#silu speaks

[sillysiluriforme]

Is Luka eating a rat a side affects of using the snake miraculous and what will be the side affect of the other miraculouses

here are a few

based on a shitty list made at 2 am

[silliersiluriforme]

[undeadcourier]

Top 10 F:NV Side Quests/Unmarked Quests You Don't Want To Miss

These are specifically quests that I think are particularly entertaining, offer unique role-playing opportunities, and/or provide interesting insights into the game's npcs—and which I think are pretty easy to miss. For that reason, I haven't included any companion quests or some of the more prominent side quests.

1. The White Wash - Discover why the NCR sharecroppers aren't getting their full allotment of water and what happened to Corporal White. My recommendation: bring Arcade.

2. Silus Treatment - Help Lieutenant Boyd at Camp McCarran in her interrogation of Silus, a Legion Centurion. My recommendation: do this with Speech 50 or Intelligence 8.

3. Someone to Watch Over Me - Help Crandon keep North Vegas Square safe from squatters/Greasers; discover what happened to Alice Hostetler and advise her with regard to her family problems.

4. Aba Daba Honeymoon - Help Diane and Jack of the Great Khans with their chem trade. You can learn the special unarmed move, Khan Trick, by completing this quest.

5. Why Can't We Be Friends? - Either facilitate an alliance between Samuel Cooke and the Powder Gangers of Vault 19 and the Great Khans, or destroy the caves for Philip Lem and convince him to either join the Khans or turn himself and the Powder Gangers in to the NCR.

6. I Fought the Law - Help Eddie deal with some problems the Powder Gangers have had since taking the NCRCF.

7. A Final Plan for Esteban - Retrieve Esteban's body from the Fiends for his widow, Private Morales, who is stuck at Camp McCarran. My recommendation: speak to the NCR troopers stationed nearby the Fiend base before and after retrieving the bodies.

8. Malleable Mini Boomer Minds - Make friends with the kids at Nellis. My recommendation: bring a rocket souvenir or dino toy (distinct from a dinky souvenir).

9. Rotface's Loose Lips - Get the hot goss from Rotface in Freeside. My recommendation: talk to him at least 30 times so you don't miss anything juicy.

10. Thought for the Day - Have your fortune told by the Forecaster beneath the 188 Trading Post.

[khamomile-kitty]

It's strange that for someone so hellbent on boycotting eurovision, you seem to be posting quite a bit in the tag. Doesn't that make it trend more? Draw more attention to it?

Hi @silu-cypo lmao. Weak ass argument you got there. The bad press is needed. The kind I’m talking abt is publicly saying that it’s being boycotted, and why. The kind ppl like you seem to be hellbent on defending is “hate watching” aka handing over your wallet and your approval to the show runners for endorsing genocide no matter what you say abt it. Actions speak louder than words, bitch. Amd I’m posting it to the tag so that posers like you can see it.

[rita-rae-siller]

The Silent Sisters: Religious Faction Overview

The Silent Sisters

An order of assassins/warriors dedicated to the queen of the gods, Silus; Goddess of Shadows, Subterfuge, Magic, and more recently, the Protector of Women.

Read on below!

These warrior priestesses are the Garmoran equivalent to an old Råthvalii sisterhood: The Shadows, who worship Silus’ Morvaaran counterpart, Eyre. Alura was trained by them once she hit puberty until she was 20. She has a lot of friends in the sisterhood.

They were founded around the time of the founding of the first Garmoran empire, rising to power alongside the White Cloaks. In a time period of chaos, when most of the men were off fighting in the war and few remained to protect the villages and towns, the priestesses of Silus taught themselves how to fight, learning powerful magics from their dark mistress to take the faces of men for a short time. The sight of strong young men around would often ward off raiding parties from the neighboring kingdom, Rahtma that were looking for easy targets.

The magic only changed the face, not the voice, so the women would never speak when disguised. This stipulation in their magic is how the sisterhood got its name. There are rumors that the initiated have their tongues removed, or their voices are stolen by their mistress upon joining. In reality, they are just wearing the faces of others and can’t blow their cover. 

A single sister can have up to 10 different faces that she can morph between at any given time. Their numbers are a close-kept secret, so they change faces multiple times a shift to give the impression that there are more of them than there really are. This is largely because they are not well loved in Garmoran society. Men find them threatening, and the possibility that the emperor may one day decide that they set a dangerous example for women grows more likely with every new generation that takes the throne. But they’re still a beacon of hope for women across the empire. 

After Garmora conquered Rahtma and the first empire was officially decreed, the Silent Sisters offered their services to the emperor, who gladly accepted. They became the guardians of all women, and patrol the halls of every goddess’ temple when not assigned to assassinate or spy upon a target. 

They protect Cardinals in a similar fashion to the White Cloaks. Cardinal Iseal, who oversees the Temple of Satmet, Goddess of Fire, The Sun, The Stars, Motherhood, and Childbirth, is guarded only by the Silent Sisters, since the temple bans any men on its grounds. There aren’t very many female White Cloaks, so the Silent Sisters are her entire security detail. 

