[spoilers!!!] Kholat - ending and personality of main character - theories [spoilers!!!!]

[IMGN_PRO]

So did you manage to get to the end and collect all possible notes? Do you have any theories about the ending? And who is main character? Did you uncover something extra at the end?

[Yanin]

Main character-Anton (evil ghost)

[lacrimosa]

it's an ufo case, and the main caracter is like mr mulders from the x files, that's completly my opinion offcourse

[koffiepot]

Note; the second intro video for this game is based on a true story! These students were actually an expedition in Russia, found dead somewhere in the 50's. The cutting in one of the tents, the spread of bodies, wounds, everything was the exact same as described in the game teaser, wow..

I don't really remember but i believe people thought Bigfoot as a potential suspect (lol) in the case. I don't know about bigfoot, but i do know about the dissapearance of these students and the mysterious circumstances. Very intriguing story. Guess you guys already know or told about this ^^

Makes me wanna buy the game. Even when it is not the right time for me, i feel i have to!

[SnegG]

когда встретил темного-непонятно кого, решил подойти и включить фонарик. Наложил 3 кирпича на стуле)

[Smurky Turkey]

I will admit that I hated his presence in the game, but felt sorry for him near the end.

[IMGN_PRO]

But who he is? :)

[elveon]

Maybe he was a member of the expedition?

[§єǫuєᴋʜaɴ ⚶]

Anton is Sean Bean.

Main character is the guy that butchered his wife and her sister.

[bulo]

Guys what or who is the threat that forced the scrublords to escape/stuff?

[IMGN_PRO]

Mr Torgue - interesting! But does he exist? Or maybe it is something like "second personality" like in Fight Club? Did you read all the notes (main and side)?

[§єǫuєᴋʜaɴ ⚶]

You mean split-personality? I thought the main character was just investigating the scene to begin with, but it definitely seems there is more to it than that. I did read it all, but there is a lot to take in and remember, and my memory is never much good when I chop and change games so often!

It's just so deliciously vague that people can interpret it in various ways. It's like coming across a tree lying down in the forest. Unless you saw it fall, how do you know it has fallen? I think it's good to have an open mind, even if your imagination can take you to weird places.

[IMGN_PRO]

There is couple of clues suggesting that agent Vitalij Grazeniuk was mentally unstable after investigation the Pass - why? Maybe it is the anomaly? Not the monster, or paranormal activities, but just the whole place? It is just making you crazy, and maybe it was the same with the students (of course in the game version of the incident) - you can read in the notes from the girl journal that she heard voices, and later others too heard it. And maybe everything else was just creation of their minds? I didn't ask the writer about the "real explanation" I want to make my own versions of it.

[IMGN_PRO]

But from the other hand, what about the sentence just after the ending? (you can hear it only if you got all the notes from the game main and side)

[§єǫuєᴋʜaɴ ⚶]

Well, that one I'll have to think about some more ;)

[kpr]

Hi Guys, first of all, congratulations on game. good job. nice experience. great creation of the impression of oreintation loss.


Here is my attempt on explaining the game events (based on notes and common knowledge) and some loose topics to think through:

Chronology of the events:
1949 - Seversk city (Fifth Postal) is founded as closed city. [Report #1]
17.10.1950 - due to Soviet Research Unit of Natural Phenomena, first event connected to Anomaly 0H/91 take place in Igarka town during construction of Salekhard–Igarka Railway. Workers evaporate, leaving shades. [Report #2]
14.03.1953 - second event in Igarka town. Workers are 'stopped in time'. Bodies are transported to Seversk city (Section 12). [Report #2]
? - after discovery of an Anomaly, Section 22 is created and tests are being conducted in several (Seversk, Raduzhny?) reserach centers using prisoners (mainly kidnapped civils?), many events resulting in deaths. [Report #3 #4 #5 #7 Article #2 Journal #9]
? - Two Section 22 scientists (Dr Gregor Atanovitch?) exchanging letters of tests' failure concerning specific person. Person is to be eliminated and transported to Vladimir-30 (Raduzhny town, established in 1971, Vladimir-30 name in 1977). [Report #6]
? - Vitalij Grazeniuk interrogates prisoner Object 73 in Seversk. [Journal #9]
? - Object 73 tries to send his letter to the world through prison guard, Anna N. (?) [Journal #9, Article #2]
25.01.1959 - Ten Ural Polytechnical Institute students arrive by train at Ivdel city. [Diary #1 #2]
26.01.1959 - The group takes truck to Vizhai settlement. [Diary #3]
27.01.1959 - The group starts their trip to Otorten mountain, they get to deserted village on horseback. First strange events. [Diary #4]
28.01.1959 - Due to sickness one of the expedition members decides to go back. [common knowledge]
next days - Group is travelling up the mountains, strange events (voices, footsteps) occur. First and second night under tents take place. [Diary #5 #6]
31.01.1959 - Weather condition worsens. [intro]
night of 01/02.02.1959 - Third night under tenta at the Kholat Syakhl slope. Event occur. Group is scattered, then killed. [Diary #7 #8 #9]
around 20.02.1959 - Rescue team is sent. [intro]
25.02.1959 - Abandoned camp is found. Two bodies under the tree, and three bodies along the way are discovered. [intro] (26.02 in other sources)
27.02.1959 entry - Soviet Research Unit of Natural Phenomena agent Vitalij Grazenyuk finds students camp. He gets to Vizhai two days before polytechnical rescue expedition. [Journal #1]
28.02.1959 entries - Vitalij discovers five bodies, goes to the woods and finds expedition's diary. [Journal #2 #3]
QUESTIONS1: different bodies discovery dates are an effect of game makers mistake or Vitlaij dates are only dates of an entries concerning official dates of bodies discoveries? if so, if Vitalij is part of an official rescue expedition described in intro? if so, why there is a hint made by Vitalij of another rescue expedition that Vitalij is faster than it.
04.05.1959 - Four remaining bodies are found in a ravine. [intro] Vitalij finds four remaining bodies in a ravine while being led by voices/intuition. [Journal #5]
next days - something happens to Vitalij in the woods, he goes missing.
06.05.1959 - someone sends a telegram to Soviet Research Unit of Natural Phenomena about missing Vitalij. [Report #9]
sometime between 05.1959-04.1961 - Vitalij is found and due to his 'delusions' placed in mental intstitution in Moscow (?).
Vitalij escapes from institution [Article #4] and mutiliates (cutting eyes) his girl/wife (?) Viera [Article #7].
12.04.1961 - Vitalij, now being held in mental institution again, sends a letter to Viera with a help from 'Anton' provided. [Journal #8]
a couple months later - someone kills Victoria in her house in Moscow, she was a sister to Viera R. [Article #8]
QUESTIONS2: it is suggested that tests took place also in Raduzhny town - Vladimir-30. Town was established in 1971, name Vladimir-30 is in use since 1977. Is it a game makers timeline mistake or experiments really was conducted that late after all previous events, Dyatov Pass Event notably. I think that is mistake, because Vitalij must be interrogating Object 73 sometime before Dyatlov Pass Incident (he is still in mental health).

