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@sso-maev
New Ava ref! Might add to it later
PART 1
[This is a collection of my Pandoria headcanons and homebrew worlbuilding. There is a lot of text, so prepare yourself.]
remember when I said I was going to share the rest of my notes on the first soul rider trilogy with ya'all?
WELL HERE THEY ARE
(these are purely book base notes I personally deemed important be it character descriptions, magic explanations, personality traits or just random facts I wanted written down for myself) if something isn't mentioned about XYZ I either didn't deem it that important or more likely it wasn't mentioned in there
Now that the Marchenghast introductory quests are done, I want to review and elaborate on Chekov’s mom theory again. WARNING: This will be half quest discussion, half headcanon and very little actual theorising. I don’t think this theory will happen the way I want it to anymore, but i still wanna talk about my opinions on the questline. If you want to recap the original theory, check out this post.
May not come as a shock but I didn’t really like the reveal of Ruth. The bones of the story aren’t even half-bad: Abigail’s distrustfulness comes from being raised as a child of war by a mother who had given up on any chance of peace; Ruth isolates herself to find a cure for the blight, but is slowly poisoned as she reaches the conclusion that the blight can’t be stopped, leaving her daughter to try to fix what she couldn’t. I like that story on paper! The execution is just…
You know how I said the requirements for a good reveal is that it both makes logical sense and has a substantial impact on the narrative? Sso sets up the mystery of ”Who is Abigail’s mom? Why is she constantly referred to with so much ambiguity?” and answers it with ”Abigail’s mom is a witch who you’ve never heard of before, and thus couldn’t have possibly guessed”. Is this plausible within the game itself? Yea absolutely. Is it good setup and payoff that engages the player? ://///
The first time we are made aware of Ruth’s existence is in the same quest where we find out that she’s actually Abigail’s mom, that Abigail thinks she’s alive, and that she’s actually already dead. It doesn’t impact us the way it should because nothing about Ruth’s character has been set up beforehand, with the (admittedly very cool) exception of shadow witches being revealed to be the spirits of dead witches. Finding her old flute could’ve been an emotional cutscene, but since it’s the first time it’s ever brought up, it’s just all new information to us. Compare it to discovering Catherine’s memories, who we’ve been aware of since the start of the game and slowly uncovering more information about.
Am I setting my expectations too high with SSO’s storytelling? Maybe. But I only do that because this area and these quests have genuinely had a lot of thought and care put into them. I’m expecting impactful setup and payoff because we got that with Margaret unlearning her family’s teachings and the discovery of the abandoned bailey, and I’m expecting tie-ins with previous lore because of the well-made expansions made to the wild wardens, witch culture and the strange state of Goldenhills valley. This is an ambitious project and I want to respect that ambition!
But the reveal of Ruth feels like it impacts the story very little while still requiring leaps in logic to make it work. This is how the first quests explain Ruth’s death:
And this is how the new quests explain it:
How Abigail reacts to seeing her mom’s spirit
Like to me “My mother died at the hands of the castle folk fighting for what we believe in” is a WILDLY different sentence from “My mother left on her own volition to research the blight, and I’m not sure whether she’s alive or not”. Could we stretch this to say its Abigail becoming less pessimistic and that she used to blame the nobles for causing the blight itself? Sure, but that’s still kind of an adhocism; we’re still told two incongruous stories about how and why Ruth died.
The original reason I theorised that Rosalinda was Abigail’s mother was that it would expand on an existing character while avoiding adding new, underdeveloped characters. Sso has a problem with cast bloating to say the least, so it would be more efficient to write these characters as one and the same. The game may not follow this but i will at least try:
Chekov’s mom theory 2: the rewrite
I’m fudging canon a little bit to make this work. Ruth hasn’t been gone for a few months; it’s been years. (if you want an alternative version where the month timespan still works, either the english translation book mr Sands’ 1798 or Margarets 1823 timestamp will have to be ignored. Chalk it up to veil time shenanigans!)
