Varshahn and food.

As sort of started in the latest don't harass story skippers thread it got derailed a bit and the eating of food got brought up. Which made me maybe think too deeply about why Varshahn even needs to eat. Let alone how does that work since I'd assume small Varshahn would be just a lifeless body whenever Vrtra removes his eye from it. And now we have two Varshahns who unlike Meteion and mammets are capable of eating food. Which would help back when the lie about Saltrap was needed.

So I went and wondered how does the whole eating thing work since I assume the body behaves like Emmy from the movie Mannequin. Or a Geth or an Android model from their respective games. Where they'd look as though they were asleep. As the bodies wouldn't really need the food since Vrtra's eye is the thing giving the Varshahn bodies life. Meaning does Vrtra's eye get the nourishment and thus Vrtra? Or does the body get extra energy and Vrtra gets nothing and still needs to be fed himself?

Which then had me wondering how no rumors ever got made about how the Saltrap seems to eat a lot more food then you'd think a "normal" person would need to. Back when the lie was being used.

In a way, Zero demonstrated that eating was just a form of aether extraction. Varshahn needs energy to move, and it's probably more efficient to just absorb the required energy from food than it is for Vrtra to keep donating it.

Or perhaps Vrtra just wanted to experience ice cream in unmelted form. I sense a short story in this.

Vrtras eye is an aether battery. I doubt he *needs* to intake any aether while in the Varshaan body. At least not under normal circumstances. But he still can cus it’s a working body. And good food is pleasant, and communal eating is a social experience, so he does it.

As for how they covered Vrtra’s own food intake when the lie was still ongoing, prolly just claimed the food was for the satrap’s household in bulk and left it at that? I don’t think we actually know how much dragons need to eat anyway. Their biology is so weird, first brood more than most. I mean you assume they eat, and eat meat or fish cus of those teeth, but no idea how often it’s required. Vrtra may have eaten such a small amount the satrap’s family could easily just include it in their groceries without anyone noticing.

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Originally Posted by Alleluia

As for how they covered Vrtra’s own food intake when the lie was still ongoing, prolly just claimed the food was for the satrap’s household in bulk and left it at that? I don’t think we actually know how much dragons need to eat anyway. Their biology is so weird, first brood more than most. I mean you assume they eat, and eat meat or fish cus of those teeth, but no idea how often it’s required. Vrtra may have eaten such a small amount the satrap’s family could easily just include it in their groceries without anyone noticing.

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It's worth noting actually that Vrtra's presence in the Satrap's home was already known, or at least rumored. That being stories of "The Satrap's Dragon ally."

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Originally Posted by Kirisu

It's worth noting actually that Vrtra's presence in the Satrap's home was already known, or at least rumored. That being stories of "The Satrap's Dragon ally."

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Oh, people knew that the dragon was a thing, that wasn't unusual to them. So an entire dragon's worth of food would've been expected; it would've been weird if they weren't getting that much!

Varshahn was made to appear like a real boy, so it only makes sense that he could eat. Thavnair would've noticed if he never did!

I don't really think it's all that complicated, to be perfectly honest. Eating a, say, a hamburger IS essentially aether extraction in the same way eating a hamburger in real life is.... I dunno, electrolyte extraction? Whatever the biological building blocks of energy are composed of on Planet Earth. And since nobody is treating Varshahn as a Voidsent, I'd argue it's safe to say he IS, in fact, alive.

I don't doubt we can call homunculi alive and people, as the game has been generally consistent on that front outside of the viewpoints of Venat, and more obviously, Emet-Selch.

At the end of the day, I doubt the devs really thought too deeply on the matter. It could be as simple as Vrtra wanting to live life like a normal Auri.

I know how eating works. What isn't explained is who or what in this case the energy ends up going to. As realistically the Varshahn bodies wouldn't need to eat food. That the reason why the smaller one and probably the ones that wore out or had to be decommissioned as a never aging child tends to raise a few eyebrows was to keep up the rouse as to who the real leader of Thavnir was. As at least to me those bodies are just more advanced mammet bodies. Since you can make it so a mammet can lay prone and lifeless without removing its core in order to practice healing magics. When it's not needed to be in that state it's fully capable of behaving in the same manner as any other mammet. Unless you take out their core or their core has been damaged to the point they are unable to function. As was the case with the one in the Goldsmith ARR quest line.

I'd assume the older model of Varshahn isn't moving on its own while it's being looked over for any signs of degradation and probably how well it held up in battle. And we have never came across a mammet that needed to eat. Heck if the Goldsmith guild one is anything to go by their cores can allow them to run on just that for I guess forever. As I'm not sure we get told how old it is, but just like how Farmers Insurance's tag line is we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. That mammet hints it's witnessed a lot of generations of Goldsmith trainees. And yes I know that this is probably a thing the devs didn't think of or didn't think this deeply about. Though who knows if someone doesn't mention it during our time in the 13th as to why this is a thing I'm sure even the older looking model is capable of doing even though it technically wouldn't need to.

Being that Varshahn’s bodies are alchemical creations and not one of metalwork I hesitate to call them mammets. They are probably more in line with Allagan clones or homunculi… and who knows what that means for them.

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Originally Posted by kaynide

Being that Varshahn’s bodies are alchemical creations and not one of metalwork I hesitate to call them mammets. They are probably more in line with Allagan clones or homunculi… and who knows what that means for them.

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Yeah, homunculus is probably the best term to use.

We don't even know for certain (at least to my recollection) whether he/they can't age. If they haven't said anything about it directly, then for all that we know right now, they could age normally, and the only novelty of creating the new body for him is in going straight to creating an adult form instead of waiting for the current one to grow up.

Well we do know that the current small Varshahn isn't the original as the captain of the guard did ask him what happened with his successor. Varshahn said that one had left like all the others before them to have their own journeys. Which doesn't say that they aged or if they were like Padjali in that they never aged. Which for your average person outside the Blac Shroud would raise an eyebrow or two as to why a child hasn't aged. I also took him being gifted the taller version was the first time they ever made one. Course the extra time spent working on it could have just been to make sure it'd be suitable for combat. Though with how the captain of the guard reacted to it and depending on how old someone in his position would get while being an Au Ra it could be that an older looking model gas been used in the past? Yet then why have the need of a new name be brought up by Vrtra/Varshahn if they had a name they used while being in a bigger body or even a selection of names.

Vrtra has mentioned that those bodies are just vessels for his eye. They get switched out every few years so people don't get suspicious as to why the Dragon's attendant doesn't seem to age. Granted certain revelations make the secrecy no longer relevant but, habits are a bit hard to change.

As for dragons eating in general, they do hunt a lot (see moogle tribe questline and dragoon questline) but some are also known to have consumed plant matter as well from what I have seen (aiatar is said to be feeding on the poisonous matter while resting in the longstop, most of which is plants)

Varshahn can likely eat like normal otherwise it would rouse suspicion. Plus it would add longevity to each vessel so it would stay "alive" even when Vrtra is not using it.