I'm so confused by the Sage Storyline

[YukikoKurosawa]

So the story starts off with the questgiver Lalah in search of fugitives, and this leads her to giving you a sage's crystal. You agree to help her in her search, and this leads you to Loifa and his crew attacking a man named Faldrinet for unknown reasons. She believes Loifa and co and her fugitives, and so you pursue after them.

Long story short turns out Faldrinet was the badman of this tale and Loifa and friends were just trying to bring him to justice.

At some point in the questline, you find a dead merchant alongside an unconscious and badly injured Loifa. During this scene, Lalah reveals Loifa.....or one of his crew, it's not clear, killed her mother, but then says "I know the man who killed her was not in the right mind". Whatever that means? It's never elaborated on. More confusing is the dialogue choice you get, where you have the option to say that Loifa "protected" you........well I have no idea when that happened. In fact, I've gone over dialogue, rewatched cutscenes, and at no point does anything like this occur. This is actually a pretty big issue, the quest is telling me something pretty major happened that quite literally did not happen. I do not know if I have some sort of black spot in my memories, but I don't believe so as quest text on none of the quests' even suggests this occuring, and nor does it happen in cutscenes, I checked. I've gone over them multiple times, Loifa does not at any point help you. At all.

Further confusing is the question of why Loifa and co were even fugitives to begin with. They were experimented on by Faldrinet aka Guildivain and were seeking to bring him to justice vigilante style. Okay. He was already a wanted man in Sharylan at the time and on the run, so I don't imagine anyone would have issue with this. Yet for some reason Loifa and co were wanted......why? It doesn't elaborate. Or why Lalah thought they were her villains. Well, one of Loifa's friends killed her mother for......some reason. They were in the midst of pursuing Guildivain years ago when Lalah's mother spotted them and offered to render them aid, but one of Loifa's friends kills her......why? I dunno, it's never explained. "He was not in the right mind". Okay. I guess......he was another victim of Guildivain's experiments seeking revenge and was suffering side effects that made him to randomly berserk?.....I dunno.......because it's never explained.

And Guildivains motives are.......his wife died and he wants to now improve mankind wife horrific experiments involving an herb that we've never heard of before that can enhance one's own bodily aether.....and apparently give one the ability to transform into a giant monster. Sure. Or he's just crazy. I dunno. The writer certainly doesn't know.

Either I'm extremely stupid, I'm missing important details (yes I read the diary logs), or this is just an absolute mess of writing.

[Rongway]

It sounds like you just need to reorder your thoughts a bit. You know that the experimentation made the victims into ragemonsters. That's the answer to half of your questions.

More confusing is the dialogue choice you get, where you have the option to say that Loifa "protected" you........well I have no idea when that happened. In fact, I've gone over dialogue, rewatched cutscenes, and at no point does anything like this occur.

It's in the cutscene where you first meet all the characters. Sage's Focus, Cutscene #1.

Angry Viera casts Dosis. Elf NPC dodges. Silver-haired Thaumaturge charges a fireball. You rush in front of elf NPC to take the hit. Angry Viera realizes you are going to step in front of the elf NPC, and not wanting an innocent (you) to get hurt, casts Haima around you to protect you from Silver-haired Thaumaturge's fireball. When the explosion clears you see that his hands are up in the air in a crossed position, maintaining the barrier around you. When he takes his hands down, the barrier around you disappears and his nouliths return to him. Your own nouliths are sheathed during this whole sequence.

[KageTokage]

The instance of Loifa protecting you that was being referred to was at the beginning of the questline when he shields you from one of his subordinates after they try to attack Faldrinet/Guildivain and we impulsively get in the way. You're simply citing that as proof of him not being a bad person at heart.

Guildivain was not a fugitive initially and simply left Sharlayan of his own accord to further his research shortly after the initial incident with Lalah's mother; otherwise she wouldn't have been trying to protect him before Loifa exposes him as the real culprit behind everything.

Loifa and his friends got flagged as fugitives simply due to the former being a SGE (It's been established that Sharlayan is very strict about people taking knowledge of their spellcraft out of the country without proper approval), while the latter had a murder conviction as well as the forbidden aetherial enhancement from Guildivain to worry about.

[YukikoKurosawa]

It sounds like you just need to reorder your thoughts a bit. You know that the experimentation made the victims into ragemonsters. That's the answer to half of your questions.


It's in the cutscene where you first meet all the characters. Sage's Focus, Cutscene #1.

Angry Viera casts Dosis. Elf NPC dodges. Silver-haired Thaumaturge charges a fireball. You rush in front of elf NPC to take the hit. Angry Viera realizes you are going to step in front of the elf NPC, and not wanting an innocent (you) to get hurt, casts Haima around you to protect you from Silver-haired Thaumaturge's fireball. When the explosion clears you see that his hands are up in the air in a crossed position, maintaining the barrier around you. When he takes his hands down, the barrier around you disappears and his nouliths return to him. Your own nouliths are sheathed during this whole sequence.

The instance of Loifa protecting you that was being referred to was at the beginning of the questline when he shields you from one of his subordinates after they try to attack Faldrinet/Guildivain and we impulsively get in the way. You're simply citing that as proof of him not being a bad person at heart.

Guildivain was not a fugitive initially and simply left Sharlayan of his own accord to further his research shortly after the initial incident with Lalah's mother; otherwise she wouldn't have been trying to protect him before Loifa exposes him as the real culprit behind everything.

Loifa and his friends got flagged as fugitives simply due to the former being a SGE (It's been established that Sharlayan is very strict about people taking knowledge of their spellcraft out of the country without proper approval), while the latter had a murder conviction as well as the forbidden aetherial enhancement from Guildivain to worry about.

Ok I guess I just forgot/misinterpreted things. Somehow I couldn't find that scene when rewatching but now I see it. I did actually know that detail about Sharlyan law from doing the Astrologian quests but that was months and months ago since I finished them, I see I forgot lol.