Since I quite like doing the blow-by-blow color commentary on all the story stuff that I encounter for the first time in the cards, lets do one for these two videos so we're all primed and ready for tomorrow's splash down of Submerged Eclipse!
Forgotten Sea (God of Tides)
okay, so this already sets it up that the Sea God's domain includes any part of the land where the sea breeze can reach. makes you wonder how far inland Rafayel can go?
The Sea God can grant a wish to their most devout follower. hearsay i suppose. although i guess asking for a land pony is out of the question.
what the hell. "the sacrifice is missing!" and then: "the corpses around me are stiff and cold." are they.. are they just going to toss me into the sea, devout or otherwise??
"throw it in the ocean!" apparently i'm the "it"! why am i being hauled around with a bunch of dead guys? or maybe the Sea God is displeased with the lack of quality offerings and already killed half the crew and I'm all that's left? maybe the real sacrifice already expired and they're going for the bargain basement remnants that managed to stay alive.
THE SEA HYMN! i just LOVE this song. and the sea calms as the music travels over the waters.
over i go. glub glub glub
please, save me, o beautiful lemurian! i am not meant to drown in these heathen waters.
nice. black fingernails. too bad they're not, like, claws, that would have been outstanding.
"when our hands touch, fire bursts forth from his fingers." augh? apparently i clutch his hand anyways because better burned than dead.
also, a moment's solemn reflection on those abs.
"release me!" the scales on his neck are ever so slightly raised. interesting, probably to denote surprise or anger. (point of note: raised scales on an aquarium fish are usually a sign of dropsy, and is usually fatal if you don't catch it fast and do exactly the right things).
awww, memory tells me the story goes that kisses can let me breathe in water! let me guess.. we attack the mermaid with our salty, land lubber lips.... aaaaand we attack him with our salty, land lubber lips. on the plus side, he seems to take it well and croons that yes, he'll grant us deliverance.
for the low, low price of our everything. sold?
oh great, i wake up in the sea equivalent of the Ever laboratory, surrounded by kids who.. study humans?
"if her souls has returned to the heavens..." okay, confirmation that 1) they believe in souls and 2) there's a heaven (implication: hell exists too in belief?)
that's a surprisingly human bedroom. with chairs. and a bed with blankets. and nothing is floating.
"keep your distance, she bites". i do not kiss that badly!
his mouth is swollen and there seems to be a wound on his lips. oops. maybe i was little too aggressively frantic about trying to be saved. sorry!
i have a feeling that "devout follower" doesn't mean i just believe extra strongly. he's saying it like its a title or something, even though its not capitalized in the text.
i start to express my gratitude and... Rafayel just walks away. this boy is so on brand.
LORE: the Sea God lives in Lemuria and protects anything the sea breeze touches. his most devout follower must gift Him a heart so he has the strength to protect Lemuria and become the God of the entire ocean. (Deep Sea < Lemuria). the current Sea God was born in flames as dusk met dawn, and thus only He wields fire. A great "flame" burns in the temple, and the Tome of the Sea God says that if the flame ever goes out, Lemuria will fall into a deep slumber for centuries. (note: doesn't say 'will be destroyed')
extrapolting: so Rafayel is "centuries" old as per current timeline, since Lemuria is fallen when our story starts. and a tsunami uncovered it recently so.. due to wake up again?
I am currently in "Whalefall City" where this temple is, i guess.
my GOD this place is pretty.
okay, yeah, devout follower means something very different to Lemurians than it does in human language. apparently i'm some version of "the one" the way everyone is whispering around me. oh, wow. okay. since humans are the worst, the greediest, and the most selfish, having one give you their heart, love and life is especially powerful. thus flame keeps burning and Lemuria keeps on going on.
"The Tome confirms Rafayel will be the last God of the Sea." wha?
/spins wheels for a hot minute. so, like. what does that mean. Rafayel will not or cannot die, immediately springs to mind as one possibility. also, the usual thing where you can't have another God if the thing itself doesn't exist anymore, but that doesn't seem right since Lemuria is supposed to "slumber" not "get wiped off the face of the earth".
yeah, i hope we don't get tossed into the flame/fire as a sacrifice either. first into the water and then into the fire, which, while symbolic, is not great for my skin care routine.
oh? Rafayel "decides" who his sacrifice will be? oh, wow. okay. Rafe does in fact pick who he wants to be bound to. nice. i have a feeling he's just going for whatever's closest and isn't Lemurian.
