the-rats-are-listening

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modified map of the Empire of the Isles: elevation (land and sea), lakes, major cities, trade routes (red: heavy traffic, yellow: light traffic)

modifications explained below the cut

the main change, which prompted most of the other changes, is that i placed tyvia and morley on one tectonic plate, and gristol and serkonos on another.

i'm not a geologist and possibly there are other explanations to how the isles were formed, but my reasoning went thus: the temperature difference between the north of tyvia and the south of serkonos is too huge for a single archipelago -> the distance between them must correspond to something like that between finland and spain -> the isles are the size of a continent -> a continent, as far as i know, does not split apart unless through the movement of tectonic plates -> there is divergence happening

it could also have been convergence but wow that would mean so many more volcanoes. instead you get block rift mountains

the main tectonic rift is between tyvia+morley and gristol, as evidenced by the very deep chasm -- it's probably smaller in width than it should be, but i'm not going for full realistic accuracy either -- but there is also tectonic drift between tyvia and morley (according to the north american tectonic plate this is a thing that can happen, because that thing branches off in all kinds of directions. could it cause a continent to split on this small a scale? who knows. i'm pretending the answer is yes. can you tell already i just wanted to go hog wild on the tectonic plates) and there are convergent plates above tyvia and below serkonos

CONSEQUENCES: volcanoes volcanoes volcanoes (and fault block mountains)

now serkonos is half dormant volcanoes, half huge old magma flow from a massive volcanic event at some point in the distant past; tyvia has a volcanic arc as its northmost feature but it's partly calderas; the south of tyvia and the north of gristol is very mountainous (but the area between gristol and morley isn't because the tectonic forces along that axis are transformed [dunno if that's the proper term, basically lateral] rather than divergent

does this also mean there are probably earthquakes everywhere? yes. oh god

OTHER FEATURES: a couple of meteor craters (the shapes were already there, i just decided they would be craters) east of baleton and west of caltan; a void rift deep in the ocean right near whitecliff, pulling in the landmass around it; minor modifications to certain outline areas because i added in mountains. i like mountains. they make things less flat. OH and this was already present in the canon map but the line of islands east of gristol is now a bunch of extinct volcanoes formed as the result of a hotspot at the morley-gristol tectonic limit, now closed; and i just fully deleted an island west of gristol for the hell of it. also the lakes were either already there, or hadn't been colored in right on the canon map, or were Very Weird Interconnecting Rivers i decided to fill in because why not

TRADE ROUTES. obviously all capitals would be trade centers, or at least trade-rich considering their population level, but i've decided several other cities are either merchant towns for reasons such as being nearest to another isle, being conveniently placed to connect to many other cities and thus either the center of trade (like yaro or driscol) or a waypoint (like caltan), or being an exporter of stuff and conveniently placed right on a trade route thus favoring its development (like potterstead, but that's entirely my personal fanon)

some trade routes are heavily used because they lead to many ports of interest, or because they lead to a major port, or because it's the only way to get to a certain major port efficiently (for example, the trade routes to the east of serkonos are little used because if you leave from karnaca you have to get all the way around the trail of volcanic islands, can't dock at whitecliff directly because, see name, it's on a huge cliff, then avoid the dishonored bermuda's triangle [void rift, huge myths around that place, few people risk going through there], then get all the way up to driscol); the heavily trafficked trade route that stops right at the top of serkonos actually leads to the serkonan canal, which isn't even present on the canon map (probs because they hadn't invented it yet when they drew the thing), and is a much faster way of getting to karnaca, but deep-keel boats can't take the canal and series of waterlocks and have to go around the old way; wei-ghon does a lot of trade because it needs to to support its population way in the north, and a lot of tyvian trade goes by boat due to the poor travel conditions inland and the huge fuckoff mountains

not pictured: trade routes to pandyssia

[the-rats-are-listening]

[the-rats-are-listening]

Love the idea of Outsider being higher but not the highest deity. And who is the highest one, you may ask me? The Void! Just the eldritch god, as old as the time itself, lonely and eager to communicate. But along with that Its only touch is deadly for mere mortals, as It's a pure havoc that will absorb the very soul of the one It's communicating with. 

