Werlyt in Lorebook 3
So Werlyt gets a page expanding on its location and history a bit, to be expected as the new Encyclopaedia Eorzea 3 goes over both Shadowbringers and Endwalker content. What they do with its history as an Imperial province again paints Gaius in a better light...in ways we already knew were IC for him as established in earlier content, while also being straight up out of Machiavelli's The Prince in a way that makes complete sense for the Empire when dealing with conquered provinces, and how we've even heard before how some of them are ruled very much like native Garlean regions.
See, one of the oldest tricks in the literal book is you conquer a province, and especially if it proves unruly, you give it a nasty governor. Use them to root out the rebellious factions, while also tearing apart the old systems, stripping resources, crushing the populace, etc. THEN you send in a Reasonable Guy to take over who ousts the bad vicious leader, restores order, treats the people well, and so on. Now that new governor--and by extension his emperor for sending him--looks better in the eyes of the people, a problematic political/military rival has been killed/broken politically, the unruly elements have already been culled, and the people are just grateful for a reprieve from their misery. More acquiescent and "this isn't so bad after all."
Another famous literary example (and with a new movie a few months out) is Dune; once Harkonnen takes back Arrakis, he sends one nephew, Raban, who is literally nicknamed "the Beast", to be a horrible bully of a governor. His job is to root out the remaining loyal Atreides and quash the local Fremen. Then once Raban's atrocities were at their peak, Harkonnen meant to send in his heir, Feyd-Ruatha, to be the golden prince who would get rid of the problematic Raban (lethally if needed) and be accepted by the people as a decent leader. Of course, Dune's story rolls out differently, but the play is the same.
The Garlean Empire did the exact same thing in Werlyt.
For 30 years the subjugated nation was oppressed and stripped of resources. When the Empire's attention moved toward Othard and the military presence thinned enough a rebellion rose up, it was still crushed, but not before the previous viceroy was killed in the revolt.
Then Gaius van Baelsar came in and restored order. We already knew Gaius had a habit of appointing the right people for the job, regardless of race and social standing; he continued that in Werlyt, and was otherwise a good governor, working to ensure the populace was cared for, administered properly, even improved education and literacy rates. So after a few decades of crushing abuse...now Werlyt had a "reasonable governor" who treated them like people and took care of them, if still under the auspices of the Empire. They made it look like a better deal, and the previous guy was a mistake that shouldn't have happened.
This also tracks with pre-Praetorium Gaius as the "true believer" of Garlemald's Imperial mission of taming the "savage" lands and ushering them into the "civilized" ways of the Empire and adding those peoples' knowledges, cultures, skills, and might to the Empire to make everyone better. That "unity" aspect he and other leaders like Quintus van Cinna spouted while missing the hypocrisy. Gaius was a good governor because he thought that was the entire point--and then also led to his opposition of the Meteor Project. He never wanted to wipe Eorzea out, he wanted to bring it under Imperial control and govern it as he had Werlyt.
So for twenty years, Gaius was the reasonable governor getting good grades in cultivating Werlyt as a respectable and flourishing province of the Empire. Then he was sent to Ala Mhigo to conquer that, and through it the rest of Eorzea.
...And then Valens van Varro took over Werlyt and pretty much overnight undid everything reasonable a decent governor would do because of his jealousy over Gaius and his own ambitions for power, especially after the civil wars left the Imperial throne vacant. Also cuz again, they have to spend this branch of story making Gaius look better by making Valens cartoonishly bad at everything. Rather than trusting what they already wrote about a complicated man who truly believed in his mission until forced to see how he had been a pawn sowing misery his whole life. But they've tended to rewrite Gaius and his on screen characterization a lot as it is, and with Garlemald not getting an expansion of its own (they had considered it but ultimately worked its fall into ShB and EW), it feels like they hammer this point in Werlyt to speed run what was supposed to be an actual rehabilitation arc for the character.
And then it once again frames the quintent as rebellious heroes who thwarted Valens plans to use them and the Weapons project for his own ends and sure we'll let that go cuz the folks in Werlyt need something. They do have a named leader (Talbot Hunte) and a government set up and none of it really mentions Gaius, though we know they put him in charge of their military. Cuz yeah, he was one of their conquerers--but they also know that they can work with him and that he knows how to run an army effectively.
Also all the quintet are literally named "aan Baelsar" in their entries, though the main thing I noticed there was that Milisandia did in fact dye her hair red to account for the discrepancy in her child appearances in the various flashbacks. Apparently it was cuz she noticed Alfonse seemed very fond of one of their caretakers at the orphanage, and so Milisandia changed her hair to be the same color to try and get his attention, quietly pining for him for years but never letting him know about her not-quite-sisterly affections.
