SpoilerHistory lesson time. Strap in, it's going to be a long read. So, Garlemald is located on a continent northeast of Eorzea, named Ilsabard. They control a majority of two of the three great continents. Namely Ilsabard, and a large portion of Othard, which is located far to the east. Othard has their own primals, and was the first foriegn continent that Garlemald attempted to conquer (And was consequently the reason for the Imperial mandate on the execution of all primals without hesitation). As it stands, I believe there are still some kingdoms in Othard that have yet to fall to Imperial rule. It was mentioned pre-ARR that Garlemald could not afford to withdraw any troops from the Eastern Front, which seems to imply that Othard was holding it's own for the most part. That could've changed in the past five years. Right now, Garlemald controls the region of Gyr Abania and the former Eorzean city-state of Ala Mhigo. They also have numerous bases located across Eorzea at this point in time, and in the process of making yet another large push to conquer the country after five years of biding their time after the calamity.

Now, let's start from the beginning. Garlemald was once a very small and impoverished nation that held barely a fraction of the northern end of Ilsabard. They were originally a republic, and had a small military. Around the year 1515~1520, a young Legatus by the name of Solus Galvus basically revolutionized the entire nation overnight with the introduction of Magitek. It's heavily hinted that Magitek was reverse engineered from Allagan technology. The Allagan empire was an empire that existed some 4000 years in the past. They were even more technologically advanced than Garlemald. ...And Garlemald is pretty advanced. They are the ones who originally created Dalamud and imprisoned Bahamut before sending him off to orbit the planet. Take that as an example of their technological prowess. They imprisoned basically the most powerful entity able to manifest itself into Hydaelyn with their technology and magic.

Anyways, with the introduction of Magitek (Of which I also am a lore freak of. I can delve into Magitek, but that'd likely be an entirely different PM. My character is actually a Magitek Engineer, so it sort of has to be my forte.), the Garlemald Republic expanded it's borders immensely over the following years. The people of Garlemald unanimously elected Solus Galvus as their dictator, and he continued to expand their borders day by day. Then, in the year 1521, he instituted an Imperial Regime in order to better control their vast amount of new territory, and named himself first emperor of Garlemald. Thus the Garlean Empire was born.

With their overwhelmingly powerful military, Garlemald succeeded in conquering almost any nation that stood against it. Their airforce is the most powerful in the world, and there is currently no country that can match them in the skies. In the year 1557 the XIVth Imperial Legion, helmed by Legatus Gaius van Baelsar (Otherwise known as the Black Wolf), conquered the city-state of Ala Mhigo by employing masterful subterfuge on an already weakened nation. (Their king went mad, slaughtered almost the entirety of the Fists of Rhalgr (The order of Monks), and committed suicide after waging a civil war against his own people.) The city was in a huge amount of unrest, and the Imperials promised order and protection in exchange for Ala Mhigo to lay down their arms and submit to Imperial rule. Gaius was named Imperial Viceroy of the city, and it is currently the empire's largest foothold in Eorzea. They brainwash children born there and ship them off to Garlemald for training and induction into the Imperial military.

Fast forward to 1.0 of FFXIV. The year is 1572, and the VIIth Imperial Legion is sent to Eorzea in order to assist the XIVth in conquering the country. Led by the Legatus Nael van Darnus, the VIIth legion went about researching and preparing to unleash the Meteor Project upon Eorzea. The Meteor project was started ten years prior, and was based on the idea of harnessing Dalamud, which the empire knew to be a powerful Allagan "weapon". (Van Darnus, on the other hand, knew exactly what it was, as the Darnus family had been the keepers of Allagan lore since the empire's destruction some 4000 years ago) Garlemald intended to use it as an ultimate weapon of mass destruction. The project ended in failure those ten years ago, and said failure resulted in the destruction of an entire city. This was known as the Bozja Citadel incident, and it is what prompted Cid Garlond to flee Garlemald and form the Garlond Ironworks in Eorzea in order to fight back against the empire. Absolutely nothing was left of Bozja Citadel, not even a single corpse. Dalamud basically wiped it off the map.

Regardless, the empire once again began it's research into the Meteor Project in order to once and for all conquer Eorzea. Nael van Darnus garnered full support from the emperor, though Gaius van Baelsar warned against using Dalamud. That if it were used, there would be no country left to conquer, only ash and dust. Suffice it to say, Nael van Darnus pushed forward with his ambitions and was eventually driven completely mad by Dalamud's presence (Dalamud contained Bahamut, which I'm sure you are well aware. He turned Darnus into his harbinger, so by the end Nael van Darnus was working only for Bahamut, not the empire. He actually forsakes the empire during the course of the 1.0 storyline and goes off on his own. Says they're all fools, and that only Dalamud could bring true salvation to the world. He was a nutcase.)

Yada yada, Bahamut is freed, Seventh Umbral Era begins, shit gets fucked up. VIIth Imperial Legion is all but destroyed.

Five years pass, and it's now 1577. Present day for A Realm Reborn. The Garlean court is currently in turmoil, as Solus zos Galvus is frail in health and on the way out the door. As such, many royal houses are fighting for control of the empire, and Garlemald is just a mess. Back in Eorzea, Gaius van Baelsar is tasked with the conquering of Eorzea. All he has at his disposal is his legion, as the empire refuses to send any support at the moment.

That is the short version of past and recent events.

Now, the Garlean Empire's military is structured after the Roman Legion. Each of Garlemald's 14 (Technically 13 legions, since the VIIth was destroyed. It is unclear whether or not they have a replacement VIIth legion yet.) legions are led by a single Legatus. From what we've seen, under that Legatus serve two Tribuni. Gaius also has a member of the frumentarii under his command, so that's likely to be the case with all Legati. There's likely a few prefects underneath said Tribuni. I won't keep rambling off, but you can basically take a peek at the roman legion structure and apply it to Garlemald's military almost exactly. The Frumentarium also exists in the empire, and they are basically the eyes and ears of the emperor. His secret service, if you will. We don't know anything about them beyond that at this point in time.

The Garlean Military is something special. Almost all regular members of the military are brainwashed to mindlessly serve their empire without question. Garlean Soldiers are actually forced to kill something, anything, once a day. They do this in order to both build up a tolerance for slaughter, and to make it a second nature to their soldiers. They are bred to be killers. That being said, any ex-military Garlean is likely to suffer heavily from PTSD and other social anxieties. You can always just ignore them, but canonically there's likely to be many, many hurdles to overcome when mixing into Eorzean society. Most ex-soldiers would likely be horribly broken people, unable to trust anyone, prone to violence, etc. Rank and file are bred to be soldiers, and nothing else.

For example, there are a few characters out there currently that are ex-Garlean, and their characters are very unstable because of it. Some suffer heavily from a whole mess of social anxieties and disorders. I also play an ex-garlean, however my character was never in the military. I do have a character who was in the military, however he was an engineer.

As far as naming conventions are concerned, I currently have a post on the official lore forums with a reply from Fern saying he will be giving us the run-down on Garlean naming conventions in the future. However, for now all we know is that most Garlean names tend to have somewhat of a hint of latin to them.