y'know the more i think on it… how Astrid said Caleb would “occasionally get better” and then relapse but while I understand that it is entirely possible for Caleb to not remember anything from this part of his past it makes me suspect that during his confinement in Vergessen Sanatorium, Caleb wasn’t given in to blackout madness, but had Feeblemind cast on him (which is highly likely) since Feeblemind 5e reads:
because it makes sense to subdue Caleb after his guilt-ridden breakdown, to keep him hidden away from the rest of the world because he wasn’t going to willingly comply to The Cerberus Assembly’s Vollstrucker programme anymore. Makes me wonder why they didn’t just kill him tho, but maybe Trent needs more folks to experiment on in his Vergassen Sanitorium. And letting Bren go, especially with his Keen Mind feature, would mean risking the chance of him exposing the truth of the programme to the general public (altho who would believe a broken young boy like Bren is…questionable). And while the high-ranking government officials in the Empire are aware of Trent’s operations, low-ranking folks mostly are not. To them the Vollstruckers are basically a myth. To know what the Empire does behind the curtains to young kids cannot be anything but unsettling to the people who send their kids to these academies in the hopes that they will learn and prosper; and these kids are turned into killing machines instead, having to inturn kill their own loved ones to prove that their allegiance lies first and foremost to the Assembly, to Trent, that they are willing to do whatever it takes, whatever is necessary. I don’t know the specifics of it and we won’t for sure until Matt opens up the loregates.
But the point i’m trying to make is: Caleb spent a good chunk of his life there and he remembers none of it. Dissociative amnesia be like that and I don’t blame him. But when he asks Astrid about when happened to him at the Sanatorium, Astrid claims that they tried to heal him and that he would get better sometimes but relapse more often. You’re telling me that in the eleven years he spent in that catatonic state, no one thought to cast Greater Restoration on him? Since the mystery cleric casting Greater Restoration is what brought him back, you’re telling me no one of the brightest-of-the-brightest minds in the Empire, The Cerberus Assembly itself thought that maybe casting a better spell could work on this hapless teenager before this mystery cleric did it? (sounds fake but okay)
I’m led to believe therefore, that Caleb was never supposed to heal, he was never supposed to leave. He was never supposed to get better. They didn’t want him to. He was supposed to stay catatonic and live out the rest of his life in that very state. They didn’t try to make him better, they just tried to hide him away so he couldn’t expose the crimes of the Cerberus Assembly.. And if that’s true, then Astrid must know that. She must know it now at least. She’s a pretty high-ranking official herself, there is no way she isn’t aware of what was done to Caleb in the Sanatorium.
And knowing all of that still, she tells him that “we always hoped that you’d improve, and at times you did…“ when she knows he wouldn’t improve, not really. He would never be better, not for good. He might have moments of wakefulness when either the spell wears off or he makes the save and forget it too bc of many other human mental issues (dissociative amnesia) that have nothing to do with magic. But he was never supposed to escape. Astrid knows this in retrospect and still chooses to show condescending sympathy for Caleb, to believe that what happened to him there was the right consequence for his breaking and he was to be pitied for not being able to endure the weight and the guilt of his sins.She expertly skirts around telling Caleb anything at all about what happened to him in the period of his life that he doesn’t remember. Astrid must know, at least now that Trent had plans to keep Caleb confined forever and she still doesn’t think that was unethical. Astrid knows what happens in the Vergessen Sanatorium. And Astrid has probably sent failing kids there herself, never to be heard of again. Astrid knows all of this. She holds a prestigious position in the Cerberus Assembly and looks to succeed Trent one day, there is no way in hell she isn’t aware of the memory manipulation, the deceit, the experimentation and the various horrific acts that go on in The Sanatorium. Astrid is a Vollstrucker, the best of the best. She has a high charisma and has mastered the art of daintily dancing around the truth, much like her teacher.
The way she answers Caleb is full of half-truths and she deflects constantly when talking to him, touching him and (genuinely!!) sympathizing with his suffering without truly revealing anything that he didn’t already know…. even though she’s very careful about what she reveals and how she reveals it, when Astrid said, "sometimes you’d get better… we always hoped you’d improve…” to Caleb and smiled sadly with concern, maybe she didn’t outright lie… but she wasn’t really telling the truth either.
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