!Spoilers! End-Game Explanations !Spoilers!

[Black Mamba]

I had a few questions after and during the end-game that I have since answered:

1. How did the girl know your plane crashed?
She watched her dad cause the plane crash - she was 'alive' (post-resurrection) at the time and was watching from the desk when he brought it down. You are not the first person to come looking for a missing child.

2. Why did the girl draw her dad as an angry monster?
3. Why did the girl kill her dad?
4. Why did the girl happen to turn at that moment?
5. Why did her father need a live specimen if his daughter wasn't dead?

Answers to 2, 3, 4, 5: As we can see from the massive wound in her back, the girl had been killed at some stage (probably by the mutated armsy loose in the labs) and subsequently resurrected. Her father was a lead scientist, and either he or one of his colleagues made the discovery that the resurrection of a person had to be maintained with fresh live sacrifices or else the mutation would occurr (as we witnessed). Thus, Timmy was not the first person to be sacrificed to sustain the life of Matt (redman's) daughter. She was aware of this, and you weren't the first person to come looking for their missing child. When he stole Timmy from the planecrash, timmy and the girl became friends. Matt Redman had to listen to his conscience and his daughter's plees for mercy upon Timmy, so he looked for other survivors on the island, but found none as the natives were cutting them up because the survivors were too stupid to understand the natives, too scared to try to befriend them and too weak to fight. In the end, he had to sacrifice Timmy or else his daughter was going to mutate. She never forgave him. Her only friend in a bleak, strange, unnatural world wrought with constant violence, fear, half-hearted eplanations and shallow justifications from the only other human with whom she associated - she snapped, decided he was a monster and killed him. Quite possibly, Matt Redman was a broken man at this stage and didn't defend himself. Without new sacrifces to sustain her resurrected state, the girl mutated.



Also note that obviously taking kids was a matter of convenience, rather than lugging a 200 pound adult through caves and water tunnels who will fight you off and demand explanations etc.

[johncage]

correct. who are the cannibals and where did they come from?

[Black Mamba]

**There is an important addition relevant to this section at the bottom regarding the lab


One thing I have not discerned are timeframes - this is probably possible with other clues found in the game.
Another factor to consider is how much of the story is planned, and how much is written retrospectively. Potentially it is all planned, and I will proceed assuming it is all planned.

Given the fraction of the facility we are able to explore, we can safely assume that experiments of any sort could theoretically have been taking place in areas we do not see.


The cannibals are lab creations bred for the purpose of sacrifice for the longevity of the resurrected. For whatever reason, sacrificing these creatures did not work - most likely because of the lack of compatibility of their DNA. Why didn't they clone humans? They wanted to commercialise the service, and they could not market the service if humans had to be sacrificed, they needed humanoids to stand a chance at being considered ethical, or at least, to ensure the appetite of the greedy elite would be greater than the cruelty of the process. They didn't need to create an 'ethical' practice, merely one that the rich would demand, and thus utilise mainstream media to defend and argue for, consequently silencing any opposition from common people and brainwashing the rest. Put forward the promise that one day the service will be available to everyone, everyone gets on board. Thus they created the sexless sub-intellect species, and worked towards making the compatible, yet were met with failure, at least for the most part.

There are other natives who are more human, who have breasts, who are partnered, and who we can safely assume are in fact mating, attempting to mate, or at least possess som inclination to do so. Matt 'Redman's' oracle status amongst these humanoids is no coincidence. He brought these tribes to the surface and encouraged them to live above ground, taught them a basic culture, rituals, values, showed them how to live off the land, to respect the forest, and to capture alive those who find themselves stranded upon the island. They ultimately outgrew him, their culture and self-respect became stronger than his status amongst them, yet we see signs of their origins: sacrifice, fear, seeking leadership amongst the stronger warriors, respect for the Redman. The effigies are the language he taught them, and they expanded upon. His goal: in time, they would be human enough to sacrifice in the chamber, and in the meantime would offer up survivors as sacrifces to the Redman.


And the artefacts? Either aliens, or an ancient race who harnessed the energy of a strange meteorite.




Another realisation

**The downfall of the lab.
When Matt 'Redman' was fired it happened because of unethical practices. We can assume he treated his own child or someone close to him. Once terminated, he was aware that he was no longer going to be able to treat his loved one, and must have known their fate. He saw one path ahead of him: to take down the people within the lab so that he could retain access to the facilities. He fought his way to the holding cells of the humanoids and let them loose on the lab to enact revenge upon their torturers. He was covered in blood when he set them free, head to foot, blood, from killing his colleagues, and he was thus recognised as the 'red oracle'.



In addition: If you are the second redman, you might be the third, or the fourth. I'm not sure what relevance this bares currently, if any. But I have the impression that the redman who took Timmy was not a scientist, and not the Matt who was fired from the facility.

[johncage]

good post, thanks.

[Ham Solo]

There's another post out there that's like 100+ comments deep and has an extremely good explanation thats generally agreed upon, you have some close and good conclusions but there's a few things you're missing, or somewhat incorrect about.

Firstly, Timmy and Megan couldn't have really been friends. The entire point of Cross taking Timmy was to revive Megan, he needed a live subject to bring her back to life. So logically she was already dead. The life subject thing HAD to be a kid I believe, not 100% sure on the explanation behind that, but it needed to be a kid. When you enter the lab if you watch one of the slides, it reveals that all of the mutants (Armsies, Virginias, Cowmen) are actually failed experiments, and they're all children under the age of 13. The armsy shown in the slide is a 6 year old boy if memory serves right.

The cannibals do not seem to be creations, they seem to have been there for a while. There's old movie scripts and camera filming equipment left in camps around the island, which implies people tried to make a film there and inevitably ran into the natives on the island. My guess is Sahara located their lab on the island purposely for the convenience of live subjects, the tribals. In the lab, again, there's a slide talking about Sahara making a large purchase for a peninsula actually, implying the island isn't actually an island, and is really just part of a larger land mass separated by the mountains.

Matthew Cross was fired for unethical conduct. The game has various references to Sahara finding strange "artifacts" and basically transcending death, or finding a way around it. Cross lost his daughter, presumably, and went crazy trying to bring her back to life. He experimented on children in order to bring them back to life to perfect the process. What I'm guessing is he kept using the cannibals to try and revive the other children, which didn't work and caused the insane mutation creations, you can see their cells in the lab as well, and one real freaky mutation that's just a giant ball of flesh and limbs pressed up against the glass of the cell. Cross had a revelation, realising he needed another child for it to work, and he took down your plane and took Timmy in order to bring Megan back. This process of experimenting was the 'unethical' conduct he was fired for, and once he brought Megan back, he didn't realise she still wasn't truly "alive", as she murdered him. It's assumed she killed her father as he was an extremely abusive man, there's a restraining order you can find on the island filed towards him. She had the fear and rage and hate from that past and killed him once she lost her humanity. You find Megan, (you being covered in the red paint presumably found at the entrance) and she thinks you're Matthew and mimics the plane crashing as an "I know what you did" or even she just knows that you were on the plane if that bit is incorrect. She mutates, you kill her etc, (one year later, we assume the main character took down another plane with the 2nd artifact and sacrificed another survivor) and Timmy has the spaz out transformation because the method isn't perfected.

The cannibals fear the red paint, presumably again, because the associate it with Cross, who they know for his experiments and creations and ability to "defeat death", and as they're very religious (praying at trees, effigies, religious symbols and paintings can be found) they think of him as a god of sorts, and revere him.

I'm guessing the lab collapsed because all of the children mutated into the horrible monsters you see and broke out, armsies can crush through a lot of things so I can easily see them starting chaos and breaking out, taking Timmy must have been Matthew Cross's last ditch attempt at success, as nothing else mattered at that point. Or he could have purposely released all of the mutants after being fired due to the unethical conduct, causing him to compromise the facility and take down your plane in order to get his final attempt.

The artifacts have theorized so far to be alien in origin, not entirely sure though as there's little information.

[Black Mamba]

Thankyou for these alternative perspectives, it has brought me some added insight, I've also noticed you have overlooked some details and there are some important inconsistancies:

I'd like to open with this ground-breaking realisation:

What does that first artifact actually do?

'Firstly, Timmy and Megan couldn't have really been friends. The entire point of Cross taking Timmy was to revive Megan, he needed a live subject to bring her back to life. So logically she was already dead.'

