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Quick spoil - whispers in the dark.


ugrakarma.9416

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To whom it matters: when playing with a Sylvari, the dialogue with Braham about the voice changes to something "these whispers remind me of Mordremoth's."

Its a nice touch that the writers have not forgotten that the "whispering in the head" thing is reused.

with some differences,

  • What Mordremoth said was never presented in game.
  • Only spoke to Sylvaris.
  • Sylvaris were in a much more "crazy" state indicating loss of sanity.
  • Mordremoth lines in the fights were super arrogant in the extreme contrary to the "gentle" Jormag
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Thanks for letting us know. I wondered about that when I was playing it, but so far I've only done it on a human so I wasn't sure. I'm glad they thought to change it because although it's been a while since I did the HoT storyline that was the first thing I thought of when the whispers started.

I think it makes sense that the whispers are different to Mordremoth, who was able to talk to sylvari (and only sylvari) because they were supposed to be its minions and able to hear and obey its commands like the destroyers do with Primordius and the risen with Zhaitan, and it expected them to obey without question.

Whereas Jormag doesn't create minions but instead persuades individual to join it and then corrupts them, so it needs to be more subtle and persuasive, at least at first.

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One thing I liked about Mordremoth's whispers is that early on players didn't realise it was specific to sylvari. So people playing sylvari assumed everyone could hear it and would talk about what Mordremoth said in map and guild chat, then anyone playing any other race didn't know what they were talking about and thought they were crazy or imagining it or mishead something in the game. It mirrored what the NPCs were saying and added to the overall effect.

This time around I'm seeing similar but different reactions with players responding to the whispers in map and guild chat, or adding their own. Just like the NPCs recognise it from before most players now understand what's going on, but I like the way chat mirrors the conversations going on in the game itself.

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As a player who mains a Sylvari character, I liked that little detail. I wonder if there will any more future dialogue mentioning Modremoth, due to the similarities of a 'voice in your head'. I must say though, I like the differences between the speaking patterns of Modremoth and Jormag.

Modremoth was forceful and his voice was loud and commanding. It was clear that he wanted you to think that he had the authority. His influence was oppressive, painful. Sylvari could completely lose themselves to him, the end result would be turning into a monster who had forgotten what they once were. It's painful and tiring to resist him, PC almost lost themselves just from getting closer to him.

Jormag's voice is soft, warm, almost comforting. I think they want us to see them as their friend, or at least an ally. Instead of knocking you down and striking your mind with pain, Jormag manipulates you with frequent small bouts of psychological reinforcements, slowly warping our perspective until we are no longer ourselves. Jormag's end result would be us willingly ditching ourselves instead of being jacked out forcibly. I found it interesting that Jormag uses the voices and hallucinations of family/friends, people important in your life, etc. to belittle you and poke at your insecurities, but then uses their real voice to comfort you, like they're setting themselves up as a 'good guy' and that they only wants to help us. I think that's the reason why the last instance cutscene was so convincing. We've already been fed with whispers of Jormag showing some sort of 'concern' while our 'friends' turned their backs on us.

TL;DR version of this is: Modremoth makes slaves, Jormag converts followers. I like the distinction.

Also found out, that Jormag is manipulating certain NPCs in the Keep into walking out into the snow and dying, promising them warmth and peace. I stayed by an NPC's side as they froze to death. You can talk to them, and you can try to talk out of it, but it's a circular conversation. The only thing you can do is watch them die. NPCs are randomized, I saw a Sylvari get lured out and die.

@Silvercyclone.1462 said:I have a theory that it's not actually Jormag that's talking to us but rather Drakkar. I doubt that at this time anyone even remembers Drakkar so everyone thinks it's Jormag. Doesn't make much sense to have a dragon in our head the whole season. I think it will stop the next episode.

I somewhat agree that the voice isn't Jormag, but I'm not sure if it's Drarkkar. Could be, but I'm not sure. Going back to HoTs, whenever Modremoth speaks, the voice is titled as 'Voice of Modremoth' or something along those lines, but for some reason, the whispers are labeled as 'Unknown'. If we're so sure that it's Jormag, why is it still labelled as unknown? I think it's telling.

