History Fridge / DarkestDungeon

* The icon for the Occultist's "Unspeakable Commune" skill looks like the hands in ''The Creation of Adam''... except God's hand is replaced with a tentacle. A clever bit of foreshadowing about the origins of humanity.

** [[spoiler:The first stage involves defeating clones of the Ancestor, where each kill of a mutated clone will damage the otherwise invincible boss. This fight represents your willingness to murder anything and anyone in your way and ''butcher'' that which is outright disgusting, all to deal ScratchDamage to the final boss.]]
** [[spoiler:The second stage involves a tug-of-war between your characters and the Ancestor avatar and the abyssal pits of darkness allied with him. The three abyssal pits of darkness represent everything you can't easily defeat or understand. In other words, metaphorically speaking, the abyssal pits are the strange things going on in the world you (the heir) never attempt to fix, such as the corruption in the Weald. The Ancestor avatar itself is the "easy path", such as the destruction of [[SquishyWizard the low-health psychological-damaging enemies]] over the more robust, physically stronger foes, or just the destruction of monsters over solving the long-term issues of the Hamlet beyond monsters, including the abundance of disease and the Hamlet's isolation.]]
** [[spoiler:The third stage is a BreatherEpisode, allowing your characters to heal nearly all damage but likely inflicting blight, symbolizing how your hamlet is, at the moment, a safe haven. As the blight represents, however, the toll of the dungeons still inflicts scars. Heroes must be sent to the Sanitarium, Church, or Tavern in order to "fully" recover from the mental scars accumulated dungeon run after dungeon run; these recoveries can be easily undone after one dungeon run, regardless of how much gold was spent.]]
** [[spoiler:The final stage is straightforward enough, but, outside of taking certain precautions and sheer luck being on your side, you ''will'' lose at least 2 heroes, cementing that no matter what, you were always ultimately sending them on a suicide mission.]]
* While the ending is suitably [[DownerEnding dark]] for the genre, there are hints that [[spoiler:the Heart of Darkness]] was lying: for one thing, the [[EarthShatteringKaboom conclusion it was promising to the world]] when the stars align is out of line with its demonstrated abilities, and when you first reach [[spoiler:the Heart, it even admits that it is a lying, manipulative monstrosity that tricked you into coming to the Estate]]. Furthermore, the presence of Light-aligned characters with divine powers, divine visions of greater beings, and holy shrines indicates that there are benevolent powers defending the world and supporting humanity. With this in mind, the last words of the [[spoiler:Heart]] seem less like a prophecy of inevitable doom and more like the [[VillainousBreakdown the last spiteful words of a defeated villain]] who is [[DefiantToTheEnd trying to get one last hit in before expiring]].
* There are subtle implications that the entire Estate is trapped in some form of time-space anomaly starting after the Ancestor committed suicide. The fact that the Heir bears a suspicious resemblance to the Ancestor and that, despite each hero having a distinct background, you can recruit multiple copies of them, and no matter how many times you kill each boss, a new one will appear in the dungeons, implies that something is weird with timelines and history, and that your heroes and the bosses and enemies are all coming from slightly different timelines or universes. It is possible that, due to his connection to [[spoiler:the Heart]], the Ancestor committing suicide somehow wounded or affected it, warping spacetime around the Estate, and that the Heir, [[spoiler:upon doing the same after wounding the Heart]], may well have locked the entire Estate into a permanent GroundhogDayLoop and [[spoiler:trapped the Heart in a never-ending cycle of emerging and being slain by the same group of unfortunate heroes being pulled from countless alternate universes]]. In effect, while the Heir couldn't permanently kill [[spoiler:the Heart]], they instead managed to trap it forever in a repeating cycle at the Estate, [[HeroicSacrifice saving the rest of the world while damning themselves and the heroes who fought for them]].
** The theory that the Estate is trapped in a GroundhogDayLoop is further supported by ''Color of Madness'', where a comparable entity to [[spoiler:the Heart of Darkness]] is causing the entire Farmstead to be trapped in an endless time loop. In fact, it's entirely possible that both entities are locking ''each other'' into a time loop due to the Heir and their heroes repeatedly killing them.