He indeed needed a live subject to treat Megan but that does not mean she was dead. The only patient we see hooked up to the healing bed of the machine is the corpose of Timmy, but we haven't seen what happens if a live subject is hooked up to the healing bed. We know that the machine heals brain trauma from the spike that pierced Timmy's brain, so it would be safe to assume it can heal bone injuries and other flesh wounds, and it would be logical that the subject being treated does not necessarily have to be deceased to be healed. Therefore, it is entirely plausible that Cross was treating Megan continually to deter her mutation...or perhaps he was treating her post-mutation. We know she was 'murdered' from the report we find, and found by the mother. We also know that the restraining order out on Cross came prior to his daughter's death, and that he was not the murderer. If he wanted to experiement on a child, he would have acquired another one, rather than killing his own daughter and leaving her for the mother to find. This is where it becomes interesting, and new ground is broken, shield your face from this artifact-powered bomb as its energy mummifies your shocked skeleton where you cower: His daughter died from a mutation. Megan's mutation that we witness was not the first time a creature came out of her. These creatures in the lab are not the children themselves, they are the creatures they spawned, the child host's body could still be hooked up to the machine and revived with another live specimen. Eric could have theoretically revived Megan with another live specimen. So the restraining order out against Cross was because he was trying to take the daughter back from the mother, but could not explain to her that it was because he had to take her back to his top-secret job to hook her up to an ancient artifact and sacrifice another living being so that she would not spawn a huge mutated monster and die.

So the question is, what is Eric thinking when he's staring at the axe on the gameshow?
'I'm going back to the island.'


And also, what is the story behind the inital treatment of Cross's daughter? I'd say she suffered from a debilitating affliction and he tried to cure her.




So when you mention:
'Timmy and Megan couldn't have really been friends. The entire point of Cross taking Timmy was to revive Megan, he needed a live subject to bring her back to life. So logically she was already dead.'
yet you also say:
'she thinks you're Matthew and mimics the plane crashing as an "I know what you did" or even she just knows that you were on the plane if that bit is incorrect.'

How does she know about the plane crash at all? Either she spoke to Timmy, or she saw it happen - Cross would not have explained it explicitly to her. (unless perhaps Timmy's memories were transferred to her, but that is a whole new realm to consider, and not one condusive to development of the plot in my opinion...)

So either she has witnessed a previous plane crash, witnessed yours, or heard about it from Timmy himself: whichever scenario it was, she knew it was her father that caused it.

The second artifact:
A common misconception regarding the second artifact is that its primary function is to bring down aeroplanes. If anything, the radar is there to ensure that aeroplanes are not brought down in the process of activating the second artifact. There is a document that says the second artifact 'could be used to bring down aeroplanes', perhaps as a warning, perhaps as a useful tool - whatever its connotations, it was an additional fact, not a suggestion of primary function. The artifact's power has clearly been harnessed for use, the purpose could only be to assist in Saraha's experimentation, so beyond resurrecting the dead, what else could they be powering other than the facility itself? Whatever it is, it is something that requires a large surge of this unique energy, and any other source of energy known to man is obviously not sufficient. This energy has some kind of direct connection with the force of life. Most likely, by firing the second artifact they are creating new life somewere within the facility (as opposed to resurrecting the deceased as with the first artifact).

The downfall of the facility
How, why and when this happened is integral to having any clear understanding of what occurred since the early caving expeditions in the thirties (I think it was) up until the present day.
Cross's letter of termination has a coffee stain on it that was clearly caused by a full or almost full cup of coffee being slammed down upon it with great force. This says it was the first letter he opened in the morning, the beginning of his day. This decision was therefore deliberated on behind closed doors by a number of people. They were no doubt expecting an adverse reaction from Cross, and most likely approached him to deliver the letter personally, escorted by security with orders to escort him from the premises immediately. This is where Megan's multiple mutations are relevant. How many times does Cross bring her back? And at what cost? Perhaps the lives of other children. Most likely there were many other potential uses for the machine that Cross would not consider due to his infatuation with saving his daughter's life, and his superiors decided to fire him because of this. One thing we can be sure of regarding the investors: they are trying to prolong their own live, and if this is not possible as they are no longer children (if that is indeed relevant), they are trying to make money. If they can't prolong their own lives, they don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about prolonging the lives of others. So the children exclusive aspect could make sense. So if they are out to make money, and Cross is obsessed with a particular use of the machine that is not making progress when there are so many other possibilities, they would certainly fire the ♥♥♥♥ out of him.


Remember, the location of the first Sahara keycard is in a mass pile of dead scientists. Cross would not have moved them all personally, it would have taken many people to move all those corpses, and any 'humans' would have no motivation to dump them down there. It must have been the natives. It is possible that there was a mass evacuation of the lab and the scientists found themselves in the network of caves, or attacked en masse above ground, so the facility itself was not necessarily overrun by the 'humanoid' test subjects, but the humanoids ended up with their bodies and brought them to their mutated associates.

[Dakuwan]

Very good points all, i just saw the ending... My God this game... It has just become a top ten of mine, amazing. Truely amazing...

[Grimmrog_SIG]

Well, my approach would be figuring out what the obelisks are by what the game indicates us about them.

One is doing EMP stuff, one resurrects.

Do we want to believe in magic or spiritual things happening or be more scientific?
My take would be more scientific.

The obelisks are old, very old. so they are mostlikely not human made, probably alien made (if we follow the non supernatural approach)?
it could explain why one obelisk can resurrect, it could be simply some kind of medical device while the other could be some power generator or defence devise. Maybe at some point that spot on earth was an alien base, crashsite or laboratory itself.
It could at least explain why mutations happen, because the obelisk that is probably an alien medical device is not working properly on human physiology and leading to the mutations by just working incorrectly on a human.
Now if you want to believe in the theory of this obelisk being for medical purposes we would need to know how it may have functioned originally. Was it some blood transfusion device made to work on 2 aliens where one can help healing another, was it to extend an individuals Life by the expanse of another ones because aliens researched on immortality? Was it a true resurrection device? Was it made to jut transfer a "mind" from one individual to anther, or could merge them even?
There is many possibilities the device could be made for. The device probably also can keep individuals alive on simple physical level. otherwise a logical explanation of revival would hardly be possible on a dead body as it would start to decay after a while. When Cross really brought down the plane for resurrecting mega, then she would have been "dead" for some days (as this is usually how long the player needs to come to that part of the game)
How does the device work while in function? Maybe both individuals have also some mind connection during the operation. Our mind is at least the connection of braincells in combination of the electric signals states within those connections. Maybe the obelisk can store, merge or apply those patterns back to an individual, as this would be required to also resurrect someones mind properly. That could explain why She knows about the plane crash and also why she paints pictures similar to Timmy's. Killing Cross could be caused by Timmy's memory of a bad experience by being kidnapped, or by just Megans bad past experience. But it is strange that a normal childish mind would paint pictures in those situations if in fear or stress. So the mind must be affected as well. But when the device was made for aliens, then surely problems by not being made for humans could apply.
So the effect of possible Mind messed up is also a side effect of a device not made for humans initially. It oculd also explain why Cross brought down an airplane, mostlikely every living individual would have done the treatment, yet those who are already mutated may have a worse effect to megan thna a "fresh and clean" body. So cross had to get someone form somewhere else.

So my current take is on that resurrection obelisk being some medical alien device which simply doesn't works properly on humans. And it may somehow affect the mind by storing it temporarily, while also maintaining a basic level of physical "keep alive". WHen Timmy was put in, Megan was revived by the device and it may have create some connected mind for some time or simply transferred some Information parts between them. And the entire mutating and mess up thing is simply an operational error caused by incompatibility to the human body and mind or incorrect operational handling of the device. basically mankind experimenting with stuff they don't understand.


What keeps me thinking is how the cannibals and mutants keep connected and not kill each other.

[Dakuwan]

Nice post grim. Lots of questions unanswered.

1.Are all drawings megans? Since Timmy was "used" probably immediatly. Your theory could explain that.

2. Why are the males without genitals? Is this some currupted strain of the indigenous people? Inbreeding side effect?

3. Who does the yacht belong to? Clearly they had a child pass away(teddy bear, wooden cross over grave) and one of the parents probably OD'd as a result, what about the other parent? Picture on grave shows the boat in "82", so more than 30 (smart phones in lawyers cave)years the boat just sat there. Was the other parent the one who found the artifact to begin with?

