There just is something to me about the parallels Rom and Caryll have in the narrative. Theyre both characters that only show up in a gameplay impacting way, with no dialogue or way of knowing who they are beyond what we are told about them by an unknown (most likely biased) third party through item descriptions. Rom is a mandatory boss you need to meet and defeat in order to progress, but nothing is known about her as a person and most people do not pay a single thought to her beyond what her role in gameplay is. Caryll only exists outside of item descriptions through their legacy as creator of a minor gameplay mechanic, that most people will likely use but will not ever really think about who or what the "Caryll" before the word "Runes" is.
Theyre both constantly present and have had more impact on the lore and worldbuilding than most other characters, but we know nothing of them. They knew each other and worked together for the same goal, which they both are viewed as lone successes for, but theyre gone and forgotten and now only their roles remain. Youve seen me talk about disability in the context of ascension a thousand times you know where this is going but i really like the way they work as mirrors, Rom succeeded ascension, what everyone had been striving for, but shes unable to communicate and relegated as simply "vacuous", her worth as a scholar is gone and she is dehumanized completely, and yet she is the most important, invisible element there is to everything and without her everything falls apart. And on the other hand, Caryll is a successful scholar because their entire work is about communication and being able to let those in power know about the great ones (ascension is only considered achieved when it benefits the higher echelons), and yet we know absolutely nothing about what happened to them and they likely faded away in history in silence, nothing more now than to be used as a perfect example that people should strive to attain, never relevant as a person again.
Which is about many things as usual. But in the spirit of what im always talking about, im always thinking about the dichotomy of the "good" and "bad" disabled, people that are acceptable despite their difference because they can be put to use, then used as a token before fading away, and people that cannot be used satisfyingly, left behind and pretended to be cared for by a system that does nothing but infantilize them and destroy any of their agency. Neither are allowed to voice a self, be it because they cannot physically communicate it in the same way, or because they dont have the space to. Caryll is only relevant in a textual matter, and Rom is only relevant in a physical matter. Caryll only lives through their famous work that is the basis for everything and Rom only lives through being used as an extremely load bearing pillar unknown to all. Caryll is a gameplay mechanic present throughout the entire game to the point that it becomes usual to you and you pay it no mind, and Rom is a boss that makes you rethink things about the game, and yet is only a static point in time that you will pass over soon and never see or think of again.
