I made it on reddit and the formatting was made in mind for it, so feel free to read it here
But for those that don’t want to? I can put it right here. sorry if the formatting sucks
“Commodore Kai is either a corrupt Grand Navy figure, or an Order Of Aesir Baron / someone serving a Baron. Here’s my proof for each of them.”
This is just some dumb theory I made, and a follow up to a post I made. Take what I say here with a grain or bucket of salt because this is speculative.
It’s intriguing how with just four lines, a statement from Lord Elius, an account from Edward Kenton, and the storyline as a whole, that so much could be formed. I’m currently on my 6th playthrough of Arcane Odyssey, and as I was grinding Commodore Kai to get to level 48 before the Iris bossfight, I… noticed some pretty key pieces that aligned, even for a possibly inconsequential miniboss. Let me get my thoughts down. First, I need to summarize a few things about The Order Of Aesir, and then I’ll get into Edward Kenton’s account.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE ORDER OF AESIR SO FAR
r/ArcaneOdyssey - Commodore Kai is either a corrupt Grand Navy figure, or an Order Of Aesir Baron / someone serving a Baron. Here’s my proof for each of them.
-
They want to further the power of magic by any means necessary…morals and innocents be damned.
-
They want to collect all of the Sea Curses, cubes of pure magic that grant immortality from natural death and get immense power from them.
-
They want to reawaken some sort of ancient power. That can’t be good considering the first point.
-
They are influential to the point that the King of Ravenna is a High Lord, meaning that prominent figures in the War Seas could possibly be an Aesir member.
-
They don’t give second chances when it comes to failure, as Lord Elius told us before we either spare them (and likely leave them to die, either from wounds or Aesir), or speed things up a bit and kill him after his boss fight in Djin Ruins.
“I’m a noble from Ravenna. Since I failed, I may as well tell you everything. The Order doesn’t give a second chances.”
With that out of the way, lets get into Edward Kenton’s account, detailing why he left the Grand Navy. This is his line of dialogue from before Silverhold is infiltrated in his Quartermaster quest, when the player asks them about the organization:
"Hmmm… well, I liked my role as a Marine, but when I became a Captain, things changed a bit. I was once commanded to be part of a blockade of a small town, and after a few days, we were commanded to open fire on them… The island was reduced to rubble. I’ve experienced a few other things like that, and they’re part of the reason that I deserted. When I asked the reasoning behind some of those orders to my Lieutenant, he dodged the questions, as if he didn’t know either. Don’t get me wrong, the Navy is still a great group that does mostly good and helps the War Seas towards peace, but there is definitely something shady happening higher up the ladder. It doesn’t sit right with me.
This is disconcerting, since from what we’ve seen from the Grand Navy as a whole, they are heroic and want to stop piracy. Heck, island secrets in Blackreach outright state that the reason the Grand Navy was founded to begin with? They used to be The Astoria Kingdom, and the founder lost his parents to piracy, and he didn’t want others to suffer like he did, hence why he reformed his kingdom into the Grand Navy. Considering the fact that thousands volunteered as soon as The Astoria Kingdom was reformed into the Navy, people felt the same. There is evidence that the Grand Navy is also made up of people who genuinely want to make the War Seas a better place, and I will use that to support my arguments of Kai being a corrupt Grand Navy figure / Kai being an Aesir Baron with Rear Admiral Amelia, but I will get to that later. First…
COMMODORE KAI IS A CORRUPT FIGURE IN THE GRAND NAVY
-
One of Commodore Kai’s possible start-of-battle lines is “You managed to get past the guards, I see… I’ll have to kill you myself.”, and the latter part is what grabbed my attention. He doesn’t even hesitate to kill the player character on sight, which implies a ruthless personality far divorced from what’s supposed to be a hero of the Grand Navy
-
Related to that, his second possible line is “You shouldn’t be here… Begone from my sight”. It is possible that there is something he knows about the Grand Navy, and could be part of that problem, and he fights us to prevent us from uncovering the darker dealings of the Grand Navy, possibly an even morally questionable activity with a capital Q that can tarnish the navy. Not just that, the tone of his dialogue is also dismissive, he may consider Silverhold as his territory, seeing us (the player character) as a challenge to his authority and a risk to the control he has as a Commodore, which is wildly inappropriate coming from a prominent figure that embodies going against piracy and crime.
-
Going off of Edward Kenton’s account about being commanded to open fire on innocents, there is some troubling stuff going on in the Grand Navy, likely an internal war and struggle for power. Kai is part of the Grand Navy, he could possibly be complicit in in morally questionable actions, and that can align with Edward’s sense that something sinister lurks within the ranks. Not just that, two things are implied about the Lieutenant Edward approached. Either they don’t know what the fuck is going on and is just as confused as him, or worse, they are complicit in the incident and know more than they want to reveal. Even worse? The rank of Commodore is higher than Lieutenant, so it’s possible that he (or another Commodore) caused the incident.
-
And that “secret” could possibly refer to the incident causing Edward to leave. In his death throes for the first death quote, he questions the player about their knowledge of the “secret” he has. He could be aware of his corrupt nature, and the corruption of the Navy as a whole, but chooses to keep it hidden. Meaning some very morally dubious practices are going on.
