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sirenjose · 5 months

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Vera Analysis

Vera was born in Grasse, France. This was a town where originally tanning flourished in the 16th century, but it dies out eventually. This was in part due to competition with Nice, France, but also because they switched to focusing on perfume later.

Perfume or “perfumus” in Latin means “through smoke”.

Tanning left a strong stench, and due to complaints, it became fashionable to have scented gloves. Grasse produced the aroma oils that were put into the leather gloves, and slowly their reputation as a perfume hub increased.

Eventually there was a surge in demand for high quality fragrances, leading to perfume workshops being built and artisans known as “noses” or perfumers being employed who could blend and refine scents. These were people with a natural aptitude for scent, highly trained, finely tuned olfactory abilities as well knowledge of fragrance materials.

It took time for the perfume industry to rebound after the French Reign of Terror, which an emphasis on personal cleanliness around that time helped with. Napolean himself actually encouraged the cultivation of flowers for fragrances, leading to creation of flower fields around Grasse. Flowers sent to Paris were used to create luxury perfumes for the French elite.

The 1st of 3 large perfumeries in Grasse was Galimard in 1747, with Molinard, the 2nd, founded in 1849 (the 3rd was Fragonard, built in 1926). More factories appeared with time, especially with new processes found to absorb scent molecules. In 1850, there were about 45, but by 1875 there were 65. There were also 3 types of factories: plant growers, flower brokers, and manufacturers.

Victorian ladies weren’t known for wearing excessive fragrances. At least initially, the belief was that perfumes should be so “delicate” and so “lingeringly fragrant” that no one could define it as more than the “ghost of a sweet scent”. Anything too strong or overly-lavish was associated with people like prostitutes. Back then, perfumes were generally simpler, consisting mostly of florals and botanicals. They also didn’t apply perfume to the skin, instead using it on gloves, handkerchiefs, clothing, and cosmetics. A predominant scent back then was Eau de Cologne, which was a sharp clean scent that cut through other smells, though it was later surpassed by Bergamont and lemon oil.

Queen Victoria’s scent was the orange blossom. She also loved violets, which were popular in Victorian toiletries.

The focus on singular scent fragrances (smell of a single flower) changed by the end of the 19th century. There were several reasons for this. Raw materials started to be imported from abroad, helping reduce prices, as well as caused Grasse to focus on perfume production rather than flower fields and growing. Another reason was the improvement to the techniques they used. The discovery of solvent extraction techniques allowed for the extraction of fragrant oils without damaging the essence of delicate flowers and enabled the creation of more intricate and nuanced fragrances. The 19th century was when synthetics were 1st made and used. Houbigant and Guerlain were the first to use synthetic products: Fougère royale in 1884, Jicky in 1889, which are considered the 1st modern perfume. Finally, due to synthetic perfumes becoming cheaper to make, wealthy ladies wanted more complex, unique, and as yet unsynthesized perfumes to distance themselves from the lower class.

Going back to Vera, the “Vera” we know in game, the perfumer, is actually Chloe Nair. The real Vera Nair was Chloe’s twin sister.

Chloe herself was initially a timid girl, the type who was easily frightened and lacking in self-confidence, but the 1 person she felt happy with was her twin, Vera, the only person who truly understood Chloe. Unlike Chloe, Vera was cheerful and confident. Despite their differences, they were extremely close and did almost everything together.

But she was the only one.

Adults in their hometown of Grasse, France unfortunately often compared the 2, in a judgmental, self-righteous way. So, it was no surprised they essentially labeled Chloe, who started working and experimenting with perfumes from a young age, as the negative, weird one who “only seemed to know fragrance” and how to make perfumes, while Vera was the “elegant and flattering beauty” popular with the townspeople. As a result of Chloe’s nervous and unlikeable character, they alienated the more fragile of the 2 sisters, which led Chloe to becoming increasingly negative, sensitive, and suspicious. Seeing just how popular her twin was in comparison probably reduced her own self-confidence further.

Despite how much this hurt Chloe and worsened the outlook she had on herself and others, and despite how much the residents loved Vera, Vera’s opinion of Chloe differed from everyone else. She knew the truth of just how skilled Chloe was with perfumes, and just how deep her knowledge was of them. Chloe’s skills were supported by her superior sense of smell and sensitivity to scents, which she saw as each “[telling] a story of nature”.

Not even the rest of Chloe’s family supported her though, as Craig Nair, the “Family Store Manager” (potentially her father, but we can’t be completely sure) told her “If you want your work to have a chance to appear in front of others, you need to cease your weird and comical endeavors”.

The title of this deduction is “Attempt”, followed by the line “Creativity is never liked before it has been proven successful”. This is a bit confusing as Grasse then was still a perfumery hub back then, so Vera being involved with perfumes at all shouldn’t be a problem.

Based on what we’ve heard about Grasse’s history and the development of perfumery, my best guess to explain Craig’s words is this was when simple scents, for that emphasis on personal cleanliness, were still the most popular, before the desire for more complex fragrances. As I said, there were negative connotations of any scent that was considered too lavish. If Vera was one of those beginning to experiment with something besides single scent fragrances, that could explain why he’d talk about her weird “endeavors”, as well as explain the title being “attempt” and the line about “creativity”.