* When facing "Come Unto Your Maker", many heroes respond to it with courage, acceptance, or even welcoming their deaths, whereas elsewhere in the game, their reaction to impending death and high stress is madness and various afflictions. The reason why they are so calm and accepting in this situation and not in others is because in other battles, they are often fighting for the Heir's objectives, while when facing [[spoiler:the Heart of Darkness]], they are facing a meaningful end — whether for their faith, for the good of others, or their own redemption. While they might want to fight for gold and glory and for the betterment of others in the other quests across the Estate's lands, the [[spoiler:Heart of Darkness]] is a truly final foe, and an enemy that they can redeem themselves against in battle — which, as we can tell from many heroes' backstories, is something they've been desperately seeking in coming to the Estate in the first place. For this reason, the heroes who care for their fellows, want to fight evil, or seek to right their wrongs will respond with acceptance and even joy at being chosen, while the heroes who are more selfish and only questing in the Estate for wealth and personal glory will respond with fear and terror at being selected.
* Smashing a Bas-Relief with a shovel causes a whoppin' 100 stress to the smasher. [[spoiler:That's because it's a depiction of the Heart of Darkness waiting to awaken to destroy the world. [[https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/darkestdungeon_gamepedia/thumb/8/8f/Bas-Relief.png/180px-Bas-Relief.png?version=bbbc2301ce9c15b40d11b1c9d6df7692 Smashing it makes for a visual akin to it waking up]].]]

** There's also reasons why the "shovels" used on certain curios are rendered unusable. The ones used to force open the giant oysters are probably broken or unusable due to the torque in the oyster slamming closed on the tool's head or shaft. Display cases are almost always trapped, so when they are used to smash open the cases, either the tool is damaged by the trap or is likely has some poisons or toxins spread across the tool, damaging it or rendering it unsafe. Using it on a bas-relief in the Cove likely has a similar effect, either breaking the tool in the process of destroying the mural, or [[spoiler:The Heart of Darkness]] cursing the tool, and your heroes casting it aside.
* The icon for the Occultist's "Unspeakable Commune" skill looks like the hands in ''The Creation of Adam''... except God's hand is replaced with a tentacle. [[spoiler:A clever bit of foreshadowing about the origins of humanity.]]
* The Rare Antique that the Antiquarian can find is a statue of tentacles rising up around a humanoid figure. [[spoiler:Just like the Heart's "Come Unto Your Maker" attack.]]

* When the first mission of the Darkest Dungeon is complete, [[spoiler:the town [=NPCs=] flicker between their normal appearance and corrupted, flesh-riddled versions of themselves]]. At first, the player might be tempted to think that the Darkest Dungeon has driven the Heir insane, that the [=NPCs=] are being corrupted, or worst of all, that they've been working against you the entire time. In truth, [[spoiler:a veil has been lifted. You're seeing humanity for what it always has been: an extension of the Heart of Darkness]].
** Or perhaps instead, you're not seeing humanity as it is, but instead, [[spoiler:you're seeing humanity as the Heart envisions it to be. As you delve deeper into the Dungeon and see the extent of the evil within, it starts to change your perceptions to match its own]].
** Related to the above, consider the assertion that [[spoiler: there is no meaningful distinction between the Heart and humanity.]] While that's patently untrue as stated [[spoiler: since part of the heart not wanting to associate with the other part is a pretty meaningful distinction,]] consider this: There is actually a real-life medical condition where a part of you "breaks away" and decides to do its own thing, to the detriment of the rest of you. The immune system tries to shut the process down ASAP whenever it starts, and if your immune system can't do it, doctors try through the use of chemicals and tools. [[spoiler: You'd probably know this as cancer. That's what humans are in the ''Darkest Dungeon'' universe, from the Heart's POV: a mass of (non-terminal) cancerous cells refusing to obey the Heart's commands, with the many monsters connected to it acting as the Heart's doctors and immune system.]]

* If the Heart [[spoiler:truly is the creator of humanity]], it begs the question of what exactly is the true source and nature of the Religious characters' "holy" powers...
** Or worse: The Light [[LightIsGood actually is holy]]; if that's the case, [[spoiler:and the Heart of ''Darkness'' is evil and unholy...]]
** There's always a chance that some divine power had chosen to watch over humanity [[spoiler:even if that same power didn't even create it. Kind of like an adoptive parent, in a sense. Alternatively, perhaps a rival EldritchAbomination seeks to end the Heart of Darkness and has decided to enlist the help of humans in order to do so]].

