Okay, I want to get this out. I’ve been trying to theory craft an explanation for this game that explains everything for a while now, but I can’t seem to find a conclusive answer that doesn’t have any contradiction or one that is fully supported by the pieces of evidence that are provided thus far. So instead, I will like to share everything that I have found that I think are either interesting, important, or for any other reason.
I was going to put everything in this post, however, I need more time really going through everything that happened in this game in the later chapters, so instead, I decided to split my thoughts down into different posts: Prologue, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2. I will also do another post discussing anything that I didn’t discuss in these posts, or anything I have forgotten to add.
Of course, these posts will contain spoils that don’t exclude other chapters, so beware. without further ado, let’s get started with the prologue.
Prologue
There are many hidden messages in the backlogs during the Prologue, and these are all I have found with where to find them and my thoughts on them.
A1
Found: After Neru describes souls to the reader and finished his work.
Thoughts: Although it contains only three words, it is really hard to pinpoint the person saying this. The most likely suspect is Pyr, who also speaks later on in this chapter, but I can see other characters saying this.
A2
Found: When Neru inspects Shax’s room after seeing a mysterious person roaming around the hallway.
Thoughts: Cool foreshadowing on the fact that Shax is a descendant.
A3
Found: When Neru and Shax returned home from their vacation.
Thoughts: The character saying this is most likely Pyr. Pyr states that Neru has already failed to save Shax/Obli implying that Neru had the ability to change the way the events unfold.
A4
Found: When Neru and Shax first slept together. (Comparing to what it actually said to the story, ‘Shax’ is replaced by ‘xxxx’, and ‘feathers’ is replaced by ‘scales’.)
Thoughts: More cool foreshadowing about who Shax really is.
A5
Found: After handing over the letter to Shax that contains information about shapeshifters with second generation soul amnesiacs are getting sick.
Thoughts: This is the first time the backlogs documented something that the characters in the Prologue didn't do/say.
A6
Found: After Shax's ‘special time’ with Neru in bed.
Thoughts: It wouldn’t make sense that Pyr would say this, implying either Pyr has different personalities or, in the more likely case, someone else other than Pyr made this comment.
From this point onward everything that is said can be found when Shax is dying.
(This part is cut up, but to save time for me by not commenting on everything, I will compile all of them into one quote.)
A7
Thoughts: The person talking is, without a shadow of a doubt, Pyr. The things he said to Neru seem to imply either Pyr had watched this ‘thread’ before or that Pyr was part of the story. Pyr hints that both Neru and himself know each other and that Pyr doesn’t like Neru much. Another important takeaway from this backlog dialogue is the fact that Neru is not only able to talk in the backlog, but also able to hold conversations with Pyr although Neru doesn’t know how Pyr is doing so. It is also strange how chance is implied in this statement like there is a chance that they won’t look at this memory.
A8
Thoughts: Again, this is almost certainly Pyr. The ‘you’ part is most likely Neru, as the comment is taken when we can see Neru struggling to keep Shax alive. This backlog comment also states that Neru, either in the future or the past compared to the current events of the prologue, is acting the same way. The simple fact that Pyr is comparing the events that are displayed in the Prologue implies either Neru has a past before being a Great Shapeshifter or is in a position of power during the timeframe of Neru being stuck in the portal to the events of Chapter 2.
Because of how big the 'what-if' story is, I will not put it here. Instead, I will the only thing that seems to matter.
A9[The story]
Thoughts: After the fabricated story about Neru and Shax, the quote after that is very relevant. You can get many interpretations from these quotes and many implications from them.
One of my interpretations is as follows; (It seems to be related to Samuel and how every day he stays in the cage he created as he protects his creation. Although it torments him, he couldn’t let his creation dies at the hands of the Aeons. But at the end of the day, after the end of time, everything disappears leaving Samuel alone by himself with his own memories. Yet, similar to the permanency of mortal flesh, those memories will eventually fade away. Time will have erotic everything Samuel has created until there is nothing left in his dimension but himself and wasted time.)
