Taffergirl on 28/12/2004 at 18:49
Quote Posted by uncadonego
"some people are too rich for their own good"... :sly:
:cheeky: Good point. After all, the strength of any economy depends on cash flow. When people start hoarding wealth that stops the flow and cripples the economy. The purpose of thieves like Garrett is to keep the cash flowing. :thumb:
Strider on 30/12/2004 at 00:36
Someone's gotta keep the balance between the poor and rich I guess.
Bumbleson on 2/1/2005 at 09:22
There's one thing I don't fully understand yet: Why did Orland tell Garrett to destroy the final glyph, and not only Orland, but also the female Keeper kneeling beside him in the cutscene? They describe the last glyph as a powerful weapon which has to be destroyed, but Orland obviously knew the truth as can be seen in the cutscene after the museum. So why did he still lie to Garrett?
Lytha on 2/1/2005 at 10:01
All of the Keepers (except perhaps Artemus) were using Glyphs for their own needs. If you hang around a bit and listen to them talking, you will hear some of the female Keepers ponder about using Glyphs just to get rid of the wrinkles and other effects of old age. Glyphs also gave them power. They were a weapon.
Destroying all Glyphs meant therefore that all of them became disarmed, not only Gamall.
It is a difficult thing to give up power and weapons, because as long as you have them, you think that you can defend yourself against enemies with them - even if the enemy has greater skill with the weapon, like Gamall who had spent centuries training the use of Glyphs.
They might have thought that they could defeat Gamall with some more research with the very same Glyphs that Gamall used.
And finally, the destruction of the Glyphs meant that they lost all they had - their books (those written in Glyphs at least), their defenses (secrecy and the enforcers), all that which made them special. It is kind of hard to give up that much.
Strider on 2/1/2005 at 22:56
You can see why Garrett left the keepers. What a bunch of jerks.
Bumbleson on 3/1/2005 at 00:04
Was it that clear that all glyphs would be destroyed by activating the last glyph? Maybe I don't remember all the scrolls and books too well...
The Rogue Wolf on 3/1/2005 at 06:01
Quote Posted by Bumbleson
Was it
that clear that all glyphs would be destroyed by activating the last glyph? Maybe I don't remember all the scrolls and books too well...
Not until towards the end, and in fact I believe Garrett was the one who learned it. Everyone thought that the final Glyph was a tool of destruction- mundane, "blow up the city" destruction, not a tool to undo the power of the Glyphs. Remember, the Keepers had lost so much of their history and records by the start of TDS that it was a wonder they knew the secret handshake anymore. :cheeky: Gamall had probably torn up the "Failsafe Glyphs For Dummies" guide centuries ago.
I also think that at the end of TDS, Garrett finally realized that all the fighting he had done to dodge his "destiny" had simply brought it about. I think our dear Garrett has matured through the course of the trilogy, and though I doubt you'll see him volunteering at the Auldale Animal Shelter, I think he'll have a more concerned view regarding the city and the people in it. In my opinion, though Garrett's theiving was a matter of financial necessity, the style in which he did it- embarassing nobles by sneaking into their most "secured" domains, usually with some insane degree of risk, without so much as a guard's raised eyebrow- spoke of a desire for power... power over the powerful. But now Garrett has an entirely different kind of power, much more far-reaching than simply "sticking it to" some fat rich man, and I believe he would be much more careful about exercising it than the Keepers became with their Glyphs.
Darsidius on 3/1/2005 at 07:16
I refer you back to a quote I remember vaguely from the Metal Age:
"Some use knowledge as a shield. Others use it as a sword. Both sides are unbalanced, but one is wrong."
However it went, I won't argue the exact quote, but the point was that the glyphs were used in ways they most likely weren't intended. I'm not certain as to what the glyphs were used for before, but as mentioned, I'm sure it wasn't for cosmetic purposes.
Garret didn't care about the glyphs. If he did, he might've used them to crack walls or create passages into nobles' homes to rob them more effectively. Because of his distrust for them, he was obviously the most reliable person to "keep" them from the Keepers (excuse the pun). Afterall, the best kept secrets are kept to oneself, rather than a group of people. I can see Thief IV and later Thief games following the idea that only one person will be entrusted with the glyphs after the "One True Keeper" has passed on. It even opens the possible idea that the "First Keeper", the position held by Xavier and Orland, might have, at one point in early Keeper history, been the "One True Keeper" in a Keeper community, as the other Keepers kept busy recording history. The position may have changed during a cataclysmic event, which forced the First Keeper to chronicle the "end times" or such, thus creating something of a Matrix-messiah idea for some gamers. But then again, this is all just opinionated speculation. :cheeky:
Just envision how things of science in our society are more commonly turned for militaristic purposes, regardless of the intent of the discoverer to use it for the betterment of mankind, and you can see how the glyphs were corrupted and why Garret is the right man for the job.
Strider on 4/1/2005 at 18:39
I'm with Lytha on this one. I think the keeper elders knew what the final glyph was supposed to do, or at least had a vague idea. I don't think Orland would have told Garrett to activate the glyph rather then destroy it near the end if he thought it was going to destroy the entire city. When Orland admits to Garrett that he mustn't destroy the glyph, right before he gets killed by Gamall, I got the impression he knew what the glyph was going to do. he says something along the lines of "what are we protecting? An empty box? A blank page?" I can't remember the quote exactly but he's basically admitting that the keepers have become too defensive of their own power, and that's why they were reluctant to tell Garrett the true purpose of the final glyph.
Bumbleson on 6/1/2005 at 18:55
That makes sense.
