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…I do, at some point, want to make a post with my definite thoughts on the story as my previous posts are more scattered with suggestions and theories. I don’t think I will make it anytime soon, since all this evidence doesn’t seem to connect to a simple perfect storyline, with many mysteries and gaps that need to be solved for a coherent story.

Wait wait wait. I don't recall someone being called 'Mr. Redd', but it does sound familiar for some reason. (Haven't read in a while, but planning to later under different circumstances.)

I do wonder if Roddio's intent is for us to get more information via the internet, or even digging through the files of the game. If it is, then I will take some time looking through them.

No fucking way

Neru’s mansion being the Redd Manor? That… could be true.

From what I can recall from the story, it’s been a while since I read it so do take this with a grain of salt, the Redd Manor has only been used sparely throughout the story, but the little times we get information about it are from Neru and Nomino. Neru’s description while holding on to the Redd Manor’s files makes it seem that his house isn’t the Redd Manor, but this could be due to him losing memories of it or even not knowing about it. The other descriptions come from Nomino where he talks about a red mansion in a world with blue skies, which is kinda the opposite of what currently Neru’s house is. It could be that the Neru’s house was the Redd Manor back in the day but after some events, it was abandoned or changed to what it is now. (Or it could just be another mansion that happens to be red.)

And speaking of time, I’ve never considered that the story could have time shenanigans… as in maybe time-traveling? It could explain some things, like how Nomino seems to know how everything goes during the War, and even the slip of paper Shax got during his pickup of delivery could be a message from the future. (And yes, I still think that the message is important to the story and that it would be brought up later in the story… eventually.)

The burned man has speculated that the countdown could be when Alessia meets up with Rel when discussing the countdown with Pyr which was simply denied by him. (I think this occurs after finishing Aloys 2, Bitey 2, and Alessia 2 when the burned man discovers Pyr's existence.) Rel’s involvement with everything so far was revealed during Aloys 2 when Obli talks about how Rel is helping rebuild the portal with a shapeshifter. Rel’s involvement with the portal is also stated later on during the new part of the story. 

Assuming that you are talking about one of my theories, it is a stretch to say that Rel was helping free Samuel specifically. My theory assumes that he knows about the portal, and understands what will happen after opening the portal with the goal of freeing Samuel. It also assumes that he is willing to do this, with a certainty of annihilation of the world as a result of the portal opening. This could be explained, as someone could give him the information about the portal and was under the gnosis processes, but there is little evidence to say this is the case. (This also assumes that my idea of the gnosis processes is correct, but that is for another post.) 

My theory should have been more vague, saying that the resulting help from Rel will result in the freeing of Samuel, and being more open to other ideas instead of the idea being the only true way of thinking the situation. But I guess I wanted something concrete to stand on instead of giving vague answers.

Chapter 2 [Old Content]

My Chapter 2 was a bit, to say it lightly, of a nothing cake. Although it does talk about some important things, the focus on it is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. But I can’t really blame myself for this since, even now, I don’t know what will be important or not.  Compared to the other Chapters, Chapter 2 seems to give you all the evidence at the same time without much resolution, mostly due to it not being finished. Although it is quite fun trying to try to put the pieces together, trying to figure out how everything fits together. (Also notice some other mistakes, but like the other post, I will leave them be… Also because I can’t change them.)

So like my Chapter 2 thoughts, I will keep this one loose because I really don’t have a focus on anything in particular. These are mostly just comments on both my thoughts and my Chapter 2 post.

-I started reading Nerus when only Nerus 0.9 was released, so I might not be fully correct on this but the intermission of C52 could just be when the cuts between new and old content. But… reading over some old threats of the past, I notice that they are still discussing the murder case itself as the story processes making me think that this couldn’t be the case since no intermission was in Chapter 1. 

-I just notice this… During the story, every time we are in a memory, there is this ring effect around the background. It’s quite hard to see, but it’s easier with a darker background, but it is also possible to see them in lighter backgrounds as well.

-My interpretation of C75 is off. When rereading it again, it most likely refers to Angela sleeping downstairs instead of in her room because of the perpetrator. Although it could be true, I think the former is more likely.

-It is quite strange that Alessia never mentions a fire before since both Gabriel and potentially David died in it… Maybe it happened when she was gone, or that it was too quiet for Alessia to hear. But even still, her not mentioning it is quite strange.

-The timeline seems a bit odd. If I'm reading this right, the timeline goes like this:
                     [Gabriel and possibility David died -> a year later -> Gabriel, David, and Rel disappear which causes Angela to change-> two years later -> Angela dies -> days to months later ->  Alessia changes.]
                     What I find really strange is that the time between Gabriel's and possibly David's death is a year apart from their disappearing with Rel. Does this mean that they had shapeshifters taking their appearance? Also, if my Chimera theory is to be believed, the time between Gabriel's death and Angela's transformation seems a bit too big of a jump. Either means I was wrong to some degree or that Angela's sister, surprised when reading this, somehow got the Chimera before Angela. Although it is all speculation.

-Small thing, I find it strange that both Bitey and Neru have last names. This could mean nothing, or it could mean something important. The important fact is that since Bitey is not his real name, it could also be possible that Neru isn’t his real name either.

-What took Nomino so long? Thinking back, he did open 2 portals into the void already, so what makes the second one different than the first? I think the biggest difference might be the size of it, allowing the Aeon to travel in the world, but 200 years just for that? Or was he waiting for Obli, waiting for the Herald of Hope to arrive? 

-I have mentioned this before, but I feel like it’s an important thing to highlight this fact. There is one commonality that seems to persist in every story thus far: every main group consists of three people. What is so interesting about it though is that in the events that happen within it. Although it might vary a bit the story always goes like this: Person A falls in love with Person B, who is in a group of two with Person C. 
                 An example of this can be seen with Shax, Neru, and Servos. After Shax, Person A, has started working for and falls in love with Neru, Person B, with who Servos, Person C, has been working for years.
                 Another example of this is Bernardo, Bitey, and Alessia. After the murder case, Bernardo, Person A, starts a relationship with Bitey, Person B, who was a pair of detectives with Alessia, Person C. It even works for Aloys, Noch, and Obli to an extent. (They being person A, person B, and person C respectively.) 
                 If this is the case, then this could also work we can group up everyone with each other. (unknown, Sofia, Samuel) (Angela, Rel, Bitey) (The Burned Man, unknown, Pyr) (Pyr, Unknown, Unknown) All these have little evidence going with them, but it has some form of logic behind them.
                 This could be taken even further. Assuming that the Prologue is a guideline to what will happen, Person B will eventually disappear causing Person A to grieve for their loss. This will mean that eventually, Bitey and Noch will ‘disappear’.
                 (Also a cool thing to notice is that there is always an event that happens in every story. It would seem that they all have a meal together. This happens to Obli, Neru, and Servos after Shax transforms into Obli and are waiting for Lucusti. This happens to Bitey, Bernardo, and Alessia when they were drinking their milkshake. This happens to Noch, Aloys, and Obli when Obli is reading over Aloys' notes.)

-Okay, I changed my mind. The Catalyst could just be referring to the First War, and the people didn’t know about the Second War at all. Since the first teleporter was made into the first moon during the First War, this could be the reason why Asia, Europe, and Africa are gone. And Obli also stated that technology has stagnated after the First War!

-Wild thoughts, but hear me out. I've always wondered how the Demiurge was able to create the world that the story is placed in and wonder if others can do the same. Then a thought came to me. What if Demiurge's world might be similar to JJK's domain expansion? Using his soul to produce a barrier, the Demiurge can create a space where nobody from the outside can enter. (What a coincidence to call the Demiurge's world as Demiurge’s domain.) This could also explain Noch's space-time world thing, and even Alessia's dream to an extent. Even to the Nun that Aloys visited, that could have been explained with the same idea.

This chapter has many many mysteries behind it, but these are what I think are mysteries that will have an important impact on the story.

Oceroes working with Nomino
-Although it’s clear that Oceroes worked with Nomino to preserve the lost descendants, it does come to question why Nomino agreed with Oceroes. There isn’t anything beneficial for Nomino to agree with Oceros, so why does he do it?
                 In the same manner, why did Oceros remove the memories from the amnesia shapeshifters? My thoughts on it seem to be good, but I failed to consider that it could also be possible the reason why he stopped them from remembering was to stop them from gaining some other memories. For example, since the mortals’ souls all came from the Demuirge, wouldn’t it be possible for them to gain the memories from Demuirge? (Although, this could only happen if Demuirge also passes down his accidents as well.)

Nomino’s Plan
-It’s hard to say what Nomino’s plan is and his intention. What we only really know is that Nomino has some disdain toward the Aeons, but we don’t know what he’s going to do about it. Is he planning to kill the Aeons or is he going to ‘teach them a lesson’?
                 On that note, the action he did after an Aeon died during the second war seems to be a bit contradictory, caressing the Carcass of an Aeon. If he has a disdain for them so much, why would he act in such a way?
                 On the same note of that note, what is he planning to do with Obli? What is the point of letting Obli get the power of the Aeon instead of himself? I would think that Nomino wouldn’t trust Obli to do his ‘job’ in his plan since it adds another variable to anything that will complicate the matter. So what makes Obli so special?

Obli's plan
-It is clear to see what Obli wants, Neru, but it also seems that he also wants to help Demiurge go back home. But Obli also wants a place to live with Neru… How could he achieve this? Could it be… There are only two ways that this can happen. The first one is that Obli kills all the threat that tries to end the world, killing the Aeons and all like-minded group. This is quite a tall task, and I wouldn’t think that would be possible. The second is having the Demiurge switch jobs of the protector with someone else. When switching people, Obli can grab Neru from the void and let the Demiurge come back to the void. After this, someone has to take his place as the protector (possibly Obli?). But then… why would Obli say to have peace with the days they have left to Bitey and Alessia. If this is the plan, why would you act like the world is going to end?

The Burned Man
-Although he is the person we follow during Chapter 2, we really know nothing about him. We don’t know why he lost his memories, why he’s at the Carcass, or even why he’s watching the memories. Although I still think that he is Neru, that brings up more questions than answers. 
                 (It’s even more confusing since he also wants to continue sleeping during Chapter 1, wanting to continue dreaming. Why would The Burned Man want to do this?)

Pyr
-On the same note, who is Pyr? Who is he to the burned man? Assuming that he also somehow fits the three-group idea, he would have seen something. It also implies that he went through some sort of tragedy and that he also witnesses this tragedy being stomped on by others. 

Chapter 2 [New Content]

It would be dishonest of me not to say that I thought I figured out somewhat how the story will go and, in terms, of how the story will flow to some degree. But… this is just insane. A new character, location, and familiar setting! Although exciting, the two new memories, plus the new content from burned man, completely destroyed many of my thoughts that I have discussed previously.

 Of course, these are my first reaction to the new content we have gotten, so not a lot of thought was given to everything that has happened so far.

Flauros

-Quite nice to see Bitey caring for Alessia, and Bernardo supporting him.

-What the FUCK? Who is that person? Flauros? Is he the shapeshifter that was following Rel around? If this person acts like David after the real David’s death, this could mean that he knows Alessia! AND THAT FOUNTAIN! Why is he there? Does this relate to the burned man? Is it even the same fountain? And could this church also be related to Aloys' experience? 

-There are too many questions!!

Aloys

-I didn’t think we would be following Aloys anymore. For some reason, I thought we are going to be following Alessia, Bernardo, and Bitey since there were three paths to choose, but the color should have been an indication showing that Aloys will still be a big part of the story.

-Does that make C88 a bit weird? If Noch took over the original archons, what does it mean for him to be discovered by Temp? Could Noch be lying to Aloys? I’m getting ahead of myself… But it would seem that Noch didn't tell Aloys the whole truth. I will think that Temp and Noch will be on good terms…

-Wow, the discussion between Temp and Aloys is very important. Need to pay more attention to it during the rereading.

-Mr. Redd? Why did Temp set it up with that name? What is he trying to accomplish?

-So the old descendant base is located in Plata? This will make sense since the teleporter that was destroyed during the war will be there.

-Oh boy, Obli! No!! You can't do this!!! But… I still wonder what Obli's plan really is. Is it just to open the teleporter once again? It can't be just that… right?

The Burned man

-I didn't spend as much time thinking while reading this part, I was just having my mind blown by the progression that is happening. 

-I have wondered about the burned man and his gender before when writing my thoughts on Chapter 2. There is no indication of his gender during the story, so it could be possible that the burned man is actually the burned woman or even burned non-binary. However, what give it away was the description of Chapter 2 when starting a new game, referring to the burned man as… Well, the burned man. That’s why I always refer to him as the Burned Man since the story technically refers to him as the burned man.

-Speaking of gender, I don’t think Pyr’s gender has been revealed yet… It could be possible that he is a woman, or even non-binary… Will have to remember this when regarding Pyr later in the future.

Well, that completes some of my notes while rereading Nerus! Also... didn't think I have to do two posts for this... I didn't think I had written THAT much. All well, can't do much about it.

These are some of my notes when rereading Nerus again. I’ve also compared my previous post to what I have right now, and some things I will like to highlight.

The Prologue

When rereading Nerus, I was surprised at how most of my thoughts on the Prologue still are valid, although, there is one point that I didn’t like as much.

