The Seer's ladies [IWD - HoW] (slight spoilers)

[ZFR]

If you choose your dialogue options right, the Seer of gloomfrost will tell you of 4 women from vanilla IWD. Do you know whom she is referring to? 2 are pretty obvious, but 2 I'm not sure.

Here are the descriptions:

One woman clutches a heart like a drowning man clutches a stone and knows not that it drags her down. Her dreams are watchfires, signaling to her of war and victory that can never be.

Not sure. The best I can think of: Lysan.

One dwells beneath a mirror of the sky and has a heart like an ocean, too big for her will to contain. She once knew love, then loved again, and her love is what has damned the North.

No idea. Malavon's siter??? (forgot her name) She was in love with Marketh...

Another woman builds great ships upon molten seas, all the while dreaming of beasts of purity and how they might be corrupted... as she once was. I see her die, and her dreams become ash.

Maiden Ilmadia.

And the last... oh, the last. The elder races... their passions burn so *brightly* when fueled with justice and hope. One, but a child, loved so much she abandoned her own father to die beneath the earth for a people she had never met.

Larel's daughter.

[Laurentius]

While HoW lacks some of the atmosphere of the core IWD the scene you are referring to is my favorite one in HoW.

I wondered too who the 'women' are the seer talked about (at least i think they must be characters in IWD+HoW).
While the last two are obvious i would propose two others for the former ones :

One woman clutches a heart like a drowning man clutches a stone and knows not that it drags her down. Her dreams are watchfires, signaling to her of war and victory that can never be.

heart, stone may be a reference to the heartstone.
The war could be the 'Bloodwar'.
Therefore the 'woman' could be 'Yxunomei'.

One dwells beneath a mirror of the sky and has a heart like an ocean, too big for her will to contain. She once knew love, then loved again, and her love is what has damned the North.

I'm pretty sure this is 'Icasaracht', who was slain and rested at the ground of a sea (mirror of the sky). The later phrase seems to fit with her history (iirc).

The name of Malavon's sister is Ginafae.
Other important women -beside Lysan- are Presio, Mother Eugenia and perhaps Kaylessa.

Another question that arises from the seer's dialog is out of whoms eyes does she look? Ravel perhaps...

Laurentius

[ZFR]

Hey, thanks for your reply Laurentius.

Yup Yuxomonei seems pretty correct. As does Icasaracht from the description. Only thing that doesn't fit Icasaracht is that she was Wylfdene at the same time. The seer was talking about Wylfdene, then she mentioned 'other' women and mentioned these 4... seems kind of weird that the main antagonist and the person you came to talk to her about is thrown in among other three "less" important ones.
But yes, from the description it does seem that Ica is the best bet.

Presio is a woman..? Always thought it was male.

And yes I agree, this is one great scene. For a game that's heavily hack-and-slash and combat oriented, IWD does have some excellent dialogues. This is definately one of them.

[Aerich]

I know this discussion was months ago...

I think I know who the last one is, the "One dwells beneath a mirror of the sky and has a heart like an ocean, too big for her will to contain. She once knew love, then loved again, and her love is what has damned the North."

How about the water spirit at the very beginning? Did not she love Aihonen and help him to slay Icasaracht, who rose with the intention of destroying and dominating the North? She lives in the lake, a "mirror of the sky".

[ZFR]

Originally Posted by Aerich I know this discussion was months ago... I think I know who the last one is, the "One dwells beneath a mirror of the sky and has a heart like an ocean, too big for her will to contain. She once knew love, then loved again, and her love is what has damned the North." How about the water spirit at the very beginning? Did not she love Aihonen and help him to slay Icasaracht, who rose with the intention of destroying and dominating the North? She lives in the lake, a "mirror of the sky".

Oh my God. That makes so much sense. I think you're right!

[CerebroDragon]

Although there's not alot of traffic around here these days, I just wanted to express my appreciation for this thread - the women the seer speaks of in her wonderfully written riddles have always pleasantly mystified me.
The only one I'd ever really guessed was Lysan, since her own dialogue and roleplaying scenario was also one of the best vignettes in the game and easily identifiable.

I've fond memories playing HoW and during my second-to last playthrough ended up writing down word for word one of the quotes from the seer. Seems apt to quote one, as it has a bit of mystical resonance in the overall plot, I think:

"A woman knows a woman's heart, and a strange, beautiful and cruel thing it is. But the cruelest of all is a Heart of Winter for it beats not with love, but with loss and nothing may comfort it".