The start of perhaps a very, very long theory post on The Pestilence, its possible origin, how it transmits and infects its victims.
Mandatory disclaimer: All of what I am about to post is based solely on my own theories. While I will be referencing character quotes, item entries, and visual details from the game itself, these theories are in no way, shape, or form confirmed. The story, lore, and history of No Rest for the Wickeds world fascinates me, and the wait for the next story update has me pacing around in my room like a tiger pacing around in a cage. So, without further ado: Lets get started.
Of course, there will be spoilers. So beware!
What we know:
From the start of the game, we are introduced to the Pestilence through Odessa’s narration.
“When I was a child, Irmgard told me stories. Said the Pestilence turned men’s faces inside out. And she prayed…that the Cerim would never need to return.”
The game’s official summary states that The Pestilence was last seen a thousand years before the game’s opening.
We do not get our first glimpse of a Torn until we encounter Warrick at Sacrament’s gates. But his introduction validates what Odessa said in her narration. The Pestilence pulls apart its victims in order to turn them into horrific monsters. As we go through the rest of the story available at this point, we encounter more disturbing shapes and variants of the Torn. It also infects animals as well, and the Brambles in Marin Wood’s confirms the Pestilence does not need a victim in order to grow and spread. We do encounter factions of Torn, like the Harvesters and the Nith, who resemble humans but have gone mad. There is the Gloam, Torn that live in the darkest places of Sacra and are usually found in the Cerim Crucible. Then there’s the Winged Brood, Torn that escaped the mountain gate when the Inquisition breached into Caylen.
In terms of Origins, the Pestilence is very clearly Supernatural. Seeing as how Alden the Caretaker’s infection allowed him to spread some kind of psychic field across Marin Woods that ensnared anyone close to or in its boundaries, yet the Cerim themselves are immune. The Torn Resources we collect post-Faith and Flame also infer the Pestilence is supernatural in origin, specifically the item description of the Torn Marrow:
“What flows in a Torn creature’s veins if not blood? What nourishes them if not food? Can a being live off rage alone?”
(Let’s put a pin in this quote for now. I’ll come back to it later on in the theories section.)
There is also a connection between the Pestilence and the Cerim. By ingesting Plague Ichor, the Cerim are able to increase their abilities.
The Pestilence is also supernatural in origin, as inferred by the game’s official summary.
What we don’t know:
So, while we know what the Pestilence is, the biggest question I have always been asking myself since I started playing No Rest for the Wicked has been this: “How does the Pestilence spread?” Which is even a question that some NPCs ask. While we may not have this definitive answer yet, I think there are signs that can be inferred when looking at the only enemy we have seen so far become a Torn before our very eyes: Darak Falstead, the Risen Warlord.
When we first see Darak in the Orban Glades, it’s just before our first fight with him. While on the bridge, what always stuck out to me was never his size, but his face. With him standing beside Rattigan and the other Risen leaders, his face is pale and has a purplish rash across the right side of his face. Compared to the other characters we see, he looks ill. When we enter the black trench and see how most of the Risen became infected, and the uninfected were torn apart by their former allies, we periodically hear Darak shouting in pain and agony as he hallucinates Annora Bolein, Ellsworth’s deceased wife, and the woman Darak had obsessed over.
In the second phase of our fight with Darak, he is…well…Torn apart by the Pestilence.
So, with this information, we know that Darak was infected possibly before our first fight. If he was infected and Torn before the rest of his men, that means the incubation period of the Pestilence differs from person to person.
But the question remains: HOW did he become infected? Because whatever the Pestilence is infects people in a specific way. Sacrament has had one or two outbreaks (taking into account small bounties where we fight a Torn Sacrament guard in the War room and the side quest A Small Mercy, where Maeve’s parents were infected and they killed themselves to stop the spread), so the city has no magical boundary that prevents infection. So we can rule out that the pestilence is spread through the air.
Yet, what about ingestion?
Theories on Spread:
In the first section, I mentioned the various types of Torn we have encountered. The base human and animal victims, the Marin Brambles, the Gloam, and the Winged Brood.
If the Pestilence spread through the air, then Sacrament would have been long before The Cerim arrived.
That leaves direct contact or ingestion.
In The Black Trench: There is a Whisper titled “Fungal Shrine.” When you are in that location, you see white blotches and black sludge. However, this material is seen everywhere in the Black Trench. We see this material briefly in the Hovel, Maeve’s old home. This material is spread near her father’s body, and in the Black Trench, the material pulsates (eww). The location itself isn’t important, however, but the name of the Whisper is. Because the location confirms that this pestilent material is Fungal in origin. Many Torn enemies have discolored skin that matches the fungal material.
So, from this information, I theorize that this specific type of Pestilence is Fungal in nature. Which would mean this type may spread through Fungal Spores. And if they spread through spores, that means they could infest food supplies or water. It would explain how Maeve’s father and mother were infected, but not the rest of the city.
As for some Torn that have parasites chewing through them (such as the exploding torn we first encounter in the Black Trench or the unfortunate bear enemies we encounter in Marin and the Lowland Meadow), these worms likely spread the Pestilence, but they themselves very well could have been mutated by fungal spores, making them much worse than they normally are.
However, not all Torn have these fungal growths. What of the Gloam? Well, we have a clearer picture here, thanks to the armor we can gain from the Gloam.
Per the Dusk Child’s Cloak:
“The cloak of the forgotten Gloam - this is what becomes of the plague in the dark, wet places beneath our feet.”
From this one item’s description, we know that this variant thrives in the darkest, dampest places. Almost like a mold, which the Black Spark Tunic directly compares to
“A strand of shimmering mold and fungus, twisted into the vague shape of armor”.
However, as is typical with the Pestilence, it’s definitely not mold according to various Gloam item descriptions as noted in the Cavern Wretch Gloves:
“With The Gloam, it can sometimes be difficult to tell fabric apart from pulsing flesh.”
First off, eww. Second: Pulsing flesh sounds VERY similar to the Marine Brambles. Which themselves look like pulsing flesh-like growths, like a cancer.
One important piece of information we do get from one gear piece called “Gloamking Gauntlets” reveals a horrific fate of those victims taken by the Gloam variant:
“The glistening armor of a warrior from whom dying to the Pestilence was only the beginning.”
So, at least with the Gloam, the flesh-like growths that possess its victims cause a form of zombification in those the Gloam kills.
Well, the Gloam was charming…but that begs the question: Where did the Pestilence come from? How did it spread again? Well, for that, I think we might have a clearer picture.
Theories on the current Spread and Origin:
So, as mentioned before, the last time Sacra had seen The Pestilence was a thousand years ago. That is long enough for stories to become corrupted into myths and legends.
With the knowledge that the plague was defeated a thousand years ago, I think that while the ancient Cerim may have defeated the Pestilence at its strongest, it was contained rather than eliminated. As revealed in Faith and Flame, Caylen was the sight of a massive Pestilence outbreak, likely why the gate was slammed shut in the first place. Even though Caylen is claimed to be the “Holy City,” that does not necessarily mean anything if people do not know the full story of how the Pestilence was defeated.
Seeing as how the gate was shut, I think it is safe to say that Caylen was the sight of the final battle between The Cerim and the plague. But the Cerim likely only contained it, and created the gate as a fail-safe: to contain the worst of the plague in one area at the cost of thousands of people in order to save countless more.
As Ellsworth tells the Madrigal: “The gate to the holy city did not slam shut without reason.” The Madrigal brushes this off, as she always does, but I am more inclined to agree with Ellsworth: something happened in Caylen that caused the Pestilence to break loose. But, since we have no information about what happened in the city, we can only speculate.
And speculate we shall.
Earlier, I mentioned the idea that the Pestilence was never truly defeated. During my latest play-through, I took screenshots of notes I found in the game’s world. One of them stuck out to me, and it’s a note from the researcher who has spent months on Sacra and has left notes in the regions we visit, leaving unflattering commentary about each area. One note was on his 35th day on the island, where he talks about the Orban Glades.
"Day 35 surveying this miserable rut.
The Orban Glades smell of rot. All day I hear the wet squalch of my boots, sucking mud, all night I try and fail to warm my socks by the fire."
Strange figures call this swamp home. Years of bog life has rotted away their lower limbs. Something else, perhaps, has rotted away their minds. It might be time to petition to bring my survey to a close?"
I bolded the area I wanted to focus on. The figures in the Orban Glades he is referring to are the Nith, one of the default enemy factions in the Glades. The researcher notes that something has likely rotted away their minds. This, we know, is the Pestilence. Why am I mentioning this note? Because it’s what’s not mentioned in his note: He makes no mention of the pestilence or an outbreak. Another entry is from Sulin Froth, who mentions the pestilence by name.
From what I can gather, the Nith have lived in the glades for a long time. The question remains if the pestilence has been rotting their minds for the same amount of time they have been living there.
This leads into the more nebulous area of this post: The origins of the Pestilence. We have just as little information on this. Though we can gather information from our friend, The Seneschal, who resides in The Cerim Crucible.
When we first initiate dialogue with him after the cutscene, he says the following:
“You Quiet Ones dug too deep. You asked too much of the world. But there is no answer. No bottom. No atonement.”
Now, this sounds like The Sneschal is directly stating the Pestilence was caused by the Cerim. Perhaps that is what he is saying; however, he mentions “No atonement,” which implies the Crucible was formed after the war with the pestilence. which curiously links to an observation of Elsa’s journal:
"A thousand years ago the Cerim paid a terrible price for their victory over the plague, a price we only beginning to understand. Their greatest warriors driven to madness, their people scattered like seeds in the wind, their very voices banished from their own throats.
What drove them to such lengths? I feel whispers of it in the margins of every inscription. Something more than just survival or fear or pride. Almost…guilt."
These are two characters related to the Cerim Crucible who directly mention atonement and guilt. Guilt of what? How they defeated the Pestilence? Or was it something else?
Earlier, I mentioned the Torn Marrow. The last sentence of the item poses a question: “Can a being live off rage alone?” No food, no nourishment. If we are to take this quote literally, the Torn, or anything related to the Pestilence, for that matter, are not killing for nourishment; they are killing because they feel an unending rage. Rage of what? That is the question.
Did The Sayer originally create the Pestilence, but as a mistake? And the Cerim were created in response in order to combat it directly? But the Cerim, in the only way they would know how, violently destroyed most of the island? This would explain why Irmgard would pray that the Cerim would never need to return and why Cerim warriors might feel guilt and would desperately seek atonement.
Closing Thoughts:
In the end, it’s almost impossible to know the origin of the Pestilence, or its spread. Even then, I feel like there is a piece of information that is staring me in the face as I spend so much time writing this. And information is very likely in Caylen. After all, it’s where the worst outbreak of pestilence occurred, and it is where we are likely heading.
Until then, we can only theorize and wait.
-WarriorofSpectra.