Corvo describes the Void as an “endless cold”, Daud says that the Void feels like “if you cried for help but no one answered”. And for them it's true but for the eldritch one it's the form of communication. A love language. It lets you roam inside freely and It expects you to let It do the same, let It roam inside of you. Cup your soul in Its improvised hands to hold just for a moment, to study, to feel your emotion, to live through your memory. To show you some love in Its term, to do the softest thing It can do!

And who knows maybe this communication was the main goal of whoever created Outsider. But as time went by, this goal was lost and forgotten. So here It is and here is Outsider, both so old and not even sure how much of them was inherently theirs and how much they have absorbed from each other. 

[the-rats-are-listening]

If I had a nickel for every time a knight character from a lower class background was framed for the murder of the only person in power who believed in them, and was then cast out as a villain, I'd have two nickels

which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice

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broke: dishonored 3 should take place in tyvia so we can rob galvani again

woke: dishonored 3 should feature galvani as a full-tilt loon who's stashed numerous lethally trapped caches around the isle so he can't get robbed all at once anymore. if you rob them all he tries to kill you during the last mission as a kind of doc ock supervillain

[the-rats-are-listening]

I like to remind the DH Fandom that's not only is there in-game fanfiction of Corvo and the outsider, it's also a play-

I need to know if Corvo knows about it. Did he see the play before it got banned by the abbey.

Does Emily? Does she know her dad is a dilf and everyone in the isles wanna fuck him?

[the-rats-are-listening]

My friend who doesn't play dishonored sent me a post about it and I started explaining how funny the Abbey is cause the entire religion is "we're going to defeat God with math and music" and they went "sorry that God doesn't vibe with jazz"

Someone mod dishonored so the overseer music boxes play jazz

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youve heard of missionary position. now get ready for MERCENARY position

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False alarm, dishonored is Not currently on sale.

Tragically.

Sorry.

[the-rats-are-listening]

It was originally planned for Daud to cut off Corvo's left hand at the beginning of the Flooded District mission. The player could've then recovered the hand, re-enabling their access to Corvo's Powers, much like they can recover their gear to regain their weaponry in the shipped version of the game. Below is my compilation of all the content related to this event I could find in the files of the shipped game.

This scene would've taken place during the intro sequence to the Flooded District, continuing the cutscene in which Daud reveals that he knows what the Outsider's Mark is, and which in the released game ends with him telling Corvo "you're a mystery, and I can't allow that" and knocking him unconscious. This cutscene was (and still is) called "Cutting the Hand" in the files. Two additional moments of this scene that do not get used in the final game are called "Hand_is_Cut" and "Hand_is_Gone".

At least part if not all of the animation sets for Corvo and Daud for this scene are still in the files. Daud has an unused animation named "DaudCutTheHand" which would've been 51 frames long, while Corvo has two animations, one called "PlyHandCutIn" which would've lasted 61 frames and another, which would've followed the first, which is called "PlyHandCutLoop" and would've lasted 31 frames, looping for however long was necessary to complete scene. Given that these animations are still in the files it should be theoretically possible to at least see these animations play out by replacing one or more of the other intro animations with these animations. Unfortunately I'm not knowledgeable enough to do this. If anyone is more familiar with Unreal animations, the animation sequences discussed here are all in L_Flooded_FRefinery_Intro and are Tall_SC_Flooded.Tall_SC_Flooded.AnimSequence_23 (DaudCutTheHand), Ply_SC_Flooded.Ply_SC_Flooded.AnimSequence_26 (PlyHandCutIn) and Ply_SC_Flooded.Ply_SC_Flooded.AnimSequence_27 (PlyHandCutLoop) respectively.

