VOLLSTRECKER

Had insomnia the other night and drew this in about an hour and a half (so excuse the wonky anatomy) at 2am so that i could finally sleep: an AU where Caleb never leaves Trent Ikithon and becomes a Scourger. 

On the surface, he’s a deliciously broken character with the tragic past. But I feel like there’s a lot more to his story than even Liam/Caleb may know. Especially once I learned that the crystal experiments were Matt’s addition. 

If Caleb’s experience being recruited to the Academy and trained by Ikithon is the Cerberus Assembly’s textbook method for creating Scourgers, then I got a few questions. Mainly: Why the fuck is he still alive?

Let us review the timeline: 15yrs old: Recruited to the Soltryce Academy. Attended school for ONE year, during which Trent Ikithon groomed him for Scourger training 16yrs old: Moved to Trent’s remote country home (aka his “personal playpen”) alongside Astrid and Eodwulf. Trained in interrogation, assassination/execution, torture. Forced to endure abuse and human experimentation in the name of “being stronger.” 17yrs old: Graduation Day. Breaking.  17-28yrs old: Under Trent’s guard in an asylum. Mysterious Mage Woman “takes” his “insanity.” Caleb kills the guard, takes the amulet, and runs. 28-33yrs old: Running. Hiding. Nott the Brave. The Mighty Nein.

The Cerberus Assembly is powerful, methodical, and meticulous: take children from families no one will miss, make them your tools, leave no trace. Scourgers are barely even a myth to those not directly involved.

The thing is, you can’t go around recruiting kids to The Fancy School then kill the entire family before rumors start spreading. You scout in impoverished communities (because even IF someone happened to care enough to miss them, no one has enough power to change anything). Caleb grew up in an incredibly poor military family—loyalty and desperation were probably instilled at a very early age.

But I digress…

What I want to look at is Graduation Day and Beyond. Because I can’t understand why Trent didn’t just kill Caleb and discard him if he was simply a broken tool. Why send him to an asylum at all? Not only would a normal hospitalization run up a pretty petty (bill paid by the state), but Caleb had EXTRA “needs” like a guard posted on him at all times for eleven years.

Do I know the answers yet? NOPE! 

But this Critter’s got theories:

1. The Break: While it is possible that Caleb’s break and subsequent memory loss is purely trauma based, I deeply feel this was aided or caused by magic. Maybe his parents’ screams broke through the false memories but his mind couldn’t handle the dual timelines and it created a magical backlash. Maybe Trent saw him falter and cast Feeblemind. I believe Trent regularly used mind-altering magics on his students (not just the one set of false memories)… maybe this was one-time-too-many.

2. Long-Term Experimentation: A catatonic orphan who’s a ward of the state—what a perfect subject for extended experiments. Don’t have to worry about breaking a Scourger in training because this one’s already broken! Go ahead and refine shit you’d like to use on future generations of royal assassins.

3. Caleb is Special: I mean, we already know that. But I meant in a super creepy way. And kinda possibly tied to 4 and 5…

4. Dunamancy: the letter found in the burnt remains of the Brenatto Apothecary mentioned some of Trent’s proteges having a knack for dunamancy and experiments done to figure out the Beacon. Those proteges are likely younger than Caleb, but I still wonder if he wasn’t exposed to dunamancy in some form during his early years.

5. Consecuted!Caleb: Okay, this one’s a long-shot and more an idea I’m developing for fic-reasons. But we’ve heard lots of stories throughout this campaign about kids disappearing (on both sides). It’s not impossible to theorize that this could be the true origin of Scourgers (especially once you factor in the memory manipulation). What better way to say “fuck you” to your enemies than to steal their children, turn them into assassins, and leash them to the Empire?