Overview

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With the Chronicles of the Grand Inquisitor, we set out to create deep world-building for Deadhaus Sonata in the spirit of the old radio plays from the 1930s. Furthermore, we were working on something secret called the Eternal Infamy System**, which we plan to change how people understand narrative and RPG systems in games. These new technologies combine traditional storytelling, user-generated content, cloud technology and AI, giving gamers experiences they have never seen before. We need a ton of lore to train our AI systems, and the radio plays also serve this purpose! More about the Eternal Infamy System in another blog. Without giving too much away, the Eternal Infamy System is the focus of the currently playable. The Chronicles started as a way to introduce all the classes within the world of Deadhaus Sonata. Thus, we go through stories of vampires, revenants, wraiths, banshees, liches (yes, we use the old English spelling), ghouls, and wights. Keeping in the tradition of Eternal Darkness, we also spell "magick" the proper way! We have great fun creating these, and we want to bring back the voice that was lost with games like Legacy of Kain and Eternal Darkness, and the radios are a step forward in this direction. We started thinking about expanding Chronicles when we created Of Banshees, one of my favorite episodes from Season 1. I love the banshee scream in this episode! The process starts with writing, then voice acting, the script, and finally, with sound and audio. @Jack Lindsey @FelipeBraz @George Ledoux do amazing work on these; great work, guys! You can listen to the audio forms on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other places. However, we wanted to go beyond audio and try some visualizations for these radio plays, thus the visualizations for the Chronicles you see today. The art styles have changed many times, and now, the chronicles define the game's art style. In the first season, we used Adobe Stock Images, stylized them in Photoshop in a pencil sketch motif, and used After Effects, and got some great results. Once the final audio was ready, an average episode of 5 minutes took 2-3 weeks to complete the visuals. From Of Vampires We were not going to attempt to do visuals for season two as the average length of episodes expanded to 30 minutes from an average of 5 minutes, as it would be too time-consuming. However, @Golden Xan stepped up to do several episodes and went further to add animations. This was an insane amount of work, and we cannot thank him enough, and they turned out to be amazing. Thank you @Golden Xan, excellent job! The results were incredible but even more time-consuming than before, taking at least six weeks to complete. From Of Morsels Alas, it became impossible to keep this up and with the last few episodes, so we threw in the towel and used a looping video for graphics. Of Nightmares, my favorite episode from season two, had a looping animation. The loop was actually pretty good, though! From Of Nightmares For the third season, some breakthroughs in AI gave us options we had not had before. Instead of using stock images, we could quickly generate AI images of the character and world of Deadhaus Sonata. Also, the auto-transcript feature of Premiere Pro allowed for much quicker editing. We stayed with the pencil sketch theme with the AI images and, for the first time, created some visuals close to what we imagined with the scenes in the chronicles. Edvard Toth leads the way in making the images while @Jack Lindsey and I run support. We understand many people are opposed to using AI, but in this case, this is an excellent example of how AI can help with the process, allowing you to do previously impossible things. First Shots of Alaric Reveal of the Red Lady Homage to John Carpenter's The Thing Over time, the art style changed and settled into the style found in The Judged, as seen below. We liked the stylized high-contrast color and comic book style so much that we adopted this styled look for the game. Finalized Art Style for Chronicles Visual Target Image We changed Deadhaus' hyperrealistic art style because many AAA games using this technique look identical and indistinguishable. We wanted Deadhaus Sonata to stand out in every way, including the visuals. Over time, we could create very high-quality images that we love and feel are ironic for universe. Here are some examples: The Ark Anu Maht Blood Lust Alaric The Red Lady With The New Art Style With the game's development going well and the new possibilities for the chronicles, the third season is "no holds barred." The episodes often exceeded 30 minutes, approaching almost one hour in length. The Prison, The Pillar, and The Child set a milestone by requiring a staggering 123 images! The Messenger Season 3 is scheduled to have 15 episodes and will conclude in November 2025. It's insane, but we love it and hope you do too! **Patents Pending

The team always appreciates seeing the community at large engaging with the content revealed. It's nice to see the thought processes people go through when thinking about the Chronicles, and any reveal in general. Here, and on every other platform. Part of the enjoyment I always had in Deadhaus was speculating. Not so much on getting everything right or wrong, but the journey in the theorization, and putting pieces together as others shared their thoughts and tiny bits they caught. One thing that has been consistently true was that there are always multiple layers to the stories shown. Things are, and are not, as they seem. This latest episode helped reinforce that idea, through the concept of resonance, but it is not reserved to only the magickal aspect. Unless everything is magick...

Very good - awesome summary and notes!

Another episode of Alaric's chronicles has been released with a little bit of a lore dump and some fun dialogue. Alaric notes that the blood seems to recognize the messenger’s authority above his own. The blood seems to be influenced greatly by many different things. The Soul Pillar’s magick, the ghoul song, the Messenger. We don’t know the relationship between the blood and the Empyrean house for sure, or any of the others really. I think the vampire’s inherent ability to shapeshift makes them vulnerable to being influenced that way, we see this later in the episode too. The messenger is just something that knows how to exploit that. My other theory is that Alaric is just weak and can’t consciously resist magick yet. OR the reason the messenger completely weakens Alaric is because of whatever is going on that makes vampires vulnerable to the sun. Like a curse on the blood. Alaric then heads though the snow and towards Amarax’s altar(?). He remarks the snow no longer melts on his skin because he is no longer a warm blooded creature. He passes by dregs and thinks that feeding on the people there would be merciful, but isn’t if that’s him or the blood’s thinking. It's unsurprising that vampires are cold creatures, but this brought to mind snow building up on players as they stand in snowfall. It would be a very cool detail, but probably demanding on the computer. Alaric thinking about feeding on the people is making me think that this may be the reason why the undead are not very concerned with their past lives. It may be that, for the vampires at least, the blood slowly pushes out their humanity. Of course, a few hundred or thousand years could do that too. Alaric navigates by the sign of the Knight. One of our first confirmed constellations. Alaric finds Amarax’s altar in ruins. His things are destroyed, and Amarax himself is dead on the ground. Obviously, he isn't actually dead. He speaks to Alaric in his mind, and explains that while his vessel is destroyed, he still has one phylactery of six left. The wraith was able to connect to Amarax's soul, fragment itself, and destroy the phylacteries at once. I'd like to say for the record I knew Amarax was fine, I just wanted to play dumb for chat I'M TEAM LICHE. I would have expected Amarax to have more since he's been alive for much longer than a few centuries. Though, I'm not sure how difficult it is to forge a phylactery. On my second watch, I realized I missed a huge part of the wraith information here. The wraith can bind itself to part of soul, and find other parts of soul from there. This could be really interesting for pvp if we ever did inter-House combat. If other Houses have the ability to split their souls, the wraith would be invaluable in hunting them. This really highlights their proficiency in the essential. Amarax also explains they are fragmented beings, so a single wraith may be in many places at once. I wonder how you would destroy a wraith then… in-game, this would be such a great opportunity for having distractions or multiple attacks on multiple enemies at once. Amarax reveals that Alaric is the final phylactery. The reason I didn't expect this is because of how much danger Alaric gets put in. I mean, since the first interaction with the liche, he's been face to face with undead, Awakened (even the horses), an angel, a Clatter-clack, and a giant spider that is a Pillar of Souls. Amarax must have a lot of faith in Alaric or Allalmawt or something because damn. But that was a great pay off. It does fully explain why the ghouls were having a hard time counting. According to Amarax, their souls being intertwined is why the wraith didn't know he was a phylactery. “I could walk into the sea, and cleanse your blackened stain from Malorum” “That would be a most selfless act, so I'm rather assured of my safety for the moment” LOL Alaric threatens to go to the Darklight Enclave, and Amarax says that would end with more pain than simply walking into the sea. He says that the wraiths “feed on suffering as he does blood”. I doubt that the wraiths need to consume pain to survive (unless they actually do), so what does that mean? In the same way that vampires can smell blood, the wraiths must be able to find and expand on suffering. It sounds like the classes may have a tarot option to draw on their unique resource. Rage for revenants, suffering for wraiths, blood for vampires. But it may not work out for everyone. What would the wight have? As I speculated in other posts, I think it would all be unique and different mechanics and not a fourth resource in the trinary. He proposes a trade, saying that he has fulfilled his end of the deal last time. Amarax points out that Alaric has gaps in his memory that he can't access, seemingly blocked by magick. He tells him that he knows the mark of the empyrean, and Alaric should let him help. Alaric doesn’t believe he can do anything to help, considering the liche was almost completely destroyed. Amarax believes letting the wraith destroy his vessels and most of his phylacteries was the best course of action, otherwise destroying all the wraiths after him would exact a greater cost. “Could you destroy them all?” Alaric asks. “Irrelevant. True power comes from the ability to plan ahead, not destroy.” Amarax replied. The mark of empyrean might just be magick that could be traced to that specific house. If it’s a literal mark in his brain anyone would recognize it. I believe Alaric could block out Amarax’s access to his thoughts/ memories if he knew how to do it, because he has a large amount of magick and Amarax says Alaric doesn’t know how to do that, not that he can’t. I believe Amarax could fight off the wraiths since he said the cost would be greater. But on his end, he lost all but his last phylactery. The cost of losing a bunch of wraiths would possibly be greater for Deadhaus and not worth the fight. Why are the wraiths trying to destroy Amarax? If he violated the Rituals, he would be knocked down a peg or two in the caste system by the Coven. But the Enclave is just trying to assassinate him. One of a two things are happening: since Amarax has violated many rules, it’s added up and his punishment is True Death. The wraiths are acting as enforcers of the Coven in this case. My main theory is that Alaric was considered a threat and once the Darklight Enclave found out about him still being alive because of Amarax’s intervention, they deemed Amarax a traitor. The Darklight Enclave has decided independently that he must be destroyed, without the knowledge of the rest of Deadhaus. Alaric is astonished that a giant spider is definitely not like a pillar. Amarax says words and names can have many meanings. He explains that the nine aspects of magick flow through Malorum, and the Pillars, which are the children of Malorum, are the manifestations of these aspects. They are both “titanic engines of magickal energy” and living creatures. Even small parts of their body give off tremendous energy. In the Necroliberatas it's said that the heavens are reflected in Malorum. I'm confident this is what that means. The Pillars reflect the heavens; the other Houses. I wonder if words having different meanings will mean anything for us in game. It could make for fun puzzles. I feel like I missed something somewhere because I thought that magick was part of the undead trinary. Material, Magickal, Essential. If we follow Varik’s octahedron, only one other House would share that. If instead it will be that all Houses share the same or similar trinary, I’m onboard with that. The Necroliberatas says that it’s possible the other Houses have their own three energies (Fragments). I think it could be true that a house has a unique energy called Despair and it’s synonymous with Magick. I also accept the possibility that I completely misunderstand the system. Alaric says he should’ve been warned about the Clatter-Clack. Amarax says that it’s called a Nameless Worm, because of its infusion with the Nameless aspect of magick. How did this worm become infused with the magick? Does the change reflect the kind of magick it was infused with, or simply any kind of magick will cause it to grow to a ginormous size? Amarax and Alaric (Alarax? Amaric? Are their names intentionally similar? Meta says "Amaric the Archpire") then start on building the nonary conflux. I’ll recount the instructions and ingredients. Always begin on the left side, which are the aspects of Chaos. Start here because order rises from chaos. What would happen if you started on the right side of a conflux? Or went in reverse order? I think the spell would just fail. I’m sure there’s other forms of casting that allow some flexibility. The second from top left is the Abyssal aspect, which is the domain of S’sa-Naraj. Six eyes are pointed downwards. Right the aspect of darkness. Eyes looking downward, unable to see. I get it. The right side are the aspects of Order. Second from top right is the Celestial aspect, and is the domain of El’Sabayoth. One heart. Alaric couldn’t figure out the other similarities between the heart and the sun, but I have another connection. The heart is in the center of the body, the sun is the center of a star system. Both the sun and the heart radiate life outwards; the sun through heat and light, the heart through blood. I don’t know what Amarax’s point was, but I think he was saying that poetry is made up of literary devices. Similes, metaphors, etc. You find what works though comparing the offering and the aspect. Top right is the Necrotic aspect, and is the domain of Allalmawt. One skull of Amarax’s former vessel. Was Amarax’s skull necessary because of his connection to undeath and Deadhaus? It would explain why Alaric wasn’t instructed to just use a random skull. Also I am a little surprised that the Necrotic aspect is on the side of Order, but I can see how everything returning to dust can be opposite to the Chaos of life. Across from Necrotic aspect is the Psychic aspect, and is the domain of Islirith. One head, brain intact. (b) Amarax refers to this as the counterpart to the Necrotic aspect… If we follow this pattern for all the aspects/ Houses, then the aspects and their counterparts are as follows: Abyssal and Celestial, Necrotic and Psychic, Arcane and Nameless, Temporal and Alchemical. Primordial stands alone. This spawns a red eye that follows Alaric. Creepy. Second from the bottom right is the Arcane aspect, and is the domain of Ohm. One brain, shaped into straight edges. Here Alaric asks if Amarax couldn’t have made the preparations before, to which he replies “You’ll have to forgive me; I was being torn apart by hundreds of chains.” what a comedian. Across from the Arcane aspect is the Nameless aspect, and is the domain of the Nameless God. Two tongues. Tongues for something without name. Very fitting. It also makes sense that the aspect of the unknowable and the aspect that represents knowledge and thought are counterparts. Bottom left is the Temporal aspect, and is the domain of Tlaquetlex. Two hands. Someone in the premiere chat immediately pointed out how that clocks have two hands. Pretty smart. The fact that the hands never reach the ground sounds like with enough power, someone using temporal Magick may be able to slow or stop time. Bottom right is the Alchemical aspect, and is the domain of Ourou. Blood. Amarax tells Alaric to extract his blood while he suppresses the blood’s ability to move away from wounds. I wonder if this may be used in game for vampires to use their blood for different things. It’s funny that Alaric has just realized his teeth are now fangs. Did they just get sharp? Center is the Primordial aspect, and is the domain of Malorum. Soul Gem. Connected all by bones in arcing lines. This is a super rough drawing of what the nonary conflux should look like. Resembling a spiral, all aspects connected to the primordial aspect and to their counterparts, no straight lines. I think some lines can be fixed to make it look better but I’ll save that for another time Amarax explains that “magick is meaning made manifest. Like flows to like”. The offerings don’t always have to be the same, just that they must have some meaning relevant to the aspect. However, the “semantic resonance” and the magick needed to cast a spell are inversely proportional. If the offerings had little to do with their respective aspects, it would take a greater amount of magick to cast a spell in this fashion, and vice versa. In theory, I could throw some things that are vaguely connected to their respective aspects into a nonary conflux, expend a large amount of magick, and have a completed spell. It sounds like a liche would have no trouble with a half-assed spell. The opposite must be true, where a revenant could cast a spell with very little magick using offerings with very high semantic resonance. Alaric recognizes the shape of the conflux from what he saw from Fort Zaestra. He wonders how the wights made it and what the purpose is. Amarax says that they probably did it the same way Alaric is doing it, with instruction. He tells him the conflux can do many things, but they will be using it to “rend the barrier between realms so they may pass”. I still don’t fully get what happened at the fort, but I believe an undead gave the wights the instruction to build a conflux for some unknown purpose. Before they finish, Amarax tells Alaric they will need a lantern and has him take a cage to hunt down the lost will-o-wisp. Alaric sprints in the direction of the wisp, with Amarax saying how disorienting it is to move at such high speeds. He stops to ask if Amarax could see with magick, then sprints before he could fully reply. He asks “what was that?” and sprints again before the liche can get anything out. I’m glad Alaric got something over Amarax haha. Alaric finds the wisp and has to catch it by hand, since Amarax is trying to keep from spending any magick. However, when he tries to catch it, it teleports away. Alaric smacks into the tree it was orbiting. Amarax says that “spiritual beings are not bound by the same laws of movement as material beings” and can’t simply run to catch it. It seems that wraiths and wisps are similar in the sense that they can simply teleport around. Alaric shoots a magic blast at the wisp, but misses that as well. Didn’t Amarax JUST say not to use magick to avoid attracting attention? Come on Alaric PAY ATTENTION haha. Amarax explains that the wisp is a lesser manifestation of the primordial aspect, and since like flows to like, it’s attracted to the trees because it can feel currents of the primordial aspect flowing through them. Alaric gets impatient and says “I feel another blast coming on” I laughed so hard here. Amarax instructs him to draw the sign of Malorum in the snow, then bury his feet. He then has him raise his arms into the air. Amarax then does