WMG / Dark Tales

There are two player characters.

Okay, so the gender of the player character is either definitely male, definitely female, or unconfirmed, depending on the game. This makes absolutely no sense, given that Dupin always treats the player like they're the same person every time. We also know, as of the bonus chapter of Morella, that Anna Fleurs from Nightfall is the player character at least some of the time.

Here's my theory: there are two characters, and sometimes you play as one and sometimes you play the other. In Nightfall, it's implied that regardless of your choice at the beginning, the default player character is male. I'm thinking that when the player character in the main series is indicated to definitely be male, you're playing as the third "Dark Tales Agency" member. When the character is definitely female, you're playing as Anna. When it's unconfirmed, it can be either one.

• If the timeline is an accurate one, this more or less has to be the case, even if Nightfall is ignored as non-canonical. In order for the dates of events to be accurate (as presented in the games which provide specific dates), Anna and Dupin have to have been acquainted long before the events of Rue Morgue, which is explicitly indicated to be his first meeting with the male player character.

The games take place in an alternate universe.

There are too much inexplicable phenomena in these games for them to take place in our reality. Ghosts could be hand waved as being a real thing in our world; magic, however, as shown in these games cannot. Furthermore, in Dupin's storage room in Rue Morgue he has the stuffed and mounted head of a "murdock marauder," as well as the stuffed and mounted body of a "baby murdock." There is no such thing; murdock is a type of sedimentary rock in our world, not an animal of any kind.

The solution to the player character's Ambiguous Gender is simple — s/he is a Crossdresser

You're confirmed to be playing a woman in The Raven. But take another look at the first cutscene (around the 1:27 mark in this video, if you don't want to start the game again just for this). The PC is clearly wearing men's trousers and shoes. A few seconds later, your silhouette can be seen entering the cab after Dupin, and you're wearing a man's jacket and tie.

My theory: either Anna dresses as a man when she feels a woman would be at too much of a disadvantage in a case, or the unidentified male PC dresses as a woman when he wants to be underestimated.

• I like this theory a lot, and I subscribed to it myself for some time. However, in Morella she is definitely female (and I, like you, think that she's Anna). In Ligeia, though, he is definitely male - he's seen in full profile for the first time.

Royce Morrissey was able to inherit his wife's family estate because it was part of her dowry, not her inheritance.

This is in response to a very well-worded point someone made on the Headscratchers page, where they wondered how Morrissey could inherit the Phoenix family estate even though Ligeia's brother is still alive. I think that the only way it makes sense is if Ligeia's father was still alive at the time she married Morrissey, and he settled the estate on her as a wedding gift. Since Allan's house is nearby, it could be that Judge Phoenix divided the family property between his two children while he was still alive (so he could see them enjoy it), and he may have given Ligeia the larger house in anticipation of grandchildren, since Allan wasn't married.

If the estate was given to Ligeia rather than bequeathed to her, then Morrissey could have legally inherited it. This would also explain why Fowles is still there - we know from the bonus chapter that he's extremely loyal to the Phoenix family and particularly attached to Ligeia, so he could have basically come with the estate in order to continue looking after her.