An In-Depth Lore Guide | ULTRAKILL [Wrath Included]

A work-in-progress, in-depth guide to all of ULTRAKILL'S characters, inner workings and happenings so far.

Updates and Changelog

YEAH, It's been a really long time. Work and real life and demotivation have all played a part in it.

I'm trying to get back into this, and I've added some info on Wrath for the time being! Hopefully I'll get this fully updated by next week or so.

21/3/2023
- Added lore on Wrath Layer.
- Continued V1's adventure through Wrath till 5-2.

19/2/2022
- Added details mentioned about Hell's mechanics and Prelude's place in the story from Hakita and PITR's 7-hour dev commentary stream.

29/10/2021
- Added Halloween Update details on Virtues and Minos.
- Added lore on Lust Layer.
- Added several lore screenshots of Lust Layer.

3/12/2021
- Continued story in Gluttony Layer.

3/28/2022
- Finished story in Gluttony Layer.

Intro

Yes, i'm aware that this guide is RIDICULOUS. It's incredibly long, verbose, and goes over every little detail, and that's because I like writing, and I especially love the game's worldbuilding so far.

If you're looking for a much more basic outlook for the game's lore, I'd suggest referring to Grantawe's Lore Guide, which details all terminal data and information directly from the game in a much simpler way.

Have fun, and of course,

THIS PRETTY MUCH SPOILS EVERYTHING IN THE GAME.

-= 1: Humanity's State =-

The Unnamed War

This part is a little bit iffy, mainly because we have the least information about it. From what we can gather from lore, we had multiple events that took place:

During an unknown war, humanity found a need to use machines for combat. We don't know how far into the future we are, but it's definitely not modern-day.

The V model was built for war, with V1 boasting a new kind of exterior plating that allowed refueling through contact with blood rather than through a seperate refueling process.

Due to its necessary thinness, it is far less durable, but the ability to fix itself and rebuild broken parts on the fly would outweigh the negatives on an active battlefield.

However, during the prototyping phase, the New Peace was established and war became irrelevant.



This is when V1, our playable protagonist, was created. Built for war, their armor was light and weak, but exposure to fresh blood allowed it to repair itself. However, as we can see, only one was created before the conflict ended.

It's important, I think, to remember that as far as we know, all robots are powered by blood. (Not sure what the humans were doing, but sure.) The difference for V1 is that they can immediately repair themself with it, while others simply store it as fuel. I'll go into more detail on this later, when V1 arrives in Hell.

Its original form is unrecognisable after years of scavenging scrap and rebuilding itself, but among scrapheads, the Swordsmachine is quite famous due to its combat prowess and selfmade form, ugly to most but beautiful to enthusiasts, spawning many copycats.

It wields a selfmade sword with a motor on it that, when revved, will heat the blade, cutting through most organic matter with ease.

Due to its possessive hoarding behavior, it's one of the few machines still capable of vocalization -- an ability most have discarded for more efficient resources.



The Swordsmachine is a bit of a strange one, since its origin isn't actually stated in any terminal data or lore. However, we can infer from its very nature that it was made for fighting. My assumption is that it was originally built for combat, similarly to V1, but was later loved by these unknown "Scrapheads" following the war, going on to be an efficient killing machine.

Also note that it's apparently able to speak - although we're yet to see this in the game.

I originally suggested that the Swordsmachines would be able to actually say words and communicate, but it also seems likely that this just refers to the scream that they make when they're enraged, unlike when V2 is enraged later, where we don't actually hear any sound.

The Climate Catastrophe

It's unknown whether this climate catastrophe had to do with the aforementioned war. However, what we do know is that it left the air of many cities "tainted", as described in the Streetcleaners' terminal data, presumably from the conflict.

Originally built as a way to purify the tainted air of cities after the climate catastrophe, Streetcleaners were made obsolete during the New Peace...



These flamethrower-wielding, humanoid machines were hence created to solve some climate issues, which strangely seemed to stop after the New Peace was established.

The New Peace

After the wars ended, this "new peace" was established. There's not much we know about it, other than it... well... being a period of peace.

Thanks to cringeybabeyඞ for pointing out - when you start up the game, it says V1's latest update was in 2112, which was probably when the new peace was established and when it was made irrelevant.

Notable Events: The creation of the V2 Model and (possibly) Drones.

V1's planned production was cancelled and an updated model, V2, was developed instead, using the standardized plating, since durability was far more important during times of peace when no bloodshed was necessary.

After the wars ended, the V2 model began development instead of V1. As you can see, it was given much stronger plating, but lacked in the blood-refuel capabilities of V1 (which explains why they have so much more health than you during the boss fight, but can't heal).

Neither model ever reached mass production due to the end of wars completely draining any demand, so it's likely only a single prototype build of each model remains in existence.

...And since all wars were over, there wasn't really a point in it, meaning only one of each model was ever made. What happened to them? Well, we'll see.



A mass-produced security device built as both a surveillance camera and a security guard.

Though originally built to only use non-lethal ammunition, they have scavenged parts from the defunct machines on the surface for greater efficiency at collecting blood.

Curious by nature, but to keep production costs low, their intelligence is very limited.

As their ammunition was made to be non-lethal, I'm assuming that the Drones were developed after the New Peace was established, in order to help re-establish peace and safety across humanity. These purple things were also given "limited intelligence", suggesting humanity had control over how intelligent their machines could actually be.

The fact that many machines, such as these and Swordsmachine, are able to scavenge parts, suggests humanity may have underestimated their sentience.

In fact, it's possible that this over-reliance on Machines may have led to the events i'm about to explain.

-= 2: Heaven And Hell =-

Hell's Mechanics

Before I continue, I think I should probably outline how the Hell (heh) these locations actually "work".

ULTRAKILL's portrayal of Heaven and Hell seems to be a merging of the scientific and the supernatural, where many seemingly fantastical and biblical things are par for the course and "explainable".

