Haha, what's the matter, just post memes, spam about Baldurs Gate and talk shit about the moderators. That's why they deleted the posts in the first place, isn't it? They are professionals through and through.
Offtopic goes through a slow phase and the last update hit hard. I need to vent.
On to the rest:
1. Eisheth thinks that another is stronger than her. We assume she refers to the Swordbearer Chosen.
2. Valravn went from an annoying and noisy raven to the strongest monster of it's line.
3. Monsters aren't capable of evolving, they can only become tainted.
4. There are 2 ways for Humans to become monsters. Either they get turned into the infected, or they monsterfy as Superhumans and become Variants.
5. The Eye recognizes that Malik has reached it's "fifth". Huuuge precedent right here. How would the Eye know about the 5th evolutionary stages if the oldest Superhuman is less than a century old?
6. There is another race that may be capable of evolving, and that's the alt-humans.
7. Are Chosen apostlespawn by default or they are just random monsters that fit some criteria?
Now, why do I post random trivia about the game? Because understanding the nature of monsters and superhumans is critical to make sense out of what Chosen are, what Syla may be and what is the nature of Chosen anyway.
Apostles are assumed to be the originators of Monsterkind. What exactly does this mean?
1. Apostles are not monsters.
2. Arbiters are not monsters.
3. The Gods are probably not monsters unless somehow a Monster became so strong that it achieved god status (unlikely).
So how does this work?
a. Did Apostles carved monsters from nothing?
b. Did the start spraying various populations in the cosmos with their monster taint?
c. Did they turn a single individual and tasked him to turn the rest of the population?
Aglaecwif says that the oldest of the monsters still wait for the return of the Arbiters. This can only mean that the Arbiters were active and visible in the universe after the first Monsters were created. But why would Monsters bother with the Arbiters in the first place or even care if they return?
Yet if the oldest monsters know of the Arbiters, why would the Chosen have different opinions about genesis? Why would Eisheth think that the Outer Twins created everything, while the Rebis thinks that the 6 Arbiters were the first? And why Aglaecwif believes that the Outer Twins are the sane religion while she remarks that the Arbiters are unlikely to return?
This also means that the Chosen are not the oldest. Most of them don't "remember" the Arbiters. Rebis doesn't, Eisheth probably doesn't, Valravn certainly doesn't. Why are the chosen not the oldest? Is it a succession thing? The previous Chosen died so the Apostle had to pick another? Or they were never supposed to be the oldest anyway and they are descendants of the first monsters? Does this also mean that the Chosen are not necessarily Apostlespawns?
So trying to answer some questions:
1. Why would the Chosen have vast differences in power (according to Eisheth)?
We can't verify that being an older Monster naturally makes it more powerful. This is true for Superhumans up to a point, but Monsters don't seem to have this function. However, it's possible that Eisheth is not just a younger Monster, but the circumstances of her infection were different too.
For example, perhaps Eisheth was turned by the previous Chosen of Truth, or the other Chosen was born from Apostles, not turned by them.
So my current theory is that even among the Chosen there exist a huge power difference which relates to how the Chosen came to be. I think that not every chosen was an Apostle's child or spawn and the only thing they have in common is high purity.
High purity itself may be important, but it's not something that we can measure somehow. It also wouldn't explain some of the things we see in the monster reports.
2. Why would the Arbiter recognize that Malik's body has "surpassed it's fifth"?
This is a bit counterintuitive, but I'm trying to make as few assumptions as possible. The Eye is the being that connects with MC during his evolutions and supposedly gives him power. It's also capable of taking MC directly to the final stage of his evolution. So it obviously knows how this ecosystem works but we can't just assume it also knows about Superhuman genetics and mechanics.
This remark is important because it makes the Eye's knowledge explicit and tells us that the concept of the five evolutionary stages existed from the very beginning despite monsters being incapable of evolving. Of course it could be something that the Eye picked up while linked to MC, but this idea doesn't fit the scene very well, since the Eye talks about things that MC doesn't know about, and it has trouble accessing MC's memories.
So if the 5 evolutions existed back then, then it's possible that there are Superhumans as old as the oldest monsters who still remember the Arbiters. Now of course we know that Eisheth is older than the human race, so we need to find other beings to call Superhumans, and the game gives us an alternative. The Alt-Humans.
3. What is this human-mutation Ella talks about?
In deadend3, Ella says that MC has inherited both traits with a perfect amount of human mutation. What is this? It's a thing that is mentioned once in the whole game during a deadend. Yet it raises some questions.
Superhumans are to genetically diverse to mate. But why would two Superhumans turned from the same monster be incapable of mating? This doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Yet if there exists such a thing called human mutation, which is different than the monster mutation, and these things reach some kind of stable balance inside the superhuman, then it could explain the mating conundrum even among genetically similar Superhumans.
4. What are the Alt-Humans anyway and why should we care?
We don't have too much info on them. We know about them thanks to shopkeep's items and it's certainly not exhaustive, but we know that they got their powers from the Monsters and used these powers to fight an invasion.
In fact we don't even know if they are capable of evolving, but for this exercise we should assume they do.
As for why should we care.. Syla.
- Syla is a human, but a bit more.
- MC's third "takes her back.."
- She doesn't know how to use a spoon but she knows of ancient realms.
Additionally, in shopkeep items' memories we can observe something peculiar. The alt-human factions were fundamentally different. One faction was of sea and mostly male, while the other faction was of air and mostly female. There is a plethora of oddities that could happen there.
Superhumans are very genetically diverse and can't mate. What if Superalt-humans are not? What if alt-humans are capable of evolving 5 times but their bodies don't improve the same way humans do?
a) Fundamendally different but still the game presents them as humans.
b) A mentioned difference between the monster trait and human mutation.
c) Confirmed to be ancient and living in a realm similar to deadend39, which in turn has some similarities with Syla's story.
5. So what's the point of this?
While it's too early to make a point, I'm trying to take a look into the far past, when the first monsters appeared and how they came to be.
During 0.96, WW introduced the alt-humans to us and while we don't know shit about them, they have the potential to be the answers to various things that don't make sense, like the Chosen power difference, the Chosen titles and history, The Arbiter knowing about the 5 evolutions despite the race being very young etc.
Syla's circumstances are exceptional. She seems to be a human, she has powers yet she can mate, she knows of ancient things yet she has trouble adjusting to human life.
If Syla was a monster, then the only solution that currently makes sense, would be for Memory to somehow alter her into a human as part of her "new task".
If Syla is an alt-human however, at this point anything it's possible.
So instead of going hard into the "Syla is a monster" angle, I think that "Syla is a alt-human" has higher potential and fits her dialogue better, and also that some of the monsters used to be alt-humans too or at least they descended from Variants that are monstefied Superalt-humans.
Edit: Now that I think about it, there is another one that has powers but some think he is a human. Lochan Deus. Both Valravn and the Eye got confused. Also the landscape of his dream..
