#Eparch

[shroomlet]

tsundere eparch....

[icebrooding]

"You do not possess what it takes to match me on the court, Eparch."

[ilona-art]

𝐄𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 And here's the Midnight King at last! It was kinda a fun challenge to incorporate both his forms. Sponsored by ArenaNet

[moth-tea-merchant]

no, you cannot say both

[eparch]

the wizard's court / the king's throne

[smokinsid]

Alright, alright, let's talk about SotO. Keep your chin up. This'll be long, but as fair as I can make it. It's not all negative, but it's not all positive either. My hope is to just be real about it. Feedback welcome. Blast me in reblogs if you don't agree, I'm genuinely eager for the conversation.

The kryptis are emotion. It stands to reason that this would be a story focused on emotion. How the commander feels about this or that. How the world reacts when you put your emotions into it. That's pretty cool, and after a decade of more and more personal-feeling dragonslaying, separating us from our friends in order to deep-dive into our Commander's own heart is a really cool move. I have to give credit to what was intended.

There's a sense the entire time of throttled execution that I want to talk about. The story is, at all times, not bold enough to deliver the emotional payload it wants. It's not big enough, bad enough- and it's not a question of stakes, either. I advocated for a lower-stakes jaunt into exciting but less apocalyptic territories at the end of EoD.

Eparch is not a threatening villain. The reveal that he lied about his army and manipulated the stakes was... contrary to what we saw in the map, in one hand- and in the other hand, a deception that undermined him as a threat right before approaching his throne.

I recall when he was first revealed wishing that he was just, physically bigger. Not like Cerus. Like Primordus. I wanted him to be speaking to us from that precipice at the arena and then suddenly loom into view, towering over the columns, taking up the horizon. If he's so full of the strength of others, let him grow huge from it, so I can feel the scope of what he's taken and feel small in his presence. I play Asura- at no point did I feel like I could not beat his skinny ass to a pulp with my own class abilities and absolutely no help.

His timer in the fight still running while he's in his Dipshit Cowardice Bubble did not impress me, and I still beat the clock with like 60% of the limit to spare.

He's weak, he's anonymous- he's revealed only to immediately clam back up in his tower while everyone else continues to just talk about him- and if I'm being perfectly honest, the best parallel for him is our old pal, Zhaitan.

Zhaitan loved to send bits of itself as far as it could reach, while the dragon itself remained in Arah. In some ways I liked that- it was the traditional dragon that hunted goats in the countryside and hoarded treasure, but with a necromancer's minion-mastery twist.

Now imagine falling short of Zhaitan, that much-reviled old lizard, in terms of story delivery. Sure, we fight Eparch toe to toe, but he's weak. If Lonely Tower had released at the beginning of SotO instead of now as a flashback, it might've helped us better understand and respect him as a threat, much like how we had the entire personal story past Claw Island to understand Zhaitan.

But we didn't. So to continue looking at this parallel, we see a relatively short, strained jaunt to Zhaitan, with a couple of hairpin turn deaths to sting us emotionally (they fall flat, alas), and suddenly a Big, Easy Fight against a Guy Who Sucks.

Do you remember the Asura woman in the personal story- if you let her spouse die, she never speaks to you again, even in later expansions? Remember Tybalt, Cieran, and Forgal? That stuff hurts good. This NPC won't talk to you because you let her down and broke her heart. These characters grew to love you in ways that, especially for the time, were uncommon for characters in MMOs. That's the kind of thing that this truncated expac didn't have time for.

And let's reflect on IBS while we're at it. I'm never going to stop laughing at it sharing an acronym with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, but it genuinely felt like the best they could do working in Bellevue, WA, in the midst of serious covid restrictions. They even went back and re-voiced a chapter that it wasn't safe to voice at the time, remember that? It spoke to an interest in doing their damnedest to deliver the best product they could. And it was good! The final fight couldn't be what they wanted it to be, and I'll always laugh at "so, this is Pact justice?" but it was compelling, at least.

