Dying. Even though the demo only allow three opportunities for Sir Brante to die, and they are all lesser deaths, they are all gruesome. They include being beaten to death by your grandfather at 8, being trampled to death by noble riders at 11, and being burned to death by your grandfather at 14.
The second time you meet the Twins is this. The first time you were received with love and warmth, and that makes your second encounter with the Gods more likely to catch you off-guard. You find a blinding and light shone on you, exposing all of your sins, and the younger twin sternly raises a sword up. He swings over your head, but the narrative makes it sound like the only reason he didn't damn you was because it wasn't your time yet. Worse yet, by this point your character is still a minor!
The Foot of the Pillar. If the Younger Twin judges you unworthy after your True Death, He passes swift and terrible judgement, slashing your bare soul with His sword. Your very essence dissolves from the strike, and you fall screaming from the Shining Pillar into the eternal darkness where black hands of the damned suffocate you for all eternity. Many games threaten your Player Character with death, but not so many play the eternal damnation as a very real possibility for your endgame.
Remember that you know and develop Sir Brante from the moment of his birth. Remember also that many choices in Childhood don't have "evil" options - just perfectly normal, innocent ways for a child to react (e.g. crying and calling for help when upset). And yet, it is totally possible to see an innocent, good-natured child grow into such a sinful, wrong-doing person that you, the player, would want to condemn him to an eternity of suffering.
The sacrament. You start by seeing your younger brother Nathan get thrown onto the ground, beg to be spared or at least know what he did wrong, and get violently lashed on his back by the priest. Your character struggles to save him but is held back from doing so. Then it's Sir Brante's turn, and no matter what you do you will be assigned the commoner's Lot.
If you don't stop Gregor from burning the house down then Lydia, your character's mother, is burned to death. No matter how she greets you (sadly if you did nothing, gratefully if you saved your siblings), she reveals that this was her third lesser death. The next time she dies it'll be a true death.
The clash between the Old Faith and the New Faith are this. They both claim to represent the true will of the Twins, and you get the sense that knowing which of them is right and which is wrong will very well determine the fate of your immortal soul.
The New Faith is so far presented as the more sympathetic of the two, preaching that the Lots are lies and that humans and Arknians are equal. But what if they're wrong? If the Lots really are the will of the Gods then that would not only mean any playthrough where Sir Brante defies his Lot will lead to his damnation, it also means the Gods want a large portion of the world's population to suffer and be abused from birth. It might even mean that Gregor was right to try and burn Lydia and her children, and that doing so would be rewarded in the afterlife. You can overthrow a tyrannical government, but how can you overthrow a pair of tyrannical Gods?
At the end of the game, if you didn't die or flee, an old man will ask you to help him settle a dispute with his younger brother about what the Twins could have done better. It's then implied that the Lots are indeed a creation of Isatius, and the Twins simply assumed that's how everyone wanted it, so they enforced them. Telling the old man who totally isn't the Elder thar abolishing them would make the world a better place is all it takes for them to be abolished. So, to answer that question: By explaining what's wrong with the concepr and then asking nicely to make it go away, it turns out.
Dorius Otton. He's a sadistic rapist who murders his own soldiers seemingly for fun. In chapter 4 he goes out of his way to murder Thommas and only fails if Sir Brante intervenes to save him. He's so powerful that for most of the game he's untouchable, and unless the rebels win or a Noble Sir Brante goes out of his way to see the man punished Otton gets away with it.
Felipe El Ferro. Even when he is polite and friendly, where is a sense of cold, calculated menace in his mannerisms and dialogue. Whenever someone gets on his bad side or poses a threat to his plans, even this thin facade of friendliness drops in an instant, revealing one remorseless reptile of a man. The advisor orders unlawful arrests, threatens your entire family, and discusses torture and murder with casual smirk on his face - to him, it's all just a mundane part of his job. How scary is he? Sophia is afraid of him. Yes, THAT Sophia - an Ax-Crazy radical revolutionary with the power to bend any mortal to her will - thinks for a long time that to defy Felipe is suicidal.
His top enforcer, Oliver Moss, is no picnic either. A greedy, selfish psychopath with no loyalty except for his own wallet, Moss conducts armed robberies, tortures and assassinations with callous indifference even for his own men. If ordered to "forcibly interrogate" a group of noble prisoners, he casually remarks that "nobles always scream the loudest" and that he needs to find a quiter basement.
