SPOILER An In Depth Analysis of Lari's Character (VERY LONG) (and rewrite of said character)

This isn’t intended as a shitpost. I genuinely believe that Lari’s character has some major flaws and would improve as a main character if my suggestions are acted upon. That said, some of the things Lari says are simply goofy and I can’t help but point them out.

A few things to keep in mind:

• I am not a Lari simp
• Any aspect of her character I don’t focus on, I’ve either missed or don’t believe is an issue as is.
• This whole thing is meant to point out flaws in her current character and correct those. I don’t think her pacifism is a bad part of her personality, I just think it wasn’t done as well as it could have been.

The first segment of this very long post is an in depth look at the RoL questline and how Lari is portrayed in that questline. The second is a summary of her character supported by the points in the first, and the third is my rewrite of the character that I believe gives her depth while not fundimentally changing either her, or the RoL questline.

Spoiler: The First Section very long, but I'd appreciate it if you read it too

Let’s start the analysis with The Worm Holes​

In her first appearance you learn that she is stricken by any and all death. So much so that she leaves behind her work on curing the Decay and follows the player to the site.

There you learn that she is a pacifist and asks the player to not intrude, even though the whole quest started because the worms were invading the surface…

She then tells you this: “I... understand you may not have the same powers as myself... And I, ah...am not free of guilt, either…” Implying that she has power and has killed in the past, yet chooses not to. No good reason is given so far as to why.

In the Grootslang fight, she tries to reason with it and directly says its mind is impaired. This has happened before as shown in RoL 3, yet she hasn’t changed. Then, once she is eaten along with you, she notices the parasites and, telling herself to focus, kills the beast. It’s unclear whether this is deliberate because it doesn’t fit with her character, yet she says “…I don't even know what else I could have d-done...” and “There...it didn’t feel like there was...anything left to it...” after leaving the Grootslang cave. This is exactly what the entire questline is trying to get Lari to understand.

Then she tells the player at the end of the quest that “They...they need to be stopped, but...I can't do it. I c-can't kill... I'm sorry, I just can't!” and “…Just...p-please, take care of this quickly.” Clearly telling the player to kill them for her, and abandoning the realization of a moment before.

What does this quest say about her so far?​

She is a pacifist who has killed, yet is unable to bring herself to kill beasts that will terrorize the entire nation, bringing chaos and death to all in their way. And its not like she can’t take any death, just not her causing the death. She realizes that killing the beast was the only way, yet blatantly ignores that.

She also can’t think under pressure and resorts to large amounts of power with little direction while trapped, and though this isn’t uncommon, you would think the chosen one of Orphion would train self-control. Oh wait, she does! See the quote “…I need to be better…” (picking on that line because it’s kind of… shallow. Could have been written better.)

Alright, let’s move on to Taproot​

Right off the bat we have this gem “I have...important things to do. This accursed Decay...I have to end it. This all needs to stop.” As if she hasn’t been working on this for the last 1000 years.

Then, you watch as she fails after claiming “all my knowledge has gone into this. This must work.” So a few decades of work has ended in nothing. The timescale here is immense.

At the Taproot, it is shown she has made the “choice” though it isn’t clear which one she made or why the choice is important to her.

Orphion then says that “Her heart's emotions have overpowered her mind's judgement.” What emotions? The events of Dullahan ended a 180 years earlier. The death of innocence? Anger at her failure? The quest states that her main flaw is that her pacifism prevents her from using Orphion’s power to kill the parasite, yet that isn’t what’s sited as the reason she cannot enter the Taproot. Even then, the dialogue saying “Her light simply fails to shine where it is needed…” is in a cutscene that shows the emergence of the Parasite, not at the beginning when it seems to actually matter.

What have we learned about her character now?​

She was deemed unfit to enter the Taproot despite making the choice, implying she is unworthy. She also shows incompetence twice early on. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but she has had 180 years at the very least.

We also see how her main flaw fits in. Her still unexplained pacifism is cited as the reason she failed to contain the beast

Let’s move on to A Headless History​

We are introduced to Dullahan! I have some things to say about this character, but I’ll save all that for later.