Of course, this can also apply to Neru and Obli, but there is little evidence to really say who Pyr is talking about.
A10
Found: This can be only seen the first time playing the prologue at the end.
Thoughts: Someone, other than Pyr, is talking to a person, probably the burned man, to wake up. What is also strange is after you forward the dialogue, which gives you this screen:
Overall, we can conclude some things with these backlogs.
The first one we can conclude is that there are at least three or more people watching the Prologue based on the backlog. Assuming we are watching from the burned man's perspective from chapter 2, the people watching the story unfold are the burned man, Pyr, and someone else.
Evidence for Pyr can be seen when he announced himself at A9, while the unknown character can be interpreted through A6 and A10.
The second thing we can conclude is that Neru seems to be a bit more special than we thought. Not only was he able to have some things recorded only in the backlogs, but Neru can also speak with people ‘outside’ of the story.
Before we can discuss the characters themselves, I will like to point out something strange that only seems to happen in the Prologue.
Although it only applies to the first half of the game, there are over 50 instances where Shax has referred to Neru as ‘Nerus’ in his internal dialogue even before the bench scene when the Great Shapeshifter wants Shax to call him Nerus. This is quite strange when you also take into account that before the bench scene has happened Shax has always referred to the Great Shapeshifter as Neru instead of ‘Nerus’ when talking about him with others.
Maybe this is only in Shax’s head, like a nickname he came up with for Nerus, but this doesn’t really seem too likely since he never gave any other nicknames to other people. Plus, Shax never really acknowledges it, not really comparing the nickname he thought for Neru and the nickname Neru gave himself.
Not only that, but I also found it strange that we can find Shax and Neru talking as if the events that we are watching unfold have already happened and are just commenting on them. Here are some examples of it.
A11
In Shax's inner dialogue, we can see that Shax has two states of mind about Neru's comment. The one he has during the story of the prologue, and the one that the future Shax/Obli currently has.
A12
In Neru's inner dialogue, Neru talks about how he had to keep up appearances 'back then', showing us that Neru is talking about the events happening in the Prologue is actually in the past.
It would seem that they are talking to someone about their experience, their thought processes, and how they feel which is absent in the other chapters. This could mean that during the Prologue both Obli and Neru’s future versions of themselves are watching this event unfold before them, commenting on their thoughts and feeling during the events of the Prologue.
Analyzing the characters
Nomino
Although we don’t know much about Nomino, there are still a lot of things we can discuss about him.
-Power
A13
According to the Glossary, Nomino’s power is speculated to be a tracker. Yet if this is true, this doesn’t explain how Nomino was able to ‘disappear’, more like remove his soul from his body, after telling the Great Shapeshifters about The Second Battle of the Aeon. It also doesn’t explain how Nomino, during The Second Battle of the Aeon, is able to manipulate his yarn to create the snakes that have the power to not only stop Temp and Oceros but also Neru. Nomino displayed with great proficiency all three abilities, which doesn’t really make much sense based on how magic is described to us.
According to Neru
A14
The quote implies that either Shapeshifter are born with only one ability, or have a very specific one that they excel at while the other ones are weak in comparison.
Based on what Neru has said we can only really conclude that either Nomino is just so gifted when he was born as a Great Shapeshifter, or that Nomino isn’t a Shapeshifter at all.
-Knowledge
It seems that Nomino knows a lot about the future, and how things will turn out. An example of this can be seen during The Second Battle of the Aeons. Instead of helping out the Aeon, who’s getting stopped from entering through the portal by Neru, Nomino rather watches them fight, not even attempting to stop Neru. When everything is said and done, after Neru got stuck in the void, Obli commented
A15
Nomino already knew how the battle will end being that Neru gets stuck on the other side and, eventually, Obli attempts to help out Neru.
Nomino has referred to Shax/Obli as the Herald of Hope, which we only see with one other character in the story: Sofia in Alessia’s dream during chapter 1.
Nomino knows about the Redd Manor.
-Theory
Theory 1: Nomino is not a Great Shapeshifter, instead Nomino is either a Voidborn or an Aeon. Based on his powers, I will think Nomino is more akin to a Voidborn when comparing his ability to Noch. Similar to Nomino, Noch can teleport, manipulate his physical body to anything he wants, and can see someone’s soul.
Theory 2: Nomino is associated with Sofia. Both Nomino and Sofia know about the future and how they turn out and both refer Shax/Obli as the Herald.
(Although I have more theories on Nomino, I think that it is better to save it off until I discuss chapter 2.)
Neru Magnus
Everything about Neru has always seemed strange to me. From his appearance to some of his actions, there was always something odd surrounding him. First, let’s discuss his eyes.
-Appearance
A16
Although our selections are limited, most of our cast in the Prologue, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 have normal-looking eyes which are very different from Neru’s eyes. The only characters that we know of that lack eyes or doesn’t have any conventional ones are Noch, Samuel, Sofia, and Nomino.
One of the other time we get something similar to Neru’s eyes is during Alessia’s dream, where she looks out of a window and notice a ring of fire floating. (The description of it makes it sound like it somehow has a connection to Neru's eyes.)
-Action
A17
This quote implies that the situation is set up just for Shax, which leads me to believe Neru is part of something greater. (Setting everything up for both Shax/Obli and Neru to meet once again.)
A18
Although this can be easily explained as Neru getting annoyed with work, it is hard to believe this is the case since he never really stated it as such. Neru never really referred to his work as annoying his inner monologue during the time Shax made this comment, so it is hard to believe that this is the case. If Neru was annoyed not because of his work then what is he getting annoyed by?
A19
This one is really weird, either this implies that Neru hates noble Shapeshifter or gave the noble a scornful glance because he said something bad to Shax.
-Memories
A20
Maybe it was true that Neru has really bad memories, but seems really hard to believe that not only Nomino but other Great Shapeshifters fully remember it. (The quote can also imply that either some other Great Shapeshifters don't remember anything about their birth or that others can remember, but not to the point of every detail. )
A21
It seems that the white flowers are an important plot point to the story in the future.
A22
Relating to the A21. Those flowers seem to be really hard to come by since a small amount of light can easily kill them.
-Theory
Theory 1: Similar to Nomino, Neru is not a Great Shapeshifter, but instead is a Voidborn or an Aeon. Neru's ability to communicate with Pyr during the story is similar to what Sofia did during Alessia's dream, but the flowers support the fact he may be a Voidborn. (My impression of the void is that it does not have any light to it, so having flowers grow in it makes sense. But then again, this is assuming that there is matter in the void, but that is another conversation that we can discuss later.)
Theory 2: It would seem that Neru knew more than he led on, especially when Shax commented that Neru disposed of his previous teleporter for Shax's arrival.
Shax
Other than the things we learn about Shax/Obli during the story, there is one thing I find really strange in the prologue.
A23
To me, I don't believe this is relating to the fact that Shax is a Descendant. Because if this is a letter to Shax the fact that he is a Descendent, why would they send him an old letter instead of writing a new one? It wouldn't make sense for a character to write a letter, hold on to it, and after a long time put it in Neru's envelope instead of writing a new one and putting it in Neru's envelope. So I believe this paper is more than that.
Although we don't see this yellow paper ever again, it seems important to the story, so I will guess it will come up eventually.
-Theory
None.
With the yellow paper and the fact that Nomino and Sofia referring Shax/Obli as the Herald, there seem to be more things we don't know about Shax or what will happen to the future for him. (Also the Redd Manor.)
Extra: My favorite part of the Prologue
Out of the whole quotes in the prologue, I always loved this one. When rereading the prologue, I always look forward to this. I don't know, just love this quote.