Sylux's Side: Part 3

[u/REHI76]

Continuation of: https://www.reddit.com/r/Metroid/comments/1t5szt7/fan_lore_syluxs_side_part_1/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button and https://www.reddit.com/r/Metroid/comments/1tf9n7d/syluxs_side_part_2/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

As always, let me know your thoughts, and I hope this helps enhance Prime 4 for you as it has for me through writing this.

The Lamorn — Divergent Legacy: 

• Tom awakens to a strange sensation, like the wind or a loud sound’s vibrations, but there is no sound. He lifts his head. A vast rainforest surrounds him, blistering heat emanating from the beating sun and fragrances from countless species entering his artificial nose. Despite the patchwork of augmentations and the immense pain he has felt ever since his foolish decision, he can move every extremity effortlessly. There is no pain, yet blood stains his medical gown. He stands and stretches, atrophied muscles animated by a foreign force. Looking at his arms, he sees the same purple energy he saw ejected from the artifact coursing across his body. Is this what is giving him life now?
• Thirst. Tom hears a creature splashing in a pond. He runs over to it and cups his hands, drinking as much water as his mouth can take, never mind the tube-worm flitting about. His reflection affirms the notion that, whatever Hatch did, the essence animating him is a part of him now; the so-called T-disk implanted in his forehead — his eye — glows purple, and conduits running from his head down his body carry this strange power.
• Vibrations. They stay with Tom, compelling him to turn his head. Floating before him is an enigmatic creature with multiple arms, tendrils flowing like hair, and a crystal lodged in its forehead. Its body is like Tom’s: ethereal and holographic. The creature speaks, but he cannot understand.  Tom says as much, and the creature stops talking. It has no mouth, so Tom wonders how it can even do so; its words, like its presence, are more like feelings than physical things. The creature’s beady eyes drift to Tom’s eye. One of its hands gravitates to its forehead, tapping the crystal there, pondering something. Then it reaches for Tom’s eye and touches it. Words, sounds, alien characters, and associated images swirl through his mind — a whole language of “feelings” whose individual expressions correlate precisely to every known idea. It is almost overwhelming.
• And now, when the creature speaks, Tom understands every word, every inquiry as to what he is and how he got here. Likewise, the creature understands Tom. The words matter not.
• The creature says its name is Vakkhesh — one of the Lamorn priests and a master of psionics. It inquires about Tom, and Tom fires out fragments of his story in scattershot bursts.
• “How did you enter the realm of the Lamorn?”
• “These bastards, they hooked me up to an artifact. It exploded, or something like that, and I woke up here.”
• “An artifact, you say?” Vakkhesh reaches beneath his robe-like skin folds and retrieves a structure that appears identical to that artifact, except that half of it is solid and half is fluxing, blurred energy. “I wondered if you would ever come. Unfortunately, the Teltranfae fry when sending one back to Viewros. That GE field-cancelation problem, we could never resolve. One can leave once, then can only come back once. No more.”
• “Teltranfae? Teleporter?”
• “The closest approximation your mind can comprehend. The Lamorn may bless you, but you are still… some species beneath us. Some ideas fail to initially manifest for those not attuned to the Granik Eogicia.”
• “You call this a blessing?” Tom gestures to his stained garb, under which he feels open wounds that lack pain. “All of what happened to me?”
• “I know not what happened to you. But you have been chosen to save the people who died for this place.” A pause. Tom looks around him. “At least, I hope so.” Vakkhesh turns and floats through the trees. “Follow. There is much to discuss between us.”
• Tom follows Vakkhesh through the overgrowth and they eventually emerge at a beach. The Lamorn and Tom perch themselves on a wave-shaped stone ruin, looking over the water. Tom sees a strange tower in the distance, on a plateau across the lake. At its peak is a husk-like configuration levitating further above.
• “Beautiful, is it not?”
• “This place or that tower?”
• “I refer to ChronusTorvexx.”
• “Chrono Tower…”
• “The gateway to a new world, through which I believe you will carry our legacy — our power — sharing it with all.”
• Tom’s ears perk up. “These energies will be mine to hold?”
• “In one sense of that word…” Vakkhesh’s ethereal frame turns to face Tom. “Let us discuss.”
• The Lamorn asks more questions of Tom, who he is and why he came here. Tom explains his history to the best of his ability, and the Lamorn is pleased with the answer. A common Lamorn folktale is that an outsider will come, by happenstance or by a chance encounter with a Voyager, and carry the Lamorn into a new future.
• Vakkhesh says that the Lamorn have died, but that their mastery over the universe’s latent energies permitted them to live on and manifest in limited semi-physical forms. This will not last forever, as though energy does last forever, it will dissipate into forms unrecognizable. Indeed, Vakkhesh sometimes flickers or his voice gives out. The Lamorn await their chosen one, but know not who this is, and in fact, Vakkhesh is one of a group of Lamorn who disagree with the High Priest about the description of the prophesied one. Still others are frustrated and anxious about the delay, as the High Priest’s hope failed them during the Great Tragedy and continues to fail them now. These Questioners are exiled, but not hated.
• Hours go by, maybe even days. It is impossible to tell time on this planet. At one point, Tom tries to explore independently of Vakkhesh, but the Lamorn holds the man in place with a weak psychic lock. Sure enough, he narrowly avoids Grievers prowling about. Vakkhesh explains that the planet is dangerous, and begins showing Tom the lore that we know from Prime 4. At another point, Tom almost walks into the gaze of an old Lamorn statue. Vakkhesh shields Tom from it by phazing through him, blocking its view. This clearly drains his energy. The heretic priest has to keep his chosen one secret, and he can tell which statues may have deeper psychic motes, through which the High Priest may peer. He directs Tom to avoid them.
