One detail: in the cutscenes that go into Scarmiglione and Barbariccia's backstories, the hecteyes refer to Scarmiglione and Golbez as "The voidsent and the knight" as if Golbez is

Golbez being a shard of Azem would be insane, but I personally think that it's more interesting if Zero is a shard of Azem. It would make the fact that Fandaniel helped Zenos twist her to his will almost an extra slight towards the WoL.

"I'm not saying it's Azem but... it's probably Azem"

If we are keeping the Fiends Crystallized is very dangerous, these were the auracite that bring calamity to the 13th transforming the wols of this shard, i cant but fear the worst for Zero, I hope it doesnt come to that.

Being someone who hasn't played FFIV, I think we need to look at who Golbez was in the previous game to speculate more on what his motivations were. That would tie it up to who Golbez is in XIV. They usually do nods to the old characters with a slight twist to it after all.

Goblez and his relationship with the four archfiend is like the reverse version of Femto and the God Hand from Berserk.

Zero eats golbez and becomes zeromus.

If they brought back Golbez, his backstory from FF4 has to be somewhat relevant, since they always tend to keep the overall themes from imported characters at least somewhat similar while working them into the greater FF14 plotline. I'm really curious who it ends up being and what his goals ultimate are.

Zero spoke of herself and her mother as if they were both Warriors of Light of the Thirteenth, this leads me to believe that Golbez IS Zero's mother.

I want to believe Golbez is a WoL that couldnt survive the flood on the 13th.

My theory: Golbez is Emperor Xande and they won't reveal this until 6.5 because this will be the lead-in to the next expac, which will basically be the return of a version of the Allagan Empire. If you look at the context in the game, it is a sound theory. 1) Golbez knows what dragons are, has knowledge about their power, and knows how to contain/capture them in the flashback, when the other voidsent do not. Allag had developed knowledge of dragons during their war 2) The Warring Triad was a means by which they learned to tap the power of mighty beings and use that power to their own ends, which Xande would have known 3) They keep bringing up the Cloud of Darkness and old Allagan history in relation to it. They also mention the Cloud of Darkness never reappeared and muse that her essence may have been absorbed prior to coming back. Xande may have done this 4) They mention you are functionally immortal in the 13th - Xande had an existential crisis about dying, as noted in Fandaniel flashbacks in EW 5) We fight a Xande clone both in CT AND World of Darkness during the CT raids, which already raises the possibility that the Xande we killed in the 2nd raid is not the prime Xande clone 6) Golbez clearly wants to get back to the source and is preparing for a "crusade", which suggests he has no designs on wanting to just stay in the 13th

I really wanna see Cecil and Kain.

One thing that I think is worth looking into: At Zero's Refuge, one of the voidsent makes note of the paladin statue noting: "They were supposed to the hero that came to restore balance to the void... whoever they were." (or something to that effect)

There's something here that isn't being brought up: Golbez KNOWS WHAT DRAGONS ARE. Dragons only largely exist in the source, so the only way he could know what kind of creator Azdaja is, is if somebody who's familiar with the source told him. And my theory for who contacted Golbez is Igeyorhm. Golbez in FF4 does an 11th hour switch to the hero's side, and we already know that trying to restore the 13th is the plan on the scion's end; what if it turns out Golbez's plan is to use Azdaja's power (and perhaps the power from the 13ths shard of Zodiark) to conquer the Void, bring order and "stasis" to a realm dominated by chaotic umbral aether and thus tip the balance of the 13th? And perhaps Igeyorhm is the one who set Golbez on that path, hoping to redeem his mistake (Igeyorhm being the one responsible for what happened to the 13th)? And perhaps Golbez is the 13th's shard of Azem, the warrior of light, giving him the power to partially resist the corruption of the void?

Makes me wonder if Cecil and Zeromus are going to show up somewhere. I’m also curious to see if Rubicante will do the whole “I will heal you because I wish to face you at full strength”.

Golbez being a corrupted Cecil sounds like the best current theory out there, with Cecil being the Shard of Azem on the Thirteenth.

A funny interesting detail is that Golbez seems a bit similar to King Thordan. Potentially feeding on/using the power of a dragon, involved in a war (against who know what), Slaying an ascian, his appearance to extend. I just though it was pretty interesting.

To be honest the theory of him being a shard of Azem is really fascinating with its implications. Spoilers for FF4:

Golbez's dialogue in the final cutscene very much reminded me of Elidibus' comments saying things about not halting his steps to win redemption for the star. I am guessing that he went to the moon and killed the watcher, then devoured the part of Zodiark that was held there. We know that the parts of zodiark on he shards disappeared when he was destroyed so this had to have happened previously. He possibly assimilated part of the remainder of Elidibus that was left in the mixture when he separated from the primal.

I expect Golbez to have a motivation that we can sympathise wtih, very few FFXIV villains are unsymapthetic.