Theory of the Anomaly/Ending/Point of KHOLAT

[Boromir the Himbo]

Before I get started here, I know it is late 2019 to make a theory, but I wouldn't post it if I didn't think it was profound. Spoilers ahead, obviously, and it requires quite a bit about knowing all of the notes and characters mentioned in them.

If you need a reference for the notes that I will be mentioning in this theory, here is a link for it:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=504853193

I tried to cover as many points as I can, but since this is just a rough draft, it still seems pretty crazy.



The true ending in Act III is Anton escaping from the facility and the doctors (presumably Ivan and Grigor Atonowicz) try to resist against Anton.

Journal entry is Anton writing. In it, Anton says that resisting insanity even though you are being tortured will not set your mind free. He himself tried to resist insanity until the doctors told him his wife was dead. It was around that point that Anton stopped resisting insanity during those experiments and embraced the Anomaly.

The one survivor is Anton and I believe he escaped after being transferred to Wladimir-30. In the Reports Section where a “confidential correspondence of Section 22 scientists:” takes place, two doctors (presumably Ivan and Grigor Atonowicz) speak about a subject showing no supernatural signs and how they’re going to transfer him. This subject is most likely Anton since there are no other characters to fill in the roles there. If put in this context, it makes sense now how Anton escapes.

Seversk is the place where they conducted the experiments in Section 22 with the Anomaly. Wladimir-30 is where they disposed of useless test subjects. Usually to conduct resurrection experiments.
His escape would be during or after the transfer when they deem Anton not in possession of any supernatural powers. Their conversation seems to suggest that he was previously reported with said supernatural powers. After a second test, it is revealed that Anton seems to be a “useless test subject” so they transfer him to Wladimir-30.
They tested subjects in Wladimir-30 by reviving them as shown in one of the Articles: “Alive Corpses on Siberia”. I believe it is separate from Seversk because it states in the article that some people were already dead when brought into the facility. These people are likely to have died while being tested with the Anomaly or killed to be resurrected: what happens to Anton as described by his “time does not heal wounds” speech
Anton eventually releases the power of the anomaly when he embraces “insanity” and reaches his “understanding becoming the revelation of truth”. This is when the Anomaly takes its true form, it causes all of the incidents in the Articles section. (The incidents in the Articles could also be what led the scientists to contain and research the anomaly, but either way, the Anomaly eventually breaks loose: causing the Dyatlov Pass incident as shown in Act III).

The “plan” Anton was talking about in Act III, is him most likely referencing of how necessary it was for him to escape. He had to release the power of the Anomaly to escape from the horrors of torture. I believe this because when he says “When the gates to section 22 open and the world will see true madness, you will understand that everything I had done was necessary” there is no real evidence of Anton “preparing the way” for the Anomaly to come out as I had originally thought. The hellish landscape that the PC has to endure in Act II might be a reference to my original theory and that is Anton’s way of preparing the world for the Anomaly, but upon further speculation, I believe my new theory makes more sense because it uses the Report entries to tie in Anton’s escape.

How Act III explains Anton’s escape makes more sense to me. In the true ending, Anton speaks to the Doctors (once again, presumably Ivan and Grigor Atonowicz). The situation as I see it, is Anton is being experimented on by the Doctors and then he suddenly uses the Anomaly’s power. Anton repeats back to the Doctors what they had just discussed with each other to show that he has the supernatural mind-reading/possession displayed in other journal entries (“My dear Anton”, “Where is Anton”, etc.) The Doctors respond to this by freaking out and saying that Anton could hear them speaking, and how they need to “turn it off”.

Then the destruction of Wladimir-30 begins. I believe Anton’s escape is what constituted all of the military to suddenly show up one day and tear down the site.
Before or after this situation, the events of Dymitr Ivanowicz’s nightmarish situation happens. This has to be where the Anomaly escapes as well, presumably because Anton had escaped and had been the “One survivor”.
Vitalij, the investigator on the scene had said that he wants to be food, supposedly for the Anomaly because it had escaped. The Anomaly also has to be the Bone God and The Mountain as well. In the Article “Alive Corpses on Siberia”, at the last paragraph, it says:
"We became aware of existing documents that could shed light on the case. An extract from a correspondence where the names of the sender and receiver are censored mentions about a facility in the middle of Siberia where 'the military sends well-preserved bodies of convicts in refrigerated trucks for further research.' Furthermore, the author writes, 'I do hope you will manage to do something with them because the mountain is becoming impatient and one "alive" is not enough.'"
“The Mountain” seems to hunger for more souls which is Anton feeding the Anomaly. The victims that become crazed, such as the Doctors who refer to Anton as a friend “My dear Anton”, and the investigator wanting to become food for the Anomaly are the victims that Anton mentions in Act III. “There are no random victims. And nobody is completely innocent.”
It seems to me with this information that Anton feels it is his duty to feed the Anomaly by bringing it victims. He is the one protected victim because he is the first to truly mantle the Anomaly to become the One Survivor. Hopefully, he wishes to break everyone else so that they may either be consumed or become a mantle of the anomaly as well, while at the same time, wanting to put humans out of their misery: the misery and torture he endured.

