Looks like just a normal family ...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 terrorised 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.

This game contains examples of the following:

Always Chaotic Evil: Trsanti, a sort of pirate/gypsy hybrid. Patrick's journals show that he relishes slaughtering as many of them as he can.
Ancient Tomb: Mausoleums, catacombs, crypts and the Tomb of the Undying King.
And I Must Scream: Aaron was chained up and eaten alive by rats, with his jaw removed so he couldn’t scream.
All There In The Manual: The game comes with Jeremiah’s journal, where he explains how the Covenants were cursed and how they all met their untimely end.
Another Dimension: Oneiros and Eternal Autumn, both magical realms either controlled or created by Keisinger and Bethany.
Badass Normal: He may have some magical powers, but Patrick is more-or-less a normal man fighting evil siblings, powerful archmages and all sorts of demonic beings.
Batman Gambit: 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.
Black Sheep: Even without the curse, Ambrose was a hellion that eventually joined up with pirates and even killed himself rather than be arrested by the police.
Big Screwed Up Family: It's hinted that the Covenant family has a dark history involving untimely deaths, creating all sorts of bloody rumours.
Blood Splattered Wedding Dress: Lizbeth is dressed in a shredded white gown heavily stained with blood.
Breather Level: The Monastery. Non-threatening human enemies MUCH less dangerous than the fast, monsterous Howlers AND tons of health and ammo? Ahhhhh....
Buried Alive: An ancient warrior is buried alive at the Standing Stones to seal the Undying King.
Came Back Wrong: Those brought back by the undying curse are twisted shadows of their former selves.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: 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 Keisinger betrayed her before she got the chance.
Corrupt Church: The monastery that discovers the Scythe of the Celt, thanks to The Corruption.
Creator Cameo: Ambrose Covenant's voiced by none other than Clive Barker himself.
Creepy Child: All of the Covenant children once they were cursed. A particular mention goes to Lizbeth, who bit her nanny and licked her lips afterward.
Deadpan Snarker: Ambrose Covenant, of all people.
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.
Demonic Invaders
Demonic Spiders: $@#&% skeletons...
Determinator: Let's face it: Patrick pretty much IS this trope. Let's see here: Survive World War One? 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 Artifactof Doom 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 Jeremiah's betrayal? Check. Take down the Eldritch Abomination 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.
Deus Ex Machina: Played with in the giant hellhound that makes it possible for you to defeat Ambrose. It seems like it comes out of nowhere, but read Patrick's journal and he'll mention that if you use the Gel'zibar stone too much; you know, the one Ambrose just stole and is using against you; a "strange dog-like beast" might show up to menace you.
Disposable Woman: The maids pretty much exist to get killed by Howlers. The male servants seem a bit better at living.
Eldritch Abomination: the Undying King, plus many of the creatures in Oneiros.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Lizbeth kept the animated corpse of her mother in her lair, seated at a dining table and presumably ‘keeping her company’.
Evil Makeover: And how.
Evil Tower Of Ominousness: One of the manor’s towers has an unearthly purple halo stretching into the sky, marking the portal to Oneiros.
Fan Disservice: 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 scyre on one of her pretty portraits.
- Your Mileage May Vary. Both LetsPlays comment on her being attractive and her victory pose over Patrick makes it obvious she was intended to be hot in uncomfortable ways.
Fridge Logic: How in the hell are boxes of bullets lying around in a medieval monastery?
Green Rocks: The Gel'zibar stone.
Haunted Castle: The Covenant Manor.
High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Scrying will reveal one horror lurking under reality after another. Not to mention swimming through through rivers of blood, poltergeist ghosts, and dead corpses singing lullabies...
Implacable Man: 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 he lights it on fire and throws it off a cliff.
Lets Play - Vexation does a LP of this game along with supplementary journals and backstory.
- There's an SS LP that allows you to follow the story if you're bandwidth challenged.
Nice Job Breaking It Hero: First Patrick 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 killing Jeremiah at the Standing Stones, he creates the necessary sacrifice to bring forth the Undying King. Oops.
Nothing But Skulls: The Skull Storm spell pulls human skulls out of the earth and launches them like explosive missiles.
Off With His Head: 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 Revive Kills Zombie.
Oireland
Ominous Latin Chanting
Paranormal Investigation: Patrick's current profession although, despite possessing the Gel'zibar Stone and knowing some magic, he's rarely come across anything that couldn't be explained by mundane causes. Until now.
Parental Obliviousness: 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.
Place Of Power: The Standing Stones
Portal Pool: The method for traveling between the past and present versions of the monastery.
Sanity Slippage: Journal entries show that this was inevitable for the Covenant siblings.
- “Can you hear the whispers, Jeremiah?”
Sealed Evil In A Can: The Undying King.
See Thru Specs: Using the Scrye magic allows Patrick to see or hear the past, reveal hidden truths or creepy foreshadowing.
Self Made Orphan: Ambrose beats his father to death with a pool cue, tired of him meddling in his affairs.
Shell Shocked Veteran: Patrick's former profession as a soldier left him with some psychological scars, the Gel'zibar Stone, and a life debt owed to Jeremiah Covenant.
Shutup Hannibal: "You know what Jeremiah? You talk too much." *slices off his head*
- Also tossing Lizbeth's burning head off a thousand foot cliff in the middle of her ranting.
  Lizbeth: "The family will be reuniteeeeeeedddddddddd!"
  Patrick: "Yeh were sayin'?"
Sibling Rivalry: The twins Aaron and Bethany, who were bitter rivals. Bethany won.
Spooky Painting: Just scrye a few of the paintings. Like the one at the top of the page...
The Corruption: The undying curse. Not to mention just being near the Scythe of the Celt can cause someone to descend into bloodlust and madness.
The Other Marty: 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. 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.
The Starscream: Jeremiah plotted to use Gel'zibar stone to drain energy from the Undying King and become a god himself.
The Undead: The Covenant siblings are trapped in a constant state of undying, not living but never dead.
Time Travel: Patrick travels back to the monastery of the past for a Fetch Quest.
Tome Of Eldritch Lore: What started the curse.
Too Dumb To Live: 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 Jeremiah, who mocked and shoved Patrick around, the very same man who killed all of his other siblings.
  - And who is at that very moment holding the only weapon that can destroy him.
Torture Cellar: Bethany has one connecting from her bedroom.
Video Game Cruelty Potential: Throwing motolov cocktails on humans will make them run around screaming until they die. The player can also amplify the Invoke magic which causes human enemies to kill themselves against their will.
Wallbanger: You need to go back in time to get a key for an ancient door despite the fact Patrick has dynamite.
World War One: A part of Patrick's and Jeremiah's backstory. The jury is still out (probably forever) on Keisinger (while he certainly doesn't sound it, his name is German, his aristocratic title-if not self-awarded- makes him likely to come from Germany, and he certainly is old enough to have joined).
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Jeremiah planned to sacrifice Patrick to awaken the Undying King now that he had unknowingly done all his dirty work.
Cosmic Deadline / Xen Syndrome: Eternal Autumn is easily the most bland part of the game, and feels very rushed. No Scrying secret horrors, no hidden journals except one at the beginning, the new weapons you pick up don't get journal entries like the others do, the enemies change from Eldritch Abominations to cavemen and it basically flip flops the game from a cinematic horror game to a by-the-numbers FPS. It then ends with an extremely frustrating boss, followed by a meh final boss, and then a very short, unsatisfying ending.

Clive Barkers Jericho

First Person Shooter

Combat Arms

Main Tropes Index

Troperville

Editing Help

Tools

Toys

This game contains examples of the following: