Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

it is a perception that dictates that sex is about not just the sub/bottom's physical needs (which I think is also somewhat true in fandom) but about the sub/bottom's emotional needs, and is at least less interested in the dom/top's physical or emotional needs. and this is not to say that the dom/top's physical/emotional needs do not align with the sub's - hopefully they do! - just that in general fanfiction as a category is not approaching those two halves with the same interest or emphasis.

this pops up also, I would say, in the way that most fic I read does not dig into the desires of doms in the same way it digs into the desires of subs, which I would argue is linked back to the reluctance to acknowledge the desire to dominate as legitimate in the same way as the desire to submit.

I'm not saying that it's wrong to write this way or to be invested in this construction of a dynamic in the particular but I do think it's a problem writ large with implications outside the narrow realm of fandom (under discussion here because that's where I've experienced this most).

But I want to take a moment to point out that the reason Shadia has the blades at all is because of Bolaire.

It was Bolaire's idea to steal them from the museum when they did. It's a move that likely would have happened at some point in the campaign, but Bolaire pushed to do it now. To take advantage of the chaos sown in the museum and move the blades before House Cormoray got their claws in too deep. When Brennan sicced Lady Cormoray on him and Hal, it felt like a signal from the GM to the players that it was too soon for them to be making this move, but then he deus ex machina'd them out of danger, and the story went on.

I now think that getting the Pariah Blades out of the museum was a necessary step that would've been happening now, during the Convergence, had Bolaire not thought to do it first.

Because now, we know that these rituals involving the afterlives need an anchor of some sort, forged from an artifact that has changed its purpose. The letter the Soldiers brought back all but spells out that the blood for the ritual needed the Pariah Blades to be there as well as an anchor. Without that specific anchor, the ritual at the Round might've been destined to fail, just like whatever disastrous thing happened with Thjazi and Mara on Reaper's Day all those years ago.

It's not likely to get addressed by the narrative, because the symbolism of Shadia is so very powerful here, but I think there's important symbolism to Bolaire being the one to rescue the blades, too.

He's a historian who fought to keep the history of the orcish people in the hands of the orcs themselves, instead of the greedy human houses trying to twist that history. He's fighting to keep the Truth in the hands of those who will keep telling it, the Storytellers, like Hal. And, given what Bolaire is, there is a high likelihood that Bolaire himself would never have existed had the orcs not chosen to take up arms against Azgra and forge the Blades in the first place. Bolaire is himself an equivalent to a Pariah Blade working to keep his "cousins" out of the hands of the very tyrants he and they were created to oppose.

The Panto Mask, made to kill a god, now working as a historian. The artifact that changed its own purpose, now helping other artifacts to change theirs.

Bolaire couldn't have known that the Blades themselves would end up as part of the play, but now that they have, he may have just provided a key component to yet another powerful ritual taking place in a sacred theater. And there is symbolism in that too, in the theater mask providing a component to the upcoming theater magic, even if Bolaire himself will not be present at the play.

No one in the audience commented on the life of the sheep eaten in the shepherd's pie. It's purpose in this world was to die so that omnivore humanoids may live. But Bolaire yoinking the body of a murderous thief relishing in the cruelty of his work is met with revulsion. When really in the grand scheme of life in the world, why is one more moral than the other? The sheep probably didn't even hurt anyone. It really just desired to eat grass, get some good rest, be safe and warm, socialize, and mate.

And I say this as a thoughtful omnivore. I do try to consider the lives of the plants, animals, and fungus I devour, and the lives of those who grew and procured them for me. My partner is mainly vegetarian, occasionally pescatarian, and lived with vegans for years so we eat that way a lot, too. I feel octopus are too intelligent for me to want to eat, but for completely arbitrary cultural reasons I feel differently about pigs. I stopped eating quinoa when I learned about the horrors of the food systems that put it on my table in the Pacific Northwest instead of its indigenous lands. I keep a painting near my kitchen that merges the imagery of a human heart and a sprouting bean and reads "Con Respecto y Gratitud para los campesinos que nos proporcionan todas las fruias y verduras." [With Respect and Gratitude for the farmers who provide us with all the fruits and vegetables.] It reminds me daily of the human hands that even my plants passed through. Bolaire harvests his own food.

On a zoomed out utilitarian level, it seems like a magical artifact parasitical theater mask with a vigilante code of ethics about his food is probably overall better for the state of life on the planet than everything it took to raise industrial chickens, grind up the unwanted bits, and dehydrate them into the deliciously horrible noodle soup packet I'm currently enjoying. Besides the chicken, how many other humans suffered dire hardships in that process? Our revulsion is mainly rooted in the fear of the apex predator that something may want to eat us the way we eat others.

