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Oh, so many dislikes. I understand why many people hit that button, many see that relationship as """"cute"""", but I see your point. Maybe you are right, but we need more context. I'll explain by points:

SPOILERS AHEAD

1-- Rian was born from what Cadgan rejected: fear, sadness, love for being a priest, and rage (but later Cadgan recovered that rage and redirected it toward Rian while he was still kidnapped by the duke). So those were the only things Rian could feel. When Hector appeared, they started seeing the world in a different color, and all of his fears disappeared, so his love was born from all the negative emotions he carried.

"When Hector is around, the world makes sense, and the question of whether I'm Cadgan or Rian stops mattering." "Because whatever I am, it might be alright if he's near me. If we can keep laughing, and make new smiles, then maybe I won't need to yearn for old ones anymore."

2-- Continuing the previous point: Rian doesn't want to lose Hector. Hector is like a patch, or better said, a drug that covers his pain. That's why he is so obsessed with him and acts very possessively, using "I/me" when talking about Hector and rarely "we/us." He does use "our" once when calling him "our boyfriend" while they were spying on Silvareth, but the context is a little tricky: that night it was actually Cadgan who was with Hector, not Rian. So Rian is using Cadgan's intimacy with Hector to include himself, and claims him as "ours" only when it's convenient.

3-- Cadgan is more cold-headed because he doesn't carry all those emotions, making him more reasonable than Rian, but also less emotional about Hector. Cadgan doesn't see himself as worthy of love, or doesn't see it as important enough, which is why he tried to reject Hector. He is probably denying his own feelings, or at least letting Rian love Hector for both of them. So we can say Rian loves Hector freely precisely because Cadgan is rejecting his own feelings, but he never consciously passed that feeling to Rian like he did with the others before. Also, