Like the first post I made, this post is my thoughts and conclusions on the events that happen in Chapter 1, but will also contain spoilers for Chapter 2 as well. I tried to keep this primary focus on Chapter 1, however, this post will also take some information from Chapter 2 whenever discussing characters and events. (I will try not to talk about the Burned Man during this post since it would be simpler to talk about the Burned Man in Chapter 2.)
Chapter 1
Although there weren't any hidden messages in the backlogs I could find when going through Chapter 1, there are things that I would like to go over with.
Alessia's Power
B25
Thoughts: This is the first time Alessia has witnessed a ‘white ball of fire’, which undoubtedly refers to as souls. The way Bitey and everyone act, or the lack thereof, when Alessia experiences an event where someone dies makes it seem that most if not everyone else doesn't experience what Alessia sees: having the souls explode when a mortal dies. I would expect Frank/Obli or any other decedent to be able to witness this, however, their reaction when someone does die makes it seem otherwise. The soul also leaves a smudge behind, which the next quote explores.
B26
...
Thoughts: When touching the residue that the soul has made, Alessia sees flashing imagines that have to be Giorgio’s actions before his death. (Walking up, traveling to William’s place, and getting stabbed.) This implies that at the very least Alessia is able to see people’s memories before their deaths by touching the residue that is left behind. This also might be related to her ability to see people’s memories in her dream but there isn’t enough evidence to suggest this is the case.
However, it is also surprising that this caused Alessia to be angry at Bitey. Maybe it’s a past event that Alessia has buried in her memory? Alessia's third dream does hint that Bitey might have acted in such a way that can cause might caused this buried memory. It's even possible that these feelings are not her own instead of people she dreams about or even her 'Chimera' that lives in the shadows. No evidence really pertains to her anger here towards Bitey, so we can't conclusively say for sure.
Alessia’s DreamDreams seem to be an important part of the story. The ones that stick out are Alessia’s dreams.
B27
According to Alessia, the dreams she is experiencing only happened after her mother had died, making a connection between Alessia’s dreams and the ‘Chimera’ inside of her shadow by heavily implying that the reason why she gets these dreams are because of the ‘Chimera’. In these dreams, Alessia relives past events, often times in people’s memories from their perspective, and is able to have her own thoughts during the events that are played out. This explains what was going on in her dreams in the Abbey.
(For the sake of time/space I will not put these dreams down in this post.)
-Alessia's First Dream
+
B28
Thoughts: Although we don’t know who Alessia and the Nun were supposed to represent, we do have two small clues during this dream that can be used to figure out who they are.
The first clue was that ‘Alessia’ wanted to be useful, meaning that their involvement in something is seen by them as useless or unproductive.
The second clue was that the ‘Nun’ somewhat cared for ‘Alessia’. This can be seen in their interaction when the Nun says ‘It must be so hard…’ and Alessia responded with ‘I’m fine.’ This is strange since at the end of the dream the ‘Nun’ tries to kill ‘Alessia’ but was stopped by some light. This leads me to believe that the empathy that the ‘Nun’ had towards ‘Alessia’ was superficial, or maybe the anger about ‘Alessia’s’ eyes was enough to push the ‘Nun’ over the edge. It’s too hard to say with the little evidence we have with them.
Another thing to note about this dream is that the ‘Nun’ says the baby’s mother, based on B28 the baby is Demiurge so therefore the mother is Sofia, was the cause of his damaged eye. This strikes me as odd since according to Noch the Aeons have caused it. This leads me to believe that either the Aeons did cause the injury but the ‘Nun’ blames it all on his mother or Sofia did cause the damage and Noch was trying to cover it up.
Although not too important, it’s cool to speculate that the different rooms where both ‘Alessia’ and the ‘Nun’ travel from one room to another represent the idea that they are traveling from one place (possibly from the Pleroma) to another (the void).
