Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
The Greivous Miracle was an Anti-Miracle created by the devil
God clearly wants the Penitent to succeed in his task, delivering him to the last Prie Deu Shrine he prayed at literally in the arms of the angels, with the sole punishment being that he feels guilty he failed and he can succor his guilt by getting back to the place he died at. If God had sent the greivous miracle, He would fix everything with a wave of His hand once everyone rightly turned back to Him, for His plan is that "None should perish, but all have Eternal Life." Since everyone still suffers despite worshipping Him, and he sent His earthly servant to undo it (and the Kissers of Wounds are still aided in their work), it seems that there's a much darker force at work...- The Miracle is from Yaldabaoth, not from Lucifer, but close enough.
- Jossed. The Miracle was created by the High Wills. But they do outright state it's for their own benefit that they want to keep the cycle of guilt, martyrdom culture and worship going.
The Concluding Chapter involves being able to KILL the Grievous Miracle itself
So far the base game has two endings: The Penitent One sinks into the Hill of Ash, showing he's unworthy of ascending. The "good" ending has him climb up the hill and become a new martyr by impaling himself with the sword, until Crisanta pulls it out and starts the process all over again. This time, The Penitent One decides to Take a Third Option, Screw Destiny and go Kill the God.- Confirmed.
There will be a Shout-Out, if not fully promoted reference to the X-Potatoes meme in "2"
During Korone Inugami's playthrough of the game, she had been quite intrigued by the design of Exposíto, though her translator kept calling it X-Potato.Considering the Crapsack World Blasphemous is, it would be a potato blight that causes the victims to lose their fingers, or yubis, and those bad potatoes… are marked with an X.
The giant heart-egg in the sky from the Wounds of Eventide ending is the Miracle waiting to be reborn.
When translated into English, the teaser trailer states that the Miracle has returned. That giant egg is simply the cocoon. Alternatively, the cocoon is the Penitent One's soul
After dying for real, a cocoon was (somehow) created as a failsafe should the Miracle somehow return.- Jossed. The mysterious entity is the Incarnate Devotion. The physical embodiment of Cvstodia’s devotion to the Grievious Miracle itself.
Deogracias somehow found out what the Miracle really was and recruited members of the Brotherhood of Silent Sorrow to try and stop it
This would also explain why he managed to have such a potent item like the thorn, which eventually turns into the Cvstodia of Sin. He was trying to stop needless suffering in the land, but he needed the help of warriors who weren't as loyal to the church (ex. people who were excommunicated like the Brotherhood). His reason for being cryptic throughout the Penitent One's journey was to avoid the wrath of the Miracle and its servants.The High Wills are our wish for an Evil Mastermind
Whatever 'we' are in-game, the Spirits guiding the Penitent One or some Outside-Context Problem looking from without, the Miracle has taken notice and suspects we would eventually do something if we were stuck with this problem of an endless cycle of suffering. So it set up a scapegoat for us to drink catharsis from and stop caring, thinking the problem was solved. It found three psychopathic con artists and chose to abnormally offer its undeserved blessings upon them, and they bought into the idea that they had control over the Miracle and could become gods by scamming an entire continent. Killing them does not kill the Miracle, which is why it re-appears in the Stinger and sets up the sequel.