TL;DR: The point of the game is that you, too, are a victim. That’s why there is only ever really one ending: succumbing to the madness to be consumed by the anomaly. It’s to show that no matter what you try to do, or what the Russian military or weapons facility or government tries to do, or even the whole world tried to do, you are helpless to the supernatural horrors that have been buried. Why you specifically are chosen is up to be determined, but hopefully my insight can lead to further rabbit holes.
I personally believe it is because of the town you start out in and you walk into the forest mentioned by one of the victims of the Devil's Pass incident, and later in the folklore of the man who hid in a bunker to escape the "orange lights". You were curious of the events which led you to be another victim of the Anomaly's insatiable hunger. Anton made the incident happen: knowing it would draw in curious people like you and the Investigator, Vitalij. You fell into the web set up by the omnipotent Anton. There is no explanation to the ending or what happened to the hikers that got killed in the incident because there isn't supposed to be: the point is to fall into madness and die like the others.



That was a long ride there, but hopefully it clears things up. Its best to read this with the context and having played through the game recently, so the events are still fresh in your mind. I know it's not much of a satisfying ending, but hopefully I have shed light onto the whole point of the game since so many people are left asking questions. I might go back through this thesis, expand upon it, and clean it up if there is some confusion or someone needs more help with it, but I hope I have made myself as clear as I possibly can.

[SexyPanther]

I'm four years too late, but that was a helpful bit of writing. Cleared up a few things for me having just finished the game. Thank you.

[Sunshine]

I think i cannot finish the game...

I received most of the items and it seems to fit my journey in KHOLAT already.

@Boromir the Himbo: Have you forgotten the two cave exits in the last big cave with the tent in front of it? One of them is flat and wide as if one worked it out of the rocks, the other one aseems naturally given.

I decided to exit over the second one! And to try out the other one the next time i would have reached the cave again. But although i found back to it later, the first cave exit had gone. A similar thing happened just before i reached the big cave. I found a little crevasse in the rocks and the dead body of a stone aged male that must have rested there long ago and for a last time. Even this grave could not be found again to this later time and i was absolutely sure to have looked into the same crevasse.

And what is the story all about? I read the whole entry book of articles that i found, but there is no true story. Fragments of what has happened to the area and to the scientists that once worked on the terrain for russia are as well part of it as other fragments, that tell a story of involved italian nazis in times before, that builded a radar and bunker site in the mountains.

Or what does right from the beginning on "KHOLAT" as a title decribes for us and later on; one might expect to a time when the little church that is burned by the anomaly is finally reached by the player and has uncovered its giant bell, that now lies broken on the floor in front of the altar, then written in a russian style or in other words with the leading "K" turned by a hundred and eighty degrees, as if one might stand in the middle of the anomaly now. The player that reaches back his tent next to the anomaly afterwards once more, must have found an entrance through this wave and all the times that are ascending here... *the title turns once more and the anomaly is gone.

[Edit: How is this little church, mirrored out and in our world of today to describe?]

[Boromir the Himbo]

Woof! Forgot I made this post, didn't even know I was capable of a brainwave that big! Sorry if I don't quite understand your questions, but I will try my best to answer them. Just had to read up on everything again.

Originally posted by Sonny:

And to try out the other one the next time i would have reached the cave again. But although i found back to it later, the first cave exit had gone. A similar thing happened just before i reached the big cave. I found a little crevasse in the rocks and the dead body of a stone aged male that must have rested there long ago and for a last time. Even this grave could not be found again to this later time and i was absolutely sure to have looked into the same crevasse.

All I can think of is the skier/hiker's kit on the way to the run down church, down a little side path where it turns into a sheer drop. It's so funny that you mention this detail because I could have sworn I remember there being a camera on a log that you could use to take pictures, but I am sure that's just my brain making things up. Either way, it is a point of interest that I'm sure a lot of us have different memories about. I think this is supposed to be a reference to all of the strange, bizarre skiing accidents that happen around the world, even to this day. I think it is this game's way of nodding to those occurrences and perhaps saying they are tied to the Anomalies somehow. Or perhaps I am mistaken and there are no skis there, just those hiking snow prong things, in which case it is referring to the actual real-life incident with the hikers in the Dyatlov Pass.

