Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – Complete Story & Lore Theories

[Marble Boogeyman]

(Warning: This post contains major story spoilers)
Below is everything I've compiled from in-game information and my own speculation. The following content will spoil the entire story of the game:
The game is set in Paris during the 19th century, but it’s likely in an alternate universe (as the date December 33rd exists). A conflict is occurring between two factions: The Writers' Guild and The Painters' Guild. The Dessendre family belongs to the Painters' Guild. The conflict isn't described in detail in the game, but the Painters appear to be at a disadvantage.

The Dessendre family has 5 members: Renoir (father), Aline (mother), Clea (eldest daughter), Verso (older son), and Alicia (youngest daughter). The Dessendres have a special ability to create living worlds on canvases, where their thoughts and painting styles manifest as unique, sentient realms. They can even enter these worlds by projecting their consciousness into them, leaving their physical bodies behind. However, the longer they stay in the canvas, the more their real body and mental health deteriorate (a fact mentioned in-game).

In the real world: Renoir and Aline got married and painted together. Aline advised Renoir not to immerse himself too deeply in the world of the canvas.

In the real world: Verso was born on February 22, 1879 (Clea and Aline's birthdates are not specified).

In the real world: Aline taught her children how to use their powers.

Verso created his own canvas world, populated by beings called Gestral, inspired by mannequins and paintbrushes.

Monoco and Noco were based on the family's two dogs. Esquie was modeled after one of Verso's toys (which explains why Esquie and Monoco don't know why they're close to Verso — they're just close friends by nature).

The canvas world was once a playful space shared by young Verso and Clea (Verso riding Esquie and Clea riding François — Esquie once said there was a time "when only the four of them existed in that world").

In the real world: On December 33, 1905, a fire broke out in the Dessendre mansion. Verso died, Alicia was badly burned, and she feels guilty, thinking Verso died saving her (details about the fire are unclear).

In the real world: Aline, devastated by her son's death, couldn't accept his loss. After the fire, only one canvas remained — Verso’s legacy, believed to hold a fragment of his soul — The Faceless Boy.

Aline entered Verso's canvas. There, she became The Faceless Woman, using her Chroma to create Lumière, a region modeled after Paris, with new human residents — and recreated versions of her family: Painted Renoir, Painted Aline (The Paintress), Painted Verso, Painted Clea, and Painted Alicia.

Note: You must now distinguish between the real Dessendre family and the Painted versions created by Aline.
Aline became immersed in the canvas world, abandoning the real world.

Renoir could not accept his wife’s obsession. Her health was deteriorating, so he entered the canvas as The Curator, intending to destroy it and stop Aline from further harming herself.

Renoir created four Axons using his Chroma: Visage (based on Verso), Sirine (Aline), The Reacher (Alicia), and a fourth Axon destroyed in Lumière (possibly based on Clea).

The Curator (Renoir) commanded the Axons to attack Lumière, leading to:

The Fracture event (100 years before Expedition 33)

Lumière was split: one part remained (Old Lumière), the other became a separate island (Lumière). Possibly Aline separated it to protect it.

A hero named Simon destroyed one Axon in Lumière. He later joined Expedition 00, had romantic feelings for Painted Clea, and was empowered by her (possibly by Aline’s power to protect the canvas).

The Curator was imprisoned beneath the Monolith by Aline (as The Paintress).

Without orders, the Axons returned to their own continents.

Despite being imprisoned, The Curator (Renoir) used his Chroma to create The Gommage, aiming to erase the people of Lumière.

The Paintress (Aline) tried to stop The Gommage, but her Chroma weakened. The Monolith displayed this decline through numbers, as more people (starting from the oldest) fell victim to The Gommage.

Survivors blamed The Paintress for The Gommage. Humanity formed Expedition 00 to destroy her. Initial members included:

Painted Renoir, Painted Verso, Painted Clea, Simon, Julie (Painted Verso’s lover), (Possibly other unnamed members)

Simon, being too powerful, was imprisoned by Painted Renoir in Renoir’s Draft, where he gradually lost his mind.

Expedition 00 members were killed by Painted Renoir and Painted Verso to protect The Paintress — to “protect the family.”

Julie was killed, which deeply affected Painted Verso. He withdrew and later joined other expeditions. By Expedition 58, Verso grew tired of death and resolved to end everything — no matter the cost.

In the real world: Clea wanted to end the long-lasting conflict between her parents. She entered the canvas, using her power to paint over others' work — she overwrote Painted Clea, causing her to continuously spawn Nevrons.

The Nevrons' goal: exterminate humanity.

Aline created opposing beings — the White Nevrons, who claim The Paintress as their creator.

