Seneschal

"Show that you've the strength to break the yoke that binds you."

Description

 * See also: Dragon's Dogma World and Lore

The Seneschal is an Arisen who has conquered all in his or her path and shown incredible willpower, becoming the guardian of the world. It is the Seneschal's duty to watch over it and make sure the world continues to thrive. The Seneschal has the power to create life and the power to bring about destruction.

However the world is a loop, an eternity. It always repeats itself and none can escape the turn of the Wheel of existence.

The world draws its sustenance from the will of the Seneschal, eventually draining it and becoming stagnant. In turn, all life loses its volition, leaving everything as an empty shell of false life. In order to grant the inhabitants of the world their own volition, their own true life, the Seneschal sends in a Dragon from the Rift to find the next Arisen. Those who are chosen as Arisen by the Dragon display courage by confronting the beast and more importantly, display the will to survive. Of the few Arisen who reach the Seneschal, the ones who do not have the force or strength of will needed to sustain life fall and become a Dragon, destined to seek out the following Arisen.

One becomes the Seneschal by defeating the current Seneschal and releasing him from the world with the Godsbane.

Once the Arisen has taken the place of Seneschal, they will be able to visit both Cassardis and Gran Soren as an invisible entity, although access within Gran Soren is limited as only its Craftsman, Urban and Noble Quarters are open.

Skills and weaknesses
While The Seneschal is a different character in New Game Plus both online or offline, the skills remains the same:
 * The Seneschal possesses the ability to teleport.
 * The Seneschal possesses the "Trail of Light" ability as an attack. This ability cannot be Silenced with Golden Weapons or suppressed by any other means.
 * The Seneschal (first playthrough) is vulnerable to Torpor. Once inflicted, the Trail of Light attack will be easier to avoid.

New Game Plus
In New Game Plus a new Seneschal is encountered:
 * If online, the game will choose a random online player and their main pawn. Vocations and abilities will be reflected on the player's Seneschal depending what the online player had equipped at the time when they last defeated their Seneschal.
 * The selection pool can be limited by setting one's pawn access to Friends' Only; the Seneschal will then be chosen from the player's friends' list. {verify}
 * If offline, the Seneschal and pawn will have the same Equipment, Skills, and Vocation as the player's Arisen and Main Pawn at the moment they killed the previous Seneschal.

Pawn Bestiary Knowledge

 * Getting hit by, perfect blocking, or evading the aura burst attack can trigger Knowledge.
 * Dragging out the fight. There are at least two knowledge flags that can be learned by standing passively and observing a pawn's interaction with the Seneschal. Unequipping weapons and using only a shield may help accomplish this but is not required.
 * Pawns are able to learn about the Seneschal's final AoE attack, but they may have to experience it many times. Being knocked out by this AoE blast can trigger a knowledge comment.
 * There is a second flag that can be triggered from close interaction between the Arisen's pawn and the Seneschal although the exact tactic is unconfirmed.
 * The final knowledge star is earned by either:
 * Letting the Arisen's pawn grapple the Seneschal, and having the Arisen deliver the finishing blow. It may be necessary to deliver the killing blow with a ranged attack.. {verify}
 * Grappling the Seneschal, and letting the Arisen's pawn deliver the finishing blow. It may be necessary to deliver the killing blow with a melee attack. . {verify}
 * Additionally it may be necessary for the Seneschal's pawn to survive in one fight and defeated in the other.. {verify}
 * If done correctly, the Arisen's Pawn will comment about having learned of beasts immediately after the killing blow is delivered. The two finishing moves must be accomplished in separate playthroughs.

Fathom Deep

 * "If you would heed my call, prove now your worth."
 * "Show that you've the strength to break the yoke that binds you."

The Final Battle: Trial of Power

 * Introduction


 * "Well met, Arisen. I'll not waste time on rhetoric: Defeat me, and take my place as keeper of this world."
 * "You saw it awaiting you at the end of your descent. Aye. The same world you've traveled to arrive at this place. A world you may well now inherit."
 * "It is a simple proposition. No different than any you've faced. You need only the will to claim what is offered you... The will to survive!"


 * Battle


 * "Yes, fight, Arisen, as you ere have fought in coming here!"
 * "What is it that impels you? What force spurns you on?"
 * "What sustained your wanderings and led you here?"
 * "I ask you: What is it that makes you alive?"
 * "'Tis volition. Unbending will."
 * "'You are here because you willed it, Arisen. That alone has brought you here."


 * A taste of power


 * "Consider... The infinite potential..."
 * "Just as you call forth pawns, so I command all life into existence. Call it divine creation if you must. But expect none of the mercy men seek in their gods. This is cold truth. The unbending reality of a world without compassion."
 * "The world and all its denizens are but empty vessels. In that regard, no different than the pawns..." 
 * "Without volition, there is no true life. The world falls stagnant, dead as an ocean with no current to guide it. That volition is tempered by the struggle for survival. The decision, just like yours, to fight."
 * "Just as the pawns need a master's command, so the world thirsts for the will to live."

The Final Battle: Trial of Will

 * Battle


 * "Let us continue, Arisen."
 * "Show that you are more than an empty vessel, animated by forces unseen..."
 * "Show that the temper of your soul is strong enough to command far more than mere pawns..."
 * "Show that your will is fit to bind the fraying circle of this world and hold it fast..."
 * "Fight tooth and claw, Struggle now, and cling to life."
 * "Show that living holds worth enough to fight for!"


