This was originally gonna go into the Hinterlands guide thread, but my theories got way out of hand and I wasn't really sure that would belong in an informational guide thread. So! I made this.
I've done some investigating in the Hinterlands over the past week or so, and I found a lot of secrets (the anthill was an absolute disaster and I loved every second of it). For this specific thread, though, I'll focus on just the ones relevant to the missing kids, the shed, and Zezé. This might seem like an odd choice, but I promise there's a reason I'm sticking to these specific topics.
Before I get into the actual theory, we need to go over the relevant secrets/info. This is by no means a comprehensive list-- if you've found anything that supports/contradicts the stuff in this post, please let me know! With that out of the way, let's get started:
- Resolving the tapir god quest before the night you go to Zezé's bar causes his form to shift back and forth between a human and a goat-thing with dark brown fur and red eyes (and a cute little tail but that part isn't relevant).
- On a similar note, resolving the tapir god quest then going to the pond lets you take a path to a shed. This scene is... a lot. I won't go into too many details (you should really read it yourself, it's very well written), but the specifically important things to note are that a bunch of kid's flip flops are found on the way to/inside the shed, the shed is far too clean but still smells like rust, and there are two parallel grooves in the top of the door frame and on the walls. Also, something like a ghost kid (maybe?) hops onto P's back and follows him out.
- If you head to the library and pick fiction, there are only a few books left: one about the myth of the minotaur, and several from local authors about "Satan-worshipping goat boogeymen and their exploits kidnapping and devouring children." Not very fun!
- Going to the shed changes how P's dad acts in Hinterlands 4. Normally, his dad looks at the cheese, then says P's "going crazy" and throws stuff at the wall. The shed scene causes P's dad to act like "he'd seen a ghost", before saying P is crazy, not going crazy. Still throws all of the shit at the wall, though.
- Going to Storm's house unlocks the ability to go to P's family home. If you go there, P finds a notebook containing portraits of everyone in his family, followed by a few pages of children's drawings, including art of "Dark goats with red eyes, mouths split open and spewing fire."
- This was a tricky one: going to the library, reading fiction, then going to the church alters P's dialogue about finding Pedoca (the missing kid). If you do this, P says that he'll find Pedoca and warn him to get to the church or "the cabra cabriola will get him."
With all that out of the way, I want to discuss the first half of my theory: Zezé is (or is, at least, an intentional reference to) the cabra cabriola. I wasn't aware of this before stumbling on the special church dialogue, but apparently, the cabra cabriola is a monster in Brazilian folklore. It's a goat monster that, in some depictions, has some/all of the following traits:
- Darkly colored fur
- Bright/red eyes
- The ability to breathe smoke/fire
These are all pretty clearly reflected in things like Zezé's design and the goat drawings P finds in the notebook. I don't think it's a coincidence that finding the books about "Satan-worshipping goat boogeyman" causes P to bring up the cabra cabriola, and that it seems like a direct match to Zezé's true form.
So, that explains what Zezé is a reference to, but what about the shed and the missing kids? That leads to the second half of my theory: Zezé is, at least in some small part, related to whatever's going on in the shed. The stories of the cabra cabriola (based on my admittedly meager amounts of research) depict it as a child-stealing monster that steals young children and eats them. This is pretty directly referenced in the fiction books you can find in the library, and Zezé's a pretty close match to the monster. Additionally, remember those weird grooves in the top of the shed's doorframe? I think those may have been caused from something's horns scraping them, since Storm's horns do the same exact thing in P's car to the roof. Zezé has horns, and seems to be a reference to the cabra cabriola, which steals kids-- this isn't definitive proof he's the one who made the marks, but I don't think the reference is unintentional. The shed seems to be related to the missing kids, and P's dad reacted like he "saw a ghost" after the ghost kid thing followed P out of the shed. Plus, the shed was exceptionally clean but still smelled like rust, which is... suspect.
That's pretty much it. Zezé might be a reference to the cabra cabriola, a child-stealing monster, and he might also be responsible for whatever the hell's going on in the shed. Again, let me know if I missed anything!
Basically, I cannot believe they gave a possible child-stealing monster an extremely cute little tail. Absolutely unforgivable. /s