[Spoilers] Question About Act 2 Ending

[JASON!]

Maybe I missed the explanation - but what is the point of the Gommage? If the paintress represents "Creation" why are people getting Gommaged?

Also... I feel like this lady in the prologue sitting on the bench surrounded by flower pots has some kind of significance, but not seeing what it is.

[Antiquus Lupus]

The dialog and cut scenes explain their is a creation side and a death/destruction counterpart in the story causing the erasing

[JASON!]

Originally posted by Antiquus Lupus:

The dialog and cut scenes explain their is a creation side and a death/destruction counterpart in the story causing the erasing

So is she writing the number as a warning..? I'm playing through the game again but I swear the cutscene didn't explain what the Giant Paintress is writing the number for. I understand that the father is the death side

[Ashtarte]

She is not the one causing the Gommage, Renoir (the Curator) is doing that. She's putting up the numbers as a warning sign because her power was waning over time and she couldn't keep everyone alive. I think you may have skipped doing the relationship quests after Act 2 because Verso clearly spells this out.

[Shin Happens]

It's simple, more or less... and the game all spells it out for you eventually, only read if you truly want to know, it spoils events later in the game:

The cavanas was originally created by young Verso as some kind of playground, he created/painted the Gestrals, Esquie, Monoco, all the friendly creatures. Then he died in a fire. But a piece of his soul lingered in the painting (all painters leave a bit of them behind in a canvas they create). Stricken with grief Verso's mother Aline enters the canvas and repaints Verso (the one we meet in the game) and also her daughter, Alicia. She probably also created Lumiere (not exactly explained).

And Aline chose to stay in this world.

But meanwhile her real body in the real world is not only withering away (no food or drink etc) but overexposure to the chroma in the painting means she may lose her mind or it may outright kill her.

So the father, Renoir, enters the canvas and tries all he can to get Aline out, eventually he knows no better way than to destroy the canvas, so Aline is ejected. Their first big clash caused the fracture. Aline managed to trap Renoir underneath the monolith. Aline herself is trapped in the monolith. Aline then paints a version of Renoir, while the real Renoir is trapped under the monolith and can only manifest himself as the Curator. The doppelgänger Renoir is the one with the scar on his face that kills all the expeditions.

Eventually the other daughter, Clea, enters the picture, she too enters the canvas world with a plan of her own: she paints Nekrons, the hostile creatures. Their purpose is to trap all the chroma, i.e. the magic stuff needed to create things. This robs Aline of more and more chroma and she gets weaker and weaker. This allows the trapped Renoir to slowly destroy the canvas world, by erasing the weakest and oldest part of Lumiere's population.

The number on the monoloth is a dire warning to the people of Lumiere that Aline is only able to protect people who are younger than the number on the monolith, she is running out of chroma / mana / magic and she'll eventually lose. She needs the expeditions to fail, because if the expeditions succeed she is expelled from the canvas world and the real Renoir would then immediately destroy it. She does not want that.

Eventually Alicia is sent inside the canvas, but Aline immediately repaints Alicia, who then becomes Maelle, a baby born into this world with no memory of her true self.

Throughout the game you meet faded remnants of Verso, Clea and others who left an imprint in the canvas.

[JASON!]

Originally posted by Ashtarte:

She is not the one causing the Gommage, Renoir (the Curator) is doing that. She's putting up the numbers as a warning sign because her power was waning over time and she couldn't keep everyone alive. I think you may have skipped doing the relationship quests after Act 2 because Verso clearly spells this out.

Well yep, somehow I missed it then. I beat the main story and did not catch this. I did do all the companionships as they came (all forced camp parts). I may have just spaced out when the reasoning was given. Thank you!

[JASON!]

Originally posted by Shin Happens:

It's simple, more or less... and the game all spells it out for you eventually, only read if you truly want to know, it spoils events later in the game:

The cavanas was originally created by young Verso as some kind of playground, he created/painted the Gestrals, Esquie, Monoco, all the friendly creatures. Then he died in a fire. But a piece of his soul lingered in the painting (all painters leave a bit of them behind in a canvas they create). Stricken with grief Verso's mother Aline enters the canvas and repaints Verso (the one we meet in the game) and also her daughter, Alicia. She probably also created Lumiere (not exactly explained).

And Aline chose to stay in this world.

But meanwhile her real body in the real world is not only withering away (no food or drink etc) but overexposure to the chroma in the painting means she may lose her mind or it may outright kill her.

So the father, Renoir, enters the canvas and tries all he can to get Aline out, eventually he knows no better way than to destroy the canvas, so Aline is ejected. Their first big clash caused the fracture. Aline managed to trap Renoir underneath the monolith. Aline herself is trapped in the monolith. Aline then paints a version of Renoir, while the real Renoir is trapped under the monolith and can only manifest himself as the Curator. The doppelgänger Renoir is the one with the scar on his face that kills all the expeditions.

Eventually the other daughter, Clea, enters the picture, she too enters the canvas world with a plan of her own: she paints Nekrons, the hostile creatures. Their purpose is to trap all the chroma, i.e. the magic stuff needed to create things. This robs Aline of more and more chroma and she gets weaker and weaker. This allows the trapped Renoir to slowly destroy the canvas world, by erasing the weakest and oldest part of Lumiere's population.

