Why is Ironclad like that (tm)?
It doesn't take a genius to realise that Clad isn't really all there in the head, at least when he reaches the Architect. However, he is shown to be at least somewhat aware at other times. I have many thoughts about this, not particularly groundbreaking ones, but stuff I need to get off my chest.
First, there's his multiplayer ping. "Make haste." isn't exactly poetry, but it lacks the extremely-violent-autopilot consistant ellipses of his Architect dialoge. He sounds more like a typical stoic knight instead of a clearly demon-possessed thrall. Same with "My team needs me" when trying to do something that will obviously get him killed. So he's capable of normal-adjacent thought at least sometimes, even if he is sometimes "lost to rage" (according to Neow)
Now for the real kickers. Character-specific event dialoge. When confronted with two chests, one cursed and one normal, choosing the former results in your character saying what they would use that gold on. Silent thinks it will impress her sisters. Regent wants to hire a team of non-idiots. Defect wants to buy replacement parts. Necrobinder wants new shoes (no I am not kidding). And what about Clad?
"These riches can bolster my tribe's armoury"
Hey, buddy, these riches can bolster your what now? That was my immediate thought when I first encountered that event, and it has not left my brain since. He thinks that he is still at war, still needs to fund their soldiers and smiths to smite their enemies. He doesn't know that he single-handedly solved that problem of theirs. He doesn't know that they never got to experience that victory.
He thinks that somewhere out there, they are waiting for him to come back.
And who's gonna tell him otherwise?
This is compounded by his most cohearent lines (which is honestly a very low bar, a tripping hazard more than anything), which are to Vakuu. "SACRED DEMON, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?" is said after the prompt 'awaken', and this again shows that he really doesn't know about the ~atrocities~. But wait, what did he do to him? It's clearly not about all the murder (and framing that as something done to him is almost hilariously self-centred), so it's probably the 'being forced to climb a tower endlessly thing'. So that's his big hang-up with Vakuu. He's willing to kill the guy because he'd rather be doing something other than Slaying a particular Spire (which, fair, he's probably been at it for a damn while even considering Neow's memory wipe). So Ironclad harbours no resentment towards either himself, nor Vakuu over the deaths of his tribe. Because he doesn't even know it happened.
Which means that Vakuu's taunts about whether "the lost tribes weigh on him" are sadly lost because Ironclad initiated all those slaughters and probably doesn't care much and the one tribe he would care about, he is unaware of. Good try, Vakuu, good try.
In rejecting the Aroma of Chaos, the slayers all channel a particular core principle. Again, Ironclad's is suprisingly not somethine like "The Architect... must... die" and is instead "Pain is nothing, my enemies must die". The intentional plural of enemy suggests one of three things. Either the enemies are the other tribes and he doesn't he already did that, or he is talking about the myriad of spire-dwellers that want him dead, or the Architect and Vakuu. I'm personally a fan of the last interpretation, though any is fair. I do have to wonder whether the "Pain is nothing" part is his own personally philosophy or something he was taught as a child.
So my best estimate at this point in time is that to the Ironclad, his life looks something like this:
Childhood - No idea what it was like but assuming he was at least 18 when he sought out Vakuu, he must have lived as a normal member of his tribe for a good while. He was trained in the art of swordfighting and learned that the Valleyguard were his enemies.
The Pact - At some point as a young man, ambition drove him to cross a forbidden boundary and commune with Vakuu. He signs his name on the dotted line and is granted immense power, at the cost of well...
Slaughter - All the enemies of his tribe are brutally killed with these new powers, and Ironclad got very, very ahead of himself in the process. Once the deed was done, he returned home, ready for a hero's welcome. (the's a chance that he doesn't even remember this part and zones out immediately after the pact as well)
Option A - Suddenly he's somewhere else. Barely aware of anything, running on instinct and guttering fumes, ascending over and over and over--- (Skipped the murder, straight to Spire 1)
Option B - He is ablaze. Shining like a beacon way above the clouds, a vessel for the extermination of some dreadful parasite. Maybe it hurts. Maybe it doesn't. EIther way, he is up there for a very, very long time (Gains awareness only after Spire 1)
Option C - Vakuu's face appears again, only horrifically injured and even more horrifically angry. Kill the Architect is the only purpose he has. Up again he goes, mostly lost to rage. (Only woken up when Vakuu needs him for revenge)
Option D - In the dust-filled air of an Ancient's abode, the Ironclad finally realises something is wrong. He demands answers of the demon and gets none, forced to climb and resenting every minute. (The 'awaken' text is very very literal)
Ignorant of his status as the last of his tribe (See: the first part of this extremely long post)
Somewhat concious about his actions in the spire (enough to communicate even just a tiny bit and to think about his tribe)
Somewhat consumed by infernal fury (Neow's lines, a large amount of his cards)
Completely not-there at that Architect (Obviously)
So what did we learn? I honestly don't know. I wrote this instead of sleeping. I hope you enjoyed this goofy little analysis.
(No I have not forgotten about "Let me Burn", Chapter 2 is still being edited)
