Ferryman & The Faceless

[Body of Eggs]

Struck up a conversation with the Ferryman and an interesting conversation popped up when we were talking about Burdens and identifying entities that are "pulled down" moreso than others. I think this was after his ship analogy and remarking how the vanguard are at the front and those with heavier burdens at the back, tilting the ship.

In this, he makes an interesting assumption that the Faceless are "burdened." I picked the dialogue option (forgot what it was specifically) that mentioned how the Faceless relied on their technology. He confirmed my reply and added that they take up physical space, rely on their technology and tunnelers.

Now here's the interesting part.

He states that the Faceless are beginning to "wisen up" or "see more clearly". My first assumption is that he's doing what all philosophers do and interprets the natural world with the philosophical world, thus, even though he doesn't understand the exact "science" or mechanics behind the Faceless, he's making a broad assumption about their culture and how they're pulling themselves downward.

Does anyone have any lore of the Faceless that may matchup with what the Ferryman's stating? I know as a character in-the-world, he obviously doesn't know them (at least as much as we do), but on a metacontextual narrative level, its an interesting statement posed by the writer to us the reader. Maybe some bit of foreshadowing?

Maybe he views their hivemind mentality as something that "burdens" them or "keeps" them closer to the Center?

I haven't unlocked all the dialogue options with the Ferryman as I only could raise my int to 9. Need to teleport to Junkyard for a Junkyard Surprise for the full 10 to unlock all.

[Morgian]

The ferryman explains through the dialogue his view of the world, or you can call it his philosophy or religion (he refers once to the old books of religion about true death). He basically believes we came from between the stars (Origin) and are slowly degrading to a race living underground. The more technology one uses, the more he is dragged down. Since the faceless are hightech users, they are doomed to go deeper by his view, their culture doesnt matter in this.
William made up his philosophy (and he is the only adherent) to explain the world as he sees it, I don't think it is any kind of foreshadowing or the like.

The dialogue and the views of the old man are pretty amazing writing, imho.

[Body of Eggs]

Originally posted by Morgian:

The ferryman explains through the dialogue his view of the world, or you can call it his philosophy or religion (he refers once to the old books of religion about true death). He basically believes we came from between the stars (Origin) and are slowly degrading to a race living underground. The more technology one uses, the more he is dragged down. Since the faceless are hightech users, they are doomed to go deeper by his view, their culture doesnt matter in this.
William made up his philosophy (and he is the only adherent) to explain the world as he sees it, I don't think it is any kind of foreshadowing or the like.

The dialogue and the views of the old man are pretty amazing writing, imho.

That's fair. I have played other cRPGs where inconsequential dialogues, even without proper connective glue, would foreshadow certain elements later on. Usually from a random npc. So I often wondered if this was a similar scenario.

It is good writing as it contrasts greatly with Professor Oakfield and his more academic approach based on the scientific method and solid evidence rather than the Ferryman's "scavenged" philosophy. Essentially, putting the great contrast between wisdom v. intelligence stat or philosophy v. modern science.