Lore of the Fox

[Vulture]

I have finally started making a compilation of everything that tells the story of Claudia Volfe (Red Fox) and her family, as all of these points make a nice line towards a series of important events in Carlo's history.

It begins with the item "Bundle of Old Letters." True to their old age, it represents the creation of the Alchemist's laboratories in the process of pursuing Ergo Enhancements. This was funded by none other than the Volfe Family, one of the most powerful families in the land. Very affluent. They were approached by the Alchemists after the opening of the Relic of Trismegistus, an expansive mine full of the materials known as "Kroud" and "Ergo." Thought to be useless at first, the Alchemists showed their wealthy benefactors what kinds of experiments could be performed using Ergo; mostly in the name of enhancing one's lifespan and physical capabilities.

This powerful family helped the Alchemists keep a low cover, as they did not want the secret of Ergo to truly leak. We can see this level of censorship in "Special Report! Foreigner's Confession" in which the publication of anything that criticized the Alchemists or even mentioned Ergo was quickly swept under the rug.

During the early creations of the puppets, we can read in "First Discovery, Camille" that the puppets which used Ergo as a fuel source would sometimes experience what is known as "Ego Awakening" in which the puppets will come to life, having the memories or personality of one of the dominant personalities from whence they came, the people who succumbed to Ergo Petrification. This sparked interest in the Alchemists and their powerful backers, seeing it as an opportunity to live forever; the next stage of evolution. Everything was greenlit to progress into more and more experimentation.

The Rose Isabelle Estate, or the Monad Charity House, was created somewhere after. A boarding school for various youth who would become Stalkers, Workshop Technicians, or even Alchemists if they showed the proper aptitude. This is where Carlo was sent by his father Geppetto, as Geppetto worked endlessly for the Alchemists in perfecting puppet design. It is here where Carlo meets with the Legendary Stalker, a daughter of the Volfe family.

The Volfes, having funded the Ergo Enhancement procedures and medical practices themselves, gave the best of the best to their daughter, an unknown name so far. This individual took the moniker of Fox, and inherited the swordfighting techniques of her forebears as explained by Red Fox's Amulet. "The Volfe Family's swordsmanship that is passed down through generations is famous for being sophisticated and refined. The occasional blinds spot that appears is a trick for an even deadlier attack, so one must be careful." It is the amulet that produces extra Technique and Motility in balance, a direct link to the path of the Cricket as mentioned earlier in the game.

It is uncertain whether Gemini was once a stalker himself with the moniker of Cricket, crickets are seen as guides to old Krat folklore either way. The Legendary Stalker received critical acclaim, a celebrity status at the very least. We can see a glimpse of this celebrity status through the poster "Have a taste of La Bleiwies, the greatest wine in the world!" Carlo, young boy pushing hard to be a stalker, would ultimately catch her attention after much resistance from the Legendary Stalker. She refused at first, trying to keep the young Carlo away, but ultimately found herself taking him under her wing. This is how Carlo learns his combat techniques, as referenced by a few chance voiced encounters in the game. The Battle Maniac of the Black Rabbit Brotherhood explains it the best, "You're no Bastard, nor a Sweeper...those moves of yours..." It seems very apparent that the Legendary Stalker's fighting style is one of defensive mobility, letting hits and attacks glance past, parrying everything that comes, and unleashing powerful finishing blows.

Disaster would strike the Monad Chairty House. It is unspoken what precisely happened, yet my assumption is Arlecchino happened. Both Valentinus and Carlo were murdered in the proceeding mayhem, the building was attacked in it's entirety, and petrification disease was used as a cover-up to hide the truth of what exactly happened. In the Memories of Carlo that happen at the beginning of chapter XI, we learn that the Legendary Stalker appeared too late to stop the carnage.

