I am absolutely beyond livid right now. I started "Every Rose Has Its Thorn".

So everything was going fine, I asked Google for help during... What it told me was to give the murder report to Willhelmina FIRST THEN get the Bribery Report after saying "Continue to assist till the end."

So I panicked as she said we were about to do the assassination, jumped out the building to try to get the Bribery Report, handed it to Brant.

Brant secured his aid, okay cool. NOW I can get back to talk to Willhelmina, especially since the quest updated.

Even if I didn't secure Brant's help, she still got the evidence, her name should be cleared, she should be FINE, RIGHT?

WRONG apparently. I am so sick of this game having 57 different endings for each quest and if you get the wrong one a character either permanently dies or gets arrested. Now I have to NG+ just to do one thing different so I get the good ending.

For anyone questioning, I love this game, I have hundreds of hours into it. I was a huge DD:DA Veteran, with nearly or over 2000 hours into the original game across all platforms. I even own the Switch version. But this right here was my breaking point, as someone who is a Completionist this was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I couldn't even get into the fucking room to save her nor could I interact with the painting to see into the room. Livid is not even the word.

I've been doing tedious quest after tedious quest. All of this was so much more manageable in the first game.

Oh and not to mention, when they say "last inn rested at" they include your house in that. How was I supposed to know that?

Right before this I did the Fulvio sculpture quest and it went amazingly, I prepped by placing a portcrystal at the Medusa's lair and a portcrystal at the Griffin's nest. That one was by far the most tedious because we DO NOT HAVE AN ETERNAL FERRYSTONE, FOR NO REASON!!!

I even did all of the Sphinx puzzles including the first seeker token one! I was so scared I was gonna fail it but I got it.

NPC's do not respawn in a game that desperately NEEDS respawning NPC's!!!!!! No, we have to waste our hard-earned wakestones on random NPC's because if we don't they'll die permanently. This didn't happen to me thankfully but "WTF DO YOU MEAN BEREN DIED?!?!?! WHAT THE FUCK?!?!"

It's like do I save the Wakestones, do I waste an Eternal Wakestone one time in the morgue of that town that time?? When do I use the Eternal Wakestone?

I have no intention of letting Dragonsplague end any town no matter what so do I sell it or keep it??

I had spent time researching every quest I've been doing and my one slip up is because I used Google.

I get it's my own fault but if this were DD1, all I'd have to do is hand the evidence over and it'd all be good, there wouldn't be all these extra steps.

The only one even slightly as annoying as this is Aelinore's questline. But DD:DA was less offensive in this regard because it was significant smaller and there's only 2 towns. It's easy to 100% complete DD1 due to the smaller size and short story.

But this game has 85 quests, 61 being sidequests, with multiple quests taking you across the map and back again, and this map is MASSIVE, and it isn't like the first game where you could at least buy Ferrystones at the Black Cat. In this game you just have to hope you can find Ferrystones or have them delivered to one of your houses.

I'm happy we got the open world we wanted, but we needed serious fast travel this time, and we needed FAR more enemies types.

Didn't know whether to put this under Humor or General Discussion. Figured it's more funny than discussion so yeah, though if it's wrong I could take it.

Moral of the story, Google is not your friend.

Sword of Superman (DC Comics)

Triforce (Legend of Zelda)

Godsbane (Dragon's Dogma)

Infinity Gauntlet (Marvel Comics)

Blade of Olympus (God of War)

Akashic Records (Vampire Hunter D)

Elder Scrolls (Elder Scrolls)

White Lantern Ring (DC Comics)

Super Dragon Balls (Dragon Ball)

Now this will not be a traditional battle, so here is how we'll do it:

In terms of creation and destruction, what are its capabilities?

Does it carry its power equally between everyone?

Can it function outside of its original universe?

What can it do to the other weapons and artifacts on the list?

Lemme know what you think, and discuss!

In the beginning, there was Oblivion, complete non-existence and Void, then came the Great Will, and with it came true existence, life. They established the order of things, the endless cycle of the worlds that allows the worlds themselves to exist.

The cycle of Eternal Return: Seneschal, Dragon, and Arisen. All things follow this transcendental law. The Arisen being the force of Will that drives the world to continue, the pawns that guide them to their destiny, and the Dragon representing Oblivion.

The Seneschal being the absolute administrator of existence, ensuring this cycle continues... The Seneschal sends a Great Dragon to find a being of unbreakable, endless Will. The Arisen is chosen, their heart stolen, they receive a guide called a pawn through the rift, the gate between worlds. They must go on to defeat the Dragon or bargain with it to stay the end of the world. This is the nature of things, there is always either a defeat or a bargain.

The one who defeats the Dragon goes on to potentially face the Seneschal himself, and a duel ensues to see whose Will is greater. If the Arisen wins, they become the new Seneschal, the grand overseer of all existence. If the Seneschal wins, the Arisen they fought becomes the new Dragon.

When an Arisen (likely of strong will) dies, their pawn takes on their physical form, and they gain free will, this is called the Bestowal of Spirit.

To ensure that Arisen cannot ignore their destiny, the Brine is also established. It's a direct tool of the Great Will that ensures all beings follow their path.

Thus the cycle continues, forever and ever.

(There are two versions of Savan's story, but as the digital comic seems the primary canon, I'm going with that instead. Though the novel contains supplementary information we can use.)

Sometime later, however much later no one can really say, we come across a man named Savan, he is the earliest true Arisen we yet know of (Godking Leonart being a pretender). Savan was a knight hailing from the City of Viete, in the service of Godking Leonart, a former Arisen himself allegedly said to have slain a Dragon 50 years beforehand. His city burnt to the ground, his father killed by the Great Dragon of his time, leading Savan to lash out in combat. This culminates in the Dragon stealing his heart.

Savan wakes up to a pawn named Morgana, who acts as a guide, leading him to a Riftstone where his own pawn Salde is created.

He embarks on a quest with his pawn Salde, to save the world from the Great Dragon of Legend. He succeeds, the Dragon dies.

And countless lifetimes come to pass...

Sometime much later, an Arisen named Grette from another world, a hundred lifetimes before the events of the first game, is chosen by her world's Dragon. She has her pawn Olra, and a ward named Ashe. Grette goes on to slay a Great Dragon, but ultimately loses in a duel against the Seneschal, becoming a Dragon herself. In her absolute last act as a free-thinking being, she chooses to find Ashe and make him the next Arisen.

Olra, losing her master, has started to undergo the Bestowal of Spirit, becoming a more free-thinking being, she shows up to Ashe, distressed, broken. Ashe is confused, but still soon found himself entranced by her, smitten by her.

At some point Ashe is found by Grette, now a Dragon, and it is presumed Ashe fought her, as all Arisen do, though he doesn't yet know that she's the Dragon.

Olra gives herself over to Ashe, chooses to be his pawn just as much as he chose her to be his. In short order they fall in love and he takes her as his beloved. His one true love.

Their adventures finally culminate in a final confrontation with the Dragon who shows mild reluctance in her tone, as well as the sound of her voice. They know it true, Grette is the Dragon, their former Master.

Ashe is given a choice far too cruel to make, he rants and raves, cursing everything, the cycle himself, and in his rage he makes a wish, which the Dragon treats as a bargain.

"If this be the will of the Gods, the order of the whole world, then damn the lot of them! I'LL TEAR THE WHOLE OF IT ASUNDER!"

This is the first time the nature of the universe known as the cycle is defied, and with his wish being granted, Olra is killed as payment, and he's transformed into a horrible demonic being hellbent on destruction, a being known as Daimon.

Daimon creates the labyrinthine halls known as Bitterblack Isle, a horrible place made of pure despair and hatred, draped into perpetual darkness, meant to lure Arisen to it and kill them. Daimon succeeds, countless Arisen are killed on the island, and countless more after that still.

Eventually, an Arisen named Arthacos comes to the island, and, though he came to the Island with noble intentions, the halls begin to drive him mad, corrupting his mind. He loses his sanity completely at some point and integrates with the island directly, becoming the entity known as Death. He travels the island looking for Arisen to kill as blood sacrifices, misguided in his belief that this will somehow satiate the Dragon.

There is another Arisen, also named Olra similar to the pawn Olra in appearance, who ends up dying on Bitterblack Isle, though important to the timeline, we never learn her true origins but at some point she ends up harboring the soul of the original pawn Olra.

Back in the world of Gransys, an Arisen named Grigori takes up arms, kills their Great Dragon, and goes on to face the Seneschal. Unfortunately, they fail and are made a Dragon... This is the main dragon of the first Dragon's Dogma.

At some point after they become a Dragon, 1000 years before the beginning of our playable Arisen's story, an unnamed Arisen was chosen by Grigori. They go on to fight the Dragon, however their weapon breaks and they are forced to retreat, retreating deep into the forest on a hill, where they eventually establish their home as a guide to future Arisen, this being comes to be known as The Dragonforged, a font of knowledge regarding Dragons. Their pawn draws their Arisen's image in battle upon the hill, and the place becomes known as Hillfigure Knoll.

Getting closer to our story, 50 years before the events of the main story, we come across another Arisen, Edmun.

(This will be an ongoing project, if anyone has any questions, objections, or suggestions I'd really appreciate it! It is unlikely to be finished very soon, but it will be done eventually, so please bear with me. Thanks for reading regardless!)

