The Story of Monstrum

[Kryyss]

So, I've been looking through the notes and audio logs and although there are discrepancies with Note 5 as well as Audio Logs 7 and 8; everything else lines up fine. The issue though with Note 5 is that the audio log of Wilson indicates that he was repairing the sub when it malfunctioned and Checkov was in the engine room at the time. But Note 5 says that they both scalded by a blast of steam from the showers. Also, the notes indicate that a woman's voice is heard during the nights when T. Dohrnii specimins were collected indicating that Dr Zhao was a woman, but a male voice is on the audio logs.

All the notes indicate a malfunctioning boiler so I'm guessing that is the root cause for all the accidents on the 14th. Especially as the bursting steam pipes in the game are on the same floors as the sub-bay, cargo containers and the engine room.

But anyway, on with the topic!

The best place to start is to cover the timeline of events prior to the launch. So...

Feb 10th
The Hisa Maru remains docked at Hong Kong awaiting orders to depart

Feb 11th
Mr Kobayashi comes aboard with Dr Zhao

Feb 12th-14th
T. Dohrnii specimins are collected at night from nearby spawning grounds by Dr Zhao and stored in fishtanks within container 106.
Benedict reports hearing a woman's voice at the stern while on Nightshift duty but nobody else noticed

Feb 14th
The Hisa Maru boiler malfunctions causing widespread pressure and plumbing problems.
The first major surge in pressure happens in container 106 where the fishtanks are located and causes an explosion that blasts it wide open from the inside
Engineers Checkov and Wilson are sent to conduct repairs
Another major pressure surge from the boiler causes severe burns to Checkov and Wilson
Checkov and Wilson are taken to Dr Zhao for treatment, due to their severe injuries she injects them with a compound derived from T. Dohrmii but both have unexpected side effects.
Both patients are sedated and due to a lack of suitable medical facilities are moved to a bunk for monitoring and care.
Dr Zhao recommends that work continue on the compound and that both patients be euthanized.

Feb 15th
Engineer Brett goes missing

Feb 18th onwards
The Hisa Maru departs Hong Kong for Los Angeles due to the captain not wanting to delay any further
The crew is told to stay in pairs due to the disappearence of Engineer Brett
Power surges begin to cause issues with normal operations and Dr Zhao appears unusually scared
Engineer Carlson finds a hole in the engine as if it has been melted inwards and there are noises further down the shaft, the captain and all the remaining engineering team go to investigate
Ellis becomes worried when nobody comes back, he leaves a note outside the room where Wilson and Checkov are meant to be recovering in their bunks and then goes to find out what happened
The "player" wakes up alone in the same bunk room toilet, Checkov and Wildon are missing and the note left by Elliss is on the table inside the room

So there you have it. All of the events leading up to the start of the game. You may have noticed that all of the events point to both the Brute and the Fiend being present on the ship at the same time and that they are Checkov and Wilson. The Hunter appears to be unaccounted for in the narrative which makes sense due to it being added last to the game. It could be concluded that perhaps the crew killed one of the monsters and left the ship on whatever boat Dr Zhao had been using for her nightly excursions.

This means that the player may actually be Engineer Brett since he was probably presumed dead by the crew following his disappearence.

[Kryyss]

So, you may be wondering. What on earth is T. Dohrnii and why was it so important to Dr Z and Mr K?

Well it's full name is Turritopsis dohrnii and is otherwise known as the Immortal Jellyfish. It has the unique trait whereby if it is injured or starved it will revert back to being a polyp which is a younger stage of its life-cycle. It will then regenerate back to being an adult as long as it isn't killed while in this state. Their name is somewhat misleading since they can die from disease and old-age but it is their regenerative qualities that are of great interest to researchers.

They are known to appear the Med but also around the coast of Japan which is odd since the Hisa Maru was docked in Hong Kong which is a long way from where these jelly fish normally live. Given the secrecy, I would presume that they were gathering these jellyfish and transporting these jellyfish without permission of the authorities.

But anyway, this now explains that the monsters are genetic accidents caused by an experimental mixture intended to promote cellular repair and regeneration. I guess Dr Zhao somehow felt that Checkov and Wildon would not survive their injuries and made the desperate attempt to save their lives - then regretted the consequences.

The nice thing is that this also explains why the Hunter looks like a jellyfish.

[DevilNaiden]

The Hunter wasn't added last, The Fiend was the last monster that was added in. And it makes sense, because someone said "noises come out of the shafts", which would refer to the Hunter, not the Fiend.
Other than that, yeah, you summed up the story :)
Good job!

[Kryyss]

I did consider that but it seems odd that the Hunter would come aboard while the ship was still docked. Since the two letters relating to that mention that they'll need to resupply while still at port, plus it also mentions that Brett had already gone missing and Mr K was aboard which places the event after the 15th.

That does raise the possibility that somehow the jelly fish had mutated into the Hunter and that is what broke out of 106 and subsequently caused the boiler to malfunction due to moving around the ship using the pipes and vents. If that is the case then it's an area of the story which needs some further development to clarify what caused a bunch of random jellyfish in a tank to turn into a mutant.

[DevilNaiden]

There is a little more that needs explanation if you want to have a scientific reason why the monsters are monsters. I mean mutations normally do not create a hovering, demonic thing that can kill you while it stares at you. So i guess there are just some things that can't be explained. And the story existed in the past where The Fiend didn't exist, so in the past there were Chekov and Wilson but only The Brute and The Hunter. Maybe the story was developed with the Fiend in mind, who knows?

[Kryyss]

Well version 0.92 changelog indicates that they added additional notes and then in 0.95 they added the Fiend so I'm guessing that they updated them to include details about the Fiend prior to it being added to the game.

