Ending question (spoilers)

[Osaka from Azumanga Daioh]

justabunchoftexttonotspoilonpreviewjustabunchoftexttonotspoilonpreviewjustabunchoftexttonotspoilonpreviewjustabunchoftexttonotspoilonpreviewjustabunchoftexttonotspoilonpreviewjustabunchoftexttonotspoilonpreviewjustabunchoftexttonotspoilonpreviewjustabunchoftexttonotspoilonpreviewjustabunchoftexttonotspoilonpreviewjustabunchoftexttonotspoilonpreviewjustabunchoftexttonotspoilonpreviewjustabunchoftexttonotspoilonpreviewjustabunchoftexttonotspoilonpreviewjustabunchoftexttonotspoilonpreviewjustabunchoftexttonotspoilonpreviewjustabunchoftexttonotspoilonpreviewjustabunchoftexttonotspoilonpreviewjustabunchoftexttonotspoilonpreviewjustabunchoftexttonotspoilonpreview


So.. which Styx survived to be the hero of "Of orcs and Men"? The one who fell into the pool (clone) or one who been eaten by goblins (original)?

[Gliga]

I think the clone, cos he reborn + endning - that i was born in a dried up lake bed.But this may be the original , cos little chance of surviving after such a fall.Sry for my english :)

[Devilfish]

I'm not sure either. It's a little confusing having one voice actor do the entire bit.

From what I understand (and I probably don't, see above) the Styx we'd been playing as, the clone, is the one that survived. The original got eaten by the mass of clones and "our" Styx was the only one to survive the fall. I don't know why that one would survive and all the others wouldn't, but I think that was it. I guess since they were his clones they disappeared just like the ones we'd been using all throughout the game, but I'm not sure about any of this.

PS: now THAT is how you do a spoiler warning. Well done.

[ed]

I beat the game tonight, and as far as I can tell it goes like this:

(MINOR SPOILERS FOR OF ORCS AND MEN I GUESS? but really nothing you don't already know after finishing this game)






-"Our" Styx: memory wipe, as original Styx warned. Lives his life from this point on for approximately 200 years (OOAM mentions goblins first appeared 200 years prior, which we now know happened at the Tower of Akenash with the amber/tree disaster and infinite free-roaming goblin clones being spawned, rather than the initial event where original!Styx was corrupted from an orc). Becomes the OOAM player character.

-Original Styx: Eaten, either absorbed through eating/amber exposure or "our" Styx pilfered some scraps of his memory/identity and buried them in his subconscious mind. This Styx remnant stays hovering in the back of our Styx's mind until OOAM, where he is the memory ghost in Styx's inner journey. "We were an Orc, you and me..."

-In light of this, Styx's class choice branch in OOAM is even more significant than we knew. It's literally a choice to spiritually heal/merge his divided self (shadowgoblin) or reject healing and purge the last remnant (assassin), even though neither option will restore his memory.

[Salzblut]

I guess Ed and Devilfish are right.

"Our" Styx is the one we have been playing all the time, but from the beginning he is being controlled by OriginalStyx. ("Hey Rakash! Do stuff for me!" Hence his headaches and memory gaps.)

The plan of corrupted orc/OriginalStyx was to
a) get captured and taken into the inside of the tower, and then
b) activate one of his clones he placed in the tower before to serve him. That´s "our" Styx.

Styx seems to be different from the other clones from the start, as he can create his own clones, looks much stronger and has his own will. In the end, after finding out about his "creator" OriginalStyx, he decided to end all this to become "his own master".

The Styx that survives is "our" Styx, that´s pretty sure. In OOaM, he is confronted with his former self, OriginalStyx, which he seems to have forgotten completely (as seen in the game´s last cutscene). So the decision he makes there (accept his past or ignore his past) his a lot more important to his character than we knew when OOaM came out.

I love how the writers made it to close the gap between Master of Shadows and OOaM. It made me very happy to see our Rakash, the only Styx now, become the master of his own fate and no longer under control of anyone else. I really fell for this character while I was playing, and it´s great you can just continue with the missions, completing them in different ways.

[Tizlak]

I just don't understand how Styx[original]'s story is prior to the events of him pursuing the Heart.
Like how and why did he become corrupted?

[Salzblut]

It is explained more detailed in OOaM. Styx (the original) was an orc shaman, but left his clan to study the magic of the amber. While doing so, he became addicted to it (like all people who use it do) and over a long time he started getting insane, because of the voices of the amber users he heard in his head. He decided to get to the source of the amber, the tree of life in Akenash, and find out how to control the influence amber has on him.

There´s about two hundred years between getting in touch with the amber and finally arriving in Akenash, and over that time he was corrupted by the powers of the amber. Don´t ask me how that works in detail ^^. It changed him, until he became the first goblin, able to create clones of himself. And one of his clones, a very special one, is the Styx we play in the game. And in the end, we beat original Styx and become the only Styx.