something to cause the sign of Malorum to glow and Alaric’s blood to slow. Amarax tells him to stand still and let only the wind move him. He has him repeat the phrase “dig deep, drink water”. The wisp then comes to orbit Alaric. He could only force his arms slowly to catch the wisp, but it didn’t try to run. He was able to catch it. Afterwards, he looks at his hand and sees that a leaf has come out from underneath his thumb nail. My understanding of this is that by channeling primordial magick through his body, and embodying a tree, Alaric was seen as a tree by the wisp. Not only that, he must have started actually turning into a tree? This is what I was talking about, where Alaric’s vampiric transformation abilities are influenced to have some unique effects on his body. I don’t really see a normal human or a ghoul doing tree magick. This makes me curious as to how a player with a low magick character can catch a wisp in game. Here’s a little meme I made because why not. Before Alaric had time to recover, the shadows of a tree started stretching slowly towards him. The wraiths have found him. He races back to the circle. He slams the soul prism into the center of the conflux as the shadows lengthen around him and wraiths are just about to emerge. When he does, he hears the whisper of the giant spider, sees a bright green light, and then he hears the same sound as the crucible being in the open configuration. The light follows the lines connecting the aspects, lighting them up green with the necrotic aspect being brightest. That circle glows then expands to fill the enter conflux before creating a huge hole in the ground, where Alaric falls in. OKAY I really like that so far all the classes introduced thus far are so cool. Vampires get transformations, super speed and strength, and magick blasts. Liches are insanely difficult to kill and have huge amounts of magick available to their disposal. Wraiths can come from shadows, teleport, and use chains to attack. Ghouls can regenerate limbs, climb impossible surfaces, and spit acid or items. We haven’t seen much of what the wights can do besides snapping necks and not much at all about the revenants yet (this is ignoring the first season of radioplays). Where are they going? The purpose of the spell was to allow them to pass between realms. The prism is from the Pillar of Souls. The sound of the crucible, which was a soul prison, was heard emanating from the center. Bright green light shined out. The necrotic aspect expanded and created the hole. First theory is they are going wherever Amarax was during “Of Nightmares”. He had gotten the wisp lantern at that time. However, the Lore Stones are crafted by the Corpus Artificum. He also had a human with him. It was likely somewhere on Malorum, but we’re not sure yet. The second theory is that they are going to Ruina, the moon. Ruina is the celestial sphere of Allalmawt, representing Deadhaus. It would make sense for Amarax to flee to a place he’s familiar with but I think that interplanetary travel was the purpose of the Way Stones, as Varik pointed out. I am also assuming that he’s been there since he’s been alive for so long, but I have no idea what Ruina is like. My last theory is that by realms Amarax didn’t mean another world he meant a plane of existence. So the essential realm? Or some other place that houses souls? I’m really not certain. But yeah in this theory they are going to a soul place. This confuses me a little because I figured the wraiths are more comfortable than liches or vampires in dealing with anything soul-related. Considering how intelligent Amarax is, I'm sure he’s already considered this. That’s the end of the episode. The use of “rime” was appreciated because its such a good word. Better than just “frost” or “frozen” or “icy”. The youtube illustrations act as great visual aids, especially in this episode. The only real problem this time was the flashing. It's cool but a little harsh on the eyes. Denis warned the episode gets a bit esoteric but I can tell we all enjoyed it. The flow of the radioplays going between heavy action and heavy world-building/ story-telling works really well I think. There are some things that confused me, but it’s likely to be clarified in the future. I hope to compare my notes with the rest of the community to see what information they gleaned. My theory for the next episode is wherever they go, it will be dark. Amarax's only connection to the world right now is Alaric. They will have to be extremely careful. I'm hoping we will get a little closer to exploring the other realms of existence and the other forms of undead. Though if we follow the pattern of this season, we may see some combat next episode. Good luck Alaric the Tree Damned!

so.... i have one of my wild theory for the next radio play so.... Alaric is going to choose el sabyoth and sacrifce himself. and this may piss off a bunch of people because everyone loves alaric the character but this is to prove a point because something MORE interesting is going to happen and it all ties back to of nightmares maybe even back to the whole story behind alaric so heres the rabbit hole to make it all fit... Fetid Prince sees Alaric through the viewing portal... (according to Keeva there is no past there is no future there only is) Fetid Prince then plots his next play to start to unfold where Alarics story picks up... It may be happenstance but it is quite convenient that... -he was able to not only find and unlock two seperate waystones -the one with the banshee -the other with the Crucible -He was protected by Sigstrand until Thacea came into power, at which point he was guided into his role to become the grand inquistior to be able to do the things he did. -The Vampire blood he was given. -Old Blood (i can think of a few vampires Zorin, Kain, Fetid Prince) Should not have had that much mana in his blood. (Amerax)-Should not have been able to resist the hunger (Twice - Child, Prisoner) Aided 3 times by El Saboyoth - Child , prisoner , pilar The messenger for El Sayboth gave him his destiny - “THE EMBERS OF THE ALL-FIRE YET BURN ON MALORUM. THE GOLD WILL BE REKINDLED.” “HIDDEN BY THE FAITHFUL, GUARDED FROM THE HERETICS.” (Alaric hid the Crucible) “IT IS THY DESTINY.” “OF THY FLESH THOU SHALT GIVE TO THE GOLD, AND THUS SHALT THE DAWN COME.” (Dawn comes at Alarics Sacrifice) “WHEN THE SERPENT SWALLOWS THE SEED, WHEN THE FOUNTAIN SWALLOWS THE SUN, (take the crucible and fully open it deep within deadhaus teritory) I WILL RETURN AND BEAR THEE TO THY FATE. AMEN.” heres my twist... hes going to use the cruicible to try and take out the awakened. instead. Anyone else with any thoughts, opinions, (dis)argreements or other theories. before the next episode releases? Good, Bad or Otherwise... lets get some conversation going!

Very good analysis, indeed, it was a pleasure to read, and I love the jokes as well! Great job!

Very, very good analysis overall, Mortis. You had many sagacious insights.

The newest episode just released, and it’s a whopping 51 minutes long. This post is expected to be long as well. A few people said it did help with reading by color coding my personal thoughts, so I'll try that again. Spoilers ahead. This episode starts a few days after the last. Alaric begins by talking about Ustilia, Thacea, and the older civilizations. He mentions that these great civilizations were built on the bones of another. Considering how the rest of the episode goes, this is very much some old fashioned foreshadowing. Alaric feels his blood move with the sun as the days pass while he is imprisoned. It doesn’t seem all that important, but this gives a better understanding of the blood’s connection to the sun. When Alaric buried himself to avoid the sun, he was very near the surface. I assumed the blood had a hyper awareness of the heat and light. If he’s deep underground, the blood must have an otherworldly link to the sun. Alaric complains about the ghoul’s poor hospitality and lack of food, and Falk responds by upchucking a key and throwing in a human prisoner. I think Calypso said that the ghoul would more or less copy Alaric by starving him in the Deadman’s Cage, and he pretty much did. Hilarious to me. Falk bringing a key out from within was interesting to me. In the last episode, Alaric (while sliding) noticed the other ghouls in the mound carrying mouthfuls of dirt and other materials. Some carried large handfuls as well. The ghouls are not only very physically strong in undead terms, but they must be able to call up swallowed items at will. I’m wondering how this may tie into the game. Could this be the ghoul’s inventory system? “What’s that vamp? You need me to keep this vial of blood very safe? No problem.” Or, ghouls will be second to the Revenant in handling heavier tasks, like moving an item for a game objective. Alaric tries to talk to the man but sees him, gets scared and shuts down. Falk asks Alaric if he’s seen himself lately. From our point of view, Alaric looks more or less the same he’s always been, save for more angular features (maybe art style) and red eyes. To the man, he may appear more monstrous. If so, I’m surprised he does look that way already. Alaric is definitely young as far as vampires are concerned. Alaric then attempts to directly talk to the man, and accidentally uses some kind of vampiric magick to force him to answer his questions. The man tells him he’s a dreg from Jelrass, and his name was in the tithe. The ghouls were forcing him to eat human flesh. After he did so, he went to sleep, woke up, and saw a smiling monster looking at him. Alaric just compelled that poor man. This confirms another ability that even fledgling vampires get: hypnosis. And man, that voice change was so dramatic and cool. Alaric compares the man’s reaction to this ability to the chimes he used before. Alaric has been doing vampire things for a while haha. The man is from the outskirts of Jelrass, and as part of the contract between Deadhaus and Jelrass, was offered up to the undead. Now what confuses me here is that I thought Deadhaus wasn’t welcome. Or did Bo mean that vampires were not welcome in the mound whatsoever? This mound may be on better terms with Deadhaus after all. The ghouls are feeding people human flesh? Like forced cannibalism? Like cannibalism, the way ghouls are made? I have