Hineni Hineni (Sylvain Q&A)

[Sylvain Torsin]

I'm an open book. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster, but Syl's in an interesting place here at the end of the game as long as he isn't immediately squished by the people who dislike him.

[Niall Organa]

He certainly is in an interesting place.

What's he gonna do next?

[Sylvain Torsin]

That's still a bit up in the air and subject to GM approval and whatnot...

But primarily he's looking to make it for himself in the Empire again. The Empire respects strength and so he's gonna go make himself stronger. He has a Jal Shey force spirit guide to help him go and look for vergences across the galaxy. Haydriss is lending him some transportation which he'll use to get around and hopefully find other members of the Jay Shey, collect their information as well as information about vergences and seek to strengthen himself for the days ahead. There's also a potential surprise apprentice that will be with him for a big part of the break if things work as they are supposed to...

Second aspect of his progression will be working with his one loyal compatriot, Tyron, to rebuild his powerbase and acquire some military or covert assets attached to House Torsin who could help him reclaim a bit of the reputation he has lost, and help support the Empire's interests. He's looking to prove to those in the Empire that he was never a traitor, and that he is strong enough to influence the Empire for good. Baras still has a lot of leverage over him, and he still dislikes the man... but for now any attempt at revenge or subterfuge against the Empire or Baras is the furthest thing from his mind.

Then there's always Mama somewhere in the background.... but I doubt she'll reach out any time soon.

[Nekoinu]

I am curious how much faith Sylvain actually has in his relationship with Haydriss xD

[Sylvain Torsin]

Considering how little he has to go on other than her? Quite a lot actually... he's been cut off completely from everything he has known. He has always had this kind of urge to feel accepted and valued since he rates almost everything in the galaxy based off of its marginal utility. Makes him a pain to deal with/portray sometimes as he struggles with self-worth, especially after epic failures.

But all in all he wants to do a good job for Haydriss and impress her. He's on a massive PR campaign to show that he is a valued member of the Empire and has much to contribute. He can only start where he has opportunities though, and Haydriss has been more than kind in offering those for him.

[Moyr Ahaya]

*Moyr looks a Syl sceptically* "It's almost like the Blues."

We've been chatty, and there's not other character which generates greater IC - OCC divergence. Moyr & Syl is a can of worms better mostly left behind but I still have some questions. I read some of Syl but not all by far, so I want some subjectivity.

Basic:

Highlight of the game?

Biggest regret?

Moment of desperation?

Dirtiest in-character thought?

And now more complex stuff.

Will Syl's mindset evolve during the long downtime? If so, in what direction? Is there a breaking point with his idea of the Empire and what currently is the Empire? What would need to happen for him to screw it and go fully renegade?

Will he have some clandestine agendas of messing with some things or just powering up?

What conditions would have to be met for his to depart the grey zone and either fully return to the Dark Side or defect to the Republic/Jedi?

[Sylvain Torsin]

-Highlight of the game?

Hmmm.... repairing things with Kris was a good moment... Syl did well in events for the most part, though they tended to be one and done things. Lucena thing was fun. Meeting with the Jal Shey ghost and finding a new path for him was also nice.

-Biggest regret?

I mean... I don't tend to regret too much once things are over. Probably should have spent less energy on talking to Magpie and Baras early on and put my efforts into other things and meeting new people more.

-Moment of desperation?

The two fights I suppose. Moreso the Jedi one where it looked like we had a good chance and I could have saved the day before Thy jumped at me.

-Dirtiest in-character thought?

Probably something to do with Kris and Lucena.

-Will Syl's mindset evolve during the long downtime? If so, in what direction? Is there a breaking point with his idea of the Empire and what currently is the Empire? What would need to happen for him to screw it and go fully renegade?

I'm hoping Syl will mellow out a bit and find himself a bit more over the break. The past year for him has been an angst-filled one for him and he was pulled in all sorts of directions. He's going to be less supportive of drastic measures and will prefer incremental change over sweeping universal paradigm shifts for the Empire. He thinks more and more that the Council's current membership is far too divisive and will lead to significantly weakening the Empire. So he'll start as a kind of grassroots guy improving operations and conditions for whatever areas he's able to claim for himself while slowing building a base worthy of having some pull in certain circles when its necessary.

