Plot fully explained and discussion (full spoilers) v2

[Nya]

To add on with what Saavedra wrote in another thread ( https://steamcommunity.com/app/1369630/discussions/2/3052860798166528394/ ) with a bit of different explanation using the notes and memories in game (sources are based on the official translated English version), here is the possible interpreted plot.

Just so you know there might be some errors in writing and the ordering can be slightly different based on how you interpret the sources. and yes v1 was deleted due to several mistakes in the middle part that did not add up to the whole story.

If you only want to know about the general story up until player's start, you can skip to The White Priestess of The Fount - Fretia and The Last Lily. The rest are mainly detailed background stories.

The Ancient War

To start, as Saavedra wrote, it all began with notes #42 ~ 44 King of the First Age’s Diary, where “this soon-to-be-king guy” with his friends came to the land and fought a war with the ancients. At the verge of the ancient’s defeat, the last undying warrior performed the deathless pact (spell’s detail was mentioned in #65 The Deathless Pact) with a baby girl as their next and last priestess (as shown in the cut-scene where we found the final Umbral Knight corpse within the Abyss). Without forgetting to mention, this baby girl inherited the heirloom as mentioned in #23 The Heirloom of Land’s End. On the other hand, “this guy” and his friends won the war. Among the victors, they cannot come to a peaceful co-existence, so the land was divided into six nations and “this guy” got his share of the meat known as land of the end (or Land’s End) and became the king.

Extra note:
- take note of 1 line within the cut-scene “hatred is the vilest Blight. Unaffected by purification it festers, rotting one from within.”

The Girl in The Deadland

Some times after the Ancient War, in #45 ~ 46 King of the First Age’s Torn Note mentioned he found a little girl (as we all know, it is that baby girl with her undying knight) in the deadland and took her in. This girl is later presume to be the White Priestess of The Dawn (mostly inferred, sadly no written record). The second note was likely had been written awhile later and talks about the ancient made a comeback with the Blight magic and thus the beginning of the Blight War. This leads to other notes like #7 Hamlet Request 1 to recruit warriors to help fight the Blight in the forest area (probably where the outbreak came from, since the forest area is connected to Verboten Domain; the other connecting path would be the area leading towards Execution Ground). At the same time in #9 True Believer’s Note mentions the death of many religions and the new rising figure of the White Priestess (and begins the White Parish “religion”). From that point on, in #15 ~ 17 The Parish Way gave a little background story about the Blight and how the White Priestess came to be. Eventually this follows with note #18 Adherent's Letter which mentions the formation of guardian candidates within the Catacomb (a little more to this later).

The Three Generations of Priestesses

From notes #1 Statue Inscription, #21 ~ 22 Defence of The Twin Spires, #20 The Next White Priestess, Siegrid’s memory it mentioned several priestesses figures and they are Dawn, Wind, Fount. Fretia is Fount (from Siegrid’s memory) and she is the third one (as explicitly mentioned in #20 The Next White Priestess). Whereas in # 22 Defence of The Twin Spires 2 it talked about the White Priestess of The Wind allowed the Twin Spires to be built and the White Priestess of The Fount is the one defended it. This is further backed by #40 Monument Engraving that said Gerrord erect a monument in memory of those who fought alongside the White Priestess of The Wind which allows the construction of the Twin Spires. With these facts we can infer the following:

- Priestess of The Dawn is the first Priestess (most likely also the baby girl that got adopted by the king, inferred)
- Priestess of The Wind is the second Priestess (daughter of Dawn, mother of Fount \ Fretia, inferred)
- Priestess of The Fount is the third Priestess (a.k.a. Fretia)

The White Priestess of The Dawn is most likely way before any of these survived notes recording; she was only mentioned in #1 Statue Inscription as a statue. Whereas for Priestess of Wind was only mentioned in maybe 2 notes (# 22 Defence of The Twin Spires 2 and #20 The Next White Priestess), throughout the rest of the plot below, it is presumable that White Priestess of The Dawn died long before and the White Priestess of The Wind was near her time too (died at some point after giving birth to Fretia). Most of the following events below are most likely in Fretia / Fount’s timeline.

The Blight War - Beginning

Note #37 Bloodied Note 1 was around the time of Fretia who just picked up her mother’s role to become the Priestess of The Fount to fight the Blight War and to defend the Twins Spires. With #8 Hamlet Request 2, they used the Catacomb as a quarantine zone (and mentioning anyone habouring Blighted individual will be send to execution) and this goes back to #18 Adherent’s Letter regarding the formation of guardians after such event.

The Blight War - Faden

In Faden’s perspective perhaps before the full on Blight War, in #49 Faden’s Archives 1 Faden witnessed the interaction between the White Priestess and the Blight (maybe from purifying Eleine’s mother). As a researcher, he took the opportunity to invite Fretia to his lab near Verboten Domain and to gather samples from young Fretia to study the Blight in a controlled manner. Later, in #13 Sorcerer's Notes (most likely Faden) mentions the study of the ancients and found that there is possibility a connection between the Blight and one particular branch of their magicks. This gave him the bargain power to successfully negotiated his way into obtaining a permit to investigate the Verboten Domain with his team as noted in #19 Proof of Founding. #19 Proof of Founding detailed the formation of the King’s Mage Brigade. They are a Blight research team from the mages of the coven led by Faden and closely followed by his assistant and lover, Miriel (from Faden’s memories + #47 Miriel’s Blighted Letter).

The Blight War – Faden’s Research

At some point during the early stage research time period, Faden discovered a piece of the ancient tablet, and he sent it off to his friend (from #54 Faden’s Letter). Also from #14 Forbidden Text Scrap it mentioned Artificial Life Creation (however, it is not entirely sure exactly who and when was this text surfaced, but for sure it was eventually put into use and created the clones or as players would call them “Lilies”). As per note #33 Slip of Paper, an executioner (presume to be Hoenir, from the mother side of Julius, more to this later) notice the Brigade regularly survey the Verboten Domain area and #34 Executioner's Missive mentioned prisoners (not sure if prisoners refers to normal individuals or blighted individuals, although it could be both) being handed to the Brigade as test subject. With those test subjects, Faden invented the Deathless Elixir (maybe also thanks to Miriel’s help as somewhat hinted from Faden’s memory), but in exchange Miriel was blighted.

Fedan hid Miriel away due to #34 Executioner's Missive where possible Blighted individuals would be sent away to become test subjects (while also probably fully knowing #7 Hamlet Request 2 that it is a crime to harbour any Blighted individuals). This led Faden’s research to only aim for finding a cure for Miriel (and side-tracked everything else that was meant for against the Blight). Countless human experiment was performed (also as witnessed by Silva, more to this later), as per #35 Report From a Verboten Mage they discovered some new finding regarding fusing lifeforms into one (which explains all those meat lumps enemies in Verboten Domain). Eventually those experiment result led Faden to develop the Fusion Lifeform technique and it was used for the Blight War, however Faden still failed to bring Miriel back and she ended up becoming the abomination who guarded his corpse until the very end. Near the time of his death, he wrote #68 Restoring the Aegis Curio.

