You guys were doing this for money? I just wanted to beat him up after telling him he should’ve jumped to his death. I am a tactical, professional hater
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About this whole “fake” romance business, just because you have genuine feelings doesn’t stop one from being a manipulate jerk especially if said person think they know better then their love.
Looking forward to conflicts that a Pactbinder who thinks one should use the knowledge that they learn for selfish goals will have with a romanced Eleanor
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Speaking of, I know we’re far off from this and this is partially my speculation since we still know next to nothing about the Patron or their plans, but on the off chance the Patron’s plans are malevolent and potentially catastrophic, how do you think the ROs would react to finding out they’re dating (or in Eleanor’s case, may have actively helped) a person who potentially facilitated an eldritch horror?
I’m sure they’d take the news well, power of friendship and love all that stuff non-sociopaths believe in.
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I do agree that Finlay is the RO for whom a fake romance makes the most sense, though I do think the PB should have several opportunities to turn it into a genuine romance. A scheming PB manipulating Finlay and then they find out they schemed themselves into actually loving him!
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If I can put my two cents in the “ill-intentioned romance” discussion, I would like to highlight how Finlay could potentially be deceived for personal gain even from a purely friendship-based perspective. As I read him, he’s perhaps the one most vulnerable to manipulation (along with Eleanor) by virtue of his sheltered upbringing, overall uncomfortable stance with his own social identity and the consequent desire for genuine relationships. As one can see from the very first meeting we have with him, his status weighs heavily on him, and someone bypassing that barrier to meet him on an equal footing already finds themselves in a favourable position.
So, were it to be a Pactbinder who intends to use Finlay for their own ends without any actual romantic interest involved, I believe such a person would be better served by pursuing a close friendship, if only because it requires less effort and minimizes potential risk. However, if there is a mix of personal gain and budding feelings, then a wholly rational Pactbinder could…well, rationalise an eventual romantic entanglement with the Prince by justifying it through the lens of pragmatism, while in actuality also desiring something more intangible. But it wouldn’t be a true “fake” romance anymore, I suppose.
I always appreciate works that go beyond this binary set of choices. It is somewhat frustrating to have to behave either like a serial flirt or an extreme case of a wallflower. It is nice to be able to show your interest in someone through more subtle/pleasant ways.
Thankfully I will never subject myself to such an ordeal. Little Goody Two-Shoes is written on my forehead (as much as one can be when they make a pact with an Eldritch being and steal the future of another person, among other things).
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I think marcus would probably be the most affected. I think he has some kinda bad history, which was only hinted. (I may have missed in my play through). So he would probably don’t want another incident causing a great stain in his family name. Maybe I am mixing up his history with elenor.
Finlay and Layla I am not sure. Finlay maybe bit reserved, but I believe you could manipulate him into helping you. Layla probably will help you if she truly believes you, even after you reveal every.
Elenor will probably be horrified. If she didn’t have her confidence high by that point. She would probably be depressed for long. Probably takes a lot of time for others to trust her.
I don’t even wanna think about betraying alice. Because it will be bloody. I am quite sure of it.
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But you gotta think, there’s a huge difference between being best friends with a prince, and MARRYING a prince… one of those provides way more power
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I think marrying prince comes with it’s own risk too.
I am a villain, not a monster.
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If the Pactbinder was not someone who was obliged to value secrecy above all else due to their Pact, I would wholeheartedly agree with that. As it stands, however, being that close to the Royal House invites scrutiny to an extreme level. We’ve barely set foot into Hightower and we’re already under suspicion (if certain people aren’t already aware), and we’re still unaware of how such Pacts are perceived by the relevant institutional and political actors. For all we know, such Pacts are not particularly well regarded (especially if the Patron had prior involvement with said worldly entities and left a bad impression). So, when this potentially malevolent Pactbinder wants to go after the Prince, alarm bells will ring.
Speculative idea ahead, but I think that eventually the cat will be out of the bag whether we want it or not, and I believe the impression the Pactbinder left on others will be a deciding factor for their future. If we engage in ill-intentioned actions (such as deceiving the Prince through a romantic entanglement), the powers that be and especially the Royal House wouldn’t look too favourably upon us.
If you have a potentially all-powerful mage that is also known to be a serial deceiver, leniency will be harder to obtain. A Pactbinder might think short-term or long-term about these implications, but in both cases extreme caution is warranted, in my opinion.
I never doubted you, my fellow Pactbinder. A certain stabby enjoyer, on the other hand…
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On the topic of being possibly revealed, there’s the Revenant to consider as well. We do know they’re bound by fate/prophecy to the Pactbinder. If they decide to go ‘big’ to achieve whatever their goal is and the Pactbinder has to stand against them, the Pactbinder might not have any choice about revealing themselves.
We don’t know much about the Revenant, but we do know according to the rumors that they have the Kingsgift and have resurrected. If they decide to ‘restore’ themselves as the ‘rightful king’ they will have to go public to stake their claim and PB likely has to counter them.
