[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/undying1.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Looks like just a normal family ...[[http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/5503/undying4.jpg Hey, wait a second]] ...]]

-->''"Can you hear the whispers, Jeremiah? Even another continent isn't far enough. Remember, I tried to go as well. I still heard them, even in Asian dens and German gutters. I figured it out, it's inside ... It won't be long until you cross the threshold, brother."'' \\
--'''Aaron Covenant.'''

Set in the 1920s, Patrick Galloway is a paranormal investigator who has been exiled from his native Ireland for unknown reasons. He receives a letter from an old war buddy, Jeremiah Covenant, who saved his life during the First World War. The Covenant estate has been terrorized by frightening and deadly paranormal events, caused by a family curse that claimed the rest of his siblings, and Jeremiah's ailing health makes him helpless to stop it. Owing a life debt to his old friend, Patrick breaks his exile and returns to Ireland.\\
\\
Except ... the Covenant siblings aren't quite dead, and they're not happy about Patrick sticking his nose into "family affairs." The Covenant siblings were cursed many years ago when they childishly performed an ancient occult ritual at the nearby Standing Stones, dooming them to madness and death only to be resurrected as nightmarish abominations. Now they seek to awaken the evil being known as the Undying King so he can reclaim his dominion over the earth.\\
\\
But the awakening of such occult forces has also drawn Patrick's nemesis, Otto Keisinger, who wants to use the Covenant estate for his own ends. Before Patrick can end the terrors of the Undying curse, he's going to have to square off with Keisinger once and for all.\\

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!This game contains examples of the following:

* AlienGeometries: Mostly happens in Oneiros, but some parts of the manor also feature this. For example, when exploring the Widow's Watch (located in the east side of the manor), you end on the great hall (placed in the west side). This was intentional, according to WordOfGod.
* AllThereInTheManual: The game comes with Jeremiah's journal, where he explains how the Covenants were cursed and how they all met their untimely end. Also, you can find a transcript of some chat with one of the game developers [[http://jonhunt.com/smf/index.php?topic=3.0 here]].
** A lot of plot details were cut from the game because of time constraints near the end. This is why the ending is rather confusing and incomplete. [[spoiler:The basic mechanics behind the curse are as follows - The Undying King is basically an EldritchAbomination (whose name derives from the fact that Standing Stones island looks like a crown when seen from a side profile) and the Celtic human sacrifice was essentially a seal to keep said Undying King locked away. When Jeremiah took his siblings to the Standing Stones Island and read from the book, he ''undid'' that old seal and recreated it in a specific way... the ''siblings'' became a living seal, both corrupted and rendered effectively immortal by the power of the Undying King.]]
** According to WordOfGod, the brotherhood of monks was supposed to guard the different nexi across the world [[spoiler:(mentioned by Patrick at the end of the game, when he says there are more gates)]]. They also continue their watch after their death (that's why they haunt the catacombs).
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Trsanti, a sort of pirate/gypsy hybrid. Patrick's journals show that he relishes slaughtering as many of them as he can.
* AmplifierArtifact; The game features disposable items known as Amplifiers, which can be used to take one of your magic spells up one level. There's also the Gel'Ziabar Stone, which boosts all your spells one level if you use it in concert (though you effectively have no gun if you choose to do this).
* AncientTomb: Mausoleums, catacombs, crypts and the Tomb of the Undying King.
* AndIMustScream: Aaron was [[spoiler:chained up and eaten alive by rats]], with his jaw removed so he couldn't scream.
* AnimateDead: The game has the Invoke spell, which raises dead enemies to fight on your side for a little while. It also [[ReviveKillsZombie insta-kills skeletons]]. And [[spoiler: makes a targeted male Trsanti '''''kill himself''''', though not the female Trsanti for some reason]].
* AnotherDimension: Oneiros and Eternal Autumn, both magical realms either controlled or created by Keisinger and Bethany.
* ArbitrarySkepticism: Patrick doesn't [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBZUYELqe3Y believe in magic]]. But he uses magic all the time, and owns a magical stone.