There is fact that this jelly fish was not fully studied until the 90's so it is possible that the writer was playing on the fact it was a relatively unresearched species to say that they can turn into these horrible monsters when kept in containment. One of the notes mention them becoming more active at night and needing frequent checks to ensure that they don't exhibit any 'unknown' behavior.

While I am perfectly happy with things not being explained, when there is an effort to frame these kinds of monsters with an origin story I kind of expect that to be followed through with. Personally I prefer the more SCP-style of monsters and wierd things which are never explained and you have to simply accept that they defy all understanding.

[DevilNaiden]

I do like the fact that there is some explaining, or at least some effort of trying to have a scientific reason what they are. I guess that was the plan until the Fiend came out. I mean the Brute and the Jellyfish do both have some kind of "natural" feeling. The Brute could be a mutated person that had an injury with hot sources, and as you mentioned the jellyfish equals the hunter. But the Fiend doesn't really fit into these kind of mutations. So i guess they just added some hints in the note that would fit onto the Fiend, but the scientific aspect gets lost when comparing the 3 monsters to the notes.
You can't implement a hovering thing in the notes without loosing the reality aspect. But as i mentioned in another thread Monstrum isn't about realism. There is an explanation that fits to 2 monsters, but its vague and someone who plays casually won't even notice or care about the details behind the monsters :D

[Kryyss]

The Fiend is intended to be a psionic creature which is why it has the purple effects which is commoly the colour scheme used for psionic energy in most fiction. It also has the telekinesis for closing doors, immobilizing the player from a distance and levitating. Flickering lights and electrical disturbances are also commonly associated with psionic energy due to the brain being bioelectric in nature.The note indicate that Subject 2 had abnormal brain activity but was stull suffering nerve damage from the accident which explains why the Fiend levitates rather than walks.

[DevilNaiden]

"There is no scientific evidence that psionic abilities exist." (Source: Wikipedia)
Thats why it looses the reality aspect. I mean yes, there is an explanation how he got his "powers", but there is no evidence in the real world. So you could argue that mutations in the real world wouldn't go as far as here in Monstrum, its still a fictional game, so i "accept" (sounds weird, i don't know any better word right now haha :D ) the creation of the Fiend in the notes as they are ^^

[Solar]

So I've recently started examining the lore of Monstrum and this thread has fascinated me. Although I think this is a near-perfect timeline construction, I have a few questions.....

First of all, although the Wilson discrepancy is obvious (and very odd), what proof is there that the 'female voice' is Dr Zhao? I don't understand how those are connected.

Also, if Subjects 1 and 2 are Wilson and Checkov, how come the Lab Report ends with the phrase 'additional refinement before human trials' in the face of the failures of the subjects? Wilson and Checkov are human, so this doesn't add up.

I'd also be careful with any dating of Feb 11th, 12, or 13th. The timeline here makes sense but there is no definitive proof that those events occurred on those dates exactly (and please prove me wrong if I've missed evidence that invalidates my conclusions!)


Finally, in response to the comments (hello again Naiden! And nice to meet the thread-creator ^^), in my interpretation of things at first I found that its possible that all three monsters are referenced in the lore:

The Brute is obvious - in the majority of the notes and audio logs there are references to heat and fire causing the problems with the boiler/showers, which we obviously associate with the Brute's appearance (a molten humanoid scorching from the inside) in addition to the explosion in container 106 (you can't tell me that isn't a reference to The Old Man haha) and of course the 'increased muscle growth' and 'aggression'. He's all over the place.

The Hunter meanwhile is in Mills and Stuart's story. Hints of the presence of the Hunter (who I've heard is female? That means they can't be Wilson or Checkov :'D) through the description of the vent cover that matches certain elements of Hunter gameplay ('think they're coming in from the vents but must be huge, they've managed to bust the cover' - Mills).

The Fiend's game mechanics match some descriptions from Note 19, where Fred mentions 'issues with power in a few areas' to Kim in addition to doors getting stuck. We also read about an entire power out in Note 8, forcing Fred to fax Carlson.


I also think its possible Note 17's Lab Report references the Fiend - increased brain activity 'outside pre-determined parameters' sounds kinda like his psionic and telekinetic powers mentioned above. The tricky bit is this - which two are the ones from the Lab Report (assuming the Subjects are indeed the monsters we meet in-game) and which one is left out? Why?

We do have 3 'expeditions' mentioned between '1' and '2', and 3 monsters to match. Even if we ignore the Hunter's gender (don't let this become Funtime Foxy lmao, if you know you know) and the 'additional refinement before human trials' detail - after all we already have a Wilson inconsistency - there are large gaps in the origin of at least one of the monsters, if not all three!

There's a lot left unsaid and I'm hoping Monstrum 2 will do what FNaF SL/FFPS/TFC did for the Freddy's franchise (but better) and dive into the science-fiction of how the Monsters came to be, as well as maybe introducing a bunch of new ones! If there were 2 'viable' specimens from the first expedition, and SIX from the second, how many more from the third?? These have not all been accounted for.

And as with any good horror game, who IS the player? xD

Welp, that's long enough. I won't bother you with a longer response, thanks for reading and do debate these points with me!

[Kryyss]

To be honest, it been so long since I looked at this I've forgotten most of what as in the logs and records lol

[Solar]

Originally posted by Kryyss:

To be honest, it been so long since I looked at this I've forgotten most of what as in the logs and records lol

omg I just realised I'm here 2 years after the post was made
well um
if ya wanna talk more its all in the game I guess

[eddiemonkeybutt]

I would add a part from a note where it says that a vent was busted open and all the food was eaten. That sounds like hinter activity.

[eddiemonkeybutt]

*hunter