There is an associated console event in the Flooded Intro map which is called "Handy", however activating this event doesn't do anything in the shipped game. I'm fairly confident that it would've been used to skip straight to the cutting scene for testing purposes, as most console events tend to be skips to specific parts of maps or scenes.

The hand would later be found in the Refinery map, most likely at the bottom of the Refinery tower where we can pick up our gear in the shipped version. There are SequenceFrames on this map with the comments "Recover Your Hand" and "Get the Hand". The FX file for this map also includes a group of particle emitters and a light that would've helped spruce up the detached hand, "CutedHand_Light" and "Flo_CutedHand_01" (sic).

One of the buildings in the Flooded District earned the developer nickname "HandBuilding" - presumably this was the Greaves Refinery tower, although we cannot be completely 100% certain of that. This nickname is reflected in several environment asset group names used throughout the Flooded District, like "HandBuildingInterior"," or "HandBuildingVista".

The Whaler sentinels watching the streets around Rudshore would've had some sort of reaction to Corvo recovering his hand, as there is a Sequence Frame with the comment "After the Hand" in their package (and since the cutting would've taken place in the intro of the mission, it wouldn't make sense for this to have been a change that came after the initial cutting of the hand, only after the recovery). What this reaction would've been - there is no additional Whaler dialogue referencing the hand in the files - is unclear.

In the finished game, the objective to recover your gear is still internally named "obj_FloodedHand". This objective, which is added to the player's list after they wake up from their short stint in the Void between the intro and the level proper, would've originally told the player to recover Corvo's hand - it's not clear whether recovering his gear would've been included in this objective nor if Corvo would've been stripped of his gear at all.

Five lines of cut dialogue from the Flooded District are connected to this event. During the intro scene, Daud would've said the following additional lines:

"The blade's sharp. You won't feel it much."

"See that this is cauterized. Properly, mind you. Put him to sleep and move him into the warehouse across the street."

The OneShot that these lines are from - the conversation package that includes these lines as well as the ones spoken by Daud during the intro that remain in the shipped version of the game - is nicknamed "Hand is Cut" and its associated bank of voicelines is named "Flooded_HandisCut_DlgData". Said voicebank as it is available in the shipped game does not include the cut lines. The description of this OneShot doesn't offer more insight into this scene as it simply states that "Daud is calm and urbane. He seems to be talking to Corvo as an equal". (Calm and urbane handcutting... just guys being bros)

During the climactic fight with Daud in the Whaler base, Daud was supposed to be able to say one line referring to this event, which was ultimately cut from the game and not included in his fighting voicebank:

"This time I'll cut off more than a hand!"

The remaining two cut voicelines that would've been connected to this event come from the short scene between the intro scene in the Refinery and Corvo waking up in his vat, in which we get to briefly visit the Void and hear some commentary on recent events from the Outsider. Where in the finished game this scene concludes with the line "Maybe none of these. Perhaps that's just the nature of man", it originally would've continued with the following:

"Your missing hand is lying at the base of an oil-soaked tower across the street."

"I suggest you awaken and go find it, because I happen to know you'll need it."

This OneShot is nicknamed "Outsider Gives Hand Objective". I would not be surprised if the "oil-soaked tower across the street" is the Greaves Refinery tower from which you can recover your gear (and only your gear, in the base game) - it's visible right across the street from where you exit the building with the vats, it's visibly splattered with whale oil even from this distance, and it's where the cutting scene would've most likely taken place.

Two cranks in the Flooded District, one in the streets and one in the Refinery, would've been "locked" until Corvo successfully recovered his detached hand. When the player would have tried to use these cranks without having first recovered the hand, they would not have turned, instead displaying the message "You need both hands to turn this". These two cranks are the one located on the lower level of the Refinery and the one that controls the gate to the bridge connecting the warehouse with the dead Overseers and the Rudshore Central Station yard.