-I don’t disagree with some of my points in A10, but the conclusion I have with Neru is a bit off. It could be true, yes, but the easier explanation is that it was from the burned man. Assuming that Neru is the burned man, this could be easily explained by the burned man interjecting while he still has his memory as Neru.

There are still maybe mysteries in regard to the Prologue, but there are four significant mysteries that stand out to me.

The Redd Manor

-There is little information we have gotten when it comes to the Redd Manor. The only thing we know about it is that is red, duh, in a world where there is a blue sky in the past. Although not stated, we can guess that Obli, Nomino, the burned man, and Pyr had some connection to it. (Obli and Nomino since their conversation imply that Obli has been to the manor while Nomino knowing about the manor implies some sort of connection with it. Although more finicky, the story also implies that the burned man, which at this point I’m convinced is Neru, has some connection with it because of the weird static when Neru in the story picks up the Redd Manor folder. And by proxy, Pyr knowing the burned man could mean that he also might have the connection. I’ve put the names in the order of confidence, where Obli is the most while Pyr is the least.)

The yellow letter
-This still surprises me how little resolution there is to it. It does seem to be important, but the further the story goes, the more it seems to be irrelevant. Yet… I can’t help but think it is important. (The only explanation that might resolve the yellow letter is that it might be a trigger for Obli’s old memory when he is Shax, having Shax slowly remember who he once was before the recall. This could be a cool theory since it would give Shax a bigger timeframe to gather information about Nomino’s whereabouts, but once he heard that there is a war going to happen he become more concerned which leads him to speed up the processes. Yet, it’s hard to believe because Shax doesn’t seem to indicate any of this fact. Although I did recall him showing some past knowledge when grooming Neru, when revisiting I didn’t see any of the sort.)

Neru’s past and actions
-Every time I read the Prologue, I always switch back and forth on the idea of Neru’s actions and past. I go from ‘Neru seems very suspicious’ to ‘it can be explained with…’ The words he uses and his action during the early parts of the prologue always seems a bit… off. And what makes it weirder is the fact that it keeps bringing up the fact he doesn’t remember much of his past! Again, there are explanations for them that make me fall in love with his character, but what makes me think that they are somewhat validated are those white flowers. Flower that dies from overexposure to light makes which makes me think that they are from the void, devoid of any light but from the Aeons. Although he might not know it, Neru is clearly hiding something! 

The Monologue
-I always find the monologue so strange. It is as if Shax and Neru are recounting the events that happen in the Prologue, with their current thoughts and feeling on the events that will unfold. What makes me sure that this is the case is the fact that Shax refers to Neru as ‘Nerus’ even since the beginning of the story. But… why? And how? The burned man is watching the story unfold with the help of the egg, and since the egg only watches the memories of others, it is strange that he has commentary on the events that had happened. None of my theories really addresses this fact since, well, it is hard to even think of one that can sustain with the other events of the story. (My only attempt to explain this is that Obli and Neru are on a trail describing the events to people. This can explain why they go so in-depth with some of the information, l

Chapter 1

When going through Chapter 1 material, I was a bit surprised at how well my analysis was on it. I thought that I might have rushed it a bit, but after reading over it I even surprised myself with some of the logic it has. But there are some things about my theory that I thought were not great.

-The Cataclysm is the Second Battle of the Aeons. I did give the idea that the Cataclysm and the Second Battle of the Aeons were the same, but reading it makes it seem that they are the same thing. It could be possible that they are different but as thing stands they are most likely the same event.

-Although Bernardo is still strange, I don’t find him much as ‘sus’ anymore. The interaction between Bernardo and Bitey during their first encounter seems more like Bitey trying to act tough while Bernardo ignores it. 

-I never gave an alternative possibility to B30. Although it is quite strange for Frank/Obli to do this, it might just be that he cares for Alessia. It doesn’t have to have any connections with Neru, and the embarrassment could be because Frank/Obli also didn’t finish eating his vegetables. But if I have to choose either one, I still prefer my original thoughts on it, but I’m a bit surprised that I never came up with this idea before.

-The more I think about it, the more I realize something about Alessia. When touching the smudge that was left behind by Giorgio’s soul, what Alessia really touching is his ‘accident’ which allows her to see his memories before he was killed. So… this might be a stretch, but is it possible that the way she is dreaming of people’s memories was by interacting with these ‘accidents’? This could be possible if the ‘Chimera’ was the one that carries those ‘accidents’ and lets her dream those memories. And by extension, is that how the egg works? Does the egg allow the burned man to explore people’s memories because it stores the ‘accidents’? This could explain how memory could be destroyed; by destroying the ‘accident’ that pertains to those memories.

-What I find strange is that Remigio blames Diego for William’s death. It’s quite strange since he assisted Aloys in the murder of William, so what does Remigio mean by this? This can mean either Remigio didn’t assist in the killing of Williams, which is quite strange since Aloys says that he was involved with it, or Deigo was to blame to set this chain reaction by having some involvement with killing Aloys parents which will eventually lead to the death of the abbots.

Like previously, there are many mysteries in Chapter 1. (This does not include the burned man.)

Oscar’s Murder
-I’ve never really pushed this as much as I should have in my original post since my understanding of the murder case isn’t good enough for me to pursue it. But now, after I think I fully understand the situation and how the murder takes place, I still think that there is something wrong with Oscar’s murder. Yes, it makes sense for Brandeis or one of the other Abbots to kill Oscar. The timing of it all makes sense… But there are a few things that didn’t sit well with me. The gloves, the window, the voice, and the letter.

   1. The Gloves

Brandeis had a piece of glove that he found after the murder of Giorgio. Although we don’t know where it is possible for him to snoop around the study room after the murder of Giorgio. If this is the case, I will think that Brandeis would consider other people as the killer instead of the abbots. (Yes, I know. The reason why he only thought about the other abbots was that he thought the killer was trying to get the files. But considering that most of the abbots are old, it doesn’t make sense why he would think that they are one of the killers since the hair inside the glove is black…Diego doesn’t count!)

   2. The Window

According to Bernardo, the killer most likely came into the room through the window. If this is the case, then why would Oscar be so okay with something entering his window instead of the door? Even if he doesn’t know that he has the letters, why would he be so okay with someone entering his room through the window? I will be confident to say that Oscar would NOT be okay with anyone entering his window in any circumstance, especially an abbot since they all lived on the same floor. Traveling to him through the hallway will make more sense than entering his room. (Assuming that this isn’t a red herring.)

   3. The Voice

When Alessia is with Bitey, Bernardo, and Aloys in Aloys’ room, she was able to hear someone talking. Although we don’t know who said it, the fact that someone supernatural has said it makes me think that the murder of Oscar was to help Aloys from his situation. If this is the case, the killer who killed Oscar was working with the person who talked or that they are getting manipulated by them.

   4. The Letter

Assuming that Brandeis or the other abbots were the ones who killed Oscar because he has the letters, why would you leave the letter? According to Bernardo, the letter was covered in blood, but because of the magic that Lucusti has placed on it, it just slipped right off. What’s weird is that the letter was covered in blood in the first place, meaning that Oscar was near the letter when he died. Assuming this is the case, the abbots will be able to see it and take it before running out the window. Yet… the letter still is there! Weren’t they trying to steal the letters from Oscar? 

Another thing… where were the other files after Oscar's death? It couldn’t be in the abbots' rooms while this happen since Bernardo has checked them, so who currently has them at this point? 

The Seven Archon’s Motives
-I find it surprising how I didn’t even consider this to begin with, but the more I think about it the more curious I become about it. The question: what is the purpose of the seven Archons? We are given the idea that they are here to help humanity, but the quote Tom made in B40 says otherwise. Although they did help humanity, it is most likely that they did it for something in return that humanity can only provide. And if Archons are only there to help humanity, why would they have corrupted people in strong positions like being an abbot? If anyone finds out about their past, like how Chapter 1 did it, then the trust between humanity and the church will waver. Even the Archons, who have Noch working with the Shapeshifters to rebuild the portal to cause another disaster to humanity, might also be not as pious as they are made out to be.

The Countdown
-This is still quite a mystery, and I still think that my thoughts on it are still valid about it. Rereading Chapter 1 doesn’t seem to confirm any thoughts on it.

The Monologue
-Compared to the Prologue, this chapter uses the third person for whatever reason. It’s quite strange, instead of us really looking at people’s thought processes, is more like someone else is explaining the situation to us. Like in the trial, we see someone’s explanation of the event instead of reading anyone's thoughts on it.

I want to say that the murder case was quite well thought out. Didn’t really appreciate it as much since I didn’t fully understand it, but now thinking about it everything in the case makes sense. I wouldn’t think that I will figure out all of it even with the pieces present.

Also encountered a bug when it tries to give me the different Hidden Secret that happens in Alessia’s third dream. [If persistent.ch1_randomizer = False:]

I wouldn't say that Obli is a villain, but he is a villain. Although, I wouldn't fault him for it. After trying to find a way to bring back Neru for over a thousand years and having his hopes destroyed along the way, I can see why he is willing to sacrifice everything to reunite with Neru. You know what they say, a hero would sacrifice you to save the world, but a villain would sacrifice the world to save you. 

But... I do wish that Roddorod focused a bit on it. I feel sympathetic toward Obli since, well, all methods of seeing Neru was gone, but I wouldn't say that I feel sad for him. To put it bluntly, the revelation didn't hit as hard compared to Prologue's ending. Even after many rereads over the Prologue, I still get teary when finishing it! (I'm only currently at the beginning of Chapter 2 of my rereading, so this statement might not hold. Also, can't wait for the new materials!)

Guess it's the perfect time to reread Nerus!

What a ride! This took me a while to finish, but it was worth the ride. My mind still boggles at how amazing this Visual Novel was when it comes to revealing the mystery of the town of Echo and how every path slowly builds up the complete picture. I really like how every character is unique but flawed, nearly pushing them close to the line of being unlikeable but somehow making them feel so human because of it. Everyone is fucked up in their own way and trying to find a way to live despite this fact.

Even after finishing the game, I notice that I’m still missing some pictures/days, which I assume is the result of me choosing a ‘different’ path, so I might replay some parts of the game to unlock them later. If anyone wants to know, my route was T.J. > Flynn > Leo >  Carl > Jenna. (Pretty much choices from top to bottom when choosing which route to get.)

I plan on reading Arches since it is nearly done, but saving The Smoking Room for when it is complete.

[SPOILERS] ****

For the most part, I think Jenna and Flynn’s route explains most of what is happening in Echo, but even after reading all the paths, I am still a bit confused about some of the events.

When going through the game, I thought the dreams were premonitions about events that could or already happened. An example of these is when Chase dreams about the car with Leo and the gang sinking into the lake which plays out in both Leo and Flynn’s route, and when Chase dreams about Samuel getting run over by Sydney’s father. But there were other dreams that didn’t make an appearance, like when Flynn tells Chase to get on his knees to dig something out of the dirt, which I assume is either a reference to the treasure hunt, the body of Samuel, or even the body of Sydney’s father.

Why did Chase see Carl in the abandoned school when taking pictures for his project on Flynn’s route? I thought this suggests the idea that Carl has taken part in setting up Syndey’s treasure hunt, but this wasn’t implied in the other routes other than T.J. and Flynn’s.

Were there other people possessing Chase other than Samuel? There are some comments which make sense for Samuel to make, like the ones in Leo and Jenna’s route, but there are others that seem a bit weird. Having the voice taught Chase and making the choices for him. It makes me think that there are also other things giving input to Chase, possibly people who were possessed or even the Hum itself.

Speaking of possession, how does it work? It would seem that killing the person who was possessed gets them to become possessed themselves, yet, in Flynn’s route Flynn didn’t kill Chase. Maybe the way to get possessed is to do something regretful to them or even have the person who was getting possessed face their fear to become unpossessed.

Was Carl also possessed? When taking the acid trip with Jermeny, having him hear the voices ridicule Carl was weird. Is his great great great whatever possessing him at that moment, or was it the Hums that was talking to him since he also sees Chase next to him? 

When going through one of the extra clips with Flynn, I find it strange that we are really not spectating anyone from their perspective. We see Chase, Carl, T.J., Leo, and Jenna's perspectives in the extra clips but not Flynn's. It was like we were watching the events happening from the sideline, which was weird. 

Strangely, the monster is simultaneously helping and putting the gang in danger, which I find odd. They go from helping the gang escape from Brian to kicking them into the lake, nearly drowning them. It is as if the monster is playing with them, which seems a bit mean even coming from Flynn or they were just following fate.

I don’t remember much about it, but I recall there was something in Leo’s route that was strange. It was as if it was directing the focus not on Chase, but on us the reader. Why did this happen? How did the ‘thing’ addresses a person other than Chase at that moment?

Secrets seem to be an important part of the hysteria since killing Flynn in T.J.’s route seems to stop it, even if it was a little while. I wonder if this holds any meaning with Jenna’s and Carl’s ancestors and hope it gets explained in The Smoking Room.

I always thought that the events in Echo happen in a time loop, forcing the people within it to relive the same events over and over again. Like they are going in circles, forced to continue this game until the Hum is done with them. But I don’t think this is the case since there is a sequel VN which takes place five years after the events of Echo, but strangely it only shows clips of it when Flynn is dead. This leads me to think that the events that happen in Arches only occur in either T.J. or Flynn’s route.