200 years, the parasite has run rampant. We see the end of an argument between Lari and Dullahan, where Dullahan says “…I've seen what will happen if you don't step up…” and “You've been trying to find "another way" for two centuries. Don't you think it's high-time we took my route…” implying that Dullahan is an antihero. Lari then states that “…I have these powers for a reason!” we can see the error here, but its apparent she can’t. She shows that she has no doubts that she is correct, not that she is in denial of the truth. She then continues to do nothing for another 400 years.

Spoiler: Everything I have to say about Dullahan's current character

Dullahan: the antihero with oh so much potential.

Basically, all Dullahan is currently in the quest for is to take a hit for Lari. He left Aldorei to protect her, whether from the real world or threats, we don’t know. But he doesn’t really do anything important except provide a distraction for Lari. I’m sure he has greater lore potential in the future, but he’s a missed opportunity at the moment.

More cutscenes play, but the next relevant information is after Dullahan is executed. The decay has been here for 820 years, but only these last 20 is when Lari gets sidetracked by Dullahan. Presumably this is what is referred to when talking about Lari’s emotions.

Surprisingly, not much is learned about Lari in RoL 3, which is annoying because it’s such a long quest.​

What we did learn is that she is aware her power can kill, yet feels nothing about that fact and ignores it despite 820 years to ponder it. She seems insistent that her belief is the only way she can go, not in denial of other methods.

We are also introduced to the antihero Dullahan, who is underused.

Now to Finding the Light​

You find Lari trying to wake the Guardian of the Forest, where she fails because of her incomplete Pulse. The player then reveals an inscription at the behest of Orphion due to their complete Pulse. Here it’s revealed that Lari is unable to access the library because… she isn’t allowed. Again, scale comes into account because Lari should have the right to access some ancient libraries. There is no reason given why Elves aren’t allowed into the libraries. Do her morals prevent her?

After getting the spell, the above trend continues as Lari says that “…Where it would have been... Impossible for me to go...” and she is then incapable of placing the spell at the base of the tree. Again, no reason for this is given for this. She is able to see the inscription, yet can’t place the spell there.

Then she turns on the player, saying “go on, then, do it. I'm just needed here to be a translator for you thusfar, it seems.” Showing again that she is indignant that the player does so much.

Here we find that the player needs to provoke Lari into turning against her values.

Then, after following her, we find that her indignation continues. That isn’t what I want to focus on here though. She ignores the advice of the Elder, and instead gets the information she needs and leaves. It seems her character is unable to even consider changing. Here we also see her first sign of arrogance.

The Elder then reiterates that “… She cannot kill- And the source must be exterminated for light to once again fill the land.” Giving the character a goal, but also adding layers to her pacifist persona. He then tells the character that the player is responsible to “… push her to her limits. …” which seemingly undermines the previous statement about Lari. He never directly hints that Lari needs a paradigm shift in character, just that she needs to realize something. This isn’t that simple, regardless of whether Lari’s personality is based off of her pacifism or her arrogance.

You then push her to her limits. Then the guardian wakes up after Lari almost kills you, and he explains why she doesn’t have the full power of Orphion— because she is unwilling to kill to save the lives of others. Even though she initially resists with some… interestingly written dialogue, she quickly turns on her personality, accepting that she was wrong for a thousand years.

That’s where the quest ends. What do we learn about Lari?​

First off, she got upset over some very trivial and unexplained things. While yes, there is past bad blood between Lari and the player, it doesn’t seem enough to justify the anger she feels towards the us especially since she hasn’t even showed her annoyance towards the player beforehand. Moreover, this hasn’t happened once in the last 1000 years? No hero has tried to rid Gavel of the decay?

Then when we do push her to her limits, she goes against herself and fights us. She turns on her pacifism and unleashes the power of Orphion in a way she never has before, allowing her pulse to align with Orphion as far as I understand. The guardian wakes and talks to her, changing her just like that. Her character is based on pacifism. She as a person has been based off pacifism for a thousand years or more, then suddenly she changes in mere days? Weeks? It undermines her character.

We also have the scene with the Elder where we have the one and only instance of arrogance from Lari.