The Fox then appears to learn of the connection between her family name, Volfe, and their ties to the Alchemists experiments and cuts her family off entirely. Still stricken with guilt, she is approached in the slums by an individual wearing black hunting grab and a Black Cat's mask. In her wounded emotional state, she readily embraces the young and blinding stalker as a second chance to protect that which she lost before (assumed to be Carlo who may have been as a younger brother figure to her). During these times she turned her back on everything her family left her, also presumably stopped taking Ergo Enhancement therapy (although a bit of her old luster can still be found in her miniboss fight when she engages in a multi-hit fury attack combo, mind you the ONLY TIME we see fury attacks chained together, a true embodiment of the fighting style she taught Carlo before)

This is how she recognizes you early on as Geppetto's creation, yet rightfully only assumes you had Carlo's fighting qualities. Her expression before fighting expresses a sense of lamentation when she says "In all honesty...I don't want to fight. Not you, at any rate." She remembers the few years ago when Carlo was still alive and even her body language suggests that she knows what you are and can't bear the sight of you. In the end, after giving her gold coin fruit needed to help cure Black Cat's blindness she finally gives the puppet Carlo her name.

I know this is a long read, but I feel this comprehensively explains (using ingame references) the connection between Red Fox and the story of the Legendary Stalker. If I missed something important, let me know. A lot of these assumptions do hinge of a few small ingame references...it might change! Who knows?

[The Royal Pain]

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you just made me realize our 3 primary damage stats are named after the 3 main 'professions' we see in all of the lore. Motivity for Stalkers and their hunting techniques, Technique for Workshop Technicians and their finesse, and Advance for the Alchemists and their pursuit of science and knowledge. I know that's probably super obvious but it never clicked until those 3 got written back to back.

[An Irate Walrus]

A long read, but an engaging one. Thanks for taking the time to collate all of this in one place.

[Vulture]

Originally posted by The Royal Pain:

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you just made me realize our 3 primary damage stats are named after the 3 main 'professions' we see in all of the lore. Motivity for Stalkers and their hunting techniques, Technique for Workshop Technicians and their finesse, and Advance for the Alchemists and their pursuit of science and knowledge. I know that's probably super obvious but it never clicked until those 3 got written back to back.

It's actually Sweeper - Motility; Bastard - Technique.
Sweepers were individuals who the Monad Charity House pulled off the streets and slums, they are heavy hitting and brutish.
Bastards are the 'unwanted' children of the nobility class sent to the Monad Charity House, they have good affluence tied to their names and thus have gilded weapons that excel in finesse.

There is also the third path, which was usually never chosen: the Cricket. "Neither Sweeper, nor Bastard."

Advance would definitely be related to the Alchemists.

[The Royal Pain]

Originally posted by Vulture:

It's actually Sweeper - Motility; Bastard - Technique.
Sweepers were individuals who the Monad Charity House pulled off the streets and slums, they are heavy hitting and brutish.
Bastards are the 'unwanted' children of the nobility class sent to the Monad Charity House, they have good affluence tied to their names and thus have gilded weapons that excel in finesse.

There is also the third path, which was usually never chosen: the Cricket. "Neither Sweeper, nor Bastard."

Advance would definitely be related to the Alchemists.

Aaaah gotcha, I just kind of got to thinking how we also have people from each of those walks in the hotel (I count Giangio among the Alchemists, probably rightly so in a rough way) and my brain kind of conflated the two. I really need to go through after NG+ and just read *all* of the documents. We can argue about the gameplay all we want but the world itself is beyond fascinating.

[zmanbuilder]

When on the island and seeing those sand memories, The legendary stalker told Gemini to get rid of Carlo when he asked to be her apprentice, You do not hear his voice but it was interesting to hear his name said by the legendary stalker.

[Zheppon]

Read the whole thing and really impressed thank you

[Los]

Interesting read, but why when you fight her does she say "no one knows style like me....and yours reminds me of the legendary stalker" if she herself is the legendary stalker? Wouldn't make any sense for her to refer to herself in the 3rd person like that instead of saying something like "your style reminds me of my own" or "using my own style against me?" or "you've gotten good at using my techniques" etc

[Mako]

The Fox is most definitely not the Legendary Stalker. Yes, she comments about LS in 3rd person. Then she belongs to bastards and we know LS didnt belong to any group. And LS shares voice actor with Belle (likely doesnt mean anything), not with the Fox.

Also Camille isnt just the 1st puppet to awaken. The real human Camille has a statue dedicated to her by "G.G." (pretty obvious who that is), she probably was Geppetto's wife and Carlo's mother. This can explain why Geppetto distanced himself from his son only to suddenly wanting to bring him back at all costs. He was grieving by burying himself in his work.