True to Form

Character:

Hiravias

You find Hiravias in Stormwall Gorge where you can add him to your party during Act II. He is a middle-aged orlan druid. Hiravias was raised amongst migrants and has never owned a bookshelf or chest of drawers. He’s festooned in pouches and satchels that contain all manner of campaign gear, writing implements, ceremonial items, and half-eaten bits of food.

Hiravias’ quest is to find a resolution to his Spiritform—why is his “trueform” such a reviled creature? Is it a reflection on him or his people? Was he being punished for asking, or was he doomed no matter how he discovered his form?

With your help, Hiravias might find his answers with the “dark” druids of Elm’s Reach, the Ethik Nôl. Either the Ovate Tamrwn or the Ethik Nôl druid Naca refer you to stone tablets in Blood Sands that give Hiravias insight into his spiritshift form, and ultimately lead him to Burial Isle to find someone with a soul that is twin to his.

You find this druid, Scathden, there—an aumaua. He claims that Hiravias’ soul is but a splinter of his own, and proceeds to pick a fight. You may either let it happen or, by passing a skill check, you can prevent the fight.

Defeating Scathden results in either Hiravias’ “twin” soul being freed. If Hiravias absorbs his “other soul” he finally understands—Galawain showed Hiravias’ true colors—a vicious hunter held back only by his own sense of incompleteness.

If Hiravias declines his other soul, he muses that his emptiness is the best thing that ever happened to him—the Autumn Stelgaer is powerful precisely because of his emptiness, hunger, wrath, and randomness. He is re-affirmed in his devotion for Wael, for he has finally found what it means to draw strength from the unknowable and the uncertain.

If Hiravias lets his soul pass on, he comes to embrace the emptiness and lack as his true strength. Whatever what-if sadness he feels about being reunited with his “twin soul” is countered by pride in the fact that this twin is being reborn elsewhere, with a whole crazy life awaiting him or her.

If you resist a confrontation with Scathden, Hiravias will be irate as this is the worst of all options—since he now knows he has a twin soul living on in an evil druid and if you won’t help him solve this, he’ll fight Scathden solo if need be.

With regards to the ending of the game, Hiravias will be in favor of either the Strengthen Existing Souls ending (if he joined with his “twin” and re-found Galawain) or the Parts Unknown ending if he’s okay with his other half wandering the world.

In either case, Hiravias will have some firsthand knowledge in what your actions might actually mean. In the case of Strengthen Existing Souls, he talks about how he is at last complete and can’t be the only person born of a soul cleft from something greater—what greater good could there be than a return to this greater communion of spirits?

Should Hiravias remain a dedicated wanderer of Wael, he boisterously declares his support for the Parts Unknown solution. The lesson he learned is that his “incompleteness” was the great motivator of his life—had he been a “normal” soul his life would have been untested and insignificant. He is joyously content knowing that he traded a what-if-I-were-complete life for the knowledge that his “twin” is out there leading a unique life—for good and for bad. For Hiravias, to not set the souls free would be depriving the world of the lessons, loves, and achievements these souls could/should live out.

Depending on the outcome of this quest, Hiravias can have a change of heart and become “pro” Galawain instead of favoring Wael—this changes how he comments on some of the endgame events and what sort of ending he wants you to enact. The quest can be unlocked only by stopping to chat with your companion. Solving this quest is largely done in conversation, so there are plenty of chances to get disposition points and shape Hiravias’ theological leaning.