Most of this might be me misremembering things since it did take me a while to finish reading this, so I might reread it later.

Although it does cover mostly everything in Chapter 2, I would say that the post didn’t cover everything I wanted to say about the story. So for this post, I will talk about the story so far.

-Fate

Fate has a big part of the story. The story hints at the fact that the events happening are already pre-destined. It could be that someone has set up fate to be this way or that it is just how the story will naturally go, yet, I get this suspicion that someone in the story would upset fate in some matter. The only people who seem to have this ability are Neru, Alessia, and any voidborns. (Neru because Pyr has suggested that he could have changed the course of action in the Prologue, Alessia because of my previous post, and voidborns since Noch has hinted at it in Aloys 2.)

-Start of the story

It seems that the reason why the story started in the first place was because of Sofia. Sofia wanted to show the aeons the truth about them, so she conceived Samuel. It is difficult to say if the events happening so far are also within Sofia's plan to show the aeons the truth or if someone is taking advantage of the events that are happening and now are pulling the strings for their agenda.

-When I looked over my previous post, I didn't really give a concrete answer to how I see the story and what I think is going on. So, this is how I currently interpret the story so far. 

Sofia wants to show the aeons the truth about the world they live in by conceiving a child with a voidborn. This truth can be the nature of the aeons, the idea of creating life, or how fate works. 

The aeons reject the truth that Sofia wants to show them and decide to throw Samuel into the void. But before they did that, they plucked his eyes out so that he could never see the Abraxas again.

Three voidborn finds Samuel and decides to 'raise' him.

Wanting to create the light he saw when he was a baby, Samuel wanders off from his voidborn family to find a way to recreate it, resulting in the creation of his universe.

The events of the Redd Manor. (It's hard to tell when this part happened or where it happened. It could be that the Redd Manor occurred before Sofia had Samuel in the void or that it could occur right in Samuel's domain just after he created the universe. It could even happen between those two events. I put it here since it is the latest it could happen, but it is more likely the events of the Redd Manor happened before Samuel created the universe.)

Samuel gives life to the rock people. Life will eventually spread out in his domain, but Samuel couldn’t replicate the light he saw. Yet, he was fond of his creation which contradicts his wants to head back home to the void. So Samuel took responsibility and stayed in his prison until the end of time.

Sofia and his voidborn family see and hear that Samuel is suffering, so they decide to find a way to free him from the prison he created independently.

Before Samuel gave up hope, he came up with the idea that might save him from his prison. So, he created beings stronger than the mortal residing in his domain, beings with the sole purpose of protecting his universe when he is gone. He named these beings descendants. When the aeons heard of this news, they made a plan to destroy Samuel’s creation from the inside. Somehow, the aeons corrupted some of these descendants and turned them into shapeshifters whose sole purpose of finding a way to destroy everything in the universe. (During the corruption, Sofia was able to pass herself down to Neru as the Chimera.) 

The first war happens, which leads to the story in Nerus. (Neru meets up with Shax, who transforms into Obli. They decide to fight for the descendants but fall into Nomino’s trap. Before Neru either dies or becomes incapacitated when entering the void, the Chimera leaves Neru and enters into one of Alessia’s ancestors. When Obli couldn’t find a way to help both Neru and the Demiurge, Noch contacted him. Aloys, Alessia, and Bitey’s story play out, which converges during the events of the murder case. Finally, the event concludes with milkshakes.)

-(speculation)

The events in Plata occur. Bitey and Bernardo have their vacation while Alessia tries to find her father. She eventually discovers that her father has some connection with humans under Noch’s influence. Before Alessia has a chance to find him, Bitey tells her not to investigate further. Disobeying Bitey, she heads toward the portal and meets with her father. Unfortunately, this was a trap so that the portal could open.

The portal opens, allowing creatures to enter into the Demiurge’s domain, destroying everything. Obli plans to find Neru and close up the portal, but once he finds out that Neru is either dead or not himself anymore, Obli becomes devastated. The Demiurge’s domain merges back into the void, allowing voidborns and aeons to destroy everything. The aeons decide to end all of this by killing Samuel. 

After some time, with the help of the dead Samuel, someone was able to revive Neru but couldn’t completely give Neru’s old memories back. Neru, who is currently the burned man, goes along with the story so far. After watching all the memories and getting his memory back, Neru would have the option to change fate by changing the past or the current future.

There are many plotholes with my interpretation of the story, but it is the only one I could think of that fits well with everything so far, to a degree. With the events so far, this is the only conclusion I could make that can connect all of the events without any major gaps. Yet, I still don’t desire such outcomes, and hopefully will be given or think of a better explanation that ties everything together that gives a better outcome. 

Pyr

Pyr ‘secrets’

These are all the secrets or interactions that I could find regarding Pyr, yet, I feel like there are some that I couldn’t find while reading the story.

C104

It is very apparent that the two cats represent both Obli and Neru and that Pyr uses this analogy to make fun of them. If this is the case, why was the white cat, Neru, shown to have a sick complexion? Neru doesn’t seem to have any sickness during the Prologue and Chapter 2, so Pyr might just be jabbing at the fact Neru is old. (Or maybe this could point to the fact that Neru has the same ‘sickness’ as Alessia, confirming the idea that Neru had the hybrid with him, but this is just wild speculation.)

C105

Although it is from Pyr, this quote seems to be from two different perspectives. 

The first part of the quote, “I see you through stained glass, but your form is clear as my reflection in still water. I hear you as if I was there, but I can’t reach you,” seems to be said from someone outside of the Demiurge's world. As said before, Aloys and Obli interpreted the world as this: the sky represents the Pleroma, and the ocean represents the void. Based on this, it would seem that someone is watching Demiurge’s realm from the Void wanting to help them. Another time the word stained glass is used is when Obli uses his teleportation magic. This could be seen in [C61], so this quote can refer to someone using teleportation magic to watch the events happening from a different location within the Demiurge’s world. 

The second part of the quote, “My fingertips freeze when touching the image of your cheek. Then, I see my reflection and I realize I don’t look like myself anymore,” seems to refer to the time the Demiurge physically met with Obli for the first time. Yet, the other part of the quote doesn’t seem to be relevant to the Demiurge since the Demiurge doesn’t seem to self-reflect on his physical body.

C106

Pyr’s analysis of the character seems to suggest that he knows more of the story than what is present. Yet, these seem to be relevant to the burned man in some way. All the events could be relevant to the burned man since it seems to follow the same pattern: a group of three will have two characters falling in love, but those characters will separate in the end. I.e., Neru, Shax/Obli, and Servos while having Neru and Shax fall in love; Alessia, Bitey, and Bernardo while having Bitey and Bernardo fall in love; Obli, Noch, and Aloys while having Aloys and Noch fall in love.

Pyr talks a lot about this delusion, but I will discuss it later since it seems to be a very big thing for the story.

C107

The way Pyr says this makes it seem that he has experienced his tragedy and that someone is also trampling over it. (Possibly from the burned man himself?) 

Pyr is a mysterious character that hasn't revealed their connection with the story that is being presented. Yet, Pyr may be one of the characters already introduced.

-Obli

This is an interesting idea if you consider the burned man as Neru, yet I find this hard to believe since the Obli in the story seems to not have any ill will towards Neru, and in [C107] Pyr seems too distant from Obli. This could be explained later on in the story, but as for now, I can’t say that Pyr is Obli. (There are some similarities between both Obli and Pyr, like how Shax/Obli did a high pitch voice like Pyr, or that some of the wording seems similar to each other. This can also explain why the first-person perspective is used when watching from Shax/Obli's perspective since it’s from Pyr’s perspective.)

-Nomino, Noch’s lord, and/or the person talking to Sofia in Alessia’s dream

Obli’s comment on Nomino and my thoughts on him in my Prologue post suggest that Nomino might not be simply a shapeshifter. Obli says Nomino is the closest being to aeons that he knows of, maybe hinting at the fact that he might not be a shapeshifter in the first place. We see that even Great Shapeshifters indulge themselves with food and having social gatherings with each other. Not Nomino, who distanced himself from everyone and who actively avoided things like eating. Nomino seems to be doing this of his own volition, not wanting to be more of Demiurge's creation than he already is. Although a stretch, this could imply that Nomino has a disdain towards not only the aeons but also the living beings that Demiurge has created. This could be the same disdain that Pyr has toward the being like the burned man.

Since we don’t know too much about Noch’s lord and the person talking to Sofia in Alessia’s dream, it would be possible they are also Pyr. (Noch’s lord since both Pyr and Noch’s lord are most likely to be voidborns. The person talking to Sofia in Alessia’s dream could also be Nomino since the outcome of the whole story could have been devised by them, which means that he could be Pyr if the theory above is true.)

-Nobody

I think the most likely candidate for Pyr’s identity is that he is a new character we haven’t seen in the memories. There isn't much about Pyr, other than the comments he made on the story's character and the burned man, that suggests that Pyr is someone from the story. (Pyr seems to have a possible connection with the Red Manor, which the burned man also has, but that is left to be seen.)

The Carcass

There are little pieces of information about the Carcass or even the place where the burned man woke up during Chapter 1. But when referring to the Carcass, I will only be talking about the place that takes place in Chapter 2.

The Carcass is a huge place if Pyr is to be believed, with many people using the Carcass to study soul technology and magic. It also contains memory strings that form a big tree.

Theory:

Because of this, I concluded that the Carcass is actually a dead body of an aeon. Aeons are ginormous beings made out of souls, which can account for the size and reason why the facility is used for studying souls. It can explain why the Carcass is called, well, the Carcass. Not only that, but I would think that the aeon is Samuel since the story revolves around the events that happen in Samuel’s domain. (This could mean that Noch’s plan of killing the Demiurge was to kill Samuel himself.)

The Time Egg

I always found the egg to be a bit more interesting than it first appeared. From what is shown, the time egg that the burned man has can do at least these things: look at memory threads, the ability to communicate with Pyr, teleport to the records, delete memory threads, and can go to automatic mode. Yet, this isn’t the only time we see a time egg.

Simply hitting escape, F1, or right-click will bring up the time egg allowing the user to look at the backlog, save, load, config, go back to the title, controls, or quit. 

This could mean that the burned man represents us, the player, or that we, the player, are watching the events of the burned man.

Redd Manor

C108

Although not certain, this memory might have something to do with the Redd Manor. The only times that the Redd manor was said was during the Prologue, yet, even those leave no evidence of what the Redd manor actually is.  (It seems that the Redd manor is an important part of the story, but we just have to wait and see.)

These are some of my theories about the story.

1. The burned man is forced to watch these stories as an atonement of something.

Because of the action the burned man has committed, he is forced to witness these memories in either as evidence or as punishment. 

1. The story hasn’t finished yet. After reaching the end of the memories, the burned must act to prevent/help something.

This would make sense when considering Pyr's words. This endless story, a story that either has no end or doesn’t have an ending yet, could be stopped/finished after the action of the burned man. The burned man is escaping from his problems, not wanting to deal with them until he gets his memories back.

1. Pyr is actually the burned man, but with his memories.

Crazy theory, but I wouldn’t think that it isn’t possible. Pyr is trying to ‘help’ the burned with these memories by making him conclude some biases.

Small things that I found interesting:

F1 is another way to go to the menu screen. What’s cool about it is that when done in the title screen, it would show the menu screen but without the Time Egg. You also can’t click on the Title screen since you are already on the title screen.

F2 brings up two different numbers. I think they are supposed to be the downloads of Neru, but I’m not sure what they are for.

F3 brings up the fps, ms, ms max. The fps doesn't seem to drop below 4 in the title screen, and the max fps that could be gained is 60 fps. (This could be based on refresh rates, but I don’t know how it really works.)

There seems to be a pair of red eyes when skipping through the story. It’s a cool easter egg, but it might be more than that.

When looking around the files for some images, I this interesting image.

This image contains Neru’s and Obli’s textbox, but I’ve never seen it during normal gameplay. Maybe there is a way to find this in the game, but I would think that this might be some unused assets. (This image could suggest that Neru and Shax/Obli are combined somehow, but since it’s never used I wouldn’t say that it is canon.)

Best Quote!

Bitey refers to Alessia as his daughter!!! This is too cute to not love.

Final Thoughts

I love reading this visual novel. I never am the kind of person who reads books, but this is the only thing I have read and reread twice over. This post took me a long time since Chapter 2 contains so many topics to talk about. I’ve removed many of them from this post, but I hope I didn’t remove the ones that I consider important. I’ll be taking a break from Nerus for a time being, and I plan on data mining this game so I can read the extra dreams from Alessia.

-Aloys 2

C80 &C81

It is not just reverse magic, but it is more like ‘if Aloys didn’t go to the mountain to see if Noch’ possibility has become reality. Simply put, I think the power that Noch used in the quote and other instances is more akin to making any events that could happen become what actually happens. (Or maybe just the ability to move things very quickly.)

C82

Since eyes are a window to someone’s soul, Noch is implying that Aloys' soul is similar to that of a voidborn might have. 

C83

This sequence is similar to Alessia's dream but without the eyes. This possibly implies that the ‘nun’ in Alessia’s dream could be a voidborn.

C84

This brings up another question: is someone in Aloys’ family a voidborn? To make it possible of Aloys to be part voidborn, someone has to have conceived with a voidborn in the first place.

Or it might be possible that the Demiurge is actually part voidborn? If nobody in Aloys’ family conceived with a voidborn, then it would make sense for Demiurge to be part voidborn to make this possible. (Since his mother is an aeon, that would make his father a voidborn.)

C85

Souls don’t exist in the void, making it seem that voidborn are without a soul. Yet, he compared Aloys and voidborn as similar when looking into his eyes, so this could mean that Aloys doesn’t have a soul or that he almost doesn’t have one.

C86

So it’s still possible to make an Army of Neruses? 

Jokes aside, it would imply that mortals, descendants, and shapeshifters aren’t unique. It would be possible to create the same person even if nothing about them, the flesh, nerves, or souls, comes from the original. Someone like Noch can easily create clones of anyone! Making it possible that after the world ends, Noch can easily recreate Aloys in the void. (Assuming that he is capable and has the ‘materials’ needed.)

C87

What dreams does the voidborn have? Dreams seem to play an important role in the story, so this might mean something.

C88

How did Noch enter from the void? 

There are currently only two breaches that happened in the story which occurred in the first and second wars, making it seem that Noch slips without anyone noticing. It is possible to have other ways to travel from the void and the Demiurge’s domain, but there is no evidence to support it. (I don’t think other breaches had occurred since the Obli would have taken advantage of it.)

C89

This quote implies that something is going to happen after this memory, yet, there is nothing in Chapter 1 or any of the current memories so far to suggest anything like this. It makes it seem that this would come up later on in the story.

(The murder case of Chapter 1 may be the bomb, but the quote implies both Aloys and Noch will experience something, not just Aloys.)

C90

Dreams seem to play an important role. Just like Aloys, Neru had one in the Prologue, so maybe these two dreams might be more than just dreams.

[Aloys encounter with the nun.]

This whole scenario is weird, but what is so mysterious about the event is the identity of the nun and the place itself.

It could be that the nun is one of the archons since they can somehow change the church itself, yet, I couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility that this is somehow the older age of Alessia. (No real evidence on Alessia, but kinda want to say it somewhere in this post.)

C91

Two things: this show that Noch can somehow time travel to the future and manipulate the space around him to travel to the abbey without actually being there since Noch cannot leave his mountain even when he wants to help out Aloys.

We can see this event from the other perspective in Chapter 1, yet, this part of the story with Noch and Aloys should have happened before the events of Chapter 1. It implies that Noch can travel to the future and somehow manipulate the space around him to be at that place without leaving his mountain. Another interesting thing that Noch implies is that fate doesn’t bind Voidborns. Maybe Noch is giving Aloys the illusion of choice, but I wouldn’t think Noch would lie to Aloys like that.

C92

Assassination seems to be not as uncommon with this type of work, but maybe this one might be different. It is also possible that Aloy’s brother is significant in the story. (It might be that he is already been introduced in the story in Chapter 1 as Josue.)

C93

Obli made a similar connection that Aloys comparing the universe to the ocean, making me think this is how Roddorod wants the world to be interpreted.

The Pleroma is the sky.

The void is the ocean.

Based on what the characters say, the Demiurge’s realm could be a living creature in the ocean or the ocean floor itself.

C94

This is quite weird. Knowing that both the burned man and Pyr are watching the memories, it would make sense that either one of them could have made this comment. This comment feels like what Pyr would say, yet I wouldn’t think he has the power to skip through a scene like this. Although true, I wouldn't think that the burned man would make such a comment on Aloys and Noch since he never made such a comment on other characters in the story.

C95

It makes it seem that Obli, and by extension descendent and maybe shapeshifters, are also made with Samuel's soul like mortal souls.

-Milkshake

C96

In my previous post about Alessia, I connected the idea that Alessia’s ability to see memories in her dreams, her ability to see souls, and the timeline itself are all connected to the Chimera. The timeline still appears even though Alessia doesn’t seem to have the ability to see people’s memories anymore after the murder case. This either means that my Chimera theory is wrong or that, for some reason, the Chimera just doesn’t allow Alessia to see memories anymore. (Maybe Alessia can only see other memories through her dream when they are close to her.)

C97

Aloys does talk about Rel in Aloys 2, but the comment itself isn’t enough to tell if Aloys know the connection between Rel and Alessia. It is possible that Noch told it to Aloys, but I would think that Aloys would use that information during the investigation to try to throw off the tracks during the murder case. (Like putting some cryptic information about Rell that both Alessia and Bitey don't know about around the Abbey.)

C98

This is weird since, looking at Bitey’s family, the blessing seems to be very prevalent. Bitey, Alvaro, and Alvaro’s son Enrique all have the blessing, yet, when looking at Rel’s family Alessia and David didn’t inherit the dog-like appearance. (Rel appearance might be explained with a potion or transformation like Ben or Remigio but being a blessed human seems to only apply to humans who were changed by one of the seven instead of a transformation change.) 

The Burned Man

The burned man is a character we see most predominantly in Chapter 2, but this isn’t the first time the burned man appeared in the story. The first time we witness the burned man is in the Prologue when an unknown character, not lightly to be Pyr, has a one-sided conversation with him [A10]. We then continue to see him in Chapter 1, where he wakes up from the memory of the murder case and escapes from Pyr. The burned man is an important part of the story since the story is witnessed from his perspective.

 So this raises the question: who is the burned man? Well, the story does give us some things to consider.

[The burned man's first interaction with Pyr.]

In the first interaction, the burned man had with Pyr, many things can be concluded.

One, it is very unlikely for the burned man to not have existed before since Pyr laughs it off as not an option for it to be true. It is possible that Pyr was misdirecting the burned man from this conclusion. Yet, his reaction after seeing Pyr’s name indicated that he has some prior knowledge suggesting that he had existed before. 

Second, the burned man can be one of the characters in the story.

Third, the burned man hasn’t shown up yet in the story.

But then, this next quote does concern me.

C99

This doesn’t necessarily mean to disagree with the assumption made, however, it does cast a bit of a shadow on the memories themselves. This could hint that the story is all false, or maybe skewed from the truth, to make the burned man believe in a lie.

Yet assuming that the second theory is true, who can the burned man be?

-Neru

There is so much evidence to suggest that the burned man is Neru. 

1. C100

When looking down at his skin, the burned man thought he saw that he was covered in black fur. This would suggest that the burned man expected to have some fur instead of the burned skin he has right now.

2. [Prologue where the unknown person talks]

In the Prologue, the comments from the unknown person suggest that they regret putting the burned man through something after watching the Prologue. This suggests that the burned man has some connection with the characters shown in the Prologue, like Neru or Shax.

3.[Prologue evidence]

The ability that Neru has during the Prologue, being able to talk to Pyr even though Pyr wasn't in the story, could be the result of the burned man reliving as Neru. (Since he is in automatic mode, he could be seeing through the character's point of view instead of how he is watching it during Chapter 2.

4.(First person with Neru.)

As said before, the story is told in either the first-person or third-person perspective. When the story is told from Neru’s perspective, the story uses the first-person perspective while other characters are used in the third person. This could be because the burned man is watching the story, replaying the events that he went through.

5.C101

This suggests that the experiences that are happening to the burned man are something he has experienced during the time of the story. Similarly, during this time Neru has accidentally flown into and is stuck in the void. Although we don’t know much about the void, the burned man experience could be the experience that Neru had during his time in the void, making it seem that the burned man is Neru.

What’s also interesting is that after the quote, when the first part of Obli 2 starts, it uses the third-person perspective.

But there are some things against it.

1. (First person with Shax/Obli.)

Neru is not the only character in the story that uses the first-person perspective. It is shown that Shax/Obli also uses the first-person perspective, making it seem that the burned man is not only Neru.

2. (Doesn’t remember that he is Neru.)

Even after showing some memories of Neru, the burned man didn’t seem to remember that he was Neru. This can mean that he either has forgotten that he was Neru, isn't Neru, or that there are not enough memories to trigger him to remember.

-The burned man is a combination of Neru and Shax/Obli

If the burned man isn’t Neru, the next thing that comes to mind is that the burned man is somehow a combination of Neru and Obli.

2. Explains why both Neru and Shax/Obli use the first-person perspective.

Counter:

1. There is not enough evidence to suggest this theory. It's pretty much just an idea without much evidence to support it.

-Burned man is Samuel. (Wild Theory)

1. (Everyone is connected.)

Everything that is experienced is from Demiurge's domain. Demiurge's souls form all mortals, shapeshifters, and descendants' souls, which explains why, even after watching the memories, the burned man doesn't recall who he is since he has to watch EVERYTHING or watch his own perspective when he is the Demiurge.

2.  (First and third-person perspective explanation.)

The first-person and third-person perspectives make sense since the Demiurge is both not them but also them at the same time. 

Things that go against the theory.

1. (Fur thing.)

Obli 2 shows that the Demiurge is a rock monster, so it wouldn’t make sense for the burned man to think that he has fur in the first place.

Besides the burned man's identity, there are some interesting things that I would like to discuss.

C102

What confuses me is how the burned man sees these memories. The burned man experiences these events as a different entity, watching the memories happen as a side person instead of watching it from their perspective, even though Obli uses the first-person perspective during this memory. It could be that when the burned man is unconscious, he is experiencing from their perspective, but when he is conscious, he is experiencing the memories from the sideline.

Which could explain this next quote.

C103

Even though Obli uses the first-person perspective in Obli 2, it would seem that the burned man couldn’t see Obli’s dream or interaction with the Demiurge. This could mean that the burned man couldn’t see any dream sequence, but this couldn’t be the case since he did talk about Alessia’s dream before. This brings up another question: what can the burned man really see during these memories? Can the burned man read the monologue these characters have during the memory? Is he experiencing the same story as we are? The only thing I can think of is that the burned man can read the monologue, but only in the Prologue and Chapter 1. Only when he is unconscious does he experience the feelings and thoughts of the character, but when the burned man is conscious, he doesn’t experience them at all, only being able to observe. Yet it is hard to tell if this is the case.

Here it is, my theories and thoughts on Chapter 2! This one took me a while, but I hope I cover almost everything that I wanted, aside from things like the Gnosis process. This post covers everything in Chapter 2 up to the current version, Nerus 0.10.2. I don’t plan on making big posts like these anymore unless I think it is necessary, but I plan to post things that I think are interesting in smaller formats.

Memories

In the egg menu, we are given up to 9 different memories to watch, slowly unlocking new memories by continuing the story. Labeling them from bottom to top, left to right, the current memories available are Obli 1, Obli 2, Bitey 1, Alessia 1, Aloys 1, Bitey 2, Alessia 2, Aloys 2, and Milkshake. I’ll be going through the memories in the order listed above and only talking about the memories themselves, plus some theories to go with them if applied.

But before that, I will like to discuss some things that I find interesting or just plain weird in the context of the story.

The first one is these intermissions.

C52

What’s weird about them is that these intermissions only appear in the Prologue and Chapter 2, Obli 1. They don’t appear in Alessia, Bitey, and Aloys' stories once, but only in Neru and Shax/Obli’s stories. I can’t find a real reason why this happens or what these intermissions say about the story, but it would seem that Roddorod has intentionally done this for a reason. (Other than story reason, it can also hide some sort of secret with a way to trigger it.)

The second one is the way the story uses different perspectives. Thanks to Arden_Arteles for bringing this topic up, the story uses two different perspectives: the first and third-person perspectives. It’s strange enough that there are two different perspectives, especially in how the story is structured, but what makes it weird is when they are getting used. When talking about the memories, in particular, the only time they used the first-person perspective is in the Prologue and Chapter 2, Obli 1. Only when Neru and Shax/Obli are present and are the main focus does it use the first-person perspective, while the rest of the memories use the third-person perspective. This switch of perspectives is important when discussing the burned man, but for now, keep it in mind.

-Obli 1

C53

What’s so interesting about this quote is the implication that a soul from a descendant can easily be changed into a mortal soul. This can also be said for a shapeshifter's soul, making it seem that both souls are closer to a mortal's soul than I initially realized.

C54

Oceros is trying to prevent any changes from happening to the original descendant, trying to preserve everything they once were. However, based on what Obli has said about Oceros, it could be possible that he had lied to Lucusti about not being able to prevent memory loss. If this is the case, it brings out this question: why did Oceros bother to remove the memories from the descendent?

The first thing that comes to mind is that Oceros don’t want the descendant to turn against them, and removing the memories from the descendant when they were a shapeshifter would remove all chance of sympathy they would have towards them. Yet, when Obli turned back into a descendant and even had a Great shapeshifter turn his alliance, Oceros is unhappy or even mad towards Obli. Although this can be one of the reasons why Oceros has their memory removed, it isn’t the main reason he had the memories erased.

Another thing that comes to mind is that Oceros didn't want the descendant to find out about the truth of the process itself. Maybe when a descendant 'dies' and is in the process of being reincarnated back into a shapeshifter, they would find something that Oceros doesn’t want them to know. It is hard to say what that is they would get to know when they get reincarnated, but it is something that Oceros doesn't want them to find out.

C55

Three ideas come to mind to explain the creation of the spell and why Oceros wants to hide it.

Possibly, Oceros got forced to make a quick decision to save the descendants that were damaged in the first war, not having a choice but to agree with any condition Nomino had laid out. If any other descendant or shapeshifter heard what Oceros has done, many will determine that Oceros is a weak leader, making the descendants overall look weak. Descendants who found out this truth would not trust Oceros anymore, either dividing up the descendants or making another group that doesn’t have Oceros involved.

Another idea is that Oceros and Nomino were planning this spell in advance, making it seem that Oceros also has some involvement with the first and second Wars. The reason can vary if this was the case, but the main reason why Oceros will do this is to protect the descendants' future. (It’s possible that by colluding with Nomino, the descendants will have a better future than if they didn’t.)

It is possible that someone else made the spell, and Nomino has little to no involvement with it. It could be possible but unlikely since the spell itself also involves shapeshifters. 

C56 & 57

|||

Why are there now blessed humans? Ever since the first War, it would seem that the descendants were fully in contact with humans by showing up as descendants and helping them, so what’s the point of blessing humans with different appearances? I find the idea of blessing humans not beneficial for the descendants because it allows shapeshifters who are not good with transformation, like Neru, the ability to invade Earth easily. (Maybe it’s to show good faith with humans, but I would think that the miracles from the Archons would be enough to satisfy humanity.)

C58

The quote could explain why the descendant has to intervene with humanity’s technology since, in Aloys 2, Aloys comments that humanity was slowly going towards its destruction because of the technology they created. But I find no reason why the descendants are trying to prevent humanity from their destruction in the first place. 

One idea is that the descendants want to protect humanity, so fewer people go through the gnosis process. Yet, the memory in Obli 2 shows that other lifeforms in the universe seem to be getting neglected, so why would you have 7 archons reside to protect Earth and not spread them out to help every lifeform in Demiurge's domain? 

Another idea is that they wanted to protect Earth because of the teleportation device. Both wars started because the shapeshifters wanted to use the teleportation device for their interests. So having more than one archon protecting the teleportation device would make it impossible to be hijacked. The reason why the archons are on Earth can’t be this for the simple fact that there is more than one teleporter in Demiurge’s domain, and they have all been destroyed. (This also doesn’t address the reason why the descendent doesn’t want to destroy humanity. It is shown that humanity is easily influenced based on how archons were able to get them under control, so it’s reasonable to think that the shapeshifters could also do the same, which they are doing right now by fixing the teleporters.)

C59 & C60

|||

Why do the shapeshifters want to destroy the world and themselves? The only possible answer to this could be because of something like the gnosis process or even Nomino’s teaching, but this doesn’t seem to apply to every shapeshifter. Neru, Shax, and Servos don’t seem to display the same kind of destruction that other shapeshifters have.

C61

The aeon moving in the 'teleportation realm' make it seem there is a connection between the ‘teleportation realm’ and the aeons in some way. (Maybe Obli is actually traveling a void version of Demiurge's domain while using his transportation magic,  allowing the aeon to have the ability to travel to Obli tries to teleport away.

C62

This is quite a different reaction compared to what Alessia sees. The death of an aeon, a being made out of souls, makes it seem that a soul disappearing is more elegant, but Chapter 1 shows otherwise. Maybe it is because the mortal souls are somehow ‘worst’ than that of an aeon, or that those mortal souls in Chapter 1 were going through the gnosis process. (This is unlikely, however, since most people who died in Chapter 1 didn’t turn into an abomination like Diego.)

C63

I find this quote quite strange since it implies the expectation of the Herald. Maybe there were other Heralds before Obli, or Nomino is comparing the future version of Obli to who he was during the memory.

C64

Nomino changing the way he speaks compared to how he sounds before makes this quote so fascinating. This could imply that the character we know as Nomino is just an act they do when interacting with the shapeshifters, or this could be another person talking through Nomino.

C65

I always find this quote interesting, not only saying that Nomino resembles more of an aeon than other shapeshifters but also saying that everyone born in Demiurge's realm is great because of the ability to take. This seems to have some relevance to Alessia’s dream, so this could be a foreshadowing of what is to come.

C66

Based on what Obli has said in Chapters 1 and 2, it would seem that Obli has forsaken the idea of saving the life of mortals. Instead, he is willing now to sacrifice them to bring back Neru and to help the Demiurge.

Sidenote, it is also strange how Obli said ‘we’ in this context.

-Obli 2

C67

What I find really interesting is the connection between Nomino and Oceros. As talked about before, these two seem to have some sort of connection that we don’t know. 

The only thing that Nomino shows resentment towards is the Aeons themselves. In the prologue, During Nomino’s rambles towards Shax, he resents the aeon because they try to control God. 

Oceros has shown to distrust many people in the story. Oceros distrust Obli, the descendants, Nomino, and the shapeshifters. It is also possible that he even distrusts the Demiurge. Even with these possibilities, it’s hard to say how any of it correlates with Nomino’s resentment against the aeons. 

C68

It would seem that Obli has always been on a set path dictated by fate, yet it also might be possible that Obli has chosen to walk down this road. (Maybe the events of The Redd Manor can show more insight into this?)

C69 (nice)

The creation of mortals. Although, it makes me wonder whether the Demiurge went to different planets to give life or the space monster somehow found a way to spread life throughout the universe.

C70

Who can this be? 

Thinking about the characters, I couldn't really say who this person is. Although Nomino fits the bill of being a person Obli wouldn’t like to encounter, I wouldn’t think Nomino would just stumble his way to find the Demiurge since he seems to know everything in advance. Noch wouldn’t make sense either since they wouldn’t just ‘stumble’ to find the Demiurge either.

The other characters wouldn’t make sense, so it could only be a character we haven’t met so far in the story.

C71

Why did Noch write this? 

There is only two interpretation I can think of to explain the letter. Either Noch really wants to kill the Demiurge, or Noch wants to ‘kill’ the Demiurge by freeing him from his responsibility of protecting the creation he made. 

Yet I find it hard to believe that Obli would follow the instruction to help to end Demiurge's life since he also wants to save him. (Maybe Obli wanted to go with the plan so that he could stop it, or Noch just wanted to bait Obli to meet up with him.)

-Bitey 1

C72

This one strikes as odd since that would imply that Rel’s family is nearly as powerful/influential as Bitey’s family. (Why would Bitey’s family, a family with so much power, go on a joint vacation with Rel’s family unless they are powerful themself?)

C73

This seems quite strange to put in here. Who is the person who attacks Bitey? Based on Bitey's intuition, it wouldn't seem to be people based on his job, so it has to be something else. (Possibly could relate to Rell or his family business?)

C74

Traveling around? 

If they are traveling around for pleasure, it doesn’t make sense for Rel to bring David, Angela, and Gabriel and leave Alessia behind. According to Bitey, it would seem that Rel would still be a detective, so it would make sense for him to travel around for that reason. It also wouldn’t be far fetch for Rel to be solving a mystery regarding Gabriel’s business, making sense for David, Angela, and Gabriel to come with his travels.

C75

This is quite a strange thing to have. Bitey’s comment could imply that there is a hidden room that Angela was in, or it could be that someone else was inside the house other than Alessia and Angela. 

C76 + C76bish

|||

Who was this person that Angela mentioned? The only person with yellow eyes is Noch, but I find it hard to believe that Noch would visit Angela since he can’t leave his island. This quote also might show signs that Angela was abusive towards Alessia, but strangely, Alessia never brought this up. (Maybe it is too touchy for Alessia to put down even in her diary.)

(These two events might be connected, but there is no evidence to suggest this, i.e., someone went to Angela because Alessia was getting abused by her.)

-Alessia’s Diary 1

C77

The person Alessia was referring to is similar to Nomino, yet, Nomino doesn’t have any of those colors. Maybe there are other beings like Nominos in the universe other than Nomino himself?

-Aloys 1

C78

This reaction is similar to how Alessia reacted in Chapter 1. It might imply that Alessia is somehow similar to Aloys in some way.

-Bitey 2
[Bitey’s discussion with the policeman.]

There is something strange happening with Alessia’s family. Maybe the family business is to help fix the teleporter? Also, who is the shapeshifter who is imitating David? This couldn’t be Obli since Noch didn’t mention him when telling the information to Aloys in Aloys 2. So could it be possible that another shapeshifter would play a big role in the story?

-Alessia Diary 2

C79

It would seem that Rel and Angela's relationship with Rell wasn’t going well. 

Yea, I kinda also feel like it was a stretch to assume that the dialogue tree would mean anything. (I’ve considered that maybe Roddorod was testing out the dialogue tree during the development of that part and either didn’t find a good time to use it again or maybe too cumbersome to have implemented.) In my Alessia post, I’ve taken an angle that Roddorod has consciously made the dialogue tree to be questioned by people who are rereading the story. When going through the game for the first time, the idea of having a dialogue tree wouldn’t be too weird until the revelation in Chapter 2. (Since it doesn’t make sense to have an option because it supposedly is a memory.) This puts suspicion on both how the egg/memory-watching thing works and on the memory itself. I didn’t want to discuss how I thought the egg/memory-watching works until I made a Chapter 2 post, so I decided to try to answer this question: assuming that one of the functions of the egg is to replay old memories, how is it possible for Alessia to have options since the events of the Abbey has already been done? 

It’s pretty much blind faith at this point, either Roddorod has considered all this and only added the dialogue tree at that particular point for this reason, or is not significant to the plot at all. I like to think that it’s the former since it would be amazing if Roddorod has considered everything and implemented it, but I don’t really expect it to since it would be INSANE to plot out such things.

Sidenote, the picture when making a decision is a bit creepy. It looks like a red eye or even a black hole with a red center. What's so weird about it is that there is distortion all around it which is a similar effect that the 'nun' in Alessia's dream had.

scp it

I still wonder why Neru has the ability to have this meta-narrative power in the first place. Assuming that he is just a Shapeshifter, a Great Shapeshifter, how can he possess such power? If he was lucky enough to be born with it, I would think that someone who is as or even more powerful than him will also be born or have the ability to have it also. Someone like one of the Aeon, Voidborn, Archon, or even other Great Shapeshifters and Descendants. The power he possesses seems a bit odd, yet makes me believe that Neru is a bit different from the other Great Shapeshifters.

I don’t like the brothel idea either. This mostly stems from my first time reading through the game, but it has stuck with me ever since. I never could dismiss it though, since it is still possible and could be used to explain the connection between Alessia and Neru. But I wayyy prefer the idea that the chimera was the one that connects everyone in Alessia's dream together. I guess I couldn’t stop thinking about the brothel idea ever since it was brought up in the Prologue.

Speaking of Chimera, the only real mention of it was from Chapter 1 which can be found in Alessia’s second dream.

AL51

Although quite a small portion, it really makes up a lot of my thoughts on Alessia. Most if not all of my thinking relates back to this quote when dealing with Alessia, the albinism, and Alessia's relatives.

Although this is the Alessia post, it would not be solely focused on her. Instead, this post will be dealing with things related to her, and how it connects to the story in any way. 

Alessia’s Ability

Alessia has shown many abilities during her time in the Abbey like being able to see souls, seeing past events through her dream and by touching the smudge left behind from a soul, and having the ability to ‘meet’ with the Demiurge. Many other characters in the story have similar powers or abilities; however, there is one thing that Alessia can do that nobody has demonstrated so far.

AL 48

During their investigation of William’s study room, we are given options as to which spot to investigate. Although it all leads to the same outcome, it’s strange that there was even an opportunity to pick to begin with. If the events in the abbey are supposedly memories that already happened, why was there an option to choose in the first place? 

This isn’t the first time a character in one of the stories was able to somewhat ‘change’ the events of the story: an example of this can be seen when Neru somehow was able to have a conversation with Pyr during the prologue and the ‘nun’ in Alessia’s dream was able to talk to someone who was not present in the story. Yet, I find this case to be a bit different since the previous examples show them only having the ability to communicate while Alessia is able to change the order of events. This can be very important to the story since Alessia might have the ability to change events even though they are fated to happen.

Bold prediction: I feel like on August 31, Alessia will have to choose an important decision to decide the fate of the world: saving either the universe by keeping the Demiurge trapped in his own creation or saving the Demiurge by dooming every mortal. In either decision, the Demiurge will eventually be free keeping in theme with the idea that Alessia can change events but the result of it will be the same. (Although, with the comment made by the ‘nun’ in her dream it seems that Alessia doesn’t have a choice in the matter.)

 In the context of the story, it is strange for Alessia to have any of the abilities that she possesses, a mortal who can see souls and sees people's memories, meaning that it is most likely that someone or something else has given them to her. The only two possibilities that could have given Alessia those powers are ‘Erde’ who has visited her once and the ‘Chimera’ that lives inside her. I lean towards the idea that the ‘Chimera’ was the one that gave her most if not all of her powers, but I can’t deny the possibility that ‘Erde’ has also given her at least something during her visit. (It is also possible that ‘Erde’ and the ‘Chimera’ are also the same beings.) But what is undeniable is that the ‘Chimera’ was the cause of Alessia’s ‘Albinism’.

Alessia’s Albinism and Dreams

First, when thinking about Alessia what stands out the most is her appearance; being all white and having red eyes, which are strikingly similar to Neru’s own physique. It isn’t just her, Alessia’s mother and grandfather also had the same physique; however, they cannot have it all at once. It is like it was passed down to them, from grandfather to mother to Alessia herself. But physique is not the only connection they have.

In Alessia's dream during Abbot’s murder case, we can see her dream of people’s memory. But what seems interesting is that some of the people she dreams about are also blood relatives to her. 

AL 49

From what I gather from the quote, it would seem that she was living in the shoes of her mother and grandfather. Although not definite, it makes me think that her ability is not just to dream about random people’s memory, but instead about people who were blood relatives to her. If this is the case, it is strange that she was able to see memories from both Neru and Demiurge’s mother, only making sense if Alessia is somehow a progenitor of Neru and Demiurge’s mother. (This makes Neru somehow connected with Demiurge’s mother and Alessia somehow connected to Neru. Alessia's connection with Neru could be explained by the brothel idea, but there is no real evidence to support it.)

However, if this is really true then a heavy implication can be assumed. The way the power was demonstrated to transfer from one person to another is by having the current holder of the power die. When Alessia’s grandfather died, it eventually got passed down to Alessia’s mother, and when Alessia’s mother died it was passed down to Alessia. Based on what we see, it would imply that Neru and the Demiurge’s mother have been long gone during the events of the Abbey murder case. However, it is also possible that they can pass down the powers without dying, but nothing concrete can really back it up.

Instead of blood connecting everyone in the dream, it is more likely that everyone is connected because of the ‘Chimera’. The memory she dreams about is everyone that the ‘Chimera’ has ‘possessed’ during their time, and the ‘Chimera’ just so happens to be passed down to Alessia. (This could mean that Neru and Demuirge’s mother was ‘possessed’ by the ‘Chimera’. But, I find it easier to believe that Demuirge’s mother is somehow the maker or even is the ‘Chimera’ than the ‘Chimera’ possessing her.)

If the ‘Chimera’ was the reason why Alessia had her skin turned white and eyes turned red, it is also possible that Neru has also been transformed in this way. (It is possible to have Neru be the origin of the ‘Chimera’, or even have the ‘Chimera’ turning people to resemble him.)

The Countdown

Compare to the other things discussed in this thread, the countdown was the one that gave me a lot of trouble. In Chapter 2, the burned man gave two good possibilities for the appearance of the countdown: it refers to the day Alessia meets Rel or the day Rel enacts his plan to free the Demiurge. Oftentimes, most of the burned man's assessment of things seems correct, or at the very least points in the right direction, yet Pyr makes it seem that something about his assumption with the countdown is off. This either means that the burned man’s assumption of the countdown isn’t correct or, more interestingly, the countdown isn’t meant for Alessia specifically.

Other than what the burned man has said on the countdown, there is one other possible idea that can explain it: it is the day Alessia will have to decide or be forced to save the Demiurge. With all the buildup from Chapters 1 and 2, this is the most likely reason why the countdown exists, counting down the time before the Demiurge is saved. Yet, it is strange for it to show up in Alessia’s story in the first place since Alessia wouldn’t know that she had to make a decision or was going to be forced to make a decision that big until she was given the option, so I find it hard to believe that the countdown was meant for Alessia. Just like what the burned man has said, it would be as if someone is tracking the time until the eventual events that happen on that day. Alessia didn’t have any plans until later on in the story when she decides to search for her father in Plata, yet the countdown persists to happen even before she got to the Abbey. Because of this, it is hard to believe the countdown was there for her.

If it isn’t for Alessia then who is it for? One possibility is that it is for the people watching the story unfold as an indication of when the events will happen, like a tracker. Yet, this raises the question of why it only appears when watching Alessia’s perspective. If this is really for the people watching the story, then why doesn’t it appear on others? (It could be that the time difference would be too big to even bother putting in. Other than Alessia’s own story, the closest one would be Aloys’ second story. The story seems to take place several years before the events of Chapter 1, but also somehow takes place during the murder case. It’s an interesting phenomenon, but can’t really discuss it here.)

The other possibility that also seems possible is that the countdown is for the ‘Chimera’ inside Alessia. Since it’s likely that the ‘Chimera’ was the one that gave Alessia her ability to look at past events by ‘recording’ and showing them to Alessia, it is also possible that the origin of the timeline is from the 'Chimera' as well. Counting down the days, the ‘Chimera’ waits as they travel from one host to another until August 31, 3041. (The ‘nun’ in Alessia's third dream seems to be the ‘Chimera’ waking up from their long nap. The dialogue of the ‘nun’ also makes it seem that they are the mother of the Demiurge, making it seem that the ‘Chimera’ is actually Sofia. Or the very least, made by her with some of her memories. It is also possible that the ‘Chimera’ is Erde since they represent themselves as a nun of Erde, and it can explain why Alessia hears voices when she is at the church of Erde.)

Others

Unless there is some other person who has a similar description, it is safe to say Pyr is referring to Alessia in this quote. What’s interesting about it other than calling Alessia a witch is the comment he made about Alessia’s future.

 It’s clear that Pyr is referring to events that are going to happen in Plata, describing how because Alessia didn’t accept the love she got from Bitey the result isn’t going to be favorable for her. (Although there is a very, very slight possibility that it’s not referring to the events in Plata, it wouldn't really make sense for Pyr to be talking about any other events other than what is going to happen in Plata for Alessia.) 

 There doesn’t seem to be anything significant when Pyr refers to Alessia as the witch. Knowing Pyr, it probably is a mix of insulting her and also referring to her strange abilities. (It can also hint at the possibility of her fate since witches are hunted and killed for being not human.)

The End

Everything is building up to the events that happen on August 31, 3041.  Although there aren’t many things we can be certain about, there are two things we know for sure will happen during that day: Nomino’s plan will take effect if it hasn’t already and Alessia will make or be forced to make a big decision that will have big repercussion. 

Although we won’t know for certain what is going to happen in Plata, here are my prediction.

Bold Prediction: Alessia, Bitey, and Bernardo will travel to Plata as a ‘vacation.’ Alessia will search for her father while Bitey and Bernardo will have their vacation, but will help Alessia from time to time. After some point, Bitey gets a bit worried for Alessia so he warns her to stop looking for her father, but Alessia continues to try to find him regardless. In the end, whether Alessia finds him or not, she will either have the option to choose to save or be forced to save the Demiurge. (At some point, Obli will try to change fate so that the events will not transpire as foretold by the ‘nun’ and Pyr.) 

 This is a safe guess compared to my other prediction, but it feels like the story told is going to conclude as such. 

Thoughts

Alessia’s tragedy will become someone else’s victory. There is a lot of connection that can be made, yet they all seem to point in one direction. It seems fated that she will suffer in the end, yet there is still hope that either Obli or Alessia can change fate itself. 

This is my conclusion about Alessia and mostly everything that surrounds her, so do take this post and all my others with a bit of salt. From past posts of people’s thoughts on the story, it would seem that my conclusion to things might be way off their marks, but these posts that I made are mostly how I see the story so far. I might be seeing connections that aren’t meant to be connected, and come to conclusions that are far from the truth. These theories are just meant to be theories, and nothing more. If anyone has some ideas that conflict with mine, do reply! Like my previous statement, I will like to figure out the truth of the story, and everything that goes on with it. 

I don’t feel like Pyr wrote E43. The person who wrote it feels like they don't know too much about the story, yet it seems like Pyr is very knowledgeable about it. Then again, it might be that Pyr is just acting like he knows everything and is trying to deceive the burned man for whatever reason. (Especially after what he said during reading Aloy's second entry, it makes it seem very possible that he also is experiencing the story with the burned man for the first time, or doesn't know the story in great detail.) They surely fooled me if this is the case. 

It makes a lot of sense if the comment made in E45 was Pyr since that is how they are, but one of the problems I have with the idea is that it was not said in the backlogs. Pyr's jeer towards Neru and Shax during the prologue only happens in the backlogs yet this can be seen during the game. (If it’s possible that he can insert himself during the story like this, I find it strange that he doesn’t constantly do it more often. Unless someone is stopping Pyr from doing it, I don’t think they have the ability to do so.) The other problem I have with it is that it affects the actual events of the story. This is the continuation of the quote.

E45Con

This implies that Shax was feeling an effect during that moment, and Neru was able to pick it up with his smell. Unless Pyr has the ability to somehow change the events or overwrite what Shax was actually feeling during this time, I don’t think the comment in E45 was from Pyr.

Maybe you’re right with E47, I might be just looking a bit too hard on it, or too little on it. But I still can’t help but still find Bernardo switching from being indifferent to having a playful attitude to be other than suspicious. In all the sense of the word, I find Bernardo to be sus. 

Hopefully, it’s all in my imagination, and there is nothing to it other than what you said about it. I just don't want Bitey to get hurt anymore, nor anyone else in the story.  (However, it seems like there is no other choice at the end.)

Okay, I've been rereading Nerus and I found some things that seem really odd. So, this post will contain those oddities plus other things I didn't mention in my other post.

E42

Everything in Neru’s gallery seems to make sense based on what we see in the game, however, one thing does seem a bit strange to me. Why does Neru like scalpels? It’s really odd how one of his likes would be a medical tool used for surgical purposes and I can’t think of anything that would help me understand why he would like scalpels.

E43

After finishing Chapter 1, there is a new entry in the Glossary called “An Observation.” What’s so interesting about this entry is that it talks in first person, which is quite strange. Who is this? Are they also watching the events unfolding before us? 

 Anyway, it would seem that this person is writing their thoughts down and putting them into the Glossary, making me think that the other entry in the Glossary could have been possibly written by the same person. (If this is the case, then the information we get from it should be taken with a grain of salt since it’s based on their observation, which has the possibility of having false information. ) 

Prologue

An interesting find that I found while rereading the prologue was that a hidden message can be found in the backlogs when a sound that is similar to a sizzling followed up to what sounds like a ghostly howl happens is played. So instead of looking at the backlogs every time, you can just listen to the sound to find the hidden messages.  

(Haven't tested this out in Chapter 2)

E44

Although it might be just reading too much about it, it would seem that Neru really cares about family issues.  Although a stretch, it would seem to me that Neru has experienced this kind of event before.

E45

When seeing this quote, the event can be explained by having Oceros recall every angel that was damaged during the first Aon war causing them to fall terribly ill because Nomino was planning another war. (The reason why Nomino started the war was that Nomino saw that Shax as the Herald of Hope.) Yet, the events of the quote happen before Nomino has ever met Shax, making this quote quite strange. If this isn’t caused by the illness, then what can it be?

(In the context it was used, it can be concluded that Shax was starting to have feelings for Neru in some way, yet I find it a bit weird to have it described something like this…)

Chapter 1

E46

This quote contains two interesting things: Europe, Asia, and Africa vanishing and electronic devices breaking down.

 I've brushed off the idea that Europe, Asia, and Africa vanishing was the result of the Second Eon War during the fight, but the more I think about it I can’t help but wonder how they vanish. Taking into account Obli’s story during Chapter 2, it’s hard to believe that the war somehow, even the place near the teleporter, annihilated the whole continent to which there is no trace of it. Even assuming the worst by having it take place on the same continent, the way Obli describes implies that there was still some form of land for Obli to walk around even after they closed the gates. Although it might be well destroyed, there is still some form of land remaining. Yet in Alessia’s time, they were described as vanished not destroyed. This leads me to believe that the result of Europe, Asia, and Africa vanishing wasn’t because of what occurred during the Second Eon War, but after.

The resulting Second Eon War also caused the electric devices to break down. What I find interesting about this is that it feels like it is connected in some way to what Obli has said regarding technology in Chapter 2. (At this point, I’m nearly certain that they are connected.) This leads me to two conclusions, either the angels predicted a second war happening on Earth 200 years earlier, or the angels used the war as an excuse to remove humanity on Earth from all of their technological advancement. (Either conclusion makes me wonder what the angles actually know and their goals in regards to Earth.)

E47

I don't know if anyone else felt this way but I find Bernardo to be… strange. Most of it stems from their first interaction, which I find a bit weird. From what I get from this quote, it feels like Bernardo switches personalities towards both Alessia and Bitey in a switch of a button.  (Maybe Bernardo is done dealing with people with Bitey's attitude during their first confrontation, IE people who trying to scare Bernado in any way. But the switch is still off-putting for me.)



Will eventually made the post with Alessia since I still find it important to share my thoughts on the subject regarding her. 

Wait, it is strange that the prologue and some of Chapter 1 use first-person pronouns while the rest are in third-person.

There's 5 different sequences that can happen during the dreams? Now I feel like I should learn how to datamine the game just to see them since I only saw 2/5. (The first dream sequence I've gotten stop showing up. Is it possible to have it been taken away? Maybe I did something weird to somehow break it (xd).)

I never considered those two meta-character from Alessia's dream to be archons! It make sense especially since one of the archons did find Noch floating around space. It also make sense for the 'nun' to be an archon since Alessia might have a connection with one. (It is possible that the mysterious figure that Alessia had a conversation with might be an archon!)

If my memory serve me right, I recall Pyre referring the burned man as a traitor. Do you think the traitor you theorize might be the burned man? (If this is the case, why would they remove their memory?)

This is an interesting read! It’s nice to see other people are still thinking and creating theories about the story, and how they differ from how I see the story. (Making me feel less crazy spending so many hours trying to figure the story out.)

While reading through the theories, I can’t help but share my comments/opinions on some of them.

[Everything that is italic contains spoilers for Chapters 1 and 2.]

[What I think is really strange is how Neru, from the past, was able to talk to Pyre from the present. This can either mean that Neru has the meta-narrative powers that you mention (being able to communicate with Pyre even though Neru was just a story that the burned man has watched) or that Pyre somehow has the ability to travel through time to communicate with Neru. I lean more toward the former since it is quite similar to the events that happen during Alessia’s third dream where the ‘nun’ that Alessia was talking to is able to somehow ‘stop’ the story and had a conversation with someone who was watching the story being unfolded. But then again, it seems that Noch is able to also time-travel during the events of Chapter 2, so having Pyre travel back in time to talk to Neru is not beyond the bounds of possibility.  

For me, I don’t think Nomino’s intention was to save the Shapeshifters, instead, it is to save/help/protect ‘God.’ (This ‘God’ can be Demiurge/Samuel or Abraxas, but it’s hard to tell which one he’s referring to.) To be honest, I don’t think Nomino really cares about the world that Samuel created, and it feels like he’s using the world to further help him with his goals. Maybe I’m viewing Nomino too negatively, but I can’t help it since he caused the separation of Obli and Neru!]

Also, what is this commentary about ‘Seed of Fate’? I assume that you are talking about the book Shax was reading during his deathbed, but the book that Shax was reading was titled ‘Seed of Hate’ for me. (It might be that Roddorod has put in some differences for some people, but why would he do that?)

I always had that in mind, but I didn’t want to miss out on any possibility. But based on what you have said…

Never mind, there is no point in saying it in this post. (I will dwell on it another time.) 

 I do hope that some of my conclusions were, in some way or another, correct in any way, but time will tell if this is the case. I’ve enjoyed looking through the chapters and trying to put the puzzle pieces together, although I might be ‘damaging the pieces’ in attempting to have them fit the narrative I have about the story. 

Anyway, I guess Shax was right that intellectual challenge is a thing of the soul. Even though the mystery was set up by you, trying to figure out the solutions to them was really fun. (Even if I was wrong for most of them.) 

I can’t wait to see the real answers to them and can’t wait to solve more of the puzzles that lie ahead.

I will like to revisit the murder case.

 Although some things do make sense, for the most part, there are some questions and doubts about how everything conspires. 

First, although a minor thing, why did William act the way he did before his death?

B34

An idea that comes to mind is that he has to choose a successor, after all, he is getting on in years. Yet I wouldn't think this would be stressful at all since we can see that Brandeis has a successor picked for like 20 years and nothing back has come to him as a result.

Maybe the fact that the other abbots are coming to his church was the reason for his stress. It would make sense since they are all wary of each other because of the files, but I would think that William would be less stressed since he has all the power in the world because of the files.

Maybe is it all in Maggie’s head, but I would like to think otherwise. Other people's statement has also collaborated with Maggie's assessment of William slowly losing his mind. Maybe it’s old age, but it feels like there is more to this than just that. 

Another thing that I will like to doubt is that Brandeis was the killer of Oscar. If they found out that Oscar has the files while searching, why wouldn’t they take the files from him while searching and kill Oscar afterward? Although it would make sense to kill Oscar during the murder in the Abbey, and frame it as the Aloys doing, I would think that it would be safer to kill him after or have Oscar be under control because of the files. But because 'Brandeis' took the book with him, the book allows Alessia to find the file that ‘Brandeis’ tried to hide.

Another question arrives on how the killer enters the room.

B35

Based on Bernardo, the killer enter through the window instead of the door. Yet, it would seem that Oscar would have noticed the killer entering, so having a sneaky kill would be impossible. This would mean that Oscar allowed the killer to enter his room through the window and either wasn't aware that he was going to get killed or accepted his own death. I wouldn't rule out the possibility that he didn't know he was going to get killed, but Oscar would have been at least slightly wary if someone enter his room through the window instead of the door. (Especially if Brandeis was the one who committed the killing.) It’s also possible that Bernardo was the one who faked the evidence since both Alessia and Bitey were out of the room during the investigation, but it would go against Bernardo’s own sense of justice so I wouldn’t take it into consideration. However, I would like to bring out another possibility. 

B36

It would seem that descendants are able to hide from mortals in some way. Assuming that they have the ability to turn invisible, it is possible that they can walk around freely without anyone noticing. It is possible that one of the descendants, Obli, Lucusti, or any other descendants, could have done the murder. Assuming that they have the ability to go invisible, it would be easy to kill Oscar and place the evidence inside Brandeis’ room. (Although both the Prologue and Chapter 2 make it seem that this is not the case.)

Hidden secret

There seem to be some hidden things that happened after you either leave the game alone for a week or two or have the game for a month. Although I didn’t see any changes in the Prologue, there are changes in Chapter 1 that significantly gives a lot of information about the story and characters. However, it would seem that more than one dialogue can appear, and I was able to get two of them… Well, sorta.  

(Sidenote, the following dialogue doesn’t seem to always happen after creating a new Chapter 1. This makes me conclude this: there is a counter or a checker in the game that dictates if you see this dialogue based on either the date when you started up the new chapter or how many times you play/create the chapter. It might also be possible that the ‘Clear Data’ in Config can also change what hidden secret you can get, but I can’t say for sure.)

The first hidden message that I got is the hidden message I couldn’t get a screenshot of, but I was able to write it down. However, do take this quote and my deduction with a grain of salt since I do make a lot of mistakes when I wrote them down, my preconception is that I was able to go back and get a screenshot of it later to verify the quote but this hidden message stop showing up when writing this part of the post down. (I will update this part if it shows up again, but for the time being this is the only thing that I can really use for this hidden message.)

"(The unknown being goes silent. A chill goes down Alessia’s spine. Is something else about to happen?)

‘...... Hello?’ -Alessia

‘I hadn’t noticed… It seems we have an uninvited guest. 

I remember you.’’

(What form the creature possess shifts. Alessia can’t tell, but she think it’s looking somewhere else now. 

And she is right. It is looking at me.)

‘This is impressive. It’s been a thousand years, but I still didn’t expect you to be able to peek this deep into someone’s mind. I trust my home is treating you well?’

‘I would not describe it as hospitable. A mass of flesh lunging to try to devour me is not my idea of a proper greeting.’

'Forgive them, they are not used to foreign bodies. Out there we all kind of meld together, they just want you to join in.’

(The creature takes its time to inspect me. I cannot help but roll my eyes at its attempt at showing concern. Finally, it speaks again.)

‘Would you believe me if I told you even here it’s been a problem? Not for me, as I lack a physical form, but for Noch.’

‘Yes. In fact, I witnessed it.’

‘Oh… Don’t tell me he consumed human flesh.’

‘No. He found a way to keep those impulses under control. But I will spare you the details, as I would rather not recall them.’

‘Well, as long as he is behaving himself.’

‘...What about you? Can you say you have been behaving?’

‘I believe so.’

‘Truly? Then why don’t you leave the girl alone? I may not know the future, but I don’t need to in order to see this will end badly.’

‘This is the only path we have. You should know that well. If you don’t, then ask yourself why you got trapped out there.’

(I lower my head, carefully considering his words. I don’t like taking advice from these monsters, but they seem to know something I don’t, so perhaps I should lend their words an ear.

Deep down I know he’s right, it is undeniable a greater force has been guiding us down this path without an apparent way out.

But it is truly inescapable as it seem? The real question is if they are trying to help or deceive me.)

‘In any case, it’s good to see you doing well. Now it’s time to resume our script. I trust you’ll be watching our performance until your turn to enter the stage?’

‘Of course. It is not as if there was anything else to do here.’

(Alessia attempts to speak and wave her hands in front of the creature, and that is when she realizes the words aren’t coming out.)”

Found: In Alessia’s third dream in the second gap.

Thoughts: There are a lot of things said in this quote, so let’s break it down.

 First, who were the beings having the discussion? It would be safe to say that the people having the discussion are Sofia and the Burned man from Chapter 2 but reading over the conversation I will say otherwise. 

It would seem to be Sofia because their dialogue and their actions seem to perfectly fit Sofia: wanting their son back, the cause of all his suffering, calming down Alessia like Samuel, and being able to see the future in some way. However, in the dialogue that the person who ‘Sofia’ was talking to, they refer to ‘Sofia’ with male pronouns which contradicts what we know about Sofia, being the mother of Samuel. Assuming that Aeons are bound with genders, this would lead me to believe that the person Alessia was speaking to during her third dream is not Sofia. The only conclusion that I can make is that they are Aeon, male, sees themselves as a parental figure for Samuel, and feels that they are somewhat responsible for Samuel’s suffering. (It is possible that they are voidborn but we have only seen the power to calm down people from an Aeon.) 

-Theory

Theory 1: Neru/Pyre. I put them all into this category since they both are males with unknown pasts. I wouldn’t think that it would be Neru since in the Prologue we can see that has emotion, but according to Noch it is possible to lose feelings after spending time in the void so I can’t really rule out the possibility. 

Theory 2: The Aeon that Obli has absorbed. It is possible that the one talking to Alessia is not her shadow, but instead the Aeon that Obli has absorbed. (This assumes that they are still alive and not just a power source that Obli can use.)

It would seem to be the Burn Man talking to ‘Sofia’ since, well, he is the only person we know watching the records, but I wouldn’t be too sure about that. Just like in the Prologue, there seem to be more people watching the events happening than they appear. An example of this is Pyre who was watching the records since the Prologue and the person who made the comment in A10. It also doesn’t make sense for the Burned Man to be in the discussion since ‘Sofia’ goes over things that the Burned Man wouldn’t know or doesn’t know yet, ie how Voidborn/Aeon merge together and Noch with his insatiable hunger. There is too much evidence that goes against the idea that it is the Burned Man. 

-Theory

Theory 1: There is a bit of evidence that suggested it would be Neru. ‘Sofia’ mentions three things that seem to fit Neru’s circumstance pretty well; the character must be at least a thousand years old from the moment they had the discussion, never been to either void/Pleroma, and got trapped somewhere. Neru is about a thousand years old since the time this discussion was taken place the first Aeon war is about a thousand years. (According to the timeline, from when Shax died to when this dream was taken place it would be around 790 years + 200 years when the first Aeon war started would give a number that is near to a thousand years.) He might have never been to the void/Pleroma, although there is some evidence to show that he might in the prologue, and Neru is currently stuck in the void. 

Theory 2: Pyre. Similar to the previous theory about who ‘Sofia’ was, there are too many unknowns about Pyre. It does make sense for him to be the one who was talking to ‘Sofia,’ but we can’t conclusively say for sure.

Theory 3: Burned Man. I wouldn’t exclude the Burned Man since they are too many mysteries with him. He could have a separate memory that stops him from remembering, like a split personality, or he can be fooling everyone, like doublethink/doublespeak. We don’t know his identity or how he is connected to the story, so I would leave it as a possibility for him to have this discussion with ‘Sofia.’ (More evidence that suggests it isn't the Burned Man is in Chapter 2, but would save that for later.)

B37

Found: In Alessia’s third dream in the second gap. (Similar to the other hidden secret)

Thoughts: This reveals a lot about Alessia’s character. Although it’s surprising how Alessia sees the world, taking into account Pyre’s thoughts of her it makes sense. Well, a bit anyway. I never really got this from Alessia, especially since the new content of .10 really makes it seem that Alessia helped the old lady in the church just out of the kindness of her heart.

 It is also interesting how they describe the world as needing a sacrifice. To get what you want, you must sacrifice something in return. To save Samuel from his fate, Alessia must ‘hurt many others.’ If this is so, what must Obli sacrifice to get Neru back? What things did Obli have already done or is going to do in the future? 

How far is he willing to go for Neru?

Getting back to the quote, they do mention what the traitor’s, Nomino, intentions might be.

 The hatred towards the Aeons and his love for ‘God makes it obvious what Nomino plans to do with mortals: either kill or corrode the Aeons to protect Abraxas. It is possible that the gnosis is somehow related to this, but that is yet to be seen.

Some interesting quotes that might be important.

B38

Thoughts: Although never mention again, it is strange how they say this in the first place. (I don't think it played a role in the Abbey murder case, but it is still possible for it to have.)

B39

Thoughts: Although Bitey thinks Diego is talking about nothing, somehow Diego was able to scarcely pinpoint every reason why they are getting targeted in great detail. It makes me wonder if this is somehow related to Diego turning into a monster later on. (I will discuss this later whenever I go over gnosis. This seems to be relevant to it.)

B40

Thoughts: interesting thing to think about. How were the descendants using humans? There seems to be an important reason, other than the battle taking place on Earth, for the descendants to be working on it. Maybe is to protect that one particular space since a massive portal has been opened on Earth which can make that particular part to be very weak. But there seems to be more than that based on Obli’s observation in Chapter 2 where he talks about humanity not advancing technology.

Extra: My favorite part of Chapter 1

I really love the interaction between Shax and Neru during Alessia’s second dream. (This part especially. Shax is so adorable!)

It was really hard to come to any conclusion about this chapter. I feel that there are many conclusions that aren't right, but these are the best interpretation I have with the evidence that we are currently given.

Also, I would make another post on Alessia. There is still some strangeness that I didn’t bring up about her, so I would make a post solely on her.

Like the first post I made, this post is my thoughts and conclusions on the events that happen in Chapter 1, but will also contain spoilers for Chapter 2 as well. I tried to keep this primary focus on Chapter 1, however, this post will also take some information from Chapter 2 whenever discussing characters and events. (I will try not to talk about the Burned Man during this post since it would be simpler to talk about the Burned Man in Chapter 2.)

