I think you are misunderstanding the term adoptive here. It doesn’t denote that she is the one who was adopted, it just defines their brother/sister relationship as an adoptive one.
EDIT: Actually just learnt something new. Adoptive has the converse meaning to adopted. Someone adopted has BEEN adopted. Someone who is adoptive has adopted someone.
If Lada was the adopted sibling you would say “Lada is a young noblewoman and adopted sister of Milon Janowitz”
You are mistaken my friend. The Marshal is worse. At least Vedran had emotional stability throughout his life, and the Marshal is actually competent enough to succeed.
Too many words, head hurts; @Bacondoneright who’s the adopted one oh dear author?
Ask Bacon,please.
I… don’t need to? Did you not see the literal screenshot from the game @Adventa posted where it talks about Milon being adopted?
Lada was born late to an elderly mother and was expected to die during childhood. Lada’s parents then adopted Milon to ensure they had an heir, but Lada recovered and survived, but Milon retains his inheritance right as he was legitimately adopted and put into his parent’s line of succession (above Lada as he is both older and male).
Milon. If you aren’t romancing any of the siblings, they might tell you the story of their family
Your feelings are valid. I’ve always seen Velinor as Archer Thorkell (of Vinland Saga), so I like him a lot (but not enough to pick him as one of my top 3 favorites).
I know why he’s not initially warm to a Marshal he has no romantic interest in, and I did notice how much he warms up over the course of the book. You’re preaching to the choir here re: Milon 
However, I don’t know if everyone sees things the same way: either lack of desire to play a straight F!Marshal (which is completely valid), wishing for characters to warm to them rapidly regardless of in-universe cultural norms (because the Marshal is the main character), comparison of his relationship with M!Marshal to Lada’s relationship with F!Marshal (Lada’s budding friendship with F!Marshal convinced me to give her a chance on a straight M!Marshal playthrough, and I don’t know if Milon’s slow burn friendship with M!Marshal convinced someone to give him a chance on a straight F!Marshal playthrough) are some reasons I can think of.
Milon also does care about Lada’s wishes and well-being—he says to Lada that he’s letting her choose her partner (and instead of ordering her to choose someone who has made an offer for her hand, he tells her to consider the offers rather than rejecting them outright), rather than marrying her off (and marrying her off without giving her a say in the matter is not only normal but expected for Dukes to do with their sisters). He’s concerned about M!Marshal for a variety of reasons at first but he does warm noticeably over the course of the story.
@Ava_Xx Save Lada in Chapter 5 over Dismas or the soldiers (focus on saving her. DO NOT attempt to save both her and Dismas). After that you will have a short conversation. Tell her that “war is hell”. I have learned that’s the choice that matters.
Gosh darn it! I admit I don’t make the choice to save Lada very often (because she survives to endgame no matter what, and I am a big Dismas fan).
If that’s the case, doing the massacre in chapter 5 actually seems to hurt you if you choose guerilla fighting.
Every time I got the massacre achievement, I’ve done it with a bunch of retinue and maybe 0.5 light cavalry. If I choose to get a bunch of light cavalry in chapter 5, I won’t be able to commit the massacre.
Does anyone know how to get A Real War achievement in chapter 5? I’ve been trying to get it for a few days now.
@Snowflower Just tried it, that didn’t work unfortunately 
Possibly but there are a couple ways to get the massacre achievement before the latest updates i acctually didnt have a lot of light cav mostly just rangers for the guerilla path at some point will do some more vsrious playthroughs.
Snowflower is partially correct in that it revolves around Lada, you need to choose not to save either and focus on ordering your men to retreat and then when you go back and save her you should get it after having a talk with her.
The only similarity between those two is the fact that they both betrayed their (half-)sister to obtain power for themselves. Beyond that, they couldn’t be more different.
Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, the marshal has a certain degree of competence. If Vedran had even a modicum of MC’s aptitude for command, it would be him, not Elya, who would have inherited the crown when Belos died.
Secondly, the way it seems to me, Vedran has always been a bit of a sleazeball, and until the very end he never rose above playing a second fiddle to whoever was in charge at the moment.
Marshal’s is the way she (since I “main” a FemMarshal, I’ll use female pronouns here) because of the abuse she suffered as a child and the horrors she went through as a teenager.
Thirdly, the Marshal is one of the main reasons why Kanton won the Border War. For the next five years after the war, she went on doing some “military shite” for Sobik. She worked hard to get to where she is now.
What did that parasite Vedran contribute to the Kingdom? Absolutely nothing. He owes his position solely to the circumstances of his birth.
Fourthly, there is the context of their respective betrayals.
Sobik’s will was all it took for Vedran to start plotting against his “beloved” sister.
