issue of Silver Lady's visions & talk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb4-z0LWkS8

Here's a link on youtube section in Qintarra that you can scroll into talk with the Silver Lady...

Her visions are very interesting, mainly when the player with the help of Raven can decode some of her cryptic messages and then finds out that "hell, it's just what she said" - concerning Min Gorad, dark elves, Molochean hand, Gideon Laier... even Kerghan - the second time you play Arcanum, you can clearly determine from her visions, looking into future, having the game completed once, there you can see what refers to what...

The Silver Lady is indeed a mysterious person and the thing that iritates me even now is her last reply you gain from her from the first talk you have with her.
You can hear it from the youtube link above somewhere from 7min:30sec

hahaha... (laughter...) "I go now, traveler. We will meet again... though I'm not sure on which side. No matter. Farewell..."

I wonder what did she mean saying WE WILL MEET AGAIN... NOT SURE ON WHICH SIDE....

Did she mean the breaking point where the player decides what path will the player follow - the point is Min Gorad, from which the player can take only 2 polarized paths:

Good - To search for Nasrudin and find & stop Arronax
Evil - To help Arronax return


The next time you speak to her
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUvHsT0O ... re=related

once you return from the dark elves, (2min 10sec), she says:
"Yes...I knew you'd return to me. And it seems that you still walk the shore... this gladdens me..."

Why?

"It means that you've chosen the right path, traveler. At least, right in the way that YOU see things. I am happy for you..."

This is understandable. If the player chose not to side with Min Gorad, the right path is chosen according to Silver Lady.

but... what did she mean saying WE WILL MEET AGAIN... NOT SURE ON WHICH SIDE....

Seems that something was planned for meeting Silver Lady as an evil character but was eventually not released? Who knows?

The next aswer could be that Silver Lady is a very mysterious person and impersonates someone... now, please don't mock me, I know how ironic and paranoic must it sound, but... couldn't Silver Lady be someone as Kerghan?
:lol:

 

She's talking about which side of the mortal coil. She's already ancient, and knows your path is intertwined with hers; all that's left is to see whether or not destiny sees you together again in this world or the next.

 

Indeed Gross is correct. Sometimes the most simplest answers are the right ones.

 

Let's get a little drunk before replying.. okay done!

I believe she is different from any other NPC in the game, and she knows much more than any other NPC as well. Nothing surprising so far. Breaking point is that; she knows Arcanum is a game world!! She knows you will never be satisfied by playing it once only, and will replay with a new roleplay!

The question is which side of the coin you shall be picking that time; magick or technology? She knows she will meet you in that roleplay again and she simply wonders you MA/TA in your next play..

 

Theory crusher:

She says "We won't be speaking again" during the second conversation.

 

Muro is right about that, plus I'm not sure if magic/technology side concern her at all. You can play ANY character and still you get the same responses from her.
Unlike some characters (Simeon Tor in Tulla - if you are tech: (tension) "You are a practitioner of technology!") she doesn't give a damn to it.
Rather she looks on alignment I would say, and the path the player took after meeting Min Gorad cos after choosing the good side to stop Arronax, she says she's glad that the Living One has taken the path of righteousness. ("the right path, traveler. At least, right in the way that YOU see things.")

Tell me, is there a way to see her as an evil character? I think - as I remember, the elven guards won't let you pass after you've sided with the dark elves (or if your alignment evil, now I don't know how is it scripted in editor), will they?

spoiler warning - select to see the invisible text:
Actually, it may be quite a mad conspiration theory, but sometimes I tried to find out if she and Kerghan are not the same... with the echo voice, saying WE WILL MEET AGAIN, not sure on which side - for or against Kerghan 8)

 

note to self; come up with wacky theories only when sober.

After Muro's reminder on the full subject I solved the mystery completely.

By the time we reach Silver Lady she was already extremely old, and was beginning to go senile. You can notice this from her early speech; even though she knows everything going on, she cant pull together the words to form sentences that would make sense. Only her daughter who could endure her meaningless mutterings could decipher some sense into her words, and not at a complete rate neither.

By the time we reach her again unfortunately she completely loses it and screams laughter out of place, and talks senseless for a short while then goes silent buried in her perplexity as she can not make sense of her surroundings anymore.

Raven actually offers to join us just to get away from her mother's burden, but her good nature prevents her from doing so without a cause she might justify in her mind.

Now I can go back to my low quality wine.

 

You people must really hate the Silver Lady to call her a senile Kerghan like that.

It's not about being good/evil but about following the good/evil path of the main plot.

 

No sir, I definitely do not hate her; and all my effort of obliterating her (disintegrate, place dynamite, plastique, mustard grenade) can be explained as scientific researches and trials.

But I must admit trying to put some sense into her words 10 years ago first time I played the game, especially when I was seriously expecting some insight on the plot, was kind of an unpleasant experience.

 

Her soul has half-migrated to the other side, she says herself that she sees the candle burning at both ends. In the beginning, her prose is prophetic, albeit almost unintelligible unless you're already very familiar with the story. Compare speaking to her with any other cursed soul you happen to speak to that has something important to say. She's just a bit more crazy because, while technically still alive, she's very much dead.

 

Silver Lady concerning M'in Gorad

The man that has been blinded by the birds (the Dark elves) is Gideon Laier, who has been mislead by the fact that Dark Elves worked for Arronax and he didn't know that.
The wolf - Caladon? motionless - Caladon can do nothing with it? Why would Caladon have something to do with it? The only thing in Caladon, concerned with the Hand and the main plot is the Temple of Panarii. Something with the Panarii?
Is there anyone to know what ALL of the utterances of Silver Lady mean?

 

I always assumed that this man was Mannox, he found out the truth and so the dark elves killed him before he could spill the beans, metaphorically plucking his eyes out as he couldn't share what he had seen. Hence the Caladon reference because that's where all that went down.

This just refers to the Molochean Hand being mislead and the void in general etc., nothing really worthy of a detailed explanation.

Interpret them yourself, it's more fun that way!

 

The hand is the Molochean Hand, I think. They work at the behest of the dark elves, who were themselves deceived by Khergan. The hand is, as a result, blinded by proxy.
A tear in the curtain could be a reference to the "fabric of reality" in Arcanum being torn by the dwarves working against their will to get Khergan back from the void. That tear being mended by the "blasted ring of stone" is quite appropriate, as to save Arcanum, one has to travel through the Ring of Brodgar (a replica of Stone Henge, a.k.a. a blasted ring of stone), if one had not already been banished to the void by

Spoiler

killing Nasrudin.

Metaphors can be hard to interpret, and can occasionally have more than one "correct" answer, depending on how many aspects of the story fit the definition given by the speaker of the metaphor. Do you automatically understand every dream you have? With some dreams, it's easy, but for others, not so much. Plus, some dreams occur to you more than once, so if you're still hung up on it from the first time, the second time might help you see something else. However, some people regularly have the same dream over and over again, and never quite understand what it's supposed to mean. On one hand it might mean something, on the other, it's a dream and may not have any direct meaning in this reality. The benefit of Arcanum is that it can be played any number of times, and you'll discover more and more of what the Silver Lady is saying the more times you play. Just keep at it, you'll be able to interpret her sage ramblings soon enough, though personally, I can't say definitively whether or not that all of what she says has a literal meaning within the game.

 

SPOILER WARNING: Don't read if dangerous for you - I can't make a spoiler window below if my post has this dark red background. Normally I use Quote with black text inside.

Well, I guess the Troika team must have intended every thing they put in the world, so do I think even every of the Silver Lady's visions could not be done just by random, but have some certain purpose in which player may remember it when playing either before or after meeting her.
As she or Raven - I don't know now says that the answer lies both before and after. "Be sure not to overlook one for another".

ahh, the next one I remember:

about M'in Gorad vision:

Kerghan, wearing a mask of Arronax - impersonating him.

about BMC:

As Raven points out when you ask her, she says that fire means magic by Silver lady. And so she notes that the flame burning black onyx means magic that is somehow twisted.
I would say it is Dark Necromantic Magic, and Kerghan's castle where the BMC are imprisoned. Silver Lady though, doesn't know if they are here as well - "very inconspicuous" , mainly now that the vision relates to BMC.
It may be a question for the Living one, when entered the Void. After you meet Arronax and learn from him what's happening, you as a player may realize and remeber this from Silver Lady (LOL, I almost wrote "Dark Lady" ). Now that you know as the player about Kerghan and his castle, you may have a fear for them - "Are they here as well? It's not certain at all if you even find them alive."
But now, this is something a NEW player that has NEVER played Arcanum should experience for the first time, unspoiled by knowing the things.

We could make an observation - observe a friend of yours that is intellectual, eager to know and interpret every of the Silver Lady visions, all the time (s)he plays.
But a warranty must be made that (s)he don't see a spoiler. Then the reactions, athmosphere and emotions of the player... It is something different when playing for the first time, yeah, even I looked sometimes to the solution for the first time and so I knew that not Arronax but Kerghan is the final one. :/ And so it didn't take the effect of surprise.