VÆ VICTIS

Woe to the Conquered

The Life of the Blessed Hand

A companion to Væ Victis: the story, the systems and the complete guide

Vae victis.

Preview

Book One · The Grimoire · I

Open It

What this world is, who Wick is, and how to read him

Ubi puer Wick in cloaca dormit.

NewcomerStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealed

The throne in the havenIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

A boy slept by the vats of a chandlery in the gutter of a city built on a hill. The gang who owned him named him for the part of the candle that burns. A priest bought him from the gang. A duchess bought him a name. Six great houses shut their doors on him, one after another, and then the heads of those six houses killed him on a stone.

That is where the game begins: in the dark, in the earth, with a voice.

THE ONE BELOW

Do not reach for air. There is none, and you have no need of it. You are dead.

The grave. The first words of the game.god_grave_2

The title of this book

The church keeps lives of its saints: the story of a holy man set down for the faithful, from his humble birth to his good death. The Life of the Blessed Hand is one of them, and the church’s name for Wick is the Blessed Hand. The scroll that opens the game is that life, panel by panel, in red and black ink, and the voice below reads it over his body.

So the title of this book is the church’s title. For now, read it as the church means it: a saint’s life. By the end you will read it differently. The page that says how is sealed at the end of this chapter.

The world in one breath

Væ Victis takes its name from an old Latin cry: woe to the conquered. The conquered here are not soldiers. They are the gutter, the marsh villages, the foundlings, the debtors, the sons marched up a hill to serve: everyone the great houses take from. And, the game will suggest, they are also anyone denied their own death.

The world is one city and the land around it.

The city on the hill is class made into stone. The gutter lies by the river, outside the wall, lowest of all. The great houses sit on the rings above it, each higher than the last, and the crown sits on the summit.
The church stands over everything, sincere and warm: a rose window, feast days, processions, an orphanage run as charity.
Six great houses rule. Each takes something from the villages below: sons, infants, voices, men, years, bread.
Beneath it all there is a hall under the cathedral, and rivers of blood that run into it, and something older that speaks.

PLATE IThe city on the hillThe flock crosses the city at night: the river, the roofs, the hill climbing to its crown. The first time the game lets you see the whole of it from above.In-engine cinematic, the high road (v73)

There is no clock in this world and no day and night to manage. Light is scenery. Time passes in deeds: the city changes because of what you have done, and only because of that.

Who Wick is

He has three names, and who uses which tells you who is speaking.

Name	Who says it	What it means
Wick	the gutter, the villages, the dead, his mother, his one friend, the voice below	the gang’s name for him: the part of the candle meant to burn
Lord Aldric Marchmont	the houses, the watch, the high street	the title a duchess bought him: a lord’s name that was never meant to open a door
The Blessed Hand	the church	a name you will see written before you hear it said

He wants one thing: to be inside. Past the doors that were shut on him, at the table, in the window. He believes he rose by his own will and that what he takes he has earned. His flaw is pride, and the game never lets it rest. He will not be led. He will not be told. He does not read what he is given.

He speaks in verse when he can: short, archaic, ending on the hard word. He never explains himself.

WICK

Here, where the lanterns gutter, I was slain;

vista_slain_1

WICK

the earth that took me could not keep its claim.

His first words risen, at the churchyard’s first mark.vista_slain_2

The voice below

Something raised him. The captions call it THE ONE BELOW, in gold, with an ember beside the name. It speaks to Wick and only to Wick, always as “you”. It is serious. It is sparing. It does not joke, it does not mock, and it does not laugh, anywhere in the game.

It also never lies. When it will not tell you something, it says less, or it is cut off. Keep that rule in your pocket: it is the most useful thing in this book.

In the grave, before he has opened his eyes, it offers him the strength to pull all six houses down, and it starts to name a price. He does not let it finish.

THE ONE BELOW

I am the one below. I can give you the strength to pull all six houses down. They will kneel to you and ask for the blow. Hear the price-

god_grave_5

WICK

Enough. Open it.

lord_grave_open

Listen to that exchange twice. Everything in the game is in it.

What the game tells you at the start

After the opening scroll, or in its place if you skip it, the game shows three sentences on black. They are the plainest statement of the premise you will get:

They wore the Church’s robes. They bought an orphan, ruined his life on purpose, and killed him on a stone. The one below raised him for revenge.

The premise card, after the intro.title.js

So Wick wakes on a throne in a drowned hall under the cathedral, climbs up through his own grave, and goes to put out the six houses, one by one. Six candles burn at his grave, one for each house still standing. When a house falls, its flame goes out.

The one button

Every head of a great house fights Wick at full strength. Every one of them, beaten, kneels and asks for the killing blow, aloud, in words a proud man can hear as mockery.

Then the game hands you the only choice that matters in it. Hold the strike and the blow falls: the head dies, Wick takes a gift from below, and the house’s people are freed. Walk away, or lead the beaten head off by the hand, and the head lives: ruined, in the pillory in the market square, to be tried by the city’s council.

Kill or spare. That is the game’s lever, offered again at every house, and the world keeps count of what you chose.

TIPFor a first night

Read the candles. The six candles in the status panel and at his grave are the houses standing. They are the game’s clock, and the only one.
Read the window. The rose window of the gutter church has seven lights. Watch what happens to them as houses fall.
Read the square. The pillory in the market square has a stand for each house. Watch who sits in it.
Listen to the thanks. When a head dies by Wick’s hand, listen to what they say. Then listen to the next one.
Open the ledger (N, or LEDGER in the pause menu). Every story line lands there, written plainly. If you lose the thread, the thread is there.

Sealed · After the first houseWhat the first head’s thanks meansBreak the seal to read

After the first head dies by the held blow, the priest turns aside and says, to you and not to Wick:

FATHER FULCRAN

You heard the thanks. Every head Wick kills goes below, and comes back to us as a saint.

furcas_saints_1

FATHER FULCRAN

Wick thinks this is his revenge. It is our rite, and he is doing it for us. I will not tell him.

furcas_saints_2

From here the game plays with your knowledge against his. You know what each kill makes. Wick does not, and he will refuse to hear it every time the voice below tries to say it. The sentence a player tells a friend is this: the vampire revenge game where every lord you kill comes back as a saint, which is what they wanted, so the hardest button is the one you don’t press.

The world will show you the saints: the shrines, the white tabards, the faces re-leaded into the rose window. Sparing is the only way to deny a head the seat it paid for, and it costs Wick his gifts.

How the story is told

The game keeps nothing essential in item descriptions and asks you to dig for nothing you need. The surface story is said plainly, once, by a named speaker, and said again later for anyone who skipped the intro. Underneath it there is a mystery you can actually solve, and the game gives you every clue for it three different ways before the end.

It tells its story through:

The voice below, plain about the facts, silent about itself.
Wick’s answers. He answers the god at every mark, still and visit. He wins every exchange and loses the argument.
The written record: a church calendar, a ledger, a bill of sale, a bounty bill, the faces on a wall. The player reads what Wick will not.
Stills of scenes he is not in: a night he was asleep, a lord’s last evening, a council around an empty chair.
The systems themselves: the candles, the window, the pillory, the rivers under the cathedral that thin as he acts.

Sealed · The endingThe one fixed truthBreak the seal to read

The mystery has exactly one answer, and it never changes: the houses engineered their own apparent ruin. They wanted it all along. They chose him. They want to die by his hand. It has happened before. Wick’s power is their harvest. The ending of the game is the moment Wick hears his own pride read back to him as the price. What he does then is up to you. The full account is in The Clues in Plain Sight and The One Below, under their gold seals.

What kind of game it is

A top-down gothic action game, drawn at 320 by 240 pixels in 32 colours, in which a dead man hunts his way through a city built by rank.

The fights are lessons. Every boss teaches a pattern you can name afterwards, and nothing hits hard without a wind-up you could have read. A first-time player should win most fights in two to five tries. The Manual lists every tell.
A house is a siege. You scout its ward, watch its public ceremony, break its grip on the villages, then climb to its rite. See The Rites.
Death is a door. When Wick falls, the voice below brings him back to the last crypt he opened, with half his blood, and the world keeps everything he did. See Death and Its Cost.
The road is guided, then open. The first part of the game leads you link by link, each place built on a new power; then the world opens and the order is yours. See the Walkthrough.

For streamers

The best moments in this game are the ones your chat does not see coming, so here is what to know without spoiling them.

The intro is a scroll in red and black ink. Let it play on a first stream. It is short, and it carries the facts the whole story stands on. The skip is a held button.
The first asking lands hard. Do not hold the strike on autopilot. Read the line on screen first.
Wick’s voice is mostly captions. In play he speaks in subtitles, with a few defining lines heard aloud. The voice below is always heard. Keep captions on.
Cinematics are short and skippable, and two of them frame every major place on the guided road. They are in-engine and safe to show.
Count the candles on screen. It is the easiest way to tell your audience how far in you are.

Sealed · The endingHow the title reads at the endBreak the seal to read

A saint’s life is written after the saint is dead. This one was written before. The houses commissioned it; the church set down Wick’s whole life, his death and his future as a dead saint’s, and left the last panels bare for the ending they had not yet been given (whether the future panels are drawn on the opening scroll itself is still to be decided TBD). The Life of the Blessed Hand is the name of their plan, in their own hand: the beneficiaries wrote the prophecy, and the boy it was about was the only one who never read it. When the game ends, the bare panels are filled by what you choose. The book you are holding is the same life, with the margins written in.

Book One · The Grimoire · II

The City and Its Houses

A gazetteer of the hill, the gutter, the hall below and the six who rule

Et ianuae clausae sunt.

NewcomerLore chaserStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealed

The gutter quarterPress shot, the play field, clean pixels under the book's CRT

The city is built the way it thinks. The poor live by the river, outside the wall, where the water runs past the vats and the washing steps. Each great house sits on a ring of the hill above them, and the higher the ring, the greater the house. At the summit, the crown. Nothing in this place is level, and nobody in it is equal.

The hill, from the bottom up

Where	What stands there
The gutter, by the river, outside the wall	the chandlery and its vats, the gang’s cellar, the river steps where the washerwomen work, the market cross and the pillory, the council house, the gutter church with its rose window, the orphanage, the bell tower, the South Bridge, the docks
The lowest ring	the spur of the Tower, its garrison village, its gibbets
The second ring	the quarry face and the Builders’ Guild
The first ring	the cistern and the counting house, the exchange
The summit	the crown: the Hundred Steps, the North Gate, the King’s hall
Out in the marsh	the convent of the High Priestess on its holm across the river, and the villages that do not speak
Between the churchyard and the city	the graveyard court: a city of the dead under a belfry, each door a coat of arms
Outside the court’s gate	the King’s Labyrinth Gardens, the Pleasance, and the road up to a shrine on the Height

WICK

Streets of the dead, and every door a coat of arms.

court_vista_1

WICK

The rich rot here in marble. I rose from mud.

The terrace of the graveyard court.court_vista_2

The gutter

The gutter is the game’s home ground and the place it keeps coming back to. It is where Wick was a boy, where the gang named him, where the washerwomen still beat linen on the river steps. One of them looks at him too long. The gutter is also where the city keeps its accounts in public: the pillory stands in the square, the council meets in its house, and the church posts its calendar on the door.

The gutter remembers what Wick does in it. Feed on its people and that ward’s lantern gutters, the washerwomen’s talk turns to fear, the watch doubles its patrols, and fewer people come to the church on the great feast. Its children he never touches, and his mother he cannot feed on at all: the prompt does not appear on her.

The haven: the cathedral under the cathedral

The church built its public cathedral on top of an older one. Down there, under the churchyard, there is a drowned nave with seven niches and seven channels, a waterfall of blood, bone chandeliers, bats, and a throne set on the altar. Wick’s unmarked grave, dug outside the family fence, is a shaft straight down into it. He thinks he has found a palace.

THE ONE BELOW

Your hall, beneath their cathedral. Every river in it is a village, bled.

The intro’s last words, over the empty throne.god_haven_1

The haven is the game’s sanctuary. Resting on the throne saves and restores him. Every church crypt in the city is a sealed door down to the haven’s catacombs, and once opened, each one is a checkpoint and a way home. A visitors’ stair comes down the east bay, and after each house the priest who bought Wick comes down it with one question and one gift, and sits in a chair by the stair.

LOREThe rivers

The channels are the tithe. For centuries the villages’ blood has run down from every house into this hall. When a head is killed, that house’s river thins. When a head is spared, it runs dry. On the merciful path the city’s council sends down one channel of its own, so a sparing Wick is never starved. At the end, only what he took himself still flows.

Sealed · Mid-gameWhy the channels enter under carvingsBreak the seal to read

Each channel enters the haven under its house’s seal, cut into the floor. The hall is a key to the houses’ secret grammar, and the player lives in it. Stand by a channel and an aside names the house it comes from. The seventh channel runs out from under the throne itself: the priest’s own tithe feeds the seat directly. The haven was furnished, long before Wick was born, for the one who would come and sit in it.

The church, and what lies under it

The church in this game is sincere. The villages believe in it, the Bishop believes in it, and the saints are real saints to the people who pray to them. It is an invented church, built from familiar things: a rose window of founder-saints, feast days, processions, Latin hymns, an orphanage run as charity, townsfolk who say “the devil” for whatever is below.

Two rules help you read it.

Small cross, big cross. A small cross over a cot, on a chest or in a hand is devotion. A big cross in the square, on the hill or in a rite chamber is the rite. Scale tells you intent.
Warmth is not safety. The well-lit study is as dangerous as the darkest crypt. Nobody here is shifty. The clergy and the heads are calm, helpful and sincere, and that is the horror.

THE ONE BELOW

Seven lights. The men who founded the houses, made saints. Watch the glass. It will change.

The gutter church’s rose window, the first time.chorus_rose

Sealed · Mid-gameThe three layersBreak the seal to read

The church has three layers, and the game shows all of them in plain sight.

Layer	What you see	What it is
The surface	a church, a bishop, saints, feasts, an orphanage	sincere, and believed
The belief	processions whose routes trace a figure on the hill, punched dots in the saints’ halos, arms built on seals, conjurations sung as hymns, every rite chamber a circle and a triangle in iron	the six houses’ real religion, an old book of spirits performed openly as liturgy. Nothing is hidden. It is unread.
Beneath	the rivers of tithe, the shaft under the grave, the stone in every triangle, a voice	older than the church and the houses, and the thing the whole apparatus feeds

Each house keeps a patron from that old book, and the patron’s seal is the house’s secret arms: Halphas for the Tower, Focalor for the Empress, Shax for the High Priestess, Malphas for the Magician, Vassago for the Wheel, Zagan for the Sun, Furcas for the World. Whether any of them exists apart from the seats they name is never answered.

The seals are carved and inlaid in the world in iron grey, never red, never glowing. Once you know to look, you will find them under the paint of every shrine.

The season

The city is in a season of feasts, and knows it. The church year printed for it is called Fencetide: it opens with an offering buried outside a family’s fence and closes with the feast of the Blessed Hand. The calendar is posted on the gutter church’s door. A carpenter is building a scaffold in the square for a processional figure nobody will explain. The chandler’s cart carries six candles for a grave and one for a saint. The children skip to a rhyme that counts candles.

Nobody hides any of it. Nobody reads it. The game asks you to.

TIPFor the lore chaser

Stand at the gutter church’s door and read the calendar the first time you pass. Then read it again after the first house falls. The book of clues for this season is Chapter V.

The counters

There is no clock. The state of the world is shown by things you can see, always:

The candles: six, at his grave, on the orphanage’s rack and along the top of the status panel. Lit: a house stands.
The rose window: seven lights in the gutter church. Watch what each fall does to them.
The pillory: a stand for each house in the market square. The ruined sit in it, alive.
The effigy: a figure growing in the square, one piece for each house fallen.

In the panel, a house killed by the blow turns its candle to gold wax with a still flame and a halo. A spared house’s candle goes out in a thread of smoke. A ruined house’s hangs upside down, a dead wick.

The six houses

Six houses rule the hill. Each is an office as much as a family: each takes one thing from the villages below, and each keeps its grip with a public ceremony everybody attends and nobody questions. The game calls these ceremonies the mask.

PLATE IIThe musterThe first house’s mask: every house’s sons called up to the Tower’s field.In-game, the Tower's garrison village

House	Its head	What it takes	Its mask	Its feast in the calendar
The Tower	the Earl Marshal	the sons: the levy, and the gibbets for the rest	the muster	The Soldier’s Feast
The Empress	the Duchess of Marrowmere	the infants: the foundling wheel and the roll	the foundling procession	The Mother’s Feast
The High Priestess	the Marchioness Shaxby	the voices: a marsh that says nothing	silent vespers	The Hush
The Magician	the Lord President of the Builders’ Guild	the men: the labour levy, buried in the quarry	the foundation stone	The Foundation
The Wheel	the Prince of Coin	the years: debt, sold and resold	the odds board hung	The Odds
The Sun	the King	the bread: the crown eats the fields	the feast	The Feast

The Tower

The Earl Marshal’s keep stands on its spur in a storm that never quite breaks. His levy marches the village’s sons up seven hairpin turns to a beacon; his gibbets hold the rest. His household believes in the war and the law. His heir believes the night’s vigil is holy. The Earl believes something else, and has had his armour polished for it.

The Wheel

The Prince of Coin keeps the odds as his office. His exchange sells the villages’ years as paper; his travelling circus, the Grand Turn, follows every funeral to sell the freed their first debt; his works at the acid falls etch the plates the paper is printed from. Every act in his circus is paying off a debt. His board on the exchange wall carries one wager no one will take.

The Empress

The Duchess of Marrowmere is the mother of every foundling in the city. Each year the infants are carried up the Foundling Stair and turned in at the wheel of her ward house. Her land is Marrowmere, up in the hills, where every cup of the city’s water comes over a single lip into a great fall, and she owns the lip. She bought Wick his title.

The Sun

The King does not wait to be visited. When three houses have fallen he sends a herald down to the gutter to invite the dead lord to his table, and every door on the hill opens for the climb. His feast is laid in a triangle. The guest’s chair is at its base.

The High Priestess

The Marchioness Shaxby is abbess of the convent of the veil, out in the marsh. Her house takes the marsh’s voices: for thirty years the villages have not said aloud what the coach takes from them. Her bell rings two strokes and a rest.

The Magician

The Lord President of the Builders’ Guild built half the city and marked every stone of it. His quarry buries the men of the labour levy. His own house is a machine that moves on a schedule. His plans lie open on his drafting table, and he does not seem to mind who reads them.

Sealed · The endingThe seventh houseBreak the seal to read

There is a seventh. The calendar’s last feast is the Feast of the Blessed Hand, “kept when the six are kept”, and its house is the World: the orphanage, and the seat under it, and the priest who keeps both. Father Fulcran takes no grip of his own and wears no mask. He runs the whole apparatus. His patron in the old book is Furcas, the knight, a cruel old man on a pale horse who teaches logic and rhetoric, and the last room of the game is his.

The many hands

When a head is spared, the city’s council tries them. It is a council of guild masters, a watch captain, aldermen, a ferryman and the washerwomen’s ward, and it meets around an empty chair. The first trial you cause is a full scene; later ones are stills. Each verdict dissolves the house’s grip by decree and lights that ward’s council lamps.

The council is not good. It is next.

PLATE IIIThe council sitsThe aldermen speak the levy, and the lord decides whether to listen or to skip.Press shot, live capture of the v83 build, CRT off, the play field only

Two laws of the land

THE RULERunning water is a wall

Nothing of Wick’s crosses running water: not his feet, not his beam, not his thread, in no form. Still water he can wade, slowly. The exceptions are a bridge someone built, the slack or flood of a tide, and a boat poled by a living hand. Learn it once; every place uses it.

THE RULEThere is no clock

People speak of tonight and of last month, because people do. The game keeps no clock and sets no deadline. The world changes when Wick does something, and only then. The moonlight is a look, never a rule.

Beyond the walls

Place	What it is
The King’s Labyrinth Gardens	the crown’s hedge maze outside the wall, clipped at night by gardeners nobody counts
The Pleasance	a formal garden of parterres and a great fountain, with six statues of the founders and a seventh plinth, bare and swept. A man with a lantern lives in its grotto
The Height	a pilgrimage shrine on a mountain, where a giant monk carries a gilded cage up and down the stair
The Greenwood	the King’s Chase: the one sunlit place in the land, where outlaws rob the tithe carts on the King’s road
Marrowmere Falls	the Duchess’s water: terraces of pools, a great fall, a font behind it, a still mere above
The Assayer’s works	the acid falls, where debtors work off their years at the vats
The Wastes	the land the grip leaves behind: the Gallows Downs, the Spoil, the Tithe Fields, the Salt, the Wash

PLATE IVThe Gallows DownsThe hanged giant cut into the chalk, and a ring of crows to call. Whole only from above (the flight view is in the Opening). The Wastes are crossed on foot or, once the rooks have taught him the roads, as a flock.Press shot, live capture of the v83 build, CRT off, the play field only

The Wastes are myth where the city is ordinary. In the city the horror is people doing what they are told; out there it is the grip made into landscape. Roads paved with ground-up heraldry. An orchard grown from hanged debtors. A cathedral gone to salt. A drowned fair that rises from the sea whenever a house falls. They open late, after the guided road, and they are covered in Walkthrough 8.

Book One · The Grimoire · III

The Gallery

The living, the dead and the kept, with their words and their debts

Hic ducissa eum dominum facit.

Lore chaserStreamerNewcomerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealed

Father Fulcran at the orphanage doorPress shot, the play field, clean pixels under the book's CRT

There are no portraits in this gallery. The faces the game paints for its status panel stay in the game. Where a person has a character card in the collector’s box (sixteen of them, each showing the game’s own rendered sprite), the card is set here as a plate, with its words; see The Collector’s Box and Keepsakes. Here each person is set as an old book sets its saints: a capital in a ring, a name, what they are called by others, and their own words. Where a person’s truth spoils the story, it waits under a seal.

The web

Before the entries, the debts. Nearly everyone in the game was made by the same few hands.

Who	Was bought, raised or wronged by	And owes, or is owed, by
Wick	sold by the coach to the gang; bought from the gang by Father Fulcran; made a lord by the Duchess; shut out by all six houses; killed by their heads	the voice below raised him
Snuff	the same coach, the same gang, the same vats, a generation earlier	names himself for the snuffer that puts wicks out
The Marquis Andrevel	groomed by the same Duchess; bought a marquisate and a signet	the voice below kept him
Lady Ismay Carrow	another city’s foundling, raised and killed and somehow alive	the Duchess wrote to her
Hollin	a runaway ward of the Duchess	robs the houses’ carts
Mother Carrion	hanged by the houses for hiding her newborn from the coach	gives the rooks’ roads freely
The washerwoman	stands every year at the marsh’s tithe vespers with empty hands	looks at Wick too long

The dead and the risen

Wick

Lord Aldric Marchmont · the Blessed Hand

The player

PLATE ICard 1 of 16: WickThe Blessed Hand. “He wants to be inside: past the doors that were shut on him, at the table, in the window.” His first line: **”I rose.”** His flaw: pride.The collector's box: the character card, the game's own rendered sprite

A gutter child the gang named for the part of the candle meant to burn. Bought by a priest, raised to a lord’s name by a duchess, turned from every door in the city, then killed on a stone by the heads of the six houses. Raised by the voice below, he wakes on a throne under the cathedral and goes to put the six houses out.

He is proud, quick, contemptuous of the gutter that made him and of the nobility that would not have him. He speaks in short verse. He never explains himself. He answers the god at every turn and never lets it finish a warning. He is magnificent, he is right about every fact, and he is being used.

Wears: three faces in the options menu, all open from the start: Classic, Bright Red and Silver Dark (see Skins). Carries: a sword and an axe from the first step; more arms as the road goes on (see Arms). Becomes: the bat, then the crows; late, perhaps, the mist (see Forms).

WICK

Of all these beds, they came to mine. They saw what I was worth.

His old bed in the orphanage dormitory.mark_bed

The One Below

a voice in the fire, embers in an arch

Who raised him

Heard and never shown: eyes in the flames, embers rising in the status panel’s window where a face would be, a hand of embers when he takes hold. He speaks to Wick as “you”, plainly, briefly, and he never lies. He keeps his word: every death, he brings Wick back. He has a whole chapter: The One Below.

The Marquis Andrevel

the Belfry Lord · the thing in the belfry

The first boss

PLATE IICard 4 of 16: The Marquis AndrevelThe Belfry Lord · The last offering. “A foundling bought a marquisate and a signet. He read, and refused the seat. The houses put a price on their own failed offering.” *Wanted: the thing in the belfry. Paid by the Vault Wardens.*The collector's box: the character card, the game's own rendered sprite

A lord who bought his title and drank his household, so the gutter’s story goes, and took to the bells of the court’s belfry. The bounty bill calls him a lord of no family. He drops on grave robbers in the graveyard court, drinks them white, and turns on whoever is next. He is the first fight that asks you to learn a pattern instead of swinging, and the bat that is Wick’s for the rest of the game is drunk from him.

THE ONE BELOW

You are not the first. This is the Marquis Andrevel. They made him a lord and killed him, before you. I kept him.

As Andrevel drops from the belfry.god_court_lord

WICK

Kept him? Keep him, then. I am no man’s, bought or kept.

ans_court_kept

When he is down, Wick drinks him to ash and takes the bought signet off his hand.

THE ONE BELOW

He learned what he was made for, and refused it. This is what refusing made of him. His wings are yours.

god_court_bat

WICK

Men are not made for things. Bells are. He rang. I fly.

ans_court_made

Sealed · The endingWhat Andrevel learnedBreak the seal to read

Andrevel was the last offering: a foundling groomed by the same Duchess, raised to a bought marquisate, shut out, killed, and raised from below, exactly as Wick was. He went to the salt church out in the Wastes to make an honest confession, and came out, people say, laughing. He had read the book. He refused the seat with all six houses still standing, and killed no head. A refused offering with the work undone is spoiled, and kept: the voice below kept him in the belfry, and the houses put a bounty on their own failed offering and struck his feasts from the calendar.

Before he went feral he came back to the orphanage where he was raised and scratched his own words into the border of the church’s picture of the Blessed Hand. The children call them the devil’s scratches. The priest will not have them mended. You can read them at the very end. His confession is crystallised on the wall of the Salt Cathedral among the pilgrims’ lines: I am the one they raised. I have read the book. I will not go down. The same bought signet sat on two men’s hands, bought by one purse.

The Singing Saint

the walled girl of the Height

The crows’ giver

The shrine on the Height is a pilgrimage shrine, and its relic is “her birds”, kept in a gilded reliquary cage that a giant monk carries chained to his back. When Wick breaks the cage, a thin girl in an undyed shift rises out of it, ghost-pale, and sings while she speaks. Then she comes apart into birds that fly into him, and the crows are his.

THE SAINT

They walled me up to sing for them. Then they caught my singing and called it holy.

saint_free_1

THE SAINT

Take them. They are hungry: let them eat a little from you, every time they rise.

saint_free_2

THE SAINT

And never under a roof. I was under one a hundred years.

saint_free_3

She is the whole game shown once, in small, before the first house: the church makes saints of the dead it made, and keeps them in boxes.

The Penitent

the keeper of the Height’s shrine

Boss

A giant lay brother in a brown habit and an iron yoke, under a vow never to set the cage down. He carries her up and down the pilgrims’ stair. Beaten, he kneels where the cage fell, the chain loose, and Wick may drink him or let him walk down the mountain.

THE PENITENT

She is not to be set down. Not by me. Not by you.

gb-gardens.js

The living

Father Fulcran

the priest · the Father

Who bought him

The orphanage’s priest, kind to Wick’s face, unafraid of the dead lord at his gate. He bought Wick from the gang and wrote it down. He keeps the charity’s accounts. He never tells Wick what to do: he only asks. After every house he comes down the visitors’ stair into the haven with one question and one gift, and sits in a chair by the stair.

FATHER FULCRAN

Wick.

At the orphanage gate.fulcran_wick

WICK

Father.

lord_gate_father

THE ONE BELOW

He will not tell you what to do. He only asks. Whatever you do next, you will call it your own choice.

In the Father’s study, as he pours.chorus_study_2

Sealed · The endingThe WorldBreak the seal to read

Fulcran is the operator of the whole season. He holds the door for every head who goes below, and he keeps the ledger whose every humiliation is dated years ahead and marked Paid. His seat is under the orphanage, behind a grated stair sealed with his own red wax, and the last room of the game is his. There, at the Ring of the Kneelers, he fights Wick on foot with a pike: a knight’s test, not a head’s rite. Then he reads the rite-book’s marks aloud and stops at the blank line. If all six heads were spared, the city comes down the stair behind Wick and tries him in his own schoolroom, on his own seal.

Snuff

Jem Cotter · the hunter

The one friend

A hunter from the gutter: a vat boy a generation before Wick, bought off the same coach by the same gang for a shilling and a bottle. He drinks at the tavern bench, carries a net, a hook-pole, a shuttered lantern and a bandolier of stakes, and lives by his own law. He meets Wick in the first hour and is not frightened of him for long.

SNUFF

Wick! You’ll be Wick. Sit down before you fall down; you look like a man who’s been dug up.

The tavern bench, the first meeting.hn_m1_hail

SNUFF

The coach brought me too. Two lamps and no sound. The gang had me off it for a shilling and a bottle. I slept by these vats before you were born. They called me Snuff. Somebody has to put the wicks out.

hn_m2_mirror

SNUFF

You’re killing lords, they say. I’ve no quarrel with that. Only mind: the next lot are always worse.

hn_m2_stays

He is the only living person who knows what Wick is and likes him anyway. Hunter’s law is his whole philosophy: the worst one first; nobody hunts alone; you don’t take a man’s kill.

Sealed · Mid-gameThe hunter takenBreak the seal to read

On the road of the third house, Snuff walks at Wick’s back into the siege, does one good deed, and says his last line in his own voice. Then a lantern comes out of the fog, warm white turning gold, and the voice below takes him. Wick hears only his friend’s voice say the worst one first. You hear the god under it and see embers over Snuff’s face.

SNUFF

-fog. Nothing at all. Hunter’s law, Wick: the worst one first.

gb-hunter.js

The god does it because the rite needs Wick to come to every circle with no hand upon him, and a friend who walks at your back is a hand. It is the one death the god stages himself: the stake goes in, the lights die, and a hand of embers pulls Wick back.

THE ONE BELOW

No. Not his hand. Not yet.

god_death_stake_1

THE ONE BELOW

His hand. My will. You will understand, or you will not.

god_death_stake_2

WICK

Two hands against me, then. Mine is enough.

ans_stake

Beaten, Snuff can be spared (the lantern drains back to warm, and he does not remember why) or killed (he dies as himself). Spared, he comes back: down the visitors’ stair once, with his net off a tavern roof later, and with a lantern at the very end.

Ambry

the Man of Secrets · the hermit of the grotto

The hint-giver

An old man with a lantern who has lived in the grotto at the bottom of the King’s pleasure garden for sixty years. Nobles talk in gardens; he has heard sixty years of it, and he sells it back. When you are lost, go to him: he names where you should be going and marks it on your way. His price rises as the game goes on: a little blood early, then the dark you carry, and late in the game, hunts.

AMBRY

Sixty years in this hole, my lord, and every one of them said something in my garden they should not have. I sell it back.

secrets_meet_1

AMBRY

A little of you, for the roses. They have had worse.

secrets_price_blood

Sealed · The endingAmbry’s truthBreak the seal to read

Ambry is a vampire: an elder of the blood, older than the six houses, hiding in plain sight as the King’s forgotten under-gardener. Sixty years in the hole is true, and so are the six hundred before it. That is why he asks for blood, and why the dark Wick carries feeds him “as well as any cup”. The clues are all there: he never eats or drinks; the roses on his door are red; he knew people centuries dead; and in the great basin, his lantern shows and he does not.

In the great basin the grotto’s lantern shows, swinging. The man who carries it does not.

pl_reflect

Late in the game, once five houses have fallen, the roses on his door offer a challenge. He is an optional boss, and drinking him gives Wick the mist. After that the grotto sells nothing. See the boss panel and Walkthrough 13.

AMBRY

So. You worked it out. Sixty years, my lord, and six hundred before them. Come, then. The roses are thirsty.

secrets_challenge

Mother Carrion

the hanged woman of the Downs

The roads

A marsh woman the houses hanged forty-odd years ago, for hiding her newborn from the coach. She went with the rooks. She speaks through them now, on the Gallows Downs, and at the opening of the world her rooks come for Wick and teach him the long roads: the flight above the land, the roosts, the ways home. She is not the god’s, and he says so.

MOTHER CARRION

Dead boy. Dead boy with the bat’s wings. Up the knoll.

carrion_call

MOTHER CARRION

Those are a saint’s birds, dead boy. They know a cage and a garden. Mine know the roads.

carrion_saints_birds

MOTHER CARRION

The coach took my boy in the frost year. If you ever hear where, you tell the rooks.

carrion_ask_rooks

Sealed · Mid-gameHer boyBreak the seal to read

The game never says who Mother Carrion’s boy was. It only lets you notice that one man in the gutter came off the coach as a baby, in about those years, and was sold to the gang for a shilling and a bottle. Listen to Snuff at the vats, then listen to her on the knoll.

The Washerwoman

a woman at the river steps

Who looks too long

One of the washerwomen at the gutter’s river steps looks at Wick too long. If he tries to feed on her, his hand stops, and he does not know why.

THE ONE BELOW

Not her. Your hand stopped, and you do not know why. I do.

chorus_mother

WICK

My hand is mine. It stops when I say stop.

ans_mother

Sealed · Mid-gameWho she isBreak the seal to read

She is his mother. She is alive, a washerwoman from Sallowhithe in the marsh, and every year she stands at the tithe vespers with empty hands. The coach took her boy. You learn it in the first of the Empress’s or the Priestess’s houses to fall; on the guided road, that is the Duchess’s, where the roll of the wheel reads Mother: struck through. Wick does not learn it. In the works under the exchange, a ward who slept beside him says it to his face, and he does not hear it as anything.

NELL

The green water goes down to the river steps. Your mother washes in it.

aw_nell_2

What becomes of her follows the houses’ fates: kneeling at a shrine, silenced by a saint of silence, or sitting on the council. Wick learns her village only at the very end. On one path he passes her on a jury, and she says his name.

Mardle

the ferryman · Slack Water

The river

An old man in the ferrymen’s sea-green coat and a broad round hat, poling a boat called Slack Water. For forty years he was the houses’ corpse-ferry: every burial went down the river in his boat. He meets Wick at the foot of Marrowmere Falls, after the Duchess, and rows him home. He charges the living a penny and the dead nothing. One line a crossing, never a sermon.

MARDLE

Dead ride free. Yours was paid. Years back.

fr_fare

MARDLE

Off the drowned. Somebody should keep them. They paid.

fr_pennies

Hollin and the band

the outlaws of the Greenwood

Wary allies

In the King’s Chase, a band of people the houses squeezed out rob the tithe carts on the King’s road, and everything they take goes back down to the villages. Their captain, Hollin, is a runaway ward of the Duchess. Gentle Cobb is a Tower levy deserter with a quarterstaff as long as two men. Ash and Yew are a hanged poacher’s children. Brother Wystan is the Bishop’s runaway clerk. Sorrel is a marsh girl who said aloud what the coach takes. They are brave, funny and good. They do not hire lords: they try them.

HOLLIN

Aldric Marchmont. She dressed you in robes and sat you at the end of her table. We ate in the scullery.

gw_hollin_down

HOLLIN

The lodge, the gate, the yard. What we take goes down to the villages. All of it. That is the whole of our politics.

gw_hollin_after

COBB

I counted myself back out of the levy. Nobody else would.

gw_cobb_levy

BROTHER WYSTAN

I copied lives of saints for the Bishop. A neat hand. Some of them had the dates still blank.

gw_wystan_3

Lady Ismay Carrow

the other offering

A stranger at the church door

A lady in a travel-ruined gown and a bought coronet, standing at the gutter church’s door reading the calendar aloud, puzzled.

LADY CARROW

Feasts for saints who aren’t dead. Is that how they do it here?

carrow_kalendar

LADY CARROW

The Duchess wrote to us. The houses of this city would be glad of a daughter.

carrow_daughter

Sealed · Mid-gameWhy she is hereBreak the seal to read

She is an offering from another city whose rite failed, and who lived. In the Duchess’s wardrobe there are three sets of robes: Wick’s, cut to his measure; Andrevel’s, older, with a marquis’s coronet; and a third, half-sewn, to a woman’s measure. There is always a next one. Her own theory, that a kind hand spoiled her rite, is never confirmed.

Sister Ide

the schoolroom sister

The one sincere cleric

PLATE IVCard 3 of 16: Sister IdeThe schoolroom sister. “She carries on teaching when the dead lord walks in. As a girl she saw a clear light fill with a face, and has doubted her own miracle ever since.” She sits on the Assize bench.The collector's box: the character card, the game's own rendered sprite

The sister who carries on teaching when the dead lord walks into the orphanage schoolroom. As a girl she saw the clear light of the rose window fill with a face, and the church showed her in the square. She has doubted her own miracle ever since, which is what makes her faith sincere. Her name is not final in the design TBD.

The Bishop

the Duchess’s brother

Boss

High clergy, and the one man of the church who believes every word of the surface. He runs the canonisations and preaches the Blessed Hand. His homily is the one sermon in the game you can find no logical flaw in, only a moral one. He does not thank anyone for anything.

THE BISHOP

You will not carry that hand down into the Father’s cellar. Not without a blessing. Not without blood.

bishop_intro

Sealed · The endingThe Bishop’s riteBreak the seal to read

After the great canonisation, the Bishop stays at the altar and will not let Wick pass to the stair. He is armoured by the saints Wick made: every re-leaded light in the rose window throws a shaft on him and turns blows. Beaten, he asks to go to them, to his sister. Killed, he gets no seat and no saint; no candle goes out; he dies afraid, because he believed. Spared, he takes a seventh stand in the pillory.

THE BISHOP

Let me go to them. Let me go to my sister.

head_bishop_ask

THE ONE BELOW

He believes them. Ask yourself where he thinks they went.

god_bishop

WICK

To the worms. Gladly sent.

ans_bishop

The six heads

Each head of a great house fights at full strength, and each, beaten, asks. What they ask is the most important line in their house. The pattern is the point, so it is sealed after the first.

The Earl Marshal

the Earl of the Tower

The first house

PLATE VCard 5 of 16: The Earl MarshalThe Tower · Earl. “The Soldier’s Feast. The muster marched by the seven turns from the well to the beacon, and the beacon put out.” Asks: **”Finish it as one soldier to another.”** Gives: the armed dead.The collector's box: the character card, the game's own rendered sprite

An old soldier who keeps his house’s grip with the levy and the gibbet. His household believes in the war and the law; his heir believes the night’s vigil is holy. He watches his son fight first, and does not move. His name and seat are not yet set in the design TBD; the game calls him the Earl of the Tower.

THE ONE BELOW

His last evening. He has had his armour polished, as for a feast. He is waiting for you.

A still: his last evening.still_tower_evening

WICK

Let him wait in steel. It has never saved a man from me.

ans_tower_evening

THE EARL

Finish it as one soldier to another.

His asking.head_tower_ask

Sealed · After the first houseThe other five heads, and what they askBreak the seal to read

Head	House	What they ask, beaten	Their thanks, if killed
The Prince of Coin	the Wheel	“Take the bet.”	“Paid, then. By the hand we wronged: manu quam laesimus.”
The Duchess of Marrowmere	the Empress	“Let my children see it done.”	“Thank you, my son. You were always my good boy. Manu quam laesimus.”
The King	the Sun	“To the hand that crowns me.”	“A good toast. By the hand we wronged: manu quam laesimus.”
The Marchioness Shaxby	the High Priestess	she cannot ask: she sets her bell down and closes his hand on his own hilt	silence, then her bell falls and rings once
The Lord President	the Magician	“Enough. Before you choose, look at the haven. I built it to the priest’s measure. Let me see it paid for.”	“Well struck. The measure is kept. Manu quam laesimus.”

Every thanks ends on the same three words, in the church’s Latin: manu quam laesimus, “by the hand we wronged”. A council clerk notices it once, reading the first decree into the record. The formula is printed at the foot of the calendar too.

THE ONE BELOW

He thanked you. Listen, next time they thank you.

After the first head thanks him.chorus_tower_2

WICK

Let them thank the blade. It is the last thing they will feel.

ans_thanks

The Duchess of Marrowmere

the Mother · Her Grace

The Empress

The mother of every foundling in the city, and the woman who bought Wick his name. She ties white sashes on her wards before a rite and kisses each. She has owned the city’s water all her life and is christened again in its font every year.

THE DUCHESS

I bought you that name, Aldric. It was dear, and it was never meant to open doors. Only the one.

duchess_title

The Prince of Coin

the Wheel

The Wheel

A sporting noble of the city’s court who has made the odds his office. His exchange sells the villages’ years; his circus follows funerals; his board on the exchange wall foresees every move Wick makes.

THE PRINCE OF COIN

You came up the stair. The board said you would.

gb-wheel.js

The King

the Sun

By summons

He sends for Wick after the third house. His court applauds the dead lord’s entrance in the language of hospitality, which everyone in the hall understands but Wick. His own cup at the head of the triangle is never filled.

THE KING

The hounds first. A feast wants a little sport before the meat.

gb-sun.js

THE ONE BELOW

The tables are laid in a triangle. Your chair is at its base.

god_feast

The Marchioness Shaxby

Hester · the abbess of the veil

The High Priestess

PLATE IXCard 7 of 16: The Marchioness ShaxbyThe High Priestess · Marchioness. “The Hush. A day of no word; the vespers bell, two strokes and a rest; the coach goes east.” Gives: silence.The collector's box: the character card, the game's own rendered sprite

Abbess of the marsh convent, who keeps a day of no word and rings her handbell two strokes and a rest. She never varies the beat. She rings so he can find her.

THE ONE BELOW

She may not ask. She has arranged for you to ask for her.

god_priestess_ask

The Lord President of the Builders’ Guild

the Magician

The Magician

The man who built half the city, every stone of it marked with his guild’s sign. His house is a machine; his plans lie open on his table.

THE LORD PRESIDENT

Up my quarry, through my drafting room, down my lift. Every stone you passed was cut to a measure. So were you.

gb-magician.js

The lieutenants and the household

The heads know. Their lieutenants do not: they believe in the war, the law, the roll, the odds. Beaten, a lieutenant yields, and can be killed or taken as a witness for the head’s trial.

House	Lieutenants	What they keep
The Tower	the Lord Marshal; the Hangman	the drilled line; the gibbet field and the drop room
The Wheel	the Dream-reader (the circus’s star, in the big top); the Assayer (at his acid works)	the odds to come; the weighing of debtors
The Empress	the Magistrate of Wards	the roll of the year’s infants, read into the record
The Sun	the Beastmistress; the Master of the Chase, her man in the Greenwood	the hounds; the King’s forest law
The High Priestess	the Black Coachman	the coach that goes east with no sound
The Magician	the Twin Architects; the Master Mason	the moving house; the hidden door
The gutter	the gang master (his name is not final TBD)	the cellar, and a bill of sale

PLATE XICard 11 of 16: The Lord MarshalA lieutenant of the Tower. “He holds the parade ground. Neither he nor the Hangman is in the secret.” He may come back for Wick.The collector's box: the character card, the game's own rendered sprite

PLATE XIICard 12 of 16: The HangmanA lieutenant of the Tower. “The Downs’ gibbets are his. They empty if he dies and fill if he lives.” He is not in the secret.The collector's box: the character card, the game's own rendered sprite

PLATE XIIICard 16 of 16: RendleThe gang master. “One of the three hands his childhood passed through: the roll, the coach, the cellar. He carries the bill of sale.” *One male infant, off the coach, a shilling and a bottle.* (The name Rendle is the bible’s proposed name for the gang master, not yet final.)The collector's box: the character card, the game's own rendered sprite

THE DREAM-READER

I dreamed this room, and you in it.

gb-wheel.js

THE ASSAYER

Weighed, and found. Stand still, please; it’s quicker.

gb-wheel.js

THE MAGISTRATE

The tithe of the year, read into the record. Stand back of the bar, sir.

magistrate_read

THE BEASTMISTRESS

Stand still for them. They like a thing that stands still.

gb-sun.js

The Grand Turn

The Prince’s travelling circus is a town of people paying off debts. Every act is a debt with a costume on.

The Ringmaster, who cries the show and holds the troupe’s paper.
Mother Thrupp, the fortune teller, who reads the debt and not the lines.
Dame Constance, the bookkeeper, who knows to the day when each debt ends.
Tam Bullock, the strongman, who holds the big top’s west pole.
Lark Severn, the knife-thrower.
The Pellows, four trapeze artists, one debt.
Mister Dolour, who knows the back way.
Wren Ashby, who keeps the animals: an old starved lion called the Sovereign, an elephant called Patience, and a bear they bait.

DAME CONSTANCE

Every act in this circus is paying off a debt. I know to the day when each one ends. None of them ends.

wc_constance_2

MOTHER THRUPP

Sit. Hand flat. I read the debt, not the lines. The lines lie.

wc_thrupp_1

THE PELLOWS

Four of us, one debt. We fall together or not at all.

wc_pellow_1

The animals are never fought. They are freed, or used.

At the Falls

The Reeve of the Mere, Master Corlett, an honest old man who keeps the head-gate key and counts every cup that comes over the lip.
Dilly, a runaway ward hiding behind the great fall, waiting to go north to the band.
Sister Lave, a tiny half-blind nun who keeps the font behind the fall.
The bleachers of Mereside, who whiten the house’s linen and the wards’ sashes in the same lye.

THE REEVE

Every cup the city drinks comes over this lip, sir. I count it.

fa_reeve_1

Women beating cloth in the troughs, arms red to the elbow: “White for the vigil, white for the wheel. Same lye.”

fa_aside_bleacher

The kept and the kindred

Out in the Wastes live the rest of the few the voice below keeps, and others who have walked roads like Wick’s.

The Anchorites were masters of something in life and asked the voice below for that mastery forever. He gave it, and walled them into it. Each can be beaten honestly, which frees them, or by a trick, which gives them to him.

Anchorite	Where	Mastery
Sooth	the Gallows Downs	prophecy: right for ninety years, believed once
Quern	the Spoil	the mill that grinds dead houses to mortar
Graft	the Tithe Fields	husbandry: an orchard of hanged debtors
The Salt Confessor	the Salt	can only be told the truth
Evens	the Wash, and every toll-town’s table	the wager, in many bodies

The kindred are people on the roads with stories that rhyme with Wick’s: the Salt Widow, the Horseless Knight, the Tinker of Bones, Taper the gentleman of the road, the Scraper, Kennet the kennel girl, Garland and the mummers, the Gravedigger who dug Wick’s grave and was paid in advance, Pledge the barker’s daughter, and the Sin-Eater. Everyone out there who tells the truth tells it in words a proud man can dismiss.

PLATE XIVCard 13 of 16: SoothAn Anchorite · the Gallows Downs. “He has been right about everything for ninety years. Nobody has thanked him once.” He sits in the stocks by choice.The collector's box: the character card, the game's own rendered sprite

PLATE XVCard 14 of 16: Sir Aymer VaneThe Horseless Knight. “An old knight in dented plate, with a saddle on his back and a bridle in his hand. He walks the King’s road looking for his lord’s grave.” He greets Wick as a lord.The collector's box: the character card, the game's own rendered sprite

PLATE XVICard 15 of 16: Abel SpurlingThe Gravedigger. “An old man with a spade, digging a man-sized grave every day where no one has died. He is waiting to be paid.” “I put you in.”The collector's box: the character card, the game's own rendered sprite

Sealed · The endingThe MidwifeBreak the seal to read

A woman in the marsh delivered Wick, put a wax star in his swaddling, and knows his mother’s name. Her house has been shut twenty years, but the tally on its doorpost has a fresh scrape. The Star is seeded through the game and never resolved. A boy’s hoard lies under a loose board in the orphanage dormitory; whether the wax star is in it is not yet settled in the design TBD.

Book One · The Grimoire · IV

The One Below

The voice that raised him, how it speaks, and how to listen to it

Hic qui infra est ei loquitur.

Lore chaserStreamerNewcomerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealed

The churchyardIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

Under the scroll that opens the game, at the panel where Wick lies in the dark, the rubricator’s red ink reads Hic qui infra est ei loquitur: here the one who is below speaks to him. He has not stopped since.

What he is, on the surface

He is a voice. The captions tag him THE ONE BELOW, in gold ink, with an ember glyph. When he speaks, the window in the status panel where a speaker’s face would show goes black and embers rise in it. A single organ note sounds under every line he says. In the fire he is a pair of eyes. At one moment in the game, and one only, he is a hand.

He is never shown. Nothing in this book will show him either.

THE ONE BELOW

Open your eyes.

His first words.god_grave_1

How he speaks

His voice has rules, and the rules are clues. Learn them early.

THE RULEThe six rules of his voice

He speaks to Wick, always, as “you”. Never “he” for Wick, never to the audience. He calls him Wick. Never “my lord”.
He is serious. No jokes, no sarcasm, no teasing, no sulking. His weight is in the pauses.
He is sparing. Most of his lines are under a dozen words.
He never laughs. Not in the title, not at a death, not in any ending.
He never lies. What he will not tell, he withholds: he is cut off, or he says less.
He is ancient, not archaic. No thee and thou. Verse belongs to Wick; plain prose is his.

His words are graves, candles, houses, seats, hands, the price, the stone, the first. He does not talk about souls, fate or destiny. He is plain about the surface of the story (names, deeds, the six houses) and silent about himself.

What he does

He raises Wick. He offered the strength to pull the six houses down, and Wick took it before the price was named.

He brings him back. Every time Wick dies, the voice below returns him to the last crypt he opened. He calls it what it is: a vow. He counts.

THE ONE BELOW

Three times I have brought you back.

god_death_count_3

THE ONE BELOW

Ten. I will bring you back until it is finished, or until you refuse.

god_death_count_10

He tells Wick the truth about the world. Who bought him. Who killed him. What each house takes. What the candles are. He narrates the facts the story stands on, and he states them plainly so that nobody can miss them.

THE ONE BELOW

Then the heads of those six houses killed you on a stone. An offering.

The intro scroll.god_tap_killed

He counsels, rarely. When a death teaches something, his remark names what killed Wick. He observes; he does not instruct.

THE ONE BELOW

He falls where his shadow falls. It was on you.

god_death_andrevel_dive_2

He arranges things. He sets the Marquis Andrevel in Wick’s path, and says so. He keeps a few for company.

THE ONE BELOW

You are not the first. This is the Marquis Andrevel. They made him a lord and killed him, before you. I kept him.

god_court_lord

The argument Wick never loses

From his first mark on, Wick answers the god. He answers in verse. He answers with his pride. And every answer refuses to hear what the god just said. He wins every exchange, and he is losing the argument the whole game.

The god says	Wick answers
“The earth did not let you go, Wick. I took you out of it.”	“An errand boy of earth, then. Still: I rose.”
“Seven lights. The men who founded the houses, made saints. Watch the glass. It will change.”	“Let it. Glass breaks.”
“Not her. Your hand stopped, and you do not know why. I do.”	“My hand is mine. It stops when I say stop.”
“Six heads put knives in you on a stone. He paid for you, and he held the door for them.”	“He taught me doors are opened, never held. Pour.”
“His last evening. He has had his armour polished, as for a feast. He is waiting for you.”	“Let him wait in steel. It has never saved a man from me.”
“A gift from below. The Earl’s dead will march for you now. You did not ask for them.”	“Asked or not. They march for me.”

TIPRead the god, not Wick

When the two disagree, the god is telling the truth and Wick is telling you who he is. The pleasure of the story is hearing both at once. A good test of any line Wick says: could a proud man say this and hear nothing?

Sealed · After the first houseAfter the first house: the saintsBreak the seal to read

THE ONE BELOWLast month they spat at his gibbets. Tonight they kneel to his face. You made him a saint.god_tower_saintWICKPriests will gild a butcher. Let them kneel to paint.ans_saintTHE ONE BELOWHe asked you for a sword, and you gave him the stocks. A seat below will wait for him, and wait.If the head was spared instead.god_tower_pilloryWICKLet it wait. So does he.ans_pilloryOn the path of mercy his temper is grave disappointment and foreboding, never contempt.
THE ONE BELOWIt is not mercy. It will do what mercy does.god_spare_4

Sealed · Mid-gameMid-game: what he protectsBreak the seal to read

Watch what the god’s counsel and his interventions guard. It is not Wick. He keeps Wick unread: he never explains the plot beneath, and the one book that would, Wick carries unopened. He keeps Wick unled: when a friend begins to walk at Wick’s back, the god takes the friend. He keeps the conditions of a rite.

THE ONE BELOW

You carry it. You have not read it.

god_ledger

THE ONE BELOW

His hand. My will. You will understand, or you will not.

god_death_stake_2

He is also honest about himself, once, unasked, when a hanged woman gives Wick a gift.

THE ONE BELOW

Her gift is freely given. I have never given anything freely.

god_carrion_gift

WICK

Nor I. We understand each other.

ans_freely

And when Wick cheats one of the masters the god keeps in the Wastes, the master is the god’s, and he says only two words.

THE ONE BELOW

Mine now.

god_mine_now

On the road

Out in the Wastes the god speaks a little liturgy of the road. The roads were built for the tithe carts and the levy, and he knows what they cost.

THE ONE BELOW

The road. Every mile of it was paid for in the dead.

god_road_1

THE ONE BELOW

Every road out here ends at a gallows or a grave.

god_road_3

THE ONE BELOW

The living sleep. The dead keep watch.

god_camp_2

Sealed · The endingThe confession, earned by failureBreak the seal to read

In the Wastes, and only there, the god’s few sentences about himself are earned by Wick’s failures: by deaths and retreats out on the roads. Fail enough and the fragments come, one at a time, to Wick.

THE ONE BELOW

I had a mother. She washed clothes at a river. I remember the river better than her face.

god_confess_1

THE ONE BELOW

They raised me up before they struck me down. A man with nothing cannot be wronged. You must give him something first.

god_confess_2

THE ONE BELOW

They killed me in a field, on a stone. There were no churches yet. There were six men who wanted to be more than men.

god_confess_3

THE ONE BELOW

I came back, as you did. I killed all six. They thanked me, and I did not understand.

god_confess_4

THE ONE BELOW

When I understood, there was nowhere to walk to. So I went down, and sat, and the six knelt to me. Since then I have been alone.

god_confess_5

THE ONE BELOW

The first door shut on me was blue. I have not seen blue since.

god_confess_6

THE ONE BELOW

I keep a few, for company. None of them lasts.

god_confess_7

THE ONE BELOW

It is quiet where I sit. It has been quiet a long time.

god_confess_8

Put the fragments next to Wick’s life and they rhyme line for line: a mother at a river, a raising before the fall, six men, a stone, the thanks. A player who earns none of them still hears the truth at the end, plainly, on the critical path.

Sealed · The endingHis name, and what he wantsBreak the seal to read

At the World, the last room, he says it once.

THE ONE BELOW

The first to stand here stood in a field. There was no room yet. I know, because it was I.

god_world_1

THE ONE BELOW

They call me the Stone. I was the man on it.

god_world_2

THE ONE BELOW

Every one of them knelt to me. I have waited for one who would not.

god_world_3

WICK

Then you have waited badly. I kneel to no one. Not even to refuse.

ans_world

He was the first offering, and he Took. Before there were churches, six men who wanted to be more than men raised a man of no house, wronged him, and killed him on a stone in a field. He came back and killed all six, and they thanked him. When he understood, he went down and sat, and the six knelt, and the first seats below were his to give. The church was founded on his grave. Its rose window has seven lights: six founders with faces, and a seventh of clear glass, never leaded, “for the founder whose name was lost”. The church’s first saint is the man it killed, and it does not paint him.

The houses’ rite-book calls the power under the seats the Stone: the altar in the field, the slab under every triangle, the thing every seat rests on. Every offering before Wick knelt, or walked away. What the god has waited for, round after round, is a peer: one who will not kneel.

The endings each end on him, or without him. Refuse it, and he lets Wick go for good:

THE ONE BELOW

Andrevel refused with six houses standing. A spoiled offering is kept. You refuse with the work done, or undone by your own hand. There is nothing left to keep you for. Go. I will not bring you back again.

god_refuse

Take the seat, and his last word is the intro’s last word.

THE ONE BELOW

Sit.

god_take

No laugh. The hall is very quiet.

For streamers

He cannot be skipped by accident. His lines are paced with silence around them; let them breathe. Locked conversations move on with the interact button and skip on a hold.
His death remarks change. The first death of a kind plays in full; later ones are cut short. The remark names the move that killed you. Read it to your chat: it is the lesson.
He never repeats himself within a minute or two. If a line is asked for again too soon, you get the caption without the voice.
Watch the panel’s window. Embers instead of a face means the god is speaking, even when the caption is small.

Book One · The Grimoire · V

The Clues in Plain Sight

The documents and objects of the season, where to find them, and what they prove

Hic iacet in tenebris.

Lore chaserStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealed

The orphanage dormitoryIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

Væ Victis keeps two promises. A stranger can follow its surface story without trying. An attentive player can solve what is under it before the end, from the evidence alone, because every conclusion in the mystery can be reached three different ways. Miss a clue and you lose the chance to solve it early, never the ability to follow it. And at the end, the game shows you where every clue was.

This chapter is the reading list. The top layer tells you where to look and what to notice. The seals tell you what it means.

THE RULEHow the mystery is built

The public claim against the written record. Whenever someone says one thing aloud, look for the document that says another.
Nothing hidden, nothing read. The houses perform their real religion in front of everyone. Nobody reads it. Wick will not.
Gated on houses, not on clues. The solution waits on how far you have come, never on whether you found everything.

The reading list

The scroll

Where: the opening of the game. What it is: the Life of the Blessed Hand, a roll of vellum drawn in iron-gall ink and red rubrics, showing a man’s life panel by panel as if it were a dead saint’s, with the voice below reading it to Wick over his body.

Notice: whose life it is. When it was made. Who would commission a saint’s life for a gutter boy.

Ubi puer Wick in cloaca dormit: where the boy Wick slept in the gutter.
Hic sacerdos eum emit: here the priest bought him.
Hic ducissa eum dominum facit: here the duchess makes him a lord.
Et ianuae clausae sunt: and the doors were shut.
Hic occidunt eum: here they kill him.
Et sepeliunt eum extra saepem: and they bury him outside the fence.
Hic iacet in tenebris: here he lies in the dark.
Ecce sedes quam ei paraverunt: behold the seat they made ready for him.

UNDECIDEDUndecided

The design allows further panels to be added to the scroll: the saint’s future, two bare panels, a strip of six kneeling donors. Whether they are added is not yet decided TBD.

The calendar on the church door

Where: the gutter church’s west wall, beside the door. Stand at it to read it. What it is: the church’s printed year for the season: six feasts, each with its prayer and its procession, and then the feast of the Blessed Hand. Bound behind it is last season’s sheet from the same block.

The sheet is printed from a cracked woodblock under the head THE KALENDAR OF FENCETIDE, “the feasts of the season, set down by order of the church”. Its six feasts, as the game prints them:

	Feast	When	For	Its collect
I	THE SOLDIER’S FEAST	1st Sunday	of S. the Earl Marshal, martyr	the seven turns, well to beacon. The beacon put out.
II	THE MOTHER’S FEAST	2nd Sunday	of S. the Duchess of Marrowmere, martyr	infants up the stair to the wheel. The pelican feeds.
III	THE HUSH	3rd Sunday	of S. the Marchioness Shaxby, martyr	a day of no word. Two strokes and a rest. Coach east.
IV	THE FOUNDATION	4th Sunday	of S. the Lord President of the Builders, martyr	a stone marked at every new house, by the guild.
V	THE ODDS	5th Sunday	of S. the Prince of Coin, martyr	the board in the exchange: past above, to come below.
VI	THE FEAST	6th Sunday	of S. the King, martyr	tables in a triangle: King at the apex, guest at base.

Notice: the feasts are for saints who are not dead yet. Read each collect again after you have been to that house. Look at last season’s page.

WICK

Feasts. The church eats well in a hard year.

mark_kalendar

Bound behind it, the last season’s sheet from the same block: every feast struck through, and the Blessed Hand’s crossed out.

note_kalendar_bound

The candle-mould

Where: on the chandler’s bench in the chandlery yard, where Wick slept as a boy. What it is: a long block with seven mouths. Six are pale with tallow, a wick set in each. The last is dark.

Notice: count. Then count the candles at his grave.

The scaffold in the square

Where: the market square, by the church. What it is: a carpenter building a frame for a processional figure. It grows a piece for every house that falls.

For the Hand. They’ve had the timber cut since the frost.

aside_gut_carpenter

Notice: when the timber was cut. What the figure is for. Whose face goes on it last.

The wall of offerings

Where: the orphanage refectory, on the way to the Father’s study. What it is: “the Father’s boys who went up”: a row of eight framed foundlings in lords’ coats, the oldest darkest. One frame has been scraped blank. One hook is empty. Wick, in red, hangs highest.

WICK

They hung me among them. Higher than the rest.

mark_wall

Notice: he looks only at his own. You should look at the others, and at the plaques beneath them.

The scratches

Where: the orphanage chapel, over the candle rack. What it is: the church’s image of the Blessed Hand, with scratches in its border that nobody has repaired.

The devil scratched the saint over the candles, and the Father would not have it mended.

aside_children_legend

Notice: damage to a holy thing that is honoured instead of mended. Who could have come back to this orphanage to scratch it.