Now to The Realm of Light! We are at the last stretch!​

First off, she apologizes for nearly killing us, and then says the guardian was right in the end. She alludes to you being like Dullahan, even though your roles were drastically different.

Here she makes her decision to act on what the guardian said, saying “I'll have to prepare myself for that... Being willing to take action will not make it any easier on my conscience. But I will set that aside, until the day this all becomes a memory.”

The next relevant section is when the bridge is completed and Bak’al appears. Here we find the vital moment when Lari says “I think. I found someone. Who deserves to be killed…” This change is too soon too fast, regardless of if she realized she needed to kill the parasite or not. She also shows no sign of recognizing who Bak’al is, which further invalidates her bloodlust.

Then, she, without hesitation, attempts to kill Bak’al.

What does this last installment show us about Lari?​

I think I can sum up all that we learned here in a single sentence. She has thought on what the guardian has said, makes a decision, and suddenly changes from not being able to kill anything, to without hesitation attempting to kill someone who merely provokes her.

That’s my thought process, so what about the character?

Well, let’s define her.

Lari is a pacifist and has been for all of her known history. In 0 AP she faces off with the Dernic Parasite and fails to stop it because killing it is against her values. She is mortally wounded and is saved by Dullahan. Then, 800 years later, Lari and Dullahan team up to fight the beast. Yet again, Lari’s pacifism prevents her from killing the beast. She is almost infected by the parasite during the fight, but Dullahan prevents the beast from getting to her, getting infected in the process. 20 years later, Dullahan is executed and Lari attempts to revive him. Then, Lari locks Dullahan in the castle not long after (according to the start of RoL 3).

Here we first come into contact with Lari. We learn first that she is angered by preventable death of the villagers. Then she tells us that though she is guilty, she is above killing. Despite that, she understands that we aren’t and later in the quest tells us to do the dirty work for her because “… I just can't!” Before that however, she tries to negotiate with a beast that she knows can’t hear her. Upon failing to contain it, she kills it in desperation to escape alive. She almost recognizes her flaw, but not quite.

In Taproot we see she is incapable of even pushing back the Decay even using the full extent of her power. This entire quest seems to go out of its way to say “she has a flaw” but it never says what that flaw is. It mentions emotions and being unable to do something, but not what that something is.

After the events of Taproot, we find Lari attempting to wake The Guardian of the Forest. She is failing because of the flaw pointed out in Taproot and it is made clear the player does not have that flaw. Lari becomes indignant at the player because it seems they have replaced her, but she is unable to leave us behind because she still “needs” us to get the spell from Cinfras. Upon getting that scroll for her, she reads it and tries to abandon us and gets further frustrated with us when we follow. She brushes off the Elder, promising to accept help and leaves. He then tells us to provoke her to violence so that she learns to use the last part of Orphion’s power. When we do provoke her, she turns against her values and uses a part of Orphion’s power she never has before. The Guardian wakes at her unlocking this power and gives her a little pep talk about how Orphion is above morals, and how she should be too.

We see Lari shortly after. She immediately apologizes for trying to kill us and shows that she has apparently come to accept that she was wrong for 1000 years in the time it takes the player to get 8 levels. Then she enters the Realm of Light and promises the player she will take action. After the bridge is reconstructed, Lari is confronted by Bak’al. The player knows Bak’al to be evil, but it seems that all Lari knows is that he is an intruder. Despite that, after provoking her by only the smallest amount, Lari tries wholeheartedly to kill him, but ends up following him into a portal presumably leading to Dern as he retreats.

Thus, we have Lari’s character.

Now let’s go over her flaw.

Lari’s flaw is her pacifistic nature. Before writing this I was told Lari is supposed to be a hated character because she is too stuck up to realize that she is wrong, but it isn’t shown like this. All throughout the quests, it is shown that Lari genuinely believes her methods work. An arrogant person not only believes their way to be the best way, but also believes it to be the only way. But if Lari believed that her way was the only way, why does she simply accept that Dullahan has other methods? And why tell the player to kill the Grootslang babies? And if she doesn’t believe her way to be the only one, why is one way better than the other way? It’s not as if she doesn’t realize that killing is an option while still staying on the side of good. Again, Dullahan was there at the very beginning telling her that her way isn’t working and pleading with her to try his way. Lari herself admits that the player must resort to killing because they are weaker. And finally she comes face to face with her flaw, openly admitting that she wasn’t able to see another way out of the situation.

