- He's really Jyggalag; who was "corrupted" and demoted by the main character from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion becoming Sheogorath; his old identity. Since he can't be pure "Order" anymore, and Madness is taken; he's trying to figure out what is in-between. Given his delight at what people do when he gives them powers and then stands back; his new portfolio may be "Free Will."
- Sounds like he may be reverting back to the Sheogorath persona after all, considering that free will is part of the Prince of Madness' portfolio.
- He's the Daedric Prince of Plot Development, a fragment of Hermaeus Mora. Each time you see him at a shrine, he's telling you about potential options in dealing with the mission at hand, after all.
- Daud's journal indicates that he found it very disturbing when he met Corvo, a Serkonan bodyguard who reminded him of himself. He reminisces about what he might have been if he had taken a different path and seems ready to repent his life as an assassin. The Outsider saw this and thought it would be hilarious if he turned Corvo Attano, a symbol of redemption and hope in Daud's eyes, into another bloodthirsty killer bound to the Void.
- Doesn't really fit with The Outsider's established traits. He doesn't encourage corruption, he just expects it. In fact he's more interested in those that resist it. Plus in the Daud DLC The Outsider seems, at least to start with, rather dismissive of Daud. Frankly the impression I got was that Daud has become rather boring to him and Corvo looks much more interesting.
- For starters, it's a Crapsack World, the Outsider has an outer-god vibe to him (I would say Nyarathotep) and the whales are Cthulhuian in design. Throw in a bit more horror and madness and the entire thing would fit into the verse without a problem.
- The problem here is the Low Chaos ending. A nation is cured of most of its ills because a man took the gifts of an outer-god and used them for good in large part due to his fatherly love for a ten year old girl. It's a hands down happy ending. Not very Lovecraftian.
- It could still fit the theory if squeezed into the expanded Mythos(i.e. taking other authors' creations, particularly Derleth's, into account). The Outsider could then be part of the Elder God "pantheon": not as powerful as the Outer Gods, certainly, but more powerful than almost any Great Old One and definitely powerful enough to exert influence of Reality Warper proportions in a localized part of the multiverse, namely, the dimension/subdimension that is Dishonored's reality. Simultaneously, he wouldn't neccessarily be malevolent (or what humans would perceive as such) as the Outer Gods and Great Old Ones would be, and neither neccessarily helpful: cool detachment with a certain interest in remarkable individuals would fit the Elder God pattern well - Nodens, who is also an Elder God, follows a somewhat similar pattern, while having a wholly different personality. As for the "happy ending" part, actually, even in a few of HPL's stories (the early ones) there is a somewhat happy ending as humans overcome Mythos entities even without supernatural help ("The Dunwich Horror" or "The Call of Cthulhu" itself, for instance). It's definitely not the tone he is most known for, but the precedent's there.
- The problem here is the Low Chaos ending. A nation is cured of most of its ills because a man took the gifts of an outer-god and used them for good in large part due to his fatherly love for a ten year old girl. It's a hands down happy ending. Not very Lovecraftian.
- She comments strangely on the Lord Regent that she doesn't want to forgive him and hesitates around her former palace.
- Practically confirmed, they have the same voice actress.
- Not only that, Granny Rags makes an interesting comment when The Heart is used around her "Nothing's been the same since her death! Poor child! Her spirit lives on – trapped – misused – and for what purpose?"
- Also, using it on Dau] makes the Heart remark "Why have you brought me here? Am I to forgive this man for what he has done to me?"
- Arkane Studios says that the Heart indeed belongs to the Empress.
- The way she addresses him feels like it to me.
- Most likely confirmed, if Pendleton's comments in the High Chaos version of "The Light at the End" is anything to go by.
- And then there's Emily's drawing of Corvo with a big "DADDY" (no, not the ones from BioShock) written above his head.
- To add to this theory, the Empress Jessamine has blue eyes and straight blue-black hair. Emily's facial features are almost identical (though more rounded and childish), but she has brown eyes and more flyaway dark brown hair. Guess who else has similar eyes and hair under his mask?
- Confirmed: right at the prologue, Emily says something along the lines of "Corvo, if you won't marry my mother, will you marry me?". Probably this means that, even though they are lovers, it wouldn't be good for the queen to marry her bodyguard. (...Or any commoner for that matter. Corvo's not exactly high-born according to his backstory.)
- Most likely confirmed, if Pendleton's comments in the High Chaos version of "The Light at the End" is anything to go by.
- At the end of The Tales from Dunwall 2 (linked below) the boy's body starts bleeding and then fades into a bright red symbol. As the boy is the first canonical victim of the plague, it only makes sense that the mark signifies the plague, the Outsider (who is strongly implied to have started the plague by giving the mark to the boy), or both.
- If you mean the red, triangular painted symbol, then it's confirmed. It's painted on the doors of quarantined houses and the body bags for plague victims are marked with it as well.
- The Outsider didn't start the plague, Hiram Burrows did. He admits as much.
- Hiram Burrows started Dunwall's plague outbreak by importing Pandyssian plague rats, yes. But who caused the Pandyssian outbreak? It could be the Outsider, why not?
- It certainly fits with being The Omniscient and "driving forward the fate of the world."
- The Outsider rarely (if ever) acts directly, preferring subtle influence usually attributed by people to prophetic dreams, intuition, 'Eureka!' moments etc. And suggesting such mad scheme fits the personality of The Outsider perfectly. So he might have some input in the course of things, but in the end, it was the lack of strong will and imagination (did you really expect everyone following orders in a city that has an important crime problem?) that led the Royal Spymaster to putting this insane plan in motion.
- I always thought that the Hand That Feeds was one of the contributing factors to the persistence of the plague rats. Granted The Spymaster's plan of "release diseased vermin into ghettos and then trap then latter" was extremely flawed. Between criminals outright disobeying martial law, and nobles screwing lower class whores containment was never an option.
- If the Abbey of the Everyman wants to keep things like him out killing her and spreading chaos everywhere might somehow weaken them enough for him to enter. It's entirely possible that the dark ending mentioned from going on killing sprees means that Corvo's murders increased the chaos so much that the Outsider can invade. It might even be that technically Corvo did kill the Empress because the Outsider was possessing him.
- Based on this Tales of Dunwall video the Outsider definitely seems responsible for the plague even though the rest is uncertain.
- Based on the E3 announcement trailer the Empress' assassin seemed to have been given a Mark (he visibly dissolves in plain view of the camera) but this could be a tainted flashback; another shot of the same event visibly lacks the red filter present in the "dissolving" shot.
- Confirmed that the assassins do indeed have the teleportation ability in the playable intro.
- Jossed. According to his confession, Burrows brought the rats over from the Pandyssian Continent to Kill the Poor. Also, the assassins get their powers from Daud, who probably got his own set from the Outsider the same way as Corvo, without any strings attached.
- This is a known fact. Daud has the same mark as Corvo.
- I never figured that the Outsider "started" anything, it's just that humans in the Dishonored world seem to have a tendency to make bad decisions, hence why the Outsider is so interested in Corvo's good ones. The plague was started in Pandyssia by a bullied boy. The Outsider gave him the power to summon rats, which he used for revenge on the bullies. In the process however, the rats made him the first plague victim. That technically makes you correct. I still don't think so about the Empress's death though.
- The plague may have already been ravaging Dunwall by the time the Outsider granted the bullied boy his powers. It's made clear in Burrows' confession that he imported the plague to Dunwall.
- We clearly see Daud stab Jessamine to death.
- Both the main game and the Knife of Dunwall DLC make it clear that Daud was hired by Burrows to assassinate the Empress.
- ... The Outsider is responsible not only for the plague and the Empress's death, but the creation (or at least weaponization) of Trans technology and the madness-induced creation of Corvo's mask.
- The "trans-batteries" used in the guns could easily have been inspired by a dream (with the implication that the Outsider is pulling the strings), just as Corvo's mask was.
- Again, the Outsider did not start the plague, the Lord Regent did.
- True, but is is not a common trope that the gods use mere mortals as their pawns?
- Yes, but the Outsider shows no signs of doing so. He grants mortals powers, yes, but Word of God is that he does nothing to influence their subsequent actions. Plus Burrows is not among the characters with any indications of a link to ol' Black Eyes.
- The mask? What does the mask have to do with anything? Piero created it, without Corvo asking.
- Pretty sure the rest of this is straight up jossed since the Outsider doesn't ever directly affect choices and developments in the world, but Corvo's mask WAS influenced by him through Piero's dreams. There are a few audiographs around Piero's shop all but confirming it.
- The third episode of Tales of Dunwall pretty much confirms that Piero was influenced by the Outsider to build Corvo's mask.