A thing we can conclude is the time this is taken place. Since the Demiurge is represented as a baby, we can conclude that this is taken place after the Aeons poked the Demiurge's eyes out and threw him but before he left to create the world where mortals live. (Although, there is still a possibility that this can still take place during Demiurge's imprisonment since two small pieces of evidence tie it to the current day; the Nun can actually be the Nun that Alessia helps after the Abbey murder case and 'Alessia' describes the smell as sweet, which is similar to the smell of the center of the Galaxy. But it would make sense for the dream to take place before the Demiurge created the world.) Based on this, we can say that this is one of the oldest memories that Alessia had, and it would eventually play an important part in the story.
-Theory
Theory 1: Noch, Doro, and Noch's 'lord' are the 'Nun'. From the sound of it, the 'Nun' sound as if they have authority over 'Alessia.' And based on my speculation that they are not in fact in the Church of Erde but instead in the void/Pleroma, the only one that makes sense to fit the bill is Noch, Doro, and Noch's 'lord.' However, I would like to say otherwise since the 'Nun' in the dream displays emotions and based on Noch's statement everyone from the void seem to not have any.
-Alessia's Second Dream
Thoughts: The second dream can be separated into three different parts: Alessia part, Neru part, and Sofia part.
In Alessia's part, Alessia tells us about the ‘Chimera’ that haunts her in her shadow, explaining to us how her skin turned white and her eyes red. Although there isn’t much left to discuss about this particular part, there is something off about it. Bitey said that 'Gabriela' transformed when Alessia’s grandfather died, yet we never heard about this character ever again. It’s also strange that Bitey ‘knew’ the grandfather since in Bitey 1 it would seem that Bitey didn’t know about the grandfather at all, at least he didn’t know he had a room in Alessia’s home. Another coincidence is that both Alessia’s grandfather has a similar name to this ‘Gabriela’ being Gabriel. (There are many mysteries surrounding Alessia's family but will save that when discussing Chapter 2.)
In Neru’s part, Neru explains that the closer one’s soul is to the primordial light, the stronger they are. This allows us to understand how power scales in this world, yet it doesn’t really explain how Voidborn ever gets their powers. Noch did say that the void does not have souls, so being Voidborn, it is safe to say that they don't have souls, yet they have powers that are similar to Shapeshifters but more powerful.
In Sofia’s part, it tells a tale of Sofia that was recounted in Chapter 2 by Noch but with more detail. What is interesting is how Sofia is planning to show the Aeons their true nature. Is it by giving birth to Samuel? Or is it something that would happen in the future?
-Alessia's Third Dream
Thoughts: Similar to the second dream, the third dream can be separated into two parts.
The first part shows the interaction that Neru and Obli had that Neru describes in the Prologue. Two things about it are quite strange. How does Alessia know the name Obli and how does Alessia knows what is going to happen, i.e. that the lizard person that Alessia thinks is Bitey is going to touch her shoulder? It would make sense if Alessia saw Neru’s memory from both the Prologue and Chapter 2, but how doesn’t she know who Obli is?
The second part shows the interaction between Alessia and some mysterious fellow. Some interesting things to keep in mind are that they refer Nomino as treacherous, and the quote 'It hurts that no matter what he does, how much power he wields, he’s helpless to come to your aid,' is similar to the quote Pyre said during the Prologue.
Patterns seem to emerge from the dreams, and based on those patterns we can categorize them into two types of dreams; dreams that are represented by people that Alessia knows and dreams that aren’t. The dreams that are represented by people that Alessia knows are the first dream and Sofia’s part in the second dream while the dreams that aren’t are Neru and Alessia's parts in the second dream. (The Neru part in the third dream is most likely in the second category but Alessia’s commentation during the dream makes it hard to determine.) Dreams that represent people that Alessia knows seem to represent dreams that are not in the current universe, ie it takes place in the void/Pleroma with characters in those universes represented by people Alessia knows about. Although there isn’t much we can do with this information, it does bring up the question of why Alessia has the memories of people who aren’t even mortals? We know that the memories that Alessia has are from people who have died, does that make those people we see, Neru, Sofia, ‘Alessia’ from the first dream, dead? Or is it possible to pass down those memories without dying? Both possibilities seem likely, yet I lean towards the ladder since the former is harder to justify. (What I mean by this is that it would make some of the things said in the story a bit wonky and not have meaning.)
Although it is clear what Obli’s role is during his time in Smed’s Church, I found his interaction with Alessia a bit weird.
B29
...
Thoughts: Although a slight detail, it is quite strange how Frank/Obli will do something as clumsy as this, especially when it says that Frank/Obli is ‘clearly still a bit shaken up.’ I assume that, somehow, Frank/Obli is able to notice the 'Chimera' that Alessia possesses and dropped the items he was carrying in shock. But more strange things happen later on.
B30
Thoughts: It isn’t all too strange to ask if anything is wrong with them, but what is strange is what happens after. ‘Aloys bumped Frank on the shoulder. The small human looked down at his plate as his cheeks turned pink.’ Why would Frank/Obli blush here? Although not quite, this interaction between Frank/Obli and Alessia reminds me of how Shax/Obli interacts with Neru about greens in both the Prologue and Chapter 2. Maybe the reason why Frank/Obli is embarrassed is that Aloys reminds him of his interaction with Neru since Alessia has a connection with Neru and she looks like him? Or maybe I'm overanalyzing it too hard since Aloys might be pointing out that Frank/Obli also didn't eat his cauliflower? But then again, this isn't the only time Frank/Obli wanted Alessia to eat her greens.
This leads me to believe that this isn't a coincidence, instead, Frank/Obli has some reason to do this. That leaves us the question: why was Frank/Obli acting like this?
-Theory
Theory 1: Alessia, and by association Alessia’s family, is a decedent of Neru in some way. Although Alessia's second dream did make it unlikely, it is entirely possible for this to happen, maybe Neru's brothel visit perhaps? This explains the connection between Alessia and Neru and why Frank/Obli acts the way he does. But it doesn't seem to fit everything neatly; it doesn't explain why Alessia gets dreams of the past, why she can see people's memories from the residue of a soul, and the 'Chimera.'
Theory 2: Frank/Obli is David, Alessia’s older brother. Crazy theory, I know, but it would make some sense in this context of Frank/Obli being nice, and dropping his stuff when seeing Alessia. Although it is nearly debunked since Obli did talk about a shapeshifter that follows Rel around in Chapter 2, it is a fun thought to have.
Although Noch said he is not going to be at the Abbey, there seems to be evidence that makes it seem that Noch, or someone else, is somewhat involved with the murder case.
B31
Thoughts: When Alessia and Bitey were following the mysterious fellow at night, Alessia felt slime when touching the walls, but when she looked it wasn’t there. The way Alessia describes the slime is similar to how Aloys describes Noch in Chapter 2, making me think that Noch was, somehow, there in the hallway. But there are more things that suggest this.
B32
Thoughts: When investigating Aloys' innocents, Alessia experience a sudden coldness which seems to be a reference to tidal wave/cold winds. Since Noch is considered to be a Deity of the Sea, it would make sense for this to be a reference to him.
B33
Thought: Who was the one who said this? This is quite curious especially since they make it sound as if there is more than one person who is willing to help Aloys at this particular part. One this is for sure; they intend to help Aloys from getting caught. It would make sense if Noch was the one who help Aloys to continue with his plan, but this quote doesn't help us determine if this is true or not.
-Theory
Theory 1: Noch was at the Abbey. Although we can't confirm if this is true, there is a lot of evidence that points to it being true. Yet, there seem to be oddities that suggest otherwise like why would Noch contact Aloys through the gem necklace instead of talking to him one-on-one? Especially when he craves for Aloys, wouldn't it be better to satisfy his hunger instead of waiting till Aloys comes back to this domain?
Theory 2: Other people are involved, such as Sofia and her ‘supporters.’ B33 suggests that there are at least two people involved in the case that we don't know about, but other than that we can’t say for sure.
