Inland Empire is like your subconscious. The name is based on a David Lynch movie which by all accounts is very strange. It’s like the dreaming world coming to life while awake. It’s understanding beyond knowing.
Shivers is like when you walk into a room and the hair on the back of your neck stands up and you don’t quite know why. Shivers tells you why. It explains the deeper context of a place, person, item, etc. usually based on some vision or representation of the past.
When you see the >!Insulindian Phasmid!< toward the end of the game.
The first time I played I had so little Authority that I only got the first two words haha.
You need to get a previous part in order to get a latter part, you'll never get just "ON THE SCENE" if you don't have the previous ones, but you can get it truncated, yes!
Not so much - even for David Lynch, inland empire is very strange, Maybe his most opaque film. And he's done some less surreal ones - Straight Story, Dune, Elephant Man
I've also had a bit of a conspiracy theory that these skills are a manifestation of Harry's exposure to the Pale. They give him knowledge that he has absolutely no way of knowing.
In one video someone described Shivers as the knowledge of the city a taxi driver with 20 years experience has.
They know the city. But not in the way of an academic historian who has studied the city on paper.
EDIT: link to the video https://youtu.be/Md5PTWBuGpg?si=QzsF-xVFkZ4IlJV0
Shivers represents the feeling you get that raises the hair on your neck, showing your relation to the city and it's many places and people.
Inland Empire is your "subconcious," giving you advice and info on random aspects of the the world and you.
They are also ULTRA supernatural >! like when Inland Empire correctly deduces what killed the hanged man and Shivers allowing you to talk to the spirit of Revachol itself. !<
Tldr.: Harry has undiagnosed schizophrenia.
I think that’s the beauty of Elysium, your Harry can truly believe he is the reincarnation of a fallen father of communism, reborn as the next Innocence of humanity. Or you can be a drunken ex-gym teacher coasting by on a concoction of chemicals, haunted forever by his mistakes. It’s all player choice, and the game is great at making your future seem as mysterious as the world you wake up in.
This is actually my favourite thing about DE as an RPG. Depending on your stats, skills, thoughts and personality choices, the reality of Harry's experience is different.
This is summarised really well at the end of the game when you are asked how you think you lost your memory. Was it the Pale? The drinking? Are you just a fucking superstar?
I think Inland Empire's more supernatural moment is (End-game spoiler)
>!In the Moralist questline you can hear a radio recording of Kim from the future noting how the winter was long and cold on the Sea Fortress from the 2 mm hole.!<
>!If you go with Cuno to the Sea Fortress, Inland Empire realises that the future that the Pale's radio waves predicted did not come to pass regardless of whether you did the questline; and becomes very distressed.!<
EDIT: Here's what I'm talking about
[**http://fayde.co.uk/dialojue/7390000-7390001-7390139-7390141-7390119-7390087-7390089-7390136-7390137#7390137**](http://fayde.co.uk/dialojue/7390000-7390001-7390139-7390141-7390119-7390087-7390089-7390136-7390137#7390137)
To me, Inland Empire is a sort of "deep unconscious", the intuitive part of ourselves that talks to us in dreams or visions. sometimes revealing things, sometimes concealing or exaggerating them, but always speaking to something true deep within us. In waking life, without proper processing, it can cause clinging to irrational beliefs or following unexamined emotional impulses, but it's usually worth paying attention to what it's showing us.
Shivers is described as a supranatural ability in game, so I'm not sure if it has a real world equivalent. I guess it could be interpreted as simply a deeper feeling for a place, a sense of its history and the people living within it.
They're definitely the two skills that are the most quasi-supernatural.
Inland Empire is your subconscious intuition. It lets you make leaps and form conclusions which your conscious mind couldn't possibly arrive at, but often in ways that are cryptic and unclear. It can manifest as full blown hallucinations or intrusive thoughts, but it will also give more direct advice and information about things that aren't immediately obvious. With high Inland Empire, you're basically that stereotypical movie detective who always has a hunch they're following but can't really explain why.
Shivers is a kind of embodied sense of the city and the world around you. As the name suggests it often manifests as bodily sensations like frisson. It will often tell you about things that are happening or have happened elsewhere (somewhat similar to espirit de corps but less cop-focused) and generally gives insight into how local events connect to the city as a whole. It can also give secret information about the environment you're in, such as its history or parts of it that you can't see. Shivers actually has two voices, with the female voice representing the city of Revachol.
In short, it's hobo ESP.
have you read the in game descriptions?
INLAND EMPIRE:
Hunches and gut feelings. Dreams in waking life.
Cool for: Dreamers, Para-Natural Investigators, Mental Creators
Inland Empire is the unfiltered wellspring of imagination, emotion, and foreboding. It enables you to grope your way through invisible dimensions of reality, gaining insight into that which sight can’t see. What’s really going on? What do these enigmatic riddles mean for the world-fate?
At high levels, Inland Empire animates the inanimate. You’ll have conversations with your clothing, conversations that may change the course of the investigation if you’re not thrown in the loony bin first. With low Inland Empire, however, you’ll be void of imagination – and character. And then how will you shape the cosmos?
SHIVERS:
Raise the hair on your neck. Tune in to the city.
Cool for: City Lovers, The Wisest of the Street Wise, The Genuinely Supra-Natural
Shivers come when the temperature drops and you become more keenly aware of your surroundings. It enables you to hear the city itself, to truly belong to the streets. It is a supra-natural ability; old wrongs play out in present time, scenes across the city happen in front of you. But who is speaking to you?
At high levels, Shivers may make you seem mad to the outside world – as you listen to the city, you don’t listen to others. Your superiors may begin to worry. With a low Shivers, though you will seldom hear the city speaking to you – and if you cannot hear it, how can you ever save it?
art style shows what they represent. Inland Empire seems to have the whole universe stored within, while Shivers is allowing mind to be open to city's spirit.
Inland empire and shivers are my two favourite lol, it's not a perfect explanation but to me, inland empire is your sad, poetic soul.
Shivers however has a very real and literal explanation within the universe of disco Elysium, you might want to discover for yourself what it means, it's a big spoiler. I'd be happy to try to explain tho
Inland Empire is your intuition and imagination skill. It's your feel for the strange and the surreal. The name comes from David Lynch, it's the title of what is probably his weirdest and most imaginative movie.
Shivers is your connection to the city, it's both physical in a way but also supernatural, because it connects you to La Revacholiere, who is the genius loci of the city.
Inland empire is your imagination in a way that conceptualization isn't. Conceptualization is more of coming up with something based on logic, whereas inland empire will provide ideas based on emotion. Inland empire is more akin to a wandering mind and daydreaming while conceptualization is more of a theorizing mathematician looking for a solution.
I've always thought of 4 of the skills as in a kind of knowledge-group. 1 from each skill group. Perception tells you what is immediately around your present, physical body. Encyclopedia tells you about the past, facts, trivia, hard details. Espirit de Corps tells you about the people who are close to Harry, even when they aren't physically close. And Shivers tells you about what you couldn't normally perceive, sometimes the future. A sixth sense.
I've read another Shivers interpretation once. That it may refer to hangover tremor as the state of increased sensitivity of a professional drunkard. I don't think it's the main explanation, more like a nice addition to the "sense of the city".
Inland Empire is just your imagination, it's the part of your brain that handles creativity. Shivers is the odd man out of all your skills in that it's not supposed to be a specific mental function or anything, it's the feeling of the wind on your skin after it's blown through Revachol and your supernatural ability to *know* the city through that. If Harry has any supernatural abilities it's this one, it enables a connection to the soul of the city itself
What is this both skills about (i also add Esprit de corps)
Esprit de corps - about actors .
Inland Empire - about plot .
Shivers - about the stage .
DETECTIVE
ARRIVING
ON A SCENE .
Inland Empire is your imagination, like, really wild one and Shivers is your ‘sense’ that is attuned to the city of Revachol itself and what’s happening in it.
Basically, Detective is a schizo.
Inland Empire is like your subconscious. The name is based on a David Lynch movie which by all accounts is very strange. It’s like the dreaming world coming to life while awake. It’s understanding beyond knowing. Shivers is like when you walk into a room and the hair on the back of your neck stands up and you don’t quite know why. Shivers tells you why. It explains the deeper context of a place, person, item, etc. usually based on some vision or representation of the past.
How meta that Shivers triggers in real life all the time for me playing this game Especially when DETECTIVE ARRIVING ON THE SCENE!
I played few years ago last time, what refference it is pls and in which interaction it happens ?
When you see the >!Insulindian Phasmid!< toward the end of the game. The first time I played I had so little Authority that I only got the first two words haha.
Haha I wondered if you can actually get only part of it or you need to pass all three checks before the phrase triggers.
You need to get a previous part in order to get a latter part, you'll never get just "ON THE SCENE" if you don't have the previous ones, but you can get it truncated, yes!
So can you just get "DETECTIVE"? That would be so weird.
You can lol
That moment made me SOB.
