On the topic of the emperor himself, there is one scene from the trailer which, in the context of the game lore, does not quite make sense, and that is the mind flayer mural. The stone mural depicts an elder brain and illithid hive, but the brain is not shown as the center point; a single mind flayer holding a staff is. This doesn't quite make sense, because a brain would not need a general-commander of their forces, when they can mind control them all. I think Larian even sort of tried to incorporate this scene in the final battle, but this only works if you side against the emperor; if you ally with him, the mural seems to refer to nothing.
Unless the mural is supposed to show a single a mind flayer ruling both the brain and the hive, which could have been possible with the reassembled regalia of Karsus (described in the book Gale wants; you cannot reassemble them in the game as the scepter is missing). Perhaps this was the emperor's intended original role, to become the final antagonist and a ruler of his kind, controlling both an elder brain and an army of illithids. It could in theory also refer to an evil protagonist, except you don't really need to turn into a mind flayer to control the brain.
Last edited by saeran; 01/02/24 08:34 AM.
