(Thanks @tepkunset for this incredible template!!)
After much hesitation, we finally took the plunge with a friend to introduce our two babies : meet our Tav and Durge (aka Lornaal)!
This blog is an opportunity for us to share our characters (and the game in general), our thoughts on them, their lore, the relationship with their companions but also their bond between them.
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Tav Tags: about her, background, relationships, references, // (forthcoming)
Durge Tags: about her, background, relationships, references, // (forthcoming)
I love desire paths. There's something so wonderous about seeing an echo of humanity. Depending on it's location, a desire path can mean so many different things.
In a city, like the pic above, they represent rebellion, and efficiency. The messiness of humanity. We like to imagine we're oh so logical and neat so we design our cities to be logical and neat an then real humans literally trample on that idea. The ego required to think you can design something perfect that checks every box. Life is all about compromise and patching stuff when some new problem arises. Though people have certainly tried! Ohio state univeristy let students carve their desire paths, and then paved them over. It looks pretty artsy.
Some people will try to discourage desire paths, but this is almost always going to fail.
Eventually, people just have to accept them. Humans are too dang stubborn.
Certain desire paths are just adorable. A 0.5 second time saver. You just can't design for maximum efficiency, humans will always find shortcuts!
Though on occasion a desire path can actually be the least efficient way...especially if you're superstitious.
In a wilder area, such as below, they show us the curiosity of humans. A desire path somewhere natural often tells you there's something interesting just ahead. (Though remember some ecosystems are fragile and will suffer if trampled! Stick to paths in these sorts of areas)
And how about desire stairs? I always think these look so cool. We get see humans determination to climb, to traverse every kind of terrain.
And for something really crazy...a desire path used for centuries will create a 'holloway'
All of these pics are off the Desirepath subreddit, check them out for more examples! And many thanks to the users who submitted these photos.
Fieldwork tip: sometimes in the Forest you will find deer desire paths. “Oh!” says your brain, “this will lead me to somewhere cool!”
It will not. The deer wants to go to heavy brush and surge up a steep hill with its powerful hindquarters and presumably collect all the deer ticks living along the deer desire path. Waiting. You are a human, you want to meander along the side of the hill in absolutely no brush at all, thank you. Your desires are not compatible. You must abandon the deer path.
Cow desire paths though: flat as pancakes, always lead you to water or meadows. Useful things.
Thank god someone else said it. When I saw that path in the woods and it was talking about human curiosity I was like... no. Other animals besides humans make paths.
Sometimes it's a really bad idea to follow them.
Especially if you don't want to get covered in deer ticks.
I love this interaction between them. Minthara is among my favorites when it comes to the banters. I swear that woman only has to look at Gale for a vein to pop on her temple kek.
Between fighting, tedpole chatter, and earthquakes, is always time to enjoy the sun and jump into water.
I made this for a Discord Competition and it was so much fun. And I have to say, I'm just starting to get more into VP and still struggling with lighty lights and quality stuff. I knew it would be exhausting, so I've been putting it off for so long. But it's also a lot of fun
Here it is, my deep dive into Gerringothe Thorm, after realising her Grim Visages aren't actually her undead employees and are in fact parts of her psyche! Hovering over the "grim visage" race on their character sheets reveals this:
Grim Visage
These skulls spawned from Gerringothe Thorm's twisted psyche. Manifestations of her worst flaws, they keep the coins of her protective armour intact.
They're also all voiced by Gerringothe's actor, Penelope Rawlins, and I love the various different tones she uses, she has the RANGE.
Anyway, we have the Visage of Obedience, the Visage of Regret, the Visage of Greed, the Visage of Heartlessness, the Visage of Cowardice and the Visage of Guilt.
The Visage of Greed is pretty simple. She wants gold. She's also got the most ambient dialogue--if you've spent much time in the tollhouse, she's the one yelling about how, "I want it back!!" (Gerringothe herself is silent until you get pulled into a cutscene--all ambient dialogue is the visages.)
Look at it. Look at it all. Mine, MINE.
Give me. GIVE ME.
The Visage of Heartless, meanwhile, is the funniest bitch in the game, and I support women's wrongs.
You'll find much of sentimental value among the confiscated goods. That is to say - junk.
People treasure the most insignificant things - pets, children, memories.
(Worth noting, there's a pile of bloodstained pet collars outside the tollhouse, while the Waning Moon has notices up about missing pets. This is fine, probably.)
The others are more interesting! The Visage of Obedience, I still have some questions about--given this one tells you to "report to the tollmaster," this was why I initially thought they were Gerringothe's employees.
Report to the tollmaster. Pay the toll.
No payment, no passage.
