History VideoGame / TormentTidesOfNumenera

** Your character doesn't have any memories of their life before the Changing God left. Unlike most examples of the trope, though, this is mainly because your character, quite literally, did not ''have'' a life before the Changing God's departure -- the Last Castoff is born the moment the Changing God departs his body. The Last Castoff is not recalling their own life, but fragments of the Changing God's life. [[spoiler:Complicated further by TheReveal that The Changing God was not able to escape your body before The Sorrow burned out his memories. It's possible that you actually ''are'' the amnesiac Changing God.]]

** Two minor characters running a shop in the Bloom are revealed to be the same person, the elder having been sent through an adventure that had him ending up traveling back in time. Upon learning this, The Last Castoff has an option to [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential murder the younger version]], causing the elder -- and the entire shop itself -- to disappear with the narration stating that you do not even remember ''why'' you murdered the young man. [[spoiler:In a case of DevelopersForesight, one sidequest that can end with a slave being made a second apprentice of the elder shopkeeper can go from "Completed" to "In Progress" due to his new job being erased from history]].
** [[spoiler:In the Necropolis the Last Castoff can use Inifere's Merecaster to convince him to face The Sorrow in the past instead of retreating into the Endless Gate. This ends up retroactively killing him and undoing most of the harm his cult did, leaving everyone in the Necropolis with the distinct impression that ''something'' terrible happened but they're not entirely sure what.]]

* YoureNotMyFather: At the end of the game, [[spoiler:the Changing God's daughter Miika]] confronts the being who claims to be her father, [[spoiler:the Specter]]... and doesn't recognize him at all. [[spoiler:This is because he's an ArtificialIntelligence based on a backup copy of The Changing God's memories. You can point out to the Specter that he can't possibly be the real Changing God since if even his own daughter doesn't recognize him, but if your persuasive skills aren't up to the task, this can also [[ThatThingIsNotMyChild backfire]].]]

** ''Silver - The Four Lessons of the Great Chila'' is the story most integrated with the game itself, and tells the same story you can hear from the Observant Speck about Chila the Great in much more detail. [[spoiler: It also confirms the player character's suspicions that the Observant Speck is literally the same person as Chila's best friend Speck from centuries ago, given CompleteImmortality by the numenera.]]

* BestServedCold: Dracogen -- the first person you meet in the Bloom -- will sometimes take this route on those that wronged him, as exemplified [[spoiler: by what his "favor" from Tybir is -- "I want you to recall the many ways you could have saved [Auvigne]. To think of how he might have died. To reflect on [[UndyingLoyalty the depths of his devotion to you]]... and shallowness of yours to him."]]
* BigBadEnsemble: While the Sorrow serves as the most direct threat to the Last Castoff, [[spoiler: the Changing God and the First Castoff prove to be equal if not greater threats to the world as a whole.]]

* CardCarryingVillain: Narve the Blessed. He says, "I'm an explorer and a villain. The worst villain you'll ever meet! ... And by that I mean that no matter what I try to pull, [[MinionWithAnFInEVil it somehow ends up]] ''[[MinionWithAnFInEVil helping]].''"

* LovingAShadow: In Sagus Cliffs, you meet a man named Omahdon who's pursuing a purple-haired woman, Perseia, claiming that her madness causes her to not recognize him. The truth is that [[spoiler: he came upon her in a ''tomb'' and fell in love with her beauty, using a device he held to resurrect her. She ran instead, so now he intends to use another device to MindRape her into "loving" him back unless the Last Castoff can convince him, throw him off her trail, or otherwise get rid of him.]]

** Two minor characters running a shop in the Bloom are revealed to be the same person, the elder having been sent through an adventure that had him ending up traveling back in time. Upon learning this, The Last Castoff has an option to [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential murder the younger version]], causing the elder -- and the entire shop itself -- to disappear with the narration stating that you do not even remember ''why'' you murdered the young man. [[spoiler: In a case of DevelopersForesight, one sidequest that can end with a slave being made a second apprentice of the elder shopkeeper can go from "Completed" to "In Progress" due to his new job being erased from history]].

