The Shadow in the Cathedral is an Interactive Fiction game for PC, released by Textfyre in 2010. It was originally supposed to be the first episode in the so-called "Klockwerk series"; however, Textfyre succumbed to its financial obligations in 2015, and the game was now exists as a standalone freeware work, downloadable
from their itch.io page.
It is set in the Clock Punk city of St. Phillip, where you play as Wren, a mere 2nd assistant clock-polisher at the Cathedral of Time, who accidentally overhears his Abbot being a party to some shady plot, and becomes entangled in the greatest mystery in the world.
Unrelated to H. P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Or to a 2019 Metroidvania Cathedral.
Tropes present in this work:
- Affluent Ascetic: The Abbot Gubbler of the Cathedral of Time lives in a small chamber that only has an old desk, a hard wooden cot with no pillow, a bust of St. Newton and a grandfather clock; upon seeing it, Wren thinks that even his attic is cozier than this.
- Altum Videtur: Exaggerated; Latin is considered the starting-level language, at least for monks, as Wren the clock-polisher says he can only read Latin. On the other hand, the three Holy Texts, Principia, Mechanistica and Determininium, are "written" in an outright Mathematik.
- But Thou Must!: At the start of the game, Wren is grabbed by the monks Calvin and Drake, and told to polish a grandfather's clock in the Abbot's chamber. However, you do not have enough time to actually do that, as you soon hear the Abbot himself walking back towards his chamber. You have no choice but to hide inside the clock itself; attempting to run outside or to keep polishing it regardless or will just have Wren dive inside automatically in the nick of time, so you cannot instantly fail it unlike many of the less-forgiving IFs.
- Conveniently an Orphan: Wren was taken in by the church when he was six months old.
- Famous, Famous, Fictional: The Three Great Saints of the supposedly hyper-logical Cathedral of Time are Isaac Newton, Charles Babbage and someone named Baguet.
- Fictional Currency: The gold coins are named minutes in this setting.
- Idiot Savant: Brother Reloh, the weird and extremely socially awkward monk who had nevertheless invented the Carriage Arm, a machine that allowed him to optimise copying the way no other Cathedral could.
- Jerkass: Drake and Calvin, the two monks who force Wren to polish the clock in the Abbot's chamber at the start of the game, even though he is a) too junior in rank to be there; b) only given a daily ration of polishing fluid, which is not enough for both the huge clock and the rest of his daily rota. However, it was all a ruse for them to then blame him for going there once he gets out, and ground him in his chamber so that they can get his portion of dinner.
- Trying "punch" or "kick" commands on them only results in the internal monologue "I tried that before. Lots of times. I always lose."
- Machine Worship: This world's dominant religion, served by the church that raised Wren and made him a clock polisher. It made Newton into a Saint, and its monks make signs of the winding gear when they look at his depictions. Being a clock polisher, Wren also must recite mantras against the evils of Friction and Dust before he begins his work. The lightning also comes from the candles that go around on Sacred Tracks, so that they can light the halls in Holy Patterns.
- Meaningful Name: When the monks took me, aged six months, into their care they named me Wren. Maybe because I was small, insignificant, and happy to eat any crumbs they threw my way.
- Mechanical Lifeforms: Downplayed; Brother Horloge the Library's Reader has a wind-up mechanical owl.
- Noodle Incident: The only things the player has in their inventory at the start are a rag and a tumbler with polish. Inputting "drink the polish" results in "No way! (They say Brother Reloh did that as a boy, and that's why he ended up as he did.)"
