Will Sin-eaters get the Voidsent treatment?

[Iscah]

Meol was an optional dish for the rest of the Eulmorans, and if it was part of some plan, it was a terrible one. It just made some of them sleepy, and the others lurch around and mumble, lol.

The primary purpose was to make them loyal to him – mildly sedated, unperturbed by the horrors going on in the corners of society as it all lurches towards the Rejoining. Plus they were unable to rebel even if they were ineffectual as an army.

It's quite likely they were eating meol in the city as well – maybe dressed up more nicely, but still. Put a bit of it in everything and the effect will be the same over time.

[Puksi]

The only thing that gives me pause is the fact meol was an optional dish. During the encounter at Eulmore, there were a lot of people who weren't affected at all, both inside and outside the city. If it was an attempt to quell uprisings like the ones Vauthry's father apparently had, it would have missed a lot of potential rebels.

After the buildup of how frighteningly easy it was to be turned, the "time release tempering" by sin eater buns--for twenty years of Vauthry's rule--just struck me as really odd. No one showed signs like the Afflicted in Ahm Araeng when we visited Eulmore, but Ahm Araeng and Eulmore both were exposed to Sin Eaters. Would a citizen with a sweet tooth turn inside the city? Wouldn't people have eventually sickened like the Afflicted? It seems that would be a bad look for the man who promised safety from the sin eaters.

That said, I don't really count Alphinaud stating the Eulmorans were all of their own free will up until that point as concrete proof. How on earth could he know that, lmao.

But the Eulmore arc wasn't even a thing until the last minute, so deadlines may have been partly to blame for what I see as pretty glaring plotholes.

[Iscah]

I think it's possible to believe that Varuthy was both a victim of Emet-Selch's and his fathers machinations, and also a cruel, bullying sadist who ruled through fear and enjoyed throwing people off the balcony when they annoyed him.

Those are not really mutually exclusive ideas.

Prettymuch. You can point to the others as the reason he turned out to be exactly the monster he was, but there's no guarantee that his personality would be different in other circumstances. Running the system and keeping the citizens in oblivious rapture is one thing; throwing people off balconies or forcing them to cut their own arm with a knife is not a necessary part of the plan, and if anything runs the risk of shocking the more aware and decent citizens out of their delusion.

After the buildup of how frighteningly easy it was to be turned, the "time release tempering" by sin eater buns--for twenty years of Vauthry's rule--just struck me as really odd. No one showed signs like the Afflicted in Ahm Araeng when we visited Eulmore, but Ahm Araeng and Eulmore both were exposed to Sin Eaters. Would a citizen with a sweet tooth turn inside the city? Wouldn't people have eventually sickened like the Afflicted? It seems that would be a bad look for the man who promised safety from the sin eaters.

One of the more monstrous details that doesn't get dwelt on for very long but is really quite key to the whole system is ascension – that free and bonded citizens alike anticipate being chosen by the sin eaters to ascend to eternal paradise.

With a lie like that ensconced as truth, anyone beginning to turn or anyone beginning to suspect the truth can equally and conveniently vanish, and far from questioning their absence, the others would think it a good and happy thing.

[Puksi]

One of the more monstrous details that doesn't get dwelt on for very long but is really quite key to the whole system is ascension – that free and bonded citizens alike anticipate being chosen by the sin eaters to ascend to eternal paradise.

With a lie like that ensconced as truth, anyone beginning to turn or anyone beginning to suspect the truth can equally and conveniently vanish, and far from questioning their absence, the others would think it a good and happy thing.

Agree 100%, it seemed too important a plot device for the writers to not feature it more fully.

As it stands, in the original MSQ it was only mentioned twice: first during the Warbler chain, and later by Vauthry himself with "the passion of his Ascension", implying that yes, the character really did believe it was a good thing himself.

The Warbler chain also implied there were some sort of conditions for even the free citizens to seek it, as her patron lamented "he almost wished he could hasten his own" to hear her sing again. I'm still not sure why he went straight for Ascension when Thoarich implied she could be saved, she just may lose her voice.

Prettymuch. You can point to the others as the reason he turned out to be exactly the monster he was, but there's no guarantee that his personality would be different in other circumstances. Running the system and keeping the citizens in oblivious rapture is one thing; throwing people off balconies or forcing them to cut their own arm with a knife is not a necessary part of the plan, and if anything runs the risk of shocking the more aware and decent citizens out of their delusion.

As you said in a previous post here, though, there is no way to really tell how much of that behavior was the character's human side. From the very first scene, it was clear he was unstable. The fist-slamming tantrum mode, in hindsight, reminded me a lot of Philia's ground-pound attack.

The game dialogue seemed to imply that sort of violence was a recent development, as an NPC in Wright describes a group of local bandits who previously lived in Eulmore, but were exiled after being caught stealing from the free citizenry. Stealing from the free citizenry, like Kai-Shirr was charged with fraud? That should have guaranteed a one-way trip out of a window, or a pound of flesh or five. But they were exiled and fit to rob unlucky travelers.

It also seems reasonable that there would have been more awareness in the city of such cruelty, if it were an ongoing regular thing. But there was nothing. Not even the other workers telling us "hey, be careful".

Then there is Amity--where workers fled cruel patrons, not Vauthry. Amity feared Vauthry would send the army there, but he never did.

The Derelicts uses tropey imagery, but the actual NPC dialogue doesn't back up the "poor" were actually poor. There's this guy:



At least two people are there to sell the fixtures and whatnot dumped around the city proper, one lady wants to get in to be a famous singer, a Viis from the Crystarium is there out of curiosity, one guy wants a "pretty partner" on each arm and fancy food. Wright and Stilltide residents further confirm "the hopefuls" left their reliable lives for a gambler's chance in Vegas. This was no enforced famine or such, Eulmore was still purchasing produce from the neighboring villages, mentioned by an NPC in Stilltide.

The Brume was a more genuine example of the trope they were trying to use here, imo.

The Minstreling Wanderer stated he couldn't say whether Vauthry was always like that. While it's nothing concrete, that they added this little extra bit of info made me wonder. No one in Eulmore referred to Vauthry as a "god", either, he was "a great man", with a vague gift to calm Sin Eaters. The god talk only began at the Exarch's visit.

I prefer to think positive, because of all the characters in this series with blood on their hands, this one in particular is held to a far more unforgiving standard, even though the game clearly showed he was compromised before birth, with a corruption literally no other character in the game was able to fight.

Maybe if the Sin Eaters could turn out the way OP is speculating, we could get some answers, lmao.