Interesting things in Scarlet's Room.

Gates of Maguuma offered much food for thought story-wise. Especially the last chapter, ‘Prosperity’s Mysterious Room’, revealed a lot about Scarlet’s earlier years. If you chose to linger after that final chapter finished, you can find a hologram that functions as a digital diary for Scarlet. It offers some very interesting information concerning Scarlet. What’s her age? What does it tell us about Scarlet’s loss of her sanity? What does it tell us about the ley line Scarlet found in Dry Top? What do the different objects cluttered in her room mean?

What follows tries to adress all these questions. FULL CREDITS go to Konig destodes.2086, who’s the author of the article below.

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So I took my time to look thoroughly through the room at the end of the episode and there were some things that grabbed my attention interestingly. Most coming from the holoprojector, and focus around two things: Scarlet’s age, and Scarlet’s interactions with the entity.

Point 1: Scarlet’s Age

Firstly, regarding Scarlet’s age, the holoprojector has a recording which says the following:

“Today I am sixteen cycles old, and to celebrate, I’ve been testing my first steam portal with steam minotaurs. The last batch actually made it in one piece.”

And just preceding such is:

“I’ve landed a lab assistant position with Omadd, an intelligent but overly gentle asura. I should be able to wrap him around my little finger.”

According to previous knowledge (learned during Tower of Nightmares’ aftermath), Omadd was the one who got Scarlet into the colleges, so one can presume that the mention of being a lab assistant preludes her joining the colleges. What’s interesting to note is that the written diary mentions that she will stop writing – take into consideration the diary from Season 1 which ends with 1323 AE, this means that she was younger than 16 by that point. However, she’s 16 before becoming Scarlet Briar – which we know for certain due to the Thaumanova situation to occur before 1325 AE. This means that the recordings of at least the first to until she says “I have seen the Eternal Alchemy.” is within that 2 year timespan – presuming that there is no oversight. (Side note: though the holograms in A Study in Scarlet include stuff that was pre-renaming herself, unlike this hologram she keeps the same tone and name throughout, which I will get to later as it is something else that caught my interest).

Now, as the sylvari Firstborn were born in 1302 AE, and the Secondborn born 6-7 years later (thus 1308-1309 AE). Well, 16 years before 1325 AE is 1309 AE and 16 years prior to 1323 AE is 1307 AE.

This means that Scarlet Briar is a Secondborn. And the “I am sixteen years old now” bit happened in either 1324 or 1325 AE – the latter unlikely given Thaumanova and how many lines there are before she becomes Scarlet Briar. And even then, it is after she becomes Scarlet Briar that she becomes interested in ley lines (also more on this later).

This means that Scarlet was most likely born in the first of the two years of Secondborn, but after Mender Serimon. Interesting that this has never actually been brought up.

Something interesting to note, however, is the fully lack of mention of nightmares or a voice in her head in the holo-recordings, indicating that maybe there was an oversight with that mention of no more written diaries.

And this said though, it should be noted that she only went to Prosperity after becoming Scarlet Briar, which itself is interesting too, given Aerin and the theory of Mordy’s corruption being a distance thing with plants (or at least sylvari). Makes me wonder where Omadd’s machine was.

Point 2: Scarlet’s Voice – Ceara versus Scarlet Briar

Perhaps the most fascinating thing to me about hte hologram is that she begins with a cheerful (and not the mockingly cheerful we’re used to) voice and the hologram is named Ceara. However, halfway through, with the line “I have seen the Eternal Alchemy.” the recordings change. The name goes to Scarlet Briar, and her voice becomes menacing – and distorted, which I find to be the weirdest part.

To go off of the first side note above: her name is always Scarlet Briar and her voice always menacing in A Study in Scarlet for those holograms, meaning that those holograms are not recordings of the time, but recollections of Scarlet Briar – reenactments done for her recordings. Perhaps a ploy to remind herself who she is with that encroaching voice in her head?

During Season 1 when we first got her diary, there was note in the voice change, and said that it was important. It seems that they’re keeping up with that as we delve further into her history.

The distortion I find intriging, and I wonder what caused it. If we subscribe to the “entity is Mordremoth and Scarlet was his corrupted into his champion” then one could argue it was distorted because it’s _magi_tech, and she was unknowingly consuming some of the magic in it, making it function at less than optimal amounts.

Point 3: Scarlet and the ley lines

Though we see stuff about ley lines in what have been calling a drawing of the Realm of Torment (the characters call it a sylvari’s view of Tyria, mapping the ley lines, with the Pale Tree in the center of it all – I doubt it, personally, on both accounts) with the hologram recorder though, she only mentions ley line study after becoming Scarlet Briar.

This – as well as her buying a room in Prosperity after becoming Scarlet, with her inquisitions on the ley line beneath the mines – indicates to me that all her interest in those came from the entity, and it may be possible that as Ceara, she never had an interest in them.

Point 4: The Coffin with Tentacles

This is another thing that intrigues me. What was the purpose of this apparent “coffin” that had tentacles coming out of it? A prison for Mordremoth? A bio-engineered cyberminion of Mordremoth’s? An imprisoned kraken? Hard to say. But looking at the diagram, my thoughts went to Rata Sum with that cube shape.