Katie Maria; It lingers for your whole life // Margaret Atwood; Selected Poems: 1965-1975 // Anne Carson; An Oresteia // sarevok anchev fc: jason momoa // rieltar anchev fc: cliff simon // Emilie Autumn; The asylum for wayward victorian girls // Johnny Hollow; Boogeyman // Charles Dickens; Great Expectations // shar-teel dosan fc: alexia evellyn // angelo dosan fc: oscar isaac // Shantel Tessier; Madness // Brenna Twohy; Little Red Ridding Hood addresses the next wolf; Forgive me my salt // Clementine von Radics; Courtney Love prays to Oregon
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I share Sarevok’s company, and would do so until I die, given the choice
Nicola Yoon; The Sun is also a Star // Sam Wax // unknown // Aaron O'Hanlon // Margaret Atwood; “There Are Better Ways of Doing This” // Ada Limón; "The Good Fight", Bright Dead Things // Tory Adkisson; “Anecdote of the Pig”// Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone; This Is How You Lose The Time War // fc: jason momoa; fc: rinko kikuchi // Margaret Atwood // Tanerélle; Won't // Sierra DeMulder; Reassurance to Sierra in High School // Kim Addonizio; Lucifer at the Starlite // W.H. Auden; Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone // unknown // Sting; What could Have Been // Catarine Hancock; Sometimes I Fall Asleep Thinking about You // V.E. Schwab; A Conjuring of Light // Phoebe Bridgers; Scott Street // M.M.C; monsters at their finest // Glennon Doyle Melton; Love Warrior // Edna St; “I think I should have loved you presently” // Jemma Simmons, Shield.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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What makes the Candlekeep chapter interesting is the slowly mounting realization that the place that should've been the safest for Gorion's wrard has become a nest of enemies. It's a massacre hidden in plain sight, and unlike the rest of Sarevok's plans, it's not necessary to reach his goal. However, Sarevok still isn't a murder-obsessed fanatic. Even though the massacre at Candlekeep doesn't serve his greater plan, the goal still isn't to kill for the sake of killing, or for the sake of Bhaal. Sarevok only kills for himself, or in this case, to hurt Gorion's ward.
Lengthy rant under the cut.
Sarevok goes to Candlekeep twice, but it's only the second time that he leaves a trail of bodies behind. Each times he pretends to be a traveling monk and goes by the name of Koveras. The first time is only for research on Alaundo's prophecies, but the second time is to orchestrate Rieltar's death. His plan has two possible paths: either convince Gorion's ward to kill Rieltar themselves, or have a group of doppelgangers kill him, disguised as Charname and their party. At this point, Sarevok has been hunting them for a while, placed the highest bounty he could on their head and they still escape him. Candlekeep is supposed to be the final trap, the one that works. It's straightforward and shouldn't require a massacre. Six people, at most, so the doppelgangers can wear a face until Charname and their party get there.
Instead, when you get to the catacombs, you see they've been used as a body dump:
It's enough bodies to have attracted a bunch of ghasts too.
Sarevok used doppelgangers before, but they had strategic purpose: kill other mercantile group leaders, take their place and ruin them. There's no sense to the massacre of Candlekeep, except Charname.
It's their home, where they grew up, and regardless of how the player decide their ward feels about it, it's a decent home, with people who care about the ward. It's shown through the prologue with characters who have known them throughout their lives and are all part of a familiar landscape. The prologue is where the situation of Charname is introduced, and it's shown again in chapter six (I left the whole dialogue if you want to read because I think it's funny, but it's not all relevant):
Theodon: [...] Took the cloak right off his back, you did, and made yourself just the cutest little...
[...]
Theodon: Nobody was sure what to do, and then Khelben mutters some words and catches you by the scruff of the neck with some sort of spectral hand. He hauls you out and drops you right in front of him, grabbing his filthy cape in the process. Everyone was scared, they were. Weren't they, Jessup?
Jessup: Sure enough. Scared witless.
[...]
Theodon: Oh certainly, little one. Stop by any old time though. I've got some paintings of you as a youngster I'm sure your little friends would love to see. Remember the one of Valdis (Charname) on the bearskin rug, Jessup?
Jessup: Surely do. In the buff as usual.
Theodon: Cute as a bug you were. Go play with your friends now. Go on.
It shows Charname had a good childhood. No conventional family, but a group of people who cherish them, fear for them, remember them fondly and keep mementos of them. Charname is loved, Candlekeep is a place of safety and affection for them.
That's what Sarevok destroys when he lets the doppelganger run free in Candlekeep.
