The Curse of Dunwall [Dishonored/Souls Crossover]

[Leodiensian]

There is a child on our throne.
There is a plague on our streets.
There is a curse on our souls.

Ten years after the death of Corvo Attano, the assassin of the Empress, the city of Dunwall is as corrupt as ever. The conspiracy that Corvo fought was destroyed, but never made public knowledge and the child-queen Emily sits on the throne, an unpopular figure considered by most to be a puppet of the Lord Regent even after her formal coronation. Corvo himself was found burned to death under the throne room, in a strange secret room filled with ash.

The rat-plague wrought by foul powers still ravages the population, without a cure. Worse still has been the manifestation of the Darksign, cursing those who bear it to a perpetual half-life, dying and dying over and over, eventually losing their sanity and turning to mindless Hollows. Those who bear the mark are considered touched by an outer power, a dark force that wishes to bring about an end to the New Age of Fire.

Strange beasts stalk the streets at night. The old prayers aren't bringing the same warm feelings they used to. The world is winding down, the cycle will begin again.

You bear the mark. You are cursed. Through it, a fell patron speaks to you and whispers of destiny and madness. Through it, you gain power beyond those of mortal men. Death will not touch you, but with each passing day your humanity and your memories slip further and further away.

Soon, you will find yourself in front of a certain pub, the doorway lit by whale-oil, and you can't quite remember why...

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So, yeah, like the title suggests I had this idea for a crossover between the game Dishonored and the FromSoftware "Souls" games - Bloodborne but also the Dark Souls games since Bloodborne isn't out yet, even if it is thematically very similar to Dishonored.

Still thinking of ideas for mashing up the metaphysics, but the idea is that while Corvo had the Outsider's brand which gave him his powers, that you as the Undead are marked with the Darksign that will also give you power. Your patron doesn't have to be the Outsider though.

The idea is that PCs are all Undead, bearers of the accursed Darksign, who have lost some of their memories through the process of Hollowing (dying and recovering, losing fragments of their soul). They can hunt and kill people or monsters to earn more souls and keep the Hollowing away. They could use their newfound power to pursue their personal agendas - for as long as they can remember that agenda. They could delve into the sewers, to face the adversity in the cities beneath the city. They might rekindle the flame or bring about the Dark..

Thoughts?​

 

[Leodiensian]

On The So-Called Undead Hollows,
By Anton Sokolov

In researching the rat plague and the Weepers that it creates, I have surmised a connection between those who present aberrant plague symptoms and bearers of a certain dark mark on their breast. These aberrant sufferers seem to suffer the plague's madness but not as much of its physical sores, weeping pustules and other grotesque effects.

While Weepers are very much living, these so-called Hollows have extremely suppressed vital signs. I was hard-pressed to find a pulse on these Hollow infected, while Weeper pulses are clear and rapid. I have noted that in this and many other regards the Hollows are akin to walking corpses, though naturally such an idea is irrational and to be ignored.

The bodies of the Hollows have many old wounds on them, some hanging still open and showing little to no signs of immunological response or healing progress. The more severe the injuries and the more numerous, clearly the greater the mental strain upon the Hollow - the ones who are truly mad have clearly been 'killed' many times. Why they are able to function after such traumatic injuries is something I am still studying. Some samples in my laboratory have been opened by dissection as I study their continued automation and aggression.

Those Hollows still capable of speech have expressed delusions of dying and returning many times, of losing humanity upon death and craving some way to regain it. They speak of a curse - more pagan and puerile nonsense - that has been placed on them by the Outsider, that mythical figure of such childish tales. They point to the blemish as the mark of the curse and its proof. Absurd, to be sure, yet still interesting that so many of them tell the same tale so consistently. There must be some figure in the ghettos spreading such slop, or perhaps it is the word of the Overseers blaming the plague as divine wrath and the work of villainous powers. Fools commenting on fools.

Still, the concept of a test subject who will always survive whatever I put them to is extremely intriguing...