View from the dessendre mansion in real life

[Alice]

Is the original mansion itself hidden inside a painting? The view from the windows in the interlude seems to imply something. And the view of the tower too. Would also explain why they're relatively calm living as usual while having a faction gunning after them.

[palacentes]

it might be, i mean their enemies are called the "writers" that feels like its talking about the developers. the dessendre might be just like the painted world. The mother wasnt actually sad, she was just a programmed AI. There was no grief...there is no healing....None of it was real. You never know w these kinds of reality shifting stories.

[Noelemahc]

Old Lumiere before the Fracture was implied to be a copy of contemporary Paris. It's just that the Eiffel Tower (the Crooked Tower to modern Lumierans) was relocated away from the Mansion with the rest of Lumiere when it became an island.

The conflict with the Writers may be a shadowy one, built on rules, a-la WoD, which was why they needed to fool Maelle to get inside the Mansion to set it on fire.

It could be a meta joke (e.g. by Writers they mean the writers of the game - the Alone in the Dark remake and Alan Wake outright play with these things) or it could just be a art vs art conflict which is why Verso wasn't supported in his desire to become a musician, music may be its own magic in the world where 33rd December is a thing.