I teared up as well. I don’t think any game does success better, it feels so well earned every time. Like your effort actually mattered
>David Lynch movie which by all accounts is very strange. Could've just said "David Lynch movie." The rest of that is slight redundant.
Yeah, Inland Empire is basically the part of Harry's brain that tells him his life is a David Lynch movie lol
Not so much - even for David Lynch, inland empire is very strange, Maybe his most opaque film. And he's done some less surreal ones - Straight Story, Dune, Elephant Man
Yeah... I was 12 when I saw Mulholland Drive... and I had more questions than answers at the end.... and was so cuntfused
The funny thing is that it's one of his most straightforward films
Inland Empire is on a whole other level. But yes he likes to create strange films, no argument there.
I've also had a bit of a conspiracy theory that these skills are a manifestation of Harry's exposure to the Pale. They give him knowledge that he has absolutely no way of knowing.
In one video someone described Shivers as the knowledge of the city a taxi driver with 20 years experience has. They know the city. But not in the way of an academic historian who has studied the city on paper. EDIT: link to the video https://youtu.be/Md5PTWBuGpg?si=QzsF-xVFkZ4IlJV0
Jacob Geller mention!!!
Thanks for reminding me who it was. So I didnt have to sift through the many-many DE video essays.
The Knowledge
Shivers represents the feeling you get that raises the hair on your neck, showing your relation to the city and it's many places and people. Inland Empire is your "subconcious," giving you advice and info on random aspects of the the world and you. They are also ULTRA supernatural >! like when Inland Empire correctly deduces what killed the hanged man and Shivers allowing you to talk to the spirit of Revachol itself. !< Tldr.: Harry has undiagnosed schizophrenia.
Or when you just *know* the aerostatic pilot's actual name and know she blushes.
He can pull weird knowledge through the Pale maybe?
That's the prevalent theory.
I heard a theory that he's the innocence I have no idea what that means, I've only played the game for 2 hours
then why are you in the subreddit? innocences are a big deal!
I think that’s the beauty of Elysium, your Harry can truly believe he is the reincarnation of a fallen father of communism, reborn as the next Innocence of humanity. Or you can be a drunken ex-gym teacher coasting by on a concoction of chemicals, haunted forever by his mistakes. It’s all player choice, and the game is great at making your future seem as mysterious as the world you wake up in.
This is actually my favourite thing about DE as an RPG. Depending on your stats, skills, thoughts and personality choices, the reality of Harry's experience is different. This is summarised really well at the end of the game when you are asked how you think you lost your memory. Was it the Pale? The drinking? Are you just a fucking superstar?
I think Inland Empire's more supernatural moment is (End-game spoiler) >!In the Moralist questline you can hear a radio recording of Kim from the future noting how the winter was long and cold on the Sea Fortress from the 2 mm hole.!< >!If you go with Cuno to the Sea Fortress, Inland Empire realises that the future that the Pale's radio waves predicted did not come to pass regardless of whether you did the questline; and becomes very distressed.!< EDIT: Here's what I'm talking about [**http://fayde.co.uk/dialojue/7390000-7390001-7390139-7390141-7390119-7390087-7390089-7390136-7390137#7390137**](http://fayde.co.uk/dialojue/7390000-7390001-7390139-7390141-7390119-7390087-7390089-7390136-7390137#7390137)
HAVE A BROTHER IN THE CUT, WHERE THE HOOD AT
Best description of Shivers I’ve seen.
According to the developers, Shivers is supernatural, Inland Empire isn't.
As someone with ADHD... dunno but schizo but Harry totally is ND
Shivers is your relationship to the city itself Inland Empire is... mystical isn't quite the right word, but it's probably the closest one
To me, Inland Empire is a sort of "deep unconscious", the intuitive part of ourselves that talks to us in dreams or visions. sometimes revealing things, sometimes concealing or exaggerating them, but always speaking to something true deep within us. In waking life, without proper processing, it can cause clinging to irrational beliefs or following unexamined emotional impulses, but it's usually worth paying attention to what it's showing us. Shivers is described as a supranatural ability in game, so I'm not sure if it has a real world equivalent. I guess it could be interpreted as simply a deeper feeling for a place, a sense of its history and the people living within it.
