mpdgcore

[blazingstar24]

No but like the fact that Rolan respects Zevlor so much implies the idea that he looked up to Zevlor possibly even before having to leave Elturel. And also the idea that Rolan could and does more easily forgive him due to his experience with Lorroakan is so juicy.

Because one could argue that those two things are so different. Zevlor’s actions got people killed. Rolan’s only potentially would have harmed Aylin if the player was not there. But in that notion, it shows how alike these two are or moreso how much Rolan has modeled his values off of Zevlor. Both blamed themselves quite heavily for faltering in their values due to an outside influence neither could control. (Remember that the player/companions would have become enslaved right outside the goblin camp if not for the artifact, Zevlor didn’t have that and broke free of his own will.)

Both Zevlor and Rolan hold themselves to very high standards and tend to turn to self loathing when they can’t meet the impossible standards they set. Even before the Absolute incident, you can see Zevlor breaking under the stress he takes on to protect the tieflings. He says he can’t protect them if they are forced out of the grove, yet we know that the tieflings were so close to the Last Light. If you rescue Zevlor from Moonrise, lemme tell you that paladin does not need your help. He fucking bodied all them mindflayers (in my run at least) Zevlor is way more capable and had been doing so much for the tieflings, but he feels as if it’s not enough, that his broken oath is a sign that he’s failed and is failing them. It’s how the Absolute gets him with false promises and temptation.

And it’s the same for Rolan. His haughty arrogant nature may come off as and is a bit cocky. He can be a prick. But when you really look at it, it’s not overconfidence. Rolan holds himself to a high standard, he needs to be that great wizard he claims to be, else what good is he? And then when he fails to protect Lia and Cal, the same self loathing kicks in. He can’t see that he protected the kids, he failed to meet the standard he set which is be strong enough protect his family. And that’s how Lorroakan gets him to stay and endure the abuse.

In these similarities, it does become a bit clear that Zevlor is the kind of person Rolan wants to be. “He’s like a leader to me, Zevlor holds a special place in my heart.”Rolan’s want for power again yes a bit of wizard hubris but very much in line with that same image of being a protector, like Zevlor. Because back to saving the kids, if Rolan was as selfish as he claims himself to be, if his protectiveness only was for Cal and Lia, he wouldn’t have saved the kids. He would have forgone saving them to protect his siblings. But he didn’t, he tried to save everyone.

So yeah while the Cameos are in a nebulous canon, it’s not like the game itself doesn’t support this idea either