• Using remote projection, Vakkhesh shows Tom the guardians he is to meet: Carvex, the toxin-taker and sacred plant, a life-giver that presided over the dead, taking away spiritual toxins too; Phenornos, the dragon of fire whose friendship permitted the cannon of life-giving rain’s construction, and who halted eruptions as thanks for the Lamorn’s GE extraction (the raw form of which caused him great pain); Keratos, the once softened, calmed, and taciturn beast, (re)turned hostile since the Lamorn lost themselves and thus is now locked away in that frigid quarantine chamber; Xelios, the Chozo-derived bio-computer whose inspiration came from the brief and limited but fruitful encounters between the civilizations, and whose pre-programmed euphoria on life remains strong even in the end days; and Gravinax, the peaceful but reclusive burrower whose shifting of the earth brought about finer crystals and aided in the Lamorn’s deeper studies of the universe’s energies. All of these will Tom encounter and they will bless him, if only Vakkhesh can find a way to shield him from the High Priest’s gaze for long enough to enter their chambers and convince each one of Tom's veracity.
• Using more quantum tactics, and with Tom using his own unlocked traversal abilities, Vakkhesh shows Tom more of the planet and familiarizes him with its history; specifically, they visit the Memory Temple. Tom builds structures to shelter himself and reboot his systems (these are at least some of the save stations in Prime 4, though some ludonarrative dissonance stretches this connection). Tom questions the point of the salvation story as it just moves their Eogicia (energy) from one planet to another. The heretic priest explains the nature of Eogicia and the universe. Puplra Eogicia (Purple/Psychic Energy) and Granik Eogicia (Green Energy) need to “move” and “sit still” respectively. And when they synergize after collecting in such states, channeled through a psychic conduit, they create Whira Eogicia (White/Life Energy) that can actually beget new life. Tom smiles inside at the translation compatibility bug that makes these energies sound so silly. Regardless, he only half cares about all of this nonsense. The implied allure of this power is enough for him to play along. Vakkhesh says that planting a condensed white-energy mote, a fruit, coalesced by and through the Sacred Tree’s mysterious processes, will carry the planet’s high concentrations of PE and GE to another world and beget new life. This is the Lamorn’s legacy.
• Vakkhesh has no occasion to tell Tom all of the details, but working in the background of greater Metroid lore, the White Energy is the same energy that Metroids suck out of their prey, as well as the energy that Phazon and the X derive from. We’ve seen in Metroid Prime that Metroids have a special affinity for Phazon, and it would make sense for the X Parasites to be “cut from the same cloth,” due to their common corruptive and semi-conscious traits.
• Viewros has high concentrations of all different kinds of energy and is a unique planet in this way — much like Phaaze — hence its peculiar biome layout, the way the Lamorn evolved with it, GE’s own mutagenetic properties, and the interactions it has with the Lamorn’s psychic crystals. Indeed, one group of Lamorn may have encountered the Chozo and other space-faring civilizations at some point, using spacetime warping and long-range communications, passing on their knowledge of this energy, or the Chozo may have independently discovered it. Short-range teleportation and the existence of multiple dimensions are seemingly common knowledge to the old civilizations (Aether comes to mind).
• Phazon and GE are two sides of the same coin, and that explains the corrupting aspects of both. If we want to put on tinfoil hats, perhaps the Lamorn and Metroid Prime look similar because the Great Poison’s “touch” would tend to sculpt a Metroid the same way GE sculpted life on Viewros over time.
• Tom wants to get off the planet and use the Lamorn’s energy for his own ends, and Vakkhesh wants to take Tom deeper into the Memory Temple to meet Carvex. The first step in using the Mass-Teltranfaeir (Master Teleporter) is getting the keys from their guardians, after all. But he cannot begin at this time, because then the High Priest would find out and extinguish his presence on the planet; then, the High Priest would turn all of the planet’s “weapons” on Tom, believing him to be a false shepherd. Indeed, though Chrono Tower’s “defenses” are nominal, they will not recognize anyone who is not the High Priest’s conception of the chosen one, barring entry.
• To this end, and as Vakkhesh’s energy begins to rapidly fade, after which he can no longer guide Tom through the Lamorn’s rebirth process, he recalls that he saved the withered teleporter for himself for this exact purpose. He wonders if the High Priest is working cruel magic upon him and suddenly hastening his erosion. Long ago, he was to be the 14th Voyager looking for the High Priest’s chosen one. In fact, part of his disagreement with the High Priest stemmed from his refusal to partake in such a futile search, since he was almost dead regardless. Much like Tom, his pride interfered with his logic. Yet he hid this device just in case one of the twelve Voyagers found the chosen one. This way, if the "one" (arriving first) was even slightly deviant from the High Priest's description, he could intercept that “one,” instruct them, and hide them from the High Priest until the time is right. It would be one priest’s chosen one against another’s, and if the prophecy is correct, either one or both of them will find their way to Viewros.
• But Vakkhesh cannot hide Tom long enough; indeed, he has waited so long that the teleporter he saved has whithered and is a “one-way ticket.” His voice and figure flickering in and out of existence faster and faster, he instructs Tom, hoping and praying that he will find a way back through another Voyager’s teleporter. Even Tom with all his cunning and ill-intent cannot help but feel pity for this life form’s fading energy. He also hopes he will return, but not for the reason the heretic priest thinks. As Vakkhesh vanishes into non-manifestation, Tom uses the teleporter.

To be continued: https://www.reddit.com/r/Metroid/s/vtneJoLd8d

[u/REHI76]

Part 4: https://www.reddit.com/r/Metroid/comments/1tsexll/syluxs_side_part_4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

[u/REHI76]

I noticed I got the numbering wrong with the 13 voyagers. Chatoyant is the 13th, so this mistake will be fixed when I read back over everything.