i enter a body of water & suddenly i am a person again
Genuinely baffled by all the details that Bardam’s Mettle contains that add to the steppe’s story without fully explaining a thing (except how utterly ridiculous and death-defying a challenge it is, in the best way). The universal reverence for the place, so shown by the countless myriad flags strewn everywhere, proving the trials and area overall to be some of the few that transcend tribe and creed.
The dialogue (coming from where, I have no clue) speaking of those of the dusk and of the dawn, hinting that maybe these trials were taken by both Xaela and Raen, and referencing the truce that Nhaama and Azim had found by way of their own soldiers choosing love over war, thus redefining ‘warrior’ to mean one who is a child of both deities rather than only one.
The first boss leading you down into this deep trench, where instead of dark emptiness you find the remnants of civilization and technology? Stone alcoves holding what look like wind turbines, shoddy wooden steps built into the trench walls.
The second trial speaking, “Be not afraid of falling stars,” and climaxing with a meteor falling as you hide behind other ‘star shards’. Pretty sure Bardam was a Warrior of Light, for the record.
Falling even deeper into that trench, and finding more remnants of civilization. Buildings that look like straight up domiciles built right into the stone, complete with steps and porches and roofs (and traps).
I’m assuming they’re shrines (if not, holy crap does that raise even more questions as to the history of this place). How did they get down here? Note that you have fall far to get to this point (including tumbling off an entire waterfall). If they are shrines, that speaks to a boatload of dedication to this tradition, that folks would come down here (I’m guessing on yol-back) to build and maintain this place. Just the yol’s inner sanctum speaks to a wild amount of love and care:
Flags and banners built up around the platform, strung across the walls, torches built into hollowed sections of what’s more or less a mountain crater by this point. And the platform itself, clearly constructed by way of manipulation of the stone, painstakingly chipped at for who-knows-how-long until it ‘rose’ out of the ground. And the glowing depiction of Bardam speaks for itself.
Nagi, the God of Water
One of the most ancient major gods, aside from Shia and Mora. Nagi is impossibly massive, his sheer size thought to be an effect of his power and equally massive following. His domain is the oceans, with a plethora of myths tied to the tides being his breath and his will, the mermidae being his creation, and the deepest hidden wrecks his home.
me and my boys are collecting hollow reeds so we can hang out just below the surface of the water
150 meter aluminum sea serpent skeleton sculpture in Nantes, France. Artist Huang Yong Ping
Adonis, tr. by Samuel Hazo, from “Elegy for the Time at Hand”, The Pages of Day and Night
