verdanteffigy

[verdanteffigy]

Delilah’s “capture spirit and insinuate your will into your subject, whatever it is” art power is versatile and OP compared to every other Mark power we’ve seen.

Spoilers for the games and books

She can see, hear and speak through her statues (and according to loading screen tips she can at least see through her paintings, too) and in the Void they function almost exactly like Doppelganger.

She can mesmerize people (Timsh) to the point of obsession with her.

She can permanently possess people, albeit she needed Emily’s hair and the loom that spun her dresses to do it.

And her notes say the possession ritual has other applications like trapping someone’s soul in an object like a bowl of fruit.

She can open a portal to the Void and physically walk in it.

Post leeching the Outsider she can make painting monsters.

She can alter existing individuals, as that witch explained in Wyrmwood Deceit.

She can make entirely new people with their own minds.

She can alter/transpose all of reality with her own version of it.

It’s unknown how much of that she could do before becoming a parasite to the Outsider, but what we did see her do before that was still exceptional compared to the powers of Daud and Granny Rags and they were both marked before her.

[verdanteffigy]

Dishonoredloop (Deathloop spoilers)

Slabs and trinkets = Mark powers and bonecharms

Cabinets, dressers, and chairs from the Dishonored games return. A sewing machine with “Rosewine” on it is also in the Dunwall Archives. Antique dueling pistols with oil cartridges resemble guns from Dishonored.

One of the drawings (badly drawn Clockwork Soldiers?) you can find in Death of the Outsider can be found in the Dorsey Manor.

The Heritage shotgun has “DUNW” inscribed on it.

A recording of Drunken Whaler can be found and a note nearby says it sounds like something their grandma used to listen to.

Harriet mentions a Great Beyond, a place of emptiness, that she supposedly saw after surviving a plane crash. Which in Dishonored 2 there’s a note about people who accurately described the Void after suffering from near death experiences.

The loop/anomaly itself is possibly not entirely scientific as Harriet and Egor make an observation that Wenjie asked each Visionary to provide something of theirs, a talisman, to “personalize” the machine.

Fia dreams of rich occultists plotting the fate of the world. Inspiration for Charlie’s game in which he includes “scrimshaw gewgaws”. In Death of the Outsider, Cienfuegos had prophetic dreams of something in Shindaerey. And Fia’s dreams are more than just dreams, as her recordings and paintings of Visionaries change depending on what you did on the previous loop.

The mammoth found in Karl’s Bay looks nothing like a mammoth in reality so the setting either isn’t or not entirely based on our own world. The game also seems deliberately careful not to explicitly say if this “motherland” is Tyvia,  Russia, or some other fantasy Russia.

Read on a Bad Luck Mary plague in Updaam, there was a “Year of Empty Nets”. Possibly related to the Month of Nets.

A note found in Updaam at night in front of the library says Blackreef used to be a site for witch trials.

If you input the first code Egor found that is “unknown - external to island” into his machine, you can vaguely hear the sound of whales.

An Eternalist setting up the band’s stage in Updaam will talk about Joplins, a measure of electricity in this universe.

Aleksis’s statue is made of whalebone and he says whalebone is expensive these days.

“The Isles Official Mail!” is a magazine.

“Hearths 62″ can be found on a photograph.

(Supposedly, can’t confirm, just some screenshots floating around) Before the first patch of the game, gate locks had signs that said “Danger: You are now entering a Tyvia High Judge army installation”.

[verdanteffigy]

The Eyeless tattoo is more than just a tattoo

“That smell. What are they mixing these inks with?”

"I took the bait. Brought me to the baths. Fancy one. Now full of fighting and horror. Didn't care at first. Won a bit. A bit more. Said I'd make more if I fought dirty. My head. Felt like I was sleepwalking. Gave me the ink. Called me unstoppable. Till I had that one poor sod, under my fist... Wouldn't let me stop. It wasn't them, then. It was me. What they'd done to me. Them with no eyes. I ran. Back to the dust and grime. Can't breathe. Can't go back to who I was. Came back to bury myself where it started. Whoever finds this, don't take the ink. The Void will come."

[verdanteffigy]

I know it’s a stretch but with everything revealed so far in the trailers the connections between Dishonored and Deathloop are so close I want to believe they’re in the same universe so badly.

Deathloop spoilers

Blink, Domino, Semblance all make a return.

The slab thing that we use for powers looks like some Void shit, like refined Voidrite or something.

Metal trinkets imbued with whatever is powering the loop with supernatural abilities like double jumping = bonecharms.

I know the forces of science and supernatural are not mutually exclusive but using “supernatural” to describe these powers raises an alarm.

Visionaries = Envisioned?

Maybe the giant mechanism that seems responsible for the loop is using the power of Void Rifts and the universe of Deathloop is a potential future of the Dishonored world we know/alternate universe?

[verdanteffigy]

Reminded of the sheer comedy of high chaos Corvo knowing Jindosh’s type as “broken children who cut up cats to see how they worked”.

Then if you use the Heart on him she tells you that’s exactly what he did.

[verdanteffigy]

Does the Mark affect the world indirectly?

As in, does the Mark amplify the consequences of the wearer’s actions?

I know many things in high and low chaos are the fault of what we do in the game, like more bodies means the plague spreads faster and so too do bloodflies.

But what of changes in chaos that the wearer is highly unlikely to be responsible for?

The game makes it clear that our actions have consequences, positive and negative, and they ripple out across Dunwall and Karnaca. You can explain the differences of attitudes the NPCs have by saying someone you killed affected them in a negative away and they’re more on edge.

But then how do you explain things like a massive storm appearing over Kingsparrow Lighthouse in high chaos, while it doesn’t show up at all in low?

And this question gets a little iffy since you can choose not to be marked, but how is it that the docks of Karnaca change after achieving high chaos for a short time an entire isle away? NPCs are starting fights and bloodflies show up in places they wouldn’t in low.

[verdanteffigy]

I’m gonna guess the source of the Oracular Sisters’ visions is the effect of an Arcane Bond and the vast majority of them are unaware of it.

Gwen Horcroft, the founder, may have been marked by the Outsider and is possibly still alive or they’re using her marked hand like Paolo does with Granny’s but it spreads the gift of divination/scrying.

Rosewyn says this when you confront her,

“We cannot see past the moment when you breach the Void. Every hour our sight grows short. Only I have seen the method to our blindness. Only I have seen the knife in a dead boy’s heart.”

If not, I wonder why the Outsider’s passing would even affect them.

[verdanteffigy]

Spoilers for the Dishonored RPG

To the east of Gristol is a strait called the Strait of the Outsider. The Abbey insists on calling it the Strait of Storms.

"The Strait of the Outsider has a nasty reputation. Every ship that sails down it sinks. And no one knows why. Rumors abound. Some say that there's a witch who lives there, others that there's a doorway to the Void, and some folk claim that there's a sea monster there that eats boats."

[verdanteffigy]

Spoilers for the Dishonored RPG

"Between The Isles and Pandyssia, in the open ocean, lives a creature larger than the largest ship built by humans. It slides through the water, its back parting the waves. Some say it's a whale, though no known whale has ever come to close to its size. Others claim that it's a sea monster with tentacles. When it's seen, very little survives its destruction. Witnesses clinging to the floating debris of their ships and the occasional explorer in a fast boat with the winds and the tides in their favor are the only ones to come back with the tales of it. No one knows how many ships, lost at sea, fell victim to it.

Records going back to the beginning of the Empire mention a creature like it. Some of the ancient ruins seem to have depictions of it carved into the stone. Fishermen and whalers have story after story of seeing it in the distance, enormous splashes of water that shouldn't exist, whirlpools that appear and then vanish. Sailors attribute all sorts of maritime phenomena to it.

It's had many names through history. Behemoth. Titan. Outsider's Messenger. Today, they call it the Devourer.

Perhaps, the Devourer is just a figment of humanity's collective imagination, a way to explain away the unknown or inexplicable. A shared memory, going back generations. Perhaps it's real, though. What then?"

[verdanteffigy]

Spoilers for the Dishonored RPG

A spirit (or I’m guessing that’s what it is) exists that refers to itself as “an Outsider”. It comes in the form of a rat and offers to grant possession of an animal. Unlike Corvo’s Possession, you fall unconscious and seem to leave your body behind. The first time is free but additional times come at a cost.

It’s implied that its bite infects people with the rat plague.

[verdanteffigy]

Spoilers for the Dishonored RPG

This new lore about the Wynnedown Witches and Morley in general is good shit and everything I wanted.

I owe you my life, Harvey.

[verdanteffigy]

Spoilers for the Dishonored RPG

You guys want a canonical Outsider-worshipping holiday?

“Sterrenoct is said to be the highest holy day of the Outsider-worshipping people who occupied the ground of Dunwall long before the Empire was a despot’s dream.”

[verdanteffigy]

Magic in the Dishonored RPG

There’s a fuck ton of new lore and interesting things in the new Dishonored RPG, but what interests me most are all things arcane in it.

Below the cut are all the new powers and bonecharms described in the guide.

Activated Powers

Fog Caller: A thick fog rises from the ground around you, baffling foes and concealing your actions.

Eye Within: You see the souls of those around you laid bare, with their fears and intentions revealed to you.

Instead of rats, Devouring Swarm can come in the form of a swarm of other vermin like bloodflies or something similar.

Enhancements

Beast Whispers: You can communicate with a single type of animal. (Commonly rats, bloodflies, or similar vermin.) You can communicate with an animal of that type within reach, learning what they know about the nearby area or the movements of other creatures. As beasts have a different perspective of the world, the information they provide can often be cryptic or difficult to understand.

Dark Inspiration: You have an extraordinary talent for craft or artistry, heightened by the Void's touch upon your mind. Select a single one of your focuses with a creative application in mind. When you make a skill test which uses that focus, you gain one automatic success.

Dark Scrimshaw: You have peculiar insights into the ways of bonecharms and runes, allowing you to craft ones yourself.

Escape: You have a peculiar way of cheating death. To benefit from this power, you must have a shrine or other sanctuary you can return to. The first time you are killed, you can avoid death automatically. You transform into a swarm of animals, typically rats or bloodflies (chosen when you learn this enhancement) which attack whomever killed you and then disperse.  After the swarm disperses, you reappear at your shrine or sanctuary.

Glimpse Hollows: You can see places in the world which are cracked, where the Void leaks through. Through these cracks, you can see other times, other places, and other possible versions of reality.

Common/Corrupted Bonecharms

March of the Brave: The bonecharm's song entices you to take the initiative, to be more daring and decisive.

Cautious Tune: The bonecharm's melody invites patience and observation in the face of trouble.

Nil Whispers: The bonecharm progressively chokes the surrounding sounds as you draw closer to an Outsider Shrine.

Stinging Whistle: The bonecharm makes your enemies' ears ring after every hit.

Swift Arpeggio: The bonecharm's melody accompanies you, increasing your speed.

Rhyme of Remembrance: The bonecharm's strange shape entraps the sounds around it, which are echoed for many moons until fading out. If you put your ear close to it, you can hear everything said near the bonecharm during the last three months.

Serenade of the Rested Mind: The bonecharm's soothing melody gives you extraordinary focus.

Elusive Melody: The bonecharm's note rings when about to be hit, prompting you to dodge.

Soothing Call: The bonecharm's voice soothes, restoring your wits and your vitality when facing adversity.

Rock's Rumble: The bonecharm's deep rumbling toughens you, making you hardier and more resistant to pain and injury.

Void Step: The bonecharm's grasp mutes your walk.

Black/Corrupted Bonecharms

Feral Cacophony: The bonecharm sings an otherworldly tune that reshapes reality. When a ranged attack would inflict you with stress, you may pay 1 Momentum per stress point received to deny it, transforming each Momentum into a vermin creature (a rat, a bloodfly, or similar) moments before it hits you. Creatures spawned in this way flee the scene immediately.

