No, officially we don't know what the towers' unterior purpose was. On the surface, they simply supply Templar with mana of a greater capacity than one could manage on their own, though we don't know what would happen to one if it drained all available mana from an area. The theory sprung up quite a while back, that the dark mana brought up at that point was what was driving the Templar crazy, but with this current page, I think Trace had been using it to build that giant dark crystal above Rose, for whatever reason.Dreamfox wrote: ↑Tue Jul 14, 2020 11:38 amI have been thinking about this a little. Do we know what all these towers are supposed to do? I'd say that whatever they do, they should be able to power Heart's Desire as well wherever Trace wants to go with his replacement wife within human lands. In addition on what he told the other Templars they would do.Bellhead wrote: ↑Tue Jul 14, 2020 12:53 am Back on topic. As for the Heart's Desire angle..
I wonder if Trace would use his own memory of Saria for that, or if he would try to bring her soul back and put it in Maren's body. That said, Heart's Desire was a spell designed for assassination, and like all spells, requires a power source. Under normal circumstances, it would drain from the person whose desire was used. Assume Trace found a way around that somehow, and we're left wondering just how much power that spell uses, given that it nearly killed Keith -a BASITIN- in mere hours, possibly less. Would he be able to maintain such a major mana drain indefinitely? Or would he simply "program" Maren's body to run it? Moreover, would he have been happy knowing that it wasn't really her? It just doesn't seem likely to me.
Heart's Desire has a few advantages the problem of resurrecting someone aside. His Saria, his Heart's Desire would understand what he has done to Rose and the Keidran and forgive him. From what we've seen? There was a lot I don't think the real Saria would forgive him. Understand, maybe, forgive? I doubt.
Considering how her death changed him, he might not mind that it's not the real Saria. A good enough replica might satisfy him, even if it didn't have a soul. Remember how reluctant Keith was to let the illusion of Laura go? Now take someone who wants the illusion.
As I said, we'll see.
That said, the main reason Keith wouldn't let Laura's illusion go, was that he believed it more than an illusion, and it may well have been, but the point is that he no longer knew it was an illusion. Trace knows Saria would not want him to go through all this, and I doubt he would accept her forgiveness, or understanding, were she to find out what he did, knowing full well the real Saria never would. As crazy as he was, he would not settle for a simple illusion, or he would not have gone through all this trouble.
After all, the main purpose of that spell is simply to convince someone to lower their guard. If he just wanted something that looked like her, without actually being her (which I would find deplorable but far better than this), he would have built something -or someone, probably with Nora's help- that would immitate her. And he would not have needed dark magic to do that. The more I think about it, it just doesn't make sense, with how far he went.