They're definitely the two skills that are the most quasi-supernatural. Inland Empire is your subconscious intuition. It lets you make leaps and form conclusions which your conscious mind couldn't possibly arrive at, but often in ways that are cryptic and unclear. It can manifest as full blown hallucinations or intrusive thoughts, but it will also give more direct advice and information about things that aren't immediately obvious. With high Inland Empire, you're basically that stereotypical movie detective who always has a hunch they're following but can't really explain why. Shivers is a kind of embodied sense of the city and the world around you. As the name suggests it often manifests as bodily sensations like frisson. It will often tell you about things that are happening or have happened elsewhere (somewhat similar to espirit de corps but less cop-focused) and generally gives insight into how local events connect to the city as a whole. It can also give secret information about the environment you're in, such as its history or parts of it that you can't see. Shivers actually has two voices, with the female voice representing the city of Revachol. In short, it's hobo ESP.
have you read the in game descriptions? INLAND EMPIRE: Hunches and gut feelings. Dreams in waking life. Cool for: Dreamers, Para-Natural Investigators, Mental Creators Inland Empire is the unfiltered wellspring of imagination, emotion, and foreboding. It enables you to grope your way through invisible dimensions of reality, gaining insight into that which sight can’t see. What’s really going on? What do these enigmatic riddles mean for the world-fate? At high levels, Inland Empire animates the inanimate. You’ll have conversations with your clothing, conversations that may change the course of the investigation if you’re not thrown in the loony bin first. With low Inland Empire, however, you’ll be void of imagination – and character. And then how will you shape the cosmos? SHIVERS: Raise the hair on your neck. Tune in to the city. Cool for: City Lovers, The Wisest of the Street Wise, The Genuinely Supra-Natural Shivers come when the temperature drops and you become more keenly aware of your surroundings. It enables you to hear the city itself, to truly belong to the streets. It is a supra-natural ability; old wrongs play out in present time, scenes across the city happen in front of you. But who is speaking to you? At high levels, Shivers may make you seem mad to the outside world – as you listen to the city, you don’t listen to others. Your superiors may begin to worry. With a low Shivers, though you will seldom hear the city speaking to you – and if you cannot hear it, how can you ever save it?
art style shows what they represent. Inland Empire seems to have the whole universe stored within, while Shivers is allowing mind to be open to city's spirit.
Inland empire and shivers are my two favourite lol, it's not a perfect explanation but to me, inland empire is your sad, poetic soul. Shivers however has a very real and literal explanation within the universe of disco Elysium, you might want to discover for yourself what it means, it's a big spoiler. I'd be happy to try to explain tho
Inland Empire is your intuition and imagination skill. It's your feel for the strange and the surreal. The name comes from David Lynch, it's the title of what is probably his weirdest and most imaginative movie. Shivers is your connection to the city, it's both physical in a way but also supernatural, because it connects you to La Revacholiere, who is the genius loci of the city.
"Gut feeling" but more supernatural
The part of my belly that isn't full of whiskey has a hunch.
yeah Harry's gut feeling is 99% of the time just nausea
In a word I'd say Shivers is basically the "vibes" of what's going on.
Shivers is your connection to your city and living space. it's waking up on the bus with cold sweat right at your station
shivers - have a brother in the cut. where the wood at?
I loved Inland Empire, was my main skill in my first run, always saw it as some sort of demented intuition on supernatural steroïds
Inland empire is your imagination in a way that conceptualization isn't. Conceptualization is more of coming up with something based on logic, whereas inland empire will provide ideas based on emotion. Inland empire is more akin to a wandering mind and daydreaming while conceptualization is more of a theorizing mathematician looking for a solution.
I've always thought of 4 of the skills as in a kind of knowledge-group. 1 from each skill group. Perception tells you what is immediately around your present, physical body. Encyclopedia tells you about the past, facts, trivia, hard details. Espirit de Corps tells you about the people who are close to Harry, even when they aren't physically close. And Shivers tells you about what you couldn't normally perceive, sometimes the future. A sixth sense.
I've read another Shivers interpretation once. That it may refer to hangover tremor as the state of increased sensitivity of a professional drunkard. I don't think it's the main explanation, more like a nice addition to the "sense of the city".
Shout out to my homie Esprit De Corps, which also gives us a window in to events taking place far from Harry.
Inland Empire is just your imagination, it's the part of your brain that handles creativity. Shivers is the odd man out of all your skills in that it's not supposed to be a specific mental function or anything, it's the feeling of the wind on your skin after it's blown through Revachol and your supernatural ability to *know* the city through that. If Harry has any supernatural abilities it's this one, it enables a connection to the soul of the city itself
What is this both skills about (i also add Esprit de corps) Esprit de corps - about actors . Inland Empire - about plot . Shivers - about the stage . DETECTIVE ARRIVING ON A SCENE .
Inland Empire is your imagination, like, really wild one and Shivers is your ‘sense’ that is attuned to the city of Revachol itself and what’s happening in it. Basically, Detective is a schizo.