Trust Yourself: An Analysis/Theory of Orpheus, Nightmare, and Villain Charm
It's been a bit since my last analysis post and this is a topic I don't know that I've seen anyone talk about! That I think about a normal amount! So today we're going to talk about Orpheus and his plurality, in the context of IDV's timeline - specifically focusing on the management of the manor games and the detective's return to the manor - in which I'd like to pose the questions:
- When did Nightmare/Villain Charm come into existence? Can they even be said to be the same?
- Who actually ran the manor games?
- What is Villain Charm's goal in the present day?
TO BE CLEAR: this is not an analysis on DID (mis)representation in IDV. This is specifically analysis and theorycrafting on what the narrative is trying to tell us - the canon of what is happening, not whether it's accurate to real life plurality. As such, I will be touching on some things that IDV does that aren't accurate, and this is not to agree with its portrayal of these things.
Now! Onto the analysis. Buckle up, detectives, it's gonna be a long one.
Let's start with clearing up our naming. For ease of understanding, throughout this analysis I'm going to be referring to Orpheus, Nightmare, and Villain Charm as separately defined characters (and I'll get into why I'm separating Nightmare and Villain Charm later, trust me it'll be less confusing this way even if there's overlap between all three). So, from here on out:
Orpheus will refer to the "main" identity, the system host, the guy we generally understand as the 1.0 protagonist and everything that entails - from kid to medical researcher to novelist to detective.
Nightmare will refer to the character we see throughout Time of Reunion - the hunter stalking Darkwoods, mixing the drugs in his trailer, etc. The guy with the bird mask.
Villain Charm will refer to the other side of the 10-years-later amnesiac detective. The alter that guides his path through the manor.
With that out of the way, let's get into what the prologue and Time of Reunion led us to assume about these three and how we've carried those assumptions into Ashes of Memory.
The Detective's Narrative
The beginning of the game introduces us to Orpheus the Detective, the man who lost his memories 10 years ago after a fire at Oletus Manor. He returns to the manor due to a commission letter penned by the mysterious James Reichenbach, asking him to locate the man's missing daughter who was last seen near the manor. During this time, we also meet Villain Charm - as Orpheus puts it, "another soul" that had "awakened" in his body.
To spare you all a full summary of this part of the game, as I'm going to assume anyone reading this has played through or watched it, I'll skip ahead a bit and circle back to its details later. In short, the initial narrative Orpheus gives us for Villain Charm is that he's a separate person from himself - he even likens his existence to witchcraft - and one that isn't to be trusted, even if he accepts guidance from him sometimes.
Then there's Nightmare. After Orpheus consumes the drug Hydra to begin reassembling his lost memories, he constructs a....very elaborately incorrect narrative, which we'll dig partially into (though I won't do a full deep dive on it because that strays into other topics entirely and isn't what this analysis is for).
He concludes he was a repeat subject of the experiments who had his memories wiped between games with the rest. However, due to developing a collection of alters (including Villain Charm, shifting from his previous narrative) as a result of the repeated trauma, his alters were able to retain some memories and help him to fake his own death to escape the games. He then hid in the manor's hidden rooms to survive, until people he later determines were his wife and daughter arrived at the manor. Hoping to save them, he follows them to their game in Darkwoods. It's a bit unclear from here on exactly what he thinks happened to either his "wife" or his "daughter" (which I think is intentional but not too relevant here specifically), but he knows there is a hunter after the group - Nightmare. Nightmare ends up hunting him as well, until Orpheus opens a valve that unleashes the memory-wiping drug, Dionysus (formerly called Mnemosyne, the name changed for unknown reasons) into the air. He falls unconscious and loses his memories amidst fire taking over the forest.
So, to Orpheus, he is a victim of the games while Nightmare is the games' mastermind and therefore not himself. Villain Charm, meanwhile, is just one of the many alters who ostensibly came to be during his participation in the games and is the only one still around.
Pushed Assumptions
Now, all of that was just what the game tells us that Orpheus himself believes about who he is and what's going on. It isn't counting what we learn from the various videos and pieces of text we get outside of the prologue and ToR (and even details present in the game at that time) which tell a bit of a different story.
So, following the release of Time of Reunion and its associated material, what were we as players supposed to assume about the narrative?
Well, given that Nightmare's name in-game is "Orpheus", I think it's more than safe to say that the game tells us Orpheus and Nightmare are two sides of a coin, at minimum sharing a body. Given that we see both Villain Charm and Nightmare's handwriting are more or less the same, I'd say it's also pretty strongly pushed that Villain Charm IS Nightmare 10 years after the "final game" - that is, Orpheus's alter who was running the games and who has retained his memories of doing so where Orpheus hasn't.
That actually leads me to the next point - that we're told in a few ways that Nightmare was the game-runner. For one, his backstory trailer shows him making the drugs which serve as the games' main mechanism; his voiceover also points to him knowing the purpose of these experiments. This is all further supported by the ending of ToR, which shows the bird mask fall from Orpheus's hand as he falls unconscious from the drug.
Then there's the live action video which showcases in no uncertain terms that Orpheus and Nightmare are of one body. It also introduces us to the idea that Orpheus has, through Nightmare, written himself a narrative in which he is both the hero and the villain.
So, Orpheus was partially correct in his conclusions but also way off base. Yes, this "Nightmare" was running the games while he himself was an ignorant victim. Yes, the other soul sharing his body that we call Villain Charm is a sinister being we can't trust. But, he didn't escape the games by faking his own death because he remained a part of them the entire time, seeing as his body was in use by their ringleader - the same ringleader that still resides within him. That all makes sense, right? Time of Reunion wouldn't just lie to us repeatedly about basically everything, right? .......Right?
I mean, let's just take a look at Ashes of Memory.
Since 1.0 more or less told us that we have Nightmare and Villain Charm as the same being, running the games, we bring that assumption with us to 2.0. Thus, when we see Orpheus peacocking onto the scene of AoM, it becomes our assumption that it's Nightmare we're looking at. After all, this guy is clearly pushing everyone's buttons to get reactions out of them, and is repeatedly guiding the cast to where he wants them to be in the games. He very very evidently knows a lot about what's going on. Very clearly, this is the guy running the games, and we know from 1.0 that the guy running the games is Nightmare who is also Villain Charm. Case closed.