For example, Hell seems to be an actual physical location, albeit one that's manifested on a different "plane of existence", if that makes sense - for example, how layers, despite obviously going down, somehow have full skies. They could be seen more as metaphysical "dimensions" rather than literal places.

For the most part, the core details are the same - the sinners go to Hell, and the good go to Heaven.

Those who go to these places only go as their souls - that is, after they die, their soul leaves their body, transcending a normal plane of existence. Here, they manifest.

If they manifest in Hell, they become Husks.

Husks are physical manifestations of the souls of the damned.

The physical form is based on the value of the original soul, which is determined by the strength of its will and its prevalence in public consciousness: the living souls that remember it.

As this lore entry shows, they're basically "new bodies" for the souls that go to Hell, and the state of their bodies is determined by their willpower and how known they were on Earth.



Filth are the lowest form of Husk, whose souls were too weak and unimportant to even form a complete physical body.



While their tall stature may seem intimidating, Strays are afraid of most danger and will try to stay at a safe distance, only attacking via projectiles formed with Hell Energy.

Although controlling and manifesting this energy is a complicated task, Strays have very low intelligence and are only able to do so via pure instinct.

Nevertheless, humans were unable to replicate this level of accuracy and control, particularily the Stray's ability to cause the energy orbs to selectively ignore other Husks.



Schisms: The result of two souls attempting to manifest in the same space, causing an amalgamation of two physical bodies.

Due to the doubled body mass, they're quite resilient to damage, but have very poor motor control and thus cannot aim with any degree of accuracy, resorting to barrages of energy orbs in the general direction of their opponent.

These 3 basic husks show that they generate physically in Hell following their soul's death on Earth, and can vary greatly in intelligence and physicality depending on previously mentioned details.

It seems that these husks are then made to carry out different punishments, based on what great sin they have committed, and hence are sent to their specific layer of Hell, whether it be Limbo, Greed, etc.

On the other hand, Demons don't appear to be the "bad guys" - moreso, natural occurrences that happen to coincide with what Hell is meant to be.



The Malicious Face gives an insight into how Demons are formed.

Demons are creatures born from the mass of Hell. They are most easily recognisable by their hard stone-like exterior and slow movement.

Demons have higher intelligence than Husks, but are still incapable of rational thought and communication. No demons have been able to pass the mirror test, though studies are limited due to their hostility.

Malicious Faces are the most common type of demon, but are incredibly dangerous, especially in swarms, due to their mastery of the use of Hell Energy as a weapon.

This introduces the idea of "Hell Mass", which forms demons seemingly naturally. We see this to an extreme level with the Hideous Mass:



Hideous Masses are a rare occurence, when an excessive amount of Hell Mass is poured into a single shell, causing it to overflow and burst at the seams.

Due to the broken seams allowing for mobility without having to bend the exterior, the stone has hardened more than the shell of most demons, making it completely impervious to all currently known attacks.

Its belly remains exposed, however, making it and the thin tail excellent targets.

We also get a hint that these demons may sometimes be sentient and have intelligence - for example, the Cerberus.



Although they do not resemble the mythological three-headed dog, this name was chosen due to their nature as protectors of Hell. However, it's not yet known why some stay dormant despite provocation.

Despite the fact that keeping an energy orb stable takes a considerable amount of focus and effort, they seem to always keep one in hand, possibly due to symbolic or sentimental reasons.

Limbo Explained

As everyone knows by now, Hell is sorted in layers, inspired by Dante's Inferno.

THE PRELUDE is set in what is only called "Approaching Hell". It seems to be the only "living manmade" area. Since it's not technically a layer, I'll explain it in a later section.



LIMBO is a place in between Heaven and Hell, where those who were technically "good" but did nothing worthwhile in their lives (or weren't Christian) go to. In ULTRAKILL, it's portrayed as what seems to be an endless labyrinth of rooms meant to replicate Earth.

However, it becomes clear that it's not as innocent as it seems. The chirping of birds comes from speakers, the sky and endless mountains are an illusion - screens on the walls and ceilings - and even the water is holographic. The area has multiple "real" interiors, with castle-like walls covered in colorful church windows.

Hakita himself has stated: None of the water in Limbo is real. They're holographic projections, just like how the skies are just screens and how the nature sounds are just coming from speakers.

It seems like Limbo doesn't specifically have any punishment other than isolation and hopelessness.

It's not really certain how it functions and whether there's any hierarchy, but the level Clair De Lune shows that time of day can change on the screens.



We also get a glimpse of the psychological torture that those in Limbo go through, as shown in the journal of an unknown person in the Manor:



This Manor seems to hold the gateway to the deeper layers of Hell, which can be opened via three blue skulls you find on the level. The writer, as stated in this journal, has hidden them.

Whoever this person was, they were trapped in this Manor, hoping to enter Heaven, but instead made to wait for eternity in Limbo, suffering more and more pain until something happened. As they were able to write perfectly, and we later see physical skeleton praying for forgiveness, I assume that the writer was a particularly intelligent and influential Husk, capable of speech, writing and a great degree of emotion.

Hakita states on Discord that many of the skeletons you find are, in fact, skeletons of husks:

minos was a husk when he was killed by gabriel, the husk body became the corpse of king minos while the soul was sealed away, and there have been intelligent husks yes, though most of them are dead now, hence the skeletons here and there (and by dead i mean died while a husk)

Lust Explained

We don't actually know much of Lust before the Renaissance, so I'll save the information for later. What we do know was that it was ruled by Minos, as terminal data discusses -

Once the great and beloved king of the Lust layer...

...incredible power of will and status as a just ruler in life remembered even millenia after his death...



The recent tweet from the ULTRAKILL twitter has canonized a piece of fanart - that being, how Minos looked like during the Lust Renaissance.


King Minos felt that eternal suffering was an unfair and unreasonable punishment for those whose only sin was loving another.

The Halloween Update description of Virtues states that Minos was the previous Judge of Hell before being struck down by Gabriel, which ties into his role in Dante's Inferno.

Minos' thoughts and doubts will be looked into later.

Gluttony Explained

Gluttony is extremely confusing to discuss, and is really, really ambiguous.

According to Hakita, the Gluttony layer exists entirely within the Husk of King Minos following his death. Commentary from Hakita in his 2022 commentary stream has him stating that it isn't meant to be taken literally - that is, Hell almost has its own meta-sentience, and all paths will lead to the correct place. Hence, it's more of a physically manifested conceptual location, rather than something more simple and literal.



The Gluttony Layer within Minos' Husk works essentially as his insides and bowels, with fleshy blobs, countless eyes and pits of acid overseeing everything. There are also many molded formations in the shapes of hands. It's once again unknown how punishment was carried out in this layer, but considering the acid and ever-watching eyes, it's easy to guess.

Greed Explained

Greed is where we get much more elaboration as to how punishment is dealt.

This layer appears to have its own sun, which shines brightly over endless dunes of gold. (The sand is gold.) The sun makes this gold scorching hot, and without it, the gold can be walked on without causing damage, as shown in the secret level.



The layer contains a lot of symbols and architecture reminiscent of Ancient Egypt, such as the Eye of Horus, which represents healing, protection and well-being. (Which is pretty ironic given the punishment of those in this layer.)



The area also has multiple famous landmarks, such as the Big Ben, the Statue of Liberty, and the Eiffel Tower, which are stated to be "monuments of mankind's arrogance and greed."

In the distance, we can also see a pyramid, and the silhouettes of the Sisyphean Insurrectionists hauling boulders up it.


We can assume that the husks being punished were far too greedy and materialistic - with this material influence likely meaning they would be more known on earth. This is probably why their husks are so much bigger than normal filth and strays - they had major influence and notoriety when they were living.



(Note that this is a Sisyphean Husk after the angels' return, which i'll go over later. During this time, they likely still had full forms and had proper heads, etc.)

Smaller husks still carry out this punishment of lifting boulders, as seen by the Stalkers - which also show that evolution and mutation can happen in Husks to adapt to their specific punishments.



As the Greed layer's punishment, Stalkers have been forced to carry heavy boulders up the monuments of mankind's greed for all eternity.

They have carried out their punishment for so long that their bodies have evolved, warped and grown to better suit it.

Their limbs have twisted to give them better balance while carrying boulders on their backs and their skin and muscles have completely dried up, allowing them to survive direct contact with the dunes of gold dust that Greed's sun has raised to unfathomably high temperatures.

However, an unidentified sentient force has replaced the boulders they would normally carry with high tech bombs that, upon detonation, will transform any nearby blood into the gold dust "sand" that covers the layer's surface.

(More on this sentient force later.)

Wrath Explained

Located after Greed, Wrath is the punishment for those defined by their anger - their fate being left in the ever-flowing River Styx. The Ferrymen were responsible for taking them to their fate on a boat, Husks given a special privilege - taking other souls across Hell.

The lore entry for the Ferryman states:

They have each been given a holy cloth by Heaven as a symbol of their devotion to God's order, which they wear over their bodies to hide the human form that they've grown to despise as a reminder of their sins in life stopping them from becoming angels.

Due to the holy power emanating from the cloth, Ferrymen's skeletal bodies have slowly been colored bright and radiant, and their skulls have enough latent energy to open the gates that otherwise stop Husks from exiting their places of torment.

Each ferry can only have one Ferryman at a time, so when a new Ferryman is formed, it will fight another to death in order to take their place and inherit their cloth. The loser's skull is taken as a trophy and used to grant the winner passage across the layers in order to transport the souls of the damned to their destinations.

Ferrymen will often use the knowledge from their past life to improve their ferries, growing past the need for oars, which are now used by the Ferrymen only as weapons.

As the influx of souls has ended with death of mankind, the Ferrymen have lost their purpose and now wander aimlessly, hoping that the angels would grant them passage into Heaven, despite Gabriel being the only one who cares about their efforts.

As you can see, disaster struck after the post-New Peace event that took place - likely an uprising of machines - as the genocide inflicted by the machines meant that souls were traveling too quickly into Wrath to be contained. 5-2 confirms this when V1 arrives, showing the ocean filled with the bodies of the damned.


A diary entry in the Ferryman's home in 5-2 confirms this:

Some calamity has struck the mortal world. What once was The River Styx has now grown to an unfathomable ocean. A million weeping souls pouring in each day that the shores can barely contain. A tearful tide spilling over at each end, bow to stern, crying for mercy, begging for safe passage. But not all souls can pay and these old hands can only take so many coins.

Then one day, the current shifted. Wave after wave for minutes on end of millions, billions, as though the throat of the world was cut wide and the head wrenched back to speed the pour. I didn’t have time to react. The weariness from my ceaseless work claimed me and I slipped beneath the roiling sea, into the depths of the Ocean Styx, my fate sealed by the crushing masses of endless bodies.

Suddenly, there was a light as brilliant as the Lord himself, ushering me from the darkness with mighty arms that held me with such compassion and warmth as I have never known:

"Be not afraid, sinner. Your devotion to God shows goodness in you; plentiful indeed. The heart is willing but the body must rest, lest you squander one of the Lord’s creations."

His gentle words eased the pain and mended my wounds. My face wet with tears of relief, my words muffled by the weight of my duty. I could only lay in reverence, carried in the embrace of majesty.

Radiant is Gabriel, for he is the light in my darkness.

The River Styx is not simply home to just bodies and a ferry, however; there do appear to be multiple land formations, with multiple cabins, houses and more. Within many of these houses are the Ferrymen's prized possessions - The Idols.