It’s the turn of the 19th century. Lady Rosalinda von Marchenghast, eldest daughter of Duke Wilhelm Jacob von Marchenghast, seems set up for success in life; she is heiress to the Marchenghast family and happily betrothed to wealthy aristocrat John Sandman. But no amount of privilege can shield her from the conflict within and outside the castle walls. Nobles continue to torment beasts in the old abandoned bailey, justifying their actions as “punishing the vile creatures that attack us”. Outside the castle, witches are being forced from their homes while a poisonous blight starts to creep across the forest. Rosalinda cannot make sense of her father’s words; how can we call the witches and beasts dangerous when we commit atrocities like these against them?
One may find it hard to change the world from inside a guilded cage. Rosalinda’s pleas fall on deaf ears; while she tries in earnest to create grounds for diplomacy, she finds herself shut down every time. Perhaps her family is beyond saving. If she cannot create peace from the inside, she has to take action from outside. In secret, she starts visiting the Veiled Hamlet. The Saltus witches are deeply distrustful of a noble in their midsts, but Rosalinda’s sharp mind and inside knowledge makes her a valuable asset in freeing beasts and sabotaging Marchenghast operations.
Rosalinda’s life draws away from her old family and closer to her new one. She strikes a bargain with the Lonely Beacon and starts going by a chosen name different from the title bestowed upon her: Ruth. When she finds herself unexpectedly pregnant before she is even married, an excuse of traveling to visit friends is made and her daughter Abigail is left in the care of the coven. John is none the wiser; he doesn’t need to be involved in fighting her battles.
It was only a matter of time until she was found out. In the summer of 1798, suspicion reaches an all time high and the Sixth Hammer puts Rosalinda on trial for witchcraft. They throw her into the poisonous waters of Wanderers’ swamp, testing if those cursed water beasts will keep her afloat.
While Rosalinda is found innocent, the blight has already left its mark on her. Over the next months, she grows weak and feverish, seemingly accepting her imminent death. On September 2nd, 1798, she is proclaimed dead by the castle. Her baby sister Margarete barely even remembers her face. A funeral is held and a closed casket is placed in the ground.
Unbeknownst to all but a few, no body was placed in that casket. While Lady Rosalinda von Marchenghast is dead, Ruth has a little time left to make peace with herself. She absconds into the blighted forests, finding out all she can about the veil, the blight and any potential cure. Of course, she never manages to find one. While she can hold off her own decay for a while, she eventually succumbs to her sickness alone.
The life and death of Rosalinda and Ruth are a shameful chapter in the history of both the nobles and the witches. In the Veiled Hamlet, Ruth’s noble background is hidden away and left out of discussion as the war escalates; easier to remember her as a martyr than to muddy her story with ugly family ties. Abigail never learns of her mother’s entire background. She does remember being taken to play with Margarete as young kids, when things were calmer, but she can never remember why.
In Marchenghast castle, the duke hides all details of who Rosalinda was deep in his personal archives. Such a great failure on his part ought to be scrubbed from history. Margarete grows up being called his eldest daughter until any memories of another sister are all a blur.
Outside the castle, folks slowly start forgetting. The veil cuts Marchenghast off from the rest of Jorvik, and as generations pass on one by one, the name Rosalinda is all but gone from the minds of Jorvegians. Only one man is still alive to remember, and will see to it that the world never forgets her.
Okay so! Since the marchenghast storyline is now canonically(!!!!!) tied to the sixth hammer and since i am the self proclaimed #1 Rosalinda enjoyer I need to throw out one more out-there theory before the Wednesday lore drop.
Introducing Chekhov’s mom theory
If a concept is set up in a story, it should lead to a payoff where the concept is brought back and elaborated on.
Abigail opens up to MC about her mother being a casualty in the witch-noble conflict. In another quest, she also says “Perhaps she was wrong…” without explaining who this “she” is. My current theory is that these two past-tense characters are not only one and the same, but that they are also Rosalinda.
Evidence 1: A satisfying narrative. We wouldn’t be so ambiguous about this mysterious “she” if we weren’t setting up for a reveal later. We also wouldn’t need to specifically mention Abigail’s mother it wasn’t going to be relevant later; Abigail could just talk about the “many losses” just like Margaret did. There aren’t many characters we’ve been introduced to who would both make logical sense in this role and serve as an impactful reveal, but Rosalinda does both. Just the fact that Abigail brought up the Sixth Hammer for the first time since it was introduced in the light ride quests already ties Rosalinda into the Marchenghast storyline.
Evidence 2: The timeline matches. We got a timestamp! Marchenghast is currently in 1823, 25 years after Rosalinda’s death. If Abigail was a kid when Rosalinda died, it makes complete sense for her to now be the young adult she is in-game.
Evidence 3: Family descriptions. In The Legend Awakens, we learn that Rosalinda’s family “was once one of the most powerful on Jorvik”. The Marchenghast family is described as “The once all-powerful Marchenghast family”. These descriptions feel just a little too similar to be incidental. It should also be mentioned that Mr Sands sits with Rosalinda’s mother and sister at her funeral, and that no father is mentioned. Considering what we know about how the dukes of Marchenghast worked together with the Sixth Hammer, it sure is interesting that Rosalinda’s father is completely ommitted from Mr Sands’ description of the funeral.
Evidence 4: Appearance. We know very little about what Rosalinda looked like; the only thing we know is that she had dark hair. In Darkness Falling, she is said to somewhat resemble Sabine. Idk about you but if I were to find one NPC with similar vibes to Abigail..
Evidence 5: Impact on the past and future of the main story. How would this twist recontextualise Rosalinda as a character? The only things we knew about her before were her role as a love interest, her death, and that she was curious and intelectual. If Rosalinda, a noble, was allied with the witches and raised her daughter to believe that it was impossible to broker peace with the Marchenghast family, her own family, that gives her character far more agency and adds another layer of tragedy to the conflict. It also has some MAJOR implications for the main story because. Like. We know who the father would be in this case. Does he know? If he’s not dead from portal-itis, what would his reaction be to see his daughter and the rest of Rosalinda’s family alive? What does this say about the duke? If Rosalinda was a Marchenghast, is that another reason for the duke to keep the archive closed to Margaret?
From the minor details to the major story beats, this just feels like what they’re setting up. Maybe Im wrong, maybe Im right. What I do know is that Ive had more fun with thinking about Marchenghast lore than Ive had with any other recent questline, and I want to give major props to lead narrative designer Greg Moreau for putting so much effort into expanding a story I care about in a meaningful way.
Holy shit i completely missed this but Margarete literally confirms that she has siblings
A second daughter has hit the Marchenghast sse when i GET YOU
I want to wait until the questline is done before i start yapping but trust i can make this work i swear
Spent the weekend going through the first trilogy to make notes on all the magic/world lore to compare it to the starshine legacy games and then sso (thank the lord for playthroughs on yt) and man. I forgot how crazy those books get
I am overjoyed to know that I have become a part of the problem (in a good way I hope)
Anyways, would you mind us to peek at your notes perchance? 👀
absolutely! and yes i will be sharing my notes (as soon as I have them in a coercive format and organized them bc currently they look like this
(I'm 20 pages into the second book)
Okay so! Since the marchenghast storyline is now canonically(!!!!!) tied to the sixth hammer and since i am the self proclaimed #1 Rosalinda enjoyer I need to throw out one more out-there theory before the Wednesday lore drop.
Introducing Chekhov’s mom theory
If a concept is set up in a story, it should lead to a payoff where the concept is brought back and elaborated on.
Abigail opens up to MC about her mother being a casualty in the witch-noble conflict. In another quest, she also says “Perhaps she was wrong…” without explaining who this “she” is. My current theory is that these two past-tense characters are not only one and the same, but that they are also Rosalinda.