The Blight War – Julius

Regarding Julius, in #58 ~ 60 Hoenir’s Diary mentions the king’s illegitimate son being born into a Dark Executioner family. After Hoenir’s sister gave birth to Julius she died and Julius was neglected by the king. Hoenir felt bad about Julius, thus Hoenir stole Julius from the king and hid him away as mentioned in #63 King’s Note 2. Hoenir raised Julius himself. As Julius grew up, he read Hoenir’s dairies and decided to train as a knight and managed to make his way back into the castle as the captain. He showed his frustration about the king somewhere within the castle based on #61 Writing on the Wall.

At some point, Faden invented the Deathless Elixir which allows one to become “immortal” while supposedly “retaining” their conscious. This led to #38 ~ 39 Bloodied Note 2 & 3 and #64 Julius’ Book where the knights drank the elixir to become the Immortal Knights and bested the Blight (saying bested is more appropriate here as they have yet to see the Rain of Death begins), though later we also read a soldier mentioned the conscious retention did not live up to as Faden’s advertised. With the further research on the Fusion Lifeform, this also led to many Immortal Knights to be fused with other animal parts to create a stronger Immortal Knight as seen within the Twin Spires areas. Although as much as Faden felt he defied the king however, much to the king’s delight, in #62 King’s Note 1 the king mentioned he was joyful to have obtained an army of Immortal Knights under his full control.

After the Blight War ended, Julius realized his mind and his ranks of knights ended up becoming undead slaves. With the last bit of his conscious, he confronted the king in the throne room (as shown in his memory cut-scene). The king told him the priestess and knights (very sure at this point the clone happened already as per #69 Prestess’ Castle Memo; and it is unlikely Julius would become the next king as he was not officially crowned, and probably at that point everyone are either dead or undead already) are merely disposable in the king’s quest for immortality. This drove Julius mad to kill the king due to the king’s response was a selfish ideal for himself but not caring for his son Julius.

The Blight War - Silva

Through #18 Adherent's Letter, Silva became 1 of the 10 guardians of the White Priestess (but in truth from #29 Silva’s Note 1, she wishes to protect Siegrid instead). While accompanying Fretia (whom as a child) and witnessing the Blight War (maybe from the beginning), they journeyed to many places to meet and saved a lot of individuals (namely all the bosses in the game). Eventually the Blight is also taking a toll on Fretia (from Silva’s memory). So Silva took Fretia to the laboratory in Verboten Domain in hope to find some cure for Fretia, but in #67 Silva’s Blight-Stained Note 2 and Silva’s memory, Silva quickly learned to find out the research laboratory only cared about experiments on human subjects (namely Faden tries to save Miriel) and perhaps creating artificial lifeform after the mentions of #14 Forbidden Text Scrap. Nevertheless, as the Blight War continues, some other times later Silva and Fretia were off to fight the Blight Lord as mentioned in #31 Unfinished Note. In #30 Silva’s Note 2, Silva was knockout during the fight. When she awoke, Fretia already purified the Blighted Lord and Silva felt she failed her part as the guardian. Nothing else said much about Silva afterwards, nor any materials mentioned why she stayed in the Catacombs (at the place where we fought her). With the Blight Lord gone (or more like contained within Fretia), the Blight War has ended.

The White Priestess of The Fount - Fretia

Some repeats from previous sections, but here is probably the juiciest part since Fretia is the one who connects everyone together, however maybe half of this are purely guesses as the notes and memories only told limited amount of stories.

Right off the bat, in #24 Fretia’s Memoirs 1, Fretia was born in a town by the cliffs and mentioned how her mother vanished the day she was born (presumable the White Priestess of The Wind was still alive at this point but not for very long). She always felt uncertain about her mother’s role, however many expected her to eventually inherit her mother's role; this was also most likely around the same time when Silva became Fretia’s guardian based on #20 The Next White Priestess. After her first purification (maybe Eleine’s mother in the Coven, as recollected from Eleine’s memory and Eleine witnessed the day when Fretia becomes the White Priestess of The Fount), Fretia came to realize the joy she can bring back to the people. This encouraged her to fully take up her mother’s role as the third priestess known as the White Priestess of The Fount as a child (from #25 Fretia’s Memoirs 2).

Faden, prior to becoming the leader of King’s Mage Brigade, witnessed the purification of Eleine’s mother, he then invited the young priestess to his lab near Verboten Domain and spend several days to gather samples from her and study the Blight, eventually he created the Deathless Elixir during the Blight War. With the Blight War outbreak (as per #7 Hamlet Request 1 to recruit warriors to help fight the Blight in the forest area), Fretia escaped from Verboten Domain and exited through the east side (west side is forest area) and stumbled upon Hoenir. With the Blight enemies chasing them, they both escaped into the Execution Ground (from Hoenir’s memory where Fretia is teen figure and just became Fount). Later Fretia made her way back and was invited to live within the castle (presumably the White Priestess of The Wind died at this point). From #36 White Priestess’ Bastion Letter, she met Julius and made friends with Ulv.

With the ongoing Blight War, many drank the Deathless Elixir and together with Fretia and Silva they defended the Twin Spires (#38 Bloodied Note 2 and #22 Defence of The Twin Spires 2). Some soldiers were even fused with animal parts to become a stronger warrior through the Fusion Lifeform technique from Faden. However, this puts a lot more stress on Fretia. Eventually Silva sent a letter to her sister Siegrid mentioning Fretia's poor health (seen from Siegrid's memory) and brought Fretia to the laboratory for the second time in hope to find some cure for Fretia. Sadly as Silva's memories showed the researchers only cared about human experiment and nothing for Fretia (namely cure for Miriel). Soon later the Artificial Life Creation succeeded. Several Lilies clone from Fretia were created with the very first clone being sent to the king’s side (at some point before he was assassinated) as mentioned in #69 Priestess’ Castle Memo. Whereas the rest are spread out to the kingdom to help purify any Blight. With the little Lilies, Deathless Elixir, and Fusion Lifeform, the defenders were able to hold back the Blight and gave time for Fretia to enter Verboten Domain with Silva to challenge the Blight Lord. Of course, she succeeded in purifying the Blight Lord and together with Silva they ended the Blight War.

Fretia made her trip back to the coven where she reunited with Eleina. This event was noted in #55 ~ 57 Eleine’s Diary, another note here is the mention on Fretia’s heirloom embedded with a magic stone, to which it was broke when Fretia purified the Blight Lord. Fretia asked Eleine to restore it, but Eleine do not know how. This instead led Fretia to request Eleine to make the heirloom into amulets using the broken magic stone. With that aside, Fretia later collapsed or went into a coma (as shown from Fretia’s memories in the cut-scene). And then either:

- Seeing how Eleine really cherish her time spent with Fretia and owing her mother's life to Fretia, Eleine (maybe also with the help of Faden + the coven) created 8 Lily clones to perform that sacrifice ritual for Fretia.
OR
- The king sees that there are still uses from Fretia so he demand the coven to create 8 Lily clones to perform that sacrifice ritual for Fretia.