"However we should remove all her teeth and nails. I worry she'd bite and scratch us if given the opportunity." the HELL, Rafayel! i didn't MEAN to kiss you like a savage, holy. there were extenuating circumstances!
nice to know the binding goes both ways? he cannot go against my wishes after the ceremony. although if i have to die to complete my end of things, i guess that's temporary inconvenience.
yeah, i'd like to go now. thanks for the offer! and the deliverance. i'll throw some nice buns and a soup into the ocean when i get back home, thanks.
this is So Great. he just decides he's done enough for now and falls asleep against a pillar. i am trapped in the temple, surrounded by guards at the bottom of the ocean so i'm not going anywhere either. are we really his "devout follower" because i just happened to be the closest thing on hand when they had to renew the flame thingie?
while he's sleeping, a moment to really appreciate his design. the golden iridescent scales running over his shoulder, tracing past the red/blue tattooes over the lines that i know light up with power, with the heavy gold bangles and bracelets are just superlative.
hey, little blue fish to the rescue! i'm sorry i ever thought you were your bigger, uglier salmon cousin.
wow, it actually took us outside the city. again, the background wallpaper does not actually reflect this new reality.
"I shall certainly die if I stay within the confines of Whalefall City with the weird God of the Sea." muahahah! sooo weird. easy on the eye, sure, but weeeeird.
oh crap. he's here.
oh! the fish becomes a little blue scale. I KNOW THAT SCALE.
"Human promises are but meaningless words." "When did I make a vow to you?!" you tell him, girlfriend-devout-follower-by-sheer-happenstance
oh, right. but i didn't AGREE to wake you before nightfall, you just fell asleep assuming it. although with that kind of logic, no wonder humans aren't trusted unless you make them speak the exact words.
did i make an oath in my panic while being 'rescued' by application of my panicked lips to his startled ones?
/reads back. oh, crap. shit, even . we promised our 'everything' for his deliverance. or at least, let him save us after he said that would be the cost. we are so boned. filleted, even.
oh, we have a month before the Ceremony. so i can say goodbye to any friends i have?
yeah, let's go get one of the land guys that's always praying to you, Rafayel! so much more devout on their bones than scrawny old i-believe-i'll-get-another-beer me.
"Alright. Return to me your life."
so boned. and not in the schmexy way with a lot of pleading and whimpering and futile struggles that i feel i must make in order to have it feel even better.
Rafayel, you bitch. so my options are to die without purpose, or die with purpose, but either way, i'm dead?
"Tis not worship I desire. From the depths of your very soul, I seek only the purest devotion. The tides ebb and flow (nice!) and with every setting sun is a moon rising. Till time's end, I should occupy your every thought. You must believe in me alone."
"Thou is to find a means by which thy heart becomes smitten with me." technically this should be "thou art" but whatevs.
oh, dear. under threat of sudden death by water inhalation, love me and me alone. on it, boss!
"Find one who will kiss you, even if you do not give them the world. Love a soul that is like your own, that which complements you. Love and death are the most important things in a life. Death is a matter of time, so love with all your heart can muster." - Lemuria, Tome of the Sea God, chapter 3
well, back to contemplating our escape plan. you do realize that even if you get back to land, Rafayel can probably take back his deliverance and you drown in the middle of your small town street, right?
"Rafayel promised he'd let me go if I became his most devout follower before the Sea God's ceremony." alrighty then! we're on a quest for a loophole.
the temple flame: Sun Below The Waves (nice poetry there). it weakens over time and the Sea God must reignite it during his coming-of-age ceremonly. as stated earlier, there's a Sea God for every generation and Rafe is just the current one, so I guess the flame starts to fade when the old one dies and before the next one can be invested.
there's no natural light down here, its the flame or nothing. if there is only darkness, Lemuria's people would transform into hideous beasts.
conches are said to store sounds for many years. so.. like recordings.
soooo... we immediately say terrible things about Rafayel into the conch he tosses us. we so SO on the way to being the most devout follower, truly.
