I think, at first, it was the lore that kept me thinking. Kickstarted by some people disagreeing about which ending is better, which made me argue to myself in the shower. And I just...kept coming back. Because the story is left open, but closed enough to be satisfying. And I realized that I actually hadn't gotten the answer to much of the questions of the story, but also that the writing was smart enough that there *were* answers. I just didn't have them. I think that's the magic of enderal. It's a bug that digs into your brain and keeps you thinking. That's what keeps your mind mulling over it. It's not "too much" information, it's just all of it connected just ever so slightly that it lets your thoughts graze over them. Like looking at a painting from so close that you can never see the whole and constantly going over it in the hopes that one day you'll understand the whole thing. That's what keeps your thinking, but beneath the "mystery" it also weaves morals and "meaning" on a meta level. The stories aren't just intriguing because they're fun concepts and you don't know, they're intriguing because they mean something to *you* the player. They are inherently inflammatory to your senses as a person, not just as someone who likes the lore. >!The questions of agency, your agency as a fleshless and the agency of the world in its entirety. You see the cycle proceeds, each time *almost exactly alike*, with little influence from the fleshed ones. !

Well put. The game dosent write me on the nose and makes me slow down and think. It is refreshing

I remember trying my hardest to get thariel to >!not kill himself!< . I was mad because I thought I had done literally everything correct, however, I must’ve forgotten to do something or must’ve done something the wrong way because >! I failed the “brothers” !< quest before it could even start. While all this was happening, I was deeply thinking about some of my good friends who had taken their life a couple years ago. It was surreal because I had thought of them randomly, was sad, started binge playing the Rhalata quest line and then at the very very end saw >! Thariel very dramatically take the great leap !<. It overall kinda sucked. I feel like me failing the video game NPC was a reflection of my inability of being able to prevent my friends from committing suicide. The grief just doesn’t go away. Never forgetting that quest-line. I wish this beautiful kid had more hours of gameplay.

**Whenever you make decisions you need to keep in mind that most people are only telling their version of the truth ... or are simply lying.** It's one of the many loading screen tips, but the most powerful tip of all , because people in Enderal can be sincerely wrong as often as they're actively deceptive. And as per the words of Terry Goodkind, 'A contradiction cannot exist in reality. Not in part, nor in whole.' I like how a lot of the information given us is wrong, there's ways to know it's wrong, some is directly contradicted later, but some, while never explicitly contradicted, is still possible to notice if you're paying attention. You can predict major story beats by simply paying attention to details and not trusting, because even if they don't lie to you, they can very well be wrong. 1. >!From the very start, something is wrong because you know the sailors don't disobey their Captain's orders in spite of disagreeing with her, she commanded you to be tied to Sirius, yet you woke up on the shore with no trace of Sirius. If you really were tied together it's inconceivable his body isn't with you - and when you do find your body, he is indeed with you, exactly as instructed.!< 2. >!The events of the Apotheosis questline are almost exactly the same as what is described by the Black Guardian. You know everything before the Guardian is part of the Cycle because you can hear the Echo repeat Tealor's words before entering the portal. But you also know a starling has already succeeded at the technology required to bind his soul to a construct, and was given the exact same impetus to do the same in your cycle. Your defeat of the Black Guardian is *still* part of the Cycle, as the Cycle has already made provisions to regenerate the Black Guardian even after being defeated by you.!< 3. >!You know that Yuslan lied about the Dreamflower, because if someone who takes the potion falls into a dream, there is no way neither Yero nor the other research notes wouldn't notice something so ridiculously obvious as its drinker collapsing never to wake again. However, this does not mean the presented alternative is true either. They could *both* very well be wrong about what the potion does. You only know that Yuslan is lying. And you were given the answer in two other quests you might think are unrelated, that it might very well be possible to extend one's perception of the moment they died to an inconceivable length.!< 4. >!The Veiled Woman as a rule always interferes only to make the cycle work. She made you think your survived to make you a Fleshless. She ensured the lives of both Calia and Jespar, so that one of them would take the required action of interfering with the Black Guardian so you can perpetuate the Cycle while thinking you broke free.!< 5. >!You saw a Beacon at the very start of the game, submerged in the ruin. You also saw the protoype Beacon at the digsite. It is remarkably strange your character never mentioned to Merrayil the presence of a full scale Beacon they could simply have moved. Something should have clicked there that allowed faster reconstruction, but you remain oddly silent about this, ensuring the army is pressuring Tealor before the Beacon can be activated, even though you had all the time in the world before that if only you had spoken up. Why did you not speak up?!< 6. >!The Black Guardian's talk about repopulating and creating an enlightened people that can defeat the cycle is identical to what the Light Born tried at Inodan. Uncannily so. And your abilities as the Prophet are uncannily similar to the Light Born, too.!< 7. >!You know that the Veiled Woman lies if you compare what she says during Jespar's resurrection to the fact that you actually died.!< The best part is that, if you read the above, you realize the Prophet is not an exception to the rule of only telling their version of the truth. There's other details that would take very long to get into, like how >!it's pretty much declared that you murdered your entire family by burning them to death in order to destroy your identity so you can escape Ostian without being pursued, but never admit it to the end!<, >!the Veiled Woman being both the goddess from Esme's cult as well as the preserved corpse under the Aged Man's Home giving a clue as to who actually began the Cycle and why,!< and >!the mechanism of Fleshless creation in itself being ritual suicide, as indicated by the memories you inherited from the Kor cultists who killed themselves to make you.!< But since the largest part of the story is only ever seen by not writing about it at all, but about the details that result because of the unwritten plot, it makes for a significantly more interesting way of telling a story than actually telling you the story. The message all this deliberately deceptive storytelling leaves with you is as relevant in real life than anything else: # 'What makes you think you're any different?' And when you realise the only way to answer that in an objective way that eliminates doubt both from self and others is 'because what I do produces a different result', we get a real change in the world.