In the real world: Alicia, wanting to help her family, entered the canvas under Clea’s guidance. However, the intense Chroma clash between Renoir and Aline caused Alicia overwrited, turning her into Maelle inside the canvas — losing all memory of the real world.

Then the game story unfolds:
Painted Renoir continues killing Expeditioners to protect The Paintress.

Nevrons exterminate humans to trap Aline’s Chroma, weakening her ability to defend Lumière.

The Curator (Renoir) assists Maelle’s group in their mission to destroy The Paintress.

The Paintress (Aline) is destroyed, freeing the real Renoir and resulting in the complete eradication of Lumière's population.

Renoir decides to destroy the canvas entirely.

Alicia recovers her Chroma and awakens all her memories within Maelle.

Maelle’s team confronts Renoir.

Two Endings:
1. Maelle wins:
Alicia chooses to remain in the canvas as Maelle, rebuild Lumière, and live happily in that world — despite her real body slowly dying.
2. Verso wins:
Everything ends. The canvas is destroyed. Alicia returns to the real world to face her true life.

Bonus (Personal Choice):
I chose Verso’s ending — since the canvas is his creation, he deserves to decide its fate. Alicia must live her real life — not lose herself in someone else’s creation. If you love someone, sometimes the right thing is to let them go peacefully.

[Kapika96]

Really wondering about the 33rd December date. Is that just the devs being silly? Is it to link into it being Expedition 33? Although for the latter just changing the game to Expedition 31 and using 31st December probably would've made more sense. Or is there some other significance to it?

[ryteu]

Originally posted by Kapika96:

Really wondering about the 33rd December date. Is that just the devs being silly? Is it to link into it being Expedition 33? Although for the latter just changing the game to Expedition 31 and using 31st December probably would've made more sense. Or is there some other significance to it?

I suspect that it has to do with the number being a pair of threes and three regularly appearing through the rest of the game - three acts, three axons, three Dessedre children, even three narrative layers (if I stick with my interpretation of the Writers), and many more. Having a pair of threes in the date along with it being more days than normally possible in a calendar month could be representative of cycles of repetition that continue perpetually. The cycles come in three parts, which then repeat until forever and a day. Conveying the idea of eternity in that way has a long history in European literature, which is where I infer the idea comes from, though that normally happens by extending a text past completion by one (e.g. 101 paragraphs in a text or 366 poems in a sequence). There is also the fact that 33 December would be written as 12/33, which provides a third 3 by adding 1+2; so, we have a set of three 3s for the date, which is an idea related to the repetition of cycles on cycles. (9 tends to be a useful number in writing because it holds three sets of 3s in it and can be used for repetition that build on themselves, i.e. Dante's Inferno.)

Basically, 33 December means that the year ends but the story does not; instead it begins to repeat. Which then calls to mind the fact that this continuation is still stuck in the past, drawing out the ending of the year and unable to roll over to the next year to begin again. That part, I think, is reflective of Aline and Alicia's difficulty in moving on from the fire - the world continues, but they remain trapped in that moment even after it is long past, locking them into an extended December. They must move on, yet they cannot leave the past behind.


To now also address one theory I have relevant to OP's timeline: the fire and the Writers. The theory I mentioned above is that I think the Writers could be another layer above the Dessendre family. They are the Painters and creators of the Canvas world, and I enjoy the idea that the Writers are the creators of their world. Using that framework, the fire would be, in the Dessendre's world, a possibly random event; however, the family is aware of the Writers and understands that they are responsible for causing things to happen in their world to advance a purpose. So, the fire is becomes a plot device for the Writers to the tell the story of the game. Obviously, it's all conjecture, but it may be worth considering to see what it adds to the game.

[Tiasmoon]

Originally posted by Marble Boogeyman:

Bonus (Personal Choice):
I chose Verso’s ending — since the canvas is his creation, he deserves to decide its fate. Alicia must live her real life — not lose herself in someone else’s creation. If you love someone, sometimes the right thing is to let them go peacefully.

Painted Verso is Aline's creation and has no actual link to the real Verso or the fragment of his soul. So its not his creation and not his right to decide its fate.

If you look at real Verso's creations (Monoco, Esquie, etc) they dont want to be erased.

Alicia's journey as Maelle helped her grow as a person. Destroying the Canvas like this (without resolving it in a satisfying way) not only takes that growth away, it probably permanently destroyed parts of her (like her willingness to paint, or help her family) and just made her character even more broken as a result.

This aint the right thing, its the worst possible outcome for Alicia.