Although they can easily be mistaken to be of divine origin, Idols were created using the same process as other demons. Unlike their larger kin, their shells are too small to contain a useful amount of Hell Mass, creating life, but leaving it unable to move or act.

The Idol did not originally look divine, but were painstakingly carved into such shapes by the Ferrymen who collected them across their travels across the Layers of Hell. This was done as both an act of compassion and tribute to the angels, particularly Gabriel, whom the Ferrymen believe to have similarly granted them mercy.

Close proximity to the Ferryman's holy cloth during the long and arduous carving process caused its holy power to seep into them, allowing them to continue the chain of compassion by protecting others from physical harm.

It is fortunate that Gabriel is the only angel of Heaven's higher order to watch over hell, since if the Council had found out about such beings, they would have been labelled perversions of the divine form and ordered to be destroyed by the Ferrymen who so lovingly granted them a chance at life.

We once again get an example of the transfer of energy - in this case, a transfer of holy energy into a demon.

Heaven's Mechanics

As we haven't seen many Angels yet, it's slightly more difficult to discuss Heaven. We know that it functions similarly to Hell in what happens to Souls afterwards.

After a Soul enters heaven, similarly to Hell, it physically manifests; however, instead of manifesting as a beast-like, hideous husk, it turns into a Lesser Angel. (The "Lesser" is an important distinction.)



The basis of a lesser angel's forming are quite similar to that of the Husks', wherein the physical manifestation of the soul is dependant on its value, though unlike for Husks, virtuosity also acts as a factor for angels.

Lesser angels come from human souls, which are formed into abstract or animalistic shapes, making them distinct from the humanoid bodies of greater and supreme angels, who were created as such and are considered purer and placed higher on Heaven's societal hierarchy.

Little is known about the specifics of angels, as Heaven is exclusionary and segregated due to wanting little to no direct contact with God's human experiment.

This terminal data tells a lot of things: For one, Lesser Angels are much like husks, but are formed as much more abstract beings reminiscent of the way some Angels are written in the Bible. These beings seem to have a much more powerful influence when it comes to combat; rather than shooting out projectiles or simply biting, these angels call upon heaven's power itself, sending beams of light down onto threats.

With the Halloween Update came an updated description, featuring new text for the Virtues, which go more into them specifically:

Due to their past lives as humans, Virtues are often sent to complete tasks that greater angels deem below them or otherwise uninteresting, such as acting as Wardens in Hell. There Virtues use heavenly fire to punish sinners who aren't acting out their punishment, in order to not waste Gabriel's time with minor offences and fluctuations.

Virtues are normally known to have a multitude of eyes, though for unknown reasons, these eyes are hidden or removed for ones that become wardens in Hell. Some have speculated this may be related to why almost all husks lack eyes, with the only verified exception being the previous Judge of Hell, King Minos.

The line "God's human experiment" also indicates that humanity itself was nothing more than an experiment - something not held in very high regard in Heaven, besides to the ruler himself, God.



Supreme Angels seem to function very differently, with them not seeming to have a human origin. Rather, these humanoid beings seem to have always existed in order to uphold God's will.

Gabriel is the main example, with other archangels such as Michael not being mentioned yet. (And don't get me started on Lucifer.)

One of the most respected and feared archangels, Gabriel earned his reputation through power and efficiency.

Regardless of the task given, Gabriel would always perform it quickly and efficiently, earning him the title of Judge of Hell after dethroning Minos and ending the Lust renaissance.

I'll explain heaven a bit more following the impending conflict.

-= 3: Conflict =-

God Vanishes

The catalyst for many of the game's events come from the disappearance of God, and the humans' discovery of Hell.

At the moment, we don't know which one happened first. I personally believe God disappeared first, which led to instability in both Heaven and Hell - hence allowing humans to somehow find a way to access it.

Our main sources of information here are the Testaments - gray terminals we can find at the end of secret levels. To quote Hakita:

"the idea is that each secret mission would have a little "testament" at the end that was written by god that hints at the events that have unfolded in the game world."


As most people with some form of religious knowledge know, the reason for humans being able to sin, in the Bible, is because God created humans with free will in mind; he wanted humans to be able to willingly love him when given the choice to do so. (Obviously, that didn't end up very well.)

This testament from God seems to be anger at mankind's continuous sin despite all that God has done, and he calls free will a flaw. "The evil of their own lips consume them" seems to hint that God will allow humans to essentially destroy themselves. As for what "begin anew" means, well... who knows?

Testament 2 states:


This one is more confusing, because we don't know if it refers to God's anger at humanity, or something else. Since this is stated after Testament I, it appears that God attempted something new - and it didn't exactly work as intended.

Gluttony's Prime Sanctum has more lore, but since it's not exactly on God's disappearance, i'll go over it later.


Testament 3 states:


This suggests that God possibly regrets the creation of Hell, and the creation of humanity, as expressed before; additionally, it shows that he's been trying to make "New" Humans - or something of the sort - without Free Will, which he sees as a flaw. However, it seems like he's been unsuccessful.

Aftershock

God's disappearance immediately led to chaos.

Heaven immediately plunged into conflict, and we can infer that it was scrambling to form a new ruling power to keep things under control. As a result, most of the Angels left Hell to oversee the chaos.

In the wake of this, the layers of Hell were hence only guarded by some Demons. In response to this dramatic disappearance, the kings of the first two layers, Minos and Sisyphus, began plans:

After the Disappearance of God, as angels were lost and Heaven was in chaos, Minos began his efforts to reform the Lust layer.

The Lust renaissance was prosperous, as King Minos guided its inhabitants to come together and build a new civilization. The combined efforts of the countless who had been damned to the second layer bore great results as the grand city of Lust grew and grew.

Minos helped to form Lust into a prosperous city, with a working water-related industry, with factories and even homes. Minos himself had his own "court" - a massive tunnel with rest stops and forms of transportation.


Meanwhile, King Sisyphus of the Greed layer decided to take a more violent approach. This book found in 4-2 talks about what happened:

It has been days since we last saw any angels. Without their oppression, there is no need for us to carry on our punishment. Even the meekest of the damned have abandoned their penance to take up arms. All can see how they have robbed us of our minds, bodies, and souls, leaving us only the hopes of a salvation that will never come, but no longer.

King Sisyphus has acted in secret until now, amassing an army whose strength and numbers swell, but now there is no need to hide anymore. We have lived in the shadow of Heaven long enough to forget the taste of fear. Now the Sisyphean Insurrectionists prepare for war.

I have heard of Minos beginning a peaceful revolution, but our King Sisyphus knows such pacificity will gain no favor from our cruel captors. He knows that one can only fight power with power, and he shall lead us to freedom.

The Council

It seems like the renaissance and insurrection of Lust and Greed were short-lived, however. Following God's disappearance, Heaven established "The Council", as explained in Minos Prime's terminal:

However, after the Council took control of Heaven and brought stability to it through their iron fist rule, they saw that Minos had gone against God's will by freeing sinners from the punishment that God had designed for them.

The artwork in the lore shows that the council seems to be mostly humanoid, suggesting that they're a group of supreme angels. However, it's interesting to note that they don't have wings.


Following the establishment, the immediate action was to take control of Hell once more.

We see that Gabriel killed Minos:

Gabriel, the brighest of the angels, was sent to kill Minos. The king, rather than fight back, tried to reason with him, but Gabriel mercilessly struck him down without listening.

As Minos' will was strong enough to attempt to stand up to Heaven's rule, the angels chose to imprison his soul in an attempt to stop it from forming into a prime soul and appointed Gabriel as the new Judge of Hell.

Text in a book in the Lust layer reads:

...Gabriel struck down Minos, his flesh torn asunder with torrents of crimson pooling out of his feet as we all cried out with clarity. 'Justice,' Gabriel decreed to all, with our just ruler writhing in wailing agony, 'The Lord's will be done.' We watched on in horror as Minos lay broken, now waning, screaming in God's Will, Gabriel.

Minos' soul, following its death, then forms into a Husk. However, to prevent Minos from having any influence, the Angels locked his soul into a flesh prison, leaving his massive husk to be left under the control of parasites:

Due to his incredible power of will and status as a just ruler in life remembered even millenia after his death, the manifestation of his soul is the largest Husk to ever have been recorded.

Small traces of the original soul can still be detected in the body, but the corpse itself is animated and controlled entirely by the snakelike Parasites that he once commanded.

Despite once bringing upon the renaissance of the Lust layer, his corpse now only seeks sinners to punish.

We also see that the Angels killed Sisyphus:

Although their battle was well-fought, the inexperienced Insurrectionists could not match the educated strategy of the angels, who quickly descended upon King Sisyphus with great force, eventually overpowering and killing him, leaving the Insurrectionists without a chain of command.

Left scattered and disoriented, the warriors were easily picked off one by one, their bodies cut apart, leaving behind only the bare essentials required to carry on their eternal punishment of hauling heavy boulders up the monuments of mankind's arrogance and greed.

Although the blood of their enemies still stains their bodies and their grasp still clutches their fallen foes, their will and fierce fury only serve as mental torment in knowing how close they were to freedom.

This hence explains why the Lust layer is back to a primitive and violent state when V1 arrives there, and why the Sisyphean Insurrectionists have been cut up.

Man finds Hell

While all of this conflict was happening in Heaven, at an undisclosed time (before or after), humans were able to find their way into Hell - or at least, its entrance. This is when they deployed the Streetcleaners, which were repurposed for "Hell Expeditions".



...and were repurposed as scouts for Hell expeditions.

However, their urge to clean remained, and after the fall of mankind, they began burning any organic matter they came across in an effort to purify the world.

This is when we should take note of the tunnels in between each level.

According to the terminal at the end of P-1:

TERMINAL DATA 01 [ENCRYPTED]
INTRODUCTION TO TERMINALS
(DRAFT! DO NOT SEND!! // todo: ADD PICTURES SO THOSE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ SUITS DON'T FALL ASLEEP LIKE LAST TIME)


The elevator room terminals are an advanced interconnected network built for the purpose of transferring materials and tools between different areas. They are capable of transferring physical material as information across a radio signal, which other terminals can receive and use to reconstruct the sent object. The original item is lost, as it is transformed into the energy that is used to transmit the material information, and the process is quite slow due to the amount of information that physical matter holds.

An early test of a matter transfer's accuracy was a mint condition 78rpm vinyl record, which was sent from the lab to all connected terminals. The vinyl was a single of Russ Morgan Orchestra's recording of the piece Were You Foolin' (a favorite of the CRO), though the label was removed to reduce the amount of matter to be transferred.
[note: ♥♥♥♥ you tom im so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tired of this stupid song and having to listen to it every morning over your garbage intercom]

Soon after, the Hell exploration and excavation project was abandoned and this vinyl record remained the only matter to have been succesfully transferred before connection between the surface and the terminals was lost.

We hence see that these "elevator rooms" are meant to transport material across Hell safely, with the Terminals actually being able to physically "teleport" objects.

However, we then see that the Hell expeditions were abandoned for unknown reasons.

We also get an explanation for the song we hear throughout whenever we open a terminal.

However, a weird and interesting detail is stated afterwards:

The terminals now use the record to lure machines into a symbiotic relationship (For further information, see TERMINAL DATA 02: [LINK REMOVED]). However, the terminals only play short instrumental sections of the original record for undetermined reasons.

Some researches have joked that perhaps the terminals are simply "too shy to sing", though rumors have been spreading of mechanics who, after fixing a faulty or broken terminal, said to have heard the terminal play a vocal section when only the mechanic is present with no recording equipment, making this an unverifiable claim.

