Thinking about this Reddit post from someone that went digging around the Bloodlines 2 files and found some major changes that were made to the story (vtmb2 spoilers + long post warning):
Apparently, Fabien was originally written as a thin-blood that tried to diablerize the Nomad, and Phyre was supposed to be hearing the Beckoning.
Safia originally being a much older Tzimisce pretending to be a younger Tremere is also really interesting. The moonflowers scream Tzimisce, and so does the corpse she makes look just like her in the conservatory. Also, some of the concept art for her boss fight appearance?
OP's comment about Tzimisce Safia:
One, it's incredibly obvious just playing the game that something isn't right. She knows fleshcrafting, and is capable of physically modifying another vampire to look basically exactly like her. Her clan compulsion is to possess people and things, why is why she suddenly starts calling you "My love...". The New York Tremere are suspicious of her, which is why they paid the anarchs to abduct Safia's ghouls for interrogation.
Two, the art book shows different Safia final encounter designs, and... yea. Even in the final game, her face has clearly changed during the final boss fight. The game just doesn't comment on this. Concept art was even more extreme. The whole reason she knows fleshcrafting is because she was written as a Tzmisce pretending to be a Tremere. It's why the "fake her death by switching places with a kindred that looks exactly like her" plot idea exists.
Three, the game's code has scene directions for certain scenes, and the ending was supposed to have Cemile dissolve into dust in Phyre's hands and blow away in the wind. Her turning to dust on death makes her a very old vampire.
Four, Willem has a bunch of cut rambling dialogue, and in one of them he talks about a vampire who is "as old as the Nomad herself". There's a vampire in the game, one he's close to, that is a ~400 year old Elder. There isn't a very long list of candidates.
This is why when you reach the rooftop, Safia (called Cemile, a Turkish name, consistently in the files) snaps into "MY LOVE!" Tzmisce possessiveness and starts talking about the Black Hand pursing Phyre for centuries like she was personally involved. Because she was, originally.
Also, when asked, Sarah Longthorne, the lead writer, confirmed it since me and others had pointed out how obvious it was. Cemile was a fake Tremere, her "My love" stuff is her clan compulsion manifesting. Sarah also mentioned that original vision there was a sequence where Safia and Phyre would speak to each other in authentic ancient Turkish. Most likely cut as part because of the ripple effects of the new backstory where she was in love with Gideon. That whole arc was added during the Fabien rewrite. Gideon didn't exist until the rewrite. The art book describes him being "reverse engineered" from The Gardener.
edit:
Oh, yea, another thing. Safia's... shock troops, such as the weird hooded women that can that can dodge bullets and fire double assault rifles? It all feels odd. You've got this vampire doing bizarre body modification experiments under the city, and she's... not a Tzmisce?
Her "Tremere magic" on Phyre just so happens to involve taking someone's body and carving runes and lines into it, and she does the same to her own body. It all screams Tzmisce. They just hastily paper it over with very thin explanations.
More on Thin-Blood -> Detective Fabien rewrite:
Because of budget limitations, it appears a major chunk of the plot was very similar because they didn't have the money to redo a lot of things. They had to do a cost-effective patchwork. The Jan 2024 warehouse demo was thinblood Fabien. Some notable differences are:
Thinbloods were attacking the Weaver Tower trying to rescue one of their own who was being interrogated by Ryong. This is why the final game gets very muddled about thinbloods vs ghouls. There was a more thinblood oriented storyline rooted in Fabien that was cut.
Dale wasn't dead. It appears he was your roommate and possibly potion vendor.
Campbell was seemingly alive, at least during the opening chapter.
In the Jan 2024 footage Phyre tells Willem that "earlier tonight a vampire named Ysabella used this mark to drain my power". This line was cut in the final version because they restructured the game to narratively take place over several nights.
The dreams of the garden appeared once, when you finally encountered the Gardener. He would stand in the garden and move creepily. Unclear how that plotline resolved.
Mr. Fletcher was very obviously D.B. Cooper before the Fabien rewrite. To have him present in the 20s this had to be changed. It explains why Fabien has an interest in D.B. Cooper. (Also he's a modified version of Hardsuit's D.B. Cooper model.)
The whole rebar killer plotline was added in rewrites. It seems possible that the enigmatic "Santiago" was actually a real character originally. It's notable that the game's codex still has the image of the hooded figure carrying a cross that never appears ingame. The model for that hooded figure is completely absent from the files. I'm sure there was some kind of ruse, but it's not the ruse from the final game.
The warehouse where Fabien died is called the Ritual Warehouse. They were kicking around the idea that Fabien had been placed in a pentagram, stuff like that. I don't think it ever super gelled idea-wise.
I also think it is really worth noting that some eaaaaaaarly versions of Phyre's character model, especially the hands, don't seem to have the mark. Hard to say how far back that is, though.
Ultimately I prefer the Fabien we have now, but I can't deny the rewrite seems to have gotten rid of some very interesting stuff. Fletcher no longer being D.B. Cooper is such a loss to me lol. And as a Tzimisce lover, I mourn dragon Safia with my whole heart.
It's also crazy to me that in January 2024, the story was still not the one we have now. Gideon himself didn't exist until the Fabien rewrite!! I hope one day we get to learn what this older version of the story was going to be like.
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