Hey, it's my topic!
Let's see....
Reviewing the mod there is neither an actual alternate conclusion nor any heart-rending choice between destroying the key and preserving Malandros's life.
Lo, I am vexed that our Judge pulled that crap out of his tuckus to keep us headed to "Conclusion A."
Even destroying the key isn't really an option as, congratulations, you've just crossed an unscrupulous elder Elorii who can probably atomize you with a thought. This isn't even "you screwed him and ran," it's "you screwed him and he knows where you are and finds you faster then Loshnek."
I realize "Conclusion B: Xercel frowns and you all die in a fire; please give your characters and log sheets to the judge" wouldn't really be kosher, but to me that seems like the actually plausible outcome to betraying someone with no apparent reason not to be murderously angry about it.
I think The Vault is right.
From Maranithia's sheet:
"They treat us little better than servants. Mindless brutes to be used only when our leaders don't want to get their hands dirty."
"So here you are – being sent into one of the deadliest places in the empire with a group of
people you barely know. But successfully concluding this mission will change everything. You’ve been promised by the Ardakene that a new day is dawning upon our people and the old way will be washed aside and a new one, where we are all treated as equals shall be put in place."
"You just need to make sure that the Ardakene stays alive to fulfill their end of the bargain."
That perspective decries that the Marokene were contented in their state of oppression.
Enough so to sabotage a mission that could've lead to revenge against the humans. Even without the drive to restore the Elemental Lords there's still the matter of the Belekith and the many, many subsequent deaths to avenge.
Also it's ironic that Desaviatas, who performs two betrayals, has the "
Code of Honor" flaw.
So while this past state of the Elorii is 5,000 years old it's also the way of things before the arrival of the Prophetess -and possibly afterwards, too. The Eloran Empire lasts about 2,000 years and apparently drifts into the situation we're discussing now... and I still don't get
why.
What's the answer besides "everybody sucks?" It couldn't have been that there were no inter-bloodkine encounters. They had actual cities and fortresses and all the rest of it and that seems to deny the likelyhood of every community being racially layered in just the same way.
Upon reflection I'm not even sure there was a problem. Marokene are stereotyped as being conservative and reactionary with a taste for solitude and isolationist communities. And nowhere in the other characters notes, besides Desaviatas of course, are there any thoughts about the politics of the nation. So it's entirely possible this whole issue never existed at all except in the fevered minds of the two conspirators.
That's part of what bugs me here. In a society that's one Pope short of being an actual Theocracy the Ardakene, the compassionate, empathetic Ardakene who're also most of the clergy
-the most important people in the nation, don't have the suction to get everyone circulating around the social orders?
Also it seems like the betrayal of Marnithia is kind of short-sighted. What was the point? To conceal the key? Did Desaviatas not think that, as the other Elorii knew where the key was when they were murdered, that they wouldn't come across that memory again? Or that the memories couldn't be provoked into returning? It's entirely possible that Xercel found his brother before the mod starts and dosed him with something that causes him to start uncontrollably flashing back as a pretense to getting his catspaw's to do his bidding -"do help my poor brother;
I have no idea why he's tripping out."
And what about Esteverea? She says:
"You have no right to that claim, heretic!,” the Acton snarls. “You rejected our ways, shed your name and took that ridiculous title – Xercel” She practically spat out that last word." Why can't the PC's interview her? She's clearly got some insight into his history and a takes the endeavor seriously enough to want to see it's outcome not be to Xercel's liking.
I mean, to be candid I'm pretty sure why that option doesn't exist is because it might suggest choices that don't exist. The mod only ends one way irregardless of any judge's particular inclination and most importantly that means that Xercel gets the key in the actual historical sequence of things.
Besides a line or two of Xercel making some appeals to racial solidarity it doesn't seem like the presence of Eloran PC's is factored into the module. Besides the cert, which isn't inconsequential to be sure but isn't automatically part of the experience, there's nothing actually involving an Elorii PC in the mod.
For example the parting text is:
"From below a voice cuts through the murmur of the crowd, "You have set in motion actions that will have dire consequences for both your people and mine. I pray to the Goddess that the rebel Xercel may yet be stopped."
"Without another word, the Ardakene turns and stalks away."Pardone madam, but I'm playing "one of your people," -could you perhaps spare a second to un-cryptic your comments so I might glean insight into the "dire consequences?"
The Blessed Lands preview entry for the Elorii has what I think of as a bone tossed to the players: the Eloran Empire kind of
wasn't. Having broken away from servitude at the scales of the Sstherics the Elorii didn't turn right around and throw the yoke onto the necks of the rest of the continent.
