itch.io

This is a recollection of ideas i had while playing the Vn and even tho this is tagged as Lore their might be light spoilers so i will leave reminders before certain paragraphs not to spoil anyone, and if anyone has similar ideas or has smth to add feel free to comment

1-Tricking the Labyrinth in a way:

During the story, we were intoduced to a passive rule that both the Master and the Hotel have to follow and it was stated by both Asterion and the Argoi on multiple occasions : "Any contact that goes against the will of the Labyrinth  cannot be accepted". Asterion stated that if we were to write such a contact (for example forbiding the Master from hurting the Prisonner) the ink will fall and the paper will slowly decay as a signal of the Labyrinth refusing that contract. But what if we could trick it somehow.

I did previously share a similar idea on a post by Corbenix where i said that if the Mc had a wish (helping Asterion/immortality...) all he had to do is make a contract in a way that looks like it's following the will of the Labyrinth but it actually isn't. An example i had in mind was protecting Asterion from the beasts of the valley or any other entity that tries to hurt him, the way i think that the Master can achieve it is by writing a contract stating that torturing the Prisonner and hurting him is a duty and the right of the Master alone given by gods and he cannot tolerate anyone taking this right away from him even if it's a god or a creature of the valley, therefore no one exept for him has the right to hurt Asterion. I think that from the way it looks this contract is just the Master claming possetion over Asterion's torture and the Labyrinth has no reason not to accept it, and a way of making this permanent is perhaps making it using ichor as an ink (if you are curious about ichor i recommend playing ch19) but even without it i can see this contract being accepted.

***Possible Spoilers : (this could also solve the problem with creating life in the Hotel)

2-Abusing physics:

I can see this happening with the math background but it would be better if their was a background dedicated for knowledge about physics, but considering that we have wifi and computers in the Hotel it's manageable. The reason i brought it up is because of an idea i had, if the Mc tried to control gravity as a way to overpower the beasts of the valley for example or just like those times when people can subdue others with aura or their presence alone i guess. I think that if the Mc was to print a huge paper about gravity and it's applications then send it to the Hotel he can achieve it (I'm sure Greta will be exited about this idea), another application is thunder in case the Mc wanted to alter the weather in the valley (make it rain) or he just wanted to give a big middle finger to Zeus (Personnaly I would).

****(SPOILER : Considering that the crew and the Master can teleport in and out of the Hotel as long as they have precise coordinates i can see the gravity thing happening) 

3-Increase the Hotel's security:

It's possible to write a contract stoping people with ill intentions from entering the Hotel, since the statue of Hades only stops the beasts of the valley and Wolf is usually in exploration with Luke this could help until we recruit a security manager or proper personnel.

4-Playing with Death:

I know this sounds a bit too much but it might make sense. It's very common to stumble upon characters who can manipulate the concept of death in fantasies but that is not what I'm trying to achieve. My idea was to make a bullet i guess that is actually a contract describing Death, and any entity to be shot by it will have an immidiate death. I admit that this is the most likely idea to be refused by the Hotel but since the only reason that creating Life is not easy because past masters restricted it for ethical reasons (and other reaons too i just don't want to spoil much), playing with Death is not that farfetch. 

And if this one works we might even solve Asterion's immortality by opening the gates of Hades (I just got too exited)

5-The seal of primordial law:  THIS MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS FROM CH 17-19

So this one is not an application of contracts, more like an aspect that i was curious about. This seal can be found on the records of Asterion's trial -i recommend playing the game before reading this because these records have some very intresting pieces of lore and i don't want to spoil anyone- I speculated that it might also be the seal on the Master's deed but since i didn't find a direct clue to confirm it i'm keeping it this way. This seal stands as a proof that this document is the oldest in the realm and it makes the contract industructable but also unrevocable no matter what, and as stated by Asterion no one not even the Master can create such a thing. This raises the question; who putted the seal in the first place ? It was most likely Hermes since he was the one that left the records in the valley but how did he make it? And in case that it was made by ichor witch is the only thing i can think of capable of such a thing, what is stopping the Mc from making one ?