We spend a lot of time in SotO standing still. Selecting a dialogue option and listening to NPCs read their lines. Now, I love Peitha and could listen to her talk all day, but so much of what you should know as the player in position of Wayfinder is stowed away in text-only books and collections. Maybe that's a budgetary constraint. Voice acting is expensive. I don't mind reading, personally- but I didn't, because I was already spending so much time standing around!

I'm not one of those people that thinks of my player character as a killing machine or some kind of mercenary being deployed by the higher echelons to do the practical job of killing a way to the boss. Sid is a radio DJ. Enid is a physicist. Rucks is a troubadour. These are conversational, curious characters who are absolutely invested in what's happening in the world around them.

But my tools as a player for engaging with that world are the ten buttons at the bottom of my screen. You have to challenge me to play the game using those buttons, in order to hook me in and invest me. Kick my ass! Make me fight back! That's part of a great story, and I play all three cruise control classes- Necro, Engi, and Warrior. I want you to make me break bars and use my control effects and feel like I'm under threat so that when I win, it feels like winning!

SotO taught my foul little chain-smoking radio gremlin how to dab. It let me unlock a skyscale the easy way. It made me feel gay things for a twelve foot tall woman made of meat and nightmares. For these things I'll always be grateful.

With strictly tertiary stakes- a secret war on the fringes of reality- expressed through random invasions not much different from the random invasions from Joko's boys, a pinched story with lots of standing around, and a truly pitiful, downright un-respectable asswipe of a villain that makes Zhaitan look like a properly-told story, I have to say that SotO only delivered on its emotional payload in the small places.

The relationships between members of the Ward. The way Peitha grows close to you and comes to rely on you so personally. The banter, more than the beats- and that's as much a problem as it is something to be proud of. Some games don't deliver on character personality. In World of Warcraft: Legion, you got Khadgar being smarmy and Illidan being awful and hilarious- but these are integrated into the most important story moments. When Illidan opens the way to Argus right in the middle of the fucking sky, he has the biggest shit-eating grin you've ever seen on his face, because he knows that it's funny. He knows that he just did the craziest shit that Khadgar's ever seen, and Khadgar's been dealing with demons since the Second War!

So why not have that in our cutscenes? Something as simple as coming to the throne room to threaten Eparch, and seeing Peitha curl her hand around your Wayfinder's shoulder. Isgarren is basically our Khadgar, and he's also a big piece of shit, and he gets some good lines reminiscent of "A Wizard appears exactly when he means to," but we can lean more into that- rather than ask everyone around us if Isgarren is coming, why not... have him fail us? Have him tell us that we can call on him, and then we do, and then have him tell us no.

It's not about how these characters harm and help each other, is what I'm driving at. It's how they harm us, on the other side of the computer screen. You, the player, should be provoked into an emotional response because it's motivating! And if you think being motivated isn't a big deal, I want you to consider that the thing that provokes Kryptis portals to higher intensities are items called motivations.

Arenanet has demonstrated a fluency in the language of emotion, and made a valiant attempt at getting inside our player character's heart. But my take is that in doing so, they left the actual player out of the equation.

I can read to my heart's content, and there's good stuff to read. But I can do that without the game, as everything's transcribed on the wiki. If you want me to be part of your world and tug at my heartstrings, you've gotta provoke me.

And if you can't do that with your main villain, you need a new main villain.

[mabaki]

@moth-tea-merchant your dream..........