* AwesomeButImpractical: The Phoenix near the end: you can control the shot and use it to explore the level around, but it's too fast and difficult to send against a foe and it deals mediocre damage to the enemies. The [[ShockAndAwe Spear Gun]] you find before is much more practical to use by comparison.
* BadassNormal: He may have some magical powers, but Patrick is more-or-less a normal man fighting evil undead siblings, powerful archmages and all sorts of demonic beings.
* BaitAndSwitchBoss: The game does this with the final boss fight, no less than ''four times''. Here we go:
** First, you fight Bethany, who's been set up to be the final boss all through the game.
** After killing her, [[spoiler: your friend Jeremiah]] appears and reveals that [[TheManBehindTheMan he's been behind the whole thing]]! Looks like he's the final boss...but then Patrick just unceremoniously [[OffWithHisHead decapitates him]] [[TalkToTheFist mid-speech]]...
** ...which results in the much-hyped [[EldritchAbomination Undying King]] being summoned, leaping out of the ground looking like a pissed-off mummy, as befit his name, only to seemingly disintegrate before engaging you...
** ...only ''then'' [[spoiler: to raises out of the ground in the form of some odd-EldritchAbomination-crab-spider-scorpion ''thing'']]. After him, the game ends. Promise.
* BallisticBone: The game has a spell (the game's equivalent of a rocket launcher) that pulls skulls out of the ground, charges them with magic and fires them when you release the button. The ammo is justified by the island having been a battleground for pretty much forever, "Not an inch of this ground where someone hasn't died." Doesn't explain how you can use it up on the roof of the mansion, though...
* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler:Jeremiah already became an undead years ago, and only called upon Patrick so he could kill off his siblings and Keisinger so nothing could stand in his way for his double-cross]].
* BeatingADeadPlayer: The game had a unique "kill-the-player" animation for every single enemy in the game (except for the Lesser Monto Shonoi).
* BigScrewedUpFamily: It's hinted that the Covenant family has a dark history involving untimely deaths, creating all sorts of bloody rumors.
* BlackSheep: Even without the curse, Ambrose was a hellion that eventually joined up with pirates and even [[spoiler: jumped off a cliff rather than be arrested by the police (he gets better)]].
* BlatantItemPlacement: Pistol and shotgun ammo in a medieval monastery?
* BloodSplatteredWeddingDress: Lizbeth is dressed in a shredded white gown heavily stained with blood.
* BodyHorror: Bethany got her final revenge on her brother Aaron by [[spoiler:chaining him inside her private dungeon and letting rats ''eat him alive'', removing his jawbone so he can't scream.]]
** Which also qualifies as YouFailBiologyForever, since removing someone's jawbone does not affect his ability to scream - the ''vocal cords'' should be removed for it. As a matter of fact, he could probably do ''nothing but scream''.
* BossArenaIdiocy: Two bosses have this.
** Aaron wields a chain that he uses as a whip against you. The only way to defeat him is [[spoiler: to position yourself in front of one of the rings on the wall and dodge his attack. His chain will get trapped in the ring, and you can attack him while he's busy trying to get the chain out]].
** Ambrose is [[spoiler: invulnerable because he grabs your magic Gel'ziabar stone and puts it in his axe. He's only killable when a giant Gel'ziabar dog comes out of nowhere and attacks him, and then you can only kill him by first shooting the stone out of his axe. If you don't rush up and kill him right away, the dog will vanish, and he will pick up the stone, put it back in his axe, and resume being invulnerable until the next dog attack]].
* BuriedAlive: An ancient warrior is buried alive at the Standing Stones to seal the Undying King. Also, [[spoiler: Lizzbeth.]]
* CameBackWrong: Those brought back by the undying curse are twisted shadows of their former selves.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Bethany studied under various mages to learn all she could from them and then dropped them as soon as they were no longer useful. She finally met her end when [[spoiler:Keisinger]] betrayed ''her'' before she got the chance.
* ClownCarGrave: The game had a spell where you yanked skulls out of the ground and fired them like a rocket launcher. The [[AllThereInTheManual manual]] [[JustifiedTrope explained]] that the area you were in had been a battleground for centuries, and there basically was not one square inch that ''something'' hadn't died on.