Yay!
Thank you!
I really like the Elorii because I really, really didn't want to play a human with pointed ears.
I like playing a character who's background is both lost glory and a society that maybe for once had learned from the mistakes of the empire that both birthed and betrayed it.
Or that they've got Ardelia's prophecy, but seem to lack a post-game for what happens if everything goes as planned. The Elemental Lords come back!...and then what? Do the Elorii pack up their stuff, wave goodbye, and wander back into the forest to sit around blissing out about how great it is the family's back together?
They're bent on revenge, but confused about what role to play in the history unfolding around them. They're in denial about the corruption of the Malfeans and paralyzed by the events of Manetas's reign -which ends up
exterminating them, if history didn't change. The Laerestri pour in fantastic and bizarre reports about cults and ancient dragons and "oh hey the Il-Huan aren't dead and that's bad!" and Ethelios scratches it's wise head about what to do about it when in 80 years the next budget meeting is scheduled.
One of the key mysteries of the Elorii is how much their identity is ordered around Belisarda compared to how little they know of her. Or what about the Umor? Is He an enemy or ally? Or what if the Elemental Lords aren't gods?
The Elorii are this compelling mix of wise and naive, and that's what I like about them.
One of the biggest realizations my Lifewarden had that turned her towards acting for the greater good of all was
how good she had it! Holy CRAP the human cities are squalid and crowded and dangerous and their gods are
crazy and they fight wars everywhere all the time against everything and everyone!
And she's got to help out because a) they're (lesser) Children of Belisarda as well (in her very liberal sense of "they are alive, can feel positive emotions, and can be reasoned with*) and b) they're terribly potent and if they're not aided their problems will spiral out of control and become the doom of her people.
Again.And that means walking a perilous line between what the duties of a Laerestri are, what she has to do to survive, and trying to somehow bend the continuously random and terrifying circumstances of her fate to Belisarda's will.
(Whatever that is -ask me about the Skinless Lady some time and I can tell you why otherwise sensible, committed players actually gave their PC's up to do as she bids.)
And that leading to her realizing and embracing how incredibly important to her the random-ass collection of non-Elorii "heroes" that carry her through hell and high water are while the armies of her excellent, beloved kin and cousins sit on their masterfully trained hands and play with their meticulously coiffed hair.
So what the hell does all that mean?
It means that I don't get it.
Visions of Lives Past is surely something that I've been agitating for -an Elorii mod about Elorii history, and I don't get it.
I don't get the reasoning behind the apparent social strife of the Eloran Empire. I don't see why it's there except as an exercise in really broad cliche' about biological determinism. Marokene are dumb, Kelekene are jerks, and nobody else is paying attention. wut. Why is this here? Do the Elorii and fans need to be "knocked down a peg?"
I don't get why there aren't choices in this mod. Arcanis should always be either dramatic or triumphant and this is neither and I don't get it. Xercel is a snide, smirky dick and I don't care about Malandros -your brother, your brother boo-honking-hoo; what is this,
Other M!? Maybe there was more emphasis on Xercel being coercive and I missed it;
maybe there should be. That's the implication in the beginning and the end right? That he's a Straight G Kelekene Pyromancer and that if there isn't a Valinor in your pocket you are going to do what he says and smile when you say you like following orders,
sir.
I'm interested in the Towers and I'm interested in the Blessed Lands, but from the perspective of an Elorii fan there are already too many questions -how about some answers instead.
Wuh.
Before this Crazy Train finally debarks in T.M.I.-ville I want to tell this last story:
When, so many dear goddess how many, years ago Eric Gorman mentioned that he'd picked up this setting called Arcanis: the World of Shattered Empires at Origins, and that it looked crazy complex and compelling and epic and I instantly,
instantly, thought, "I want to play a Paladin! In a world of deadly compromises and dangerous politics I want to be someone who unambiguously struggles for the common good and who will suffer hilariously for that kind of naive ambition."
And I did. AND IT WAS GREAT!
And now I'm like, "I don't get it. This guy is a bag of dicks and his brother is a chump and I don't know what's going on and I can't find out and like WOW this mod has 6 combat encounters of which I remember only 2 -the one that starts 'that's new' because it was funny and the really gnarly deadly last one."
Did I change? Did the campaign change? Is
anything actually different or is this something that just eclipses my mediocre middlebrow monkey mentality?
I don't get it.
Fin.*by this reasoning so are cats, dogs, messenger lizards and Kio.
Incidentally Phaia's also known to say "Belisarda loves you, but she loves everything else that lives and thrives just as much. You are not by default more important than the worms that will consume your corpse if you oppose her ."