I had an article about CL legendary life summoner before, here
In the 03/23/2022 Townhall, the new life legendary summoner art was revealed from Nate. His name is Grandmaster Rathe. The town hall summary article here.
So I wanted to come back to the stats speculation again. Before I write about this, I read other people's speculation. One that stood out to me was bravetofu's speculation article.
He figured out that if you read Rathe backward, it is "Eh Tar", who is Sherlock Holmes's mentor and friend-tuned enemy according to this fandom article.
I was very impressed by the article and I found out that the creator of Rathe, moriarty95 was commenting on his article. He said...
nice catch on the "Eh Tar" part.
Was wondering how long it will take people to make that connection 😉
So it was pretty much confirmed that Rathe was created based on the character from sherlock holmes story.
I read the description of him on the fandom website and had good insights, so I want to share my speculation based on the story here today.
Sentences in quates are cited from the website.
1. Fencing Coach
Eh Tar, also known as Professor Rathe, is the primary antagonist of the 1985 film Young Sherlock Holmes. He is a fencing coach
What skill do you think of when you hear "fencing"?
I immediately thought about
Piercing: If Melee or Ranged attack damage is in excess of the target's Armor, the remainder will damage the target's Health
This skill is amazing for a card like "Uriel the purifier" because his recharge damage can be blocked by one armor. With piercing, his attack go through the armor, which will be a huge improvement of the card.
2. Worshiping Osiris, the Egyptian God of the Dead
He is also the leader of the [[Rame Tep]], an ancient Egyptian society worshiping Osiris, the Egyptian God of the Dead. They are renowned for their deviance from traditional beliefs and performance of violent and sadistic rituals, most notably human sacrifices.
This part explains his outfit and what he's wearing in the art so so much.
Rathe was behind a series of kidnappings and murders of six men and five women. The women were sacrificed to the god of the dead; they were mummified alive and boiling oil painfully poured over them. Rathe was himself the high priest, wearing the mask resembling the god Anubis. He has a ring that is highly reflective, and is designed to hypnotize those who are forced to stare at it for a time.
Let's look at his art closely again!
- He does look like a high priest with a white robe
- He does have a ring that is reflective.
- He doesn't have an Anubis mask BUT he has an ornament that looks like Anubis head.
I also read the wiki of Osiris. It mentioned that Anubis is the god of mummification.
All of the information makes me think that he might have an ability that is related to death, surcrifice, resurrection, after life. In my opinion, the ability that has the highest probability is this.
Life leach: Monster's health increases each time it damages an enemy Monster's health in proportion to the damage dealt.
Of course, I thought about resurrect but Chanseus the great, Untamed life legendary summoner already has the ability. So I thought it's unlikely. I thought about scavenger, redemption as well but the meanings of those words didn't fit the theme as good as life leech.
The final thoughts on the stats
I created the card with https://splinterlandscardmaker.com/
+1 melee, piercing, life leech.
I added +1 melee because Rathe was a fencing coach and it has good synergy with piercing.
I thought about +1 hp, -1 hp but +1 hp could give too much hp to friendly monsters in the end after some turns. Also, it seems to me that Yabapmatt doesn't like to give high hp to monsters with life leech from the start. Please check the cards with life leech if you're curious. So I was not sure if he would give +1 hp. I was really thinking about -1 hp because of the sacrifices made in the story, but his swordsmanship won in my mind.
Counter argument
Some people might think +1 melee is unlikely because there are too many inspire monsters in life. Chaos knight, Evangelist, Silvershield knight, angel of light.
I think you have a great point. Maybe I should change it to -1 hp instead lol
My conclusion was mostly based on the story. So let's say moriarty95's suggestion was +1 melee. It's very possible that Yabapmatt would change +1 melee to +1 magic or -1 hp for example. I really can see that now.
moriarty95, if you're reading this, would you be able to comment how good/bad this speculation is? I know you don't want to give out your suggestions now but maybe you can pick one of these?
- Good speculation
- Meh speculation (somewhat close?)
- Terrible (totally off)
From the research, I definitely learned a lot about Grandmaster Rathe, had fun researching, even though this might be completely off lol
Special Thanks
- moriarty95: thank you for introducing a great character in the game!
- bravetofu: I like your blog posts and your awesome speculation!
- mondroid: I read your article - great speculation as well.
What's your opinion?
Please let me know what you think about my speculation and the upcoming legendary life summoner in the comment section. I'm very curious to hear your thoughts!
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https://splinterlands.com?ref=yukihyakubai