The number on the monoloth is a dire warning to the people of Lumiere that Aline is only able to protect people who are younger than the number on the monolith, she is running out of chroma / mana / magic and she'll eventually lose. She needs the expeditions to fail, because if the expeditions succeed she is expelled from the canvas world and the real Renoir would then immediately destroy it. She does not want that.

Eventually Alicia is sent inside the canvas, but Aline immediately repaints Alicia, who then becomes Maelle, a baby born into this world with no memory of her true self.

Throughout the game you meet faded remnants of Verso, Clea and others who left an imprint in the canvas.

I didnt see the part about Clea painting the Nekrons. Where do you even learn this? Side content?

[cipley]

Originally posted by Shin Happens:

It's simple, more or less... and the game all spells it out for you eventually, only read if you truly want to know, it spoils events later in the game:

The cavanas was originally created by young Verso as some kind of playground, he created/painted the Gestrals, Esquie, Monoco, all the friendly creatures. Then he died in a fire. But a piece of his soul lingered in the painting (all painters leave a bit of them behind in a canvas they create). Stricken with grief Verso's mother Aline enters the canvas and repaints Verso (the one we meet in the game) and also her daughter, Alicia. She probably also created Lumiere (not exactly explained).

And Aline chose to stay in this world.

But meanwhile her real body in the real world is not only withering away (no food or drink etc) but overexposure to the chroma in the painting means she may lose her mind or it may outright kill her.

So the father, Renoir, enters the canvas and tries all he can to get Aline out, eventually he knows no better way than to destroy the canvas, so Aline is ejected. Their first big clash caused the fracture. Aline managed to trap Renoir underneath the monolith. Aline herself is trapped in the monolith. Aline then paints a version of Renoir, while the real Renoir is trapped under the monolith and can only manifest himself as the Curator. The doppelgänger Renoir is the one with the scar on his face that kills all the expeditions.

Eventually the other daughter, Clea, enters the picture, she too enters the canvas world with a plan of her own: she paints Nekrons, the hostile creatures. Their purpose is to trap all the chroma, i.e. the magic stuff needed to create things. This robs Aline of more and more chroma and she gets weaker and weaker. This allows the trapped Renoir to slowly destroy the canvas world, by erasing the weakest and oldest part of Lumiere's population.

The number on the monoloth is a dire warning to the people of Lumiere that Aline is only able to protect people who are younger than the number on the monolith, she is running out of chroma / mana / magic and she'll eventually lose. She needs the expeditions to fail, because if the expeditions succeed she is expelled from the canvas world and the real Renoir would then immediately destroy it. She does not want that.

Eventually Alicia is sent inside the canvas, but Aline immediately repaints Alicia, who then becomes Maelle, a baby born into this world with no memory of her true self.

Throughout the game you meet faded remnants of Verso, Clea and others who left an imprint in the canvas.

About Maelle, there was also a "copy" version of Alicia, the one who Copy Verso wanted to meet, but always clings to Copy Renoir - the one with the mask and scarred face due to fire.

Copy Renoir and Copy Alicia notices that Maelle is in fact Alicia, thus their repeated encounter in Act 1, warning her to "go home". However, at this point Maelle doesn't recall any memories of Alicia so she get confused.

[Ringlet]

It actually explained in the letter from Alicia that Verso sit reading at the harbor. But back then, the context of the letter was hardly comprehensible by the player, because player didn't yet grasp the REAL concept of the world player has been experienced with.

Additionally, the letter often used just the word HE and SHE to refer (the real) Renoir and (the real) Aline, that made it more confusing to understand the context.

Here's a few lines mentioned in the letter.

"On her Monolith, she paints a warning for us all. Of the few she can save as her power wanes"

"You mother paints life. Whilst your father, death."

[JASON!]

Originally posted by Ringlet:

It actually explained in the letter from Alicia that Verso sit reading at the harbor. But back then, the context of the letter was hardly comprehensible by the player, because player didn't yet grasp the REAL concept of the world player has been experienced with.

Additionally, the letter often used just the word HE and SHE to refer (the real) Renoir and (the real) Aline, that made it more confusing to understand the context.

Here's a few lines mentioned in the letter.

"On her Monolith, she paints a warning for us all. Of the few she can save as her power wanes"

"You mother paints life. Whilst your father, death."

Fair point. When he read the letter, I was pretty confused, now that totally makes sense!

[Ringlet]

I didnt see the part about Clea painting the Nekrons. Where do you even learn this? Side content?

Late game content in Act.3, in the "Flying Manor"

[JASON!]

Originally posted by Ringlet:

I didnt see the part about Clea painting the Nekrons. Where do you even learn this? Side content?

Late game content in Act.3, in the "Flying Manor"

Is this side content? I went straight to Lumiere at the start of Act 3

[Ringlet]

Originally posted by JASON!:

Originally posted by Ringlet:

Late game content in Act.3, in the "Flying Manor"

Is this side content? I went straight to Lumiere at the start of Act 3

It is. And the boss there is way harder than the story last boss.

[Inf]

Originally posted by JASON!:

Originally posted by Ringlet:

Late game content in Act.3, in the "Flying Manor"

Is this side content? I went straight to Lumiere at the start of Act 3

There's a lot of content in Act 3 worth playing through. My favorite was the underwater dungeon in the North that you can reach once your rep with Esquie is high enough