And then there's the whole child actor angle of the way that acting industries devour actors for their own ends. Sometimes the roles subsume the people who play them, or even their off-camera public persona becomes more real than their own private self. A puppet for the role that The Public needs of them in the great play of culture. Especially to highlight and change the systems as they are.

As Ursula K. Le Guin put it, "Hard times are coming, when we’ll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope. We’ll need writers who can remember freedom — poets, visionaries — realists of a larger reality."

A few people remember who she was in everyday life, alive in her own body. Most of us will remember the public mask of the part she played in shaping speculative fiction and the whole publishing industry to be open to more than just the imaginations of comfortable cishet white men. A woman fascinated by the draw to utopian ideals and also which people are sacrificed to that dream. Her outlook very shaped by the Tao Te Ching and the mask of the author Lao Tzu passed down into legend long after the myth ate the man. Legacy in its own way is a form of cultural parasitism that feeds on those it needs to sustain its ongoing existence.

The raw scale of what has just happened is just … It’s incredible. They found an afterlife. They freed the dead. They reached out, through the power of courage and hope and stories and freedom, and they took back the lost afterlife of Azgra, and they freed their dead. The scale of …

We killed our gods. We freed ourselves in life, in this world. And now we’ve gone back, and we’ve freed the dead as well. They can’t have them. The gods. They can’t keep any of us captive anymore.

The sheer implication of this ritual. The raw scale of what they’ve done. Of what they’ve made possible.

And it can be done again. Thjazi was already working on at least two other collections of components. The ones involving the box and Termina didn’t work, they weren’t anchored. That ritual will have to be redone, freeing the halflings. And then the Stone of Nightsong. Freeing the elves. That one’s in progress. All we need are the right objects, and people … people willing to fight this fight. People willing to reach out and reclaim their dead, their afterlives, their hopes, their freedom. To cast off the last claims of the Shapers, and know true freedom, in all its glory and its terror.

Is this what we’re doing? Are we freeing …? Is this what we’re doing?

But. On the subject of those components already collected. On those potential rituals.

It looks like three components are needed per afterlife. The weapon that killed the god. A place of power of that god. And something that bridges life and death, this world and the afterlife of that god, usually a body part associated with a psychopomp of some kind.

And once they are gathered, those components need to be reshaped, to make them into anchors. Swords to ploughshares. They need to break free of their intended use, what the dead Shapers intended for them, and forged into something new and different, present in this world, for the benefit of people, not those who shaped them. And all the components of the ritual need to be transformed this way. Weapons becoming props, blood becoming murals, places of appeasement becoming the rallying grounds of freedom. Each component needs to be reshaped.

The Stone …

I think the Stone has already been transformed. It reacted to the ritual of Kother’ai. And it … I mean, of course it’s been transformed. After what happened with Occtis? How could it be anything but.

With all that we now know about Sylandri. How she viewed her ‘children’. What she wanted from them, demanded of them. To live only according to her design. To be only what she wanted them to be, and go only where she intended them to go, and nowhere else, and nothing else.

Occtis, in the afterlife, just before he grabbed the stone inside his own chest, and was torn apart between two paths, and was only rescued by an act, a miracle, of mortal magic. Just before that.

Occtis: “No, I’m not supposed to go there. Father. I don’t belong to you.”

Father. Mother. I don’t belong to you.

Yeah. I think the Stone has been transformed. No more a tool to guide wayward children to where they’re supposed to go. Now, in the first true miracle of this story, it’s become a tool to give someone a choice. Even beyond death. I think … I think it’s been transformed.

And for the other collection. The halfling artefacts.

Swords to ploughshares. Weapons that aren’t weapons anymore. Weapons that have chosen not to be weapons anymore. Weapons that have become people.

I think Bolaire is a component. I think he is. Or he’s at least a potential component.

It should be Termina. She was the one who dealt the fatal blow, the one who wore Rauwyn as she died. And it … it still could be Termina. It could. But she’s not there yet. Her latest conversation hammered that point home. Termina is still a weapon. All she wants is to be able to do it again, her greatest act, her greatest purpose. She is a weapon. She wants nothing more.

But Bolaire …

He’s still a weapon. He’s still a killer. He still clings to his identity as an object, a thing. He’s so hesitant to think of himself as a person. He’s not there yet. Not him either. He’s not there.

But he’s closer. He’s closer. And he has people, friends, reasons, that Termina doesn’t.

If there was another ritual. A different play, echoing that first and most terrible. What role would Bolaire, do we think, want to play?

But at the same time … Which is more powerful? To claim your personhood for yourself, and in doing so help to free others? Or to teach your family what personhood is. Could be. It might be him. But it could be Termina. Maybe he could save not just himself, but his family.

