Alastor plays and ranks the whole series! Mission Complete! ...For now.

[Shadow Mir]

16 hours ago, Jotari said:

This is where reclassing would make things much better. Give Rolf a berserker reclass or something. Though reclassing would probably be incompatible with the whole choose your sub weapon thing Path of Radiance gives you (which while cool, kind of just buffs mounted units more).

There's still the part where you'd have to raise a level 1 unit with bad bases at a point where it's getting tough for them to contribute.

14 hours ago, Jotari said:

You can import fair skills from other clasess, can't you? Though I guess the point still stands as your shooting yourself in the foot by taking up a skill space you could dedicate to something else (and without new game+ faire assignable skills are obtained quite late, if you get them at all).

You can't, as they're class skills. Also, I fixed your other point to be more accurate. Aside from that, I honestly feel that going all the way to S+ isn't worth it the hassle, and unless you're a mage, neither is S.

Edited July 8, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Alastor15243]

Just now, Shadow Mir said:

You can't, as they're class skills. Also, I fixed your other point to be more accurate.

No, faires are in fact equippable really, really late game as rewards for high weapon ranks.

[Shadow Mir]

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

No, faires are in fact equippable really, really late game as rewards for high weapon ranks.

They are, yes, but it's very, very impractical to get to S+ without NG+, which is what I was saying.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Shadow Mir said:

They are, yes, but it's very, very impractical to get to S+ without NG+, which is what I was saying.

Well, he said that too.

[Shadow Mir]

5 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Well, he said that too.

He did, but I thought it would be better phrased as something that might not happen, simply because of how much effort it takes to go from S to S+.

[Jotari]

12 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

And then Ike gets a hilarious “I am the manager” moment... talking... to... a... blonde... woman.

Hahahahahaha! Wow! Funny how shit can seem funnier with future context.

 

This is going over my head. Care to explain?

12 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Which reminds me of a character idea I had when thinking about a Fates rewrite: Wulf the troubadour. A guy who developed a massive complex about being the only male healer in his entire class back at the academy, who grew to compensate for how soft and un-manly his profession apparently was by developing this comically edgy masked persona that re-contextualizes his healing as a never-ending bloody war with the Grim Reaper himself.

 

Love it. Fits in with Fates's tone excellently.

12 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway, that means Tanith would have been six, and Sigrun would have been seven. So still obviously not them. Honestly, even before doing the math and checking character ages, I had serious doubts there was a single woman in the holy pegasus corps that was a day over thirty. Hell, ignoring the laguz, there isn't a single named female character in this game who's a day over thirty.

 

I knew Haar was canonically older than he looks (and I've always liked that), but I actually would have pegged Sigurd and Tanith in mid thirties given their rank. I guess that's just Japanese Christmas Cake ageism at work again.  Pertrine might be too given she's branded. But she hardly count on the whole unnaturally slow aging front. Titania must surely be over thirty. She's been implied to have been with Greil for quite a long time. *Googles* Huh, she's thirty on the dot, so I guess still not over thirty (though the game takes place over the course of a year, so one must question whether the listed age of thirty refers to the game's start or the game's end).

Edited July 9, 2020 by Jotari

[Eltosian Kadath]

 

On 7/6/2020 at 12:49 PM, Alastor15243 said:

 

...And I mean, just think about the implications of the fact that Gallia has a “future king”. A nation that doesn't have a line of succession... somehow still manages to have a “future king”. The king is supposed to be decided by some kind of demonstration of strength, and yet well before the time where said demonstration could possibly be relevant, there's no doubt among basically anyone who the next king is going to be, to the point that it's basically talked about as if he's just “next in line for the throne”. And it's Caineghis's fucking nephew. It's not even a lion from a different family! It's the same fucking family line!

To be fair the "Future King" thing is a Radiant Dawn issue...although the superior strength of the Lions making them Kings of Gallia is still a Path of Radiance one.

 

On 7/6/2020 at 12:49 PM, Alastor15243 said:

It's like... this class system feels like a caricature of the laguz that an actual beorc-supremacist racist would put into an in-universe tabletop game. Ignoring promotions, there are nearly twice as many beorc classes are there are laguz classes, and the only reason there are eight playable classes of laguz is because there are eight playable races of laguz.

I am reminded of stories I heard about the D&D basic set where the non-human playable races basically were their own classes (it was seen as a simplification due to the non-human races having strict restrictions on what classes they could be in 1st edition already...)

 

On 7/6/2020 at 12:49 PM, Alastor15243 said:

 

Ugh... I think I need to take a deep breath, think about this for a while, and work out how much this particular point really matters. Because I sure as shit know that if the themes of this game weren't so heavily about racism and classism, I would never have come up with 90% of the shit I just ranted about. It's like... it's like I only feel they've become a problem because the game made them a problem.

Damn it, and here I thought I'd finally be able to put into words, in a quick, one-sentence summary, exactly what viscerally bugs me about this game's depiction of the laguz. There's just this over-arching theme about them, some tidy way to sum up most of my issues with it, and it's on the tip of my tongue, and it's been on the tip of my tongue for the past two weeks or so.

On the one hand the themes they used really should have that kind of care and attention given to it, but  on the other, the fact that it has themes that make you think about this is probably a strong point of the game.

 

On 7/6/2020 at 12:49 PM, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Okay, apparently Ashnard only now has learned that a heron is still alive. He didn't even know about Reyson until this moment. Weird. And only now do his plans involve kidnapping one. What for? And why could his plans go ahead anyway without one, with adding one just making things better?

I think they will reveal in a few chapters that his first plan was to awaken the medallion using a Heron singing the Galdar of Release, and this world war he is starting was plan B. If he can get plan A to work now (it wont for reasons he doesn't understand) its worth trying.

 

On 7/6/2020 at 12:49 PM, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Okay, that's weird. I just checked, and swords seem way more expensive to forge than other weapons. Just boosting an iron sword's attack by 5 makes it nearly cost 4,000 gold. Meanwhile, making a +5 might and plus 25 hit steel axe costs just 2,500 gold! And the same goes with lances, they're cheap too! Meanwhile bows are super expensive to forge, just like swords! Why are the two worst physical weapon types more expensive to forge than the two best ones?

Yeah the way they scale the cost of forging is based on what the starting value of the weapon and the cost of the weapon, so if it has low damage/accuracy/crit or high weight it cost more to change that stat, and if the weapons cost more it costs more, and in general it makes increases in accuracy cost less than the other two stats (as you can't increase it as high compared to its base value). Your observation shows why that was probably a bad idea.

 

On 7/7/2020 at 12:55 PM, Alastor15243 said:

 

Homasa: Really? Then we are the same. My father taught me to wield a sword as well. Neither of us can afford to lose.

