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Dishonored Lore: The Abbey of the Everyman

  • March 25, 2016

    Dishonored Lore: The Abbey of the Everyman

    Overseer.png

    A “defender” of  the faith ready for battle

    I. Introduction

    Religion in the world of Dishonored is a strange thing. It is, unlike other fantasy worlds, much like that of modern religion, with figures unseen by mortal eye the subject of worship. Nowhere is this more true than the official religion of the city of Dunwall, The Abbey of the Everyman. In this article, I hope to educate readers on the origins, ideas, and methods of this popular religion.

     

    II. Origins

    The origins of The Abbey are, like the religion itself, extremely violent. An in-game book, The Abbey of the Everyman, states that “The order arose over the years to protect the common people from the ravages of the Outsider…” At this time, Outsider worship (which is a subject for another day) was at its apparent height, with large numbers of “heretics, witches, and thralls” occupying the land.

    However, these so-called heretics could not be fought without a base of operations. It was for this reason that the Abbey building itself was created by High Overseer John Clavering. By this time, it must be assumed that the religion had been existent for some time before the construction of the Abbey, as the before-mentioned book states, “Shortly after the Abbey was completed, every Overseer in the land gathered there and began a trek to White Cliff.”

    Once this base of operations was completed and all the Overseers of the land placed together, they took off to fight the followers of the Outsider, which had made their apparent center of religion in the area known as White Cliff, to the east of Dunwall, and in the far southeast of the Isle of Gristol. Here, the Overseer force sieged White Cliff, and, though there was some struggle, took over the town, slaughtering the adherents of the Outsider. The Abbey of the Everyman states “ White Cliff was cleansed and the ceremonial rites that followed lasted for a month, giving birth to many invocations and speeches...still revered today.” One such speech is the Litany on the White Cliff, the holiest text within the Abbey.

     

    III. Beliefs and Rituals

    Though the Abbey does not believe in any deities, it does have many rituals and rites that are to be observed. However, they do believe that, upon death, one’s “soul” will fade away into the Cosmos, resulting in some sort of afterlife. One of these is the Seven Strictures, the defining commandments of the Abbey. These seven things are what one should not do if they are an adherent of the Abbey’s “faith”. They correspond roughly with the seven deadly sins of Christianity, and are: Wandering Gaze, Lying Tongue, Restless Hands, Roving Feet, Rampant Hunger, Wanton Flesh, and Errant Mind. The Abbey concludes that if one is made susceptible to these things, or commits these actions, they are more able to be contacted or used by the Outsider. Overseers will often recite the entirety of these, along with accompanying verses that further explain why such actions are to be avoided.

    The Abbey, like most religions, has a certain book that it holds dear. Their book of choice is the Litany on the White Cliff. This books states, in part,

    “it is here that we make our stand as a righteous force against the growing darkness. It is here that we unite against the spirits of the unknown that would drag us screaming into the night, never to return to our homes, to our families! Together we will serve as a rod to those who would stray from the herd, for the foggy gray wastes of the Outsider.” 

    The Abbey also follows another set of scriptures, known as The Sayings of the Overseer. This collection of aphorisms and general advices are pieces of knowledge from an unnamed Overseer. There are at least 211 of these, though there are probably more.

     

    IV. Induction into the Abbey

    Though there was once a time when people would willingly join the Abbey, eager to defend sanity and become an Overseer, that time has passed. Now, there is a different method for entry into the order. It begins when the “target” is merely a child. At this stage, the selected youth is marked by the Abbey and observed for some time. If the correct cosmological happenings occur during that period, the child is then abducted from their home. The child is taken to Abbey until the right time, when they and the other children being evaluated make a pilgrimage to the seat of the Abbey’s power, Whitecliff. There, they are put through trials known as the Trials of Aptitude. The trials are assumed to be violent in nature, as the book The Trials of Aptitude states, “During an elaborate ceremony, it is determined which of the children will become Overseers and which must be put down.” Those that survive become Overseers, and those that don’t are thrown to the rats.

     

    V. Ranks and Divisions in the Abbey

    The Abbey itself is split into two main divisions, the Overseers and the Oracular Order. The Overseers are very much the military wing of the Abbey, and they are the ones who carry out the brandings, interrogations, and street operations, and are the focus of this article.

    The Oracular Order is a more secluded division of the Religion. Their temples and chambers are less frequent, though they are more spread out, with bases of operations in the Isles of Gristol and Serkonos. This order is made only of women, and, though they are trained in combat just as the Overseers, they are more thoughtful than their overly-fervent brothers-in-arms. Developer Harvey Smith stated that they are “more intellectually curious; ruthlessly analytical.” 

    The Order, like the Overseers, are led by a singular figure, the High Oracle. There are at least two known High Oracles, Gwen Horncroft and Dalia Somonos. They are said to be trusted completely by the High Overseer, despite the fact that they often ingest hallucinogenic substances on their “pursuit of wisdom”.