- Jossed. Sokolov is the main inventor of most of the current Trans technology in the game, and the Outsider flat out says he finds Sokolov boring. If you read Sokolov's notes, he's spent quite a lot of time and effort trying to make contact with the Outsider with little success.
- The Outsider said that if the whales were hunted to extinction the world would be devoured by the void. In all other endings the whaling continues but with the Isles gone, and most of their technology locked behind rat infested walls. The whales now have a chance to repopulate, and the End of the World as We Know It is averted.
- Barely worth saving a world like that.
- Not for the whales!
- The trailer for the sequel briefly shows some wind turbines in Karnaca, a city in another province of the empire. From this we can conclude one of two possibilities:
- A. Whales are extinct and the Empire was forced to find and utilize alternative power sources.
- B. Whales are still alive, but due to their dwindling population, the Empire was forced to switch to a new, sustainable energy source to replace Whale oil before they face a shortage.
- Though there are other possibilities:
- C. Wind power provided more energy than Whale oil could, and leaving a Wind turbine outside was an easier way to get it than hunting down Whales on your ships (which would use even more oil) and bringing them back to the mainland to harvest them.
- D. The Empire wanted a power source that was not Made of Explodium. Anyone who's played probably knows Whale oil is extremely dangerous to handle, and in fact pistols are only even possible through the use of not gunpowder, but miniature explosions of whale oil.
- Except Dunwall is not the only city in the Empire of the Isles. Even though Dunwall was the most advanced city, there's nothing that indicates the other cities don't practice whaling as well. Also, the "golden age" the Outsider talk about in the Low Chaos ending may also involve finding alternative power sources and lowering reliance on whales.
- Barely worth saving a world like that.
- The Outsider is giving his "blessings" left and right - but mainly to those who could use those newfound powers to kill and wreak havoc, and he is quite surprised if Corvo doesn't do the same. As noted in previous post, once whales are extinct, the world is devoured by the Void. So, by giving those powers to the people who kill and thus enclose the end of the Dunwall, he makes sure the world survives.
- Even if one takes the extinction of the whales as an inevitable result of the Empire's survival (which, the case could be made that a Low Chaos Corvo and Emily, armed with the knowledge of whales' importance and no longer in such desperate need of oil for security might scale back the hunting) this is rather Jossed by the Daud DLC, where The Outsider sets Daud on the path to preserve the Empire when otherwise Daud wouldn't have known to do so.
- The Outsider is really not THAT concerned with the world, since he practically predates it. He just finds empowering certain individuals with magic to see what they do with it entertaining. It's only when Emily's safety is threatened that the Outsider even so much as gives a vague order to somebody to do something about it, and that's more likely because it's heavily implied Emily is The Chosen One.
- Mostly because it's the sort of twist that gets used.
- She looks pretty dead in the trailers, considering you see her being brutally stabbed and slammed onto her knees, and the next shot is of her lying on the ground in a massive pool of blood. Of course, trailers aren't always honest, so...
- Nope, she's Killed Off for Real. Officially Jossed.
- Besides, you're kind of using her heart as an artifact detector. Probably.
- And the Outsider even trolls you about it when you read her "letter" in the void: "YOU CANNOT SAVE HER YOU CANNOT SAVE HER YOU CANNOT SAVE HER"
- And the Outsider continues to troll with Daud's DLC-Daud gets a letter with "YOU KILLED HER" in place of "YOU CANNOT SAVE HER".
- Besides, you're kind of using her heart as an artifact detector. Probably.
- The Lord Regent realized that the Empress was in league with the Outsider and decided to use a scapegoat to take the blame for killing a popular ruler while he keeps the power and works to get rid of the Outsider.
- Jossed. The guy's an ass who just wants to enact a Final Solution on the poor.
- While I'd bet that the Lord Regent and his close allies will not be so kindly treated, the regime itself and particularly the Chaos stat seem to imply there's value in keeping the totalitarian system running for now in order to stave off the plague. In practice, this will lead to a heavy-handed series of penalties for actually killing people like guards, even if the situation might otherwise call for it. No strategically breaking the chains of oppression and inspiring a democratic revolt here! Nope! Not without letting the Plague in.
- Jossed. According to his confession, Burrows brought the rats over from the Pandyssian Continent to Kill the Poor.
- How do you mean? While the LR himself and his close allies are shown to be really bad, I did specifically include that possibility, but was mainly talking about the grunt-level mooks of said totalitarian government. Considering the Chaos system and the endings, and the fact that you somehow gain Chaos for killing "Weepers*, it's hard to say that they don't go outta their way to paint violence = bad or at least less satisfying.
- Except for the fact the the Chaos stat and the plague have nothing to do with the regime. If anything the regime is worsening and prolonging the plague. The Chaos stat just measures how many people you kill, which adds to the number of plague rats, which increases panic, it's nothing political or anarchistic, heck, in the low Chaos ending, the new golden age only came about by Emily decreasing the role of government and business in Dunwall and the Empire.
- The regime's leadership certainly is gleeful about the plague reacting a Final Solution for the poor, but the rest of the grunts aren't necessarily in the know while they're upholding the quarantine and counter-plague measures even outside the wealthy areas. And furthermore, even the head honchos that are happy siccing the plague on the poor certainly do try and keep *very* strong measures to prevent it from spreading into the wealthy areas. Also, it raises the issue of why killing Weepers- carriers of the plague- would raise public panic when it's impairing the spread of the plague?
- Because although they may be plague carriers, they're still being murdered. The public is going to panic if an entire house full of people turn up with their throats slit or ripped apart by grenades whether they're sick or healthy.
- Also, more dead bodies means the rats eat more, which means they breed more resulting in more rats, which results in more weepers which results in more chaos.
- And in the very best ending the Weepers can be cured.
- Please research the definition of "murdered" in the premodern world, what plague carriers are and how they factor into the law and the environment, and the like. The imperial government- even under the Lord Regent- is portrayed as something of a necessary evil as per the original intent of this WMG, and they kill Weepers left and right with that getting very low play on anybody's worries compared to the other atrocities they commit.
- Jossed. According to his confession, Burrows brought the rats over from the Pandyssian Continent to Kill the Poor.
- In the first Tales of Dunwall video, it was shown that Edmond Roseburrow's inventions with Sokolov were used to oppress the people. We know it wasn't Lord Regent Burrows who first used them to oppress people as he had not yet taken power. It seems like someone before the Lord Regent would have had to be the one who started the oppressive regime with the newly developed weapons, yet it seems very unlikely Jessamine began it since she is loved by her people. Trans was shown to be invented before the events of the game since the "Tales of Dunwall" takes place before the game begins. Either it was Jessamine's predecessor who utilized Roseburrow's inventions to oppress the people or title of Emperor/Empress just makes you a powerless figurehead. (Of course, I could be wrong in that Jessamine's assassination takes place after the game begins and Roseburrow makes said weapons with Sokolov during the time Corvo is in jail).
- Actually an in-game books explains that the Kaldwins are new to the throne; Jessamine's father was the first Kaldwin Emperor, who inherited the throne due to being the closest relative of the previous ruler when he died. The same book also describes him as well regarded and his reign as a time of peace and prosperity. It could be progaganda of course, but it could also be that the guy before him was the one who misused Roseburrow's inventions.
- It also could have started with Jessamine first came to power. By that point, Burrows and much of Dunwall's elite were starting to become corrupt under her nose, and the Empire's form of government is actually a constitutional monarchy. With the Pendletons seizing control of the Parliament, and Burrows being able to do almost whatever he wants without any oversight as the Royal Spymaster, it's easy to see how corrupt officials could go around Jessamine's back and oppress the populace despite her good intentions.
- He appears randomly to people he finds interesting. He is always watching, He has a Blue-and-Orange Morality system going on, and most of all, he uses very similar twists of language (uses a "wrong man in the right place" type statement once.)
- Coinciding with the theory there may be multiple Outsiders, it's possible that G-Man is not The Outsider in Dishonored, but another Outsider from a different time, or one with access to a different world.
- Sure, he's usually/often cloaked in shadows or even weirder stuff, but when you get a good look at him he looks more human than some of the humans in-game. His boredom stems form the fact that he's done basically all there is to do at least a couple centuries ago and no human body or mind is ready to deal with *that* kind of rut.
- Makes sense. It was revealed that one can bestow their own power on others (It was told in-conversation that he Whalers/Assassins got their blink power from Daud.), so it's not impossible that the Outsider was once a man who managed to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence and is now acting as a trickster god in order to relieve his boredom.
- As a corollary to this...
- Makes sense. It was revealed that one can bestow their own power on others (It was told in-conversation that he Whalers/Assassins got their blink power from Daud.), so it's not impossible that the Outsider was once a man who managed to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence and is now acting as a trickster god in order to relieve his boredom.
- [[dishonored.wikia.com/wiki/The_Outsider Developer commentary]] (link to wiki article) confirms he was human...4,000 years ago.
- He has a decidedly human aspect and, even though he can grant powers, so can others (Daud comes to mind). Corvo, Daud, and Granny Rags are unusually skilled with them compared to, say, the Torturer and Daud's assassins] The Outsider is only worshiped as a god because he's mastered so much void magic he's become ageless and basically unkillable (he maxed out Vitality, in other words). It's possible there were Outsiders before him, and a previous Outsider may have granted him his original powers, but the Outsider killed his benefactors in a god-duel and is now the sole 'deity,' abandoning his human name to the ages. He's not evil incarnate, just petty and bored; he's as happy to help the heroes as the villains as long as they continue to amuse him. This of course means that any of the following could kill him in turn and/or become a new Outsider, possibly in Dishonored II, assuming they lived:
- Corvo: Becomes either a watchful (but not omnipotent) protector or a ruthless slayer of even minor wrongdoers in the vein of Light Yagami.
- Daud: Becomes a morally ambiguous bastard like the current Outsider, with a few soft spots that'll be ironed out over the course of the years-to-centuries.
- Granny Rags: Becomes basically evil incarnate or close to it, even worse than current Outsider.
- It's specifically stated that the Outsider is neither good nor evil. People seem to focus on the bad things he facilitates. What about the good things? He gives Corvo the means to save Dunwall, and puts Daud on a path to stop Delilah and save Emily.
- Sort Of◊ confirmed. The Outsider is definitely not the first scion of the Void, and he won't be the last, but he didn't kill any other gods to get there. As for if he's the strongest? Entirely possible. We don't really get to see him use his powers beyond gifting them to others, so who knows?
- The book on the Fugue Feast can also found in Delilah's studio... right by her portraits of Emily.
- JOSSED. Emily was born during the Month of Rain (4th Month in the Imperial Calender). She was conceived during the Month of Hearths (9th Month) the year before, placing her conception far too late for the Fugue Feast.
- If he didn't introduce himself, they would've had to call him something. The Outsider seems as good a name as any.
- Maybe The Outsider isn't Q, but Q's son ("Q2" from Star Trek: Voyager), learning how to use his Q powers and leaning just how amusing mortals are to toy with...
- It seems more like the other way around, and the Outsider is passing ideas to Piero. Remember, the Outsider is practically omniscient, omnipotent, and all powerful. Why would he need a mortal's help in figuring out how to trap a soul in a jar?
- This troper would like to point out that The Outsider never called his gift magic, he said to humans it LOOKED like magic, Maybe The Outsider is the sole survivor of a human civilization that harnessed the power of The Void and made some sort of Super Nukes and wiped themselves out. that would explain why there seems to be only the Isles and that rather small continent Pandyssia left as well as the bizarrely different animals. why humans did not get irradiated into misshapen sub-human things as well raises some questions though...
- Any surviving humans would likely have had to have waited it out in bunkers, so they'd be more or less the same when they got out. The whales were totally screwed, though
- The humans don't exactly look normal anyway, except for the Outsider. They're all either twisted skinny goblin creatures (the aristocrats) or knuckle-dragging gorillamen (the working class). Either some radiation or some serious inbreeding got into those fallout shelters.
- Does that mean that Dishonored is set in...Fallout's future?
- It doesn't seem remotely likely - as this troper recalls, there's a globe of the world in Dr. Galvani's office, and it clearly shows Pandyssia as a supercontinent, similar to Pangaea of Earth history. Humanity may as well not exist by the time a new one comes around (soonest estimates are 50 million years, while Hominidae only took about 20 million to emerge and turn into us), so the possibility of it being Earth any time in the future (nuclear war or no) is nil.
He also spent the first eight years of his life constantly juggling lions. Because badass non-sequiturs.
- Plus some DLC material makes it plain to see that Piero is a few watts short of a light bulb. Whether he is the way he is because The Outsider paid him a visit, or The Outsider decided to visit him because he was so off kilter, that's the real question.
- The Outsider's primary motivation for gifting people with powers is just to see what they do with them. The Outsider is not interested in Sokolov because he's utterly predictable. He knows that if Sokolov got powers, he'd try to study, analyze, and replicate them like any other science experiment, so the Outsider just doesn't bother.
