- Oct 15, 2018
- 434
- 923
Arigon Thank you for your detailed reply. Now that you've explained your reasoning, I and others can meaningfully reply to your reasoning. That's the difference between a thread that's about sharing ideas, and a thread that devolves into a circlejerk. I'm not going to respond to any more of this business except to note that if one tells someone that what they're talking about doesn't matter, it is quite ridiculous to play at being the victim when it is simply turned around on them.
That bit of nastiness aside, now that you've put your reasoning to ink I am a bit less skeptical but some issues occur to me:
Is our Calisto the Calisto? Keep in mind that just because we've only seen vampires, doesn't actually mean that everything supernatural is a vampire. Our Calisto can read Greek mythology too, and may have chosen to identify with the nymph Calisto because of her own bear-related powers.
Thinking back a few chapters, going to the Skalds was a major plot event and, as many here complained at the time, they wasted almost the entire time with rubbish about viruses and ergot hallucinations and wine storage. It's especially telling, though, that the few things they did say, however, all related to Calisto and specifically militated against her identification with the Greek myth. Firstly, that they tell us that vampires are "mortal men, elevated by the Gods to serve in their wars." Of course, the Calisto was said to be a nymph, not a goddess, but neither did she recruited to fight anyone, and if Zeus is not a vampire there's no reason to think that Calisto was transformed into anything but an ordinary bear. Secondly, when asked about the name "Calisto," they indicate that there's nothing special about it despite admitting to knowing more about the Temple than they're willing to say.
You say that Calisto must have been a priestess of Hera because she doesn't look like a young virgin. Actually, Hesiod specifically says that she was a virgin priestess of Artemis (until Zeus tore that shit up, anyhow). If our Calisto doesn't look like the nymph Calisto should, it's very likely that that's because they aren't the same person.
Virgil/Arcas:
I'm puzzled at the assertion that Roland was demonstrated to be a tool of Virgil at the investiture. Because he was making snide comments about his boss while sitting next to MC? Nah. He was deferential to Roland at every point. Your tool doesn't tell you to go fetch a drink, especially not in front of some shitheel fledgling. I'd say there were two things going on here: Virgil's massive ego was irritated about being told to fetch a drink, and secondly it was yet another show of intimidation to the MC. By putting down the Princeps in front of the MC he's essentially daring him to agree or disagree or really respond in any way. If he had, Virgil would have smacked him down because talking about the Priceps like that is something that Virgil can do but MC can't. It's a tried and true intimidation tactic. I've seen it used in various contexts many times. Virgil then switches gears and does MC the small kindness of inviting Andrew over to sit with them, despite what his underlings had said earlier. He planned that in advance, of course. The overall purpose of the interaction between Virgil/Roland and the MC/Sharon was pretty clear to me: they were telling them "I don't know why you're a player all of a sudden, I don't care that you beat Marcius, we can maybe be allies but don't get any ideas about doing the same to me or you're toast."
Even if Virgil is Arcas, I don't see why you think is Arcas out to get his mother in the first place. The whole point of Hera turning Calisto into a bear was to trick him into killing his own mother, the myths say nothing about him having it in for her. Because he's obsessed with diablerizing her? I haven't seen any reason at all to believe that's true much less bet my dick on it.
Another problem with this theory is that you have said that the devs assured you that the MC will be in "top four" vampires. If someone else is close to Calisto in power, it doesn't make any sense to talk about a top four rather than a top five.
Looking forward to reading further thoughts about this
That bit of nastiness aside, now that you've put your reasoning to ink I am a bit less skeptical but some issues occur to me:
Is our Calisto the Calisto? Keep in mind that just because we've only seen vampires, doesn't actually mean that everything supernatural is a vampire. Our Calisto can read Greek mythology too, and may have chosen to identify with the nymph Calisto because of her own bear-related powers.
Thinking back a few chapters, going to the Skalds was a major plot event and, as many here complained at the time, they wasted almost the entire time with rubbish about viruses and ergot hallucinations and wine storage. It's especially telling, though, that the few things they did say, however, all related to Calisto and specifically militated against her identification with the Greek myth. Firstly, that they tell us that vampires are "mortal men, elevated by the Gods to serve in their wars." Of course, the Calisto was said to be a nymph, not a goddess, but neither did she recruited to fight anyone, and if Zeus is not a vampire there's no reason to think that Calisto was transformed into anything but an ordinary bear. Secondly, when asked about the name "Calisto," they indicate that there's nothing special about it despite admitting to knowing more about the Temple than they're willing to say.
You say that Calisto must have been a priestess of Hera because she doesn't look like a young virgin. Actually, Hesiod specifically says that she was a virgin priestess of Artemis (until Zeus tore that shit up, anyhow). If our Calisto doesn't look like the nymph Calisto should, it's very likely that that's because they aren't the same person.
Virgil/Arcas:
I'm puzzled at the assertion that Roland was demonstrated to be a tool of Virgil at the investiture. Because he was making snide comments about his boss while sitting next to MC? Nah. He was deferential to Roland at every point. Your tool doesn't tell you to go fetch a drink, especially not in front of some shitheel fledgling. I'd say there were two things going on here: Virgil's massive ego was irritated about being told to fetch a drink, and secondly it was yet another show of intimidation to the MC. By putting down the Princeps in front of the MC he's essentially daring him to agree or disagree or really respond in any way. If he had, Virgil would have smacked him down because talking about the Priceps like that is something that Virgil can do but MC can't. It's a tried and true intimidation tactic. I've seen it used in various contexts many times. Virgil then switches gears and does MC the small kindness of inviting Andrew over to sit with them, despite what his underlings had said earlier. He planned that in advance, of course. The overall purpose of the interaction between Virgil/Roland and the MC/Sharon was pretty clear to me: they were telling them "I don't know why you're a player all of a sudden, I don't care that you beat Marcius, we can maybe be allies but don't get any ideas about doing the same to me or you're toast."
Even if Virgil is Arcas, I don't see why you think is Arcas out to get his mother in the first place. The whole point of Hera turning Calisto into a bear was to trick him into killing his own mother, the myths say nothing about him having it in for her. Because he's obsessed with diablerizing her? I haven't seen any reason at all to believe that's true much less bet my dick on it.
Another problem with this theory is that you have said that the devs assured you that the MC will be in "top four" vampires. If someone else is close to Calisto in power, it doesn't make any sense to talk about a top four rather than a top five.
Looking forward to reading further thoughts about this
Last edited:
