Video Game / The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante

The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante is a narrative-driven RPG following a character named Sir Brante from birth until his true death, and framed as him recounting his life in a journal. The game boasts that every choice effects Sir Brante for the rest of his life, and that some of these choices will come to effect the world as a whole.

The game is set in the Arknian Empire, a society in which Arknians rule over humans and nobles rule over commoners in a rigid caste system enforced from birth. It's a ruthless world in which even a good person will need to be strong in order to survive. While the clergy claims this order was created by the Twins, the two Gods of this world, there are those who doubt this and preach a different faith. Sir Brante is in a time and place in history to witness the fall of the Empire, and perhaps even to play a pivotal role in it.

The full game released on March 4th, 2021.

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The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante contains examples of these tropes:

• Abusive Parents: Flogging children with a lash is considered an acceptable and common method of parenting in this world. Even Sir Brante's mother Lydia and his childhood friend Tommas' father use this method.
• Alien Sky: In addition to the sun, this world is illuminated by the pillar - a large glowing line in the sky. The religion of this Empire considers this pillar of light to be the realm of the Gods.
• And Your Reward Is Interior Decorating: If you max out House Brante's wealth then Robert asks you what to spend it on. Two of the options are upgrades to the family home - either a new library wing (+1 to every skill) or a new leisure wing (+1 to family unity).
• Apocalypse Anarchy: Occurs in the final chapter, during the revolt. An earthquake near the Silver Tree leads some in Anizotte to believe the Gods are going to destroy the world and cast the whole human race down to the base of the pillar, so they're using their last moments to indulge in hedonism and commit indiscriminate murder in the streets. If the Brante Family stays in the city, then one of these looter gangs attacks their home.
  Ringleader: "The world is coming to an end! We've disobeyed the Twins, and they're punishing us. There ain't no punishment worse than this, so there ain't nothing to fear! These are our last hours! Do whatever you want!"
• Apocalypse How: It's possible to cause a continent-wide societal collapse. If the rebels win with Sophia as their leader and Sir Brante as her Dragon then she leads her enraged hordes to burn the Arknian empire to the ground and drive the Arknians to extinction.
• Apocalyptic Log: Since the game is framed as Sir Brante writing his autobiography on his deathbed, the last two chapters can come across as this trope since they consist of Sir Brante describing the decline and potentially the fall of the Arknian Empire.
• Arcadia: Invoked by the Arknians. Their ancestral homeland, Arknia, is mentioned as having no factories or heavy industries to mar the natural beauty of that province.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: The nobles tend to be arrogant and haughty at best, and downright monstrous at worst. Even sympathetic ones like Robert Brante and Augustin El Borne at times come across as craven.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Sir Brante will die no matter what unless he takes the villainous Willist path), but if he's taken to the Peak, his soul dissolves into the blissful Divine from which it was first created.
• Bad Future: Sir Brante receives a vision of one during the standoff at the Imperial College. He sees the Temple of the Silver Tree collapsing and all the leaves falling off as the city descends into anarchy. This can be averted or mitigated.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Who counts as "bad" in this setting is debatable, but there are several examples of this trope in play.
  • Night of the Serpents. Oppressive nobles murder those who stood againts them, Dorius Otton receives no punishment for his cruelty, and the resulting Revolt is so savage that it can only end in a reign of terror or a brutal military suppression and mass executions.
  • The Wrath of the Gods. If a priest Sir Brante fails to bring charges against Patriarch Cassius, the heretic blasphemes against the Gods, making Them kill himself and tons of other people and forsake the world forever.
  • Glory to the Empire. The Secret Chancellery executes and disgraces many decent characters, and its ruthless leader obtains tremendous power. Downplayed in that the Empire enters the age of reforms and better protection of commoners, and Magra becomes orderly, peaceful and well-supplied, if not outright wealthy.
  • The Anizotte Massacre. Sophia and her followers butcher citizens of Anizotte, plunge the world into a bloody war and commit genocide against Arknians.
• Big Bad: Each of the three lifepaths has a central antagonist who provides conflict through the majority of the plot.
  • The Noble path has Dorius Otton, a corrupt and bloodthirsty military commander who threatens to murder your best friend and whom you are tasked to bring to justice. Downplayed in that you can drop the charges, ally with Otton and even let your best friend die.
    • Otton can be argued to be the big bad of the whole game, especially for a rebel Sir Brante. His actions in the past make him a Greater-Scope Villain, as it is his treatment of her that leads to Sophia becoming the brutal rebel leader she ends up being. Otton will also always be the leader of the noble militia that fights the rebels during the revolt, and while his superiors can be talked down, Otton cannot, and Sir Brante will come into conflict with him at some point during the rebellion, no matter what.
  • The Priest path has Patriarch Cassius, the head of the Old Faith church and secretly a heretic who is plotting to blaspheme against the Gods and make Them forsake the world. Tellingly, he is the only major antagonist you can't ally with at all.
  • The Commoner path has Felipe El Ferro, a high-ranking member of Secret Police who blackmails you into doing his dirty work. Downplayed again in that you can remain loyal to Felipe and assist him in his schemes.
  • In any path where you do not redeem her with love, Sophia becomes this by the end of the game. She is the leader of the rebels who must be stopped to protect your city and prevent any further bloodshed. Even a rebel Sir Brante will want her stopped somehow. if he doesn't want to see a reign of terror worse than anything the Empire has ever done.
• Big Fancy Castle: Archduke Milandius has a few of them, one of which is Gaius Tempest is "borrowing" during his term as Overseer. Emperor Uther Tempest is described in the map as having one too, but Sir Brante never gets to see it in person.
• Big Fancy House:
  • Several nobles are shown living in houses like this. The Brante house is a downplayed example; it's not as big or fancy as the manors of the older noble blood-tides like the El Vermins, but it's still much better than anything working-class commoners like Tommas Guerro would have grown up in.
  • If you maximise the family's wealth, you can use this fortune to rebuild and redecorate your home manor, turning it into a more proper version of this trope. In fact, the manor becomes so Big and Fancy it makes your whole family happier and increases your Unity.
• Big First Choice: The "Three Lots" scene in Chapter III (Youth). Although previous two chapters are full of choices, their general structure is the same for all playthroughs. In Youth, however, you choose your Lot and career, and each of the three Lots is a completely different story.
• Bittersweet Ending: The default type of ending in the Blessed Arknian Empire. The game mechanics make it nearly impossible to achieve "happy" outcomes on all fronts of your life (especially if you don't "cheat" by replaying chapters over and over again). No matter what goals you are trying to achieve, you will have to make sacrifices and suffer hardships and defeats.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: The Empire, the Church and the Lots are a corrupt and oppressive system. There are good people trying to do right by the world, but even they have to make moral compromises to live within the system or to oppose it. And then some people are just unmitigated bastards who do whatever they can to get ahead, revel in the privilege and power they possess, or who are so embittered by the system that they just want to watch the world burn.
• Blue Is Heroic: Subverted. While the blue-skinned Arknians are held up by the Empire's society as wise and rightful rulers, it becomes apparent that they're just as fallible as anyone else and that the Empire they built is corrupt beyond measure.
• Boarding School: Stephan Brante is sent to one in Eterna at the insistance of his grandfather Gregor. Sir Brante and Nathan Brante, as commoners, are barred from attending.
• Bolt of Divine Retribution: In the Shadow of the Will ending, Ulrich goes full A God Am I and attempts to use divine magic to enforce his Will on everyone. The Twins annihilate him for his presumption.
• Book Ends: When Gregor Brante moves into the family home he tries to burn the toy soldiers Sir Brante received as a gift from his father Robert. On the last day of his life, Gregor tries to burn Sir Brante's mother Lydia along with all her children. Depending on player choices, both events can end either with Sir Brante being killed by Gregor or burning his hands rescuing what Gregor wanted to destroy.
• Burn the Witch!: The Church (both the Old Faith and the New) prefers to do this to heretics, as well as witches who refuse to be collared. Sir Brante can participate in a few burnings in adulthood.
• Can't Argue with Elves: The Arknians on average are physically stronger, more beautiful, have better sex, conquered a whole continent's worth of human kingdoms, and did so with the blessing of the Gods. They're always ready to remind humans of the latter two facts as well too. However they can be beaten in an honest sword fight and gunpowder kills them as readily as anyone else.
• Capital Letters Are Magic: Metaphysical concepts such as the Lots, the Law and the Will are always capitalized.
• Cavalry Betrayal: You can pull this off during the revolt.
  • To avoid Sophia's massacre your men backstab the defenders and open the gates to the legion.
  • A Lotless Brante can that needs Sophia out of the way can feign helping her in battle only to club her over the head and leave her for Otton.
• Cessation of Existence: The Markian Society, lead by Father Mark believes that this is the true fate of the soul after death, regardless of whether you are taken to the Peak or the Foot of the Pillar; their belief is that your soul is dissolved into the Will of the Twins. Certain events seem to contradict this (such as the fact that your family is able to communicate with Gregor Brante within his tomb on a certain day of the year, and his approval of you can even change depending on what you say, implying he is truly still around. Though whether he reached the Peak or the Foot of the Pillar is never stated.) On the other hand, both endings end saying that the man named Brante is no more at the end. This appears to be explicit for souls taken to the Foot of the Pillar, as the Younger slices their soul into pieces, and the remains fall into the darkness below the Pillar into apparent non-existence. It is more ambiguous for those taken to the Peak, as they are taken into the Elder's body, possibly becoming one with the rest of the souls within the Elder's body.
• Charm Person: Witches with this power (like Sophia and Aylis) possess eyes that flash a pupilless gold when they use it. Their semi-hypnotism can be defied, but doing so is very hard.
• Chastity Couple: It's possible for Sir Brante to become this with Jeanne in the Priest path.
• Choice-and-Consequence System: The game is played as a progression of choices and decisions Sir Brante makes over the course of his life. Many choices (usually the more profitable ones) are "locked", represented by an actual doorlock icon. They are unlocked if Sir Brante fullfils certain criteria, or has made specific choices in the past. At some point, the sum of choices he's made leads him down certain paths and endings.
• Contract on the Hitman:
  • In the Noble Path, one way to save Tommas is to have the court gendarmes ambush and arrest the thugs sent to murder him. Their patron, Dorius Otton, refuses to intervene to prevent their executions.
  • In the Commoner Path, if the Spy Network gets too low, Felipe El Ferre may demand you execute some of agents as a scapegoat. Some of Oliver Moss' men are chosen because they were degenerates anyway.
• Covers Always Lie: Downplayed. The full title of the game is The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante in Times of the Fall of the Blessed Arknian Empire. The Empire doesn't always fall. Sometimes order is restored and the Empire becomes even stronger.
• Cradle To Grave Character: The story begins with Sir Brante clearly on the last day of his life, writing his chronicle. He begins with his own birth. Downplayed in that he ends his account after the Anizette Revolt, only giving a "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue to describe the events between that event and the end of his life.
• Crime of Self-Defense: Under the Lots, it is a crime for a commoner to strike a noble or a priest even in self-defense. If a noble seeks to hurt a commoner then he is expected to take the abuse. Sir Brante can potentially change this law to grant commoners the right to self-defense.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Faith of the Twins has two gods, but is clearly a stand-in for Christianity, complete with a Heaven for the righteous and a Hell for the unrighteous, though Father Mark makes the case that they both ultimately amount to Cessation of Existence. The Old/New Faith divide mirrors the Protestant Reformation.
• Dark Reprise: The song "All Things End" is this to "Thoughts". The latter appears frequently during moments of familial love and togetherness, while the former appears when Lydia is on her deathbed.
• Deader than Dead: True Death, in which a person dies in a way they won't come back from and thus face the Twins for judgement. People who are lawfully executed, die of age or (sometimes) sickness or die in great positions of power face this, as does everyone else after their first three "lesser deaths".
• Deadly Euphemism: There's a hidden Steam achievement called "Second Date", which is obtained by returning Sophia to Dorius Otton as a prisoner. Otton raped Sophia in her childhood.
• Deal with the Devil: There are several factions you can bind yourself to to achieve your goals, depending on your route, but the clearest examples are the deal with El Verman in the Noble route and becoming Ulrich's disciple in the Priest route. Both deals give you a massive boost to their relevant power stat, but if you successfully maintain said high power, the bill comes due, both leading to very suboptimal endings to Chapter 4 or else requiring a heavy price to get out of. To a lesser extent, the similar deal with Mayer in the Noble route, as getting out of that deal requires a little help, but not paying the price is in fact cheaper than paying and sets you up for a very good chapter ending. As for the Lotless route, being forced into the Secret Chancellery is this, saving your life but binding you to Felipe's will, and how you deal with that contract determines the ending. However, you can dishonor any other factional deal in that route without negative consequences, averting the trope.
• Death as Game Mechanic: In this world, each person is granted three "lesser deaths" before their true death, except under certain circumstances. Accordingly, several events allow Sir Brante to die to accomplish some goal. In one route, even True Death isn't the end, but leads to a final challenge in the afterlife.
• Death Is Cheap: Everyone gets three "lesser deaths" before the big one, unless they die under certain circumstances, such as the death penalty. The nobility likes to abuse this - a noble can easily kill a commoner that has annoyed them, and suffer no punishment for it.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect:
  • A number of destinies in chapter 4 require you to get a metric between 7-9, but not to max it out. The reason is because maxing that metric out at 10 results in a different event. For example, in the Noble Path you need 7-9 justice to convict Dorius Otton for his crimes, but if you get 10 justice the revolt breaks out early.
    • This is why local Deals With the Devil are so dangerous: they push your stats too high and railroad you into pretty dark paths. For example, if noble Sir Brante makes a deal with El Verman and maintains his career at 7 or higher, later it automatically goes up to 10 and triggers Night of the Serpents unless you pay a heavy price to get out of the whole mess.
  • Achieving a more ideal state for the land can require you to avoid pushing the associated statistics too far toward one end or the other. For example, high Order leads to the land being orderly and peaceful, but maxed Order leads to people being ruled with an iron fist. High Church means the usually more sympathetic New Faith triumphs over the Old Faith, but maxed out Church means the New Faith is so powerful that it begins persecuting and executing members of the Old Faith.
  • For the final chapter, the rebellion, if you are on the side of the rebels, you need to get your military might to a very specific spot if you want to be able to end things peacefully. Too low and you will lose the rebellion. However, too high and the rebellion will turn into a complete slaughter, not unlike revolutionary France. And unless you are a commoner who has met the right pre-requisites, overthrowing and executing Sophia to take over the rebellion is mandatory to avoid going too far.
• Downer Ending: Quite a few. The most obvious are the ones where Sir Brante dies prematurely, without making any positive impact on the world and leaving no mark in history.
  • In the Commoner path, if you refuse to save your life by serving Secret Chancellery, you are swiftly hanged at age 19. You die young and betrayed, your dreams and struggles amount to nothing, your family falls to sorrow and disgrace.
  • Troubled Times. No side wins decisively in the Revolt, your home city is drowned in blood, the Emperor is suddenly killed by unknown conspirators. All power structures crumble and fall, and the whole Empire descends into poverty, chaos and a total war of all against all. There will be no winners. Only survivors.
  • The Anizotte Massacre might be the downer to end all downers. If you aid Sophia in her rampage and later tell the old man that the world is not worth saving, everything goes to hell. The Empire is burnt to the ground, nearly every sympathetic character is either butchered or embittered by the horrors, countless people die of starvation and violence. Your birth name is forgotten by all, and you are remembered only as an executioner no better than oppressors you kill. Oh, and the world is about to die.
  • This one gets even better as a Priest of the New Faith. It's possible for the player to have one meaningful encounter with Sophia on this path: the one where you get trampled by horses to give her time to escape, and then superficial, brief interactions where Sir Brante remembers her after that, but without ever really speaking again. Let the revolt get out of hand, and the end result is that a priest did everything he could to save his people and his family from strife and turmoil, only to be spared by the revolutionary he once saved while the rest of his family is executed, bound to her service for survival while everything he worked for burns down, and his only comfort is that his younger brother, now a prophet, has survived by divine providence.
• Duel to the Death:
  • An aristocratic tradition that predates the Arknian Empire and is still practiced to the present day. Augustin El Borne spent his life trying to ban these kinds of duels, and in the Noble Path, Sir Brante can make that dream a reality.
  • On the other hand, a Noble Sir Brante can also fight in several duels himself, most notably against his elder brother Stephan in the Peace chapter and against Dorius Otton in the Revolt chapter. Both fights are highly dangerous affairs, for if you don't have high enough skills or, in one case, supernatural help from your grandfather, you will suffer True Death then and there.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The general goal of the game. It is practically inevitable that your Player Character will know losses and suffering, ranging from a hard and demanding job to deaths of your loved ones and complete ruination of your family. But in the end, it is totally possible to triumph over your enemies, protect what (and whom) you hold dearest, achieve fame and prosperity and make the world a much better place.
• Elves Versus Dwarves: In this story it's Arknians versus Humans. The Arknians are better swordsmen, more beautiful, are more arrogant, and ban all industry in their ancestral homeland to keep it an Arcadia. The humans meanwhile are better riflemen, are humbler, and are more likely to pursue industry.
• Empathic Environment: Effects sometimes appear on the pages of the book related to the scene - for example, if Sir Brante is recounting an experience with fire the pages will be singed at the edges, whereas if he's recounting an experience with violence there'll be drops of blood on the pages.
• The Empire: The Blessed Arknian Empire, which conquered most of the known world and reshaped it in their vision. Despite this, the fissures in it are already beginning to show in Sir Brante's childhood and in his adulthood he gets to witness its downfall.