This concludes the cut content associated with this event. There is no further mention of this event in the files for the remaining maps of the game (the sewer, the assault on the Pub, Kingsparrow Island and its lighthouse) - at least nothing referencing a "cut" or a "hand", which is what I searched those files for. There are also no other relevant mentions of hands in the NamesDump.

[the-rats-are-listening]

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New dishonored game but ur player character is a rat. U can invest runes and possess humans of u really want to, but why would u want to?

[the-rats-are-listening]

Good tags don't hide em

one aspect of dishonored i am obsessed with is the abbey of the everyman because unlike many religious bodies, their intention is not to preserve or fawn over some benevolent yet potentially unproven or distant deity. no, their deity of choice is very much proven! and it is their life’s goal to not let his corrupting touch reach any citizen! and they do this with music and maths.

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I don't know, I feel like if someone started killing off all the jerks whose excessive power is high key ruining my life right now I'd be like oh sorry we're doing revolution now? I guess I missed the e-mail, I might be a little late. Cause our problem with Hiram isn't just that he's on Emily's throne it's that he brought the plague on purpose to kill the poor, and there Is a way to let the populace in on that. Granted it's very late in the game.

My main point was that low chaos corvo isn't clean hands corvo, necessarily. clean hands corvo is a creepy weirdo and is absolutely the guy at the party who says he's "apolitical" and I don't like him. But I get what you're saying.

Like a low chaos Corvo is objectively crueler than high chaos. He didn't just spare his targets, he went out of his way to learn everything he could to ensure that he destroyed everything good about their lives. He gave them no mercy and felt no remorse, determined to make them suffer just like he and Emily are.

Killing is easy. Stab a man and he's dead and that's that. But Corvo forces them to live after tearing apart the foundations of their worlds, ruining them in every possible way, ensuring that they had no escape from the consequences of their actions and that they would never regain any sort of power or prestige or happiness again.

Compared to all that, a sword through the gut is a mercy.

[the-rats-are-listening]

I think dishonored rats deserve the reputation of "weird animals existing on the border between the supernatural and the mundane" as much as whales do. Rats are so small they do not care for this distinction between the void and the real world, they crawl in and out of their passages and there's no place they cannot reach. I love that rats are one of the animal types Corvo can possess to reach the most inaccessible areas. It fits so well. You gain their ability to dig holes through reality like it's a block of cheese.

[the-rats-are-listening]

Don't main targets not count towards your chaos? Chaos is like, bodies in the streets freak people out and spread the plague. Killing the Pendletons and the guy who would otherwise end up in the sewers and catch the plague is relatively low impact and I'm almost entirely sure the game doesn't track that for your ending. Low chaos Corvo can and should kill Lady Boyle so she doesn't end up imprisoned by her stalker for the rest of her life, please. Unless we get an actual decent third option in some future remake. Even a really well hidden one. /taps watch

But yes, game systems aside, non-lethal options are immeasurably worse. There's a reason they're all "neutralized" and only daud is "spared".

I'm gonna go have some feelings about that.

Like a low chaos Corvo is objectively crueler than high chaos. He didn't just spare his targets, he went out of his way to learn everything he could to ensure that he destroyed everything good about their lives. He gave them no mercy and felt no remorse, determined to make them suffer just like he and Emily are.

Killing is easy. Stab a man and he's dead and that's that. But Corvo forces them to live after tearing apart the foundations of their worlds, ruining them in every possible way, ensuring that they had no escape from the consequences of their actions and that they would never regain any sort of power or prestige or happiness again.

Compared to all that, a sword through the gut is a mercy.

[the-rats-are-listening]

It's really odd, they're like an anti-religion but didn't fix any of the bad parts. I love it

one aspect of dishonored i am obsessed with is the abbey of the everyman because unlike many religious bodies, their intention is not to preserve or fawn over some benevolent yet potentially unproven or distant deity. no, their deity of choice is very much proven! and it is their life’s goal to not let his corrupting touch reach any citizen! and they do this with music and maths.