 * Defeat?


 * "It is time to decide. Will you claim your right as Arisen? Or shrug the burden and seek peace in oblivion?"
 * "Just so. One foot after the next, come what may. That is what it means to live."
 * "Turn back now and I will grant you a merciful death."
 * "The choice is yours, Arisen. Yours alone."

The Final Battle: Trial of Resolve

 * Making the choice


 * "'Tis a simple choice, Arisen: Step forward, or retreat."
 * "Accept the quiet emptiness of a false peace. Of false life."


 * Peace


 * "Then you would choose peace?... That, too, is a valid fate."
 * "Leave now, and you will never again come to see this place."


 * A simple life


 * "Then fear has bested you as well... So be it. Go, and seek your peace. Your guttering beacon in the churning dark. And I shall await the coming of the next..."


 * Step forward


 * "You are close, now... So very close to me!"
 * "Come, Arisen. I shall meet you on your own terms, joined by my own companion of old."
 * "You stand now at its end, Arisen. See your journey through!"

The Final Battle: Trial to End All

 * Battle


 * "Yes, stoke the flame of your will to survive. To be victorious! Temper your soul in its heat!"
 * "The forge of my heart grows cold, and the world shivers for it."
 * "Know this, Arisen: The world is merciless... Cold and empty, for all its beauty."
 * "It is an ever-turning wheel, perfect beyond compare."
 * "I stand at its center, as you may come to stand in turn."
 * "It is my will that keeps it spinning. My will that urges time onward through eternity."
 * "Our kind must fight, and through fighting prove the temper of our will."
 * "It is a fight that knows no end."
 * "It repeats upon itself, that all the world may repeat with it. And so the cycle continues, forever and ever and ever..."


 * Conclusion


 * "Arisen... Forgive me. All I've done was to test your will. It is the fate of all Arisen... You and I are swept up in the current, same as the rest. Each tempers the volition of the next, and the endless cycle continues."
 * "And so, until the coming of a new soul fit to craft the will to live -- Someone like you. Until that day, may you guide the world ever justly."
 * "I present you with the Godsbane blade... Those who arise to oversee this world are undying, save by this brand's kiss."
 * "I ask that you, as the world's new Seneschal, use it now to vouchsafe freedom to your weary servant."

Final Judgement

 * "New-crowned sovereign and keeper of eternity, grant me now this single boon:"
 * "The fire of my life is spent and guttering. Give me freedom with the kiss of the Godsbane blade."
 * "If there is aught you wish to know afore my death, you need but ask."


 * Question the Seneschal


 * "My knowledge, and my all, is yours to take. What would you hear of me?"


 * What is the Seneschal?


 * "The Seneschal is steward to the world... The world you traveled now rests in your care."
 * "Just as the Arisen calls pawns into being and sets them to motion, the Seneschal holds dominion over all living things."
 * "There are those who would call such a being Maker, or God."
 * "I cannot deny the claim, any more than affirm it. In the end, they are but words."
 * "Call it what you will, such is the office I have served, just as those before me and you beyond, unto eternity..."


 * How is the world composed?


 * "The pawns exist astride the rift. They speak of a multitude of worlds, each infinite unto itself."
 * "Limitless in span and lost to time, these worlds extend in an eternal, perfect loop."
 * "Just as a ring lacks start and end, so this world has no origin, no final terminus."
 * "If it does, they lie beyond our ken."
 * "We are prisoners of unpassing time, wandering an unending land. What lies beyond, we cannot know."


 * What is eternity?


 * "Aye, there is life in the world, and with it death. Naught lasts forever. Each rises and falls in its time."
 * "But such is a death akin to that of pawns."
 * "They appear in this world, then vanish only to appear again, like bubbles in a mountain spring."
 * "As so it is with all that lives within this eternal world."
 * "In time, you will come to see it happen under your watch as Seneschal."
 * "Each beast, each blade of grass, each human life is born to die and be born again in endless rhythm."
 * "Naught lasts forever, yet all persists unto eternity."


 * What is will?


 * "Will is that which led you to this place, and that which turns the eternal wheel of the world."
 * "Along the endless string of life and death, there are some born with a hunger."
 * "They yearn for some other, better place."
 * "They are the Arisen, nascent fountainheads of will."
 * "And so the dragon is sent into the world to guide the Arisen, and refine them. To temper their wills into aught capable of sustaining the world."
 * "And so the cycle of our world has e'er continued."

Wield the Godsbane blade

 * "Mourn me not, for I welcome the release. At long last, I am free of eternity... Of infinity... Free of the cruel, unending ring!"

Trivia and notes

 * A Seneschal was an officer in the houses of important nobles during the Middle Ages. In a medieval noble household, a seneschal was in charge of domestic arrangements and the administration of servants and stood in for the lord or lady in their absence.
 * The name derives from the roots Sene (old) and Scahl (servant) in medieval and pre-medieval European languages
 * The Seneschal's robes are similar to a set of Salvation Robes.
 * Once the player becomes The Seneschal, the player has no access to any of the abilities that Savan (or any Seneschal) used during Final Judgement.


 * In the chronicle, it acknowledges the Scenechal as being omnipotent, but if he was, the game would be unbeatable because not only he would be invunerable, he would be able to quell his bordom easily. The more appropriate phrase is that he is nigh-omnipotent.