[SPOILER: Incoming Lore Dump] There's gaps in my understanding of the story

[Shu]

First I want to preface that I absolutely love this game. I'm head over heels for the characters and the world—they really stuck with me. That said, I feel like I’ve grasped maybe 68% of the narrative, there are still grey areas I can’t quite wrap my head around. Maybe I missed some details in the journals (I haven't found them all to tbh), or maybe I just didn’t pay close enough attention. Or hey, maybe I’m just half-stupid. Either way, I’d love to hear what you all think and see if you can help shed some light on things.

So, to my understanding, the world of Lumière was created by Verso (and Clea?) using some kind of painting magic that I still don’t fully understand. At some point, “the Writers” attacked the Dessendre family—Verso was killed, Alicia was badly injured, and Aline, the mother, plunged into the painted world of Lumière out of grief. That world contained a fragment of Verso’s soul, and using her memories, Aline painted a version of her lost family—so I’m assuming that’s where the Verso we meet in-game comes from, along with the masked Alicia and the angry Denoir.

But here’s where I start getting confused:
Q1 - did Aline also paint the other inhabitants of Lumière, or were those humans already part of Verso’s original creation? I'm guessing that Aline created the humans of Lumière because of the gommage thing but I'm unsure on who painted what now that I know that they are all painters.

Eventually, Aline spends too much time in Lumière, and I get the sense that using chroma to keep this world alive is draining her—maybe chroma is like life force? Whatever it is, it’s killing her. So the real Denoir, unwilling to lose his wife, dives into the painting to try and erase the world, hoping it’ll force Aline out and save her. Now the two are locked in this eternal conflict: Aline, high above on the monolith as the Paintress, trying to preserve what her son created, and Denoir, below, trying to destroy it to bring her back.
"Aline paints life while Denoir paints death"—I think that’s roughly the quote, I forgot the exact line my bad ;p

Q2 - Is that what “the Shattering” was? Their initial clash, which shattered Lumière into fragments? That part is still a bit fuzzy for me.

Q3 - Another thing I don’t fully get: if Aline wants to protect Lumière, why does she perform the Gommage every year?
My theory/understanding is that the fight with Denoir is draining her strength, and she can’t maintain all her creations. Maybe she "gommages" people to conserve chroma—to reduce how much life energy she’s spending?

Q4 - Then there’s Expedition Zero. Initially, Verso tells us their mission was to find the missing people after the Shattering, but that could’ve been a lie. He clearly had an agenda and may have been manipulating us into fighting the Paintress. Yes it was also 33's goal at the time but they lacked critical context, you understand what I'm trying to say.

From what I understand, the painted versions of Verso, Denoir, and maybe Alicia were part of Expedition Zero. I’m guessing their real goal was to stop people from reaching Aline—to protect her from being fought or erased. I mean, from their point of view, it’d be hard to understand that she’s actually trying to preserve their world, right?

I mean even the later expeditions confuse me—like, what actually happened to them? They must have been intentionally cut off from the whole Expedition Zero context, right? Otherwise, they’d know the Paintress is Aline and that there’s a whole tragic backstory behind her actions.
Take Expedition 99, for example. It’s like:
"Our 99-year-old elder just got thanos-snapped as soon as that entity wrote '99' on the monolith. Let’s gear up and kill her before she writes again."

Which, to be fair, makes sense if you don’t know the bigger picture. But Expedition 33 knew Expedition Zero from their history...
But then again, maybe Aline intentionally kept them in the dark. Like she sent them to that island—this new version of Lumière—where they could live, unaware, with free will. Kind of a godlike reset.

Q5 - Lastly, I feel like I still know very little about the real world outside the painting. What exactly is chroma? How does that work? Who are the Painters and the Writers? Why did the Writers attack the Painters in the first place?

That’s what I’ve pieced together so far. Maybe I missed things due to my own oversight, or maybe Sandfall Interactive intentionally left some gaps for interpretation. Either way, I absolutely love this game—it’s a masterpiece!

Thanks a lot if you read this far, have a wonderful day!
Tomorrow will come

[Krainz337]

To answer your question 3. Aline does not do the gommaging. Its renoir who does it. Aline tries to protect the people and the number shows how many people she can protect. Renoir slowly kills the people every year cuz he is not as strong as her to just erase every body. Aline created the painted renoir and verso and the others to prevent the Expeditioners to kill her. Her goal was that the Expeditions would find out the truth about who really does the gommaging and that they would defeat the real renoir (curator) and expel him from the painting. But verso somewhere in the middle of that remembered who he really was and changed his plan to help the Expeditions kill the paintress to expel mother from the painting and let renoir destroy it.

[SeraphLance]

The motivations do seem a bit odd when you think about it. Expeditioners want to stop the gommages, so their goal (even if they don't know it) is to kill real Renoir. Fake Renoir wants to live with his family, so his goal should be to kill real Renoir as well. Instead he kills the expeditioners who don't know the truth, knowing full well that he's running out of time, as the paintress is dying and real Renoir is gaining ground on her.

Obviously it's an uphill battle to try to convince the expeditioners that the paintress they see 24/7 and who apparently kills them every year is actually their savior, but doing what he's doing is literally guaranteed to fail.

[Shin Happens]

As far as I understand the game

Q1: this is never said in the game, we do not know who exactly created Lumiere, we DO know that young boy Verso created the Gestrals and Esquie, that Clea painted most of the Nevrons, that the real Renoir painted the Axons and some high level Nevrons and finally that Aline painted Alicia and Verso - but the game never explicitly tells you who painted the first humans and Lumiere

Q2: absolutey corregt, the fracture was a byproduct of the first heavy clash between Renoir and his wife Aline

Q3: Renoir is performing the Gommage, Aline's monolith number is a warning, she can only protect people who are younger than this number, Renoir does this because he believes if he destroys it all Aline will leave the canvas

Q4: all the previous expeditions failed at one point or another, only expedition 0 ever even managed to reach the monolith. The purpose of painted Renoir is to protect Aline from the misinformed people from Lumiere who think she's the one responsible for the Gommage. Painted Verso eventually changed sides, he was originally on board (since he was painted that way) but at one point he became weary of this, depressed maybe even, and wanted nothing else but to stop it all, especially his own existence, so he and painted Renoir clashed, ever since then he's been doing his own thing, trying to help expeditions so they can defeat Aline, which would allow the real Renoir to delete everything

Q5: never fully explained, only implied. Chroma is obviously some kind of "magic paint" or "substance" that allows painters to create these worlds and beings. Who exactly the writers are is never talked about, it's very reasonable to assume that writers are the book equivalent of the painters, they just create all these worlds and beings inside of books though, instead of paintings. It is never explained why the writers attacked the Dessendre family and burned the house

[Shin Happens]

Originally posted by SeraphLance:

Fake Renoir wants to live with his family, so his goal should be to kill real Renoir as well. Instead he kills the expeditioners who don't know the truth, knowing full well that he's running out of time.

Painted Renoir was created by Aline as a defensive measure. She CANNOT allow the people from Lumiere to reach her and to defeat her, because the second it happens the real Renoir, who is trapped underneath the monolith, can gommage everyone and everything and destroy the canvas. Painted Renoir's whole purpose is to stop expeditions. Nothing else. He could not reach or touch real Renoir, just as real Renoir cannot reach or touch Aline, both are captured, Renoir underneath the monolith, Aline inside the monolith.

Now one could ask... ok why doesn't Painted Renoir visit Lumiere to tell the citizens the truth about it all? So they can instead focus their expeditions on reaching real Renoir and try to defeat him? Instead of going after Aline who is trying to protect them.
Maybe the painters do not really want to know the people of Lumiere that they are inside a painting. I can't say really.

[SeraphLance]

Originally posted by Shin Happens:

Now one could ask... ok why doesn't Painted Renoir visit Lumiere to tell the citizens the truth about it all? So they can instead focus their expeditions on reaching real Renoir and try to defeat him? Instead of going after Aline who is trying to protect them.
Maybe the painters do not really want to know the people of Lumiere that they are inside a painting. I can't say really.

Yeah I mean that's the problem. Literally all the cards are stacked against them and they just continue to kill expeditioners in the hopes of... what exactly? Even if every expedition fails forever, everyone is still going to die and the canvas is still going to be destroyed, because Aline can't access any of the chroma.

