itch.io

(SPOILERS + THEORIES)

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Re: I FUCKING CALLED IT. I watched Yinny's video of the demo and I was like "huh. Palmier's acting weird lol wouldn't it be crazy if he was like. already in love with us and that's why his conditions for romance are left blank?" 

No because I'm chomping on this theory right here. It's already canon in my head. Palmier is such a delightfully scummy character, as someone who has also watched Yinny's playthroughs and has 175 hours in the original game, I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Palmier's always struck me as someone who doesn't do anything without plan or cutting consideration, he's not impulsive, he's preemptive and plays the long-game every time. Pair that with the ability to lie as easily as he breathes and you've easily got the reddest flag known to man as a LI (and one of them has commit mass genocide). To love him I fear would be a terrible act of masochism; you can't fix him and he'll probably make you worse, but he will make you like it.

In the first game, his cunning really shines through when you bring up the Drakmar Witch situation with Arshem and Fia. What Meyza shows the doppelgänger makes Palmier's actions look like a petulant act of jealousy, but in that single act he orchestrated the murder of two children, earned the favor of a powerful witch, and contrived a way to steal Arshem's heart. AS A KID he managed to plan this out while reaping every potential benefit he could get his hands on, all the while keeping the incident a secret from everyone, INCLUDING Fia. She's the person he is closest to and all he deigned to tell her, of all people, was that he "did something bad." If that's how he lies to the people he values and loves most in the world, imagine wtf he'll do to Mischa (player). Granted he was a child at the time but it's implied in the original game he didn't develop a great amount of empathy until meeting Kor, sooo...

All that to say, Palmier's a big fat liar and always has been. Learning about his bloodline (check the books!!) is the cherry on top. I would not put it past him to actually have Mischa as his soulmate instead and he just pinned it on Ivar for convenience because of the circumstances. In the prequel, Ivar was never shown to bleed so it wouldn't make sense for a vampire to have him as their soulmate when he doesn't have blood to attract them/feed them. But with PALMIER, who is originally/partly human and soul bonded to a witch (the only OG one that bled, for that matter!), it is more believable. There's even a line where the player thinks of his blood as smelling "familiar...like home." 

In both games we learn that a vampire's soulmate will have the most tantalizing blood to them. In the first game, there is a book in the library that says most vamps struggled to drink Kor's blood because of its strange ink-like consistency. Mischa doesn't have the heart to feed on anyone human or humanoid and to my knowledge doesn't react to anyone's blood (save for the blood fruit) half as viscerally as they do to Palmier's. If this is just because witch blood is That Good Shit(tm) then my theory goes out the window, but since Kor's blood is unappetizing for most vamps, wouldn't that make Mischa attracted to Palmier's blood specifically?

Not to mention, if you chose to smack Palmier he bites your ring finger and then looks smug about the 'red ring around your finger'. Possessive much? He could have chosen any other finger but it had to be the one associated with marriage. Then there's Palmy's dialogue about Ivar 'using his powers to bridge the gap between our worlds...tampering with the natural order of things just to meet his soulmate.' A power that, in the prequel, only the original Palmier is shown to possess AFTER absorbing all of the grand witches. Of course the possibility stands that Ivar and Palmier split their powers half/half when they divorced from the same body but between the two of them...there's only one we know with a track record with contriving scenarios just to make someone fall in love with him. 

Arshem got stolen away by the doppelgänger Palmier. If his other self is allowed to take a partner from a different world, why wouldn't he?

Talking about the natural order as someone who fully intended to become the one true 'God' of his world and make a religion surrounding himself smh.

> And a sidenote, it is revealed by Quill in the first game that humans have no natural soulmates, so no soul marks appear on them. Soul marks in general seem to be a vampire-centric thing (A curse from Kor to counteract their immortality, as it were). Vampires soulbond by drinking each others blood, werewolves have a whole fated mate scent thing. 

I don't recall there ever being soul marks for witches as the nature of their soulbonding involves turning the weaker party into their shadow...which bodes well for anyone wanting to romance Palmier. You can feed him your blood in the demo, which puts him in the very advantageous position of only needing to drink your blood in order to kill you (via ego death)...assuming that he CAN be soulbonded to more than one person at a time.

I am TOO excited to see where this goes, the lore in this game has always been delicious food for my brain worms.