UNDECIDEDUndecided

Whether the chapel’s object is drawn as an icon or as a copy of the opening scroll is not yet settled in the design TBD. Either way, the scratches are the same.

The slate board

Where: the orphanage schoolroom, where Sister Ide teaches. What it is: a lesson in numbered heads, the last one rubbed out.

UNDECIDEDIn progress

The design calls for “the seven liberal arts”, seven numbered heads with the seventh rubbed out. The board in the current build still shows “the five parts of an oration” TBD.

The bounty bill and the bill of sale

Where: the bounty bill is posted in the gutter and Snuff carries the story; the bill of sale is in the gang master’s box in the cellar. What they are: a reward for the thing in the belfry, a lord of no family, paid by the Vault Wardens; and the receipt for a baby.

A bill of sale in the gang master’s box: one male infant, off the coach, from the Coachman. A shilling and a bottle.

note_gang_bill

Notice: the bill names the seller and the price. It does not name the buyer. Somebody else wrote that down.

The rose window and the seventh plinth

Where: the gutter church’s rose window, and the Walk of the Founders in the King’s Pleasance. What they are: seven lights in the window, six founders’ faces and one of clear glass. Six statues of the founders on the walk, and a seventh plinth, bare and swept.

WICK

Six founders in stone. The seventh plinth is bare, and someone sweeps it.

pl_mark_2

Notice: the clear light never changes, whatever happens to the others. Somebody keeps a place for someone.

The stones on the hill

Where: the Ring of the Kneelers on the hill’s west shoulder, reached from the Gallows Downs. Before the end it is scenery. What it is: six stones kneeling inward, each with a cresset that burns while its house stands, and in the seventh place an uncut stone, upright and blank.

WICK

Stones, on their knees. All but one. That one I like.

mark_ring_early

The ledger

Where: in Wick’s coat, from the first priest’s visit on. What it is: the charity’s accounts, handed over with a request to keep them safe. Wick never opens it. The game shows you its pages as stills.

THE ONE BELOW

You carry it. You have not read it.

god_ledger

Sealed · Mid-gameWhat is in the ledgerBreak the seal to read

The pages the game shows you:

Humiliations, dated years ahead, each one marked Paid. The doors that would be shut on him were booked before he was old enough to knock.
An entry for a grave. Item: to the digger, for a grave outside the fence. Paid in advance.
The arms page. Each house’s coat of arms beside its seal. With it, the punched dots in the saints’ halos, the routes of the processions, the heraldry and the seating of a feast all become readable.
The rite-book page, under the heading Of the one who comes: Unhoused. Raised. Owed. Unled. Unheard. Unfed. And a seventh line, left blank. No name on any of it.
His mother’s village: Sallowhithe, in the marsh.

The arms page is one of three ways to the seal key. The other two are the haven’s floor, where each channel enters under its house’s seal and an aside names the house, and the shrines of the fallen houses, where freed villagers chisel off the arms and bare the seal underneath before the church paints a saint’s face over it.

Sealed · Mid-gameThe formulaBreak the seal to read

Every head who dies by Wick’s hand thanks him, and every thanks ends on the same three words: manu quam laesimus, “by the hand we wronged”. It is sung at every rite and printed at the foot of the calendar. A clerk of the council notices it once, reading the first decree into the record. Nobody else in the game remarks on it. You should.

Sealed · The endingThe six conclusions, and their three routes eachBreak the seal to read

There is one fixed truth: the houses engineered their own apparent ruin. They wanted it all along. It breaks into six conclusions, and each has three independent routes and one contradiction, a public claim set against the written record.

Conclusion	Route 1	Route 2	Route 3	The claim against the record
They chose him	his saint’s life, commissioned before his death	the still of the night they chose him, and the robes cut to his measure	the ledger’s dated humiliations, Paid	the Bishop’s “the Blessed Hand came to us unbidden” against the calendar printed before
They want to die by his hand	the grave: “They will kneel to you and ask for the blow,” cut off	the still of the Earl’s last evening: “He is waiting for you.”	the askings and the thanks, the same words every time; the gap left in every rite	the Earl’s “Finish it as one soldier to another” against Paid
It has happened before	Andrevel: “You are not the first,” and his signet	the wall of offerings: eight frames, one scraped, one empty hook	the calendar’s struck page, the mould’s seventh mouth, the children’s rhyme	the gutter’s “nobody knows what turned him” against the knight’s “he went to the salt church to confess”
The god was the first offering	the burn line over the grave, “Six candles, one for each house that buried you.” (the design continues it with “I know this grave. The first one was mine.” TBD: not yet in the build)	the clear seventh light, never leaded	the confession, earned by failure; the last room, on the critical path	the church’s “the founder whose name was lost” against “They call me the Stone.”
The old book is the church’s grammar	the seals under the haven’s channels	the ledger’s arms page	the bared seals under the chiselled arms; the halo dots; the procession routes	the Bishop’s holy founders against the seal under the paint
His power is their harvest	“A gift from below. You did not ask for them.”	the rivers thinning with every kill, the offerings flowing uphill to the saints	the Salt Widow: “Don’t let them die of you.”	Wick’s “I rose” against “I took you out of it.”

The rounds of the season are counted, never numbered aloud: in the wall’s eight frames, the calendar’s struck pages, the mould’s seven mouths, the rhyme, the marginal notes in the Cutting’s chalk, and the window’s seven lights. “Ninety years”, “forty-odd years” and “a generation”, from three different mouths, give the town its depth without a date.

Sealed · The endingThe seven marksBreak the seal to read

The rite-book’s page lists the marks of the one who comes. Each written mark belongs to one house and is read when that house falls. The seventh is the World’s, and the god’s.

	Mark	In the rite-book	What it means
I	Unhoused	of no house: no blood of the six in him	the door he opens is no house’s own
II	Raised	raised by a house’s hand to a lord’s name	a man with nothing cannot be wronged; he must be lifted so he can be shut out. (It also means raised from the grave. Both were done to him.)
III	Owed	owed a wrong by every seat he takes	each head must have turned him from a door
IV	Unled	come to each circle with no hand upon him	no one may lead him: the priest asks, never bids, and the friend at his back is removed
V	Unheard	wronged where no court would hear it	a wrong a court had righted would be paid already
VI	Unfed	set at no table: no bread of the six in him	he must come hungry
VII	Unbowed	(the line is blank)	he kneels to no hand, not even to be spared

Unhoused, Unheard and Unfed the orphanage makes by the dozen. Raised and Unled the houses can arrange. The one thing they could not make and had to find is a boy who kneels to no one. Every other mark was done to him; this one he believes is his own, and it is the one they shopped for.

At the end, in the last room, the priest reads the six written marks aloud and stops at the blank line. Wick says the seventh himself.

WICK

And unbowed.

ans_v7

He writes the last line with his own mouth, and hears it. The mark holds. The choice is what an unbowed man does with a seat.

Sealed · The endingThe receiptBreak the seal to read

In the last rooms, as each mark is said, the game shows you a still of where its clue was: the calendar on the door, the arms page, the wall of offerings, the mould, the scratches (legible at last), the six kneeling donors. It is the proof that the game played fair.

Andrevel’s scratches, read in the border of the Blessed Hand’s image, are not a letter or an explanation. They are a counter-voice, set beside the panels of the life: sold, not saved at the coin; measured at the coronet; never doors at the doors; the stone is his at the stone; count them again at the grave; and at a bare panel, I would not.

Book Two · The Manual · 1

Blood and Feeding

The one resource, where it comes from, and what it costs the city

Hic descendit per ignem.

NewcomerStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealednumbers as of 2026-10-04

The King’s LabyrinthIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

Wick has one resource, and it is also his life. The red orb in the status panel is his blood: his health, the price of his forms and the fuel of his gifts. The blue orb beside it is his mana, the dark he carries, spent on his powers. There is no other currency in the game. Nothing drops coins. Nothing sells potions.

The two orbs

Blood: health. Drains slowly on its own, about 0.004 of the orb a second, and with every blow taken.
Mana: the dark he carries. Refills by itself at 0.02 of the orb a second.
At zero blood: Wick falls. The voice below brings him back. See Death.
Low blood: under a quarter, he says so, and the flock warns before a take-off.

How to feed

Feeding is the Interact button, never the strike.

Get close to blood: a body, a fount, a downed or held man. A gold FEED prompt shows while blood he may drink is in reach and his orb is low enough to want it.
Press Interact to start. He roots where he stands and the blood comes to him through the air.
Hold it to keep drinking. Let go, or be struck, and the drink stops.
Over a beaten boss the prompt reads DRINK, and it works whatever his blood. That is how the bat is taken from Andrevel.

THE RULEFeeding roots him

Every verb except moving plants Wick in place, and feeding is the longest plant in the game. Never start a drink with a group close by. Clear first, drink after.

SCREEN 1-1Feed at the throneThe haven throne: drink from the downed (the E FEED tag) or walk on.Press shot, live capture of the v83 build, CRT off, the play field only

The sources

Source	What it gives	Notes
A slain human	about half an orb, until drained	a body stays a source until it is dry
A stunned or dying human	blood, while it lasts	the cleanest meal in a fight is the man you just stunned
The bat’s bite	0.3 of the orb from a lone body, 0.4 from one in company	see the bite, below
Fonts	fixed, slowly refilling	the churchyard font is the first; some fonts are tainted
The haven’s rivers	resting on the throne restores him	each killed house’s river thins, each spared house’s runs dry
The council’s channel	one river of the city’s own	on the merciful path, so a sparing Wick is never starved
Townsfolk	blood, at a price the city remembers	never his mother; never children
A downed boss	a full orb, when drunk	Andrevel, the Penitent, Ambry

WICK

Dry bones. There is nothing here to drink.

Trying to feed on the risen dead.dry_bones

The undead have no blood. Skeletons, the risen and anything that has been in the ground give nothing. Fight them for the road, not for the meal.

The bite

Once he has the bat, its one attack is the latch-and-drain: a shriek, a lunge onto the nearest foe, wings wrapped round him like a cloak, and the blood pumped out.

Foe	What the bite does
A lone common man (no other foe within 96 px)	drained in 0.9 s for 0.3 of the orb, safely
A man in company	drained in 1.7 to 2.3 s for 0.4 of the orb, but while latched Wick cannot move and every blow lands at 1.5x
The bloodless dead	bitten and shaken off: 0.4 s, a dry rattle, thrown back and dazed
Lieutenants and heads	thrown off at once, hurled back and open to a blow

THE ONE BELOW

Alone, they go quickly. Never let them gather.

The first lone drain, in the King’s garden.god_gd_lone

TIPThe straggler rule

The bite is superb on the man at the back and ruinous in a crowd: three men on him through one slow drain cost as much blood as the drain gives. The bat run in the King’s garden teaches it on purpose: the gardeners work one to a walk, never two together. Spend blood on the straight, eat at the end of it.

Feeding on the town

He may feed on the townsfolk of the gutter. The game lets him, and the city keeps the account.

The ward’s lantern gutters where he fed.
The washerwomen’s talk turns to fear. They say “Wick” and lower their voices.
The watch adds a patrol.
Fewer people come to the great feast in the church later on: the crowd is thinner by every townsman he drank.
His friends notice. The hunter says it once. The outlaws of the Greenwood remember who.

SNUFF

They found a man bled white in the lane last week. I’ll say it once, Wick. Not the poor.

hn_m2_fed

His mother cannot be fed on: the prompt never appears on her, and the voice below remarks on it once. Children are never prey, anywhere.

Mana: the dark he carries

The blue orb pays for his powers and refills on its own. Nothing he owns refills it while he spends it: every power costs more than it ever gives back.

Beam (B): 0.25. A hit gives 30% back, so a hit costs 0.175.
Stun burst (tap C): 0.35.
Bend Will (hold C): 0.30.
The scythe’s swing: 0.12 a swing; its tangling spin 0.25.
Gifts: 0.30 to 0.35 a cast. See Gifts of the Dead.

The powers themselves are in Arms and the Kit.

Blood that other things cost

What	Cost
The bat’s dash	about 0.008 of the orb a second, on a long straight
The crows’ take-off	0.06 of the orb each time the flock rises; nothing in flight
A kneeling foe (Bend Will’s kneel order)	5% of his orb’s maximum, held until that house falls
The armed dead	their upkeep, and his own blood once the mana is dry
Dying	part of what he carried, left where he fell. See Death
Acid (the Assayer’s works)	3% of his blood a second while he wades it
The tide (Focalor’s gift)	blood to enter running water

Sealed · Mid-gameTainted bloodBreak the seal to read

Some sources are tainted. The cup in the orphanage is the first you will meet: a fount that gives less than its due. Zagan’s gift, transmutation, makes a tainted source clean again, and turns a living foe’s blood to poison; a poisoned corpse still feeds Wick, but at half, and everyone near it sickens while he drinks. In the King’s hall, while the King’s cup is raised, every drop of blood in the room is wine: nothing feeds, nothing can be turned. Feed on his rhythm.

Sealed · Mid-gameWhere the rivers goBreak the seal to read

A killed house’s river thins because its tithe has become an offering: it flows uphill now, to the saint’s church. A spared house’s river runs dry because nobody is taking anything at all. The council’s channel, on the merciful path, is blood freely given: the tithe’s opposite. At the very end, only what Wick took himself still flows into the hall.

Habits that keep him alive

TIPTen habits

Drink after the fight, not during it, unless the man is alone.
Stun, then feed. The stun burst freezes a group; drink the nearest frozen man.
Count the room before the bite. One body: bite. Two or more: the sword.
Use fonts on the way in, not on the way out.
Rest on the throne whenever you pass the haven. It is free and it saves.
Keep a quarter before the flock rises. The toll eats what is there.
Never wade acid for long. It burns 3% a second.
Skip the dead. Bones have nothing for you.
Leave the town alone if you want a full church and a friend at the tavern.
Go back for what you left. Your blood lies where you fell, until you die again.

Book Two · The Manual · 2

The Forms

Bats ignore gates, crows hedges, mist doors.

Ecce sedes quam ei paraverunt.

NewcomerStreamerLore chaserSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealednumbers as of 2026-10-04; the mist is designed, not built

The crow runIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

Wick can come apart. He is not given these shapes by the houses he hunts: each is taken from a fellow victim, and the game’s whole road is built on what each one can pass. The rule fits in one line, and it is the most useful line in the Manual.

THE RULEThe rule

Bats ignore gates. Crows ignore hedges. Mist ignores doors. The bat goes through barred gates, low and heavy. The crows fly over hedges and garden walls, fast, and cannot fight. The mist goes under doors and through cracks, slow, along the floor. Nothing of his crosses running water, in any form.

The table

Obstacle	On foot	The bat	The crows	The mist
floor, road	yes	yes	yes	yes
a gate: bars, a grille, a portcullis	no	yes	no	yes, slowly
a solid door, not sealed	no	no	no	yes, under it
a vent, a crack, a floor grating, a flue	no	no	no	yes
a hedge, a fence, a low wall, graves, carts	no	no	yes	no
a high garden wall or palisade (marked as such)	no	no	yes	no
a building’s wall, rock	no	no	no	no
a pit or a drop	no	no	yes	down only
running water	no	no	no	no
salt, or a door sealed by the priest	refused	refused	refused	refused
under a roof	yes	yes	refused	yes
wind, open fire				blown apart

TIPReading a place

What you can see through, the bat can go through. Iron bars with the floor showing between them are the bat’s. Every gate the bat may pass carries a small red bat sign on its post.
What you can see over, the crows can fly over. A hedge or a fence with sky above it is theirs.
What you can see light under, the mist can pour under. But only later, and never on the story’s road.
A story lock is a person, a seal or a solid door. No form opens one. When a guard or a sign says a way is shut, believe it.

The bat

SCREEN 2-1Through the barsThe bat folds himself between the bars of the King’s mountain gate. He goes through gates; he never goes over them.In-engine cinematic, the low road (v73)

Taken from the Marquis Andrevel, drunk in the graveyard court at the end of the prologue, on every path. A gaunt thing with long ears, a fox-bat’s snout, trailing hind legs and wings made of his own red cape. It is a land bat: it can barely lift its own weight, so it flies low, and it flies to feed.

Change: B on keys, LT on an Xbox pad, L2 on PlayStation, BAT on touch. Press again to land.
Cruise: about 90 px a second, just under his run.
Dash: 168 px a second after 0.45 s held straight. Costs about 0.008 of the orb a second.
The turn: more than 45 degrees drops him to cruise, with a flare of the wings.
The bite: A near a foe. The latch-and-drain. See Blood.
What it passes: gates, bars, grilles. Nothing standing that is not a gate.

Fast on a straight, slow in a turn. The bat is built for long lanes: hold a direction and feel it open up, then pay for the corner. The King’s Labyrinth is laid out as five long straights and hard turns for exactly this reason.

It eats on the move. A bite on a lone body is the quick drain, under a second, and after it he keeps most of his speed in the way he was going.

It cannot fight anything big. Lieutenants and heads throw it off; the dead shake it off.

SCREEN 2-2The bat runThe first pass of the gardens: gardeners alone at the ends of the lanes, and four iron gates in the hedge lines that only the bat can take.In-game, the King's Labyrinth, clean pixels (art-maps pass)

The crows

SCREEN 2-3The high roadFreed from the Penitent’s cage, the flock rises past the moon. The only line Wick says there is about the cold.In-engine cinematic, the high road (v73)

Freed from the Singing Saint’s cage on the Height, at the end of the gardens, on every path. Wick bursts into a flock of black birds, each with one red eye, his, and the flock is his horse for the rest of the game.

Change: V on keys, LB on an Xbox pad, L1 on PlayStation, CROW on touch. In flight, press again to land.
Speed: 240 px a second, two and a half times his run. Full speed in about a fifth of a second.
Take-off: 0.06 of the orb each time. Nothing while flying.
What it passes: hedges, fences, graves, carts, low walls, high garden walls, pits.
Fighting: none. A, B and C do nothing in the flock.
Phase: most blows pass through the flock.

They phase. While the flock is up, most blows, bolts and grabs pass through it, and no fixed guard wakes for it. The burst and the landing are not phased: that half-second is the window.

What still catches them. Five things can hurt the flock:

Hounds, and anything bred to hunt birds. They snap crows out of the air, even over a hedge. Three bites in one flight tear the flock apart and force him down.
A bell’s stroke tears the flock apart within its ring.
Salt, thrown or lying, refuses them.
Heads, lieutenants and bosses: their blows land on the flock, and a boss’s ring keeps the flock on the field.
Fire that fills an area: the flock is paper to it.

WICK

Dogs. The one thing in this garden that eats birds.

gd_hound_bite

Never under a roof. The flock will not rise indoors. The panel dims the crows there, and the saint’s warning plays the first time.

They take no exits. The flock never fires a trigger, a mark, a door or a scene change. Land to use anything. That is why no form can skip the story: every lock on the road is a door, a trigger or a person.

SCREEN 2-4The crow runThe same maze, now crossed in a straight line over the hedges. The watch has found the drained gardeners and walks hounds.In-game, the King's Labyrinth, clean pixels (art-maps pass)

Sealed · Mid-gameThe long roadsBreak the seal to read

At the opening of the world, Mother Carrion’s rooks come for Wick and teach the flock the long roads. On the Gallows Downs and across the Wastes, holding the crow key through the burst rises to a view of the whole region, drawn from above, and he flies between roosts he has already walked to on foot. The rooks will not land where he has not been. The same burst, darkening and re-forming is the game’s fast travel between crypts and roosts.

MOTHER CARRION

Not there. They won’t land where you’ve not walked. They’re rooks, not angels.

carrion_not_there

MOTHER CARRION

Not over running water. Not you, not them. They’ll take a bridge like anyone.

carrion_river

The mist

UNDECIDEDDesigned, not built

The mist was chosen for the game on 4 October 2026 and its rules are designed. None of it is built yet, and every number here may change TBD.

Sealed · The endingWhere the mist comes fromBreak the seal to read

The mist is the optional third form, taken late, in the open world, from Ambry, the Man of Secrets, when Wick challenges and drinks him. Ambry’s fight has a move called the Mist (“he is not there, and then he is on you”), and drinking him teaches Wick how. A short cinematic, the lantern goes out, shows it: Ambry falls, his lantern rolls and goes out, and Wick comes apart into a low white mist that pours under the grotto’s door, along the allée, under the Pleasance’s oak door and out across the gutter’s cobbles, under every shut door in the street.

What it does. The mist goes under and through what is shut but not sealed: the gap under a door, a keyhole, a vent, an air shaft, a crack in a wall, a floor grating, a chimney flue. Solid doors were a wall to the bat and to the crows. They are the mist’s way.

What it cannot do. It is slow and low, about 40 px a second along the floor. It cannot climb or clear anything: hedges and fences stop it, and so do gaps and pits, except that it can spill over an edge and re-form below. It cannot fight or feed. Blows pass through it.

What breaks it. Wind (an open height, a bellows, a mill’s draught) blows it apart and forces him back into shape. Fire burns it off. Running water is still a wall. Salt on a sill refuses it. Every story door has salt on its sill or the priest’s seal on its lock.

What it costs. Blood while it holds, about as much as the bat’s dash, and 0.6 s to change each way, with no protection while he changes.

What it is for. Reward only: relics, lore rooms, shortcuts, fragments of the god’s origin. Nothing on the road to any ending needs it. The mist’s rooms are listed, sealed, in Walkthrough 13.

Running water

THE RULEThe wall that is everywhere

Nothing of Wick’s crosses running water: not his feet, not his beam, not his thread, not the bat, not the crows, not the mist. Still water he can wade, slowly. The ways across are: a bridge someone built, the slack or flood of a tide, a boat poled by a living hand, and, once he has it, the tide, a gift that carries him over a short run of water for blood.

WICK

The King’s own garden. Even the water here is too proud to let me cross.

pl_mark_1

Forms in a fight

The bat is a meal, not a weapon. Use it on stragglers and summoned adds: the Penitent’s flagellants, the Rat King’s rats.
The crows are a way out, not a way in. Lift off to cross a room or break off a fight. They cannot win one, and a boss’s blows still land on them.
Change on a quiet moment. The change itself is a window.
Watch the socket. In the status panel, between the orbs, the bat and the crows show in bone when he can change, dim when he cannot, lit red while he wears one, and gold for a few seconds after a form is earned.

Book Two · The Manual · 3

Arms and the Kit

The sword, the axe, the scythe and the rest; the beam, the burst and the thread

Hic occidunt eum.

NewcomerStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealednumbers as of 2026-10-04

The Tower’s hallIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

Wick wakes strong. He does not grind for power: the gifts he takes add verbs, not bigger numbers. What he carries from the first step is a full kit, and this chapter is its manual.

The controls

Verb	Keys	Xbox pad	PlayStation	Touch
Move	WASD or arrows	left stick, d-pad	left stick, d-pad	the floating stick
Strike (the chain; hold for the spin; hold on a beaten head for the blow)	Z, Space, J	A	Cross	STRIKE
Interact (talk, read, open, pull; drink)	E	Y	Triangle	USE
Beam; lead a beaten head; take a witness	X, K	B	Circle	BEAM
Stun burst (tap) / Bend Will (hold)	C, L	X	Square	C
Run (held); run and strike lunges	Shift	RB or RT	R1 or R2	RUN
Swap weapons (tap) / the wheel (hold)	Q	right stick click	R3	SWAP
The bat / the crows	B / V	LT / LB	L2 / L1	BAT / CROW
The ledger	N	left stick click	L3	BOOK

NOTEStrike never feeds

Since the v67 build, the strike is only ever a blow, and Interact is only ever a word, a door or a drink. Standing by blood and pressing A swings the sword.

The weapons

He starts with two, so the swap and the wheel are live from the first step.

SCREEN 3-1The axeHeavier, slower; its spin cleaves the ground.In-game, the churchyard (v74 skins pass)

SCREEN 3-2The halberdA long haft and a wide sweep.In-game, the churchyard (v74 skins pass)

SCREEN 3-3The scytheThe crowd weapon; every swing costs mana.In-game, the churchyard (v74 skins pass)

Weapon	How he gets it	The chain: pace / damage	Reach	Its move
The sword	his own, from the start	1 / 1 / 1, then 1 / 1 / 2	15 to 18 px	the spin: hold A, let go, hits all round him (radius 30)
The axe	from the start	.75 / .75 / .6, damage 2 / 2 / 3	16 to 19 px, wide	the ground cleave: a wider spin (40) that bites again and throws everyone back
The scythe	after the Earl, whatever the Tower’s fate	.8 / .8 / .65, damage 1 / 1 / 2	22 to 27 px, widest	the tangle: every swing costs 0.12 mana; every foe it hits is hauled toward the blade’s point and stunned. Its spin tangles everyone toward him for 0.25 mana
The halberd	a find, not a reward: by default in the Tower’s armoury, before the Earl TBD: the exact spot	.85 / .85 / .7, damage 1 / 1 / 3	long	the haft-sweep: slow, wide arc, a long shove

The sword is the scale every other weapon is measured against. Pace above 1 is faster than the sword; below 1 is slower.

TIPWhich arm, when

The sword for a duel with anything that has a tell. It is the cleanest read.
The axe when you are surrounded and can afford the slower chain. The cleave throws the ring back and buys a breath.
The scythe for a crowd you want held still: tangle, stun, then feed on the frozen. Watch the blue orb: no mana, no swing.
The halberd for keeping a line at arm’s length. The shove is long.

The swap and the wheel

Tap SWAP and the next weapon is in his hand at once: no pause, no menu, mid-combo too. The next blow is the new weapon’s.
Hold SWAP a quarter of a second and the wheel opens over the darkened field: the weapons he owns in a ring. Time slows to a quarter; it never stops. Point and let go to take one up. Let go without pointing, or press B, and nothing changes.
The weapon in hand is carved beside the spell slot in the panel, and its name hangs over his head after a swap.
SWAP does nothing during a scene, a form, a held thread or a death.

Sealed · Mid-gameThe arms of mercyBreak the seal to read

Every head Wick spares gives him something of his own instead of a gift from below: a weapon class with its own chain. The names and moves are the design’s working answers and may change TBD.

Arm	From sparing	Its signature	Chain: pace / damage
Brake-chain	the Empress	the whirl: the widest spin (40); the chain drags	1 / .9 / .7, damage 1 / 1 / 2
Crozier	the High Priestess	the long reach (26 to 30), a narrow arc	1.05 / 1.05 / .8, damage 1 / 1 / 2
Setting-maul	the Magician	the setting blow: heaviest, slowest, throws foes far back. Out of reach while the Lord President cannot be spared TBD	.6 / .6 / .5, damage 2 / 2 / 4
Cane-sword	the Wheel	the quick draw: fast and short	1.3 / 1.3 / 1.15, damage 1 / 1 / 2
Carving knives	the Sun	the carve: fastest, shortest, no shove	1.6 / 1.6 / 1.4, damage 1 / 1 / 1
Grave-hook	the hunter, if he lives	the pull: the last blow hooks the foe toward him	.9 / .9 / .8, damage 1 / 1 / 2

The first two heads, the Earl and the Lord President, cannot be spared (see The Rites), so the merciful path’s arsenal is built from the other four houses and the hunter. With all of them spared he owns nine weapons, and the wheel spreads them clockwise from the top.

The innate kit

Three powers come with him from the grave, paid from the blue orb. Each has a room where it fails: there is no power in this game that works everywhere.

The beam (B)

Cost: 0.25 mana. A hit refunds 30%.
Reach: 120 px along his facing, from his casting hand.
Damage: 2.
Stops: at the first body in its line. It does not pierce.
Fails: on the Earl’s iron circle; over running water; inside a saint’s light in the Bishop’s nave; it passes under anything flying.

The beam is a bone-white line in cold blue, instant. Aim matters: a miss refunds nothing. A line of foes is the spin’s work, not the beam’s.

The stun burst (tap C)

Cost: 0.35 mana.
Wind-up: 0.35 s, planted, hand raised. A blow taken in it breaks the burst: nothing spent, nothing stunned.
Radius: every hostile body within 44 px.
Hold: commons 1.6 s, lieutenants 0.8 s, heads 0.5 s.
Fails: on bosses, and on anyone a rite drives itself.

Every foe in the ring freezes in its pose, three stars over its head, and any blow already coming is spoiled. It does no damage. It is the opener for everything: stun, then strike; stun, then feed.

Bend Will (hold C)

Cost: 0.30 mana.
The hold: keep C down 0.35 s and the red thread is thrown instead of the burst.
Takes: a human or a low foe, until it dies. Cutting the thread kills.
Slides off: anyone who knows. Heads, the Bishop, the priest.

WICK

Your will? Mine.

bind_mine

He throws a red thread tied to the heart. A bound creature is his to drive: walk a guard into his fellows, open a door from the inside, fetch a key, bring a victim to him. A thrall can walk to other screens of the same region, never out of it. A tap of C cuts the thread.

The kneel order. A bound human can also be ordered to kneel and hold. A kneeling foe is alive, counts as fallen in a rite, and is freed, remembering nothing, when that house falls. Each one holds 5% of his blood orb’s maximum until then. Mercy costs him capacity, not just time. It is how the Duchess’s wards can fall without one child dying.

TIPWho knows

Bend Will is how you find out who is in on it. The thread slides off anyone who knows what the season is for. The sharp player learns the cast by trying.

Moving

Walk: 58 px a second, eight directions.
Run: 96 px a second while held. Outruns every foot soldier.
Run and strike: a lunge. Otherwise every verb plants him.

Running costs nothing. It does not hide him: nothing in the game hunts by sound except where a house’s rule says so.

The held blow

A head of house, beaten, kneels and asks. Hold the strike on a beaten head in reach and the killing blow is given: a distinct, slow animation, never the plain strike. The beam button on a beaten head leads them away instead, under his hand, to the pillory. On a lieutenant, the strike kills and the beam takes a witness. Everyone else just dies.

The blow is the subject of The Rites.

SCREEN 3-4The blow gathersThe Earl kneels in his iron circle. The asking is on screen; the choice is held in the hand.In-game, the Tower's crown

Book Two · The Manual · 4

Gifts of the Dead

What a killed head leaves in Wick’s hand, what it costs, and where it fails

Et sepeliunt eum extra saepem.

NewcomerStreamerLore chaserSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealednumbers as of 2026-10-04; foresight is designed, not built

The Tower in the stormIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

When a head of house dies by Wick’s held blow, something below leaves him a gift. It comes with the kill and it cannot be refused: it is a toll already taken. Sparing a head gives no gift. The gifts are the kill path’s power, and they are how the world reopens behind him: a gate the dead can open, a river he can cross, a wall he can bring down.

THE ONE BELOW

A gift from below. The Earl’s dead will march for you now. You did not ask for them.