(It’s so gutwrenching that he didn’t get to witness it. Kother’ai. What a thing. What a thing. If only he could have seen).

This … What this did. This play, this ritual. What it’s done. It’s not hopeless. It’s not predetermined. We can change it, we can fix it. We can find what was stolen. We can bring our dead, our people, our families, back. Not to life, but … To freedom. To choice. To the world, to the Path, to the choice to be something more that what these tyrant gods demanded.

The gods don’t get to keep them. Us. We don’t belong to them. In life or in death. We belong to us.

I just. The raw scale of the thing. The implication. The meaning.

It’s not hopeless. Even in death, it’s not hopeless. Choice exists. Freedom exists. And with just a little help, no matter who you are, no matter where you are, no matter who has laid claim to you, it can be found.

Wicander outsmarts Tsul’rekshi

Obligatory disclaimer: Bolaire has never done anything wrong in his life ever, and I explicitly morally condone every choice he has ever made. You should go ask your best friend to homoerotically stab you right now so you can follow in his excellent example. Hope that clears up my stance on the matter!

The Life Force Drain

The number one reason this option for Bolaire is not feasible is that he has a draining effect on the life force of people who wear him, and the longer they wear him, the worse it gets. It is a common misconception that Bolaire's hosts die due to starvation, but this is not the case. In episode 4, Taliesin describes the condition Bolaire's previous host: gray skin, eyeballs so flaccid and desiccated the eyesockets appear empty, and chunks of flesh missing around the mouth so you can see the teeth beneath. These are not symptoms of starvation. What's more, one of the soldiers in the episode 13 cold open said that wearing Bolaire for even one day "wreaks havoc on the body."

Given that Bolaire drains his hosts like this, the only way he could get people to voluntarily agree to wear him would be to exploit mentally ill people who wish to self-harm (which is not really any morally better than just straight up body snatching), or to find a group of people who are willing to pass him around, as we saw in the episode 13 flashback with the soldiers. Which brings me to my second point.

Trust

Let's say Bolaire approaches someone for some consensual body-sharing and they say no, or they say yes but then later change their mind and back out. What happens then? Can Bolaire trust them?

The thing is, as I explained in this post, some of the options on the table for Bolaire are fates worse than death, not just for him but for the world at large. Imagine someone turns Bolaire down and then thinks, "Hey, I wonder what House Tachonis would pay me for the knowledge of a secret god-killing weapon that I now have." What do you think would happen if Bolaire were in the hands of an Ethrand? The Tachonis would find some horrific use for him that would cause far more death and destruction than anything Bolaire has ever done personally. Bolaire is a murderer, but he does not want to cause the mass systemic suffering that the Sundered Houses do; indeed, he ideologically opposes it. It's clear that Bolaire has thought about this possibility, because in episode 22, he begged Hal that if he didn't want to put Bolaire on a new body, that he not leave Bolaire to be found. After all, Bolaire was used as a weapon of war, effectively as a slave, for decades before he saw a fateful play and struck out on his own, so he has a pretty clear idea of how bad it could get.

It isn't exactly easy for Bolaire to find someone to approach for potential body-sharing who he trusts enough not to sell him out to a fate worse than death. Of course, he does now have some allies that he does trust that much. But that brings me to my third point.

Autonomy

Even if Bolaire were to, for example, be rotated among his current allies the way he once was shared out among the soldiers in the Falconers' Rebellion, such that he trusted everyone involved and he wasn't draining any one person's life force too much, this still isn't much of a life, either for Bolaire or the people in the group who are wearing him. He could ride along with their lives as an observer or a peanut gallery, but he could not make his own life choices or maintain a consistent persona for the world to interact with. He could not be Bolaire Lathalia, because if he rotated among all these people with a consistent identity, then his nature would become obvious, and then he would be probably be hunted by the Sundered Houses to be used as a tactical nuke.

And on the host side of the equation, how long could any of them keep up with letting Bolaire "wreak havoc on the body" for a day every X days, having him observe their every action and thought? Could they really do that for years on end?

Where does this leave Bolaire?

—

Taliesin Jaffe on subtext in art:

From The Wednesday Club - Episode 9: Comics 101 - A Beginner's Guide to Reading Comics (2017-04-19).

—

Taliesin: "And I assure you—and I know some people don't believe in subtext, I've met them—it is absolutely intentional. There is no way not to create—"

Amy Dallen, surprised: "Don't believe in subtext?"

Amy, confused: "What does that mean?"

Taliesin, saltily: "I know."

Matt Key, softly confused: "I don't know."

Taliesin, saltily: "I'd have a metaphor, but they wouldn't understand it. Burn!"