- Or possibly are an actual in-setting method of training available to those bearing the Outsider's Mark. This, of course, is not mutually exclusive with the former. :)
- Possible, although the fact that Corvo ends up drop-assassinating Empress Jessamine right in front of Emily's horrified face with absolutely zero way to see who his target is beforehand makes me think that the Outsider's just screwing with Corvo for no apparent reason other than to be a dick.
- Maybe the mask also functions to disguise one's voice? ...Okay, I've got nothing.
- Corvo doesn't actually speak until past the point where Bunting thinks he's still the dominatrix.
- However, if you leave him conscious he will say to you, "I'll have you whipped, you bitch!" 'Bitch' is kind of a strange insult for a man.
- Telling Corvo that he'll have him whipped also implies that Bunting still thinks Corvo is one of the Cat's girls, as Bunting made the same threat when Corvo first walked in.
- Evidently Bunting is able to read onscreen text boxes ...through his blindfold...
- The grunts and groans Corvo makes while dying seem manly enough...
- I think we can use Occam's Razor here to draw the conclusion that The Golden Cat does not waste its prettier whores on a man who just wants to be blindfolded and shocked (or maybe Bunting believes this). He comments that Corvo's footsteps are only slightly heavier than usual, so maybe his usual domme is just a large manly voiced woman.
- As of the sequel we now know that Corvo sounds like Stephen Russell so...no.
- Expanding on this: Final battle in storm, an army against unstoppable killing machine is much more dramatic. In contrast, sneaky assassins breaking into heavily guarded fortress, in clear daylight without being seen, is much more interesting to watch. Outsider looks what Corvo does and adjust weather to give him (most likely) the most dramatic ending.
- Alternatively the sheer number of dead bodies being burned due to the plague spiraling out of control is effecting the weather. This incidentally is a real phenomena, a large enough fire can provoke existing clouds to rain by changing atmospehring conditions as well as adding particulates to the air.
- Maybe Dishonored is set hundreds of years in the future of Thief?
- This seems valid at the first glance but Outsider and Trickster have little in common. While Trickster was a force of nature, opposed to civilization and supporting primitive or even primordial paganism, The Outsider is amoral chaos impersonated. He has absolutely nothing against civilization and industrialization, as it is often mentioned that it was his influence that allowed the most brilliant minds (including Sokolov and Joplin) to create the new world. Sure, people worship The Outsider in pretty old-fashioned way, but he seems to be most interested in curious or unpredictable people regardless of their intents or affiliation. He also doesn't care whether the change he incurs is beneficial or detrimental, as long as it changes the status quo. The Outsider could be Tzeentch's best friend.
Quite simply, the Outsider was once AM- specifically the short story version, given that the game version was defeated; after losing half his players in the climax of the original story, AM eventually gave up on Earth altogether and decided to project himself into a different dimension - eventually projecting his consciousness and power into the world of Dishonored. However, after living through the results of one nuclear holocaust, AM wasn't interested in killing literally everyone in the isles for revenge against humanity; instead, he decided to operate slower and subtler than before- if only to assuage his own boredom- carefully selecting people that might amuse him in some way or another and implanting them with his reality-warping technology to see what they'd do with it.
- Adding to this, AM has learned to resurrect the dead; both in the form of the heart, and the five survivors as characters in the world: Benny is Geoff Curnow (Backstories are near identical, both being gay captains who killed their soldiers to keep a secret), Nimdok being Peiro (Amoral scientist who can be redeemed, and is used by the outsider to make stuff for him), ... and I have no idea for the other three.
- Ultimately doesn't appear to be the case. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider sees him dead, either right away or after a few decades if he gets his mortal life back. The world doesn't end right away if he's killed and if it's a slow burn end of the world it's a VERY slow one, since the world survived at least a few centuries more to become the world of Deathloop.
- I rather doubt it. For a start "laughing in the face of the Devil" is a term for courage that has been used in the real world and the Abbey treats The Outsider like the Devil. So it probably is just a euphemism for "very brave." More to the point Martin is, frankly, not that special. The Outsider picks the truly extraordinary and Martin, while brave, is just an ambitious priest. Also there's no evidence suggesting one can refuse The Outsider's gifts. Corvo wasn't offered a choice and said yes, The Outsider branded him and said "You've got magic powers now, deal with it."