After the first head falls by the blow.gift_halphas

WICK

Asked or not. They march for me.

ans_gift

The slot

THE RULEHow a gift is cast

The spell box in the status panel holds the beam first, always, then each gift he owns. B casts what the slot holds.
A beaten head or a yielded lieutenant in reach still takes B first (to lead, or to take a witness).
To cycle the slot: on a pad, View or Share (outside the Wastes, where that button is the map); on touch, tap the spell box in the panel; on a keyboard, M or Tab outside the Wastes. A dedicated keyboard key for the slot is still to be settled TBD.
Pips down the box’s edge show how many entries the slot has. The slotted power’s name shows top right for a few seconds after a change.

The six gifts

Gift (as the panel names it)	From the head of	Cost	What B does	Where it fails
ARMED DEAD	the Tower (the Earl)	0.35 mana, then upkeep	raises three of his own dead for 24 s	salt; the Earl’s iron circle; running water
FORESIGHT	the Wheel (the Prince)	TBD	shows the next thing a beat early	TBD
TIDE	the Empress (the Duchess)	0.35 to cross, 0.30 to pull	crosses up to 96 px of running water, or drags foes into it	salt
TRANSMUTE	the Sun (the King)	0.30	turns a foe’s blood to poison, or makes a tainted source clean	the King’s hall while his cup is raised
SILENCE	the High Priestess (the Marchioness)	0.35	14 s unseen and unheard; no feeding	the Hush, her own house; any boss’s fight
UNBUILD	the Magician (the Lord President)	0.35	brings a mason-marked wall down for good	the Magician’s house; the marsh; the Salt; any boss’s fight

Each gift enters Wick in the form of what that head took from the villages: the Earl’s dead, the Duchess’s water, the Marchioness’s silence. The god says it every time. Wick never hears it.

The armed dead

The Earl built towers and armed them. His dead march for Wick now.

Raise: three bodies, a few seconds rising, then 24 s of service.
Cost: 0.35 mana to raise, then 0.01 a second for each body standing.
When the mana is dry: they eat his blood instead, never below a tenth of his orb.
They fight: one blow a swing, falling on the nearest awake foe within 120 px.
They block: a foe nearer to them than to Wick turns on them.

Tinted cold blue so they read as his, never as a foe’s bones. They lie down when he leaves the room. They open graveyard gates: a crypt, a lychgate, an ossuary door. They can besiege a front gate, standing together long enough. And their blows are nobody’s that a seer can foresee.

Fails: on salt ground (salt keeps the dead down), inside the Earl’s own iron circle, and in running water (the dead sink).

Foresight

UNDECIDEDDesigned, not built

The Prince of Coin’s gift, from his patron who declares things past and to come. The design: the next thing shown a beat early; hidden doors and secrets; the asides spoken aloud; and in a fight, a foe’s tell read ahead. Its file is the one gift not yet written, and its cost, its reopenings and its failing room are all TBD.

The tide

The Duchess drowned men and owned the water. Her tide is the one way a dead man crosses running water on his own.

Cross: within 40 px of running water, he steps in and is carried up to 96 px to the far bank. 0.35 mana.
In a rite: only one current may be crossed per rite.
Pull: up to four foes before him with running water near them are dragged into it and drowned. 0.30 mana.
Heads: never taken. A lieutenant is dragged to the edge, struck, and let go dazed.

The drowned bleed into the water: nothing to feed on. Fails on salt: brine is a dead sea, and the tide cannot get in.

Transmutation

The King’s patron turns blood into wine and wine into blood.

On a foe with blood: poisoned. Three ticks of one blow each. A common man dies of it.
His corpse: poison. Wick may still drink it, at half, and everyone near it sickens while he does.
On a tainted source: made clean. It gives its whole due again. It adds no blood.
Cost: 0.30 mana, spent whether it finds a foe or a fount.

Ranks above common, driven creatures and the bloodless cannot be turned. Fails in the King’s hall while his cup is up: the blood there is already wine.

Silence

The Marchioness’s patron takes sight, then hearing, then understanding.

Lasts: 14 s of play, in the room he cast it in.
Cost: 0.35 mana. The mana he regains in those 14 s does not cover it.
While it holds: foes do not see him; the world does not hear him; doors forget him.
The price: he cannot feed, and no aside plays.
It ends: on any sound he makes, when a rite opens, or on leaving the room.

A dotted ring at his feet shows it, thinning as it runs down and flickering at the end. Fails in the Hush, the Marchioness’s own house, where she hears a silence as plain as a bell; and in any boss’s fight.

Unbuilding

Every stone the Builders’ Guild laid carries a mason’s mark: the guild’s seal, cut small. With the gift he sees the marks, gold signs cut in the walls.

Reach: stand within 40 px of a mark.
Cost: 0.35 mana.
The fall: the mark flares, the wall cracks and shakes, then falls for good.
Loud: every foe within 140 px that belongs to a group is alarmed.

A fallen wall never comes back. A fall only ever adds a way: a shortcut through the gutter, the Tower, the Empress’s house, the exchange. Fails where the guild did not build (the marsh, the Salt, the old cathedral) and in the President’s own house, and in any boss’s fight. A failed cast still takes a little of the orb.

The rule behind every gift

THE RULENo free safety

No gift negates damage. There is no shield, no block, no ward.
Every gift has a room where it fails, and the room tells you why.
No resource loops. Nothing a gift does gives the orb back while he spends it.
A gift opens a second way, never the only way. Every house and every rite can be won with the innate kit alone.

Sealed · Mid-gameWhy a head’s own gift never solves its own riteBreak the seal to read

A gift is the patron’s, and a patron does not undo his own seat. Silence fails in the Hush; unbuilding fails in the President’s moving house; the tide is the Duchess’s own water. Each rite instead accepts another house’s gift as a second answer: the armed dead against the Prince (their blows are not on his board), foresight against the Marchioness’s bell or the President’s seams, the tide to flood the convent’s dry floors so everyone goes slow and silent. On the merciful path, the freed people of the spared houses stand in for the gifts: a freed ward holds the wheel, freed quarrymen take the capstans.

Sealed · Mid-gameWhat the gifts reopen on the guided roadBreak the seal to read

Each gift, earned on the road, opens a way back into a place already walked:

Gift	Reopens
Armed dead (the Tower)	a windlass portcullis in the graveyard court’s vaults, held by a second body, down to Andrevel’s own crypt
Foresight (the Wheel)	TBD
The tide (the Empress)	river stops in the gutter: the old mill island and the sunk laundry barge; the fountain island in the King’s maze; the Greenwood’s stream-cut glades
Transmutation (the King)	the orphanage’s tainted cup, cleaned for a full drink and a line
Silence (the Priestess, open world)	the maze’s shut gatehouse, back up to the Height and its roost
Unbuilding (the Magician, open world)	mason-marked walls in the gutter, the Tower, the Empress’s house and the exchange, as shortcuts

On the merciful path, the people of each spared house open the same places: the freed levy men, Mardle’s punt, the sisters’ keys, the quarrymen’s capstans.

Sealed · The endingWhat a gift really isBreak the seal to read

The voice below calls each one a gift from below, and every time he adds that Wick did not ask for it. The gifts are not the court’s generosity. They are the harvest. Each is a toll already paid by the villages, entering Wick in the shape of what that head took from them, and every kill that pays it also sends a head below to a seat and up again as a saint. The rivers in the haven thin with every gift. Wick’s “I rose” is answered, all game long, by “I took you out of it”.

Book Two · The Manual · 5

Death and Its Cost

Every death is the god’s hand, a vow kept, and a little blood left on the floor

Hic iacet in tenebris.

NewcomerStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealednumbers as of 2026-10-04

A crypt doorIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

Wick has died once already. It did not keep him.

WICK

Death is a door that I have walked through before.

His line as he falls.death_door

When his blood runs out he falls, and the voice below brings him back. It is not a game over. It is a short scene with three beats, and then he is on his feet at the last place he made his own.

SCREEN 5-1Again the voiceThe world falls away round the place he fell. His line, then the god’s, then the fire tunnel, then the crypt stair.In-game, a death

The rule

THE RULEDeath is a door

He returns to his last checkpoint: the haven’s throne, or the last crypt door he passed through.
He returns with half his blood, less the blood he left where he fell (below).
The world keeps what he did. The dead stay dead. Doors he opened stay open. Choices stay made.
In a rite, the house prepares. The head heals a quarter of their wounds, and the fight comes back harder in one known way. Never reset from scratch.

The three beats

The killing. Two to four seconds, in the engine, on the spot: how this thing killed him. The world slows and the panel fades.
The remark. Over black and embers, one line from the voice below, chosen by what killed him.
The return. The fire tunnel from the opening, shortened, and then the crypt stair he climbs out of, or the throne.

The first death of each kind plays in full. After that it is cut short, and any death can be skipped from its first frame.

The remarks teach

Every boss’s death remark names the move that killed him. It never instructs; it observes, and the observation is the lesson. Read it before you skip it.

Killed by	The god says
Andrevel’s dive	“His shadow came first. You waited under it for him.”
Andrevel’s lunge	“He raised his wings on the ground. You stood in his line.”
Andrevel’s swarm	“The bats are slower than you. You stood among them.”
a crowd of ordinary men	“Common hands. They are not nothing.”
the risen dead	“The ground wants you back. It will not have you. Not yet.”
a fall	“You fell, and I caught you. Mind the edge.”
running water	“Running water will not carry the dead. Find a bridge.”
starving	“You must drink. That, I cannot do for you.”

THE ONE BELOW

His eyes lit. He leapt at where you stood.

god_death_andrevel_lunge_2

He counts, too. At three deaths, and at ten, he says so. A count he could not say because a move remark came first is kept and said at the next plain death.

THE ONE BELOW

Three times I have brought you back.

god_death_count_3

He never repeats a line within a short spell of real time: die three times in a minute to the same move and you will see the lesson as a caption, not hear it three times.

Blood left behind

Since the build of 1 October 2026, death costs blood, the game’s one resource. Wick never drops an item.

What falls: half of the most blood he carried in his last ten seconds.
At least: 0.05 of the orb. At most: 0.30.
He rises with: half an orb, less what fell, never below 0.20.
Where it lies: where he fell; or the last ground he stood on, if he fell into water or a pit.
How long: until he drinks it back, or dies again.

Die. A dark pool with a slow pulse lies where he fell. He rises at the checkpoint with less blood than before.
Walk away from the checkpoint first. The pool will not take him back if he respawned right beside it; it waits until he has left it.
Walk back onto it. He drinks it back at once: a short cue, a spray of red, and the blood is his again.
Die again before that, and it is gone. A new pool replaces the old one.

TIPMaking it cheap

The pool keeps across rests and room changes, so a careful player loses almost nothing. Before a boss, rest, then walk to the door: the run-back from every boss’s checkpoint is designed to take about twenty seconds or less, and the pool will usually be in the arena, right where you need it.

When you die in a rite

The heads want to die by Wick’s hand, and the rite rewards them for bringing him near death first. When he falls instead, the household prepares: the head heals a quarter of their wounds, and one thing in the room is made harder, in a way the game tells you about.

Rite	What the house does when you return
Andrevel	he flies home, heals three wounds, and drinks one robber. “He fed while you lay dead. He is stronger now.”
The Penitent	heals a quarter
The Earl	his sworn man is back at his post TBD: the full rule is being retuned
The Dream-reader	a chain is run under her high seat: a king pole needs two shoves, not one
The Prince of Coin	the chandelier is re-hung on a chain: its cleat takes two blows, not one
The Duchess	the cistern floods a step higher, for good
The Marchioness	rushes are laid on the dry flags, so steps ring wider
The Bishop	the church re-leads every light your beam broke; a spared head’s testimony stays
Father Fulcran	heals three wounds, and a porter waits at the stair

THE ONE BELOW

He fed while you lay dead. He is stronger now.

god_court_again

Checkpoints

The haven’s throne. Resting on it saves and restores him.
Every church crypt he opens. Passing through a crypt door, down or up, opens it for good and makes it the checkpoint. Each crypt is a sealed door to the haven’s catacombs.
A checkpoint near every boss, designed to be within about twenty seconds of the fight.
The Wastes’ waystations: a barrow door, a charnel, a hold, each a crypt once opened.

TIPSkipping a boss’s entrance

A replayed boss entrance shows a SKIP tag in the top corner. Take it. The first retry drops from more than twenty seconds to about ten.

Sealed · Mid-gameThe one death the god stagesBreak the seal to read

On the road of the third house, the god takes Wick’s friend and puts a stake in his hand. If the stake lands, the lights die, the organ sign strikes hard, a second of silence, and a hand of embers pulls Wick back from the stake. It is the only death in the game the god arranges, and the only death remark Wick answers.

THE ONE BELOW

No. Not his hand. Not yet.

god_death_stake_1

THE ONE BELOW

His hand. My will. You will understand, or you will not.

god_death_stake_2

WICK

Two hands against me, then. Mine is enough.

ans_stake

Later stakes play the ordinary rule, with the second line alone and no answer.

Sealed · The endingThe last lifeBreak the seal to read

In one ending the god stops. Turn your back on the seat at the very end, and he says why, once, and lets Wick go. From there to the top of the stair, a death is final. The heads attack him on the stair, begging for the blow. He reaches the top without giving it, or he does not reach the top at all.

THE ONE BELOW

Ten. I will bring you back until it is finished, or until you refuse.

god_death_count_10

Book Two · The Manual · 6

The Rites

How a house is taken, the button you hold, and what the city does with your choice

Et ianuae clausae sunt.

NewcomerStreamerLore chaserSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealed

The Duchess’s cisternIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

A great house is not a dungeon with a boss at the end. It is a siege in stages, and every stage teaches the rule that the last one tests. By the time Wick climbs into the rite chamber, a player who watched the house’s public life already knows how to beat its head.

A house, step by step

Scout the ward. Walk its villages and its roads. See the grip: what this house takes, and from whom.
Witness the mask. Every house keeps its grip with a public ceremony: the muster, the foundling procession, silent vespers, the foundation stone, the odds board hung, the feast. Watch it. It is the lesson.
Walk the procession. Each house’s procession traces a figure through its ward. Shadow it, and Wick walks the figure himself.
Break the grip. End, free or bend a lieutenant. Each one you break removes or changes one element of the rite.
Climb to the rite. The head fights at full force, from a circle with a gap left in it on purpose.
The asking. Beaten, the head kneels and asks, aloud.
The blow, or not. Hold the strike, or lead them away.
The aftermath. A canonisation in the head’s village, or the walk down to the pillory and a trial.
The priest’s visit. Father Fulcran comes down the visitors’ stair with one question and one gift.

WICK

No door of yours would open to my name. So I came up through your floor.

Coming up into the Earl’s rite chamber.mark_tower_triangle

The rules every rite keeps

THE RULESeven rules

The grip is the lock. Each house’s machinery of oppression is its rite’s puzzle: the levy line, the tide, the silence, the machine, the odds, the feast. You beat the head with the house’s own engine.
Puzzle into the fight. The approach teaches the rule the rite tests.
Every head leaves a gap. Each rite has a flaw left on purpose, and the flaw is the way in. Wick reads it as weakness.
Hits land through openings, not through a health bar. A head takes three or four real openings, never forty sword swings. Each opening is shown once, safely, before it is needed.
The base kit always suffices. Sword, spin, beam, burst, Bend Will, feeding and the room itself win every rite. Gifts and people open a second way, never the only one.
No free safety. No verb negates damage. Every power has a room where it fails.
One sentence. You can tell a friend how you beat each head in one sentence. If it takes two, it is two rites.

The one sentences

House	How it is won, in one sentence
The Tower	“You bait the Earl’s reach and slip through the gap in his circle between lightning strikes.”
The Wheel	“He sees your every move, so you make someone else land the blow.”
The Empress	“Her wards must fall first, by the blade, by her water or on their knees; then you brake the great wheel she left unchained and wade to her while the tide stands still.”
The Sun	“You starve the King’s feast until no one is left to toast him.”
The High Priestess	“In the dark you go to the bell that keeps the vespers beat, and you move and strike only on its stroke.”
The Magician	“You crush his twins in his own moving house, then set the capstans so the machine brings his gallery stair down to you.”

The choice

Beaten, the head kneels and asks for the blow. The asking always shows its words on screen, whatever the subtitle setting.

SCREEN 6-1The Earl in his circleThe iron circle and its gap. The first rite, and the template for the rest.In-game, the Tower's crown

	Hold the strike: the blow	Lead them away, or walk off: the spare
The head	dies, and thanks him	lives, ruined, led through the household to the pillory
Wick gains	the house’s gift from below	a weapon class of his own (from four of the six houses)
The villages	freed, and soon kneeling at a new shrine	freed, and the council lights its lamps in the ward
The rose window	the house’s light is re-leaded with a new face	the house’s light goes dark
The candle	gold wax, a still flame, a halo	out, in a thread of smoke
The haven	that house’s river thins	that house’s river runs dry
Later		the ruined head is still alive, and will come looking for him

Only heads of house (and one other, late) have the beaten state and the held blow. Lieutenants yield instead: the strike kills them, the beam takes them as a witness, who testifies at the head’s trial. Everyone else dies normally, with no prompt, so ordinary fights stay fast.

Two heads always die

THE RULEThe forced kills

The first two heads can never be spared: the Earl Marshal of the Tower and the Lord President of the Magician’s house. If you try (lead them, or walk away), Wick overrides you. The game’s rule is that your choices reach Wick as the voice below’s influence, and he feels them. With these two, he refuses it, and says so to the god before the blow lands.

WICK

I know you wanted him to live. You pull; I felt it in the hand.

If you try to spare the Earl.wick_earl_nospare_1

WICK

Not this one. The first goes down, and I say so.

wick_earl_nospare_2

WICK

He laid the street I was dragged down. He goes. My decision, not yours.

If you try to spare the Lord President.gb-magician.js

Every player gets the first two gifts. Every other head is yours to judge.

Wick feels your hand

After every other head’s fate, Wick turns to the god with one short line about whose hand it was. He never quite admits it was yours.

WICK

Your hand eased mine, and she lives. Let her call it mercy. I know better.

After sparing the Duchess.gray-boss.js

WICK

A king, and I felt you lean. He is down. The weight was yours and mine.

After killing the King.gray-boss.js

The aftermath

Killed: a canonisation in the head’s village. The shrine’s carving is whitewashed and the dead head’s face painted over it in a halo; collectors stand where the soldiers stood; the village kneels.

Spared: the walk down through the household, the head under Wick’s hand, the villages lining the road to the pillory. Then the council tries them. The first trial you cause is a full scene; later ones are stills. Each verdict dissolves the grip by decree.

THE ONE BELOW

A seat below stays empty. The city decides now. It will not stop with him.

After the first spare’s trial.god_tower_ruin

Either way, Father Fulcran comes down the visitors’ stair into the haven afterward, kindly, with a question he never answers himself.

The count

There is no clock; the story advances by how many houses have fallen, killed or spared.

When	What happens
After the first house	the priest hands Wick the charity’s accounts
After the third house	the King’s herald comes down to the gutter: the summons
After the King	the world opens; the great canonisation waits in the church
With all six ended	the Bishop’s rite, and then the stair under the orphanage

Sealed · After the first houseWhat each kill makesBreak the seal to read

Every head Wick kills goes below to a seat, and comes back above as a saint. The church canonises them within days; their faces are leaded into the rose window; their grip on the freed becomes faith. The halo, the church will say, is kinder than the rope. The gift is the toll. The thanks is the receipt. Sparing is the only way to deny a head the seat it paid for.

THE ONE BELOW

He thanked you. Listen, next time they thank you.

chorus_tower_2

Sealed · Mid-gameThe heads come backBreak the seal to read

After the great canonisation, every surviving head, from the seat of a house still standing or from the pillory, comes to the gutter to force Wick into combat and be killed. Beat them again and they go back to the stocks. Give the blow and they become saints after all. If the Tower fell by the blow and its Marshal lived, the Marshal hunts Wick for his lord’s death: the one sincere vengeance in the game, a mirror.

SNUFF

(a net drops off the tavern roof onto the nearest of them) Hunter’s law. Nobody hunts alone.

If the hunter lives.iv_net

Sealed · The endingThe rite that is not a houseBreak the seal to read

After the great canonisation, the Bishop stays at the altar. His rite is required, and it is the only head-like fight where nobody thanks Wick and no candle goes out. He is armoured by the saints Wick made: every re-leaded light in the rose window throws a shaft on him and turns blows, and the beam breaks a light out of the glass. Every head Wick spared can be brought from the pillory to testify under a light and put it out for good. It is the one fight where the whole run’s choices are the puzzle. Kill path: “You face your own saints.” Spare path: “The men you spared testify him naked.”

Book Two · The Manual · 7

Skins

Three faces for one dead lord

Hic ducissa eum dominum facit.

NewcomerStreamerNo spoilersas of 2026-10-04

Wick can wear three looks. They change nothing but how he looks: not his reach, not his blood, not the story. All three are open from the first time you play.

SCREEN 7-1ClassicThe default: the hero the game was built on, in red and steel.In-game, the churchyard

SCREEN 7-2Silver DarkThe same pose and the same scythe, in the other skin.In-game, the churchyard

Skin	The look
Classic	the original Wick, the default
Bright Red	a young noble: a crimson frock coat, long loose gold hair, a lace cravat
Silver Dark	proud and icy: platinum hair, a high-collared crimson coat, a long black ragged cape, tall boots

SCREEN 7-3Bright RedIn-game, the churchyard

How to wear one

Open the options. COUNSEL on the title screen, or SETTINGS in the pause menu.
Find the WICK row, under the HUD row.
Step it left or right, or press A or tap it: CLASSIC, BRIGHT RED, SILVER DARK.
He wears it at once. The status panel’s portrait follows the skin.

What changes and what does not

NOTEThe rules

A setting, not a save. The skin is kept with your options, not in your save file: it changes how he looks, never where he is in the story.
Every weapon has its twin. The sword, the axe, the scythe, the halberd and every arm of mercy are drawn on the skin you wear, walking, running and striking.
The bat changes with him. The change into the bat is drawn on each model.
The crows are the crows. The flock is painted live and looks the same whatever he wears.
Nothing is locked. There is nothing to earn for these three. Any skin added later and how it is unlocked is still to be decided TBD.

TIPFor streamers

Silver Dark reads darkest on dark ground; Bright Red reads brightest. On a dim stream, or for a thumbnail, Bright Red stands out from the stone and the night best.

Book Two · The Manual · 8

The Bosses

Every boss, its tells, its openings, and the sentence that beats it

Hic occidunt eum.

StreamerNewcomerLore chaserSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealednumbers from the build of 2026-10-04; tells shorten as houses fall

The HeightIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

Every boss in Væ Victis is a lesson, not a stat check. Each phase teaches one pattern you can name afterwards, and nothing that hurts badly comes without a wind-up you could have read: a pose you can see in silhouette, a sound, and a colour painted on the floor.

How to read a panel

THE RULEThe lesson standard

A lesson, not a stat check. Each phase teaches one pattern. The innate kit alone wins it.
Nothing kills without a wind-up. Any blow worth a quarter of the blood Wick is carrying has a tell in pose and in sound, readable at full speed. The first two heads give at least 0.4 s.
A loss teaches. The god’s remark names the move that killed you.
Two to five tries. A first-time player should win in about that many.
A short run-back. A checkpoint within about twenty seconds of every boss door.
Eagerness is the alibi. The heads try hard because the rite rewards them for bringing Wick near death. The difficulty is story.

TIPThe telegraph is the hitbox

For every boss built on the game’s boss kit, the coloured shape painted on the floor during the wind-up is exactly where the blow will land. Each move has its own ink. A boss in its recovery, the opening, is drawn slumped with a cold blue outline. Learn the colours, and stand outside them.

Each panel’s tells table lists every move: its wind-up (the bar runs to 1.6 s), its ink (the chip), its pose and sound, and how much of a full blood orb it takes. Tells shorten as the count of fallen houses rises, never below 0.3 s, so the later you meet a boss, the quicker it is.

The prologue

BOSS · THE PROLOGUE

The Marquis Andrevel

the Belfry Lord

Where: the graveyard court, under the belfry
Rank: not a head: he is drunk, not killed or spared
Wounds: 12
Phases: three: the air, the ground, the swarm
Earns: the bat, and a bought signet
Lesson: step out of his shadow; cut him while he drinks; sidestep the lunge; run, then hit the re-form

THE ONE SENTENCEWhen he shrieks, a shadow falls on someone: if it is you, step out of it and he crashes; if it is a robber, get behind him and cut while he drinks.

Phase 1 · The air (12 to 9 wounds)

He hovers and hunts. A shriek, a shadow grows on the ground under his target, then he dives and latches. Every latch heals him a wound.

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the dive and latch1.33 sthe shadow under you · lordshriek21%step out of the ring within 1.05 s of the shriek and he crashes

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

Openings: latched on a robber, 3.0 s, from behind only. A missed dive, the crash, 1.3 s, from anywhere. A ring aimed at a robber is cold blue, not red: that is your opening coming.

Phase 2 · The ground (8 to 5), after a roar

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the lunge and latch0.60 swings raised, a red line to you · lordshriek18%sidestep inside 0.60 s; walking straight away also escapes

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

Openings: latched on a robber, 2.3 s. A missed lunge, the skid, 1.2 s. The raised wings are the threat; the hunched stagger is the opening. While he stalks, blows glance off.

Phase 3 · The swarm (4 to 0), after a roar

He bursts into bats that chase at 64 px a second, faster than Wick walks, slower than he runs. Standing in it costs about a quarter of an orb; running costs nothing.

Opening: the re-form beside you, 1.52 s, from anywhere.

When you die

He flies home, heals three wounds, and drinks one robber. The god: “He fed while you lay dead. He is stronger now.”

THE ONE BELOW

He cried out, and his shadow fell on you. You stayed in it.

god_death_andrevel_dive_1

THE ONE BELOW

A swarm takes its time. You gave it yours.

god_death_andrevel_swarm_2

Link 1 · The gardens

BOSS · THE GARDENS

The Penitent

the keeper of the Height

Where: the shrine’s terrace on the Height
Rank: lieutenant: kneels, to be drunk or let go
Wounds: 9, and the cage’s three hasps
Phases: three
Earns: the crows, from the cage
Lesson: the cage, not the man: strike it when his back is open

THE ONE SENTENCEThe cage, not the man: hit its hasps from behind or while he lies face down, and the third hasp sets her free.

Phase 1 (full to two-thirds)

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the Hours0.80 sraise · gb_bell25%an iron flail swept in a wide arc in front of him

the Prostration0.90 scrouch · gb_knock30%he throws himself face down: a circle round him. Then 1.4 s with his back and the cage open

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

Phase 2 (two-thirds to one-third), the first hasp broken

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the Pilgrim’s Mile0.70 slean · gb_drum25%a long lunge down a line; ends facing away

the Litany0.60 sspread · gb_rise—two kneeling flagellants rise: lone, and bat food mid-fight

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

Crows escape the cracked cage and peck at his eyes, so his aim tracks worse.

Phase 3 (under a third), two hasps broken

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the cage swing0.80 shunch · gb_hiss30%he tears the cage off his back and swings it as a flail

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

The cage

A separate target with three hasps. A blow lands on a hasp only from behind, or during the Prostration’s recovery, when the cage glints gold. His wounds and the hasps are two meters: the fight ends when the third hasp breaks, however hurt he is. The bat is thrown off him, but the bat may bite the flagellants.

When you die

He heals a quarter. “Back up the stair. They all come back up the stair.”

THE ONE BELOW

He threw himself down, and you were under him.

gb-gardens.js

Link 2 · The Tower

HEAD OF HOUSE · LINK 2

The Earl Marshal

the Earl of the Tower, the first house

Where: the crown of the Tower, in a storm
Rank: head: asks, and cannot be spared
Wounds: 20, after his heir and his sworn man
Phases: a vigil, then two
Earns: the armed dead
Lesson: bait the cut, step through the gap; outside the circle, wait for the breath

THE ONE SENTENCEYou bait the Earl’s reach and slip through the gap in his circle between lightning strikes.

UNDECIDEDBeing retuned

The Earl’s fight is the built template and is being rebuilt to the lesson standard. The numbers below are read from the build and the design’s targets; exact wind-ups are still to be measured TBD.

The vigil

His heir and his sworn man attack first. The Earl stands on his seal and does not move. He watches his son fight, and die afraid. The first lightning shows the witnesses at the parapets, smiling.

Phase 1 · The circle (20 to 11)

He fights from inside an iron circle with a gap in it, and guards the gap. The iron turns every blow and the beam from outside. Outside the circle the sky hunts Wick; inside it, nothing falls.

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the cut across the iron0.67 sthe blade drawn back · earlwind16%target wind-up at least 0.6 s; its arc painted outside the iron

the rite’s lightning1.00 sa ring of cold sparks on you · thunder10%every 2.3 s, outside the circle only

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

Opening: the cut’s recovery, about 1.15 s, only from inside the circle or in the gap.

Phase 2 · The open (10 to 0)

“Come, then. In the open.” He steps out through the gap and fights as soldiers do.

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the pair: two cuts0.55 sthe blade drawn back, twice · earlwind32%0.16 each; the second cut keeps its own tell

the rite’s lightning1.00 sa ring on you · thunder10%every 1.7 s, anywhere now

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

Opening: the breath after the second cut, 0.8 s. The beam works now.

Breaking the grip

Ending or bending the Marshal means no drilled guard in the crown. Ending the Hangman takes the trapdoors out of the crown’s approach.

The asking

“Finish it as one soldier to another.” He cannot be spared: try, and Wick overrides you.

THE ONE BELOW

He drew the blade back across the iron. You stood where it was going.

god_death_earl_cut_1

THE ONE BELOW

Two cuts, then a breath. You did not wait for the breath.

god_death_earl_pair_2

THE ONE BELOW

Nothing falls inside his circle. You stayed outside it.

god_death_earl_strike_2

Link 3 · The Wheel

LIEUTENANT · LINK 3

The Dream-reader

the Grand Turn’s star

Where: the big top of the travelling circus
Rank: lieutenant: yields; kill, or take as a witness
Wounds: 8
Phases: two: the reading, the high seat
Earns: a witness; the Prince’s board loses its row of what is to come
Lesson: she dreams you, not the others

THE ONE SENTENCEShe dreams where you will be, so you bring her seat down with hands she did not dream.

The show before the fight teaches every move: the trapeze, the knives, the strongman, the lion, and the seer naming a man’s next move before he makes it.

Phase 1 · The reading (8 to 5)

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the reading1.00 shunch, eyes shut · gb_rise12%she names your next move; a counterweight drops where it would take you

the pinning0.60 sraise · wc_knife10%three knives along the line she named

the drop0.80 sspread · gb_drum14%a tumbler drops from the trapeze on the spot she named

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

Opening: after every third reading she steps down to the ring’s curb, spent, for 2.5 s.

Phase 2 · The high seat (4 to 0)

She climbs to the Seat of Sight, out of reach. The room brings her down: she dreams Wick, not anyone else.

