#townsfolk pathologic

[meirimerens]

the kain boy fears the swagger of a rotund pony

#pathologic 2 #pathologic #khan kain #notkin #dogheads #dogheads pathologic #soul-and-a-halves #my art #my firm belief the khan boy and men are sooo scared #of horses. mostly khan and victor tho. #maria and nina could tame 75 wild horses in a blink tho #notkin when that dude who wanna play tough gets #scared by animal behavior: 😂😂😂😂 #i lahv drawing the kids i get to push the expressions #into silly territories. i know at 15 #everything is SO serious. i know. however. get sillied #also NOT MURKY last pic. just one of the NPC townsfolk girl. #i would never draw murky without her blue shawl i won't do that to her

[snapshotsfromgorkhon]

I've been accused of all sorts of crimes - but I was innocent. There were rumors that I was a looter, that I walked around with a revolver killing people. I guess... I had to prove them right.

day 11; the shelter

#pathologic #pathologic 2 #pathologic 2 spoilers #daniil dankovsky #lara ravel #soldier npc #crow npc #townsfolk #characters #day 11 #the shelter #the town #the flank

[gusujay]

Everyday goes a little something like this. I open tumblr and check the pathologic tag to find art because the vibe patho artists capture is exquisite.

I immediately see someone making fun of Daniil for having highly specific special interests that he likes talking about.

I ignore it and scroll further only to see another 5 posts calling him annoying for oh wait give me a second *rereads text posts making fun of Daniil* showing symptoms of autism.

I sigh like a depressed disappointed father. I close tumblr.

#pathologic #daniil dankovsky #making fun of him can be funny #I’ve definitely laughed at a joke at his expense more than once #but I constantly see him being ridiculed for doing things that are just blatant acts of neurodiversity #he wears specific clothes oh what a whiny spoiled city boy #he speaks a language he learned as a mandatory part of his medical education that god forbid he actually enjoyed and uses in his day to day #he’s so annoying #he doesn’t understand social cues and responds in a way that I find weird let’s all laugh #he responds to certain situations aggressively because of trauma oh what an evil bad man let’s not examine this any further #he’s just mean and that’s it #I’m so tired of seeing a character I love being mocked for the exact same things I’m mocked for in real life #he actually values sanitation and hygiene and reacts to unsanitary medical practices with sceptisim what a ignorant jerk #I know I sound bitter don’t worry I’m not oblivious to it #but I think some people saw the way the townsfolk reacted to Daniil and immediately assumed they’re all right #as if one of the main components of the game isn’t how the townsfolk are abrasive and rude to strangers and outsiders #some of you for real sound like a judgemental isolated inhabitant of the town that saw daniil and immediately decided he’s not welcome

[dankovskaya]

Always thinking abt that one conversation with big vlad I believe in 2 where you can just decide with one passing line to retroactively give your Artemy a wife who presumably died tragically young at some point before the events of the game. Like that is a fucking insane and massive potential character detail to be able to just mention once and never again especially for a game where you play as a defined character rather than a completely customizable self insert or whatever but I'm sure it doesn't even stick out that much for most people who play because the game offers those kinds of drastic implications to choose from pretty frequently. All of which is to say that you can really craft versions of every healer that are Worlds away from each other while under the same name and face because ultimately they are your dolls to play with as you see fit and trying to prioritize any one version of these characters as the singularly Correct one is majorly missing the point.

#Im trying to watch a movie but sometimes i get possessed #pathologic #The multiplicity of every healer is like super relevant to their individual stories too like. #Clara is the most obvious but they are all confronted with very polarized interpretations of themselves from other characters + townsfolk

[rathologic]

hi, sorry to send something again so soon 😅

so, the religion Clara tries to convert people to in P1. is it meant to be a spin on Christianity? because there are references to God, figures from the Bible, and many mentions of Heaven and Hell. P2 Clara especially seems to have a much more religious aspect to her character (if the “God loves me 😌” line doesn’t give that away)

and i’ve always been really curious about that. is it an altered version of Christianity? (i say altered because i know Clara has a line in P2 where she’s like “why does everyone think God is up above us? he’s down below!”)

the "religion" she's converting people to is the ideology of Humility, as developed by yulia lyuricheva and katerina saburova -- I'd summarize it as "justification of sacrifice to keep the world in order". the Law it maintains is the same as that which aglaya is an instrument of, but it's also integrated into the Kin's cosmology (moreso in p2 with one of p2's worst twists). humility itself is the mechanism of the saburovs' insane death gamble to save the town via clara, so it's also manipulation all the way down :-)

The first thing, the original creation, was the Earth. The ancient one, giving life to plants and animals. She begat the Abattoir; she begat the Kin. She gives and she takes. The dead go into her; everything ends with her. She is the inception and the completion. Such is the Law. We, the Saburovs, act in the interests of the Law, by which everyone must abide. Ours is a faith of Humility.

The faith of humility is a faith for the doomed. Whoever is resigned to death deserves to die.

Let me tell you about the Law. It's not a state law, but rather a natural one. When mysterious evil emerges from nonexistence, it's a clear sign that this law has been violated. Disease is a retribution for trespassers. It's an attempt to restore the balance.

the thing with all of the Humbles is that they believe themselves responsible for the tragedy that's befallen the town, by way of some immediate or past misdeed, and by converting them to the faith of Humility they agree to sacrifice their lives to stop the plague. while the idea of the humbles' "sin" and of a "miracle" in this framework are basically christian, I'd say that comes from the lens of how Clara is interfacing with the idea of humility, and not a foundational way of describing it as a religion

which is because Clara herself 100% identifies with what I'd call not altered, but neutered christianity - the type of cultural implicit christianity where text and worship aren't rigorous (per there not being any functional religious meeting places in the town) but like the ideas are there. patho goes to some lengths to avoid mentioning, e.g., jesus, but the biblical tie-ins especially re: peter stamatin, the idea of the Cathedral, and the dialogue you mentioned lay out that the settler-town is influenced by a basically christian worldview. though I don't have the background on Russian christianity to give any implementation details 😄 (this also applying to pathologic being written from mostly the same cultural context)

+ the changeling justifies her existence (having woken up in a grave five minutes ago) by believing she's a saint and miracle-worker, which in the context of the town's beliefs, of her being a kid, and of how she finds her powers to work, spin into mysticism where within this culturally christian baseline (a post I drafted this very week basically asks why this is the case for newborn clara, given that she's ultimately better described by the Kin's beliefs and imagery) she bends the rules to portray herself as more legitimate (consciously or not) i.e. the voiceline in 2 above. so since she's the point-of-view character for 95% of the interaction the player has with humility, it gets translated through her own lens :-)

#would the townsfolk celebrate christmas? there's a right answer and it is james utopians' drawing of sexy christmas card pinup saburov #this one wasn't supposed to be so long I'll do the other one after TASKS haha #long post #p1 spoilers #pathologic #asks #urdeepestfathoms

[daisyachain]

Canadian Pathologic would be a whole big can of worms. Bachelor is a first-gen anglo Upper Canada twerp (possibly with some Irish ancestry), Haruspex is…possibly French-Cree Métis, Changeling is Canadien, the game is set in a black-fly-ridden, possibly Irish Catholic-dominated village in probably Manitoba prior to the Red River Rebellion.

#kelsey liveblogs patho #the central tension of pathologic relies on indigenous and settler communities of similar sizes living in close proximity #with the way the government kidnapped First Nations people and executed any community leaders that emerged #it would be hard to set it any later than the mid-to-late 19th C #Irish Catholic townsfolk would have the super religious overtones while also alienating the Protestant Bachelor and French Changeling #picking Haruspex’ place is more difficult. Métis Haruspex eliminates some of the tension in his identity by having him and his father share #a mixed culture. at the same time as far as I recall Métis communities were more aligned to work with settler industry at the time #while most blackfeet communities kept to themselves and cree communities were often under direct attack by settler forces #though I’d need to look into it further a métis Haruspex would have grown up with an uneasy commercial cooperation with the settlers #that mirrors the core of the story

[consciouschunkofmoss]

thinking about eva again

#legit i thought id get sick after day 7 #the timing for that whole. thing. was quite strange as eva was fine when i visited her at night and then aglaya arrived at the cathedral #leaving it therefore locked #were not to waste our time on things like that because pathologic is well known for impossible timelines #but oh well #and admiting that she was officially gone hurt a lot more than i expected #just. i was so eager to keep on with my routine until the last day (as i thought shed only die at the 12th) #but seeing her letter so early hit me like a truck #and then followed by the changeling's truly only made this ordeal worse #to deceive is a common habit amongst the townsfolk yes #but you know when youre just in that weird catatonic state #i thought that maybe i could see eva before that happened #or maybe even just Be there to see #clara's letter fucked me up a lot lmao #(im not like. utterly depressed about this obviously dhxvhdbd its just weird to process all of that) #(specially when youre forced to keep on going with your day like nothing happened at all. with only one last quest note and nothing more)

[penguino713]

Is there any way the people of Town-on-Gorkhon can get ever stranger?

The dream inspired fic, 100 % self-indulgent and weird, enjoy.

#pengi writes #pathologic #daniil dankovsky #pathologic bachelor #artemy burakh #pathologic haruspex #plus some original townsfolk #might make some artwork for this #it was really fun to write

[peterstamatin]

townsfolk character art by irina kapitonova for pathologic - shared by hwynac in the IPL server

#pathologic #ice pick lodge

[danvolodar]

Pathologic and the Town's Russianness: 1

For part 1, let's explore the naming conventions Pathologic uses, and whether its Town characters have Russian surnames.

The names of the townsfolk are remarkably non-Russian

The Kin, of course, have their names in their own Steppe language, which is a conlang that Ice Pick Lodge conscructed based on Mongolic and Turkic (mostly Buryat) tongues. So, no questions with that.

But what about the Town itself, and the names of the people living in it?

For starters, it must be noted that the foundational workings of surnames in Russian are pretty much the same as in most European languages: a surname denotes someone's ancestor's relation to craft (such as the most common surname both in English - Smith, and in Russian - Kuznetsov, meaning exactly the same), kin, appearance feature, or other such concept.

As an inflected language, however, Russian adds special suffixes to its usual roots to arrive at surnames. The most well-known of them is, of course, -ov. In the example above it turns kuznets (smith, as an occupation) into Kuznetsov (Smith, as a surname). It is also used to form the archetypical Russian surname: Ivanov, that is, related to Ivan. It is, however, by far not the only suffix used, and there are multiple others: -in, -tsyn, -shyn, -ev, -tsev, -y, and more.

Most of these allow to construct feminine forms by simple addition of the ending -a (Saburov - Saburova); but some are more complex (Olgimsky - Olgimskaya). Such complexity usually marks suffixes used in other Slavic tongues: -y in particular is often seen in Belorussian and Polish.

With all that in mind, let's explore the names we find in the Town-on-Gokhon. And the thing immediately striking is just how little surnames formed from Russian roots and Russian suffixes there are.

First, there are obviously non-Russian surnames, such as Ravel, Block, Longin, Feugel, Yan, Croy. Most of them appear to come from other European languages.

Is that probable for a Russian Empire stand-in? Yes. It was a multinational state, and there were enough Europeans among the elite for Vyazemsky to bemoan in mid-XIX century that "the Russian God" is "God whose favour falls on Germans". (Then again, hardly surprising under the Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov dynasty, ethnically German and only taking German wives for generations, despite ruling Russia).

Then, there are the surnames with Russian suffixes: Saburov, Stamatin, Lyuricheva, Olgymsky, Dankovsky. But the thing is, none of these have Russian roots! Saburov is based on Tatar (patient, hardy); Stamatin on Greek (persistent, stable); Lyuricheva, Olgymsky and Dankovsky are Slavic-sounding, but appear to be unique to the game's characters. As a side note here, Dankovsky is apparently based on a name from Gorky's Old Izergiel (Danko, a brave who ripped his own heart out to light the way for the rest of his peope).

Now, is that probable? It's stretching the suspension of disbelief a bit. Yes, there had been Tatars among the Russian elite since before the day Kazan was conquered by Moscow, which reflected in their surnames. Yes, priesthood surnames could include Greek roots. And yes, the Western Slavs were also in the Empire. But it's hard to imagine all of these coinciding to entirely drown out the surnames based on Russian roots!

All in all, this distribution sounds like a conscious artistic choice, making such an assemblage less likely for historic Eastern Europe rather than Central one.

As a sort of postscript, for these who could be bothered to read this far down. There's an interesting quirk about the female surnames in the game: in Russian, unless a surname ends with one of the Russian suffixes, it retains its basic form (same as the masculine) even when women use it. Thus, Lara's surname is Ravel, same as her father's; same thing with Croy. But there's a curious exception: the Kains. Their surname is obviously based on the eponymous Biblical character, Cain. The only thing is, Cain is not a Russian word, and thus the women of the family should apparently still have the surname Kain. Yet they do not, they use Kaina - which suggests that their surname uses the Russian suffix -in: just someone related to something called Ka-, perfectly normal, totally a word, no primordial killers in sight.

Whether that is simple wordplay, a way to show the lineage deeply assimilated, a way to take the focus off the Biblical relation, or anything else, is up to the reader to decide.

#pathologic #мор утопия

[cosmicoryx]

while I don't think pathologic is the height of feminist literature by any means imo there's good potential for a reading in there about how the concept of innate, gendered spheres of influence and knowledge (i.e. when trads say bullshit like 'the roles of men and women are equal but different' 🤢) is just another tool of oppression that can be utilised when it becomes convenient.

The women in pathologic are persecuted because of their association with mysticism during the witch-hunts for the shabnak-adyr, despite the so-called reverence of the townsfolk towards the powers of the mistresses. I think you could also read aglaya as an example of the even more vicious hatred directed at women who defy that association, given that she is portrayed as the character most despised by the powers that be. Like it's not a 1:1 or anything, and there's certainly a lot more going on with aglaya and the meta narrative than just 'god forbid women do anything' but there's for sure something there about the town's 'respect' for the perceived mystical knowledge of women being a thin veneer for oppression

#reminds me of that le guin quote criticising the idea of 'women's irrational wisdom' #anyway this is just another word salad bc im STILL working through classic #pathologic

[varijacija]

I think pathologic is a good game if you know what youre getting into and also if youre a specific type of player (as in if you love getting achievements and buffing up your character pl is not for you)

Pathologic is like an interactive novel you have to get into the story and characters to give a damn especially to get in the mindset of the character you play and they make this easy bc its so well written specifically for a game it depends on the perspectives of our player characters a lot they used the medium perfectly

Example while playing dankovsky you only hear god awful opinions on the Kin from powerful people who exploit them (bc thats part of your circle youre a fancy city doctor after all) you hear they are stupid animals and in the game their backward believes are blocking you from doing your work the first moment you hear of them youre send to kill one and when the man understandably freaks out and tries to defend himself HES the one thats a panicky stupid maniac also the missions you go on you go on to exploit the kin while also looking at them as expendable while your true goal is to heal the townsfolk

In Artemys route you get to talk to this people they are real they are your people they themselves believe they are a herd of animals but thats more like a religious thing "we are all part of one big whole" they obviously have their own thoughts and feelings they have their own complicated inner workings and problems and you can see personalities sprinkled in (how no one really likes the new foreman for example lol) their believes are used agains them to paint them in the worst light you even get to talk to the butchers doing dankovskys quest while they are hiding from the guards while in his route they are a passing thought by design

((unlike in p2 where they actually are a stupid herd???? Which are half human??? Any thats why the plegue didnt kill them?????and they even brought the plegue down upon the earth???? Wtf p2 but thats a post for another day))

Also the termitary in dankovsky route you dont want to get too much invested into that its like idk its the politics of this town you have a full plate with the plegue after all and dont have time to mess around you can even make a deal with big vlad to not say anything to the kains about it all while in haruspex route its like ok why the fuck are my people locked in there from day 1

The haruspex route also makes you run around the steppe and find the beauty of it the herbs are crucial to making the panacea its beautiful and miraculous AND usefull

It really shapes your perspective so masterfully

Even all the running that everyone cant stop complaining about while it can be annoying at times (harusplex route damnnnn youuu) is soooo good at storytelling you can feel the panic of the clock running out the frustration of running around doing useless things just for anyone to just let you work and believe you and not actively try to kill you

#sorry for not talking so much about the changling but its so unfinished :( #with just a few tweeks it could have been amazing #in haruspex and changeling route #dankovskys good reputation fr thought it was just a thing to make you not start killing violently otherwise bad mechanic i was so wrong #^the activally trying to kill you part #pathologic #just noticed I have a lot of spelling mistakes oh well #.mypost

[snapshotsfromgorkhon]

apartment; the gut (burned)

#pathologic #pathologic 2 #the gut #apartment #interiors #burned district #the town #townsfolk #crow npc #ouzel npc

[gusujay]

I love the pathologic fandom cause it’s filled with incredibly talented and creative people who’s passion for the game is so cathartic and inspiring, but there’s one question I’ve wanted to voice for a while but I haven’t known how to word it correctly.

