[Spoilers] The ending is absolutely ♥♥♥♥♥♥ and absolutely everyone is lying to you

[Voimahurri]

For how ridiculously good the game part of the game is, it's baffling how utterly ♥♥♥♥♥♥ the story is.

The entire game is built up on a few ideas: the high ones want to end the world as we know it, the emissaries are there to fight it, the cycles have happened countless times before and they always end the same, the cycle might be some kind of test for rmankind etc. And this is given quite a bit of depth in the middle parts of the story, but the ending completely and utterly torpedoes all of that work, and for what? A Bioshock-style shock of a reveal about the true nature of the protagonist? That you're a fleshless just like all the crazy people said?

Way to go in completely and utterly sinking all of the complexity and mystery in the story! "ThE CyCLe iS a TeST For MAnKinD"? Uh huh, and according to the Black Guardian, literally everyone of consequence in the test is a plant. https://imgur.com/a/Kzn2KiI

But wait, we were told that by the Black Guardian, who is a lying liar who lies about everything that you don't already know yourself, so is there any point in actually believing a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ word he says? The player, the only more or less confirmed fleshless in the main story, as Firespark, the Aged Man and the High Ones all seem to confirm it, is supposed to possess some resistance to the beacon. So then other fleshless should also possess a similar resistance, right? So why aren't Coarek and Tealor resistant? There's other people who were just as close and are much more coherent still than they are, so it's not particularly reasonable to assume they're fleshless, just as the High Ones mockingly assert.

In fact, why assume the Black Guardian is actually anything special? Oh he's been around since ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ forever, but how does that make him unique? The Living Temple and the Apotheosis quest show that it's something that probably happens every cycle, so as far as we know there's one for every cycle. And like the Living Temple he's malicious and ignorant of a lot of things, knowing little about the ancient fathers and the Aged Man; why assume anything he's seen hasn't been a carefully controlled version of the actual events? Why assume he's nothing more than another well poisoned by the High Ones?

Or how about the Aged Man himself? The existence which the ancient fathers and Black Guardian appear to have no knowledge of. The man who just so happens to have the macguffin you for some reason need (even though as the Prophet, seeing the past should already BE your schtick). The macguffin, which for SOME reason is knowledge widespread enough for the Order to know about, the macguffin which is hidden in the supposedly innermost depths of the Aged Man's abode, right next to what seems like his preserved, nearly-deceased lover. Does he need it to talk to her? Doesn't look like it, since she can talk to you all on her own; clearly not THAT dead. And like I already questioned; WHY DO YOU NEED THE WORD OF THE DEAD, IF SEEING THE PAST IS ALREADY THE PROPHET'S EXPLICIT ABILITY. Oh yeah and then poof, the guy disappears after he's handed the thing to you; the thing which will enable all the doom and destruction to come to pass again, even though he so decries it and mankind for even trying.

It's almost like it's all a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mummer's play to give the Order the Word of the Dead. And it also gets destroyed by Sha'rim, in a part that's apparently played nearly every cycle. So the Word of the Dead must have been created again since then. And by whom? In fact, what IS the Word of the Dead? Because to me, it seems like a focusing lens of the Prophet's visions, as no one else ever makes use of it. The most logical answer is that the High Ones made the Word of the Dead, to trick and focus what the Prophet would see when using it. After all, not bloody ONCE did the thing actually do anything that contributed positively to your fight.

So the Aged Man is all a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ruse, the whole thing. Hell, there's even the possibility that he's a ploy to ensure the Prophet does try and improve the next cycle by showing that it is possible to survive with your loved one, ensuring he'll become the next Asatoron. Regardless, he's a malicious influence through and through.

Finally what about the Veiled Woman? Surely she's a good guy? No, wait, she more or less lied to you too. "Oh you would have died anyway, if I hadn't interened." Whoops, you DID die, so her act was utterly meaningless beyond PERHAPS ensuring that you'd turn into a fleshless. MAYBE. Why resurrect Jespar or Calia, if not to ensure a loved one who would ensure the Prophet wishes to escape to the Starling city? Why open a portal to the Black Guardian if not to ensure that you hear complete nonsense and/or get taken over? It's not like she actually healed or saved you or anything, either. I'm sure actually explaining the same details that the Black Guardian does herself would be a much simpler and faster feat than opening a portal would be. Or what, is she too nervous to talk? Oh yeah, and the portal doesn't work until you've almost been taken over by the Black Guardian, so it's not like she's satisfied with just having the Prophet be brought up to speed. Oh no, the Black Guardian MUST either take over the Prophet(so he can go to Starling city and be the next Asatoron in the next cycle) or the Prophet must have a waifu whom they don't want to see die(so they will go to Starling city and become the next Asatoron in the next cycle). And let's not forget she likes a bit of human sacrifice of the mentally ill and unstable.

