Making the Most of Marazhai

[matson]

Is "Path of the Drukhari" (letting him keep the agoniser) Marazhai's personal quest, or just the chance to romance him?
Also, who besides a heretic would invite him to join their party? (Is his sultry voice enough?)

In my exploratory first playthrough (being largely Iconoclast), I've picked him up hoping to get the Holy Ordos achievement (then reload save), get the "bathe with every companion" achievement, milk his personal quest for loot, XP, and story content, then kill him (or worse) at/near the end of it. Is that last bit possible (without spoiling too much)?

[stacyreed]

Yes, you can give him to Heinrix after his quest, if you romance him you can also kill him in the end

[dwarfpcfan]

I keep trying to find a reason to recruit/keep him beyond just wanting to see his story. But honestly unless you're doing a heretic run, there's little to 0 benefit from a story/game play perspective.

His warrior assassin build really does not compare to Hendrix, Kibellah or Abelard in terms of effectiveness. He doesn't provide your realm/dynasty with anything substantial and in most ending slides he just makes things worst for your other companions.

Even the escape from Cormorragh is not made easier with his recruitment. Between your party once you get them back, Ulfar and how the quest progresses he's entirely unnecessary there either. You'll escape Cormorrag perfectly fine without him and since you by then have a full party you've been fine tuning since day 1 he's not good enough to justify using him compared to them either.

I kinda think Marazai is a missed opportunity, since he brings so little to the table. His voice acting is some of the best in the game and yes he is interesting. But nobody aside from a heretic run would logically want to recruit him or keep him around once you're out of Cormorragh because he doesn't pay any dividends from putting up with how ludicrously evil he is.

[JustSmile]

Originally posted by dwarfpcfan:

But honestly unless you're doing a heretic run, there's little to 0 benefit from a story/game play perspective.

From a story perspective he fits nowhere. Dark Eldar hate chaos even more than the Empire, so if you're heretic he should try to murder you as soon as he realises your allegiance. As iconoclast you're trying to be a somewhat good person and I don't think there's anything to say about how a murderrape BDSM brained maniac who literally feeds on suffering fits into that. And on a dogmatic run you should be killing that filthy xenos trash as soon as you can. There's no pirate-style "evil but not a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ moron" route in Rogue Trader.

[dwarfpcfan]

Originally posted by JustSmile:

Originally posted by dwarfpcfan:

But honestly unless you're doing a heretic run, there's little to 0 benefit from a story/game play perspective.

From a story perspective he fits nowhere. Dark Eldar hate chaos even more than the Empire, so if you're heretic he should try to murder you as soon as he realises your allegiance. As iconoclast you're trying to be a somewhat good person and I don't think there's anything to say about how a murderrape BDSM brained maniac fits into that. And on a dogmatic run you should be killing that filthy xenos trash as soon as you can. There's no pirate-style "evil but not a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ moron" route in Rogue Trader.

All this is absolutely true, but as the game progresses on a heretic run you lose a lot of companions which is what I meant as then he has his uses. A heretic run will lose you at least 3 companions if you commit to it which includes argent and henrix. So then there might be a justification in recruiting him since he never actually tries to kill you if you are a heretic (which is what as you point out should happen)

A heretic run is the only run that can justify keeping him and it's not a story reason, it's just so you have more companions because you lose companions for being a heretic.

[Revan619]

Marazhai is weird. Dogmatic would kill him iconclast would kill him. Heretic would kill him.

Pretty sure he would try to manipulate the first two but he certainly wouldn't side with someone chaos aligned

[dwarfpcfan]

Originally posted by Revan619:

Marazhai is weird. Dogmatic would kill him iconclast would kill him. Heretic would kill him.

Pretty sure he would try to manipulate the first two but he certainly wouldn't side with someone chaos aligned

Yeah that's what normally should happen, but it doesn't in game. You can keep him all through without issues in a heretic run. And since you auto lose Argenta, Hendrix, Ulfar, Yrlett and Cassia then there might be some benefit to keeping him if only to shore up your party.

[dziendeszczowy]

Well, at least heretic RT can trade him to the deamonette for a couple (10?) conviction points, so there's that.

[☭KiLLiNJoke-AWEEE!!!]

marazhai feats pretty well in heretic playthrough if you dont empower him and use him to gain intel about his soon to be demon playground former home. Mercenary ending and thats it, *looks at Kibellah just out of blood sauna* we are not savages here

[spammdc]

Originally posted by Revan619:

Marazhai is weird. Dogmatic would kill him iconclast would kill him. Heretic would kill him.

Pretty sure he would try to manipulate the first two but he certainly wouldn't side with someone chaos aligned

My 2 cents
That is what I have done the two times I have recruited him.
Kill him as the game options presented after the warp jump have most often pointed at killing him is the best option.

[✧Starshadow Melody✧]

I took him along on impulse on my iconoclast run and ended up feeling bad about having to keep him confined during warp travel. Don't regret recruiting him, though, he plays very fun.

[matson]

I heard that someone romanced him as a Dogmatic character for kicks.
Interesting characterization-theme of Marazhai and the Drukhari through him: for all their well-warranted fear and hatred of the Chaos Gods, the moments when Marazhai talks about his uninhibited mentality when it comes to pain showcases the exact kind of Eldar that produced She-Who-Thirsts in the first place. (The guy is hornier than the Fabstodes!)

[Green Knight]

Give him to Heinrix. That way you don't have to suffer the edgy goth eldar fanfic.

[humanoid]

Take a bath with him first, then give him to Heinrix. Or you could make him Harlequin, but you need Yrlett as well for this ending

[matson]

Originally posted by Revan619:

Marazhai is weird. Dogmatic would kill him iconclast would kill him. Heretic would kill him.

Pretty sure he would try to manipulate the first two but he certainly wouldn't side with someone chaos aligned

Ha ha ha... Marazhai himself notes this when you meet with your Reflections on Epitaph! Maybe the Merciful Reflection would spare him(?), but I have yet to meet them.

[MacabreLion]

Originally posted by JustSmile:

Originally posted by dwarfpcfan:

But honestly unless you're doing a heretic run, there's little to 0 benefit from a story/game play perspective.

From a story perspective he fits nowhere. Dark Eldar hate chaos even more than the Empire, so if you're heretic he should try to murder you as soon as he realises your allegiance. As iconoclast you're trying to be a somewhat good person and I don't think there's anything to say about how a murderrape BDSM brained maniac who literally feeds on suffering fits into that. And on a dogmatic run you should be killing that filthy xenos trash as soon as you can. There's no pirate-style "evil but not a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ moron" route in Rogue Trader.

What? It doesn't matter if he's Dark Eldar as it relates to his recruitment and continuation with you. He knows his inevitable future is to be sacrificed in the pit eventually based on events to that point so he joins with you and stays as his only lifeline. To top it all off, he loves living on the edge, something which chaos gives him more of than any of the other alignments - This is expressed quite clearly in a heretic romance ending slide with him. Narratively because of his species he fits perfectly in the retinue for what would be his written capabilities same as Yrliet, somewhat showcased as he holds his own against a space marine and sister of battle jumping him post recruitment.

Stop treating more fleshed out companions as if they are supposed to be some pure stereotype of a generic grunt of their species.

They also give other dialogue reasons for why other alignments may take on Mara. off the top of my head iirc - there was dialogue that suggested doing it as part of humiliation and debt pay off for the damage to Dargonus, etc. (RT is technically supposed to be all about money)