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[yeehaaw]

I think the Butcher of Ark is well written, but what is its purpose? How does it relate the story that will unfold in Enderal?

[Caleb8980]

I think the Butcher of Ark is well written, but what is its purpose? How does it relate the story that will unfold in Enderal?

Short and spoilerfree answer: It has a minor relation to the main story (at least from the first glance). Its main use is to establish part of the lore of Enderal and to show the reader the overall tone of Enderal.

Some facts:

-Jaél died roughly 50 years before the start of Enderal's story, that means that most of the characters in "The Butcher of Ark" should be either dead or at least really old.

-one of the points of Enderal's story is to solve the mystery behind the "Red Madness" a mental disease that "encourages" people to do gruesome murders, even child murder is included.

-many of the described places in the book still exists 50+ years later nowadays, e. g. the "Red Ox", SureAI has announced that you will be able to follow Jaél's track.

This is about everything if you don't delve into spoiler category

Now for the conclusions I personally drew (I'm not part of SureAI) - they are tagged with spoiler for a reason, so unless you want to spoil yourself (or give yourself a wrong idea ) don't open it:

[+]

In a german gaming magazin's preview about Enderal there was a little hint concerning the "Red Madness": it was said that shortly before these murders happen there was a red glint in the eyes of the murderers and how this was the only way to identify sb suffering from that disease.

Now if you look back to the newest chapter there is a rather interesting sentence:

I blink to remove the red veil on my eyes.

That is almost a confirmation that what happened to Jaél is the same as suffering from the "Red Madness". The great advantage is though that we have a personal record of how he first came into contact with the "fire" and how it works.

With that information the first question should be: is the Red Madness really a disease? Or even, is the Red Madness really something horrible and evil - or even a power bestowed upon certain people?

When I once (way before this chapter came out ) asked this question in the german "Interactive FAQ" Lord Dagon neither confirmed nor denied the answer I came to (I arrived at the solution from a different, philosophical and also religious, approach) and said that I am not the first one to come to this conclusion in relation to the story.

Keep in mind though that SureAI said again and again that the story is rather complex and that nothing is as it seems, so maybe I just arrived at the surface of the truth or I'm even completely wrong

[yeehaaw]

I think the Butcher of Ark is well written, but what is its purpose? How does it relate the story that will unfold in Enderal?

Short and spoilerfree answer: It has a minor relation to the main story (at least from the first glance). Its main use is to establish part of the lore of Enderal and to show the reader the overall tone of Enderal.

Some facts:

-Jaél died roughly 50 years before the start of Enderal's story, that means that most of the characters in "The Butcher of Ark" should be either dead or at least really old.

-one of the points of Enderal's story is to solve the mystery behind the "Red Madness" a mental disease that "encourages" people to do gruesome murders, even child murder is included.

-many of the described places in the book still exists 50+ years later nowadays, e. g. the "Red Ox", SureAI has announced that you will be able to follow Jaél's track.

This is about everything if you don't delve into spoiler category

Now for the conclusions I personally drew (I'm not part of SureAI) - they are tagged with spoiler for a reason, so unless you want to spoil yourself (or give yourself a wrong idea ) don't open it:

[+]

In a german gaming magazin's preview about Enderal there was a little hint concerning the "Red Madness": it was said that shortly before these murders happen there was a red glint in the eyes of the murderers and how this was the only way to identify sb suffering from that disease.

Now if you look back to the newest chapter there is a rather interesting sentence:

I blink to remove the red veil on my eyes.

That is almost a confirmation that what happened to Jaél is the same as suffering from the "Red Madness". The great advantage is though that we have a personal record of how he first came into contact with the "fire" and how it works.

With that information the first question should be: is the Red Madness really a disease? Or even, is the Red Madness really something horrible and evil - or even a power bestowed upon certain people?

When I once (way before this chapter came out ) asked this question in the german "Interactive FAQ" Lord Dagon neither confirmed nor denied the answer I came to (I arrived at the solution from a different, philosophical and also religious, approach) and said that I am not the first one to come to this conclusion in relation to the story.

Keep in mind though that SureAI said again and again that the story is rather complex and that nothing is as it seems, so maybe I just arrived at the surface of the truth or I'm even completely wrong

Everything makes sense now, thanks.

[Wigbold]

-Jaél died roughly 50 years before the start of Enderal's story, that means that most of the characters in "The Butcher of Ark" should be either dead or at least really old.

Mhmm, interesting, where did you get this information from? I actually thought it would be more like 5 to 12 years between the events in The Butcher of Ark and Enderal as in chapter 5 Jael says the following

He grew up in Cahbaet, the capital of the Northrealm. Just as the Middlerealm, it was under the rule of chancellor Barateon, but Qalian assumed that a civil war between the northern separatists and the chancellor was imminent within the next ten years

So, if Qalians guess regarding the civil war is correct, the Story of The Butcher of Ark takes place at maximum 10 years before Nehrim. Enderals story starts only shortly after Nehrim (I think I read somewhere it's 2 years, though I am not 100% sure about that and I can't find the source right now) which leads us to a passed time of about 12 years between the book and the game. Which means that most characters from the Butcher of Ark should still be alive in Enderal - if they didn't die of unnatural causes of course. Or is there somewhere a flaw in my assumptions?

[Caleb8980]

-Jaél died roughly 50 years before the start of Enderal's story, that means that most of the characters in "The Butcher of Ark" should be either dead or at least really old.

Mhmm, interesting, where did you get this information from? I actually thought it would be more like 5 to 12 years between the events in The Butcher of Ark and Enderal as in chapter 5 Jael says the following

He grew up in Cahbaet, the capital of the Northrealm. Just as the Middlerealm, it was under the rule of chancellor Barateon, but Qalian assumed that a civil war between the northern separatists and the chancellor was imminent within the next ten years

So, if Qalians guess regarding the civil war is correct, the Story of The Butcher of Ark takes place at maximum 10 years before Nehrim. Enderals story starts only shortly after Nehrim (I think I read somewhere it's 2 years, though I am not 100% sure about that and I can't find the source right now) which leads us to a passed time of about 12 years between the book and the game. Which means that most characters from the Butcher of Ark should still be alive in Enderal - if they didn't die of unnatural causes of course. Or is there somewhere a flaw in my assumptions?

Actually I thought the same as you until I found this:

Fitting the current time of the year, we'd like to show you a new screenshot of Enderal's north - The Northwind-mountains. Secondly, we have decided to release the first chapter of an ingame-book called "The Butcher of Ark". It's the autobiography of a notorious serial killer, who died half a century before the beginning of Enderals story - It will introduce you into the lore of Enderal, will give you a sense of the overall feeling of Enderals themes and attentive readers might also spot how some interesting connections to the mainquest. Hopefully it will be a good read for everyone enjoying dark, mature fantasy!

This is from these news. Btw it also says the same in the german one so unless there was a major misunderstanding it seems to be right ^^

So it seems that Barateon was able to hold the peace much longer than Qualian expected

[Wigbold]

Ah, thanks for your answer. Seems like I actually never read this newspost, or I just forgot about it. Well, it seems like Qualion estimation was a little off then