* CorruptChurch: The monastery that discovers the Scythe of the Celt, thanks to TheCorruption.
* TheCorruption: The undying curse. Not to mention just being near the Scythe of the Celt can cause someone to descend into bloodlust and madness.
* CoversAlwaysLie: In the backcover, you can see images of Patrick fighting a Monto Shonoi in Oneiros (they don't appear there in the game) and a Howler in the manor with the Skull Storm spell (which is acquired after the part of the game with the Howlers).
* CreatorCameo: Ambrose Covenant's voiced by none other than Clive Barker himself.
* CreepyChild: All of the Covenant children once they were cursed. A particular mention goes to Lizbeth, who bit her nanny and licked her lips afterward.
* CutscenePowerToTheMax: Your character Patrick Galloway suddenly jumps like a flea through a stained glass window many feet away to escape danger. Normally he only jumps about as high as a normal man.
* DeadlyLunge: Demonic monsters referred to as "Howlers" pose the primary threat, at least early on. Roughly humanoid with canine features and some ape-like elements thrown in, howlers gallop towards the player until they get close enough to pounce. In this case "close enough" is about twenty meters or so. They always land ready to strike with their razor-sharp claws.
* DeadpanSnarker: Ambrose Covenant, of all people.
--> [[spoiler: Father always said "self-reflection is the key to enlightenment." Allow me to reflect on this day. How could I have saved my father from a slow, painful death? I could have hit him harder.]]
* DebugRoom: The game features two testing levels "playground" and "smoketest" (only accesible using the game cheats), featuring, among other things, objects left out of normal gameplay and tiles [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin with labels that tell what type of ground you're stepping on]].
* DemonicInvaders
* {{Determinator}}: Let's face it: Patrick pretty much IS this trope. Let's see here: Survive WorldWarOne? Check. Survive at least decades of conflict with Otto Keisinger? Check. Get through Irish customs unnoticed in order to fulfill a life debt? Check. Fight through wave after wave of unspeakable abominations that have racked up quite the kill count? Check. Handle the ArtifactOfDoom with fairly marginal damage? Check. Kill off the undead and superhuman Covenant siblings one by one? Check. Go into HELL to defeat Keisinger? Check. Survive [[spoiler: Jeremiah]]'s betrayal? Check. Take down the [[spoiler: EldritchAbomination]] that helped cause this godforsaken train wreck in the first place? Check. Basically, by the end, he is pretty much surviving more-or-less because it seems like he can't bloody DIE.
* DeusExMachina: Played with in the [[spoiler: giant hellhound that makes it possible for you to defeat Ambrose.]] It seems like it [[AssPull comes out of nowhere,]] but read Patrick's journal and he'll mention that if you use the Gel'ziabar stone too much; you know, the one [[spoiler: Ambrose]] just stole and is using against you; a "strange dog-like beast" might show up to menace you. According to WordOfGod, the stone was once used to open a rift between our world and the hounds' dimension that never closed.
* DisposableWoman: The maids pretty much exist to get killed by Howlers. The male servants seem a bit better at living. The butler survives as well as you do.
* EldritchAbomination: The Undying King, plus many of the creatures in Oneiros.
* EnemyMine: The skeletons in the monastery aren't actually controlled by Lizbeth, according to WordOfGod. That doesn't stop them to temporarily allying with Lizbeth and her Howlers to try to kill you.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Lizbeth kept the animated corpse of her mother in her lair, seated at a dining table and presumably "keeping her company."
* EvilAllAlong: [[spoiler:Jeremiah Covenant.]]
* EvilGloating: [[spoiler:Jeremiah]] attempts this, but is interrupted. [[spoiler:By a scythe.]]
* EvilMakeover: ''And how''.
* EvilTowerOfOminousness: One of the manor's towers has an unearthly purple halo stretching into the sky, marking the portal to Oneiros.
* FanDisservice: Lizbeth is wearing nothing but a barely-there torn dress, complete with {{Gainaxing}}, but she's so horrifying it's not even ''remotely'' attractive. This is driven home when you use the scrye on one of her pretty portraits.