4. Are the mutants mearly all failed artifact trials on the children?

5.Was it Saharas goal to help terminally ill children(lots of books about pediatric illnesses)

6. Was the sinkhole caused by the original alien ship(ie "the Thing", its ship was as big as sinkhole)

7. Are the mutants that are running amok the result of cross letting them out post termination?

Just some things that I have been wondering.

[Grimmrog_SIG]

Originally posted by Dakuwan:

Nice post grim. Lots of questions unanswered.

1.Are all drawings megans? Since Timmy was "used" probably immediatly. Your theory could explain that.

2. Why are the males without genitals? Is this some currupted strain of the indigenous people? Inbreeding side effect?

3. Who does the yacht belong to? Clearly they had a child pass away(teddy bear, wooden cross over grave) and one of the parents probably OD'd as a result, what about the other parent? Picture on grave shows the boat in "82", so more than 30 (smart phones in lawyers cave)years the boat just sat there. Was the other parent the one who found the artifact to begin with?

4. Are the mutants mearly all failed artifact trials on the children?

5.Was it Saharas goal to help terminally ill children(lots of books about pediatric illnesses)

6. Was the sinkhole caused by the original alien ship(ie "the Thing", its ship was as big as sinkhole)

7. Are the mutants that are running amok the result of cross letting them out post termination?

Just some things that I have been wondering.

1. not sure, theres many questions the game doesn't answer.

2. probably just censorship and not related to the story, I remember early models of females were also better.

3. thats quite interesting, there is also the cave with christian crosses and the monolith. It could be that aside form the researches (or even the researches themselves) are kinda believers, Maybe they think the artifact is some supernatural and maybe sacred device.
Especially the cave in which some skelletons are placed around that cave painting of the monolith. (even if some posings of those skeletons are really unnaturally in how they must have died and decayed)

4/5. I think so, at least the game doesn't give a hint that could indicate other kind of "experiments". At this point the more interetsing question is, why is this research limited to children? does the artifact not work on adults? Were possible aliens just smallers and the artifact not compatible with the size of adults?

6, I dont know. sinkholes like this can naturally appear, but the sinkhole itself in this game is very unnaturally (or simply badly designed by the devs) because a sinkhole so close to water (below water level) would fill up (especially since there is a well in it which means groundwater leaks into it.

7. that is an interesting one, surely the mutants are form the facility, but to enter the sinkhole, one must open the sacrifice doors first. This can only be done form the outside. And there is currently no other known way for the player to get out of the facility than diving. This is then either a logical gap in the devs creation of the story, or there must be an alternate way out/into the facility. I hardly believe this is the regular way into it as bringing in equipment to build it this way would be a horrible task.

generally we need to accepts many things being "strange" for simply gameplay reasons. Like those skeletons on said cave, and you still find edible candy bars and non rusted airtanks.
I don't know if the yacht really is there for 30 years, someone at leats ued it rather recently.
The skeleton on it would indicate it's been left for quite soem time, but then if that would be like 30 years ago, how could a photo of a virginia get in there? a polaroid would look more decayed (dev oversight?) and it would also mean that facility has made mutants 30 years ago already (if we go with the origin of them being from the obelisk experiments). We know at leats, that Cross was at the yacht, but surely I doubt he had Timmy there for some time. At least it would be awkward to palce a child there even just temporary together with a mummified corpse. He would at least have removed said corpse I guess.

A new question may be how the cannibals differ in their way to you, sometimes they do attack you, sometimes they pray at you. Maybe the had some kind of worshipping state towards the christians or scientists while the tourists were just "meat" and you beeing there is making them unsure to which of them you belong to. This may be supported by the pictures we find in caves. The caves are filled with cannibals yet we find pictures there, so somehow I do think cross and timmy he brought must have some positive (as in not getting eaten) relation o them. otherwise I doubt those pictures are form megan, as apainted pictures on paper in a cave for so long wouldn't last. (except this is another oversight by devs). So I think they must ahve been made by Timmy.