a feeling that this is how more ghouls are recruited into the war effort. That smiling creature that appears only after consuming flesh must be something really bad (or in our case, really good) and related to the ghouls. CyanStargazer called it the “Spirit of Hunger,'' and I think that sounds about right. We see more of that thing later. Alaric fights to keep himself from taking a bite of the prisoner, and prays that he can resist. And then he does. This is setting off some alarms for Falk, since vampires normally can’t “deny the thirst”. The two enter a room of resin-like material again. This time, the material is darker and rigid. Falk-ghoul forbids Alaric from entering the “sacred bile” in the center of the room because it will eat him, and then enters it himself. I happen to know a little about bees. The older a wax comb is, the darker it gets. By that logic, this place must be the oldest part of the mound. This could be where the first ghoul of the mound was spawned. Also will the sacred bile eat Alaric because he is unwelcome, or because ghouls have acid resistant bodies? The ghouls begin to let out a long guttural croaking sound. As they harmonize their singing, the bile starts to go from strange shapes and ripples to a rotating triangular spiral. Alaric’s blood begins to spin the same way, and he sees a smiling monster that the blood doesn’t recognize. So this is where I started getting excited in this episode. The sounds of the ghoul song is like this loud droning that acts as an interesting background for Alaric’s thoughts. It actually gets a little spooky when we see the “Spirit of Hunger” with their singing and Alaric says that the blood doesn’t recognize it and that it’s something older. Gave me goosebumps. If the blood doesn’t recognize this creature, it’s either it hasn’t remembered yet or a vampire (or this bloodline) hasn’t seen it before. The effect the ghoul song had on Alaric’s blood is weird, but not entirely surprising. The blood seems to react to a lot of things. Alaric asks what the purpose was with the singing, and Falk tells him that it's difficult to explain in Slowspeak. This will likely be something explained more in the game, as players with ghoul characters will definitely understand Ghoulspeak. Bo, Falk, and Alaric go down some caves that turn from resin to dirt and stone. They come upon a hole and Bo knocks Alaric in. He falls for a minute and lands softly, Alaric thinks to himself that he must be safe falling from any height, and questions why he didn't turn into mist. Nice to see this trio. I'm thinking Vampires will be 100% immune to fall damage within the game. The mist form must be triggered instinctually when the blood senses danger. Maybe the blood knew about Jelrass and wanted to keep Alaric safe and didn't sense danger in this case. Or, now that it's been used once, Alaric must trigger it manually. Alaric then looks around and see ash all around him, so much that the landscape looks like a desert. He remarks there's no dunes because of no wind, but odd shapes and ridges in the sand. He turns and looks at the wall behind him and notes it too large to be natural and too smooth to be made by man. I did not expect ash to be down here at all. What is it from? This place is really deep, and later we see that there's structures that are remnants of an older civilization. My assumption is that the place burned down many many years ago, and the ash hadn't gone back into the ecosystem. It was sort of spelled out but still. The writing here includes an amazing detail. There's no wind here, but shapes in the sand. We later learn it's from a large creature that resides down here, so if you put two and two together you'd figure it out before then. The wall being unnatural makes me think about how much of the world was previously sculpted. The ghouls are hesitant to join Alaric, and their reason is that this place is dangerous for ghouls. They explain vampire footsteps are light, so they are undetectable by the creatures down here. Alaric taunts them, and they eventually join him. The ghouls tell him that he must travel to protrusions in the ash and guide them there as everything smells like ash to them. Bo upchucks a spleen (large red bean) and says to squeeze it when he arrives to safety. If we visit this place in game, will it be safe for vampires traveling solo, and impossible for the ghouls? Will they just be invisible to us ghoul characters in-game? So many questions. Yet again, a ghoul throws up a valuable item. It'll happen one more time this episode. The ghouls tell Alaric to just come back to the World Gate if the ash starts to move, because the creature won't go near it. Alaric is shocked. That unnatural wall is the World Gate. The ghouls say that it goes all the way down. It was built by something whose “bones are dust and voices are whispers”. So my earlier estimates were more than wrong. The World Gate is unfathomably large. Miles. The doors of the gate were , so the doors must have been constructed in the last thousand or so years, and the gate itself was built many thousands of years before that. Built by something whose “voices are whispers”? Deadhaus Whispers? Built by Calypso and Mike??? Kidding. This could be interpreted as the long dead, built by man thousands and thousands of years ago. Their bones are dust, and what's left of their legacy is just whispers. The problem with that is that Alaric believes the walls are not man-made. The Pillars could have built them, which is the house of Malorum and the Gate is all that’s left. We really have no idea what they were like. Alaric goes to the first protrusion in the ash then squeezes the spleen. He realizes the protrusion is a chunk of stone masonry. The ghouls smell him, then Falk spits up something into the ash far from them and takes off towards the stone. Something moves under the ash towards the spit up. Falk tells Alaric it's called the Clatter-Clack and it clearly disturbs Bo. They have no idea what it is. And now Falk uses his ability to spit things up to distract the Clatter-Clack. I'm certain this will be a mechanic within the game. Ghouls use spit to attack from afar or create a distraction. The Clatter-Clack sounds like a funny name, but whatever it is freaks out ghouls. When I first watched it, I thought the name was based on the sounds it makes. Reckoned bones, stone or metal would make that sound. Alaric considers betraying the ghouls, Falk points out he won't get the soul prism. Alaric decides against it because he doesn't want to cut ties with Amarax and lose the knowledge he gets from him. I feel like this kind of breaks down the walls between him and Falk. After Alaric's imprisonment, they're now even. When Alaric asks what happened here, he gets this answer from the ghouls. “The Writhing Dark. An end of reign, where sleepless lie great stones unmade. The broken bones of cities slain, the ashes of a House betrayed.” This House was a Great House, “long, long ago.” Glad that even ghouls know the poetry that's so prevalent throughout this world. I forgot to mention that this area is called the Writhing Dark. Though I don’t know if it’s everywhere beneath the surface of Malorum or just this specific place. What the ghouls are saying sound to me that there was once a Great House here on Malorum. They ruled until they were betrayed and all of their cities were razed. What does “where sleepless lie great stones unmade” mean? Sleepless implies not dead, so what remains of this House is underground. Great stones unmade maybe means the stones of their civilization are breaking down. I have no clue. Alaric moves onto the next stone. He signals the ghouls, and Faulk throws out his bait. The clatter clack doesn’t move. They start to head towards Alaric carefully. After a third of the way to the next stone, the Clatter-clack starts chasing them. They run very quickly towards Alaric but the creature starts catching up to them. Bo turns towards it and charges. Falk makes it to the stone with Alaric. During their fight Bo gets his face mangled. He bolts towards the stone. Before he could make it, his legs got caught by the Clatter-clack. The Clatter-clack quickly wised up and baited the ghouls out. Bo bravely charged towards the Clatter-clack despite it making him shiver. I think it makes the most sense, because he’s armored. When he got caught I audibly said NOOOOOOOOO! I actually thought he was going to be killed off. Falk pulls on Bo and with Alaric’s help, pulls him free of his own legs. The Clatter-Clack then furiously causes the stone to start sinking. Falk tells Alaric to make a break for the center while he carries Bo. Alaric does his best to distract the creature by running with his hand in the ash. It works and he jumps away, only for it to start chasing the ghouls again. He gets between them and starts running with his hand in the ash again, only for his hand to get caught by it. He sees the creature and describes its shell as shimmery like oil on water. Falk spits towards his hand, which melts away his wrist and frees him. He runs away and sees the center they’re after. The creature is still after the ghouls so Alaric joins them. It bites down on Falks claw and he bites his claw off. Then it bites onto his arm. Alaric reaches out towards them and feels power run through his body and out of him, crashing into the Clatter-clack and freeing Falk. Alaric jumps up and does it again, defeating it. I really like how they work together here. Alaric tries protecting the ghouls and they help him. The youtube illustrations doesn’t show the Clatter-clack exactly how it's described, but this is how I imagine the shell looks. I’ll repeat it again because I think I’m funny. If Alaric had a silver coin for every time he lost his hand, he’d have two…and he would be dead. Falk using acid spit is very much a possible weapon. I’ll talk about weapons more in this next part. So… what was that power? I’ve been playing LoK: Blood Omen, and this reminds me of Kain’s Energy Bolt. This is much more powerful so it may not be the same, but damn did it remind me of spamming it at bandits in the first few hours playing. Alaric falls into the center, and Falk narrowly catches him while holding Bo. He tells Bo he needs a hand and bites off one of his and eats it. Falk’s hand regrows. He then eats both of Bo’s arms