. The narrative has been studiously avoiding bringing him and Alisaie into that plot, since, yes, the Void issues probably aren’t in his wheelhouse.

Concern about him showing up randomly in it is like me worrying about Y’shtola suddenly having a major role in the Aglaia plot. It’s possible, but there’s no evidence for it right now and were I to rant about her showing up without that evidence, it just makes me look like a biased Y’shtola hater that will take any excuse to complain about her existence in the game, even when it isn’t warranted.