What category should these things be placed under? Big McLargeHuge 01:56, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
Hmmm... Weapons or Undead? 209.145.251.18 02:05, 29 September 2008 (UTC)Ehcmier
I'd say both weapons and characters (although i might mean we'd have to make a character page for all generic characters; guards, servants, etc.). They arent really dead, just modified; ie., the therotical practice we saw in T2X. 134.39.74.73 15:16, 29 September 2008 (UTC)mclargehuge {reminds me, why arent you signed in there 20914525118?}
- When we first get a glimpse at how they are made, we find dead bodies in a chamber and a Servant sitting motionless in a vat. They are wrapped mummy-like in strips of cloth, and they complain shiveringly of being cold, so very cold. This is why we think they are a form of undead, not to mention the many examples of necromancy and undeath given in the Thief Universe. The fan assumption behind the theory in T2X comes from the masked guards in Soulforge who have blood running out of their masks, and the team did a decent job, but you know from the cutscene that Kedar is as alive as a phantom seeking peace. The final hint comes from Karras, himself:
- "I wouldst to have thee under my control, else dead! Indeed...I'd have had both."
- But as to the original question, links from two categories may be necessary.
- 134.114.77.235 23:32, 29 September 2008 (UTC)Ehcmier {cookies problems, amongst other software conflicts}
You know, those dead bodies just may be failed subjects. I dont think you could make servants if the carrion divers are already manifesting.134.39.78.69 17:13, 14 October 2008 (UTC)
- Failed subjects that died before the conversion, then? And started rotting before it was discovered, perhaps? While we're making fun assumptions, there's a subtle suggestion they were married, engaged, or there was going to be a proposal: the ring found with the male and female corpses. Maybe they committed suicide rather than face what was coming, as they may have witnessed what happened to the person in the vat. Ha ha...anyway, the Servant in the vat sure doesn't seem to alive--not even a mutter. Do they speak with two voices just for weird effect? Then they would be the only human AIs with an effect on their voice that are still alive. Still more strong suggestion that they are not living: The rust-gas canisters and cultivators gotta go somewhere, and the chest is the best place to fit it, too. With all the necromancy that permeates The City, I have no problem with this. If the Servants are undead, then the level of Karras' heresy skyrockets, as the Hammers abhor the undead. The Hammers have hoards of undead rising around their grand structures and wherever they mete out their cruel punishment of sinners. The Mechanists? No zombies or haunts or apparitions. Only harmless ghosts are ever seen where they have been.
- Also, I really do like the speculation about the Masked Guards and the M16B42 text. How do you reconcile it with "For have we not been ordered by Karras himself to spend this next week away from Soulforge Cathedral?" from M16B40? He changed his mind about that after talking with Friend Manus? Cool idea. So far, much of this is fancruft, and I still think we need to devise a way to mark such things on the main pages, or it needs to be removed and relocated. Ehcmier 06:53, 4 December 2008 (UTC)Ehcmier
...ok... 134.39.77.86 16:42, 5 December 2008 (UTC)
- I'd suggest that the Servants are suspended between life and Undeath - they're aware enough to long for death, and to perform those duties they've been assigned (controlled/sustained through the masks, perhaps); but they do not eat or sleep, do not decay. Perhaps they're just very well preserved by the Servant process, and more of their intellect remaine. A servant is no groaning, wheezing, flesh-eating zombie, but something far worse - each Servant knows what they've become, hence the whispered wishes for death. Solabusca 07:02, 12 March 2009 (UTC)
- My favorite theory is that the bodies are dead, but alchemically preserved. They are ghosts, similar to Lorna the Librarian's wife, imprisoned in their own dead flesh, and forced to animate their cold, restless, non-hungry, non-rotting flesh according to imposed instructions. If a rotten, hungry, zombie can animate without muscles... Ehcmier 13:06, 12 March 2009 (UTC)Ehcmier
- Here's a couple of images from the "Servant Workshop" (called ServantShop, in DromEd), depicting two stages of the transformation process: