Conkrete Knight said:
I always thought a possible crime would be the creation of coaxmetal, as he if I remember correctly, is the weapon ment to end everything, waging war on existence itself.
This is of course a guess and certainly nowhere near canon.
That is a very good theory, certainly the best I have heard so far. Creating Coaxmetal and giving him his purpose would most likely count as an irredeemable crime, and it seems to fit within the framework of the game without being too obvious.
Overall, this thread contains several interesting ideas. Regarding what happens after the events in the game, it might be warranted to take a closer look at the ending itself. While it is obvious that the Nameless One is sent to the Lower Plains to atone for his crimes, the manner in which he arrives there is curious, to say the least. He wakes up seemingly intact, and as he makes his way to fight the fiends on the horison, he leaves his old journal behind, indicating, perhaps, that he has accepted his fate.
However, evil petitioners do not tend to wake up in their original forms, nor do they bring their items with them. They typically respawn as larvae, primarily serving as currency, ingredients, fodder and provisions for fiends. Larvae left unattended can, under certain conditions, evolve independently (into, say,
nupperibos), whereas larvae handled by the Tanar'ri or Baatezu can be elevated to some of the lowest ranks of their respective racial hierarchies. So why then is the Nameless One different?
One reason might be the fact that certain worshippers of evil deities are exempt from the unpleasant fate mentioned above. Rather than being reborn as larvae, their new shapes are determined solely by their deities. In fact, it is even mentioned in one of the Planescape accessories that some particular petitioners might be allowed to retain their original forms. With this in mind, it could thus be argued that at least one of the incarnations could have actively worshipped an evil deity, and that his past service would be the reason for the less than squirmy awakening. The fact that the Nameless One walks off into the distance, clearly determined to fight, might seem to indicate that there is no divine intervention at hand, but the deity need not be interested in making itself directly known. Given that no evil deities play any significant roles in the story, it would also be strange to introduce one during the game's final minutes. If a deity did restore the Nameless One to his old form, it would certainly explain how he managed to retain his journal and his general attire, an otherwise seemingly impossible feat.
An alternate explanation might be that the creators of the game simply excluded the larvae system from their vision of the setting, and that all evil petitioners would awake in a similar manner. It is possible, of course, but it does seem somewhat unlikely. After all, nupperibos are present in the game, and the creators worked hard to depict and explore the laws of the planes in a reasonably accurate manner.
Another thought, then, and an additional argument against the theory of the divine playing a part in his passing, is that the entire sequence might actually be entirely symbolic, a way for the creators of the game to depict the end of the Nameless One in a grand and powerful manner. Something that a cinematic sequence built entirely around, say, a single, squirming larva might possibly have failed to accomplish.