In short, her flaw isn’t arrogance because arrogance is more than just ones view of what is right and wrong. Her flaw is her pacifism, because it perfectly covers the points it needs to, while not bleeding over where it wasn’t intended. That is where many of the issues lie. Her own pacifism is the one and only thing she values and it’s the one and only thing she needs to abandon to be everything she ever wanted.

Which brings me to her redemption arc (or at least, what little we have of one).

The main point I’ve gone over is that her “redemption” is way too quick. She has been set in her ways for the last 1000 years from the very start, not even changing when Dullahan was infected. So even though her morals aren’t very well explained, its clear they are basically her entire personality. Someone doesn’t just change their personality of a thousand years in just a short series of events. If Dullahan, someone very close to her, wasn’t able to change her over 800 years, how the hell does a Fruman Soldier change her in less than a month? Her redemption is unbelievable.

I have 2 other small gripes with the character. One is one I’ve mentioned several times, but I should bring attention to it.

1. The scope of the entire thing. A thousand years is a lot of time. Each event taking place dozens, even hundreds of years apart. Very little changes between 200 year intervals! The generation that killed Dullahan is long dead by the time we come along. In fact, it took a direct bite from the parasite 20 years to not even fully infect Dullahan, so how do the villagers even notice it? She also doesn’t change at all during that time. Not in personality, not in motive, not in skill.​

2. Lari seems utterly inadequate for her role, yet no good reason is given for this. She doesn’t show that she’s scared to experiment, yet all she can think of is getting guidance from Orphion. She uses all her knowledge to try and fix a single spot of decay, but fails. She channels all the power of Orphion she can, yet can’t hold the parasite. While yes, she is flawed, why was she chosen then? We don’t know. Presumably she was chosen before 0 AP, and maybe then it was better for the chosen one of Orphion to be a pacifist, but that’s never even hinted towards. All we know is she repeatedly fails, yet is repeatedly given grace by a god who desperately needs her to completely change.​

Now, for the moment you are probably here for, The Character Rewrite.

Like I said above, I’m trying to keep the main unlikability of Lari from the start, while giving depth to her character and also making Dullahan into a much better antihero. This is also written like a story rather than an evaluation.

Let’s start

Lari and Dullahan were the chosen couple (note: this doesn’t have to be a romantic relationship). The holy duo. Dullahan was chosen to complete Lari, and Lari Dullahan. Lari is a pacifist, who values life above all else. She exists to stop threats by peace and persuasion. Dullahan, on the other hand, values justice. He is there to protect Gavel by any means necessary. They are chosen roughly 200 BP as young elves, and guard the nation from any and all threats. Dullahan is a maverick with his power and experiments to no end, while Lari is cautious of her power, afraid she might hurt others, or god forbid, get drunk on her own power and turn against Orphion.

Come 0 AP, Lari takes on the Parasite, but because of her lack of skill, almost dies. Dullahan finds her and drives off the parasite, but turns back to save Lari. They spend years searching for the parasite, but to no avail. During that time, Dullahan urges Lari to practice, but she insists that the only reason she failed was because she wasn’t backed by Dullahan, the other half of Orphion’s light. Finally, 800 years later, they finally find the parasite. Their plan is that Lari holds the beast while Dullahan binds it with Orphion’s light, but Dullahan has plans he didn’t tell Lari. He received a vision that the only way the decay could be stopped would be if it died. After telling Lari, she, thinking nothing of it, insists that there is a way to succeed without killing it. But Dullahan, knowing it to be a vision from Orphion and knowing he can’t do it without her, plans to simply strike as she holds it.