Originally posted by Sonny:

And what is the story all about? I read the whole entry book of articles that i found, but there is no true story. Fragments of what has happened to the area and to the scientists that once worked on the terrain for russia are as well part of it as other fragments, that tell a story of involved italian nazis in times before, that builded a radar and bunker site in the mountains.

Not sure about any Italian Nazis, but I know what you mean. I explain it better in my original post, but in this I'll just put it plain and simple since I know all the pages you find in the game are not in chronological order which gets very confusing. There are three different types of pages you can get: logbook pages, diary pages, report pages, and article pages.
1. Logbook pages follow the story of an investigator to the real-life Dyatlov Pass incident named Vitalij. I don't think he was actually a real person, and his story that follows is him descending into madness as he follows the investigation.
2. Diary pages follow the diary of one of the woman hikers that were in the real-life incident of Dyatlov Pass. Of course, these are fictional, but it helps build the setting and the events leading up to the big mystery of everyone's strange deaths.
3. Report pages are probably the trickiest out of all of the categories you get because while the others follow a linear story, the reports are non-chronological and leave it up to you to put the names and places together. These are basically pages that come out of these secret Russian government experiments, and make more sense when you connect them with some of the article pages.
4. Article pages are the second most difficult ones to understand, but these are basically newspaper snippets that are seen from the public eye. These help mainly give context to some of the secret government facilities and what they might be doing. You have to take it with a grain of salt because this is, of course, a fallible narrator to the story, but gives some good references to what might be going on.
Side note, I think I will make a new post about all of the context of these pages eventually. I'm really busy with life right now so it might not come immediately, but I remember just how fun it was to put the story together and I think it would help the community a lot to have things drawn out.

As for the story, it's entirely in the pages and from what good ol' Sean Bean narrates to you. Without the pages, none of it makes sense, without Sean Bean whispering sweet nothings to you (trying to drive you insane), then the secret government experiment plot line makes no sense. It's really good story writing to marry the two together. Forgot how much I loved this game.
Anyways, the story. In real life, there are a lot of theories behind the Dyatlov Pass incident. Videos about it can teach you more than I, because there are A LOT of theories. Aliens, government weapons testing, cryptids, native attacks, you name it. This game gives a voice and subtle nods to all of those should you ask enough questions and follow down the rabbit holes. The most prominent ones that the game features and delves into are the government experiments ones, and supernatural ones. I would have to make a whole new article/post about the pages and what they are referring to if I wanted to explain the whole story here. I know it does get very confusing along the way, so that's why I'm considering it. For now, I would suggest just reading the full pages thingie I linked to in my original post.

Originally posted by Sonny:

Or what does right from the beginning on "KHOLAT" as a title decribes for us and later on; one might expect to a time when the little church that is burned by the anomaly is finally reached by the player and has uncovered its giant bell, that now lies broken on the floor in front of the altar, then written in a russian style or in other words with the leading "K" turned by a hundred and eighty degrees, as if one might stand in the middle of the anomaly now. The player that reaches back his tent next to the anomaly afterwards once more, must have found an entrance through this wave and all the times that are ascending here... *the title turns once more and the anomaly is gone.

[Edit: How is this little church, mirrored out and in our world of today to describe?]

Not so sure what the K thing is other than it just being a Russian letter, but the mountain on which the hikers died in real life that spurred this whole mystery is called Kholat Syakhl. Also, as for the church, the entirety of Act II is basically you just being trapped in the web of insanity. That whole landscape isn't real, take your schizo meds. Act III, the end of the game, is the revelation of what happens to the hikers, and that revelation is still very vague. But presumably you die and see it through the eyes of the Anomaly, or even as some may take it a little more literally, you become the reason the hikers die. I believe the former theory.
Anyways, the church in the landscape is most likely a nod to the supernatural or spiritual theories of the incident. I don't think many of the places you actually see in the game are of much significance, like the dead tree and the standing pillars at the beginning, but some of them are: like the sacrificial mountain and the radio tower. Most of these locations though are either just spitballing off of real life-theories surrounding the events but not really serving much purpose to the plot involving the lost notes (except for when Sean Bean talks to you).
As a rule of thumb, any time Sean Bean appears to you in a schizophrenic vision, you HAVE to listen, its important.

[Boromir the Himbo]

Originally posted by SexyPanther:

I'm four years too late, but that was a helpful bit of writing. Cleared up a few things for me having just finished the game. Thank you.

Of course! I might do a follow-up soon where I really tie the notes together because there are a lot of blank spaces that, while I filled in some of them with speculation, don't really have an explanation and could be up to more interpretation. I'd love to see this game get more of the community involved in it because I think the devs intended for people to really come together to try figuring out the true plot of this game.