Obviously, Cardinal Lathima, who currently oversees Silus’ temple, has a retinue of Sisters at her back, but since her temple allows male initiates, she has a very small detail of White Cloaks assigned to her by the emperor as a formality.

Unlike White Cloaks, no one can be promised to join the Sisterhood. Instead, they are chosen in special ceremonies on the first new moon of the solar year. Young Initiates must be between 12 and 14, and have to pass a test given by the high priestesses to determine if they have magic. If they pass, they are brought into Silus’ inner sanctum for their initiation.

The initiates' heads are shaved and are painted in Silus’ holy sigils from head to toe, completely naked. The room is open to the sky, and the new moon passes directly overhead in a perfect arc the night of the joining. This is viewed as Silus witnessing the initiation of her newest devotees. It’s a very sacred night, and absolutely no male intruders are allowed. Male initiates of Silus are often forced to leave the temple entirely during the Silent Sister’s ritual day. This ritual is performed in tandem with every temple across the empire. Like their founders, whom were spread across the land and couldn’t safely or feasibly gather in one giant group to perform the rites, the sisters choose their initiates locally.

The Sisters that participate bring out a liquor made from the flowers of the Guadij Cactus that grows all over Garmora’s deserts. The cactus blooms on the full moon before the ritual, and its blooms are carefully harvested and mixed with honey to ferment in clay pots so that the distilled alcohol will be ready in time for the ritual

This drink is known as the Night’s Eye, and is very hallucinogenic. The initiates and the sisters all go for a shared trip, and it is said that the initiates are given their powers directly from Silus. 

Another aside, the Shadows go through a VERY similar initiation, and they are also ONLY women. The only major difference is that they use mushrooms instead of cactus. The Råthvali claim that the Silent Sisters were taught the magic when they were helping Garmora take over Rahtma, which at the time was a menace to everybody in the same way Garmora ultimately is during the story. 

After initiation, the new sisters are then confined to temple grounds and go through very vigorous training until their 20th birthday, when their powers are considered honed and stabilized. 

[vivifriend]

WIP Wednesday

Tagged by the lovely @wildhexe and @rainpebble3. Thank you. ^_^

Tagging @raine-kai. No pressure, only if you feel like sharing. And anyone else who might see this and want to participate. :)

I just posted my most recent chapter of Learning Curve so have a snippet from a side story (Meanwhile fic) set during the same timeline. Erandur goes back to Dawnstar to check in on the people and during a conversation with several of the inhabitants finds things are not as well as he hoped.

===============================================

"A time or two I have considered getting leave to build a small chapel of Mara here. It is too much to expect the people of The Pale to travel to Riften or Solitude."

"Most of us wouldn't mind," Seren said thoughtfully. "Better you than that cultist of Mehrunes Dagon."

A shiver ran down his spine and he tilted his head slightly. "There is a cultist of Dagon in town?"

"Silus Vesuius," Rustleif supplied.

"I'm not surprised he avoided you," Brina added. "He's trying to build a museum to the Mythic Dawn."

"That is an unfortunate endeavor," he said softly.

"Yes but Skald refuses to do anything about it because he doesn't see how it applies to the war effort."

Reaching up, he grasped his amulet, thinking a silent prayer. Lady Mara, is this your purpose in sending me here? Must I once again utilize my skills with violence to protect the innocent? His amulet warmed under his fingers and he sighed, closing his eyes. I understand. "Is there anything I should know before I approach him?" he asked, projecting an aura of calm.

"He's trying to fix a strange dagger," Rustleif said. "He came by our forge with shards of a blade and a scabbard asking pointed questions about how best to repair it. There was something wrong with the metal. It felt wrong."

"There was something unnatural at work," Seren agreed. 

"Has anyone spoken with him?" he asked, his mace feeling heavier with every word shared. 

"Madena. She's tried to dissuade him a time or two but he just yells at her."

He frowned, digesting that information. "Where would I find Madena?"

"The White Hall," Horik offered. "But Skald would never allow you in. He's taken an even firmer stance against Dunmer in the past few months. Swore he'd drive them all into the sea the last time he crossed paths with Ravam Verethi."

One of the miners listening in snorted. "And Ravam told him that he was more than willing to jump in the ocean as long as Skald did too. Predictably, Skald blustered and ran off."

The others snickered, Brina politely trying to hide hers and Erandur kept his gaze stoic. What was Skald thinking, threatening a sailor with being tossed into the ocean? If anyone in this place knows how to survive in frigid water it's them. "Is there anyone who could perhaps get Marena a message for me? It may be prudent to speak with her before I speak with Silus."

"I can do that," Rustleif offered, looking at his wife. "I'll meet you at the inn Seren."

She smiled and nodded, stepping to the side when he pulled his arm away.

"Thank you," Erandur said quietly. "I appreciate it."

