It's actually kinda interesting how they expanded on Vestal's backstory a bit. In DD1, it was mostly implied that the Vestal's inattention to the fire led to her fleeing the convent, but to hear that her deeds led to torture (by the Flagellant no less!) and the murder of the rest of her sisterhood is... well, pretty dreary.
Morbid as her story is, I think something overlooked and something I personally find super intriguing is the fact that this incident made her stronger in faith or even "reborn" if you will. I don't think I've ever really seen a religious character represented as differentiating her faith from supposed fellow worshipers upon their group straight up betraying them. Vestal instead surrenders herself more in faith of a divine being and actually receives help from said being against The Flagellant. Normally you'd have such a character reject their faith and either go on their own path or give themselves to some other dark supernatural being - so it's refreshing to see this sort of take.
I guess the other question would be what the nature of this Divine being is. Is it different from the Heart of the World, who created and consumes life? The Fire that is worshipped must be an entity connected to the Heart or some other force entirely. We see that worshippers of the Light often receive divine-like powers of restoration so it seems like a benevolent force but if so it is not directly controlled by the Heart since you still have access to these powers when confronting it. Questions questions.
@@TESkyrimizer Honestly, the fact the Crusader is still absent in the roster makes me worried of the true nature of The Flame, and that he may yet be a fallen hero like a certain treasure-seeker has.
@@TESkyrimizer I want to say it's God - like THE God - but the Vestal's religion seems to be akin to that of Zorastrianism (who kind of also believe in an all-powerful singular creator like the abrahamic religions but seem to also believe said God isn't "that" powerful per say). Either way, yeah I'd say that the religious characters we see in the series worship someone who isn't related to the Heart at all - they might even be a hidden adversary of said Heart.
@@gratuitouslurking8610I mean (spoilers) . . . . . . his helmet being in the ending + the achievement for getting him and Dismas to beat HoD makes me think that he may have sacrificed himself for the Highwayman...
Debatable. You can hardly justify actions of her torturers, saying that overreacted would be an understatement, although since Flagellant is there we know they were far more interested in suffering than piousness. BUT, that being said, you can HARDLY call her actions "just". Her lusting over some lovey dovey couple and not attending flame is wrong through and through. A human weakness? Sure. Deserving of death? Debatable, probably depends on the culture. But it is factually wrong to neglect holy flame so you can peep through a window and rub your bean. You're in a religious position that forbids it, you literally cannot defend it being "right" unless you go towards "All religion dogma bad" argument.
@@MrMrtvozornik There's nothing special about the flame. Its just a hollow, meaningless ritual that accomplished nothing. She didn't deserve death and torture for neglecting it and her sisters definitely didn't deserve to be BURIED ALIVE! What could possibly be "debatable" about any of this? If anything the fact that her powers manifested themselves during her imprisonment vindicates her for rejecting her corrupt religion.
@@H240909 You're literally going with "All religion dogma bad" argument. You could say the same for any earthly religion, "There's nothing special about the X", but there is. Belief itself gives it meaning. "Meaningless ritual" means nothing, because majority of rituals, both religious and otherwise are meaningless. The same way etiquette and good manners? Also "meaningless" yet not meaningless at all. You aknowledge that Vestal has certain Holy powers, so there's SOMETHING there, there IS higher power. Sure, it could be that this higher power disagrees with the form of worship these followers in particular performed, therefore it "chose" the Vestal as avatar of sorts. But GUESS WHAT, religion has heretics and offsprings all the time, you know what would Vestal do once free of shackles from previous religious doctrine? That's right, make her own, new and envigored one, fresh with the stream of thinking, doubting and faith. Then she'll establish her own convent which will grow into full fledged religion direction/heresy that could easily overtake previous doctrine. Then as it goes in history, down the line of couple of centuries people become complacent and decadent. This new Vestal's doctrine could easily become just as "meaningless" as the previous one. And please, cut the "they didn't deserve X punishment" because you sound like you think no one deserves such punishment. These certain people? Debatable, you can argue both for and against. But to flat out say it's not debatable proves you aren't really even thinking about it, you're arguing on your gut reaction. That's like being pro "free speech", "abortion rights", "sexual freedoms" just on basis of "That's right". No, it's not, there are pros and cons to all societal structures, and whether or not you want one or the other is subject of debate. That's literally like you saying it's not "up for debate" whether or not Muslims have some points with Burkas or not. Religion, culture, micro climate, it all matters in this discussion, but most of all, biology. There are some positives to system that covers up the women and there are some negatives, now what your priorities in your life are, and depending on your ideals, you might lean on one side or the other. BUT YOU CAN NOT SAY IT'S NOT UP FOR DEBATE by blindly shouting there's 0 positives for it. Similarly for this subject, or honestly any other "religion dogma bad" conversation.
@@MrMrtvozornik And there it is. You don't actually care about the context, you just want to project your own issues and insecurities. Now guess what, just because your religion tells you to do something, doesn't make it the right thing to do. Your arguing for blind faith which is just as bad as arguing that all religions are immoral. And that's coming from ME, a practicing Christian. I believe in God and our lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Now did I say all religions were bad? No, I didn't. Why would I think that? But if your religion advocates for the murder of innocent people, its inherently barbaric and its violent practices should be stamped out. Whether or not the religion as a whole continues after that is irrelevant. Now, you can dance around the fact that they killed innocent women out of spite but that doesn't change that that's what happened. What they did was murder. Even the higher power they worship agrees. If it wasn't, she wouldn't have been blessed in the end. And yes, the ritual was meaningless. The Vestal was actively rewarded by the higher power she worships for abandoning the useless practice and embracing love and acceptance. She's clearly in the right here. If can't see that, that's on you.
@@H240909 1. She IS clearly in the right. 2. Flagellant IS clearly in the wrong. 3. Your definition of innocent is highly Christian centric. What with adulterers? Do we stone them now? Cause Bible advocates that. Many people would call that murdering the innocents, but you might not, because X, Y and Z stance on adultery. Bible has just as many dogmatic issues as Flagellant's religion, obviously, since Flagellant's religion is based on Christianity in the first place. What of slavery then? Quran advocates alleviating slave's burden, but it doesn't ban slavery. Is that religion also "barbaric" for it? You, as a practicing Christian surely have been accused of following "barbaric" dogmatic religion such as Christianity too. 4. The ritual wasn't meaningless, it held cultural significance. Just because not every ritual is ordained by tangible higher power doesn't mean the ritual is meaningless, and Christianity has plenty of "meaningless" rituals. 5. All faith is blind, there's no such thing as non blind faith, that's literally what word faith means. 6. "The Vestal was actively rewarded by the higher power she worships for abandoning the useless practice and embracing love and acceptance." Highly questionable reasoning, from my perspective she wasn't rewarded for ditching the useless practice but for martyrdom, as it is usual in Christianity, especially Orthodox form. 7. I do care about the context, you just can't stand that I'm moral relativist and not moral absolutist. Yet as a moral relativist I play "devil's advocate" for Flagellant's church/religion. No where did I say their form of worship is something to aspire to, nor something I'd partake in it, but I simply refuse to view it from the lens of "Decadent, flagellating, dogmatic religion bad" and "Young girl with confused feelings for the other gender accepting love and freedom good.". 8. "But if your religion advocates for the murder of innocent people, its inherently barbaric and its violent practices should be stamped out. Whether or not the religion as a whole continues after that is irrelevant." This whole section screams of American neo imperialism, where you want the cake and eat it too. X, Y, Z is barbaric and should be stamped out, yet what precisely is "barbaric" can shift and change within just a couple of decades (a.k.a. current politics), as a "casus beli" for fueling the war machine. One day it's even just an idea of Dictatorship, so let's get rid of Libya's prosperity and topple the dictator (newsflash, Libya's in ruins now and everyone were happier under Gaddafi), next decade it's Iraq's power that's "barbaric and should be stamped out/liberated". Look how that went well. Then Vietnam. Then Nazis (while also conveniently forgetting just how much both Axis and Allies owed to USA and that the biggest incentive for joining allies wasn't ideology but the fact that they owed way more, so if they lost USA couldn't cash out after war). Every 15-20 years the idea of what's "barbaric and should be stamped out" changes, ever fueling international imperialism. You know what's the worst part, I understand these processes and generally even support them, but I'm not blind nor delusional to think it was ever about "barbarism" or "freedoms". It's what it was always about, war for resources.
