I was thinking of the tip that someone pointed out a while ago.
This does seem to imply that Oric wants the party dead. Not just one.
It also seems to give us his goal, "the aberration".
Now here's a couple definitions for aberration:
1. the act of departing from the right, normal, or usual course.
2. the act of deviating from the ordinary, usual, or normal type.
3. deviation from truth or moral rectitude.
4. mental irregularity or disorder, especially of a minor or temporary nature; lapse from a sound mental state.
5. Astronomy . apparent displacement of a heavenly body, owing to the motion of the earth in its orbit.
Now, I think we can eliminate 4 and 5. 4 because I doubt Oric's ultimate plan is to go crazy. 5 because I'm not sure you can own that. (Though I must note, that since the Warrens can move number 5 might be an additional requirement for Oric to obtain the aberration.)
Now for 1, this could mean that Oric wants to change something. Considering that Narrative Control is a thing and that Over Soul Mode allows for a lot of change this makes sense.
For 2, this could mean that Oric plans on changing himself. Perhaps he wants to live forever, perhaps he plans on making himself more awesome...
For 3, this could mean that Oric plans on changing the truth.
Now if you consider that 1, 2, and 3 are all true. This would mean that Oric intends on rewriting something about himself. That is make himself different from the norm. Something that is currently not true that he plans on making true.
Now when Ciro questioned Oric, he responded:
Riltia comes up with this for the answer:
Later we get this interesting story out of Cain:
Once upon a time, the Devil herself looked around and said: "Sheeeeeeeeit, if we keep eatin everything, there won't be nothin left! Yo, Devil Jr., find someone smarter 'fore we run out." That someone is the Thief. You may know him as Oric the Awful.
Not long after the Thief found the Warrens, a little cherub approached him and told him he'd been chosen to rule over the place... at a price. See, the Thief had to find some way to fuel the entire underworld, as it needed power to keep moving and consuming. He came up with a genius plan: use HIS cohorts as batteries! A tense alliance was formed between the Devils and the humans.
The Thief was trusted with an unbelievably powerful Soul Star. It granted him dominance over the Devil and ALL her sinister siblings. He could manage them, tell them exactly what they needed to do to run the place HIS way, under threat of retaliation. There were three such Soul Stars, but that's another story.
However... after the first run of his 'experiment', the Devil told him: they know what they need to do, meaning the Thief himself was no longer needed. Keeping him alive was a useless power drain for no return. He'd been fired.
The Thief, gazing up at the quick and permanent death between the Devil's teeth, simply said: "No."
With an impossible strike of his spirit hammer, the Devil's arms were sliced off, a wretched scream erupting from her thousand yard throat. The Thief ascended to Level Seven and SLEW the Devil's sibling there. He ascended to Level Six and SLEW the Devil's sibling there. By Level One, all that remained of this once-powerful race was the crying, mutilated Last Devil herself. The Thief offered her a trade: use the soul power my system grants you to do as I please, and I'll keep you alive. Thus the Last Devil watched over (and became the conduit for) ALL souls passing through her once-powerful dungeon.
The Thief took her minions - her cherubs - as tribute. Just as allegedly immortal as their elders, the cherubs helped watch over the dungeon, ensuring all went according to the Thief's plans. None dared to face Oric's Hammer. The end.
I think Yaos was looking for Oric's Hammer... which is most likely the second shift of Oric's Soul Star. Because Oric was able to slay the Seraphim with it and they certainly sounded somewhat immortal.
Also while the story was ambiguous as to whether the Warrens and the underworld were separate or the same. Yaos says something to support that they were the same.
During the brief Al intermission, Wilford gave us a couple interesting snip-its of dialog.
Sweet Goddess, what IS that?
Al, do you know about the Harian Royal Prison?
We lock... we lock up people who can do this. Things like this. Create something from nothing. Throw lightning. Turn invisible. That was my old job.
I didn't quit. I was transferred.
I didn't have a choice. The prisoners were relocated.
Firstly, I think that the Goddess that Wilford blurts out might be the so called Devil. It doesn't seem like a stretch that the Kingdom of Haria worships the Last Seraph as a goddess. Cain mentioned that the Seraphim were a powerful race. And the apparent size of the Last Seraph all seems to add to the plausibility of that idea.
Second, Wilford mentioned the Harian Royal Prison a place we people with extraordinary powers were imprisoned. Al's reaction to this is that this is a wrongful imprisonment and that the normal people of Haria might not take such news well. He considered it enough to help a rebellion. This proposes two questions: Why was the King of Haria imprisoning people with powers? Why was there a possibility of a rebellion?