Rafayel does not like being touched.
i am unclear how a sunset happens underwater. if the flame is on top of the spire, its not moving and neither is the city so how does it rise in the east and set in the west?
okay, i've been in the Temple awhile now i take it - we're having a flashback to a previous conversation. he doesn't want to see the real sun, but we know he snuck away before on the day we "met". although, hang on. i know he was exploring the surface but got trapped on a beach, unable to return to the ocean and dying. but in this myth, we were thrown into the ocean during a storm and then shanghai'd into servitude, or at least held against our will into order to be on hand for the future Ceremony with instructions on learning to love him as fast as possible if we are to have any chance of escape beforehand. on the surface, these things seem incompatible? no wait, i'm a fool. this is PAST me, the beach is FUTURE me. separate the timelines, chic. okay, moving on.
yeah, lets remind him that the land is full of bad people that would harvest him for his pearls. that will REALLY convince him to take us for a visit.
awww, for fuck's sake. he fell asleep, i snuggled his shoulder and he draped his arm around me tight. my god, that's so lovely.
okay, back to our current captivity, we're off to... where are we off to, Rafayel? oh my god, he's taking us to the surface for the land people's festival celebrating the Sea God!
(are we going to try to escape during it? please, i hope not. that would be so rude.)
okay, so apparently past me was adopted by the "Emissaries" that live in a temple dedicated to the Sea God and I thought that I also was a follower. until I figured out at some point that no, i was meant to be the Sacrifice. only Emissaries can be followers. and i didn't try to escape once i knew that because.. where would i go.
this is .. odd. if i knew growing up that i was to be the Sacrifice to the Sea God, however little i understood what that would mean, why was i so surprised when they tossed me in to the ocean to die? or even trying to escape once I was under the waves and in Lemuria? i knew this! shouldn't i have been more resigned to my fate, even if i never tried to run away in all the years i was on land?
ohhhh. i figured i'd have more of a chance in the sea, than on a small island.
puppetshow master: "Unable to break his vow with the girl and his own burning passion, the God of the Sea left the Ocean and lived happily ever after with his Beloved." well. not so much the 'happily ever after' maybe. there was a whoooole lot of years full of murder and vengeance though.
so the bond is so the Sea God will remember and obey "her". and then a kid asks me if I think the Sea God will be with her for love, or for the vow. GOOD QUESTION. Rafe, you wanna field this one?
And he does! and says he would know because he's from Lemuria! Rafayel, you idiot! don't say stuff like that out loud, do you WANT to be shoved in a cage in a non-sexy way?
LORE (nani?!): tears to pearls, singing brings dreams of wonder... their blood can make one live forever or even resurrect the dead.
Rafayel. You big. fat. fish headed. idiot. why did you say that with your outside voice in the middle of a crowded festival while wearing your fishscales and silks and looking particularly lickable?
ACHIEVEMENT: Fountain of Atei received. Inventory slot: 63
Rafayel: "Lemurians don't fall in love with the humans they're bound to. 'Tis a human fantasy." I KNEW IT. i'm just the nearest thing to hand when Ceremony time was looming on the fish horizon. "give your heart" is a thing, but it doesn't come with love. except FROM MY SIDE you rat fish bastard.
muahah! okay, i ... took off while he was explaining all the Lemurian secrets to a little human girl? did i like, run-run, or just run-for-our-human-best-food-on-a-stick-to-bring-back?
nope, we went for the * wine *. not the best idea, i don't think you can drink wine underwater.
oh great. out of nowhere, we're fingered for having stolen the pearl eyes from the Sea God statue. what happened to innocence until proven super guilty? THAT guy HAS the pearls! we're just standing around looking impressively good.
oh, good gravy. we're BOTH stupid. paying with pearls, what the hell.
oh, wow. okay. he cannot go against my wishes or we cannot be bound. and if i want to stay at the festival, then he will distract the local police so that i can.
this is one FUCKED UP BOND.
"I only need one follower. It doesn't have to be you."
this is hurting my heart in a way i cannot actually put to words right now.
okay, heart hurts aside, the cops, they have found us.
oh, he doesn't ACTUALLY have to cry at all! pearls, pearls, a carpet of pearls. man, humans really are so greedy.
um. top of cliff, much pain at bottom, Rafayel is all "jump!" and i'm like 'nooooo'. and he kicks me off. this boy really needs to learn some people skills.
"Maybe my destiny is to die in the Ocean. Lemuria was but a mirage, a dream made of my final moments because I still clung to a sliver of hope." oh girlfriend-follower, have i got news for you.
apparently i cannot place any hope into Gods, real or imaginary.
okay, am i getting the gist between follower (one only per Sea God, no refunds) and sacrifice (to give their Heart to the God to keep the Sun Under The Water burning for another generation)?
okay! another off-screen kiss to give Water Breathing: Active. i guess every time i go on land and breathe air, i lose the ability to breathe water. hopefully he didn't bite us in retaliation for the first time.