But....do we know that, for sure, 100%?
Villain Charm: What We Actually Know & Conflicting Theories
Let's start from the beginning, without the assumptions. And not, you know, looking at things we saw when Orpheus was drugged out of his mind. What confirmed pieces of information do we know about Villain Charm, without any doubt or inference on our parts?
We know he and Orpheus share a body. We know that there are times that Orpheus blacks out, and Villain Charm starts fronting. We know that when Orpheus comes to after this, he's covered in small injuries and his neighbors seem uncomfortable at the sight of him. We know that this hasn't been the case for all 10 years of his amnesia, as he mentioned that it started happening after he turned to alcohol and has increased in frequency even as Orpheus has sobered up. Despite all of this, we know that Orpheus asks Villain Charm for help multiple times in uncovering the manor's mysteries.
And...that's....it. That's basically all the 100% confirmed information about this guy. The rest is inference, or comes to us after Orpheus has taken drugs that we know alters his mental state and makes his perspective more untrustworthy than it already is, or is just...pushed, in small and large ways, by things like Da Capo and the live action video and Villain Charm's skin description ("Rogues move like rogues do and they act like them also. It's time to get rid of the weak guy!")
With that in mind, how can we be sure he is what we think he is?
Let's interrogate Orpheus's own theory in the prologue (before ToR), that Villain Charm is "another soul." Not himself, but some supernatural being possessing him. Surprisingly, there's actually some evidence we have supporting this.
For one, he doesn't behave exactly like a normal alter could be expected to - he specifically wakes up when Orpheus is unconscious, including through alcohol or drugs. Orpheus calls him to communicate by taking a small amount of the drug intended to induce a comatose state, and Villain Charm is able to awaken and be mobile enough to carve his response into Orpheus's skin. More strange than that is the ways that he manifests when Orpheus is initially testing the drugs in the basement. When Orpheus gets stuck in the loop of smelling Dionysus, forgetting that he did that, and then doing it again, Villain Charm snaps him out of it by leaving an ink message on his arm. We don't see him write it - we only see Orpheus's hand falter reaching for the bottle as if out of his control, and then he looks down to see writing on his skin: "if you forget this, you got it."
Now, that being said, I don't personally subscribe to this possession theory, and I'll explain why in a bit. But, I think it's worth mentioning because there's not actually anything that directly and clearly refutes it. In this theory, Villain Charm is a supernatural entity - possibly connected to Yidhra, given her very strongly implied connections to the main plot - that is controlling Orpheus's body for...some reason. I'll be honest none of these theories are very good at explaining the "why" of what Orpheus/Nightmare/Villain Charm does but that's been true of any theory about why the games happened. There's just too much about that we don't know.
What evidence do we have against possession theory? Well, from a meta point, we don't have high hopes that IDV is....great when it comes to a realistic portrayal of DID. Given, you know, Jack the Ripper. So, if Villain Charm fronts when Orpheus becomes genuinely unconscious, then you know, I think I could believe that's just how the devs think DID works and so isn't a very strong point in favor of this theory. As for the more magical elements, they occur after Orpheus has, as mentioned previously, inhaled the fumes of mind-altering drugs.
We literally cannot trust anything that he sees or experiences from that point (possibly even from when he first enters the manor, if the drugs were in the air somehow). I mean, just look at the photo of "Reichenbach's daughter" - after he has experience with the drugs, he starts to see her as Little Girl.
Maybe Villain Charm wrote on his skin with a pen while briefly fronting - or maybe he didn't write at all, and what we saw was just Orpheus's hallucination, possibly brought on by Villain Charm in some strange way. Not to get too into it because it's a separate deal, but there's also the slightly more out there Dreamlands theory or otherwise the-manor-is-magic-somehow theory - the idea, basically, that the space itself is supernatural in some way, or that by entering the manor, Orpheus has been transported to a version of the manor that exists somewhere like the Dreamlands - in which case, not only is what we see even less trustworthy but maybe Villain Charm now has capabilities he didn't before as just an alter, because the space operates under different rules.
Do I think any of that is exactly how it happened? Couldn't tell you! It's all just to say that there's multiple ways of explaining what we saw without Villain Charm being an expressly supernatural entity. I personally think it's more likely that Villain Charm is a genuine alter, given the "trust yourself" mantra repeated by the narrative and because Orpheus's heated denial that Villain Charm is "himself" just makes sense with how wrong he is about everything else and the fact that he currently has no actual clue who he is beyond the past 10 years. Then, well, there's a bit of admitted confirmation bias in the fact that this version of things supports my other main belief that inspired the making of this post: who, truly, was running the manor games during and before Ashes of Memory.
Sifting through Ashes (& Birthday Letters) (& that Untranslated Set of Pages from an Offline Package) for the Answer to Everyone's Favorite Question, "Who's That Death Game Host?"
As I discussed in the previous sections, the dominant assumption I see when it comes to Ashes of Memory is that the "Orpheus" we see over the course of the story is in fact Nightmare, who is fronting in order to manipulate the game to go in his desired direction. But, what we're trying to do here is to look past our assumptions and put together what we know from facts - so what evidence do we have that would tell us Nightmare is running the games?
On a very basic level, there's the fact that Orpheus has a different personality than the guy we see throughout AoM. He's calculating, yes, but more serious and reserved. Melly's 2024 birthday letter touches on this - explaining that the "Orpheus" she knew years ago was near the opposite of the one she sees now, whose personality seems almost borrowed from one of the others she knew back then (I'm going to call him Sam Bourbon. I know it's not confirmed, but most of the evidence points toward that and if you disagree, then it doesn't have much bearing on this theory anyway, so just look past it I guess). Sam in this letter is described as "flamboyant" and of a "caustic wit", compared to the introverted Orpheus. And before anyone mentions it, yes I know she says the opposite thing in the Affection System dialogue - that Mr. Bourbon is the reserved and serious one of the contradictory pair. Given that both of these opposing tidbits are sourced from Melly, I'll just ask which one you think she was more likely to be lying in: her private diary, or a conversation with a near-stranger that we know for a fact she's keeping things from already.
So, "Orpheus" is using Sam's personality. Maybe whenever Nightmare came into being, he was modeled off Sam - a medical researcher capable of manipulation and casual cruelty to do what he believes needs to be done.
Personality aside, what else supports Nightmare being the game-runner? Well, there's everything we mentioned from ToR, for one. Nightmare's backstory trailer basically says it outright, and Da Capo strongly implies an inner conflict between Orpheus and Nightmare that would support the idea that Nightmare is acting against Orpheus's will. Then there's the Memory Pages.
The Memory Pages, a set of untranslated notes and diary entries contained in the Netherwalker's Offer offline package back in 2020 (for those unaware), are a bit of a controversial source given the, well, lack of an official translation. There's a fan translation on the id5 wiki, though, that's been pretty well accepted through the years to my knowledge.
They don't tell us much concretely about Nightmare - but I'd say they give points both to support and refute this viewing of things. I'll get into the contradictory pieces in a moment, but the main piece supporting Nightmare as the participant in AoM comes from the Memory Pages' inclusion of Alice's diaries during the game. She seems aware of the fact that "Orpheus" is her childhood friend, or at least strongly suspects it, and at one point says that he seems to have forgotten her.
This is a large part of the prevailing narrative that Nightmare is behind the games. After all, if he doesn't remember Alice, then he would have no qualms using her like an experimental subject like everyone else - and it makes more sense for the alter made to run the games to have forgotten her than for the person who once would have done anything for her.
But are the Memory Pages canon and unretconned? Perhaps. The first letter included in them went on to be Orpheus's first birthday letter in 2023 with no notable alterations. However, it's worth nothing that the dates on Alice's diary entries are at odds with the game's timeline. The game tells us that the "final game" which Alice, Norton, Melly, and Orpheus participated in took place July 15th, yet Alice's diaries in the Memory Pages span from the 12th to the 16th - one day after the scheduled game. Now, we could assume that maybe the game lasted more than one day, and we already imagined Alice took her diary with her to the game given what we see in the 2.0 tutorial cutscenes. Except, the 16th entry doesn't really seems like it was written during or even after the game. Cryptic as her writing is here, she seems to still be actively investigating, stating, "No progress has been made, yet there are more and more things beginning to trouble me..."
In short, I'd take evidence from the Memory Pages with a grain of salt. There's some things in them which are objectively canon, and other things that are either contradictory to canon or otherwise unclear. Still worth mentioning, but not worthy of being taken as hard fact.
Back to the theorizing, I'd like to look at one of our previous assumptions again. If we operate under the theory that Nightmare is running the games, would this also place Orpheus as an unaware and unwilling participant? Let's start with the matter of "Orpheus's" memory. Does the "Orpheus" we see throughout Ashes of Memory know who Alice is? Well, nothing can be said for certain, and there's evidence in both directions, but I'd personally say...yes, he does.
Looking at Ashes of Memory itself, there's a few things of note. We more or less know that during her time with the man who adopted her, Vilhelm Lamb/Lord Melbourne, she went by Eury Lamb - or Ollie Lamb, as she said in her application to the Spectrum newspaper in her 2025 birthday letter (I figure one of the two is just a translation error of the other). And the code letter given to her near the end of Ashes of Memory is "LAMB." So, at minimum, "Orpheus" knows Alice's alias.
From there, we can make a reasonable extrapolation that he knows she's Alice Deross too; Alice's 2025 birthday letter has an individual we can at least assume with some confidence is Orpheus interacting with her while she's with Lamb - including helping her escape from him. So, if Orpheus knows about Eury/Ollie Lamb, and cared enough to try to free her during that time, it would stand to reason that he at least knew back then that Eury/Ollie Lamb was Alice Deross. During the time of the game, as well, he had a breakfast set out for her that included things he would know that she liked, if he knew anything of her personally.
The Memory Pages offer a tidbit here as well. In a diary talking about the cultivation of the plant we now know to be Delphi, the writer mentions that "there isn't much time left. She's already suffered enough."
Now, it's technically not clear that Orpheus wrote this. But I'd say context handily points toward it, considering it's talking about test subjects and Delphi and the fact that the rest of the Pages were basically entirely focused on Orpheus and Alice. The writer could be Nightmare, but then the specific mention of "she" in a caring manner would imply that Nightmare still has knowledge and affection for Alice, which would be at odds with the idea that Orpheus lost himself to Nightmare while running the games.
The most damning evidence that Orpheus is at least aware of, and likely even participating in, the running of the games is the Affection System dialogue. As he speaks to Alice, he lets go of the manipulative persona and is, dare I say, openly affectionate with her. Repeatedly. Near constantly, at the final affection level. I mean, just, look.
"Precious", "I admire the agility of your mind", basically imploring her to consider her own safety....
Like???????
He starts talking about wanting to spend time with her just talking about mundane things???? He'd be delighted to??????? He cares for her so much I want to cry.
And that's before even getting into his "story" he tells her, about the person seeking revenge for the attack on the manor when they were children. The early parts of the story all seem like his typical appropriation of her backstory - the child of the Derosses who survived the attack, and was then sent to a mental hospital that he later escaped from. He then leads into talking about what I assume is something like what he did between then and AoM, with taking back the manor and all that (assuming it isn't. all lies. because this is Orpheus we're talking about). The climax of the story, though, is where it gets really interesting, because the protagonist stops being him and starts being Alice.
He mentions the protagonist's "close friend" who was indirectly the cause of the attack, allowing the bandits to gain possession of the piccolo that opened the gates. We know that close friend was Orpheus himself, and his parents the forest rangers that betrayed the Deross family. In this story, he's basically asking Alice whether she blames him for it all.
Which, from the exchange that followed, it seems that Alice never even considered blaming him. And that fact stuns Orpheus into silence, until he comes to a thoughtful smile.
