Ktisis Hyperboreia question [Spoilers]

[Brennus]

So... I, Venat, Emet-Selch, and Hythlodaeus gang up in a trust party on Hermes and defeat him in this 2nd MSQ Dungeon.

Why do we then let him shackle us, send Meteion away to the end of the universe, and trigger the memory-erasing gizmo that gives Emet and Hythlodaeus (and Hermes himself too) amnesia for the whole time they spent with me on Elpis? What was the point of us defeating Hermes then?

I haven't finished the rest of the MSQ yet, but sure am curious as to how such a major snafu could have happened, and how the SE writers may explain it.

[JeanneOrnitier]

Someone (I forget if it was Hythlodaeus or one of the minor ancients) said that when Ktsis entered its emergency lockdown mode it created a suppression field that weakened everyone who entered it.

[kpxmanifesto]

So... I, Venat, Emet-Selch, and Hythlodaeus gang up in a trust party on Hermes and defeat him in this 2nd MSQ Dungeon.

Why do we then let him shackle us, send Meteion away to the end of the universe, and trigger the memory-erasing gizmo that gives Emet and Hythlodaeus (and Hermes himself too) amnesia for the whole time they spent with me on Elpis? What was the point of us defeating Hermes then?

I haven't finished the rest of the MSQ yet, but sure am curious as to how such a major snafu could have happened, and how the SE writers may explain it.

IMHO the memory erasure was done out of convenience for the writers. Now the writers don't have to write about an altered future timeline or an alternate timeline. The whole memory erasure thing was incredibly stupid.

[Rosenstrauch]

Do you remember the Seat of Sacrifice trial, the one where you fought Elidibus and right near the beginning, he casts Banish? And it shackles the entire party before shunting all of you into the void?

Why did you let him do that? Why didn't you stop him?

The answer is the same reason why you "let" Hermes shackle you. You couldn't stop him from doing it. Everything that follows is a consequence of you failing to stop him, not a consensual allowance, big brain strategy on your part.

[Theox]

Because they need to put you in a dungeon to progress the story, otherwise there would be no gameplay at all lol

[Brennus]

IMHO the memory erasure was done out of convenience for the writers. Now the writers don't have to write about an altered future timeline or an alternate timeline. The whole memory erasure thing was incredibly stupid.

I didn't have a problem with the memory-erasing thing, but I sure did with Hermes shackling everybody, just after we'd beaten the daylight out of him. Our party sure was dumb, we should have put immediate shackles of our own on him. That's a part of the story I still think was just too contrived for my own taste...

[Brennus]

Someone (I forget if it was Hythlodaeus or one of the minor ancients) said that when Ktsis entered its emergency lockdown mode it created a suppression field that weakened everyone who entered it.

I do remember that. However I don't think it was the reason our party let ourselves be outmaneuvered by Hermes. I think, if a rational explanation can be advanced, it was because our team was overconfident, we thought he'd been thoroughly beaten and wouldn't be able to pull any further trick out of his sleeves. And we didn't expect it anyway. :-)

[Rulakir]

IMHO the memory erasure was done out of convenience for the writers. Now the writers don't have to write about an altered future timeline or an alternate timeline. The whole memory erasure thing was incredibly stupid.

Basically this. All of the writing at the end of Elpis was contrived to produce a closed time loop. As for what was the point of defeating Hermes, there wasn't one except for us to face yet another version of Fandaniel/Amon.

[Cleretic]

I hate the time loop being mentioned, in part because the time loop isn't actually important, but the fact that it's an element means people think it must be central. We're just... not really used to stories where time travel is an element, but not the central focus. Well, unless you watch Doctor Who, I guess.

The time loop happened mostly so that the story itself can maintain some coherency while still letting the writers have the freedom to do what they needed to in Elpis. Nobody is motivated internal to the story by the time loop, at least not to a point where they actually change their behavior; Venat was never going to do anything different specifically because she learned she'd do that, everything she does is entirely in-keeping with the character we met and spoke to, and indeed when she hears about her actions, she's not in denial that she would ever do it (unlike Emet-Selch), she's struggling to believe she'd have to. At the end of Elpis she knows the stakes and opponent regardless of our influence, so she acts in response to them.

And yeah, the memory wipe powers of Kairos were absolutely just so that we could have Emet-Selch around while not having to deal with the issues of 'apparently he knew us in the past now'. Because they had to include him; if they had a story where we went back in time to Amaurot's day and didn't meet Emet-Selch, people would be pissed, so Kairos is a way to give people what they want while still having an actual story. Just because you can see the reasons story choices were made, doesn't make the story bad.

[Puremallace]

Meteion was not the only sister. Also if you do the side quest in Elpis you get a better idea of what Hermes was talking about. Amauroteans did not place much value on independent life and everything had to work by their own design. If a creature did not then it was just poofed out of existence. There was no such thing as natural selection in their world it seems to me.

Now as to why he had to fly away for her to finish the report I think it had more to do with his plan of initiating Kairos as Hermes was well aware he was zero match for Venta, Emet and Hythlodeaus in a fight so he had a bigger backup plan.

I find the zone of Elpis absolutely fascinating.