A reminder that Ala Mhigo ise still useless

[Nebelheim]

Yes I agree. Raubahn has extensive management and business experience from his time in the commercial hub of Ul'Dah. He's not a career politician, maybe Raubahn is exactly the sort of leader Gyr Abania needs to drain the swamps after the Garlean occupation.

I think he would be a good general as well as the politician considering his experience with ul'dah politics and his time with the sultana.

[Ghost_of_Ebina]

- Most of the towns don't let you in any of the buildings unless its ruined, or really special. Can't go inside shops, can't get to know the culture.

Agreed. I noticed a sharp drop in enter-able houses after Heavensward. Basically none of the houses in Ala Mhigo are un-enterable.
I can only recall the hunter's cabin close to Casturm Oriens which can be entered, but that cabin more or less is part of the Shroud...
It almost feels like the development team had almost no love for the area, which is a stark contrast to how detailed and vibrant Kugane, Azim Steppes, etc are (the whole Doma-side of Stormblood).
The Ala Mhigan Quarter really lacks any feeling if being "lived in." Heck, even the small town of Saltery has more character.
(and any small town in ARR will blow them out of the water)

[Oizen]

They did this shit again with Garlemald except the excuse was they turned it into Detroit.

[TaleraRistain]

I think there were more qualified characters to be in charge instead of lyse. Someone like Raubahn or someone who grew up there and spent more of their life in the region.

Neither of them are in charge of Ala Mhigo. When the leaders of the various factions had the meeting that was disrupted by the primal, they elected officials to serve as the government leaders. Raubahn is the leader of the Ala Mhigan army. Lyse serves in a diplomatic position when needed. She helped organize the various leaders so they could have that meeting.

To the OP, I think it may be a bit fitting that the Ala Mhigo area itself is not as much of a focus, since that area would have memories of both the king they rebelled against and the leaders of the Garlean occupation. It fits a bit that Ala Mhigans may not see that as a location they really wanted to build up. I wouldn't mind seeing the villages like Ala Gannha developed more, since they had some really good questlines that showed just how bad of a state most of those places were in and it would be nice to see them starting to flourish again.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Ala Mhigo can hang out with Gridania in the "Oh yeah, those places existed too" club.

[Mimilu]

To be fair, those characters all featured heavily in the EW role quests.

And poor Arenvald deserved better. (｡•́︿•̀｡)
I liked Gosetsu become a healer though. (ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧
Although I have to wonder why they ended the physical range role quest in a cave, a.k.a. an enclosed area (*≧▽≦)ﾉｼ))

[Alleluia]

Definitely want Ala Mhigo to get the city-state treatment behind those gates. The Ala Mhigan quarter can be its equivalent to Summerford or Black Brush or w/e and just essentially be a hamlet outside the gates. And then a real city state inside.

Maybe when they do the expansion that takes us to Corvos? Its geographically on the way there, by foot or air, from Aldenard, and making it an airship stop/hub in that direction makes sense. And it would be easy to include Ala Mhigo in a storyline about whatever the new paradigm between Garlemald and its former colonies is going to be. Along with Doma (and maybe Werlyt), they're the furthest along in post-imperial reconstruction, with the governing council being formed and all that. And any unrest in former colonies will effect Ala Mhigo most since they share a border with them. Doma is shielded by the steppe and the burn.

[Canadane]

Is that any different than the "lets build this fabled weapon of legend... so we can discard it for a generic weapon once we find out there is a thing happening at this new place."

Games have always had their varying degrees of nonsense lol.

Entirely different. Those new generic weapons are slightly sharper.
But kinda discarding an entire city-state is a lot.

[RitsukoSonoda]

Entirely different. Those new generic weapons are slightly sharper.
But kinda discarding an entire city-state is a lot.

But... how is a staff or book sharper? >.>

[Raven2014]

He's not a career politician, maybe Raubahn is exactly the sort of leader Gyr Abania needs to drain the swamps after the Garlean occupation.

Uh ... exactly what swarm there is to drain?

Also it helps to judge the story with context that are more in line with the setting, rather than using modern standard. Part of the reason Lyse Hext took the leadership there because it was her father who led the resistance that topple the tyrannic king. If the empire didn't swoop in, it's possible he would have become the next king, making Lyse and Yda princess and successor to the throne. Now I know many would probably not care about such thing, some may even look at it negatively. But FF14 is set in some kind of a pseudo-mediaval world, that kind of things matter a lot if you want to rally the population. Raubahn maybe a more badarse character in our eyes, but to the average Ala Mihan he's someone who lucky enough to find warm and comfort inside another country's court while they were suffering (something that Albert resent him for), at the same time the name Hext have never been far from the people heart and their struggling. Almost the entire Hext family had given up their life fighting for Ala Miho, that name carries a lot of weight.

That's why from a practical narrative PoV, there is hardly another more qualified character then Lyse to become the symbol to rally the people. Again, by the standard of the kind of setting the game is, not by the standard of a citizen living in a 21st democratic country.