"Lure machines into a symbiotic relationship"? What?

I'll discuss this later, because it may actually hint at a future enemy.

Mankind is Dead

"Mankind is Dead; Blood is Fuel; Hell is full."

We don't know how Mankind died out, but given God's previous statements:


...And his other new statement from 4-S:



As well as Minos Prime's dialogue later on:

But the crimes thy kind has committed against humanity are not forgotten. And thy punishment... is death!

It can be suggested that mankind self-destructed via 'the evil of their own lips' - possibly referring to their own creations - that being the machines. It would explain why so many machines eventually find their way into Hell by the time we play the game. It also makes sense given the machines' resourcefulness. Even the drones are scavenging parts to keep themselves maintained.

-= 4: V1's Journey =-

Prelude

After than annoyingly long and painstaking description of everything that's happened, we now arrive at...

What actually happens during the game.

Yeah, it took this long, because I like writing and I took it way too far.

Alright, here we go. I'm basically going to outline what you already know if you've played through the game, albeit describing some of the changes that we've seen along the way.

You play as V1 - the prototype machine designed for war - with loose, flimsy plating that's weak, but in return can self-repair when doused with fresh blood.

Following the extinction of humanity, V1, in search of blood, enters Hell like many other machines before it, in order to stay powered.

And so, we find ourselves at the Prelude.

Several sources call it "The Mouth of Hell", such as in the description of Something Wicked, and the title of the Overture before Act I. Hakita confirmed in his dev commentary that Prelude is meant to be a manmade gateway into hell that's become long abandoned, and hence infested with husks.

V1 fights their way through this area with a revolver they find. To quote Hakita on its function:

The revolver is electrically charged and doesn't use physical ammo, the multiple "bullets" in the cylinder are cells that recharge after being shot. The recharging process takes some time, which is why there are multiple that are rotated through, so there's always at least one that's charged.

They make their way through meatgrinders that don't serve a clear purpose, as well as many streams of blood (not fresh enough to heal with). While doing so, they encounter a Swordsmachine with a shotgun. V1, with absolute swagger, takes the shotgun and kills Swordsmachine with it.



The shotgun works by shooting out concentrated heat, the excess of which it then releases between shots through the cores that get revealed when it's snapped open.



After getting to terminals, V1 gets the option to obtain new versions of these obtained weapons - such as a revolver variant that comes with coins, and a pump version of the shotgun.

After killing Swordsmachine, V1 finds a secret blue skull in a vent, which leads them to a dark, isolated section...



Here, they encounter Something Wicked, an unknown, seemingly indestructible entity that chases them. Thankfully, they're able to avoid it and escape.

After escaping, they make their way through more of this claustrophobic, brown area before arriving at the gates to Hell - the true Hell.





But before they can, they have to kill the 2 demons sitting at the gate, who awaken. I mean, V1 kills them anyway.

Limbo

After entering Hell, V1 finds themself in Limbo, which on the surface, like stated before, appears beautiful; but it's all an illusion.



Here, they encounter Drones - the first machines besides Swordsmachine - which appear to have entered Hell to scavenge for parts. Although initially made with non-lethal ammo, they've scavenged and managed to make themselves deadly projectiles.



As usual, V1 tears their way through them. However, while traversing the area, they find some of the rooms completely on fire, with many of the husks already charred corpses.



The Streetcleaners from earlier have found Hell, and after charring the Earth, they're here to do even more "cleaning". Luckily, V1 is able to kill them quickly using the Ricochets of their coins.

On the way, they obtain the Nailgun, which fires nails generated from iron in their blood storage, as well as magnets. To quote Hakita on how it works:

The nailgun does actually require physical ammo, which is why its ammo pool is more limited. The nails are generated from iron harvested from whatever particles are available, most commonly blood. Coins are generated this way as well.

After fighting through Limbo, they encounter and kill the Hideous Mass - as explained earlier, a disgusting formation when a bunch of Hell Mass accumulates in one place - and make their way to the Manor.

Here, they find the three key skulls that the resident had hidden. He had kept them secret to prevent himself from being tempted to go deeper into Hell, as stated earlier in their writings:


And so, V1 enters the entrance, to be greeted with...


V2.

V1, though having weaker armor, is able to regenerate much of their structure from V2's blood supply, eventually damaging V2 enough to make them run away, dropping their arm in the process. Needless to say, V1 is happy to take it for their own use.


The knuckleblaster, similarly to the nails and coins, creates shells from iron in blood storage, and discharges them to create a powerful shockwave.

With this new arsenal, V1 plunges into the true layers of Hell.

Lust

After the bloodshed of Limbo, V1 makes their way into the Lust Layer. Thanks to King MInos' Renaissance, the area is almost modern, with a bright city and an abundance of technology.

The area is filled with tall buildings, lots of water, and more. While fighting in the distance, V1 notices a massive, dark figure in the distance with glowing eyes. And every time they travel into a new area, the figure gets closer.



V1 makes their way through what looks like a cozy series of homes. But it becomes clear that the Lust layer isn't what it used to be, as there are no peaceful citizens - just Husks trying to kill them.



Skeletons in some of the buildings indicate that there was once peace, harmony and even happiness here - but it's long gone.



Making their way into one of the houses, V1 recovers a book written by an unknown - it details the death of King Minos by Gabriel.

...Gabriel struck down Minos, his flesh torn asunder with torrents of crimson pooling out of his feet as we all cried out with clarity. 'Justice,' Gabriel decreed to all, with our just ruler writhing in wailing agony, 'The Lord's will be done.' We watched on in horror as Minos lay broken, now waning, screaming in God's Will, Gabriel.

V1 also notices the presence of new enemies - they look like Strays, but have some strange modifications and augmentations to make their weaponry more powerful. Who could've done this?