I like how so many of the minor bosses in this game have this sort of character to them, like you get the sense of them having history, or being able to carry a side-story of their own if they were given just a bit more of a spotlight. Really helps make the world feel more whole.

If I remember correctly every boss in this game has a quote with Ike. A lot also have quotes with different types of Laguz, although the Laguz boss quotes are often kinda boring, although each of the beast Laguz has a unique one with Naesala on this map, which are kinda interesting. One interesting thing to note about Homasa is he will also comment on the swordsmanship of both Stefan and Zihark (poor Mia gets left out of the swordsman quotes)

 

On 7/7/2020 at 2:22 PM, Shadow Mir said:

I would state that one info conversation here unlocks the Triangle Attack for the three brothers, but... problem is, it's impractical to a degree that only the armor triangle in Binding Blade surpasses. For one, it requires actively using Rolf, which is a tall order in and of itself. Second, it requires giving Oscar bows after he promotes... when axes are just better. Third, it requires all of them to equip bows. I mean, really? They take away one aspect of what generally makes the triangle attack impractical (needing three of the same unit) only to end up making it more impractical anyway in spite of this (thanks to requiring all of them to use bows)? Seriously?

The archer triangle attack is even more cumbersome than the armor triangle attack, as you can use that one as early as chapter 8, and don't have to train any of the armored knights to start using it, plus having to use the archer triangle attack at range makes it more difficult to setup the kind of formation you need to bait enemies into giving you more than 1 triangle attack in a turn (or even having the assisting characters to the one triangle attack doing much good).

 

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Honestly, it baffles me that Petrine is acting like this. Not that she isn't that awful, but it feels like the wrong kind of awful. The sheer levels of pride she has in her patriotism and in her strength as a warrior suggests to me that she'd consider destroying a civilian town full of her own people merely to slow the Crimean army down... to be beyond pathetic and cowardly. This is a woman who kills people for retreating and daring to show their face around her afterwards. I feel like she'd never be willing to admit that she's that desperate to stop the Crimean army after losing just two battles.

I think they were trying to capture the feel of the enemy using Scorched Earth tactics without having to get into the nitty gritty of logistics that usually entails. It can be a surprisingly effective means of defense at times, for instance the Russians broke both Hitler and Napoleon by wrecking their own lands to ensure there was nothing to eat, and no shelter for the advancing armies to use, strengthening the army breaking effects of their winter.

 

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Alright, so, I'm letting Jill sit this map out, just in case. To make up for it, I'm giving her bonus experience, so she can get some levels holding a def-boosting weapon (killer lance) instead of a def-nerfing one. Minor change, but every bit counts to make sure that two stat boosters will actually cap it for her.

That reminds me there is a way of using Bonus Exp to manipulate how Fixed mode rounds numbers to get effectively higher growth rates if you are that worried about capping stats. 

https://serenesforest.net/path-of-radiance/general/fixed-mode/bonus-experience-manipulation/

that link should explain what you need to do.

 

[Alastor15243]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

This is going over my head. Care to explain?

Have you ever heard of Karens? Obnoxious often-stereotypically blonde women with a tendency to terrorize retail workers, with the catchphrase "I'd like to speak to the manager?" A common way to end those stories is to have the other person reveal that "I am the manager".

1 hour ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

On the one hand the themes they used really should have that kind of care and attention given to it, but  on the other, the fact that it has themes that make you think about this is probably a strong point of the game.

That is one way of putting it, I suppose.

[Alastor15243]

Path of Radiance Day 19: Chapter 21

Well, I didn't get much sleep last night. Might as well get this done early while I'm still something resembling “rested”. Not sure why exactly I woke up at 3 in the morning. Maybe I had a nightmare and don't remember it? Well, if so, I imagine it probably had to do with the fact that I forced myself to beat What Remains of Edith Finch, cannery scene and all, despite my phobia of dead fish and their creepy-ass wide-eyed “facial expressions” that aren't even the slightest bit different from when they were alive. I can't believe that after three goddamned years, I had to be the one to add a “squick” entry to TV Tropes' page on a game that includes fifteen consecutive minutes of decapitating realistic-looking fish. I swear, seeing the general online commentary about that scene, I'm honestly starting to get the feeling that the rest of the world is less grossed out by dead fish compared to other dead bodies. Like people just find dead fish uniquely not gross among corpses for some reason that I doubt I'll ever be able to understand.

...But enough about that. You guys are here to hear me talk about playing Fire Emblem, not random walking simulators.

...And you certainly aren't here to hear me talk about a certain other thing that happened in the last 24 hours that may have contributed to my lack of sleep.

There's a lot of shit happening this year, and all I can really hope for is that I'm making something people can use to distract themselves from it. Might as well throw one more disaster onto the massive shitheap I'm up against in this regard.

Let's. Keep. Moving.

…

...Damn. This conversation between Ena and Kasatai is... yeah, this game probably does the best job of any game so far in the marathon at making these insignificant enemy characters feel human. This is a borderline-nameless enemy general, only relevant enough to the story to be introduced in the very chapter in which he dies, coming to the slow and horrific realization of how little of a shit his king gives about him and even his country if it isn't useful to him, and even demonstrating horror at the thought of his king killing the citizens of an enemy nation.

And now we cut to back to Ike's camp, where Nasir seems to be trying to subtly dissuade Ike from invading Daein's capital and in the process killing Ena.

...And apparently this is the first Elincia is hearing about what Ashnard did to her citizens as well. But according to Soren, it's just... completely normal in this world for countries to ransack and destroy conquered nations and treat its citizens like dirt? Like, I get medieval times were brutal, but, uh... question...

...What exactly is Soren basing his knowledge on of how countries behave when they win a war? Specifically beorc countries, given that he mentions that the enemy country civilians closest to the capital “are treated worse [than laguz]”. Has there even been a single beorc country that has gone to war with another beorc country and conquered it? Near as I can tell the answer is “no”. So what the fuck is he even talking about when he tells Elincia that this is just a demonstrable fact of what happens in wars like this?

...Nice foreshadowing of what happens to Daein in the next game though, I gotta say.

Right, so, back at base. Eltosian, thanks for telling me about that bonus exp glitch, but that feels like cheating to me, and also it seems hard to do while still making sure I don't cripple certain growths that would be rounded down.

Moving on, we get our first Tanith and Oscar support. It's... I mean, it's decently-written, but not overly engaging. Feels like more of a setup to what's hopefully a more interesting B support.