so that Falk can grow two more on his back. He then climbs down the wall safely. When he said he needed a hand I thought he meant he needed Bo to hold Alaric while he climbs. NOT EATING HIM. This brings me back to the weapons thought. This makes me think less and less that ghouls will get literal weapons but instead get upgrades to their bodies. Bone armor, +3 attack to claws, etc. If they need to become more deadly, they simply eat something to grow two arms on their back and now they have double damage. The ghouls and Alaric have an exchange of words. Good job, you took my hand off, Amarax forgot to mention a big scary monster. All three agree on one word “Liches.” They descend into a deeper area where an enormous dead city is revealed to them. After trying to mostly avoid the area, they get close to an etching that Alaric can see. He notes that they’re extremely similar to Amarax’s circle. Falk says they have to pass over the magick lines. According to him they’re not dangerous because “magick cannot speak among them”. Alaric crosses them and feels as though a blanket came over him. He notes that etchings must’ve protected them from magick, Bo says “or keep them from using it”. The interaction between the ghouls and Alaric here are ALMOST friendly. I specify almost because I am certain the ghouls would trade Alaric for some rib meat. But perhaps nothing less. If the etchings are similar, this could mean a few things. Amarax is from the time in which this city was alive, and used these etchings himself. They’re not the same because Amarax has changed them to suit his needs. The etchings could be a universal thing and all people experienced in magick uses these etchings. It’s also likely that Amarax has visited this area before in pursuit of knowledge and learned about this etching. It’s not clear why they were added, but a lot of speculation can be made depending on what you believe. If they did it themselves to keep themselves from doing magick, then it was for control. If they did it themselves to protect themselves, what magick were they keeping out? If someone else did it, it was to suppress them. As the trio gets nearer to their objective, a wraith appears. It points at Alaric. Falk says that he belongs to the mound. The wraith teleports to Alaric. Bo hisses at the wraith. It teleports to another side of Alaric. Falk moves toward the wraith, and it responds by backing away and preparing an attack with chains. Falk tells the wraith that it should go after Amarax, and it backs off. This must have been an assassin from the Darklight Enclave. I hoped that Alaric and Amarax had shaken them, but I guess not. Finally we get some wraith abilities!! Teleportation, chain manipulation, and maybe a shadow form? Wraiths must be insanely powerful to willingly appear in front of a vampire and 1 ½ ghouls with confidence. Also, was their magick still being suppressed or was the wraith’s abilities essence based? They descend further until they come across a dark green pillar. Alaric wonders if these are the Pillars of Malorum, and Falk confirms saying “they are the first, we are the last.” We find out this is a Pillar of Souls. Each pillar has it’s own magick. Falk warns to be extremely careful, or risk joining this Pillar of Souls. He says, “not even the weaver can unstitch you then”. Access the pillars for more magick, more power. If Alaric failed his task, that means not even Allalmawt could save him? Spooky. Alaric finds that the top of the pillar is thin enough to break off, and he does so carefully. It wasn’t quiet enough, and the floor began to open up. He begins to transform into mist as he’s falling, and lands on a rope. His transformation is suddenly stopped and finds himself stuck in the rope. He sees a massive spider and realizes that he’s in a web and the pillar was only part of the spider. Now, does his mist form get interrupted because his physical body got stuck before it could complete? The way it was described, it sounds like the web has anti-magick properties or something. The spider’s abdomen had a symbol that looked like a face in agony. Alaric starts to realize his place in the world as this massive spider with glowing green eyes gets close to his face. This Pillar is badass because I love spiders and I love the color green. I would like a spider to guard my phylactery please and thank you. The spider begins to speak to him, saying “lie still in the cold stream”. This causes his blood to slow down. I think this is some kind of magick. It said six words and completely weakened the captured Alaric. Alaric is almost eaten by the spider when he prays to El’Sabayoth, and is suddenly teleported in a flash of golden light. He finds himself in a grassy field in front of an angel. The angel tells him not to be afraid. He tells Alaric that he’s prayed three times and has answered three times. He prayed to not attack the child, he prayed to not attack the prisoner, and he prayed not to be eaten by the Pillar. The Messenger tells Alaric that the All-Fire hasn’t died yet on Malorum, and that it will come back. It’s hidden by followers of El’Sabayoth. He says “It is thy destiny, of thou flesh shalt give to the gold and thus shalt the dawn come.” The angel then says “When the serpent swallows the seed, when the fountain swallows the sun, I will return and bear thee to thy fate. Amen.” So much information here. We now know that Alaric didn’t attack the child. Amarax implied that he did so Amarax is willing to lie to Alaric. What else is he lying about? What else will he lie about? It sounds like the angel wants Alaric to throw himself onto the fire and bring it back. When the serpent swallows the seed. S’sa-Naraj? When the fountain swallows the sun. Ourou? But the title of the serpent is the Sun Eater.. This doesn’t make much sense to me yet. Here’s another question, is Allalmawt even aware all this is happening? Are they just watching Alaric pray to El’Sabyoth? My thoughts are that the ancient gods are extremely powerful but only so much can leak through at once. If Allalmawt wanted to stop Alaric from working with angels or humans or dragons, someone would have to specifically tell them “dear Allalmawt, Alaric is going to betray you and all of us. Strike him down. Amen.” Final thoughts. Episode was long but exciting the whole time. The sound of the spider was awesome. For the next episode. I predict Alaric will make his way back to Amarax and get more information on the world after this ghoulish adventure, as a treat.

We just got a huge lore drop for Deadhaus’ political system. We get to know a little bit more about Deadhaus itself and Ghouls. Spoilers ahead! This ended up a lot longer than expected. I'll mark things that have my own thoughts with colored text (excluding final thoughts). Let me know if it helps. To limit forum posts, if I have any big paragraph ideas I'll just add them as a comment here or in the discord. Factions Deadhaus is made up of factions (which all have awesome names): The Shambling Hordes This is the military of Deadhaus. It is mostly made up of the reanimated, which are created by a liche forcing a soul into a body, then they are compelled to fight by a liche. It also has revenants and ghouls. Alaric is told that the army is used sparingly because they are spread thin. I’m not at all surprised that liches serve as the commanders and means of producing more bodies to fight. I am surprised that their military forces are “spread thin” when there’s bodies everywhere, especially with the slaughter in Thacea. Is there any benefit to choosing one faction, or are we all a part of the horde? The Darklight Enclave A faction dedicated to getting information and performing assassinations. Made up mostly of wraiths. They spy on other factions as well. They also guard the Deadhaus gate silently. Alaric was supposed to be assassinated by the Enclave when it was suspected that he could see through Amarax’s eyes as well. Amarax has been concealing Alaric for the past two years, and has also concealed that Alaric did in fact see through his eyes. One thing really stood out to me here, other than finding out the reason for Alaric getting jumped by the wraith in Of Wraiths. When talking about the vision he had through Amarax’s eyes he says “...though this was in a dream, where mortals know truths unremembered in the waking world”. To me, this sounds like if a house was able to have control of dreams and dreams empowered them maybe Truth would be more accessible… And I guess wraiths ARE going to be assassins? Or assassins in lore, but have a different role in gameplay? Either way, I know they will be taking out major targets. The Faceless Court This is a vampire dominated faction, where vampires infiltrate enemies of Deadhaus. They often work with the Darklight Enclave, they mostly are used in subterfuge. Deceiving the enemy and spreading misinformation. They are responsible for the fall of Sigstrand and the Beltlands rebellion against northern provinces in the War of the Yoke. Here’s the biggest one: THEY ARE WHY THACEA SECEDED FROM USTILIA. This gives us another 100% confirmed vampire form: disguise. There’s no way vampires in the Court could achieve their objectives without disguises. In Blood Omen, Kain can use his human form to hide his monstrous visage. Vampires in DHS can 100% do the same. To me, them causing Thacea to secede from Ustilia is big. The Fetid Prince was ready and knew how to tear apart Empyrean presence on Malorum. Alaric wonders if anything would have changed if Thacea continued El’Sabayoth worship, and I’m betting the Court had something to do with them outlawing him. With lack of worshippers, they had less defenses against other houses. Corpus Artificum They are responsible for crafting and building, and also like to keep history which they see as a sacred duty. Any dead can join this faction, they just have to show some crafting ability. A faction dedicated to solely creating would easily be taken advantage of, but since they also keep history it's probably much more respected. As much as lore keeping and history sounds like a liche thing, I kind of doubt that they would do the labor. If there were liches within the faction, they may use servitors or lesser undead to do the work. Quick intermission in the faction talk, this is where Alaric mentions that Deadhaus keeps history in stone, specifically aevitaneum. This is the material that Way Stones are made from. Amarex tells Alaric that Deadhaus doesn’t know where the Way Stones come from. That means that despite being established for the last two hundred years and having a connection to their god through banshees, they haven’t figured it out. This doesn’t mean the other houses don’t know. It’s established that the Way Stones may bring you to “other celestial spheres”, and some can take you further. The ones that take you past the ninth sphere take you to where the aevitaneum can be harvested. That sounds like you have to leave the system to get the material. Do the undead have to deal with any creatures over there? Or even a civilization? Wow… Can Way Stones be used to travel to places within Malorum? That would explain how large groups of undead can be moved without opening the gates. Okay back to Corpus Artificum. They shape the aevitaneum into obelisks and engrave them with history, these are called Lore Stones. From the sounds of it, anybody can create one. However, you need magic to activate one and see the history. We see this when Amarax opens the Lore Stone in Of Nightmares. What I don’t get is why he used the man’s magick instead/as well as his own? Does it take that much energy to activate a lore stone? If so, it sounds like liches will have the least amount of trouble using one. Death’s Head Coven This is a faction of 12 banshees who convey Deadhaus’ religion, the Pale Doctrine. Other undead visit them to receive prophecies and instructions in the form of “ the rituals”. Alaric remarks the Rituals seem equivalent to law. The Coven will leave the temple if an undead violates the Rituals, and will immediately punish them. Violating the rituals strikes you down to a lower level of the caste system. If N’Gaztak is a king, is this some kind of theocratic monarchy? A religious government where a king or queen is the leader. It works out when you have connections to your god through banshees. Though, i’m not sure who holds more power here. I feel like the Coven is pretty powerful if they can single-handedly affect undead social status. Since the faction is only comprised of 12 banshees, that means its unlikely for players to be able to be a part of them, and can only support them. Unless they can act as lesser members, or take a position as one of the 12. Is Keeva one of the 12? Is she one of the Pentarchs? The Caste System The Sovereign are the highest in the caste system. They gain this status through different means, though it doesn’t matter so long as they make themselves especially valuable to deadhaus. They are the only ones who may sit at the head of a faction. They aren’t all equal and may be more powerful or have more authority than another. If players reach this point, does this give us more power in game? Is this reserved for certain players? If we start as sentients, then in an age I would expect to become sovereign. The Sentient These are self-aware, intelligent undead. They are protected by the rituals. I’m thinking players will start here, as they won’t be able to do anything as servitors. The Sevitors Undead that are mindless or too simple. If they are damaged, their owners are owed some restitution. If they hurt something else, it's the fault of the owner. How does ownership work with undead? I know that liches can raise zombies, but what about the other classes? Can I buy zombies from a liche? And what undead can be servitors? Will we see enslaved vampires? It feels like it would be possible since violating the rituals as a sentient can strip you of your will. It's also supposedly possible to move up from servitor to sentient through great effort. How do you force yourself to become self-aware? Or does someone guide you along? I also wonder what happens if a player violates the rituals? Can they be reduced to mindless undead? Imagine owning another player. Amarax remarks that he doesn’t remember who he was in life, and says man and woman are living concepts. But banshees are always female and revenants are always male. Why are revenants always male? Isn’t the main requirement to be wronged and to be really angry? Regardless of lore, I don't really like when games force you to be a certain sex or race when choosing a class. It takes away from you building your ideal character. Then again, more options means more for a smaller studio to figure out. Can't have it all. Amarax states that liches don't remember as mortals do, since they have no brain. Instead they use magick to bind memories to his consciousness. This could possibly be part of gameplay, where you can only remember so many spells at once. I wonder if a liche were to be drained of magick that it would cause them to lose consciousness or memory. This is where the Pentarchy is mentioned. It's a group of five undead who represent each faction. They decide the path of Deadhaus. This is intriguing because we already have banshees who give laws and instructions, then we have N’gaztak who is the undisputed leader, and now the Pentarchy. Theocratic meritocratic monarchy??? Amarax was offered both a position in the Pentarchy and as the head of a faction and declined both. Meaning it's possible to be a Pentarch without being in a faction if you are important enough. I also wonder if a player can become a Pentarch and how they may influence the game. “Pentarch Mortis, Eye of the Darklight Enclave” would be a cool title. It would also be super cool if players in the Pentarchy have a greater influence on missions and how Deadhaus as a game goes. The power may go to my head though. Alaric's Task Alaric is going to be sent to get a crystal called a Soul Prism. It's part of a Pillar of Malorum, which is underground. He's going to get a ghoul's help, but he will need to extract it himself as it needs to be a stealth mission. My theory is that there are extremely dangerous creatures underground, which we will no doubt see. Since we know that undead not within Deadhaus can and will attack. It's possible the hostiles are some bad undead that Alaric is ill-equipped to deal with. I mean he hasn't really fought anything yet. Since Amarax's main (known) goal is to defeat the Awakened, the soul prism is going to be a way to directly hurt them or a way to empower undead. Alaric then runs into a ghoul called Bo-Ghoul, who has a kind of bone armor growing from his body. I did a post on guessing how we may see ghoul customization and armor. This is something I had in mind. In game this will be our choice, but is this an uncontrollable mutation in lore? Maybe we get to find out later. Bo-Ghoul refuses to help Alaric even when he mentions Amarax or that he's there to help Deadhaus. It looks like this ghoul mound isn't in support of Deadhaus. Or, only ghouls are allowed, regardless of allegiance. The ghoul then captures Alaric and drags him through the mound. There we see a bunch of ghoul behaviors. And as some have noticed, they almost acted like a colony of bees or ants. Some ghouls are vomiting a waxy material on walls and floors. Some ghouls are carrying corpses, limbs, ore and other materials. They then store these body parts in cavities. For what? Storage? The other things are likely to be used to grow the mound. When Alaric meets up with Faulk-Ghoul, Bo-Ghoul speaks to him in clicks. Faulk asks him to do Slowspeak for Alaric, so the opposite must be Ghoulspeak. They have an actual language. But does that come from the ghouls or from the spirits that inhabit them? Meaning does the spirit give them knowledge of this language, or was it developed by ghouls over time? The ghouls then put Alaric in a cage made of Deadman's Iron. Super ironic considering this is the situation Faulk-Ghoul was in some time ago. Despite the ghouls knowing Amarax would give them an award for helping Alaric, they are considering eating him, since they haven't tried vampire before. Faulk says “the ghouls must sing” so I'm guessing they have to come to some kind of democratic decision. Either help Amarax or finally get a taste of vamp. Final Thoughts This episode had a lot of important information and finding out about factions is exciting for me. The new art direction is really cool. It reminds me of another game I love. Speaking of art, the AI seems like it's doing better. Less mistakes. Still some obvious ones like the figure standing in the middle of the mound. Seeing the factions, I already know I like the Darklight Enclave a lot. I hope I get to lead a small army as a liche in the Shambling Hordes. I have no idea how the faction system or the missions will work so I can't say which I will support more. I really like how much character the ghouls have. They can be really unintentionally funny. Alaric asked if he could walk and Bo just says “vampire can slide”. And Bo’s voice actor, Damon Alums, is AMAZING. I genuinely believe he is the best choice for Bo-Ghoul. It's so so cool hearing the ghouls talk to one another. Also if ghouls are behaving like they're in a colony, maybe there's a queen. And that would be nuts. What does a ghoul queen look like?? Dennis made the soul prism sound extremely important. If it's such a big deal, why have Alaric, who is a fledgling vampire, go after it himself? I'm thinking that Amarax is doing something that is frowned upon, or he's testing him. If this ties into gameplay at all, it'll be neat knowing Alaric also had to do the same fetch quest. If Alaric tries to fit into Deadhaus, I don't know if he would fit into any faction. So im curious if he'll go there or hide out with Amarax. Totally forgot to mention, Faulk-Ghoul says "so you finally know your name" in response to Alaric embracing Alaric the Damned. Is this an example of a true name? Was he somehow already aware of who he would become? Really odd... Alaric was right, one does not simply underestimate a ghoul. My prediction for the next episode is that a ghoul is going to try to take a bite out of Alaric and find out the hard way why it's against the rules to eat vampire. That, or he'll transform as part of his blood's reaction to getting attacked and defend himself. I don't think Amarax will intervene unless it really gets out of hand. The ghouls and Alaric might start their trip after the scuffle. I mean Alaric is being honest with him and Amarax will be angry if he dies.

