[Spoilers] Who should I sacrifice?

Twilanthe

Again, spoilers for the main story (though 6 years later I assume most people have done it).

So I notice that Lyris is in Greymoor, she features in the cinematic. I haven't done any of the DLC except Wrothgar so far. Do any of the other options, the Prophet or Sai, show up in later DLCs that might break my immersion? If so, which one do you feel is the least immersion breaking?

Lastly, who did you sacrifice and why?

RefLiberty

The old fart. He only show up as a ghost or a vision in the end of main Orsinium story quest chain, so he is not breaking immersion spawning live again.

Sai and the Lyris shows up later alive as you already said.

Danikat

Sai appears in Dragonhold, so at the moment the least immersion breaking is the Prophet, but it wouldn't surprise me if they bring him back as part of next year's story arc, since they've done Sai one year and Lyris the next.

As for my choice, I picked the Prophet for the simple reason that this is ultimately all his fault in the first place. Well, it's Mannimarco's fault, but he's not an option. Sai and Lyris were just following Varen, and neither of them is an expert on magic, they trusted him (and Mannimarco) to know what they were doing and make the right decision. Whereas Varen was the leader, the one who claimed the title of Emperor and IMO therefore the one responsible for making sure he was getting advice from a trustworthy source and knew what would happen when they attempted their ritual, and the one responsible for putting it right when it went wrong.

Ilsabet

I'm assuming you don't mind some very mild spoilers, but I'll mark them just in case anybody's concerned about what they stumble over.

Dragonhold:

Sai is involved in the Dragonhold DLC. In his case and I would assume Lyris' also, if you sacrificed him then there's some handwaving about how the dying didn't stick.

Orsinium:

You may not have seen this in Wrothgar if you did that before finishing the main quest, but the Prophet's spirit shows up at the end of the main questline there to warn about an upcoming Daedric threat. If you have previously sacrificed him, he acknowledges that and says this is basically his last message to you before he fully passes on. (He says something similar even if you didn't sacrifice him, indicating that he's about to pass on anyway.)

If you don't want your choice to be essentially reversed by the DLCs, the Prophet is the most immersion-friendly choice.

Personally, I chose the Prophet because he's in the twilight of his life already and I wanted Lyris and Sai to have the chance to be together.

Edit: I took too long to write my post and got ninja'd.

Bekkael

I have sacrificed them all, on various characters, but my main sacrificed Sai. It doesn't mean anything though and it isn't a "real" choice, they just retcon it all as they see fit. I think the only difference is the quest reward in the end...it is a weapon from the sacrificed character, if I remember correctly.

So, yeah, kill whichever one you like, they instantly get over their death, with no issues. In fact, the next time you see them, they even have snazzy new armor!

Dojohoda

For immersion choose The Prophet.
Choose the others to see what weapon drops.

lillybit

I've sacrificed Sai and Lyris on one character each to see the differences but every other time it's been the Prophet, partly because he's older so has less life left to lose and partly because he has the biggest share of the blame so seems fitting

I need to finish the quest on another character so I can sacrifice Lyris again and see for myself what they do to bring her back

TheShadowScout

I remember having this discussion before:

TheShadowScout wrote: »

I did in every one of them in the course of my altings, but... most times it was the former emperor.

I mean... HE started the whole mess, its only fitting that he finish it, right? Also, he has less of a future left then the other two, so...

OmniDo wrote: »

Varen is the Yoda of the group, and you don't go sacrificing your Yoda man.

Wrong.
Its a sad fact that the yoda man -always- has to be the sacrifice at the end of the story. Gandalf (though he came back in white). Qui-gon Jinn (though he came back as force voice). Ben Kenobi (though he came back as force ghost). Spock (though he came back through genesis effect). Dumbledore (though he came back as painting and in near-death experience). Kosh Naranek (though he came back as a mind fragment). Professor X (who came back through vasious means in various stories). Luke Skywalker (who probably will also come back as force ghost someday if the story needs it) And now... Varen Aquilarios (and whatta you know, he ALSO came back as ghost at the end of the orsinium mainstory!)
Its a -classic- "coming of age" type cliché, showing how the wise mentor from the older generation sacrifices what is left of their life so the next generation of heroes can finish the job. Often with a side dish of "making up for my mistakes". And often with a coming back, at least in flashback memories, to drop at least one more crypric wisdom...

(Addendum - yes, Luke DID indeed come back as force ghost in the last movie. Called it! )

But as has been said, picking the Prophet does not create any immersional messes, and the other two... well... you get some "deus ex machina" (or maybe ex aedra?) to bring them back for more fun in dragonhold or now greymoor... so you only really need to do it on some alts you don't care about to look at the weapons they drop (curved greatsword and giant axe)...

Jeremy

Twilanthe wrote: »

Again, spoilers for the main story (though 6 years later I assume most people have done it).

So I notice that Lyris is in Greymoor, she features in the cinematic. I haven't done any of the DLC except Wrothgar so far. Do any of the other options, the Prophet or Sai, show up in later DLCs that might break my immersion? If so, which one do you feel is the least immersion breaking?

Lastly, who did you sacrifice and why?

It has no significant impact on the story (either present or future) that I can tell. The game seems to assume you offer up the prophet - because he is the only character I haven't seen make a return visit.

I sacrificed Sai hoping it would leave Lyris vulnerable to my come on. But no such luck.

It's too bad this game doesn't have more interactive stories that allow you to build relationships with the NPCs of your choice. I remember in SWTOR for example I was even able to start up a homosexual romance with Theron Shan. That was pretty awesome. So I would love to see more interactions like that available in ESO. It makes reading and participating in the story so much more interesting.

SirLeeMinion

Well, I've killed all of them at one point or another. This past year, I have usually killed Lyris- she's begun to grate on me.

Which one should you kill? Well, they all seem to be coming back up like a bad sandwich, so it doesn't really matter.

Minyassa

It won't matter as far as impact goes. If your immersion will accept lore explanations you should be okay. She doesn't say a word about it that I've seen, but Sai had some "and then magic happened" excuse for his reappearance. So they can come up with an explanation for anything, it's such a magic-laden world.

I've sacrificed all of them, depending on my mood at the time, but usually Lyris because she annoys the BUG out of me constantly getting in my way and hijacking my interaction clicks on loot and then telling me I'm wasting time, and she's so frickin' bossy. I am aggravated to have to deal with her yet again but still hopeful for the possibility that I'll be given a quest choice to push her into a lake or something.

Banana

Grandpa. He already had one foot in the grave

kichwas

lillybit wrote: »

I've sacrificed Sai and Lyris on one character each to see the differences but every other time it's been the Prophet, partly because he's older so has less life left to lose and partly because he has the biggest share of the blame so seems fitting

He's actually not older. The same thing that made him blind supernaturally aged his body.

But yeah I picked him on the one character I've completed it with because I googled and found out the others show up again... but... I've also read that the others have dialog added if they were picked and then show up again...

So next character is going for one of the others.

BlueRaven

Narratively it works best if the

emperor

dies. His own hubris in declaring himself a Dragonborn comes to an appropriate sacrifice to the god of dragons.

HorrorShow

Whatever choice you make will be undone by the devs. Next DLC they are gonna bring back Varen just to complete the screw you to that choice they regret giving us.

max_only

Jeremy wrote: »

I sacrificed Sai hoping it would leave Lyris vulnerable to my come on. But no such luck.

That’s a cold move playa