[...] Because if Costine and TRQ are not, in fact, infallible agents of their own lives, untouched by virtue of their solitude and isolation, if theyre not in fact acting according to an inherent immutable unchangable Nature
If these people, defined in lothaires mind as people who exist Despite the world, people who live on the outskirts, act on the outskirts, are still influenced and acted upon despite not having contact with others
Then those forces can act on Lothaire!
He doesn't actually have perfect impenetrable control over his Selfhood and Identity, he's actually a result of circumstances and influences and decisions made by people he will never meet and who never talked to him and there IS no Clearly Defined Chain Of History he can trace all nice and neatly
He's being acted upon by others and thats affecting him in ways he can't control because THOSE PEOPLE are making decisions so far away from him he can't actually see them or stop them or influence them
and like, to a degree that's unavoidable, war with cormanthor affects the price of bread, but he comforts himself with the knowledge that like. Okay he KNOWS how history and economics work, if he WANTED to he could put his finger on the scale and demonstrate his power and influence like that. the economy is the way it is because Lothaire chooses to let it persist
i COULD affect this but it's beneath Me so I choose to let it remain ignorant of My power
except done on. like. global scale.
and he IS very influential, he COULD sink his talons into the intracicies of grain trade and manipulate it how he pleases
but the abstaining from doing so has a dual purpose, the second of which is the fact that doing so for every single aspect of Lothaire's life is genuinely insane and impossible.
if he stays within his own circle, if he just chooses to restrict what he influences "as a gift to others", then he doesn't have to confront the reality that he can't actually live entirely independently and on his own merits and will in fact be influenced by decisions he can't control
Lothaire could control things like the price of grain OR the availability of steel OR the price of stone OR the quality of lumber OR the supply of nails OR the amount of artisans crafting tools and to whom they sell
but he can't do all of it all at once, which becomes apparent if he ever needs to build a house from scratch.
so to avoid the fact he cannot control Every Single Aspect Of His Life Perfectly, he "permits" lesser, fallible creatures to do the work thats beneath his notice and below his station
even if they aren't aware they're doing so
see the stonemason is actually Serving Lothaire's Will even if totally unaware of it, Lothaire has delegated this task of managing something so beneath him he doesn't even need to grace it with his acknowledgement
and as such if they displease him, he's within reason to punish them for failing a job they didn't know they had
in this way he controls every aspect of his life even if such a thing is not feasibly possible. the world centers his will because he is the most superior, and thus influential, creature upon it, and therefore he absorbs and assimilates the influence of everything he comes into contact with
Everything Serves Lothaire's Will which saves him the trouble of needing to do something himself, which is a fun little sleight of hand he does to ignore how he's acted on by external influence
because, after all, if someone is not being punished by Lothaire, that should be understood as a tacit endorsement of their behavior, or at least permission to persist
you are allowed to set these prices because it isn't enough of a bother for him to punish you, which hes in his rights to do because you are within his influence and thus subservient to his will. ergo he has perfect control and it's completely fine
the reality:
-a rakshasa ate a guy in Amn and this trickled down to influence the availability of iron because the rakshasa is picking off mine workers, which means the steel smiths need to increase their prices when selling in waterdeep because their upfront costs are higher, which means the Cyricists sourcing goods in Baldur's Gate are paying more, which means they're bringing less back to the church when answering to Lothaire, whereupon he chokes them out for this deliberate failure. Lothaire has no idea this rakshasa in Amn even exists or that its decisions have fucked up his itinerary for the day
pointing this out has Lothaire tell you he's permitting this rakshasa to exist because his Cyricists need to demonstrate competency by meeting his will even when circumstances are unfavorable, because they are the one true faith and all the world will work against them. ergo they're being tested by him. and failed. you had one fucking job
in terms of compatibility, Cyric is ofc the most compatible, just straight up adopting Lothaire's mindset but offloading the specifics of it onto him, because this is just straightforwardly a comforting, defensive mindset
you're important you're special and people resent you for how you were ALWAYS important and special even before you realized it
Lothaire can chart out the nuances and specific details, Cyric has the main points down. from the beginning he was always going to be where he is and people were always going to be backstabbing cunts about it because everyone knew Cyric's Influence was superior and so the rabbit set up a trap for the wolf so it would not be consumed
Inherently he is JUST better than other mortals which is why he ascended
I love how the best Lothaire character analysis is shit that pisses him off
he hates being Perceived so fucking much LMAO
ohhh the shadow guy hates being seen? big surprise
HE DOESN'T NEED TO BE PERCEIVED HE NEEDS EVERYONE TO LOOK AT THE PICTURE HE PAINTS OF HIMSELF INSTEAD !!!
LOOK AT THE MURAL NOT HIM!!!!
insert Lothaire's "Fools. the mask reveals Me" line here
i love that lothaire is working on so many levels of subterfuge, obfuscation, and subversion
that at the end of it all. hes subverting the mask by using it as a mask 😭
like
>a mask is a concealing object which hides the wearers face
>Lothaire Subverts the Mask by using the Mask as his genuine self, being more Lothaire with the mask than without it
>Lothaire's portrayal of himself, of Lothaire, is actually a carefully constructed persona of control
>the "true genuine self" is itself something lothaire wears to hide the vulnerable truth he does not acknowledge even to himself
>in a shocking twist not even Lothaire saw coming, the mask is in fact a mask
WE ARE BACK AT STEP ONE. THROUGH SOME CONVOLUTED BULLSHIT. WDYM YOUR SUBVERTING THE IDEA OF A MASK BY USING IT FOR ITS INTENDED FUNCTION. ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE LOTHAIRE????
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