You could go on youtube and watch the Of Orcs and Men cutscene video, at about 2:20:00 his story is explained as he confronts his past.

[Fatang one thousand]

The Original dies and the our goblin survives, and it might just be possible that the "Swamp" is whats left of Akenash.

[maddpsyintyst]

This is a late entry into the conversation and contains spoilers.

I don't think either the Original Styx, nor the Clone Styx (the one that we play), survived. I think the Ending Styx that arose is similar to Clone Styx, in that he is a clone with a superior mind compared to the clones that Original and Clone Styx both used throughout the game; but arose from the mass cloning that we see at the end. That Styx goes on to be the one we see in the other games. Original Styx was torn to shreds by the horde, which in turn arose from the apparent self-sacrifice of Clone Styx. It's all very existential, with a bit of mutation and asexual reproduction thrown in for good measure--LOL!

[Salzblut]

Originally posted by maddpsyintyst:

This is a late entry into the conversation and contains spoilers.

I don't think either the Original Styx, nor the Clone Styx (the one that we play), survived. I think the Ending Styx that arose is similar to Clone Styx, in that he is a clone with a superior mind compared to the clones that Original and Clone Styx both used throughout the game; but arose from the mass cloning that we see at the end. That Styx goes on to be the one we see in the other games. Original Styx was torn to shreds by the horde, which in turn arose from the apparent self-sacrifice of Clone Styx. It's all very existential, with a bit of mutation and asexual reproduction thrown in for good measure--LOL!

TBH I don't think so. ^^ Did you play Styx 2: Shards of Darkness? There it becomes pretty clear by flashbacks, the design of Styx and some memories strewn about here and there that it's the same one. Also, "our" Styx is a very special clone who's different from the animal-like mindless clones, intentionally made a bit smarter than the others so he can do more than just crawl around and operate levers like the "common" clones can. They can't even talk. "Master Styx" has made "our" Styx intentionally smarter for his big plan because he needed one intelligent henchman, not expecting that henchman to run amok. The other clones can't speak, barely walk upright and look a lot more scrawny, also in OOaM. "Our" Styx was special from his first birth and he must be the one survining the breakdown of Akenash and the big mass cloning event. Our Styx still speaks and walks upright so he must have survived while the others all turned out as "accidental" animal-like mindless clones. Our Styx even has some characteristic scars, gear and details in Styx 2 that they kept in the character model indicating it's the same one.

What you said might be true lorewise and going by how the amber cloning works, but it would make more sense game-design wise. The players have already become emotionally attached to Styx and it wouldn't make sense to kill him off and replace him with a new clone that we have no experiences with. :)

[Bassilth]

The more I think about it, the more I believe that the goblin we play in OOAM is actually the original Styx.

(from now on for simplifying things I will call original Styx as Styx and the clone Styx as Rakash.)

My points:

1. In OOAM, the goblin says the following: "I am the first of these -beep- rats." We all know who the first goblin was. It wasnt Rakash. It was Styx.

2. The spectre then says: "We were an orc, you and me...". But Rakash was no orc. He was 'born' as a goblin.

3. Through the entire conversation they talk about how he was an orc and how he became a goblin. But that was not Rakash's past. His past began when he was made. He is a completely different individual from his creator. Yet he clearly considers it his past. While in MoS he told Styx that he didnt want his past and he clearly didnt change his mind in SoD.

4. If the spectre is truly Styx and the goblin is truly Rakash, then the writers made a huge mistake with Styx's personality. He now calls the goblins his children, whereas he despised them like nothing else in MoS. He would never call himself their father. And he would not want to accept what he became out of nowhere. And neither would he be nice to Rakash for all he did to him.

5. The location is clearly not Akenash. Rakash considers the ruins of Akenash in the 'dried up lake bed' with a big dead tree as his birthplace. Although the place has trees, it also has dirt and houses. A ruined and collapsed Akenash does not look that way. What I see it as is the place where Styx underwent his transformation. So basically, this is the place of his rebirth.

In my honest opinion, the spectre is simply that part of Styx that he tried to forget once the Heart was destroyed and gave up trying to become an orc again. Instead wanted to make a new future for himself and forget the past. Now he has the choice to either accept who he was or to deny it.

But wait...
There is more!

Remember when he and Arkail met how the goblin said that he was so old he could be his grandpa?
Now lets see...
We see Arkail in SoD. At this point Rakash is about a few decades old. But Styx would be 230+ years old, so him saying this 200 years later would be far more plausible than Rakash saying it.

All in all...
It is clear as day that we play Rakash in SoD... But OOAM clearly has Styx.

Or somewhere the writers messed up.