* TheReveal: The ghostly woman you can help in Sagus Cliffs? In the final act, she's [[spoiler: revealed to be the daughter of the Changing God himself -- and is, in fact, the driving reason for his research into immortality, in an effort to save her life]].

* SequelHook: Of the spinoff variety, as the epilogue [[spoiler: mentions that adult Rhin is "a story for another time".]]
* ShoutOut:

* VideogameCrueltyPotential: A minor case, but you need to delay finishing one quest long enough for two people to lose their houses if you want [[spoiler:to have an Expy of Boo as a pet.]]
* VideogameCrueltyPunishment: Downplayed, but trying to behave in an evil manner ''will'' cause your companions to call you out on it and the game then prompts you to make your decision again.

** Utwag Los, a self-proclaimed do-gooder who had his luck stolen; Narve the Blessed, a CardCarryingVillain whose misdeeds inevitably go wrong, to the benefit of everyone around him; and Jenkins the Jinxed, another would-be do-gooder, except his help inevitably turns out to be a curse on anyone who asks for it. They were searching for an artifact called the World String, a line of gossamer thread so strong it could supposed cut through the world like cheese if you could somehow pull it tight enough. You find the three of them in Necropolis, where they tried to help the Memorialists, and are now on the verge of being executed by [[ReligionOfEvil the Children of the Endless Gate]].

* BaldWomen: The female Last Castoff is bald in the concept art, partially shaven in the game. She's hardly alone.

* EverythingTryingToKillYou: A conversation with Rhin can lampshade just how dangerous the Ninth World is and how many bizarre hazards that can instantly end your life or impose a FateWorseThanDeath on you are just lying around that everyone blithely accepts, especially once you make it into the Bloom (where it genuinely strains suspension of disbelief that anyone would voluntarily choose to live there).

* AfterTheEnd: The game takes place on Earth after the rise and fall of eight "great civilizations," in the historical era known as the Ninth World. The setting is filled to the brink with mysterious artifacts and ruins from most of human history, and knowledge of the past is all but forgotten. One character suspects that there might be ''many'' more than eight "worlds" preceding the present one.

* RemoteBody: Varrenoth, Champion of the Barren Wastes, turns out to be one of these being piloted by a small child (in a LeaningOnTheFourthWall reference to the idea of having an avatar in a video game).

** The way the Necropolis works, with its ridiculously huge three-dimensional array of identical hexagonal rooms, is a reference to Creator/JorgeLuisBorges' "Literature/TheLibraryOfBabel".

** ''Red - The Red Hand'' is the novella with the least direct connection to the game, but does fill in a bit of detail about how the various mutant/abhuman races of the Ninth World originated from their original ''Homo sapiens'' stock.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** While at one point more were planned, there are only three foci in the finished game: Brandishes A Silver Tongue, Breathes Shadow, and Masters Defense. All three are unlocked and must be chosen at the same time, early in the game. Unlike in ''Planescape: Torment'', the Last Castoff's class (a combination of type and focus) is set and cannot be altered once chosen.
** The Oasis of M'ra Jolios, which at one point was going to be the game's second major hub, before the Bloom ascended to the role instead. An enormous globe of water in the exact center of the circular desert known as the Lost Sea, the Oasis is the home of the aquatic [[FishPeople Ghibra]] who appear as background characters in Sagus Cliffs. Currently the city only appears during one of the game's meres and briefly as a memory in [[spoiler:the Labyrinth, on the Last Castoff's way to confront the Specter for the final time.]]
** The Order of Flagellants and Austerities, who were at one point scheduled to appear but go unmentioned in the released game. Once a hermetic and monkish offshoot of the Order of Truth, the so-called Scourges became a mendicant order and set out into the world with the appointment of a new leader a century ago. They are a missionary sect, devoted to cleansing the world of its many sins, among which are a reliance on the numenera and pollution of the flesh with extravagances and constructs. They feed on the rage of their kin, borrowing strength of will and thew, and run berserk if they are not stopped, laying bare the bones of those who oppose them. In the finished game, they seem to have been replaced with the suicidal death cult of the Endless Gate.