Wonderful creature with nothing but humanity's best in mind, I'm sure.

No, wait, she's actually one of the key components in ensuring the cycles work at all and the source of the entire thing, if the book "Kadath" is to be believed, and is probably the actual big bad of the setting. The High Ones are apparently NOTHING in comparison to her.

The loading screen hints mention that people might be lying to you or "telling their version of the truth"... Well no ♥♥♥♥, EVERYONE is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ lying; the whole thing is complete ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and everything you were told was just complete nonsense.

Additional considerations:
-The sigil stone did nothing and never did.
-The Black Stones are a necessary part of the beacon, but are obviously tainted by the High One's power and are destroyed in the process of the Cleansing, so more must be made every cycle and there is apparently a surplus of them so it's more than 3 per cycle that appear.
-The Veiled Woman is tied to the Black Libra who go around turning themselves into fleshless and can do it repeatedly as Qalian did it apprently twice, and killing people to mold the future toward some unknown end.
-We were told that the cleansing makes humanity into a new High One, but the picture walls really don't imply that unless you're really, REALLY reading into it. Additionally there are only a handful of High Ones as far as we can tell.
-Evolution is a thing and intelligent life must evolve following the end of one cycle. The traits that the High Ones make use of to enact the cleansing—and the ones that the game more or less decries—are evolutionarily useful and often vital and necessary traits. If it actually is some kind of test for mankind, what kind of IDIOT is behind it?
-It was disappointing how at the end of the Numinos quest that Tealor couldn't connect the dots with Sha'rim being literally the first person to actually be possessed by the High Ones. Not just being a dream or a ghostly animal or a Red Madness nutcase, but an actual person who the High Ones actually confirm was possessed. Why go out in a supposed blaze of glory, when a High One apparently just descended into the flesh in front of you?
-Why didn't the Prophet just do both of the endings? He's an arcane powerhouse and has the abilities to do everything in the world. Just put some elementalism runes or summon something to destroy the beacon? Hell, why not do like with Calia and just pull out a barrel of blackpowder? It's not like the Prophet was pressed for time since he had time to have a full conversation with the non-love interest...

Open Questions:
-Rooms of Paintings?
-Are fleshless a common occurrence? Tharael was apparenty more or less one as well.
-What happened to the Father, if the Black Libra had connections to the Veiled Woman?
-Are Lightborn just fleshless, given their apparent immortality?
-Do the High Ones swoop in after the fall of the theocracies because they're avoiding the fleshless/Lightborns?


The sheer inanity and baffling incomprehensibility of this ending will haunt me for years. Was it all just for the sake of asking the PLAYER the question at the end of the game? Did you really build up all that story and then throw it away as nonsense so the question would have no additional strings attached to it?

Just... Jesus ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Christ.

Because ultimately it becomes a question about suicide. Which is fine, given how philosophically thought through this story is (even if none of the parts make sense put together), as Albert Camus put it: "There is only one really serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide." So the way it was handled in the base game endings was thematically sound. The existentialist themes also shine heavily with the Eternal Recurrence motif, but the addition of the Dreamflower Elixir ending puts a new, really uncomfortable spin on it.

Because you can in the Catharsis ending either die and be at peace with your inner demons and troubled past, or you can keep living (maybe?) while those demons remain angry with you and refuse to leave you alone, burning you from the inside and condemning you as they have all this time. So on the topic of suicide it has now gained the connotation of "it's okay to kill yourself if the voices in your head approve of it". Which isn't exactly a theme they were going for, I suspect.

I mean ordinarily I would never be for the "you're just dreaming" types of endings, but given that the demons of the past in the Prophet's head DON'T approve, I'm suddenly all ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ for it. Because if those ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ things don't approve, that must mean it's the right thing to do, right?

Jesus Christ this game's story will more or less haunt me for years with this ♥♥♥♥.

[Jouchebag]

You might be right, but I'll never read enough of that to know.

I enjoyed it and didn't look to deeply for holes.

Originally posted by Voimahurri:

Jesus Christ this game's story will more or less haunt me for years with this ♥♥♥♥.

It would seem you also really enjoyed it, just in a different way. Strong opinions formed of love.

[Yorginvik]

I hope you are right because the ending also haunts me. Maybe this is something that most people haven't considered, so good job on a new perspective (but tbh I didn't read all of it lol)

[Uldra]

I think the way the story was told was intentional to raise questions and makes you keep thinking about it.
Ether way I also did not read every word but sounds like you enjoyed this game a lot :D