#elsenova

My submission for FTH for the lovely elsenova's fic "Illithid Anatomy: Comparative Analysis of Pre- and Post-Ceremorphosis"

(link to the scene)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/73440576/chapters/215740886

I wonder how I ever trusted Elsenova, how did I miss the horns?

I do apologize. I keep making theory posts for these old games that everyone played years ago, because I like to record my thoughts as I come up with them, and then go back later and see how wrong I was :P

Please, don't spoil me in the comments or notes if I'm wrong (or, even if I'm right).

So, I think I was onto something when I said that I think Trace feels like the Rusalki are lying to him, especially Elsenova. She's been all about "kill Athetos, kill Athetos," she even killed Trace when he said he doesn't want to kill Athetos. Ophelia seemed to agree with wanting to kill Athetos, but she disagreed with Elsenova's killing Trace. Ophelia brought him back in a rebirth egg and said, "Ok, just talking, no killing. Just turn off the Breach Attractor and we'll be happy. I'll bring Elsenova around." But Ophelia also said something... interesting. She said something like, "This will be much easier if we have you alive."

The next time Elsenova talks to us, it's about the Sudran key. Trace wants an apology. Ophelia says, "That WAS her apology." Which... no, it wasn't. Helping someone because you have a common goal is far, far different from apologizing.

Then we see Elsenova in her true form, and we finally get an apology, and she's like, "ok, you don't have to kill him." Trace seems to accept it, but... I feel like she just came around too darned easy.

But the big one, IMO, is this note that we find in Absu:

(Screencap from the wiki- I'm playing on Wii U and don't have it hooked up to screencap from the game.)

They killed Katrahaska and took the nanogates from her, to create someone they could control using the rebirth chamber.

The nanogates are the "mind machines" that Elsenova keeps saying are what keeps Trace alive... as well as the things she can shut off to kill him.

So, Trace was Plan B. They've already said they created him from data that they took from when Athetos first came to their world, hundreds of years ago. The Rusalki created Trace as their weapon against Athetos. They created Trace in a rebirth chamber so they could have a living weapon they could control.