Matt: "Heyo! Burn to the people that don't get subtext."

Taliesin: "Yeah no. Subtext is the reason we make movies, and comics, and all that. Subtext is just kind of the whole point."

—

Subtext is a tremendous literary tool for saying multiple things that may all be true at once and in conflict with each other, or is so strongly believed by the characters that it's the cause of their actions whether or not some cold rationality would say it's objective fact. Follow up on any of the media he says influenced them and you'll quickly find out they're incomprehensible if you need the writers holding your hand and babying you along to explicit pre-defined simplistic answers. The point is the question, not the answer.

For Bolaire he's explicitly said he wanted to explore what it was like being the sentient magical item with a personality that the main characters interact with. That story only works if your main character the magical artifact has actual agency and is present for the story. Which makes questions like "Is it feasible for Bolaire to share bodies with people" that are phrased like a yes/no question preposterous and juvenile analysis. You're not supposed to be answering a bad high school literature teacher's riddles, you're supposed to be pondering why the people being shown are doing what they're doing it all its rich complexity and contradictions, and what that says about the world.

What Bolaire can do is survive and have agency, or it isn't a story worth telling. No easy answer exists about whether it's possible to body share because his experience with people is that it's not feasible, it just results in them treating you like an object and abusing you to their own wicked ends. He was brought into the world being told he was a tool with a specific purpose used in a specific way with a specific objective. It's very unlikely the people who made him knew or cared what happened after that. As few people who make weapons ever do.

Bolaire doesn't know what he is outside of being a weapon. "Couldn't he just choose not to be a weapon and then no bad things would happen around him ever?" I don't know, can he? Bolaire would love to know because he doesn't right now and that's the core crux of his character art. And Taliesin has said so, so, so many times that he simply doesn't write answers to questions his character doesn't know (including what happened to that character) because it's a gift to the game master, other players, and himself to find out through emergent play. The emergent part is what's actually fun about long form TTRPGs. If that's frustrating uncertainty to you than it's simply never going to be an enjoyable medium. Not knowing is the whole point.

"No easy answer exists about whether it's possible to body share because his experience with people is that it's not feasible, it just results in them treating you like an object and abusing you to their own wicked ends."

Extremely good point. Even if it were logistically safe or simple for Bolaire to share bodies with people, his whole history before he ran away with Castep to become his own mask was of being exploited and abused as a weapon of war, over and over again for decades, and so cut off from any non-war aspects of mortal experience that he spent 59 years without seeing a play, without knowing that a non-murderous play was even possible. In that flashback, when Bolaire showed any sign of having any thoughts or interests beyond being a perfect subservient weapon, the soldiers came for him to put him in a box. And the scenario we saw in episode 13 was pretty much the best-case scenario, because the Falconer's Rebellion is at least a cause that Bolaire believes in. He may have been used toward much, much worse ends. What have all of those decades of slavery taught Bolaire about mortalkind? That the world is a safe place full of open and consensual relationships? Or that the only options for him are to abuse or be abused?

As to your point about parasitism and the ethics of food: awesome linked post, will definitely reblog it in a minute. Now, as a vegetarian myself, I obviously do believe that we can try to make ethical choices about what we eat to minimize the destruction we cause. And the interesting thing is that Bolaire is actually trying to do that, even if I would say that his moral reasoning is very flawed in that regard. As I reviewed in this post, by far the most safe and expedient way for Bolaire to get hosts would be to approach unhoused and impoverished people alone on the street, and use Suggestion to get them to put him on. But that's not what he does. The three body snatches of his we've seen in the present day were a) a morality test that Bolaire set up for Aubrus of a business transaction gone somewhat awry, to which Aubrus responded with immediate intense violence, thus failing Bolaire's test; b) body-snatching a Crow Keeper who kidnapped Demodus Blix, beat him up, and dragged him off to sell him to a mold monster; and c) trusting the principled soul of Wicander Halovar not to stick him on the face of an innocent who didn't deserve it.

Obligatory disclaimer: Bolaire has never done anything wrong in his life ever, and I explicitly morally condone every choice he has ever made. You should go ask your best friend to homoerotically stab you right now so you can follow in his excellent example. Hope that clears up my stance on the matter!

The Life Force Drain

The number one reason this option for Bolaire is not feasible is that he has a draining effect on the life force of people who wear him, and the longer they wear him, the worse it gets. It is a common misconception that Bolaire's hosts die due to starvation, but this is not the case. In episode 4, Taliesin describes the condition Bolaire's previous host: gray skin, eyeballs so flaccid and desiccated the eyesockets appear empty, and chunks of flesh missing around the mouth so you can see the teeth beneath. These are not symptoms of starvation. What's more, one of the soldiers in the episode 13 cold open said that wearing Bolaire for even one day "wreaks havoc on the body."

