#dont read if your global i talk about major spoilers for upcoming chapters

[ihaveforgortoomany]

Full talking about CN spoilers up to current CN version 2.1 (full spoilers on 2.0, 1.9, 2.1)

This is going too smoothly isn't it. Too smoothly, for a game that loves pyrrhic victories such as 1.9.

Sure something might be happening to Matilda (please no spare the French duck), interesting that Eternity's relevance to the main story is coming from relations with Matlida's mother (So YoU HaVe A MoThEr lol) but for Vertin.

I mean having someone create illusions of your childhood friends to bring out your worst fear is terrifying but overall with the Storm Immunity umbrella Vertin now has means to save other more effectively now allows her to finally attempt to track down her mother or Urd specifically.

But this seems too smooth sailing for R1999 standards.

Ch.4 higher ups, the "doves" of the Foundation have taken notice of Vertin but nothing has come of this yet, someone called Ms Grace in the Manus is out for Vertin and in general with the Zeno officer the nuking of Arcana seems to have more complications than we initially thought.

Sure Arcana is dead (the Manus report) but the talk of the coming of someone, a saviour is suspicious as is Arcana rlly dead?

1.9 Arcana being Arcana refers to Vertin as a puppet, there's no fear as she gets literally nuked and we know Arcana specifically came to the island for Vertin (why? We get cut off but yeah why?)

The 2.0 patches so far with characters like Paulina clearly show that ANY name brought up by the voices may have relevance later (literally it was like Chapter 4 she was brought up and only a few months ago shes a central focus of the 2.0 story)

All Im getting at is something might be going very wrong in the next few patches, maybe 2.2 or later for Vertin, because this is Reverse 1999 and you can't tell me nothing is gonna go wrong.

[ihaveforgortoomany]

Rambling about the Manus in the 2.0 storyline (include Zeno here as well)

@actualarcanist since their post on Zeno anecdote pointed out something i havent noticed until now

Major spoilers for 1.9 onwards so do not read for Global players

Major Spoilers!

Arcana being "dead" (deffo that she is not entirely dead) was intended.

Up to 2.2 prior to its release we now have three groups that follow or are Manus:

Manus Vindicate: this is the main group led by Arcana and now Forget Me Not, he was in Vienna aiding in the acceleration of the 1914 Storm and attempting to recuit Isolde but fails. Now he works with Ms Grace and there goals are unclear

Order of Enlightenment: led by Sophia after the events of 1.9, with cult activities evident in Chicago in the 2.0 story and in Texas for the 2.1 one. I consider the Order kind of separate to the main Manus part since it seems their goal of "immortality" slightly deviates from the Manus' desire to return to the past, nevertheless are still part of Manus.

Apostles Brotherhood: this is the group based on Sao Paulo that likely will join the Order of Enlightenment in the 2.2 story, Moldir is likely the guy who puts on a mask in the PV might be the leader but so far no confirmation who Moldir is.

(Igor either is referring to Manus or just uses Manus as the umbrella term of all these groups)

The impact of Arcana's death and how I think the first organisation to be crippled or even destroyed by the Manus might be Zeno itself:

Arcana's death has been turned into a martyrdom by groups especially the Order of Enlightenment. She is likely the person refered to as the "Sufferer", by dying at the hands of Zeno and more namely Vertin. With her death, Manus and now the newly created Order of Enlightenment in her name now can act more covertly. (In 2.0 story had Matilda not gotten involved that Ceremony would have happen and led to disastrous consequences). It seems the plan out is to undermine the trust in the Foundation and specially Zeno, paint Vertin as the murderer of Arcana who "had promised to save them" (promise of returning to the past as a method of salvation) leading to groups like the Apostles Brotherhood to side with the Manus.

What about Zeno? 1.0 story did not give us much on Zeno, notably its only playable character being Lilya (Windsong by the time shes playable can be counted as a member of Laplace or field investigator, though this is unclear) and only Rayashki and the recent anecdote as information.

This is purely speculation but I believe Zeno despite having arcanists is purely reliant on arcanum arms to function, see Rayashki and the anecdote focus on the accumulation of arms and materials to replenish lost weaponry. It is likely due to the First Storm Zeno probably suffered)even more, explaining the only focus on Zeno so far has been on resource gathering at all costs.

Why do I think Zeno is in danger in 2.0 story? Stephen and the evacuation of a Zeno branch in Texas (again lack of translation I could be wrong) and the mutiny of the Zeno branch in Brazil. What if Zeno is in such a vulnerable position that the Manus has started to chip away at their loyalty like in characters like Stephen?

Tbh its hard to predict is going on with Zeno with characters like Lilya and Berolt, while Lilya I don't think is one-note and hey we might be getting more from her: it is very very clear she benefits from the strict and cruel system in Zeno, Berolt is the same in this regard.

Compared to Laplace (like 5 or more playable characters are from Laplace and even more NPCs like Engima) Zeno has little to build with so far which comes off as one-note. Hopefully with this patch and storyline we can get a better look at Zeno with characters like Igor and Lopera

(apparently they are related? Idk again Zeno with not much to work with yet, even storywise idk where we are going, all that is notable so far is the evacuation of some branches, they experiment on critters in Greenlake at one point, the "we work for the better good, lives are expendable" stuff, they seems the most separated from the lore in general, where are we going with them?)