Question about character motivation [Endgame Spoilers]

[Cabbage]

I've completed the game twice now, once as a normal Azata and once as a Devil doing the secret ending, but I have a couple questions about the story that I didn't pick up answers on (likely due to me missing something that was stated or it being in a path I didn't do, this isn't a callout for the writers).

Firstly, I'm curious if in Act 4 or later it's ever stated why Areelu claims to want the Worldwound closed. I assumed after meeting her in Threshold, her claiming she did was because of her wanting me to go there so she could take the half of my soul back and try again with the experiment. I'm under the impression she never planned on closing it, but that could be wrong. I am curious what the reason she *claims* to want the Worldwound closed is, given she seemed to be completely fine opening it to begin with. It seems like characters should question her changing her mind, so I assume that has a clearly stated answer I missed somewhere.

Secondly, is her child's soul the abyssal half of her/my soul? The game says a lot about her tying her soul and my soul to the abyss, effectively making her a half demon (and me too I suppose?), but was it her actual child's soul that is the abyssal "half" or is it just something else fused with us I didn't pick up on. The logic I'm working on being "Pharasma sent the kid to the Abyss, so when Areelu rescued it the soul was Abyssal and no longer of the material plane, so it could be used to tie the two together".

Any help would be appreciated as I am curious about these things but I don't wanna do a third play through to try and figure it out (I don't wanna burn myself out by playing so much so quickly). Thanks for any help!

[aramintai]

Her child was chaotic evil like her so his soul was sent to the according plane after death - the Abyss. As to what she did to that soul once she found it is unclear, maybe infused with with Abyssal essence to make it stronger or smth.
Her goals are all over the place, or she has many in parallel. She even extrapolates on that - vengeance, her child, grand experiment, sticking it to the gods, ultimate freedom. She's a crazy, cold and calculating scientist. So I've gathered she didn't care either way whether the Worldwound would be closed or not, as long as it furthered her schemes.
But the main thing that really bugged me in the end is that it is not explained why she chose the protagonist for her experiment - just some rando off the streets from whatever place/of whatever race/class etc. And then it gets even less clear why after her experiments the protagonist seemed to have had a free time to roam around - background/class and world knowledge make it clear he wasn't stuck in a lab all the time. But then it gets worse by not explaining at all how the protagonist got to Kenabres - of his own free will and captured by Areelu (who was monitoring the protag from afar?) or what? Clearly missing some story here, but that's what you get with incompetent alteration of pen and paper adventure story.

[Conquista]

she opened the worldwound to enter the abyss and to get her childs soul, now with her child soul outside of the abyss, she wants to close the worldwound because it would otherwise slowly kill her

her child soul is your characters comnection to the abyss
what areelu used for herself i'm not sure, question never came to my mind, but i think she just merged a demon soul with hers

but i could be wrong of misremembering or misinterpreting areelu, she did not sounded mentally stabil at all at the threshold encounter

[ExcaliburV]

Originally posted by aramintai:

But the main thing that really bugged me in the end is that it is not explained why she chose the protagonist for her experiment - just some rando off the streets from whatever place/of whatever race/class etc. And then it gets even less clear why after her experiments the protagonist seemed to have had a free time to roam around - background/class and world knowledge make it clear he wasn't stuck in a lab all the time. But then it gets worse by not explaining at all how the protagonist got to Kenabres - of his own free will and captured by Areelu (who was monitoring the protag from afar?) or what? Clearly missing some story here, but that's what you get with incompetent alteration of pen and paper adventure story.

This is actually answered, sort of, just pretty indirectly.

The reason she chose you is because, as she says, she felt a connection with you. Some kind of familiarity, and that your character's soul would accept her child's, "like the soil accepts a seed". Basically my interpretation of that is that your character just happened to have the right kind of "essence" to take in the soul without being completely destroyed or rejecting the soul. Is it kind of random? Maybe, but then, the only way you can fit a super diverse blank slate MC into a story at all is kind of with a bit of blind chance.

Your character was never directly involved in the experiments. Areelu mentioned she was watching you "like a witch in a fairy tale, nearly from birth." So she probably didn't haul you off to a lab. More likely, she ran tests and subtly manipulated things either when your character was asleep, or otherwise unaware. (I fully believe this is plausable, considering all the other times she interferes with things in the game without leaving a single trace of herself.)

So your character has their own life experiences, skill sets, class/background, etc. Areelu was just quietly manipulating things behind the scenes.

The only thing not really answered is why the MC ended up at Kenabres. You could say it was of their own free will and just make it a suspense of disbelief thing, considering there wouldn't be a story if you didn't. If you really wanted to find a reason, maybe Areelu manipulated you into going for some reason or another under a guise or indirectly.

[Miskatonic]

She says she merged her soul with the essence of the abyss. I think specifically this is referring to the blood of demon lords though. I got the impression this is the source of the demonic rage impulses. So I think her child's soul was grafted on extra, but I guess the demonic rage could be from her son's soul if you want to interpret it that way. The real question is how the hell she managed to find her son's soul somewhere in the entire abyss.

[Conquista]

at the start of the game hulrun ask you why you are in kenabres and you can give him a reason, so your character probably had some kind of reason to be there but its still left to the player

[aramintai]

Originally posted by ExcaliburV:

The reason she chose you is because, as she says, she felt a connection with you. Some kind of familiarity, and that your character's soul would accept her child's, "like the soil accepts a seed". Basically my interpretation of that is that your character just happened to have the right kind of "essence" to take in the soul without being completely destroyed or rejecting the soul. Is it kind of random? Maybe, but then, the only way you can fit a super diverse blank slate MC into a story at all is kind of with a bit of blind chance.

And she searched across all Golarion for such a soul? Cuz you know, mc can be from Osirion or Tian Xia which are on different continents from the Worldwound.

Your character was never directly involved in the experiments. Areelu mentioned she was watching you "like a witch in a fairy tale, nearly from birth." So she probably didn't haul you off to a lab.

No, actually there is a mention in the game about a child (mc) who was taken into her lab for experimenting. And she must have done this to mc, because it doesn't seem like an easy "cast a spell and off you go" kind of procedure.

The only thing not really answered is why the MC ended up at Kenabres.

Yea, and it's very weird that mc doesn't bring it up at all throughout the game. Since he doesn't know how he got the wound or got to Kenabres I'm guessing memory lapses are a thing for him when Areelu wants to.

Anyway, it's all murky and hamfisted, imho. Could have taken an inspiration from Bhaalspawn and Irenicus at the very least - that's how you do this properly.

[Brian Sirith]

More or less agree with Aramintai. It’s full of holes so headcanon what you like.

I played a Chelaxian Dhampir nobleman that joined the Hellknights in Cheliax then decided to join the Crusade. When and where did Areelu connect her sons soul to mine? Down in Cheliax? Who knows? That’s the problem with leaving the bg open and then the whole thing doesn’t fit. It’s not even explained for that matter.

I decided that the psycho cast some failed ritual on some kid (my char) she met when on vacation down south. The ritual went to hell, so did her plan. I happened to join the Crusades and psycho started getting ‘I planned it all’ delusions. Throwing her into the Worldwound put an end to delusions and expositions permanently. Her dumbass ritual was so dumbass it didn’t even connect me to the Abyss cause I ended with a Halo and fluffy white wings (whatever else one ends up with). Basically, she’s doesn’t know what she’s doing so just imagine whatever result you want to her experiment.

TLDR. Plotholes. Make story up