[SPOILER E1 Ending] Opening the excavation site

[TeeWee]

I'm replaying Ep1A2 for the second time and I've just completed the excavation site. Something doesn't really add up here.

Note: I'm being a little bit obscure in my writing here to protect the people who accidentally read this and don't want to be spoilered too much. Also, replies should not go beyond the end of Ep1 please, as the spoiler marking in the subject indicates.

Fyona opens the gate because she knows an old rite, being a paladin of an ancient order. But wouldn't Magus Lazzon (being who he is) know this exact same rite? Thinking about it a bit more, it's rather implausible he wouldn't be able to open the site. And the runes on the site indicate he has been here in person.

In the grand old tradition of the No-Prize, here's my explanation:
Given the fragile state of the contents of the site, it's entirely plausible that Magus Lazzon is suffering something similar and no longer has access to things in his mind that he should know. Hence, he could only attempt to enter brute force rather than use the ancient rite.

[narana]

I had the cleric instead of the paladin when I got there. If I remember right she said all clerics and paladins know the super secret password, and nobody else does. Evil bad guy was mage, therefore, he didn't know super secret password.

[fallen]

TeeWee - why would the "Magus Lazzon (being who he is)" know a simple blessing used by religious human folk? This makes a ton of sense to me. (1) As noted by the heroes, none of the others know this simple ritual, (2) it is a Pre-Shattering ritual used in Temples to the 13, (3) it is used by humans, and something you'd do on entering a sanctuary. Considering who made up that simple ritual (and in the mind that humans make up much of human-facing parts of religion as they see fit, and call it holy ritual ... really, do you think Gods wrote those rhymes she is using?), and how it was used, why would our Magus friend know it? I find it extremely implausible that he would, all things considered.

[TeeWee]

I hope I'm not giving the impression that I'm criticizing your work. I just read a lot of fantasy novels and this is the type of detail that triggers my brain

Anyway, of course you know much more about the relationship between the gods and their worshippers in the world of Steel than me.

Still, I was sort of thinking more along these lines
1) obviously, at least one of the gods knew about the ritual
2) the ritual is lost both because of the cataclysm of the shattering and because, as a rsukt, the Thirteen are no longer worhipped, but at best, it's the Nine.
3) if I get the lore right, the Shattering is only a few generations ago. Humans may have forgotten lots of stuff, but the gods?

I was assuming that the Gods sort of pay some attention to the humans and the way they are worshipped, as the old Paladins and clerics are said to draw power from them. And this ritual was hardly a secret, so this misclicked in my brain on the second playthrough.

My assumptions may likely be very off base though

[Swami]

May 31, 2014 9:43:32 GMT -5 TeeWee said:

Still, I was sort of thinking more along these lines
1) obviously, at least one of the gods knew about the ritual
2) the ritual is lost both because of the cataclysm of the shattering and because, as a result, the Thirteen are no longer worhipped, but at best, it's the Nine.
3) if I get the lore right, the Shattering is only a few generations ago. Humans may have forgotten lots of stuff, but the gods?

I was assuming that the Gods sort of pay some attention to the humans and the way they are worshipped, as the old Paladins and clerics are said to draw power from them. And this ritual was hardly a secret...

Counterarguments:
1) Not his area.
2) Agreed
3) Maybe being self-centered, he never did know it. He is not portrayed as being omniscient.
4) He didn't seem the type to associate with Paladins and Clerics.

[fallen]

1) Definitely not his area, and none of the Gods are omniscient.
2) The ritual is primarily lost because of the Shattering, because (1) Religion in general has taken a huge hit, and (2) all the old temples that would include these types of sanctuaries and the 99% of religious orders that used them were lost.
3) The Shattering was 71 years ago. The humans now worship 9 Gods, why would they teach the old 13 version?

Certainly, Gods pay attention to humans, but don't overestimate the level of detail to which they are paying attention. Gods have lots to worry about, do you think they've memorized or learned the little "door entry" rituals of humans.

[vdx]

Q: How could such a simple password be overlooked by the Magus, given his true nature?

A: Either he simply didn't know it, which is discussed above. Or he simply DIDN'T THINK to use such a simple password to get in. Given who he is, and who is was presumably after inside the temple, he may have simply rejected such a basic and easy way as just too absurd. Clearly, no one would safe guard some thing powerful and valuable with a simple child's rhyme. That's just absurd. Right?

Sometimes people are too smart and too trickery for their own good. Fiction and non-fiction are dotted with examples of simply, easy solutions being over looked because they were just too simple and easy to be the real answer, even when in-fact they were the answer or solution. A few are listed below.

Another point, is he might have tried the prayer. Given who the Magus is, maybe the rhyme no longer worked.

Fiction:
Lord of the Rings: Riddle hint "Say the word friend and enter" was viewed as a hint to say the password, but really it was instructions to say the word "friend" out loud.

The Dark Tower: The riddle to beat the thinking train wasn't a hard, complex riddle as the train kept guessing those, but a simple, childish riddle about a chicken crossing the road.

Star Wars: Small, relatively harmless x-find fighters were able to attack the massive and deadly Death Star because the Death Star defensive were not designed to attack such small, simple fighters because every one knew that only larger, more deadly battle ships would attack something the size of the Death Star.

Real-life: For some other really absurd solutions that worked, check the link below. And while we know now these solutions work, for years, sometimes decades, they were ignored as being too absurd to even try.
www.cracked.com/article_19624_5-absurd-solutions-to-huge-problems-that-actually-worked.html

[slayernz]

Yeah, the Magus was so caught up in his own very complex affairs that he overlooked the bigger picture. Further, being who he is, he would have thought doors would automatically part for him, and when that failed, he tried brute force. If he had succeeded, it might have been interesting given who he would have met within the locked chamber