Do the Primals Know Each Other?

[Anonymoose]

I don't think it's ever been implied that there's any kind of supernatural brainwashing involved when it comes to the heretics.

It's been implied that a dragon has a weird sway over the minds of the "weak willed." We've been told that minutes after Nidhogg first intercepted the group sent by Halone to found Ishgard, one of Thordan's own men suddenly decided it'd be a great idea to throw him into a chasm, for instance.

The draconian rosary is the mark of a heretic. The mark of one who has given his soul over to the dragons. Doubt not that they are cunning creatures, beguiling to the weak of mind, and all who lust after power. Such men are apt prey for the foul spells of the dragonkin. Their wills are broken, and with them their oaths to Ishgard. For that, we brand them heretics.

It's spoken of like Tempering, but I'm not sure if that's enough to conclude they're the same (yet). We've never heard Heretics rambling on about the blessings of and service to the one true god; they just seem compelled. It could be akin to the theorized way larger, more powerful dragons seem to compel and organize the lines below them. Midgardsormr could be read as implying that the Dragonsong itself has this compelling effect. Or, Ishgard's point of view could all be lies, lol.

I'm sure some of them probably did end up there out of choice, though - the shunned, dishonored, and exiled need somewhere to go, as do those that feel they've been denied power, station, and wealth that they deserve. That bitterness and desire would make them, as Yuhelmeric said, easy prey.