#vestige

Untitled (Malik's studio),

2026,

acrylic transfered on linen,

And ESPECIALLY on the tragic point of their immortality. Most people don’t realise that the character you first customise and load up into is dead, dead since the prologue. The instant ‘we’ wake up in Coldharbour, we are a separate person whereas our actual self is rotting away in the piles of discarded victims of the Worm Cult.

I’ve always thought of how devastating it must be to be in that situation. Taking Cadwell for example and proof of this, as a Soul-Shriven just like us, he remembers bits and pieces of his old life before remembering it all. And he and his alive self (after regaining his soul) are two separate beings. So I always imagine my vestige that way, she gets flashes of her other self’s life, but it’s not enough to put the pieces together, just enough to make it more sad for her. Even after reclaiming ‘our’ soul, I don’t think that negates our immortality, I think it just makes us stand out on the cosmic line of power. We are still Daedric in origin, the azure plasm that makes up our body doesn’t go away, it just assures that we remain as we are. And our unique anuic aspect that allows us to stay fresh, because all other soul shriven are visibly degraded and rotting.

Every catalyst involves them at the centre, or at least assisting in stopping it. But unless there’s something that won’t allow them to exist anymore, if they fade away, then the Vestige will outlive most of the people they’ve seen as companions, unable to age or die.