[Shu]

Thanks guys, that makes a lot more sense now.

From Renoir's point of view, it is kind of ironic how the people he is trying to gommage eventually helped him expel Aline out of the canvas. Without them knowing of course but still. And yeah, I feel like leaving the people in the unknown was not a great move on Aline's side. But maybe she had no means to do so, like she instructed painted Renoir to protect the monolith but I like to think that she couldn't exert any control over him past the shattering which would maybe explain his actions. I mean she made him quite bitter and obsessed.

Or maybe it was an act of mercy on her side, not wanting to let the people of Lumière involved, letting them enjoy and cherish the life and time that they do have. Not knowing that they are wrongly choosing to fight regardless, thinking she's responsible for the gommage.

[Cynik]

Originally posted by Shin Happens:

As far as I understand the game

Q1: this is never said in the game, we do not know who exactly created Lumiere, we DO know that young boy Verso created the Gestrals and Esquie, that Clea painted most of the Nevrons, that the real Renoir painted the Axons and some high level Nevrons and finally that Aline painted Alicia and Verso - but the game never explicitly tells you who painted the first humans and Lumiere

I'm pretty sure its the painted Clea that makes the Nevrons, the real Clea is the one who created the humans. She tells Alicia that she has her pawns in place to help the real Renoir and to take Aline out of the canvas.

[Shin Happens]

Originally posted by Cynik:

Originally posted by Shin Happens:

As far as I understand the game

Q1: this is never said in the game, we do not know who exactly created Lumiere, we DO know that young boy Verso created the Gestrals and Esquie, that Clea painted most of the Nevrons, that the real Renoir painted the Axons and some high level Nevrons and finally that Aline painted Alicia and Verso - but the game never explicitly tells you who painted the first humans and Lumiere

I'm pretty sure its the painted Clea that makes the Nevrons, the real Clea is the one who created the humans. She tells Alicia that she has her pawns in place to help the real Renoir and to take Aline out of the canvas.

Is it like that? As far as I understood it the Clea you can meet in the Flying Mansion is merely the echo / fragment of soul the real Clea left behind when she was in the canvas? It is implied that Clea may have created Lumiere, on my NG+ run I picked up on something I had forgotten about, the faded boy in the cliffs region says that something bad is waiting at the end of the path that seems similar to them (the expeditioners), as in they were created by the same being (Clea). But then I wonder... Lumiere apparently existed before the fracture. So there must have been people around then, and that was long before Clea ever painted anything in the canvas, So she couldn't have created them?

[ZexxCrine]

Originally posted by Shin Happens:

Q4: all the previous expeditions failed at one point or another, only expedition 0 ever even managed to reach the monolith. The purpose of painted Renoir is to protect Aline from the misinformed people from Lumiere who think she's the one responsible for the Gommage. Painted Verso eventually changed sides, he was originally on board (since he was painted that way) but at one point he became weary of this, depressed maybe even, and wanted nothing else but to stop it all, especially his own existence, so he and painted Renoir clashed, ever since then he's been doing his own thing, trying to help expeditions so they can defeat Aline, which would allow the real Renoir to delete everything

Not entirely true. At least 2 expeditions made it into the monolith. Expedition 60 and whichever one was setting up the grappling points. Also more than those 2 figured out that the paintress wasn’t the bad guy. Some were told by verso, others figured it out themselves. They all got wiped out too far in to be able to relay that info back. Expedition 60 sent an absolute chad to swim back but he couldn’t make the trip in time for the gommage.

[['w']]

EVery time I read Denoir *'@%$ f* OCD, I go crazy and can't read on

[archmag]

Q4: all the previous expeditions failed at one point or another, only expedition 0 ever even managed to reach the monolith.

Actually several expeditions reached monolith. I think at least 3 more: 60, 69 and 70. 60 was naked guys who just swam and used their body's power to go through the barrier, you get the journal of the last guy who was swimming back to bring news to the others but got gommaged on his way back as he couldn't outrun the time. 70 were the ones placing things that you jump to into the cliffs, you find the remaining pieces and their journal halfway up the monolith. I don't remember what 69 did and maybe I am mistaken about them but I think they were also somehow related to the monolith.


