The Great Gubal Library has a book on Lady Amandine which is chonrologicly wrong?

[Risvertasashi]

Granted, I meant the LIVING Lady Amandine, the OP also mentioned her being disfigured AFTER the Calamity, so presumably the librarian (since it'd be at least 10 years before the Calamity) would have seen her beautiful self instead of the voidsent she became. That may not have been very clear.

Ahah, that makes sense. So Amandine was experimenting before she was disfigured?

[myahele]

Does anyone know how old Amandine was?

We know that Sharlayan Colony (and library) was sealed roughly when Alphinaud was born, so roughly <15 years ago.

Certainly, this is enough time for this librarian to come across a younger Amandine then sought to summon a High Sucubus prior to the abandonment of the settlement?

In either case, wasn't Ultros (and Thypon) a result of an experiment to open a void gate by the THM guild?

Amanindine was also a Thaumaturge so the person who did this experiment might've been a tutor or maybe even a fellow classmate.

[Waffilicious]

Just go with "A horny admirer of Amandine tried to summon a succubus for special time and he instead got Ultros" it would make the funniest hidden lore bomb :P

[Anonymoose]

Oh, jeez! Time for some damage control before this gets outta hand!

Tentacles
It's probably not Ultros - it's probably a mindlfayer - but that doesn't stop the idea of it being Ultros from being pretty frackin' funny.

Amandine
The guy who gives us the quests for Haukke says that he was a manservant at the Manor for like fifty years. Lady Amandine was probably not a young woman, especially if people in 1562 are talking about how beauty isn't ephemeral in her case. I assume being an Elezen also played into it, what with their slightly longer lifespan.

Anyway, Sharlayan was abandoned 15 years ago and there's no reason (that I know of) to think the book hasn't been in the library the entire time. So, the guy who summoned the succubus knew beautiful, human Lady Amandine. In the Calamity, five years ago, she was disfigured and shut herself up in Haukke Manor refusing to be seen. Several months later, black-masked Ascians came to see her, suggesting that rites of rejuvenation might heal her face and make her beautiful again. The rites started innocent enough, but grew more complex and more taboo over time until she was flat out kidnapping and mutilating young girls like Elizabeth Bathory. Darkness took root in Haukke Manor, and by the time we show up, she's been possessed by a succubus.

There was no connection (as far as I know) between 1562 Lady Amandine and succubi; this guy just thought succubi were beautiful and that one possessing Lady Amandine would be the most beautiful of all. The fact that Amandine would, fifteen years later, become a succubus on her own is (as far as I can tell) incidental and kind of ironic; he couldn't have known.

[Dalvy]

Speaking of which, what exactly is a High Succubus? Like Halicarnassus or some such?

[WyrahFhurrst]

Speaking of which, what exactly is a High Succubus? Like Halicarnassus or some such?

Probably. It's likely just a higher ranking of Succubus in the Voidsent hierarchy.

[Anonymoose]

Speaking of which, what exactly is a High Succubus? Like Halicarnassus or some such?

I assume so; the Succubus Card says that succubi occupy the third and fourth rungs of the voidsent hierarchy, implying ether that species of the genus differ in power, or that certain NMs have the power to transcend the fourth rung. I don't know if we've seen enough "higher" succubi to make that call, but Haliarnassus probably counts as a succubi of the type he had in mind.

Comparison:

[Viridiana]

More importantly, how did this diary of a guy's bungled sex adventure find its way into the forbidden section of a library?

I mean, I wouldn't want it in the non-forbidden section. >_>

[Risvertasashi]

-snip-

Thanks for explaining. (Although my headcanon is still going to be Ultros)

[zuzu-bq]

I just love these lore gems they give us sometimes.
I remember people complaining about me, as a healer, trying to read all the text of each dungeon that has those "interact here to read things".
Couldn't enjoy Tam-Tara more if I havent read everything down there.

About Amandine's age: she was an Elezen and their longevity is quite notable, maybe growing old with the ideals of eternal beauty was the main reason why the disfiguration hurt her so badly. And then, Ascians happened.