Oh yeah, now we get the info conversation with Jill and a bunch of Daein refugees. It's... incredibly awkward and depressing, but for the most part, I think it might be my favorite scene in the entire game. It's just so sad. Especially the part where the little girl comes in holding food the Crimean army gave her, and her older sister yells at her to throw it away, because they'll die before they accept charity from Crimea. A bit of the writing was kind of cringey, and it turns out “Crimeans” doesn't really work well as a word said in disgust, especially not when you use the phrase “dirty Crimeans” or “nasty Crimeans”. Also, I remember this scene being a little darker, with the older sister implied to be actually angrily wrestling the food out of her little sister's hand because of where it came from rather than just chiding her to throw it away, but... this scene is still really good.

...What's funny about this chapter, something I just realized... is that in many senses, it feels like the end of the game. It's chapter 21ish, which is almost on-the-dot where most Fire Emblem campaigns end (ignoring any prologue chapters like Lyn Mode or Fates 1-6), and there are all these heavy talks as if this is the moment where everything ends... but we've still got like 10 more chapters left, and what's more, the player knows this isn't over, because we know that Ashnard isn't even here. It's... pretty interesting. But the dramatic irony almost feels... inappropriately funny, in a way. Like it's a joke at the protagonists' expense.

And Nasir shows up in the middle of Ike and Mist's talk to encourage them to go inside and out of the cold, which seems to only be so he can be on-screen to reveal privately that he feels like shit for what he did to Mist by taking her medallion.

Also, weirdly, apparently you can't remove Janaff and Ulki's personal skills, even though you can remove Reyson's.

I just realized I had a smite scroll and gave it to Lethe so that both of my beast laguz have something they can do when untransformed. I was tempted to give it to Ulki for aerial shoving, but birds are just so much lighter than beast laguz, and I like how Lethe and Mordecai can shove even mounts sometimes.

So I start the map, and apparently they're just opening the castle gates wide to let us in, which Soren points out is massively to their disadvantage.

And now Daein closes the gates, and Ena reveals to everyone there that she's actually a dragon laguz.

I wish they used a CG for this scene. For how impressive dragons are supposed to be... their map models are really doofy-looking. Still, I like how this scene shows that there are indeed situations so extreme that even Daein soldiers will continue to work with a laguz who's been hiding among them.

Also, it occurs to me that Ashnard not actually being at the capital is pretty much the only reason why Ike can win at all. Ashnard is already wearing that blessed armor, right?

Oh god, Soren's saying words to the effect of deployment being limited, please don't be so please don't be so please don't be so...

...It isn't so! Awesome! The gang's all here! All 13 of us!

...'Course, I still have to ditch one of them to bring Volke... who can still steal as an assassin! Awesome! Anyway, I'll be ditching Mordecai since he doesn't have any more supports he needs to develop.

Of course, it looks like assassins don't get a crit boost in this game, just in the sequel. Pity. He's basically just a thief with more mov, better stats for stealing, and a gimmicky occult skill.

Anyway, let's get moving. Very little formation prep here, no enemies starting nearby. I just need to check our supplies.

Alright, good.

Let's go.

So, this game doesn't highlight enemy staff ranges, but thankfully Mist has a restore staff at any rate, so we should be fine.

I'm starting to feel I should have given Sabretooth a crit rate. It would've really helped Zihark's reliability to bring that 21% into the thirties.

Fun fact: Aether doesn't consume 2 weapon uses in this game. Awesome!

...And so far, there's almost no aggression from these guys. They're waiting for me to come to them, which... in addition to being boring gameplay, really doesn't suit the story mood of this map. Unless all of these guys are hoping that if they hold still, the dragon will eat the Crimean army before they have to die.

So I unlock the first chest, and what should be inside but a Stiletto, the best knife in the game, with... 8 might. Bringing his attack power up to... 27.

Yeah, a combat unit this guy still is not. Still, nice to have in case he has to do chip damage.

Funny, I just realized... after dropping Titania, there's been literally no one else in my army but Oscar able to use the knight ward. Funny how I have all of these high-move units, but only one actual cavalier/paladin.

UGH! Apparently the lowered elevation of the water preventing melee actions like rescuing and attacking... also applies to singing. Only the two units in the water with Reyson got refreshed. DAMN IT. Well at least it didn't completely ruin my turn or anything. I still managed to take out all the enemies nearby and clear up the blockage keeping Ike from moving his full movement towards the throne room and getting closer to recruiting Tauroneo.

...Not that I'm even remotely in a rush. I've got 18 total turns for max bonus experience, and I'm just ending my 5^th one. Good thing too, or getting the treasure here and the bonus experience might be a pipe dream.

Pity that bonus experience becomes so useless at higher levels. But at least I can still use it to give Jill slightly more optimal level ups than she gets using her usual weapons.

I was initially terrified to discover that Kasatai has wrath... which I had inadvertently activated by getting a potshot in at him with Marcia for shits and giggles. Damn it, this is why skills have to be a mainstay of enemy difficulty, or not be on enemies at all! You need to get the player used to checking these things!

Anyway, Mist has her work cut out for her fixing the damage these sleep staves are doing. But after that near-death experience with Ike... I think that's all the danger this map is gonna have.

Oh, also, sleep prevents boss banter from happening, which is a nice bit of attention to detail that not every game has.

...But I think it might have kept the Ike-specific boss banter from happening at all. Lemme check.

...Nope, he didn't have one with Ike. But he does have a special horrified reaction if he has to fight children, which is a very nice touch.

...No, wait, that's Tauroneo, pre-recruitment. Still a nice touch, but I kinda wish that was Kasatai too. His horror at hearing how pettily vile Ashnard was to the Crimean people made me believe it when I thought that was him saying it.

We've got another energy drop (in addition to a parity scroll I forgot to mention after the stiletto), so that's good news for capping prospects.

As well as a talisman. Not nearly as useful, but fuck it, let's see...

...I should be able to use them to cap Ike's resistance too, so might as well!

Anyway, Tauroneo surrenders because one look at Ike's fighting style makes him realize that he's the last remnant of the legacy of his old friend General Gawain's fighting style, and having already decided he can't stand by Ashnard anymore and planned to die here, he refuses to have his last battle involve killing his old friend's son and robbing the world of his legacy. Honestly, that's a pretty fascinating and cool motivation to join.

But this also... I just realized that Ike knows his father is from Daein now. He learned it from Volke. Curious that he's never once mentioned that as being a massive revelation to him. Then again, maybe it's in character for him that it doesn't matter where his family is from.

Also, I could've sworn that Ike said he had one little sister when Tauroneo asked him if he had any brothers or sisters. But all he has to hear that Ike has “one sister” and he just automatically assumes that Mist wasn't taught how to fight. I mean, apparently sexism is a thing to a degree in this universe according to Mia's supports with... I think Largo...