This inspired me to create a party full of people who, given their backstories, would definitely hate each other: - Vestal (wavered on her path to the light) - Runaway (abandoned her faith after bad experiences with nuns) - Flagellant (worships the light in an unconventional, arguably selfish way. Also tortured the vestal) - Crusader (follows the light very closely, sacrificing his humanity in the process)
@@theALTF4 yeah would have been fine if they simply rebranded it as some other positive feeling and rewritten all dialogue. Or if it was only between a man and a woman! but this together with china exclusivity deal? no sir
It's actually kinda interesting how they expanded on Vestal's backstory a bit. In DD1, it was mostly implied that the Vestal's inattention to the fire led to her fleeing the convent, but to hear that her deeds led to torture (by the Flagellant no less!) and the murder of the rest of her sisterhood is... well, pretty dreary.
Who killed the sisterhood? I missed the plot.
@@5tarasm The light. The light killed everyone, for it seems the wall magically appeared in the doorway.
Actually the whole comic with the fire was made years after DD1 came out.
@@coolsceegaming6178 It was the other priests who killed them by immurement. All the Light did was save Junia from the madness of the "faithful."
That awkward moment when you put Flagellant and Vestal in the same party
"Nah, the guy that beat me had skin. Can't possibly be him."-Vestal
Vestal. Flagellant. Amorous. I love this game.
never thought as something bland as putting some wood on the flame could be intense and stressful especially with that music
Morbid as her story is, I think something overlooked and something I personally find super intriguing is the fact that this incident made her stronger in faith or even "reborn" if you will.
I don't think I've ever really seen a religious character represented as differentiating her faith from supposed fellow worshipers upon their group straight up betraying them. Vestal instead surrenders herself more in faith of a divine being and actually receives help from said being against The Flagellant.
Normally you'd have such a character reject their faith and either go on their own path or give themselves to some other dark supernatural being - so it's refreshing to see this sort of take.
I guess the other question would be what the nature of this Divine being is. Is it different from the Heart of the World, who created and consumes life? The Fire that is worshipped must be an entity connected to the Heart or some other force entirely.
We see that worshippers of the Light often receive divine-like powers of restoration so it seems like a benevolent force but if so it is not directly controlled by the Heart since you still have access to these powers when confronting it.
Questions questions.
@@TESkyrimizer Honestly, the fact the Crusader is still absent in the roster makes me worried of the true nature of The Flame, and that he may yet be a fallen hero like a certain treasure-seeker has.
@@TESkyrimizer I want to say it's God - like THE God - but the Vestal's religion seems to be akin to that of Zorastrianism (who kind of also believe in an all-powerful singular creator like the abrahamic religions but seem to also believe said God isn't "that" powerful per say).
Either way, yeah I'd say that the religious characters we see in the series worship someone who isn't related to the Heart at all - they might even be a hidden adversary of said Heart.
@@mishaalkisan1688 I could be wrong but isn't in zoarostrianism another equally powerful god Ahriman who counter the good god.
@@gratuitouslurking8610I mean (spoilers)
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his helmet being in the ending + the achievement for getting him and Dismas to beat HoD makes me think that he may have sacrificed himself for the Highwayman...
