Hoods and welcome to Day 24 of the advent calendar! Only one more sleep to go until the big day! Now this entry isn't Christmas related in the slightest, but I've been pretty good this year so I'm treating myself to an indulgent advent entry. Join me as we take a cursory look at one of Gielinor's most prominent Mahjarrat....
A dive into the characterisation of Sliske
If you're here then you've likely encountered Sliske at some point during your quest experiences, having made his debut in Ritual of the Mahjarrat and eventually becoming the namesake of his very own questline, but in retrospect what are our thoughts on Sliske as a whole?
Complicated, oh so complicated. But when has Sliske ever been easy to decipher?
Let's take a walk down memory lane, and visit the transcript of "Above the Lore: The Secrets of Sliske" (June 2013). Here we have Mods Osbourne, Raven, and Ollie discussing Sliske in the run up to the next Sliske Quest at the time which I believe was "Missing, Presumed Death", with the aim of giving the player a little insight into his character. This transcript I like for the discussion on his direct inspiration and for the Mods personal thoughts as well. Let's take some bullet points and review that in one moment;
"Not bound by morals", not something we'd find surprising to hear, "Inscrutable" too! Well, for a man who enjoys his masks this seems consistent with characterisation.
"It's not so much he that hates, it's more like who he can troll the most". The latter half again unsurprising, but the former half is more unexpected. Sliske does big emotions, all or nothing. Not hating the player is interesting knowledge.
"Weirdly, the person he'd be most likely to trust would be the player. In a weird kind of way." Does Sliske trust us to be consistent? Trust us be predictable in that we make the right moral choice? If that were the case there'd be others he'd trust and we know that's not the case. What does that mean for the player and their relationship?
From this point in the timeline we have a baseline picture for Sliske; he is a man who purposely shrouds his intentions and motives in mystery. Untrustworthy and in turn distrusting, he is a one man team against the world. No others on the inside with a look in to his thoughts, Sliske is alone. Despite this and his seeming acceptance of being alone (perhaps this is by design rather than a consequence of his being), he is drawn to the player. The initial draw would obviously be because the player character is pivotal to all that goes on (as the main character the world and story revolves around them, why wouldn't Sliske be interested in them?), but what else is there beyond a hero that, compared to others like the signature heroes, is a dime a dozen? For this we turn to Guthix's memory in Azzanadra's Quest;
Guthix has a humongous part to play in Sliske's obsession with the player character, and it is obsession. Sliske is indeed consumed by his curiosity, and I think this highlights two other facets of his character; His intelligence, and his boredom. We know Sliske's clever, how can he not be with the various puzzles, traps, terrible terrible labyrinths, and sheer web of lies and manipulation? To hold the rank of Praefectus Praetorio, you would have to be sharp. But with intelligence comes a need for stimulation and in a world of increasing monotony and predictability his own existence becomes akin to torture. He spells this out for us in Sliske's Endgame;
The above, however, should be taken with a pinch of salt. Moments after his death, Sliske is revealed as an agent of the Elder Gods. An agent of Jas. We ourselves spend several quests trying to appease the Elders and prevent the total annihilation of this world, and I think in his own way Sliske was too. Don't get me wrong, there's always something in it for Sliske. I draw this conclusion from Sliske's own logic during "Sliske's Gift" (Post Fate of the God content);
Sliske's official justification to (who we assume to be) Jas as witnessed in Desperate Times is as follows;
Sliske's main purpose in bringing the gods together is for Jas to study and most likely to appraise. To weigh up the value of life and see if there is any worth in allowing them to live, which would be to the detriment of the Elders as the purpose of Gielinor is to act as an anima reserve for the next Elder rebirth cycle. We find ourselves doing much the same as Sliske in following quests, for the purpose of our continued survival despite the looming threat of extinction. Why would Sliske care though? It was my personal impression that Sliske didn't have much investment in if he lived or died due to sheer boredom near the end of his life. Why care if that boring existence continued? Kindred Spirits may give us some perspective perhaps;
"Beauty makes the world bearable". And it's true! Despite everything, Gielinor is still something to love and marvel at. Perhaps to Sliske, Gielinor is his home after leaving Freneskae and fondness may sway him to at least try to preserve it. I can't see why else Sliske would try to present the concept of beauty to a being who finds it irrelevant if he himself did not feel strongly about it.
An important factor to consider is that Sliske is heavily associated with both the arts and emotions compared to his kin. While it would be too much to get into here, the "Night Theatre" collection from the Senntisten dig site and Kindred Spirit's "Death at Sea" gives us insight into his creative outlets. Most important to mention here is the tie-in to one of Sliske's most prominent motifs; The Masks. Dated back to his early days in the empire, seen used throughout his quests as a visual and as a puzzle mechanic, and even seen surviving him post death. We associate masks with the theatre and we know him to be a playwright in his own personal time outside the realm of spying. Exchanging one set of smoke and mirrors for another. It is worth delving into the further meanings and implications of what his masks mean for his character.
