Wolph Het Glacius

[Garalona]

Yes, there could be a number of Garleans unhappy with the way the Empire does things, but like in Soviet Russia, they couldn't easily act on that without serious, probably deadly consequences. We only see the well oiled war machine part of the Empire for a reason.

 

We only see the deserters who aren't important or threatening enough for the Empire to hunt to the ends of the earth, because the Empire's reach and influence extends far enough that the rest are almost assuredly dead. That's how oppressive empires like that survive and thrive, by crushing anyone who steps out of line so only the subservient (or those who do well to appear so) remain. But who knows, maybe *I'm* assuming too much and every imperial citizen gets a pony.

 

And thankfully Sion is presumed dead, so she doesn't have to worry about being hunted, given her illustrious background.

 

Don't drink and workshop, kids. But anyway, I'm glad I could have inspired you, but I think I'm done here. Good luck with whatever you end up doing.

[allgivenover]

This is just my guess but prior to Heavensward, if someone had made a character like Aymeric who served as a diplomat between Ishgard and the three nation that wished to talk about peace, this very idea would most likely have been met with the same objections since Ishgard as a nation wanted to keep it's neutrality. At the time we honestly couldn't have known what the political hierarchy of Ishgard was like other than intelligent guesses some of which probably turned out to be true and others turned out to be a neat surprise. As we don't know the inner workings of Garlemald how can we be absolutely certain that there is no faction who goes against the idea of world domination in their politics without being Yoshi? Unless it's been stated by the developers otherwise I thought there can't be an absolute certainty that there is no such factions within Garlemald that didn't fancy the idea of world domination and dictatorship. The hints I got was that there were attempts before where Garlemald's dictatorship was challenged by 9 usurpers (reason for their rebellion was vague unless it was absolutely certain that they were just another dictator who wished to replace the emperor) so I think there might be room to question that not everyone went along with the idea because Garlemald operates like a hive mind. 

 

For that reasoning I thought it could be reasoned with then that there might be such a faction who oppose the empire but is a very part of that same empire. Horrible comparison I know but similarly Aymeric and the Temple Knights, were part of Ishgard but had differing views than the total neutrality sought by Ishgard and he worked to collaborate with the other nations against the Pope's judgment. 

 

I know you're presenting this as support for roleplaying your idea (and yes, I did keep reading and see that you decided to drop it), but this is really even more of a reason to not do it. Why? Because if Yoshi and the team decides to flesh that out you're suddenly intruding on canon lore by being the "other single Garlean diplomat to Ishgard".

 

EDIT: You can really cut out half of your "cool" factors and still have a character you find interesting, there's no reason for her to be so complex. That kind of character works well in storytelling, not so in roleplay.

[Oli!]

The idea of an Ishgardian ambassador wouldn't have been particularly frowned upon, because we already knew beforehand that they once held relations with the outside world, and certain houses still do under the practice of hiring foreigners on occasion to work with them.

 

In fact, some people did roll with that concept.

 

It's different for Garlemald, because it's made very clear that they wish to conquer for the sake of what they consider to be the Greater Good. Regardless, if we were to theorycraft about their internal government, it would be more plausible to assume that it is similar to the later days of Rome, than to make something up entirely from scratch, considering their naming conventions, military makeup, and general outlook towards the world at large.

 

If we were to assume an absolute parallel with Rome (which it could be argued is unlikely in totality, but considering the way that other city-states are modeled, it is nonetheless likely to be close), then we would be able to assume that those that question the Emperor's judgement would be suspect to immediate persecution by his hand; the Garlean emperor would also be able to refuse any legislation allowing for diplomacy if they willed it, and would also have control over the entirety of Garlemald's standing army.

 

The question then arises of, if this were true, how come there was such a large dispute between members of Garlemald during Project Meteor? There are several possibilities.

 

1.) Emperor Galvus's Health. It's implied during ARR that Galvus is ill, and losing grip on his power as a result. We're not entirely sure when this happens, so it's unclear whether his health was failing during the Project Meteor incident as well. Either way, as of HW, he is dead.

 

2.) Garlean Generals Doing Whatever The Hell They Want. Also possible, but seemingly unlikely, since you'd think that there would be some crackdown on that. At the same time, however, Nael van Darnus was pretty clearly loopy later on in the storyline (and was also seen among members of Garlemald as a little too extremist for anyone's tastes), and Gaius van Baelsar didn't seem to give much of a shit about the "official" abandonment of invasion plans either. This possibility, however strange, may also be granted further potential if one considers that the Garlean public at large was rather opposed to Project Meteor; that's a pretty clear indication of a higher-up somewhere just not giving a shit.

 

3.) Imperium maius. This is a special kind of commanding authority that was present later on in Roman history. Although some Emperors had greater control over Rome's armies than others, under later forms of Roman government, what made the Roman emperor special was that, despite having the ability to call and end senate meetings (despite having only a little more power than a normal senator, as well as absolute judicial ruling) was the ability to show up on the field of battle, and immediately assume command, so long as he stayed there. If he's not there, then the highest commanding officer that is not the Emperor (usually a general) would have command as they normally would. If Galvus wasn't able to make it out to Eorzea and issue command, it's likely that the Generals were free to do what they wanted by Garlean law of command, or just because no orders made it out to them.

 

Personally, I would put my stock in imperium maius being the reason. This is because after killing Bismark in HW, we get a prime example of whatever the Garlean version of imperium maius is in action; the newly-appointed Garlean Emperor Varis zos Galvus swoops down, waves his command of his army in your face, shows off his cool airship, and leaves. Despite the presence of Regula van Hydrus, the legatus of the legion you see in that cutscene, it's very clear who the troops are listening to.

 

If you combine Possibility 3 with Possibility 2, then you'd get the most likely scenario for why that happened, in my mind.

 

The gist of what I'm trying to get at is that if we're going to theorycraft about Garlean government, the best thing we're likely to get is something that looks like the Roman Empire, which is clearly reflected in the names, army-ranks, etcetera, that Square Enix gives us.

 

It's also possible that all of this is moot anyway; regardless of whether or not Garlemald is open to diplomacy, Ishgard most certainly isn't, considering that they have joined an Alliance whose sole purpose at the moment is telling Garlemald to F-off. So no matter how much we speculate on what's happening in Garlemald's government, the thing is, we know what's going on with Ishgard's government, and they're not open to negotiation.

[-no longer matters-]

Best advice I can give as a person who was over thinking and over complicating their characters. Just come up with a few base lines, don't over think them. Things like where she's from, why she's here but keep it vague then let RP fill in the blanks. Let natural cool factors build up and don't force them!

 

 

I hope you can find the balance you need to have a character you love! (It took me three technically!)