Going into the layer's water system, V1 encounters a new machine enemy - the Mindflayer. These machines are dangerous due to their channeling of Hell Energy. They also show a strange sentience - they appear to have a materialistic attachment to plastic, humanoid bodies they've built for themselves. Terminal data states that despite their plastic and uselessness, Mindflayers go to great lengths to protect them, and prefer a female form.



This suggests, again, that these machines have some sort of attachment or even attraction to these plastic bodies.

V1 kills two Mindflayers and further explores the water tunnels. Despite finding some controls to disable the water, they decide against exploring further, and instead continue through Lust.

Then, they enter a dark, dark area, with a railway system leading down a long, empty hall. It's possible that this Hall was a "waiting room" of sorts, perhaps for the awaiting of Judgement that King Minos once dealt out.



On the way, they fend off a massive hand, and then, the Husk of King Minos himself, controlled by parasites.



After killing it, the corpse's mouth opens agape, and V1 fearlessly travels inside...

Gluttony

Gluttony, as I mentioned before, is weird - because it's inside Minos' Corpse. Even though Minos' Corpse was only created after Minos was killed.

Anyway, Gluttony is, well, about what you'd expect from being inside Minos' Corpse - a red, fleshy mass of innards, lined with eyes constantly watching V1 as they make their way through. There are a bunch of what could be stomach acids here, as well as plenty of enemies to fight through.



This area is shorter and smaller in size than the other layers, with only 2 levels, as you make your way through. I'm not exactly sure what the significance of the eyes are.

After fighting through various sections, V1 finds a strange platform, floating over and abyss, with stairs descending up and down.



While fighting through this area, they discover one of the pathways isn't linked to the rest.



They go through this, leading to a massive, glowing door...



You all know what happens after this.

After going down a long, spine-like staircase, V1 comes face-to-face with the Flesh Prison!



Flesh Prison is an uncategorized organism created by the angels to imprison Minos' soul after he was slain by Gabriel.

Although it is similar to Husks, it does not possess a soul or any amount of thought. All of its actions are purely predeterimned reactions to stimulus, making it more of an organic machine than a living being.

In order to make it as impenetrable as possible, it was given both divine power and hell energy, which makes its attacks erratic and chaotic.

We see that the Flesh Prison is made by the Angels, which explains why it's able to shoot beams of light from heaven similarly to Virtues that we see later on.

After killing the flesh prison, V1 frees Minos' Soul, which is so powerful that is has been able to physically manifest as a Prime Soul.

I believe Minos' dialogue here speaks for itself:

"Ah, free at last. Oh Gabriel, now dawns thy reckoning, and thy gore shall glisten before the temples of man! Creature of steel, my gratitude upon thee for my freedom. But the crimes thy kind has committed against humanity are not forgotten. And thy punishment... is death!"

For the suffering inflicted upon humanity by the machines, Minos begins to attack V1 in one of the most intense and difficult fights yet. Despite this, V1 still manages to top the former judge, and kills him, but not before Minos' last words haunt the player:

"Forgive me my children, for I have failed to bring you salvation from this cold, dark world."

(technically, his last words were "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!" but that's not as interesting lorewise.)

With Minos dead, V1 travels further into Gluttony, getting closer and closer to the heart of the matter - literally.

On their way, V1 encounters a disembodied voice from a new being - Gabriel, Judge of Hell and the slayer of Minos.



Gabriel proclaims:

"Machine, turn back now. The layers of this palace are not for your kind. Turn back, or you will be crossing the Will of God. Your choice is made. As the righteous hand of The Father, I shall rend you apart, and you will become inanimate once more."

Despite an intense showdown, Gabriel loses to V1, and promptly gets really pissed at him. And with that, Gabriel proclaims that this is not over, leaving and giving V1 a gateway to traverse deeper into hell.

As V1 descends, Gabriel finds himself at the mercy of the Council.


The Council tells him that he has a day to redeem himself for supposedly allowing a mere machine to beat him, claiming that the light - likely the source of his angelic powers - will be stripped away from him. Take note that the councilmembers repeatedly say "heresy" as they beat him down.

Wrath

Like Limbo, Act II: Imperfect Hatred begins with a much more subdued atmosphere, starting you off in a cave. I'm not exactly sure what 5-1 is, with its cavernous underwater areas, glowing fungi and large blast doors, but with the ruinous architecture it's likely the ruins of an unnamed city.


Eventually, you end up on the surface of the Styx.


As mentioned before, the Styx is a former river, now turned ocean - filled to the brim with the souls of the damned following the extinction of humanity. A lighthouse is seen in the distance, a reference to a really good movie, with multiple stone islands and collapsed bridges being the only remaining evidence that Wrath was more than just water.

V1 makes their way to a couple of connected houses, with signs of it being lived-in, a lit fireplace present, as well as a diary from the Ferryman, mentioned earlier in the layers-explained section.

-= 5: Secrets, Hints and More =-

The Terminals

The Terminals have to be the most confusing and enigmatic part of the game's story so far. What we know of them is very limited - only the information given at the end of P-1 elaborates on it.

TERMINAL DATA 01 [ENCRYPTED]
INTRODUCTION TO TERMINALS
(DRAFT! DO NOT SEND!! // todo: ADD PICTURES SO THOSE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ SUITS DON'T FALL ASLEEP LIKE LAST TIME)


The elevator room terminals are an advanced interconnected network built for the purpose of transferring materials and tools between different areas. They are capable of transferring physical material as information across a radio signal, which other terminals can receive and use to reconstruct the sent object. The original item is lost, as it is transformed into the energy that is used to transmit the material information, and the process is quite slow due to the amount of information that physical matter holds.