Chapter 1

Although there weren't any hidden messages in the backlogs I could find when going through Chapter 1, there are things that I would like to go over with.

Alessia's Power

B25

Thoughts: This is the first time Alessia has witnessed a ‘white ball of fire’, which undoubtedly refers to as souls. The way Bitey and everyone act, or the lack thereof, when Alessia experiences an event where someone dies makes it seem that most if not everyone else doesn't experience what Alessia sees: having the souls explode when a mortal dies. I would expect Frank/Obli or any other decedent to be able to witness this, however, their reaction when someone does die makes it seem otherwise. The soul also leaves a smudge behind, which the next quote explores.

B26

...

Thoughts: When touching the residue that the soul has made, Alessia sees flashing imagines that have to be Giorgio’s actions before his death. (Walking up, traveling to William’s place, and getting stabbed.) This implies that at the very least Alessia is able to see people’s memories before their deaths by touching the residue that is left behind. This also might be related to her ability to see people’s memories in her dream but there isn’t enough evidence to suggest this is the case.

However, it is also surprising that this caused Alessia to be angry at Bitey. Maybe it’s a past event that Alessia has buried in her memory? Alessia's third dream does hint that Bitey might have acted in such a way that can cause might caused this buried memory. It's even possible that these feelings are not her own instead of people she dreams about or even her 'Chimera' that lives in the shadows. No evidence really pertains to her anger here towards Bitey, so we can't conclusively say for sure.

Dreams seem to be an important part of the story. The ones that stick out are Alessia’s dreams.

B27

According to Alessia, the dreams she is experiencing only happened after her mother had died, making a connection between Alessia’s dreams and the ‘Chimera’ inside of her shadow by heavily implying that the reason why she gets these dreams are because of the ‘Chimera’. In these dreams, Alessia relives past events, often times in people’s memories from their perspective, and is able to have her own thoughts during the events that are played out. This explains what was going on in her dreams in the Abbey.

(For the sake of time/space I will not put these dreams down in this post.)

-Alessia's First Dream

+

B28

Thoughts: Although we don’t know who Alessia and the Nun were supposed to represent, we do have two small clues during this dream that can be used to figure out who they are. 

The first clue was that ‘Alessia’ wanted to be useful, meaning that their involvement in something is seen by them as useless or unproductive. 

The second clue was that the ‘Nun’ somewhat cared for ‘Alessia’. This can be seen in their interaction when the Nun says ‘It must be so hard…’ and Alessia responded with ‘I’m fine.’ This is strange since at the end of the dream the ‘Nun’ tries to kill ‘Alessia’ but was stopped by some light. This leads me to believe that the empathy that the ‘Nun’ had towards ‘Alessia’ was superficial, or maybe the anger about ‘Alessia’s’ eyes was enough to push the ‘Nun’ over the edge. It’s too hard to say with the little evidence we have with them.

Another thing to note about this dream is that the ‘Nun’ says the baby’s mother, based on B28 the baby is Demiurge so therefore the mother is Sofia, was the cause of his damaged eye. This strikes me as odd since according to Noch the Aeons have caused it. This leads me to believe that either the Aeons did cause the injury but the ‘Nun’ blames it all on his mother or Sofia did cause the damage and Noch was trying to cover it up.

Although not too important, it’s cool to speculate that the different rooms where both ‘Alessia’ and the ‘Nun’ travel from one room to another represent the idea that they are traveling from one place (possibly from the Pleroma) to another (the void).

A thing we can conclude is the time this is taken place. Since the Demiurge is represented as a baby, we can conclude that this is taken place after the Aeons poked the Demiurge's eyes out and threw him but before he left to create the world where mortals live.  (Although, there is still a possibility that this can still take place during Demiurge's imprisonment since two small pieces of evidence tie it to the current day; the Nun can actually be the Nun that Alessia helps after the Abbey murder case and 'Alessia' describes the smell as sweet, which is similar to the smell of the center of the Galaxy. But it would make sense for the dream to take place before the Demiurge created the world.) Based on this, we can say that this is one of the oldest memories that Alessia had, and it would eventually play an important part in the story.

-Theory

Theory 1:  Noch, Doro, and Noch's 'lord' are the 'Nun'. From the sound of it, the 'Nun' sound as if they have authority over 'Alessia.'  And based on my speculation that they are not in fact in the Church of Erde but instead in the void/Pleroma, the only one that makes sense to fit the bill is Noch, Doro, and Noch's 'lord.' However, I would like to say otherwise since the 'Nun' in the dream displays emotions and based on Noch's statement everyone from the void seem to not have any.

-Alessia's Second Dream

Thoughts: The second dream can be separated into three different parts: Alessia part, Neru part, and Sofia part. 

In Alessia's part, Alessia tells us about the ‘Chimera’ that haunts her in her shadow, explaining to us how her skin turned white and her eyes red. Although there isn’t much left to discuss about this particular part, there is something off about it. Bitey said that 'Gabriela' transformed when Alessia’s grandfather died, yet we never heard about this character ever again. It’s also strange that Bitey ‘knew’ the grandfather since in Bitey 1 it would seem that Bitey didn’t know about the grandfather at all, at least he didn’t know he had a room in Alessia’s home. Another coincidence is that both Alessia’s grandfather has a similar name to this ‘Gabriela’ being Gabriel. (There are many mysteries surrounding Alessia's family but will save that when discussing Chapter 2.)

In Neru’s part, Neru explains that the closer one’s soul is to the primordial light, the stronger they are. This allows us to understand how power scales in this world, yet it doesn’t really explain how Voidborn ever gets their powers. Noch did say that the void does not have souls, so being Voidborn, it is safe to say that they don't have souls, yet they have powers that are similar to Shapeshifters but more powerful.

In Sofia’s part, it tells a tale of Sofia that was recounted in Chapter 2 by Noch but with more detail. What is interesting is how Sofia is planning to show the Aeons their true nature. Is it by giving birth to Samuel? Or is it something that would happen in the future?

-Alessia's Third Dream

Thoughts: Similar to the second dream, the third dream can be separated into two parts.

The first part shows the interaction that Neru and Obli had that Neru describes in the Prologue. Two things about it are quite strange. How does Alessia know the name Obli and how does Alessia knows what is going to happen, i.e. that the lizard person that Alessia thinks is Bitey is going to touch her shoulder? It would make sense if Alessia saw Neru’s memory from both the Prologue and Chapter 2, but how doesn’t she know who Obli is? 

 The second part shows the interaction between Alessia and some mysterious fellow. Some interesting things to keep in mind are that they refer Nomino as treacherous, and the quote 'It hurts that no matter what he does, how much power he wields, he’s helpless to come to your aid,' is similar to the quote Pyre said during the Prologue.

Patterns seem to emerge from the dreams, and based on those patterns we can categorize them into two types of dreams; dreams that are represented by people that Alessia knows and dreams that aren’t. The dreams that are represented by people that Alessia knows are the first dream and Sofia’s part in the second dream while the dreams that aren’t are Neru and Alessia's parts in the second dream. (The Neru part in the third dream is most likely in the second category but Alessia’s commentation during the dream makes it hard to determine.) Dreams that represent people that Alessia knows seem to represent dreams that are not in the current universe, ie it takes place in the void/Pleroma with characters in those universes represented by people Alessia knows about. Although there isn’t much we can do with this information, it does bring up the question of why Alessia has the memories of people who aren’t even mortals? We know that the memories that Alessia has are from people who have died, does that make those people we see, Neru, Sofia, ‘Alessia’ from the first dream, dead? Or is it possible to pass down those memories without dying? Both possibilities seem likely, yet I lean towards the ladder since the former is harder to justify. (What I mean by this is that it would make some of the things said in the story a bit wonky and not have meaning.)

Although it is clear what Obli’s role is during his time in Smed’s Church, I found his interaction with Alessia a bit weird.

B29

...

Thoughts: Although a slight detail, it is quite strange how Frank/Obli will do something as clumsy as this, especially when it says that Frank/Obli is ‘clearly still a bit shaken up.’  I assume that, somehow, Frank/Obli is able to notice the 'Chimera' that Alessia possesses and dropped the items he was carrying in shock. But more strange things happen later on.

B30

Thoughts: It isn’t all too strange to ask if anything is wrong with them, but what is strange is what happens after. ‘Aloys bumped Frank on the shoulder. The small human looked down at his plate as his cheeks turned pink.’ Why would Frank/Obli blush here? Although not quite, this interaction between Frank/Obli and Alessia reminds me of how Shax/Obli interacts with Neru about greens in both the Prologue and Chapter 2. Maybe the reason why Frank/Obli is embarrassed is that Aloys reminds him of his interaction with Neru since Alessia has a connection with Neru and she looks like him? Or maybe I'm overanalyzing it too hard since Aloys might be pointing out that Frank/Obli also didn't eat his cauliflower? But then again, this isn't the only time Frank/Obli wanted Alessia to eat her greens.

This leads me to believe that this isn't a coincidence, instead, Frank/Obli has some reason to do this. That leaves us the question: why was Frank/Obli acting like this? 

-Theory

Theory 1: Alessia, and by association Alessia’s family, is a decedent of Neru in some way.  Although Alessia's second dream did make it unlikely, it is entirely possible for this to happen, maybe Neru's brothel visit perhaps? This explains the connection between Alessia and Neru and why Frank/Obli acts the way he does.  But it doesn't seem to fit everything neatly; it doesn't explain why Alessia gets dreams of the past, why she can see people's memories from the residue of a soul, and the 'Chimera.'

Theory 2: Frank/Obli is David, Alessia’s older brother. Crazy theory, I know, but it would make some sense in this context of Frank/Obli being nice, and dropping his stuff when seeing Alessia. Although it is nearly debunked since Obli did talk about a shapeshifter that follows Rel around in Chapter 2, it is a fun thought to have.

Although Noch said he is not going to be at the Abbey, there seems to be evidence that makes it seem that Noch, or someone else, is somewhat involved with the murder case.

B31

Thoughts: When Alessia and Bitey were following the mysterious fellow at night, Alessia felt slime when touching the walls, but when she looked it wasn’t there. The way Alessia describes the slime is similar to how Aloys describes Noch in Chapter 2, making me think that Noch was, somehow, there in the hallway. But there are more things that suggest this.

B32

Thoughts: When investigating Aloys' innocents, Alessia experience a sudden coldness which seems to be a reference to tidal wave/cold winds. Since Noch is considered to be a Deity of the Sea, it would make sense for this to be a reference to him.

B33

Thought: Who was the one who said this? This is quite curious especially since they make it sound as if there is more than one person who is willing to help Aloys at this particular part. One this is for sure; they intend to help Aloys from getting caught. It would make sense if Noch was the one who help Aloys to continue with his plan, but this quote doesn't help us determine if this is true or not.

-Theory 

Theory 1: Noch was at the Abbey. Although we can't confirm if this is true, there is a lot of evidence that points to it being true. Yet, there seem to be oddities that suggest otherwise like why would Noch contact Aloys through the gem necklace instead of talking to him one-on-one?  Especially when he craves for Aloys, wouldn't it be better to satisfy his hunger instead of waiting till Aloys comes back to this domain?

Theory 2: Other people are involved, such as Sofia and her ‘supporters.’ B33 suggests that there are at least two people involved in the case that we don't know about, but other than that we can’t say for sure.

If my memories serve me right this also happens in the later chapters, but the only time I witnessed this during the Prologue was when Neru was talking about the 'Redd Manor' file. Seeing how you pointed this out, I can assume that this is relevant to either the story or the characters, or even both.  (Or maybe more worldbuilding which helps us determine how the story will progress later on.)

Now that I'm thinking about it, what can the backlog really record? Does it record everything? If so, why don't some of these get recorded?  Is there a limitation to the backlog? Is there a difference between the backlogs and the records? 

This also puts the authenticity of Pyre accounts about the backlog/Carcass into question. Was he lying? Was he telling a half-truth?  Or was he being entirely honest, that the Carcass does record everything, but the permanency of those records is not as we thought they were?  This can explain how one of the memories was nearly deleted but is also contradicted by Pyre saying "If there are no records about you, then you are a newborn!" since if you have no records, assuming that deleting records also applies, you didn't live life yet. 

But then again, this can also mean that by deleting memories you also delete the events that happen in those memories, which backs up Pyre's dialogue at the end of the Prologue.

Ahh, too many questions and not enough satisfactory answers.

 Well,  I'll let my future self figure this out.

Some Thoughts

Of course, these are my thoughts, theories, and my interpretation of the story thus far. (More posts discussing the other chapters will come out once I finalize everything I need in it.) From what we got alone, this is an amazing story and I can't wait for the next update. (Luckily for me I started reading during update 0.9 so I had a lot of content ahead of me.) Honestly, I really hope more people will find and enjoy this game as much as I did. I've never been so gripped by a story quite like this, and I hope more people will give this Visual Novel a try. Keep up the great work Roddorod, and take as long of a break as you need. There are many things we can discuss in the meanwhile, so don't be in a rush to finish up Chapter 2.

If you think I miss something or think I am wrong in any way please post it! What I want is to fully understand the story and try to predict what will happen in the future, so more input is appreciated! 

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.