[Shin Happens]

I wouldn't say the Nevron's goal is to specifically wipe out humanity (but they would certainly try), it's more like they exterminate all the expeditioners and trap their chroma, depriving Aline of chroma. Real Renoir is the doing the actual destruction of humanity by gommaging all people he can each year, while Aline is on the defensive and can protect fewer and fewer canvas humans each year.

P.S. Verso's ending is mass genocide! ;-) The Lumèrians are real, even if their world is artificial, but they are truly self-aware sentient beings. In an ideal ending Maelle could have easily gommaged painted Verso (like she did for her painted alter ego Painted Alicia), and Maelle then could have left the canvas at regular intervals to not overdose on the chroma and let her body wither away, but she doesn't want to face reality at all. I would and will always choose the Maelle ending, even if it too is quite problematic. Watched the Verso ending on YT, it's utterly horrible, if you ask me. Kill an entire civilisation just so four (five, if we include Painted Verso) people can feel better? The family should grow up, show some responsibility for the world's they have created, they are not just playthings.

[Helldivers™ 2]

I still don't get why Alica painted the humans that... try each year to kill Alicia. Just paint them to not attack you? Wtf

[Aure]

There is some things that I do not understand about the story but since you have done your research so well I hope you can help me out.

there is also a lil oopsie in your text I believe, you swapped the 2 names of mother and daughter here: "However, the intense Chroma clash between Renoir and Aline caused Alicia to overwrite Aline, turning her into Maelle inside the canvas — losing all memory of the real world." - its alicia being reborn as maelle not aline (mother)

if I understand you correctly, we have two versions of the Dessendre Family in the canvas:
1. Alines Verions: with her as the paintress and the human family members
2. Renoirs Versions: him the curator and the Axons

So the reason why all of the previous expeditions failed was because of Renoir, who also knew the communication codes the Expedition used which was stated in some of the Exp-Files. I believe in one of them from Expedition 60 they Mention that the real issue is not the paintress, it is what is "below the Monolith". So Aline tried to stay in the canvas, using her version of the family to protect her, since she protected the people of Lumiere. Makes sense. Now to what doesnt make sense to me in the story so far:

Versos goal. Verso has seen thousands of expeditioners die. He fought with many of them side by side to save a family he sometimes feels part of and sometimes doesnt. he mentiones that he is not "the verso" which is true. Verso is like Noco, a memory reborn in this canvas unable to die but is not what he once was and will never be. But he of all characters in the game should know, that the people in this canvas are just as human as he or his supposed family members are. He has spent more time with them than anyone else from his family. These people, just as Tiasmoon said, are sentinel beings. We could just replace the setting from canvas to planet to make it a little bit more obvious:
If we would be talking about the Dessendre family being gods and they are thinking about destroying earth because their daughter rather wants to live a human mortal life, would we feel different about Versos ending?

Lune, Sciel and Gustave cherrished their lifes, they were willing to sacrifice the last year they had for everyone after them, this is not something a brainless painted thing would do and Verso knows this very well.. He talkes to them, helps them with their quests and gets the option to romance 2 of his companions but at the very end, everything is meaningless to him. He suddenly turns into Renoir 2.0 even tho there is a chance to bring people back to life. Yes he did not care about the gommage killing everyone as soon as his "mother" was out, but at this point we didnt know we could save the canvas, now that we can bring people back suddenly its about saving alicia/maelle who does not want to be saved - again. Even in Versos ending, the family does not comfort her, she is standing all alone in front of her dead brothers grave. What do we actually achieve by destroying the canvas?

We kick her out of a world where she finally feels like she belongs, after her parents left her and her sister alone. A sister who sent her into this canvas by herself where she gets completly overwhelmed by her parents chroma, forcing her to be reborn with no memories into a world where everyone she knows dies. Her parents made her feel responsible for her brothers death then left her to fight their own little paint war. Yes she is 16, but she lived 2 lifes so far and even if it means she will die, her parents spent over 67 years in this canvas already.. I dont think she cares about dying in there surrounded by people who care about her.

I understand Maelle but I do not understand Verso unless he was lying all game long about everything. Why was he mad when we killed Alicia then if he wanted the canvas destroyed? Why would he care about any of the expeditioners? Why tell Sciel we would bring her husband back? Why even care about reviving Noco? Why even help at all if he could have just waited 33 more years..?

[Juls Fortune]

Originally posted by Kapika96:

Really wondering about the 33rd December date. Is that just the devs being silly? Is it to link into it being Expedition 33? Although for the latter just changing the game to Expedition 31 and using 31st December probably would've made more sense. Or is there some other significance to it?

Fun fact, the team behind Clair Obscur is a group of 33 people.

0 metaphoric meaning, It was literally a Expedition for a 33 people new studio.