SPOILERS: Pinnacle role quest/identity of the Shadowkeeper

SECOND SPOILER WARNING FOR THE PINNACLE ROLE QUEST

This is from the quest you unlock once all role quests are completed and I wanted to post about it for anyone else that might have completed it as I really want to discuss it. Do NOT read this unless you want some massive spoilers about the twists it contains.

SPOILERS AHEAD

I specifically rushed through leveling the various roles to unlock and complete this quest and I have to say that the reveals for it were pretty twisted, the Cardinal Virtues were specifically created by Vauthry and reanimated after he had their bodies dug up. Their creation really surprised me and I'm a little confused on to how this was possible. It's a strange twist on necromancy as it's their body but converted in to a Sin Eater, it seems some traces of them were left in the corpses but I'm not sure if it's or some sort of weirdness done through the Echo.

Another feeling I had was with the sixth warrior of light, the Elezen woman named Cylva. I had a bad feeling about her and never noticed her pop up as the Cardinal Virtue and it turned out it's because she was actually the Shadowkeeper all along and was manipulating Ardbert and company. Her shard had been destroyed and she was working with the Ascians to cause another rejoining on Ardbert's world, she had been guiding them all along to cause a calamity but had to die to do so.

But it turns out Ardbert and friends weren't willing to kill her and so they went on their merry way and eventually caused the flood of light. I could hardly believe that as it seemed no matter what Ardbert and his friends did, their cause was doomed from the very start. When we do finally hear the end from Cylva (who has been masquerading as Cyella the Pendants waitress this whole) I was angry we weren't given the choice of killing her. It would have been a nice touch for us to be able to put her down and have her join her friends in death as punishment for all the hardships she manipulated them through.

Instead she gets to be an immortal waitress hanging out at the Crystarium for the rest of her days but I'm wondering if they accidentally wrote themselves in to a corner. Her story would have been excellent fodder for the main story quest if she were to get involved with us again. Instead they have this major important character that must stay around because of the pinnacle role quest and they can't do anything with her. While I appreciated the extra lore and story that it provided (and man was it one hell of a reveal) it also means they can't do anything with it.

Has anyone else completed this? Got any thoughts to share?

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I was angry we weren't given the choice of killing her. It would have been a nice touch for us to be able to put her down and have her join her friends in death as punishment for all the hardships she manipulated them through.

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Ah, but that would have been completely despoiling their legacy, would it not? They could have made that choice a century ago, when they found out what she had been doing - manipulating them into battle after battle, cause after cause. Cyella was spared because she was, at the end of the day, their friend. And their exact mirror - because she was, just like they eventually were, manipulatedby the Ascians after her world was sucked into Oblivion. The callous disregard with with they treat mortal life had already touched her world, and she was merely manipulated into following their will because she was convinced it was the only way to 'save' the First.

Does any of that sound familiar? Because everything she did, the Ascians convinced the Warriors of Darkness that they should do. She was manipulated, not necessarily evil.

I'm actually thinking about ways that her story could be expanded. I'm running a D&D campaign set in the initial years after the Flood of Light, and the fact that the Warriors of Darkness of the first spared her meant that she was alive when the Flood was initially occurring. I'm making her an enigmatic figure that attempted, with all of her might, to keep the flames of hope alive in those times, rescuing refugees who were under assault by major Eaters, and teaching them ways that they could defend themselves against the forces of Light. Eventually, when all of her power was spent and the Crystarium was established as a relatively safe haven, she came to settle in with the refugees herself, wanting to live as quiet a life as she could. Once the initial chaos of the Flood wore off, there was a real fear that continuing to intervene would merely lead to more problems - she was nothing more than a walking Calamity, responsible for failing to save one world and responsible for the near-death of this one. Instead, she settled into a new name and alias, moved into the Crystarium as a refugee herself, and decided to live amongst them, protecting them if things ever came to that again. It was only when she heard about the Cardinal Virtues that she was spurred into action once more, the memories of her fallen allies rousing her to find a hero who could help her place their souls at peace once again.

I don't really think eternal life is any less a punishment for her than death would be. She has to live with the destruction her actions caused for eternity, with the fact that she failed to save her own world and nearly destroyed another (again, the same guilt that Ardbert was carrying with him while he wandered the First as a shade for a century; the guilt of causing the Flood of Light, and the shame that he would have condemned the Source to the same fate). But she can, with what she has left, try to do the right thing. I like to think that she will. She is, after all, one of us.

i don't think it's impossible for them to do something with her in the future; alisaie and g'raha were originally part of optional content and they just threw in extra dialogue if you had done their quests before they show up in the MSQ proper. hell, cyella/cylva has an extra line about unukalhai if you've done the warring triad stuff. if they want to do something with her in the future they can just have some altered lines if you've done her quest already.

One thing remains uncertain... whatever happened to Ardbert's body? Surely if the other 4 heroes got exhumed and converted, he would be too?

My current theory is that his body became Forgiven Rebellion, the SS rank hunt, only since it because it also uses an axe.