Come the fight, Lari holds the beast, but as Dullahan channels the power of Orphion, Lari recognizes the spell formation (or runes or whatever) and deflects Dullahan’s attack before it can land on the beast. (she still adamantly believes the beast doesn’t need to be killed) Now unrestrained by Lari’s spell, the parasite attacks the exhausted Dullahan. He is bitten, but Lari, believing Dullahan to be dead, crosses some internal line and for a brief moment, fully resonates with Orphion. Channeling the power that was dedicated towards Dullahan, Lari musters enough power to kill the beast, but because of her previous unwillingness to train, loses control of the power. All at once the power she holds was set free, driving back the parasite, but not killing it. While her transformation is happening, Dullahan is deprived of Orphion’s power. While normally he would be able to survive a single bite from the parasite, because his body is deprived of Light the decay quickly sets in. After the fight, the power returns to Dullahan, but is unable to cure the decay in him.

Over the next 20 years, Lari and Dullahan work together to try to cure him, but to no avail. When Dullahan tries using Orphion’s power, it is laced with darkness. The villagers see his scarred face and festering wound, and believe him to be the cause of the decay. One day, they set out and behead him. After he died, the light of Orphion fully left him. In that time, the decay set in. It consumed his mind and body completely. And when Lari resurrects him in the Lazarus Pit, there is nowhere for the light to return. Resurrected without the light in him, he at first seems normal to Lari, if without Orphion’s power. After a while, however, he starts to push beyond where his old morals stopped him. He starts killing without cause and Lari is horrified. She confronts him only to find his mind has been addled by the Decay. Grief stricken, Lari locks him in his castle and turns her attentions to finding a cure for the Decay—for Dullahan.

160ish years later, 1000 AP, a human (the player) arrives. She is told there is deaths, and hoping she can prevent more, rushes to the scene. She finds a Grootslang has dug holes in the surface and teams up with the human to go and stop it. As they pursue the Grootslang down the tunnel, Lari is horrified the Human would murder the native inhabitants of the soil. She reprimands the soldier and tells them that she will take care of confrontations from now on. Then they split up. Lari meets some baby Grootslangs first, and recognizing the same decay in their mind that effected Dullahan. She tries to hold them, but the human falls through at that exact moment and distracts her, allowing them the chance to escape. As Lari berates the human for disturbing her, the ground shakes and the mother Grootslang appears. As Lari tries to hold the decaying beast, she is distracted by keeping the human alive. Before she can contain the it however, it eats the human. Angry she was unable to keep another soul from death, she falters, allowing the beast to snatch her out of the sky.

Now inside the Grootslang, Lari finds the human alive, but instead of relief, she is horrified at the carnage the Human wrought (the player would have some kind of task inside). The inside of the Grootslang was torn to shreds. Angry at the human, she binds them and tries futilely to save the beast. After it dies, she takes the human out of the cave in a rage, and in her anger orders the human to atone for its crime by finding the babies she had been trying to hold. (This is the Nest of the Grootslang raid)

After leaving the human to its task, she returns to normal life. Trying again and again to find a way to cure the decay. As she is about to try another concoction, the human appears again. After watching her best attempt at the decay fail, the human offers to help. Annoyed at this, Lari accuses them of not even being able to find some Wyrms. If they can’t find some Wyrms, they most definitely cannot help with this task. Just then, a trail of light appears, leading both Lari and the Human to the Taproot. Confused and prompted by the human, Lari explains to them that this is where she and her counterpart Dullahan were first tested to be the chosen ones of Orphion. The test portal appears, but resists her attempts to enter. The human however enters first time and comes out claiming to have made the choice themselves. Lari, assuming this means Orphion has replaces Dullahan, flies into a fit of rage. Throwing spells against the unmoving door and screaming at Orphion to let her fix him. The door opens, and Lari tries to enter, assuming this is the answer to her anger, but she again meets with resistance. The human, however, enters. (Here, the player starts learning Lari’s history, as well as that she is an imperfect vessel held back by her principles. They also learn that their purpose is to bring Lari to the point where she doesn’t need Dullahan anymore. Some dialogue about “there is not enough time to train up a new chosen pair, she must take on both mantles—if only for a short time” and “your task, my pulse, is to show her that she no longer needs the other” It is made clear that the player is not the new chosen)

After some time, Lari has oriented herself and quieted her anger. When the human emerges, she apologizes, and tells them to wait to be contacted. Because in her mind, if Orphion chose them as a replacement, she would need them later.

