Hello Arcana fans, I have a theory for you guys. I’ve talked to a friend and another Arcana fan about my theory, now I’m looking for opinions. I personally believe that Asra is responsible for all the happenings in the game. Let’s start from the beginning.
Everybody has known Asra a long time. Julian and him seemed to have an intimate relationship, Asra met the Countress and the Count when Lucio was sick and has probably crossed paths before hand. I’m not sure about Muriel and Portia, but I’m sure Portia and Asra have crossed paths at least once, due to the fact you bump into Portia in the beginning of the game. It implies she leaves the castle, so he has at least seen her around town.
Now, let’s begin the first part with Julian’s personality. Julian likes to come off as a distant character, he looks intimidating, but it doesn’t take a super long time to realize that he’s a bit of a drama queen, he drags himself and he doesn’t seem to have a lot of confidence or a good self-esteem. Julian makes a remark that Asra had no interest in commitment, and he barley remembered the relationships enough as it is.
Now, Nadia. Let me ask you; think about a King and Queen. These are the most valuable people in the land, right? The guards are there for a reason. They are sworn to protect these people with their lives. There is no way in Hell she didn’t know every person she opened the castle doors to, to save Lucio. Now, I was looking at the Arcana wiki to make sure my facts were straight, because I’m broke and I can’t reply all the routes and get all of my proof. I found something very interesting.
“Relationships, Asra: An unclear relationship, as Asra referrs to her fondly yet Nadia has no recolection of knowing him. Asra mentions that their eyes met the day Nadia arrived in the city and made her way to the Palace with much fanfare, though Nadia makes no indication of remembering this.”
Asra and Julian teamed up. Julian looked for medication to help the Count, Asra looked for spells, potions, etc. Remember the desk that Nadia shows you, the one where you put connections between Julian and Portia together? You need special access to it, wouldn’t she remember Asra? Why wouldn’t she remember the man who was with Julian, the man who supposedly murdered her husband?
Now, Nadia’s husband died and goes into what was basically a coma, and the first person she goes to, is you.
Back to Julian, take a look at my previous statement about him if you need to. He’s very vulnerable, he’s very loving, he gets attached and he doesn’t like to come clean to that. He thinks he doesn’t deserve good things. Julian met you, and he helped you. Now, I know this might just be a thing he does because he was a doctor for Christ sake, but this was in the dead of night when he needs to be in hiding, he didn’t know you (save that thought for later), you could’ve been bait, you could’ve turned him in.
We have a flashback to the past, when Asra cuts open Julian’s hand after asking Julian what he would do for Asra, to which Julian responds that he would do anything for Asra. It’s made clear that Asra and Julian did not want the same kind of relationship, but Julian would submit, he would do anything for Asra, and Asra knew that. But we’ll come back to it.
Now we’re going to talk about three characters in specific. MC/OC/Fan Apprentice, whatever you want to call it, Nadia, and Julian. Nadia barley remembers her marriage, she barley remembers the night of the murder, and she doesn’t remember Asra. MC finds out that Asra has removed their memories, so who knows what you don’t remember. Julian doesn’t remember if he committed murder, let alone his relationship with Asra.
When I say barley, I mean Nadia barley remembers that night. Now, let me tell you why what she says is sketchy. She says that the Count loved to be the center of attention, but he wasn’t that night because he was sick. Why did a ton of people not ask where he was? Why would they hold this event when he was sick and dying? Maybe to not let the town down, that they still wanted to celebrate.
Now, when you talk to Valerius, (I believe that’s who it was), he says that him and a handful of people had seen Julian fleeing the scene (or they actually “saw” him do it, I don’t remember which he said). As quoted by the apprentice, “Strange clouds obscure your true purpose. Secrets hidden behind illusion threaten to reveal themselves. You walk a path alone, convinced no one can see through your facade. But I see you.”
So we know this guy is full of shit, but you know who’s full of even more shit? Vlastomil. Vlastomil says he saw Julian kill the Count himself, then proceeded to say that he got there just as Julian was running away from the scene. So he is no reliable alibi.
Something the two stories have in common that is strange, is that both people said that they went to go see the Count to discuss business with him. A. Why would you visit the count when he was sick? B. Why would you go to discuss business while it was his birthday? C. This is a public event when anything can happen. The Count is horribly ill and vulnerable. Where in the Hell were the guards? Julian murders the Count, maybe he asked the guards to be left alone to talk to the Count. But they would still be outside for the Count’s safety and would’ve chased Julian, but there was no mention of them at all. They wouldn’t get past without guards.
Business has been violent throughout years, business can turn tables, anything bad can happen if the wrong thing is said, so there would be some form of protection and the Count would let his protection know in advance of the company.
The Count seemed like a guy that hated doing business, and most likely, you had to work around the Count’s schedule than him working around yours. Why would the count make a business meeting when he was ill, let alone on his fucking birthday?
Now, we’re going back to Julian. The key is that Julian is submissive, and would do anything for Asra. Asra knows this, Asra is also a magician, which clearly normal people aren’t. I believe one of these is scenarios is what had happened:
Asra murdered the Count, he got in due to the gates being open, and was able to use magic to sneak in and murder the Count. Witnesses show up, and Asra threatens them with his powers, they submit and agree to blame Julian, knowing others knew that they would be near the crime scene and didn’t want to get into trouble. Asra chose Julian because he knows that Julian wouldn’t stand up to Asra, he knew Julian would run.
Remember when Asra cut open Julian’s palm? He could’ve used it to make a potion to turn himself into Julian and then proceeded to kill the Count (I literally just thought of that, I’m shook).
Asra used Julian's vulnerability against him and forced Julian to murder the Count, and wiped his memory so that Julian couldn't remember Asra convincing him to kill the Count or putting him under a spell to make him do it.
Here’s my theory for the memory loss between MC, Nadia, and Julian, and it ties in with what happened after Asra murdered the Count. Friendly reminder, Asra said he made MC so mad, he had no choice but to take his memories. Julian and MC click very quickly. When you go to the plague island with Nadia, you start having feelings that you’ve been there before, this could be a link to you and Julian knowing one another. You knew Julian and cared for him deeply, and this upsets Asra because Julian frustrates him enough, and now MC and him are close and maybe even in love, but Asra is your master, he loved you first. Asra framed Julian (choose one of my theories), Asra comes clean and tells MC. MC runs off and tells the Countress that Asra made Julian murder the Count or that Julian was framed, and Asra takes away the memories of Nadia, MC, and Julian.
Plus, if Julian was there that one night, Portia would be with him. And if he was there and she knew about her brother being framed, her memory would also be wiped.
If Asra was there that night and did it himself, it would make sense about the Count's demon. It's come to the MC and exposed itself to the Countress. The Count's ghost is only intimidated by one character, Asra. Who could be his murderer.
