Pick a Side -- Ahriel

[Corylea]

I've finished with the Ukat and the Vol, and in each case, I had to decide which side to support.  But with the Ahriel, I can't really FIND the other side.  There are indications that the Trench towns are unhappy, but nobody there seems to want to be the leader of them.  The Blessed have a Council, and I don't really want to support them, but the other guys just seem like a disorganized bunch of grumblers.  But there must be a person, somewhere, who leads the resistance to the drug-addled leaders.  I've been all over but haven't found him or her.  Er, IS there a choice in this section, or is the Council of Druggies our only option?

 

[Randomizer]

Have you talked to Istara in Sliven?

[Corylea]

Thank you so much!!  I'd been to Silven before, and I'm not sure how I managed to miss Istara the first time around.  I played about two-thirds of the game back in March, then was ill for several months and have only just now picked it back up again.  I remember the basics, like the fact that the Vol take debt-slaves, or the Ukat have giant chips on their shoulders, but I don't remember such things as why I seem to have thoroughly explored Silven EXCEPT for Istara.

 

Anyway, I think I'm back on track, thanks to you!

 

[Mechalibur]

It's definitely understandable. The Ahriel isn't really divided into 2 sides like the Vol or Ukat. Their conflict revolves more around whether or not you want to force new members on their council or not.

[Corylea]

I just somehow missed Istara, possibly because of not playing for so long because of being ill.

 

Now I'm in the endgame, and I don't understand why the Nisse hate me.  I've been trying to do my best for Sacramentum, freeing the Owen and getting better help for the Trench towns, and they act like a befoul the ground with every step I take.

 

[TriRodent]

36 minutes ago, Corylea said:

I don't understand why the Nisse hate me.

 

After you're done come read this...

 

Spoiler

They hate you because 'they' were the real power on the continent.  And here you come upsetting the power balance & letting their assorted subjects know that there is an alternative to the way their lives had been run/manipulated

 

[Corylea]

Yeah, once I found the people who'd been turned into pillars, it became clear that the Nisse weren't just the power in the region, they were horribly evil and twisted.  I had thought it was rather high-handed of Haven to run around demanding that everyone be our vassals, but now that I see what the alternative is ... we're positively benevolent, compared to THAT!

 

 

 

[Randomizer]

From the Nisse point of view, Haven is interfering with their test subjects. When you see what the Nisse fear you get an idea of how much they view others as beneath them.

[Corylea]

I didn't actually understand why the Nisse were enough afraid of me to destroy their own city.  I only went down there in the first place because they'd caused the Calamity.  I wasn't trying to conquer or destroy them; I just wanted them to stop the Calamity.  But by the time I found someone who offered to stop it, I was so mad about how badly they were treating the people of Sacramentum that I DID want to wipe them out.  Their own behavior brought about the very thing they feared.

 

Of course, self-fulfilling prophecies happen pretty often in real life -- at least, they seem to from my perspective -- but then, I'm a clinical psychologist, so I may see them more than most. :-)

 

Edited to add:  When I finished the game, I was given a code to put into Queen's Wish 2.  Any idea when that comes out?  I keep getting Kickstarter backer notices from Jeff about Geneforge, so I'm guessing he's working on that at the moment...

 

Edited December 10, 2020 by Corylea

[Randomizer]

Geneforge 1- Mutagen is scheduled for February 2021, so Queen's Wish 2 will be about a year later. Depending upon how much Jeff reuses the first game engine it might be as early as December 2021.

[Corylea]

20 hours ago, Randomizer said:

Geneforge 1- Mutagen is scheduled for February 2021, so Queen's Wish 2 will be about a year later. Depending upon how much Jeff reuses the first game engine it might be as early as December 2021.

 

If Jeff turns out a game every year, he must work insanely hard, because there's a LOT in these games!  It took me a whole year just to make a new adventure for The Witcher.  Admittedly, half of that was learning the toolkit. 😣

[Mechalibur]

On 12/9/2020 at 2:53 PM, Randomizer said:

From the Nisse point of view, Haven is interfering with their test subjects. When you see what the Nisse fear you get an idea of how much they view others as beneath them.

The way I interpreted it, the Nisse see the people of Sacramentum as their children rather than as test subjects or resources to be exploited. Of course, they're incredibly abusive parents, while also being possessive of what they see as theirs.

 

The weird construct infiltrators they were developing in Charme sort of reminded me of parents creating fake social media profiles to stalk their children on.

[Corylea]

7 minutes ago, Mechalibur said:

The way I interpreted it, the Nisse see the people of Sacramentum as their children rather than as test subjects or resources to be exploited. Of course, they're incredibly abusive parents, while also being possessive of what they see as theirs.

 

To me, it seemed as if they saw the people of Sacramentum as pets.  One watches over them, but one also expects them to obey, and killing them isn't murder; it's just putting down a defective animal.

 

(Not that I see animals that way, myself -- I'm a vegetarian for ethical reasons -- but I know that some people do.)