What exactly is ashing? And other death questions

[Ammy]

Okay, so I am still early on in the game, only on the 4th map. But something has been bothering me.

Revanents are immortal, if they are killed they just get back up. One of the guys in the starting area before you really get to play seems to mention if the heart is destroyed then the revanent is destroyed.

So I assume that is ashing? But then later on one of the partner NPCs makes mention of The Lost coming back after being ashed. So no matter how many times you kill them, they will keep respawning so to speak. As well that once someone becomes lost they can never be returned to normal.


So, can Revanents actually be killed fully, or will they just keep coming back? Does one turning to ash actually matter in the long run? When we die are we turning to ash and then reforming at the Mistle?

[Zaskar]

Revenants aren't immortal. They are revenants because of a parasite in their hearts so if the heart is destroyed, the revenant is dead for good. If the revenant is mortally wounded but his heart hasn't been damaged, the parasite will disperse the body to protect himself.

As for Losts, the parasite has completely merged with the revenant, making him immortal. So yes, all Losts you kill will come back.

[Spectacular_Insanity]

Revenants' ability to take fatal damage and disperse and later revive is controlled by their BOR Parasite embedded in their heart. If the BOR Parasite in their heart is directly destroyed, their entire body turns to ash and will never revive. If they take any type of fatal damage that does not destroy the parasite, the parasite will voluntarily disperse the body into a mist and reform it in a safe location as a defense mechanism. The consequences for this happening is the host of the BOR Parasite loses memories of some kind; sometimes the memories are major and important, oftentimes not. However, if the host dies enough, their sense of self may begin to degrade and they could descend into madness.

If Revenants go mad with bloodthirst, they turn into Lost. Lost are created when the BOR Parasite takes over the Revenant's body in its entirety (no longer just the heart, but every cell including the brain), and the body begins to slowly morph into a monstrous form, often dependent on the environment where the host lost control of the Parasite. At this point the BOR Parasite comprises the majority of the body, and essentially replaces all of the original Revenant's tissues with their own. Because the BOR disperses the body upon detecting apparent fatal damage, it is basically impossible to permanently kill a Lost unless every cell in their body were to be destroyed at the exact same time (very unlikely if not outright impossible).

TL;DR - Revenants can die permanently but only before they turn into Lost.

[Grey]

Spoilers ahead;

It's difficult because there are some plot holes surrounding death and how it works.

Being ashed is meant to equal perma death, with our MC being the only known person to return after getting ashed.

However, the game doesn't exactly explain what happens when our character and companions die and suddenly reappear back at the mistle. Is it meant to be like a time reverse? Wherein our characters didn't die? Why then do we lose all of our haze? If it's that we were ashed, as the death animation shows then how do our companions come back? It is the will of the Queen? As she had returned or MC from ash once before?

It's not explained all that well in the case of the lost. While I don't recall it being explicitly stated that the lost can and do return from being ashed, it's kinda the logical conclusion to make as their death animations show them turning to ash yet when we come back after visiting a mistle a few feet away, they're alive again. Although I guess we could just view it as another, different lost filling in the gap the one we ashed left behind.

But all of that can be explained away as video game mechanics not quite being able to accurately mesh with established lore, though I recognize that that isn't satisfying. As the lore puts it; There is no coming back from getting ashed with the one exception being our MC, that we know of.

[RiceMan]

Snake, SNAKE!! Mission failed, the parasite has leaked.

[solthusx]

MC and companions dying and respawning is a game mechanic reprensentation of the usual 'disperse and reform after taking non heart destroying fatal damage' thing all Revenants do. The enemies respawning is just the Lost regenerating due to there being no practical way to kill them permanently.

MC surviving getting shot in the heart has more to do with them being the Successor of Blood at that point. Successors can only be permanently killed if their relic is removed (basically what happens if you defeat the Successors without restoring their memories since that's the only other way to stop their frenzy).

[Grey]

Originally posted by solthusx:

MC and companions dying and respawning is a game mechanic reprensentation of the usual 'disperse and reform after taking non heart destroying fatal damage' thing all Revenants do. The enemies respawning is just the Lost regenerating due to there being no practical way to kill them permanently.

MC surviving getting shot in the heart has more to do with them being the Successor of Blood at that point. Successors can only be permanently killed if their relic is removed (basically what happens if you defeat the Successors without restoring their memories since that's the only other way to stop their frenzy).

Simply put, very nice. Makes me feel like I'm just overthinking it.