Talk:Sly/@comment-36029834-20180630021823

Couple theories relating to Sly being infected in the crossroads.

This is skating thin ice, but perhaps Sly's derogatory "Oro weilds like a club" comment means Sly viewed Oro as the weakest of his pupils, who then decided to overcome/surpass the Nailsage in a different way? Oro mentions that he doesn't begrudge the Knight the Nailsage's love, and seems to think that in helping you become stronger he has redeemed himself; leading me to think Oro begrudged the closeness and/or pride the other three shared in their skills and attempted to get stronger using alternative methods. Maybe the reason Sly became lost and sick was due to following a suggestion from Oro to enhance the Nail Arts with the power of the infection? Perhaps what Oro owes Mato is something of a blood price, since they wouldn't know Sly was still alive until they saw the Knight's Nailmaster's Glory charm.

Alternatively; maybe Oro's desire for Geo is what prompted Sly to look into shopkeeping, which gradually took up all his time till he basically abandoned his position as the Nailsage. When the Nailmasters see that you have the NGlory they are impressed with you, but don't show any surprise that the Nailsage is still alive to give it; so this might be closer to the truth than my first idea (Sly probably would've gotten lost after the students left).

Building on idea #2; Sly's Dreamnail dialogue "Esmy... how much deeper do we have to go..." seems to indicate that he was being lead somewhere. Perhaps Esmy is a nickname? The Three Nailmasters all dress in the colours of the highborns of Hallownest. Emilitia laughs about outliving the rest of the upper caste; who apparently cast her out; evidently the nobles were very competitive. She now lives surrounded by a horde of precious things, and the Gorgeous Husk journal entry also indicates that riches were crucial in that high society... Perhaps this Esmy was leading the then-nobleman Sly on a wild goose chase for Geo? Emilitia is also the most likely candidate for the Esmy nickname in terms of spelling (close second going to Isma, but her title "Kindly" would make any obsessive interest in Geo or in ruining Sly very out of character).

Other odds and ends; Esmy could possibly be a trivial sort of curse, possibly related to a personal diety of his ("omg how much deeper??") or merely a speach quirk (similar to Bardoon's "Ohrm"), though I consider these both unlikely since you'd think someone losing the ability to speak wouldn't bother speaking unless it was particularly worth the effort. Also, though Sly glibly says that he has no idea why his storeroom key would be in the mines; he was the one who brought that up - not the Knight, who actually found it - so he must have suspected it would be there for some reason. Elderbug does mention that many bugs went straight from the town to those mines, though I don't think there are any named suspects there. Although... there is a journal entry mentioning a power dwelling within the crystals... (see hypothesis #1)

None of this quite rings true to me; I just hadn't seen anyone discussing anything along these lines yet. If this sparks any alternative or additive ideas, and particularlt you have any thoughts that directly shut down any of these rabbit trails; I'd love to hear them.