The Backstory

[Gold Handles]

This is a little thread I'm putting together to help clarify Darkwood's backstory. All info here is taken from either the prologue or from very early portions of the game in order to remain spoiler free. Enjoy!

For starters, the game takes place in Poland. During the prologue, you can find a Polish newspaper in the doctor's car. As such, I think it's reasonable to assume that the Darkwoods are in Poland.

As for the date -- during the prologue you can find a picture of a plague victim labeled "12-06-85". This is obviously a date. The game MOST LIKELY takes place in this timeframe. I'd say that there's a good chance that the photo is several years old, so bear that in mind. Now onto more advanced subjects.

The horrors faced in Darkwood are the results of the aforementioned plague. We get to see the early stages of the plague firsthand in the prologue:

-- We can see a corpse fused to a growing tree. That's right, the Darkwoods are literally formed from the rotting bodies of plague victims. Lovely.

-- Also worth noting is that one can witness the lower half of a human corpse being fused with a buck of some sort. As such, we can assume that victims merge with both trees AND wildlife. More on this later.

The plague also causes bodily degeneration and insanity. This is evident in the savages, chompers, and NPC's.

Now, onto the "world" of Darkwood so to speak. I'm presuming that the plot takes place in an alternate reality of some sort. In this reality, a plague has broken out in Poland and the doctor has been sent to cure it.

However, things obviously didn't go so well. In the prologue we see that the doctor has acknowledged that a cure is unobtainable, and he now simply seeks escape. However, what awaits outside darkwood may be almost as bad.

We see the doctor mention that there's been radio silence for years, and yet he still hears garbled voices through his radio. We also see destroyed tanks and artillery guns in-game. This suggests that the military attempted a qurantine effort. But, the doctor still hasn't been rescued/extracted after all these years, which suggests than something went horribly wrong outside.

Now, the protagonist's journal also drops hints about the world outside. He mentions looking for something in the Darkwoods, and also mentions trying to escape from someone or something before becoming trapped. He also had a key to leave the "Sector". This seems to imply that the outside world is some sort of dystopian/apocalyptic version of the late 80's/early90's.

The protagonist also appears to be undead, given Wolf's comments. The well water acts like some sort of life support.

Lastly, on the subject of Wolfman. I believe that he's either

A. a totally insane man wearing a mask made from a wolf'd head. Unlikely.

B. a plague victim fused with a wolf. Similiar to the deer we see in the prologue.

[itsmes3]

Originally posted by ShotgunRagtime:

This is a little thread I'm putting together to help clarify Darkwood's backstory. All info here is taken from either the prologue or from very early portions of the game in order to remain spoiler free. Enjoy!

For starters, the game takes place in Poland. During the prologue, you can find a Polish newspaper in the doctor's car. As such, I think it's reasonable to assume that the Darkwoods are in Poland.

As for the date -- during the prologue you can find a picture of a plague victim labeled "12-06-85". This is obviously a date. The game MOST LIKELY takes place in this timeframe. I'd say that there's a good chance that the photo is several years old, so bear that in mind. Now onto more advanced subjects.

The horrors faced in Darkwood are the results of the aforementioned plague. We get to see the early stages of the plague firsthand in the prologue:

-- We can see a corpse fused to a growing tree. That's right, the Darkwoods are literally formed from the rotting bodies of plague victims. Lovely.

-- Also worth noting is that one can witness the lower half of a human corpse being fused with a buck of some sort. As such, we can assume that victims merge with both trees AND wildlife. More on this later.

The plague also causes bodily degeneration and insanity. This is evident in the savages, chompers, and NPC's.

Now, onto the "world" of Darkwood so to speak. I'm presuming that the plot takes place in an alternate reality of some sort. In this reality, a plague has broken out in Poland and the doctor has been sent to cure it.

However, things obviously didn't go so well. In the prologue we see that the doctor has acknowledged that a cure is unobtainable, and he now simply seeks escape. However, what awaits outside darkwood may be almost as bad.

We see the doctor mention that there's been radio silence for years, and yet he still hears garbled voices through his radio. We also see destroyed tanks and artillery guns in-game. This suggests that the military attempted a qurantine effort. But, the doctor still hasn't been rescued/extracted after all these years, which suggests than something went horribly wrong outside.

Now, the protagonist's journal also drops hints about the world outside. He mentions looking for something in the Darkwoods, and also mentions trying to escape from someone or something before becoming trapped. He also had a key to leave the "Sector". This seems to imply that the outside world is some sort of dystopian/apocalyptic version of the late 80's/early90's.

The protagonist also appears to be undead, given Wolf's comments. The well water acts like some sort of life support.

Lastly, on the subject of Wolfman. I believe that he's either

A. a totally insane man wearing a mask made from a wolf'd head. Unlikely.

B. a plague victim fused with a wolf. Similiar to the deer we see in the prologue.

We know that the Berlin Wall hasn't fallen yet (Soviet bloc still exists) so it is in between 1985-1989.
The Wolfman has a bullet hole around his heart, if a hunter shoots a animal in the heart it is considred a clean kill, so this makes me think that the wolfman was actually a wolf who was either hunting the lynx or was trying to get revenge on the hunter by taking his most prized trophy (Note all the wolves inside of the hunters house, maybe he hunted wolves specifically?)

[Kirathel]

The developers clearly said it was the Soviet Bloc.
I agree, although I do think I know what started the plague.

[Gold Handles]

Originally posted by Lord Darkstorm:

The developers clearly said it was the Soviet Bloc.
I agree, although I do think I know what started the plague.

It takes place in Poland, I believe

TBH I'm not even sure if the Soviet Bloc, or civilization, is still a thing in the world of DW. Seems pretty post-apocalyptic to me.

[itsmes3]

Originally posted by ShotgunRagtime:

Originally posted by Lord Darkstorm:

The developers clearly said it was the Soviet Bloc.
I agree, although I do think I know what started the plague.

It takes place in Poland, I believe

TBH I'm not even sure if the Soviet Bloc, or civilization, is still a thing in the world of DW. Seems pretty post-apocalyptic to me.

Darkwood can be escaped, (Spoilers)




After you find the doctor inside of the rail car he drugs you and shows you how he has tried to help the people of the darkwood, you are in all of them but you never help implying that you are researching.