So one of the questions that may still be relevant is, Do we have hints how much time passed between the issues in the facility and when we arrive via plane crash? One thing like the hanged scientists indicate she died ratehr recently, then the lawyers cave, I doubt they were all tourists, but if they related to the facility, I doubt cannibals would all have eaten them so quickly to pile up that many bare boned corpses. And natural decay would mean less bare bones as well as this havign happened a lot longer ago.
The superfilled room with the giant mutated blob also would indicate to not have happened too long ago, same for the corpss in the facility. At least that thing seem not to show decay and therefor being alive or if died it must be rather recently. Way too many things in the facility look too cleaned to be years ago and happening in a big evacuating accident. So this is either runfinished in details or another oversight. Becaus ein my opinion the mssed up things yet fully operational equip seems to be a bit contradicting by immersion.
I do really believe there is many tiny details the devs simply have not considered and make a few things "incorrect" by logic. At leats analysing the tiny details and facts they bear brings up a lot more questions than answers.

[Dakuwan]

Regarding the time that has passed since Cross went beserk. I would think its been at least a week or two. Like you stated the level of decay within the facility, things still appear fresh, equipment is still operational. Cross desperately tried to get a fresh specimen, and disabled multiple planes in a relatively short period of time. Things like the massive cache of "Lost Children" VHS tapes seem to imply that the film makers had been there 20-30 years ago. Why else would you have VHS tapes and a smart phone in the same area(the forest). Not sure how or why they would want so many tapes of the same thing there.

On the way down to the facility, you come across a large cavern with many tiers of people (likely the indigenous people), all frozen in a state of horror and lament. So something rather catastrophic happend in this primative place of worship/gathering place. I did not stop to analyze many more details about this area (my wife wanted me to hurry up and get to the ending).

More later...

[AcidMantis]

Peninsula Anthropology (sorry this is a long one):

There are multiple distinct groups of humans/humanoids that have been on the island at various times, and here are the ones I can think of and my possible explanations for them:

1: Cannibal tribe(s): The "normal" looking humanoids that are still on the peninsula possibly indigenous, possibly mixed with europeans. If I wrote the story, they would be the remnants of a group of explorers/expeditionaries/trappers from the fur trade era that were integrated into an isolated tribe of natives. While I am not saying the Ramapough Indians resemble the cannibals in any way, they are an historical example of how different cultures can mix and remain somewhat isolated.

2. Sahara operations personnel: Dr. Cross, the doctor who hung himself, all the various staff involved with the Sahara project.

3. Sahara lawyers: It seems a team of suits arrived to either shut the peninsula down completely, or to at least terminate Dr. Cross' employment. He apparently had some disdain for lawyers, probably from his domestic troubles.

4. Mutants: Sahara resurections gone bad.

5. Film crew: We have the film crew camp, and then we have the crate of VHS tapes of the movie "Lost Children of the Peninsula". The camp could be left from when the crew that made the film were there, but the timing seems bad. The camp is not in too bad of shape, and logically a documentary that was released on VHS tapes would likely have been filmed at least as far back as the late 80's. So it is possible that there were at least two film crews at different times.

6. Missionaries: I'm not sure about this, but it is plausible. We have the old camp along the river strewn with bibles (and booze?!), we find bibles in several other areas, an occasional crucifix, and the wooden crosses sealing some of the wooden barriers in caves. I also remember a vignette in one of the caves where I think there were several dessicated or carbonized corpse in various states of prayer to a black cross-like painting on the cave wall. If there were missionaries, it might support the cannibals having indigenous origins and perhaps a missionary group attempted to bring them to the lord at some point in the last few decades or so.

7. Cavers: We find plenty of evidence of cavers with decent spelunking gear, as well as other items like the caving magazine, ice axe, etc. Could be related to one of the other groups, possibly hired by Sahara to map the caves, possibly part of one of the film crews. Or just as likely, just cavers exploring the extensive caves on the peninsula. Those sorts of features would attract all kinds of people. It seems like the camp just north of the cockpit was a caver camp, and the camp(s) west of the sinkhole might have been too.

8. The missing children of the peninsula: Not a lot is known about them, but a documentary was made about the phenomenon. How many were there? Was it a single large group like a boy scout troop that went missing, or was there a long history of children disappearing? We find information about missing siblings. Given the geography of the peninsula and the lack of any remnants of a town, it seems that all of the missing children would have to have been visitors to the area other than residents.

