Final Fantasy XIV has a lot of compelling characters that have come and gone throughout its lifetime. Aside from the main narrative, the game also has a lot of side content that offers rich storylines full of well-written villains and heroes. With so many different people in the game, it can be hard sometimes to keep them all in line. During the Shadowbringers trial side quest saga Sorrow of Werlyt, players are reintroduced with a familiar face, Gaius van Baelsar, who becomes an ally instead of foe. The Warrior of Light is forced to help him content with a Garlean military leader named Valens. Here is all you need to know about this dastardly villain.
Valens van Varro in Final Fantasy XIV
Valens van Varro was originally upstaged by Gaius van Baelsar to lead the XIVth Imperial Legion in the Garlean Army. Not one to take things lying down, Valen managed to earn a position as an assistant to the engineer Nero tol Scaeva. After Gaius’s defeat, Valens managed to gain power as the leader of the VIIIth Imperial Army. This is where he was commissioned into the Weapons Project.
The Weapons Project was a top-secret military operation by the Garleans to create superior mechanical constructs able to destroy anything in their way. Valens, being the completely awful person that he was, allowed his soldiers to kidnap orphans in order to use them as test subjects in his experiments for the Weapons. Some of these orphans actually were brainwashed into believing in his cause, though his ultimate goal was to become the emperor of Garlemald with his research.
Valens in the Sorrow of Werlyt side quest in Final Fantasy XIV
During the Sorrow of Werlyt storyline, the Warrior of Light discovers that Gaius’s adoptive orphan children have been brainwashed and used as suicidal pilots in his Weapons. After defeating several weapons, it is revealed that Alfonse, one of Gaius’s orphans, has been trying to sabotage the experiments and free Werlyt from the inside, though he met a grim end in the process to fuel the Diamond Weapon.
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Another of the orphans, Allie, is convinced to pilot the Diamond Weapon, only to tap into the mind of Alfonse during the battle. He saves her while the Diamond Weapon is defeated, and Valens decides to challenge Gaius in combat rather than surrender. While he puts up a tough fight, strengthened by an unfair tactical advantage, Alfonse manages to reactivate the Diamond Weapon and subdue Valens. The defeated villain is tormented by visions of the many orphans who died on his watch and then crushed in the palm of his own experiment, bringing his story to a close.
