The fate of Praetorian Earth in Dark Astoria? (spoilers)

Wow, imagine that. And here I honestly thought I was imagining it I hate how my memory works sometimes. I remember certain things, but have no idea why I know them, who told them to me or when I found out. I'd be the primary candidate of a psychological horror movie

I agree completely. And, yes, its personal story was quite cool, as well... I just wish it had been revealed AFTER the actual reveal. Because, honestly, I know who and what the Sentinel was the entire time, but my character wasn't supposed to know and the Dream Doctor acted like he didn't know and it made the whole plot thread one giant exercise of waiting for a reveal I already knew. Putting the personal story before that reveal was a MAJOR mistake, as far as I'm concerned.

If anything, I'm a bit disappointed we didn't see the Sentinel do more for us. I mean physically see it do more, like have the thing fight a whole army of Mot's creatures to buy us time to get inside the maw, with us being on, say, a 30-second timer before we get auto-ported inside, like the ending of Jenni Adair's arc. You know, more show less tell. But again, that's me wanting more, not really hating what's there. And I haven't been able to say that recently.

See, this is kind of what doesn't work for me. I never got the feeling Mot omnomnommed Tielekku because he was stronger. I got the feeling she was just pathetically weak. Mot even says so - "You have become weaker, goddess." That's why I capitalise the word "establish" so often when I talk about how it would have been nice if the story had ESTABLISHED her power first. See, Tielekku is a clear instance of the Worf effect, where her only purpose in the story is to be strong and to be defeated by Mot to show how strong he is. I get that, and I would even be on board... If we had any reason to believe Tielekku was strong enough to matter to begin with. Yes, she's a goddess so that's sort of implied. Yes, she banished an entire pantheon of other gods, so it's implied she's even stronger.

But here's the thing - she ISN'T stronger in the story. She is described as being weaker multiple times, and she NEVER demonstrates any abnormal powers that I can actually see. I don't even think her avatar has any powers attached to it, she's just there for the cutscenes. Tielekku does NOTHING, and that's a cryin' shame. Again, her summoning is rushed and has no fanfare, her appearing is low-key and she... Really just looks like a regular half-naked woman. If it wasn't for the narrative informing me of how great she was, I would never have been able to tell. Yeah, Tielekku's godhood is an informed ability.

Take something simple by comparison. Take the Statesman's appearance in a Hero's Epic. He shows up several times as a companion NPC, he has some dialogue and he's actually pretty tough in combat, between his awesome Zeus lightning and his overall damaging attacks and his own physical toughness. I may not get the sense that he's the manifestation of Zeus, but I can tell the man is at the very least highly capable of at least looking after himself. Sure, he then shows up as a level 54 Archvillain at the end, but that's besides the point.

This is what I would have wanted to do with Tielekku. Instead of insta-porting to the Maw, why not have her accompany us on the way up there? Give her some kind of recoloured powers, make her an elite boss, give her somewhat boosted abilities and have at least act as though she's on our level. Have her DO something before she gets eaten, is my point. I get that giving Tielekku a unique, special, fanfare-heavy summoning might have taken lots of art team resources, but giving her actual powers should not have been that tough. We already have the map that goes from the graveyard entrance to the maw. Why not use it?

I get that Tielekku's kidnapping is supposed to show Mot's power, but in order for that to work, we should first have seen Tielekku's power.

That would actually have made the Talons a lot less boring, actually. See, what I don't like about them the most is... Where the hell are they coming from? Why are they all women? And why are they turning into chickens? If the Talons were presented as more of a "plague" than a faction, that would actually have been awesome. I could see their members still being enhanced with scales and wings and such, but at least have those member span more groups. Have there be angry Circle mystics, have there be angry Malta soldiers, have there be angry Crey Tanks. Hell, why not angry Rikti? The Traditionalists already operate on a culture of racial hatred.

What bugs me about the Talons is they're designed in such a way as to imply they have an actual backstory when they don't. Making them a plague would free them of this need for backstory and actually fit a lot better with what they seem to want to represent.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Take this with a huge grain of salt. It's extraneous material, it's told from a particular character's point of view and it doesn't jive with in-game material. Akarist's writings in-game claim the Oranbegans still venerated Tielekku. She also left behind her titular scroll with instructions on how to summon her if the Banished Pantheon returned, which doesn't seem like something she'd do for people she wanted to beat up. And when she does finally show up she doesn't go all "insolent mortals!" but more like "o hai u can haz ant-death god ritualz". Hequat's extremism appears to be limited to her.