Anyway, the map is going smoothly, but the actual “getting the treasure” part is taking long enough that 18 turns might actually be reasonable. Which is making me feel like the treasure isn't very well paced. Or maybe I was supposed to bring Sothe too.

And we also got thoron and a scroll for corrosion, AKA one of the worst skills in the game. It basically randomly does damage to enemy weapon durability, which is only ever useful to you if it completely breaks the enemy weapon. Otherwise, all it's gonna accomplish is robbing you of uses for items you could have obtained from the enemy. I remember that Mageknight404 LP of Radiant Dawn where he Ike solo'd the GM parts of Part 3, and I watched as he equipped corrosion on Ike... and as a result destroyed the inventories of almost the entire Dawn Brigade.

Anyway, Ike and Oscar are cleaning out the throne room while everyone else is helping Volke and Reyson get to the last treasure room.

Anyway, I enter the throne room, and Ena gives this dumb speech about how conflict exists because people want different things. And it gets even dumber when Ike just ends it by saying “Hi-yaaaaa!” when he's nowhere near her.

Next.

Last two treasures are a master seal I'm going to sell for 5k the first chance I get, and...

...after getting confirmation that you can't double with the last use of a broken weapon in this game (RIP Trashtaker)...

...we get a brave sword! Awesome! Can't decide whether to give it to Zihark or Ike.

...I'll probably give it to Zihark, since he banks more on successful player phases in order to be useful, owing to his shit defense.

Apparently in this game, self-healing effects proc separately. The throne and renewal both healed Ena 5 separate HP instead of just healing 10 at once like in Fates.

Also, the way dragons die looks... extremely uncomfortable. I hope they can't feel their legs in their last moments, judging by the way those legs are bending.

And yet again, Ena is shown dying despite this not being the case, which is staring to make Muarim feel like an odd man out here.

But anyway... we're done!

...Okay, so either Nasir is strong enough even in human form to completely pummel Ike into submission with a single punch... or that was just a really good sucker punch that Ike wasn't expecting, hence why it was so effective.

“Get him out of here! His traitorous face is making me ill!”

...That really doesn't feel like a line Ike would say.

But anyway, Nasir tells us to go to Palmeni Temple, meaning next chapter is the one at... Palmeni Temple I guess. Alright then. Let's just check out this last scene, and...

...Wow. Seeing Petrine actually stutter in fear in the presence of Ashnard is really something to see. I wish we had gotten a scene of her talking with him sooner, which would help explain her desperation last chapter.

And of course we get the “it's sometimes called the Fire Emblem” line, which... Jesus, they didn't even use the word “fire” when describing it! Just say that the light from the medallion looks like fire, game!

It's kind of an interesting aspect of Ashnard's character that he's able to instill such fear despite seeming to be very difficult to piss off. I get the impression that he doesn't give a shit about much other than his plan, especially since he just simply laughed off Daein's loss like “Wow, what losers! Anyway, what's up?”

And when Petrine accidentally almost implies that the Black Knight might be stronger than Ashnard and then quickly corrects herself in fear, Ashnard's just like “I'll have to find out for myself someday! ...But not today. He's too useful right now.”

...Also, apparently being isolated for 20 years makes your magic stronger than if you spent that time conscious? That's apparently what the “scholars” are saying as to why Leanne would be a better candidate for singing the galdr of release. Weird. They don't explain further.

Okay, now Ashnard starts making threats of violence. Specifically feeding her to Rajaion, which... clearly terrifies her. It seems like while it's very hard to piss Ashnard off... he doesn't need to be angry to be dangerous to you.

And Petrine actually seems kind of startled by how readily Ashnard tells Petrine to kill Ena, possibly using her trust to stab her in the back if necessary. I'm gonna see where the game goes with that...

...But not today. The chapter's over now. So that's it until tomorrow.

...It's only 10AM, but... yeah, I'm too mentally exhausted today to do more than this, sorry. I'm running on like four hours of sleep here.

Stay safe, everyone.

[lenticular]

7 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...What exactly is Soren basing his knowledge on of how countries behave when they win a war? Specifically beorc countries, given that he mentions that the enemy country civilians closest to the capital “are treated worse [than laguz]”. Has there even been a single beorc country that has gone to war with another beorc country and conquered it? Near as I can tell the answer is “no”. So what the fuck is he even talking about when he tells Elincia that this is just a demonstrable fact of what happens in wars like this?

Maybe exrapolating from border conflicts? There have been times when small bits of border land have been conquered, so maybe something similar happened in those cases? Or maybe Soren is just a cynical bastard who assumes the worst in every possible scenario.

8 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

But this also... I just realized that Ike knows his father is from Daein now. He learned it from Volke. Curious that he's never once mentioned that as being a massive revelation to him. Then again, maybe it's in character for him that it doesn't matter where his family is from.

This does bring to mind the part near the beginning when someone mentions Crimea being the closest thing the Greil mercs have to a homeland. Which, given that we now know that Greil was from Daein and Ike and Mist were born in Gallia, yeah, that totally makes sense as a comment and actually works as pretty nice foreshadowing.

[Shadow Mir]

19 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

The archer triangle attack is even more cumbersome than the armor triangle attack, as you can use that one as early as chapter 8, and don't have to train any of the armored knights to start using it, plus having to use the archer triangle attack at range makes it more difficult to setup the kind of formation you need to bait enemies into giving you more than 1 triangle attack in a turn (or even having the assisting characters to the one triangle attack doing much good).

I'll grant you can use it much earlier, but the problem is, it's impractical to a massive extreme. I already find it hard to justify using armors in a game like Binding Blade with its giant maps, but to field three of them... in a game that is a low point for armors in general?? Especially when one of them is the game's worst unit? Not to mention that an armored knight's defining characteristic is low movement, so even if I was generous enough to use them, there's still the problem of having them get into position. Sorry, but I have to disagree.

Edited July 10, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Jotari]

13 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Damn. This conversation between Ena and Kasatai is... yeah, this game probably does the best job of any game so far in the marathon at making these insignificant enemy characters feel human. This is a borderline-nameless enemy general, only relevant enough to the story to be introduced in the very chapter in which he dies, coming to the slow and horrific realization of how little of a shit his king gives about him and even his country if it isn't useful to him, and even demonstrating horror at the thought of his king killing the citizens of an enemy nation.

 

As nice as this is, I kind of question why they didn't make use of this conversation to establish Tauroneo more. He kind of comes out of nowhere in the story and is meant to be a bit of a big deal.

5 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

I'll grant you can use it much earlier, but the problem is, it's impractical to a massive extreme. I already find it hard to justify using armors in a game like Binding Blade with its giant maps, but to field three of them... in a game that is a low point for armors in general?? Especially when one of them is the game's worst unit? Not to mention that an armored knight's defining characteristic is low movement, so even if I was generous enough to use them, there's still the problem of having them get into position. Sorry, but I have to disagree.

There defining trait is also being able to bait in enemies, making the formation way likelier than bow bros triangle attack.

[Shadow Mir]

8 hours ago, Jotari said:

There defining trait is also being able to bait in enemies, making the formation way likelier than bow bros triangle attack.

Doesn't change the fact that I'd be hard-pressed to find a reason to deploy even one armored knight, let alone three in one of the worst games to be an armored knight in. Especially when, once again, one of them is the game's worst unit (and the other two are still crappy).

[Jotari]

45 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Doesn't change the fact that I'd be hard-pressed to find a reason to deploy even one armored knight, let alone three in one of the worst games to be an armored knight in. Especially when, once again, one of them is the game's worst unit (and the other two are still crappy).

And that doesn't change the fact that you have to give Oscar bows, promote Boydt train Rolf and somehow get an enemy in formation two squares away from all of them.

Edited July 10, 2020 by Jotari

[Alastor15243]

Path of Radiance Day 20: Chapter 22

Not a huge fan of this horn-heavy late-game narration music.

But anyway, they attribute the knowledge that Ashnard is in Melior to “intelligence reports”, and not the fact that Ena straight-up told them when they arrived. If it really was “intelligence reports”, holy shit did they come at just the right time to be totally worthless.

But now we meet General Zelgius, and... like, does he even do anything in this game?

I mean, I like this conversation for vague reasons I can't really explain beyond “hey, that was a nice, pleasant conversation using words that I can totally believe each person would say”, but then it gets dark when Soren starts making his guesses in the next scene about why Begnion has decided to send more aid.

Titania: Oh, look. Soren is upset again. Who knew!? What is it this time?

Wow, Titania, I can feel the sass from here. But anyway, Soren points out that these new soldiers are marching under Begnion's banner, not Crimea's, and speculates that if this new force is the one responsible for defeating Daein, Crimea will just belong to Begnion again, with Elincia as nothing but a figurehead, and the Greil Mercenaries will be swept under a rug.

Titania: Come, Soren. I have heard of situations like that which you describe-

You have, Titania? Where? What country? This is the second chapter in a row where people allude to wars that demonstrably have not been fought. Is there some rich history of risen and fallen civilizations from before the flood that everyone knows about but the audience, despite everything from before the flood being shrouded in myth and legend?

...But I do like the full exchange here:

Titania: Come, Soren. I have heard of situations like that which you describe, but whether this is such a case... We've been fortunate to receive this good will. Must we always search for such ulterior motives?

Soren: Yes! We must! Have you forgotten Nasir!? It's that sort of naive attitude that allowed him to remain undetected for so long! You people don't seem to get it. We are at WAR! All doubts, no matter how small, must be extinguished. If they aren't, we could well be ignoring something that will lead to our defeat. Or to our death.

Also, I don't think it's really sunk in until this moment (I noticed it, but this made it truly feel... real, I suppose) that Titania and Soren, who were initially just two relatively-significant characters of a huge Greil Mercenary cast of speaking roles, have become singled out as sharing the stereotypical “advisor” role that constitutes a massive portion of speaking roles in nearly every game before Blazing Blade. And... Hey IntOb, remember when you said you feel like this game was taking cues from Thracia? Well look here! Just like in Thracia, instead of one advisor, we've got two! And also just like in Thracia, it's a duo of an optimistic and noble rider, and a cynical and cunning magic user!

...Honestly though, I think Titania is at her absolute weakest as a character when she's playing the role of advisor to Ike. She was a compelling character while Greil was still alive, but now we usually only see her in an advisor role to Ike and, as I said, playing the Dorias to Soren's August. And whenever she's forced to argue with Soren, she's had her worst and most boring lines. The main problem is that it's her job to say everything just and noble and, more importantly, obvious, which makes her lines incredibly predictable and one-note. Soren, on the other hand, thrives in this role as advisor, because he still gets to say all of the not-immediately-obvious cynical things the reader is far less likely to consider and think about. Titania almost never gets to point out anything interesting or have any intelligent rebuttal to basically anything Soren ever says. She never gets to point out that we're about to do something with massive ethical consequences nobody noticed, or point out a factual hole in Soren's logic, or anything like that. If she did, she'd be way more interesting in these scenes, and it's a shame that she doesn't, because these scenes make up nearly all of her screentime now.

Moving on though, yep, here's the second part of the merchant twins' little war game info conversation subplot. It's an interesting perspective, making Ike have basically no patience for this game at all. In fact, he's actually pretty annoyed that these two guys are coming to him for advice about treating war like a game when he's actually literally fighting for his life every day.

...Man, Ike is going to be pissed if he ever finds out what he is.

But we also get a talk with Sothe, revealing he is in fact from Daein. He says he “went back to [his] old stomping grounds and saw some friends”.

...Did he just have an offscreen chat with Lil' Edward and Lil' Leonardo? Oh my god, I kinda wanna see that now.

And then he talked about how the people of Daein, and especially the lower-class, actually liked Ashnard, because he was the only king in Daein history who ever gave people an opportunity to escape the slums. If they were good enough to be a knight, he'd make them a knight, nobility be damned. He was still willing to help us fight Daein though, which... makes me wonder what happened to make him willing to do that.

I really like this conversation. But frankly I'm kind of pissed off that it's optional. Sothe shouldn't be a character you can miss either by missing his info conversation or by turning him down, especially since the other thief you can get is missable already, and especially especially because his history with Ike is a massively important plot point in the Dawn Brigade's part of Radiant Dawn. Making it possible for people who have played this game to hear Sothe talk in Radiant Dawn about fighting alongside Ike in the Mad King's War and go “Wait, who the fuck is this guy?”... just seems like a really bad call.

Anyway, I forge Oscar a replacement for the Trashtaker, a steel version called the Compactor. I also give him the occult scroll I got from Tauroneo, so now Ike and Oscar can both heal themselves from what little damage they take. Also, his speed stat has become 25 thanks to that utterly ridiculous knight ward he's been carrying around, meaning not only is capping speed gonna be a breeze, but there might be a brief period where he'll be faster than Ike.

Okay, so, the fact that Zelgius is now part of the army fighting Daein's occupation force... is going to make me very curious about what the hell his alibi is going to be, because, in case I haven't already made this clear... spoiler warning I guess for anyone who didn't see the first one...