Like Leper, Vestal has done no wrong, however she carries is the guilt of those who were murdered for her just actions.
Debatable. You can hardly justify actions of her torturers, saying that overreacted would be an understatement, although since Flagellant is there we know they were far more interested in suffering than piousness. BUT, that being said, you can HARDLY call her actions "just". Her lusting over some lovey dovey couple and not attending flame is wrong through and through. A human weakness? Sure. Deserving of death? Debatable, probably depends on the culture. But it is factually wrong to neglect holy flame so you can peep through a window and rub your bean. You're in a religious position that forbids it, you literally cannot defend it being "right" unless you go towards "All religion dogma bad" argument.
@@MrMrtvozornik There's nothing special about the flame. Its just a hollow, meaningless ritual that accomplished nothing. She didn't deserve death and torture for neglecting it and her sisters definitely didn't deserve to be BURIED ALIVE! What could possibly be "debatable" about any of this? If anything the fact that her powers manifested themselves during her imprisonment vindicates her for rejecting her corrupt religion.
@@H240909 You're literally going with "All religion dogma bad" argument. You could say the same for any earthly religion, "There's nothing special about the X", but there is. Belief itself gives it meaning. "Meaningless ritual" means nothing, because majority of rituals, both religious and otherwise are meaningless. The same way etiquette and good manners? Also "meaningless" yet not meaningless at all.
You aknowledge that Vestal has certain Holy powers, so there's SOMETHING there, there IS higher power. Sure, it could be that this higher power disagrees with the form of worship these followers in particular performed, therefore it "chose" the Vestal as avatar of sorts. But GUESS WHAT, religion has heretics and offsprings all the time, you know what would Vestal do once free of shackles from previous religious doctrine?
That's right, make her own, new and envigored one, fresh with the stream of thinking, doubting and faith. Then she'll establish her own convent which will grow into full fledged religion direction/heresy that could easily overtake previous doctrine. Then as it goes in history, down the line of couple of centuries people become complacent and decadent. This new Vestal's doctrine could easily become just as "meaningless" as the previous one.
And please, cut the "they didn't deserve X punishment" because you sound like you think no one deserves such punishment. These certain people? Debatable, you can argue both for and against. But to flat out say it's not debatable proves you aren't really even thinking about it, you're arguing on your gut reaction. That's like being pro "free speech", "abortion rights", "sexual freedoms" just on basis of "That's right". No, it's not, there are pros and cons to all societal structures, and whether or not you want one or the other is subject of debate.
That's literally like you saying it's not "up for debate" whether or not Muslims have some points with Burkas or not. Religion, culture, micro climate, it all matters in this discussion, but most of all, biology. There are some positives to system that covers up the women and there are some negatives, now what your priorities in your life are, and depending on your ideals, you might lean on one side or the other. BUT YOU CAN NOT SAY IT'S NOT UP FOR DEBATE by blindly shouting there's 0 positives for it. Similarly for this subject, or honestly any other "religion dogma bad" conversation.
@@MrMrtvozornik And there it is. You don't actually care about the context, you just want to project your own issues and insecurities. Now guess what, just because your religion tells you to do something, doesn't make it the right thing to do. Your arguing for blind faith which is just as bad as arguing that all religions are immoral. And that's coming from ME, a practicing Christian. I believe in God and our lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
Now did I say all religions were bad? No, I didn't. Why would I think that? But if your religion advocates for the murder of innocent people, its inherently barbaric and its violent practices should be stamped out. Whether or not the religion as a whole continues after that is irrelevant.
Now, you can dance around the fact that they killed innocent women out of spite but that doesn't change that that's what happened. What they did was murder. Even the higher power they worship agrees. If it wasn't, she wouldn't have been blessed in the end.
And yes, the ritual was meaningless. The Vestal was actively rewarded by the higher power she worships for abandoning the useless practice and embracing love and acceptance. She's clearly in the right here. If can't see that, that's on you.