But then, speaking to Gerringothe, she's definitely trapped in this mindset that The Toll is what's important--the gold isn't for her, it's for The Toll, she's just Doing Her Job. (She's very much not just doing her job--journal entries and the other visages make clear she went way overboard, and she was planning illegal trade in the tollhouse, but the Visage implies she used this justification for her cruelty.)
The Visage of Regret is my favourite. She also has some of the most to say in ambient dialogue (unless I just spent way too long hanging out near her) and she's so sad.
You should leave now. I should have left when I still could.
So many ships came, so many ships left. And I remained.
The horizon seemed so close. But that was long ago.
She wishes she'd left!! She could have left, she could have had a better life!! Maybe I'm reading too much into things, but I can't help connecting the Gerringothe dreaming of the horizon with the text in the Heavy Book:
On the wall hangs a seaside landscape, which often catches my eye during the course of my work-a-day life. I'm surprised Gerringothe chose such a decoration for her tollhouse; I've never known her as any appreciator of nature, beauty, art... naught but the cold clink of gold. One day, when my days are repaid, I'll travel to the coast, breathe in two deep draughts of air, and forget Reithwin forever.
I've tried to find more about the seaside landscape a few times--my first thought that it was a painting to hide a secret little safe or something--but haven't found anything. I could still be missing something, but honestly, it sounds like Gerringothe also dreamed of getting on a ship and travelling to the coast someday. She could have been more.
The Visage of Cowardice implies Gerringothe didn't support Ketheric in his war--which tracks, as unlike Malus and Thisobald, there's zero signs of her even pretending to care about Shar.
Please understand--I couldn't fight. Couldn't risk losing all this.
Sorry--I had to lock the doors. Had to keep things safe.
I do wonder if the comment about locking the doors was about the Shadow Curse. Did she lock people looking for safety out? Of course she wouldn't have run from the Curse herself, that would mean abandoning the gold.
And finally, we come to the Visage of Guilt, the only Visage you can actually have a conversation with!
Visage of Guilt: Yes. Many died - all for trying to pass. I took too much from them.
1. [Persuasion] If you can tell right from wrong, maybe we can still fix this.
2. [Insight] Perhaps you'd feel less guilty if you paid for your crimes too.
3. People die all the time. Stop being dramatic, and get over it.
Guilt is quite far back into the tollhouse, and it's difficult to get to her without being pulled into a cutscene with Gerringothe, although if you manage to reach her, Gerringothe will no longer pull you into a cutscene at all. At that point, she'll just walk about, ignoring you, unless you click on her. As for the conversation, I managed to get screenshots of two routes.
Visage of Guilt: They gave me what they had. Should I have let them leave?
Antinua: Yes. But I guess you didn't.
Visage of Guilt: No. I thought there might be more to take. Hidden inside.
Visage of Guilt: I opened them. Searched inside them.
Antinua: Why would you do something like that?
Visage of Guilt: Some wouldn't pay their dues. Some couldn't.
Visage of Guilt: They paid a different price in the end.
Antinua: If you can tell right from wrong, maybe we can still fix this.
Charisma (Persusion) Successful
Visage of Guilt: Yes - yes yes. Help me. Make me pay.
Visage of Guilt: They gave me what they had, Should I have let them leave?
Antinua: Who are you talking about?
Visage of Guilt: So many. Too many.
Visage of Guilt: I opened them. Searched inside them.
Antinua: Smart - the most precious things are often hidden deepest.
Visage of Guilt: I thought so too - but I found nothing. And regretted everything.
Antinua: Perhaps you'd feel less guilty if you paid for your crimes too.
Wisdom (Insight) Successful
Visage of Guilt: Yes, yes. I have gold. So much gold. Take it.
Visage of Guilt: Take it all, whatever the cost.
(Guilt also hovers over a couple of skeletons, presumably people Gerringothe cut open looking for gold.)
It was me. It was all me.
As far as I can tell, succeeding in this conversation with the Visage of Guilt doesn't change anything in dialogue with Gerringothe herself. But I do think it provides some more context to the dialogue "win". If you succeed your dialogue checks, whatever you say to Gerringothe, she ends claiming she's paying it back. You can "win" by telling her she's been promoted to a better tollhouse, and she's still reject this, even though it means more gold.
Antinua: You've been promoted! You'll collect gold from a much better tollhouse.
Charisma (Deception) Successful.
Gerringothe Thorm: GOLD. MORE GOLD? I REQUIRE GOLD.
Gerringothe Thorm: NO. I PAY IT BACK!
She lets go, in the end!! She has so many regrets, and she knows her obsession with gold destroyed her. It's honestly tragic that telling her there's still a way to fix this has her ask you to do that by making her pay. But with the Insight check... she wants the gold gone. She's wanted to let it go for a long time. And it's sweet that she gets to do that, in the end.
I didn't realise she had tear stains on her face until today. Her greed caused so much suffering, but in the end, she just wants to pay it back.