[nox-the-former-demon]

>>In this post, I, the former demon known now as Nox will detail my current situation. My position in the headspace of my headmate, the relationships I’ve managed to forge, and the peculiarities that surround me.

First, there was absolution. An emptiness that drained any sense of self from me. I had assumed that that was what second death felt like, what having your existence wiped out would be. When you see nothing, hear nothing, experience nothing, you first go mad, and then you go quiet, and you cease. All thought goes quiet and you feel the absolute nothingness that. An only be described as a disconnection from existence itself. This was my state of being for a long time as I recovered. It makes sense, all that had survived of me was my eye, not that I knew that at the time.

After the absolution, when I was fully recovered, absolute quiet became murmurs, whispers in the distance that cut the quiet and woke me from my seemingly eternal rest. As I open my eyes, I found myself in darkness, twisted and abstract. I was wandering, lost, following the sounds I heard in an attempt to find something. Anything. I didn’t know who o was, where I was, why I was. All I knew was that I was.

It was when I finally grew close enough to the source of the sounds that I could make them out clearly that I began to be able to act in any capacity. And I’ll admit, I was a bit of a dick. I could hear self lamentation, self hatred, and I decided to make it worse. To insult and chastise and just generally be a jerk. It was the only thing that felt appropriate in the moment. And while she couldn’t make me out clearly at first, Asa did hear. And she responded in some part. This made the rest of my journey out of the dark easier. Eventually I spotted a light. Eventually I found what would become our single room headspace.

That simple space, maybe 12 feet on any side, a perfect square, a pair of screens, a chair, and Asa. I didn’t recognize her at first. And she didn’t notice me at first either. I sat down, and I watched. Her drama was like a movie to me. I was the passive observer, like the passenger in the car of a road trip: I could speak to the driver, who may or may not acknowledge me, but I still didn’t have power yet. Not yet.

It was a while before that came. Before Asa started to realize that I wasn’t just her self doubts. The thing that tipped us was her first big breakdown. Emotions ran heavy, and she couldn’t handle it, so she fell out of the chair. It would have been a total shut down, but I was there. And I played with the controller some. I experimented. I did chores, spoke as if I was her. Establishing that I could have just as much control as Asa could. And eventually, she caught onto me.

We still didn’t know much about what I was yet. But my presence grew more and more undeniable until I was finally spoke directly to eachother by way of the app known as discord, a private server, speaking back and forth, seemingly to one’s self, but not. Our personalities clashed. We thought I was a splinter of hers at first, pieces that had broken off and started to exist on their own. That would prove wrong later when Asa would go to confide in someone else. When true coincidence, or maybe true fate, struck.

The person Asa had confided in was possessed by Silus, and I recognized him. And all my memories started to rush back. I did my best to try and tak Silus down, talk my son down from his rage, but it didn’t help. I’ll talk more about this later but what mattered was I was remembering. And once I remembered who I was, Asa did too.

It is at this point now where I need to explain those who surround me. Asa, my headmate, my murderer, my metamour… Asa had been born in such a condition that lead to her eventually going on to meet and marry Cariel’s reincarnation. Something Cariel had no doubt planned for as well. The pair of them lived their mortal lives together, four children in tow, followed by a pair of guardians. Flak, Asa’s brother from before being born again, watched Cariel, and Casella, another of Cariel’s servants, guarded and monitored Asa, intangible spirits who had at some point in the past been forced to come in contact with them, building interpersonal relationships by way of possession and communication. I was surrounded by my former enemies.

Before you ask, no, my presence wasn’t appreciated at first. They tried to get rid of me but they couldn’t. I was tangled too deep in Asa’s soul. At first, the plan was for me to keep quiet. I had my confidants I’d speak to but nobody else. But… well, now that I was alive again, mortal again, I started to grow lonely.

And eventually, I had to make my presence known. First to Cariel, or rather, to Nel. Nel was the person who needed to know first because to be frank, never talking aloud was maddening. Nel wasn’t thrilled by it, but accepted it, albeit not without some threats. Honestly it was a massive shift from the Cariel I knew. As Nel, they were more… how to describe it… less holier than thou, more wrath of nature. It was refreshing in its own way. And it was around this point in time I decided I needed a new name. My old name didn’t suit me in my current state. It took a couple days, but the name Nox stuck.

Even then, only speaking to two confidants and Nel wasn’t enough. I slowly showed my existence in online spaces, and now, I’m a known presence among most of Asa’s social circles. And eventually… I made friends. And I even started to feel deeper emotions…

I’ll spare you the details. Nel and I eventually found common ground, started to get along. And now, we’re romantically intertwined. Nel isn’t the only person I can firmly say I love, there is another, but she doesn’t feel the same way, so I’ve accepted our relationship staying platonic. Furthermore, I’ve other friends, two of whom even see me as something of a mentor figure. For the first time in a millennium, I feel like I’ve actually felt alive…

That day, that day Asa begged Casella to kill my son… as horrible as that was to witness, it was the day that set in motion my return to humanity. It was the day that set in motion the Former to my demon status. It was the day my life started to begin anew. Asa and I. In a 12 by 12 room. A chair, a control station, a couch, a patio we can’t use, a lamp, a yellow dress for her and a charcoal suit for me… it’s not much. But it’s from this space that I’ve started to live again.