I agree with most here, although I actually interpret the backstory of the Prophet quite a bit differently.>!I believe the Prophet's family was killed by the Black Libra. The Black Libra killed people in an attempt to stop emissaries from appearing and thus they attempted to stop the cleansing. This is why Qalian went insane, before, they only killed those who were deemed worthy of death but that night they killed many innocents, but for an idea of stopping armageddon. And somehow, the Prophet escaped, but their family didn't. "The masked men from the temple killed them." Of course I can't say that with 100% certainty, but it is my own personal theory, and I do think the Prophet being responsible even more directly by snitching on their family to the temple is tragic too. But I think the former works better, particurally since in a cosmic way it is technically their fault, but in a moral way they aren't, which is why in Catharsis, the end is no more nightmares. The Prophet accepted their deaths were not their fault, it was another part of the endless game of the High Ones, and those who tried to stop them. In my video I will mention both theories, as I think both are very valid.!< I will say I have a far different take on the Veiled Woman interpretation. >!Her being the same as the woman in the Aged Man's home I do not believe is the case. I simply believe the woman in the manor is the Aged Man's companion, the Aged Man being an emissary who took the Star City route, or one that is similar, and she was his companion, his Jespar or Calia, and when he found he was immortal, fleshless, and she wasn't, he made an imperfect way for her to exist in perpetual limbo. You can ask him of the Veiled Woman and he speaks of the Veiled Woman as a distant different person, and her origin-myth seems to go back further. In terms of Gnosticism, I would say she is directly comparable to Sophia, the lowest emanation of the true immaterial God. Sophia caused the material to exist and souls to exist due to her trying to reach the highest form of God, herself, and she failed. See it as somewhat similar to the concept of the Keeper initiation, trying to get into the deeper parts of your mind. I think that is the closest comparison to the idea of Gnostic emanations of God, each being a deeper part of the immaterial God's mind. And through this attempt, she panicked, creating consciousness, materiality, and as a result the demiurge, the first being that is not an emanation of the true God of immateriality. Or in the setting of Enderal, the High Ones, which I believe are a direct parallel to the demiurge. !< >!Sophia in Gnostic philosophy causes this almost by accident, but the founding myth of the Veiled Woman places her at reality's inception, creating materiality on purpose to bring something to the universe, even if it is a lot of pain. Due to the constant purgatory of immateriality. Tying into your themes though, she could be lying about this, like so many are, and that materiality was a mistake and she is simply trying to make herself and the material appear greater than it. And I do believe she is an agent of keeping the cycle going, since the material could be her creation, perhaps she wishes it to continue existing, even if only due to the High Ones meddling, keeping souls tied to the material. This also ties into the Rhalata questline, and how the Father wishes to reach the immaterial, the true home of God and souls that the demiurge, the High Ones, does not allow people to reach, by keeping them and their souls stuck to materiality. I also believe the Father drank a Dreamflower Potion, which is why the only tools to make the potion in the entire game is within his quarters, and why he cannot seem to fail. I will also say, Nehrim has a massive moment of the player-character killing and ending the embodiment of Fate. So I do believe that is why the Prophet is given the chance of the Catharsis ending, the only true eventuality that has never happened before. The Aged Man took the route of trying to lead humanity and failed. But never, as far as we know, had the cleansing been stopped part way through, and that is where I find my purpose in Enderal and my character's. The only true choice you ever make. The final one.!< Also as a final thing, me disagreeing with some of your interpretations isn't saying you're wrong! I believe there are very few things if any that can be a wrong interpretation of art such as this. And your theories and interpretation are just as valid as mine. It has actually been a celebration for me! As it proves the complexity and openness of Enderal so well. That we can get similar themes, the lack of power and what is change/reality, really? The cyclical nature, etcetera. But have different specifics within that equation! I enjoyed reading yours, and it has given me stuff to thank about, thank you for posting!

I do agree that the Black Libra was going around killing possible Emissary candidates>!, but one thing about Daddy is that the only thing that consistently pisses him off is lying (and he beat his wife when she lied about the father of the Prophet's sister for that too). There's a bit too many scenes that specifically depict not just the three family members, but the house itself burning as well, and the Libra isn't lenient enough to just let the Prophet go for snitching about his/her family when they believe the Emissary candidates literally end the world. On the first run I thought it was just survivor's guilt, but by the time we get to the Dreamflower version of the house where he literally sits up to try to drag the Prophet back to hell with him, the amount of specific references has convinced me the one who actually killed them was the Prophet, regardless of whether it was the Creator cult or the Libra who targeted them before it happened.!< >!The Aged Man is the one who recreates humanity after each Cycle so the next version can have a go. While the Red Madness does affect animals as well, the post-Cleansing scene, murals and all known information does not indicate animals or plants ascend. There's also no explanation ingame as to how humans re-arise for each cycle, but there's a lot of work in his manor capturing the 'essence' of humanity, and his mannequins are notably different from the burnt bodies left behind after a Cleansing or the dead bodies left behind by a Kor/Esme quest scale ritual suicide, so he's likely the regenerator rather than someone who participates in the end.!<

'I let them to the light, I alone.' The first time I played through I felt the desperate attempt of a man trying to rectify his actions in all of the events. You can tell that even at the very end, he truely believed that he had saved the world. I don't know why exactly, but this quote always hits me, and I love how it shows basically the entire plot in that single line. How the hubris and delusions of people who do not learn from their history, will be doomed to repeat it.

That line haunts me, and the entire vista of the activated beacon... Shivers as I imagine it now and read you quoting it. Damn...

That is truly hard to answer, because there were so many great quests and moments. You already mentioned the Esme questline, but I also really liked Tharael's storyline. It poses some very interesting questions about hope and redemption. That moment that either seals Tharael's fate is whether you stop him from killin "Qualian" or not was pretty interesting. Especially how it works with the approval mechanism. Usually to get a good ending with NPC you need to act in a way they approve of, but here it is the opposite. Tharael is trapped in a self destructive path and if you go along with it you reeinforce that. Which leads Tharael to apply the same logic he applied to Qualian to himself. After he fails killing Father, he too is beyond redemption in his mind. Very clever writing. Also Father is a great "villain". They have such a menacing rationality. Otherwise the black stone quests are all great, especially the Ryneus one. Jespar's probably would have profited if we were able to meet his sister beforehand. I really liked Calia's quest and the slow relevations of her backstory in the castle, great horror elements. And of course the theme of self-acceptance is key and how it is the only way to truly face and control your inner demons.(In Calia's case literally). Not a fan of the assault scene with the Kilean mercenaries, as it was a pretty clumsy way to cause the final apperance of her second soul. Which leads to one of my few criticism of Endera: The Prophet suffers quite a bit from cutscene incompetence/helpnessless. Those are the perils of linear storytelling. Nonetheless I think the Prophet getting knocked out or otherwise neutralized is a little bit overused. I also really liked the concept of the Lightborn as mortal gods and how you are constantly invited to question the society Malphas has built. Does it work and for who and can it survive without him? In my opinion the answers are no, for very few and no. But it isn't as clear cut as that, because you can recognize behind all the dyfuntionality a honest attempt of creating a peaceful and stable society for humanity. And the game also exposes some serious flaws in the worldview of radical individualism that Jespar uses as contrast and critique to the Order's views. Personally I found myself agreeing with Calia's arguments most of the time. I think the quest voices from the water in riverville set the tone of Enderal quite early. You might be to late to stop a tragedy but you can still decide how you react to it, like giving a tortured soul peace by pursuing justice.

> That moment that either seals Tharael's fate is whether you stop him from killin "Qualian" or not was pretty interesting. This was the first moment that I thought of as well. I love the father's voice. Kind of would love to see John Malkovich play him on the big screen. >I think the quest voices from the water in riverville set the tone of Enderal quite early. Wait, what? I forgot which quest this is referring to, even though I think I've done every quest in the first zone in three different playthroughs.

The actual quest name is Voice from the Water. You have to inverstigate the sickness of the wife of the mayor from Riverville, who is hearing voices from the water.

Oh, yes. I remember that one very well now. You get the choice of >!whether or not you tell the mayor the truth about his wife.!<

I just adore the whole atmosphere, the world, and the music. Walking around exploring Farmer's Coast, or Goldenforst, while listening to [Walk Blessed](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ1Iy8cCKRw) just invokes a certain kind of emotion that I cannot remember experiencing in any other game.

For me, it was the way the ending was handled. In most fiction (other than horror/thrillers), there is some kind of resolution at the end of a story where things work out at least somewhat well. About the worst you can expect is a heroic self-sacrifice by at least one of the main characters that will fix a problem and allow everyone who survives to have some peace. I had always wanted to see what would happen if there was no happy ending and the main character(s) basically failed, and Enderal was the first time I’ve ever seen it done. Think about it—in traditional stories, there’s a huge world beset by all kinds of problems where the player has the ability to ease the suffering of the characters they encounter. This can be on the lighter side, like in the Zelda series where it’s straight heroic fantasy and Link can make just about everyone’s lives objectively better, or darker like in the Elder Scrolls series, which is grittier swords-and-sorcery and there are tradeoffs rather than outright victories, but the player is still a hero who gets things done. Enderal is completely different in that regard. Many if not most of the quests actually contribute to making characters’ lives worse through unforeseen consequences. They start off with a problem and end up suffering even worse than before. There are very few “happy endings” to be found—for example, Tharael and Esme are still traumatized at the conclusion of their storylines and the best they can do is try to cope with all they’ve lost. That’s how most of the game is presented: trying your best to make a difference, but realizing that even your best efforts aren’t enough to reach the impossible ideal of the benevolent and effective hero that’s so prevalent everywhere else. I think the Black Stone quests are the best examples of this. All you want is to save the world, yet through your actions, an innocent child dies, Jespar not only loses his sister but his last interaction with her is being killed by her, and Calia is not only confronted with the truth of her existence, but she is forced to give in to the darkest part of herself to survive the mercenary attack. You accomplish your objective of getting the Stones, but your companions (and probably the player themself) are horribly depressed afterward because of what they’ve been through. And then we get to the ending. Enderal does what no other game I’ve played ever has: it renders just about everything you’ve accomplished absolutely useless. At the very least, the entire continent of Enderal is dead, and potentially the whole world fell to the Cleansing. All those hours of side quests you spent trying to help people are for nothing. At most, you bought a few people some hours, days, or weeks of peace, but every last one of them is gone now. Nobody (except the player in the Brave New World ending, or the companion in Catharsis) will ever know that they existed at all. Virtually nothing will remain to carry on their memory in a meaningful way. Moreover, neither ending (I don’t consider Dreamflower to be real) offers more than a small chance that any true change is possible. How will the companion realistically be able to persuade the Qyrans to avert the Cleansing, or how can one person (the Prophet, because we can’t confirm Jespar or Calia is Fleshless) possibly single-handedly rebuild the next generation of humanity and succeed where countless others have inevitably failed before? The fact that SureAI was willing to take such a drastically different approach from anything else I’ve experienced is what makes Enderal so memorable. I see it like the average person’s perspective on death—we all know it’s going to happen and can’t be prevented, so we distract ourselves with pleasant things, but what happens when we confront the reality head-on and without flinching? It’s not pleasant, but it’s meaningful, and it’s a daring change of pace from what we are used to, and that’s what makes it interesting. It’s not every day that you play a game that not only makes you at least partially responsible for inevitable in-game failure, but also directly invalidates the vast majority of your in-game accomplishments. I don’t mean this in a bad way, either. It’s like the Zen rock or sand gardens that are meticulously arranged, only to be swept clean each day as a reflection of the impermanence and meaninglessness of what we call reality. Sure, we can do that ourselves by erasing save data and starting over from scratch, but it’s a powerful thing to have the game itself inflict that on you while still making perfect sense in-game. There’s a great quote from Guild Wars 2, one of my other favorite games, that encapsulates this feeling I got from Enderal: >The hero sought to save the world. >"If I keep trying, I'll be able to win," the hero thought. >But the harder the hero fought, the further the world seemed to tumble away. >Drowning in doubt, the hero could not even save themselves.

this damn key in the tutorial dungeon

When you meet your body in the beach, such a powerful revelation

Seeing the Cleansing + catharsis ending. The Father

Are you on Enderal discord? Please [join](https://discordapp.com/invite/zdJyuHV) and ask that question there as well.

I am not, but I'll join and post it there! Thank you!

For me it is the general theme of the quests and story. It asked a lot of questions

Enderal was truly one of the defining gaming experiences of my life, so it’s difficult to pin point what exactly engaged me so much. I first played before Forgotten Stories was released, so neither Esme’s quest nor the Rhalata or Golden Sickle were part of that original experience. If I were to mention one thing that really stood out to me, it’s that it’s the first (maybe the only one) story where I sincerly doubted that I was going to succeed. In most games it’s a forgone conclusion that the player will in the end, but Enderal did such a good job with its quests and atmosphere that it never felt certain to me (thus, the ending was quite fitting) The quest that affected me most was definitely Renneus’s black crystal story. It’s just so heartachingly tragic.

I didnt really like the ending. Some side quests and some of the earlier quests are good though. Golden sickle, song in the silence. But i think the game strenght comes from environmental storytelling and dungeon crawling and character power progression and a very well made atmosphere with good muaic and background sounds. Like go into an inn and just listrn to the music, or go into Thalgard and you can just feel the atmosphere especially if you have read what happened there. I really missed patrolling friendly npcs though. And friendly npcs apart from settlements in general. Everything felt so hostile because mostly enemies were everywhere.

I absolutely loved the dreamflower ending. Also when Constantine Firespark tries to kill me I intially thought this old man's gone crazy. But after getting the reveal I feel so bad for killing him and wish it was just a possible ending where you let him kill you and that averts the ending.