The Curse of Focalors: A Theory
I believe that despite being a god, Focalors currently doesn't have full access to her archonhood or the power of the gnosis. This might be because she had rejected herself as a god. Her self-praises skyrocket whenever she talked about the power of the gods or being the God of Justice herself, maybe because of her insecurity towards the issue. She is Fontaine's god, but perhaps she feels she doesn't deserve to be their god.
Because . . .
Furina turned Egeria's oceanids into humans. Not only can we correlate this Archon Quest to Mary-Ann's World Quest, the current people of Fontaine are penned as "sinners", though they don't know themselves what sins they carry. So I'm guessing they were Egeria's oceanid spies, or at least the descendants of those oceanids.
Due to the flood that occured 500 years ago, Focalors must have decided to turn oceanids into the humans who had died since the activities the oceanids carried were considered a sin by Celestia anyway. These creatures knew too much. I actually think Celestia supported Focalors on this, if they haven't suggested it themselves. There's no reason to turn a blind eye on such manipulative act if it wasn't to Celestia's liking.
To the Focalors then, that was justice. Focalors had done this to exact justice onto Egeria, perhaps in fear of Celestia's wrath.
But now her people are doomed into dissolution after having lived, created memories, and struggled as humans. And yet to later find the truth that they never were humans in the first place? Truly, this deception is cruel. How can she be composed after all these years? She's not. She deems herself unworthy of the authority of the hydro element for the grave offense she committed.
And thus . . .
Living on with pangs of conscience led Focalors to decide to exact justice onto herself as well, hence she cursed herself to live as a mortal, while locking the gnosis inside the Oratrice she created. But this wouldn't be enough. She would want someone else to replace her role as the Hydro Sovereign in order to keep Fontaine safe and to maintain it.
Furina may not have split herself per se
The Lady of Justice is blindfolded and carries a scale and a sword. So let's say that Furina is the sword , the Oratrice is obviously a scale, and Neuvillette could be the blindfold.
The scale represents evidence, facts, and balance. The sword represents punishment, truth, power of the state and rule of the law. The blindfold represents impartiality, an absence of favor.
Neuvillette's in-game character attributes and profile page text reads as follows:
The Chief Justice of Fontaine, known as the Iudex, is renowned for his unassailable impartiality.
There is no question that Neuvillette is the blindfold in this sense.
With this, we're left with Furina and the Oratrice. You might've noticed that the sword executes the punishment and declares the truth, and that is very fitting for the trailer we just saw in the 4.2 Special Program. IM SO GLAD I DIDNT PUBLISH THIS POST BEFORE I WATCHED THAT PROGRAM. The punishment for Focalors was revealed to be a death sentence, and this is the part of the story where the truth is revealed to everyone. Although the Oratrice technically declares the final verdict, in the end it is powered by Focalors' gnosis.
Now on a minor detail, observe Focalors' statue. I know that the previous things I said about the Lady of Justice must have already been analyzed by redittors but I don't know if they picked up on this:
Focalors' statue holds a sword that also resembles the oratrice with the tear motifs. But there's no blindfold and scale!
Neuvillette only became the Iudex 100 years after the cataclysm. Focalors should have been instated as the new hydro archon first, and then she would've appointed Neuvillette as the Chief Justice later in the timeline. This is very similar to the real world addition of the blindfold associated to the Lady of Justice, which was only added during the 16th century. So I just think it's neat if the statue having no blindfold is done on purpose. And whether that holds a significant meaning, I really don't know. Probably not, right? Also, could that mean Focalors herself is not completely impartial? Hence why she created the Oratrice?
She created the Oratrice to perfectly discern the appropriate verdict for the trials, even for a trial of a god. And Furina never split herself into anything. She's just really sneaky and good at fooling others, maybe. However I do think she really intended to die. But of course I think somebody would stop her.
Instead of splitting herself, she's just putting up an act. The two masks of the performing arts or theatre symbol are Comedy and Tragedy. The Furina everyone sees in public is masquerading as a comedic mascot, but the unseen Furina lives in the face of tragedy.
The Fontaine story theme's title is Masquerade of the Guilty. This entire ordeal is not just to place justice onto herself but also to avoid the prophecy from completely coming true.
Furina' secret
Here comes in Neuvillette who showed up in Fontaine around a hundred years after the cataclysm. Focalors decided that he would be a fitting Chief Justice, but in truth she also plans to return his sovereign authority. Somebody has to keep an eye of Fontaine after all.
This whole time, Focalors could have been preparing Neuvillette to take over. And the reason/s she must have waited this long, is because he has yet to be accustomed of the ways of humans and/or she has to safely turn over the gnosis without alerting Celestia. So until that time comes, Furina mustn't disappear from the stage because she has to keep the show going.
This is the only reason why I think Furina cried so bad and asked a "random" attacker not to kill her. Cause she doesn't have the gnosis with her and so she can't defend herself in that situation, but also has a reason to continue living for now.
All to deceive fate itself.
I had another theory about what the indemnitium is for if you want to read that.
It still makes me laugh how this old theory was so wrong yet so close to being right.
