Marchenghast, Pandoria, and Anne
After noticing some weird things around the new area, I decided to investigate. This is my attempt to guess some of the story of Marchenghast before full release, and if anyone finds this post later, it was created on the second day of the castle being established.
1: The Marchenghast Bloodline, and Their Dilemma
Margarete is absolutely covered in expensive detailing. I thought at first maybe it was the game very loudly announcing her status, but when I looked further I noticed it's not technically just her family's colors, but eyes resembling manta rays, surrounded by spikes.
What we understand about the Marchenghast family and the castle is extremely slim. Her father is Duke Wilhelm Jacob, and her trust in him is evidently fickle enough to let us in on all of their secrets within the first hour of meeting us, despite her suspicion that we are a witch.
She recognizes the name of Aideen, who is traditionally represented as a mother goddess associated with women and the value of nature, with horses as her symbolic animal, but also one with a cult following of "witches". Reasonably, she should have attacked.
In my experience, when a character is completely branded by a symbol, it normally means they are imprisoned by or controlled by it to some extent, with far more emphasis needed to keep them from defecting. Margarete must not trust her father very well. I could argue there's a chance she's an Aideen convert, but I'm unsure since there is no evidence for it.
We don't understand why the war between the witches and castle residents started, but around the castle you can find whole versions of the original banner, which suggests that they were close enough that the witches were considered family. Maybe even literally family, because you wouldn't put a foreign symbol on your family's banner. In this depiction, the lizard-dog from the forest is shown above the dragon.
Purple is seen everywhere, along with the manta ray eyes that make up the family's symbol. Pandoric crystals are used as weapons, and chains that dangle outside suggest they once hung on the city walls in abundance.
My first impression was that these people are Pandorians. Let me explain what I mean.
Ydris himself is wearing a belt with a buckle made of the same iron from the castle, not mentioning his dress. He has similar eyes all over his area, but he doesn't appear to be related to the Marchenghasts.
There's not much similarity if you're not looking, but this game is simple enough to explain the connection in much more obvious detail.
The club card in his sleeve seems pointless, other than it being the highest of the Suits. However, if you remember, his quest with Pi and subsequently Anne was centered around a clover. Clubs were originally called Clovers in French before the English got their hands on the deck.
Now, we look again to Marchenghast. The fencing has one of the most commonly recognized French symbols plastered all over it.
Now, the NPCs in Marchenghast are not speaking French, and I believe that's an intentional detail. This would suggest that the Marchenghasts were the ones to order these fences made, which is in line with the rest of the decorations. The symbol is actually the iris flower, which has a double meaning for part of an eye.
All that aside, this feels like solid evidence for the Marchenghasts at least to be Pandorian. I believe the commoners are less pandorian, and therefore unable to wield the crystals magic as weapons, which might be why they decided on decorations. But they certainly still are, if you look at the graveyard.
I haven't seen these symbols on other graves out in Jorvik, and normally the symbol on a grave has something to do with the religion that culture has. I'm not sure what these are supposed to be, but considering its not Aideen, it just lends to their otherworldliness. Not even mentioning that their castle presumably sits in a time portal they can't leave, and Ydris is 'allergic' to time.
Anne doesn't have extremely strong evidence for being connected to any of this, but let's go through it anyway.
Anne is a member of the sun circle, which is attuned to Pandoria, and went missing originally in France.
The obvious is that Margarete and her are both rich and blonde. Shocking. French family too? With a favor for dressage? Anne's mother was a witch, and I'm going to be under the assumption that Margarete's mother is too, due to the flag. Star Stable has a history of giving women the powers and abstaining them from the men.
(EDIT: I remembered the name incorrectly for the witches, so I removed the paragraph I had here)
A normal human being would be dead. She's linked to the Sun circle, which is linked to Pandoria, and she seems to distantly share characteristics with the Marchenghast family, as well as narratively being tied in with Ydris by taking the clover and dealing with witches when she's meant to have an aversion to them. She was taken specifically by Darko for her ability to bring down the black sun.
Speaking of the Black Sun...
So, maybe Anne was always meant to end up the way she did?
I believe it'll be the next point of conflict for her, and for us.