Evidence 1: A satisfying narrative. We wouldn’t be so ambiguous about this mysterious “she” if we weren’t setting up for a reveal later. We also wouldn’t need to specifically mention Abigail’s mother it wasn’t going to be relevant later; Abigail could just talk about the “many losses” just like Margaret did. There aren’t many characters we’ve been introduced to who would both make logical sense in this role and serve as an impactful reveal, but Rosalinda does both. Just the fact that Abigail brought up the Sixth Hammer for the first time since it was introduced in the light ride quests already ties Rosalinda into the Marchenghast storyline.
Evidence 2: The timeline matches. We got a timestamp! Marchenghast is currently in 1823, 25 years after Rosalinda’s death. If Abigail was a kid when Rosalinda died, it makes complete sense for her to now be the young adult she is in-game.
Evidence 3: Family descriptions. In The Legend Awakens, we learn that Rosalinda’s family “was once one of the most powerful on Jorvik”. The Marchenghast family is described as “The once all-powerful Marchenghast family”. These descriptions feel just a little too similar to be incidental. It should also be mentioned that Mr Sands sits with Rosalinda’s mother and sister at her funeral, and that no father is mentioned. Considering what we know about how the dukes of Marchenghast worked together with the Sixth Hammer, it sure is interesting that Rosalinda’s father is completely ommitted from Mr Sands’ description of the funeral.
Evidence 4: Appearance. We know very little about what Rosalinda looked like; the only thing we know is that she had dark hair. In Darkness Falling, she is said to somewhat resemble Sabine. Idk about you but if I were to find one NPC with similar vibes to Abigail..
Evidence 5: Impact on the past and future of the main story. How would this twist recontextualise Rosalinda as a character? The only things we knew about her before were her role as a love interest, her death, and that she was curious and intelectual. If Rosalinda, a noble, was allied with the witches and raised her daughter to believe that it was impossible to broker peace with the Marchenghast family, her own family, that gives her character far more agency and adds another layer of tragedy to the conflict. It also has some MAJOR implications for the main story because. Like. We know who the father would be in this case. Does he know? If he’s not dead from portal-itis, what would his reaction be to see his daughter and the rest of Rosalinda’s family alive? What does this say about the duke? If Rosalinda was a Marchenghast, is that another reason for the duke to keep the archive closed to Margaret?
From the minor details to the major story beats, this just feels like what they’re setting up. Maybe Im wrong, maybe Im right. What I do know is that Ive had more fun with thinking about Marchenghast lore than Ive had with any other recent questline, and I want to give major props to lead narrative designer Greg Moreau for putting so much effort into expanding a story I care about in a meaningful way.
Holy shit i completely missed this but Margarete literally confirms that she has siblings
A second daughter has hit the Marchenghast sse when i GET YOU
Okay so! Since the marchenghast storyline is now canonically(!!!!!) tied to the sixth hammer and since i am the self proclaimed #1 Rosalinda enjoyer I need to throw out one more out-there theory before the Wednesday lore drop.
Introducing Chekhov’s mom theory
If a concept is set up in a story, it should lead to a payoff where the concept is brought back and elaborated on.
Abigail opens up to MC about her mother being a casualty in the witch-noble conflict. In another quest, she also says “Perhaps she was wrong…” without explaining who this “she” is. My current theory is that these two past-tense characters are not only one and the same, but that they are also Rosalinda.
Evidence 1: A satisfying narrative. We wouldn’t be so ambiguous about this mysterious “she” if we weren’t setting up for a reveal later. We also wouldn’t need to specifically mention Abigail’s mother it wasn’t going to be relevant later; Abigail could just talk about the “many losses” just like Margaret did. There aren’t many characters we’ve been introduced to who would both make logical sense in this role and serve as an impactful reveal, but Rosalinda does both. Just the fact that Abigail brought up the Sixth Hammer for the first time since it was introduced in the light ride quests already ties Rosalinda into the Marchenghast storyline.
Evidence 2: The timeline matches. We got a timestamp! Marchenghast is currently in 1823, 25 years after Rosalinda’s death. If Abigail was a kid when Rosalinda died, it makes complete sense for her to now be the young adult she is in-game.
Evidence 3: Family descriptions. In The Legend Awakens, we learn that Rosalinda’s family “was once one of the most powerful on Jorvik”. The Marchenghast family is described as “The once all-powerful Marchenghast family”. These descriptions feel just a little too similar to be incidental. It should also be mentioned that Mr Sands sits with Rosalinda’s mother and sister at her funeral, and that no father is mentioned. Considering what we know about how the dukes of Marchenghast worked together with the Sixth Hammer, it sure is interesting that Rosalinda’s father is completely ommitted from Mr Sands’ description of the funeral.
Evidence 4: Appearance. We know very little about what Rosalinda looked like; the only thing we know is that she had dark hair. In Darkness Falling, she is said to somewhat resemble Sabine. Idk about you but if I were to find one NPC with similar vibes to Abigail..
Evidence 5: Impact on the past and future of the main story. How would this twist recontextualise Rosalinda as a character? The only things we knew about her before were her role as a love interest, her death, and that she was curious and intelectual. If Rosalinda, a noble, was allied with the witches and raised her daughter to believe that it was impossible to broker peace with the Marchenghast family, her own family, that gives her character far more agency and adds another layer of tragedy to the conflict. It also has some MAJOR implications for the main story because. Like. We know who the father would be in this case. Does he know? If he’s not dead from portal-itis, what would his reaction be to see his daughter and the rest of Rosalinda’s family alive? What does this say about the duke? If Rosalinda was a Marchenghast, is that another reason for the duke to keep the archive closed to Margaret?
From the minor details to the major story beats, this just feels like what they’re setting up. Maybe Im wrong, maybe Im right. What I do know is that Ive had more fun with thinking about Marchenghast lore than Ive had with any other recent questline, and I want to give major props to lead narrative designer Greg Moreau for putting so much effort into expanding a story I care about in a meaningful way.
Okay i know i like. Never discuss my sso ocs. But Im Ava/Sabine brained rn so heres their dynamic. Extremely normal and functional and healthy don’t even worry about it
”You tricked me”
”You tricked yourself”
Before we get the Marchenghast quest continuation I kinda wanna know what everyone’s thoughts are on the ”closed” areas? Like theres the abandoned bailey east of the graveyard in the castle with all the cages and bones that has apparently been hidden since the war, and also the vacant village by the watchtower that has a bunch of Mahrs but no people and also no blight? Also the watchtower. Whats up with that. Why is the veil specifically preventing us from entering that tower? What are the theorieeessss
I used to be a staunch believer of Rosalinda Silverglade but yknow Rosalinda von Marchenghast has a nice ring to it. ’The nobles had witch hunts in the late 18th century’ is just way too specific to not be related to the character who famously died after a witch trial in the late 18th century.
Spoilers for todays quest:
So. Um. Sixth hammer mention by Abigail today. I am clawing at the walls
For the uninitiated: the sixth hammer has been mentioned before once, in the light ride quests. Theyre the group that sentenced Rosalinda.
All Im saying is I CALLED IT
The lore nerd in me is being fed, but now I also have so many more questions
- Why were the nobles and the witches at war? Who started it, and what were they fighting for?
- Where did the blight come from? Is it pandorian? How come both the nobles and the witches both think it's the other's fault?
- Why do the Marchenghast people all look and act like they're from another century? And apparently the newer parts of the castle are only a few decades old, but the architecture is just screaming Tudor. Assuming that it was someone from the castle (Margarete?) who commissioned the Old King's Road to be fixed, they can't actually be in the past, right? They have to be somehow connected to the wider world to even get in touch with the contractor guy.
- If the castle has been isolated and closed for so long, where do they get all their necessities? Like grain, flour, fabric, all that?
- Does Ydris have something to do with the Marchenghasts, or is it just a weird coincidence that they both have a very similar eye logo/brand thing?
- How come the Marchenghastians (idk if they're actually called that but anyway) have such a distaste for the witches, when they themselves use magic? (The veil around the castle, the Pandorian fragments everywhere, the lance...)
It just has to have been Ydris who commissioned the road clearing. Like the commissioner
- Is referred to with he/him pronouns.
- Dresses in fancy clothing (which, like you pointed out, HEAVILY resembles Margarets attire)
- Knows and speaks highly of MC, which rules out anyone from inside the castle.
My current theory is that the nobles either are pandorians themselves or draw on pandorian magic. The abundant use of pandorium, the veil resembling the shield Ydris put up around the circus, and the seeming absence of time, something that pandorians are averse to. Like we’ve seen with the druids distrust of witches, different types of magic users often come into conflict with each other. Why Ydris is involved is unknown for now, but Im sure thats a plot hook for future quests.
As for the blight? It looked REALLY similar to the corruption we saw in the wild weave. We’re not sure where that cane from either, but maybe Erissa’s involved….
My running theory as to why they are stuck in the past it that the barrier they keep up is pandorian in nature. As we know, Pandoria is a place outside of time.
(The Secret Stone Circle is apparently a time pocket too, that's something I completely overlooked tbh)
Now, those fragments about time in a bottle/pocket are interesting. It's possible to do it, not that uncommon either. If the Castle really does have pandorian connections, it's completely possible that they have created a time bubble, intentionally or not.
So sso witch oc havers how are you feeling on this fine day
Having a fucking field day especially if the witch is also Aideen's chosen one bc
Spoilers
How dare you leave this in the tags I’m sobbing Montana is objectively the funniest OC to do this quest with
The lore nerd in me is being fed, but now I also have so many more questions
- Why were the nobles and the witches at war? Who started it, and what were they fighting for?
- Where did the blight come from? Is it pandorian? How come both the nobles and the witches both think it's the other's fault?
- Why do the Marchenghast people all look and act like they're from another century? And apparently the newer parts of the castle are only a few decades old, but the architecture is just screaming Tudor. Assuming that it was someone from the castle (Margarete?) who commissioned the Old King's Road to be fixed, they can't actually be in the past, right? They have to be somehow connected to the wider world to even get in touch with the contractor guy.
- If the castle has been isolated and closed for so long, where do they get all their necessities? Like grain, flour, fabric, all that?
- Does Ydris have something to do with the Marchenghasts, or is it just a weird coincidence that they both have a very similar eye logo/brand thing?
- How come the Marchenghastians (idk if they're actually called that but anyway) have such a distaste for the witches, when they themselves use magic? (The veil around the castle, the Pandorian fragments everywhere, the lance...)
It just has to have been Ydris who commissioned the road clearing. Like the commissioner
- Is referred to with he/him pronouns.
- Dresses in fancy clothing (which, like you pointed out, HEAVILY resembles Margarets attire)
- Knows and speaks highly of MC, which rules out anyone from inside the castle.
My current theory is that the nobles either are pandorians themselves or draw on pandorian magic. The abundant use of pandorium, the veil resembling the shield Ydris put up around the circus, and the seeming absence of time, something that pandorians are averse to. Like we’ve seen with the druids distrust of witches, different types of magic users often come into conflict with each other. Why Ydris is involved is unknown for now, but Im sure thats a plot hook for future quests.
As for the blight? It looked REALLY similar to the corruption we saw in the wild weave. We’re not sure where that cane from either, but maybe Erissa’s involved….
I used to be a staunch believer of Rosalinda Silverglade but yknow Rosalinda von Marchenghast has a nice ring to it. ’The nobles had witch hunts in the late 18th century’ is just way too specific to not be related to the character who famously died after a witch trial in the late 18th century.
So sso witch oc havers how are you feeling on this fine day