Third, that said prisoners were relocated and he was transferred.
Now back to the first point.
Cain told us that the Warrens used to belong to the Last Seraph. Now it isn't unusual for an owner to decorate their place with images of their likeness. We've seen Angel Statues... but then there has a specific statue that caught our interest.
This statue was not simply unique, but also seemed to be in charge of the spells that randomize the dungeon. Such an important statue would likely depict the owner. During this sequence the narration text mentioned that Ciro was getting a bad vibe from the statue.
Then we ran across this beast.
Which gave us this line the moment Slog died.
Slog is too frightened to act! The poor Slime sees something in the Searchbot's eyes. More precisely: the worst thing he's ever seen. If only he could talk, he would tell us what he sees.
This odd Searchbot has the same eyes as the statue and further more has a face quite different from other Searchbots. The ominous text from Slog's death only adds more to the bad vibes Ciro got earlier from the statue.
Ciro has similar feeling from it after the battle was over.
Something felt wrong about that creature, though, machine or not. Almost like it was possessed by a force beyond your comprehension. Hmm.
Then we get another visit from another one of these Terrorbots.
And another
When talking with Proxxy, she seemed quite surprised to here about these.
Finally, we have this ability from the spirit duel.
Firstly, this is the same face. The distorted text is ominous to say the least.
Secondly, this is the Pray ability. Which seems to imply that the face belongs to the entity being prayed to.
Going back to the idea of the Last Seraph is considered a Goddess in Haria by some people makes additional sense.
We also know that the Last Seraph is the conduit for all the souls going through the Warrens and might be able to possess the robotic Searchbots due to all the magic and souls being treated like a cross between magic, tech, and programming.
Is it also possible this Lady Fate that Yaos mentioned is another alias of the Last Seraph?
Next more on point 2.
We also have these choice lines from Yaos that harken back to point 2 from Wilford's lines.
So Yaos was one of the gifted that the Kingdom of Haria was trying to imprison. He was able to hide his powers and thus keep his freedom. But he had a vendetta against the Kingdom and its oppressive leaders and was on a quest to kill them. If Al was the same kind of gifted I guess he was able to hide his powers as well. Yaos also mentions that his power was increased since entering the Warrens... this seems like it is a product of having his Soul Star removed. Considering Cain's monologue about being able to break free if he had his Soul Star.
It's no good.
If you just had your Soul Star, you would already be out of here.
So it would seem that someone who is powerful is even more powerful when they have Soul Star. Considering that the Last Seraph is a conduit for all souls passing through the Warrens that this may be simply a matter of being linked to the Last Seraph. Or it may just be that a Soul Star in its own makes them more powerful by gaining access to their Soul Charge.
We also have this bit of information that Yaos threw at us.
Yaos basically said that all the gifted have a time limit. That their extra power causes them to die young.
Now what if every living being has a natural amount of Soul Charge. The average person probably uses up charge and gains at a decent pace until they die. Whereas a gifted person probably uses their Soul Charge without knowing what their doing and when they run out they die... or worse.
We have no way of knowing at this point, but perhaps Illbirth isn't exclusive to the Warrens. Now if a gifted eventually turns into a nigh unbeatable monster at the end of their life... this gives reason to understand why the Kingdom of Haria would lock the gifted up. Granted, this could also be simple fear of the gifteds' powers that cause them to lock them up. Either way works. But we need to understand that the gifted are doomed to an early death.
Now according to Cain, Oric found the Warrens and was offer ruler-ship of it. But if we assume Oric was a gifted which seems likely. He might have been imprisoned in the Royal Prison. Considering Oric's prison riddle I think this could be considered the case. Now knowing that the prisoners were transferred, what if the Last Seraph had the King transfer them to her domain. If Haria worships her, its possible it could be a ritual sacrifice of sorts (not in the killing sense, maybe a tribute would be a better word).
Oric like all gifted had a time limit. He was imprisoned and finely either freed or he escaped. He made his way to the Warrens. There he found out more about his condition and that his death might be avoidable. Which is what he accomplished, but then the problem came up. Say he is immortal now. He's escaped the greatest prison of all, life. But once immortal time becomes meaningless, with no fear of dying being alive becomes boring. He begins to crave the very limit of life he used to fear.
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Topic: (ISG) The Warrens of Oric the Awesome ??? (Read 3971937 times)