• Evil Is Easy:
  • Cowardly and selfish actions often replenish Sir Brante's resolve. Generally speaking, it is much easier and less costly to play Sir Brante as a selfish or fanatical bastard than as someone who actually has principles and standards.
  • Special mention should go to the Revolt chapter with Sir Brante as a rebel. Allying with Sophia and butchering your home city in a great massacre requires basically no effort. Overthrowing Sophia to lead the Revolt yourself is very difficult and risky: one wrong decision can bump the Revolt rating too high and doom all your efforts.
• Evil vs. Evil: Patriarch Cassius vs. Father Ulrich. The former is a corrupt heretic who rejects the Twins and is literally leading his people to the Foot of the Pillar, while the latter is a ruthless Torture Technician who believes that his own Will supersedes Love and Law, and who seeks to destroy The Evils of Free Will. In two endings, Ulrich proves Eviler than Thou and burns Cassius without trial.
• Exact Words:
  • Priests aren't allowed to hold weapons. Torture implements are fine, though.
  • Brante can't help Father Mark escape the mob-inflicted True Death coming to him. But he can use his authority to punish him with a Lesser Death, which will serendipitously regenerate him in a place far away from the danger.
• Family Drama: A major conflict in the game, especially in the first chapter when Sir Brante's world is no bigger than his family home. It comes to a head in the 4th chapter.
• Family Portrait of Characterization: It's possible for the Brantes to commission one in the beginning of chapter 4.
• The Famine: Can come to the Magra Region if the revolution takes too great a toll.
• Fantastic Caste System: The Lots, into which all people in the known world are divided at birth. Arknians rule the Empire, are always nobles by birth, and always rank above humans. The humans are divided into nobles of the sword (hereditary warrior-aristocrats), nobles of the mantle (civil servants who must earn their title each generation), priests (who teach the people of the Lots and the Twins), and the commoners (who are born to toil and suffer under their betters). Even in his childhood Brante can see cracks start to form in this caste system, and in the fifth chapter of his life, it may break down completely depending on the player's choices.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • Arknians view humans as inherently inferior, and many humans have internalized this belief. Some Arknians, such as Dorius Otton, view humans with utter contempt.
  • Humans and Arknians alike view witches with disgust and fear.
• Fantasy Gun Control: Averted; guns and gunpowder feature in this fantasy setting and play a major role in the last chapter.
• Faustian Rebellion: If Sir Brante makes a Deal with the Devil, it usually leads to an endgame scene where he can switch sides and subvert the devil in question. Doing so is never cheap or easy, but it allows Sir Brante to redeem himself and set the stage for a better ending of chapter IV.
  • In the priest path, Father Ulrich can collar Sir Brante, making him his disciple and teaching him to exert his Will. When Ulrich orders Brante to murder sister Jeanne, Brante can break free of Ulrich's control and kill him permanently without a trial. It costs a lot of willpower and lowers the power of the Inquisition.
  • In the noble path, as Sir Brante finds out that Remy El Verman is plotting to murder Augustin El Borne and other Crusading Lawyers, you can use that chance to warn El Borne and subvert the whole conspiracy. It costs you a lesser death and lowers your Career.
  • In the commoner path, even if you serve Felipe loyally, you can conceal Sophia's plot and allow her to prepare the Revolt. Subverted in that it's not such a great thing: Sophia's success leads to one bloody mess of a war.
• Fictional Age of Majority: Under Imperial law, sixteen is the age of adulthood.
• Final Battle: If Sir Brante survives through the Revolt chapter without dying or running away, such battle will be the final challenge of the game. It's a three-way fight for the fate of your home city between an Imperial Legion, the rebel forces and Imperial loyalists trapped in the city. No matter which side you take, it is up to Sir Brante to turn the tide of the battle and bring victory to his side.
• Firearms Are Revolutionary: In the last chapter, when the future of the wider Empire is being fought over in Anizotte, the rebels are armed with firearms and gunpowder bombs. They make use of them to deadly effect against loyalists armed with swords and lances.
• First Girl Wins: Possible. During the second chapter, Sir Brante can experience romantic feelings for the first time. If years later he enters a proper romance with the girl who provoked said first feelings, this trope applies. Moreso if the romance ends on a happy note.
• Gaia's Lament: The Magra Region was burned to ash in a past revolt, so now agriculture only occurs with the help of soil imported from elsewhere in the Empire. If the revolution is too bitter, then even that might be destroyed.
• Gambit Pile Up: Several schemes are occurring in Anizotte at the same time, you'll never see all of them in the same playthrough, and they all come to a head in the last chapter. Felipe is plotting to create a fake uprising he can easily crush so he can take control of the city, his agent Sophia is secretly plotting to make a real uprising to destroy the Empire, Remy El Vermans is plotting to oust Augustine in a coup to take control of the city for the Archduke and the old aristocracy, Augustine El Borne and Gaius Tempest are plotting to expand the rights of the common people and limit the power of the old aristocracy, Patriarch Cassius is plotting to create a Godless world by blaspheming the Gods in the holiest ritual of the faith, Father Lennart is plotting to get Patriarch by the community and to spread the New Faith through Magra, and Father Ulrich is plotting to subject the whole city to his will.
• Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: Discussed by Father Mark. In the Priest path, if you arrested him and decide to help him escape a mob lynching via a lesser death, Father Mark admits he's never experienced a lesser death before and that he's afraid the Gods will do this trope to him.
• God Is Good: The Twins are widely believed to be good and just by the majority of the population. Even the New Faith does not dispute this, only that others have misinterpreted or spread falsehood about the will of the Twins. Others such as Father Mark, and potentially Sir Brante himself, believe otherwise however. There is a conversation with the Elder after the Revolt where one of the gods himself speaks to the player, and it appears that while they may be flawed or oblivious, the Twins seem to be at least well-intentioned and capable of changing their ways for the better if convinced.
