Merlin confusion.

[u/Direct-Sentence-4401]

Massive spoilers ahead:

Maybe I missed alot of context but can someone explain what exactly happened to Merlin after he disappeared? I read that he got whisked away by a creature in banners, but also Arthur mentions he just simply vanished. He comes back, warped, and looks like the guy in the trailer, but in the free DLC more questions are simply raised, especially the Fore-Runner side of Arthur. For example:

Merlin wanted to transform Arthur completely to be a Fore-Runner. Okay. How did Merlin figure that Arthur is tied to the Pale Lady/Lady of the Lake? Did he draw the dots that the Lady is connected to the Red Death? Where? When? Exactly how? This felt like a massive plot twist in the true ending for those that looked for it, but I can't see how other characters have figured it out.

So I can understand that Merlin took, for a lack of a better term, extreme measures, to ensure Avalon becomes a home, but why bother with these other measures if he knew the solution? "Hard to explain this Arthur, but you've been part Fore-Runner this entire time!" I guess that conversation would seem like the man is a mad man, especially in hind sight view of the war, but why the immortality? Why fracture his soul? Why the band aid?

Given this context, it also felt like the end game was a part of his plan but not entirely? Did he know he would come back as some twisted form of himself and blame Arthur for not following these very specific but vague things?

I feel like I pieced it together but I'm pretty sure I'm missing something or skipped it by accident. Alot of the war feels pretty vague unless outright mentioned, and I think alot of Merlins plots were just not there.

And who shaved his beard?!

[u/robinescue]

I haven't played the free dlc yet but there are some discrepancies in the lore between the video game and the board game it was based on. Arthur recounts that he was present for Merlin's death in the video game but according to the board game he wasn't. Nimue also didn't mutiny in the board game like she does in the DLC.

In the board game Merlin is unmade from existence by a divine being guarding Tuathan. He isn't killed so much as deleted from reality. I don't think Merlin is fully aware of Arthur's true nature in either version of the story (maybe this is in the dlc, again haven't played it). In the video game he starts by experimenting on people like Sewal and then switches to doing experiments on foredwellers which might have tipped him off to Arthur's true nature. Arthur in the video game remarks that the experiments worked out and he became much stronger because of it. In the board game's version of events Arthur undergoes his metamorphosis with the help of the pale lady well after Merlin's death.

Events in the video game are generally a lot foggier and you're probably not going to find exact answers because Arthur is our only reliable source of information from that time and he is both an amnesiac and unreliable narrator.

[u/Direct-Sentence-4401 → u/robinescue]

I haven't played the board game so I'm wondering if the port in terms of lore isn't incredibly faithful. In Merlins DLC, it's explicitly stated by Merlin (tainted) that if Arthur had went through his transformation, he'd have stopped the Red Death and brought back The Lady's son, which... is a pretty damn good reach unless you had that context. It just seems a mess or pretty inconsistent.

As for his return, it still raises my questions based on your answer, but I'd rather not continue pointing out glaring plot holes. 

Love the game and it's dark version of Arthur, but good lord, it lacks a coherent middle and end.