#misericorde: white wool and snow

[rainsoftenings]

misericorde volume 2 spoilers/theorizing

-considering the outbreak of dancing mania in linbarrow proper, i feel like we are guaranteed to have at least ONE nun at the abbey come down with it. i do not think it will be darcy because she already passed 2 days with no symptoms; my money is on either moira or adela since they're the only named characters depicted thus far dancing with hedwig, assuming hedwig won't contract it herself. tatiana does say that "the infirmerer" is confirmed to die by one of the swords in the 1983 section; maybe it was a mercy killing -also very disturbing to me that when hedwig asks abt whether or not anyone at the abbey has slept with flora, the youngest member at 19 (but who honestly acts younger imo), margaret and adela both say they wouldn't and catherine didnt either because flora came to them as a young girl and felt like their collective daughter. but moira says yes. and moira was involved with catherine's inner circle, which would mean she's someone who couldve taught flora the transportation sigil AND about scapulimancy -thinking about the black hair conversation in the baths. obviously it signifies that moira is more melancholy than she lets on, but im also wondering idly if she might not also have jewish ancestry and therefore have sympathized with catherine for that. im also wondering if hedwig might be ethnically jewish too considering eustace's insistence that the reason she was sealed in her cell is some kind of scandal, but points against this are the fact that she can't read hebrew (although considering she was a very small child of unclear social status she may not have been able to read at all) and. i will be the first to admit that not only am i not jewish myself i dont actually know what the deal was with jews in the holy roman empire at this point in history but i DO remember them still being persecuted a century later in pentiment, so i assume nothing good. someone who DOES know, please feel free to fact check me on this. but the hints at drowning in her backstory/the overcrowded boat suggests to me refugees attempting to flee to another country by sea -i remember someone else pointing out that moira knows how to cleanly amputate limbs and therefore presumably heads. and i feel like her story not aligning with margaret and eustace's is probably her means of throwing hedwig off her trail. that being said, tatiana saying that her kindness being suspicious is "a bit pat" is true, but i also feel like if she is not the culprit outright she is at least way more involved than she lets on -catherine's head was removed postmortem, we never actually SEE her body but we know she actually bled out from the two smaller stab wounds in her neck and side. moira helped attend to and bury her body iirc. she could have easily removed her scapula at this point in time. conflicting evidence: the scapula could be the small piece of the former superior crushed by the clocktower that was supposedly buried in the abbey cemetery -IF the sigil is actually magic, im beginning to wonder whether or not the armor making up the barghest costume controls its wearer against their will. that being said despite the metafictional aspect wrt 80s tatiana and eustace im not going to lean into "explicitly supernatural" theories just yet. it just feels to me like they're pulling a reverse version of that letter at the beginning of the name of the rose claiming that adso's testimony came from a real document... that coincidentally no one can find -speaking of tnotr, i fucking called the library fire. i knew there would be one, it feels like a requirement for murder mysteries set in an abbey at this point. eco's influence... -i really dont like the implications of hedwig's dormitory bed pillow being wet after moira sleeps in it + the crumbs that hedwig doesnt remember leaving in her cell but doesnt think much of. i dont know what they could be yet but again i'm assuming nothing good -i found the transgender eustace reveal very amusing. i dont have any meaningful commentary on it i just think it was a very funny twist

-addendum bc i forgot to add it: i wonder if flora's little knife was the implement used to kill catherine. it's either that or angela's dagger (which she mentions went missing recently but as we know angela has a confirmed alibi) but im leaning toward moira using it to kill catherine and giving it to flora as a dual means of giving her what she needed to create the sigil and to dispose of the evidence

[italianbeato]

[misericordevn]

Misericorde Volume Two: White Wool & Snow is out now on Steam!

[dualdeixis]

[Image description: Digital fanart of Octopath Traveler. There are full descriptions of all images under the cut. End image description.]

my favorite dressup game

[Image description: The first image shows busts of the eight travelers, who are split into two teams. "Team Technically Famous" has Primrose smirking, Therion leaning his cheek in his hand, Ophilia clasping her hands with a sheepish smile, and Olberic standing stoically. "Team Just Some Guy" has Cyrus pointing as he lectures, Hanít looking off to the side (while wearing a vararfeldur fastened with a bone needle and thread), Alfyn chatting animatedly, and Tressa pointing accusingly in front of her with her other hand making a fist (while her vest is decorated with blue embroidery).

The second image shows Yusrā and Primrose dancing together. Both are balancing on one leg with the other leg bent behind them, while they wave short golden scarves in their hands. Yusrā wears an 3iṣāba (a long, cloth headband that's knotted at the back), a loose blue tunic and trousers with gold trim, a gold waistscarf with a janbiyya tucked in, gold earrings and anklets with small red gems, and henna on her hands and feet.

The third image shows Therion as a starseer. He wears a dark indigo dress with puffy sleeves and a small white ruff beneath a silver apron and an off-shoulder cape. The apron has white embroidery featuring four-pointed stars and droplets. The inside of the cape is a very dark, glittering blue, while the outer side is white and has bright midnight blue embroidery, most prominently featuring a crescent moon patterned with foliage and two overlapping four-pointed stars. His scarf is wrapped around his head. He also wears a pearl necklace and earrings, a silver and blue agate belt with pearl rosaries that end in large blue tassels, engraved vambraces, and white boots. His sword is attached to his tool belt, and he additionally carries a blue misericorde and spear.

The final image shows Hanít sitting with her back facing the viewer, while Linde lies next to her. Hanít wears a bone needle in her hair, and Linde has long, tufted ears and visible fangs. The various notes read, "Elling woman-esque fancy hairdo (Záantá has done it like this her whole life). Linde resembles the wild snow leopards in the Frostlands. Linings are shaggy wool, like her vararfeldur." Next to busts of Hanít and Cyrus, the notes read, "Post-canon, Hanít gets a haircut and Cyrus gets a skystone bolo tie." End image description.]

[tomorrowedblog]

Misericorde Volume Two: White Wool & Snow is out today

Misericorde Volume Two: White Wool & Snow, the new game from XEECEE, is out today.

It wasn't long ago that the Mother Superior dragged her out of her cell, forcing Hedwig to break her oath to God as an Anchoress and face the outside world. Acting as a spy for the leader of Linbarrow Abbey, Hedwig was given one seemingly simple task: Discover who really murdered Sister Catherine.

Hedwig has tried her best, but she is no closer to solving the mystery. Things just keep getting more and more complicated: Why can't any of the Sisters give her a straight answer about what happened the night of the murder? Who--or what--is the mysterious figure that haunts the abbey? And just who was Sister Catherine?

In White Wool & Snow, Sister Hedwig must steel herself. Time is running out, and so is sympathy for her situation. It's understandable that being thrust into the waking world after a life of quiet reflection as an anchoress would require some adjustment, but if Hedwig wants to save an innocent man she will have to get serious fast. Can she navigate increasingly difficult social situations, maintain her cover, and make the progress the Superior demands?

[misericordevn]

Hi! Really enjoyed Misericorde, thank you so much for putting something like this out into the world. My question is - (vague spoilers ahead) Hedwig seems pretty well read, visions are mentioned at length with interest, and given Catherine's "moral" stance on the girls' "closeness," how much of the plot is inspired by documented accounts of female Christian mystics? Do any of the characters have thoughts or even an awareness of what's now vaguely termed as "erotic mysticism" (nuns describing sexual accounts with Jesus or "marrying" one another in place of Jesus)? Is that something that you were thinking of at all or read of in your writing for this? Sorry if this is so specific - it's just a weird topic I've always been interested in and was thinking of while reading, especially with White Wool and Snow!

This is a great question! I'll answer the parts that I can without spoiling anything from Volume Three.

A lot of Misericorde is definitely inspired by the writings (and interpretations of/arguments about) of several mystics like Hildegard and Kempe, as well as poets like Gwerful Mechain. As for how aware or specifically opinionated any of the characters besides Catherine are/were, that's primarily a "stay tuned!" question. I can say, at least, that this is absolutely something I've thought about at length writing the story.

There's a scene very early in Two that touches on this sort of obliquely. Hedwig sees her experiences and readings as net zero, while Eustace believes that she might be the most ideologically driven person in the convent. I think it's safe to say Hedwig's excitement about and acceptance of visions, her openness to the vaguely mystical, and even her tendency toward magical thinking stem from her supplemental readings.

[misericordevn]

volume two's name is "White Wool & Snow." how come volume one didn't have a specific name like that? :O

Because I only wanted to do one pretentious thing at a time! I'm joking (mostly). This is completely nonsensical just-for-me logic, but I think Misericorde: Volume One is already a bit of a mouthful of a title to put in front of someone for the first time; not to be too self-deprecating but spelling out the 'one' was my sybaritic titling choice for the first game.

Since Volume Two is for people who were already on board with Volume One, I figured I could get away with moving the colon and adding a cool sounding subtitle, since "Misericorde Volume X" is no longer New Information. Like any good Linbarrow nun I am managing my self-indulgence

[confusedbyinterface]

Volume Two's Steam page is live!