All of that to say that who we talk to in the Affection System is, in my mind at least, 100% Orpheus. Not Nightmare, not even Villain Charm - Orpheus. And given his other conversation topics, about the things he's researched for his stories and even just the fact that despite him clearly knowing who she is, he refuses to tell her his own identity, really makes me think he's aware of the games and what they're for. He even likens his current reality to that of the "noble thief" archetype in stories, the hero unable to remove his mask.
So at minimum, if I'm at all correct, Orpheus knows about the games and helps to run them - it isn't all Nightmare. But then, if Orpheus knows, the justification for it being Nightmare at all becomes significantly weaker. He remembers Alice. He's a willing participant in the running of the games. The only thing that's really left is his differing personality, which can be just as easily explained by him acting - putting on Sam's persona to guide things where he wants them. He even mentions in his 2025 birthday letter that he was planning to revert to his "original identity" - implying he's put more than one mask on in all these endeavors.
So, this is my thesis here: at the time of Ashes of Memory, and for all the games that happened before then, the person running the games was never Nightmare at all, but Orpheus alone.
Then What the Heck Is Up with Nightmare?
Now that we're moving away from analysis and into full-blown theory, I won't bury the lede: I don't think Nightmare exists. Hear me out on this.
While I acknowledge it is in no way confirmed, I'm going to be running with my theory that Orpheus ran the games, without Nightmare, because there's largely no reason for Nightmare to exist as an alter at the time if I've analyzed things correctly. Yes, Orpheus went through horrible trauma that could have easily caused him to develop DID - I'm not arguing that logic. Rather, I'm arguing that the current proposed narrative purpose for Nightmare is to bear the cruelty of running the games in order to protect Orpheus's mind, and since I've concluded that Orpheus is at minimum fully aware of the games, this purpose is moot.
So what's with the bird-masked hunter? We see him in ToR, associated out-of-game material, and in the 2.0 tutorial cutscenes. Or, to put it another way, we see him solely through the lens of people who have been drugged.
We know that Siren's Song is the drug that causes people to hallucinate the characters' hunter forms. We've had this proven by Margaretha seeing Smiley Face and Soul Weaver in Closing Night while under its influence. Alice also saw Bloody Queen in Kreiburg Racecourse and Fool's Gold in Darkwoods, though we don't know when she was drugged to cause that to happen - there were more than enough opportunities, to be honest. We can easily assume that every participant of the "final game" was drugged by Siren's Song, thus Alice seeing Orpheus as Nightmare would be entirely reasonable.
Then there's Time of Reunion, wherein every scene that has Nightmare in it is when Orpheus is - you guessed it - heavily drugged. The entire "final game" sequence was just the scrambled memory reconstruction of Orpheus taking Hydra. None of it is 1:1 for what really happened, and since Orpheus was in denial of his own role in the games, he created an image of the Hunter stalking him - the villain behind it all, separate from himself, trying to kill him. Just as he created the image of the Little Girl superimposed onto Alice, because he remembered feeling protective over her. And if the image of this Nightmare happened to be the same as Alice's hallucination in the tutorial, then that's just narrative consistency and not wanting to make another model, really. Not to mention the fact that the bird mask could very easily be a real thing he wore, likely to keep out the fumes of Siren's Song in the air - or something like that, anyway.
Narratively, I think Nightmare is a construction made of the hallucinations of those under the influence of Siren's Song and Orpheus's own rejection of the reality that he was the one running the games - NOT Orpheus's alter.
But then, going back to our assumptions from earlier, where does that leave Villain Charm?
Back to the Manor: The Origin & Purpose of Villain Charm
This is the last section I swear.
We're deep into theorizing now, so I'm once again going to be running with my conclusions from earlier: that Villain Charm is an alter and not a possessing entity, that Orpheus was the one running the games, and that Nightmare was never an alter of his.
So, Nightmare's not an alter, but Villain Charm is. Why?
10 years ago, Orpheus lost his memories at the end of the "final game" due to the drug Dionysus. An unspecified number of years later, he started having blackouts that he initially attributed to alcohol, but which persisted after he sobered up. He determined that another soul had awoken within him - Villain Charm. Villain Charm, who seems to know about Oletus Manor and the contents of Orpheus's missing memories.
While Orpheus's research during the games may have indicated that memories lost through Dionysus would never return (at least according to the Memory Pages), he had no data on the long-term effects of the drug to work from.
It was 10 years without Dionysus. It wouldn't be much at all to say that his memories could have started returning to him, in bits and pieces. Only, it was too much - too much trauma, too much cruelty at his own hands - so his mind sought to protect itself from the memories. It's my belief that Villain Charm was born to carry these returning memories during the 10-year period before Orpheus returned to the manor.
Then what is Villain Charm trying to do now? He tells Orpheus to trust himself - meaning, trust in Villain Charm as an extension of himself. He guides him to uncover the manor's mysteries.
This is the point at which I have to admit I can only vaguely theorize. There just is genuinely not enough information about why the games happened in the first place to be able to solidly explain the motivations of an alter that remembers running them.
If Orpheus is right about not being able to trust Villain Charm, then he could want to start the games up again (maybe with more sinister intentions than Orpheus had the first time, if IDV is yet again going for the evil alter trope).
It's worth noting that when Orpheus finds a page from a participant's diary in the prologue, he finds an entry dated several days ago - implying that even though he hasn't been at Oletus, the games have continued.
While, as mentioned, we can't take anything he sees as hard fact, this was still prior to him entering the basement and actively taking Siren's Song. It's certainly possible for it to be real. Meaning, something is still happening at Oletus Manor. Games are still being run, by a different ringleader.
Maybe Villain Charm wants to investigate this, find out who's taken over their game.
Or maybe, the alter that was made to carry Orpheus's memories of the past - his traumas and his joys - is trying to lead Orpheus home, to find what he's lost. To continue his mission from so long ago, to seek out and protect the one he cares about most. Maybe he's guiding Orpheus into the underworld to find his Eurydice once more.
