Board Thread:The Last Sovereign Discussion/@comment-25941257-20170924103337/@comment-72.160.38.131-20171220071421

Hey there, new to this, apologies if I'm repeating old ideas, I think I read everything in this thread at one time or another, but I haven't been over the previous ones.

I've been thinking about the chosen. They're presented as comically terrible examples of divinely-empowered heroes. The initial assumption is that Ivala's power is only compatible with young men who have terrible personalities for some reason. But later conversations with Kalant suggest that at least to a non-trivial degree, becoming a Chosen alters one's personality to more closely match that type.

If the Chosen are really supposed to be heroes, this is incredibly weird. But it got me wondering, what if they were never meant to be heroes at all? What else could they be?

Looking at their behavior patterns, the Chosen are really good at two things, growing in power (kill many rats) and still managing to get themselves killed without accomplishing anything of note. Ralke's nature resulting from contamination from outside magic (which seems pretty much certain to be Chosen-related, at least to me) suggests the rat-killing behavior isn't just a strategy that church handlers advise the Chosen to employ, rather its an internal directive arising from the magic of the Chosen itself.

The case for dangerous, ultimately self-defeating impulsiveness/foolishness doesn't seem quite so clear. Kalant seems to describe himself as rushing around, thinking he was on a holy quest, without accomplishing anything, which suggests a certain lack of basic self-reflection compared to his non-altered self. And there's certainly plenty of self-defeating foolishness on display from other Chosen. Still, I don't think I can make as convincing a case that this must be a result of being altered by possessing Chosen power, though it still seems likely.

Also, there's the tendency towards cruelty and unusually high sexual desire/low self control that some of them display. I'm thinking of the one Ginasta infiltrates the IKD with, as well as Tal and Kai. Not sure what to make of that. Also, I don't have a good explanation for what the shining swords even really are, or why the Chosen so often have them.

If I'm remembering this correctly, you can learn in Yarra's path that the Lustlord tried to "prevent the power from returning", or something like that, after defeating a Chosen, which presumably results in the Fallen Chosen the party fights.

Finally, the creepy muttering elf in the NE sylvan region map talks about a harvest, though I forget the precise quote.

So anyway, while I can't fit every relevant fact into this theory, I've started to think the Chosen might not be terrible magical heroes, they might be excellent free-range magical livestock. They are intially empowered, they grow in power, they get themselves killed, and power "returns" from them presumably to whatever their source is. That doesn't fit well with a benevolent Ivala, but maybe this is all the work of individuals withtin the Church, and not a particular divine miracle at all. I think Xestris talks to the Anak about the Church empowering warriors, which suggests the Chosen result from mortal agency as opposed to divine. There's nothing to confirm the idea that a Chosen's returning power at death must be greater than the initial power they are embued with thanks to their personal growth resulting from the "blessing of Ivala". But it seems at least possible, and this could offer a possible explanation as to the source for the vast and unexplained power that fuels the Ivala's wall spell. Of course, that would suggest that Hester is involved with this. She seems intellectually capable of devising and running a complicated scheme, but it doesn't fit well with my impression of her morally. But of course there can be surprises. Finally Kalant was apparently able to voluntarily relinquish his Chosen nature (to non-fatal results even) which seems rather odd if the Chosen are just meant to be idiotic power-incubators. So I'm by no means convinced this idea is right, but it seems plausible enough to have fun thinking about at least.