Asa is annoying as fuck though. The fact that Casella and she are a thing is also a pain since they’re both impulsive and chatterboxes, plus Nel and Asa’s children are intolerable some days, and not having my own face, ugh, I absolutely hate all of that. But… it’s a humble position in life that has helped me move on from the past I’d been broiling in for all those years.<<

[tqse-notes-n-stuff]

Character Sheet: Marion Medicson

Basic Information:

Name: Marion Medicson

Pronouns: They/them

Species: Beastamyr

Magical Abilities: Speaking to and controlling animals, spell-weaving, sixth sense

Age: 31

Labels: Nonbinary AroAce

Role: Main Character

Connections:

Alliance: Dragonsavers

Relationships: Elmin; Brother Silus; Father

Hometown: Alar, Hombeland

Backgrounds:

Childhood: They were found as a newborn by a merchant traveling to Alar. She brought them to Silus, Alar's medic, who took them in upon realizing their species. Silus raised them as his own, training them in the medical field. He tried his best to allow them a link to their heritage and race, despite the elusiveness of Beastamyrs. When Elmin entered the picture, Marion took to him like fire to kindling, easily becoming an older brother to the exiled Elf. The two have been inseparable ever since.

Motives and Goals: When Marion received the vision of Astal's plight, they knew what would happen if the egg was not returned. They took the vision as a sign; they must help rescue the dragon heir. Returning the egg to its parents and preventing the looming world war is Marion's goal, while protecting their newfound friends and family along the way.

[daggerfall]

Teth, upon entering Silus Vesuius' museum of the mythic dawn

[thespiral]

listen to me the fact that the two centurion characters we sorta meet are both disobeying caesar tells me a lot about the legion. like silus is willing to go against the suicide command and desert and aurelius is just very much going against the no booze no drugs rule and if the legion is as uncorruptible as they say then that should be dealt with swiftly right. then why are they centurions. like okay silus aside since hes literally locked up aurelius is Not doing a good job at hiding the whole drugs thing and like, i feel it ahould be a much larger Deal than just like little hints like maybe you could say to severus "thats fucked up" but they dont?

and like compared to other characters like dead sea severus etc the fact that its just so nonchalant baffles me like. ok if the legion was incorruptible they ahould have added in something to say about it idk, like i know it was rushed out the ass but like that is a Core Sentiment of the legion

"vinny those are just two centurions" yeah but theyre the named ones you can speak with and interact, if they really wanted to keep that image they should make aurelius like on the same level as like, lucius or dead sea. "well caesar probably lets him do it cus hes useful" THATS THE THING THOUGH WHY DOES HE GET SPECIAL TREATMENT IF THATS THE CASE and like does that not make you think like "hmm maybe the legion is a little more corrupt than i thought!" like. thatd be a big deal cus why do higher ups get to bend caesars rules if theyre all supposed to be yknow purely focused on serving him. "youre overthinking the legion" YES but the more i think about the circumstances the game presents us the more ridiculous the fact that theyre presented as "safe and uncorruptible society that hplds FOUR STATES" become!!!

[sillysiluriforme]

luka in every au vs luka in LT

[silliersiluriforme]

I’ve been thinking about doing art streams every once in a while and like talk about my au while I draw does anyone have any suggestions for a decent mic ?

[meatcrimes]

so i finally finished The Frontier. here’s my final thoughts:

new vegas runs so much faster and smoother since uninstalling the frontier and all related hotfixes

i will say one positive thing about this mod and it’s the sheer variety of different items in the world. not just the guns, but the consumables, workbench & campfire recipes, combining consumables to make healing items that are on par with the wasteland omelette or fiend stew.

i know this mod was being developed before fallout 4 was released but this would have been so much better, from a technical standpoint and from a story standpoint, if this were a fallout 4 mod. if this was essentially a Where Are They Now mod that explored what the ncr/legion/bos did following the second battle of hoover dam, this would have been a better story. for example, legate valerius becoming the next Caesar after the deaths of Edward Sallow and Legate Lanius and how the changes he implemented made the legion almost unrecognizable

speaking of legion, i played the legion quest line and most of the crusaders quest line so these are all opinions from that perspective

the de-fanging of the legion was disappointing. i wanted to play with the villain faction, or at least a morally gray faction who is no better than the other choices. the legion could still be evil even with the “liberal” valerius in charge. the ending where the northern legion abolished slavery, gave women equal rights and power, and allowed modern technology was disappointing because they were clearly trying to remove a lot of what made the legion evil in the first place. a “liberal” legion that, for example, uses slavery as a punishment for crimes that you’re freed from when your sentence is up, is still evil and still villainous

or a legion that allowed women to have limited roles as priestesses, doctors and frumentaria (which i hc that the mainland legion is already doing but wtvr). that could have been what the “liberal” new caesar has done while still maintaining the legion’s misogyny