Other events:
night of 04/05.07, year unknown - strange lights above Svobodny Cosmodrome [Article #1]
anomalies occur in many places around the world and are more often (state as of 1998 or later). [Article #3]
experiments on bringing peolpe from death in Inia, Syberia - one succesful? [Article #4]
Antoni Nizny in Valley of Death, Yakutia finds metal constructions similiar to cauldrons buried underground. [Article #5]

What happened to Vitalij in the woods following 04.05.1959 discovery of the bodies? [Journal #5 #6 #7]

Is [Journal #4] note from expeditiion members diary? (different handwrite)

The phrase 'Where is Anton?', the name Anton is used by / is known to:
Vitalij [Jounral #6], after his wood revelation - 04.05.1959, and later [Journal #8]
Object 73 - he hears Anton when he is in his cell [Journal #9]
Girl from students expedition who writes her Diary (?) [Diary#9]
Dr Ivan Wanski - experiment conductor [Report #4]
Dr Gregor Atanovitch and Boris W. (?) [Report #5]
Someone who wrote [Report #8]

Who is Anton?
Is he Antoni Nizny, Valley of Death researcher (he meet something there which trigger the whole events? rather not, since he is able to intervirew after - false lead)
Is Anton Object 73 or some other prisoner who survived meeting with God's Eye, Anomaly, etc? Is he an Object from [Report #6] about whom researches thought experiment ends in failure? Experiment really was succesful? Anton gained powers?
Is he a human acceptable name for entity, rationalization of the Unknown which lives in the minds of those who works or gets close to the Anomaly?
Why in [Report #8] Anton is the one who gets close to the man who came out from light? Based on this, Anton isn't an object of the experiments? Who is a man from the light?

What was the nature of the experiments?

Why there are articles about cosmodromes lights, resurrection experiments, metal constructions in Siberian Valley of Death? World building or are they connected to the main events?

Who is main protaginist?
Is a game (mainly Act II) real events or recreation of past events?
In Act III seemingly we participate in or recreate the night of 01/02.02.1959 events or reconstruting them. What is the plan the voice is talking about then? He wants his revenge? He wants us to expose Section 22 activities? Or more, spread the anomaly onto the world (opening the gates)
Unfortunately I don't remember most of the in-game monologues and I don't have a good ear to know if that is the same voice we hear in the Journal. So the voice, Is it our (protaginist) inside voice? Is someone talking to us? Anton?
In the short monolouge you can hear after gathering every note, we (?) are called 'the doctor' and seemingly we are a patient. The man who is talking to us is Anton. And he seems to be terrified as we are getting back from coma, shock (?) or something like that - even that much that he wants to turn off the life-support machine (?). Based on that, is the main protagonist Vitalij who was touched by Anomaly/Object 73 or someone like that, then in the woods? (But why we are called doctor then?) Object 73 was himself touched by Unknown/Creator during experiments. He eventually freed himself from captivity. For some reason he was roaming in the area, accidentaly meeting the students and causing their death (what was he doing so far from Seversk?) In that case, name Anton is only the attempt of Vitalij mind in shock to rationalizate the Unknown (he hears that name often because his caretaker is called Anton).