Crestfallen Studios

Slade was, on the outside, a very dark character. He seemed to be a mindless tool of justice, killing everything that broke the rules. On the inside, though, we find him to be someone who only tries to do what is right in a world where right and wrong are often conflicted. In the rm2k battle system, Slade had a move called Outer Darkness. I parallel this to Gaius's move called Inner Darkness which is not usable under normal circumstances. This move, which Lun would not include in the game if it had no meaning, because why would one include an unusable move, tells us that Gaius, though on the outside appearing good, is actually quite evil. This is my reasoning for why Gaius is evil.

Now, assuming that the Harbringer of Estrana was indeed Gaius, we have two tracks that we can follow.

1. Rhue's Sword is a Shadow Sword
Mr. I Stand on a Random Street Corner and Tell People About the Illuminati tells us, "[The Illuminati] would not harm the innocent, but only those who deserved death by the judgement of the Purpose itself," and "I guess it goes without saying that Shadow Swords are pretty much the opposite of the Illuminati in every way." Thus we can conclude that Shadow Swords cannot harm those who deserve death, but only those who do not. Since Gaius is evil, and Rhue's sword could not harm him, then we can only conclude that Rhue's sword is a Shadow Sword.

2. Rhue's Sword is One of the Illuminati
If Rhue's Sword is really named Aubuta, then it stands to reason that it is one of the Illuminati, simply because all the Illuminati have one word names, and the Shadow Swords have two word names. Even "Illuminati" is one word and "Shadow Sword" is two. So if Rhue's sword is an Illuminati, why couldn't he attack Gaius, who is evil? Since The Way has a parallel to Christianity, I see the Guided as similar to the Pharisees; they're both religious freaks who think they know what they're talking about but actually don't. The Guided are the holy people of their time, and even if their doctrines are a bit crooked, they're the ones who would have the Illuminati. Since Gaius has dealt with the Guided, perhaps they gave him one of the Illuminati to wield. And if he's wielding one of the Illuminati, then maybe Rhue is as well. Rhue's sword seems to oppose Shadow Swords, so it might ally itself with the Illuminati, thus making it an Illuminati itself. Perhaps the Illuminati are like positively charged ions and the Shadow Swords are negative. They attract each other, but they cannot come too close to those of their own kind.

So if the Illuminati and Shadow Swords are opposites, and Rhue's sword can absorb the auras of those he kills, then can the opposite type of sword transmit auras instead?

And one other, seemingly unrelated idea... Maybe the Purpose is exactly that: a purpose. Maybe everything on the Way exists for a single Purpose, and in the end, that Purpose will be fulfilled. What if the whole of the Way is a process, set in motion by something, maybe even the Lord Below, that only exists for one thing, and that one thing is coming near to happening?

I could be wrong. Gaius could be a good guy, or Rhue's sword could be neither Illuminati nor Shadow Sword. I kind of like the idea of Gaius-is-evil-but-holds-an-Illuminati though. Speaking of, is Illuminati singular and plural? Or is the singular Illuminatus?

Anyway, hopefully at least some of that was new.

Jabbo wrote:If Rhue's Sword is really named Aubuta...

I may be remembering wrong, but I think Fwacho said that Aubuta is not the name of a sword.

maybe aubuta is just some lord below monster language for "Fucking hell" "dang", "crap", or any other word

Lun is probably in a room somwere thinking "Ha, They still think aubuta is important to the story! Just wait till they find out it was a typo!" Or somthing else along those lines.

If so he has pretty nlousy humor.

Hm. Well, it still could be either one of the two, though it could just as easily be neither I suppose.

The more I think about them, the less my ideas seem to be able to fit. Ah, well.

Even if Rhue's sword is named Aubuta, how does that help us anyway?

it really doesnt have anything to due with anything

Kalmar said "Aubuta" in a rather mysterious way... If Rhue's sword is called that than we know Kalmar knew something about it.

but hes dead so WoOt

Kalmar said "Aubuta" in a rather mysterious way

how is putting "..." at the end of it make it mysterious?

-_- The circumstances under which he said it and the position he was in made it seem mysterious. Not the fucking dots.

there are two other possiblities not mentioned in first post.

3: Rhue's sword is neither illuminati nor shadow sword.

4: Rhue's sword is both illuminati and shadow sword.


Also, gaius might not be evil, it's just a matter of perception. The inner darkness means that He is like yin and yang, He is light but with a small speck of darkness within him. He is able to call out this darkness only under special conditions. After all he uses moves like trinity and judgement. Rather holy things no?

fwacho wrote:there are two other possiblities not mentioned in first post.

fwacho's posts are always incredibly vague, but I can't imagine he would lie. And, since he's telling us something rather directly... We're probably not thinking along the right lines.

Perhaps Kalmar wasn't referring to Rhue's sword at all; perhaps he was talking about Rhue...