#Enderal

[lordmaddie]

Many things are horrible. Still, they happen. I've been replaying Enderal recently (my most favourite game). I last played before the Forgotten Memories edition, so there's stuff I haven't seen before. The Rhalâta questline fucked me up... Tharaêl left such an impression on me that I've been quite frankly possessed and feverish until I was able to draw this 😅

[dueliz]

If there’s anything Rory loves more than a gadget and a gizmo, it’s a man who knows his way around said gadgets and gizmos.

[enderalwitches]

Will the Cycle End? How will it end and why?

To avoid prolonging the suspense, we’ll answer the burning question right away: the Cycle will end. Will humanity — or whoever inhabits Vyn at that time — survive? That depends on many factors.

Now we’ll explain the conclusions we’ve reached. But just to emphasize: this article is based on lore assumptions. This is important to understand. Even though we’ve used a lot of obscure facts here.

Also, let us warn you that it’s quite a maze ahead. We’ll have to deal with the Sea of Eventualities, Black Stones, Red Madness, the High Ones, and connect information from all the games to attempt an analysis.

So let’s begin.

First, let’s mention the fact that the life cycle of any world in the universe is quite clearly defined and evident, judging by the lore of Nehrim. This is stated by Arkt and Sarantha, characters who have witnessed the end of at least one world — and perhaps even more, though we won’t speculate on the exact number.

Almost everything repeats itself, except that the Cleansing doesn’t happen. Any world simply dies. Its remnants end up in the dimension known as the "Shadow World" — a timeless place where no rebirths occur.

Thus died Irdor, the world from which Asatoron brought the Aeterna to Vyn. By the way, Asatoron had seen many different worlds. And only in Vyn did he sense something was wrong. He was the first, one could say, to understand the Cycle. Perhaps, however, before his madness, he didn’t have time to realize it to take any action. Or maybe it was such predestination that drove him insane? We do not know, and for this article, there is no need for us to make assumptions, at least on this topic.

Now, let's list all the necessary steps in the Cycle, so we have them in front of our eyes, and we will have to refer to this list more than once:

New inhabitants come to the empty world / life arises right on the spot.

Their civilization flourishes.

A cataclysm of undefined nature erases progress almost to zero.

After the "dark" years, a new order arises — Gods appear.

The Gods are killed by Someone.

The world is preparing to die. And dies.

Here ends the list for any world, but Vyn is not just any; it has the Cleansing. So here are a couple more steps:

The High Ones cast the Red Madness, and Emissaries appear.

The Beacon is built.

The "improper" launch triggers the Cleansing.

The quotation marks, of course, are not without reason. And also, not included in the list, but somewhere before the 5th step, an indefinite number of Black Stones is created. This is also a very important detail for the conclusions of this article.

Let’s talk about them. As is customary, the canons of the games don't quite match up. We studied everything to come to a version that combines the lore of all the games on this matter.

About the stones, we know that they appear at some stage of the Cycle, contain unhealthy magical energy, and feed it to the Beacon. According to the canon of Arktwend, the stones were created by Arkt, and according to the canon of Enderal — the Pyreans knew about this technology as well.

Let’s quote Lexil:

"In the old tablets you found in Old Dothulgrad, there is talk of "Black Embers", which are supposed to be some kind of energy supply for the Beacon. The Pyreans were talking about the Black Pearls. Old jewels, sometimes also known as "Black Stones". They appeared for the first time in the Golden Era and every self-important noble literally fought to get one in his possession. Apparently, they originated from Stormwend, the Old City in the heart of Arktwend."

That is, the developers did try to attach a hint of Arkt, whom they decided to avoid in Enderal. We do not criticize such a decision, knowing his history and powers. Such a character could very well have shattered the entire plot of the game. But at least he received an indirect mention, yay.

However, Arkt created far more stones than just three. The Pyreans’ “Black Embers” could have been more as well. From here, it’s a matter of speculation — did he use Pyrean technology or did he create everything himself? Does it really matter? No. But, judging by Lexil’s words about the homeland of the artifacts, we are indeed dealing with Arkt’s stones. So, the technology matches.

What’s important is what kind of energy is contained in them.

Let’s note that, according to the canons of Arktwend and Nehrim, at the time of the creation of the Black Stones, Arkt was far from being a positive character. And the stones drove (and continue to drive) their new owners mad. It’s hardly that the energy contained in the stones can be called light and pure. It’s either negative or chaos, which cannot be defined. And it doesn’t really matter to us which of these two is ultimately true. We only need a fragment, a sample of magical entropy, to create a “vaccine.”

