Act 2 spoilers
Interesting, and that would explain why the druids entered into an alliance with the Harpers to fight Ketheric. And why you find the corpses of so many druids in the Shadow Cursed lands.
It would make a lot of sense for the druids to go fight the Dark Justiciars if they were actually encroaching on the grove itself. (Blighted Village is close enough that I’m sure it would have been threatening.) Very interesting! I’ve never put the pieces together before.
Seems like Dark Justiciars had been a powerful presence in so many of the areas in Act 1. The Underdark especially (as you noted), the monastery of Lathander, the Selunite settlements. The landscape of Act 1, even, is shaped by Shar.
I guess it’s difficult to discern the presence of Sharrans at first glance, because you have to read through a bunch of little notes you find to see it. I haven’t seen any documents that state that they overran the Selunite temple, although I’m sure they did. (Unless the Selunites in the Underdark were fighting Sharrans and not monsters like I assumed.)
I don’t remember seeing a statue of Selune underground in the Blighted Village, is that in the area with the spiders?
Yup, the entirety of ACT 1 and 2 zones were devoted to Selune, until Ketheric abandoned her because he lost everything dear in his life and then reformed his armies to Sharrans. Which is why there are Selunite quests, secret letters and religious objects everywhere in ACT 1 and 2 as they were forced to worship Selune in secrecy because of the Sharran Inquisition. Anyone who did not submit to Shar was tortured and killed.
(Slightly off-topic but this is also why I do not kill the nurses in the hospital, but instead let them stabbity stab stab Malus Thorm. They were just and caring ladies in life who were forced to only treat Sharrans, while everyone who was not a Sharran was sent to the doctor for vile horrific experimentations).
As for the Selune statue underneath the village it's in the Owlbear cave which is directly under the village, but naturally that part of the village caved in after so many decades of being unattended and ransacked.
Overall I love Larian's subtle ways of storytelling with various elements. Whether it's tiny hints or literature or environmental decorations or even planting certain stuff or all combined.
For example with a certain Selune cleric;
The player cannot ever talk to Isobel about her being Ketheric's daughter in ACT 2, but so many hints and clues reveal this way before the story directly reveals it. Such as;
- She keeps a sculpture of her father while he was still devoted to Selune and regularly says idle lines such as "What sin are you committing now?" or "What happened to you?"
- This same sculpture can be found in Moonrise and the player's character can comment on it
- Ketheric's hound can sniff Isobel's magic on us and recognizes it because it died along with "Ketheric's daughter" on the same night trying to defend her
- The little Selunite pin she keeps in her closet is the same pin as her mother's in Moonrise
I seriously love that kind of story-telling by letting the player piece it all together if they're paying attention. Show, do not tell ^^