Sarevok and Charname's childhoods are polar opposites, as well as their current relationship with their former caretaker. That is Sarevok's childhood memory:
"I had a dream this night. My mother was talking to me, but as she did her face became bloated and discolored. Her voice became weaker as she spoke to me, telling me to save her from Rieltar. I could see the garrote cutting into her neck, but I did nothing. It was only a dream."
And that's his current relationship with his foster father:
"He [Rieltar] mentioned mother in our conversation: how I wasn't to be as unfaithful to him as she had. He made it clear I would suffer her fate if I was."
Sarevok made two trips to Canlekeep, and during the first one, Charname was still there, living a carefree life, a life Sarevok could witness. He decides to go to Candlekeep during the month of Nightal (December) 1365. It's not clear when he leaves after that decision is made, but he only leaves Candlekeep at the end of Tarsakh (April) of the next year. He could've been there for a maximum of four months, during which he realizes that one of his Bhaalspawn sibling is there and their lives could not be more different.
In a previous post, I highlighted that Sarevok's plans stop being purely strategic when it comes to revenge, like the destruction of the Iron Throne branch on the Sword Coast, which was Rieltar's project. Sarevok applies the same 'scorched earth' tactics to Candlekeep, not because he needs to, but because he wants to destroy Charname's childhood home, destroy the idea of safety that comes with it.
"Unfortunately, there must be more of the creatures disguised as others I know and trust."
It's important to note that Sarevok makes Candlekeep the place of Rieltar's death. He gets rid of the major source of his own childhood misery in the same place that saw Charname live a happy one. He turns that place into a nightmare for Charname and liberation for him. He 'steals' Candlekeep from Charname. They got the spoils first, now it's his turn.
I don't believe Sarevok is consciously including any of this in his enmity with Charname, but there's a stark difference between his usual schemes and what goes on in Candlekeep. He's never hesitant to kill, his ultimate plan is a bloodbath of a war, but should anyone notice the doppelganger issue in Candlekeep, his plans could fail. He's more reckless here, just like he's more reckless when taking revenge against Rieltar.
One other sign that he's slipping is this conversation you can have with 'Koveras'.
"You were there. You saw it all. A woman, an armored figure, two ogres wielding clubs, and two archers. But Gorion's petty magic was of little use against them, was it not? And you, you fled with your tail between your legs, hiding amidst the trees until dawn broke. And now it comes full circle, doesn't it? The Iron Throne so close you can almost touch them and wreak your revenge for that night."
What Charname asks isn't much of a trick question. Everyone is aware of Gorion's death at that point, Sarevok could get away by saying he assumed 'evil befell him' since he died. He's proved he's a good liar, he could spin something. Instead he goes on a rant worth a confession (also he lists Tamoko before he lists himself, love to see it). Not to mention he's trying to get you to trust him. This slipup and the reckless brutality of his plan show he's not indifferent to Gorion or Candlekeep, the same way he's not indiferent to Rieltar.
Unlike Rieltar though, the revenge Sarevok is taking against Charname is more complex because it's rooted in envy. Envy for the childhood they had in spite of being a Bhaalspawn, envy for the parent too. Sarevok kills Gorion and try to have Charname kill his own foster father. If he can't get them to, he uses a doppelganger who wears their face. It's 'going full circle' in every way.
What happened to Sarevok wasn't Charname's fault, but Sarevok makes them pay for having what he didn't have. He turns their home into a place where they're isolated and cannot trust caretaker figures, something closer to Sarevok's own childhood. Candlekeep is the physical reminder of everything Sarevok didn't get to have.
I was thinking about that one quote from Tamoko about Sarevok "I would save the man within the beast he wishes to be" and something struck when I remembered his armor design.
It's all horns and spikes and pointy teeth and black and all you need for the scary villain armor. The first thought would be that the armor is supposed to make him look dangerous, but look closer at the helmet. It's designed so Sarevok's face is framed by the helmet's teeth, like a maw that's swallowing him. I really like it, because the first impression you get from the design is that he's a dangerous enemy and that's what Sarevok wants to show, but the second impression you get is that he's not as in control as he thinks. The armor is taking over, the beast is devouring him. When Sarevok dies, his body turns to dust, but the armor stays, leaving him entirely consumed, the taint having won over him. In ToB, on his portrait, Sarevok has a golden armor, and while there were plans for cut content involving restoring the sword of chaos to return it to him, there was never anything for the armor. The armor was the beast he tried be, the beast that ended up devouring him instead.
I just really like the predatory aspect of the armor, and how it can be threatening both for those faced with it but also for the one wearing it.