So who is Clara/Changeling exactly?

[OCD-ROM]

I played Pathologic 2 and loved it so much that I bought the original. I just finished all three of the playthroughs and there's one question that, still, keeps me up at night. Who is Clara? Is she truly the Sand Pest? What exactly was her ending supposed to be?

What I've gathered so far:

1. The game says that Clara created the Changeling by lying about her having a twin sister. Yet, before she lied, in the very first dialogue with Grace, Grace talks about her meeting the Changeling already ("Where did you come from? I thought you were going to stay at Grandfather's--you only went there yesterday evening, after all"). Also, the first opening dialogue on the screen says: "Day One, in which the Changeling finds her sister, thus confirming the prophecy of the twin angels." All of this implies that the Changeling existed before Clara lied, even though the Changeling said on Day 12 that she was created because of a lie (though, in other dialogue options, is called a liar by Clara). Regardless, she is somehow the same person, since throughout the game (including outside the normal narrative, i.e. promotional material, menus), the names Clara and Changeling are interchangeable.

2. She is a thief. If she is the Shabnack-adyr (implied by Aglaya when she commented on Clara's "weird legs"), she "stole" the appearance of a woman. She "stole" her own fate by going against her role as Sand Pest(?) to become a saint. She also "stole" the role of Mistress. If she really was made from the Earth to be the Sand Pest, she "stole" the miracles and lives of those in the town, which would explain why the town inexplicably hates her.

3. But the juxtaposition of her being the Sand Pest and/or a saint makes sense from where she came from--a grave. Signifying death, or signifying a resurrection of death.

4. She is more than a toy for The Powers That Be. When Clara meets them, they tell her she has gone past her originally intended role and became something different. In the ending cutscene, The Powers That Be lay fruit and nuts around the sandbox and bow to it, as if they're giving an offering to Clara who then ruled the town. If Clara was just a toy, why would they give an offering to her?

Anyway those are my theories/findings. I didn't understand her ending much. She was supposed to kill most of her bound, I understand, but I don't understand what happened after. This is probably because her playthrough was rushed by the development team and they didn't get the chance to flesh her story out more.

[Braylovsky]

I always think that she was some sort of manifestation of the plague that took the form of a woman named Clara, and decided to be a good person/thing, as you pointed it in no.2

As for the "twin", at the start I believed it was her imagination, but reading your post Im not sure what to think anymore.

For the ending, is simple: she created a vaccine sacrificing most of her bound, so every one in town would survive, but this was only temporary, unlike the permanent solutions of Daniil and Artemy. If the plague returns, more people will die to make more vaccines, and that will repeat over and over in the future.

[Chester]

In the ending, the Powers that be do not worship Clara, but the city that is so dear to them - they bring him sacrifices (fruits) so that he continues to exist. As you can see they asked Clara to keep the city as it is, cos it is the main goal for them. The dualism of Clara is explained by such fact: Powers that be just didn't decide how to play her - the boy saved everyone, and the girl killed. So Clara was in two roles and places at the same time.