    The Overseers themselves are led by a High Overseer. This religious authority hands down all commands to his lessers, though there are more senior Overseers, as well as their subordinates. The High Overseer also is given the responsibility of interpreting the Seven Strictures, which seems to imply there is some paradigm shift, or evolution, within the religion every few generations. He also initiates the various festivals of the Abbey.

     

    VI. Practices Within the Abbey

    Though they worship no deity, the Abbey still has its own rites to observe. One such rite is the Fugue Feast. This feast is interesting for many reasons. It is set “outside” of the calendar year, meaning that anything that happens during the “Feast” is effectively outside of time. It is for this reason that any action done during Fugue Feast, which lasts “a day or two” cannot be blamed on the committer. This means that any crime, even those laid out in the Seven Strictures, is effectively legal for the duration of the Feast, with no consequences afterwards. When the festival ends, time “resumes”, and the people continue on their normal lives.

    Another “Feast” (which seems to be a word for any tradition or festival) is the Feast of Painted Kettles. This occurs whenever a High Overseer dies, no matter the cause. This meeting of senior members of the Abbey, as well as Overseers, and the High Oracle and her high-ranking subordinates, is for the naming of a new Overseer. When the Feast concludes and a new High Overseer is named, the Dance of Investiture happens, which is assumed to be a joyous ceremony.

    The Abbey is also guilty of more sinister practices, however. The Overseers are sometimes deployed alongside the police force, though the City Watch are said to hate them. They can also arrest citizens for religious crimes, and have full authority to do what they wish with these lawbreakers. All too often, what they do includes torture and interrogation. They also brand those they have marked as heretics, and effectively quarantine them, not allowing them to be touched by followers of the Abbey. The Abbey is also assumed to dislike homosexual relationships, as an Overseer caught with his male lover had to pretend he was ambushed by the naked man to trick his fellow Overseers. The Abbey also vehemently argues against the use of magic, as that is connected to the Outsider. Indeed, they sometimes make use of objects known as Overseer Music Boxes, which stream out some sort of cosmic rhythm that blocks magic, and harms any beast or man that is supernatural, including Corvo.

     

    VII. Bibliography

    The High Overseer (Book)

    Litany on the White Cliff (Book)

    The Abbey of the Everyman (Book)

    On Branding Heretics (Book)

    The Seven Strictures (Book)

    Overseer Chant (Dialogue)

    The Sayings of the Overseer (In-Game)

    Tweets from Harvey Smith

    The Abbey of the Everyman (Wiki)

    Oracular Order (Wiki)

    The High Overseer (Wiki)

    VIII. Closing Thoughts

    Thanks to anyone who’s read this far. I really like the lore of Dishonored, and the fact that you have to go digging to find out everything you want. I might have more lore on the way, but we'll have to wait and see.

    Thanks again!

    PCTY Out.

  • March 25, 2016

    Yo nice work PCTY, I love the Lore of Dishonoured and it's great to see a second Lore Article up for it, that makes 2 now and it's pretty cool. Would you mind though if I gave a few little suggestions here and there, mostly formatting,

    First, is quoting. Now you don't have many, just a few little ones here and there, but with them it would really help to italicize them so they're easier to see, you don't technically have to do it, but it is easier. Secondly, this deals only with the larger one you have in the beliefs and rituals section. Because it's such a massive quote (well larger one anyway) I'd recommend separating it from the main text, this is done with larger quotes (Use the quote tool thingy with it, that separates it quite nicely once you move it out of the main body ) because it really helps people read through it and know that it it's a quote. With the current font size and, well font it can be a tad difficult to see the quotation marks. 

    Another thing, is I'd recommend including links to all of your sources so we can follow them and learn a bit more if we want. I know it's easy to google them, but I think a lore Article benefits from straight up linking the information. I'd also try and do it for each of the parts rather than just at the very end, to kind of break up the information so we know where we'd like to go.

    Sorry about that, History Student nit-picky stuff  but it can all help with the presentation and information distribution. I do like the way your broke the Lore up into so many parts and the way you've distributed little bits of book quotes in with everything rather than relying on massive quotes, it's an interesting style and one that seems really good for distributing information. 

    I hope to see more content from you PCTY, because this looks like an awesome start to what you could do

  • March 25, 2016
    Oh I totally forgot to use the block quote! Thanks for pointing it out, I was wondering why I felt like something was slightly off. Is there any font that's better for visibility? I typed it up in Times New Roman and I thought that would be the least flashy, but if there's something that works better I'll take it. If there's not a better looking font I'll take your advice and italicize. I'll add a bibliography with links later tonight. Thanks for the kind words and tips DB. I think there might be a few more articles in my future if I find something deserving of a full-length article.
  • March 25, 2016

    No problem PCTY. As for the font, really it's just Ning being Ning, it's a bit hard to see them, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that we always use a single font size, it might help to go the next size up, but then that'd throw everyone off because we're so addicted to never changing our font. 

    Really I think italicizing it would work slightly better but you could test out moving the text size around a little as well.