This will be a stats equalized battle, meaning no extra BS just swordsmanship.

In the case of characters having multiple classes, we'll assume they use a sword class (Dovahkiin only gets swords, no magic, or shouts. Arisen is restricted to Fighter, Warrior, etc. Tarnished gets no staves or etc.)

All weapons are equalized meaning no lightsabers cutting through swords or shields, armor is fair game though.

In the case of characters needing their "powers" to be physically -abled like Count Dooku, that's fine. No offensive or defensive applications of said powers though.

Any knowledge or questlines or otherwise that have to be done to put a character at their best is done here, they are all at their absolute peak skill level.

Precognition is allowed.

All characters are in character.

Yes I know there are characters from the same universe but it is every man for themselves.

Characters:

Count Dooku (Star Wars, Legends)

Mace Windu (Star Wars, Legends)

Gimli (LOTR)

Legolas (LOTR)

Aragorn (LOTR)

Geralt of Rivia (Witcher, Composite)

Raiden (Metal Gear)

Jetstream Sam (Metal Gear)

Dovahkiin/TLD (Elder Scrolls)

Hero of Kvatch/Champion of Cyrodiil (Elder Scrolls)

The Nerevarine (Elder Scrolls)

Ra's Al Ghul (DC Comics)

Deathstroke (DC Comics)

Samurai Jack (Samurai Jack)

Piandao (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Sephiroth (Original FFVII timeline)

Warrior of Light (FFXIV)

Frog (Chrono Trigger)

Adol Christin (Ys)

Guts (Berserk)

Griffith/Femto (Berserk)

Skull Knight (Berserk)

Kenshin Himura (Rurouni Kenshin)

Hiko Seijuro (Rurouni Kenshin)

Seta Sojiro (Rurouni Kenshin)

Henry of Skalitz (Kingdom Come: Deliverance)

The Arisen (Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen)

The Arisen (Dragon's Dogma 2)

Achilles (Troy)

Spartacus (STARZ Spartacus)

Maximus (Gladiator)

Spartacus (300)

The Warden (Dragon Age: Origins)

Marth (Fire Emblem)

Chrom (Fire Emblem)

Ike (Fire Emblem)

The Tarnished (Elden Ring)

Chosen Undead (Dark Souls)

The Hunter (Bloodborne)

Knight Artorias (Dark Souls, Pre-Corrupted)

Sekiro (Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice)

Ashen One (Dark Souls)

Kliff (Crimson Desert)

Atomic Samurai (One Punch Man)

Roronoa Zoro (One Piece)

Dracula Mihawk (One Piece)

Sasuke Uchiha (Naruto)

Killer Bee (Naruto)

Zabuza (Naruto)

Orochimaru (Naruto)

Madara Uchiha (Naruto)

Inigo Montoya (Princess Bride)

Saber/Artorias Pendragon (Fate)

Wesley/Dread Pirate Roberts (Princess Bride)

Ichigo Kurosaki (Bleach)

Byakuya Kuchiki (Bleach)

Kenpachi Zaraki (Bleach)

Suzaku Kururugi (Code Geass)

Lan Mandragoran (Wheel of Time)

Afro (Afro Samurai)

Sir Lancelot (Excalibur)

Arthur Dayne (ASOIAF)

Barristan Selmy (ASOIAF)

Jaime Lannister (ASOIAF)

Jon Snow (ASOIAF)

Nanashi (Sword of the Stranger)

Yoriichi Tsugikuni (Demon Slayer)

Yami Sukehiro (Black Clover)

Gintoki (Gintama)

Black Knight (Marvel)

Deadpool (Marvel)

Silver Samurai (Marvel)

Zorro (Zorro)

Duncan Idaho (Dune)

Paul Atreides (Dune)

Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean)

Hector Barbossa (Pirates of the Caribbean)

Will Turner (Pirates of the Caribbean)

Davy Jones (Pirates of the Caribbean)

Altair ibn la-ihad (Assassin's Creed)

Ezio Auditore da Firenze (Assassin's Creed)

Connor Kenway (Assassin's Creed)

Edward Kenway (Assassin's Creed)

Desmond Miles (Assassin's Creed)

Alucard (Castlevania)

Goblin Slayer (Goblin Slayer)

I already know that this is incredibly overwhelming so I chose not to make the list any longer, and I purposefully tried to leave out people that would make this a boring and objectively unfair debate. Including Miyamoto Musashi from Vagabond for example leaves absolutely no room for debate.

If we remove their supernatural abilities and they were merely a peak human or average person, would they be extremely skilled?

If they had stats equalized against expert swordsman like Jaime Lannister, Count Dooku, Paul Atreides, Samurai Jack, or Guts, could they hold their own in a duel or even win?