9. Yacht guy: I think the date on the polaroid in the yacht is 1983. It doesn't mean the yacht has been abandoned since then, but it does seem to indicate that the yacht was there in 1983. It seems like the yacht has some connection to the missing children. Did the yacht belong to a parent searching for a missing child/children? I think the missing poster in the yacht might be one of the missing siblings, but I'm not sure. Or was the yacht used by a child abductor to bring children to the island at various times?

10. The buried: I have found at least two graves with simple wooden crosses (and cassette tapes). Given the cassette/polaroid connection to the yacht, and the yacht being nearby one of the graves, one possible explanation is that the yacht guy was the father of the missing siblings and these are their graves. If there are more than two graves, it could change that theory.

11. The scallywags: Whoever disassembled a flintlock pistol and buried the parts around the peninsula. Could have been a group of pirates, similar to the theories about the Oak Island treasure. If my angle on the cannibals being descended from a tribe of natives that interbred with 18th century europeans, it could have been the europeans that did this.

12. The Crispies: At some point you find a pit in the cave and surrounding it are various dessicated or cremated corpses of people in agonal poses. They could be members of anyone of the previous groups realistically. Two ideas come to mind: either the indigenous people or sahara employees were incinerated during the excavation or discovery of an artifact.

13. The Tennis Team: Most likely passengers on your plane, but could also indicate the downing of a previous plane. Echoes of the Uruguayan Rugby plane that crashed in the Andes in 1972.



I have some ideas based on these theories, but this post is ridiculously long. Maybe I will post them later.

[AcidMantis]

Peninsula Theories:

These are just theories that are plausible to me given what I know about the storyline. I have not seen all of the story items in the game, so I could easily be wrong about a lot of this.


Crate of VHS tapes of "The Lost Children of the Peninsula": When I first found this, I thought that the film crew was responsible for it being there. After thinking about it, it didn't make sense and I now believe that either Dr. Cross or Sahara in general placed it in the cave. During the process of buying the peninsula and setting up the operation, they would want to mitigate the publicity that the area had gotten in the past, so maybe they bought up all the remaining copies of the documentary. Not sure why they wouldn't destroy them, but thats a minor issue.


Cannibal Origins: I like the idea that the cannibals are descendents of a tribe of natives that intermixed with a group of europeans in the early post-contact period of Canadian history. Most likely during the fur trade. It's possible that the artifacts had some negative influence on the group, which may have been the cause of their violence/cannibalism.


Mutants vs. Cannibals, or The Artifact Effect: It's pretty obvious that the artifacts have been on the peninsula for some time. One of the artifacts can reanimate the dead by consuming a live sacrifice. I think that the mutations are caused when a cannibal is used as the sacrifice. Fetid Bobo on youtube has a good video showing evidence that the mutants existed long before Sahara was there, as shown by a note in latin that has been translated by players and seems to mention a Virginia at a very early date. It is very likely that the cannibals have been familiar with the cave system for a long time, and may have discovered the artifacts long ago. in the lab, Sahara has augmented the artifact with a medical bed. I think that the artifact could reanimate the dead before Sahara got involved and without the medical bed. Maybe Dr. Cross developed the medical bed to improve or refine the reanimation process. So perhaps the cannibals intentionally or accidentally were reanimating the dead by sacrificing their own, causing the historic mutations.

But why would using a cannibal sacrifice cause a mutated reanimation? Because cannibalism can lead to diseases. Well you'd probably be fine eating the muscle tissue of your fellow human, but cannibalizing the nervous tissue like the brain or spinal cord can propagate certain diseases. Disease-causing prions are highly concentrated in nervous tissue, and when you eat nervous tissue from your own species, any prions in that tissue are perfectly suited to cause the disease in you. We know that Sahara was looking into some sort of virus in the lab based on the notes on the board. So perhaps there was a prion-based disease or some other virus that was present in the cannibal population, and it was transmitted widely due to the cannibalism. So it's plausible that using an infected cannibal as a sacrifice in the artifact could lead to mutations in the reanimated subject.

Or maybe the artifact is intended to cause mutations. Could it be a terraforming device from an alien civilization? What makes me entertain this is that when you see Meghan Cross mutate, the mutant comes out of her mouth initially. Also, when you defeat her, her body is seperate from the mutant body. So maybe the device was meant to "impregnate" humans with alien life forms so that they could be incubated and released upon earth.