@@H240909 1. She IS clearly in the right.
2. Flagellant IS clearly in the wrong.
3. Your definition of innocent is highly Christian centric. What with adulterers? Do we stone them now? Cause Bible advocates that. Many people would call that murdering the innocents, but you might not, because X, Y and Z stance on adultery. Bible has just as many dogmatic issues as Flagellant's religion, obviously, since Flagellant's religion is based on Christianity in the first place. What of slavery then? Quran advocates alleviating slave's burden, but it doesn't ban slavery. Is that religion also "barbaric" for it? You, as a practicing Christian surely have been accused of following "barbaric" dogmatic religion such as Christianity too.
4. The ritual wasn't meaningless, it held cultural significance. Just because not every ritual is ordained by tangible higher power doesn't mean the ritual is meaningless, and Christianity has plenty of "meaningless" rituals.
5. All faith is blind, there's no such thing as non blind faith, that's literally what word faith means.
6. "The Vestal was actively rewarded by the higher power she worships for abandoning the useless practice and embracing love and acceptance." Highly questionable reasoning, from my perspective she wasn't rewarded for ditching the useless practice but for martyrdom, as it is usual in Christianity, especially Orthodox form.
7. I do care about the context, you just can't stand that I'm moral relativist and not moral absolutist. Yet as a moral relativist I play "devil's advocate" for Flagellant's church/religion. No where did I say their form of worship is something to aspire to, nor something I'd partake in it, but I simply refuse to view it from the lens of "Decadent, flagellating, dogmatic religion bad" and "Young girl with confused feelings for the other gender accepting love and freedom good.".
8. "But if your religion advocates for the murder of innocent people, its inherently barbaric and its violent practices should be stamped out. Whether or not the religion as a whole continues after that is irrelevant." This whole section screams of American neo imperialism, where you want the cake and eat it too. X, Y, Z is barbaric and should be stamped out, yet what precisely is "barbaric" can shift and change within just a couple of decades (a.k.a. current politics), as a "casus beli" for fueling the war machine. One day it's even just an idea of Dictatorship, so let's get rid of Libya's prosperity and topple the dictator (newsflash, Libya's in ruins now and everyone were happier under Gaddafi), next decade it's Iraq's power that's "barbaric and should be stamped out/liberated". Look how that went well. Then Vietnam. Then Nazis (while also conveniently forgetting just how much both Axis and Allies owed to USA and that the biggest incentive for joining allies wasn't ideology but the fact that they owed way more, so if they lost USA couldn't cash out after war). Every 15-20 years the idea of what's "barbaric and should be stamped out" changes, ever fueling international imperialism. You know what's the worst part, I understand these processes and generally even support them, but I'm not blind nor delusional to think it was ever about "barbarism" or "freedoms". It's what it was always about, war for resources.
I never thought kindling a fire could be so stressful
So the buried all the sisters alive over what happened. Damn
They based it off the real punishment of Roman Vestal virgins when they forsook their vows. They got buried alive.
This inspired me to create a party full of people who, given their backstories, would definitely hate each other:
- Vestal (wavered on her path to the light)
- Runaway (abandoned her faith after bad experiences with nuns)
- Flagellant (worships the light in an unconventional, arguably selfish way. Also tortured the vestal)
- Crusader (follows the light very closely, sacrificing his humanity in the process)
i strongly dislike this game because two random characters can become "amorous" against my will !!!!!!!!!!!!
ikr? lol. i dont dislike it per se XD but rather i LOVE this game ... BUT that mechanic.
not that mechanic, dont like it
@@theALTF4 yeah would have been fine if they simply rebranded it as some other positive feeling and rewritten all dialogue. Or if it was only between a man and a woman! but this together with china exclusivity deal? no sir
also crusader not existing renders the game unplayable
@@oscartriangle6699 grow up
@@elio6861 I'm wondering if they'll add back charactrs from DD1 later