I think we can look at stuff like the dodge, perfect block, the way they climb monsters, their stamina and how it goes up to deal with threats. Their sword skills, the things they fight (countless creatures, human sorcerers and swordsman, bandits) their shield bashes, bring able to wrestle up close with enemies (button tapping or grappling.) I think it's safe to say they display a high level of skill.

Then we have to measure how they compare to other Arisen... Which is: They are better than all of them. We beat Daimon's first and second form, of which he'd been killing tons of Arisen for "a hundred lifetimes", we beat Grigori who went unkilled for at least a thousand years. We beat Savan in a direct duel (which if you're going Fighter or Warrior is a sword fight with Seneschal fuckery) who was in the position of Seneschal for "countless lifetimes". We beat the Ur-Dragon who is just a much more powerful Grigori, basically Grigori x20.

In contrast: Dragonforged and Sofiah lose/die to Grigori, hundreds, probably thousands of Arisen die to Daimon. Grigori himself lost to Savan and who knows who else lost to him. Hell, pawns even died in the Everfall and BBI. The Ur-Dragon if we wanna get head-canony... Probably killed and devoured at least 20 Arisen.

Plus the fact they can't even block as a Warrior yet somehow in lore can survive the encounters must mean they're able to dodge or parry before they're hit.

Yes I know "Dragon's Dogma is about Will, they would lose all their fights", and they wouldn't.... It's about Will but it's also about martial might. I'm sure the Dragonforged and Sofiah had "Will" against Grigori but they still lost to him. There's no way Dragonforged just gave up.

Sometimes Will isn't enough, if it was we'd have been able to crush Grigori from the beginning. We have had to train to fight all these beasts, we have the WILL to train enough to defeat them, not the immediate Will to beat them.

I'll grant you this, the Arisen always has help, and it's usually a requirement for him, and... Yes the Arisen can use all the classes, but he's usually depicted with a sword and shield, when you start the game before you get to choose your class, you start with a sword. On the cover of the games across basically every platform they use a sword.

As far as the Arisen having pawns, I think it's still meant to be a party adventuring and saving the world, not the pawns cleaning up while he sits on his ass.

Plus they are used to duels with humans, like they effortlessly defeat Julien, they deal with Bandits, Skeleton Knights and Skeleton Lords, Golden and Silver Knights, Living Armor, Corrupted Pawns. Basically an army at the Duke's demesne (where the pawns can't even go so he did it alone.) Even the Cyclops and etc who use weapons which the Arisen has to block, dodge against. They beat Ser Berne effortlessly, they duel against Saurians, especially early on with Deep Trouble which practically proves the Arisen's skill, as the Saurians are way above their paygrade at that point.

Not to mention they literally go out of their way to fight and kill almost every threat you can think of, and their intelligence allows them to figure things like the secret augments that no other Arisen has thought of.

I would like to close this out by addressing arguments that may be made, such as the perfect block being a gameplay mechanic.

There is no lore contradictions to these moves working the way they do, and there's no reason to believe they couldn't be done in lore. It's merely the Arisen using a skilled technique that reflects an opponent's own force against them. The Dodge roll is just ... Well, a Dodge roll, people in real life can and have used them, I'm not sure about in combat but still.

As far as objectively analyzing the Arisen's skill, I would like to point out that Savan is basically a nigh-omnipotent God that has been around for probably thousands upon thousands of years. They likely possess superhuman senses or even a type of precognition, they also have their pawn who they likely have trained with while bored, I recognize this is headcanon, but... Being trapped-ish in the way that they are, alone in their realm, they don't have a lot to do.

Then there's Daimon: The guy has been slaughtering Arisen from countless different worlds for a hundred lifetimes, they have likely seen every single skill, weapon, armor, and tactic you can possibly think of, then we not only beat him, we beat his second form which no one has ever seen before, not even Olra or Barroch.

Then the wildcard: Pawn knowledge... The pawns have to learn from the Arisen, they have to slaughter each individual enemy in the beastiary sometimes hundreds of times, and see countless different tactics done by the Arisen. They have also likely seen tons of different scrolls and studied them which allowed their pawn to achieve higher knowledge as well. It should also be mentioned there is almost no scrolls in the game that offer level 3 knowledge, which means you have to get them on your own.

The Arisen is undeniably an absolute genius when it comes to strategies and tactics against both creatures and humans, it's not fair to discredit the Arisen's skill or say "we don't know" when we know that the pawn knowledge exists.

I think if forced to use a normal sword and shield they would be a perfectionist that only a few in fiction could actually beat if stats are totally equalized. Maybe a slight exaggeration but even if you measure him against other Arisen he defeats threats that have been killing Arisen for hundreds or thousands of years and has deep, extensive knowledge of every type of human enemy or creature possible.