A mark on your forehead identifies the god you must worship to stay alive, usually by joining its local church or temple. Your mark is unknown, meaning an old, forgotten god sponsored you. To survive, you must either find an old temple to worship at, or do the arduous task of building a new one
Nobody in your small coastal village has ever seen the Godmark that you were born with. It’s a dark russet sequence of criss-crossing lines, with a vertical arrowhead on the left and a circle on the right, just over where your brow meets your temple. Some of the traders who come down from the mountain say it looks like one of the scripts used in the hinterlands, but not a language that any of them recognize.
“If she’s got the temperament for it, she should try her luck inland,” they advise. “No point her starting a temple here if she’d find her people elsewhere, with a little searching.”
At first, your parents are reluctant to send you away. Though you’re well-behaved and diligent in your chores, you’re a sickly child with no God to worship. And besides, you’ve always been the dreamy type–inclined to lose track of time watching the path of rain droplets chasing down the window, or the fronds of an anemone as it sways in a rock pool.
Instead, they send you to the temple of the Storm to learn all you’ll need for your own God. You are happy there, for a time: making up beds and serving food to the castaways who pass through, keeping vigil at the lighthouse, burning incense and praying with the loyal widows and orphans of the drowned.
One such widow, an old, old lady, touches the mark on your forehead. “I recognise those letters. We wrote this way in the town where I grew up, way off past the mountains.”
Your heartbeat quickens. “What does it say!?”
She squints, eyes engulfed by wrinkles and hidden behind smudged glass. “A… Ar… Oh, I can’t remember how to speak it. I left before I learnt my letters properly. There was a war, you know. But I remember,” she says, mistily, “the most beautiful pink and white flowers used to grow, on the borders of the wheat fields…”
You try to ask more questions, but remembering the war distresses her, and so you speak of other things. When she’s drifted off to sleep, you get to your feet, go home and tell your parents: you are leaving in search of your God.
Arepo built a temple in his field, a humble thing, some stones stacked up to make a cairn, and two days later a god moved in.
“Hope you’re a harvest god,” Arepo said, and set up an altar and burnt two stalks of wheat. “It’d be nice, you know.” He looked down at the ash smeared on the stone, the rocks all laid askew, and coughed and scratched his head. “I know it’s not much,” he said, his straw hat in his hands. “But - I’ll do what I can. It’d be nice to think there’s a god looking after me.”
The next day he left a pair of figs, the day after that he spent ten minutes of his morning seated by the temple in prayer. On the third day, the god spoke up.
“You should go to a temple in the city,” the god said. Its voice was like the rustling of the wheat, like the squeaks of fieldmice running through the grass. “A real temple. A good one. Get some real gods to bless you. I’m no one much myself, but I might be able to put in a good word?” It plucked a leaf from a tree and sighed. “I mean, not to be rude. I like this temple. It’s cozy enough. The worship’s been nice. But you can’t honestly believe that any of this is going to bring you anything.”
“This is more than I was expecting when I built it,” Arepo said, laying down his scythe and lowering himself to the ground. “Tell me, what sort of god are you anyway?”
“I’m of the fallen leaves,” it said. “The worms that churn beneath the earth. The boundary of forest and of field. The first hint of frost before the first snow falls. The skin of an apple as it yields beneath your teeth. I’m a god of a dozen different nothings, scraps that lead to rot, momentary glimpses. A change in the air, and then it’s gone.”
The god heaved another sigh. “There’s no point in worship in that, not like War, or the Harvest, or the Storm. Save your prayers for the things beyond your control, good farmer. You’re so tiny in the world. So vulnerable. Best to pray to a greater thing than me.”
Arepo plucked a stalk of wheat and flattened it between his teeth. “I like this sort of worship fine,” he said. “So if you don’t mind, I think I’ll continue.”
“Do what you will,” said the god, and withdrew deeper into the stones. “But don’t say I never warned you otherwise.”
Arepo would say a prayer before the morning’s work, and he and the god contemplated the trees in silence. Days passed like that, and weeks, and then the Storm rolled in, black and bold and blustering. It flooded Arepo’s fields, shook the tiles from his roof, smote his olive tree and set it to cinder. The next day, Arepo and his sons walked among the wheat, salvaging what they could. The little temple had been strewn across the field, and so when the work was done for the day, Arepo gathered the stones and pieced them back together.
“Useless work,” the god whispered, but came creeping back inside the temple regardless. “There wasn’t a thing I could do to spare you this.”
“We’ll be fine,” Arepo said. “The storm’s blown over. We’ll rebuild. Don’t have much of an offering for today,” he said, and laid down some ruined wheat, “but I think I’ll shore up this thing’s foundations tomorrow, how about that?”
The god rattled around in the temple and sighed.
A year passed, and then another. The temple had layered walls of stones, a roof of woven twigs. Arepo’s neighbors chuckled as they passed it. Some of their children left fruit and flowers. And then the Harvest failed, the gods withdrew their bounty. In Arepo’s field the wheat sprouted thin and brittle. People wailed and tore their robes, slaughtered lambs and spilled their blood, looked upon the ground with haunted eyes and went to bed hungry. Arepo came and sat by the temple, the flowers wilted now, the fruit shriveled nubs, Arepo’s ribs showing through his chest, his hands still shaking, and murmured out a prayer.
“There is nothing here for you,” said the god, hudding in the dark. “There is nothing I can do. There is nothing to be done.” It shivered, and spat out its words. “What is this temple but another burden to you?”
“We -” Arepo said, and his voice wavered. “So it’s a lean year,” he said. “We’ve gone through this before, we’ll get through this again. So we’re hungry,” he said. “We’ve still got each other, don’t we? And a lot of people prayed to other gods, but it didn’t protect them from this. No,” he said, and shook his head, and laid down some shriveled weeds on the altar. “No, I think I like our arrangement fine.”
“There will come worse,” said the god, from the hollows of the stone. “And there will be nothing I can do to save you.”
The years passed. Arepo rested a wrinkled hand upon the temple of stone and some days spent an hour there, lost in contemplation with the god.
And one fateful day, from across the wine-dark seas, came War.
Arepo came stumbling to his temple now, his hand pressed against his gut, anointing the holy site with his blood. Behind him, his wheat fields burned, and the bones burned black in them. He came crawling on his knees to a temple of hewed stone, and the god rushed out to meet him.