• Godly Sidestep: Sir Brante can meet the Twins on up to five different occasions, but on none of those occasions do the Gods state whether or not the Lots are part of their will.
  • Sir Brante meets the Gods during his three lesser deaths and finally at his true death, but doesn't get a chance to ask questions.
  • In adolescence, Sir Brante visits the silver tree and can receive a revelation. The Revelation of the Tree says that "... absolutely everything bears Their mark, Their design and inspiration!", including the Lots, but it's unclear if that's meant in an 'everything happens for a reason' way or if it means the Gods want humanity to live by the Lots as the priests claim.
  • If Sir Brante lives to the end of the revolt than an Old Man approaches him and asks what he'd do if he was in the Twins' place. Sir Brante never figures out who the man is, but he's clearly the Elder Twin.
• Golden Ending: It's challenging, but there are at least two lifepaths where you can play Sir Brante as an unambiguously good man and achieve unambiguously good endings on all fronts of his life.
  • The New Faith priest can unite the family with no negative consequences, save his best friend with minimal effort, convert his Love Interest, save the life of Octavia Milanidas, avert the downfall of the Silver Tree Temple and win a peaceful victory for the rebels. By the end of this path, all sympathetic characters are happy and/or in power, and all the tyrants are dead and/or removed from power.
  • The Imperial nobleman can achieve perfect balance of career and justice on his job, increase family reputation through brave and valiant deeds, ennoble his family without doing anything shady, remain friends with Augustin El Borne, kill Dorius Otton, save the Empire from the brink of destruction and make it a much less cruel place. It might be the only lifepath in the game where Sir Brante stays loyal to the Empire and still can be roleplayed as a good, brave and compassionate person through and through.
    • One possible downside to this one is that you have to push Gloria into an Arranged Marriage, but even then, it is fairly easy on this path to maintain brotherly ties with her and turn her marriage into a perfectly arranged one.
• Gone Horribly Right: In the Priest Path there's one event where Father Ulrich is arguing with a New Faith Priest about whether or not to execute a seminary student who had sex with a witch. If Sir Brante voices support for execution then it starts a riot in the tribunal chamber and resulting in the murder of not only the seminary student and his mage lover but also of several priests. You wanted blood, and that's exactly what you got!
• Good Feels Good: Befitting A World Half Full theme of the game, selfless, kind and heroic deeds of Sir Brante often beget rewards, although they tend to come later and be more subtle than immediate gains from selfish actions.
  • If Sir Brante maximises his family's Unity, the household becomes so loving and peaceful it replenishes his Heroic Resolve.
  • If Sir Brante has maintained his friendship with Tommas Guerro and saved him from death, Tommas will ask him to bear witness to his wedding vows. Doing so, once again, replenishes Brante's resolve.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: The central conflict between The Empire and the rebellion avoids the black-and-white perspective commonly found in such stories. The Empire as a whole is oppressive, stagnant and cruel, but it's not irreedemable, and there are people and Arknians actively working to make it better (your Player Character potentially included). Meanwhile, the rebellion is led by the Last Straw, a group of humans who do fight for freedom of their fellow man, but are also bitter, vindictive and ready to commit acts of terror with high civilian casualties. Not to mention that the rebels winning without Sir Brante in charge leads to one of the worst endings in the game.
• Guns vs. Swords: The invention of gunpowder proves key to the potential success of the revolt, being just as deadly as swords but with much less training required. On an ideological level, swords are the symbol of the old aristocracy while guns are the symbol of the revolt.
• Hellish Horse: The horses in the second event in adolescence. They're black horses being ridden by a group of nobles, and they fatally trample either Sophia or Sir Brante (depending on whether or not the latter saves the former). Downplayed in that the horses slow down before their riders spur them on - they have more empathy for the commoner child in their path than their riders do.
• The Heretic: A number of them are featured in the game;
  • The New Faith, founded by Patriarch Fotis, teaches that humans and Arknians are equal and that the Lots are not the will of the Gods. Not officially a heresy, but try telling that to Father Ulrich.
  • The Denial of the Twins, founded by Father Mark. This belief teaches that there's nothing after death, that the Twins are Jerkass Gods, and that humanity should instead find meaning in secular law and secular love while living in the here and now.
  • The Willists, led by Father Ulrich, who believe that one can become a God by rejecting Love and Law and devoting themselves solely to Will.
  • Elder's Witnesses, founded by Nathan Brante if Sir Brante encourages him, which teaches the Gods will grant Forgiveness to those who sincerely repent. May not be a heresy, depending on the results of the ending.
• Heroic Resolve: A mechanic in the game. There is a gauge of willpower, and some of the best choices for resolving decisions require Sir Brante to have a positive amount of it. It's recharged by moments of peace and calm, and exhausted by stressful situations.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Constantly. Due to how the game is structured, Sir Brante will frequently find himself in positions where he can't take a preferable course of action because of his previous choices.
  • In the story proper, many plots and schemes concocted by various characters will blow up in the schemer's face if they don't have Sir Brante's assistance. Notable examples include:
    • If Stephan tries to marry Gloria off without Sir Brante's help to increase family reputation, Gloria freaks out and runs away, delivering such a blow to said reputation that hereditary nobility becomes all but unachievable.
    • Father Ulrich's plan to subjugate the whole city with divine magic is not only doomed to fail and result in his agonizing death, but is one of possible catalysts for the Revolt against the Empire and the Church.
    • Remy El Verman's scheme to murder progressive nobles and restore the power of old aristocracy can sort of work, but in any case, Remy won't live to see it. His coup triggers the Revolt, and El Verman is executed almost immediately by an angry mob.
    • The crowning example of this trope is Felipe El Ferro's plan to create a managed rebellion and put it down quickly and easily. In any path where he doesn't have Sir Brante as his agent, the rebels gather very real resources, manpower, weaponry and the divine power to shoot any noble into oblivion. The resulting Revolt potentially (and very likely) destroys the Empire, and Felipe is either killed by rebels or executed for his shitpile of a failure.