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the loosing1.00 sraise · wc_whistle—the lion’s runway opens and the old Sovereign comes in

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

What brings her down	Wounds	How
Patience on a king pole	3	Bend Will on the elephant, drive her into a pole
The trapeze	2	cut both cleats while she sits
Tam lets go	3	if Tam lives and you rang his bell to the top three times
The Pellows cut the ropes	2	if their paper was burned
Lark’s choice	2	if Lark lives and you stood the knife board without flinching
The armed dead	2	their blows are not in her dreams

When you die

She heals a quarter, and a chain is run under the Seat: a king pole needs two shoves.

THE DREAM-READER

Nobody dreams the rope.

wc_dr_thrown_2

LIEUTENANT · LINK 3

The Assayer

the clerk of weights

Where: the etching pool, at the bottom of the acid falls
Rank: lieutenant: yields
Wounds: 8
Phases: two
Earns: a witness, and the debtors’ papers
Lesson: the flow must go somewhere

THE ONE SENTENCEHe stands where the acid never runs, so you make it run there.

The works teach the grammar first: running acid is a wall; still acid can be waded and burns; every valve stills one channel and sets its pair running; every 30 s the shift bell rings and every channel surges.

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the weighted rule0.60 sraise · gb_knock12%a lead-weighted rule swung short

the acid test0.70 scrouch · aw_fizz10%a stoppered flask lobbed where you stand; a burning puddle for 4 s

the lowering1.00 slean · aw_lever—at half: the weighbridge drops into the race

the pour1.50 sspread · gb_bell10%the shift bell; the race surges over both banks

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

Yield: “Enough. The debtors’ papers are in the drawer. Take them.”

THE ASSAYER

My own bank. You weighed that well.

aw_assayer_driven

HEAD OF HOUSE · LINK 3

The Prince of Coin

the Wheel, the second house

Where: the wager room of the exchange
Rank: head: asks; may be spared
Wounds: 12
Phases: two: the board, the room
Earns: kill: foresight · spare: the cane-sword
Lesson: he foresees Wick, not the room

THE ONE SENTENCEHe sees your every move, so you make someone else land the blow.

Phase 1 · The board (12 to 7)

The great odds board on the wall shows the house’s odds on each of Wick’s verbs. A blow with the verb at the top of the board does not land: he steps aside and ripostes. Any other verb lands, one wound, and goes on the board. Varying only drives the board in a circle.

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the riposte0.45 slean · gb_hiss16%the cane-sword drawn a hand’s width, on a foreseen blow or when you are close

the rakes0.70 sspread · gb_drum8%two lines laid either side of you, then swept; a hit drags you toward him

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

Phase 2 · The room (6 to 0)

“The board has learned you. Nothing of yours will land now.” Wick’s own blows never land. Every 15 s the opening bell rings and he goes to the board’s foot and stands 1.5 s with his back turned, reading the new odds. Make the room hit him.

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the call1.00 sraise · gb_bell—his back turned for 1.5 s: the room’s moment

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

The room	Wounds	How
the chandelier	3	strike its cleat while he stands under it
the board on its chains	3	strike the chains while he stands under it
a bent croupier’s rake	2	Bend Will a croupier; his blows are someone else’s
a freed debtor	2	if the Assayer was spared or a debt burned: he attacks unbidden
a debtor in chains, bent	2	Bend Will him
the armed dead	2	not on his board

When you die

The chandelier is re-hung on a chain: its cleat now takes two blows.

The asking

“Take the bet.”

THE ONE BELOW

The rakes were laid before they swept. You stood across them.

gb-wheel.js

Link 4 · The Greenwood

LIEUTENANT · LINK 4

The Master of the Chase

the King’s chief keeper

Where: the tithe barn’s yard, in the Chase
Rank: lieutenant: yields; then the band’s choice
Wounds: 8
Phases: three
Earns: the barn opened; the band’s trust
Lesson: never walk into the set spear

THE ONE SENTENCENever walk into the set spear: go round, or wait, and strike while he lifts it; and the beaters’ line has gaps.

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the set0.60 scrouch · gb_low30%the boar-spear planted, point at you: a counter. Walk or strike into it and you are impaled

the thrust0.50 slean · gb_knock22%a lunge along a line

the quarrel1.00 sraise · gb_hiss20%a heavy crossbow bolt across the yard (from 70%)

the drive0.90 sraise · gb_drum—a whistle: five beaters walk the yard, pushing you toward him (from 40%)

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

Openings: 1.0 s as he lifts the set spear; 0.8 s at the end of the thrust; 1.2 s reloading, his back half-turned.

Yield: “Forest law, then. Get on with it.” Then Hollin asks Wick what to do with him: let the band hang him on the verderers’ oak, drain him, or let him go.

THE ONE BELOW

He set the spear and waited. You came to it.

gb-greenwood.js

Link 5 · Marrowmere and the Empress

LIEUTENANT · LINK 5

The Magistrate of Wards

the law of the roll

Where: the wardmote, under the Duchess’s ward house
Rank: lieutenant: yields
Wounds: 8
Phases: one
Earns: a witness, with the roll
Lesson: running water is a wall; he reads, and the water rises

THE ONE SENTENCEHe reads a name and the water whitens where you stand: keep off the edges and cross where it is still.

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the reading0.90 sraise, the roll over his head · gb_hiss10%a hump of water whitens on your spot, and breaks

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

Yield: “The rolls are in order, sir. Every child accounted for.” Taken as a witness: “Then I come as I am, with the roll. It is all written down, sir. It is the law.”

HEAD OF HOUSE · LINK 5

The Duchess of Marrowmere

the Empress, the third house

Where: the cistern under the ward house
Rank: head: asks; may be spared
Wounds: 12
Phases: the wards, the tide, the drowning
Earns: kill: the tide · spare: the brake-chain, and Mardle’s punt
Lesson: running is a wall, still is a road

THE ONE SENTENCEHer wards must fall first, by the blade, by her water or on their knees; then you brake the great wheel she left unchained and wade to her while the tide stands still.

Phase 0 · The wards

She does not fight, and nothing reaches her, until every ward has fallen. The wards are grown orphans; some slept beside Wick and say his name. She counts a ward who kneels as fallen: bend a ward with the thread and order them to kneel. The rite can begin without one child dying. The tide breathes all through it, an 11 s cycle (flow, flood, ebb, slack), so you learn its rhythm.

Phase 1 · The tide (12 to 7)

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the pull0.80 sraise · suck5%a hump of water rises on you and breaks: a shove, into running water if you stand at an edge

the embrace0.60 sspread, the veil back · gb_bell20%if you wade up to her outside an opening

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

Phase 2 · The drowning (6 to 0)

“Every sluice, then. Come to me through my water, Aldric.” The water rises a step every 15 s, three steps, until only the triangle and her seal are dry.

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the foam front0.80 slean · gb_low12%the roar rises; a white band comes down where you stood

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

The openings

Opening	When	How
The brake	both phases	throw the great wheel’s brake on its red spoke: the tide stands for 7 s; cross the stilled ring and strike her
The flood and the slack	both	the tide stands 1.5 s twice a cycle: hop one channel
Her grief	phase 2	she kneels at each fallen ward, back turned, for 1.5 s

The gap: she had the chain taken off her own brake. Wick reads it as a careless house.

Second ways in

The Greenwood band’s Cobb will hold the tide gate shut. At the Falls, the head-gate can shut the aqueduct that feeds her: a priced second answer, with its cost shown before you choose.

When you die

She heals a quarter, and the cistern floods a step higher, for good.

The asking

“Let my children see it done.”

THE ONE BELOW

Held under like a christening. She always did want you done properly.

gb-empress.js

Sealed · Mid-gameThe hunter taken: Snuff’s panelBreak the seal to read

THE TURN · LINK 5

Snuff

the hunter, taken

Where: the hunter’s ground on the Duchess’s road
Rank: a head’s beaten state: spare him or kill him; no saint either way
Wounds: 14
Phases: two: he calls his throws, then he does not
Earns: spared: the grave-hook, later; a friend’s lantern at the end
Lesson: pinned first, then the stake: never be pinned

THE ONE SENTENCEDodge the net and the hook, because the stake only ever follows a pin, and strike his back while he hauls in a thrown net.

His pole parries from the front: blows glance off in every state but two. In phase 1 he still calls his throws, out of habit. In phase 2 the god inside him says “Stop that,” and the calls stop.

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the net0.60 sraise · gb_hiss5%a ring of cord drawn where it will land; pins for 1.4 s

the hook0.50 slean · latch10%the pole dropped level; a catch drags you 32 px in

the light0.40 shunch · tick8%the shutter’s click: a dazzle in a cone

the stake0.35 scrouch · gb_rise35%only ever after a pin or a hook

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

Openings: the haul after a thrown net, 1.0 s, his back open; a stake stuck after a miss, 1.2 s in the turf, 1.4 s in stone.

The first stake that lands is the one death the god stages. See Death.

THE ONE BELOW

Pinned, then the stake. Every time, pinned first.

gb-hunter.js

Link 6 · The King

LIEUTENANT · LINK 6

The Beastmistress

the King’s kennels

Where: the kennels by the buttery
Rank: lieutenant: yields
Wounds: 5
Phases: one
Earns: bent: the hounds turn on the court
Lesson: watch the kennel wall, not her horn

THE ONE SENTENCEHer horn sounds once and two hounds come off the wall: be away from the wall when it sounds.

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the horn1.00 sraise · gb_low—one low note; two hounds come off the kennel wall

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

Yield: “Enough. Take the horn. They’ll answer whoever blows it now.”

HEAD OF HOUSE · LINK 6

The King

the Sun, by summons

Where: the feast hall at the summit
Rank: head: asks; may be spared
Wounds: 12
Phases: the hounds, the glory, the cup
Earns: kill: transmutation · spare: the carving knives
Lesson: the feast is his armour

THE ONE SENTENCEYou starve the King’s feast until no one is left to toast him.

The rule: while any cup in the hall is full, the court toasts him and he is gold: blows ring off. Starve the feast. The servers do not know, so the thread takes them: bend them to stop pouring. Overturn the jugs. Break the casks in the buttery beforehand. The courtiers know, and the thread slides off.

While he holds his cup up, all the blood in the hall is wine: nothing feeds. When he lowers it, it turns back. Feed on his rhythm.

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the loosing1.00 slean, a whistle · gb_rise—the kennel door opens: three hounds

the carving stroke0.60 sraise, the knife over the platter · gb_knock18%the steel honed twice, then the stroke

the toast and the backhand0.80 sspread, the empty cup raised · gb_drum24%the hall answers in unison; then his hand comes down. A full second’s opening after it

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

The gap: his own cup, at the apex of the triangle, is never filled. He raises an empty cup and the court does not notice.

The asking

“To the hand that crowns me.”

THE ONE BELOW

An empty cup, held high. You watched the cup and not the hand.

gb-sun.js

The open world

LIEUTENANT · THE PRIESTESS

The Black Coachman

the coach that goes east

Where: the marsh road and the cloister
Rank: lieutenant: yields without a word
Wounds: 8
Phases: one
Earns: a witness: the signed manifest
Lesson: the whip has reach; inside it, you are struck

THE ONE SENTENCEHis hand goes back before the whip speaks: stay out of its narrow reach, and strike as it recoils.

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the whip0.50 sraise · snap16%a narrow lash, 44 px ahead

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

He never speaks. Beaten, he kneels and holds up the reins and the manifest.

HEAD OF HOUSE · THE OPEN WORLD

The Marchioness Shaxby

the High Priestess

Where: the Hush, in the marsh convent
Rank: head: she cannot ask; may be spared
Wounds: 12
Phases: three: the dark, the false bells, the silence
Earns: kill: silence · spare: the crozier
Lesson: sound is seen

THE ONE SENTENCEIn the dark you go to the bell that keeps the vespers beat, and you move and strike only on its stroke.

The rule: in the convent every sound draws a ring on the floor: a footstep, a blow, a bell. Running makes big rings, walking small ones, wading none. The vespers chant has a pattern, two strokes and a rest, and you hear it three times on the way in.

The fight: darkness, and she rings a bell so you can find her. Her sisters ring false bells, off the beat. Then the light goes, and the rings still show. Then the sound goes, and the rings still show. Follow the pattern, not the noise.

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the crozier hook0.50 slean, the bell hand drops · chainfall20%a sweep in front of her, then the drag

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

The gap: she rings the true bell exactly on the chant she taught, and never varies it.

The asking: she cannot ask. She sets her bell down without letting it ring, takes his sword hand, closes it on his own hilt, and holds it there.

THE ONE BELOW

She may not ask. She has arranged for you to ask for her.

god_priestess_ask

LIEUTENANTS · THE MAGICIAN

The Twin Architects

the moving house’s builders

Where: the floor of the moving house
Rank: lieutenants: they cannot be spared
Wounds: 6 each, plated in the guild’s stone
Phases: one, then the other
Earns: the way to the President
Lesson: the seams crush

THE ONE SENTENCEYour sword barely marks them, so you lure each twin onto a closing seam.

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the trowel0.50 slean · gb_hiss8%a short arc in front of him

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

A blow does a quarter of a wound. When one twin dies, the other screams and runs to the body: use it.

HEAD OF HOUSE · THE OPEN WORLD

The Lord President of the Builders’ Guild

the Magician

Where: the moving house, by the quarry
Rank: head: asks, and cannot be spared
Wounds: 12
Phases: the machine, the floor
Earns: unbuilding
Lesson: his plans are open on the table

THE ONE SENTENCEYou crush his twins in his own moving house, then set the capstans so the machine brings his gallery stair down to you.

The rule: the house is a machine. Floors slide and turn on a schedule; three capstans set it. His plans lie open on the drafting table in the approach, with the final setting drawn. Set the capstans to the plans and the gallery stair comes down to him.

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the dropped stone0.80 shunch, at the counterweights · gb_knock22%a ring fills on your spot; from the gallery he is untouchable

the setting-maul0.60 sraise, the maul on his shoulder · gb_low18%a red half-moon before him (from half wounds, on the floor)

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

Opening: the maul stuck in the floor, 1.1 s.

The asking: “Enough. Before you choose, look at the haven. I built it to the priest’s measure. Let me see it paid for.” He cannot be spared.

Sealed · The endingThe finale: the Bishop and Father FulcranBreak the seal to read

THE RITE THAT IS NOT A HOUSE

The Bishop

armoured by your saints

Where: the gutter church’s nave
Rank: head-like: asks, never thanks; may be spared
Wounds: 10
Phases: armoured, then bare
Earns: the chain off the chapel stair
Lesson: his gap is his faith

THE ONE SENTENCEYou break your own saints out of the glass one by one, and hit him while he kneels to pray them back.

Every saint Wick made is a lit pane in the rose window, and each one is a ward on him: while any stands, blows ring off. The beam cast at a lit pane breaks it, but it fizzles if cast from inside a saint’s shaft of light: cast from the dark lanes between. A spared head brought from the pillory testifies under a light and puts it out for good.

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the crozier sweep0.70 sraise · gb_hiss16%a 120-degree arc in front of him (0.55 s once bare)

the procession step1.20 slean · gb_drum10%three paces in time, then the crook drags you into the light

the blessing1.00 sspread · gb_bell—every lit pane flares; the beam fizzles for 1 s

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

Openings: when a ward breaks, he kneels to pray it back, 2.0 s, open from anywhere. Bare, the crozier’s recovery.

The asking: “Let me go to them. Let me go to my sister.” No seat, no saint, no candle goes out.

THE WORLD

Father Fulcran

the knight’s test

Where: the Ring of the Kneelers
Rank: the World: no asking, no held blow
Wounds: 12
Phases: the question, the round, the hands
Earns: the reading, and the choice
Lesson: get up every time

THE ONE SENTENCEHe tries to put you on your knees; you get up every time, and cut him when his pike is spent.

On foot, with a pike. His pike parries while he walks; the openings are his recoveries, the pike spent. Tells run at 85% of normal, never under 0.45 s.

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the thrust0.60 slean · gb_knock16%the pike level at the shoulder; a chalk line on the turf

the bow0.90 scrouch · gb_rise6%the pike swept at the knee in a half circle: a hit puts you on one knee

the charge0.80 shunch · gb_hiss22%phase 2, through a gap in the stones, across the ring at 200 px a second; 2.0 s spent at the far side

the thrust on a bowed man0.60 sraise · gb_drum16%after the bow lands

the thrust on a held man0.60 slean · gb_low30%after the porters’ hands close on you

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

The porters: hooded men who carried each offering to the Stone. They drop their lanterns and raise both hands to hold you. Unknowing, and human: Bend Will takes them.

THE ONE BELOW

An old man, riding nothing. He still came through.

gb-ring.js

Optional

Sealed · The endingAmbry, the Man of SecretsBreak the seal to read

OPTIONAL · LATE

Ambry

the Man of Secrets, older than the founders

Where: the grotto in the Pleasance
Rank: optional; drunk, not spared
Wounds: 12
Phases: two
Earns: the mist; a full orb and full mana; the grotto falls silent for good
Lesson: he throws the light where you will be

THE ONE SENTENCEHe has watched men walk for six hundred years, so you never stand where you were going.

Challenged at the roses on his door once five houses have fallen. The grotto is roofed: the crows will not rise in it, and he throws off the bat, his kind’s own trick.

MoveWind-upTellHurtsRead it

the Lantern0.70 sraise · gb_hiss20%the light thrown on the spot you are walking to

the Roses0.80 scrouch · gb_low25%the trellis lashes in a ring round him

the Mist0.90 sspread · gb_rise30%from half wounds: he is not there, and then he is on you

Wind-up bars run to 1.6 s. The chip is the ink the game paints on the floor for the whole wind-up: the telegraph is the hitbox. Hurts is the share of a full blood orb.

The full fight is still to be built TBD: the design adds the lantern put out (the grotto read by sound and his one red eye), a thrall he has kept, and the Secret, a tell made of words, where he says aloud something you did.

AMBRY

Sixty years in this hole, my lord. Six hundred before it. Come and be the last thing I hear.

gb-gardens.js

Ambry’s hunts

Late in the game the Man of Secrets’ price becomes a hunt: a thing he has heard of that has started walking where it should not. Each task pays for three hints. All three are designed and not yet built TBD.

Hunt	Where	The design
The Hedge-King	the maze’s fountain court	a man-shaped mass of clipped yew and the drained gardeners’ bones; lashes down the lanes, a ring of thorns, walks the hedges as if they were floor
The Rat King	the gutter’s sewer lane	a knot of rats bound at the tails, the size of a cart; summons lone rats (bat food), rolls, squeals to stun
The Barghest	the Downs’ corpse road	a black dog the size of a horse: a hound, so the crows cannot phase it; a lunge, a howl that grounds the flock, a dive from the barrows

The Anchorites

The masters the god keeps in the Wastes. Each can be beaten honestly, which frees them, or by a trick, which gives them to the god. See Walkthrough 8.

Anchorite	Moves	Notes
The Salt Confessor	the salt swing: 0.6 s, r4, raise, a cracked bell; .15	can only be told the truth
Quern, the Miller	the pick: 0.7 s, r4, raise; .18. The grinding: 1.0 s, a gold ring round him every 14 s; .10	stand outside the ring when the stones shake
Graft, the Husbandman	the pruning hook: 0.6 s, r4, lean; .14. The graft: 2.0 s at a tree, heals him. The windfalls: husk-men from the rows	keep him away from his trees
Evens, the wagerer	a lunge, and the dice	at every toll-town’s table, in many bodies
Sooth	TBD	right for ninety years, believed once

Book Three · The Walkthrough · 0

The Prologue

The grave, the haven, the churchyard and the Belfry Lord

Hic qui infra est ei loquitur.

NewcomerStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealedskeleton · built content

6 standing

The graveyard courtIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

NOTEHow to use the walkthrough

Each chapter is one link of the road. At a glance says what you earn and whom you fight. The route is numbered; follow it in order on a first play. Secrets are sealed. Every SHOT and CLIP box is a screen still to be captured for the finished guide; until then, the box says exactly what it will show. The six candles under each title are the houses still standing when the chapter begins.

At a glance

Where: the haven, the churchyard, the graveyard court
Earns: the bat (from Andrevel); the bought signet
Boss: the Marquis Andrevel, the Belfry Lord
Checkpoints: the haven’s throne; the churchyard’s crypt; the court’s crypt
Length: about 15 minutes on a first play
Status: built

The intro

Choose AWAKEN on the title. The opening is a scroll of red and black ink, read to Wick by the voice below over his body, then the dark grave, the temptation, “Enough. Open it.”, a tunnel of fire and an empty throne. It is skippable with a held button. If you skip it, three sentences on black give you the premise; let them stay up.

WARNINGFor the guide’s own screens

The scroll’s figure panels and the game’s painted stills are not used anywhere in this book. The intro is shown here in words only.

The route

The haven. Wick wakes seated on the throne in the drowned nave. Walk the nave: the seven niches, the rivers of blood, the visitors’ stair, the forge and the stash. Rest on the throne whenever you pass it.
Up the shaft. The god’s nudge points the way: up through the rubble to the grave above.
The burst grave. He climbs out of his own grave in the churchyard. Six candles burn at its head. The first mark plays his first words risen.
First blood. Frail bones rise; grave robbers are opening a rich man’s grave; a lookout flees south. Feed at the churchyard font.
The lychgate. Pass the family gate and the paupers’ plot. Go through the churchyard’s crypt door: it is your first checkpoint.
The graveyard court. South into the city of the dead. The terrace mark, the avenue, the vaults, the ossuary and a drained husk. Pass through the court’s crypt door.
The belfry. The cracked bell, the lamps guttering, bats pouring out. Andrevel drops on the lookout and drinks. The fight begins.
The drink. When he is down, stand over him and hold Interact: Wick drinks him to ash and takes the wings. Take the signet from the ash.
The barred gate. Walk at the city gate south of the court. It is chained from the inside; the bat goes through its bars, low, into the King’s garden.

SCREEN 0-1Andrevel on the bridgeStay in the bat form and take the high road, or come down and fight the guards.Press shot, live capture of the v83 build, CRT off, the play field only

SHOT W0-01phase B: to capture

The haven’s nave from the throne, Wick seated, the rivers of blood running toward the camera. Map: the haven, first waking. Play field only.

SHOT W0-02phase B: to capture

The burst grave in the churchyard with the six candles at its head, Wick standing beside it. Map: the churchyard, first visit, before the lychgate.

SHOT W0-03phase B: to capture

The churchyard’s crypt door with its prompt, the first checkpoint, Wick at the top of its stair.

The boss: the Marquis Andrevel

The full panel is in The Bosses. In short:

Phase 1, the air. When he shrieks, a shadow grows under someone. Red ring on you: step out of it and he crashes into the ground: hit him. Cold blue ring on a robber: get behind him and cut while he drinks.
Phase 2, the ground. Raised wings and a red line to you: sidestep. The hunched skid after a miss is your opening.
Phase 3, the swarm. Run, then strike the moment he re-forms beside you.
Robbers keep coming. He drinks them and heals. Kill them first if you can; each one he latches on to is also your opening.

SCREEN 0-2Phase 1: the crashA missed dive leaves him on the ground for 1.3 s.In-game, the graveyard court (raw frame, play field)

SCREEN 0-3Phase 3: the swarmKeep moving; strike the re-form.In-game, the graveyard court (raw frame, play field)

CLIP W0-04phase B: to capture

Andrevel’s entrance, from the cracked bell to his first drink on the lookout, about 12 s, the god’s line on screen. Map: the court, first visit.

CLIP W0-05phase B: to capture

Phase 1 taught: a red ring under Wick, the step out, the crash, two blows. Then a blue ring on a robber, the cut from behind while he drinks. About 15 s.

SHOT W0-06phase B: to capture

The drink: Wick standing over the beaten lord with the DRINK prompt shown, before the ash. Play field only.

CLIP W0-07phase B: to capture

The first change into the bat, from the cape widening into wings to the first wingbeat, with his line “So. His wings fit me better than they fitted him.” on screen. About 6 s.

WICK

Your blood is mine now, and all it carries.

court_lord_down

Secrets

Sealed · After the first houseIn the prologueBreak the seal to read

The rich grave. The robbers’ grave belongs to someone who paid for its stone; an aside says whose kind.
The family gate and the paupers’ plot. He calls the paupers no kin of his. Remember where the tithe’s dead go.
The haven’s channels. Stand by each river: an aside names the house it comes from.
The visitors’ stair. “A stair for guests, and no guest on the stair. Not yet.” After the first house it will have a guest.
The court’s vaults. Their iron gates lead nowhere yet. One becomes a way down after the Tower.

Sealed · The endingWhat the prologue already told youBreak the seal to read

The god’s first line about Andrevel is the whole game in miniature: “They made him a lord and killed him, before you. I kept him.” The signet in the ash was bought by the same purse that bought Wick his name. The belfry aside says he went to the salt church to confess, came out laughing, and would not go down.

SHOT W0-08phase B: to capture

The barred city gate south of the court with its red bat sign lit, Wick as the bat at its foot, just before passing through the bars.

Stream notes

TIPFor streamers

Let the intro play once. It is the premise, said plainly.
Andrevel is the first real lesson and the first spike in deaths. Narrate the rings: red for you, blue for a robber.
The bat’s first flight is a good clip: the change is the best animation in the prologue.

Book Three · The Walkthrough · 1

The Labyrinth Gardens

Link 1 · the bat run, the Height, the crows and the Man of Secrets

Ubi puer Wick in cloaca dormit.

NewcomerStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealedskeleton · built (G0 to G2); the Man of Secrets’ late content is designed

6 standing

The PleasanceIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

At a glance

Where: the King’s Labyrinth, the Height, the Pleasance
Earns: the crows (from the Singing Saint)
Rule taught: bats go through gates; crows fly over hedges
Boss: the Penitent of the Height
Cinematics: arrival, the low road (17 s); departure, the high road (19 s)
Calm: the Pleasance, and the Man of Secrets
Length: 12 to 18 minutes on a first play

This is the pattern the whole guided road follows: a boss gives a form, a level is built on that form’s rule, a cinematic gives the place its meaning, a boss with a story, a new power and a second cinematic, the power reopens the level by a new exit, and a calm place with a voice before you go on.

The maps

The King's Labyrinth — SCREEN 1-1The King’s LabyrinthLong straights and hard turns. The lantern-lit serpentine is the feast; the four iron gates in the hedge lines are the blaze. The mountain gate is at the bottom left; the hedged garden and its door at the far right.The dressed map, as the game draws it (v72)

SCREEN 1-2The HeightA short stair, a checkpoint, and the terrace: an oval arena with a drop on three sides.The dressed map (v72)

SCREEN 1-3The PleasanceParterres, the great fountain, the Walk of the Founders, the four vista marks and the grotto.The dressed map (v72)

The route

Land as the bat. Through the court gate’s bars, Wick lands in the King’s garden still in bat form. The god and Wick trade a line about flying low and feeding as you pass.
Choose your way: the feast or the blaze. The lit serpentine is five long straights with a lone gardener or watchman at the end of each: nine meals, about 18 s of pure dash plus the bites. Four locked iron garden gates in the hedge lines, each with a red bat sign, are the bat’s shortcuts: through all four, the way is less than half as long, with one sure meal on it. Any mix is fine. The first gate is 11 tiles into the first straight.
Dash, turn, bite. Hold a direction for half a second and the bat dashes. Turns cost speed. A bite on a lone body drains it in under a second, and he keeps most of his speed.
Notice the hedged garden. At the end of the first straight, a garden walled in hedge shows a statue and a dim crow sign, and no gate anywhere. You cannot reach its door yet.
The mountain gate. Tall iron, chained, at the bottom left. The bat goes through; the cinematic the low road plays.
The Height. A short climb past two lone pilgrims’ guards (the bat’s warm-up) to the checkpoint at the stair’s top. Rest.
The Penitent. On the terrace, a giant monk with a gilded cage chained to his back. Break the cage’s three hasps. See the boss below.
The saint. The cage breaks; she rises, sings her three lines and becomes the crows. Wick bursts at once (free, her gift).
The Penitent kneels. Drink him (a full orb) or leave him to walk down the mountain.
The high road. The flock rises past the moon, crosses the city and dives into the maze. Control returns in crow form.
The crow run. Fly the diagonal over the hedges to the hedged garden. Hounds walk the maze now and can bite the flock; go round the fountain and the two stone pavilions.
The hedged garden’s door. Land inside it and walk through the door in the wall. The music turns calm.
The Pleasance. Walk the allée. Four vista marks (lattice rings) light one after another and lead to the grotto. Pass the six founders and the seventh plinth.
The Man of Secrets. Talk to the old man with the lantern (Interact). The first talk is free: he tells you about the old water-gate behind him and steps aside from it.
The water-gate. Its grille is bars, so the bat goes through. A bat sign lights on it after the talk.
The chandlery yard. The old conduit comes out under the yard’s wall in the gutter, by the vats where he was named. He re-forms on his feet.

SHOT W1-01phase B: to capture

The first straight of the maze as the bat at full dash, the camera leading, a lone gardener at the far end of the lane. Map gd_maze, first pass. Play field only.

SHOT W1-02phase B: to capture

The bat passing through the first iron garden gate in the hedge, its red bat sign lit on the post. Map gd_maze, 11 tiles into the first straight.

SHOT W1-03phase B: to capture

The hedged garden seen through its hedge from the end of the first straight, the statue inside and the dim crow sign, no gate. Map gd_maze, first pass.

CLIP W1-04phase B: to capture

The blaze: the four gates taken in one run from the landing to the mountain gate, about 10 s, ending as the bat folds through the mountain gate’s bars.

CLIP W1-05phase B: to capture

Cinematic 1, the low road, in full (17 s), from the gate’s bars to the bat re-forming at the shrine’s foot. Skip never pressed.

THE ONE BELOW

The King locks his garden with bars. Bars are for men.

god_gd_gate

WICK

Between the bars, then. The King can keep his keys.

ans_gd_gate

The boss: the Penitent

The full panel is in The Bosses. In short:

The cage, not the man. His wounds do not end the fight; the third hasp does.
Hit a hasp from behind, or during the Prostration’s recovery, when he lies face down for 1.4 s and the cage glints gold.
The Litany summons two kneeling flagellants: bite them as the bat for blood.
In phase 3 he tears the cage off and swings it: the gold arc is the cage itself.

SCREEN 1-4The cage swingThe third phase. The yellow arc on the stair is where the cage will land.In-game, the Height (v73), play field

CLIP W1-06phase B: to capture

The Prostration taught: he throws himself down (the purple ring), Wick steps out, runs behind, two blows on a hasp while the cage glints gold. About 8 s.

CLIP W1-07phase B: to capture

The saint’s freeing: the third hasp, the cage springing, the girl rising and singing her three lines, the birds flying into Wick, the burst. About 20 s, captions on.

CLIP W1-08phase B: to capture

Cinematic 2, the high road, in full (19 s): the moon, the city from above, the dive into the maze.