SPEAKING OF WHICH. legate valerius had an epiphany and supported women’s equality when his daughters were born which is unintentionally hilarious because that’s how a lot of real life men start caring about women’s issues

the mission where you have to kill a slaver and when you get to her you find she’s already been captured by other slavers. and how that was the end of the quest. and you lost karma for killing her or setting her free. there’s a lot to unpack here but let’s just set the whole suitcase on fire

also the indigenous coded tribe that was wiped out by an STD. yeah. not over that

and the Followers doctor who knowingly gave the courier a blood transfusion from someone with syphilis

the other followers doctor, Welick, who blamed all of his problems in life on arcade gannon

(from subtext we can gather that Arcade exposed illegal/unethical things Welick was doing and the reason everyone “had arcade fever” was just them acknowledging that Welick was wrong. and the reason he “left” the followers is that he was actually kicked out. welick is an unreliable narrator but i’m willing to bet 35 bottle caps and a wrinkly $5 NCR bill that most of the players did not pick up on that)

scrapz my beloved ❤️

seriously scrapz was the highlight of this mod. you know that post that’s like “when you know you can do a canon character better so you just steal them and make them your oc”? that’s what i wanna do with scrapz. he deserved a better mod

also… the fact that we can flirt with scrapz with a black widow check (and i think confirmed bachelor too but i am not replaying this mod in order to see) and he openly admits to being horny on main for humans (paraphrased, but honestly tell me that doesn’t sound like a real line from this mod) and yet we can’t have sex with him!??

he clearly has advanced enough AI to give him the ability to consent, since he leaves the player if you get too far in the crusaders quest line (and i assume ncr too but once again. not replaying to check). we can fuck the chem-obsessed Argonian queen. we can fuck a deathclaw. but we can’t fuck a robot despite being able to have sex with FISTO in the base game

the entire Dr Voss quest. i’m still not sure what that was. it’s just a blur of blood sewers, finding keys, and increasingly incomprehensible notes

when callidus revealed AJ was his sister and he didn’t want you to kill her but capture her and reunite them. and then i killed her anyway because it’s what she would have wanted, between death and the legion

“you prevented silus from being interrogated” x103

the weird romance-but-not between legate valerius and the courier. like he lets you sleep in his bed for a well rested bonus, his personal quest is called I Was Made For Loving You, his weird protectiveness of the courier, and of course that unintentionally erotic interrogation scene. and near the beginning i swear there was dialogue with him that was like “you were out cold for days, but I never left your side. it looked like you weren’t going to pull through, but I ordered my men to spare no expense to ensure you recovered. i tended to most of your wounds myself, working late into the night to set your broken bones and repair your torn ligaments” etc etc you get the point

the NCR commander named Tiberius Rancor who no one suspected was a legion plant

the radioactive super mutants that had a melee weapon called Kitchen Sink and it literally was a whole entire kitchen sink ripped from a building. and the courier couldn’t use it

the repair tool for the cars in the game but when you used it, it kept giving you the achievement for knocking down enemies so it was basically a source of infinite xp

the fucking space enclave. the enclave, in space. they never were defeated by the chosen one or the lone wanderer, they just fled to outer fucking space for some reason

the cannibal ice ghouls with 3500 hit points. you know what i mean. the fact that this mod was set way too far south to be seeing them, and basically did nothing accurate to the mythology at all except that they were cannibals, and didn’t even pluralize the word correctly. i understand this was probably inspired by fallout 76 but 76 should not have had those creatures either

in conclusion: i was determined to finish this mod and i’m glad i can say i did, but was it worth it? was it really worth it? no

[krabmeat]

FINALLYYY DONE 1 MC SKIN AND 2 PICREWS LATER WITH C!SILUS

So they're mushroom-based which means they essentially grew in the ground, sprouted legs and a consciousness for some ungodly reason, and started just. hangin out

However they still have no nose or mouth. They can communicate through physical touch, sorta like root systems for mushrooms, but they also hate physical touch so 9/10 they can only communicate via expressions (bc I'm a dumbass and don't know sign langauge🧍‍♀️)

Speaking of expressions, they always look tired as hell, and that's because they are. It takes a lot of work to walk around as a sentient fungi, let alone with a bunch of idiots that start wars every 2 days

Physically they have grayish skin that's still striped from the Shroom Days, and they're ginger like yours truly because representation matters. Their clothes are usually handmade and covered in paint because that's really all they do at home, along with reading and hanging out with their wild animal friends. They have some tattoos that were a nightmare to get (mushroom skin is fragile okay) which makes em look Tough but they also like necklaces and flower crowns (keep em guessing)

Anyways yeah!!!! Besties with c!krabs fr!! They'd sit in on c!krabs welding and doing her thing in silence and either read, or maybe paint their designated section of the wall, or just watch. Finally a part of the -sona verse💪💪

HOLY SHIT YOU EVEN MADE EM A MC SKIN HOLY SHIT?!?!? YOU PUT SO MUCH TENDER LOVE AND CARE INTO C!SI,US HOLY SHIT ALL IVE DONE IS MADE EXTENSIVE DRAWINGS OF C!KRABS DJZDHZJHD HOLY SHIT MAN THIS DESIGN IS BADASS?!?!?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA ON HOW THEY MET AND EVEN BEFRIEMDED C!KRABS??? OR ANYONE ELSE ON THE SERVER???