• Icon of Rebellion: The Last Straws use a Lantern as their symbol.
• Inhumanly Beautiful Race: Arknians are described as having this, with Octavia Milandius being the most prominent example.
• Insignia Rip-Off Ritual: If Dorius Otton is convicted of treason, either in a trial or in the Court of Honor, Sir Brante will get to break his sword before his exile.
• Internal Reformist: Cornelius Tempest, Gaius Tempest, Augustin El Borne, and Robert Brante are all this, and it's possible for Sir Brante to be one as well. They know the Empire is deeply flawed and seek to fix it rather than bring the Empire down. However, if Sir Brante joins the Revolt, he can convince Augustin and Robert that their plans won't work and that the only way to change the Empire is by force.
• Justified Extra Lives: In this world humans have four lives, and thus come back the first three times they die. The theological explanation given is that the Twins want to make sure a person dies with all the life experience they need to be judged.
• Kangaroo Court:
  • In the Prefecture, a fair trial means both plaintiff and defendant are commoners, and even then, money can enter into the equation. Nobles will win against commoners, and a case between nobles is a headache the Prefecture doesn't want to have to deal with at all. You can try to fix this and bring true justice for commoners and nobles alike, but it won't be easy and it won't be good for your career.
  • The Inquisition isn't really big on fair trials either. They freely torture suspects to get confessions, and the only time they can't get a conviction is when the defendant is too powerful; otherwise, the sacred tribunal is merely a formality. Father Ulrich also likes to hold trials in secret wherever possible, to deny any opportunity for a defense. If the Inquisition gets too powerful, they won't bother holding tribunals at all; Ulrich will simply burn Patriarch Cassius out of hand.
  • The Secret Chancellery has to hold trials for people they disappear if they want the execution to stick. Their victims are thus tried in absentia by secret courts, then murdered to condemn them to true death.
  • If you fail in the Noble Path, then Remy El Verman and Dorius Otton kidnap you and force you into a Kangaroo Trial by Combat, which you're required to fight blindfolded - a kind of fight that Dorius has trained in for years. There's no winning this trial.
• La Résistance: Before Sir Brante's time there was a failed uprising in the region of Magra that left its soil barren. Another one grows in his home city, and if it's successful then more revolts might break out across the Empire.
• Last-Second Chance: At True Death, after Sir Brante answers all the Twin Gods' questions, the Elder Twin offers him a chance to do over his life in part or even in whole. It especially counts as this trope if Sir Brante expresses regret for the life he led.
• Loophole Abuse: An execution following a court judgment causes true death. Any court's judgment, for the Law of the Twins takes no notice of Imperial law. The People's Court of the Revolt, the in absentia proceedings of the Secret Chancellery, and the illegal and rigged Court of Honor that Remy El Verman imposes in the failed Noble ending are all just as metaphysically valid as a Prefecture proceeding, an Inquisitorial tribunal or a legitimate Court of Honor. And a Willist can pass sentence without holding any kind of court proceeding, demonstrating a different understanding of what "court" and "judgment" mean.
• Love Interests: There's a major one possible for each of three Lots; Octavia for the Noble, Jeanne for the Priest, and Sophia for the commoner.
• Low Fantasy: Through and through. The world of Sir Brante is grounded, gritty, morally complicated, and operates much like you'd expect a real-life feudal society to operate. Can even turn into a proper Dark Fantasy depending on player's choices.
  • Stakes and scope. The focus of the story lies not in epic battles of good and evil, but in how a single man struggles to make the best out of his life. The main conflicts arise not from any high power or a threat of Evil Overlord, but from various social, political and religious tensions between classes and estates. Sometimes, the scope of a conflict is as small as a fierce argument between two family members.
  • Races. It is explicitly mentioned several times that only two races inhabit the known world: humans and Arknians. There were more nations and races in the past, some of them possessing weird mystical powers, but by the present day, they are all extinct (partially because the aforementioned humans and Arknians exterminated them in a Great Offscreen War).
  • Magic. Magical abilities are rare, random and (excluding the divine magic of priests) are viewed as an unholy perversion of nature by general public. There are several "permitted" mystical rites and rituals, but they are also limited in scope and used only on special occasions.
  • Morality. So complicated that you can play two Sirs Brante with completely opposite goals, ethics and agendas - and claim moral high ground in both cases. Many "good" characters are flawed or misguided, and the "evil" ones (with few exceptions) have solid justifications behind their villainy.
• The Mourning After: Discussed. Gregor accuses his son Robert of betraying the memory of his dead wife Amalia by remarrying a commoner. As Amalia is dead by the time Sir Brante is born, there's no way to know if she'd agree with Gregor of if he's just being his usual self.
• Multiple Endings: Lots and lots of them. Your career, family life, every major character and the Empire itself can come to vastly different fates. You can play the game a dozen times and never get two identical endings.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Befitting the Low Fantasy genre, some choices and actions can be very low-key and mundane, yet still have lasting consequences. Examples include but are not limited to:
  • As a noble, you can save your land from famine and poverty by... signing a single paper.
  • As a commoner, you can bring your family fortune and prosperity by... printing and selling a lot of books.
  • As a priest, you can save your best friend from certain death by... writing a polite letter to a local feudal overlord.
• Neutrality Backlash: To achieve anything of significance, Sir Brante has to pick a side in any conflict sooner or later. The game does not take kindly to those who hesitate too long or switch sides in the middle of the story. These are just several examples.
  • If you do not pick a side in a feud between Stephan and Gloria and do not manage to unite the family, Gloria disowns you and runs away from home, damaging both Unity and Reputation of the family.
  • To defeat or ally with Dorius Otton in the Noble path, you either have to fight for justice and stay loyal to El Borne (which damages your career), or to betray El Borne, get friends in higher places and build up your career (which requires moral compromises and an unfair trial or two). If you can't do either, Otton catches you flat-footed, bullies you into burning the case against him, and then murders you in a rigged duel.