“I could not save them,” said the god, its voice a low wail. “I am sorry. I am sorry. I am so so sorry.” The leaves fell burning from the trees, a soft slow rain of ash. “I have done nothing! All these years, and I have done nothing for you!”
“Shush,” Arepo said, tasting his own blood, his vision blurring. He propped himself up against the temple, forehead pressed against the stone in prayer. “Tell me,” he mumbled. “Tell me again. What sort of god are you?”
“I -” said the god, and reached out, cradling Arepo’s head, and closed its eyes and spoke.
“I’m of the fallen leaves,” it said, and conjured up the image of them. “The worms that churn beneath the earth. The boundary of forest and of field. The first hint of frost before the first snow falls. The skin of an apple as it yields beneath your teeth.” Arepo’s lips parted in a smile.
“I am the god of a dozen different nothings,” it said. “The petals in bloom that lead to rot, the momentary glimpses. A change in the air -” Its voice broke, and it wept. “Before it’s gone.”
“Beautiful,” Arepo said, his blood staining the stones, seeping into the earth. “All of them. They were all so beautiful.”
And as the fields burned and the smoke blotted out the sun, as men were trodden in the press and bloody War raged on, as the heavens let loose their wrath upon the earth, Arepo the sower lay down in his humble temple, his head sheltered by the stones, and returned home to his god.
Sora found the temple with the bones within it, the roof falling in upon them.
“Oh, poor god,” she said, “With no-one to bury your last priest.” Then she paused, because she was from far away. “Or is this how the dead are honored here?” The god roused from its contemplation.
“His name was Arepo,” it said, “He was a sower.”
Sora startled, a little, because she had never before heard the voice of a god. “How can I honor him?” She asked.
“Bury him,” the god said, “Beneath my altar.”
“All right,” Sora said, and went to fetch her shovel.
“Wait,” the god said when she got back and began collecting the bones from among the broken twigs and fallen leaves. She laid them out on a roll of undyed wool, the only cloth she had. “Wait,” the god said, “I cannot do anything for you. I am not a god of anything useful.”
Sora sat back on her heels and looked at the altar to listen to the god.
“When the Storm came and destroyed his wheat, I could not save it,” the god said, “When the Harvest failed and he was hungry, I could not feed him. When War came,” the god’s voice faltered. “When War came, I could not protect him. He came bleeding from the battle to die in my arms.” Sora looked down again at the bones.
“I think you are the god of something very useful,” she said.
“What?” the god asked.
Sora carefully lifted the skull onto the cloth. “You are the god of Arepo.”
Generations passed. The village recovered from its tragedies—homes rebuilt, gardens re-planted, wounds healed. The old man who once lived on the hill and spoke to stone and rubble had long since been forgotten, but the temple stood in his name. Most believed it to empty, as the god who resided there long ago had fallen silent. Yet, any who passed the decaying shrine felt an ache in their hearts, as though mourning for a lost friend. The cold that seeped from the temple entrance laid their spirits low, and warded off any potential visitors, save for the rare and especially oblivious children who would leave tiny clusters of pink and white flowers that they picked from the surrounding meadow.
The god sat in his peaceful home, staring out at the distant road, to pedestrians, workhorses, and carriages, raining leaves that swirled around bustling feet. How long had it been? The world had progressed without him, for he knew there was no help to be given. The world must be a cruel place, that even the useful gods have abandoned, if farms can flood, harvests can run barren, and homes can burn, he thought.
He had come to understand that humans are senseless creatures, who would pray to a god that cannot grant wishes or bless upon them good fortune. Who would maintain a temple and bring offerings with nothing in return. Who would share their company and meditate with such a fruitless deity. Who would bury a stranger without the hope for profit. What bizarre, futile kindness they had wasted on him. What wonderful, foolish, virtuous, hopeless creatures, humans were.
So he painted the sunset with yellow leaves, enticed the worms to dance in their soil, flourished the boundary between forest and field with blossoms and berries, christened the air with a biting cold before winter came, ripened the apples with crisp, red freckles to break under sinking teeth, and a dozen other nothings, in memory of the man who once praised the god’s work on his dying breath.
“Hello, God of Every Humble Beauty in the World,” called a familiar voice.
The squinting corners of the god’s eyes wept down onto curled lips. “Arepo,” he whispered, for his voice was hoarse from its hundred-year mutism.
“I am the god of devotion, of small kindnesses, of unbreakable bonds. I am the god of selfless, unconditional love, of everlasting friendships, and trust,” Arepo avowed, soothing the other with every word.
“That’s wonderful, Arepo,” he responded between tears, “I’m so happy for you—such a powerful figure will certainly need a grand temple. Will you leave to the city to gather more worshippers? You’ll be adored by all.”
“No,” Arepo smiled.
“Farther than that, to the capitol, then? Thank you for visiting here before your departure.”
“No, I will not go there, either,” Arepo shook his head and chuckled.
“Farther still? What ambitious goals, you must have. There is no doubt in my mind that you will succeed, though,” the elder god continued.
“Actually,” interrupted Arepo, “I’d like to stay here, if you’ll have me.”
The other god was struck speechless. “…. Why would you want to live here?”
“I am the god of unbreakable bonds and everlasting friendships. And you are the god of Arepo.”
i've been posting a lot of wips & teasers for my undertale 10th anniv project on twitter but wanted to compile them into a big post before putting them here. only a few days away! it will be release on sep 15th, my time, so please be there!! :D
Agrotale is an AU based on the Queen Alphys neutral ending you can get by abandoning a geno route in Hotland. Which means that Toriel, Papyrus, Undyne, Mettaton, and Asgore are all dead. The fallen human, Everett, must traverse the underground and avoid being captured by the Royal Guard and escorted to the Queen. The name Agrotale comes from the fact that Everett is a gardener and helps with the Underground's agriculture after a malfunction in the CORE limits food supply.
Sprites:
Everett - The Fallen Human
《 Beginning (Twitter) 》
Climbed Mt. Ebott in search of rare plants, but accidentally fell in. Stuck in an unlucky situation, but tries their best to get on the Underground's good side. Uses the seeds in their pocket to plant food when the CORE experiences a malfunction. Got confronted by Muffet in the ruins, who was tasked by someone to take their soul, but was saved by Sans. He looks out for them to make sure they don't try anything stupid, and he makes it well-known that there'll be consequences if they do.
Muffet - Ruins Hermit
《 Ruins (Twitter) 》
Muffet was banished to the ruins after her actions during the previous human's rampage led to countless more deaths, as well as the fact that she threatened to cannibalize the Queen on multiple occasions. Muffet is the same as ever- greedy, and willing to do anything for money. She may have even made a new business partner...? It may be best to grow eyes on the back of your head, I think someone may be watching you.
Dess Holiday - Head of the Royal Guard
《 Dess Casual Outfit , Dess Talksprites , Dess RG Walksprites , Dess Casual Walksprites 》
Dess was inspired to take up head of the Royal Guard after Undyne's passing, and was able to secure her position due to hard work and determination- as well as some nepotism sprinkled in the mix. Dess is great at her job, but she takes a lot of breaks to goof off with her sister, Noel, in the forest. She finds Sans a bit annoying, but for the most part they are on good terms. She has a rocky relationship with her mother, and after Asgore passed, it's been worse than ever. She's glad that her job gives her an outlet, and she's glad that she has a bat on her at all times (lest she needs to take her frustrations out on random items in the forest). She patrols Snowdin.
Noel Holiday - An Angel, Wouldn't Hurt a Fly
Dess's sister and Carol Holiday's daughter, Noel. A bit skiddish, but it seems she made some friends at the library. And, she's well liked amongst Dess's Royal Guard friends, too. Noel gets babysat by Grillby whenever Carol or Dess are unable to watch her, and since Sans is a frequent visitor she's become pretty close with him as well (to Carol's dismay).
《 Bonus 》
Carol Holiday - Royal Advisor to the Queen
《 Carol Talksprites , Sans and Carol Doodle , He's Just Annoying (Twitter) 》
Is not handling Asgore's death well at all, and she's a pain in the Queen's ass, but, she's exceptionally good at her job. So, she keeps her position as the Royal Advisor swiftly secure. Becomes frustrated with Alphys easily, but does make an attempt to keep her composure, as she knows that this isn't Alphys's fault. Sans, on the other hand, she can't stand. In any other context, maybe she would have taken a liking to him, but in this situation? He never takes anything serious, and it irritates her to no end.
[ Bonus ]
Birdly - Works at the Library
Works at the library whenever the owner can't make it. Definitely breaking multiple child safety laws, but his family needs the money, and the owner needs a break. So it's not like anything'll change anytime soon. Birdly lives with his mom, Bird. She's at Grillby's majority of the time, so he makes himself at home at the library. He even made a few friends too! Once Suzy came to town, she was a bit of a loner, and she wasn't up for conversation. She took a liking to Birdly when he started giving her recommendations for books he thinks she would like (and was correct). Noel also comes in for books pretty frequently, and it seems like she started showing up more once Suzy moved in.
Suzy - New Kid in Snowdin
Moved from Waterfall for a change of scenery, and because it's where everyone else was going. Doesn't talk about her home life, and no one knows where she lives. Friends with Birdly and Noel, and, she won't admit it, but the only reason she still comes to the library is to see either of them.
Grillby - Professional Cook and Babysitter
Still works at Grillby's, except now he has a new unofficial job as a babysitter for Noel. He became close with the Holiday's since Rudy was such a frequent visitor of his restaurant, and he used to watch Dess as well when she was younger. He enjoys the break away from his job, and he believes it's good for his daughter to get some work experience. He doesn't appreciate all the free handouts she gives to her friends, but I guess he'll let it slide. Especially considering he technically does the same thing for his. Sans and Alphys visit the restaurant frequently, and he's always happy to make them food even it's for free. He appreciates all the work they're doing for the underground, and he likes to help wherever he can.
Fuku Fire - Grillby's Daughter
《 Dess & Fuku Fire Doodle (Outdated Design) 》
Works at Grillby's whenever her dad can't. Friends with Dess, and gives her free food during her breaks. Pretty close with Sans, since he's known Grillby for a while, and she's been getting closer with Alphys because of how often she visits Grillby's nowadays.
Monster Kid Teen - Dess's Right Hand
《 Design , Doodle , Sunflower (Twitter) 》
Was inspired to join the Royal Guard after they watched Undyne die in front of them. Suffering with intense survivors guilt, MT swears that they won't wimp out this time when the next human falls, even if it means disobeying their orders. Deep down, still just a dorky kid, but they put on a tough exterior to seem more intimidating than they actually are. Really close with Dess, and Dess helps train them (and helps force them to take breaks when they push themself too hard). Alphys is very empathetic towards them because she knows exactly how they feel. Sans also helps train them every now and then, but his training style isn't nearly as serious as MT would prefer. They still live in Snowdin, but are assigned in Waterfall typically (per their request).
Gerson - Royal Guard Trainer
Wise old man with a lot of fighting experience, trained all of the new Royal Guard members, starting with Monster Teen, since they were the first to ask him. Of course, he obliged. Talks to Sans and Alphys often when they pass through Waterfall.
Mad Mew Mew - Vigilante / Future Royal Guard Member
Was killed by Frisk just after she fused to become Glad Dummy, however, she brought herself back to life out of spite and possessed the Mew Mew doll in a last-ditch effort to survive. She's now falling apart at the seams, and she is determined to get revenge. When she's not causing chaos, she's hiding in people's sinks or messing with fast food workers on their breaks. She patrols Waterfall, illegally.
Catti & Jockington - (Honorary) Royal Guard Members
Jockington is an official Royal Guardsman, however, Catti is not. She just follows Jock wherever he goes, and became an honorary member in that way. They both patrol Hotland.
Sans - Queen's Assistant / Bodyguard / Jester / Royal Scientist / ....uhhh? What the hell's this guy's deal, anyway?