In a brief moment when Fretia awoke, she realizes how her pain and suffering will have to be passing onto the newly 8 Lily clones whom were made just to be sacrificed. Fretia felt sorry about the new clones (as seen from Fretia's memory). Nevertheless, the ritual succeeded and Fretia returns to the ground and continues her work as the White Priestess of The Fount. One day from the villagers’ request to purify a Blight living in a shack, Fretia and 1 Lily discovered the deathless Gerrord lying there. However much to Gerrord’s wish, he did not want both of them to take on his suffering and refused to be purified (this part is seen from Gerrord’s memory, and in the scene Gerrord mentioned the Blight War ended and we see Fretia as the White Priestess of The Fount looking unblighted, which suggests the sacrificing ritual was performed, and no they did not purified Gerrord or else the player would have never fought him).

Now this upcoming part is pure guesses, as there are nothing that documented how the Rain of Death really began and how Fretia made her way back into the Abyss aside from 2 notes from Fretia + a statement she said in ending A

As Lily clones continue to help, the kingdom people and the king sees less need of Fretia as the White Priestess of The Fount. The king also pressured her to be wed and birth a royal successor as hinted from #27 Fretia’s Memoirs 4. However, she refused and escaped deep into the Abyss. Eventually she grew tired of the people and the king for treating her as a tool and a useless one that is (or maybe her Umbral Knight told her about the history or something that triggered the hatred within her), and as “hatred is the vilest Blight. Unaffected by purification it festers, rotting one from within.”, Fretia became the new Blight Lord (as maybe suggested from #28 Fretia’s Memoirs 5, the giant red flower blooming right at the end of Fretia’s memory, and in ending A where she stated these are her doings). The Rain of Death began.

Extra note:
- In case you wonder why it is call the Rain of Death, it was mentioned from Siegrid's memory

The Last Lily

As per Fretia’s request, Eleine created the amulet out of Fretia’s broken magic stone and bestow it to all of the little Lilies. And as the Rain of Death began, all the guardians wield their weapon to protect the little Lilies and many had fallen ill once again. Seeing how the Blight is making another return, Faden in his final moments continued his research regarding the stone tablet. However, knowing how his time is also approaching (probably also why the laboratory could not massively create anymore clones due to everyone are pretty much dead, or thanks to Miriel for blocking it), he wrote the note #68 Restoring the Aegis Curio and created the last clone; shortly afterwards he died. He hid the last clone deep within the church and far away from the king where Siegrid stationed (of course Eleine knew about this too). This was mentioned in #70 Lily’s Note that Siegrid and her Lily knows of the last clone's presence. As for Eleine, in #2 Eleine’s Letter asked Siegrid to give that amulet to the last clone. With the White Priestess of The Fount nowhere to be found, they all relied on the little Lilies to purify them. However, the magic within the stone were long before used up, eventually all the Lilies either died from the overwhelming pain, overworked, starvation, or some natural death (certainty all the Lily corpses we came across looks unblighted). Together with the king's assassination by Julius, the kingdom fully collapsed (remember Julius was not officially crowned, so he could not take up the command or even let alone does he even have any conscious left at that point). As per #68 Restoring the Aegis Curio, it details an ancient spell that only-the-ancients-know (a.k.a. the last Umbral Knight) that can restore the power of the Aegis Curio. As to what the Aegis Curio is? That would be the Heirloom of Land’s End that got passed down from the White Priestess of The Dawn to the White Priestess of The Wind and then to her daughter Fretia, and eventually broken into pieces and made into amulets by Eleine to the little Lilies, and the last piece went to the last clone. The rest follows with the player’s playthrough where it began with the Umbral Knight calling out the last clone to fulfil his Deathless Pact.

Extra note:
- It remains a mystery why the Umbral Knight asked the last clone whether she remembers anything or not when he awakened her. Although in some way perhaps the Umbral Knight might have saw Fretia and the clone Lilies as one entity altogether, or maybe the last clone was initially given some task to fulfil but it was not the right time yet when she was initially created (such as waiting until Faden figured out the ancient tablet and then awake her... of course he did not succeed).
- The 8 Lilies spirits you see during the final true boss battle is perhaps akin to you taking on all 8 Lilies’ identities to live on inside you and to fulfil the wishes that they could not complete (sounds familiar to some manga setting?)
- In ending C, that is the grown up last Lily (you), Fretia passed away for real after being purified.

[MiracleGhost47]

Originally posted by Nya:

To add on with what Saavedra wrote in another thread ( https://steamcommunity.com/app/1369630/discussions/2/3052860798166528394/ ) with a bit of different explanation using the notes and memories in game (sources are based on the official translated English version), here is the possible interpreted plot.

Well, that was a wall of text and a half. Thanks for writing all of it so we can better understand the story. But there still remains details I do not understand. Would you care to address them?

How do we know "for sure" that the clones were created using the information of the Forbidden Text Scrap? It seems like a plausible theory, but not a 100% confirmed one.

Where does it say in Silva's Note 2 that she was knocked out?

How do we know Fretia is the one in Hoenir's memory? I thought the "Pristess" in that memory was one of the Lilies. This is supported by her clothing (Fretia is always seen in long sleeves, whereas the Lilies are always seen in short sleeves). But more importantly, Hoenir mentioned that Fretia called out to him "from down deep in the Verbotan Domain" and told him not to let anyone violate "these" grounds. If we are to assume that they met in the Verbotan Domain, then why did he escape the very area that he was asked to defend? I think the execution grounds was the place he was actually asked to defend. Fretia most likely called out to him using her astral projection (much like she did with Lily) once he found himself there. My last piece of circumstantial evidence is that priestess who was with Hoenir was just referred to as "the Priestess" whereas the one who called out to him from the Verbotan Domain was referred to as "The White Priestess of the Fount". I could just be reading too much into it, but there seems to be a differentiation.

How do we know note #36 was written by Fretia and not one of the Lilies?

Why do you suppose Faden let all the clones go without purifying Miriel? The sad thing is, they probably never purified anyone at all (their corpses never showed symptoms of blight). My theory is that they were faulty prototypes, incapable of purification. That would explain why the coven needed to cast a spell to transfer Fretia's blight to the Lilies (Fretia's Recollection). This is also supported by Silva, who called them "abominations" and questioned their very purpose (note #67). They were so faulty that their sacrifices failed in purifying Fretia permanently, if at all. My next piece evidence for this can be found in note #70. It states that Lily was born mute. The fact that Lily was created unable to speak just goes to show that Faden's cloning wasn't perfect. Even so, they did provide some solace and maybe gave Fretia the willpower to fight the blight inside of her at least a little longer. According to Fretia's Recollection, "The time I spent with them was what truly saved me".

You argued that the sacrifice worked because she appeared unblighted before Gerrod. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume you said that because her hair appeared completely white. Her hair does not blacken when she purifies like Lily's does. Instead, black tentacles protrude from the top her head (as seen in Ulv's memories). We never got to see the top of her head in Gerrod's memories. However, if you look closely, her hand appears to have black veins. This is another symptom of the blight. Therefore, she was not unblighted at this point in time. My interpretation is that this event occurred chronologically earlier than the x8 Lily sacrifice.

My theory is that the rain of death began as a result of the 8x Lily sacrifice failing (as mentioned earlier). Note #27 was likely written after the Blight Lord was purified, but before Fretia grew ill and needed the sacrificial Lilies. She probably never left the Abyss after the x8 Lily sacrifice.

The quote, “Hatred is the vilest Blight. Unaffected by purification it festers, rotting one from within” is not literal. The Ancient was likely just condemning people for waging war. If the statement were literal, then that would imply that Julius and possibly others would be unpurifyable. However, we saw his blight was indeed affected by purification.

My best guess as to why Frietia claimed she was responsible for the blight was to convince Lily to leave her behind. By all accounts, Frietia was loved greatly and I have my doubts that she was responsible for the tragedy.

What confirmation is there that Lily was the last clone? We know she wasn't the first among the 17 (#70 Lily's note), but I don't recall it being confirmed that she was the last. Based on circumstantial evidence, I would say it's likely, but not quite confirmed beyond reasonable doubt.

How do we know note #2 was talking about the "last" Lily rather than the other Lily Siegrid had with her?

What manga were you talking about? The one that the 8 Lilies reminded you of in the final battle?

For a good while, I assumed it was Fretia in the final cutscene. But after noticing her blight and clothing, it became clear that it was in fact Lily. What is not so clear to me is that Fretia passed away. It does seem likely, but not something I could say is confirmed beyond reasonable doubt.

Feel free to correct me if I said anything inaccurate. But if you are convinced that your post has inaccuracies, I ask that you update it.

[MaximuW]

Originally posted by MiracleGhost47:

For a good while, I assumed it was Fretia in the final cutscene. But after noticing her blight and clothing, it became clear that it was in fact Lily. What is not so clear to me is that Fretia passed away. It does seem likely, but not something I could say is confirmed beyond reasonable doubt.

I thought it was Fretia as well... lol

Lily is Fretia's clone, so her older figure should match Fretia's one, at least I hope so, that would be a big mistake if not, on my opnion... u_u

I guess Fretia in the end was "like" anyother blight. She got purified and her soul was freed I guess. So I guessed at first it was Fretia's spirit going to afterlife, but that would be sad because it would imply to me that Lily died anyway... '-'

[Nya]

Ok might be half brain dead when replying this, its late at night @.@"

Originally posted by MiracleGhost47:

How do we know "for sure" that the clones were created using the information of the Forbidden Text Scrap? It seems like a plausible theory, but not a 100% confirmed one.

We dont know "for sure" (aside from matching stuff we see to ingame story facts), we only have the notes and memories as limited facts, so it is up to us to try to connect them together. So in this way, you are free to offer your own view using the notes and memories as the basis of your fact to make your claim and bring to the discussion and see which theory would be more plausible.

Originally posted by MiracleGhost47:

Where does it say in Silva's Note 2 that she was knocked out?

It did not specifically said, but more like inferred and guessed (since she mentioned "[she] failed the Priestess as Guardian"). It could also be she did her job but quickly realizes they messed up and shouldnt have gone to challenge and purify the Blight Lord.

Originally posted by MiracleGhost47:

How do we know Fretia is the one in Hoenir's memory? I thought the "Pristess" in that memory was one of the Lilies. This is supported by her clothing (Fretia is always seen in long sleeves, whereas the Lilies are always seen in short sleeves). But more importantly, Hoenir mentioned that Fretia called out to him "from down deep in the Verbotan Domain" and told him not to let anyone violate "these" grounds. If we are to assume that they met in the Verbotan Domain, then why did he escape the very area that he was asked to defend? I think the execution grounds was the place he was actually asked to defend.

This is a good point.

The full transcript in Hoenir's memory:
The all-swallowing Blight flowed out from the earth around us.
I took the Priestess-once of no consequence to me-in my arms, and we made our escape.
Chased by Blighted fiends, we wound up somewhere most morbidly ironic.
Fate delivered us to the execution grounds, a place I know all too well.
And, something happened that day that I'll never forget as long as I live.
The White Priestess of the Fount... Down deep in the Verboten Domain...
She who carries the burden of Blight, who saved everyone I care about...
She called out to me for help, saying:
"I, who bear the burden of Blight and suffer for your people..."
"I...have one humble request."
"Though our roles differ, we each are tasked with serving our kingdom."
"We are devoted to its protection."
"To that end, I must ask that you let no one violate these grounds."

Hoenir's memory is the hardest understand, the biggest challenge is to figure out whether that girl in his memory is a Lily or the young Fretia (certainty a young Fretia could be wearing what the Lilies wear too). It also didnt help as well when he said "I took the Priestess-once of no consequence to me-in my arms" as to exactly which Priestess he was referring to.

But yes, do think that he DID ended up defending the Execution Ground. Nya's theory was perhaps the Blight outbreak from the forest spread eastward and downward. We know that below the forest area is Verboten Domain and east side of the forest connects to a waterway that leads into the Execution Grounds area (not forgetting to mention Verboten Domain and Execution Grounds area are also connected). At that time, assuming the theory goes, when Faden was gathering samples from Fretia (either in the coven or somewhere close to the Verboten Domain) the outbreak happened and it forced Fretia to escape to the east side into the Execution Grounds area and then that was where she met Hoenir. Of course the Blight also chased them all the way to the east end of the Execution Ground and Fretia & Hoenir made a final stand there (the location where we fought Hoenir).

As to whether in Hoenir's memory that was a Lily or young Fretia it might not make a huge impact on the overall story (at most maybe just some different ordering of events), since there werent so many other notes that relates Hoenir to the Blight War events and main plot, the only other relation with Hoenir would be Julius but think the Julius part was well explained and clear.

Originally posted by MiracleGhost47:

Fretia most likely called out to him using her astral projection (much like she did with Lily) once he found himself there. My last piece of circumstantial evidence is that priestess who was with Hoenir was just referred to as "the Priestess" whereas the one who called out to him from the Verbotan Domain was referred to as "The White Priestess of the Fount". I could just be reading too much into it, but there seems to be a differentiation.

The sad part is, Fretia's "astral projection" is not documented so we dont know in what extend can it do and whom might be able to receive those messages. Tho Nya do think it was indeed Fretia who made a request to him due to story plot & characters relation wise, everyone should be somehow linked to Fretia in this "Fretia saved [our] families & friends, so [we] shall repay her in any means" kind of manner (or else why would Hoenir be taking care of "the Priestess" even tho he already made it clear that the Priestess is in "no consequence to [him]"?)

Originally posted by MiracleGhost47:

How do we know note #36 was written by Fretia and not one of the Lilies?

Could be, judging from the tone might be a child too, but what is that "I wonder if everyone else who escaped is well." part meant then? What were they running from? Nya interpret it as running from the outbreak... although thinking about Fretia just became the Priestess, she kinda went on full serious mode already... so ya you could be right its probably written from a Lily... Still didnt answer what were they running from tho.

Originally posted by MiracleGhost47:

Why do you suppose Faden let all the clones go without purifying Miriel? The sad thing is, they probably never purified anyone at all (their corpses never showed symptoms of blight). My theory is that they were faulty prototypes, incapable of purification. That would explain why the coven needed to cast a spell to transfer Fretia's blight to the Lilies (Fretia's Recollection). This is also supported by Silva, who called them "abominations" and questioned their very purpose (note #67). They were so faulty that their sacrifices failed in purifying Fretia permanently, if at all. My next piece evidence for this can be found in note #70. It states that Lily was born mute. The fact that Lily was created unable to speak just goes to show that Faden's cloning wasn't perfect. Even so, they did provide some solace and maybe gave Fretia the willpower to fight the blight inside of her at least a little longer. According to Fretia's Recollection, "The time I spent with them was what truly saved me".

Ehhhh didnt the king just forcefully took all the Lilies? Although your theory here sounds plausible too and might explain why the Lilies all looked unblighted but if that was the case then why at least 8 of them were produced? Like if you know your first few ones already dont work, then why waste more resource to pump out at least 8? It might even sound like at least 8 were created at near the same time due to #69 Priestess' Castle Memo.

As to the last Lily being born mute... wasnt sure if she literally cant talk or just simply lamenting the fact that the last Lily will be the only orphan of the kingdom... like literally no one else is there to physically teach her how to communicate with others.

Originally posted by MiracleGhost47:

You argued that the sacrifice worked because she appeared unblighted before Gerrod. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume you said that because her hair appeared completely white. Her hair does not blacken when she purifies like Lily's does. Instead, black tentacles protrude from the top her head (as seen in Ulv's memories). We never got to see the top of her head in Gerrod's memories. However, if you look closely, her hand appears to have black veins. This is another symptom of the blight. Therefore, she was not unblighted at this point in time. My interpretation is that this event occurred chronologically earlier than the x8 Lily sacrifice.

Mostly due to several things that Gerrord said \ showed, He mentioned, firstly he chose to become an Immortal Knight so we all know it must be after the Blight War and we know the Blight War ended with Fretia purified the Blight Lord and she became so "sick" too. Next he also mentioned "The Priestess and a child. The Priestess, once but a child herself now cuts a radiant figure..." so here we are sure the adult woman is indeed Fretia because her mother certainty did not survived the war. Lastly, if Silva's memory is before Gerrord's memory then well Fretia might even had a hard time standing up by herself... let alone after purifying the Blight Lord. So based on that Nya interpret it as after the ritual was performed.

Originally posted by MiracleGhost47:

My theory is that the rain of death began as a result of the 8x Lily sacrifice failing (as mentioned earlier). Note #27 was likely written after the Blight Lord was purified, but before Fretia grew ill and needed the sacrificial Lilies. She probably never left the Abyss after the x8 Lily sacrifice.

But when she purified the Blight Lord, she became VERY seriously ill right away. And in #28 Fretia's Memoirs 5, she wrote "Oh, to be spirited away. Be some kind soul... Even for just a brief respite." it sounds like she is kinda getting sick and tired of the people \ kingdom which might had triggered her.

Originally posted by MiracleGhost47:

The quote, “Hatred is the vilest Blight. Unaffected by purification it festers, rotting one from within” is not literal. The Ancient was likely just condemning people for waging war. If the statement were literal, then that would imply that Julius and possibly others would be unpurifyable. However, we saw his blight was indeed affected by purification.

Would argue Julius was more heart broken than hate. And well Blight is related to a branch of Ancient magick, so it could also be only the descendant of the Ancient race has the power to call on the Blight magick.

Originally posted by MiracleGhost47:

My best guess as to why Frietia claimed she was responsible for the blight was to convince Lily to leave her behind. By all accounts, Frietia was loved greatly and I have my doubts that she was responsible for the tragedy.

But that giant red flower blooming at the end of Fretia's memory...?!

Originally posted by MiracleGhost47:

What confirmation is there that Lily was the last clone? We know she wasn't the first among the 17 (#70 Lily's note), but I don't recall it being confirmed that she was the last. Based on circumstantial evidence, I would say it's likely, but not quite confirmed beyond reasonable doubt.

The kingdom collapsed due to king assassination, the people all turned Blight again due to Rain of Death, the Brigade were probably all dead if not eaten by Miriel, Faden was pretty much dead too. So, who else would be making clones then?

Originally posted by MiracleGhost47:

How do we know note #2 was talking about the "last" Lily rather than the other Lily Siegrid had with her?

Well Eleine said [she] bestow upon all priestessess... and the player controlled Lily certainty has a necklace on her.

Originally posted by MiracleGhost47:

What manga were you talking about? The one that the 8 Lilies reminded you of in the final battle?

Was just referring to manga troupes there. Although to say "manga troupe" is incorrect... it is more a Japanese culture to remember the dead in such a way that you take on their entity to continue "living" inside of you and also as a proof of their existent as part of your surviving memories (hence why Fretia also said "you came all this way with everyone..." in that pitch black background scene in ending C).

Originally posted by MiracleGhost47:

For a good while, I assumed it was Fretia in the final cutscene. But after noticing her blight and clothing, it became clear that it was in fact Lily. What is not so clear to me is that Fretia passed away. It does seem likely, but not something I could say is confirmed beyond reasonable doubt.

&

Originally posted by MaximuW:

I thought it was Fretia as well... lol

Lily is Fretia's clone, so her older figure should match Fretia's one, at least I hope so, that would be a big mistake if not, on my opnion... u_u

I guess Fretia in the end was "like" anyother blight. She got purified and her soul was freed I guess. So I guessed at first it was Fretia's spirit going to afterlife, but that would be sad because it would imply to me that Lily died anyway... '-'

Ehhh after the player defeated the True Blight Lord in that pitch black background scene where the player Lily walked up to Fretia and talk & hug (mentioning the player freed them all including Fretia herself and Fretia also said it's time of her leaving too) and then Fretia just vanished away... thought that part was clear enough to show Fretia passed away for good?

Go look up some play through video and watch that part again, that pitch black background scene isnt within the Blighted Memories collection (think you can only view it when you go through the ending C route by beating the True Blight Lord).

Originally posted by MiracleGhost47:

Feel free to correct me if I said anything inaccurate. But if you are convinced that your post has inaccuracies, I ask that you update it.

Still have to sort out the mess to piece the info together again and have more people to give their opinion on it first.

[MaximuW]

Originally posted by Nya:

Ok might be half brain dead when replying this, its late at night @.@"

It was around 4am when I posted, so I'd say it was very early in the morning... kkkkkkkkkk, actually It's depends on where you are in the world. Here the timezone is GMT-3... =)

About the topic my overrall understanding and plot assumptions is close to yours.