(Then the player then goes through A Headless History where they learn the rest of Lari’s and Dullahan’s past.)

Lari is trying to wake the Guardian of the Forest when the human finds her again. She is heard using the voice of Orphion to try and wake it when the human arrives. The human walks towards the tree and she starts to ask what they’re doing before seeing an inscription appear. Amazed that the other “chosen” (as she sees it) is adapting so quickly, she reads it only to find it leads to the city library where elves have not been allowed since the Parasite emerged. Frustrated, she sends the human off and continues to try and wake the tree.

She has made no progress by the time the human returns. The human, however, presents her with a Spell of the Waking Forest that they found. Upon reading it, Lari finds that she must seek the Elder of the elves for knowledge. Relieved, she tells the human to stay put while she is gone, and is gets angry when they follow her. She tells them to leave, insistent that she knows best. Talking to the Elder, she confides in her sense of loss, that her god abandoned Dullahan. He tells her that she must accept the will of Orphion, and that she must accept the help of the human. She humbly agrees to accept help, and gets the location of the ingredient she needs. (Then the player finishes eavesdropping. And after you drop down, he tells you that he knows you aren’t the new chosen one, but that you were chosen for something. He then repeats the same dialogue you heard in the taproot about her, adding the extra detail that the guardian will help. He then tells you to seek out the same plant as Lari)

Lari comes back to the guardian and tries to cast the spell, only to fail again. Even when the human arrives, the tree still does not wake. Frustrated, she turns to the human to ask for answers, only to see that they too possess the plant the Elder told her to retrieve. Angry, she starts asking where they got it from before realizing that they must have overheard her conversation with the Elder. Inflamed at the thought that they saw her weakness, that they would have the audacity to try and replace not only Dullahan, but also her, she acts out. Lari, for the first time since Dullahan was bitten, harnesses the whole power of Orphion and tries to kill the human. Before she can, the guardian awakens and puts a stop to her rampage. Suddenly brought low, Lari is horrified at her actions and tries to flee in shame, only to be stopped by the guardian. He explains to her that her pacifism was what allowed the decay to survive. That if she had listened to her counterpart, the decay would have stopped. He tells her that the humans purpose is to simply bring her to this realization and that Orphion hasn’t given up on Dullahan. During his last point, Lari realizes that if she takes up the mantle of both chosen, she can not only drive out the Decay, but also cure Dullahan. At that realization she appears stricken. Torn between a life she’s always known and a life she’s always wanted. She asks the guardian for some time, and the guardian gives it, telling her to meet with the human at the portal. (He then goes on to explain the war of the realms to the player)

Later, the human finds Lari at the portal to the realm of light. She welcomes them and apologizes. She tells them the guardian was right, and that in order to cure the decay she needs to be ready to be bring judgment, mentioning its what Dullahan would do if he was there. (From here on, the quest would continue exactly how it currently is up until Bak’al)

As Lari and the human cross the bridge, a dark portal opens in front of them. Bak’al emerges and taunts Lari, who grows angry as he claims the decay has already won. Looking at the human, she tells them to continue and that she has justice to administer. After that, she pursues Bak’al into the black portal. They fight for a while at the gate to Orphion’s castle, and Lari, for the first time intentionally using Orphion’s power to its full potential, traps Bak’al and deals a blow so grievous as to make him flee. Lari pursues him into the portal in an attempt to get at the core of the darkness, leaving the human behind.


That was longer than I thought it would be, but it’s over now. How does this flaw differ from the old?

First, it adds emotional stakes to everything. Yes, having a deity is great and all, but so few people are so sold out for their god its hard to imagine. Here, we have emotions as her primary motivation to change. She believes her pacifism is the right way still, and is angered when people who don’t know better tell her otherwise. But yet when someone who does know better tells her, instead of just accepting that “oh that’s the truth I guess” she has a reason to betray herself. She doesn’t value Dullahan above Orphion, but she does use him as a tangible excuse to suddenly change her ways. It still goes against the nature she has had for the last 1000 years, but she has a reason the player can sympathize with.