Apocalypse has given us a new episode of Alaric’s journey.There's a lot that was revealed. Spoilers ahead! The dead’s territory is south of the Deadhaus gates. When the dead attack, the gates don't open nor do they use boats. A fog appears, and they come out of it. According to the Necroliberatas, humans have planeshifters who can effectively teleport entire armies. But the liches haven't figured out that magick. “Intervention of an Ancient is suspected”. So how is that possible? I have some ideas. The dead have allies that haven't been revealed, who help them move great armies. Like the dragons, who could transport by air. Another idea is that liches have another method of moving a lot of dead at once. Something similar to planeshifters perhaps. It's said they can do it at will, but maybe a liche needs a lot of set up before they can do anything like it. Alaric describes the gate as so large that standing at the base makes it just about impossible to see the arches. That's insanely big. That's as large or larger than America's Empire State building. Why do you need gates that big? To keep big things in? Or out? After sprinting to the top of the arches, he sees a city; the city of Jelrass. I didn't realize this before, but Jelrass is a Ustilian city. Probably the last of Ustilia. Are they aware of what's been happening outside of the gate? Deadhaus and Jelrass have a contract that says Jelrass gives them their dead and some of their living, and Deadhaus doesn't enter their city. That's a good contract I think. The Jelrassan people can defend themselves if the contract is violated (is what the liche says anyway). The last gameplay update showed us Jelrass as an interactive area. Now why would that area be created if the city is off limits? Does Jelrass refuse to pay the tithe at some point? I'm assuming they get attacked by Awakened and we (the players) are asked to help. Alaric jumps off the cliff and transforms into mist. Mist form! The first actual transformation of a vampire we've seen in the radio play. From what we can tell, it obeys the same rules as blood omen. It costs magick and you aren't able to fly, just able to ignore water and obstacles. Alaric has to be forced out of his mist form because he hasn't figured out how to leave it. The liche was surprised he was able to be in mist form so long and says that Alaric shouldn't have so much magick. In game, this will probably mean we can increase our maximum magick for stay in mist form for longer. Or, some players may innately get more magick than others. OR! Alaric is unique in some way. The liche, whose name is officially revealed as Amarax, says that the more a vampire feeds and the longer it exists, the more spells the blood will remember. It's pretty consistent with the idea that ancient vampires are stronger and long time players will have more power. Amarax says that “mist is the medium in which vampires reform themselves and in time may take other forms through it”. First, vampires can heal their physical bodies through mist form. Second, this implies that I'm order to transform, the process is vampire -> mist -> new form. The next part, Amarax starts dumping a bunch of information on Alaric as part of their pact. Amarax explains a lot about liches, which gets me excited. He explains that he is an Archliche, someone who has attained a great deal of knowledge. He, among others, are the top liches. He also explains that killing a liche depends on how much it knows. For some, it's as simple as destroying the body then destroying the phylactery. I believe this means that some liches have gained knowledge that force a would-be attacker to jump through more hoops. I haven't a clue what this would be. I guess they could have something like a curse that would trigger when the body is destroyed, so that you'd have to remove the curse before destroying a phylactery. He says liches may also have multiple phylacteries. I kind of expected that but it's super cool to know it's possible. I still haven't figured out how a phylactery or multiple would work within the game. I still think it'll behave as a respawn point. Afterwards, Amarax tells Alaric of the other powers they are against. He brings up the astrological map, showing the celestial bodies and what faction or house it represents. Haruspex, represented by an icon with curled horns. The Nameless God, whose house is Prodigium I'm pretty confident this is the demons. Mainly because of the horns. A haruspex is someone who reads prophecies from entrails of animals. Sacrificial things is pretty demonic. Coluber, represented by a snake. S’sa-Naraj, The Sun Eater, whose house is Thon. We know dragons exist, maybe they are grouped with serpents? Dragon, wurm, snakes? I wonder if we'll see anything like gorgons. I'll keep thinking of anything snake-like. Vesania, represented by a mad eye. Islirith, The Dreamer, whose house is The Awakened. This one I got right from a previous post. The Awakened take creatures and twist them into nasty monsters that are difficult to kill. At least the ghoul knew how to end them. Novisol, represented by spears radiating outwards. El’Sabayoth, The All-Fire, whose whose is Empyrean. This one is simple. El’Sabayoth is pretty much the Abrahamic god, written into the name. These are our angels, the holy creatures. Probably most aligned with humans. Inundo, represented by a wave. Uorou, only Uorou. I have no clue about this. Clearly it's a water based house. The god and the house is known as Uorou? So it's some kind of collective. My best guess is water elementals or something within the sea. Laterum, represented by a diamond shape. Ohm, The Many Sided, whose house is Machinarium. These are probably some kind of artificial creatures. If it's machines I don't know what to feel about that. I've always been of the belief that stories with magic shouldn't have guns or anything advanced. I don't even like the idea of artificers in D&D. However, some games do it right. WH 40K has magic in the world of machines. And you could technically consider the wight as a fleshy machine. Hmm…more information needed. Ruina, represented by the Deadhaus icon that we all love. Allalmawt, The Weaver, whose house is Deadhaus. In Arabic, Malak Al Mawt is the “angel of death”. Which is pretty similar. The god that represents our house is basically the avatar of death. I was told him being a spider (hence the title Weaver) was too on the nose. A spider god would have been sick lol. I am curious where the title comes from though. Malorum, The Twisted Mother, whose house in The Pillars I joked about this before, but what if the pillars are the giants? Unless this is a callback to blood omen, where the pillars are literal. I just realized Malorum literally means “evil”. Wonder what that's all about. Tlaquetlex, The Shattered, whose house is the Others. Amarax says they will arrive in time. In the Great Houses poem, is this the all-powerful center? How does he know they will arrive? Are they going to show by the end of the chronicles or will it be endgame content? I'm thinking the Others represent a player faction that is outside of normal gameplay, or a non-aligned house; powerful, but helps whoever they want. Amarax tells the story of the First War, and says that if all these followers of a house join in song, the path will open. This is our sonata. Honestly beautiful to think about. Overall, this was a fun episode. We got to see the wisp again. I'm a huge fan of the liches, and seeing Amarax basically steal Alaric's magick is something I hope to see in game. Also, the altar that they met at? What creatures did those spines belong to? So many questions!! Finally, with the houses revealed, we can stop saying dreamhaus and or angelhaus and call it by what it is. Predictions for next episode: The Contract ended with Amarax telling Alaric that the Awakened and Deadhaus are enemies. The whole reason Amarax wanted him there was so that they may work together to fight against the Awakened. In The Judged, we may see the core of Deadhaus. Alaric gets a chance to learn more about Deadhaus and their plans against the Awakened. Or, passing judgement sounds like an Empyrean thing. We may have another run in with angels.

These radioplays are getting so so good. The story is so compelling and so rich in information about the world. Like some others have mentioned, the sound effects in this radioplay are amazing. Insects, flesh tearing, groaning Wights. Also, I really appreciate how intelligent Alaric is. He did experiments when he first became a vampire, and he thinks things through. Then, tries to reason about the intentions of the liche and what he should do next. He really does seem deserving of the title grand inquisitor. Or was deserving I suppose. Apologies to the Apocalypse team about my last post. Someone mentioned that it could come off as demanding or stressful. That wasn’t the intention. So my understanding is that after the a little over 200 years ago, Thacea broke off from Ustilia. Deadhaus occupies what was once Ustilia. The temples there had golden flames, called the Allfire. The fires were part of El’sabyoth’s (if I got the spelling wrong let me know, going off youtube captions) will. The dead were used as kindling for the fires. But after the fall of Ustilia, the fires were said to be corrupted by necromancy. Since it’s an otherworldly fire, I’m curious what it does now. Does it empower deadhaus? The fires were used originally to destroy corpses and pass judgment on the dead, but maybe it could be used to destroy the awakened. Also, the image used on the youtube video for the radioplay had some wings on the Allfire when it was being described. Is El’sabyoth the/a deity of angelhaus? I’ll talk about that more later. We now know some pretty important things about vampires and their relationship with the sun. Firstly, we already know . So in game we will almost definitely be doing quests at night time, unless there’s some kind of mission modifier that has us struggling in sunlight. Then, we find out how the blood freaks out at dawn. It forces Alaric to dig into the ground and bury himself. The liche tells him that the sun cannot destroy him on its own. No burning and no sparkling as far as I can tell. So a fledgling vampire will probably react this way instinctually, and older vampires may be able to fight the fear. The liche says that the spell put on Alaric had protected him for “things he cannot guess”. So it’s possible that there were more things out to get him than he was aware of. I haven’t a clue either so maybe he’ll reveal more in the future. He also says that he knows how to destroy the awakened. I’m willing to bet some crimson cultist is talking to some poor soul right now saying “come with me, I know how to destroy the undead”. At some point, the liche calls Alaric “young”. The liche must be much older than him. I would call someone young if they were half my age or younger. So the liche must be 120 years old at the very least, since . Unless in “Of Nightmares” the liche wasn’t looking back in time, but revisiting a memory. Then he would be atleast 220 years old. Probably not important, but Bellar or some of the villagers still worshipped El’sabyoth despite it being outlawed. It was probably some of the very few worshippers. Explains why they disliked Thacean Empire. Unless Alaric is just too green at being a vampire, he can’t discern the smell of normal blood vs awakened blood. Unless the horse did not become awakened until after the dream. So what causes someone to become infected? Is it through a dream? Or consuming something? The horses can’t decide to become worshippers. This also opens up opportunities for us to see infected animals, so we might fight a crimson bear. Giant