[mlp_represent]

I saw this while I was trying to understand the events of the story, with some places where I agreed and disagreed, I ended up creating a general outline of the events from the begining to the end with a flow chart but there's a lot of speculation to fill in the gaps that sit within the story. If you get a chance I'd really appreciate it if you gave it a read through

[I'm not sure how to post images or links on steam so I made a reddit post here www.reddit.com/r/EnderLilies/comments/tchykt/ender_lilies_story_outline_questions]

[Nya]

Originally posted by mlp_represent:

I saw this while I was trying to understand the events of the story, with some places where I agreed and disagreed, I ended up creating a general outline of the events from the begining to the end with a flow chart but there's a lot of speculation to fill in the gaps that sit within the story. If you get a chance I'd really appreciate it if you gave it a read through

[I'm not sure how to post images or links on steam so I made a reddit post here www.reddit.com/r/EnderLilies/comments/tchykt/ender_lilies_story_outline_questions]

=====
part 1
=====
Not entirely sure if the blight was a natural "disease" that always plagued the Ancients or was it a magic under the control by the Ancients (1 of the note did suggest the blight is connected to a branch of Ancient magic). But this pointer is probably not important.

Do not think the king and his army developed any magic to trap Umbral Knights and restrain their soul, otherwise the king would have had his own Umbral Knights of some sort. Would speculate that Umbral Knight is a secret art that is only known to the Ancients.

Mmm the idea that there was a 2nd generation of king (and then having the illegitimate son Julius) would be kind of 50/50. That is based on how you estimate the White Priestess's life spans... If you would assume the White Priestess would live to old age, then well yes maybe there would be a 2nd generation of king according to human life span. But while knowing the White Priestess performing purification is really taking the blight onto herself, one might guess all these White Priestess would most likely dies very prematurely at young age. And mind you that the Ancients had been wiped, so the new kingdom literally only had 1 White Priestess doing literally all the work (as supposed to maybe back in the Ancient's day there could be several women serving as White Priestesses and sharing the workload).

Regarding Hoenir's story with Fretia, Nya sees that you adapted Nya's theory here, although do wish to point out MiracleGhost47's theory could be viable too, but do not recall MiracleGhost47 says anymore about it and how their theory connects to the whole story. So... not much comment about that part.

Who is Milva? is that Miriel? if that is so, she most likely was not blighted until after the Brigade was established... think 1 of the note did mentioned she was an assistant to Faden at the beginning of the Brigade establishment (it would be odd to openly and officially appoint a blighted individual to be your assistant to the whole team while there was no knowledge about the blight yet), and in Faden's memory he did kinda hinted Miriel helped prove the conscious retention thing (or something about the Blight)... So Nya mostly took it as Miriel jumped in to be self willing volunteer to prove some experiment? But of course at the end that did not go well?

Your bottom right corner is an interesting take as to how the Deathless Elixir might had changed the king's mind to be more selfish and possibly explained why the need of the Artificial Life Creation (except of course it did not work on Miriel but ended up creating Lilies instead).

=====
part 2
=====

The part you talking about Silva returning after purifying the Blight Lord lacks support from source material, but nevertheless yes Fretia and Silva returned to the coven (think it was also mentioned in 1 note). Also Nya would still hold onto that in Silva's memory, Silva was holding a heavily blighted Fretia simply because Silva is the guardian and should be expected that Silva will never leave Fretia's side no matter what.

Your choice of word "wracked" is... kinda oddly sounding (maybe "filled" is better?). But of course this is no importance.

Though you also ran into the common problem that we all could not understand... if Fretia was so blighted after purifying the Blight Lord (evidence from all those bloody tentacles on her body) and when the 8 Lilies took it from her, why the Lilies looked completely healthy? Or perhaps how much percentage of blight that the Lilies took off from Fretia? This is mostly why Nya believe there might had been more than 9 Lilies ever produced in total (Nya avoided calling the player controlled Lily as the 9th Lily, and instead calling her the last Lily to be safe).

Do not think Faden was kicked out of his lab, we saw his corpse sitting in the lab, guarded by Miriel (unless someone can show some supporting evidence that was NOT his lab). As for the rest of the Brigade team, no idea what happened to them, could be presumably eaten by Miriel or caught themselves in some uncontrolled outbreak (per-se maybe as what we saw in Silva's memory)?

hmm to compare Fretia's sorrowful tear as the rain is quite an interesting take. And although everyone got blighted by the rain, still no explanation why Silva and Siegrid were the only 2 who had unique transformation.

Which part did it mentioned the Umbral Knight waited for the last Lily for nearly 2 centuries?

The Artificial Life Creation does not mention whether the new transferred body retains any memory or not... guess this boils down into whether memory is kept with the body or with the soul (of course there are plausible arguments on both sides).

=====

Overall would suggest you to source the material (from in-game notes and memories) to strengthen your argument. As for the specific details on the order of events, well none of us know exactly how it should go. None of the notes or memories even had dates on them or let alone whether the girl in white dress from the bosses' memories was either Fretia or a Lily, so we can only use whatever given information we have and try to infer the order of events. Hence why we all had different interpretations (but think our general story still matches up at the end).

[MiracleGhost47]

Originally posted by mlp_represent:

I saw this while I was trying to understand the events of the story, with some places where I agreed and disagreed, I ended up creating a general outline of the events from the begining to the end with a flow chart but there's a lot of speculation to fill in the gaps that sit within the story. If you get a chance I'd really appreciate it if you gave it a read through

[I'm not sure how to post images or links on steam so I made a reddit post here www.reddit.com/r/EnderLilies/comments/tchykt/ender_lilies_story_outline_questions]

I gave it a look. It was quite the read. Almost entirely accurate. However, I have my fair share of disagreements; most of which can be read in the other post I made in this thread. I'll tell you what, though. Provide specifics sources for your information and then I'll try to discern what (if anything) is inaccurate. For example, put "(Julius's Memories)" under the part where you talk about him assassinating the king.

There are also some details you never address. For example, what became of the other Lilies that weren't used as a sacrifice? What happens during endings A and B?

Of course, what we really need is official clarification from the game devs. Fans shouldn't have to write these huge, speculative walls of text to accommodate for their cryptic writing. We worked hard enough collecting all those notes, yet this outcome doesn't seem very rewarding. I hope they'll put this issue to rest some day.

[Nya]

Originally posted by MiracleGhost47:

Originally posted by mlp_represent:

I saw this while I was trying to understand the events of the story, with some places where I agreed and disagreed, I ended up creating a general outline of the events from the begining to the end with a flow chart but there's a lot of speculation to fill in the gaps that sit within the story. If you get a chance I'd really appreciate it if you gave it a read through

[I'm not sure how to post images or links on steam so I made a reddit post here www.reddit.com/r/EnderLilies/comments/tchykt/ender_lilies_story_outline_questions]

I gave it a look. It was quite the read. Almost entirely accurate. However, I have my fair share of disagreements; most of which can be read in the other post I made in this thread. I'll tell you what, though. Provide specifics sources for your information and then I'll try to discern what (if anything) is inaccurate. For example, put "(Julius's Memories)" under the part where you talk about him assassinating the king.