New Ability Unlock: Walk On Water - waves bloom under my feet, sea foam to appear with each step, gulls land on my shoulders. oh my god, why do neither of us draw? we need to recruit somebody stat.
sitting on the waves (as one does) to admire the upcoming dawn, Rafe hits us with "The prophecy stated Lemuria had only one Sea God left. My predecessor passed away and they found me years later, bathed in the flames under the union of dusk and dawn." that is so poetic. give that writer two cookies and a glass of nice milk.
then we presumably watch a lovely dawn and now we timeskip "many months" and i live underwater in the City. Ceremony incoming the next day. Rafayel takes us to the temple while everyone is sleeping.
okay, so when the fire goes out tomorrow, a new prophecy will appear in the Tome. does that always happen during the transition ritual?
so if everyone at the Ceremony recieves the blessing... hmmm. lost my train of thought. but i am suddenly wondering if the reason the Sea God needs a follower (singular) to be bound to, its because otherwise they would lose themselves to the Ocean and remember nothing of what it means to take care of the smaller creatures that depend on it.
Rafayel: "Are you willing to be my follower?" i am! girlfriend, what sayest thou?
Girlfriend: "Desiring the sincerest worship of mortals, thou must offer an irreplaceable object."
heart heart heart
I will cut out your heart with a dagger honed, my darling. And in Love's name, your heart will become my faith. Your body will be washed clean, shine like a pearl. I will care for your heart. Till we meet again. And you reclaim it for yourself. Siren's Ballad Act III: Muia
Oh. oh. then a dream of sand and dried rivers and cracked, bleeding feet. a man points to a half-buried skeleton and says "There is Whalefall City." We walk there hand in hand. As the sun rises, he plunges a dagger into my chest, tears out my heart. a tiny flame feeds on the blood, a crystal with a strange light in the center. a whispering voice "the reason for us to leave the desert is not to find an oasis, we're here for a heart, to take it back and make it our worship."
then i wake up. and hear rumors from the surface world as whispered into the conch. the Sea God burned down a land temple in his anger for the loss of the Sacrifice. the eldest Emissary was bedridden and died.
holy shit, it was a thousand years since the last Sea God Ceremony? the God is very long lived indeed.
Hide and Seek: A Children's Game
Someone you meet, she will steal something of great importance to you. Even if you are blindfolded and tossed into the bottomless depths of the Ocean, she'll know where you are and how to find you. Siren's Ballad Act IV, Weeping Siren
The Ceremony is started, I promise to give Him my heart, to pray to Him the rest of my days, Rafayel takes my hand, and promises a bond everlasting.
"No one knows what happened that day. Lemuria is plunged into endless darkness. Panic seeps into every part of the Ocean. The Deep Sea is angry. In its wrath waves slam against the cliffs and rocks fall into the waters. Even the under-build temple is turned into rubble. Tis a long time before the Sea God walks out of the temple alone, bringing light back to Lemuria. As he leaves the temple, the alcove that once held the flame collapses. The Sea God's follower is gone. Bathed in sparks and cinders, he holds a small, pulsing flame. It writhes like a newborn. Some said the Flame was born from the purest faith. Some said the Sea God sacrificed His follower to save Lemuria.. different stories, some true, some not, until people gradually forgot about the Ceremony. No Lemurians have ever seen the Sea God's follower and the little fish that swims around him - they are gone, whereabouts unknown. Only many, many years later than the Sea God has perished, when the kingdom has sunk to the depths of the Ocean, a rumor begins to circulate Lemuria. The God of the Sea had lied to the Deep Sea. For his Beloved." Lemuria: The Days to Come.
I...love this myth so very much, even with the occasional stiff writing. It was the old LaDS version, before they started churning out cinematic masterpieces back to back. But this one is nostalgically charming, like an old piece of technology that was the best thing that ever existed for a certain time, before it got surpassed by newer and shinier things.
- makes you wonder how far inland Rafayel can go?
We can see Raf travel quite a bit both in anecdotes and cards. A couple of them will be particularly interesting because it will give us a clear idea of where his limits are.
- "when our hands touch, fire bursts forth from his fingers."
I looooooove the sadistic little laugh he does right after that. Like he genuinely wouldn't care if another human died. They're little more than toys. True god behavior.
- the scales on his neck are ever so slightly raised.
Incorrect detail for fish but very familiar to us for how animals react when they're stressed.
- "if her souls has returned to the heavens..."
I need to check the Chinese version of this, because I don't remember if it's just a translation thing or not. The in-game world has gods and religions, though, which always come with an after-death realm.
- his mouth is swollen and there seems to be a wound on his lips.
Put a pin on it! There will be a nice throwback to this in a certain card.
- i start to express my gratitude and... Rafayel just walks away.
Can't believe he pulled that shit twice lol
- so Rafayel is "centuries" old as per current timeline
Yup. Raf is old old.
- so.. due to wake up again?
Lemuria or the Sea God? Because the god we wake up in Raf's main branch.
- Rafayel will not or cannot die
That seems to be the most literal translation, yes.
- i have a feeling he's just going for whatever's closest and isn't Lemurian.
Together with some comments he make about Lemurian's traditions (he decides to skip the parade before the ceremony, him escaping to the surface when he shouldn't have etc.), it looks like he doesn't care much for them. He even compares his childhood to MC's, in the context of being forced to act a certain role that wasn't chosen by them.
- he cannot go against my wishes after the ceremony.
Consider that in this case she would have to die by giving her heart, but until then it would mean that she could command the sea god. That's quite the gamble considering we're talking about humans, a species Raf does not trust at all.
- "Human promises are but meaningless words."
Flashback to Ebb and Flow, where a very fragile Raf still asks MC to promise that she would never hurt him. I'm sick.
- so boned. and not in the schmexy way with a lot of pleading and whimpering and futile struggles that i feel i must make in order to have it feel even better.
Burst out laughing and it's way too late in the night to be doing that. That is certainly a whole sentence if I've ever read one.
- "You must believe in me alone."
I've always found this part interesting, because it's like it's implying there are other divinities and they're all competing for the mortals' attention.
- Rafayel does not like being touched.
That will not last long.
- if the flame is on top of the spire, its not moving and neither is the city so how does it rise in the east and set in the west?
I've always wondered the same. Because it's described like it is in fact moving between two places in the city, but it should be stuck in the temple. I don't know. Plot holes.
- he fell asleep, i snuggled his shoulder and he draped his arm around me tight.
He also let her touch his hand <3
- so the bond is so the Sea God will remember and obey "her"
He says that if he disobeyed her that would mean they could not be bound. Which is interesting because there's not a bond yet, but he's already acting like he needs to be on his best behavior or the bond wouldn't retroactively work? It could not be forged because there wouldn't be a real intention behind it?
- their blood can make one live forever or even resurrect the dead.
Now think about Ever and Raymond and that mermaid skeleton on display. "ACHIEVEMENT: Fountain of Atei received" indeed.
- i ... took off while he was explaining all the Lemurian secrets to a little human girl
That whole scene. How he was searching for her when he couldn't see her, the internally confused relief when he found out she hadn't run away, the smile when she chose to stay with him <3 even if he almost got them arrested.
- "I only need one follower. It doesn't have to be you."
ANGST
- and he kicks me off.
Absolutely iconic moment. I love you Raf, never change.
- New Ability Unlock: Walk On Water
This is what was mentioned in Abyssal Chaos <3
- we timeskip "many months"
Many moons, which I take for "days" since they were 1 month away from the ceremony and now we're at the day before.
- the reason the Sea God needs a follower (singular) to be bound to
In my head a god can draw their power from the kind of devotion they get from followers. I'm not sure infold was going in that direction, but I remember a book series I read as a child where the gods scaled their power on how many followers they had. Here we have a sea god who needs a follower that will give him a heart filled with the purest devotion. The bond is something every Lemurian can do, but with a mortal it becomes "I have to obey them" (two lemurians would have to reciprocally obey each other, hence the power imbalance would cancel itself out?). The bond might be needed to make sure said mortal is filled with the purest devotion. Why the sea god needs a follower to be sacrificed in order to obtain their full power...I don't know. Something something true love's kiss heart is the most powerful source of energy there is.
- then a dream of sand and dried rivers and cracked, bleeding feet.
Mmmmmmmmh sounds very familiar to a certain Abysswalker maybe.
- the Sea God burned down a land temple in his anger
I love this so much. I think it's the first instance we get of how much Raf cares for MC. He's so...understated in his words and generic presence (he's not throwing around pick up lines or flirting even), but he's blushing when he asks MC if she wants his heart, and he kills the people who mistreated her. /sighs dreamily
- promises a bond everlasting
/sobs For 'tis Lemuria's vow, a bond everlasting
He says this sentence in the new trailer too :<
- No one knows what happened that day
We're still wondering to this day. Many theories circulate on what happened and why MC disappeared, if she died, if she escaped, if Raf knew she would disappear or not. What is for sure is that he fucked over his entire civilization with that one. Good job, Raf.