Complex fragrances, like the deduction say, weren’t “liked” before they were “proven successful”. Craig doesn’t seem the type to want to take risks. He wants to stick with what has always worked. The townspeople are similar, though they also don’t understand how interested Vera is in perfume, or the “stories” tell from each scent. But it’s also possible Vera, least to the townspeople “only seems to know fragrance”, aka she pretty much focused all her time on perfumes, could’ve been more than just because she was interested in it. It’s also possible she leaned into it because it was the 1 thing she was good at, while everyone (likely including Craig) saw her sister as the better one. That or because everyone, especially Craig, never saw her as good enough, so she tried to stand out in the 1 way she knew how.

I think the idea Vera was experimenting with complex fragrances while most others, like Craig, were still focused on single scents could be backed up by deduction 5, which includes the line “Two roses, five parts sandalwood, one part geranium, one part rosewood”. Similarly, Vera had another quote in 2018 that involved multiple ingredients: “The secret formula of love: three sprigs of tuberose, one sprig of jasmine, one sprig of clove, half a sprig of chrysanthemum and hyacinth”.

Going back to deduction 5, we see that the fragrance she was developing there was for her sister. This helps show how close the 2 were, as well as likely how grateful Chloe was for Vera’s support. Vera was Chloe’s lifeline. The 1 person who was “willing to listen, take her seriously, and support her in endeavors that seem strange to others”. Vera was Chloe’s outlet, a way to help keep her sane despite how bad everything else around her was.

Unfortunately, this didn’t last. When Chloe sees the news about Vera opening a new perfume shop, and the admiration and fame she gets from it, Chloe feels betrayed. We can see her anger and her losing control of her emotions by the way the newspaper is described to have been “shredded and pasted together”, as well as how deduction 6 includes the line “Incredible: These should have belonged to me!”.

Then there’s deduction 7, titled “vengeance”, which also includes the word “resentful”.

In this same deduction, as well as the next, we essentially learn that Chloe killed her sister (with a dagger) then took her identity. By becoming “Vera”, and taking ownership of the perfume shop the real Vera started, Chloe finally gets the attention and admiration she’s wanted for so long, as we see from deduction 8’s line “So that is what it is like to become the focus of the masses”. Her life now feels like it is finally “on track”.

To everyone else, Chloe seems to have just “disappeared”, though Chloe doesn’t think anyone cares. It doesn’t matter. “Vera” is enjoying the fame and status brought by stealing her sister’s identity, as we see from the line “there seems to be a disparaging look in her eyes and she is enjoying it”. Chloe is now “Vera”, and her personality changes to fit her new identity, as well as a result of the reputation and admiration she is now getting, as she is now described in the early version of the artbook as “arrogant, hypercritical, and graceful”.

We don’t see any immediate thoughts or feelings from “Vera” regarding her killing her sister, but we do see her guilt and regret when she learns the truth upon reading the real Vera’s diary. How Vera had started the perfume shop and everything that went along with it to ensure Chloe’s talents wouldn’t be “buried” to “prove to those biased people”. We also learn as part of this diary entry that the reason Vera didn’t tell Chloe in advance or why she was doing this because Chloe was “proud” and “wouldn’t want me helping her this way”.

Which implies, if not for Chloe’s pride, Vera may have warned Chloe in advance. Or she could’ve just out right asked Chloe more directly if she (Vera) could help.

I at least partially think Chloe’s pride developed similarly to Edgar’s about painting, which was a combination of self-confidence in their skills as well as I think a semi defensive mechanism to help deal with the unhappiness around them (for Chloe this being the way she was looked down on by everyone in town and by her own family besides Vera) as well as try to prevent themselves from being hurt. Unfortunately, by closing yourself off, it also means distancing yourself from those who genuinely care about you, and for Chloe that was Vera. Maybe Chloe and Vera were a bit more distant when they’d grown up, compared to when they were younger. This potentially could’ve contributed to the build up of emotions in Chloe, with the day she made the assumption that her own sister, her last lifeline, had betrayed her, being the metaphorical straw that broke the camels back.

But as deduction 9 says “Not all mistakes can be corrected”. Chloe had made her “choice” by killing “the only person in the world who truly loved her”. Even worse for Chloe is the fact she had gotten used to living as “Vera”, which had given her the chance to finally achieve her desires and receive the compliments and praise from others she had felt she deserved for so long.

As we see in her 3rd letter, she is described as trying to “escape reality”. This same letter seems to confirm what was likely parts of Chloe’s real personality, as it describes her as “alert and oversensitive” and “mentally fragile”, with the 3rd note, being she “has a conscience” fitting with Chloe’s feelings over killing her sister after she learned the truth. The manor owner states Chloe suffers “something close to a mental breakdown”, which is likely why she wants to forget, but also I think is a term that would fit with how I think Chloe was before. I think Chloe was already close to snapping before she saw her sister start the new perfumery, while her sister’s actions were just the thing to tip her over the edge.

Vera knows she can’t bring her sister back to life, but she also is unable to deal with the complicated tangle of feelings she now has, which are a mixture of sheer guilt, pain, regret, sadness, and devastation. This all combined with Vera’s happiness at living as “Vera” complicating this mess further. As a result, she seeks to forget what happened. Specifically, she wants to forget that she killed her twin, the real Vera. She gets her chance when she receives a “mysterious perfume recipe from an eccentric black marketer”. Using this recipe, she is able to create “Euphoria”, which is described as “anyone who smells this kind of fragrance will be immersed in it and forget everything. But the second note of the perfume is so short-lived that no matter how much she improves it, it cannot be retained”. So, in her desire to perfect the recipe and make it longer lasting, she heads to the manor, which was wear the recipe had come from.

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