In Marshal’s case (or, at the very least, the way I played her), the path towards the eventual betrayal was quite long. My Marshal gradually became more and more frustrated and jealous of her sister as the campaign went on. Combined with gaining confidence thanks to her numerous military successes and obtaining some self-worth thanks to Milon, this led to her embarking on the path of the Usurper, when she heard the bishop’s proposal.
Fifthly, Elya is nothing without MC. If it wasn’t for the Marshal, Rade would most likely successfully take Wrido and then force the princess to marry him to legitimize his rule. And even if she somehow managed to escape the city and rally some vassals, her resistance would be quite short-lived without an experienced military leader such as her half-brother.
Even thoroughly mentored Elya is largely nothing more than a figurehead during the events of the first book.
On the other hand, Vedran was completely useless. In fact, not only was he entirely useless to both of his surviving siblings, he was actually detrimental to their cause. Questioning their authority, spreading rumors and riling up the soldiery. Nothing of value was lost when he betrayed his sister, if anything this made everyone’s life a little bit easier after the things calmed down in the immediate aftermath of his betrayal.
Finally, Vedran was weak. He possessed neither a power base of his own nor did he have much in terms of connections, resources or valuable information.
On the other hand, the Marshal is strong. Assuming she has managed to achieve a total victory over the rebels, she has the loyalty and respect of her battle-hardened soldiers and has (at least, for now) successfully subjugated a not insignificant part of Kanton’s nobility to her will.
“Might makes right” and all that jazz.
When I previously tried that, it also didn’t work as Lada is injured in that choice. Don’t know why but it seems that achievement is impossible to get for me.
Nvm, I now know how to get it. Thanks for the help though, highly appreciate it
Does your Marshal think that Elya hates her or that she has ill intentions towards her? AKA it’s not just jealousy, all Tmarshals do have that after all
Vedran and the Marshal both wanted the throne out of spite. While Ending 3 is a valid way to end the story (and an interesting path to take, and I can understand why being compared to Vedran chapped your hide—reading that the path to Ending 3 is governed by logical and rational thoughts instills similar feelings in me), it is not going to be like a Lord High Chancellor run of Aswick wherein it is the best outcome in terms of personal power for the Marshal while having Kanton in a good position as well. Even Cataphrak’s possible good outcome for Ending 3 in ITUO comes with the caveat that things will get much worse before they get better, and is also predicated on the Marshal not dying an early death (Ending 1 is an early-death ending, after all, so it has precedent), or having a breakdown and losing their men’s respect and therefore their power (and possibly also the men themselves depending on their choices) after a loss to Rade that may even be scripted, as well as learning during their crash course in coalition management and governance (when they canonically feel out of place among nobles for having never governed/learned to govern), and finding a motivation other than spite (King/Queen of the Ashes is a valid story, but it’s antithetical to a good future for Kanton/Krorid).
Does your Marshal think that Elya hates her or that she has ill intentions towards her? AKA it’s not just jealousy, all Tmarshals do have that after all
Rade’s rebellion in general and the deaths of her family members in particular served to fuel Elya’s massive loss of innocence. If you raised her leadership, then even if she has kept her “warmness”, Elya is no longer the girl the Marshal remembers. Which could definitely serve as a reason for the Marshal’s loss of affection towards her half-sister.
And the more regal Elya becomes, the more she resembles her parents, which would definitely not help MC’s paranoia and the fear of getting discarded after being used.
But I like to imagine that the Marshal’s paranoia, her self-esteem issues (believing, as you suggested, that Elya hates her) were for once NOT the motivating factors here. I like to imagine that for once she was driven by her EGOism. That for once she was driven by her own desire, that she was motivated by her very own personal gain.
That when she decided to betray Elya, she was reliving her early childhood filled with luxury and fun. With the cute dresses, dances and personal servants.
And if you ever done something (you yourself found) morally questionable, then you are likely no stranger to that nervous excitement, to the, I’m not sure how to put it…certain childlike giddiness, which precedes the act. This is what I imagine my Marshal has experienced (and in part was motivated by) the night she decided on carrying out the usurpation plan.
In fact, you are given several opportunities to choose how you Marshal feels about the coup. And one of the ways (the one I have chosen) she can act during that ending is being excited just before the coup, smiling during it and addressing Elya with a cheery tone. Basically, being unrepentantly happy about taking her birthright back.
TLDR My Marshal was mainly motivated by the sense of ego she developed during the book.
Sorry, not sure how to reply to two people at once in the same post, so here’s my second post.
Vedran and the Marshal both wanted the throne out of spite
I would argue that neither of them was motivated by spite. The Marshal’s motivation is largely up to the player, of course, but I don’t believe Vedran was driven by the desire to ruin Kanton if he won’t be allowed to have it.
I can understand why being compared to Vedran chapped your hide—reading that the path to Ending 3 is governed by logical and rational thoughts instills similar feelings in me
Actually, that isn’t the reason. Vedran is a fraud and failure, to compare the Ending 3 Marshal to him is to imply that such a Marshal is also nothing more than an utter disappointment.
it is not going to be like a Lord High Chancellor run of Aswick wherein it is the best outcome in terms of personal power for the Marshal while having Kanton in a good position as well.
Oh, no, I never implied that this ending was particularly good for Kanton or its people. I acknowledge that this ending may end up being good only for the Marshal and her close allies. But that’s the sacrifice I’m willing to make, so that my Marshal can “sit on a throne with an eager grin.”
King/Queen of the Ashes is a valid story, but it’s antithetical to a good future for Kanton
The Marshal has bled for Kanton, now it’s time for her people to do the same for their most gracious Queen.
In the wise words of Warmaster Horus, “Let the galaxy burn!”
The berserker hands down. Gave me such a good laugh.
In order for Rade to get Kanton he has to kill Marshal(unofficially) and Elya(officially) . So he will try to kill whoever he gets his hands on. Say he found Elya first and killed her and the Marshal MC killed Rade. The only one with any legitimacy to throne will be Marshal. Without being labeled a villain . I don’t hate Elya she is by far the best character but she still is her father and mother’s daughter and her mother still lives who can easily manipulate her once the war is won to dispose of the Marshal, I would rather not take the chance.
Even when you don’t kill Vedran or usurp Elya or tell Mira to KHS, she’s mentally clocked out in her epilogue and is effectively waiting to die (and is hastening that with her booze consumption). Probably due to grief, regret, and the pathetic trajectory of her life. And even if Elya loves her mother, she doesn’t take every word out of her mother’s mouth as a command—her canon familial love of the Marshal is the prime example of her disobeying Mira, and it took place before she had a Strength stat.
She doesn’t know how to deal in a healthy or constructive way. She’d been some level of functional alcoholic since the Marshal’s existence was revealed to her (and it’s not confirmed that she did lay off the hard stuff during her pregnancy with Belos and Vedran), and she drunkenly dishonored the Marshal immediately after telling Sobik she’d go public with the information about the Marshal’s true parentage if he didn’t disinherit the Marshal—truly a long campaign of subtle manipulation there.
As for Marshal’s power in Ending 3, there has been many an essay written on the topic, and the consensus (as well as the author’s word) is that it’s not the best for Kanton, and probably not great for the Marshal (and if things do get better for Kanton, they will be much worse first). Is it a good and interesting story though? Absolutely!
Even warm Elya is furious and unforgiving of Vedran as she reminds him that he could die for his treason (which can mitigate the kinslaying accusations, especially if she and the Marshal state that Vedran “shot first” but even then it’s a bad look) and only her grace ensures he lives, when she and the Marshal confront him in the cells, for the fates he nearly doomed them to at Rade’s hands.
If she dies at Rade’s hands in Book 2 after Ending 2, the Marshal is very likely dead already (it does sort of happen like you’re saying in Ending 1, although that takes place in Book 1). If the Marshal isn’t dead there’s a succession crisis within a succession crisis, and very likely Rade is in a stronger position (you’re sort of describing Ending 4 of Book 1, the only ending carried forward that has a canonical outcome for the final battle—a retreat of the loyalists).
Here is the way to get Ending 2: either win, stalemate or avoid (Tactics guerilla campaign route) the final battle with Rade, or retreat with Elya at Strength 4 or more (lower strength gives you Ending 4) and without sacrificing yourself (doing so gives you Ending 1) in Chapter 9. Then don’t usurp Elya in Chapter 11 (keep your Envy below 4 or take any one of the off-ramps to the usurpation plot, starting with not secretly talking to Archbishop Wrido. Doing neither of these things gets you Ending 3), and witness her coronation. While many people, myself included, will carry forward a victorious outcome in the final battle, it is not a canonical part of Ending 2.
As for Elya’s weakness and vulnerability to assassins: go out and personally join the fighting during the Battle of the Atiming in Chapter 5 without attacking the rebel camp first, when Elya has Strength 4+.
I don’t remember him saying we can become ruler of Kanton in Book 2 if we don’t start as such in Book 1. Krorid is fair game and there are hints in Book 1 about the Marshal possibly becoming ruler of Independent Krorid (but nothing comes of it in Book 1 since the Marshal is dealing with Kanton’s succession crisis first) in Book 2.
Wasn’t talking about Vedran. This is Drazen, who wanted to become rich and gain notoriety by killing the girl queen, in the middle of the actual battle, and got her to put her dagger through his neck for his trouble (and unlocked an achievement for the player in the process).
Elya does have guards such as Velinor (who we see smoking people that try to kill him, and confirmed as no slouch in close combat). And he does send an assassin after Darin in Chapter 8–a turned ranger who sees an old man recovering from new injuries and thinks the job is easy.
