Replayed this recently, and the main villain still doesn't make any sense to me

[Team Alucard]

Okay, so I get that Sephiran was secretly responsible for the events of Path of Radiance by manipulating Ashnard, but as far as I can tell he barely had anything to do with the conflict in this particular game. In fact, seemingly everything he does directly contradicts his ultimate goal. In part 3 they constantly mention how he and Sanaki want to end the conflict peacefully, in contrast to Lekain and the other senators. At one point, Zelgius manages to end the fighting with minimal casualties until the senators pull a coup de tat and imprison him and Sanaki. But what I don't understand is why he chose to feign this love of peace in the first place, why not just side with Lekain and the other senators if his ultimate goal was to create a war massive enough to wake up Ashera? Obviously he would be betraying Sanaki, but that seems kinda minimal in comparison to his end goal of destroying all human life.

But instead of just coming out as an aggressive war-mongerer, he puts on this fake good guy persona, and is subsequently arrested and forced to chill in a jail cell and simply hope that everything goes according to plan. Which doesn't seem like a very good idea when you've got Lekain's incompetent ass running things.

[Soledai]

Running off of memory here..

I'm pretty sure Sephiran didn't care how his ends got met, as long as they did, as far pushing for peace, anyone can feign the good guy act just like you said so you basically answered your own question there. And as far as why, it's called not playing your hand too soon.

why not just side with Lekain and the other senators if his ultimate goal was to create a war massive enough to wake up Ashera? Obviously he would be betraying Sanaki, but that seems kinda minimal in comparison to his end goal of destroying all human life.

This right here befuddles me, why would Sephiran, a Heron, team up with the people who are directly responsible for the Serenes Massacre and made him pissed enough to do all this in the first place? In hindsight it can be for the overreaching goal of total annihilation, but still...

But instead of just coming out as an aggressive war-mongerer, he puts on this fake good guy persona, and is subsequently arrested and forced to chill in a jail cell and simply hope that everything goes according to plan. Which doesn't seem like a very good idea when you've got Lekain's incompetent ass running things.

The good guy act makes it easier to deceive people in the long run, and as far as having an incompetent person running the show, I don't think you could ask for anything better in a situation like that, the more foolish they are, the easier things will be, so to speak.

also running on no sleep <_<

Edited November 28, 2014 by Soledai

[EricaofRenais]

In the endings part it states that the Heron king heals Sephian and in his memories in the tower it makes it clear that he is mentally unbalanced. He went insane for years after he lost his powers and had to give up his true love and see her marry someone else and never knows his daughter. When he recovers his sanity and begins to have faith in mankind because of the old Apostle the senators have her killed and frame his clan which leads to them being murdered by humans which causes Sephian to decide that the world should end. Because he could not sing the Galder of release and Sanaki was too young and not the true Apostle the only way for him to wake the Goddess was to create a war that every country was a part of. In Path of Radiance the Laguz did not declare war, while in Radiant Dawn the Laguz declared war and so all of Tellius was involved in the war. I personally think that even though he wants the world to end Sephian could never side with the people who caused the deaths of the Apostle and most of his clan.