An early test of a matter transfer's accuracy was a mint condition 78rpm vinyl record, which was sent from the lab to all connected terminals. The vinyl was a single of Russ Morgan Orchestra's recording of the piece Were You Foolin' (a favorite of the CRO), though the label was removed to reduce the amount of matter to be transferred.
[note: ♥♥♥♥ you tom im so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tired of this stupid song and having to listen to it every morning over your garbage intercom]

Soon after, the Hell exploration and excavation project was abandoned and this vinyl record remained the only matter to have been succesfully transferred before connection between the surface and the terminals was lost.

The terminals now use the record to lure machines into a symbiotic relationship (For further information, see TERMINAL DATA 02: [LINK REMOVED]). However, the terminals only play short instrumental sections of the original record for undetermined reasons.

Some researches have joked that perhaps the terminals are simply "too shy to sing", though rumors have been spreading of mechanics who, after fixing a faulty or broken terminal, said to have heard the terminal play a vocal section when only the mechanic is present with no recording equipment, making this an unverifiable claim.

END OF DATA 01. For more information, see [LINK REMOVED] and
[LINK REMOVED].

From what we can tell, the Terminals are essentially computers that are able to teleport and transfer physical items. However, for unknown reasons, the Hell expeditions and excavations were abandoned. This means that the Terminals were left abandoned, only to be used by V1 later on.

The later part of this is what makes things very interesting. It states that despite having a copy of a full record, the terminal only plays an instrumental section with no vocals in order to "Lure machines into a symbiotic relationship", with a removed second terminal data point. This probably means we'll get elaboration on this in a later secret level.

The final part creates even more implications, suggesting that the Terminals are able to use vocals in the record to thank humans for fixing them.

This suggests that the Terminals themselves are sentient and are not to be trusted, as the word "lure" suggests they may be using machines for some other purpose. And V1's been relying on terminals the entire game, which doesn't exactly bode well.

Will the terminals be a sentient final boss? Or a secret mini-boss? Or is all this a big joke? Only time will tell.

Something Wicked

This super spooky enemy can be found, notably, before we enter any other layer of Hell, suggesting that it isn't a conventional husk or demon. Put under the category ???, this stick creature is mostly there as a horror reference, but it's still cool to theorize.



Very little is known about this creature.

Some speculate it to be a Husk, but due to its elusive and extremely hostile nature, no one has been able to confirm the hypothesis.

Only one has ever been observed and it has never been seen leaving the section of the Mouth of Hell in which it currently resides.

So, essentially, we have no idea. What do you think it is?

The Unknown Force

Throughout the game, we've seen that some enemies have had some tampering, which suggest that an unseen enemy has been making them stronger to fight against us.

The first example of this would be the Soldier - modified versions of Strays, which have been given some parts to improve themselves.



Soldiers are an augmented version of Strays, whose technological implants have been scavenged from broken machines to channel Hell Energy with greater efficiency.

This increase in power gives Soldiers more self-confidence, causing them to act more aggressively than normal Strays.

Despite the enhancements, their intelligence remains low and it has yet to be determined who or what actually augmented them.

We see this again with the Stalkers.



However, an unidentified sentient force has replaced the boulders they would normally carry with high tech bombs that, upon detonation, will transform any nearby blood into the gold dust "sand" that covers the layer's surface.

Research has shown the technology to be very similar to the agumentations of the modified Strays known as Soldiers, so it is likely both modifications come from the same source.

We don't yet know what's up with this. Could it be related to the terminals? Who knows?

The Hakita Bible

Here are a bunch of lore-related quotes from Hakita on the New Blood Discord.

Thanks for Reading!

That's it! So far.

If you've got questions, ask me in the comments, because I like talking about this stuff. I don't know everything either.

Yes, I'm aware the lore isn't super deep, and I went over-the-top in details and descriptions, but that's just because I enjoy it. I hope you found it bearable :)

My YouTube, if you wanna see more rambling on things

[PanMati]

Also, with Terminals being sentient and possibly in cahoots with Hell, it makes more sense why the „tips of the day” exist

[PanMati]

You get style points from doing „stuff” while fighting enemies and you can spend them at the *Terminals* to buy upgrades to your weapons.
Why do Terminals want Style Points?
How do you even get style points in the first place?
Hell is speculated to be sentient and it spawns enemies for you for its own *entertainment.*
*Hell is giving you Style Points depending on how entertaining you are and then you can spend them at the Terminals which been stuck in Hell for who knows how long*
Either the Terminals are in cahoots with Hell, have been corrupted by Hell (we saw it corrupt logs and codexes), or just want whatever the Style Points are (possibly just hell energy).
Damn.

[PanMati]

I think you misunderstand what „symbiotic” means, it’s usually for when both sides benefit from each other, while parasitic is when one side is benefiting and the other is being hurt
In the case of Terminals and Machines, the machines of course get access to other parts of hell, the issue is what do the terminals get in return? Do they get some of the blood you collect whenever you use them? Or something else?? Why don’t they use Hell Energy or something- wait
Style points.

[Niiuren]

does v1 have a n word pass?!?!?

[cheerios]

Random idea: Something Wicked is a husk, specifically the corpse of God, which explains why it's both practically indestructible and kills everything in sight. Kind of a crackpot theory but this entire game is a massive crackpot so that just makes is better

[スタープラチナ]

pretty commendable that you actually managed to point out that hell is alive before the ARG

[TheToric]

you skip straight from gluttony to wrath in v1's journy, no section on greed?

[corvile]

i'm only a little way through this (enjoying it a lot though!!) but i did notice - in the "greed explained" section, what you have identified as the eye of horus is actually the eye of ra! they're is the same symbol they just face opposite ways lol but the eye of ra represents multiple things, including the sun (particularly the destructive heat of the sun) and also the suppression and subjugation of forces of chaos, which i think fits a lot more with the themes of the greed layer!

[Director]

no florp

[Xander]

I think prelude has all the grinder stuff cause it used to be a blood factory to power humanity's machines.