Exult Forum

I've recently been thinking about one of the few denizens of Monitor that wasn't in some, way, shape, or form a complete bellend: Cantra. Not only lamenting the fact that she won't join you after being cured of her affliction, but pondering the nature of that affliction, as well. I've come to some ineteresting ideas regarding that:

* Cantra was possessed by Wantoness after the leftovers of Hazard's men managed to either mortally wound (more likely) or outright kill (less likely) a similarly possessed Gwenno.

* This would mean that Cantra was likely possessed either shortly before or early during our arrival in Monitor. In all likelihood, we never knew Cantra when she wasn't possessed.

* She did not act like others who'd been taken by a Bane. For all intents and purposes, she acted perfectly normally. That is, until she was threatened by Batlin; at that point, Wantoness made itself known.

Question is, though...why? Why would Wantoness lay low inside a little girl? All we know about the Banes tells us that they act without restraint, without control, that such is literally their entire schtick. They are Chaos, unrestrained. We also know that, even in their weakened state, the Banes appear capable of killing multiple people with ease.

There's one of two possibilities, given the overall theme of the Banes:

1) Wantoness needed time to fully take over and Batlin drawing it out was just a coincidence, or

2) Something about Cantra was keeping Wantoness contained (and/or restrained) until she felt her life was in danger, drawing out a being whose whole thing is action without restraint or thought for consequences. Much like how someone acts during a fight or flight response.

What else do we know about Cantra? She's almost old enough to take the Knight's Test, making her around 15 or 16 years-old, if memory serves. Though on the further end of the scale, this means that for all intents and purposes, Cantra is an innocent. A child. One of the most common themes in fantasy lore is the immense power that exists within the spirit of an innocent, especially that of a young girl. Another common thing in fantasy lore is who are the primary targets for daemonic possession: children and, again, especially young girls.

A clever twist on this would be that Cantra would act as an almost perfect container for Wantoness, or really any of the Banes. Wantoness either screwed up in choosing her (not knowing what would happen when it possessed her) or didn't choose her in the first place, and the person who ends up possessed by a Bane after its host is killed is totally random. If Batlin had died at the Black Gate and Gwenno had still gone to (and subsequently died in) the Serpent Isle, it is entirely possible that Avatar and Co would have to figure out for themselves who, or what, was currently containing Wantoness when it came time to reunite the Banes into the Chaos Serpent.

Thus, if left alone and unmolested, Cantra would've served as a very good jail for Wantoness. At least, until the first unlucky goblin to get the drop on her, drawing out that fight or flight response and, thus, Wantoness would come out to play. Maybe on a permanent basis, or maybe until the adrenaline faded.

Or perhaps the bane grew weak during the time spent in imprisonment and needed time to 'heal', so to speak.
Or it decided to spy on the world. After all, time went on and things changed a lot since it was imprisoned, so perhaps it thought it wise to scout its new surroundings before making itself known and, uhh, make a mess.

Side-note: This wiki page suggests that Cantra was taken by the Bane of Insanity. Which would make sense, since Cantra needs water of Logic to be cured (which is doable when you have the Serpent Isle Fixes mod installed).

http://ultima.wikia.com/wiki/Banes_of_Chaos

From Bootstrike:

After Batlin has freed the Chaos Banes, they possess three different humans, whom Batlin and his cronies proceed to track down. The Wantonness Bane possesses Gwenno. One of the other two (Anarchy or Insanity) possesses Cantra. Who is the third unfortunate victim?

But Ultima Codex has different theories:
http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Banes

The wiki says Angus, but the game has never been really clear about that. Or I just never got it.
I guess it explains something about the whole Angus disappearance at least.
Where his body remains? Who knows. Probably buried.

Hmm, those are some really different theories indeed.
I'm inclined to go with what my link tells, since the ultima codex leaves way too many questions unanswered and has a major error:

I don't think the bane of wantonness could have taken over both Gwenno and Cantra, since Gwenno needs water of discipline to be cured and Cantra needs water of logic.

Although Cantra's cure was of course implemented by the creator of Serpent Isle Fixes, so it might not have been what the devs had in mind. UNLESS some unused code did indeed give a hint at Cantra needing water of logic to be cured.

See, I was never able to find definitive info on which Bane, exactly, had possessed Cantra, and I didn't have a save at the point where you cure her to test my theory.

> Or perhaps the bane grew weak during the time spent in imprisonment and needed time to 'heal', so to speak.

Not an unreasonable alternative. One could further postulate that Batlin opening the Wall of Lights (with, if memory serves, the wrong serpent) disrupted their imperfect soul gems (I think either Ducio or Torissio mentions that Batlin didn't pay much attention to the whole ritual) and they went into the Void, regained their powers, and decided to curbstomp Batlin for daring to imprison them.

The Guardian's line thereafter (See how I reward those who fail me!) would make more sense, because Big G wasn't killing Batlin, himself, just allowing him to die for his impudence.

> Or it decided to spy on the world. After all, time went on and things changed a lot since it was imprisoned, so perhaps it thought it wise to scout its new surroundings before making itself known and, uhh, make a mess.

That, though, doesn't seem like a thing they would do. These are raw, unrestrained forces of elemental Chaos. In a sense, they ARE imbalance, personified. Hell, when Wantonness took over Gwenno, it slaughtered a group of Hazard's men. If it wanted to lay low, then it could've just made itself invisible (a cantrip for something so horrifically powerful) and buggered off. In that light, I believe that the Banes are beyond the concept of restraint. Especially Insanity, whose schtick is giving in completely to every single emotional impulse without any input from any kind of logic or reason.

Cantra being taken by Insanity does fit better with the overall timeline. Batlin comes to SI, finds out about these beings of god-like powers and a means to either control them or steal their powers, disrupts the ancient Bane jails and frees them, the Avatar arrives somewhere around then. After that, Wantonness takes Gwenno, she goes apeshit and kills Hazard's men before taking a mortal wound and seeing Wantonness going into the "Beast of Ice," which is likely an Ice Dragon. Anarchy takes Angus and he runs off into the woods, somewhere, before being captured by Batlin, and poor Angus' body is likely dumped in a shallow, unmarked grave. Fat boy then kidnaps Cantra, draws Insanity out by threatening her life, kills the poor girl, steals the last Bane, and goes back to the Wall of Lights to completely flub the entire ritual like an idiot, getting himself killed, and your homies possessed.

Still, it seems odd, to me, that Insanity would decide to lay low. Maybe it left Monitor to seek out the other Banes (not knowing they'd already been taken by Batlin), only getting kidnapped by Batlin because he, somehow, managed to get the drop on Insanity, and somehow render its vessel, Cantra, unconscious.