Where are all the citizens of Sarn?

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CharanJaydemyr wrote:

We know that Dominus DOES exile a lot of people -- every human you kill between the Strand and the Sceptre is probably an Exile 'gone wrong'.

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DirkAustin wrote:

Well, the pirates could have been exiled at some point.

The lootable bodies are actually dead exiles.

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Altnaharra wrote:

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CharanJaydemyr wrote:

I should have elaborated there. Two things to emphasise:

1) 'harness the power' means much more than just 'using'. It is very likely the Exile (the capital E is significant here) is able to use the gems in a way no other exile has. Take the bandit lords, for example -- they have a few tricks, but they're clearly not fully utilising their gems. This is probably explaining away monster abilities too easily, but I think it's GGG using the Guild Wars 1 model again -- monsters in that game almost exclusively used player skills, which could then be captured (vaguely simulated by skill gems dropping, but capturing skills in GW1 was infinitely more satisfying). Blackguard Elites and Rhoas use Shield Charge, Kuduku uses Spark, etc etc. Only the Exile can freely mix-up the gem combinations. I think it's fair to say as well that only the Exile has a Skilldrasil, i.e. a growth of abilities directly related to the number of Wraeclastians killed.

2) 'adverse effects' are all over the place. Ignoring the Undying and the wealth of information in the Library regarding the corruption of the gems, it's very clear that Piety is trying to fully exploit the gems by experimenting on exiles (and probably Azmeri and other unfortunate humans of Wraeclast) to create, essentially, the Exile. Most of her miscreations have limited forms of the skills the Exile develops well beyond any thaumaturgical limitations. There may be some statement about Wraeclast there: no amount of science, magic or other 'artificial' means of empowerment can replace good old-fashioned experience found through slaughtering copious amounts of enemies first-hand.

Addressing the idea of Tarkleigh using gems, that's probable but I think he's seen what happens when someone uses a gem too much, and is very careful not to go there himself.