Aldo is really growing on me, the "Let the Spirit Wardens knock on your door, looking for our ghosts.” speech was so poignant.
We finally see the burnt king! Are we ever going to know how he became burnt? I'm curious now.
I might have read it wrong, he's not implying that *he* is the one that ordered their parents killed through Chael, right? Rereading it, it doesn't seem so, but I haven't been feeling well and my reading comprehension in non-native languages goes down when I'm ill.
Whatever the next game is I'll be reading, that said, I'm really getting invested in the Jesseks now!
Great question, and I'm glad you asked to clarify because I was wondering if it was a bit too murky!
The Burnt King is a god that represents the cycle where a ruler ascends, becomes corrupt, and then is destroyed by the people he's wronged. He also represents an archetype of all the rulers who have existed in this dynamic, which he draws his iconography and divine appearance from.
So, in his audience with Emma, when he describes having ordered a loyal man killed, he's appearing in the person of some ancient king and describing a historical event, and then connecting it to the present moment. i.e.: Kings have always, since time immemorial, betrayed their loyal servants to serve their own ends, and Roric is part of just such a crime.
If the Jesseks go and murder Roric (either as a sacrifice, as revenge, or both), then perhaps the Burnt King could appear as Roric, since his spirit will have been consumed and his persona incorporated into the divine being of the Burnt King. As a bit of extra fun, the specific scene here also pays a bit of homage to Macbeth, another story about a corrupt king who was killed by his subjects -- the line "“Look how he shakes his gory locks at me!" is cribbed from Macbeth, Act 3 Scene 4, when Macbeth is haunted by the ghost of Banquo, whom he ordered murdered.
I fear it's a bit obscure, but my intention was the make the religious portions of the story feel quite mystical and esoteric, so maybe it's just working. ;-)
As for how he got burnt: Flint goes into it a bit in Session 4.5: "These folk came to be ruled by such a tyrant, driven mad by his crown, and the greatest and strongest families among them came together and swore an oath: The king must die. For a year and a day, they heeded his every command — no sacrifice he asked was too great, no indignity he inflicted too terrible. Secure in his position, the king did not expect a betrayal on the anniversary of his coronation. His people built a great pyre for him and bound him to his throne. King, crown, and throne were all reduced to cinders, and thus was the Burnt King born. With each burning, they chose a new king to serve, and with the passing of each year, the king was given up to the pyre, becoming one with the divine. This is the faith we few still keep: The king must die. The pyre calls for tyrants to feed it."
What a satisfying conclusion to the heist!
Aldo is really growing on me, the "Let the Spirit Wardens knock on your door, looking for our ghosts.” speech was so poignant.
We finally see the burnt king! Are we ever going to know how he became burnt? I'm curious now.
I might have read it wrong, he's not implying that *he* is the one that ordered their parents killed through Chael, right? Rereading it, it doesn't seem so, but I haven't been feeling well and my reading comprehension in non-native languages goes down when I'm ill.
Whatever the next game is I'll be reading, that said, I'm really getting invested in the Jesseks now!
Great question, and I'm glad you asked to clarify because I was wondering if it was a bit too murky!
The Burnt King is a god that represents the cycle where a ruler ascends, becomes corrupt, and then is destroyed by the people he's wronged. He also represents an archetype of all the rulers who have existed in this dynamic, which he draws his iconography and divine appearance from.
So, in his audience with Emma, when he describes having ordered a loyal man killed, he's appearing in the person of some ancient king and describing a historical event, and then connecting it to the present moment. i.e.: Kings have always, since time immemorial, betrayed their loyal servants to serve their own ends, and Roric is part of just such a crime.
If the Jesseks go and murder Roric (either as a sacrifice, as revenge, or both), then perhaps the Burnt King could appear as Roric, since his spirit will have been consumed and his persona incorporated into the divine being of the Burnt King. As a bit of extra fun, the specific scene here also pays a bit of homage to Macbeth, another story about a corrupt king who was killed by his subjects -- the line "“Look how he shakes his gory locks at me!" is cribbed from Macbeth, Act 3 Scene 4, when Macbeth is haunted by the ghost of Banquo, whom he ordered murdered.
I fear it's a bit obscure, but my intention was the make the religious portions of the story feel quite mystical and esoteric, so maybe it's just working. ;-)
As for how he got burnt: Flint goes into it a bit in Session 4.5: "These folk came to be ruled by such a tyrant, driven mad by his crown, and the greatest and strongest families among them came together and swore an oath: The king must die. For a year and a day, they heeded his every command — no sacrifice he asked was too great, no indignity he inflicted too terrible. Secure in his position, the king did not expect a betrayal on the anniversary of his coronation. His people built a great pyre for him and bound him to his throne. King, crown, and throne were all reduced to cinders, and thus was the Burnt King born. With each burning, they chose a new king to serve, and with the passing of each year, the king was given up to the pyre, becoming one with the divine. This is the faith we few still keep: The king must die. The pyre calls for tyrants to feed it."