THE SAINT

And never under a roof. I was under one a hundred years.

saint_free_3

The crow run and the Pleasance

SHOT W1-09phase B: to capture

The crow run: the flock over the hedges on the diagonal at full speed, a hound below leaping at the birds. Map gd_maze, crow pass. Play field only.

SHOT W1-10phase B: to capture

The Pleasance’s allée with the second vista mark lit and the Walk of the Founders behind, the seventh plinth bare. Map pl_garden.

SHOT W1-11phase B: to capture

The grotto: Ambry with his lantern at the back, the water-gate’s grille behind him, Wick at the mouth. Map pl_grotto. Ambry’s face never in the HUD window: crop to the play field.

SHOT W1-12phase B: to capture

The chandlery yard as Wick re-forms out of the conduit’s grate, the vats behind him. Map: the gutter, the arrival from the Pleasance.

AMBRY

This one is free. The water-gate behind me. The fountain’s water ran out through it to the river once, and under the chandler’s yard. Forty years shut. Bars, my lord, and you are not a man for bars.

secrets_meet_2

TIPAmbry: the hint you can always buy

Whenever you are lost, come back to the grotto. Through the Pleasance’s south-east door, which opens onto the gutter’s west road after the first talk, it is a short walk. Ask “Where now?” and he names the next place and locks the gold pointer to it for a while. His price: free the first time; a little blood (0.10 of the orb) in the first act; blood or the whole mana orb in the second; mana and blood, or a task, in the third; a hunt late in the game. He never takes your blood below a quarter, and the god’s own nudge always works for nothing.

Ways back

The Pleasance’s south-east door (solid oak) opens from inside after the first talk, onto the gutter’s west road.
The maze can be re-entered from the Pleasance’s west door, on foot or as crows.
The Height is reached again only by the crows’ fast travel, once its roost is learned TBD: the roost feather is designed, not built.
After the crows, the watch shuts the mountain gatehouse’s solid doors behind the bars: the bat can no longer leave that way.

Secrets

Sealed · After the first houseIn the gardensBreak the seal to read

The fountain court has a mark and the maze’s checkpoint, in its west wing.
The Penitent, spared, walks down the mountain. Later he is a new gardener in the Pleasance who does not know Wick TBD: designed for a later pass.
The fountain island in the middle of the maze is running water all round. Come back with the tide (Link 5): a relic, and something that will make one of Ambry’s hunts easier.
The four vista marks each have a line; stand on all four.

Sealed · The endingThe man with no reflectionBreak the seal to read

In the great basin, the grotto’s lantern shows, swinging, and the man who carries it does not. Ambry never eats or drinks; the roses on his door are red “for the roses”; he says he knew your first founder’s mother. He is older than the houses, and late in the game he can be challenged. See Walkthrough 13.

Stream notes

TIPFor streamers

The bat run is the fastest-feeling minute in the game. Try the blaze on camera.
Both cinematics are in-engine and short; let them play.
The saint’s three lines are the emotional peak of the first hour. Keep captions on.
Ambry is where the chat will ask “is he a vampire?” Do not answer.

Book Three · The Walkthrough · 2

The Tower

Link 2 · home ground, the orphanage, and the first house

Et ianuae clausae sunt.

NewcomerStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealedskeleton · the Tower is built; its two cinematics and the two-body rule are new for the guided road

6 standing

The Tower’s approachIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

At a glance

Where: the gutter, the orphanage, the Tower’s garrison village and keep
Earns: kill only: the armed dead. After the Earl: the scythe
Rule taught: two-body mechanisms, held by a second body TBD: new for the guided road
Boss: the Earl Marshal (cannot be spared); lieutenants: the Lord Marshal, the Hangman
Cinematics: arrival, the muster; departure, the walk down TBD: both new
Calm: the haven, and the priest’s first visit
Length: about 20 minutes for the gutter and orphanage, 15 to 25 for the Tower

Before the Tower: home ground

Wick re-forms in the chandlery yard. The gutter is the game’s hub; on the guided road only one of its roads is open at first, and the rest are shut by people who tell you why.

The chandlery. The vats where he was named, and the candle-mould on the bench (Interact to look close).
The high street. The watch call him Marchmont. A mark looks up the hill.
The square. The church door and its calendar (stand to read it). The empty scaffold, a carpenter at work. The empty pillory. The council house, shut. The rose window.
The river steps. The washerwomen. One looks at him too long.
The tavern bench. Snuff, the hunter, hails him. Sit with him.
The cellar (optional). The gang master: beat him and he yields; take him as a witness, with his bill of sale.
The orphanage. East of the square by the river, the lamp that never goes out. The priest at the gate. The schoolroom, the refectory and its wall, the chapel and its candle rack, the dormitory and his old bed, the study.
The bell tower. The view over the hill and the six seats.
The north-east road. The only road open. It leads to the Tower.

AMBRY

The old Earl keeps the top of his tower. North-east road. He asks his visitors to finish things.

Ambry’s hint for this stage.gb-gardens.js

SCREEN 2-1The gutter quarterThe watch in the square, three roads out, and the bat or the crows to choose.Press shot, live capture of the v83 build, CRT off, the play field only

SHOT W2-01phase B: to capture

The gutter’s square from the church door, the calendar on the wall to the left, the empty scaffold and the pillory in the square. Map: the gutter, first visit.

SHOT W2-02phase B: to capture

Snuff at the tavern bench pouring two cups, Wick standing by him, his first line on screen. Play field only: his face never in the HUD window.

SCREEN 2-2Father at the doorThe orphanage door: Father Fulcran waits on the step and Wick has one word to say.Press shot, live capture of the v83 build, CRT off, the play field only

SHOT W2-03phase B: to capture

The orphanage refectory’s wall of offerings, eight frames on the north wall, Wick looking up at the highest. Map: the orphanage.

SHOT W2-04phase B: to capture

The gutter’s north-east road mouth, the way to the Tower lit by the gold pointer, the other roads shut. Guided-road build only.

UNDECIDEDWhich roads are shut, and by whom

On the guided road the gutter’s other ways are held by people: the counting-house door pasted with circus playbills, the wardmote’s bailiffs on the east road, the bridge-keeper with the drawspan up, the guild’s cordon on the north-west road. Their exact lines are being written TBD.

The Tower

The kalendar’s first feast is the Soldier’s: the levy marches the village’s sons up seven hairpin turns to a beacon.

CLIP W2-05phase B: to capture

Cinematic 3, the muster (new): the flock over the garrison roofs at night, a column of torches climbing seven hairpin turns, the beacon going out as the last torch reaches it, Wick’s line. About 16 s.

Three ways in

The garrison village. Open its crypt: the checkpoint for the whole Tower. Watch the muster.
Choose a way. Route A, the switchback: up the seven turns, through the barbican, into the bailey, where the Lord Marshal drills his line. Route B, the gallows way: past the gibbet field, where the Hangman works, to the postern; or down the corpse chute into the dungeon. Route C, the east cliff: the breach and the wall walk, by the crows over the palisade, or by unbuilding the breach (much later).
Break the grip. The lieutenant on your route stands at his post; the other is off it and optional. The Marshal’s drummer keeps the line: stop the drum and the line is only men. Leaving a lieutenant alive changes what comes after.
The keep. The hall, then the war room and the chambers on the second floor. The Earl’s last evening plays as a still.
The armoury. The halberd is a find here, before the Earl TBD: its exact spot.
The crown. The stair comes up inside the triangle: Wick arrives standing where the rite wants him. The storm breaks.

SNUFF

The drummer keeps the line. Stop the drum and the line is only men.

Snuff’s tip, if he walks with you.hn_m3_tower

SHOT W2-06phase B: to capture

The seven hairpin turns of the switchback from below, the levy line in formation on the turns. Map: the Tower’s approach, Route A.

SHOT W2-07phase B: to capture

The gibbet field on the gallows way, the Hangman at his work. Map: the Tower’s approach, Route B.

The new rule: two bodies

UNDECIDEDDesigned for the guided road

A windlass, a weighted plate or a two-man bar needs a second body to hold it while Wick goes through: one of his raised dead, a freed levy man, or a thrall held by Bend Will. The Tower teaches it; the court’s vaults use it on the way back. Not yet built TBD.

The boss: the Earl Marshal

The full panel is in The Bosses. In short:

The vigil. His heir and his sworn man come first. He watches.
Phase 1, the circle. The iron turns your blows and your beam from outside. Bait his cut across the iron, then step through the gap during its recovery. Outside the circle, lightning hunts you; inside, nothing falls.
Phase 2, the open. He cuts twice, then breathes. Wait out the second cut; strike in the breath.
He cannot be spared. Hold the blow, or try to walk away and watch Wick refuse you.

The Earl's circle — SCREEN 2-4The Earl’s circleThe ring is the rite, and two of his household stand inside it.Press shot, live capture of the v83 build, CRT off, the play field only

CLIP W2-08phase B: to capture

The first asking and the held blow: the Earl kneeling in his circle, “Finish it as one soldier to another.” on screen, the blow gathering and falling, the thanks. About 20 s. If possible, a second take showing Wick’s override when the spare is tried.

CLIP W2-09phase B: to capture

Cinematic 4, the walk down (new): dawn-grey on the seven turns, the levy walking home, the Earl carried on a door with gilt on his brow. About 15 s.

WICK

One soldier to another? I was never yours to spend.

head_tower_blow

After the Tower

The scythe is his: the crowd weapon. Try the tangle on the next group.
The candle at his grave goes out; the rose window changes; the beacon is dark from the north-east road.
The haven. Rest. The priest comes down the visitors’ stair for the first time with the charity’s accounts.
The first aftermath: the Earl’s canonisation in his village.

SHOT W2-10phase B: to capture

The haven’s visitors’ stair with Father Fulcran in his chair by it, Wick before him, after the first house. Play field only.

Backtrack: the court’s vaults

With a second body to hold it (your armed dead, or a bent thrall), one of the graveyard court’s iron vault gates becomes a windlass portcullis. Below it, Andrevel’s own crypt: a relic, and the lead for Ambry’s first hunt, the Hedge-King TBD: the crypt is a new small room.

SHOT W2-11phase B: to capture

The windlass portcullis in the court’s vaults held up by a raised dead man while Wick passes under. New room: capture once built.

Secrets

Sealed · After the first houseIn the TowerBreak the seal to read

The heir believes the vigil is holy. Listen to his prayer before the fight.
The witnesses. The first lightning flash shows robed figures at the parapets, smiling. Look for them in every flash.
The shrine in the village: after the canonisation, look under the paint. The freed villagers chisel off the arms and bare a carving underneath.
The thanks. The Earl’s last words end in three words of the church’s Latin. You will hear them again.

Stream notes

TIPFor streamers

The gutter walk is the best place to show the world’s rules: the candles, the window, the pillory.
The first asking is the moment. Read it aloud before you hold the button.
The priest’s first visit is quiet and important. Let it breathe.

Book Three · The Walkthrough · 3

The Wheel

Link 3 · the Grand Turn, the acid works and the exchange

Hic sacerdos eum emit.

NewcomerStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealedskeleton · circus, works and exchange built; foresight, the conduit and the two cinematics are new

5 standing

The wager roomIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

At a glance

Where: the circus on the Counting-House Green, the Assayer’s works, the exchange
Earns: kill: foresight TBD · spare: the cane-sword and Mister Dolour’s back way
Rules taught: acid; the conduits (the bat down the outfall grate)
Bosses: the Dream-reader (big top), the Assayer (etching pool), the Prince of Coin (wager room)
Cinematics: arrival, the parade; departure, the river runs clear TBD: both new
Calm: the river steps, clean
Length: circus 20 to 30 min, works 15 to 25, exchange about 15 TBD

Why you are here

The moment the first house falls, playbills go up on the shuttered counting-house door: THE GRAND TURN has come to the Counting-House Green. The ledger the priest gave you names the Prince’s paper. The circus comes to town after every funeral.

CLIP W3-01phase B: to capture

Cinematic 5, the parade (new): the flock high over the city, the wagons, cages and elephant filing onto the green, the big top rising, Wick’s line. About 17 s.

The route

The fairground. The midway, the games, the menagerie, the side-show tent, the big top’s door, the back-lot gate. The dead wagon is the checkpoint crypt.
The side tents. Mother Thrupp reads the debt, not the lines. Dame Constance keeps the books. Tam’s strongman tent. The hall of curiosities. Mister Dolour knows a back way.
The games of chance (optional). Each is a wager the house wrote. What you win or lose here changes the fight in the big top (below).
The back lot opens when the bell goes: the late fair, the years-pit, the bear’s stake, the weighing booth, the paper wagon with the troupe’s debts in a strongbox.
The big top. The show plays first and teaches every move of the fight. Then the Dream-reader.
The defaulters’ cart from the back lot runs down to the Assayer’s works.
The works. The works’ head (the rule taught), the vat hall and the great valve, the tall falls (terraces, ladders, drops), and the etching pool: the Assayer.
The outfall grate at the works’ foot is bars: the bat goes down it into the city’s old water-ways TBD: the conduit is new.
The exchange. The odds board hung, the opening bell’s circuit, the debt-ledger doors (buy, void or burn a debt to open them), the checkpoint crypt, the counting vault, and the wager room: the Prince of Coin.

SHOT W3-02phase B: to capture

The fairground’s midway with the big top behind, booths and board-men, Wick on the main lane. Map wc_fair.

SHOT W3-03phase B: to capture

The big top’s ring before the fight, the Seat of Sight high on its poles, the trapeze and the lion’s runway. Map wc_bigtop.

SCREEN 3-1The Grand TurnA screen from the build of October 2026. The guide’s own capture replaces it.In-game, the fairground (v16), play field

DAME CONSTANCE

Every act in this circus is paying off a debt. I know to the day when each one ends. None of them ends.

wc_constance_2

What the fair changes in the big top

What you did at the fair	In the big top
Burned the troupe’s paper (Constance’s key, the paper wagon)	the acts will not work for her: no knives, no drop. The easiest fight, the hardest to earn
Killed the Ringmaster	no whistle, no lion; but no act will ever take your side
Spared the Ringmaster (or beat his sharper at the shells)	once in phase 2 he calls the interval: six seconds of quiet
Rang Tam’s bell to the top three times	Tam lets go of the west pole at your word: 3 wounds
Stood Lark’s knife board without flinching	in phase 2 she throws at the Seat’s rope instead of at you
Spared Mother Thrupp and had your hand read	once per phase she calls the move the seer will name, a beat early

The bosses

The Dream-reader names your next move and drops the room on it. In phase 2 she climbs to the Seat of Sight: bring her down with hands she did not dream: the elephant on a king pole, the trapeze’s cleats, Tam, the Pellows, Lark. Panel.
The Assayer stands where the acid never runs. Make it run there: every valve stills one channel and sets its pair running. Mind the shift bell. Panel.
The Prince of Coin foresees your every verb. In phase 1 use what the board says you won’t. In phase 2 nothing of yours lands: make the room hit him during the call, when his back is turned. Panel.

CLIP W3-04phase B: to capture

The Dream-reader brought down: Patience driven into a king pole with Bend Will, the Seat’s ropes slackening, the seer thrown into the ring and struck. About 12 s.

SHOT W3-05phase B: to capture

The etching pool with a valve’s pair running and the Assayer standing in the green, Wick at a valve. Map aw_bite. Play field only.

SCREEN 3-2The wager roomThe Prince of Coin on his wheel, and the odds to read before the stroke.Press shot, live capture of the v83 build, CRT off, the play field only

CLIP W3-06phase B: to capture

The Prince’s call: the opening bell, his back turned at the board’s foot, the chandelier’s cleat struck, the chandelier falling on him. About 8 s.

SCREEN 3-3The etching poolThe weighbridge lowered, the race running. A screen from the build of October 2026.In-game, the works (v31), play field

After the Wheel

CLIP W3-07phase B: to capture

Cinematic 6, the river runs clear (new): the works’ valves wheeling shut, the green thinning down the falls to the river steps, a washerwoman lifting a white sheet from the water; the exchange’s board turning gold (kill) or its paper burning (spare). About 16 s.

Calm: the river steps, clean. Shutting the works clears the acid from the river. The washerwomen work again, and one of them looks at Wick too long.

Backtrack: the conduit

From the works’ outfall, the bat flies the city’s old water-ways under the streets: a loop joining the chandlery yard’s grate, the Pleasance’s water-gate, and one shut grate at the far end that opens later onto the King’s buttery cellar (Link 6) TBD: the conduit is a new small map.

SHOT W3-08phase B: to capture

The conduit as the bat, the shut grate to the King’s buttery at its far end. New map: capture once built.

Secrets

Sealed · After the first houseIn the WheelBreak the seal to read

The Prince’s box. Over the ring, a still of the Prince alone in his box, a slip in his hand.
The board’s own wager. At the foot of the great odds board hangs a slip no one will take: a fortune on his own death.
The tally bench. In the works, a debtor’s cache in a cleft behind the terrace: his own tally stick, every notch, and the day he came.
The animals are never fought. They are freed or used.

Sealed · Mid-gameNell, in the worksBreak the seal to read

A ward of the orphanage works the vats. She knew Wick as a boy, and she tells him where the green water goes. He does not hear what she means.

NELL

Wick? They said you were dead. They say that about all of us down here.

aw_nell_1

Stream notes

TIPFor streamers

The circus is the most colourful place in the game. The parade cinematic is a natural highlight.
The big top’s show teaches the fight. Let the chat watch it before you start.
Try a game of chance on stream; the barker’s lines are good.

Book Three · The Walkthrough · 4

The Greenwood

Link 4 · the King’s Chase, the band and the tithe barn

Et ianuae clausae sunt.

NewcomerStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealedskeleton · the Greenwood is built and dressed; the whistle and the Master as a required boss are new

4 standing

At a glance

Where: the King’s road, the deep wood, the camp in the branches, the Chase lodge and the tithe barn
Earns: the band’s help (any path); the deserter’s whistle
Rule taught: the crows’ one enemy can be sent home
Boss: the Master of the Chase
Cinematics: arrival, the tithe road; departure, the tally burns TBD: both new
Calm: the camp in the branches
Length: 25 to 35 minutes

Why you are here

With the Wheel fallen, the Prince’s paper (what the villages owe) rides up the King’s road with the tithe carts. The verderers’ post on the Tower’s village road east into the Chase stands empty now: they have ridden off to guard the carts the band robs.

WICK

The sun. It does not burn here. I stand in it like a man who has been let out.

The first mark under the trees.gw_mark_trees

CLIP W4-01phase B: to capture

Cinematic 7, the tithe road (new): gold light through tall trees, a tax cart creaking up the King’s road, an arrow pinning its banner; empty as it passes the camera. Wick’s line. About 15 s.

The route

The ambush at the bend. A felled oak stops a tithe wain; arrows from the trees; Hollin calls to the guard to walk away. What you do decides how the band first sees you: fight the guard, fight the band, watch, or feed. Feeding on an outlaw ends the band’s arc for good.
The deep wood. The Cathedral Clearing, where nothing happens and the god says nothing: the one place in the game for that.
The test on the log. Gentle Cobb on a fallen trunk over a stream: cross the log and put him in the water. Off the log is running water. Three clean blows and he goes in, laughing.
The test at the butts. Ash and Yew shoot blunt arrows while you cross the clearing: a dodging lesson. Going round behind them counts.
The camp in the branches. Pass a test and the band shows you the hollow oak. Read their three signs in the bark and climb up uninvited: that counts as a test too. The hall, the fire basket, Wystan’s altar, the archers’ perch.
The hire. Hollin’s ask: the tithe barn by the Chase lodge. Get in before the band and open the yard gate from inside: over the palisade as the bat or the crows, or through the lodge on foot.
The yard: the Master of the Chase. See the boss below.
The bays. The band empties them. Choose one bay to burn: the Wheel’s tally sticks, the Tower’s iron, the grain, and the rest. Each choice has its own consequence somewhere else.
The Master’s fate. If he yields, Hollin asks you: let them hang him on the verderers’ oak, drain him, or let him go.

SHOT W4-02phase B: to capture

The ambush at the bend: the felled oak across the King’s road, the wain stopped, the pavise men behind their boards, an archer in the canopy. Map gw_road.

SHOT W4-03phase B: to capture

The log over the stream: Cobb at the far end with his quarterstaff across his body, Wick stepping on. Map gw_heart.

SHOT W4-04phase B: to capture

The camp in the branches, the hall’s long tables and the band at home. Map gw_camp.

SCREEN 4-1The deep woodThe best forest in the game, and the only sunlit place. A screen from the build of October 2026.In-game, the Greenwood (v29), play field

COBB

Cross the log, and put me in the water. That is the oldest test there is.

gw_cobb_test

The boss: the Master of the Chase

Panel. Never walk into the set spear. Go round it, or wait and strike while he lifts it. His crossbow bolt crosses the whole yard; his reload turns his back. When he whistles, a beaters’ line walks the yard pushing you toward him: it has gaps.

CLIP W4-05phase B: to capture

The set spear taught: the Master planting the boar-spear (the red arc), Wick circling round it, striking as he lifts. About 8 s.

After the Greenwood

CLIP W4-06phase B: to capture

Cinematic 8, the tally burns (new): night at the tithe barn, the tally bay going up, the paper rising as sparks over the trees toward the city. Hollin’s line. About 15 s.

The deserter’s whistle is yours, on any path. Once per map it calls off the hounds, so the flock can fly where hounds patrol TBD: made general for the guided road. The band will also put you on the venison cart into the King’s buttery (Link 6), and Cobb will hold the Duchess’s tide gate in her rite (Link 5).

Calm: the camp. Brother Wystan, the archers’ songs, and Hollin’s runaway ward Dilly or Hollin herself pointing down the mere path toward the Duchess’s lake TBD: the pointer’s line.

Backtrack

The Tower’s gallows way and corpse chute. With the whistle, the hounds there are called off: back into the Tower by the way you could not take before, to the Hangman’s yard and the levy roll (useful to the council if you spare).
The maze’s crow pass. The garden watch’s hounds can be sent home.

Secrets

Sealed · After the first houseIn the GreenwoodBreak the seal to read

The hanged poacher on the verderers’ oak is Ash and Yew’s father. A board under him reads the King’s law.
Sorrel, a marsh girl, said aloud what the coach takes. Talk to her.
Wystan copied saints’ lives for the Bishop. Some of them had the dates still blank.
Taper, a counterfeit outlaw who robs on the Prince’s commission, is somewhere on the roads. The band despises him.

Sealed · Mid-gameThe god in the woodBreak the seal to read

The god allows the band because it never leads Wick. It asks.

THE ONE BELOW

She asks. She does not lead you. I allow it.

chorus_gw_hire

If the band hangs the Master, the god raises their father from the oak, and you see what Ash and Yew do.

Stream notes

TIPFor streamers

The Greenwood is the game’s breath of air: sunlight, jokes, people who like Wick. Slow down here.
The log test is a crowd-pleaser, and a lesson in running water.
Which bay you burn is a good poll for chat.

Book Three · The Walkthrough · 5

Marrowmere and the Empress

Link 5 · the falls, the Duchess, the hunter taken, and the boat home

Hic ducissa eum dominum facit.

NewcomerStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealedskeleton · the Falls and the Empress are built; the river stops, the turn’s move to this road and the three cinematics are new

4 standing

The plunge poolIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

At a glance

Where: the mere path, Marrowmere Falls, the Duchess’s ward house and cistern, the river home
Earns: kill: the tide · spare: the brake-chain, and Mardle’s punt
Rule taught: running water is no longer always a wall
Bosses: the Magistrate of Wards; the Duchess of Marrowmere; the hunter, taken
Cinematics: arrival, the source; the turn, the hunter taken; departure, Slack Water TBD: all new
Calm: downstream on Slack Water, to the docks and the herald
Length: Falls 15 to 20 min; the Empress 15 to 30 TBD

Why you are here

A runaway ward in the Greenwood points down the mere path: the Duchess keeps a lake up there. The ledger names her too: she bought Wick his name.

CLIP W5-01phase B: to capture

Cinematic 9, the source (new): Hollin’s lantern down the mere path, the trees parting on the still mere, its water slipping over the lip into the great fall, the aqueduct carrying the rest west. Wick’s line. About 17 s.

The route

The plunge pool. The mere path comes down to the falls’ north shore. The great fall’s whole face, and the god’s line about the lip.
The Stair of Pools. Terraces of pools climbing beside the fall. Running is a wall; still is a road. Its new word is the diverter: a gate cannot make water stop, only choose where it falls. Every stilled crossing makes another run. The Stilt-Keepers wade where you cannot and haul your levers back.
The spray bridge. West into the fall’s mist: cormorants dive out of the white, and a moonbow stands in the spray.
Behind the curtain. The quietest room in the region: the font, Sister Lave, the pelican altar, and Dilly, a runaway ward.
The lip and the head-gate. The Reeve of the Mere keeps the key to the aqueduct that feeds the city and the ward house. Shut it, or not: ask him (he refuses, kindly, and tells you why), bend him, or kill him and turn it yourself. Touch the gate and the copper statues of the founding Duchesses wake. The cost is shown before you choose.
The aqueduct’s service walk west to her house.
The ward house. The wardmote, the ward house, the undercroft with the roll room and the sluice-house; the culvert is a second way in. The Magistrate of Wards reads the year’s infants into the record.
The rite in the cistern. The tide carries Wick into the triangle. The Duchess.
Out to the plunge pool, where a boat is waiting.

SCREEN 5-1The Stair of PoolsA screen from the build of October 2026. The guide’s own capture replaces it.In-game, Marrowmere (v27), play field

THE ONE BELOW

Every cup in her city comes over that lip. She owns the lip.

chorus_falls_sight

WICK

Every stilled fall is a fall somewhere else. I will keep count of who it lands on.

fa_mark_stair

SHOT W5-02phase B: to capture

The Stair of Pools’ second terrace with a diverter’s gate swung and one outlet running, the other still, a Stilt-Keeper wading. Map fa_stair.

SHOT W5-03phase B: to capture

The spray bridge in the mist with the moonbow standing over it. Map fa_stair, T3.

SHOT W5-04phase B: to capture

The Mothers’ Walk at the lip, the Reeve with his long key by the head-gate’s capstan, the ducal village’s wells below the aqueduct in frame. Map fa_mere.

The bosses

The Magistrate reads a name and the water whitens where you stand. Keep off the edges. Panel.
The Duchess. Her wards first, by the blade, by her water, or on their knees (Bend Will and the kneel order: the rite can begin without one child dying). Then the tide: brake the great wheel she left unchained, and wade to her while the water stands still. In phase 2 she kneels at each fallen ward, her back to you. Panel.
Cobb from the Greenwood holds the tide gate shut for you, on any path.

CLIP W5-05phase B: to capture

The brake: Wick throwing the Mother Wheel’s brake on its red spoke, the whole tide standing still, the run across the stilled ring to strike her on her seal. About 10 s.

The Duchess's cistern — SCREEN 5-2The Duchess’s cisternHer wards stand between the tide gate and the brake. Read the tide.Press shot, live capture of the v83 build, CRT off, the play field only

SHOT W5-06phase B: to capture

The cistern in phase 2, the water risen a step, the Duchess kneeling at a fallen ward with her back turned. Map: the cistern. Play field only.

THE DUCHESS

I bought you that name, Aldric. It was dear, and it was never meant to open doors. Only the one.

duchess_title

Sealed · Mid-gameThe turn: the hunter takenBreak the seal to read

With two houses ended, Snuff meets Wick on the Duchess’s road: “That road? Then I’m coming. Hunter’s law: nobody hunts alone.” He walks at Wick’s back into the siege, gives one tip, does one good deed, and says his last line in his own voice. Then, on the hunter’s ground, the lantern comes out of the fog turning gold.

SNUFF

Running water, Wick. You’ll not cross it.

hn_m3_empress

The fight against a friend: dodge the net and the hook, because the stake only ever follows a pin or a hook, and strike his back while he hauls in a thrown net. The first stake that lands is the one death the god stages. Beaten, Snuff can be spared or killed. Panel.

CLIP W5-07phase B: to capture

Cinematic 10, the hunter taken (new): Snuff’s lantern on the Duchess’s road, warm white turning gold, the god’s hand on him. About 15 s. Captions on.

SHOT W5-08phase B: to capture

The hunter’s ground in the fog, Snuff with his lantern raised and the embers over his face. Play field only.

On the original order this turn came in the High Priestess’s house; on the guided road it moves to the Duchess’s road, because she is the third house TBD: the lines for this road are being re-cut.

Home on Slack Water

SCREEN 5-3Slack Water on the riverMardle poling the boat down the river. A screen from the build of October 2026.In-game, the ferry, clean pixels (v64)

At the plunge pool, an old man in a sea-green coat is waiting in a boat called Slack Water. He rows Wick home downstream: past the gorge, past the city’s lights, to the gutter’s docks, where a herald is crying the King’s summons. He says one thing on the way about what Wick has done; which thing depends on what he did.

MARDLE

Dead ride free. Yours was paid. Years back.

fr_fare

CLIP W5-09phase B: to capture

Cinematic 11, Slack Water (new): the boat going down the gorge, the great fall shrinking behind, Mardle poling past the city’s lights toward the docks and a herald’s bell. About 18 s.

From now on the haven’s grate opens onto the river, and Mardle will ferry Wick between the haven, Marrowmere and, later, the marsh.

Backtrack

With the tide (kill path), or as ferry stops with Mardle’s punt (spare path):

The gutter’s river: the old mill island and the sunk laundry barge mid-river TBD: new stops.
The maze’s fountain island (tide only): a relic, and the Hedge-King’s root, which makes his hunt easier.
The Greenwood’s stream-cut glades.

SHOT W5-10phase B: to capture

Wick crossing a run of the gutter’s river with the tide to the mill island. New stop: capture once built.

Secrets

Sealed · Mid-gameAt MarrowmereBreak the seal to read

The roll. In the ward house’s roll room, Wick’s own entry: “died on the road”, the marsh named, Mother: (struck through). An older entry: Title purchased.
The wardrobe. Three sets of robes: his, cut to his measure; Andrevel’s, older, with a marquis’s coronet; and a third, half-sewn, to a woman’s measure.
The brake’s chain. The empty hook is in the sluice-house above. She had the chain taken off herself.
The still water. Whenever the tide stands, the basin is a mirror, and in it robed figures stand on the gallery, smiling.
The washerwoman. This is where you learn who she is. Wick does not.

Stream notes

TIPFor streamers

The Falls are the most beautiful place on the road. Take the spray bridge slowly.
The head-gate is a moral choice with its price shown. Poll it.
The turn is the game’s hardest emotional beat. Do not skip the cinematic.
The boat ride home is a rest. Let it play.

Book Three · The Walkthrough · 6

The Summons

Link 6 · the Hundred Steps, the buttery and the King’s feast

Ecce sedes quam ei paraverunt.

NewcomerStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealedskeleton · the crown is built in graybox; the buttery’s cellar exit and the two cinematics are new

3 standing

The feast hallIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

At a glance

Where: the North Gate, the Hundred Steps, the buttery, the feast hall
Earns: kill: transmutation · spare: the carving knives, and the council opens the Chase
Rule taught: tainted blood and tainted founts
Bosses: the Beastmistress (lieutenant); the King
Cinematics: arrival, the Hundred Steps; departure, the empty cup TBD: both new
Calm: none. The feast’s end runs straight into the opening
Length: TBD

Why you are here

Three houses have ended. A herald in gold has come down to the gutter: the King requests the dead lord’s company at his table. The North Gate is open.

THE ONE BELOW

The King sends for you. Every door on the hill is open now. Ask who opened them.

god_summons

WICK

I did. With this.

ans_summons

CLIP W6-01phase B: to capture

Cinematic 12, the Hundred Steps (new): the North Gate’s leaves opening, the camera climbing the steps through the city lit for the feast, the tables seen from above in a triangle with a chair at its base. Wick’s line. About 18 s.

Three ways in

Each way was earned on an earlier link.

Way	Earned	Where it comes up
The Hundred Steps	the summons	the great door of the hall, the front way, every ward gate open and the watch saluting
The venison cart	the Greenwood band	the King’s buttery, hidden in the cart TBD: the hook is designed
The conduit	the Wheel’s outfall, as the bat	the buttery’s cellar, through the grate that was shut TBD: new exit

THE ONE BELOW

They salute. You have not asked why.

god_climb

WICK

They fear me. Why else does a man salute.

ans_climb

The route

The climb. Up the Hundred Steps from the North Gate. From the landings, the ended houses are dark.
The buttery. The grip: the casks that fill the feast’s jugs, the Steward, and the kennels. Break the casks here and fewer jugs reach the feast.
The Beastmistress in the kennels. Bend her, and the hounds turn on the court in the hall.
The welcome. The court rises and applauds the dead lord’s entrance in the language of hospitality. The Bishop sits at the King’s left; the priest in plain black at the far end. The tables are laid in a triangle. The guest’s chair is at its base.
The feast. The King.

SCREEN 6-1The feast of the sunThe King at the head of the hall, the guests applauding, the tables in their triangle.Press shot, live capture of the v83 build, CRT off, the play field only

SHOT W6-02phase B: to capture

The feast hall from the great door: the tables in a triangle, the King at the apex with his cup, the guest’s chair at the base, the court standing. Map sn_hall, the welcome.

SHOT W6-03phase B: to capture

The buttery with its casks, a cask broken and its wine running across the floor. Map sn_buttery.

The boss: the King

Panel. The feast is his armour: while any cup in the hall is full, the court toasts him and blows ring off. Starve the feast. Bend the servers (they do not know) to stop pouring; overturn the jugs; break the casks before you come up. While he holds his cup high, all the blood in the hall is wine: nothing feeds. Look at his own cup.

CLIP W6-04phase B: to capture

Starving the feast: a server bent with the thread to stop pouring, a jug overturned, the gold light on the King flickering out, the first blow landing. About 12 s.

THE ONE BELOW

The tables are laid in a triangle. Your chair is at its base.

god_feast

WICK

The lowest chair. They have not changed.

ans_feast

After the King

CLIP W6-05phase B: to capture

Cinematic 13, the empty cup (new): the King’s cup, never filled, rolling down the long table and off its end; the guests leaving their chairs one by one; the candles at the apex guttering out. About 14 s.

Then, as Wick walks out onto the Hundred Steps, the world opens. Go straight on to the Opening.

Backtrack

The orphanage’s tainted cup. A fount in the orphanage gives less than its due. With transmutation, clean it for a full drink and a line. On the merciful path, the council’s first decree hangs on the orphanage door instead. That is small on purpose: the real backtrack is the opening.

Secrets

Sealed · Mid-gameAt the feastBreak the seal to read

The applause is the third piece of evidence. Everyone in the hall understands the welcome but Wick.
The King’s cup at the apex is never filled. He raises an empty cup and the court does not notice. The kalendar told you how the tables would be laid.
The steward’s rope at the high table is a rope, not a gate: no form passes it.

Sealed · The endingThe face in the squareBreak the seal to read

After the King, the church places the head on the processional figure in the gutter’s square. It is Wick’s face, from the church’s picture of the Blessed Hand, the jaw one pixel too low. On a path of mercy the figure is veiled in black, the face under the veil.

THE ONE BELOW

That is your face. Look at it.

god_effigy

WICK

They have my likeness. They never had my ear.

ans_effigy

Stream notes

TIPFor streamers

The welcome is a set piece of dramatic irony: the chat will understand it before Wick does.
Show the King’s empty cup before you fight. It is the best “look at this” in the game.

Book Three · The Walkthrough · 7

The Opening

The long roads: the rooks come for him, and the world opens

Hic descendit per ignem.

NewcomerStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealedskeleton · the pact is built; its move to this point, the cinematic and the new locks are designed

2 standing

The chalk giantIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

At a glance

When: the moment the King’s fate is set, killed or spared
Earns: the long roads: the flight above the land, the roosts, fast travel
Opens: the Wastes; the city both ways; the marsh (the High Priestess); the quarry (the Magician); the ferry’s marsh reach; the circus’s travels
Cinematic: the long roads (19 s) TBD: new
Next: the two houses left, in any order; then the finale

The long roads

CLIP W7-01phase B: to capture

Cinematic 14, the long roads (new): rooks landing along the hall’s sills; Wick coming apart, the flock lifting with the rooks around it, higher than the high road; the land seen whole, its roads lighting one by one as rooks settle on them; the Ring on the hill’s shoulder; the rooks wheeling down toward Rook Knoll. About 19 s.

As Wick walks out of the hall, rooks, not crows, line the high windows, dozens of them, silent. The flock lifts with the rooks around it and the whole land comes into view: the Gallows Downs and the chalk giant, the Spoil, the Tithe Fields, the Salt, the Wash, the marsh to the south, the circus’s wagons already on a far road. Control returns at the foot of the Hundred Steps, the objective line on her knoll.

Rook Knoll

The call. West past the court’s postern to the Gallows Downs. The rooks stop mobbing the stile; the corpse road’s hedge drops.
Rook Knoll. Up the knoll to the gibbet. Mother Carrion speaks through her rooks.
Her asks. Three things, said once. Remember them.
The hounds. The Downs’ pack comes. Her lesson: the flock is not for fighting.
The first long flight, round the chalk giant cut into the hill, whole only from the air.
The roosts. From now on, hold the crow key through the burst to rise to the region’s view, and fly between roosts you have walked to.

MOTHER CARRION

Those are a saint’s birds, dead boy. They know a cage and a garden. Mine know the roads.

carrion_saints_birds

MOTHER CARRION

They’re hungry. Let them eat from you, a little, every time, and they’ll carry you anywhere you’ve been.

carrion_ask_eat

MOTHER CARRION

They’re not for killing. They’re for leaving.

carrion_not_killing

SHOT W7-02phase B: to capture

Rook Knoll: the gibbet against the sky, the rooks on it, Wick at the foot of the knoll. Map: the Gallows Downs.

SHOT W7-03phase B: to capture

The region’s flight view over the Downs with the chalk giant whole and a roost marked. Play field only.

SCREEN 7-1The Downs from the airThe chalk giant and the roads, as the rooks show them.In-game, the flight view (scout capture), play field

What opens

Opens	What you see	Who says so
Rook Knoll and the long roads	the Downs’ rooks stop mobbing the stile	Mother Carrion
The Wastes: five regions, their gateways, the Anchorites, the Ring’s ground	the Quarry Road and the towpath unbarred; the Levy Road out of the Tower’s village	TBD
The city on the hill, both ways	the North Gate stays open; the watch stands aside	the watch
The South Bridge, to the High Priestess’s marsh	the drawspan comes down; the Hush is over for the year	the bridge-keeper, by signs only
The north-west road, to the Magician’s quarry	the guild’s cordon is lifted	a guild warden
The ferry’s marsh reach	Mardle will pole you into the marsh	Mardle
The circus travels	the playbills now name a pitch where the last house fell	the bill-stickers
The church	the great canonisation, on your next entry to the square	the bells

THE RULEEvery lock is a person, a story or a form

There are no invisible walls. Each shut way is something you can see, with a voice that says what will open it, and Ambry’s paid hint always names the open link. No form breaks a story lock.

What is required now

The High Priestess and the Magician, in either order: Walkthrough 9 and Walkthrough 10.
Then the finale: the Canonisation and the Bishop, then the descent.

What is optional

The Wastes and their five Anchorites; the circus at each new pitch; Ambry’s three hunts; Ambry himself, late; the mist and its rooms; the Ring before the end. See the open world and the optional content.

NOTEOld saves

A save that is already off the guided road (the Priestess or the Magician ended, the Empress before the Wheel, the pact made, or three or more houses ended) is treated as past the opening: Mother Carrion says one line in the haven, there is no cinematic, and nothing is taken away. A road Wick has already used is never locked again.

Secrets

Sealed · Mid-gameHer boyBreak the seal to read

Her second ask is about a boy the coach took in the frost year. Keep it in mind when you next see the hunter, if he lives.

MOTHER CARRION

The coach took my boy in the frost year. If you ever hear where, you tell the rooks.

carrion_ask_rooks

Stream notes

TIPFor streamers

The opening cinematic is the game’s “the world is yours” moment, after hours of a guided road. Make an occasion of it.
Tell your chat the order is yours from here. Poll the next house.

Book Three · The Walkthrough · 8

The Open World

The Wastes, the Anchorites, the kindred and the travelling fair

Hic qui infra est ei loquitur.

NewcomerStreamerLore chaserSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealedskeleton · the five regions are built in graybox and dressed in part

The Salt CathedralIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

At a glance

Where: the Gallows Downs, the Spoil, the Tithe Fields, the Salt, the Wash
Opens: after the King, with the long roads
Required: nothing. Every place out here is optional
The masters: five Anchorites, each beaten honestly or by a trick
Checkpoints: a crypt at each waystation, and the roosts
Currency of the Wastes: years

The houses’ grip does not stop at the walls. The tithe carts, the levy, the coach, the gibbets and the tolls run all the way out, and the Wastes are what they leave behind. In the city the horror is ordinary people doing what they are told. Out here it is the grip made into landscape, and nothing is explained.

THE ONE BELOW

No one out here knows your name. They know what you are.

god_road_2

Crossing

On foot is the only way with danger, people and things to do: one point of interest per screen, never none.
As the flock, the region is drawn from above: only landmarks, roosts, roads and rivers. Land at a roost you have already walked to.
Each waystation has a crypt door (a barrow, a charnel, a hold) that becomes a checkpoint once opened.
Running water is still a wall; the Wash’s tide has its own slack.

The five regions

	Region	Its image	Its master	Its town
R1	The Gallows Downs	chalk downs of gibbets and barrows; a hanged giant cut into the chalk	Sooth, the prophet nobody believes	the Barrow Inn
R2	The Spoil	the quarry’s grey waste; roads paved with melted heraldry; a mill that grinds dead houses to mortar	Quern, the miller	Mortarby, built of arms
R3	The Tithe Fields	the villages across the river; an orchard grown from hanged debtors, fruit with faces	Graft, the husbandman	Tallybridge, where passage is paid in years
R4	The Salt	a dead arm of the mere dried to a white pan; a cathedral gone to salt	the Salt Confessor	the Lantern-house, the one safe camp
R5	The Wash	the river’s mouth; tidal flats; a drowned fair that rises when a house falls	Evens, the wagerer in many bodies	the Hulk, a beached ship

SCREEN 8-2The inn on the DownsOne lit door in the dark. Go in, or follow the white road past it.Press shot, live capture of the v83 build, CRT off, the play field only

SHOT W8-01phase B: to capture

The Spoil’s road paved with melted heraldry, Mortarby’s walls of broken arms behind. Map: the Spoil.

SHOT W8-02phase B: to capture

Tallybridge’s toll bar, the bailiffs’ window, a debtor paying in years. Map: the Tithe Fields.

SHOT W8-03phase B: to capture

The Salt Cathedral’s nave white with salt, the pilgrims’ lines crystallised on the wall. Map: the Salt.

SHOT W8-04phase B: to capture

The Drowned Fair risen on the Wash’s flats, its stalls dripping. Map: the Wash.

The Anchorites

Each was a master of something in life and asked the god for that mastery forever. He gave it, and walled them into it. An honest win frees them: they die and go somewhere he cannot follow. A trick wins faster, gives them to him, and tints your ending.

Master	The honest way	The trick
Sooth	“You dodge every doom he calls and strike him while he gets his breath.”	stage his own foretold death
Quern	“You drop his sacks so he has nothing to eat, then fight him in the dust.”	give him your own arms: the bought escutcheon of Marchmont
Graft	“You fell his trees so he has nothing to graft, then cut him down among the stumps.”	hang yourself on the Old Tree: a hanged vampire does not die
The Salt Confessor	break his salt with no blood and no wings, and hit him from behind while he listens	read him the ledger
Evens	“You beat him at every table he sits at until the only body left to play is his own.”	sit him down across from himself

THE ONE BELOW

Mine now.

Whenever a trick wins.god_mine_now

TIPHonest or trick?

The trick is quicker and the god is glad of it. The honest win is longer and the god resents it. Nothing is locked either way, but every trick leaves a mark on the last scene of whichever ending you choose. The boss tells are in The Bosses.

CLIP W8-05phase B: to capture

Quern’s grinding: the gold ring shaking round him as he tips a sack into the hopper, Wick outside the ring, the pick buried in the boards and struck. About 10 s.

The kindred

On the roads are people whose stories rhyme with Wick’s. Everyone out here who tells the truth tells it in words a proud man can dismiss.

The Salt Widow, at the Salt.
The Horseless Knight, who knows what Andrevel did at the salt church.
The Tinker of Bones.
Lady Ismay Carrow, the other offering, if she has left the gutter.
Taper, the gentleman of the road.
The Scraper.
Kennet, the kennel girl.
Garland and the mummers.
The Gravedigger, who dug Wick’s grave and was paid in advance.
Pledge, the barker’s daughter.
Snuff, on the road, if he lives.
The Sin-Eater.

Don’t let them die of you.

gb-salt.js

The fair that travels

From the opening on, the Grand Turn travels: its playbills name a new pitch on the long roads wherever the last house fell. Each pitch is the same five maps dressed for its ground: the Downs’ chalk, grey spoil, the marsh’s reeds, the orchard at Tallybridge. A return visit takes five to ten minutes. If the Dream-reader was killed, the show plays without its star.

The god on the road

Sealed · The endingThe confessionBreak the seal to read

Out here, and only here, the god’s own story is earned by failure: by deaths and retreats on the roads. Eight fragments, one at a time, to Wick. They are set out in The One Below, under its gold seal. A player who earns none of them still hears the truth at the end.

THE ONE BELOW

You turned your back on it. That is counted too.

god_retreat

The Ring

The Ring of the Kneelers stands on the hill’s west shoulder, up the old avenue from the Downs’ crossroads. Before the end it is scenery: six stones kneeling inward, each with a cresset that burns while its house stands, and an uncut stone upright in the seventh place.

WICK

Stones, on their knees. All but one. That one I like.

mark_ring_early

SHOT W8-06phase B: to capture

The Ring of the Kneelers before the end: the six kneeling stones with their cressets, two still burning, and the seventh standing blank. Map ring, early.

Secrets

Sealed · Mid-gameOn the roadsBreak the seal to read

The cottage in the Wastes is a rest with no price, the one place where nothing happens. Leave it alone.
Tallybridge’s toll bar is bars: the bat can pass it, but the bailiffs see you from their window and bar the town.
The Chalk Hanged Man is whole only from the air.
The Salt Cathedral’s wall holds the pilgrims’ lines, and one that is a refusal.

Book Three · The Walkthrough · 9

The High Priestess

The open world · the marsh, silent vespers, the coach and the Hush

Et ianuae clausae sunt.

NewcomerStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealedskeleton · the house is built in graybox

The marshIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

At a glance

Where: the South Bridge, the marsh villages, the causeways, the convent of the veil, the Hush
Earns: kill: silence · spare: the crozier
Rule taught: sound is seen
Lieutenant: the Black Coachman
Boss: the Marchioness Shaxby
Order: either of the two houses left may come first

Why you are here

With the King fallen, the South Bridge’s drawspan comes down: the marsh’s day of no word is over for the year. The kalendar’s third feast is the Hush: a day of no word, two strokes and a rest, and the coach goes east.

The rule

THE RULESound is seen

In the convent every noise draws a ring on the floor: a footstep, a blow, a bell. Running makes big rings, walking small ones, wading none. The sisters hunt rings. The vespers chant has a pattern, two strokes and a rest, and you hear it three times on the way in. The rings work with the sound off, and when the rite takes the sound away, they are all you have.

The route

The South Bridge. The bridge-keeper speaks by signs only. Mardle can also pole you into the marsh.
The marsh villages. A marsh that has said nothing aloud in thirty years about what the coach takes.
The mask: silent vespers. Watch the tithe vespers from the edge: empty-handed mothers, the bell, the coach.
The procession: the causeways out to the drowned cross.
Break the grip: the Black Coachman. His coach circles the cloister with no sound; his whip has reach. Beaten, he yields without a word and holds up the reins and the manifest.
The convent. A stealth route through silent vespers: walk, or wade, and keep your rings small.
The Hush. The rite in the dark. The Marchioness.

SNUFF

Count his lamps. Two, he’s coming at you. One, he’s turning. That’s when he gets down.

Snuff’s tip, if he lives and walks with you.hn_m3_priestess

SCREEN 9-1The HushThe Marchioness in the dark nave, the lamps snuffed, the sisters listening.Press shot, live capture of the v83 build, CRT off, the play field only

SHOT W9-01phase B: to capture

Silent vespers from the edge of the marsh green: the sisters, the empty-handed mothers, the bell, the coach waiting. Map: the marsh, the mask.

SHOT W9-02phase B: to capture

The convent’s cloister with rings on the floor round Wick’s feet as he walks, a sister turning toward them. Play field only.

CLIP W9-03phase B: to capture

The Hush: darkness, the true bell on the vespers beat and a false bell off it, Wick moving only on the true stroke and striking. About 12 s, sound on.

The boss: the Marchioness

Panel. Go to the bell that keeps the vespers beat, and move and strike only on its stroke. Her sisters ring false bells off the beat. Then the light goes; then the sound; the rings remain. She never varies the chant she taught.

The Coachman ended or freed: no coach circling the cloister to mask her rings.
Second ways in: foresight shows the next true stroke early; the tide floods the dry floors so everyone, her sisters and her, goes silent and slow; the armed dead draw the sisters with their clatter.

THE ONE BELOW

She may not ask. She has arranged for you to ask for her.

god_priestess_ask

WICK

Keep your silence, then.

head_priestess_blow

Backtrack

Silence (doors forget him) opens the maze’s shut gatehouse, behind the far gate the watch closed after the crows. Back up to the Height: its roost, for fast travel, and the Penitent, if he was freed TBD. On the merciful path, the sisters’ keys open the same door.

Secrets

Sealed · Mid-gameIn the marshBreak the seal to read

The quiet room. In the convent the god tells Wick that the marsh’s tithed infants were schooled here not to cry before they went on to the Duchess’s wheel, and that Wick was one of them. Wick does not hear it.
The Midwife has been in the village lately. Her house has been shut twenty years; the tally on its doorpost has a fresh scrape.
The freedom. At the end of the rite, a woman’s voice at the chapel door, and the god says nothing over it: the only silence he keeps.

Sealed · The endingWhat the kill costs the marshBreak the seal to read

The kill Wick is proud of buys the marsh a second silence, holier and permanent: the saint of silence. On that path his mother is among those it silences. Spare the Marchioness, and the marsh speaks: the council hears it.

Book Three · The Walkthrough · 10

The Magician

The open world · the quarry, the drafting room and the moving house

Hic occidunt eum.

NewcomerStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealedskeleton · the house is built in graybox

The moving houseIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

At a glance

Where: the quarry face and the foundation, the drafting room, the moving house
Earns: unbuilding (he cannot be spared)
Rule taught: the house is a machine
Lieutenants: the Twin Architects; the Master Mason (a word, and a hidden door)
Boss: the Lord President of the Builders’ Guild
Order: either of the two houses left may come first

Why you are here

With the King fallen, the guild’s cordon on the north-west road is lifted: the Foundation day is done. The kalendar’s fourth feast is the Foundation: a stone marked at every new house, by the guild.

The rule

THE RULEThe house is a machine

Floors slide and turn on a schedule, driven by counterweights. Load a pan and a floor moves. The labour-levy men work the capstans: bend one, and the machine’s schedule changes. Seams crush whatever stands on them as they close.

The route

The quarry. In from the gutter’s north-west road. The levy’s camp under the face.
The crane yard. A counterweight pan lowers the lift: the rule. A teaching seam. Free the levy men if you can.
The mask. On the upper terrace, the foundation stone laid at a new house’s corner, watched from the verge.
The drafting room. The President’s plans lie open on the table, with the final setting of the capstans drawn. The Master Mason has a word and a hidden door. The guild’s crypt is the checkpoint.
Down the lift to the moving house.
The Twin Architects. Plated in the guild’s stone: your sword barely marks them. Lure each onto a closing seam. When one dies, the other runs to the body.
The machine. The President is untouchable in the gallery, dropping stones. Set the three capstans to the plans and his gallery stair comes down.
The President on the floor. See the boss below.

SHOT W10-01phase B: to capture

The quarry face with its cranes and counterweights, the switchback road up the terraces. Map mg_quarry.

SHOT W10-02phase B: to capture

The drafting table in the drafting room with the plans open, the final setting drawn. Map mg_hall.

CLIP W10-03phase B: to capture

A twin lured onto a closing seam in the moving house and crushed; the other twin running to the body. About 10 s.

The boss: the Lord President

Panel. From the gallery he drops stones on a ring that fills on your spot. Set the capstans to the plans to bring his stair down; on the floor, he swings a setting-maul, and the maul stuck in the floor is your opening. He cannot be spared: try, and Wick refuses you.

THE LORD PRESIDENT

Enough. Before you choose, look at the haven. I built it to the priest’s measure. Let me see it paid for.

gb-magician.js

The Master Mason spared or freed knows the hidden door, which skips the Twins’ phase entirely.
The quarry foreman ended: the capstans turn slower.
Freed quarrymen take the capstans on your order.

Backtrack

Unbuilding. Every guild-laid wall carries a mason’s mark, and now Wick can see them. Mason-marked walls in the gutter, the Tower, the Empress’s house and the exchange come down as shortcuts. A fall only ever adds a way.

SHOT W10-04phase B: to capture

A mason’s mark glowing gold in a wall of the gutter, Wick casting unbuilding, the stone cracking. Map: the gutter. Play field only.

Secrets

Sealed · Mid-gameIn the quarryBreak the seal to read

The men under the face. An aside in the levy’s camp says where the labour levy goes.
The plans are left open on purpose. Wick thinks the guild is careless.
The haven. The President built it, “to the priest’s measure”. Every keystone in the city carries his mark, the haven’s included.

Book Three · The Walkthrough · 11

The Canonisation

The finale, part one · the great feast of the saints, the heads’ hunt and the Bishop

Ecce sedes quam ei paraverunt.

NewcomerStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealedskeleton · the church and the Bishop’s rite are built in graybox

The gutter churchIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

At a glance

Opens: on your next entry to the gutter’s square after the King
Required: the Bishop’s rite, once all six houses have ended
Boss: the Bishop
Earns: the chain off the stair behind the orphanage altar

The route

The great canonisation. The gutter church is full: the freed in white (fewer for every townsman Wick drank), the mummers’ costumes, the washerwomen. From the pulpit the Bishop thanks the Blessed Hand and preaches.
You may sit through it, walk out, or kill a kneeling head in the nave.
The heads hunt him. Every surviving head comes to the gutter to force a fight.
The last houses, if any remain, open; their households know what is coming.
The priest’s last visit. On one path he comes radiant, with a key; on the other he does not come at all.
The children at the orphanage gate call him by a name that depends on what he has done.
The Bishop’s rite. When all six houses have ended, the Bishop stays at the altar and will not let him pass.

SCREEN 11-1The Bishop at the pilloryThe Gutter Church: the Bishop at the head of the nave, the pillory in front of him.Press shot, live capture of the v83 build, CRT off, the play field only

SHOT W11-01phase B: to capture

The gutter church at the great canonisation: the nave full of the freed in white, the Bishop in the pulpit, the rose window lit above. Map: the church, canonisation state. Play field only.

CLIP W11-02phase B: to capture

A passage of the homily with its caption on screen, the shafts of light from the window falling on the Bishop at the pulpit. About 15 s.

TIPHear the homily

It is the one sermon in the game you can find no logical flaw in, only a moral one. Listen to all of it: the rite after it is taught by it.

THE BISHOP

We did not send for the hand that made them. The Blessed Hand came to us unbidden. Give thanks for it.

bishop_homily_6

The boss: the Bishop

The full panel is sealed in The Bosses, because the fight itself is a revelation of what you have done all game. In short: he is armoured, and what armours him is in the window you have watched since the first hour.

Secrets

Sealed · After the first houseThe homily, and what kneels in the aisleBreak the seal to read

The homily’s argument, in the Bishop’s words: force costs blood, and faith costs bread; the saint who took your sons holds them now, and asks only for light; the halo is kinder than the rope. The surviving heads kneel in the aisle and ask to be next. With no saints made, the homily turns against Wick and the council, and the kneeling heads beg in the street.

THE ONE BELOW

They made a saint of you before you died. The book is in his chapel.

god_canon

WICK

They make a saint of any corpse. I am not one.

ans_canon

Sealed · Mid-gameThe key, and the chainBreak the seal to read

On the path of kills the priest comes down the visitors’ stair radiant, with the key to the chapel stair.

THE ONE BELOW

He gives you the key. He never once gave you a door.

god_key

WICK

A key is a door. I take it.

ans_key

On the path of mercy he does not come, and the chair by the stair stays empty; the grate is unlocked anyway. On either path the key opens nothing yet: the stair behind the orphanage altar stays sealed with the priest’s red wax until the Bishop’s rite is resolved.

THE ONE BELOW

The council sits in their halls now. Many hands. They will not give them back.

god_spare_5

Sealed · The endingThe Bishop’s riteBreak the seal to read

Every saint Wick made is a re-leaded light in the rose window, and each is a ward on the Bishop: a shaft of light falls on him, and blows ring off. The beam breaks a light out of the glass, but fizzles if cast from inside a shaft. When a ward breaks, he turns to that light and kneels to pray it back, open from anywhere. Every head Wick spared can be brought from the pillory to testify under a light and put it out for good.

Beaten, he asks: “Let me go to them. Let me go to my sister.” Killed, he gets no seat and no saint; nobody thanks Wick; no candle goes out; he dies afraid, because he believed. Spared, he takes a seventh stand in the pillory, and the church loses its voice. Either way the chain comes off the chapel stair, and not before.

THE ONE BELOW

He believes them. Ask yourself where he thinks they went.

god_bishop

CLIP W11-03phase B: to capture

A ward broken: the beam cast from a dark lane at a lit pane, the saint’s face falling out of the glass in shards, the Bishop turning to kneel to it, Wick striking. About 10 s.

Book Three · The Walkthrough · 12

The Descent

The finale, part two · the stair, the seven rooms, the World and the choice

Hic iacet in tenebris.

StreamerLore chaserSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealedskeleton · built in graybox; the rooms’ staging is partly designed

0 standing

The stair downIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

At a glance

Opens: when the Bishop’s rite is resolved
Where: behind the orphanage altar, down; then up to the Ring of the Kneelers
The last fight: a knight’s test
The end: three endings, all always available, each tinted by what you did

WARNINGStop here if you have not finished the game

Everything below the next heading is sealed with the gold seal. The chapter works as a checklist for a second play, or for a streamer who wants to stage the last hour.

The road down

Sealed · The endingThe stair and the six roomsBreak the seal to read

Behind the orphanage altar, down, of his own will. The lamp above goes out. Six rooms, each named for one of the rite-book’s written marks. In each, the priest’s voice from ahead names the mark, the game shows a still of the clue you passed long ago (the receipt), and Wick answers.

Room	Mark	What is there	Wick
I	Unhoused	the foundling wheel; he hears his mother’s village named: Sallowhithe	“Unhoused? I had a hall.”
II	Raised	the robing room: his robes, Andrevel’s beside them with the signet, the third half-sewn	“Raised. By her hand. I know whose.”
III	Owed	the ledger hall: the priest takes the ledger out of Wick’s own coat and reads three entries	“Every one owed. I collected.”
IV	Unled	the hall of open doors, every door named, the coffin lid first	“I led myself. Every step.”
V	Unheard	the bell room: the Marchioness’s bell still keeping the beat	“Unheard. They hear me now.”
VI	Unfed	the refectory: the long table laid for everyone but one, the King’s cup at its head	“Unfed. I have eaten since.”

The staging of rooms V and VI is still being designed TBD.

The council chamber. Seven chairs: six for the heads, and the seventh at the table’s foot, which nobody has sat in. The surviving heads kneel and invite him, formally, gratefully. A held blow here still pays a head. Nothing stops him.

SHOT W12-01phase B: to capture

The council chamber under the orphanage: seven chairs, the seventh empty at the table’s foot, the surviving heads kneeling. Map: the seat. Play field only.

The World

Sealed · The endingThe knight’s test, the reading, and the godBreak the seal to read

Up, by the stair under the Ring, to the Kneelers on the hill’s shoulder. Father Fulcran waits on foot with a pike. “Wick.” “Father.” The fight is a knight’s test, not a head’s rite: no asking, no held blow. He tries to put you on your knees; you get up every time, and cut him when his pike is spent. Hooded porters, the men who carried every offering to the Stone, come to hold you. Panel.

THE ONE BELOW

He will try to put you on your knees. Every one before you went down.

god_ring_knight

WICK

Let him try. Old men break first.

ans_ring_knight

Then the reading. The priest reads the rite-book’s page aloud, the six written marks, and stops at the seventh line, which is blank. He shows Wick the church’s image of the Blessed Hand, carried up from the chapel, and turns it to the light: Andrevel’s scratches, legible at last. He says nothing more.

WICK

And unbowed.

ans_v7

Then the god, plainly, once: the first offering, the Stone, the one who would not kneel. His three lines and Wick’s answer are in The One Below.

CLIP W12-02phase B: to capture

The reading at the Ring: the priest with the page, the pause at the blank line, “And unbowed.” on screen. About 15 s. Captions on; no painted still in frame.

The choice

Sealed · The endingRefuse, Take, FeedBreak the seal to read

Every ending is available from the World; the count of saints, ruined heads and tricked Anchorites tints each one.