Given that Bolaire drains his hosts like this, the only way he could get people to voluntarily agree to wear him would be to exploit mentally ill people who wish to self-harm (which is not really any morally better than just straight up body snatching), or to find a group of people who are willing to pass him around, as we saw in the episode 13 flashback with the soldiers. Which brings me to my second point.

Trust

Let's say Bolaire approaches someone for some consensual body-sharing and they say no, or they say yes but then later change their mind and back out. What happens then? Can Bolaire trust them?

The thing is, as I explained in this post, some of the options on the table for Bolaire are fates worse than death, not just for him but for the world at large. Imagine someone turns Bolaire down and then thinks, "Hey, I wonder what House Tachonis would pay me for the knowledge of a secret god-killing weapon that I now have." What do you think would happen if Bolaire were in the hands of an Ethrand? The Tachonis would find some horrific use for him that would cause far more death and destruction than anything Bolaire has ever done personally. Bolaire is a murderer, but he does not want to cause the mass systemic suffering that the Sundered Houses do; indeed, he ideologically opposes it. It's clear that Bolaire has thought about this possibility, because in episode 22, he begged Hal that if he didn't want to put Bolaire on a new body, that he not leave Bolaire to be found. After all, Bolaire was used as a weapon of war, effectively as a slave, for decades before he saw a fateful play and struck out on his own, so he has a pretty clear idea of how bad it could get.

It isn't exactly easy for Bolaire to find someone to approach for potential body-sharing who he trusts enough not to sell him out to a fate worse than death. Of course, he does now have some allies that he does trust that much. But that brings me to my third point.

Autonomy

Even if Bolaire were to, for example, be rotated among his current allies the way he once was shared out among the soldiers in the Falconers' Rebellion, such that he trusted everyone involved and he wasn't draining any one person's life force too much, this still isn't much of a life, either for Bolaire or the people in the group who are wearing him. He could ride along with their lives as an observer or a peanut gallery, but he could not make his own life choices or maintain a consistent persona for the world to interact with. He could not be Bolaire Lathalia, because if he rotated among all these people with a consistent identity, then his nature would become obvious, and then he would be probably be hunted by the Sundered Houses to be used as a tactical nuke.

And on the host side of the equation, how long could any of them keep up with letting Bolaire "wreak havoc on the body" for a day every X days, having him observe their every action and thought? Could they really do that for years on end?

Where does this leave Bolaire?

I honestly think that the description of Bolaire's host could easily just be a result of extreme chafing, having a magical mask suction cupped onto your face for a prolonged period of time cannot be good for your skin.

saying that that is the result of life draining seem like a reach to me.

Now, the Cold Open, I am confused by the cold open. If Bolaire was not acting as his own person at that point, wouldn't the solider have been willingly wearing Bolaire?

Why didn't he have control over his body like Tyranny did?

as to the line "wreaks havoc on the body", i don't remember the context, but not drinking water or eating food for even a day is not good for you.

The average human can survive three days without water, One day without water is a third of that. I would say that that would "wreak havoc on the body".

The life drain theory is possible, but I think its a stretch to say that it is outright confirmed.

Re: the state of Bolaire's previous host: I'm somewhat doubtful that wearing a mask long-term could make your flesh fall off and your eyeballs deflate, but regardless, the point is moot, because of this part of episode 4:

"But in the couple places where you can see skin, and there are not a lot of them, I am not gray. I am much healthier looking than I was for the last couple months." (approx 03:41:12, episode 4)

Definitionally, any parts where you can see skin on the host are parts that are not the face, and those parts were gray before Bolaire chucked that host and swapped to Aubrus. It is apparent that Bolaire made all of his previous host's skin gray. That is not a symptom of starvation, and it's not caused by mask-chafing. The parsimonious explanation for all of this is that Bolaire drains his hosts' life force.

I also think the evidence from the episode 13 flashback more strongly supports the life force drain hypothesis than the starvation hypothesis.

Another one of the rebels looks over and says, "So, I think Castep's been wearing the mask a little bit too long. It's been all day, hasn't it? When I had to take it off, I almost shit myself. The thing, it wreaks havoc on the body. We should take it off sooner rather than later." You see that one of the soldiers, Clood, looks over at you and goes, "Mask, does Castep need to-- Is he hungry? Is he thirsty?" (approx 00:01:32, episode 13)

Two points here: first of all, Clood says, "When I had to take it off, I almost shit myself" rather than "when I had to take it off, I almost fainted from hunger" or "when I had to take it off, I was dizzy with thirst." Second of all, Clood checks in and asks Bolaire whether Castep is hungry or thirsty, which means that the soldiers are checking to make sure the soldier wearing Bolaire is in adequate physical condition. So if Bolaire is neglecting his hosts at this point in time, the soldiers are taking precautions to make sure he doesn't.