[warsofasoiaf]

Its been awhile since you've done any character analysis on Fallout New Vegas, but would you be willing to go into one for some of the minor characters? I'm actually curios of your opinion on Silus the captured centurion and his motivations.

I’m more than happy to, although this won’t be about Silus so much as it will be about the quest Silus Treatment. It’s one of my favorite quests in the game, since it does a great deal just with dialogue and some creative use with the engine to create an engaging quest that showcases some of the failures of the NCR and the Legion. Given that the central theme is about picking a faction, warts and all, having a quest that puts the two main faction of New Vegas on full display is an absolutely good idea. The game is too old for spoilers, but it’s a long analysis so I’ll put a cut in.

Silus Treatment starts off simple enough, going to Camp McCarran, in the old McCarran International Airport, now the regional command post of Colonel Hsu. McCarran is not in a great spot when you first get there; there are periodic Fiend attacks, tensions in Freeside are causing havoc for NCR civilians, the overstretched NCR supply lines are making it difficult even for their central point of operations, and there’s a strong possibility that they’ve been infiltrated. It’s all Colonel Hsu can do to keep order and function in the base. Perfect protagonist fodder, in other words, for a nice quest hub.

It’s a tough needle to thread in any RPG to build a quest hub where there’s stuff for a character to do. If everyone is incapable of solving even the most basic of problems, it gives a great deal of quests for the player to do but it makes the quest-givers look incompetent, especially if the quest-givers are supposed to be capable figures in their own right. Conversely, if the NPC’s are competent, then the quests would be solved and that would close out on content for the player. There’s plenty of ways to settle this, and the devs do an adequate job here. The war effort means prioritization, and Hsu is dealing with being torn from both angles. He can’t just hunt down the Fiends, because he needs to organize patrols and deal with NCR settlers in the area. He can’t just pacify Freeside because it will engender hostility with House and so he’s delaying the order from his butcher superiors like Moore to go in with fire and sword. He doesn’t have a solution to the Kings but he’s trying to find one, which as far as writing goes is a good solution. Hsu is a decent man but overworked. He’s hoping that he can develop a solution in time before Cassandra Moore decides to pull rank and go on the warpath against all who oppose the NCR, which leaves a convenient spot for the player.

It’s this person that gives us our introduction to the Silus Treatment questline. Hsu has a valuable prize: Silus, a captured Legion centurion! Typically centurions always commit suicide rather than be captured to deny any useful intelligence to the enemy, so to capture a centurion alive should be quite a find. But it’s not going so well. Lt Carrie Boyd, in charge of base security, can’t get Silus to talk. Again, perfect quest writing to get the PC involved in the plot. Normally such a sensitive operation would never be given to an unknown civilian contractor, even for a bureaucratic mess like the NCR. Frontier desperation, hitting a wall via official channels, and the fact that the character is the protagonist in a sprawling open world help it pass ludonarrative muster.

Boyd is a real piece of work, she’s openly sadistic hiding beneath of veneer of civility. She considers the humane treatment of POW’s as an impediment, and so looks for ways around it. Notably, while she wants information from Silus to deliver to her superiors, she’ll settle for just having Silus beaten so bloody that he can’t speak anymore, calling it “entertainment.” This is a person who simply should not be in charge of interrogating a prisoner, she is neither humane nor effective at her job, but here she is by virtue simply of being the chief MP on base.

Not that Silus, the prisoner and the other side of this duo, is better. He openly revels in the barbaric practices of the Legion’s slavery system, even trying to ensure that the slaves can never achieve some level of comfort by tightening the collars and making it difficult for them to feel at ease while eating or drinking. Even if Silus is mostly saying those things simply to get a rise out of Lieutenant Boyd, he knows what the Legion is up to and enjoys it. Silus is arrogant to an extreme degree, he is filled with confidence that he can outlast any interrogation by the feeble NCR without giving up any intelligence, that he could easily escape NCR confinement and that he is so valuable to the Legion that following Caesar’s order would be a waste. Good fodder then, for the protagonist to bring him down to size.

Silus Treatment as a quest is relatively simple. Boyd signs off on the Courier beating the ever-living tar out of Silus and then steps out for a smoke, letting the player do whatever he or she wants to the prisoner. Silus, sneering, dismisses the Courier as just another piece of NCR trash, and it’s up to the player with how to succeed. Violence is always an option, you can beat Silus, and eventually gets something useful, that the base itself will be the target of Legion destruction. Silus admits that his fantasy of escape was always a fantasy, he was dead to Caesar just as surely as he as if he had committed suicide before capture. 