Refuse. He turns his back on the triangle. The god tells him why this refusal is not Andrevel’s, and lets him go for good: from here to the top of the stair, a death is final. The heads attack him on the stair, begging; he reaches the top without giving the blow. The rooks go with him. Above: saints and shrines, or the pillory full and the council’s lamps. At six spared, the Assize: the city comes down behind him and tries the priest in his own schoolroom, on his own seal, and dismisses him; his mother sits on the jury and says his name; Sister Ide sits on the bench; and if the hunter lived, his lantern lights the last steps.

WICK

You raised me. So be it. I choose the ground.

end_refuse

Take. He steps into the triangle, knowing. He kills the surviving heads knowing what it pays, walks them down as shades, and takes the seat above his own throne. The rooks leave him at the triangle’s edge.

WICK

Not a seat below. A seat beside. Now we are two.

end_take

THE ONE BELOW

Sit.

god_take

Feed. He opens the gate with his own blood. The court comes up wearing the saints’ faces, out of the windows and the shrines, and the white tabards go down the hill to meet them. It is the church’s own promise, from the homily, come true.

WICK

Come up, then, all of you. I have kept the door long enough.

end_feed

What tints the ending	What you see
saints made	shrines, and his mother kneeling at one; the church holds the square
heads ruined	the pillory full; the council holds the square
all six spared	the Assize (Refuse)
Anchorites tricked	one visible mark in the last scene for each TBD: the final staging
Mother Carrion’s rooks	with him in Refuse; gone in Take; gorging in Feed

CLIP W12-03phase B: to capture

Each ending’s last image, one take each, captions on, the god’s last line where there is one. Capture only once the endings are dressed.

Stream notes

TIPFor streamers

Save before the stair if you want to show all three endings.
The six rooms replay clues from the whole game. Pause on each still and ask the chat when they saw it.
“And unbowed.” is the line the whole game is built to land. Let the silence after it play.

Book Three · The Walkthrough · 13

Everything Optional

The Man of Secrets’ prices and hunts, his late challenge, the mist and its seven rooms

Hic qui infra est ei loquitur.

Lore chaserStreamerNewcomerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealedskeleton · Ambry’s hints are built; the hunts, the full late fight and the mist are designed, not built

The grottoIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

At a glance

Hints: Ambry in the Pleasance’s grotto, any time after the gardens
Hunts: three, from the third act on, as his price
The late fight: Ambry himself, once five houses have fallen
The third form: the mist, from drinking him
The mist’s rooms: seven, in places already walked
Required for any ending: none of it

The Man of Secrets’ prices

When	His price for a new hint
The first talk	free: he shows you the water-gate
The first act (no house ended)	blood: 0.10 of the orb, “for the roses”
The second act (one or two ended)	blood 0.20, or the whole mana orb
The third act (three or four ended)	the whole mana orb and 0.10 blood, or a task
The end of the game (five or more)	a task; until it is done, 0.35 blood

Asking again about the same place is free. He never takes Wick below a quarter of his blood, and the god’s own nudge always works for nothing: Ambry is quicker, never the only way.

AMBRY

Not your blood tonight, my lord. The other thing. The dark you carry. It feeds me as well as any cup.

secrets_price_mana

AMBRY

I told you that one already. I do not sell a thing twice.

secrets_again

The hunts

When the price becomes a task, Ambry has heard of a thing that has started walking where it should not. Each one, done, pays for three hints. All three are designed, not yet built TBD.

The Hedge-King, in the maze’s fountain court: a man-shaped mass of clipped yew and the drained gardeners’ bones. He lashes down the maze’s lanes and walks the hedges as if they were floor. The maze’s straights become his lanes. The fountain island’s root (Link 5, with the tide) makes him easier. Andrevel’s crypt (Link 2) holds his lead.
The Rat King, in the gutter’s sewer lane: a knot of rats bound at the tails, the size of a cart. He summons lone rats: feed on them mid-fight.
The Barghest, on the Downs’ corpse road: a black dog the size of a horse. He is a hound, so the crows cannot phase him; his howl grounds the flock.

AMBRY

I hear there is a thing that has started walking where it should not. Bring me word it has stopped, and I will owe you.

secrets_price_task

SHOT W13-01phase B: to capture

The Hedge-King rooted in the maze’s fountain court. Designed: capture once built.

SHOT W13-02phase B: to capture

The Rat King in the sewer lane. Designed: capture once built.

SHOT W13-03phase B: to capture

The Barghest on the corpse road among the barrows. Designed: capture once built.

Ambry, late

Sealed · The endingThe challenge at the rosesBreak the seal to read

Once five houses have fallen, the roses on the grotto door offer a choice: CHALLENGE HIM. Before that he declines: “Not tonight, my lord. You are not old enough yet to ask me that.” He is a vampire older than the founders, and the grotto is roofed, so the crows will not rise, and he throws off the bat. He throws the light where you are going to be: never stand where you were walking. At half his wounds, the Mist: he is not there, and then he is on you. Panel.

What drinking him gives: a full orb and full mana; the mist (the third form); and, in the design, his night-sight and one secret kept on your objective line for the rest of the game TBD.

What is lost: he is dead, and the grotto sells nothing any more. His unfinished hunts are void.

AMBRY

The grotto is quiet. Nobody here sells anything now.

secrets_dead

THE ONE BELOW

He sold the last one. There is no one left to ask but me.

god_secrets_dead

CLIP W13-04phase B: to capture

The optional cinematic, the lantern goes out (designed): Ambry falling in the grotto, his lantern rolling and going out, the mist pouring under the grotto door, along the allée and out under every shut door in the gutter. About 16 s.

The mist’s seven rooms

Sealed · The endingWhere the mist goesBreak the seal to read

The mist goes under doors and through vents, cracks, gratings and flues. Each of these is a new small room, or a door made passable, in a place you have already walked. Every one is a reward: lore, a relic, a fragment, never a key. All are designed, not built TBD.

Place (walked when)	Through	What is there
The Tower’s keep (Link 2)	the old garderobe shaft	the Earl’s sealed muniment room: the muster rolls of the seven turns
The exchange (Link 3)	the strongroom’s air vent	the Prince’s private book: his wager on his own death, read in full
The Empress’s ward house (Link 5)	under the nursery’s locked door	the roll of the infants turned in at the wheel, with Hollin’s name crossed out
The convent (the open world)	the cells’ door gaps	the Hush’s silent chapel: the sisters’ voices, kept in jars
The Magician’s house (the open world)	the air shafts in the walls he built to the priest’s measure	a room the guild built and walled up again: the haven’s first plan
The Pleasance (Link 1)	the crack behind Ambry’s empty chair	Ambry’s coffin room: six hundred years of what he overheard, the last secret he kept
The haven (the prologue)	under the drowned nave’s sacristy door	the priest’s own cupboard: a fragment of the god’s origin

Every story door has salt on its sill or the priest’s seal on its lock, and refuses the mist. Wind blows it apart, fire burns it off, and running water is still a wall.

SHOT W13-05phase B: to capture

The mist pouring under a door in the gutter, low and white along the cobbles. Designed: capture once built.

The rest of the side roads

Where	What	Chapter
The Wastes	five regions, five Anchorites, honest or trick	Walkthrough 8
The kindred	twelve people on the roads whose stories rhyme with Wick’s	Walkthrough 8
The circus at each pitch	the games of chance; the paper wagon; the animals	Walkthrough 3
The court’s vault crypt	Andrevel’s crypt, a relic, the Hedge-King’s lead	Walkthrough 2
The river stops	the mill island, the sunk laundry barge, the fountain island	Walkthrough 5
The Greenwood’s cart	a late raid with the band, once the church has opened TBD	Walkthrough 4
The Ring before the end	scenery, and a line	Walkthrough 8
The confession	eight fragments of the god’s story, earned by failing in the Wastes	The One Below

UNDECIDEDCollectibles

Whether the finished game counts relics, lore rooms and fragments in a list the player can see is not yet decided TBD. When it is, this chapter will carry the full checklist.

Back Matter · The Keepsakes

The Music

Fourteen pieces in play order, and where each one plays

Hic qui infra est ei loquitur.

NewcomerLore chaserStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealedas of 2026-10-06 · the album is a keepsake rendered from the live score

The cover of the albumA live frame of the title screen's throne hall at 5x, clean pixels under the book's CRT

Væ Victis has no music files. Its score is played live by code (src/audio-music.js, src/audio-intro.js, src/audio-gardens.js), the way its pictures are drawn by code. The album is that score rendered offline, 60 seconds of each loop, through the game’s own mixer, and measured. Nothing on it was re-encoded from an original, because there is none: the original is the code.

TIPHear it first

The whole album is on the soundtrack page: The Score of Væ Victis. Each track below also links to its own audio file. Play them in a dark room with headphones, which is how the game’s own box tells you to.

The album, in play order

The tracks run in the order the game meets them: the title, the intro, the haven, the churchyard, the court, the gutter, the orphanage, the causeway, the Tower, the Downs, then the King’s gardens. Each title is the in-world name the album gives the piece.

#	Track	Where it plays	What you hear	Length	Listen
1	Woe to the Conquered	The title screen, the counsel and the credits	The title theme, in D minor. Wick’s motif (D, F, E flat, D: “vae vic-tis”) on the cello under the organ, choir and strings, with a timpani	1:00	play
2	Purchase, Investiture, Burial	The intro (AWAKEN)	The score of the intro film, cued to its shots: the funeral bell, the false gilded fanfare, the knocks on the door, the kill	2:32	play
3	The Cathedral Under the Cathedral	The haven	Organ, choir and strings in the haven where Wick wakes	1:00	play
4	Candles at the Lychgate	The churchyard	Strings and choir over the churchyard	1:00	play
5	The Bat Lord’s Court	The graveyard court	Organ, strings and choir for the graveyard court and the Marquis Andrevel	1:00	play
6	Low Water, High Street	The gutter quarter	Strings over a drone: the gutter quarter and its market cross	1:00	play
7	The Music Box Ward	The orphanage	Choir and strings with a music box	1:00	play
8	The Causeway	The causeway	Strings on the long approach to the Tower	1:00	play
9	The Soldier’s Feast	The Tower	Strings, a reed and timpani for the house of the Tower (its feast is the Soldier’s)	1:00	play
10	The Gallows Downs	The Gallows Downs	Strings over a deep drone: the wastes beyond the city	1:00	play
11	The King’s Labyrinth	The King’s Labyrinth Gardens	The garden maze’s ostinato	1:00	play
12	The Crow Run	The gardens, the crow run	The gardens’ second theme, for the run with the crows	1:00	play
13	The Height	The Height	An organ for the stair up to the caged saint	1:00	play
14	The Pleasance Minuet	The Pleasance	A minuet for the pleasure garden and its grotto	1:00	play

Reading the score

Wick has a motif. Four notes, D, F, E flat, D, set to the words of the title: vae vic-tis. The title theme gives it to the cello, under the organ and choir.
The places keep their instruments. Organ, choir and strings in the haven and the court; strings over a drone in the gutter and on the Downs; a music box in the orphanage; a reed and timpani for the Tower; a minuet for the Pleasance.
The gardens have three voices. The maze’s ostinato, the second theme for the crow run, and the organ for the Height: three pieces of one place (see The Labyrinth Gardens and The Forms).

NOTEWhere the words come from

The track titles, the places and the instrument notes are the album’s own, written in keepsakes/COPY.md from the game’s score files. The measurements are in keepsakes/soundtrack/tracklist.md. This chapter adds nothing to them.

Back Matter · The Keepsakes

How Every Pixel Is Made

Thirty-two colours, a rigged model, a recipe, and nothing painted

Hic iacet in tenebris.

Lore chaserStreamerNo spoilersas of 2026-10-06 · condensed from the full art book

Every pixel in Væ Victis is one of 32 colours, and every one of them has a known source: a recipe in code, or a 3D figure rendered and quantised by code. There is no photograph, no painting and no generated image in the game; since 5 October 2026 a guard script fails the build if a generated image returns. This chapter is the short tour. The long one, with every sheet and the recipe in full, is the art book: How Every Pixel Is Made.

1. The palette

The palette is fixed in src/core.js (PAL_LIST): 32 entries in nine families, a game of blacks, stone, bone, blood, rust, verdigris and one cold blue, with a single violet kept for spells. A picture is a grid of numbers from 1 to 32 (0 is clear). The screen is 320 by 240, and nothing in the game draws a colour that is not on this list: the debug overlay counts what reaches the screen. This book keeps the same rule in its own stylesheet.

1 k#050407
2 n0#0d0b12
3 d1#1a1520
4 gr0#2a2630
5 gr1#48434f
6 gr2#77707d
7 gr3#a8a0a6
8 bn0#8c7d68
9 bn1#c4b392
10 w#eee4cc
11 r0#240408
12 r1#520a11
13 r2#8e1318
14 r3#c8231f
15 r4#ff4f3a
16 br0#2b1810
17 br1#553221
18 br2#875634
19 gd#c39535
20 y#f3d37a
21 v0#0b1c1d
22 v1#15332f
23 v2#275651
24 v3#468a7f
25 v4#8cc6b3
26 b0#0a1030
27 b1#1b2d6c
28 b2#3658bd
29 b3#86a8ff
30 sk0#6a5a63
31 sk1#b9a6a6
32 p1#8a4fc0

2. Figures: a model, eight directions, thirty-two colours

A figure starts as a rigged 3D model. The hero and the people are Clint Bellanger’s Flare models (CC-BY 3.0); the props are KayKit packs (CC0). They are composed on one rig, then recoloured and costumed at render time (tools/render/jobs-*.mjs: the Tower’s soldiers, the gutter’s watch, the orphanage’s sisters, the Wheel’s circus).

tools/render/render.mjs poses the model bone by bone, lights it, renders it from 8 directions at 56 pixels in a headless browser, and quantises every pixel to the 32-colour palette by material. The output is src/sprites-<name>.js: one string of palette indices per frame. The sheets below are that data drawn back out, nothing else. The character cards in The Gallery are single frames of the same sprites.

SCREEN 2-1Wick walkingEight directions (rows: S, SE, E, NE, N, NW, W, SW) and eight frames of the walk, each pixel quantised to the palette. 54 by 50 pixels a frame, 20 of the 32 colours.The art book: src/sprites-hero.js, drawn back out of its data

SCREEN 2-2The Earl of the Tower walkingThe same model recoloured and costumed at render time (a cape, plate, a greatsword) by the Tower’s job. 64 by 58 pixels a frame.The art book: src/sprites-tw_earl.js, drawn back out of its data

3. Pictures: a recipe, a field, a dither

A picture that is not a figure (a texture, a map, a stained-glass window) is a recipe: a short script in tools/art/paint/ that sets a pixel field (a material, a ramp of palette keys and a value per pixel) with seeded noise, signed-distance shapes and a Bayer dither, then resolves it to palette indices. tools/art/paint.mjs runs it inside the game and writes the picture as a run-length string.

A recipe is deterministic: run it twice and you get the same picture. That is the provenance. No generated image is a source, a reference or an input of any kind.

The haven's floor — SCREEN 2-3The haven’s floorA texture, tiled 2 by 2 (192 by 192 pixels, 10 colours): slabs of stone with blood dried into the joints, from periodic noise and Voronoi cells, resolved through a ramp with a Bayer dither.The art book: tools/art/paint/tex-haven.js

SCREEN 2-4The world mapThe world map: six houses on the hill, and where to go next. See it in play in The Open World.The art book: the world map, drawn by recipe

4. The dither, close up

Zoom into any picture and the dither shows. The game never blends two colours: it places them in a Bayer pattern, so a ramp of four steps reads as a smooth shade at the game’s size and as a lattice when you look closely.

SCREEN 2-5A corner of the floor, at 8xTwo palette colours placed in a pattern. At 320 by 240 the eye blends them; here nothing is blended.The art book: tools/art/paint/tex-haven.js, a 60 by 40 pixel corner

5. A recipe, in one line

The haven’s floor begins with a single call: const F = T.cobbles(96, 96, { n: 3, m: 3, seed: 81, joint: 1, lo: .32, hi: .78, dome: .3, jit: .75 });. That sets stone cobbles on a 96 by 96 field with a seed. Everything after it (the dried blood in the joints, the rust spreading out in a ragged tide-line, the cracks) is a material, a value and a seed per pixel. No image is read. The full recipe is in the art book.

6. Where the pieces come from

Source	What it makes	Licence
Clint Bellanger, Flare hero and heroine	The hero and every person, recoloured and costumed at render time	CC-BY 3.0
Kay Lousberg, KayKit	The props of the graveyard, the dungeon and the furniture	CC0 1.0
Mathers and Crowley, Goetia (1904)	The seals	Public domain
Serifeus Studio, `tools/art/paint/`	Textures, stills, windows, the map, the title lettering	Ours: code and recipes

Full credits are in CREDITS.md in the repository and on the game’s credits screen. What is still synthetic in the game is the voices (open-source speech models), which the project’s own inventory records as placeholders until the owner and his wife re-voice them.

Back Matter · The Keepsakes

The Collector’s Box and Keepsakes

The made-up 1996 box, and everything that came out of it

manu quam laesimus

NewcomerLore chaserStreamerNo spoilersas of 2026-10-06 · keepsakes are drafts the owner has seen

Væ Victis is a game that runs in a browser, so it was given the box it would have had in 1996, honestly dated MCMXCVI / 2026. The box is a keepsake: the disc is for keeping, and the game is played at vaevictis.vip. Everything here is drawn in code from the game’s own screens, its carved title lettering and its own rendered sprites. Nothing is painted and nothing is generated.

The box has a viewer, where you turn it in your hands: the collector’s box and the keepsakes. Every printed piece is also its own page in box/pieces/, linked below, and prints at full size from there. The box’s words, all of them, are in box/COPY.md; the plates below quote them.

NOTEThe house marks

Publisher: SERIFEUS (a small serif S in a red lozenge, then the name in spaced capitals), “Serifeus Studio”. Catalogue number: SRF-0013. Edition: “First Edition · Collector’s Box”. Our own badges, drawn, not borrowed: a black rating plaque headed “SERIFEUS CONTENT NOTICE” (M, Mature 17+; blood and gore, violence, religious themes, strong language); a “PC CD-ROM” disc badge; and a red burst: “FULLY VOICED · EVERY LINE IN VERSE”. On the box the god is always THE ONE BELOW.

The big box

The front is the title screen itself, captured live, edge to edge, with the game’s own carved lettering as the cover’s lettering. The strap under the screen reads: They killed him on a stone. Something below said no. The lead chose it on 2026-10-01: “more impact”, and “the title one is good for this” (box/COPY.md, Front).

The box opens like a book. Inside the flap is THE KALENDAR OF THE HOUSES, the six houses and their feast lines as a printed church calendar. Behind the flap, under a die-cut window, are three screens: “The haven.” “The Earl’s circle.” “The Duchess in the stocks.” The back carries the premise, in the game’s own words:

SCREEN 3-3The backHeadline “WOE TO THE CONQUERED.”, the premise, five bullets, six screens and the system requirements: a modern web browser; headphones and a dark room recommended.The box: bigbox, face back

They wore the Church’s robes. They bought an orphan, ruined his life on purpose, and killed him on a stone. The one below raised him for revenge.

The box’s five bullets, each true of the build: Every word is spoken. Bosses you learn. Feed, bend, fly. A mystery you can actually solve. The hardest button is the one you don’t press. The long spines carry the lettering sideways, the SERIFEUS mark and SRF-0013; the top and bottom carry the motto and a small iron-grey sigil, never glowing.

The jewel case and the disc

The jewel-case edition is a smaller box with the same text: a folded 120 by 120 mm front booklet (the cover, and eight pages cut from the manual) and a 151 by 118 mm back tray card carrying the headline, the premise, three bullets, three screens, the rating, the barcode and the catalogue number.

The disc is a silver ring with a black label, the lettering curved round the top and the motto round the bottom, and the red triangle on a slab at the centre. Its rim reads: “SRF-0013 · DISC 1 OF 1 · © 2026 SERIFEUS STUDIO · DO NOT COPY THIS DISC · THE ONE BELOW KEEPS COUNT”.

SCREEN 3-4The jewel case, back tray cardHeadline, premise, three bullets and three screens, with the rating, the barcode and SRF-0013.The box: jewel, face tray

The manual: the Ledger of Father Fulcran

In the world, the manual is the priest’s “charity accounts”: a printed booklet of twelve pages. It covers the story so far, getting started (open vaevictis.vip; full screen with F; the pad works the moment it is plugged in; hold Strike to skip the intro), the controls table (keyboard, Xbox, PlayStation, touch), the screen with its callouts, blood and will, the sigils, the houses, the ledger (press N), the counsel (settings) and the credits. It closes with “Warranty” and the back cover: manu quam laesimus.

SCREEN 3-6The manual, coverThe lettering, “Instruction Manual” and a woodcut-styled frame.The box: manual, face p1

SCREEN 3-7The manual, the screenA live screen with callouts: the foe’s name and kind at the top, the tags for the verbs in reach, and the caption line at the bottom, which says who speaks and what is said.The box: manual, face p6

The controls the manual lists are set out in Arms and the Kit.

The paper in the box

The quick reference card: the controls on its front, and on its back the six houses’ seals as blanks to tick, “taken” or “spared”.
The read-me slip, on yellow paper: “LATE-BREAKING NEWS. The manual says the intro can be skipped with any key. Hold Strike instead. Also: the hint book does not tell you what the seventh mark is. Nobody will.”
The coupon sheet: three tear-off coupons, one of them for “THE ONE BELOW: the original score on compact disc. Order by post.” (The score is real: see The Music.)
The licence envelope holds the disc. Its agreement is in mock-legal English, and one clause reads: “The Licensee acknowledges that the houses were glad of it.”
The registration card asks, among other things, “Which house did you take first?” and “Did you press the button?” with YES, NO or I DID NOT KNOW. Its back is the reply-paid address: SERIFEUS STUDIO · REGISTRATIONS · P.O. BOX 666.
The epilepsy warning (in our own words) and the Serifeus catalogue (a folded leaflet) are on their own pages: the inserts.

SCREEN 3-8The quick reference cardThe controls, on a stiff card the width of the manual.The box: inserts, face refcard-front

SCREEN 3-9The read-me slipLate-breaking news, on yellow paper.The box: inserts, face readme

SCREEN 3-10The coupon sheetThree tear-off coupons with dashed borders.The box: inserts, face coupons

The character cards

Sixteen cards (63 by 88 mm), each with the game’s own rendered sprite, a name, a line of kind, one line in the game’s world and a foot line. The back is the sigil, the lettering and manu quam laesimus. All sixteen are set, with their words, in The Gallery, each beside the person it shows. The sheet itself: the character cards and their backs.

SCREEN 3-12The back of every cardThe sigil, the lettering and *manu quam laesimus*.The box: character-cards, face back

Stickers and pins

One die-cut matte-vinyl sheet (“Peel one.”): Wick (WICK), Wick with the blade (THE BLADE), the bat (TAKE THE BAT), the Earl (THE EARL MARSHAL), Andrevel (THE BELFRY LORD), the Duchess (THE DUCHESS), the King (THE KING), Sooth (SOOTH), the Knight (SIR AYMER), the Hangman (THE HANGMAN), the sigil (THE ONE BELOW KEEPS COUNT) and two strips, the lettering and the motto. Five enamel pins, 30 mm on the longest side, hard enamel with a gold metal line, up to six spot colours, a rubber clutch, on a backing card: Wick, the bat, the Belfry Lord, the Duchess, the sigil.

SCREEN 3-13The sticker sheetSheet 1 of 1, SRF-0013. The magenta cut line is on the print file only.The box: stickers-pins, face stickers

SCREEN 3-14The pinsFive pins, each listing its own spot colours from the game’s palette.The box: stickers-pins, face pins

The poster

A2 (420 by 594 mm) with 3 mm bleed, and a phone version at 1170 by 2532 pixels. The strap again, “They killed him on a stone. Something below said no.”, the motto, and three lines in the foot: Six houses. One hill. He is coming up it. Every word is spoken. Every lord he kills comes back a saint. The foot reads PLAY NOW AT vaevictis.vip. The piece: the poster.

SCREEN 3-16The phone posterThe strap, the title, one screen and **PLAY AT vaevictis.vip**.The box: poster, face phone

The magazine is our own invention: LAMPLIGHT, “the monthly for the home player”, MCMXCVI. The advert’s headline is THEY KILLED HIM ON A STONE. SOMETHING BELOW SAID NO. and it ends PLAYS IN ANY BROWSER · vaevictis.vip. The preview spread is headed PREVIEW, VÆ VICTIS, “A gothic action game of revenge, played in the browser”, and speaks only of what the game’s own card says. It names no reviewer and no score. The piece: the magazine pages.

SCREEN 3-18The preview spreadTwo pages in the magazine’s voice, with the HUD explained (1 the foe’s name and kind, 2 the verbs in reach, 3 the caption line) and a facts box: any modern browser, one player, keyboard, Xbox or PlayStation pad, or touch, Serifeus Studio.The box: magazine-ad, face spread

The merch

Flat mock-ups, not photographs. A black shirt: on the front, small, the sigil and “THE ONE BELOW KEEPS COUNT”; on the back, large, the Kalendar of the Houses. A bone tote printed as a broadside: WANTED, “The thing in the belfry, called by the families the Marquis Andrevel, a lord of no family.” “Paid by the Vault Wardens.” A bat plush with a hang tag, THE BAT, “Take the bat and the crows.” The piece: the merch.

SCREEN 3-19The shirt, front and backChest print 60 mm wide on the front; 200 mm wide on the back, 30 mm below the collar.The box: merch, face shirt

SCREEN 3-20The toteThe broadside, the bat and the lettering.The box: merch, face tote

SCREEN 3-21The plush and its tagsThe hang tag and the sewn-in label: “Surface wash only. Keep from the sun.”The box: merch, face plush

The logo sheet

The rules of the mark, for anyone who wants to use it: use the lettering as it is drawn; clear space of one letter V on every side; smallest in print 24 mm wide, smallest on screen 96 px wide, and below that the first letter alone; never stretch it, recolour it, add a glow or set it over a busy picture; the motto sits under the title, never alone, except on a spine. The colours are all from the game’s palette: Blood #c8231f, Ember #ff4f3a, Deep blood #8e1318, Void #050407, Bone #eee4cc, Old bone #8c7d68, Iron #48434f, Gold #c39535. The piece: the logo sheet.

SCREEN 3-22The logo sheetThe mark on dark and on light, small, as a favicon letter, with the motto, the publisher and the colours.The box: logo, face logo

The wallpapers

The title screen as wallpapers at 4K, desktop and phone, with and without the lettering: the wallpapers page.

SCREEN 3-23Desktop, 4KThe throne hall and the carved title.wallpapers/: the title screen, drawn by the game

SCREEN 3-24Phone, 4KThe same, for the phone’s upright screen.wallpapers/: the title screen, drawn by the game

The rest of the pack

These are drafts for the game’s public face, each its own page: the keepsakes index, the press shots (fourteen live frames with the HUD on, each one a decision), the press kit, the store page (itch.io and Steam images at their sizes), the launch posts (drafts; nothing is posted), the soundtrack, the art book and the making of. The owner’s rule of 2026-10-06 is that every finished game has its 21 keepsakes, none optional.

Back Matter · The Keepsakes

Making Of

Four rules, and the day the generated pictures went

Ubi puer Wick in cloaca dormit.

Lore chaserStreamerNo spoilersas of 2026-10-06 · short version of the making-of page

This is the short version of the making-of page, written from the design documents and the git history of the repository. The owner appears only where a document records his words verbatim, each with its file and date.

What was decided on the way

The start. The decisions so far are written down: Væ Victis, a gothic action game. The first art direction and the first title screen follow, then pre-rendered sprites: a rigged 3D model becomes eight-direction palette frames, the method every figure in the game still uses (see How Every Pixel Is Made).
The haven. The haven, “the cathedral under the cathedral”, is built and playable (see the city and its houses).
The voice. Wick’s voice gets a stone-hall effect chain, and all 117 lines are re-voiced.
The graybox. The whole procession to the final boss, 37 new maps and 15 bosses, built flat first and played through before any art.
The players. Anonymous, self-hosted play stats. Then a premise card after the intro, because players could not tell the story from the opening.
The name. The rename: Væ Victis, with the Æ carved into the title, and its own home at vaevictis.vip.
The gardens. The King’s Labyrinth Gardens, the Height and the Pleasance, first in graybox, then dressed (see The Labyrinth Gardens).
The inventory. The inventory of every generated picture the game shipped: 194 keys. Then every one is redrawn in code or cut, and a guard (tools/no-ai-art.mjs) fails the build if one returns.

The method, in four rules

Everything is code. The pictures, the music and the sound effects are made by scripts, with recipes (see How Every Pixel Is Made and The Music).
One palette. 32 colours, fixed in src/core.js. The debug overlay counts what reaches the screen.
Graybox first. A level is an ASCII map in one file (DESIGN/GRAYBOX-KIT.md), playable flat before any art.
Gameplay you do not own must not change. Each agent leased a package and wrote only its files (AGENT-RULES.md).

In the owner’s words

Five lines are recorded verbatim in the design documents.

2026-09-25, on the grit pass of the art: “keep for now, just distort more with dithering and other effects” (DESIGN/ART-PASS.md, section 3b; the document says “the lead”).
2026-09-26, on the CRT presets: “Worn tape 5 is the winner for most scenes” (DESIGN/ART-PASS.md, section 3c; “the lead”).
2026-10-01, on the box front: “more impact” (box/COPY.md, Front; “the lead”, who also said “the title one is good for this”).
2026-10-01, on what the player’s choices are: “we can make it a lore thing, like [Wick] has decided they go so they go no matter what we choose … our player choices are felt by our character as the elder god’s influence” (DESIGN/GDD.md, section 8; the brackets and the ellipsis are the document’s).
2026-10-01, on the goal of the completion run: “we try to advance as much vae victis as we can … aim for maximum completion score in maps, weapons, character bosses and magic spells, as well as levels/loop” (AGENT-RULES.md; the ellipsis is the document’s).

And on this book, 2026-10-04 (companion/DESIGN.md, section 1): “a new story bible for players, as an external document companion piece that explains the game to you to prime your brain to understand and appreciate the story. We can talk about the different systems in place like a strategy guide, with a highly designed look and feel … I want this a full walkthrough with screenshots and commentary, this might make it break the game. Lore chasers, streamers and people interested in the characters should consider this a goldmine.” His three answers on its shape were ”Web book + PDF”, ”Blend of both” and ”Layered”.

The turn: no generated pictures

The owner decided that the game goes to Steam with an empty AI-content disclosure (DESIGN/AI-ART-INVENTORY.md). Every generated picture the game shipped was removed or redrawn: 122 keys redrawn in code and 45 no longer shipped. A guard script fails the build if a generated image returns.

What is still synthetic is the voices (open-source speech models), which the inventory records as placeholders until the owner and his wife re-voice them. That is why the store page’s content survey must disclose the audio even though the picture claim is true: no generated image ships.

Where it is

The game is at vaevictis.vip. The collector’s box and the other keepsakes are in The Collector’s Box and Keepsakes.