Look at his face. Look at how gleeful he is.

Yanessa supposedly casts a Zone of Truth on him. Zone of Truth can be cast by bards, clerics, paladins, and druids. Yanessa is none of these. Even if she secretly were, the following means she either faked the casting, or simply held her tongue about Primus not actually submitting to it.

“It was never my intention to slaughter any who sit now at this table.” Past tense. And there are more ways to kill than a slaughter. Questionable.

“The window has closed. We were running out of time. […] It is no longer a threat.” Tannesar has been gathering sand and dust for ages. Tansul made it in his ancient lifetime. What tight schedule was your undead angel project possibly on, Primus? Lie.

Lore drop about the Royal House of Obridai, to which all the currently Sundered Houses once knelt as vassals. The ancestors of Einfasen, Cormoray and Royce only acquired the lands they did because their ancestors knelt to the kings of Obridimia and the Shapers, despite being of more ancient magic lineage to Aramán. A historical point that none of the houses can refute. Truth.

‘Royce quarrels with Einfasen, Einfasen with Cormoray.’ Aranessa went to Otto as an ally. Otto said his house had friends with House Cormoray who they’d speak to about commending Murray. Primus is trying to tilt a narrative that doesn’t align with his speech. Lie/Questionable.

“Seventy years ago, we had an emperor.” More history. There was an emperor still ruling at the time of Tansul’s slaying. Truth.

“I speak truth to you now. My plan with the Deva Vindicta was the same as always.” Cue a reveal of broad real estate plans with the other Sundered Houses’ names staked out on them. “Western Telmora to the Einfasen. Eastern Telmora to the Cormoray. The Golden Orchard moved from its proximity to the closed doors of Faerie into the Tenebral Reaches for use by my family, and Yanessa, the razing of Telmora’s druid groves. Plenty of real estate to build cathedrals. We are true allies to all of you here. The Deva Vindicta was not meant to slaughter you. It was meant to make you kneel. […] The Vindicta would’ve been our winning gambit in the game that we all play here.” House Tachonis is not playing the same game, full stop. They don’t care about the Material Plane or its politics except as an obstacle prior to dying away to their growing empire in the Tenebral Reaches, where all souls bow to them. The Sepulchral Lord business with Grandpa Nullus is sign enough. The Deva Vindicta might have an extra use of making other lords bow to the Tachonis in life, but that’s secondary. The focus is on an existential scale, not a mortal one. It’s believable that the Golden Orchard is a coveted target. It’s believable that they’d want the druids to lose some of their foothold. It’s a shrug as to whether Tachonis cares enough about living Aramán to divvy it up to fellow lords or not. Lie/Questionable.

“Lord Einfasen, how goes the search for the Jotunøks? My Lord Cormoray, I understand that your grant at the Pentevral has gone through. Congratulations. I heard there was some celebration at the old Kalystra quarries? And I’m glad you’re well, Lady Halovar. Terrible case of bellows fever going around, wouldn’t you say? And of course, your wonderful Aspirants. How exceptional that these demons are here because they have been…saved.” Translation: Tachonis has eyes and ears aware of all the other Sundered Houses’ secret projects. Those same Sundered Houses had only guesswork to go off of with Tachonis, if that. It took all our heroes risking their lives and working overtime to dredge up enough evidence to reveal a fraction of what Tachonis, the house that works in shadow, was actually working on. Primus was caught off guard at the meeting’s start because he was shocked that any secret of his house could leak at all, let alone through the mystery of the reconstituted candle. Even so. Tachonis knows much more about the other houses than any of them even suspect of Tachonis. Truth.

[INSERT ARISTO ASSHOLE CLASSIST SPIEL HERE.] Part sales pitch. Part earnest shitty belief. It means nothing for House Tachonis to kneel to another house in life when they still rule in death. Questionable.

When questioned, Primus insists his push to have Thjazi Fang executed was only to bait Aranessa and her company to rush into range. Mentions the Candle of Slaughter requires noble blood to be spilled for it to work. The former is a good cover, entirely leaving out the significance of the Tachonis scar on Thjazi, intended to force him into servitude in death. The latter is a unique confession to make about how the spell components of your murder candle work in a room full of nobles. An admission so unflattering it would be taken for a grudging truth by his audience. (And possibly a good protection for later, if or when the second Tachandle is lit and used to kill off a bunch of nobodies for another slaughter.) Lie and a (Questionable) Truth.

“That is the sum total of it. I’ve told you all I can.” LIE. LIE. LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE.