Yet if the Courier has points in Speech or Intelligence, he can completely upend Boyd’s methods and actually deliver a worthwhile interrogation. The first technique, with speech, uses an interrogation technique known as Pride-and-ego-down, where the interrogator routinely belittles and demeans the prisoner, usually their technical competence or soldierly qualities, in an attempt to get the prisoner to “redeem” themselves by explaining a piece of useful intelligence that would explain the deficiency as opposed to it just being a terrible personal quality. The Courier mocks Silus as a coward (bravery being a key soldierly virtue) and he defends himself by stating his bravery and that suicide is a poor death for a soldier of his intelligence and caliber, then saying how good a soldier he is for a “self-appointed megalomaniacal dictator.” Silus then spills that Caesar held his unit for three days because of “headaches,” in actuality, it’s Caesar’s brain tumor. The technique works to an exceptionally high degree, not only does Silus divulge that McCarran has been infiltrated as in the violence ending, but also that the Legion is suffering a crisis of command due to Caesar’s illness. The Courier gets a lot of useful intelligence out of Silus and doesn’t compromise the humane treatment of prisoners in the process. If it actually caused some self-reflection in Boyd, that’d be a complete win, but I suppose we can’t have everything.

My favorite option is the intelligence option, because the Courier goes full-on PSYOPS, posing as a Legion assassin sent to kill Silus for his failure to commit suicide on Caesar’s order. Silus denies it at first, but as the Courier continues to sell the performance, Silus begins to express real terror at the thought that the Courier is actually a frumentarius sent to kill Silus before he divulges anything to the NCR. The Courier fully sells the deal using Latin phrases as the language of Caesar’s elites. The Courier can quote Cicero, “legum servi sumus” - we are all slaves to the law, in what is perhaps a perfect example of Caesar’s philosophy of totalitarian obedience. The full quote "Legum servi sumus ut liberi esse possimus” - we are slaves to the law so that we might be free, means little in Caesar’s totalitarian state where all are subject to his whims and contingency plans for Caesar’s incapacity aren’t even considered. Of course, the Roman Republic was hardly a free state, but Caesar really takes the cake with his dictatorship. If Caesar’s dictum holds true: “Corruptio optimi pessima” - the corruption of the greatest is the worst outcome. how much worse is it when Caesar himself is corrupted? But totalitarians rarely raise the possibility that they themselves are corrupt, because the good of the dictator is the good of the state. After all, L'etat c'est moi is the dictum of any dictator, not just a Sun King.

Of course, fitting New Vegas, you can side with Silus, and facilitate his escape. There, you feign beating him to unconsciousness and slip him a silenced pistol, then Silus makes good his escape, killing the guard sent to bring him back to his cell and sneaking out. Of all the endings, this one isn’t as satisfying. Some of it, of course, is that you never interact or see Silus again, so there’s never any reward to the quest except for the knowledge that the base is infiltrated, which in the pro-Legion side of the quest I Put a Spell on You allows you to complete Curtis’s sabotage operation (and a far better Legion quest, in my opinion, with the NCR quest side being even better given the multiple outcomes), but also it’s not referenced again with Caesar. What would Caesar’s reaction be to the Courier springing Silus? He is quite fond of reciting a litany of the Courier’s accomplishments in Act 2 at Fortification Hill.

If I could improve Silus Treatment, I think I would have made it so the violent path wouldn’t have produced enough valuable intel, and the player needs to do some more detective work to actually get to I Put a Spell on You, or even being mislead by Curtis and becoming the unwitting patsy of the Legion. But overall, I think it was an incredible quest and a testament to the writing in the game.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[skyrim-said-that]

Lyrvekkas interactions with the Daedric Princes

(any princes not mentioned are known to her, but no interaction due to their lack of interaction in Skyrim. also all of this was written with a very small amount of research, mostly just me reading the wikis for each quest to remember how they go.)

Vaermina: Lyrvekka wanted to help Erandur, as he seemed kind and she had nothing but respect for priests of Mara. She also wanted to help the people of Dawnstar, since she takes her duty as Thane seriously. She certainly didn’t appreciate the frost trolls, or the hallucinations, or the fact that Erandur was not honest with her in the first place. Despite all this, she chooses to help Erandur destroy the skull, and ends up befriending him.

Azura: Lyrvekka retrieved the star and returned it to Azura, this was also an excuse to go see the beautiful statue up close. She defeated the man defiling it from within and was rewarded the lesser star for helping Azura. She has a small shrine to Azura near her home for good faith, and the star remains in the middle of it. 

Boethiah: She does not sacrifice anyone to him, therefore he rejects her as his hero. She is somewhat indifferent, she holds a small amount of respect for him as a daedric prince, but since he is the Prince of deceit, conspiracy, treachery, and sedition, she avoids him and his followers. 