  • The Family at Peace event, while happy, surprisingly fits too. If you manage to reconcile the Brantes and keep all your loved ones at home, on the day of the Revolt, you can't convince the family to pick a side and help your cause. This leaves you without additional support on the day where every ally is invaluable.
  • Sir Brante who picks a side during the Revolt can hope to achieve some sort of good, or at least satisfying, ending for his homeland. Even the Anizotte Massacre, horrible as it is, can feel quite cathartic. Sir Brante not picking a side and running away from Anizotte, however, leads to nobody winning, no positive changes and the new Dung Ages for all.
• Nothing Personal: The sole benefit of the Commoners' Lot is that it's this trope. Commoners are supposed to suffer, so (as Sir Brante might rationalize it to Nathan) individual commoners can let go of any doubt that they're suffering because the gods hate them. Some characters find a strange peace in this. Furthermore, commoners are the only caste allowed to suffer openly, in the otherwise very repressive Empire. Stephan's toxically masculine interpretation of his Lot stops him from showing affection to his own mother, and Octavia joins the La-Tari cult because Noble culture stops her from showing discontent about her father and the Empire her people built.
• Our Elves Are Different:
  • Arknians are blue-skinned humanoids with round ears, but other than that they fill the role of Elves in this story, being physically better than humans at a number of skills, being more appreciative of nature than humans, and being painfully smug.
  • The La-Tari are thin, pointy-eared, spiritual, and enigmatic.
• Overcome with Desire: In the Priest path, Jeanne and Sir Brante have sex under the Silver Tree because of this trope.
• Peer-Pressured Bully: In adolescence, the sons of noblemen are bullies at the school and harass the sons of commoners. If Sir Brante befriends them, he learns that they're only doing this because they're afraid of losing their status and privilege. Subverted with their ringleader though - he really is just a Jerkass.
• Perspective Flip: After Sir Brante finally dies a true death, and answers questions posed to him by the Twin Gods, the game's perspective flips to that of the Younger God. The player then decides whether or not Sir Brante reunites with the Elder in eternal bliss or is cast down to the base of the pillar.
• Police State: Magra becomes this if the Order rating goes up to 10 by the end of the game. Roads and streets are clean and secure, and there is little to no crime, but there is also no room for civil protests or any action against the Imperial law.
• Properly Paranoid: What the Empire do to witches is an atrocity that guarantees no sane witch will accept their authority. Yet, even one witch with criminal inclinations can burn down a room full of kids or incite a bloodthirsty mob of hundreds, so it's not entirely irrational.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: As a Dark Fantasy story, sexual violence is a factor in the setting. It is only done by the worst of characters, so you know they're utterly rotten. Namely Darius Otton, who raped his servant, Sophia, likely while she was still a child, just as more proof of how awful he is. Sophia is obviously traumatized, and her brutal worldview is likely a result
• Reasonable Authority Figure: What keeps the Blessed Arknian Empire from turning into a full-blown dystopia is that it has several of those in various positions of power (although how reasonable some of them are depend on player's choices).
  • The Supreme Chanceller Cornelius Tempest tries to establish the rule of law over all estates and give every citizen of the Empire legal protection.
  • Gaius Tempest, the Overseer of Magra, tries to secure order in his province and expand the rights of commoners at the same time. And though he tries to squash an open rebellion, he can still work out a peaceful resolution of the crisis with the help of Sir Brante.
  • Augustine El Borne, the prefect (supreme judge) of Magra, is even more of a reformist than Tempest brothers, struggling to put a stop to noble oppression and establish equality of all citizens under the law.
  • Robert Brante, your father. We don't see much of his job, but from what we see and hear, he works tirelessly to ease the commoners' suffering and uphold justice in his province.
  • Surprisingly, Felipe El Ferro, the advisor of Secret Chancellery. He rules his employees harshly, but fairly, doesn't play favorites, and his big plan, while hellishly cruel, results in one of the most beneficial endings for the whole realm.
  • It is possible to play Sir Brante as one.
    • As an Inquisitor, Sir Brante can treat his flock with wisdom and mercy, dispensing sermons and light punishments instead of torches and pitchforks. Tellingly, it is totally possible to play a pious Old Faith Inquisitor and stay true to your Lot without lighting a single pyre.
    • As a Noble judge, even if Sir Brante doesn't become a full-blown Crusading Lawyer, it is possible to build a successful career and get useful noble connections while still protecting the rights of commoners and helping your province prosper.
• Religion is Magic: The divine power of the Twins is visible in the world, and can be called on by humans.
  • Priests are able to sacrifice small silver tablets covered in prayers, using them to heal wounds or bind their adversaries.
  • Father Ulrich teaches that the Will is the true power of the Twins. He, and Sir Brante if he's his disciple, can impose Mind Manipulation on others without using silver, and later they can gain the power to sentence someone to true death without a court proceeding.
• Resistance as Planned: The Lotless in Eterna and the Last Straws in Anizotte were both created by Felipe El Ferre to gather the malcontents in those two cities into easily-crushed groups after letting them create just enough chaos to make the Secret Chancellery look useful and necessary to The Empire.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: When the revolution comes, it is initially characterized by riots, vendetta-killings, and summary executions by the People's Court. Unless Sir Brante acts decisively to suppress or course-correct the revolution, it ends with a Reign of Terror and possibly the total collapse of civilization...
• The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: ...however, the grievances of common Lot against the Empire are completely solid, and the tyranny of nobles is an absolute travesty. And if Sir Brante does act decisively, he can lead the Revolt into fighting for a better future and win freedom for his people.
• Rich Kid Turned Social Activist:
  • Antony Foss is one, being an Arknian who joined the rebels. He only appears in the Noble Path, when he's on trial for killing men of the imperial legion. He's willing to accept imprisonment and even death for his crimes, but the Prefecture doesn't want to deal with the shitstorm that holding an Arknian accountable to the law would unleash.
