idle varré thoughts on the theory that he might’ve killed our maiden
it’s suspicious that he knows immediately that we’re maidenless but perhaps it’s something you can just sense about a tarnished? and many people have said that all the tarnished we see at the roundtable hold seemingly don’t have a maiden. there’s also the possibility that he witnessed whoever DID kill our (implied) maiden.
i had a thought that maybe he killed our maiden to make us more alone and susceptible to wanting to join the mohgwyn dynasty but he doesn’t hit us with anything involving that right out of the gate and seems only lays it down heavy when we first express our own suspicion of the roundtable hold, and in that dialogue option if we say “they were maginificent!” varre backs off without pushing us even a little which i think is interesting. also he doesn’t really seem to actually care that we don’t have a maiden, just that it would’ve been more convenient if we did have one (when the task to soak the cloth in a maiden’s blood comes about). actually he doesn’t even really seem to care about that inconvenience either. so i can’t think of any downside for him to kill our maiden and i actually think us lacking a maiden prevents us from the moral dilemma of whether or not to sacrifice her and in turn does make it easier for us to decide to join
Varré’s tactics fascinate me.
He first presents himself as a guide along the traditional path of a Tarnished.
He does not sow seeds of doubt, when he easily could have, to the overwhelmed and ignorant mind of a new Tarnished.
He waits until we have trod along that path long enough to meet the Two Fingers and get an opinion of them for ourselves.
He immediately backs off if the Tarnished approves of the Two Fingers.
His dialogue if you aggro him perfectly sums up his mindset when interacting with you: ‘Very well. If you mistake kindness for frailty of heart, then perhaps a more physical lesson is in order!’
Varrégenuinelybelieves he’s doing you a favour. He believes that Mogh’s vision is worth fighting for. He believes in the love that was promised. And when you think about it - for all his evil-hand-rubbing and sass, he’s being fairer to you than Mogh, from what we know, ever was to him.
The war surgeon’s set description calls the white masks 'mercy killers’. The name of the dagger the white masks use, which was a real thing in medieval times, is derived from the latin misericordia, “act of mercy”, so named because it used to dispatch knights who had received fatal wounds in battle. It was designed for that purpose, to fit between plates of armour, find weak points, to get to the heart, to end suffering.
If Varré was just a sadist who enjoyed killing, there was no need to pose as a surgeon - the dying are in no position to fight you, no matter what outfit you wear. Therefore Varré was once legitimately wore that uniform, but like the perfumers, found the horrors of war warp his previously noble role.
Which brings us back to the idea of personal choice.
Varré’s way of getting you on side only if you reach the same conclusion he did by yourself, speaks volumes of a man who once brought mercy to the dying, especiallybecause of how he got to the same position you did.
Mogh had to physically forceVarré’s hand. The demigod kidnapped him - among others - inserted accursed blood into his body, and Varré was the only one who survived. Every step was survive or die. Varré is a case of Stockholm Syndrome if ever there was one! He is delusional. Mogh has manipulated him more than he ever did us. The valid doubts and suspicions he admits to having about the Two Fingers would have been used by Mogh to seal Varré’s servitude, making Mogh appear more dependable and true by comparison,a higher power who actually gave a damn about him.
Why did Mogh choose war-surgeons, mercy-killers? Because they associate relief from pain with compassion and love. It can be perfectly warped to fit Mogh’s twisted view of love, also associated with bloodletting and pain. Or perhaps Mogh’s promise of a new dynasty itself is the relief from the pain people like Varré felt from experiencing so much war and death. Either way, Varré’s former purpose has been twisted.
Varré did not have to do any of the things he did to make a servant of you. He literally could have copied the method Mogh used on him and gotten the same results. It would result in lots of dead Tarnished, but one would prevail, one who through sheer will and strength proved himself.
Varré gives you freedom of choice he never got. He gives you an out. Despite being in so deep and unable or unwilling to see that Mogh will never give him what he wants, will never put him out of his misery, he has not lost his humanity completely, like the other white masks. In his warped, broken state, he still shows mercy.