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Revenant mentioned, oh boy
I don’t think our dear Revenant concerns itself too much with the usual goings of the mortal world. It’s already pretty dead, as Anzu points out, and its purpose lies in something that connects it, the Pactbinder and the Patron.
I’m still torn on whether the circumstances that brought the Revenant in this situation are not of its own doing and preference, or they were brought about in willing cooperation with the Patron.
There is one extremely tiny clue that could lend credence to the latter possibility, namely a variable called “revTreatyKnown”, that is activated when the Revenant realises the Pactbinder’s identity as its destined…something during their fight. Treaty is a very specific word that implies an agreement. So, the logic goes, the Revenant (and whoever it was prior to its current dead state) made a deal (Pact?) with our Patron for an as-of-yet unknown purpose.
Or said Treaty could be punishment for a breach of contract that was part of whatever Pact the Sorcerer-King had with the Patron while it was alive. The King broke the Pact, and death arrived (just not the usual kind). An antagonistic relationship between the two would explain why the Pactbinder doesn’t react well to the Revenant.
Relevant Info
“Something about your Patron’s last proclamation sets your teeth on edge, and all of a sudden you find yourself feeling very, very cold. It isn’t fear that stirs in you, you realize, but something fundamentally primal. Is it the Pact itself reacting to those words, or something latent to you, some instinct inherited from your most ancient forebears?”
Of course, one might pertinently argue it’s just the very nature of the Revenant that’s causing the negative reaction (like how the mere mention of Sauron’s name could bring dread), and the Pactbinder is just more sensible to it by virtue of their greater attunement to magic. But then we reach the library section where the Pactbinder reads some information about it and has a negative physical reaction. Did other readers suffer the same consequences? I doubt it, for if it was so it would’ve been noticed quickly and information concerning the Revenant would have been hidden.
They are “like magnets with twinned poles”, as chapter 3 puts it. And, at the same time, clearly closely connected. At the end of the Free Roam section code there are two neat little easter eggs:
Easter Eggs
“very well. until our paths collide.
until we gaze upon one another with our true faces.
beneath the bright morning light.
until our history begins in the march towards History’s end,
dearest Pactbinder. my sole equal in all this world.”
“still you persist? Hypocrite lecteur, — mon semblable, — mon frère!” aka hypocrite reader, my fellow, my brother.
“True faces”, “Sole Equal” it says. One is nameless and the other is a Thief of Names, so that’s clear enough. But, equal by what virtue? By their mere power, or their linked origins? Why does it call the Pactbinder “dearest”? Is the Revenant a hidden RO?! Why does the Revenant speak French? Wasn’t it a proud British Sorcerer-King? (incidentally it’s also the famous ending verse from “Au Lecteur/ To the Reader” by Charles Baudelaire)
Okay, I waxed lyrical enough. Many questions, few answers, a lot of theorizing. The Revenant is going to render me dead too by how much I write about it each time I start talking about its stuff.
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Guys I think we have a loremaster.
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I know we’re going deep into the lore and future implications of The Revenant, but can we stop and talk about how funny it is that the Patron says "oh by the way, if you see a zombie in the near future, don’t fight it because you need to level up from Fraudbinder to Chadbinder in order to beat it." and only brings it up if you explicitly ask for anything else important that you should know! I get the Patron isn’t exactly doing our job for us and that encounter only happens if you go down a specific chain of events, but that seems pretty important to not mention it because “you never asked.”
Speaking again of the Patron’s shady amorphous ass, I’d like to believe that PB is savvy enough to know that trusting an eldritch horror is a bad idea and that this very well might blow up in their face later, because there’s no way in a society where Dungeons and Dragons is part of our culture and warlocks are a well-known class, that you’d blindly trust an eldritch horror, right? Wait DnD does exist in the alternate history of the Pactbinder, right? Was that part of the mage conspiracy to cover up magic?
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Welcome to Mage the Ascension
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Also money, the kid is loaded (of course that goes for a lot of the students but still). So I’d say money and connections, without the super elevated scrutiny publicly dating a prince like Finlay brings. And yes, it does help for my mc that Marcus is a real hottie and the best-dressed boy in Antioch certainly possibly in the school.
True and my mc certainly has the potential to at least a little toxic as a boyfriend, even once he genuinely starts committing and trying really hard.
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Love your theories. I’ll add my my two cents as well
My theories
I don’ t think that the Revenant knows we are working for the Patron for a couple of reasons.
1.Patron told us"You will(meet the Revenant), though your fates are only to truly converge at the End of History. Not here in your nascencies.".
In hindsight, this obviously means that the time for our final battle is already decided. Yet the Revenant looked extremely surprised that we couldn’t strike each other so I think he didn’t know about the treaty existence beforehand.
