Preface: Let’s make it clear from the start - ALL of the women who have something to do with the Nameless One(TNO) are conspiring to have him close the loop on his life and end his misery (Annah is helping but doesn’t know it). Fall-From-Grace(FFG) is a big part of the story of torment and the true meaning of her name will be clear. We will discuss each of the main women in turn, starting with Dieionarra, then Annah, then Ravel and finally FFG. At times, we will also discuss other minor characters to help show the connections between TNO and the main female characters. But first we will discuss the story in general, how the pst book (the one endorsed by the makers and sold with the digital copy on gog.com) is a big clue, and how TNO is supposed to be played, for the purpose of the story from the point of view of the women.
The story of Torment is mystery story. What, who and why is TNO. It is also a love story. There are clues everywhere hidden in the language of the text. Let’s consider TNO before he wakes in the mortuary. We know by story end that TNO has lived a long, long time and had many companions. We also know he had a life before he became immortal, owing to the fact that it is Ravel who makes him immortal only after TNO meets her as a mortal. We know too that TNO is capable of losing his memories.
We also know that TNO is capable of a wide range of dispositions, depending, I believe, upon his experiences after having lost his memories. He can be lawful or, as the story puts it, practical. He can be chaotic. He can also be neutral.
I would also argue that now only is maxing out TNO’s charisma, wisdom and intelligence brings the best rewards while playing the game but that it is also important to understanding the true story. When he is practical, he is might be a power hungry mage. When he is chaotic he might lay a lot of clever traps. He is charming and often a leader. He is always smart. And when he is balanced, he is extremely attractive to the opposite sex. I believe this is why the dialogue options chosen for the book in the long term are fairly balanced overall.
On to the ladies.
First Deionarra. Deionarra sees the future. By story’s end, she has saved TNO from the sensory trap his chaotic former self layed. She knew he would come back to the start. She also knew he would need her to save him. That is the real reason she was so desperate for the practical incarnation to take her with him to the fortress of regrets. There is nothing of her sensory stone experience, the one that sees her sweating on the practical incarnation to bring her along on his trip to the fortress of regrets, that says that she is in love with the practical incarnation. Only that she was desperate to go. She saw the entrapment of the balanced incarnation whom she also saw coming. It was this incarnation she was in love with and she waited and waited for him. In fact it was her who used the practical incarnation and not the other way around.
Annah. We know that she is the one who finds TNO’s body before it is intered in the morgue before he wakes up. We also know it was the Lady of Pain who killed him. At first it seems coincidental but I would argue that the Lady killed him in front of Annah on purpose. Impulsive, chaotic (neutral) and boorish with her language, Annah-of-the-Shadows provides a counterpoint to the lawful neutral FFG. Quite literally in fact. Annah is needed for balance of alignment in TNO’s immediate environment in order to keep HIM balanced. She’s a strong fighter who falls in love with him and consequently will fight to the bitter end for him. She is a play from the lady’s hand.
Ravel Puzzlewell literally creates a great puzzle: How to fix TNO so he can finally die. But why make him immortal in the first place? Let’s backtrack. What do we know? We know that the original TNO was balanced. Therefore, he is the one who met Ravel to gain immortality. But why did he need immortality? Because, as a sensate, he desired to try all experiences, including experiencing the blood wars. However it was that he came to meet Ravel he had certainly realised his mistake by the time he had and, realising her power and having charmed her, he was able to get her to release his mortality. Thus his plan was to stave off death so as to avoid dying and becoming a part of hell forever. When she tested his immortality he died and lost his memory. He awoke in hell and went insane as one would. He did all he could to survive including lurking in the shadows, making traps probably. This was the birth of the first paranoid version. So what can change the nature of a man? His environment. When she meets this incarnation, he is the sincere, balanced one she met first. And she helps him on his way by pointing him to Trias and finally letting him go.
FFG is the lynchpin. But first some background. FFG is a master of language and essentially a Baatezu trained lawyer. Her language as well as how she is written is very deliberate. She has been corrupted in a sense by her time with the Baatezu for she is lawful rather than chaotic. Her like of Nordom is a clue. He mirrors her in that he is lawful gone chaotic. She is always true to her word and never lies. Ever. She just leaves stuff out. Not once does she say she has never met TNO. Why wouldn’t she have. My guess is that she came across TNO in some fashion and they hit it off. This story from Yves the tale chaser (a girl in her employ down at the brothel) is a big clue -
“Once upon a time, there existed a modron. It was newly created, its logic fresh and untested, and it had come to Sigil, following the commands of its modron superiors.”
“It knew of nothing but commands and dictates, of obedience and passing along the orders of its superiors. For you see, modrons are only aware of the commands of their immediate superiors — they have no grasp of a higher authority. Until this one.”
“One day it came upon a small shop, within which there was a small clock that could no longer tell time. It was cracked along the edges, the wheels of its hands broken. The modron immediately set itself to work at getting the parts to fix the broken clock.”
“It made a new wooden housing for the clock’s parts, replaced the bent springs, carefully filed and oiled the clockwork machinery, and carved new hands from the sparse metal available to it. The newly-repaired clock’s precise ticking reminded it of the great gears of Mechanus, and it comforted it as much as any thing may comfort a modron.”
“And what the modron never came to understand was that it truly loved this clock that it had worked on, and for reasons it could not explain, elected to remain in Sigil and be with the clock for the rest of its years.”
FFG is the Modron and TNO is the clock. Hence her current name: Fall-From-Grace, the succubus that fell in love.
Her and TNO went through something of a golden period. Together they were sensates and I think it was them together that opened the Brothel and stored the sensory stones, played games and solved puzzles together, including his own. This is why you aren’t allowed to read her diary. TNO is in it. In fact, it is probably something of a lost journal.
It's late. More to come....