Zelgius is the Black Knight. Every time we see the Black Knight, that's Zelgius, having disappeared for a few hours. Which makes me wonder where the hell his soldiers think he's gone when this happens.

So, on to the plot of the map:

The temple has been taken over by a bunch of mercenaries who sided with Daein, hiding in the temple and holding the priests as hostage to avoid the fallout of their side losing the war. And their leader thinks that Ike's going to wipe them out if he finds them.

...I'm kind of wondering what would have happened if they hadn't decided to pre-emptively attack. I don't think Ike would have felt any need to fight these mercenaries if they weren't still actively opposing the Crimean Liberation Army. Unless they revealed in front of him that they were really fucked up.

Apparently Ike only brought a total of ten people, including him, and “including the women”. Makes me wonder what my deployment roster is going to look like.

HAHAHAHAHA! Oh wow, Shaeffer is hilarious. He does what I have to assume is an onomatopoeia for the “cutting throat” sound effect to threaten Tomenami, and then does it again in all caps when Tomenami protests his plan.

Also, Tomenami is a hilariously bad liar. Seeing him give Ike a “tour” of the church and just stammer out a tour description of “this is... a very big room” is just priceless.

So yeah, we've gotta beat the boss, and ideally, save all the priests.

...I'll be honest, when I did my first playthrough, I didn't even bother. I don't know why, I just didn't realize not killing them was an option or something. But yeah, you want to keep them all alive, and this is a much less annoying “don't kill them” objective than most, because with the exception of the handful of promoted ones in the main hall like Tomenami (who you can avoid killing by making sure you can't counter-attack their magic), none of the priests will attack you. You just have to shove them out of the way and keep moving.

Very little preparation necessary here. Mostly just working out who to leave behind. Tough decision, but ranged attacks, canto, and the capacity to shove are going to be important here, and tempering that with keeping in mind the supports I'm still trying to raise, I wound up ditching Mordecai and the hawk duo.

Anyway, okay, so, things are going pretty smoothly so far, but there's one thing I wanted to mention, a random thought I had earlier and put a reminder in my calendar to talk about that just pinged:

You know how I said I wish we got to see more of Jill the laughable, incompetent racist with a stick up her ass? And also how I said that the month-long timeskip before the raven attack was stupid as hell in so many ways?

I thought of a way to kill two ravens with one stone.

The remake should add more boat maps. I know that's borderline blasphemy, but the story really needs them so that those important boat scenes can happen without them having to take place a month after they should have. And then they could take the accidental implications of Jill's insane month-long journey across the ocean following Ike's ship... and turn it into an intentional running gag where she shows up once per chapter and gets increasingly haggard and filthy with each appearance, and then when she's talking to Ike and offering her truce, the absurdity of the scene gets cranked up to eleven because she's got seaweed in her hair and she looks like she hasn't slept in days, but she still says the exact same professional, militaristic lines she did in the original, completely oblivious to the absurdity she has become.

Ooh! This is an interesting dilemma! You can't actually kill the thief in time to stop him from stealing two treasures without killing the priest blocking the entryway, because the thief blocks the space you need free to be able to shove him. So you have to bring a thief along to steal it back from him and then kill him the second the space actually becomes free on turn 3. Good thing I brought Volke over to this side!

...Nope, wait, I'm an idiot, you can just javelin the bastard from over the priest's head. What the fuck was I thinking there?

Apparently Sol can proc at range, but not Aether. Why the fuck?

Mist just gained an S rank in staves, and we're about to get the S-rank staff at the end of this mission, assuming that I don't fuck up the sokoban puzzle in the central area, shove a priest into a place they can't be shoved out of, and have to kill someone to proceed.

Also, apparently stilettos have armor-slaying properties. Interesting, but I doubt that'll ever be useful.

Weirdly, the bolting sage seems to be programmed to only attack our units when they're in the main hall, even though he can attack through walls. Convenient, but... yeah, I wound up using canto and rescuing to unlock the chests anyway, just in case. Because you can get that bolting, and the more uses I save, the better.

Man, these enemies are really getting their money's worth out of their meat shields. I'm still able to take them out, but it's frustrating having to do all of this shoving while a bunch of archers are taking potshots at me.

It got better once I got the rest of my army in the main hall helping out with the killing and shoving, but for a while it was really annoying when it was just Ike and Oscar.

And just as a bunch of reinforcements close in on Volke, I manage to take out the boss. I like how they gave him a fucked-up conversation with Ike that works no matter how many priests you did or didn't kill, with him mockingly speculating how many you killed, and Ike yelling at him to stop hiding and fight like a man. But of course, after that... there comes his legendary death quote:

Schaeffer: ...Gwaar... Haaaarr... Haaaaaa... Shoulda brought... more priests... Or some... babies... Dang...

After a talk with Tomenami, we get the Ashera staff for keeping all the priests alive! It's kind of annoying that the entire franchise has only been able to come up with two concepts for an ultimate staff: omni-range full heal and restore... or resurrection. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure those are the only ones.

But then we get to the actual reason for visiting this temple. A room full of writings in ancient heron language... written by Reyson's older sister.

…

...So Reyson's older sister Lillia was kidnapped on the exact same night as the Serenes Massacre?

Wait... wait... this... I assumed until now that this was Ashnard's doing, but... but Ashnard wasn't king yet when this happened. This was before the blood pact “plague”.

...Was this Zelgius and Sephiran? Then why did they do it in Daein?

...Wait... Zelgius is from Daein, isn't he...? Maybe that makes sense...

...But anyway, Ike's mother Elena was here, and fled from Daein at this time, with Lehran's medallion. And apparently you can write something resembling that name in the heron tongue.

Awww... and now Mist sings the Song of Release, and it starts playing as background music, and... wow... that very nearly got to me.

Wait... Lillia thought Altina was still alive? Apparently Altina's the only one who can sing the Galdr of release (or her descandants), and Lillia told Elena to physically bring it to her. But she's been dead for centuries, hasn't she?

...But wait... okay... Reyson thinks King Ashnard took Lillia, and... he wasn't king yet! What's going on here? How much power did this only-technically-even-in-line-for-the-throne prince have that he was able to send all of those soldiers on a manhunt for Greil, and is it really a coincidence that this kidnapping happened on the same night as a massacre her kidnappers had nothing to do with?

And then...

WOW.

OKAY.

So apparently this entire time, Titania didn't know that Ike knew who killed Greil? But like, how did that not come up before when he announced in Titania's presence his plan to avenge Greil's death!? And Ike's response to why he never said anything was “I don't know. I never felt like talking about it.”

FUCKING SERIOUSLY? WE ALL ASSUMED EVERYONE KNEW UNTIL THIS MOMENT, SO WHAT THE FUCK WAS THE POINT OF THIS LINE OTHER THAN TO MAKE IKE SEEM MORE CHILDISH?

AND NOW IKE'S STILL REFUSING TO SAY, EVEN WHEN TITANIA'S CLEARLY DISTRESSED AND SCREAMING AT HIM, BEGGING HIM TO TELL HER! HE'S JUST STARING AT HER IN SILENCE! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU, IKE!?

...

...Moving on though...

...Oh! So this is what makes everyone assume that Daein was responsible for the apostle's assassination and the framing of Serenes! The fact that this kidnapping happened on the same night, and Ashnard was responsible for that.

...Well, no, they assume Ashnard was responsible for that, which they don't actually have any proof of, and which makes little sense to me, but... even setting that aside... If, as the sequel reveals, neither of those things were in fact Daein's fault, only the kidnapping of Lillia... then why did that kidnapping happen on the exact same night?

...Well it looks like I won't be getting any answers today.

Until next week, then.

Stay safe, everyone.

Edited July 10, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Shadow Mir]

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

And that doesn't change the fact that you have to give Oscar bows, promote Boydt train Rolf and somehow get an enemy in formation two squares away from all of them.

Sure. On the other hand, I think it's asking a lot - too much, even - to expect a player to field three crappy armored knights, especially when one of them is the worst unit in the game, and get them to surround an enemy unit when we're talking about a game with giant maps.

[Eltosian Kadath]

I probably should have commented on this yesterday but

On 7/9/2020 at 8:56 AM, Alastor15243 said:

 

...And apparently this is the first Elincia is hearing about what Ashnard did to her citizens as well. But according to Soren, it's just... completely normal in this world for countries to ransack and destroy conquered nations and treat its citizens like dirt? Like, I get medieval times were brutal, but, uh... question...

...What exactly is Soren basing his knowledge on of how countries behave when they win a war? Specifically beorc countries, given that he mentions that the enemy country civilians closest to the capital “are treated worse [than laguz]”. Has there even been a single beorc country that has gone to war with another beorc country and conquered it? Near as I can tell the answer is “no”. So what the fuck is he even talking about when he tells Elincia that this is just a demonstrable fact of what happens in wars like this?

Looking back at the timeline Interdimensional Observer shared as far as I can tell

Quote

425: Begnion Empire’s invasion

• Feeling that their dominance has started to fade, the Begnion Empire, using the Goddess’s name, sent troops to begin an invasion to restore their dominance of the continent.
  • The invasion started with new powers Daein and Kilvas.

428: Kilvas’ surrender

• Kilvas refused Phoenicis’ reinforcements and surrendered to Begnion.
• Also the Daein troops, concentrated at the capital of Nevassa, continued the resistance.

432: Tellius continental war

• Believing Begnion’s dominance over the continent would not bode well, Crimea decided to ally with Daein, and declared war against Begnion.
  • Begnion’s battle with Crimea and Daein erupted.
• Although Begnion’s might was unshaken, but due to the involvement of the Laguz of Gallia, Phoenicis and Kilvas, the war was prolonged and continued for numerous decades.

470: Formation of Serenes

• The citizens of Serenes protested against Begnion’s war, which was done in name of the Goddess.
  • Because they doubted the existence of the Apostle, they ended up angering the senate and became at opposing sides with them.
• Finally, the citizens of Serenes established their own independent country, although the battle of the validity of the Apostle never ended.

478: Treaty of Sarasa, Kingdoms of Daein, Kilvas and Serenes established

• The war entered a seemingly neverending state. Begnion, worried about their great losses, finally decided to find a way to stop the war.
• In the end, by the intervention of Goldoa, peace talks were held within the Sarasa region of Goldoa.
• Begnion signed a treaty of peace, with the conditions that they had to return their conquered lands to Daein and Kilvas and recognise them as official countries.

The war described above, while ultimately indecisive did involve Begnion having fully conquered Kilvas, and conquered enough of Daein that their forces had to fall back to the capital, and held said territory long enough that they still had conquered Daein land to return 50 years after Daein fell back. That is probably what he is using as historical precedent for how Beorc treat conquered lands and peoples. Also there is a clear reason people near the capitol in those conquered lands would be treated worse here, they are most able to join Daeinis forces, or be infiltrators from the resistance at the capitol.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

You have, Titania? Where? What country? This is the second chapter in a row where people allude to wars that demonstrably have not been fought. Is there some rich history of risen and fallen civilizations from before the flood that everyone knows about but the audience, despite everything from before the flood being shrouded in myth and legend?

Unfortunately I don't see any good examples for this from the timeline...

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

. But yeah, you want to keep them all alive, and this is a much less annoying “don't kill them” objective than most, because with the exception of the handful of promoted ones in the main hall like Tomenami (who you can avoid killing by making sure you can't counter-attack their magic), none of the priests will attack you. You just have to shove them out of the way and keep moving.

I will note that I remember there being a lot more promoted priests that attack you on maniac mode...

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

After a talk with Tomenami, we get the Ashera staff for keeping all the priests alive! It's kind of annoying that the entire franchise has only been able to come up with two concepts for an ultimate staff: omni-range full heal and restore... or resurrection. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure those are the only ones.

They really should just have the FE3 Again staff return as the ultimate staff some day.

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Which they don't actually have any proof for, and makes little sense to me, but... even setting that aside... If, as the sequel reveals, neither of those things were in fact Daein's fault, only the kidnapping of Lillia... then why did that kidnapping happen on the exact same night?

My guess is the confusion of the massacre is what gave them the opportunity to kidnap a Heron Princess.

 

 

17 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Sure. On the other hand, I think it's asking a lot - too much, even - to expect a player to field three crappy armored knights,

You only need to field one to get use out of it on chapter 8, and the bow triangle attack doesn't even have one chapter you can get away with reducing its ludicrous requirements.

 

18 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

especially when one of them is the worst unit in the game,

One of the worst, Sofia is in that game as well...

 

19 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

and get them to surround an enemy unit when we're talking about a game with giant maps

that is why you see talk about baiting, it doesn't take that much move to suround a unit that is already adjacent to one or two your armorknights already (and you can rescue drop them with the abundance of mounts to get them in position to bait, or join the triangle)

 

[Alastor15243]

Thanks for the info about begnion conquering Daein, Eltosian (Kilvas isn't quite relevant because Soren described beorc civilians treated "worse than laguz"). But:

 

5 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

My guess is the confusion of the massacre is what gave them the opportunity to kidnap a Heron Princess.