- No one knows what happened that day We're still wondering to this day. Many theories circulate on what happened and why MC disappeared, if she died, if she escaped, if Raf knew she would disappear or not. What is for sure is that he fucked over his entire civilization with that one. Good job, Raf.
He leaves the temple, follower (and little blue fish / the sea's promise) no longer to be found, but cradling a flame with no mention of a crystal in it, unlike the dream in the sands. If the Flame (Sun Under The Water) burns with the power of an aether core, taken from a heart (given willingly?) but he comes back only with a flame ....
huh.
Lemuria doesn't die after this though, its pretty clear that while Rafayel may (or may not) have lied or reneged on the pact with the Deep Sea and the Sea was angry for a time, he did in fact eventually walk out of the temple and gave light back to his civilization. Unless you're referring to something that happens later?
I mean, yes, Lemuria falls and is lost for ages and ages, but this myth seems to imply that that happens later on, not, like, right after the Ceremony.
Well, "Lemuria is plunged into endless darkness." is the immediate consequence, and "many years later than the Sea God has perished, when the kingdom has sunk to the depths of the Ocean" does imply that something has gone irreparably wrong. This story's pivotal point is the Ceremony, so if the text is mentioning it we can presume it's related to that event rather than something else in the far future. The flame that Raf carries out might have been his own evol, and not the actual Lemurian sun, because everything just crumbles after that.
Also, we know from Nightly Strolls that Raf's whiny monologue once MC finally comes to him to the hospital probably has more truth to it than simple bratty lines "It's been 800 years" could very well be literal for him, since it's close to the span of time between one Ceremony and the next. We also know that he met MC in the present when she was a child and he was also very young, and at that point Lemuria was an underwater ruin. After the Chronorift induces a tsunami that brings Lemuria to a depth that humans can explore, the civilization has long since abandoned its home.
It could be that the Ceremony didn't actually work because Raf was supposed to take MC's heart, not give away his. And the sea god needs the follower's heart to power lemuria's sun and properly use his power.
okay, this already making me flashback to the smack in the face that was Your Fragrance. Rafayel, are you sure you want to send me perfume - ANY perfume? "Enchanted Sea at Night" sounds quite lovely though.
i am remembering "that morning" when an intoxicating scent permeated the air. i... don't even want to guess about Lemurian physiology and pheromone production at the moment. but apparently it was THIS exact perfume and "they" "threw away the sample"? apparently the memory of it is enough to make me flush though. what WERE we doing that morning, exactly?
the bottle has mermaid art. mmkay.
i guess we're dreaming! the sound of the ocean waves....
i am Lemurian? or... ? "Your Magnificence!" and a red fish is perched on my nose. am I the Bride in this dream?
no, apparently the fish are Red and Blue and I am the Witch of the Deep Sea and we have "another" visitor.
hiiii Rafayel! yes, i am the Witch of the Abyssal Rift, apparently. what would you like, handsome young... soon to be a Sea God? well, he's apparently already got a radiant glow. he really is that pretty, honestly.
oh, he wants a potion to turn human, 'to fulfill a single wish'.
Red: "Once you betray the sea, you'll be hit with a dreadful curse!" well, Ariel lost her voice. Rafayel won't? we know he keeps his ability to sing, even.
there's a heavy price for this potion. (isn't there always?)
a whole bunch of troublesome ingredients needed AND 1) a gem that forever shines like the moon 2) a stream that never wanes with time and 3) a voice that sways like the tide
Red and Blue remind me of slightly dumber versions of Kieran and Luke. they apparently weren't supposed to say the three secret ingredients out loud.
well, he's back after a month and look a little worn. bad collection trip, i take it?
scale: from his neck, enchanted to shine forever.
stream: "I possess a life that is everlasting, so my blood will forever flow, just like the unending sea." nice. okay. so Rafayel is the last God of the Sea because he will never need a successor.
voice: captured in the conch, a melody from the eastern sea
muahaha! and down he goes, like a big tree of the sea. after yanking out a scale and bleeding all over the place, i guess i would have done the same thing.
aaand i save his immortal life with several very expensive potions, it seems. i hope this guy pays well, he's depleting my stock faster than i can make it.