Petra and Ryah, behind him: “We have much to discuss, my lords and lady, of the Revolutionary Council and its weakness following the assassination attempt on the Timmonish king and the Photarch.” An assassination attempt they knew was coming. Possibly all of them knew it and/or had a hand in it. They all wanted King Gus dead and the Council weakened. “There have been heated words exchanged. We need not make a decision tonight. Let us calm ourselves and let cooler heads prevail.” That the same line you sold to Amadah before you went hunting for Occtis on Altradler? “Come. We have laid a feast for you as a token of our apologies.”

Ma’ams. Ladies. My heroin chic skeletal gals. I know the “Zone of Truth” wasn’t “”cast”” on you, but come on. Your dad spent half his time here openly lying to everyone’s face about the Royce and Occtis killing and had to have his apology*** dragged out of him like pulling teeth. That Fantasy Doordash buffet was not laid for any apology. Either you’re up to some Red Wedding poisoning shit—thanks for mentioning the need for noble blood to spill, Primus!—or House Tachonis is simply incapable of opening its mouths and telling the truth at the same time.

And what a surprise. Primus and Yanessa want a private ‘just us priestly houses~’ chat while the other houses (plus a Termina!) get herded to the dinner table. Shocking.

Obligatory disclaimer: Bolaire has never done anything wrong in his life ever, and I explicitly morally condone every choice he has ever made. You should go ask your best friend to homoerotically stab you right now so you can follow in his excellent example. Hope that clears up my stance on the matter!

The Life Force Drain

The number one reason this option for Bolaire is not feasible is that he has a draining effect on the life force of people who wear him, and the longer they wear him, the worse it gets. It is a common misconception that Bolaire's hosts die due to starvation, but this is not the case. In episode 4, Taliesin describes the condition Bolaire's previous host: gray skin, eyeballs so flaccid and desiccated the eyesockets appear empty, and chunks of flesh missing around the mouth so you can see the teeth beneath. These are not symptoms of starvation. What's more, one of the soldiers in the episode 13 cold open said that wearing Bolaire for even one day "wreaks havoc on the body."

Given that Bolaire drains his hosts like this, the only way he could get people to voluntarily agree to wear him would be to exploit mentally ill people who wish to self-harm (which is not really any morally better than just straight up body snatching), or to find a group of people who are willing to pass him around, as we saw in the episode 13 flashback with the soldiers. Which brings me to my second point.

Trust

Let's say Bolaire approaches someone for some consensual body-sharing and they say no, or they say yes but then later change their mind and back out. What happens then? Can Bolaire trust them?

The thing is, as I explained in this post, some of the options on the table for Bolaire are fates worse than death, not just for him but for the world at large. Imagine someone turns Bolaire down and then thinks, "Hey, I wonder what House Tachonis would pay me for the knowledge of a secret god-killing weapon that I now have." What do you think would happen if Bolaire were in the hands of an Ethrand? The Tachonis would find some horrific use for him that would cause far more death and destruction than anything Bolaire has ever done personally. Bolaire is a murderer, but he does not want to cause the mass systemic suffering that the Sundered Houses do; indeed, he ideologically opposes it. It's clear that Bolaire has thought about this possibility, because in episode 22, he begged Hal that if he didn't want to put Bolaire on a new body, that he not leave Bolaire to be found. After all, Bolaire was used as a weapon of war, effectively as a slave, for decades before he saw a fateful play and struck out on his own, so he has a pretty clear idea of how bad it could get.

It isn't exactly easy for Bolaire to find someone to approach for potential body-sharing who he trusts enough not to sell him out to a fate worse than death. Of course, he does now have some allies that he does trust that much. But that brings me to my third point.

Autonomy

Even if Bolaire were to, for example, be rotated among his current allies the way he once was shared out among the soldiers in the Falconers' Rebellion, such that he trusted everyone involved and he wasn't draining any one person's life force too much, this still isn't much of a life, either for Bolaire or the people in the group who are wearing him. He could ride along with their lives as an observer or a peanut gallery, but he could not make his own life choices or maintain a consistent persona for the world to interact with. He could not be Bolaire Lathalia, because if he rotated among all these people with a consistent identity, then his nature would become obvious, and then he would be probably be hunted by the Sundered Houses to be used as a tactical nuke.

And on the host side of the equation, how long could any of them keep up with letting Bolaire "wreak havoc on the body" for a day every X days, having him observe their every action and thought? Could they really do that for years on end?

Where does this leave Bolaire?

