Spoilers Ahead, can someone summarize me the "Clouded Vial" thing?

I watched all the cutscenes but I didn't understand the Clouded Vial thing nor who "Alianne Vellegrance" is.
Can someone please explain this to me? Like, what role did the vial have, and who is this person that we were told to wait for and never showed up?
Thanks.

Alianne is one of the nicer Crystal Braves – an Elezen woman you've encountered several times since early in the game.

It's likely that she had caught on to the traitors' scheme and was trying to warn you privately, but got captured along the way.

Meanwhile the vial was apparently a deliberate set-up by the traitors so you'd conveniently be holding the "murder weapon" when they supposedly caught you in the act.

Ohh so basically they wanted us to have that Vial, that explains it. Thank you!

I don't know who would keep an empty vial they found in the middle of nowhere, especially when they're going soon to a royal banquet.

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Originally Posted by Kranel_San

I don't know who would keep an empty vial they found in the middle of nowhere, especially when they're going soon to a royal banquet.

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First rule of RPGs: pick up everything that isn't nailed down.

(Second rule: if it's nailed down, expect to acquire a hammer later.)

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Originally Posted by Iscah

First rule of RPGs: pick up everything that isn't nailed down.

(Second rule: if it's nailed down, expect to acquire a hammer later.)

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Straight facts.

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Originally Posted by Kranel_San

I don't know who would keep an empty vial they found in the middle of nowhere, especially when they're going soon to a royal banquet.

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One could argue that the biggest lesson of The Parting Glass for many of its characters, including the WoL, is to not just assume that everyone's on your side and everything will be taken in the best of faith.

Basically, learning the hard way that this world is not one that you can just 'hero' your way through.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

First rule of RPGs: pick up everything that isn't nailed down.

(Second rule: if it's nailed down, expect to acquire a hammer later.)

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Or Zelda and Final Fantasy rules break all the pots and check the clocks.

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Originally Posted by SannaR

Or Zelda and Final Fantasy rules break all the pots and check the clocks.

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Just for God's sake don't keep attacking the chickens or Cuccos.... unless you have a death wish...

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

One could argue that the biggest lesson of The Parting Glass for many of its characters, including the WoL, is to not just assume that everyone's on your side and everything will be taken in the best of faith.

Basically, learning the hard way that this world is not one that you can just 'hero' your way through.

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Hey, they were the dumb one, and the game forced me to follow them through it.

I'd not take people for granted, and I'd definitely not pick up an empty vial in the middle of the desert. What am I even going to use it for? Drinking water?

If you want to trick me, at least do it perfectly!

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Originally Posted by Kranel_San

Hey, they were the dumb one, and the game forced me to follow them through it.

I'd not take people for granted, and I'd definitely not pick up an empty vial in the middle of the desert. What am I even going to use it for? Drinking water?

If you want to trick me, at least do it perfectly!

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Yes, congratulations, you are smarter than fictional characters that exist for the sake of a story, good job.

The WoL is not you, and has their own character and approach to things; it's why we don't go around stabbing everybody who looks at us funny, because the WoL isn't that kinda person. And that story is the part where the WoL starts being more careful about what they do, and skeptical about people. (Granted, part of that is thanks to the developers only adding dialog choices afterwards.) It's also, on a meta level, a lesson for players who think they're playing Superman and also haven't read a Superman story: it's the point where 'Video Game Hero Fantasy Logic' doesn't just fail, but completely backfires, and puts us in a situation where our character has no power because every one of our usual options is a bad one.

It's also very much a lesson for Alphinaud to stop being a total putz, because if he does the stuff he's aiming for with the level of naive optimism he has, people die and it's his fault. And that's completely outside any level of power you might have, you can't even pick what emote Alphinaud responds to a casual question with.

I'd like to add that we showed the vial to Momodi and she said we should keep it because it might help the investigation, and we just didn't have the time to hand it to whoever the right authorities would be (wouldn't it be an internal investigation by the Braves who wanted you to hold on to it?). So it wasn't so much "I'm just gonna carry around evidence in my pocket because reasons" but also "This could be important so I'll hold on to it and now I'm late for my meeting with the Sultana but there's nothing that could go wrong there."