** Although, both {{Lets Play}}s comment on her being attractive and her [[HaveANiceDeath victory pose over Patrick]] makes it obvious she was intended to be hot in uncomfortable ways. CliveBarker's stuff tends to be "interesting" like that.
* FlamingSkulls: The game has a spell called Skull Storm which allows you to throw not merely flaming skulls, but flaming skulls that chatter with each other and explode upon impact.
* FloatingWater: One part of set in [[EldritchLocation Oneiros]] had vertical columns of water that you had to ascend and jump out of at the top to scale a dungeon.
* FootprintsOfMuck: Scrying will sometimes show bloody footprints, showing you how to get through some puzzles.
* FreudianExcuse: It is pretty clear that whatever the siblings did at the Standing Stones is responsible for a LOT of their behavior (especially what they did after they died).
* GreenRocks: The Gel'ziabar stone.
* HauntedCastle: The Covenant Manor.
* HostageForMacGuffin: At one point, one of the villains demands a magic stone from the main character in exchange for his friend's life. Despite his friend's protests, and despite the fact that killing the friend has seemed to be the sole goal of the villains up to this point, he hands it over. This doesn't play out so much to standards of the trope, as to how it realistically would -- the baddie [[spoiler:kills his hostage]], then uses the stone to enhance his powers.
* HubLevel: The game had whatever themed enemies populated the next level begin infesting the Covenant estate as a [[NowWhereWasIGoingAgain hint of where to go next]].
* IdiotBall or TooStupidToLive: Jeremiah. Let's go over his plans again: [[spoiler:You are the weakest of the five undead siblings that no mortal weapon can kill for real. You trick the hero into finding a supernatural weapon that actually can and into using said weapon for killing your stronger siblings, their armies of demonic mooks and extremely powerful evil wizard. So far so good. Very smart of and good for you. Revealing everything to and mocking/threatening said hero while you have no demonic armies or powers to hurt him in any way? Not so much.]]
* ImplacableMan: The Covenant siblings cannot be killed by any mortal weapon, only with the Scythe of the Celt. Even then, Lizbeth's head snarls and spits at Patrick before [[{{Badass}} he lights it on fire and throws it off a cliff]].
* KillOneOthersGetStronger: Happens to the Covenant brothers, according to WordOfGod. Bethany, the last to be killed, certainly had created a good army of creatures prior to her death.
* LetsPlay - Vexation [[http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Undying/ does a LP of this game]] along with supplementary journals and backstory.
** [[http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=350177 There's an SS LP that allows you to follow the story if you're bandwidth challenged.]]
* LivingStatue: The game has a weird bit where to get to the upper floor of a room in magical alternate dimension, the player must use the scrying spell on the statue in the center of the room. This shows [[spoiler: its heart exposed, which the player must then shoot with his gun. This causes blood to pour out and allow the player to swim to the upper level]].
* LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair: According to WordOfGod, the Veragos that are seen in Oneiros are the remnants of great magic users who abused their power and ended up being corrupted and all but wiped out by it.
* MagicIsAMonsterMagnet: It's mentioned in the backstory that excessive usage of the Gel'ziabar stone will cause the user to be hunted by the Hound of Gel'ziabar. This doesn't actually happen in gameplay, although the Hound does pop up during a couple pre-scripted events.
** According to WordOfGod, creatures like Skarrows, Flickering Stalkers and Monto Shonoi are interdimensional squatters, magic scavengers, that were attracted to Oneiros and the manor, and later enslaved.
* TheManyDeathsOfYou: The game had the camera go [=3rd-person=] and play a standard animation of whatever enemy dealt the finishing blow performing some kind of gory fatality on you.
* MeaningfulName: The ''Covenant'' family, of course.
* MerlinAndNimue: This was Bethany Covenant's modus operandi, learning everything she can from other magic users before betraying or abandoning them. She finally met her end when her final teacher offed ''her'' first.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: First Patrick [[spoiler: discovers that, by using the Scythe, he's been unwittingly collecting the souls of the Covenant siblings for Jeremiah]]. When he tries to fix that by [[spoiler: killing Jeremiah at the Standing Stones, he creates the necessary sacrifice to bring forth the Undying King]]. Oops.