Do we think we’ve managed to spark your interest? Before we explain, however, let’s reflect on some observations.

The reason for our interest and subsequent “investigation” was, strangely enough, the fauna of Nehrim. Players know, and for those who haven’t played, we’ll inform you that the local animals are afflicted by a certain disease: the beasts fall into a frenzy and attack everyone around. There is no quest to solve this issue, the lore is silent. That didn’t satisfy us, so we found the answer on our own.

Judging by the symptoms, the disease is very similar to the Red Madness. Except for the green flickering, but we’ll assume that’s a feature of Nehrim. However, with the Red Madness, there’s a “but�� — according to the list above, it occurs only after the death of the Gods. This is where we started digging and drawing conclusions on completely different topics, and the answer to the current question came much, much later. And the answer was quite obvious — the Nehrim’s Lightborn perished much earlier than the rest. Thanks to Narathzul. Clearly, one Erodan was enough to destabilize the magical background of at least the lands that belonged to him. However, this destabilization wasn’t enough to affect the minds of the people.

But from this arose the next question: if both beasts and humans fall victim to the Red Madness, how do they get infected? How does it reach them?

We surely know only one thing — the Red Madness is cast by the High Ones, and that’s their only direct influence on the Cycle, affecting the world of real things in some way. They cannot do anything else, except perhaps verbally humiliate the Prophet during rare rendezvous.

But they have access to something, some common “database,” where they selectively choose victims for the disease.

What is this “something”?

Here we make an assumption, a major and fundamental one for this article. We turn to the theory of magic in Vyn, reread the books, recall Tealor’s speeches. And we come to the following conclusion: the term “Sea of Eventualities” needs to be expanded.

Not much is known about the Sea, really. People with developed magical talent can look into neighbouring eventualities, i.e., parallel universes. And they can pull the necessary things from there into our world. It is also believed that Vyn itself once emerged from the Sea. However, the book theory of magic says nothing about the origin of magical talent. What determines it? Where does it come from? How is it developed?

We know that magical predisposition is inherited. Also, some magical seed can be planted in a rural fisherman, who, in a moment of stress, suddenly finds himself able to float above the ground or summon fire from the sky. And in his late years, he will also become a mage in this way. There is no consistency to it.

We also know that after the death of the Gods, many magically gifted people began to have the same dreams. And — Tealor tells us about some common subconscious, to which all living beings are “connected.”

This is where we expand the term "Sea of Eventualities" — we assume that it is responsible for all the paranormal phenomena in the world. We stop perceiving it exclusively as a window to parallel universes and think more complexly. After all, if it allows the manifestation of magic, then let it be responsible for the process from start to finish. There is nowhere else for magical talent to come from, right? We also define the common subconscious here. If mages are more open to its manifestations, then again, this is the domain of the Sea's influence.

Thus, we will continue to consider that living beings are, to one extent or another, “connected” to the Sea of Eventualities.

Strangely enough, the fact of the Cleansing supports this theory. Its destructive power affects people but not the surrounding world. It turns out that victims need to be somehow singled out to avoid burning forests and fields along the way. This is exactly where access to some common “database” of all living beings comes in handy. And its description can be found above in this paragraph.

And then comes the fun part: we will analyse in detail why the Sea could be responsible for the death of the world or the Cleansing.

Spoiler: it's still the humans' fault, but not directly because of their corruption that the Cycle ends. As if in the era of Asatoron or the age of the Lightborns, the situation with the sinfulness of the population was somehow different? That sounds ridiculous. There have always been antagonists doing evil, there have always been prideful ones, liars, and humanity’s essence didn't make any particularly impressive sinful leap that would provoke the Cleansing when it actually happens.

Yes, the game really wants to tell us that humans are to blame, "for not outrunning their shadow," as the Father puts it. We won’t argue, but rather explain this within the framework of this theory. Because it all turns out to be not quite what we tend to think.

It’s a popular belief on the web that, had the Prophet and the others done nothing, the Cleansing wouldn’t have happened. And that’s not true. The outcome would have been the same, or different — the death of the world. Because humanity’s corruption had ALREADY accumulated to a sufficient extent, the gods were ALREADY dead, and the world was ALREADY dying. The process is irreversible. Perhaps someone else would build the Beacon and trigger the Cleansing, or perhaps they wouldn’t have time. The end is ahead, and it’s clear.

But let’s focus on the "corruption" that is supposedly responsible for the Cleansing, as it is commonly believed. As we mentioned earlier, characters wishing to do anything but good didn’t suddenly start appearing right now, triggering the mechanism. You can start with Asatoron, for example. In his madness, he did terrible things, not only in Vyn. Let’s not delve into the pleasures of local star wars. However, we’ll mention Voran — the Starlings’ “star” — kicked to Vyn by them to stop Asatoron and his army — a necessary evil that worked as intended but also caused immense harm to the world and its magical balance. Later, after the dark age and the rise of the Lightborn, Vyn is tormented by demon invasions, continents turn into icy wastelands, they get magically infected again (and this is very important), they drown, collapse, and change order. All this is due to intelligent beings who wield magic and their corruption — the thirst for power, belief in their own exceptionalism, pride, and everything else. Humans and Aeterna cause immense harm to the world for millennia on end. Not only in the physical realm.

By the time of the events in Nehrim (the game), we are presented with the canonical fact that magical stability in Vyn must be artificially maintained. Otherwise, anomalies will spread across regions without human intervention.

The conclusion here is simple: if we have already decided to categorize all magical matters within the sphere of influence of the Sea of Eventualities, then — it "wears out." So much so that it allows the High Ones to reach the "connection point" with living beings, that very shared subconscious, and cause the Red Madness. This is a step in the Cycle, right after the death of the Lightborns.

The Gods, as well as the magical sanctuaries that are explained to us in Nehrim, can be classified as stabilizers of the Sea. Upon the death of one Erodan, the Red Madness reaches the weakest minds — animals. After the death of all the Gods, access to humans is also opened.

Here, we’d like to make a small remark and recall the Pyrean remedy for the Red Madness. As we were able to understand from the notes of the apothecary who was searching for the recipe — yes, the Pyreans were able to find a solution. But it didn’t just cure the disease, it literally wiped everything out from the patient’s head. The memories of a Pyrean child, which appeared to the apothecary as visions, made it absolutely clear: the poor soul had fallen into a very painful madness. We make the assumption that this potion severed his connection to the Sea. Which, it turns out, is necessary for humans to live and maintain their sanity. In other words, this kind of solution is definitely not the way out.

But what’s the way out?

Right, to launch the Beacon. It’s time to gather the puzzle pieces.

Earlier, we mentioned that the Beacon works as a kind of vaccine. It’s twice as complicated — a double vaccination.

In the case of being fed by the Black Stones, it will understand, absorbing their chaotic energy, that it needs to remove the same chaos from the Sea of Eventualities. This is necessary to return the Sea to a stable state and start a new Cycle. With or without humans — it’s all the same. Otherwise — the death of the world. The Cleansing is necessary and must happen.

So, how can we avoid the destruction of humanity? Yes, the solution must be the Numinos. The essence and selfhood of one of the High Ones, in order to destroy the rest.

But the High Ones aren’t directly responsible for the Cleansing, you might say? However, the goal is precisely to destroy them. They have access to the “database” of the living, and they could easily open the door to the “server room” for the Cleansing. In terms of immaterial things, there is no data about their powers and possibilities, so we came to this logic.

But if you make the "vaccine" double and mix in the essence of the High One, it will burn them along with the magical filth of the Sea of Eventualities, which is responsible for the death of worlds.

Is it that simple...?

Let’s assume it is, and we’ve decided on it. We can exhale.

But the main questions of the article are completely different. For now, we’ve only figured out the mechanism.

Let’s assume the Cleansing happens with the Numinos, as planned. Let’s assume that Tealor’s mission is a success. The High Ones are defeated, and the Sea of Eventualities is stabilized. Magical anomalies leave the long-forgotten islands and hefty chunks of continents. The Cycle is interrupted.

What do we have left, and where have we ended up?

Essentially, we are at the start of the Cycle. Only civilization is already formed, even though wars are ravaging the countries. The world is fine, it’s not planning to die again.

But there’s a “but.” The world remains stable only as long as civilization doesn’t pollute the Sea with magic again. Life in worlds without the Cycle is one-time and predictable. The death of the world is the final point for each of them.

Is there a solution...?

This is the area for even bolder guesses, but we’re not left entirely without logic. Let’s suppose that, without the High Ones looming above our heads, ready to “correct and expand” the direction of the Cleansing, humans could launch the Beacon without Numinos, in order to cleanse the Sea of chaotic magic. They would have to find the Black Stones or create new ones, but this is a small price to pay.

In that case — yes, both the Cycle and the death of the world are simply cancelled. The Cleansing would become a mandatory ritual, and the fate of immortal Vyn could serve as an example for other worlds. Perhaps it would be possible to share technologies. A beautiful and distant future couldn’t look better, agree? And with that, we think we can conclude this “branch.” Because there are others.

Let’s assume, for a moment, that the Cleansing is launched according to the “correct” plan, with Numinos, but humanity still perishes, just like every Cycle. What happens next? If we decide that Numinos will still help destroy the High Ones, the next Cycle won’t fear any Cleansing. It will simply be the last for Vyn, unless the new inhabitants figure out how to cleanse the Sea of their magic pollution and thus avoid the death of the world.

But what if we do nothing?

Yes, this is a very valid question to ask. By “nothing,” we mean leaving the ideas about the “successful” Cleansing. Let the Cycle repeat an endless number of times without change. What should we expect? We believe the Cycle will be interrupted even in that case. How? Let’s return to the question of the Sea of Eventualities.

We have material for observations, though it is very limited. We can compare at most two and a half — maximum — Cycles. The most obvious comparison would be between Pyra and “us.” So, the Pyreans achieved much more in the realm of magic. A simple example: they could transfer human souls into temples, massive structures. Our civilization has only reached… paintings. And simulacra. One might mention Kurmai with his Apotheosis, but the Starlings — the inhabitants of another world — have nothing to do with Vyn. The “half,” mentioned earlier, is the Black Guardian. The contraption he made for himself could also be considered an advanced technology compared to the achievements of our Cycle.

What conclusion can we draw?

The Sea of Eventualities is getting “shallower.” People have less magical talent, they achieve less, and progress in the realm of magic from Cycle to Cycle becomes increasingly scarce.

Why is this happening?

Because the Sea was originally designed to be one-time only. But it isn’t allowed to die naturally — it’s patched up and repaired with the Cleansing and made to work again. As we mentioned above, it wears out over time. And after X Cycles, we could very well find ourselves somewhere where magical progress won’t reach the formation of new Lightborn or their death. A civilization incapable of magic simply won’t be able to bring what remains of the Sea to its limit. The Cycle will freeze. And if the Lightborn are killed, but for some reason the incompetent civilization in terms of magic fails to set up and launch the Beacon, the world will die as it was originally designed. It turns out that, in this branch, Vyn’s fate is determined by a specific moment of weakness in its population.

We think it’s time to wrap this up. We’ve considered all the perspectives, excluding interference from the outside. If we were to also speculate about them, the logic of predictability would be thrown out the window.

For now — let’s remind you once again that all of the above is based on lore assumptions. But what kind of analysis would be possible without them in our fandom?

We thank you for your attention!

[perplexingly]

My thought was to draw Calia and Jespar akin to DA:I companion cards but they ended up being less abstract after all

[artsypatience]

My Calia art (posting it here bc it seems there's a little bit of the fandom here 🙈)

This has a color curve rework, original down here !

[howling-wizard]

tfw you meet a cute npc and hope that he has more missions later, and it turnes out you can romance him 🤯💘

[catrinenice]

Tharael | Enderal

[rpgchoices]

Useless rpgs recs. Videogames (not dating sims) where you play or you CAN play as a character who is wlw or mlm

Names and characters/explanations under cut (might contain minor spoilers):

Just a note, when I say romance I mean that there is actual story and plot related to it. Otehrwise for games like Fable or Skyrim (no romance) I will just write "Marry". For the romance games, a more detailed list of characters and romances can be found here.

Dragon Age Origins: You can romance Leliana (f) or Zevran (m) even with a character of their same gender

Dragon Age 2: You can romance all your companions (but Sebastian) indipendently from gender

Dragon Age Inquisition: You can romance Josephine (f) and Iron Bull (m) with any gender, and you can romance a lesbian character (Sera) or a gay character (Dorian)

Greedfall: You can romance Vasco (m) or Siora (f) with any gender

Dragon's Dogma: You can romance any character with any gender

Jade Empire: Sky (m) and Silk Fox (f) are romancable by any gender

Fable series: You can marry a character of your same gender

Skyrim: You can marry a character of your same gender

Enderal: You can romance Jasper (m) or Calia (f) as any gender

Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire: You can romance all your companions with any gender

Pendula Swing: The protagonist is canonically wlw, and you can romance male and female characetrs

Hero-U: The male protagonist can romance male characters too

Cyberpunk 2077: There are different flirts (female characters) that can be romanced by any gender, plus two full fledged romances a wlw and mlm one.

