Board Thread:The Last Sovereign Discussion/@comment-39332473-20190808194309/@comment-184.90.80.237-20191209030247

The Scoutman wrote: @Numbus26

I actually like the idea that Ivala's captors might be no single entity at all, faith itself is what is holding her captive because Ivalan doctrine treats her as an untouchable entity, transcendental to the point where she couldn't even exist in the real world and so she doesn't, instead confined to a secluded corner of the Tower...so what if that's the purpose of fake Ivala? What if what Ivala meant by "I can notify my captors" is overhauling her image to her believers, people will see fake Ivala and start believing on a much more active and tangible Ivala, and so that change in people's faith will allow her to return to the world. Now that's actually really interesting—I hadn't thought of that, my assumption of that line would be notifying higher-ups in the Church of Tanurak somehow, either through feelings like what she did with Carina or the way the Entity attempted to warn Simon about dangers. Ivala does appear to be taking a greater role in the story, given how Simon's group is delving far deeper into the Tower than ever before, and beginning to see goddesses as possible 'threats' of the same tier as other Incubus Kings (Well, the big ones, at least). It's still unexplained exactly why the divine shard holders are returning to the world, though we can assume they're gearing up for 'the last war', as Mithryn tells her followers. Only one of the goddesses we know of actually seems interested in gaining power 'through the real world' the way the Fucklord attempted, and that's the Mother, who, well, her tactics are ineffective at best.

The Scoutman wrote: I think the Chosen in Rodak was just as Simon says, never underestimate a Chosen's ability to get himself lost, he somehow got lost and ended up sailing to Rodak after the Lustlord. The Tower orc I think it is just proof that, once again, the Lustlord can't come up with a single original thing, I think he figured out what the Chosen were, but instead of realizing they were just a way of releasing accumulated energy, he actually thought they were meant to be the REAL best use of power. Not sure what to make about it actually dropping a Shining Sword though, you'd think they would be made out of divine energy, but maybe they are made of a form of power that transcends lust and purity, kinda scary if the Lustlord figured out how to achieve that, but good thing he is too incompetent to do anything threatening with it. That's an angle. While I'm not sure the Lustlord actually knows what the Chosen are or who's creating them—given how much effort Simon's group had to go through to get even a solid lead, whoever's creating Chosen has been doing so for a while and is very good at covering their tracks—I think he may have found a similar way of creating divine power in the same fashion as the Chosen's swords, maybe even using the Chosen kept 'preserved' in Rodak near the Gathering grounds as a reference. It would fit with why the tower orcs felt like a Chosen to Aka, since he likely had, if not only the one, very few examples to work off of when creating his magically-infused warriors, and might not have been able to isolate what made the Chosen uniquely able to channel Ivala's power through the blade.

Which leads me to another interesting question; why can only the Chosen use the Shining Swords? It would follow from the theory above that they are first fundamentally transformed by Ivala's power, which both imparts the standard Chosen mentality and makes them able to use the Shining Swords. But then there's the Eustrin Armor Merchant, who states that when Aram comissioned them for Shining Armor, they also requested 'blades in a similar style'. While I don't think that those blades would be 'true' Shining Swords, the way that some members of the party can actually equip the Eustrin Shining Armor, they might be close, imitations of the thing. Would those blades channel Ivala's power in a similar way? Is that why the Holy Legion failed—was their recklessness in part coming from them being drawn into being llike the Chosen, who are fated to die?