It would be as terrible as if Doctor Medico was gay because of radiation.
Christopher did say that, in the first Q&A while Adam drew Harpy and Parse.
No one needs supernatural intervention to be asexual, some people just are.
@DerptheBugbear I love the idea that HAmmer and Anvil were after Dreamer instead of Visionary.
I can't add much at the moment. One thought, I do not have my cards at the moment, what is the Flavor Text on Ruin (Baron Blade mini-nemesis to Argent Adept). I remember something about breaking rhythym or ending things in silence.
I can't completely agree with everything being conjunctured. For example, the Nexus of the Void does not look like a place of order. I could be wrong, but it looks like a mismatch of various biomes, thrown together with little rhyme or reason.
So, what if the Adept isn't an agent of the void but instead a... containment for the Void.
Also... here's something interesting.
The Virtuoso of the Void has existed since human culture has existed.
Akash'Bhuta has existed since the natural world has existed.
These two beginnings don't line up. Akash'Bhuta, who was worshipped as a goddess, existed long before her foe. In that case, is it possible that the Virtuoso did not arise to combat Akash'Bhuta but instead arose in response to something else, and fought Akash'Bhuta simply because she threatened all of humanity...
Oooh. Akash'Bhuta threatened humanity, all of it. If she had her way all of humanity would likely have been destroyed. The Adept fights to protect humanity, because humanity is acting as a check, a balance to the Void. AA fights Akash'Bhuta to protect humanity, so that humanity can continue to fill it's role.
Akash'Bhuta isn't a creature of massive wisdom or intellect, she is a being of primal instincts and emotion. She isn't fighting for any grander cause, she destroys because it is her nature to destroy. Argent Adept is the one with the grander plans and motives.
So if the shards in Ft. Adamant were pieces from OblivAeon, how on earth did they get there? They must have been removed before the epic fight with Ra and the Ennead.
Well, one of them might be the one that empowered Captain Cosmic and Infinitor.
About the Void Guard, the update said : "Now, Doctor Medico, Mainstay, The Idealist, and Writhe harness the power of Oblivion Shards and fight against the end of all things. They hold back the Void when no one else can."
Seems they are not working for the Void, but keeping it in check - even if they used Oblivian Shards to get their power upgrade.
Edit : I am beginnign to wonder if destroying OblivAeon may be a "bad" thing - maybe he was the only thing standing opposite to the Void, and now it is the new "cosmic menace" for the Tactics story...
Ah, good! So let's go with colors. From Adam's art, Dr. Medico has a red crystal, Idealist has a white crystal, Mainstay has an orange crystal, and Writhe appears to be purple (although I don't see the actual crystal). The kickstarter update says that they were "each radiating a different spectrum of energy", which may be referring to color or may be referring to something else.
Nigel and Hugh Lowsley found a purple crystal. This is presumably the one Writhe has, then?
Have we seen the other three crystals? None of them are green.
It's in his forehead.
The purple cristal is on Writhe's forehead, I think.
The orange one reminds me of Magmaria, but it may be just an association by color.
Here is a random thought that is probably way off base, but is an intersting thought none-the-less. After reading through the thread about La Capitan and Akash 'Bhuta, what if they are one in the same. As we know, Maria Helena travelled through a rift in time that took her to the past, present, and future. We have also seen from La Comadora and Akash 'Thriya that they both share a black spot that seems to be in the same area of the chest. Since we can assume that La Comadora and La Capitan met each other sometime in the timeline, what's to say that there wasn't a third entity of Maria Helena that was outside of time? What if that version through the curse of the void became Akash 'Bhuta and ended up at the beginning of the world.
This theory then would explain perhaps how both of them have a "black spot" that seems connected to the void and maybe why the Void gave its power to Akash 'Thriya. Seeing as perhaps Maria Helena had "paid the price" of becoming an embodiment of something out of time and space, she knew now how to control that power and perhaps save herself from the fate. It is a long-shot, but looking at the deck of Time Cataclysm could suggest this as a possibility. Just trying to think outside the box.
Good point! Magmaria is full of "Magma Crystals". Some of them appear more reddish (Ember Shaman, Crystal Collector) while others are orange (Smoldering Crystal). They appear more faceted than what Mainstay is swinging, however.
My own interpretation of "They hold back the Void when no one else can" is that, if OblivAeon is successfull in turning the multiverse into a singularity than he then destroys, all that would be left would be The Void. So "holding back the Void" is a fancy way of saying "they are helping stop OblivAeon".
I could be dead wrong about that, but it's how I initially read it.
Other than that, I dont see how defeating OblivAeon could be a bad thing at all when the alternative to doing so is "All reality is destroyed".
I think my use of Order is more about a state of being. I mean, IF the Void is a part of some Order/Chaos dichotomy, even that order experiences some chaos from time to time. If it didn't, the Wager would have never been lost. But what I'm thinking is that the Void strives for Order or an equalibrium of sorts, which is why it seeks to take back when its been taken from.
Would you mind expanding on your idea of Adept as a "containment"? It sounds cool and I'd like to know where you were going with it.
My point was not it was "bad", but that maybe OblivAeon's plan to destroy reality as we now it is a way for him to fight the Void. Once Obli out, the Void may have free reign - and its intentions may be even worse than OblivAeon's. There may be an old conflict between these two (maybe because of the Wager), and the fact that one prefers to use villains while the other empowers heroes may not be a clue to their final intentions...
The Heroes have no ther choice than stop OblivAeon - but it may have consequences and give rise to another, even bigger, threat.
Of course it's just speculations founded on imaginative interpretations of a few clues - like everything else here.
Ok I see what you are saying now. You have OblivAeon and the Void as combatants. The way I saw it was the OblivAeon wants a return to nothing but the Void.
I have to admit though that any speculation really kinda lives and dies by what exactly The Void is.
True. My "Comics Sense" - known to be unreliable - tells me that there is always a bigger threat, even if it takes years for it to reveal, and the Void may be the next one. With Christopher orchestrating the story, you never know :D
The fact that the Void is suddenly alluded everywhere in the last expansion, though, may either mean that we will know more in the expansion itself, or that Christopher decided to give us something to wonder about for a few more years !
John had always had an affinity for altering the very threads of existence. He could feel them as they stretched around him, connecting everything to everything else. So, when those lines drew him to a mysterious, glowing stone, he knew it was right and proper to take it with him
Thought I'd post this bit of Bio from Scholar. His stone HAS to truely be an Oblivion Shard right? I don't see any other explaination for him becoming a gateway to the infinite void.
Here, were can see Christopher said he made the alchemist stone. Perhaps his made it using an Oblivion Shard?
I read that too, but the official Scholar bio explicitly states that ley lines drew him to a stone that he found. They don't jive.
So either the Bio is wrong and Christopher has since issued a retcon, or you are correct that the stone (ie. Oblivion Shard) he found he used to make his alchemy stone.
This needs to be asked today during the Q&A.
The Akash'thrya relation with the void had me think about something. She made a pact with the void - and will have to pay the price someday/someway. And this seems to happen often for people who interact with it.
That's what you call "making a deal with the Devil", Faust-like.
Could there be a link between the Void and the Host ?
Maybe the Void is where the Host lives ?
Maybe the Virtuoso also has the task to keep the Void "closed" - after all, we now that Argent Adept was not fully teached in the way of the Virtuoso, the former Virtuoso died without having the time to explain much. Maybe AA doesn't know all the "missions" he has to accomplish as a Virtuoso, and Akash'Bhuta is just one of them...