* NonStandardSkillLearning: All spells are acquired by taking a magic scroll, except for the Lightning spell. For that one, you must take a lightning rod and put it in a orifice on a roof. A lightning will strike the rod and you will receive the electricity, which will give you the spell.
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: ''The entire Covenant family.''
* NothingButSkulls: The Skull Storm spell pulls human skulls out of the earth and launches them like explosive missiles.
* OccultDetective: Patrick Galloway.
* OffWithHisHead: The only way to destroy the undead Covenants, and it has to be done with a certain weapon at that. This is also one of only two ways to make a skeleton stay down for good, the other being ReviveKillsZombie.
* {{Oireland}}
* OminousLatinChanting
* TheOtherMarty: The game's original premise had the hero as a tattooed, muscle-bound shaman versed in the ancient arts. When Clive Barker came aboard, the first thing he had the development team do was overhaul the hero into Irish paranormal investigator Patrick Galloway, wisely deciding that an everyman hero would work much better for the story (not to mention the AuthorAppeal factor). The hero's original design didn't go to waste, however: he can be seen as the Trsanti shaman wielding the Gel'ziabar Stone in the flashback cutscene.
* ParanormalInvestigation: Patrick's current profession although, despite possessing the Gel'ziabar Stone and knowing some magic, he's rarely come across anything that couldn't be explained by mundane causes. Until now.
* ParentalObliviousness: Joseph Covenant has no idea what has befallen his children until Jeremiah finally breaks down and confesses. Even though he tries hard to find some way to break the curse, he ultimately fails.
* PlaceOfPower: The Standing Stones
* PortalPool: The method for traveling between the past and present versions of the monastery. Bonus points for each side of the pool reflecting the other: in the present day, the pool's reflection shows the past, and vice versa.
* PowerTattoo: These act as powerups of a sort.
* PsychicAssistedSuicide: The spell Invoke allows you to reanimate monsters and destroy undead. If you use it on a male Trsanti, he will jerkily turn his weapon on himself as he begs for his life in terror, slitting his own throat or blowing his brains out. Doesn't seem to work on primitive humans.
* PuzzleBoss: A lot of the bosses are pretty much invincible until they run out of juice. Lizbeth goes invincible with her LimitBreak, and you have to wait for her to tucker out before you can take her head off. Ambrose gets all [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever gigantimous]], and you have to wait until he's distracted so that you can [[ForMassiveDamage hit his weak point for massive damage]]. Aaron is invulnerable until one of his spears gets stuck, at which point you rush in and finish him off.
* RecycledSoundtrack: Much of the soundtrack was first used in ''{{Trespasser}}''.
* ReviveKillsZombie: This is literally the only way to kill the Skeleton Monks, until you get the Scythe and are able to decapitate them.
* RevivingEnemy: The skeletons. Using the Tibetan War Canon sometimes prevents them getting up and invoke instantly destroys them (although it uses a lot of mana). The scythe puts a permanent end to them.
* RingMenu: Weapons and spells.
* SanitySlippage: Journal entries show that this was inevitable for the Covenant siblings.
** ''"Can you hear the whispers, Jeremiah?"''
* SceneryAsYouGo: This happens in the floating city of Oneiros. At several points you will see a floating platform of some sort, far out of reach of any jump, and a path on your current platform seemingly leading off into oblivion. Walk towards the end of it and, just as you reach the edge, floating tiles will appear.
* ScenicTourLevel: The short segment where a maiden guides you from the manor entrance to Jeremiah's bedroom, which allows you to have a glimpse of the manor.
* SealedEvilInACan: The Undying King. [[spoiler:who was actually the LID on the can, opening the door to the rest of the series. Unfortunately, this well done game bombed monstrously, so the series never materialized...]]
* SeeThruSpecs: Using the Scrye magic allows Patrick to see or hear the past, reveal hidden truths or creepy foreshadowing.
* SeeYouInHell: The Trsanti usually utter these words when dying.
* SelfMadeOrphan: [[spoiler:Ambrose]] beats his father to death with a pool cue, tired of him meddling in his affairs.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Patrick's former profession as a soldier left him with some psychological scars, the Gel'ziabar Stone, and a life debt owed to Jeremiah Covenant.
* ShutupHannibal: "You know what [[spoiler:Jeremiah]]? You talk too much." * slices off his head*
** Also tossing [[spoiler:Lizbeth's burning head off a thousand foot cliff]] in the middle of her ranting.
--->[[spoiler:Lizbeth:]] "The family will be reuniteeeeeeedddddddddd!"
--->Patrick: "Yeh were sayin'?"
* SiblingRivalry: The twins Aaron and Bethany, who were bitter rivals. [[spoiler: [[AndIMustScream Bethany won]].]]
* SinisterScimitar: The game has the Trsanti militants attacking you with very large scimitars.
* SinisterScythe: One of these becomes a vital weapon, both for plot reasons and as an emergency healing source (it's a vampiric weapon). You probably won't use it unless you have to, though.
* SkepticNoLonger: Patrick started his career as an OccultDetective trying to "debunk folklore and mysticism." Presumably he stopped trying to disprove the supernatural at the latest by some point between obtaining the clearly magical Gel'ziabar stone and gaining a German wizard as an archrival.
* SpookyPainting: Just scrye a few of the paintings. Like the one at the top of the page...
* TheStarscream: [[spoiler:Jeremiah]] plotted to use Gel'ziabar stone to drain energy from the Undying King and become a god himself.
* TimeTravel: Patrick travels back to the monastery of the past for a FetchQuest.
* TomeOfEldritchLore: What started the curse.
* TooDumbToLive: There are still servants working at the Covenant Manor, despite the fact that many have died from demonic beasts. One guy finally decides he's had enough and leaves, only to get killed at the front gate.
** Also [[spoiler:Jeremiah]], who mocked and shoved Patrick around, the very same man who [[spoiler:killed all of his other siblings]].
*** And who is ''at that very moment'' holding [[spoiler:the only weapon that can destroy him.]]
*** Assuming, of course, that [[spoiler: the corruption of the Undying King isn't MoreThanMindControl.]]
** Hey guys, you know what sounds like fun? Let's read a ritual out of this weird occult book near some creepy standing stones. Nothing could possibly go wrong!
* TortureCellar: Bethany has one connecting from her ''bedroom''.
* TheUndead: The Covenant siblings are trapped in a constant state of undying, not living but never dead.
* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler:Patrick Galloway.]]
* UtilityWeapon: Dynamite can be used to blow open certain walls.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Throwing motolov cocktails on humans will make them run around screaming until they die. The player can also amplify the Invoke magic which causes male Trsanti enemies to kill themselves against their will.
* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Yes, the remaining servants are doomed. No, that doesn't mean it's okay for you to shoot them.
* VideoGameFlight: The flight power only worked outside the mundane world, and only for short periods (as opposed to the two other sorcerers you fight, who are admittedly much more experienced.)
* WipeThatSmileOffYourFace: Tiring of her brother's smart-aleck comments, Bethany [[spoiler: chained up Aaron in a dungeon and ripped off his jaw before leaving him to be ''flensed alive by rats'', then hid it in her cottage! The [[PlayerCharacter PC]], while being repeatedly attacked by hoards of things sicced on him by the tormented Aaron, must find the jaw, [[ViolationOfCommonSense break into the dungeon Aaron is chained up in, and place it back on Aaron's corpse]]]].
* WizardDuel:The battle against Keisinger in Oneiros. Both of you have an identical and sizable array of spells (with the exception of flight, yours [[VideoGameFlight is limited]], his is not) which you've painstakingly acquired through the length of the game, you're both flying around at the top of a ziggurat floating in his insane pocket dimension, ducking behind columns, using shield counterspells and charging up blasts of lightning and fireballs to cast at each other [[DualWielding with distinct gestures for each hand]] in first-person.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:Jeremiah]] planned to sacrifice Patrick to awaken the Undying King now that [[spoiler:he had unknowingly done all his dirty work]].
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