Edit:

Originally posted by ZexxCrine:

Not entirely true. At least 2 expeditions made it into the monolith. Expedition 60 and whichever one was setting up the grappling points. Also more than those 2 figured out that the paintress wasn’t the bad guy. Some were told by verso, others figured it out themselves. They all got wiped out too far in to be able to relay that info back. Expedition 60 sent an absolute chad to swim back but he couldn’t make the trip in time for the gommage.

Yes, this exactly.

[unsweetened]

Originally posted by Shin Happens:

Originally posted by Cynik:

I'm pretty sure its the painted Clea that makes the Nevrons, the real Clea is the one who created the humans. She tells Alicia that she has her pawns in place to help the real Renoir and to take Aline out of the canvas.

Is it like that? As far as I understood it the Clea you can meet in the Flying Mansion is merely the echo / fragment of soul the real Clea left behind when she was in the canvas? It is implied that Clea may have created Lumiere, on my NG+ run I picked up on something I had forgotten about, the faded boy in the cliffs region says that something bad is waiting at the end of the path that seems similar to them (the expeditioners), as in they were created by the same being (Clea). But then I wonder... Lumiere apparently existed before the fracture. So there must have been people around then, and that was long before Clea ever painted anything in the canvas, So she couldn't have created them?

It was Verso's canvas, but Clea and him both spent a lot of time in it together when they were younger. Clea mentions this during the first "epilogue". As for the nevrons, they were made by the real, adult Clea. She made them in an attempt to end the feud between her parents as the nevrons basically lock down chroma so her parents can't use it. The Clea you meet in the flying manor was originally painted by Aline, but then was painted OVER by real Clea and left to continuously paint Nevrons. This is apparently a large feat as Alicia/Maelle says only Clea is strong enough to do that.

[FreeSergey]

The Real Aline painted Lumiere, all people, the Manor, the Painted Renoir, Clea, Verso and Alicia to live the life she lived before the death of the Real Verso.

Initially Painted Renoir, Clea, Verso and Alicia didn't know they were painted. I think Renoir and Verso found out about it during the Expedition Zero from Real Clea, but it is not confirmed.

[Shin Happens]

Originally posted by unsweetened:

It was Verso's canvas, but Clea and him both spent a lot of time in it together when they were younger. Clea mentions this during the first "epilogue". As for the nevrons, they were made by the real, adult Clea. She made them in an attempt to end the feud between her parents as the nevrons basically lock down chroma so her parents can't use it. The Clea you meet in the flying manor was originally painted by Aline, but then was painted OVER by real Clea and left to continuously paint Nevrons. This is apparently a large feat as Alicia/Maelle says only Clea is strong enough to do that.

Thanks for clearing that up! I do pick up on things I forgot or misremembered in my NG+ run, knowing what I have to pay attention to :-D

I still wonder though who really created Lumière. Clea then? The faded boy (Verso) in the cliffs region implies as much. I do wonder why she did this though, this was before she may have needed "pawns" to try and reach her mother in the monolith. That would make Clea the "goddess" of the Lumèrians then, not young Verso who only ever painted Gestrals, Grandis, Esquie etc. She was of course quite a bit older than Verso and maybe she wanted a nice place she can be in (her version of Paris) when she was in the canvas.

Originally posted by ZexxCrine:

Not entirely true. At least 2 expeditions made it into the monolith. Expedition 60 and whichever one was setting up the grappling points. Also more than those 2 figured out that the paintress wasn’t the bad guy. Some were told by verso, others figured it out themselves. They all got wiped out too far in to be able to relay that info back. Expedition 60 sent an absolute chad to swim back but he couldn’t make the trip in time for the gommage.

You are absolutely correct! Found the log of the naked expeditioners in my NG+ run, I had only remembered the "naked" part but not that they had found out the truth and had tried to send someone back before he would gommage, but he was too late and could only leave his log.
But that is why I usually do NG+ runs for games like this, some bits and pieces of the story become much clearer when you play it twice and know what to pay attention to in the second run.