Does this make her more likeable? At the end? Yes. During? No. Even I found myself wondering if I had written too much of an angry character during Taproot, but I think this will add to her redemption arc.

As for why I wrote Dullahan as a main character, he was useless before and could have been a great a antihero beforehand even without taking any of the above changes. He has little purpose in the game at the moment and if the CT plan to expand on his character, they need a stronger one to build off of.

Thank you for reading all that if you did, this took upwards of 16 hours to research and write. I don’t claim my proposal to be the only one, nor do I claim it to be perfect, but I do believe it to be better than the current character for both Lari and Dullahan.

Apologies for any grammar and punctuation mistakes, I cba to go over a 5700 word document for minor errors.

 

Her lines have gone through so many revisions that I no longer know how her writing is now

All I know is Orphion is kinda more responsible

 

Wow that's a lot of text for the "supid elf", but ok, before I even read the rewrite, I'd like to point out some things:

- During Taproot and onwards, Orphion itself tries to contact the player because they know the different morality reputation they hold (or so was said by the Elder). Orphion knows we, as the player, are the key to wake Lari up after she failed to follow Dullahan's advice and premonition. We don't exactly know how Orphion intends to, but They as an entity above living beings, somehow communicated this to the Elder. The reason the Elder tells Lari and us to go seek the Canned Abis plant isn't because it's a thing we need to take in our travel - in fact (unless it's a bug), it's a useless plant that we keep in our inventory and we can just throw away as soon as the RoL 4 quest ends - instead, Lari has probably told the Elder by this point about the "dire action" that needs to be committed in order for the tree to waken, so the Elder sets up the action.
So as a tl;dr. Orphion (by placing the tablet under the tree, or unless it was there already) knows what's needed to wake the tree to provide guidance, and this message goes all the way to the Elder who immediately catches on and sets up the provoking of Lari. Do note that the tree seems to be needed to open the sealed gate to the portal.

- One thing that's highly debatable is the passage of time in Wynn - we don't entirely know what's the time like in the game, and a lot of quests seem to be days, weeks, or months apart even, maybe even years? The quests Tunnel Trouble/new Cowfusion, and Cook Assistant/Recipe for Disaster are good example of this. In between RoL 1-5 there might be several weeks or months in which Lari has probably reflected more as someone unknown to her previous experiences has come in to "assist her", so it's entirely possible her character might seem out of her usual self. This also aligns with this:

- so we could probably be seeing multiple days or weeks go by at once during a quest.

- I disagree a bit with

because

I'm plenty sure you can tell how much we as the player keep pushing her back at every encounter we have with her during Taproot and after. I do agree slightly with the fact that in-game it seems like it's too fast a transition, but within the questionable time passage (as said in my point above), it could be an interesting subject to debate.

- Dullahan is by no means chosen by Orphion, or said to have been once. It could be highly speculated that he just goes along with Lari because they're friends, or he simply could have other motives. Matter of fact is, in Aldorei's Secret Part 2, we only see Lari being called upon, and so we don't know what his role is. Lari might've chosen not to listen to his advice and attempt her pacifist way because her morality still isn't broken, and even the death of Dullahan doesn't impact this choice of hers not to kill.
Other than that, and his backstory before and after his revival, he's pretty much a blank slate begging for more stories to be added. pls ct add dullahan raid

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I've now read the rewrite, but nothing much of it seems to differ from the Lari/Dullahan story we currently have other than Dullahan now being a secondary protagonist of the story.

Personally, an easy fix for Lari's "change of heart" or redemption arc, would be simply to replace that line of text where she says to kill Bak'al, and replace it to "defeat" Bak'al together with the player. It would make sense, it would fit with what's happening, and while it would still leave holes in the plot, it feels way less in the player's face.

Great analysis btw I probably have thought about Lari too much in the past and it's served great for this post. (but for other reasons...)

 

i'm not sure exactly how i feel about your rewrite, but i think your analysis does a good job of pinpointing just how terrible lari's character writing is - RoL is perhaps my least favorite quest, mostly because of her

 

TL;DR: Lari has bipolar disorder

Jokes aside, this is a very good analysis for some goofy ahh elf, very detailed

 

Well here's something crazy: granted every day is exactly 1440 minutes, that means time travels 72x faster in minecraft because days are 20 minutes. So 1000 years in minecraft is...a little less than 14 years IRL.