** And ''of course'' humanity could create a benevolent god through belief alone. [[spoiler:They themselves are fragments of a god-like entity — one believer wouldn't have the power to create a god, but ''thousands'' of them could and did. By extension, The Heart isn't just mother and father to man, but grandmother and grandfather to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard its own polar opposite.]]]]
* Assuming [[spoiler:the Heart truly is the progenitor and source of humanity and humans are merely [[PiecesOfGod its pieces]]]], this puts humans' efforts against it in a whole new disturbing light. [[spoiler:Humans are essentially ''cancer'' to the Heart.]]
** [[spoiler:Unlike real-life cancer that eventually spells death to whoever has it, the Heart of Darkness will ultimately [[KillAllHumans overtake the humans with or without help,]] unless the epilogue was incorrect. If anything, humans are more like an annoying fever to the Heart rather than cancer. Humanity, at the moment, is enough to keep the Heart bedridden (asleep), but not enough to kill it.]]

** Another consideration; given the [[spoiler:tempting power of the Darkest Dungeon]], it's likely they're ''choosing'' to stick around, making their way steadily towards the epicenter of corruption. What becomes of those who make it? [[spoiler:Given that the other enemy types within have clear, "unevolved" counterparts in other dungeons, it appears the Madmen [[http://darkestdungeon.gamepedia.com/Rapturous_Cultist level up]] too.]]

* An interview with the developers stated that the sequel would give players a glimpse of the supernatural apocalypse affecting the world beyond the estate. Either the Heir's efforts to [[spoiler:defeat the Heart of Darkness]] failed or that [[spoiler:the Heart and the Sleeper]] aren't the only [[EldritchAbomination eldritch horrors]] plaguing humanity.
** On the one hand, [[spoiler:The Heart "winning" means [[CosmicEgg hatching from the center of the Earth]], [[EarthShatteringKaboom utterly destroying it in the process]]]], so it didn't win — at least, not yet. But considering how it is implied to have [[EldritchLocation spread its influence all over the Ancestor's lands]] while it laid dormant... [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs what if it spread into the Hamlet]], [[TakeOverTheWorld and on and on from there]]? And if it's [[spoiler: [[AlwaysABiggerFish some other cosmic horror out-competing the Heart]]]], is it [[AlienKudzu The Comet]]? [[FromBadToWorse Or something much, MUCH worse than both of them...?]]

* [[spoiler:The Heart]] not only sent the letter that sends you to the Estate, but also Is the Narrator for it, think about the narration of the opening when you start up the game, the Ancestors voice is stilted and some of the lines seem cut wholesale from the way he says them in game, almost like they were a recording of a phrase rather than naturally flowing into the sentences, [[spoiler:it was the Heart, using Voice clips he gleaned from the Ancestor]].

* Cursed heroes constantly demand the Blood, but the blood of humans doesn't satisfy them. It's implied that The Blood that they drink is an alcoholic substance created by the Court or the Sanguine Vintners, but consider the dark implications of the final line of the DLC: the Bloodsuckers are drinking the "tainted blood of the Darkest Dungeon." Maybe it's not ''human'' blood that they desire, but [[spoiler:the blood of the Heart of Darkness]].

* Why does the Hellion have very little skills that move her around at all, and her only one moves her forward, making her into TheBerserker? Because with her comic, we saw that her backstory has her leaving her tribe to be butchered in battle as she hid in fear; she's attempting to put on a brave face and leave her cowardice behind.

* Related to the above, I have one that may also be an example of fridge horror. I got the idea from something someone said on the headscratchers page "humanity is born of and from the Heart. The Ancestor's manifestation makes clear there is no meaningful distinction between us and it." While that's patently untrue as stated (drawing the line between the part of the heart that doesn't want to associate with the other part seems like a pretty meaningful distinction to me), it did get me thinking: There is actually a real-life medical condition where a part of you "breaks away" and decides to do its own thing, to the detriment of the rest of you. Your ''own immune system'' tries to shut the process down ASAP whenever it starts, and if your immune system can't do it, our doctors try. We consider it to be that bad. The condition I'm referring to is ''CANCER''. That's what humans are in the ''Darkest Dungeon'' universe: cancer.
* The Farmstead sure seems to have a lot of farmhands, foremen, scarecrows, and horses. I don't know how many of those a farm like this would normally have, but it still seems excessive. Well, I realised that that's because ''you're fighting the same ones over and over,'' thanks to the same spacetime kerfuckery that lets you do so with The Miller.