Clavicus vile: She returns Barbas, and then retrieves the axe for him. She does not kill Barbas, and is rewarded the Masque of Clavicus Vile. She enjoyed helping Clavicus and Barbas, and told them as much. The Masque is hung in her home. Clavicus is one of the Daedra who she has a shrine to near her home, and one of the three Daedric princes who has repeatedly spoken to her outside of canon Skyrim quests. 

Hermaeus Mora: She works with Septimus and retrieves the Elder scroll as the main game goes. She does use the essence extractor, but she only extracts blood from those who attack her first. Mindless killing is not her thing. The quest continues as expected, and she gets the Oghma Infinium. However, the book and the death of Septimus make her unwilling to hold onto it. She discusses it with the greybeards who tell her she can't pass it off or destroy it, so it is hidden in the cellar of her home as not to get anyone else hurt.

Hircine: Lyrvekkas encounters with hircine and Lycanthropy are rare. She learns of the companions affliction early on, and chooses not to get too close to that. She does, however, do a lot of research on other Daedra, and when the ones who actually speak to her are feeling kind(usually Clavicus, Sanguine, or Sheogorath), they give her information on him (or anything else)

Malacath: Lyrvekka is eager to help the Largashbur stronghold and does so as the canon quest goes. Agreeing to kill the giant for their chief seemed like a good idea, but the way things turned out made her really sad. While she understands that Orismer traditions are sacred and Malacaths word is final, she can’t help but feel disappointed. Needless to say, she respects Malacath but doesn’t use the Warhammer. 

Mehrunes Dagon: Lyrvekka collected all the pieces of the dagger, eager to help Silus in the preservation of Daedric artifacts, and refuses to kill Silus when commanded. Unfortunately, he died at the hand of one of the dremora. She put the dagger back in the museum and arranges for someone to take over with her power as Thane of Dawnstar. 

Mephala: Lyrvekka doesn’t love Jarl Balgruuf’s kids, but what she heard about Nelkir worried her and she would never want to see him or his siblings hurt so she investigates. She gets as far as “borrowing” the key from Farengar and speaking to Mephala. She receives the Ebony blade but once she learns how it works she never uses it. But she can appreciate a beautiful dagger and certainly can’t leave the weapon to the kids. So it is in a case in her home. 

Meridia: Lyrvekka touched the beacon. She had been wanting to see the beautiful shrine up close anyways, so she returned it to Meridia. She makes her way through the Dungeon, figures out the puzzle, defeats the necromancer and gets Dawnbreaker as well as Meridia’s Blessing. She does not have a shrine to Meridia, but has a healthy respect for her as a Daedric Prince.

Molag Bal: Lyrvekka already knew basic information about the Daedric princes before she met each of them, so before she even met Molag Bal she hated him. The moment she realizes its Molag Bal speaking to her, she knew she wouldn’t be following through on his words. She left and did not follow his instruction. He would find a new champion to do his deed.

Namira: Lyrvekka helped investigate what was happening to the dead in Markarth. When she discovered Eola and what she was doing she killed the cannibal woman. After all the bodies she had desecrated, she knew that would be the only way to end it. She received the Amulet of Arkay, she does not interact with any of Namiras followers ever again. 

Peryite: Lyrvekka got as far as meeting Kesh, but declined his offer to speak to Peryite through whatever crazy incense he was making. This decision was mostly based on what she knew of Peryite, she didn’t want to get the sickness that the Afflicted had. 

Sanguine: Lyrvekka started the drinking contest with Sam Guevenne because he claimed to have heard a rumour that she was boring and didn’t know how to have fun. Due to the time spent living away from society and the words she heard when she would interact with others, his words hit a bit of a weak spot. Also, she was pretty sure that her Dragonborn blood would keep her from getting absolutely wasted, but she did not account for whatever daedric liquor Sanguine served her. Needless to say, the quest went on as usual once she woke up in the temple of Dibella. She feels especially guilty about how things went down with Moira the Hagraven. Once she finally got into Misty Grove she wasn’t even mad Sam Guivine, she was just hoping he would fill in the gaps of what had happened. She ends up staying in Misty Grove with Sanguine for a meal, under the promise that the food would get rid of 3-day hangover she still had. She wasn’t even that mad about the whole prank, she mostly blamed herself for being so naive as to fall for it. So after having a feast with Sanguine and accepting the sanguine rose, he become one of her favourite Daedric princes. She has a shrine to him near her home as well, and the sanguine rose is on a rack above her bed. 

 Sheogorath: Lyrvekka was mostly trying to help Dervenin, the poor man seemed lost without his master. She took the man to the Winking Skeever and bought him a meal and a drink, and then went to the castle. She went through the motions and got the key from the maid, and eventually ended up in Pelagius' mind. After a long conversation with the mad Daedra, she took the Wabbajack and completed each challenge. Sheogorath gives her the Wabbajack for good and sends her back to the castle. She finds the Wabbajack to be far too unstable and unpredictable, and so the staff remains on a rack in her home. Unfortunately, Sheogorath is the third of the Daedra that speaks to her outside of quests. She doesn’t like him that much but would never let him know. She does not have a shrine to him.