And that question is; why is the common opinion in the fandom that Artemy is the “good doctor” and Daniil is the “bad doctor”? (not in terms of skill but in terms of moral standing)

Because yeah Daniil says some *clears throat* questionable things but I’m on the Haruspex route day 5 and…Artemy in game is just as awful sometimes. “Man’s share is harder” (why ice pick lodge why) is a line that both Daniil AND Artemy have as dialogue options, and Artemy is often very rude to the townsfolk too.

I feel the need to clarify that by awful I just mean…you know, a mix of the trauma that comes with being a doctor trying to survive the plague and ice pick lodge making some Decisions. But it’s not like Daniil is this mean guy and Artemy is understanding and kind cause he’s not.

In-game they’re literally both assholes and I love that about them, but why is the common opinion in the fandom that Daniil is a horrible bastard when Artemy and Daniil are equal levels of Bastard in the actual game, at least in classic hd. They have very different personalities, but I mean…they’re both a little bit horrible (I say this with affection).

I mean, in the Haruspex route almost the first thing you do is choose whether or not to kill a child, a child that Artemy is quite harsh to if the player picks certain dialogue options. Which is very similar to how you can play Daniil as someone who’s genuinely trying his best to help people but doesn’t quite understand the consequences his actions might be having, OR you can play him as a city boy who’s arrogant and selfish.

You can play Artemy as someone who’s come home from being away for quite a while and now has to live with the fact that the town has pinned him as an outsider and a murderer, OR you can play him as someone who’s been unjustly accused of murder and is very resentful and angry with the town and takes it out on the people who used to be his family. But only Daniil gets his less flattering dialogue options thrown at him by the fandom.

Again, I love both Artemy AND daniil they’re both my beloveds. But I feel like both of them are their own kind of fucked up and they both take that out on other people, no matter how nice the player tries to be while controlling them.

But for some reason Daniil has the reputation of being awful while Artemy doesn’t. Maybe it’s all because of the hbomb video but I’m not so sure, because (and we are going into subjective territory now since how each person interprets a video essay about a game will naturally be different, but I came out of hbomb’s video thinking Daniil was fucking hilarious, if a bit (or a lot) insensitive and ignorant about the town’s culture).

I don’t have a grand conclusion to come to at the end of this post. Just wanted to get the thought out there. Take something from it, or take nothing, I’m just a random person voicing a random thought. I’m not trying to start any fights, nor do I think this observation is at all groundbreaking, it’s just a question I’ve had for a while.

#pathologic #pathologic classic hd #daniil dankovsky #artemy burakh #burakhovsky

[permian-tropos]

I finished Pathologic 2. 

Surprisingly, after being beaten to an absolute pulp in the Abattoir, the rest of the game was a breeze. Perhaps it’s because I was lucky with infection rolls at night, after diligently boosting everyone’s immunity where possible. I had enough cures for almost all the kids leaving the Abattoir. I found shmowders in the caches and at the Dead Item Shop, enough to save everyone. As soon as I realized no one would die I felt like I’d felled a dragon. 

One thing that unexpectedly saved me was my piles of nuts that I collected to trade to Teensies for shmowders. They were all gone from the Town, no more use for the nuts... so at one point I was starving and I ate them all. Contrary to the game’s advice. It actually filled me up, that’s how many I had. Trail mix for the win. I was watching the very long final theater play, standing on the bleachers on stage next to Daniil, felt like we were on a date or something, like eating raisinets at the movie theater. 

I fought Barley’s gang by jumping on top of the boxes where Grief’s reflection once crouched, and shooting them with Lara’s gun, after I bought the last few bullets from Barley himself. It fucking ruled, 10/10 hilarious anti-gank. 

On impulse I chose Nocturnal Ending. I couldn’t say no to Noukher, and weirdly I trusted Daniil. I actually had missed him for all the days he wasn’t around and was too happy to see him again to question his choices. 

I promised the Townsfolk leaving that I would join them. And I did. 

When I got to the top of the Polyhedron I tried to punch the Rat Prophet off the Tower. This is the correct way to deal with him. 

Also. After the final conversation in the Theater. I’m just going to say it. Mark Immortell kinda fucks. He’s kinda hot. Maybe this is something that happens after you reach max deaths, something shifts in your brain chemistry and you find him attractive. But he is. He’s got gender for days. He is the tumblr sexyman yall have been sleeping on. I’d still aim for something nonconventional regarding portraying this though. I think he’s ace and nonbinary. 

On that note...

Fuck yeah. Good game. 

#pathologic

[rathologic]

buka teaser other npcs :-)

#pathologic #townsfolk #rat