-
His second death quote “It seems I’ve failed my duty… End me now, or they surely will.” implies very, very severe repercussions to failure within some circles of the Grand Navy. He may be involved in dangerous, covert operations within the Navy that hold members to an uncompromising standard of success, even high-ranking members like a Commodore. If this is referring to whatever circle of the Navy he’s in, then that circle has a ruthless approach to dealing with internal failures of the “You screwed up, now die.” kind.
COMMODORE KAI IS A BARON OF THE ORDER OF AESIR, OR AT THE VERY LEAST SERVES A BARON
If this is true, then a lot about what’s implied about him (and by extension, the corrupted part of the Grand Navy) suddenly makes a lot of sense, and go way beyond mere internal affairs and a possible power struggle in the background.
-
Lord Elius’s account—“The Order doesn’t give second chances” recontextualizes Kai’s second death quote. He knows the Order is coming for his ass because we have defeated him, and he wants us to speed things up by killing him then and there. He is asking us to end him the Order’s retribution far worse than any death than we could give him. Given that we stab Elius twice when we choose to kill him, it’s painful, yes, but also much quicker. We don’t know how the Order punishes those that fail…and I’d rather not know.
-
Going back to his first start of battle quote, he is very committed to safeguarding whatever secrets or objectives he’s overseeing, just like how The Order of Aesir operates with a high degree of secrecy. In that case, he wouldn’t want us to know about whatever knowledge he has regarding the order as a whole. Hell, the fact that he’s straight up trying to kill us rather than apprehend us could be a measure to ensure that under the event we found out about his involvement, we wouldn’t live to tell others.
-
Because the Order’s influence reaches to outright kings, it’s possible that portions of the Grand Navy have fallen into it as well…and we know The Order Of Aesir wants to further their goals, no matter what. Meaning that if Kai is part of the Aesir, he likely could’ve given orders (or at least influenced them) that lead to the massacre Edward told us about.
-
If he had direct involvement in the incident that caused Edward to leave, it would make sense, since his rank is higher than Lieutenant. As a double agent, he would have the authority and means to direct operations like blockades or attacks on towns to further The Order’s goals of advancing magic, regardless of civilian casualties, using the Navy as a front while protecting a hidden agenda aligning with Aesir. We don’t know yet if we was involved in the incident, but given the Order’s “magic at any cost” approach, it’s not out of the question that he was complicit in the mass revoking of life privileges, and explain the lack of reasoning from the Lieutenant since the true purpose of that action is hidden from anyone that isn’t Kai, or possible Aesir members in plain sight.
I mentioned Rear Admiral Amelia at the start of this, and her dialogue is a key factor in this theory to support Kai being a corrupt Grand Navy figure and possibly Aesir member, so let’s go into her start of battle quotes, and then her death quotes.
REAR ADMIRAL AMELIA - WHY SHE’S IMPORTANT TO THIS THEORY
Since Commodore Kai doesn’t paint a good picture of what’s going on in the Navy, I’d like to point towards why Edward still thinks the Navy “does mostly good”. Amelia is proof of that, as her 5 quotes do not show any hints at something darker, only that of a figure committed to justice.
-
Two of Amelia’s start of battle quotes “The War Seas would be better off without scum like you… Prepare to be crushed!”, and “I’ll crush you like the criminal scum you are…” is a direct nod to the fact that she wields a very powerful Lost Magic, Gravity to be specific, and a showing that Amelia is not soft on evildoers, rather than wanting to silence people over a possible plan they’re involved in… There is no hint of her being tied to Aesir, in fact, her quotes point towards her being a genuinely heroic figure, supporting Edward’s statement that “the Navy is still a great group that does mostly good and helps the War Seas towards peace”. Amelia’s very existence proves that there are people in the Grand Navy that genuinely want to help others.
-
On a minor note, the third one, “You’re well out of your league…I’ll have to show you your place!” shows that criminals confronting her is the worst possible mistake you can make, as she can and likely will spaghettify you if she must.
-
Two of Amelia’s death quotes “It seems all we fought for was meaningless, for human nature will always bring about war…” and “I’ll… I’ll never see the War Seas know peace…” heavily contrast Kai’s. While the Commodore is implying something darker with ever single one of his quotes, Amelia is committed to seeing that the War Seas are happy and safe.
CONCLUSION
To end things off, Rear Admiral Amelia’s lines show that she is firmly committed to justice and has a protective stance over the War Seas. Two of her start of battle quotes convey a strong stand against crime, no strings attached. In death, she’s shown to be despaired or disappointed over the fact that war will go on, and the fact that she’ll never see the War Seas know peace. No hidden agendas, no suspicion, people like her are why Edward Kenton says that the Navy is still a great group that mostly does good.
As for Kai… depending on what you go with, he’s either a deeply corrupt figure involved in internal affairs within the Grand Navy, or proof that the Navy has fallen under Aesir’s influence. His lines portray a much darker intent, with phrases like “Begone from my sight” and “I’ll have to kill you myself” revealing a ruthless attitude that can fall in line with an Aesir member that sees the player as a threat to his personal power or secrets, as opposed to a criminal awaiting judgement in form of a fight. His two death quotes, especially the one that says “End me now, or they surely will,” don’t so much as hint, but imply that he is under pressure from a higher authority due to the fact that there are no second chances to failure.
Whatever “secret” he has, the way he withholds it and vaguely talks about it aligns well with the behavior of an Aesir agent concealing the Order’s covert operations.
The Grand Navy does not look too good now, does it?
also to be clear, this is some dumb theory i made because i was thinking too much about miniboss dialogue