-Will he have some clandestine agendas of messing with some things or just powering up?

Mostly powering up at this point. He hopes to pull in a significant portion of the Jal Shey into the Empire's sphere and bring them in as personal advisors to him. He's more eager to present himself as a valuable citizen of the Empire than go about trying to pick fights with anyone at the moment.

-What conditions would have to be met for his to depart the grey zone and either fully return to the Dark Side or defect to the Republic/Jedi?

He'd never go to the Republic... Jal Shey grey is as far as he'd ever go... and that would only be if he was actually fully exiled from the Empire and/or it crumbled and Kris was dead. Going to the Dark Side would only ever be temporary for him, just like going to the Light side... if it is what needed to be done in the moment, then he'd do it. But eventually he'd swing back to the center, that's who he is.

[Shaisha Vreysk]

*pinches Syl's cheeks*

My silly silly brother!

Poor Syl was being pushed all around the place. If you had the choice again, would you still choose to oppose Baras?

[Sylvain Torsin]

If I had known how the fight would start, then I would have had no IC reason to oppose him. The image that was written in the initial post was that Raven and Baras were dueling and their forces were fighting. I thought we were going to come and help tip it one way or the other. When Baras won before we even started, and Magpie had no more forces to help us... then I didn't really have any reason to be opposing him and would have preferred not to fight... IC-wise Sylvain would not have engaged, but Baras had significantly better cool than us and launched into the fight before I had a chance to evaluate the new landscape of the battle and try to offer my support to Baras.

The inverse would have also been true... if we had elected to aid Baras and then he lost before we started, then Sylvain would have sided with Magpie. But I guess that similarly we would have had been thrust into that combat as well... So I can't regret the choice I made too much since ultimately it wasn't what I expected based off of the description or had any control over how it turned out. I pushed for the choice we made largely because I thought it would be the more interesting story and felt there was enough reason to make it with Layne there. Normally Sylvain probably would have sided with Baras but he smelled blood in the water... Oh how surprised he and I were when the battle I was jumping into turned out to be something that wouldn't have made a lot of sense for him to choose IC. I felt the concerns with the difficulty of the fight would also have been helped if we were 'joining a team' like was suggested in the original post. Magpie, her operatives, and us v. Baras and his operatives would have been a much more compelling fight. As it were, we were going to be wiped on the first round or second round 95% of the time.

But things happened... might have been a bit of bait and switch there, but it still rolled into something interesting. Sylvain's new future is interesting and I look forward to trying to muck my way through it back to a respectable place in the Empire as much as DD allows. I would have probably preferred still being in Baras' sphere of influence... so if I had it to do all over again and knew about the conditions of the fight before-hand I may have fought against Magpie... Though with that difficulty, she would have won and Baras would be dead anyway...

So... to answer your question.... Maybe?

[Remmington Thalalas]

I'm a bit sad that I didn't get much time to pay attention to what Syl was up to this game. He usually has an interesting story going on.

So what are your favourite threads? PCs and NPCs, aside from your siblings?

Thoughts on Remmy? I found it interesting that he came to Remmy for help. I didn't think Remmy left much of an impression on most people.

How will Sylvain react when he discovers that Magpie... is his mom! [this is just pure speculation on my part for the record]

[Sylvain Torsin]

I had several threads that I liked with different people. I mentioned some of them above. When I'm not on my phone maybe I'll add some more.

His impression of Remmy is honestly not all that positive. He knows that Remington has a certain set of skills which are useful and that's why he asked him to do what he did, but as being some type of equal or on a similar social level? Not so much. But Sylvan's now in the dirt so doesn't really matter if he still feels superior or not.

And he knows very well that magpie is his mother. he figured it out very early on in the game. It was a big part of his early decision making, but ultimately she was just too crazy fanatical for him. He chose to fight against his master not out of love for his mother, but because he thought Baras could be taken out and that would be a good thing for the empire.

[Alysele Cortess]

Our threads were fun, sorry for dropping our last one.... politics are not always fun

[Remmington Thalalas]

Yeah, I think we can do without Zash and Baras in our lives.