my scary and evil Witch self is swallowed up by envy as Rafayel talks about his beloved. as she (i?) should be.
oh, that was a lovely tune.
which he apparently used to play for me.. uh her.. uh, his beloved under her window to serenade her to sleep
this is... what is going on. "Once you're human, you can play it again for her." I've noticed he tends to stare at me for no reason in particular. "I can play it for her right now."
oh. oh hang on. earlier in this dream, Red or Blue accused me of forgetting things because I keep sampling my own potions or something. Am I both Witch and the beloved? do i lose my memories in EVERY time line? asking for a friend.
oh, not good. the potion will indeed make Rafayel human.. entirely human. blood, song and immortality - gone.
"You don't want me to die?" For a split second... an answer surges from the depths of my heart. and then i wave it off with "whatever".
i make a boat of a sea shell, grab the sea boyfriend and row to the center of the sea ocean (small ocean!)
okay, this is so weird. i ask him if the moonlight is beautiful and he looks at me and says "yeah. beautiful."
"a single drop [of this potion] is enough [to turn him human]. my potions are the best." no kidding! why did you make a whole bottle's worth then?
The Deep Sea won't bless a love that betrays it. Only a witch would bless you. (mmkay? that was kind out of nowhere as a statement, not dialogue)
and as Rafayel seems to take a drink, a bitter scent wafts towards me (the scent of the perfume in the real world, before i fell asleep). apparently its the scent of the human-changing potion?
oh noes! the vapour -- a burning sensation in my chest, as i speak an incantation to stop the potion's effect. the seashell boat rocks with the unstable magic.
Rafayel, what are you doing!?
i fall off the boat and he leaps after me. "Don't be scared."
I am going to cut a bitch in a minute, are you trying to turn ME human? I am the Witch of the Abyssal Rift! I have no need for stupid human legs and a stupid human life!
... and the memories resurface as he talks about kissing my fingers, singing to me, listening to my voice in answer.
As my memories gradually return, Rafayel starts to dissipate.
OH NO
aaaand I wake up and Rafayel is right there, complaining about how hard I was grabbing his arm, and screaming in my sleep
(impllied: sleepover with Rafayel?! we is luvs, now?)
oh poo. no. apparently i've been asleep for more than a day and, worried, he rushed over with a spare key to wake me up.
nice: "Have some water. You've been shouting so much your voice is hoarse."
that was interesting! so... did he let his Follower go, and they lost their memories under the ocean, hiding in the darkness with Blue and then eventually Red?
okay, a bit of goofing around in Audacity and I grabbed our "favorite song" from Rafayel's conch/whistle/flute that he was playing. i was able to get most (but not quite all!) of the ocean effects out of it.
- in Your Fragrance the story cuts off quite abruptly after we escape to the bathroom and Raf comes behind us to cage us against it. What did they do after that indeed.
- The original idea, considering how Raf talks of the witch like the role is something negative (MC also talks about it like she's an "evil" witch), is that after the Ceremony the angered Deep Sea had cursed MC to become the witch of the abyss. Now that we have the new myth we need to understand where to place it, if before or after Forgotten Sea (god of tides myth)
- MC getting jealous of herself was so cute. And Raf 100% knew. He tends to talk about past!MC to MC as if she's another person in Night Strolls too.
Also, there were some people complaining that in Forgotten Sea they go from reluctant allies to in love too soon. Like one moment she wants to escape and he's almost drowning her, the next he's asking her if she wants his heart. We know there's a whole month in time skip before the ceremony, and we don't know what happened during that time if not for the 4 star cards related to the event. This card here should add to that context (if the new myth doesn't come after God of tides, in which case it could be referencing that instead).
- The losing your memory is starting to become a pattern. Interesting. Is it each timeline? Or is it something else that triggers it? Could we lose our memories in the present, or do we need to "reincarnate" for that to happen?
- "the deep sea won't bless a love that betrays it"
Because she thinks he's about to turn into a human, which would mean betraying the sea by abandoning it. The deep sea would never bless that kind of love, but a witch just might. Both implying that she's an evil and contrarian force to the Deep Sea, acting in ways that are not to protect it, and also that she's just that pure-hearted after all, even while boiling with envy and jealousy we would bless this love Raf is giving everything up for.
- but Raf has no intention of doing this for (and to) himself. He instead wants to free her, because she was never supposed to be this. She turns back human, and he has just the time to drag her to shore before he dissolves in sea foam, right as she regains her memories.
Fan theory is that in the main story, that vision she has when looking at his painting (at the start of the story) of a girl knee-deep into the water, singing a sad lemurian song as she laughs or cries, might have been herself after she regains her memories and mourns Raf's "death" (the sea god cannot die).
- two important news: so there is some way where she can regain the memories of her past lives. It's not out of the realm of possibilities.
Present!MC does not just have visions of her past lives (like she had with Sylus), but she can also have dreams.
- "that was surely just a dream" or something similar, he says. This confirms that he does remember his past. This was a point of contention in Raf circles and still is, whether he actually remembers everything of his millennia long life or parts of it or nothing. Some believe he remembers nothing (which contradicts canon in more than one point), others that he remembers some of it but not all (they can't explain why awakened!Raf after we find the tome of the sea god asks us "a follower? Or just a lowly sacrifice?" "I have no need for traitors" Like he wasn't recognizing us), others that he remembers absolutely everything (in canon he comments several times as a joke - we know Raf and his totally innocent jokes that aren't actually true at all - that he has no problems remembering things).
Here what is 100% sure is that in the present he remembers witch of the abyss, and therefore god of tides. (Insert abyssal chaos reference when he makes us walk on water)
If MC had been simply "freed" by Raf during the ceremony, why did she not go back to the surface? At that point of the story we weren't a marine creature, only a human that needed to be delightfully kissed on the regular to breathe underwater. Whatever power hosting the sea god's heart gave us the day before the ceremony, it isn't apparent to her (I'm not even sure she knows he literally gave her his heart).
And the fact that she lost her memories seems to imply that she's a new reincarnation or something. And is being punished by the deep sea by her own nature. Destined to be alone and abandoned. This could be a punishment for having "stolen" the sea god's heart.
okay, ducking in between work things and reading over everything again -- maybe i'm flying in the face of convention here, but let me know if this doesn't hold.. uh, "water" as a theory because i am not reading it the same way you are.
-- Rafayel & Follower start the Ceremony
-- Lemuria is plunged into endless darkness (the Flame goes out)
-- The "Deep Sea" is angry and there are storms and destruction above
-- After "a long time" the Sea God walks out of the temple with a wavering "newborn" flame
-- As he leaves, the alcove where the Flame was kept crumbles
-- No Follower or blue fish (the sea's promise) to be found
-- Some said the Sea God sacrificed His follower to save Lemuria - so however long it actually was between the "endless darkness" and when He leaves the temple, he does in fact bring back light and Lemuria is "saved".
-- many, many years later than the Sea God has perished, when the kingdom has sunk to the depths of the Ocean This seems to be the Witch of the Abyssal Rift story. He returns her memories to her, takes her to land and then dissipates into foam. He perishes and the kingdom sinks / is finally in the slumber prophesied in the Tome.
It does hold!
I'm still stuck on that "sacrificed his follower to save lemuria" because I don't believe lemuria got its sun back after the ceremony. IMO that could simply mean that people believed he had actually killed her to save lemuria but it had still failed for some reason.
But if we think that his own magic could have sustained lemuria for a bit, it could be that she is then reborn as a witch of the abyss, they meet again, Raf sacrifices himself to make her human again, dissolves into foam, and that automatically destroys the source of the fake-sun's power in lemuria, thus making it collapse once and for all.
It can work.
[/i]Here what is 100% sure is that in the present he remembers witch of the abyss, and therefore god of tides. (Insert abyssal chaos reference when he makes us walk on water)[/i]
ARE Witch of the Abyss and God of Tides connected though? There is nothing in the Witch re-telling that explicitly says that's GoT:Rafe talking, is there? I guess you can draw a dotted line with a --??-- between the two (follower disappears with blue fish, a witch pops up somewhere with no memory, GoT:Rafe tracks her down and sacrifices himself for her and she's left mourning on land) but you could also not draw the dotted line and they could be considered completely different events in completely different timelines/lifetimes?
although now that i look at it again, if the Sea God perishes (dissolves to foam) and Lemuria finally sinks / sleeps without him, that does sketchily imply the two are causually time-linked. but how the hell the Follower ends up as an amnesiac Witch with magical powers does not seem to jigsaw together well, if it all.
![[Image: abyssw-alker-v0-wx0feo9sd3yod500x100.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/LXBKwXgL/abyssw-alker-v0-wx0feo9sd3yod500x100.jpg)