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@"AzuraJae.9246" said:

I somewhat agree that the voice isn't Jormag, but I'm not sure if it's Drarkkar. Could be, but I'm not sure. Going back to HoTs, whenever Modremoth speaks, the voice is titled as 'Voice of Modremoth' or something along those lines, but for some reason, the whispers are labeled as 'Unknown'. If we're so sure that it's Jormag, why is it still labelled as unknown? I think it's telling.

This is another reason why I'm doubtful it's Jormag. Even if it required completing the storyline, I'd expect the "Unknown" to change to "Jormag" when we realize what it is. But it remains unknown, implying it's not actually Jormag.

I'm also unsure if it's Drakkar - though Drakkar is the best contender.

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@AzuraJae.9246 said:I somewhat agree that the voice isn't Jormag, but I'm not sure if it's Drarkkar. Could be, but I'm not sure. Going back to HoTs, whenever Modremoth speaks, the voice is titled as 'Voice of Modremoth' or something along those lines, but for some reason, the whispers are labeled as 'Unknown'. If we're so sure that it's Jormag, why is it still labelled as unknown? I think it's telling.

Me and few others I’ve seen think that the voice is actually the Boneskinner, which makes sense considering the trailer showing the Skinner while you hear the whispering

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@Scraggy.3814 said:Me and few others I’ve seen think that the voice is actually the Boneskinner, which makes sense considering the trailer showing the Skinner while you hear the whispering

Oh, yeah, I've seen that theory bouncing around too. I like the idea, but if it is the Boneskinner, is it talking to everyone at once? If I remember correctly, The Boneskinner can only mimic the voices of the people they've killed and use it to lure more people into it's grasps. Everyone in Bjora's Marches sound a little off their knockers, so the Boneskinner could potentially be tormenting everyone, but I'm not sure it has the flexibility to taunt people the way we've seen. The whispers even mimic the voices of people we know are still alive (in the last instance) to torment the Commander. Maybe there's this 'Ultimate Boneskinner' somewhere, with that power?

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@AzuraJae.9246 said:

@Scraggy.3814 said:Me and few others I’ve seen think that the voice is actually the Boneskinner, which makes sense considering the trailer showing the Skinner while you hear the whispering

Oh, yeah, I've seen that theory bouncing around too. I like the idea, but if it is the Boneskinner, is it talking to
everyone
at once? If I remember correctly, The Boneskinner can only mimic the voices of the people they've killed and use it to lure more people into it's grasps. Everyone in Bjora's Marches sound a little off their knockers, so the Boneskinner could potentially be tormenting everyone, but I'm not sure it has the flexibility to taunt people the way we've seen. The whispers even mimic the voices of people we know are still alive (in the last instance) to torment the Commander. Maybe there's this 'Ultimate Boneskinner' somewhere, with that power?

I do like that idea of a “Boneskinner Lord” as you can call it, also what if the Boneskinner Lord is an ancient Norn lord, like how the Eyes of Zhaitan were kings and queens of Orr?

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One of the Svanir champs does say “for the one who speaks” or something which is another reason I think it is Jormag

I suspect the “unknown” is just to represent that the PC doesn’t know who it is whispering until halfway through the story. It’s possible they just didn’t reprogram the loop with the identity.

Having said that, I like the Boneskinner theory. That would give it much a needed boost to its creepiness.

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@Randulf.7614 said:I suspect the “unknown” is just to represent that the PC doesn’t know who it is whispering until halfway through the story. It’s possible they just didn’t reprogram the loop with the identity.

While I do think that's definitely a possibility, I'd still like to think it's some sort of foreshadowing of some kind. I mean after all, they went through all that effort in The Departing during PoF to change the player's name to 'Lost Spirit', which I would think is harder to do. I don't know much about programming, but in theory, it shouldn't be hard just to change the name of someone talking in text chat, just change the variable for text display.

Having said that, I like the Boneskinner theory. That would give it much a needed boost to its creepiness.Hell yeah, I would definitely go with like an ultra Boneskinner theory, but I'm not sure if I believe it quite yet. Everything still points to Jormag being the most probable voice, with Drakkar being the second one in line. I don't know how far you could go into the deception, but it could also be a third entity talking in this insanity party, pretending to be Jormag. It's still vague at this point.

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