Dragon Quill

Previously, I discussed the gameplay and aesthetics of Pathologic. Now, I’ll delve into the plot, which is a more complicated beast. As I said in the first post, every healer has a unique plotline, and each one warrants their own post.

Before we begin, I will note that the writing of this game is deliberately opaque, ornate, and confusing, with one early character literally saying, “Forgive me if my speech is strange,” to establish this is deliberate. This means that even with the revised translation, many aspects of the story are unclear and have open-ended interpretations. I think I grasp most of the central themes and messages the story is going for, but here’s a disclaimer that I could be wildly off-base.

Each of the healers has a different hook for coming to the town. The Bachelor, Daniel Dankovsky, wants to uncover the secret to immortality, and is told by the town doctor Isidor Burakh he should study Simon Kain, the patriarch of the town who has is supposedly hundreds of years old. He is immediately given lodgings in the good part of town by local woman Eve Yahn, who, uh, looks like this…

…and heads out to visit the Kains first thing in the morning. They tell him Simon died the night before he arrived. Off to a great start!

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Where Dankovsky begins the game well-fed and rested in a fancy house, Artemy arrives in town after walking for multiple days straight, having not slept or eaten in all that time. He is immediately greeted by a bunch of knife murderers, who he kills but not before sustaining wounds himself. He quickly discovers this is because he has been framed for his father’s murder, so his reputation is at rock bottom and everyone in town is ordered to kill him on sight. Fun!

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The Haruspex’s route was a rough draft. This route is blatantly unfinished. And that’s a shame, because it’s really cool.

Throughout the other routes, Clara has been a major enigma. She claims she has healing hands, but we never see her use them. The townspeople claim she’s the Sand Plague incarnate and her touch actually brings death. She herself claims those are the actions of her evil twin… and while you never see two Claras in the same place, you do often find her moving between locations implausibly fast, as if there really are two of her.

So what’s the truth? What’s her deal?

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