There's also the fact that Mael lives for, no joke, about 450+ years...unless that was twain magic. Also helps explain (sort of...?) The Last Hope where Bak'al walks up to Ragni with like 10 undead peons 886 years after the portal opened. I'm sure it wasn't the first attack...but wynn isn't that huge and 886 years is a LONG time. Wynn seems very different than Earth, heck in RoL 4 it's basically confirmed to be a flat rectangle world. Those mountains ain't hiding crap.

 

The passage of time in Wynn is definitely something that I struggled to accommodate when writing this, and also why I settled on the "time it takes for the player to gain 8 levels" solution. Basically, while yes, with enough time she could change her character believably, but we are neither told that nor shown it. Nothing indicates how much time has passed, so either she got over it in a day or she worked it out over the last month backstage. Nothing really changes in her character to indicate a large amount of time has passed except her change from pacifism.

I also don't think I said Dullahan was chosen by Orphion beforehand, but I may have slipped up somewhere. The text says he left aldorei to protect Lari and leaves it at that. That's also why I wanted him to be a more impactful character in the rewrite.

 

Awesome work, you'd better write more whatevers in the future

 

I think this actually really well points out the flaws in lari’s writing, not just her character and how she’s written rather inconsistently. In RoL 1 when she’s eaten by the worm she says that “I’m still needed… You’re still needed,” indicating that she knows something about the hero that they don’t yet, but shows no sign of knowing anything such at any other point. Another thing that I think could be improved is her fight in RoL 4. Really all she does in the fight is smack the hero around a bunch and claim to have “almost killed them.” I think the situation would read a lot better if there was no fight, but instead she nearly kills them with a powerful spell (as a scripted event in the story) and then is stopped from finishing the job by the guardian of the forest. Also I feel like a fair amount of her character could be improved if she just wasn’t shoehorned into Death Whistle and AS2. Death whistle isn’t terrible I guess, but AS2 throws all sorts of kinks into the lore and adding lari does not help
Also I don’t really know how well it would work, but I feel like it might work better, if the RoL questline is ever reworked, to make it clear how miserable lari is throughout it. It’d probably stave off the impression that she’s arrogant and doesn’t listen to anyone.
Edit: a way that I’ve now thought of to show that that I think would be small but would add to the story: as the player is leaving dullahan’s castle at the end of RoL3, they run into lari, who has presumably come to the castle either to try to heal him again or just to talk to him.

 

Bumping this back to the main page because I aint letting this die on 900 views and absolutely no CT recognition.

Also wanted to add that if I'm saying something that isn't in the lore, or not looking at something that's in the lore, it's not my fault. You, the CT/GMs are responsible for showing (or at the very least telling) us what's happening. What's seen here is how a player who looks particularly deep into this character sees, not what's seen at first glance. If I'm missing something, fix it so that I'm not able to point at a flaw anymore.

 

This was a long read... but definitely worth it. I really liked the complete analysis of RoL and mostly minor rework to fix it.

Do you plan on analysing other characters/questlines too?

 

I don't think so, or not right now at least. Lari was quite easy because she is obviously written poorly, she has a very long questline dedicated to her, and all the relevant information is in one place. Someone like Ava or Axelus would might work, but I don't have enough information on or gripes with their characters to justify an essay.

 

Well, you don't have to do it to say how bad they are, but great.

 

Bumping this again because I have still heard nothing from people who can do something about it. If you are considering changing her character, even if it's far off in the future, then please let us know! Even if you don't use my suggested rewrite in the game, I'd still like to know that you're working on a better character. If you intend to leave her be... well... this was all for nothing and I guess I'll let it die.

Also, I plan to do a Dwarves and Doguns review once I get some 20 hours to myself :)

 

bump10chars

 

The only real problem I see is time gap. Honestly it could be solved by just stating that someone like dullahan bonked her and she fell asleep for past 900 years

I remember suggesting this like 2 years ago

 

Seems like a very band-aid fix to me.