The Episode: Team Birdwatch breaks into Obrimus Manor and immediately experiences The Horrors in the form of undead trying to kill them. They flee through a secret door, joined by the allied undead Gaya Seremai, into a space where the Tenebral Reaches and the Material Plane overlap. Team Theater puts on the greatest show Dol-Makjar has ever seen: inviting the fae makes routing the Candescent Creed presence a snap, and the first act finale establishes bridges between the orcish afterlife, Aramán, and Faerie, opening the doors to those two closed realms. Team Spy has Tyranny try on Bolaire, then bring a zealous lux whom Wick is able to charm and put on the mask. Wick is reunited with his family, all of whom save Zebani are very happy, and the group watches Otto Einfasen confront Primus Tachonis, who finally admits he did indeed kill both House Royce and Occtis in the hopes of establishing a new imperium, and urges the Sundered Houses to work together to oppose the real threat: equality. Amariya Cormoray is in attendance, and Bolaire quickly discovers she is, in fact, being worn by Termina, who is having the time of her life. Kattigan, meanwhile, gets unceremoniously dumped out of a sack by Tyranny's sisters, and realizes he's seen Primus before...

The Cold Open: specifically, as the sorcerer who killed or disappeared Marienna and Esme, his wife and daughter, some years ago. Kattigan, with no alcohol to numb him and a lot of pressure, stands outside the theater and remembers that awful day, and how he could not find the person responsible, either through tracking or through asking magical institutions, until he eventually gave up. Hal and Thaisha then show up, telling him Teor is in trouble; it turns out to be a ruse to capture him, as "Hal" and "Thaisha" are merely the demon sisters trying desperately to show they are minimally competent.

So why the juxtaposition?

It's another bookend! Which is a very good strategy when the cold opens are focused on the same groups at roughly the same time, vs. when they're flashbacks or following other tables. We start with Kattigan recalling how he failed to ever find the sorcerer, and end with him finally finding him just as he is about to be taken to the tailors.

But there's a couple other themes here, primarily focusing on death and the attitudes of the Sundered Houses.

As the Houses gather and Primus calls them, he tells them the commoners are their shared enemy. In Kattigan's recollection, this is part of why his search failed - why would people ever help a "drunken crofter" or even believe him in a fight against a powerful spellcaster? Primus appeals to the idea that if they had an emperor, they would control the common people, and the vassals to the emperor would only be subject to the emperor, not to the common people. Meanwhile (or, more likely, 45 minutes or so into the future), Hal speaks with the newly escaped spirit of Vokjan Murzat and tells him that freedom is never guaranteed, but is now possible. As Primus heavily implies his fellow Sundered Houses would be happier and more successful under his boot, Team Theater (the one Kattigan was kidnapped from) rejects that notion utterly, freeing orcs, elves, and fae alike from the lingering will of the gods with their play (and sending the Creed packing as well). Nor does he consider this is not the convincing speech it might be as unbeknownst to him, three of noble blood ally with a fairy and two commoners to steal something from his house. Primus mentions the falcon's cry, but he has not considered the magpie's weird squawk.

There is also something horrifyingly casual and pragmatic about Marienna and Esme's deaths/disappearances, which is reflected in Primus's admissions. As he tells it, Thjazi was merely bait for Aranessa. Aranessa and then House Davinos was a source of blood to fuel the ritual, and a weak and ineffective ally to the Sundered Houses. Occtis was to be the ace up Primus's sleeve in establishing empire after the fall of House Obridai. We see this in team Birdwatch too; Gaya was sent to the Barrowguard to die in Eternal Night. It is a perception of people as nothing more than resources to be used and cast aside.

Except every single one of these had more going on, and has backfired. Thjazi's death was almost certainly also both punishment - the amnesty offered the Torn Banner is seen by at minimum Tachonis and Halovar as merely an obstacle requiring them to find other reasons to execute anyone associated with it, given that at the end of the episode Yanessa calls Kattigan a "falcon" - and an attempt to stop his plans. This, of course, fails - the rebellion is brewing again, and The Cloak just struck a major win with the opening of the doors to the orcish afterlife and to Faerie. The latter also means that House Royce is not as weak nor fallen as previously reported, and the decision to improvise with House Davinos and leave Aranessa alive (despite her planned death being a punishment as well - the seething resentment over her marriage to a commoner is a recurring theme) is likely to be a very bad one. Frons is already dead and Julien is going to be hunting Koral with extreme prejudice, and the plot to divvy up Telmora is much less likely to succeed if Aranessa is no longer diminished in power. Occtis is meanwhile not only proof that Primus lied to House Einfasen; he is actively breaking into Obrimus Manor to free a powerful agent of The Cloak and Old Path, with Gaya Seremai by his side (Gaya herself furious that even when banished, House Tachonis used her and then killed her and her honor meant nothing), and he has promised her he will try to send her spirit to a place where she is no longer in service to House Tachonis.