《 Sans Royal Scientist Walksprites 》
The Queen's right hand man, almost never leaves her side. Says it's for Alphys's sake, but it's also for his, too. In contrast to his True Pacifist counterpart, Sans is secretly longing for a Reset to occur, and in a painful set of irony- no longer believes it to happen. Once he had this revalation, it took him weeks to catch up on all the months of grief he prevented himself from processing. But, Alphys was there to help, just as he was there for her. He's an all-rounder in terms of occupation, he does whatever Alphys needs whenever she needs it, no questions asked. Well, maybe some questions- like why she needs a flatscreen TV installed in the lab, and why she thought Sans was the right guy to call for help.
Sans proposed a new rule for humans, stating that there is no need to kill on sight unless they are shown to be outwardly aggressive or a genuine threat. He and Alphys are both smart enough to know that not all human children that fall down will be dangerous, and they don't want to continue the cycle of violence that ended up getting the people of the Underground nowhere in the end. And since they never made a promise to their people that went against their morals, they are free to do so. And since Asgore's plan didn't work out, the general public decided to give it a chance as well. Sans and Alphys put evacuation procedures into place for whenever a human were to fall down, just to be safe. They also installed cameras in the Ruins as well, so they can monitor whether or not that has happened yet, and plan accordingly.
Sans visits Toriel's home every now and then, keeping it as clean as he can for her. He does the same for the catacombs, since he knew she watched over the Ruins like a second home. He also found her joke book, and he writes a new entry every day to keep it going. He bumps into Muffet every now and again, but she knows to keep her distance.
《 Judgement Hall , Bonus Sans & Queen Alphys Doodle 》
Alphys - The Queen
《 I Depend on You , Design Sketches , Sans & Alphys Walksprites 》
The new Queen of the Underground. Tries her best to do what's right, but most of her good decisions come from the hands of Carol, who's really doing all the work behind the scenes. She was allowed to move into the Castle, but her room is too... imposing for her liking. It reminds her of everything that happened, of all of her new responsibilities as Queen. So, she uses it as a work station instead. And elects to sleep in Sans's room right next door, instead.
She tries her best to live up to Asgore's expectations, but seemingly falls short each time. She's grateful for Sans being around again, but she's upset that these are the circumstances that led to them getting back in touch. Not to mention that most of their interactions are work-related nowadays. But, she would rather it be Sans than anyone else. She made her armor as if she was making a cosplay, which is why it's so extravagent. It IS functional, but its very inconvenient, so she only wears it if she has to. Typically, she just wears pajamas under her cloak. She changed the Delta Rune symbol on her cloak in order to honor Undyne and Mettaton, along with all the others who fell to the human. Instead of a triangle in the middle, a star takes its place. Symbolizing their sacrifices.
With an unlimited budget and an engineering degree, Alphys & Sans spend a lot of their free time building gadgets. A lot of which ended up being weapons. Hotland has gotten a large revamp since Alphys became Queen, and it is one of the safest parts of the Underground due to all of the security measures in place.
This post will be updated whenever I can think of something else to add, or whenever I make more content for the AU.
There are some other external links for this AU I would like to share, one of which being the animatic I made on YouTube!!
I have an old Twitter QRT thread with reference sheets for most all the characters, however, some of the information and designs are slightly outdated, and all of the art is old so I'm not the biggest fan!! 😭 BUT!! For completion's sake I'll link it here if you want to give it a look.
🦴 font family "au" where the meta narrative multidimensional shenanigans didnt happen ???
the japanese-vietnamese scribbles are just me explaining the localized names i gave them Yes i have to viet-blast every characters i like. get vietwashed idiots!!!!
idk what to call this,, i wanted to try writing my own "storyline" for the font family (skelebros and gaster) but as if theyre "normal"(?) monsters like the rest of the ut/dr cast – choosing to ignore the multiverse game cop (??) thing going on, with sans undertale might be sans deltarune etc. gaster still shatter across time and space though, but nothing further than that?
basically lets all pretend it is 2015 and this is all we know about the funny font skeletons LOL. dont treat this as an actual au or serious plot or anything cause i dont. however i am with the cans of worms i refused to open though lmfao,,,
very bad english btw Please Excuse Them tôi không biết nói tiếng anh (lie)
In the recent Undertale newsletter, Toby Fox showed off an unused scene that would have occurred in the Judgement Hall had the player decided to speedrun the game! This scene features Sans chastising the player for being early and slowly eating an ice cream for about a full minute while an original, slow song plays. I’m sure this would have been quite a headache for speedrunners!
The thing about s5 of tma is that there are many, many points where Jon and Martin are having two completely different conversations and viewing the same situation in completely different ways. They are similar but have opposite world views and I feel like most arguments about them come from the fact they are just straight up not talking about/viewing the same thing. Martin views Jon as a stepping stone Elias used, Jon views it as a choice he made. Martin views smiting as fighting back against things trying to kill them, Jon views it as abusing powers he got from causing the end of the world. They are not viewing the same situation! To Martin, Jon is a victim threatening to follow in his manipulators footsteps. To Jon, he either can throw more people in his situation, or take the burden of his choice.
A lot of this can be brought back to how they grew up and how it affected how they view any conflict. Martin didn't have any agency growing up, couldn't do anything to fix these overwhelming problems and this has only increased with the added supernatural aspects. So when he sees they have a way to fight back against the literal end of the world, he leaps at it. They can actually save people, he thinks. They can actually make a difference. Even if they can't help anyone, they can at least get rid of the people causing it. There's no solution for the major problem, but they can at least do Something.
Jon felt like he narrowly avoided what was Supposed to happen. He cheated death, and someone else died for it. He dodged it instead of fixing the problem. As far as he's concerned, this has happened over and over. He was supposed to stop the Unknowing, but he didn't and Tim died instead. He was supposed to save Daisy, but he survived and she succame. As far as he's concerned, he is "dodging responsibility" by not being able to solve these huge overarching problems. So when he sees the opportunity to take out the problem at its source, as far as he's concerned it's the only right option.
Jon views it as taking responsibility for what he did for once in his life. Martin views it as another person disregarding everyone's wants and views, this time with the worst consequences possible.
stormborns
jbbartram-illu
baratheonpilled
vaporwave
areudirty
yousharknotpass
blakekathryn