[kutscene-kestin]

Your wish is my command. You see, if you clip into Isgarren's Hidden Library, you will find this copy of Eparch's Journal, with the whole encounter laid bare, though Eparch's proficiency with Tyrian language was underdeveloped at the time. Here be a screenshot:

[saturnselkies]

every kryptis has (1) mortal weakness

[madame-cookie]

i’ve seen a couple ppl talking about how Eparch isn’t that scary looking for how much he was built up. and that’s fair bc i was picturing like a dozen different things that seemed cooler to me. so he looked a little underwhelming. but i DO think the imagery of him like feasting on these giant monstrous creatures, some of which are ten or more times larger than he is, is kind of cool in a unique way since he’s smaller.

bc it sort of speaks to the cosmic-level power he possesses to command the will of giant kaiju demons bc he has presumably eaten ones like that piece by wretched little piece in spite of them, because of the sheer strength he possesses over them. i found that kind of cool since he’s so mysterious still, even though he’s finally been revealed. it makes me wonder if he has like a Final Form or some shit. i would think that’s awesome if he pulled a resident evil and just exploded into a monster halfway through the fight. ESPECIALLY if Peitha did it too that would be siiiiick.

either way i’m excited to see where they go with the rest of this high society demon drama that im heavily invested in. it’s times like these i wish there was a document with just like, all the little journals and notes in the game so i could read freely and think more on these characters.

for the amount of lore that is sequestered to documents such as these spread across various late game maps, i’ve always been a proponent of fewer enemies or being given those inventory items you can take to read later for credit— in the philosophy that it would make it easier to take in the content if i wasn’t fighting guys every ten paces and often at the same time.

but yeah! i just kept thinking of like how little his tiny mouth looked and was like damn it’s either like scary how long he savors devouring these guys, or maybe a signifier that he has a kaiju form. i think both are sick honestly im excited :3

[quintiliusheartripper]

Considering how waiting sorrow was just completely unraveling by the end of her time in the tower I do wonder how an au where eparch was ascended would have turned out, if he would have unraveled too because of the trauma and mordremoth from his brother.

The kryptis are weird and i kinda want to do another playthrough to study them because theres some weird stuff with (eating?) dreams and the emotions attatched (eparch only being the one to eat them? There was something about dreams and emotions coming through to nayos before eparch became more and more tyrannical) but also they eat fruit and veggies in nayos. The wiki isnt well filled for them. Thankfully when i playthrough with velak ill be able to keep note on them since were still on the oni in eod

Regardless i love the grey characters weve been served.(though its harder to talk about them compared to purely black and white characters such as Joko) I pity eparchs trauma involving his brother, the rejection, and the clear devastation losing his queen was on him but hes still a monster to what he did to his own people.

Isgarrens so far up his ass in his righteousness but i also undertstand how seeing a entire centaur village slaughtered can make someone put their foot down like the at. Its why i wonder about how if eparch was ascended if it would have solved or just delayed eparchs hunger considering that consummation is also connected with how powerful he is.

I also wonder if isgarren was more softer and nicer before Vass’s death from being killed by kryptis. Us and the other wizards working with the kryptis gives them a chance to see them as more than just bloodthirsty beings and i like how it shows the wizards at the end teaching them to paint and enjoying one anothers companies and showing them plants that are safe.

Maybe isgarren will one day relent when he sees that the kryptis arent just the people who killed his lover, friends, and slaughtered innocents. I still want to kick him in the nuts though like oh my god your insufferable.

But i am also leaving my judgement of eparch until we see more of how peitha responds. Is the hunger the same for her as she has to try and maintain power? If the fear put into eparch was psychologically damaging enough for him to have an insatiable hunger which means more power to no longer be scared will the fear of losing her place on the throne eventually consume peitha? Maybe. I dont know. Maybe hunger wont be a issue with her because she has other ways of maintaining power. The hunger for eparch just feels different from what weve seen from other kryptis but they also had power from other nontyrian areas of the mists.

I wonder if a symbiotic relationship will one day form instead of there being like a military occupation in nayos.

[icebrooding]

A brief go-over of 'Eparch's Fear' and 'Eparch's Regret' and how Isgarren played a part in what Eparch ultimately became. This is kinda scattered but I think gets across my thoughts Decently Enough.

Isgarren saved Eparch from collapse after he'd just barely escaped Mordremoth, and lost his brother to him in a highly traumatic event. He'd learned fear for the first real time.

And then he comes to adore Isgarren. Resplendent. Even Mabon thinks the two were amicable enough to be friends.

