After having played through this game's every route and finishing it countless times, as well as beating both paths in Knight of Lodis, despite my adoration there are still so many things that don't add up plot wise. This was initially longer but I cut a lot of stuff about the blurry details of when and where the Dark Knights got Brynhildr out to shorten it since it's less relevant. I'll start by setting up some things that the story conveys to us;

- In the canon ending to KoL we learn that after the events on Ovis, Lanselot is charged with the murder of his commander after deserting the Sacred Flame but is recruited to work directly for the pope, like his ally Cybil Alinda, after pretty much preventing an apocalyptic event by slaying an ambitious fallen angel.

- There is/was a rift between church and state in Lodis. While it isn't outright stated between LUCT and KoL, High Priest Sardian is most likely the same entity as the pope given there's no reason or detail given to doubt otherwise. Lanselot is directly responsible for the theocratic insurrection/revolt that led to Loslorien, which is overseen by the pope, becoming the dominant political power in Lodis. In LUCT we see that Balxephon did a lot of heavy lifting of this in the background, going so far as to assassinate and incriminate his own family, but given how Lans argues with Hobyrim in Barnicia on the topic and the fact that he is the lord of his order and working directly for the pope, he is certain to be a first party insurrectionist in this regard.

- The Dark Knights Loslorien, Lanselot's order, is noted in LUCT to be the pope's most prized, right-hand order, but notably he does not deploy them to go head-on and win wars, he deploys them for cloak-and-dagger missions.

- Brantyn petitioned Lodis for re-inforcements, Lodis sent the Dark Knights. Brantyn practically gives them a safe haven to operate from but they base themselves in Phidoch. In many cutscenes across all routes, they basically feign ever actually helping Brantyn while they do their own manners of action and investigation. We see them

- Deal with the Liberation Front, and re-capture Prancet

- Take Rhime*

These are... Pretty much the only things the Dark Knights actually do "for" the Bakram. They handled the liberation front rebels because they conflicted with their own interest, not Brantyn's, but still likely got them brownie points with him. The taking of Rhime gave them brownie points, but very quickly we discover in-game that this wasn't part of the plan at all as we watch Balxephon chew out Barbas for taking this task on from Brantyn, enunciating that Brantyn isn't their boss, Lanselot was. In pretty much every other cutscene, the Dark Knight armies are indifferent to Bakram armies dying even when it's right outside their gates, with at least half of the battles against the Bakram being like "We need only hold til the dark knights arrive ... shit, they really arent coming are they"

- Near the end of the mainline game, we learn straight from Lanselot and Barbas's conversation that they seek a "miracle" and that "the rule of Valeria is just another step along their path" and isn't their "true goal", with Barbas positing his confusion of why they even need the princess now that they have the Xenobian blade. Following this, when Lans is beaten in Barnicia, he internally remarks that it might be easier to "kill her now" but decides against because it would make ruling the isles far more difficult.

- Barbas and Martym, when you face them at the chaos gate, insist that Catiua wasn't needed given that they had Brynhildr, and that Lanselot only wanted her alive to make a puppet state of the isles, and that they intended to open the gate to the abyss to take it's power for Lodis

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There are a few glaring questions that crop up to me here.

1. If Lans wanted Catiua alive to make ruling Valeria easier, why did he consider killing her at Barnicia? Surely it couldn't have been related to the chaos gate, with them being far away and in retreat, not to mention whatever goals after opening the gate likely being more complex which I'll address later. The reason he stops in the first place is that killing her would make this far more difficult. The idea that Lans would kill her at all, which his dialogue suggests that he's going to do eventually regardless, doesn't make sense with all the cards on the table. What, just get her coronated then assassinate her a few weeks later to send Valeria back in to chaos?
2. What the hell were Barbas and Martym doing? They work for an order that directly answers to the Pope. The Pope. And they basically go on a suicide run to open a portal to hell to "claim the power within for Lodis", full well knowing Dorgalua turned himself into a demonic entity. If these are the most trustworthy Lodis has to offer by the religious authority, would they not at the very least be educated enough to know that Philaha/Filarhh would not want them opening a portal to hell that endangers everyone else and incurs an apocalyptic event without someone around to seal it back.
3. Slight tangent for miscellaneous story details, but at the start of Chapt4, what the fuck was the Order of Philaha doing? They say they've taken up hostages in Brigantys and bargain them for the Resistance's surrender to the Bakram, but when we actually venture there, we learn the leader of their order is Olivya who invites us to see Prancet. Was that all a feint? If this was all a ploy by Olivya to get the attention of the resistance, did she not think that "hostages" wouldn't immediately make a military body hostile? Archierus Mreuva is technically the leader but he's MIA. ^{Also while I'm at it, Vyce and Arycelle intervened in the fight against Leonar in ch2l because they were there to assassinate the Duke themselves, right? Nothing else makes sense with them sneaking in undetected and armed}

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On Question #2. I could get it to some degree if a good chunk of the Dark Knights are just there for their usefulness and battle capability and don't actually care that much about the religious aspect. Andoras and Barbas are this in spades, neither of them really care about the overarching goal, Barbas just wants to fight and Andoras just wants revenge for what happened to his own people and was pretty much backhandedly drafted for his willful surrender so he acts useful until then. Martym is an asterisk because he's the only one that really enunciates the idea of claiming the power of the abyss for Lodis and doesn't have that much defined for him aside from joining in his boyfriend's attack on Rhime.

But none of this really seems to give a conclusive answer to my last question:

What was Lanselot Jan Zizka Tartaros's "true mission" here? What was "King Dorgalua's Legacy" even supposed to be?

He's shown to be generally indifferent to who actually rules Valeria and constantly eschews that they're there for a greater purpose, half the time right in front of Catiua. In discussion, Barbas refers to this by asking "what about the miracle we seek?" which isn't expanded upon, but it seems off to suggest that Lans was meant to do the same goal as Barbas/Martym to open a portal to the abyss to 'take it's power'

My instinct says that he was basically there as a Doomslayer to defeat Dark Dorgalua to nullify any chance of him actually resurfacing - narratively I feel like there could be some credence there with demonic forces needing a mortal life to influence the mortal world and actually cause anything that could let the floodgates open, that's why antagonists deal with demons/ogres so much and end up corrupted like that, but then again it's mentioned in the fight with Martym/Barbas that the gate is sealed from the world's side and can't be opened from the other end, so that wouldn't make sense.

After you beat the game and read Lans's character page in the Warren report, it notes "his true task was to occupy Valeria and seek the wondrous powers thought hidden there. He attempted to use Brynhildr . . . to unravel the mysteries of these powers. However, finally realizing they were beyond man's control, he considered withdrawing from Valeria" - the majority of which isn't referenced in the in-game cutscenes at all.

Given that Barbas and co knew about the truth of Dorgalua's death, then why would the pope send them to investigate "wondrous powers" that are buried in the abyss under his tomb? Part of me feels like someone in Lodis got their info mixed up with Apocrypha (Valeria's unique brand of forbidden magic) but frankly with the notion about Apocrypha requiring it's user to become an elemental Oracle toward specific elemental gods being narratively an embracing of polytheism, something that'd be considered akin to paganism since the church in Lodis is monotheistic, it'd probably be as heretical as whatever Dark Dorgalua was buried with.

^{also here's my main save. enjoy the busted roster and the npc-only units since I'm now done with this game}

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