Varis at the Ghimlyt Parley
There is/was a theory I've heard before that the Emperor Varis we meet at the parley in Stormblood 4.5 just before Ghimlyt Dark is being possessed by either Emet-Selch or Elidibus due to his ranting about rejoining the worlds to reach perfection.
Playing through it again for a 4th time on Iyna, I don't think I can personally ascribe to said theory, for various in world and even some meta reasons. I found myself close reading and taking notes as I thought about it again for the first time in a long time, to see if I could see it for myself.
I do have some thoughts on what it means for Varis himself though.
(as usual, mileage and canon compliance may vary, etc, go below the cut for more)
In the 4.4 stinger, we finally meet Emet-Selch as Solus zos Galvus, called from his rest by Elidibus to try and wrangle Varis into line with the Plan. We knows from other short scenes Varis is not fond of the Ascians, nor his relatives--and that more than continues here, with the way he shoots his grandfather, knowing it's futile but it also shuts him up for a minute.
But one thing Grandpa mentions here is interesting:
"Ours is a struggle to restore both mankind and the world to their rightful state. Viewed thus, our goals are one and the same."
He is trying to appeal to Varis in his role as Emperor, and what that means--and also the expediency of working together for now. A point which becomes clearer at the parley itself.
In 4.5 we get another scene between the Galvus men, at one of the research facilities to oversee the development of Black Rose, especially after Gaius and Alphinaud's shenanigans to destroy the main factory.
This is where Emet realizes Black Rose has the "proper aspect" and takes his leave, specifically saying he and Varis shall not likely meet again.
"Well, I shall leave you to your own devices. Go forth and bloody the land with your grand and glorious war. Since we may not meet again in this lifetime, it would be remiss of me not to offer a word or two of gratitude."
Emet-Selch "thanks" Varis for the cloned bodies, making the process of returning and using them much easier, attuned as they are already to Emet-Selch's being. He also taunts Varis for being as utterly twisted and diabolical and much like Emet himself, in his own way, a dig given he knows how much Varis despises him.
This is also where Varis attempts to chastise his Grandfather for the chaos his host's "death" wrought on the Empire he built for specific purposes--only to learn that too was orchestrated, the chaos itself part of the Grand Plan, and the Ascians having contingencies for whichever way the cards fell. Varis is further enraged by this callous revelation.
This is the quest before the parley. If Emet-Selch realizes here that Black Rose can be used as a catalyst for a Calamity, if the First and its overabundance of Light can be tipped far enough, then this is where he leaves the Source, with the words from the trailer about "together" revealing the "star's fraudulent existence."
Again, he plays to Varis's pride, his hate, and his own fervent beliefs so carefully nurtured the man's entire life. This becomes very clear in the second half of the parley. There's nothing said in the first half about the Eorzean leaders that isn't public knowledge, or easily found out by Garlean agents.
Varis's rant in the second half about the Sundering and Rejoining comes across as xenophobic and smacking of eugenics. He takes the idea of Garlean superiority and purity, and figures if mankind were to rejoin into one "perfect" race, they would have the strength to overthrow the Ascians once and for all, ending their reign of chaos and creating the orderly world Garlean propaganda always claims is their goal.
When Aymeric brings up working with the Ascians to try and turn their own schemes against them didn't really work for Thordan--yes, he got rid of Lahabrea, but still was lost to the Primal he summoned, along with the knights of the Heavens Ward--Varis goes real creepy, wishing he had the "luxury" of not realizing he was a pawn, revealing Solus was an Ascian in disguise, and the Empire that Varis somehow still fervently believes in to be their game as well.
"We would be the masters of our own fate" he says of rejoining the star, in a speech where the voice work and animations combine to show a man unhinged by the truths he has learned clashing with his lifetime of indoctrination.
And through his entire dialogue, the music playing is "The Emperor's Wont." This is a classic Garlean theme in the game, played in Castrum Meridianum, the first of the lvl 50 MSQ roulette dungeons at the end of ARR 2.0. There's no Ascians in Meridianum; just Garleans who believe fervently in Gaius and the Empire, led by Livia in all her own delusional jealousy. This is not music even tangentially related to the Ascians; it's purely Garlean, and the naming of it very specific as we listen to the current Emperor.
("Wont" is an adjective, verb, and noun, the meaning is "accustomed, used, inclined, habit, apt; a way of acting fixed through repetition" according to Merriam-Webster)
This does not feel like a speech Elidibus would give; at this point in the story he would not be given to ranting, being more measured and controlled. Also, he's already inhabiting Zenos's body, there's no need to hop even temporarily to Varis, especially when he then has to be ready to take the field as Zenos (and Emet-Selch's earlier comments about the resonance of the bodies brings that to mind again; it takes time, apparently, to settle in if it's not already prepared, at least for him and Elidibus). And to act as unhinged as the man does here would not meet the goals of persuading the Alliance to go along with a plan that would, to the Emissary, bring balance. Elidibus doesn't lose himself until he's lost both his anchors of fellow Unsundered.
Nor does it feel like Emet-Selch; while he later gives us the same information and can certainly rave (especially after an expansion dealing with Scion Shenanigans), it would again be very counter to the goal. Even if the true goal is forcing the Alliance to fight...they were prepared for that anyway. What purpose would revealing this truth serve in that case?
The stall for time only works in the Alliance's favor; it's noted several times that the Empire could steamroll Ala Mhigo's barely-there defenses if they strike quickly. The parley gives them yet more time to shore up, set their troops, get in reinforcements. It works in character for Varis, who's been notably reluctant in the 4.x cutscenes to continue war with Eorzea as it's the Ascians' plans--so it makes more sense I think for Varis to reveal the truth and his own mad intentions, in the hopes that this weird little realm of magic users who've managed such impossibilities might join his scheme to turn the tables around on the Paragons.
Varis's rant at the parley strikes me as the plan of a desperate, broken man who's lost everything he's valued and all his support; his parents, his wife, his best friend. Even his monstrous son he disdained has been possessed by an eldritch creature who seeks to manipulate him, and his dead grandfather turns out to be the same. Varis was raised in the feverish worldview of Garlean Nationalism, and then has had his reality flipped upside down as to his and his nation's purpose, as well as the very nature of the world and mankind itself.
Beating the Ascians at their own game seems like his best option--and fits the straightforward might-makes-right approach of the Empire, and the only way he was ever taught to think and see the world by the very man he reviles as Grandfather and Ascian both.
Anyway. This is why I tend to think the person we deal with at the parley is Emperor Varis himself, not an Ascian in disguise or in possession of him. The timing of Emet-Selch's departure to return to the First, the attitude Varis has as he goes off the rails, the meta of the musical cues, and the how and whys of revealing the truth of Solus, the empire's founding, and his own goal for Sundering and Rejoining, doesn't strike me as conducive or necessary to the Ascians' own plans, but an act of desperation by a man who feels trapped and powerless when he's supposed to be the most powerful ruler of the most powerful nation in the world, and found it all to be a house of cards instead.
I also personally find that far more interesting and tragic (in both the general and literary senses) for the character himself.
