#forspoken speculation

It's occurred to me, after thinking about various dialogues and in-game situations, that I don't think he can actually see anything on his own. At least not, like, in terms of our concept of vision.

Cuff can sense things. His "compass" ability seems to work almost like a sort of echolocation, except with tiny birds instead of sound. And he appears to have some ability to sense magic, or power. He can, for example, sense the power of some of the necklaces Frey puts on and says as much. He can likewise sense the power in the Breakshards Frey collects after battle.

Actual sight, however, is different. And it's initially a little hard to pin down because, in certain circumstances, he appears very much able to see things that have no magical signature he could otherwise sense.

He can read, for one thing. At the beginning of the game, Frey cannot read Athian, but Cuff can, and so he reads things for her (while also teaching her, which I find perpetually precious!). Clearly, he is able to see with enough clarity that he's able to accurately make out Athian letters and words. He does this with generic signs and books: nothing that might have some sort of magic he could sense and decipher. It's all just plain old written script.

He can take note of various enemy characteristics, commenting positively or negatively on their appearances. He can see the paintings Frey finds on her journey and comments on them, too.

Then, of course, they're this fun example:

Essentially: Cuff appears able to visually see things when he needs to.

So! Why do I think he can't see on his own? And what, exactly, does that mean?

Well, take a dialogue like this:

Besides being deeply endearing to me, it's also quite interesting in that it appears to imply that Cuff is totally unaware of his currently very small surroundings. Frey and Cuff are in a Pilgrim's Refuge. It's a small space. There's not really anywhere for anything to hide. An enemy would be exceedingly easy to see. So why is Cuff momentarily panicked and asking Frey if there's something there?

Furthermore, why does Cuff, in various battle-related dialogues, ask Frey if they're surrounded, or how many enemies there are? A simple glance around would tell him, wouldn't it?

My personal headcanon is that Cuff sees through Frey's eyes. We know, after all, that he senses what she senses via the following:

What I believe, however, is that he only does so when he specifically focuses on the action. It's not automatic; he has to expend some effort and concentration in order to do it.

It would explain why he's able to do something like read to her: she's already looking closely at the text, and so he's able to reach through their connection and access her own sight. Same thing with something like the tower: she sees it, and he's able to briefly reach out and see it with her.

In other situations, it's simply not convenient or viable for him to look through her eyes. In sudden combat, it's quicker to ask if they're surrounded than to access her sight. It may also be a matter of... how to say... the stability of the image. If Frey is focused on reading and is looking at words on a page, her vision is more stable than if she is in battle, eyes flicking from place to place. In said battle scenario, it may be quite disorienting for Cuff to borrow her eyes, so it's easier for him to ask. Not to mention something like combat featuring much more stress and activity, hampering the concentration that may be needed for accurate sight-borrowing on very immediate notice. Especially if Cuff is more focused on, say, scanning or guarding.

In terms of the moment with the torana-teasing: I expect that, safe in a Refuge, he relaxed a bit and wasn't focused on gleaning information from Frey's vision. When he heard her supposedly opening a torana, he assumed there was an enemy immediately near and either felt he didn't have time to reach through their connection or - amusingly - was too panicked to focus enough to do so. Thus, he asks Frey if there's something there.

This is all just speculative, of course. But it makes sense to me! It offers what I feel is a reasonable explanation for why Cuff seems perfectly able to see at certain times, yet appears totally unaware of his surroundings at others.

This is an odd little line. It plays in one of the labyrinths (can't quite tell which one) should Frey enter and reach its end on her own, without Cuff.

Given what she says, I'm going to tentatively assume that the reward in this labyrinth was potentially the last writings of the Rheddig soldier, mentioning how said soldier had been fatally wounded in the quest to gather the pieces of Susurrus.

It's odd because... well, I feel like Frey is missing the bigger picture here. Hard to tell if it was a writing oversight, or if it's an aspect of her character rooted in automatically sympathizing with Athia, but the fact is that she doesn't seem to understand that the Rheddig soldiers weren't throwing away their lives for Cuff.

Like... their aim wasn't to free Susurrus, with Cuff's personal freedom as their goal. They weren't working in favor of him, so to speak. Rather, they sacrificed themselves to hurt Athia. They were throwing away their lives not for Susurrus, but for Athia's annihilation.

Susurrus was a tool to them. He was a weapon that would allow them to bring severe harm and destruction to Athia, and Frey doesn't seem to quite internalize this concept. She doesn't seem to consider that Cuff himself is not the instigator of this violence, but essentially a vessel for it. He is only in the position and the role he is in because the people of Rheddah put him there. Not for his own sake, but to fulfill their desire to see Athia destroyed.

After going through the lore, however, I don't really subscribe to that concept.

Rather, I think the Break was an accident. A magical calamity resulting from Susurrus' magic reacting poorly with maddened Tanta magic and affecting the land around it. It's still technically caused by Cuff, but it's not something he intentionally did. And it's not something he can truly control.

If the Break was an intended form of attack, I'd expect it to have been present back in ancient times, when Susurrus was first sent to wreak havoc. If the Break simply came from him, I'd expect there to be some sort of mention of it, in the lore... but there isn't. There isn't any mention of it while he's sealed away, or when he's re-released.

The Break only appears, very specifically, when a Tanta bound to Susurrus loses her mind. We only get that first mention of it when Prav falls.

This is interesting to me. It doesn't... absolve him of responsibility, obviously, but it does diminish his... how to say... hypothetical power. He didn't intentionally create the Break. He can't truly control it. His personal goals are thus subject to difficulty caused by the Break, just like everyone else's.

It also begs the question: what are the Rheddig's plans now, with this unexpected complication? Do they still bother with Athia? Or do they just write it off as a total loss? Do they find the Break a welcome "complication"? Or do they resent that things have gone the way they did?