* You know how the Abomination automatically shifts back to human form if he is afflicted? That's the beast form [[HorrifyingTheHorror pulling a]] ScrewThisImOuttaHere

* The BigBad of the Crimson Court is a Countess. The female version of a Count. As in Count Dracula.

* ''Of Course'' the Courtyard and Farmstead are at permanent full torchlight. They're both out in the open where the sun can shine in.

** It could be that the Swines have very short lifespans.

** On the one hand, [[spoiler:The Heart "winning" means [[CosmicEgg hatching from the center of the Earth]], [[EarthShatteringKaboom utterly destroying it in the process]]]], so it didn't win — at least, not yet. But considering how it is implied to have [[EldritchLocation spread its influence all over the Ancestor's lands]] while it laid dormant... [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs what if it spread into the Hamlet]], [[TakeOverTheWorld and on and on from there]]? And if it's [[AlwaysABiggerFish some other cosmic horror out-competing the Heart]], is it [[AlienKudzu The Comet]]? [[FromBadToWorse Or something much, MUCH worse than both of them...?]]

** Also, "shovels" are a stand-in for a number of tools, such as hammers and pickaxes, and they're being put to rough use with being implemented to clear entire blockages. And in order to quickly hew down trees and smash through collapsed tunnels and blocked corridors without leaving them vulnerable to an attack from behind, they'll no doubt he treating such tools harshly, likely breaking them in their haste to clear a path.

* The Abomination's "Anger Management" camping skill has him meditate to suppress the beast. Ironically, this increases his own stress, but decreases the other heroes' stress. The reason for this is that the Abomination is actively suppressing all of his "abnormal" aspects, which would obviously cause a lot of stress; but his companions, seeing that he doesn't want to hurt them - and that, in fact, he's actively trying to fight the beast - feel relieved.
* The Swine King is said to have earned his position because he's the only Swinefolk that can stand up to the Formless Flesh. Of course he can - The Formless Flesh is extremely weak to [=AoE=] physical attacks and the Swine King has the strongest physical [=AoE=] attack in the game.
* Why does the Hellion have very little skills that move her around at all, and her only one moves her forward, making her into TheBerserker? Because with her comic we saw that her backstory has her leaving her tribe to be butchered in battle as she hid in fear; she's attempting to put on a brave face and leave her cowardice behind.
* When the first mission of the Darkest Dungeon is complete, [[spoiler: the town Npcs flicker between their normal appearance and corrupted, flesh-riddled versions of themselves]]. At first the player might be tempted to think that the Darkest Dungeon has driven the Heir insane, that the Npcs are being corrupted, or worse of all, that they've been working against you the entire time. In truth, [[spoiler: a veil has been lifted. You're seeing humanity for what it always has been: an extension of the Heart of Darkness.]]
** Or perhaps instead, you're not seeing humanity as it is, but instead, [[spoiler:you're seeing humanity as the Heart envisions it to be. As you delve deeper into the Dungeon and see the extent of the evil within, it starts to change your perceptions to match its own.]]
* Related to the above, I have one that may also be an example of fridge horror. I got the idea from something someone said on the headscratchers page " humanity is born of and from the Heart. The Ancestor's manifestation makes clear there is no meaningful distinction between us and it." While that's patently untrue as stated (drawing the line between the part of the heart that doesn't wnat to associate with the other part seems like a pretty meaningful distinction to me), it did get me thinking: There is actually a real-life medical condition where a part of you "breaks away" and decides to do its own thing, to the detriment of the rest of you. Your ''own immune system'' tries to shut the process down ASAP whenever it starts, and if your immune system can't do it, our doctors try. We consider it to be that bad. The condition I'm referring to is ''CANCER''. That's what humans are in the Darkest Dungeon universe: cancer.
* The Farmstead sure seems to have a lot of farmhands, foremen, scarecrows, and horses. I don't know how many of those a farm like this would normally have, but it still seems excessive. Well I realised that that's because ''you're fighting the same ones over and over,'' thanks to the same spacetime kerfuckery that lets you do so with The Miller.
* Why are the Warrens the one dungeon that has the fewest areas that need shovels, despite being ancient tunnels predating the earliest settlers? Simple: the Swine need to move around and live in there too, and would clear out many of the blockages that get in their way. Compare that to the Weald and Cove, which tend to have creatures who just bypass the blockages (the Pelagics can swim and most of the creatures in the Weald can control plants or are corrupted beasts) and the undead in the Ruins could have been lingering in collapsed rooms for years on end waiting for victims to stumble across them.
* At first it seems strange that at the beginning of the game Dismas a thief and Reynauld a holy warrior would get along well enough to fight together, then you realize that Reynauld always starts with the kleptomaniac quirk, he's a thief too.