There are also some details you never address. For example, what became of the other Lilies that weren't used as a sacrifice? What happens during endings A and B?

Of course, what we really need is official clarification from the game devs. Fans shouldn't have to write these huge, speculative walls of text to accommodate for their cryptic writing. We worked hard enough collecting all those notes, yet this outcome doesn't seem very rewarding. I hope they'll put this issue to rest some day.

Nya would think that for the developers not giving an official clarification would be setting up rooms for DLC or pre- \ sequals contents. Or it could also just be how Japanese tends to prefer how to tell stories in games.

[mlp_represent]

Originally posted by MiracleGhost47:

Originally posted by mlp_represent:

I saw this while I was trying to understand the events of the story, with some places where I agreed and disagreed, I ended up creating a general outline of the events from the begining to the end with a flow chart but there's a lot of speculation to fill in the gaps that sit within the story. If you get a chance I'd really appreciate it if you gave it a read through

[I'm not sure how to post images or links on steam so I made a reddit post here www.reddit.com/r/EnderLilies/comments/tchykt/ender_lilies_story_outline_questions]

I gave it a look. It was quite the read. Almost entirely accurate. However, I have my fair share of disagreements; most of which can be read in the other post I made in this thread. I'll tell you what, though. Provide specifics sources for your information and then I'll try to discern what (if anything) is inaccurate. For example, put "(Julius's Memories)" under the part where you talk about him assassinating the king.

There are also some details you never address. For example, what became of the other Lilies that weren't used as a sacrifice? What happens during endings A and B?

Of course, what we really need is official clarification from the game devs. Fans shouldn't have to write these huge, speculative walls of text to accommodate for their cryptic writing. We worked hard enough collecting all those notes, yet this outcome doesn't seem very rewarding. I hope they'll put this issue to rest some day.

I'll be sure to do that and hit you up when I get the chance, it might be a while though since making the document itself took several hours too long my first time around and I'm already behind on a lot of other stuff haha. It's a real shame the vents are so hard to piece together but at least it makes for fun discussions, thought experiments and practice for writing.

Regarding the endings, I just treated true ending as canon end and ignored the others though

[and regarding the lilies, I'm not gonna lie I don't think I'll ever have a good answer considering we find them completely un-blighted and several of them end up dying in places that are very improbable. My only possible speculation is that they get dispatched before the blighted rain falls, after the rain falls everyone becomes blighted and then they either die of starvation hiding alone or they get killed by someone who was supposed to protect them]

[mlp_represent]

Originally posted by Nya:

Originally posted by mlp_represent:

I saw this while I was trying to understand the events of the story, with some places where I agreed and disagreed, I ended up creating a general outline of the events from the begining to the end with a flow chart but there's a lot of speculation to fill in the gaps that sit within the story. If you get a chance I'd really appreciate it if you gave it a read through

[I'm not sure how to post images or links on steam so I made a reddit post here www.reddit.com/r/EnderLilies/comments/tchykt/ender_lilies_story_outline_questions]

=====
part 1
=====
Not entirely sure if the blight was a natural "disease" that always plagued the Ancients or was it a magic under the control by the Ancients (1 of the note did suggest the blight is connected to a branch of Ancient magic). But this pointer is probably not important.

Do not think the king and his army developed any magic to trap Umbral Knights and restrain their soul, otherwise the king would have had his own Umbral Knights of some sort. Would speculate that Umbral Knight is a secret art that is only known to the Ancients.

Mmm the idea that there was a 2nd generation of king (and then having the illegitimate son Julius) would be kind of 50/50. That is based on how you estimate the White Priestess's life spans... If you would assume the White Priestess would live to old age, then well yes maybe there would be a 2nd generation of king according to human life span. But while knowing the White Priestess performing purification is really taking the blight onto herself, one might guess all these White Priestess would most likely dies very prematurely at young age. And mind you that the Ancients had been wiped, so the new kingdom literally only had 1 White Priestess doing literally all the work (as supposed to maybe back in the Ancient's day there could be several women serving as White Priestesses and sharing the workload).

Regarding Hoenir's story with Fretia, Nya sees that you adapted Nya's theory here, although do wish to point out MiracleGhost47's theory could be viable too, but do not recall MiracleGhost47 says anymore about it and how their theory connects to the whole story. So... not much comment about that part.

Who is Milva? is that Miriel? if that is so, she most likely was not blighted until after the Brigade was established... think 1 of the note did mentioned she was an assistant to Faden at the beginning of the Brigade establishment (it would be odd to openly and officially appoint a blighted individual to be your assistant to the whole team while there was no knowledge about the blight yet), and in Faden's memory he did kinda hinted Miriel helped prove the conscious retention thing (or something about the Blight)... So Nya mostly took it as Miriel jumped in to be self willing volunteer to prove some experiment? But of course at the end that did not go well?

Your bottom right corner is an interesting take as to how the Deathless Elixir might had changed the king's mind to be more selfish and possibly explained why the need of the Artificial Life Creation (except of course it did not work on Miriel but ended up creating Lilies instead).

=====
part 2
=====

The part you talking about Silva returning after purifying the Blight Lord lacks support from source material, but nevertheless yes Fretia and Silva returned to the coven (think it was also mentioned in 1 note). Also Nya would still hold onto that in Silva's memory, Silva was holding a heavily blighted Fretia simply because Silva is the guardian and should be expected that Silva will never leave Fretia's side no matter what.

Your choice of word "wracked" is... kinda oddly sounding (maybe "filled" is better?). But of course this is no importance.

Though you also ran into the common problem that we all could not understand... if Fretia was so blighted after purifying the Blight Lord (evidence from all those bloody tentacles on her body) and when the 8 Lilies took it from her, why the Lilies looked completely healthy? Or perhaps how much percentage of blight that the Lilies took off from Fretia? This is mostly why Nya believe there might had been more than 9 Lilies ever produced in total (Nya avoided calling the player controlled Lily as the 9th Lily, and instead calling her the last Lily to be safe).

Do not think Faden was kicked out of his lab, we saw his corpse sitting in the lab, guarded by Miriel (unless someone can show some supporting evidence that was NOT his lab). As for the rest of the Brigade team, no idea what happened to them, could be presumably eaten by Miriel or caught themselves in some uncontrolled outbreak (per-se maybe as what we saw in Silva's memory)?

hmm to compare Fretia's sorrowful tear as the rain is quite an interesting take. And although everyone got blighted by the rain, still no explanation why Silva and Siegrid were the only 2 who had unique transformation.

Which part did it mentioned the Umbral Knight waited for the last Lily for nearly 2 centuries?

The Artificial Life Creation does not mention whether the new transferred body retains any memory or not... guess this boils down into whether memory is kept with the body or with the soul (of course there are plausible arguments on both sides).

