2.4 MSQ Spoilers It's unfortunate that Nanamo ul Namo's plans are private, so from an RP aspect there's actually not much to go on unless a PC contrives a "oh they had a spy with an ear pressed against her door really tightly" which would be an incredible asspull. If it were public knowledge then as an RP element it would have completely flipped the tables in a few storylines, my own being one of them.

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No one should ICly know about this, I mean it was pretty much just between the three leaders present and if someone asspulls it's going to be...meeeeeh in my books.

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I don't know what you are talking about yet because I haven't gotten there. But once again I ask, where were her Sultansworn in all of this? It seems like they are non-existent after you finish the Ul'dah MSQ path. I am not complaining here, mind you. It just sounds very odd.

Spoiler...Dragon fucker. I'm still getting over the immature little giggles.

SpoilerI am actually kinda happy the Sultana is about to relinquish her right to being a monarch in order to establish a democracy and abolish the merchant overlord class. I know that I OOCly and ICly despised them with every ounce of my being so if it ever comes down to where the merchant lord's refuse to relinquish their power because they are greedy monetarists even when the sultana gives hers up to create a democracy, I can guarantee ill be hunting some merchant lords because of it three months or so from now.     ._.

On a side note. I am actually kinda happy they did something with Ishgard. We got alot of important and juicy lore pieces from the developers. This of course though means that my original theory of the big baddy for the 3.0 series wont be Nidhogg but may be the lake Dragon, for the life of me whose name I cannot remember, died fighting Garleans and caused the world Aether to explode or something. Theoretically, this means we may also have to contend with two foes for 3.0, Nidhogg and that Demigod lake dragon.

We could also near the end of 3.0 seeing the resurgence of Garlean efforts to conquer Eorzea so theoretically 4.0 and forward will probably be seeing alot of fighting against the Garleans. Thats only if the current emperor solidified his seat of power within the empire by then.

On a separate note though, I wasn't all that surprised that the Merchant Lords were conspiring with the Garleans. They probably had a backdoor deal going on where when Eorzea was conquered, the merchant lords would probably be made regional lord's over Eorzea.

Thats not the only reason it didn't surprise me. By the time we got this to be confirmed story cannon this update, the developers had already painted this picture of them being extremely, self-centered, selfish, petty and very greedy tyrants so it made sense they would side with Garlemald because of their advanced technology and far larger numbers in their army's.

I dont think all the merchant lords are evil or support the Garleans. I would like to make an example that the Rahuban (or what the muscle heads name is) formed a military based on solely protecting Ul'dah from her enemy's. Likewise, there was the other Lalafell merchant lord, for the life of me his name escapes but he isn't lolorito but he was mentioned in 2.2 or 2.3, also didnt show extreme signs of being corrupt or greedy like most of the merchant overlords, so I see a pattern of Good (Rahubahn) Neutral (Lalafell merchent overlord I cant remember) and Evil (lolorito) but most tend to fall in the Neutral or Evil zone.

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If the Sultana abolishes her own power and dissolves the monarchy, the Sultansworn Order has no reason to exist. They will have to re-write the entire Paladin questline from that perspective. For my part I will hold out hope that Papashan and Raubahn are working in the background to cause a major power shift.

Democracy would be the -worst- possible choice for Ul'dah at this moment, considering the government is already corrupt. It will basically become another Ala'Mhigo where the Garleans just walk right in with barely a struggle.

SpoilersThats not the reason why the Ala'mhigans lost to the Garleans. They lost because they suffered an internal rebellion, in which the Garlean's took advantage of and conquered them while they were fighting amongst each other.

If I recall it correctly, Ala'mhigo was a monarchy ruled by the Noble classes.

If they make a Democracy, it would only serve to probably change the current system and solidify the unity of the masses, because money will no longer rule the voice of the people but publicly elected and represented individuals who when they put into power, will help right the wrongs the merchant class has inflicted on the lower class of society. Really, the fall of Ala'mhigo is fresh on their mind's still, so they aren't or wont re-create the same scenario of what happened then, especially with Primal's, Garleans and everything in between lurking about.

On the other hand, it COULD happen again of what happened in Ala'mhigo and we could see the political landscape of Eorzea change considerably. But bad ending's arent really SE's thing... i think?

SpoilerIn the unemployment line. T_T