I have noticed some dark stuff in the game play, and it got me wondering if maybe we, as commanders, aren’t the heroes we think we are. Loose evidence below:
1. We eat PEOPLE.
I know, we don’t want to think about it. It’s the first stage of denial that we acquire and use “ham” to train heroes and feed our construction crews, but let’s look at the facts: there are no pigs in the farms, only hay, and 4 or 5 recruits go into these training camps, and only one emerges a hero. What happens to these other recruits? Why do we have all this hay with no animals to eat it? And pigs don’t even eat hay, so this food byproduct can’t be ham. It’s people I tell you, and the hay is used in the smokers as fuel. Also, we feed heroes to each other to increase their strength. Much like ancient cultures would eat the hearts and brains of their enemies to gain their knowledge and strength, our “heroes” eat those weaker than them.
2. We are terrorists
The old question of “who shot first” proves that we are in fact the ones terrorizing the land. These “monsters” and titans go about their days with little to no effect on our stronghold, yet we SEEK THEM OUT to attack them. We deal the first blow, they mearly retaliate. And after we’ve slaughtered them, we consume their meaty bits, pilfer their clothes and weapons and pick up recruits that are only going to die in the camps and be eaten. We kill creatures that show no evidence of guilt except that they don’t look like us. And I can’t even say that would keep them safe since we eat our own kind.
3. We steal constantly
Every side quest seems innocent enough at first glance. Until I noticed something in the “Collect Gems” dialogue. Richard mentions that the city was poorly guarded. Not UNGUARDED. We killed the locals (who are also “heroes”) and stole their treasures. And we do this OVER and OVER. We kill small rat civilizations and steel their stashes of iron. We desecrate sacred temples until the guardians of the temple submit to our will and give us their stuff. We come uninvited to the home of Vampires and beat them into submission IN THEIR OWN HOME. And as I understand it, we’re about to attack CHRISTMAS! Where will our greed and bloodlust end?!
4. The Dark Lord is Merciful, while we are Stubbourn.
The Dark Lord is constantly telling us we should just join him, that we are on a fool’s mission. He says once that he has been merciful in the past, but he won’t let us continue down our path any further. At first, we think we’re the good guys, and so this is a threat we must meet with a show of force and aggression. But if we look at our actions listed above, the Dark Lord almost sounds like a tired parent that just wants their kid to behave, and so he’s set up an intervention for us. He’s taken us to rehab and anger management. He’s tried just letting us work out our issues on our own while he loves and supports us. But now, he’s tired, and fed up, so he’s kicking us out of the house onto the streets and cutting us off. He’s done showing us mercy and compassion, and if we don’t straighten up, he’s going to destroy us because we. are. a. menace.
When I look at the game play under this new light, I can only think that perhaps, we aren’t the “heroes” afterall. We are in fact, the villains of this tale.
… well, I would love to say that you are wrong… but I can’t!
I am a villain! Noooooo… give me my Illusions back! Why did you do this to me?