Expeditions: Viking: There is a female character (Roskva) and a male character (Ketill) who can be romanced by any gender.

Expeditions: Rome: There is a female character (Daianeira) and a male character (Caeso) who can be romanced by any gender.

Pathfinder Kingmaker: This game has multiple romances that can be romanced by characters of the same gender, mainly for wlw. Regongar is the one male character who can be romanced by any gender and also in a poly relationship with Octavia. Octavia, Kanerah, Kalikke, Nyrissa are the female characters romancable by any gender.

Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous: Similar to Kingmaker, there are multiple characters romancable by male or female protagonists.

Rogue Trader: One male character and two female characters can be romanced by any gender.

Gamedec: Ken Zhou is the only romance option in game and can be romanced by any gender.#

Black Geyser: The romances are minimal, but there are multiple female and female characters romancable by any gender.

Always sometimes monsters (and sequel): you choose both the gender of the protagonist and the one of the romance.

Divinity Original Sin: If you play alone you control two characters who can end up in a romance (not fully written, almost subtle) indipendently from their gender.

Divinity Original Sin 2: All the companions can be romanced by any gender.

Disco Elysium: If you choose specific dialogue choices it is revealed that the protagonist (Harry) is attracted to men.

Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, enhanced edition: The enhanced edition adds Dorn and Hexxat who can be romanced by the same gender.

Baldur's Gate Siege of Dragonspear: Two romance options are not gender locked.

Baldur's Gate 3: All the companions are romancable by any gender, plus there are some more flirts/less developed romances.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey: Multiple characters through the game are not gender locked for romance.

Eternal Home Floristry: You play as a gay man.

80 Days: The protagonist (a man) is clearly in love with a man, you can also romance a male character.

The Technomancer: You play as a male character, one of your romance option is mlm.

Sorcery!: If you play as a male character you can still romance Flanker, who is also a man and is the one romance option in the game. If you play as a female character there are some dialogue choices that can establish your character as wlw.

Knight Bewitched: The protagonists are two women in love.

Dreamfall The Longest Journey: One of the protagonists (Kian) is a gay man.

Dreamfall Chapters: Kian and Saga are respectively a gay man and a pansexual woman.

Newfound Courage: The protagonist is a gay boy, but also the whole game is about being queer.

Haven: You play as a couple of lovers, who can be two women or two men.

Fallout 4: Some of the romance options are not gender locked.

Morrowind: There is a mod to romance (links of all mods here).

Solstice: Visual novel but not dating sim, you play as two characters and one of them is a gay man.

Mass Effect Trilogy: multiple companions (nb, f or m) can be romanced with any gender.

Mass Effect Andromeda: multiple companions can be romanced wtih any gender.

Hades: The protagonist (the son of Hades) can romance a male character (and enter into a poly relationship).

Icewind Dale II: mods

Icewind Dale: mod (one male character who can be romanced by a male protagonist).

GAMES I FORGOT (EDIT):

The Red String Club: you play as two gay men who are a couple.

Please keep in mind that this is the post I constantly update:

[tiniestmousegirl]

the autism creature

[saurilashen]

[milton-chamberlain]

And I'm playing Enderal again

Now I'm plaing for a phasmalist again, this is my third prophet

They are from left to right: a psychologically unstable young scientist, a widow-huntress with the character of a caring mom and a rabid werewolf pirate

It's funny that I'm writing a little fan fiction on Enderal not about Tarael and the prophet-scientist, whom I ship, but with a huntress, because who but a wonderful woman with a big heart will help rehabilitate after such a shit

it's clearly not worth waiting for help from a dude with addictions and depression:/

[the-upper-shelf]

DA players looking at the gameplay vs DA players who also played Enderal

[nvoc]

[aasteraarts]

Hi guys!!! (○｀ 3′○)

I am just wildly delighted with this drawing! Σ>―(〃°ω°〃)♡→ (my heart beats very fast when I look at it), for several days I could not draw it (opening Krita I wanted to close it right away… A disgusting feeling to be honest (눈_눈)

I still can't admire Сalia with wings, she is just a work of art („ಡωಡ„)

P.S. Mmmm… I had some problems with loading my posts, hopefully that's resolved (¬_¬")

hehhere a little closer for a closer look

[perplexingly]

I wanted to improve that Letho drawing from the other day somewhat