- There's no solid evidence suggesting one can't refuse the Outsider's gifts either. Corvo's apparent lack of choice could be Gameplay and Story Segregation (because if he didn't choose to take the offer there would be no game). In all other cases the Outsider seems more amused with giving people choices and seeing what they do with it. Outright forcing someone to take the Mark seems out of character for him.
- Not really. The Mark is not an impulse of any kind, it's just a tool. He's not forcing Corvo to use his powers, he's just making them available. Without the Mark and the first power how is Corvo supposed to know what he's being offered? Even if the Mark can be refused I still don't think Martin was offered it, for the other reasons I stated above.
- There's no solid evidence suggesting one can't refuse the Outsider's gifts either. Corvo's apparent lack of choice could be Gameplay and Story Segregation (because if he didn't choose to take the offer there would be no game). In all other cases the Outsider seems more amused with giving people choices and seeing what they do with it. Outright forcing someone to take the Mark seems out of character for him.
- For what it's worth, there seems to be some crossover in terms of the Dishonored development team and the original System Shock development team.
- Bioshock Infinite Or rather, in the same multiverse. As Elizabeth said, "There's always a man, a lighthouse and a city". Corvo's first appearance is even via boat, approaching the aforementioned lighthouse.
- Given that the Brigmore Witches use similar attacks when you fight them in the sequel DLC, this seems highly likely.
- "Eminent Domain" and "The Surge" seem to take place shortly after "House of Pleasure". In "Eminent Domain", the broadcaster won't shut up about the Lord Regent raising the price on info on Emily's whereabouts, implying that he no longer knows where she is. The next mission in the main game, "The Royal Physician", has Corvo abduct Sokolov. Although Daud knows that Delilah can be found in Brigmore, he understands that trying to take on a powerful witch without all the intel he can get on her is a bad idea. One of the few things known about Delilah is that she used to work with Sokolov, so Daud's next step should be to find out what Sokolov knows. But since Sokolov goes missing shortly after The Knife of Dunwall, that's not an option. Daud will have to settle for looking into one of Sokolov's colleagues at the Academy.
- One problem with this timing: Lady Boyle's picture in Daud's office (in "The Surge") already has the circle and X he uses to denote defunct targets, implying that she's dead or missing. Furthermore, that circle-X is already there by the time Daud returns from "Eminent Domain", implying that he heard about her disappearance between "A Captain of Industry" and "Eminent Domain". However, this introduces some continuity errors of its own ("The Flooded District" is at least a night after "Lady Boyle's Last Party", which leaves Daud with only the hours before noon at the latest to perform the entirety of The Brigmore Witches and be home in time for Corvo) and is easily handwaved by one of the Assassins making that mark before the Overseers came in. Not to mention the Doylist justification of simply reusing the assets for Daud's office from the vanilla game.
- That's not true; Corvo goes after Burrows the night after the party, and is poisoned the following day, with an undisclosed amount of time en route to the Flooded District. The window of time is still razor-thin, ("The Surge" and "Return to the Tower" occur simultaneously, Daud leaving for the first Brigmore Witches mission immediately after the invasion is dealt with) but Daud still has time to go on one or two missions before the confrontation with Corvo. Of course, they can play fast and loose with the time Corvo spent passed out in that pit/escaping from the Whalers/retrieving his gear/etc. to give Daud the time he needs to take care of Delilah and meet Corvo on his way in.
- Daud never visits the Academy, but he does get to meet another one of its Natural Philosophers. As a side note, Lady Boyle's portrait being crossed out in "The Surge" is an error. The second mission of The Brigmore Witches takes place around the same time as "Lady Boyle's Last Party".
- Well, we never actually know how long or short Daud's shuteye is. Besides, "Lady Boyle's Last Party" is a nighttime mission, whereas "The Dead Eels" and "Delilah's Masterwork" are midmorning and midafternoon, respectively. I'd say that "Stay of Execution" and "Lady Boyle's Last Party" are either simultaneous or a day apart, the former giving Daud one day to complete his mission (a perfect fit), the latter giving Daud two days before Corvo drifts into his territory.
- It just needed to be said. We see a lot of this in-game too: Corvo only has Blink before applying upgrades, but can eventually stop time, create gusts of wind strong enough to deflect grenades, and/or cause people to dissolve into ash when he kills them. Daud's powers show an obvious melding and advancement of Corvo's powers: Blink stops time if used while not moving, Void Gaze acts like the Heart as well as like Dark Vision, and Arcane Bond allows him to empower his assassins with copies of his powers (In that vein, the Tethering might be an advanced form of Windblast). Granny Rags, however, shows the greatest amount of "evolution"; her Vitality power has advanced to Immortality, she casts Devouring Swarm and Blink simultaneously whenever she's attacked, and refers to "the sight."