6-Using the contracts as weapons : THIS MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS FROM CH 19

Another passive rule that the Hotel has is that "contracts are indestructable unless revoked", a way to use this rule is using the contracts as a building material as stated by Asterion, but considering that the Mc has to get ichor from the valley in order to bargain for Asterion's freedom we can use the contracts as a way to subdue the beasts of the valley, one way of doing it was making chains since the Mc has no martial background at least according to the choices in CH1 i think that it's a safe and easy way to subdue the beasts of the valley making the ichor collection easier. Another way to use it is as a shield, i was thinking an immediate shield that appears whenever the Master or the crew is in danger (i don't think the Labyrinth will accept giving such a thing to Asterion) witch might also be usefull in the future quests considering how dangerous tha valley is.

I hope no one was spoiled by this post and it is mostly a bunch of the ideas i had while playing so if you have anything to add or comment feel free to do so.

About the identity fraud, I did speculate that it might be the reason why they had that second fight since Robert confirmed that the rage they had was 100% due to the gruge between the two lineages, but when we meet him in the corridor following Nikos he said "This is all your fault! You pushed him over the edge!" that is why i think that his hatred for the Argoi is because of the acts of Nicos's grandfather during Clement's time as the Master but their is also this subconsious part that stems from them sharing the title of the Argos Panoptes one being the descendant and one wearing the mask.

And i too know that Pedro was not a "good person" and I never hated him for it, but we are all under this impression becasue of us knowing of his background as P. But the Master has no way of knowing it unless their is a cannonical reason to the Mc seeing the Hinterland scenes.

(Spoilers) During the call and the deal with Hermes we knew about the Ichor (Olymipan blood) that was used as an ink to make the Hotel, and aside from the one we will give Hermes to regain his sanity we're having I guess 6 drops to negotiate. I think that in case the negotiations go south their is noting stoping the MC from using that same ichor to grant himself a wish by adding a new section to the Original contact of the Hotel.

*If it's Asterion's freedom he wants it might be a bit complicated to do because if a contradiction happens in a contract built by ichor it might a bit dangerous and might endanger the basic functions of the Hotel (generate food ...etc) by causing a sort of paradox. But allowing Asterion to leave the Hotel and see the outside world seems doable.

*If it's an eternal life alongside Asterion, this might be easy to make. I think that if the Mc was to make a contract stating that idk he wants to become immortal to be Asterion's torturor in order to aphold the Labyrinth's mission and please the gods for eternity, the Hotel might accept this contract and since it's ichor we are talking about, immortality is attainable. Then he just has to keep on treating Asterion the same way he did up until now. (Personnaly I don't like how this contract sounds but in order to trick the Hotel it has to sort of agree with the Master's mission)

So when I was playing the recent build, I couldn't help but notice that his actions were not that of a guest and was kind of overstepping the boundaries (at least from my perspective), even if he had to go through the entire Hinterlands stuff and his family/inheritance stuff he did go overbord and wanted to get some opinions on it :

DISCLAIMER: This is not me hating Pedro, as a reader i like how he was portraited and the P's relation to the Hotel, the entire Panoptes lore was interesting but this is just how i would have seen his actions if I was the Master 

1-The way he entered the hotel: He sneaked into the hotel, then to the Obsidian layer that had a god made shrine of Hermes (who almost killed him), took something and even if it was rightfully his it stil doesn't change the fact that unless the Mc and Asterion do a full inventory check they can't make sure if he took or put smth else in the room. I mean the hotel has a FRONT DEST FOR A REASON and it's not like the Owners would have rejected him taking the feather in the first place, and as a Panoptes entering a room dedicated to Hermes is a really dangerous thing to do.

2-His constant attacks on Nikos: Here I'm talking about the first time since in the second fight they had none of them was in control. I know that he had a grudge agains the "Snake man" who pushed Clement over the edge, but I think that the Mc should have a conversation with Pedro not to tell him the entire Argoi thing but just to let him know that the Argoi in the memories and Nikos are two different people and Pedro has no right to damn Nikos for his grandfather's sins since if we were to do the same to him it wouldn't look good either (the tapir incident his grandfather had). And i think that a good time to have this conversation was right after the 2nd fight when the Mc told Asterion to calm Oscar down, and before he talks with kota, this could have been a great time for the Mc and Pedro to have a talk.

3-His "What are you?" question to Asterion: This was him straight up overstepping his bounderies. Yes he has the right to be curious, and we have guests who were curious about the Hotel and Asterion like Robert who chose to stay in the Hotel to find out more about it and minotaurs but Pedro was just rude, he had some info from his grandpa's memories but not enough to get the full picture but even then it was not even who are you it was  WHAT, from the way i see it he has neither the right nor the authority to ask Asterion in that manner.