But how did they know about the assassination and framing and massacre in time to take advantage of that, if they had nothing to do with it?

Edited July 10, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Eltosian Kadath]

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

But how did they know about the assassination and framing and massacre in time to take advantage of that, if they had nothing to do with it?

If they already had people in place to kidnap her, and were trying to find an opening, than it might have just been a happy little accident.

I suppose alternative number two is they weren't involved in causing it, but had good enough intel to know it was happening.

[Interdimensional Observer]

On 7/9/2020 at 11:56 AM, Alastor15243 said:

I remember that Mageknight404 LP of Radiant Dawn where he Ike solo'd the GM parts of Part 3, and I watched as he equipped corrosion on Ike... and as a result destroyed the inventories of almost the entire Dawn Brigade.

Thats because Corrosion was buffed in RD, there, it depletes durability equal to the user's level, adding +20 for each prior tier. So Leonardo as a 9 Sniper would deplete 29 uses of a weapon, regardless of whether his promotion was at 10 or 20. PoR Corrosion is (20 if promoted + current level)/4, so at most it'll be a reduction of 10 uses- quite awful.

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

And... Hey IntOb, remember when you said you feel like this game was taking cues from Thracia? Well look here! Just like in Thracia, instead of one advisor, we've got two! And also just like in Thracia, it's a duo of an optimistic and noble rider, and a cynical and cunning magic user!

I swear there are notes from PoR's earlier drafts that confirm there was to be choosing between Soren and Titania stated to be directly inspired by Augustus and Dorius somewhere, but SF is very very bad when it comes to finding them.

I know it isn't in the Making of: Path of Radiance article, which is where it is said the base may have been planned to be more like the future MyCastle, and FE4 in its Making of article may have had unfulfilled dreams of MyCastle too.

 

2 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

My guess is the confusion of the massacre is what gave them the opportunity to kidnap a Heron Princess.

You mean what Ike and co. think at this moment without greater evidence?

Because if you look carefully at the CG, somebody is laying at Lehran's feet during the defining moment when his psyche breaks. Given magic exists that can put people to sleep for two decades, and Seph is the greatest mage in Tellius, putting Lillia in a slumber and then bringing her to Ashnard never awakening a single moment along the way sounds feasible.

625-626 had to be a packed and short period for Seph. He:

• Fell into despair.
• Determined Ashnard would be his vehicle for global euthanasia. 
• Dragged a Heron and his Medallion to Ashnard.
• Met Zelgius before Gawain fled Daein and then recruited him.
• And later I would interpret it wrote up the Blood Pact. 

[Alastor15243]

6 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

You mean what Ike and co. think at this moment without greater evidence?

Because if you look carefully at the CG, somebody is laying at Lehran's feet during the defining moment when his psyche breaks. Given magic exists that can put people to sleep for two decades, and Seph is the greatest mage in Tellius, putting Lillia in a slumber and then bringing her to Ashnard never awakening a single moment along the way sounds feasible.

625-626 had to be a packed and short period for Seph. He:

• Fell into despair.
• Determined Ashnard would be his vehicle for global euthanasia. 
• Dragged a Heron and his Medallion to Ashnard.
• Met Zelgius before Gawain fled Daein and then recruited him.
• And later I would interpret it wrote up the Blood Pact. 

...Which would mean he went to Ashnard while Ashnard was still just a really badass soldier.

And then helped him become king by way of a scheme that could have easily killed Ashnard before it killed everyone in his way. And I have to ask... why? What did Lehran gain from this specific course of action?

[Interdimensional Observer]

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

And then helped him become king by way of a scheme that could have easily killed Ashnard before it killed everyone in his way. And I have to ask... why? What did Lehran gain from this specific course of action?

This would be excusable if there existed a way to exclude someone who should otherwise be under the umbrella of a Blood Pact. It wouldn't be an awful addition, a simple charm of protection doesn't sound difficult if you wrote the Blood Pact's coding in the first place and hence could write around its internal logic.

But, Tellius doesn't say anything of the sort exists.

[Alastor15243]

10 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

This would be excusable if there existed a way to exclude someone who should otherwise be under the umbrella of a Blood Pact. It wouldn't be an awful addition, a simple charm of protection doesn't sound difficult if you wrote the Blood Pact's coding in the first place and hence could write around its internal logic.

But, Tellius doesn't say anything of the sort exists.

But if Lehran really did invent the blood pact, the Kilvas blood pact implies Lehran invented the blood pact before he became omnicidal, and had a part in enslaving the ravens to the senate while he was still relatively sane.

No, not just that, this all implies he kidnapped a heron to end the world before he went crazy, or else had an opportunity to intervene in the massacre to some degree and yet didn't aside from one heron he doomed to a miserable existence.

Edited July 10, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Interdimensional Observer]

25 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

But if Lehran really did invent the blood pact, the Kilvas blood pact implies Lehran invented the blood pact before he became omnicidal, and had a part in enslaving the ravens to the senate while he was still relatively sane.

No, not just that, this all implies he kidnapped a heron to end the world before he went crazy, or else had an opportunity to intervene in the massacre to some degree and yet didn't aside from one heron he doomed to a miserable existence.

I didn't mean he invented the whole shebang, someone else may have created first Blood Pact.

And no, Lillia is kidnapped right after his fall into unending despair, the CG in RD makes that clear. Lillia is at the altar where the Medallion is, maybe she had gone there to soothe it, only to collapse from chaotic energies. This line Reyson says that you might be confused by:

Reyson
She was kidnapped twenty years ago, on the night of the Serenes Massacre. I...I thought that Lillia had been murdered along with my other brothers and sisters. I believed that until today...

Says to me that Reyson before stepping into that room thought Lillia had been murdered in the Massacre, but starts by stating the truth he learned moments ago.

The whole thing suggests that at this time, Sephiran himself didn't understand the Galdr of Release was bound to his Branded descendants, not usable by the rest of the Heron Tribe. Why this is the case is another minor unexplained fault.

Edited July 10, 2020 by Interdimensional Observer

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I didn't mean he invented the whole shebang, someone else may have created first Blood Pact.

And no, Lillia is kidnapped right after his fall into unending despair, the CG in RD makes that clear. Lillia is at the altar where the Medallion is, maybe she had gone there to soothe it, only to collapse from chaotic energies. This line Reyson says that you might be confused by:

Reyson
She was kidnapped twenty years ago, on the night of the Serenes Massacre. I...I thought that Lillia had been murdered along with my other brothers and sisters. I believed that until today...

Says to me that Reyson before stepping into that room thought Lillia had been murdered in the Massacre, but starts by stating the truth he learned moments ago.

I'll have to wait for Radiant Dawn then.