crimson spiders. It would create great opportunities for a mission to go sideways. Halfway through and you get surprise attacked by horses that unwrap themselves. So after a chunk of his shoulder gets ripped out, his body closes it up good as new. But then he starts feeling weak and stiff. Then he gets hit with a wave of hunger. It could be a coincidence, or healing takes a lot out of the blood. When he gets his hands on the deer and bites it, he notes that the blood seems to flow into his mouth by a force other than suction or gravity. I believe this is the first mention of the exsanguinate ability in the chronicles. There’s a few celestial bodies mentioned. The one that stood out the most to me is Visania. It’s a crimson star that is an “omen of terrible dreams”. This may represent the awakened faction (dreamhaus?). Alaric says El’sabyoth’s throne is on the sun. So these other bodies may represent the thrones of other deities or hauses. Now I’m not certain of this, but the map I have on world anvil shows Zaestra within deadhaus territory. Alaric says he needs to go through Zaestra to reach the gate. A couple of things could be happening here. The map could be incorrect because it’s a few years old, and probably needs an update. The map was overlooked when writing the script. Or everything is correct, and the gate is rebuilt after the undead retake the fort, and the map represents the events of the game which take place after Alaric’s chronicles. Honestly, it’s no big deal. Something I keep forgetting to mention. Alaric keeps blacking out and moving away from distress at incredible speeds. I think this is also the first mention of shapeshifting in the chronicles. I think Alaric is inadvertently transforming into something that gets him out of harm’s way. Just a theory. Okay last few parts are most exciting for me. So Alaric comes up to the fort, and says “hey it's me” and the wights let him in. Then he walks in and finds the guard’s corpses in the courtyard. Some are awakened, some seem normal. They’re mangled and arranged in a spiral form. Suddenly an entity of wings and eyes appears above him, shining light onto him.The blood panics. The entity forces him to kneel. I have some thoughts about this. So earlier I mentioned that El’sabyoth may be the deity of angelhaus (if any of this is clearly mentioned before, please tell me lol). I think this supports it because the creature was like a seraphim from the Abrahimic beliefs, an angel. This angel was shining light down on Alaric, which caused his blood to freak out like it was reacting to sunlight. So when the angel forced him to kneel, what obeyed? The blood of the damned, or the Follower of El’sabyoth? I’m also curious about how powerful the angels are. Is this one of the higher tier angels, or one of the weaker ones? Just a weak one can take over a fort and take down a fledgling vampire with no trouble. If players have to fight angels in game, I have no idea how vampires will cope. So Alaric blacks out again and is conscious a few hours later. He’s still kneeling, except the angel is gone and his wights are gone save for their cores. The cores were added to the spiral but the crucible’s power was gone from them. George had mentioned that the spirals may be portals. No other creature was there besides Alaric and the angel. The cores hold considerable power. My theory is that the angel destroyed the wights, took the cores and added them to the spiral. The cores were used to summon something, or open to a portal to allow something through. And either Alaric was spared because he was obedient or because it was crucial for him to be there and to live. When asked about the spiral, the liche says that spiral is something that shouldn’t be there. Meaning it's not possible, unexpected, or unwelcomed. Not possible: the angels shouldn’t be able to enter this area or Malorum right now. Unexpected: the angels aren’t expected to be engaging in any conflict at the moment. Unwelcomed: the fight is between the undead and the awakened, and the angels are interfering. Or if el’sabyoth is the angelhaus deity, and worship of him has been outlawed, then they have lost the war / game, and are cheating. Then again, the rules can be rewritten… My prediction for the next episode is Alaric ventures past the deadhaus gates, and officially meets N’gaztak after meeting with the liche.

I remember the Emperor was worried about them. Didn't Alaric send someone else to investigate or no? Ah wait, the Emperor's wife was also a cultist. They really couldn't have done anything. Still mad about the wights.

if you watch the last few episodes for season two. you will notice that there are no art visuals just rolling screens. If AI was used and I personally think it was, it was just to give something to look at rather than a static screen with a few lighting effects or traveling through a forest on a rolling loop. The radio plays are there to be listened to. the story is good because it does give us insight as to WHAT a vampire is and WHAT they are capable of. As far as investigating the Crimson Cult. They were mentioned in an earlier episode but Alarics lifes work was fighting the Undead so yes he ignored a "minor" threat to the north. though they were just ironically "sleepers" waiting to wake up and take the capitol quickly.

This is my full thoughts on the newest episode. Respond here or discord with your thoughts. I am extremely impressed by the direction of the chronicles thus far. Alaric goes to great lengths to discover any weaknesses the undead may have. He discovers how to make undead of his own. He then dies, and is resurrected as a vampire. The character of Alaric himself is well thought out as well. He has dealt with the undead all his life, and has dedicated at least 40 years to fighting them. He worked his way up to the grand inquisitor, through great intelligence and being courageous. Kudos to Jack and George, and anyone else who has been responsible for building up the story. When Alaric awakes, he’s unsure of himself or what exactly has transpired. I mean, he just died so of course he’ll be disoriented. Once he’s somewhat gathered himself, he leaves his lab turned grave. I think he has a huge lapse of judgment here. He left a large vat of vampire blood just sitting there. That was intentionally mentioned. My theory is that despite the differences between the awakened and the dead, the awakened will somehow utilize the vampire blood if they manage to find it. Perhaps they taint the blood, then feed it to someone to create some kind of dream vampire. This isn’t a fanged menace, it’s a monster that feeds on the dreams of sleeping people. It’s an idea, anyway. A lot of us have joked that this whole episode is like the vampire tutorial, and I fully agree. Funny sure, but Alaric is now experiencing things that were once fully impossible. As someone mentioned before, he went from struggling to work more than a few hours to walking miles without any effort. In this "tutorial", we learn that silver is more than just dangerous; it is blinding to fledgling vampires. Vampires have the ability to see in the dark, enhanced strength, enhanced mobility, and resistance to most physical injury. This is great for learning exactly what a vampire can do in this world. Alaric examining how the blood works from a scientific perspective is genuinely interesting. He experiments what is possible, and notes what the blood within him does. Oh, and that itself is cool. He says that he’s just wearing the skin of the old self. Then he says the blood is reacting to different things, and compelling him to move, as if he doesn’t have full control over his urges and instincts. Very interesting. Is this just something he learns to control and become? Or does his blood always behave as though it’s sentient? The creatures he comes across are weird. They act like a combination of religious zealots and a hivemind. And the red tendrils he comes across seem like an infection. What are they doing, what will be they doing? Will it just continue to spread? In game, this will make for interesting missions as we may need to push back the spread of the infection. Also, the creatures don’t seem to immediately die, even when decapitated. That is NOT good, because most things die when they are decapitated. So how will they be defeated? If it’s through direct combat, maybe it’s fire or something else that snuffs out infection. If not, maybe you have to take down some kind of node or destroy the tendrils so they lose their connection or strength and the monsters can finally be killed. I’m hoping Alaric is able to resist the hunger because it would be horrible if the first person he attacks is a child. Then again, this is supposed to be a very dark game. We will know in December. I forgot to mention, at some point he says he sees a vision of a pale woman on top of a burning temple. I fully believe this is our Red Lady. If so, then every vampire is aware of her upon turning. This could be where we start to get more lore for her, though I kind of hope we wait until the game. Now that some gushing about the episode is out of the way, I can talk about some dislikes. First off, the elephant. AI art was clearly used for at least some, if not most, of the art in the youtube radioplay. AI art is already controversial as it uses other artists’ work without permission to create an image, which can be passed off as your own. I don’t like it for this very reason. Some discord members have noted there isn’t much variation between the slides, speculating it’s possible the AI was trained with Apocalypse's own art. If that were the case, I believe it’s perfectly fine. The use of AI trained in their own style can save time in creating the radio shows, which I'm all for. However, I’m not confident about it. The other problem with the AI was the inconsistency with the story. Alaric said he saw 12, and the AI picture showed at least 20. Alaric was underground, then the art showed him emerging from a tower, overlooking some hills. Alaric’s hand was bitten off, then the next picture shows both hands. Honestly? This is just someone getting lazy. There is no way you watched this and thought it was 100% good to go. I believe this needs to be fixed and reposted. Once I noticed the AI art mistakes, I started getting pulled out of my immersion, and it killed a chunk of my enjoyment. Back to the AI controversy. AI is bad news for big studios and artists, it can be deadly for a small studio and a game that hasn’t even been released yet. What if there’s AI art in-game? Might as well kiss any money goodbye. Hopefully from here on, any AI is used sparingly, as it could really negatively impact the health of DHS. The other thing, which is less serious, is why wasn’t Alaric more prepared for this? Didn’t he send other inquisitors to investigate the cultists? Are you going to tell me they ALL died? No one had any clue about them? COME ONNN. Has Deadhaus seriously been such a threat, that everyone is completely blind to literally anything else? I’m hoping that some faction of humans are like “yeah actually we knew about the crimson cultists and decided to force them out of our towns and cities”. And every single wight was sent away to fight Deadhaus? No one said “let’s keep a few of the ridiculously powerful and useful zombies here just in case”? AHHH! Alaric you fool. Overall, this is a net positive. The story was good, the monsters are frightening, I liked hearing Alaric discover vampiric powers, and now we know for sure what Alaric looks like. The only real downside was the AI art. I’m excited for the next radioplay! As always, Apocalypse can and should use anything from my posts. I’m open to any conversation, just message me here or discord.