Fragment of Elmira: The bonecharm, when worn, whispers to the wearer in the voice of a woman. It entices them to follow her directions, which always lead to places where silver can be found.

Void's Seedling: This unique bonecharm holds within a proto-sentience, a failed attempt from the Void to take form. It inhales and exhales light, and when in enclosed spaces you can see it dim all light sources, just to see them flicker into full force for a few seconds.This is repeated constantly, with a breathing sound echoing subtly in the air.

Wrathful Scream: The bonecharm's scream empowers you when you push your limit, weaponizing your anger.

Song of Inspiration: The bonecharm's song adapts to your circumstances, like a muse, evoking ideas at the most convenient times. It seems to give you the opportunities that make your plans pay off.

Hunter's Hum: The bonecharm's hum becomes loud in your mind as you focus on the target.

Chameleon's Call: The bonecharm imitates the calling of nearby beasts, confusing them.

Blood-starved Crescendo: The bonecharm produces a drumming sound that becomes louder when blood is spilled. Your heart rate increases alongside it, and you feel energized by the rhythm.

Yearning of the Leviathan: The bonecharm resonates with the singing of whales, and attracts them when submerged in large body of water. If kept within one's mouth, it allows the bearer to breathe underwater.

Choir of Silence: The bonecharm drinks the sounds that surround it, making your actions all the more discreet.

Ellison's Creature: This unique bonecharm holds within a primeval sentience, which yearns to speak. You may avoid death by using this charm. While doing so, the charm sinks beneath the skin of your neck, stealing your voice.

(Corrupted Drawbacks)

Crude Carving: This bonecharm's carvings are irregular, and seem to have been made without much care. The bonecharm's power only works after dusk, and before dawn.

Darkened Edges: The bonecharm's power spreads doubt and discord.

Splintered Bone: The bonecharm's key material hasn't been treated properly and so it tends to subtly alter the wearer's fate as a form of revenge.

Scarred Surface: The bonecharm is cracked, probably due to damage suffering during the creation process. At midnight, for about an hour, it bleeds a black, ink-like liquid that stains clothes and any surfaces it touches.

Overcharged: The bonecharm is unnaturally heavy, most likely due to the excess amount of ingredients when being created. It weighs about six pounds.

Kinseeker: The bonecharm has a series of tiny, sharp dents in its base. When worn, the dents sink in your flesh, yearning to fuse with your bones.

Stained Bone: The bonecharm was stained, showcasing a strange tint as a result of the creation process. Wearing it for a couple hours makes it so that you start to look pale - even sick - which in turn restores the charm of its natural bone white tint.

Life's Miracle: When created, the bonecharm was covered with flesh, veins and cartilage. Every night, if left unchecked, the tissue grows rapidly. After three sessions, the bonecharm will have morphed into an embryo of the bone's species (a wolf, dog, bear, or a whale depending on its precedent), in which case the bonecharm will be no more.

[verdanteffigy]

What was Billie’s follow up plan after killing Daud and taking his place as leader of the Whalers?

When he’s dead they lose their power. She loses her power. No Arcane Bond. So what was the point here? Lead a powerless band of assassins with her at the top with the powers Delilah gave her? At the very best they’d have bonecharms and that’s pretty much it.

And if Hume didn’t fuck up and the Abbey joined him in this crusade there wouldn’t be much to lead anyway. A decent amount of Whalers died to Hume’s assault, but with the full power of the Abbey, the vast majority of Whalers, if not all of them, would probably be obliterated.

[verdanteffigy]

Dishonored 2 and the mystery of the unique creepy ambience that only plays when you’re in Mindy’s apartment.

[verdanteffigy]

I loathe Daud but there is at least ONE quality I like about him.

He’s an old man mama’s boy and I think that’s heartwarming and adorable.

[verdanteffigy]

If I weren’t Corvo or Emily or someone who was personally affected negatively by the coup I probably would just let Delilah win.

This world really sucks to live in if you’re not rich or magical. Presumably if Delilah is going to improve it with her perfect painting world and all I’d have to do is love her unconditionally forever then yeah, sure, please, by all means.