Quote Originally Posted by Theodric View Post
The use of a chemical weapon was to avoid excessive losses among a force that is incapable of using aether. The protagonists can paint it as a 'horrific' approach to warfare but conveniently it does no such thing when it comes to other traumatic methods of death such as blasting people with fireballs, running them through with swords, afflicting opponents with magical diseases or drowning/crushing them with water and debris as we saw with the fall of Doma Castle.
Black Rose doesn't just kill, though- it stills aether (presumably similar to excessive light aether on the first). This would mean that the aether can't even return to the lifestream, and that does make it a much more horrific approach to warfare.