  • It's possible for Sir Brante to become one. Going down the path of the noble means leading at least one (and possibly two) protests against Archduke Monrogue for attempting to strip humans of their right to become ennobled by the mantle. Going down the path of the lotless means giving up on the chance to become a noble in order to join a revolutionary movement. And on the Church path, he can decide to support the New Faith, which is tied in with the cause of abolishing the Lots.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: This is pretty much the fuel that runs the Empire, as well as a major catalyst for the Revolt. Those with noble ties can get out of criminal justice fairly easily, and the Arknians are completely above common law despite Imperial decrees. Even the Brantes will attempt to use their connections to get out of trouble, as when Stephan demands that Sir Brante bail him and Nathan out when he kills a commoner. The central question of the Nobleman path (where Sir Brante is a judge) is whether he'll try to fairly enforce the law for all, or work with the system and further his career.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The one thing that sometimes balances the scales of justice between nobles and commoners is money. Commoner industrialists will sometimes be able to get justice against the nobility with a well-timed bribe.
• Screw You, Elves!: "Screw You, Arknians!" might as well be the unofficial rallying cry of the revolt.
• Secret Police: The Secret Chancellery. Sir Brante is forced into their service in the Lotless path.
• Shot at Dawn: The method of execution preferred by the rebels and the People's Court.
• Silver Has Mystic Powers: Using the Twins' divine magic requires sacrificing small silver tablets inscribed with prayers. Father Ulrich and possibly Sir Brante are the only priests who can do without them, instead using their Will for Mind Manipulation effects.
• Sleeping Their Way to the Top: A Noble Sir Brante can improve his career and his family's reputation by serving as Octavia's boy-toy.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Amusingly, it's up to you, the player, to decide where the game stands on this scale. If you see Sir Brante's world as a Crapsack World where trust is betrayed, oppression prevails and No Good Deed Goes Unpunished - and play Sir Brante accordingly - that's what the world will be. If, however, you view it as A World Half Full and play Sir Brante as a good-natured and principled person, or a well-meaning Anti-Hero, the game will provide many opportunies to prove your mettle, stand by your morals and be rewarded for your good deeds. "The world is what we make of it" might as well be an official tagline of the game.
• Slut-Shaming: The world is a particularly patriarchal one, so this isn't surprising. It is particularly horrific, however, when, while trying to kill her for leading the revolt, Darius Otton calls Sophia a slut. Especially given the context that he used to rape her when she was younger.
• Spoiled Brat: Children born into a noble lot tend to be this, as do commoner children with noble fathers. The player can choose whether or not Sir Brante becomes one.
• Stern Teacher: The Twins, the Gods of this world, are described as this. They are said to love every person on a personal level, and to offer a place at the peak of the pillar to every person regardless of their Lot, but it's also often repeated that they don't forgive sins.
• Story Branching: The protagonist's last name almost foreshadows the game's main course. The life of Sir Brante and his bonds with other characters can go in many different directions, with secret events, locked choices and multiple endings aplenty.
• Super Registration Act: The House of Humility, a place where witches and mages who consent to it are fixed with collars that eliminate their magical ability as well as their free will. The ones who don't consent are hunted down and burned at the stake by the inquisition.
• Token Heroic Orc: Anthony Foss is a token heroic Arknian, having joined a rebel movement against The Empire because he valued freedom for all over his own immense privileges. He's described as the only Arknian to care about the common people.
• Trial by Combat: The Court of Honor, an ancient tradition of nobility to settle disputes and feuds in a duel to True Death. The Court is not only a contest of swordsmanship, but also of bloodlines: a noble from an old dynasty who respects and venerates his ancestors has better chances at winning thanks to a local example of Blood Magic.
• Unequal Rites: The clergy use prayer-activated silver plaques to bind people in place (the power of the Younger) and to heal even fatal wounds (the power of the Elder). This is not like witch magic- which naturally springs from the wielder's will and only provides one power- probably. The Willist power also compels the will without using silver, but is not witch magic, in that it's not an inborn ability.
• Velvet Revolution: If Sir Brante leads the Revolt and unites estates under his banner, the rebels can make quick peace with the Empire and obtain freedom for Anizotte after a single short battle with little to no casualties.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: After you've achieved an ending, the game informs you of the state of the Kingdom and the major characters in the years to come, influenced by your decisions throughout the story and what the statistics look like by the end.
• Wicked Witch: Sometimes people develop magic powers, which trigger during times of stress. These people are arrested by the inquisition and made to wear silver collars so their powers can be controlled. Sir Brante meets two witches in his adolescence, and a third in his youth.
• Wine Is Classy: Wine is the preferred drink of noblemen, and pictures of noble gatherings show them holding wine glasses.
• A World Half Full: The setting is an unfair world governed by a Fantastic Caste System where the higher castes regularly abuse the lower ones with impunity. Despite this the player can choose for Sir Brante to be an All-Loving Hero, and it's possible for him to change the world for the better in a number of different ways.
• You Can't Fight Fate: The very first choice the player makes is for Sir Brante to decide what decides a man's destiny. Two of the four choices say it's something out of the individual's control. One choice is that fate is something a person makes for themselves, and the fourth is that destiny doesn't exist.
• You Lose at Zero Trust: Downplayed. Letting one of your various career-related meters zero out is usually bad in some way (even if it's a meter you don't care about), but it's rarely a game-ender.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters:
  • The Last Straw is a shady revolutionary organization filled with vengeful extremists, radical preachers, greedy opportunists and an Agent Provocateur or dozen. There are people in it who genuinely believe in cause of freedom and seek to liberate their fellow commoners from the Lot of suffering, but even they are willing to use such methods as theft, bombing, assassinations and mass executions.
  • The morality of the Last Straw depends heavily on its leadership. With remorseless Sophia as the leader, the Straw becomes a bunch of Bomb-Throwing Anarchists and, if successful, engages in Reign of Terror and a full-blown genocide against the Arknians. If, however, Sir Brante makes an active effort to lead the Last Straw, avoid excessive violence and optionally give Sophia a hope for a better world, the Straw becomes much more similar to the popular image of heroic La Résistance.