The Wizard's Tower, a safe place. A peaceful one, unlike Nayos, a land of hostility and danger.

Breathe.

A land where even breathing is harder, difficult, unpleasant.

Isgarren teaches the wayward Kryptis of the world, and Eparch is enamoured with it. But there is a problem...

Eparch is a natural predator. He needs to feed. He cannot push this need aside, it drives him, it is his nature that he cannot deny. But he likes Tyria, what can he do?

Wizards do not need to sate physical need after their ascension.

So what he does is explain. He wants to become a Wizard. To free himself of the hunger. To be able to remain in Tyria without it tearing him apart and causing him to be a threat to it.

And Isgarren rejects him. He is unbalanced, in some fashion. Not fit to be a Wizard. But Waiting Sorrow is, he says to Eparch's face.

But Eparch needs this. He must feed. But it seems he rejects his nature on the ground of loving Tyria. And he cannot feed on Isgarren; there is nothing there to consume. He is empty.

His nature is screaming at him, and he cannot find anything to sate it from Isgarren.

He snaps. He is given no choice but to seek out something, anything, to sate that hunger. And it's been so long, he goes berserk. And in the wake of it, regret. He did not want for this.

And Isgarren sees it, and there is judgement. Judgement as Eparch tries to plea and argue how it all came to this; something he never wanted to come to pass to begin with.

And then he is banished, to a hostile world where surviving is a struggle.

A place he belonged, no longer. Rejection, from the one who saved him, who he looked up to and admired.

And when Isgarren talks to Mabon of his actions?

Perhaps he hoped that Eparch's nature could be 'tamed' as Mabon's was. But he brushed aside Eparch's hunger, until it reached that breaking point. And for Eparch's actions, Isgarren condemned all Kryptis to the same standard. (Thank you for this input elder-dragon!)

And then,

when we are led to believe through Eparch's memory (which I would find more honest) that he expressed his desires to Isgarren.

And Eparch's spider form in the meta? The Consumed King. Consumed by his own hunger.

And sadly, thousands of years later...

Isgarren's rejection of him, simply for the way he was, stuck with him.

[dualumina]

Before the next SotO update drops, we wanted to take a moment to share our most unhinged theory yet:

[moth-tea-merchant]

[eparch]

some very rough visualization for an AU where Isgarren and Eparch swap places as king of Nayos and leader of the Wizard's Court :)

[skrittkicking]

thinking about soto again. does anyone else feel like eparch feels a lot less threatening than, like, even cerus did in early soto? we hear a lot about how he’s this great tyrannical leader who eats his subjects and ooh ahh so scary!!! but we never really see that. we see the aftermath of what he’s done, which yeah sure, he’s a bad guy and i feel sympathy for the kryptis under his reign, but it’s not enough for me to feel like he’s a threat. i understand anet wanted to keep his design and grand reveal towards the end of the storyline but i feel like he could’ve been a much more effective villain than what he currently is if they did less of telling us how bad he is .. and more of properly showing it. we also don’t ever get to interact with him personally until then. even something minor like him talking to the commander akin to what peitha did would be nice. in some of the first story scenes with cerus, it establishes how strong he is in comparison to the commander and the way he can just so easily overpower us. eparch doesn’t do that. he suspends us in the air and knocks us back for like three seconds and then leaves? ok man

i think it would’ve been so much nicer if during the big confrontation scene with peitha, labris & eparch if eparch … ate labris. in front of us. and left. it’d show he really doesn’t care about his family/subjects and it would also just rock??? and make labris’ death much more meaningful than it was. and his design. it’s okay he’s cool looking and all but he looks so boring in comparison to cerus & deimos. he looks like he’s about to keel over and die whereas the big demon bros were intimidating looking. EPARCH LOOKS LIKE AN OLD MAN! maybe that’s the vibe they’re going for but id rather him be some big horrifying beast of a demon than what we got

maybe i’m alone in this but idk. i’ve enjoyed soto so far but there’s certainly issues