Oh alright, just this once. But it still stands that Sliske has always used masks for various purposes. Let's go back to the basics, what does a mask do? It conceals. It can fabricate. It can offer anonymity. Sliske wears both literally and figuratively many masks, which serves his purpose as the Zarosian equivalent of the Head of the FBI, but also for personal means. The Inquisitor's Memoirs (Page 7) offers an outside perspective on Sliske's layers;
"I wonder if Sliske even knew his true self". A thousand lives, a thousand personalities for specific purposes. Which one is the original?
I think many aspects of Sliske's personality translates over to his masks, including what I believe to be his own humanity. Or Sliske's version of humanity at least. There are key aspects of Sliske's true personality we can pin down such as; a sense of humour, intelligence, a sardonic accent, a calculative and performative nature, and so on. Sliske's humanity is... an issue for him. His own kind profess that they do not possess the emotional range of a human, and using Kharshai who is a well known friend to human kind as an example, he found upon remembering who he was that he lost a certain capacity to feel. It's possible that Sliske has a human's emotional range but does not have the cultural perspective to understand those emotions. But there is one other thing to consider with regards to Sliske's capacity to feel emotions, straight from the Fate of the Gods FAQ with Mod Rowley;
At the time of Mod Rowley contributing to Sliske's characterisation, he envisaged him to have Bipolar Disorder. This is very in line with the moods displayed by Sliske throughout his character arc, periods of highs and lows with extremes. This I feel ties into having the capacity to feel more than his kin, as this sort of behaviour is considered abnormal by their societal standards as well. From the same FAQ, Mod Rowley also provides this;
"It was a sobering moment for Sliske, but probably also a liberating one". Freedom from ones own lies, a breath of fresh air. The truth will set you free as the saying goes. Even Sliske isn't immune from getting caught in his own web, so perhaps this moment highlights the mounting stress and the cathartic release of his own machinations.
Before we draw a conclusion, there is one final element to think about. This time we go in-game to refer to a humble examine text found within Sliske's Praetorian office;
How does one define an egomaniac?
What we need to consider here is if we're going by the layman's use of egomaniac or the psychiatric term. By layman's use we can agree that Sliske is indeed a self centred individual, intolerably so. However if we use the psychiatric definition then we could tie that into the possible Bipolar disorder that Sliske exhibits, and can specifically tie that into the symptoms of Bipolar mania as one may feel self-important. That said, I'm unwilling to commit to a psychiatric definition of egomania for Sliske as while he is self-centred that's not all there is to him. He does not have the ego of Zemouregal or Lucien, Sliske is almost too self aware for that. We're also unable to pin down if the egocentricity he displays is a true characteristic or something he wants others to perceive of him. For now, I'm going to say Sliske boasts an ego but nothing deeper than that.
So what conclusion do we draw from this? What sort of man is Sliske?
Complicated, oh so complicated.
Sliske is an individual who by design is hard to define in 100 words or less. Sliske kept the player on their toes and kept them guessing as to what he'd do next, and can successfully say he was one of the most mysterious and elusive characters within the history of RuneScape. I sincerely doubt Sliske would be able to define himself so easily, as that would require him to reflect inwards and dissect his true self, and if he can't identify where he starts and ends separate from his web of lies then he'll never get anywhere.
To the outside world, Sliske was a puppet master extraordinaire. He held all the cards and would appear to be several steps ahead of others. It was in his nature to be self serving and do what he felt was best for him. Appearance was important to him, he needed to appear to be in control of the board. If someone swept the rug from beneath him or discovered even the slightest fraction of his true motives it could send him into a destructive rage.
Behind the scenes we do not know much, and I wish we knew more. Sliske had gumption and was willing to take risks for the things he wanted. The first to betray Icthlarin, the first Zarosian Mahjarrat. To some degree Sliske embodied the ideals of Zamorak, as without the chaos he wrought by his hand there would have been stagnation. For better or for worse, Sliske has changed the course of history more than once.
Intelligent, witty, cruel, a master strategist, and an artist. A master of shadow and deception, a slave to erratic emotions and that damnable human spark.
Sliske was a character who brought so much to the RuneScape storyline, and leaves behind big shoes to fill for future antagonists.
Thank you for joining me in this long winded dissection of one of my favourite characters! I'd be fascinated to hear your thoughts if you made it this far, and would love nothing more than to discuss this further sometime. For now though I'll say goodbye and catch you in the next one. Unshood!
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
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