2 This one is more of a guess but I think the Revsus variable refers to the Revenant knowing about the Patron and the Pact. if you look at the actual lines during our meeting in game the Revenant doesn’t seem to know much about us
“Bold little thing that you are, seeking answers from one such as I.”[/i] It murmurs at last. “But I do not scheme your undoing. That comes later, if you are the one I seek. Much later, perhaps. For now, there is much that—”"
“Bold little thing that you are, to seek answers here in the Mists. I am that I am, mage. No more, no less. But what are you, I wonder? There is a great deal that—”[/i]
I think the Revenant potentially know less about us that we know about them and they are figuring out who we are from our weird interest into them and our(literal) plot armour and resistance to dying in the mists
Summary
I think that the person who says " “still you persist? Hypocrite lecteur, — mon semblable, — mon frère!” aka hypocrite reader, my fellow, my brother" is not the Revenant but that guy whose statue the older student was protesting about.
the revenenat is supposed to be a literal King from what I understood while this guy was a corsar and a slaver. That and their tone seems to be completely different.
Beside that I agree. Definitely a secret RO. I’m eagerly waiting for the final chapter where the Enemies to Lovers Arc is complete and they ask the Patron to officiate their wedding.
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Thank you! I’m glad to know my ramblings resemble anything close to a coherent argument. Sometimes even I am not sure they make sense.
I always assumed it to be the case that the Revenant didn’t know with certitude that our Pactbinder is the one destined to confront it, only to find out during a very specific part of the confrontation that is indeed our Pactbinder
Quotes
“You have been searching for me.” It pauses. “Have I been searching for you?”
“But I do not scheme your undoing. That comes later, if you are the one I seek.”
The following citation is what happens right after the “plot armour” kicks in.
Quote
You regard one another in silence for a moment, blade and shadowed hand mere inches apart as lightning rains around you and thunder reverberates through the ground beneath your feet. The grey-shrouded figure shakes its head, then lets out another hiss-like laugh, caught between seething fury and awful delight. “Not yet, then. Not yet!”
I think it is the “plot armour” that reveals to the Revenant our identity. The revTreatyKnown variable would then be the “Revenant finding out who is its adversary” variable.
Revsus, on the other hand, makes me ponder. For now, I believe Revsus points build up to the activation of the revTreatyKnown variable. Basically, we give away information to the Revenant until it has an “Aha! It’s you.” moment. And we can potentially trigger it early by just proving to the Revenant who we are through the plot armour.
With that in mind, it is extremely curious that just by researching it during the free roam section we gain +10 Revsus points. The Pactbinder’s body recoils at the information, and the Revenant potentially gains knowledge of the Pactbinder through the PB. I can only guess that the connection between the Pactbinder and the Revenant is on an ontological/ foundational level. Not only are they destined foes(?), but their very beings are linked in some way. Perhaps through the connection they both share with the Patron, mayhaps? Food for thought
I plucked out those easter eggs from a quaint little section, here it is in full
Summary
comment ???
*label trainDeath
still you persist? Hypocrite lecteur, — mon semblable, — mon frère!
*label trainFate
very well. until our paths collide.
until we gaze upon one another with our true faces.
beneath the bright morning light.
until our history begins in the march towards History’s end,
dearest Pactbinder. my sole equal in all this world.
Those labels make it seem as if it’s about training during freeroam, like their cousins trainMight, trainFinesse, trainIntellect and trainCharisma. I doubt it, truth be told.
trainFate I find straightforward enough, and I’m certain you find it the same. trainDeath, on the other hand… this could have two answers. The Revenant is heavily associated with death, so it could just be him. Or, as you said, it could be Randolph Crewe. He was labelled a necromancer, after all. And he is associated with the aptly named knowDeathNameless and deathHook variables.
Interestingly, a “fateAttunement > 0” is tied to Crewe. And guess what other being is heavily tied to this variable? Why, the Revenant! Is Crewe the Revenant? I don’t think so. Rather, I am inclined to say that fateAttunement is what pushes the Pactbinder toward their destiny. Yes, yes, quite obvious insight, it’s in the name, after all, I know. But it is one more argument for how Randolph Crewe will become a soon-to-be important plot point that will reveal much about our Pactbinder’s future.
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@Hamartia I might’ve run into a bug with Hawthorne, she’s giving me the ‘mixed’ speech even though I haven’t attacked the Gatekeeper or Silas and stood with Layla and was polite to Hawthorne, didn’t get to rescue any Antioch though since I was one point short on AdelRel.
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Summary
I agree. I wonder what changes mechanically if the Revenant knows about us from an earlier point of the story. It is not like he can go and tattle on us like the others. Maybe an harder boss fight? We’ll see…
Quite weird indeed. Very scary that the Revenant knows when it is being investigated.
I wonder what role Crewe will have in the story. At the moment he could be an optional encounter, a midbook boss fight or even potentially be present only through his accounts( through I seriously doubt that a necromancer will just stay dead).
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