=====

Overall would suggest you to source the material (from in-game notes and memories) to strengthen your argument. As for the specific details on the order of events, well none of us know exactly how it should go. None of the notes or memories even had dates on them or let alone whether the girl in white dress from the bosses' memories was either Fretia or a Lily, so we can only use whatever given information we have and try to infer the order of events. Hence why we all had different interpretations (but think our general story still matches up at the end).

Going through your comments, I'd be lying if I said I had good answers for a number of these since so many things are unclear in the base story. I'm eventually planning on going back and adding some sources to what I wrote for some context but even then a lot of what I wrote as you've noticed are kind of shots in the dark to best make out what I could out of the source making it a bit more of an interpretation than a base story. I can't answer everything but I'll clear up some of the things you pointed out that I can answer simply enough

Part 1
- Blight might have not been a disease, but entries say that priestesses were fighting the blight from before land's end started (says so on one of the priestesses rings), not to mention that in the first attack by the blighted they note that the blighted as something different from the ancients
- I could be getting it wrong now but I think the diary of the king of the first ages says that the umbral knights could not be killed but restrained via. magical means, otherwise it would have been impossible for the army to defeat the ancients unless the ancients were just really incompetent fighters , the army got behind enemy lines and just slaughtered the priestesses instead.
- My guess about there being a second king is based on four main things, two in story, and two in logic, the first is that the letters make a distinction made between the king of the first ages and the king that we know in the story, the other factor is the fact that the descriptions of the first king are considerably different from that of the notes of the king we meet later. Third, logically speaking, even if the white priestesses only live to like 13-20, that would still mean the king was fertile enough to have Julius after at-least 26-40 years after the invasion, which is possible I guess but fairly improbable considering how old he would be and finally it would be weird if an an entire kingdom was built and collapsed in as little as half a century just infrastructure wise
- With Miriel (my bad in writing Milva) I was saying that she started as his assistant but become blighted in a n experiment she volunteered for as you suggested, the main issue is we have no idea what that idea was. I speculated that her playing a part in the discovery of the deathless elixer was giving Faden the idea and motive to test creating an aritificial blight. Miriel from then on is used as a test subject by Faden as he tries to test his theories to bring her back to life, eventually creating the deathless elixer which doesn't work considering (again an assumption) that she's too far gone and later creating the amalgamations which express some aspect of the soul, hence why she sits outside and protects Faden's body but has no other real thoughts

Part 2
- As much as I would like to agree that Silva's memmory is her clutching Freita, beleving so makes a huge empty spot on how she gets to the Coven, there isn't much to suggest that it's Freita either since what she says, where she is, "Freita's" apperance and when she would be saying it are very hard to justify. In the cutscene, she is definatly inside the catacombs (given the spider appandeges out of the nuns backs, and the wallls), we know that it happens after she returns from the domain, we also know that Silva turns in the catacombs and stays there from that point on, and finally we see that in the cutscene rather than blighted hair, or hair at all, we see Frieta holding a woman who's face is consumed by the blight and is wearing a nun's cowl. As her guardian it would make most sense for her to stay by her side the whole way through so there are 2 possibilties (A) Silva here is holding an unconcious Freita and mourning the fact that she failed her, Silva turns in the catacombs before she reaches the Coven, then someone else moves her to the Coven from the abandoned and fully blighted catacombs without killing blighted Silva, OR (B) Silva delivers Freita to the Coven before turning, out of shame for failing Freita and out of desperation to see her sister given the one track nature the potion seems to give people, returns to the catacombs to find her sister only to find that she isn't there. There she falls to despair and turns. Mine is speculative, but I feel like it fills in more gaps than the former
- Regarding Faden in his lab, I was speculating that the mages had turned the entire Vertroddan domain into their lab. Faden before everything would oversee work on the entire domain, after turning on the king though he isolates himself into a small branch of the lab where he can continue his research on a smaller scale without getting captured by the other sorcerers or the king. The only reason he is able to survive long enough to finish finish his research is because Miriel is watching the enterance and killing anything that passes by to protect Faden
- The umbral knight part is another speculation based on the idea that there was a first and a second king, hence somewhere between 150-200 years between the begining and end of the story. It could be wrong but that's what I thought made most sense.

[MiracleGhost47]

Originally posted by Nya:

Originally posted by MiracleGhost47:

What is not so clear to me is that Fretia passed away. It does seem likely, but not something I could say is confirmed beyond reasonable doubt.

Ehhh after the player defeated the True Blight Lord in that pitch black background scene where the player Lily walked up to Fretia and talk & hug (mentioning the player freed them all including Fretia herself and Fretia also said it's time of her leaving too) and then Fretia just vanished away... thought that part was clear enough to show Fretia passed away for good?

It wasn't clear enough for me. Leaving doesn't necessarily imply death, nor does vanishing away. It did seem very likely, but not 100% confirmed. That is, until I remembered a specific line on the Ender Lilies website. Lily is specifically described as the "sole survivor", meaning everyone else- Fretia included- died at some point. That being said, I take back what I said about Fretia's death not being 100% confirmed.

[Shank]

"#34 Executioner's Missive mentioned prisoners (not sure if prisoners refers to normal individuals or blighted individuals, although it could be both) being handed to the Brigade as test subject" I think one of the spirits you get (can't remember which without booting it up, maybe the pot one?) mentions that criminals were used as test subjects, sounds to me like its just normal criminals that get blight infected from experimentation

[Falktastic]

Yo, guys, even though it's already 1 and a half year later, I got a rather satisfying and logical explanation for you, when it comes to the sisters Silva & Siegrid and their 3rd transformation.

It's actually totally simple, that you'll ♥♥♥♥ bricks, should you ever read this anymore.
Got your attention now? Good! Here we go:

Both, Silva and Siegrid, spent nearly all or rather most of their time really close and near to Fretia and since the White Priestess has the power to purify blight, blight, vice versa, should possibly be able to corrupt purified/pure (again). Hence, blight gets somehow attracted to a priestess power and a priestess gets attracted to blight, as to purify it. Yinyang principle or light can't exist without shadow and vice versa, to keep the balance in the world.

And since the beginning they both are always spending time with Fretia (before they go separate ways). Meaning, the sisters get the heaviest "irradiated" by the "blight miasma" since Fretia is always in the center of it as to purify it.

It's like always working in a radioactivity contaminated environment, without seeing the radiation, since they didn't know how to handle the blight and the blighted, nor had they any knowledge about it and if it's possible to cure someone out of it without having to rely on a priestess. At first you show no symptoms but the more you are working in that environment, the more severe the consequences/side effects. But since they got the immortal elixier already, hence a higher tolerance against blight and physical changes, they couldn't die of it, that's why no one saw any changes (if there would have been any, which you would rather feel or see, if they were still living human beings) and they had their consciousnesses, hence the 3 transformations afterwards.

That's it. Wasn't that hard to figure that one out, actually. Thank me later.