* The nature of the Court makes a lot more sense when you consider the last line that the Ancestor speaks in the Crimson Court cutscenes: "Winged vermin coming to drink the tainted blood of the Darkest Dungeon." This explains not only how the Court survived all this time but also why they have congregated in such a place: they're parasites feeding off the blood of the Heart, which is seeping into the Courtyard and turning it into the fetid, bloody swamp we see in the game. It also explains why the Countess's blood revealed the nature of the Darkest Dungeon to the Ancestor: she was there to feed on the blood of the Heart beneath the Manor, and passed that knowledge on to the Ancestor when he drank her blood.
* For a type who absolutely hates vampires, The Fanatic never actually tries to enter the Courtyard to kill vampires specifically, which normally would look strange. However, remember that you literally can't enter the area without an Invitation - an item dropped only by Gatekeepers. The Fanatic is widely known in-universe for his tendency to burn enemies alive, and this is what likely happens with any Gatekeepers he manages to catch; anything they would have is burned, and even if the Invitation survives the flame, the Fanatic is likely to try and get rid of "cursed items" specifically. He never gets an Invitation and can't enter the Courtyard (he likely not even knows that he could enter if he had one), thus all he can do is to hunt outside, hoping to slow the spread of the Curse.

* You know how the Abomination automatically shifts back to human form if he afflicts? That's the beast form [[HorrifyingTheHorror pulling a]] ScrewThisImOuttaHere
* Why does the Crystalline Aberrations heal whoever manages to destroy them before they explode? They are miniature pockets of warping time and space, and if cracked prematurely, unleashes its acquired charge upon the person closest to them instead for the whole party, warping their existence in time and space for a short instant. Including ''undoing'' any injury they might have suffered moments or minutes beforehand as it reverses the attacker to a former state of existence before they received them.

* Ordinarily, the Leper visiting the brothel would make for some prime NauseaFuel, considering his situation... but he doesn't necessarily need to have sex with the people there to de-stress. [[ThisBedOfRoses Perhaps, like the Town Crier, he just wants to rest his weary body on the softest beds in the Hamlet, and they just happen to be located in the brothel.]] [[PlatonicProstitution Alternatively, he may just want a companion to talk to and listen to him while he's there, with no sexual contact involved.]] Considering that Heroes can get locked into the brothel for stress relief thanks to the LoveInterest quirk, this has some basis - a Hero may not necessarily need sex to relieve stress, they just need to occasionally reaffirm a special bond with someone back in the Hamlet. And if that special bond is with a HookerWithAHeartOfGold? That's perfectly fine for someone like the Leper, whose deteriorating body would make physical contact difficult, but his mental faculties can still be healed so long as he has someone to be there for him.

* Some of the negative character quirks are the sort that, in real life would, not be considered negative at all — they might even be seen as quite beneficial. A character may consider themselves enlightened or acquire a love interest, for instance. And, just like any other negative quirk, these can be removed in the asylum. Just what manner of treatments are they doing there?