- It's pretty clear that the power set varies from recipient to recipient to begin with. And I don't think making it to 100 indicates immortality. Especially when she looks over 100.
- Entirely within The Outsider's power but not really his style. He doesn't seem to be in the habit of making people do anything, just giving them the ability to do more. The closest he comes is dropping Deliah's name to Daud and even then he leaves it up to him how to take it.
- This works so well with Delilah's narrative that it's almost a wonder it was never outright stated.
- In Dishonored 2, Delilah has usurped Emily and goes by the name "Delilah Kaldwin".
- Confirmed in the sequel. Delilah is Jessamine's half-sister and was apparently 'promised' the throne by her father, the Emperor Euhorn Kaldwin. She was kicked out the Tower because she was accused of an accident Jessamine made and the former hated the latter due the extreme misfortune that befell her since then.
- Jossed. Delilah is Emperor Euhorn Kaldwin's eldest bastard daughter.
- Jossed by the sequel. Even Delilah admits she was the illegitimate one. She also claims that she was promised the throne by their father anyway (and Emily proves that illegitimacy doesn't disqualify you in the Empire) but she is a very Unreliable Narrator and even if it was true given his later treatment of her it seems unlikely he ever meant it, signed anything to that effect or mentioned it to Jessamine.
- Another, similar option; she offended his artistic sensibilities by screwing up Corvo's story. Corvo saves Emily or fails to, good story. Corvo unknowningly puts Delilah on the throne, nowhere near as interesting to him. He gave Corvo his powers so his choices would matter, not so his choices would just feed Delilah's story.
- Actually, the Outsider, having once been a powerless human who was taken advantage of by the powerful, has a soft spot for the underdog, which is why he grants powers to people who are at their lowest points. The Outsider most likely took offense to Delilah using his gifts to forcibly control an innocent and defenseless child. Not to mention that he was probably planning on gifting Emily in the future, if Dishonored 2 is any indication.
- If Emily Dies and Dunwall collapses or if the plague just decimates the Empire, whaling slows or even stops. If Emily becomes a good and proper empress, then she puts a curtail on the whaling. Either way, the whales survive.
- Which is also why the Outsider put Daud on Delilah's trail. If Delilah's the empress, then she'd not stop the killing at all.
- Really, it's not a matter about "winning". The Outsider just does what he does to see how events take their course.
- Confirmed via Word of God. There are hints that they both knew about it.
- The problem here is that at the end of Brigmore Witches Daud is killed if High Chaos and only spared if not. Now of course it's quite possible to be Low Chaos and still kill all targets but the things you're suggesting as reasons Daud would kill his targets tends to favor a more violent, "kill all before me" approach. It looks more to me like Corvo and Daud's decisions mirror each other; if one is merciful, the other is, if one is violent the other is.
- Jossed. Delilah canonically got locked away in the Void by Daud sabotaging her possession ritual, which is considered the Nonlethal option. Additionally, Billie Lurk is guaranteed to be killed by Daud's own hand if he is high-chaos (IE: killing spree), while she canonically survives to the second game to become Megan Foster (and her ship's name, "Dreadful Wale" is an affectionate anagram of "Farewell Daud").
- Slight problem, Tzeentch is the god of 'Just As Planned', while the Outsider seems to be more the entity of 'Let's see what happens'. One plans elaborate schemes and gambits laid out to a T, the other just watches and occasionally changes things up to see how they work out, not really caring what happens.
- Jossed. Word of God confirms the Outsider used to be human and now acts as an avatar for the Void. He's still his old human persona, but with god-like power, why would you waste effort walking?
- The plot will be kicked off by some sort of coup perpetrated against the Empress. Emily, thanks to training she received from Corvo, manages to escape. This time around, it's her turn to take back her empire. She might even take up Corvo's blade and mask.
- Partly confirmed. Emily will be a potential protagonist (and the plot involves a coup against her) and is the protagonist showcased in the first trailer, but Corvo is apparently the other potential protagonist, with the two having different play-styles.
- Confirmed to an extent. While Daud makes no direct appearance in the game, he is the subject of a Sequel Hook and makes full appearance in the standalone sequel