In both the Noble and Commoner paths, you are going to make truly terrifying enemies who threaten to destroy you if you step out of line, and until the very end it is well within their power to do so. You have some influence over which people like and dislike you, but you're going to end up a few steps away from total ruination or even death no matter who you side with. Fortunately, the Priest has it much easier and can actually avoid antagonizing anyone too frightening, though your immediate superior on that path is one of the most evil people in the entire game.
Commoner's Lot
Spending three years working for the Lotless in Eterna, only to learn the whole thing was a front for the Secret Chancellery to trap and eliminate potential rebels. You gave up your chance for a better future and hurt your relationship with your family-members, and it was all for a lie. If you survive at all, it's as a pawn of the Secret Chancellery. You joined the Lotless for the sake of freedom, and now you're less free than ever before.
If you give gunpowder to Sophia, she uses it in terror attacks against the government. This results in high casualties against civilians, leaving innocent people dead.
If your spy-network gets too small, Felipe goes so far as to threaten your family.
This chapter puts Sir Brante in a terrifying position of power. Despite being a mere commoner, you secretly work for the Secret Chancellery against your will, and what you are capable of or forced to do is not always pleasant. You have the opportunity to engage in blackmail, kidnapping, assassination and even torture throughout the chapter, sometimes even against those who trusted you, perhaps even out of necessity because you know that if you fail him Felipe will find and kill you (or worse, if what happened to Sophia is any indication).
One optional scene in this path stands out. If you did not prove your loyalty to Felipe earlier, he will allow you a night at a comfortable bathhouse for nobles. Sounds good, right? Well, as you relax there, completely naked and vulnerable, Felipe storms in with Oliver Moss and some intimidating thugs. They take your clothes away and force you to stand up in your birthday dress, shivering from cold. Then, El Ferro says that he knows you to be a traitor and that, if you don't give him one good reason not to, his men will drown you in a swimming pool then and there. Imagine standing in Sir Brante's (lack of) shoes, squirming in shame and awaiting immediate and undignified death.
It gets worse. If you've really betrayed Felipe earlier and allied with one of his enemies, pray to the Twins that your Manipulation stat is high enough to deceive the advisor. If it's not, your only option is to confess your treachery and betray your allies. Whomever your betray, it destroys your chances to ally with this character any further and severely limits your options to obtain freedom. If you put all your eggs in one basket, you're pretty much screwed.
More fun times from Felipe. If you increase Spy Network high enough, a traitor ( Oliver Moss) tries to sell the whole scheme out for money. If you capture the traitor, El Ferro states that they are too valuable an agent and should be forgiven for now. His idea of "forgiveness"? Several days of relentless torture followed by lesser death. Most terrifying is Felipe's unfallible tranquility - he's totally okay with breaking a person's mind and spirit and then letting them go back to business as usual.
Noble's Lot
In your first real case a commoner industrialist is suing his noble landlord for the right to build a brick factory on the land he's renting. If you side with the noble then Magra becomes poorer and the commoner complains that he put all his money into the factory and that his family will starve if it shuts down.
Your affair with Octavia Milandius can become this. When she first calls you to her father's castle she tries to use Sexual Extortion to make you her paramour, making it clear she intends to use her authority over her to make your life worse if you dare refuse. If you submit to her then the accompanying image shows Sir Brante covering his face with his hands in anguish and the narration for the sex scene makes it clear Sir Brante is not enjoying this.
Tommas's entire ordeal. His sadistic commander wants him dead. Said commander is petty beyond all reason, untouchable by the law and so skilled at swordsmanship that Tommas can't even protect himself in a duel. Tommas is forced to die in unwinnable duels again and again, knowing that each duel brings him one step closer to True Death.
What makes it worse is that, given High Commander Otton's power and connections, it probably wouldn't be much trouble for him to organize a rigged Court of Honor and kill Tommas in one go ( like he actually does with Sir Brante in a failed Noble ending). Otton explicitly doesn't turn to the Court so his blade only brings lesser death and he can sadistically play with Tommas several times before finishing him off.
If you fail to bring charges against Dorius Otton he kidnaps you and forces you to fight a duel you have no chance of winning.
Night of the Serpents, arguably the darkest "winning" scenario to end Chapter IV with. As darkness falls over Anizotte, people lock their doors and shut their windows, feeling something dreadful and wicked will come at night. And holy shit, does it come. Old aristocracy led by Dorius Otton carves the path of destruction through the streets, killing political rivals in their beds and dragging their mangled corpses through the night. Nowhere is safe: unless you openly support the Archduke Milanidas, your home will be sieged, you and your loved ones dragged screaming into the night and murdered bloodily.
It gets worse. If you check the conditions required to trigger this ending, you'll see that you have to hold Career at 10 and make a deal with Remy El Verman. So, as long as you don't make a deal, you are free to pursue your ambitions, right? WRONG. If you get Career 10 without shaking hands with Remy, Night of the Serpents still comes. Only now, you don't even have Remy's protection. These bloodthirsty nobles who condescendingly spare your life if you make a dishonorable deal? If you don't, they are coming for you. Imagine looking out of the window at night and seeing a crowd of cold-blooded killers, armed to the teeth and ready to butcher you and your whole family because of political disagreements.
Priest's Lot
The Willist path in general. Like sister Jeanne says, this path turns you into a power-hungry monster, and the narration doesn't shy away from details.
It starts with Father Ulrich killing you and binding you with a magical collar that makes you obey his every word and that not even a lesser death can remove.
Meanwhile, the collar gives you supernatural powers that are, simply put, unnatural in this world, like causing whole crowds to tremble in fear or sentencing people to True Death by your will alone, without a trial.
Having Ulrich as your Master triggers a unique scene where you torture a benevolent scientist suspected of heresy, cutting his nose and ears off and making his face a butchered mess of flesh and blood. The scene closes with an honest to Twins Mirror Scare when you look in the mirror and see Father Ulrich in your place.
As sister Jeanne discovers your heresy, Ulrich commands you to kill her. If you obey, what follows is a horrific scene in a dark, empty church where you Mind Rape Jeanne with your Will and choke her with a sacramental lash. Worst of all, Jeanne starts the scene still trusting (and likely in love with) you, only for you to betray her trust in such horrible way.
Ulrich's endgame. To bind the whole city with magical collars, remove free will entirely and whip people to the Peak of the Pillar through blind obedience. Out of all evil plans in the game, this is perhaps the most horrific, reducing people to mere cattle. And it would have suceeded, if not for...
The Wrath of the Gods. The divine punishment for Ulrich's hubris is pretty scary too. As the corrupt priest proclaims to be the Will incarnate, a gush of wind blows like a furious scream. Ulrich suddenly chokes on his own words, clawing at his throat until it bleeds and burning alive in the flames of his own pyre. If you did not renounce him by this point, you are burning with him.
If you thought the nightmares end with your untimely demise, you would be dead (he-he) wrong. As your soul ascends to the Shining Pillar, you are judged by the Twins, and they. Are. PISSED. As you are found guilty of pride and unworthy of salvation, the narration points out with chilling accuracy how you, with all your pride, zealousy and cruelty, are ultimately puny and insignificant before the Will of the Gods.
Even the "good" ending in this path is sort of unnerving. If you meet the conditions to defy the Twins' judgement, you transform into a vast, humanoid shadow composed solely of Will and rivaling Gods in size and power. Then you gaze back through time and see yourself in a cradle, at the very moment of your birth. And then it just... ends. What happens to your family? To your city? To the Empire? Nobody can tell. You've sacrificed your mortal ties and concerns, your very humanity, to become something alien and God-like. This is the end of your story.
The Inquisition uses Cold-Blooded Torture on suspected heretics. The first time it happens the game describes how Sir Brante and Jeannie watch Father Ulrich mutilate the prisoner by cutting off his fingers at the joints, then by bashing in his knees with a hammer, all while blood splatters on the page and he screams out. Then Father Ulrich demands you inflict a lesser death on him without a trial. If you insist the poor man deserves at least a tribunal, Ulrich upgrades his sentence to a true death.
Your affair with Jeanne becomes this in games where Father Brante believes in the Old Faith. You and a fellow cleric break your vows of celibacy with each other, at the holiest site in your religion, while worshipping Gods who explicitly don't forgive sins. Father Brante likely leaves that scene believing he's irreparably damned himself to the foot of the pillar just because he was weak once in his life.
This can turn into Nightmare Retardant later when you and Jeanne face tribunal and confess your guilt. You're both sentenced to three months of solitary confinement, meaning you've paid for your sin in life and won't have to in death. The big Nightmare Retardant is if Nathan teaches forgiveness to the Gods, giving Sir Brante a way to save his soul even after this.