** [[WordOfGod A Tweet from one of the game's developers]] states that The Light is [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve "Humanity's faith in delusions of their own making."]] Of course that [[{{Tulpa}} implies humanity's belief was powerful enough to spawn a being capable of opposing the Heart and actively harming its forces]], which is a bit of a hopeful note in and of itself.
** And ''of course'' humanity could create a benevolent god through belief alone. [[spoiler:They themselves are fragments of a god-like entity - one believer wouldn't have the power to create a god, but ''thousands'' of them could and did. By extension, The Heart isn't just mother and father to man, but grandmother and grandfather to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard its own polar opposite.]]]]
* Assuming [[spoiler:the Heart truly is the progenitor and source of humanity and humans are merely its pieces]], this puts humans' efforts against it in a whole new disturbing light. [[spoiler:Humans are essentially ''cancer'' to the Heart.]]

** On the one hand, [[spoiler: The Heart "winning" means [[CosmicEgg hatching from the center of the Earth]], [[EarthShatteringKaboom utterly destroying it in the process]]]], so it didn't win - at least, not yet. But considering how it is implied to have [[EldritchLocation spread its influence all over the Ancestor's lands]] while it laid dormant... [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs what if it spread into the Hamlet]], [[TakeOverTheWorld and on and on from there]]? And if it's [[AlwaysABiggerFish some other cosmic horror out-competing the Heart]], is it [[AlienKudzu The Comet]]? [[FromBadToWorse Or something much, MUCH worse than both of them...?]]

* [[spoiler: The Heart]] not only sent the letter that sends you to the Estate, but also Is the Narrator for it, think about the narration of the opening when you start up the game, the Ancestors voice is stilted and some of the lines seem cut wholesale from the way he says them in game, almost like they were a recording of a phrase rather than naturally flowing into the sentences, [[spoiler: It was the Heart, using Voice clips he gleaned from the Ancestor.]]

* Cursed heroes constantly demand the Blood, but the blood of humans doesn't satisfy them. It's implied that The Blood that they drink is an alcoholic substance created by the Court or the Sanguine Vintners, but consider the dark implications of the final line of the DLC: the Bloodsuckers are drinking the "tainted blood of the Darkest Dungeon." Maybe it's not ''human'' blood that they desire, but [[spoiler: the blood of the Heart of Darkness]].

* The Occultist's knife attack is called Sacrificial Stab, and the Pelagic Shaman's is Ceremonial Cut. But if you look at the attack animations the occultist seems to be cutting while the shaman is stabbing. It feels like the names of the attacks should be swapped.

* Considering all of the construction of the Estate and the amount of money and treasure and artifacts that can be looted from the ruins, as well as the sheer number of vampires in the Court, it's pretty clear that the Estate's population must have been much, much larger than it is at the start of the game and the lands were vastly wealthier. For the estate to now be in such a terrible state of total disrepair, imagine the sheer number of people who had to have been killed even ''before'' open revolt caused the Ancestor to have the bandits slaughter the Hamlet's population "to more manageable numbers."

* The Leper can visit the Brothel.

* For a type who absolutely hates vampires, The Fanatic never actually tries to enter the Contryard to kill vampiures specifically, whicn normally would look strange. However, remember that you can't enter without Invitation - item dropped only by Gatekeepers. The Fanatic is know for tendency to burn enemies alive, and this is what likely happens with any Gatekeepers he manages to catch; anything they would have is burned, and even if Invitation survives the Fanatic is likely to try and get rid off "cursed item" specifically. He never gets an Invitation and can't enter Countryard (he is likely to not even know that he could enter if he had one), thus all he can do is to hunt outside, hoping to slow the spread of Curse.

* A flail as a weapon has a very high chance of hitting the person wielding it, and as such it's debated by historians whether anyone ever actually used one as such (it was primarily a device for threshing grain). So of course the flagellant would use one.

* A flail as a weapon has a very high chance of hitting the person wielding it, and as such it's debated by historians whether anyone ever actually used one as such. So of course the flagellant would use one.

* The message of the Shieldbreaker's journal is pretty self-evident, but look closely and you'll notice that there's more to it. They always refer to her as "a beautiful ''[[InsistentTerminology thing]]''." It would probably mean a lot to her if someone called her a beautiful ''person''.

* The BigBad of the Crimson Court is a Countess. The female version of a Count. As in Count Dracula. I facepalmed too.