#w the whole lysandus thing

[morihaus]

got to the point in skygerfall where i have to choose who to give the journal to and im paralyzed by indecision i need to extensively get into arduirel's headspace and ask the daunting question of who she actually trusts

[morihaus]

ok you know what im making a skygerfall spoilers readmore post to try and organize arduirel's thoughts rn

so the journal of lord woodborne only has to do with the lysandus bs which is not her main priority with this "totem" stuff banging around, but she knows from the emperor's letter that woodborne had the totem at some point and now suspects that lysandus may have possessed it, and part of the motivation to kill him was to steal the totem, so it's KIND of relevant?? but all the journal does is incriminate woodborne and gothryd

nulfaga may get some closure from the journal but she also conjured a storm that almost killed arduirel based on ??? a hunch? probably best to just let her find out on her own medora helped make this possible w the dust of restful death but the fact that she was a lover of lysandus makes arduirel think she's also an imperial toady and she honestly has no reason to really trust her. she doesn't like mynisera, who likes the emperor, but that's just because she was cheating with her husband- as an aside mynisera is definitely not getting it for saying "the emperor is the only trustworthy owner of the totem" the entire court of daggerfall is suspect- aubk-i hates the emperor which is honestly a point for her, but she's also gothryd's wife, gothryd who is part of this conspiracy w woodborne and literally incriminated by the journal. showing the journal to either of them feels like direct confrontation which arduirel avoids due to it not fucking working with nobles. also aubk-i is the daughter of athoriki who 1 attempted to hide the contents of the magic painting depicting lysandus's death and 2 reacted to arduirel asking about this with "none of your business, peasant" so that whole thing is a mess wayrest is also a bit suspect, there's nothing to say that eadwyre WASNT somehow involved, although woodborne clearly outlines his plans to do away with him and barenziah's half of the family in the journal, so that might be something?? morgiah i WANT arduirel to like but have yet to think of a good reason. probably not much she could do in this instance basically gortwog is a good choice bc he has a personal stake in lysandus's death, as they were allies, and by revealing this he could vindicate his people and up his standing in the eyes of the empire, which arduirel understands and is supportive of, even though the fact that he has to suck up to the empire makes him a less than perfect ally u_u oh and for some reason mannimarco is an option. arduirel would not even think for a second to bring the journal to mannimarco, he has nothing to do with this.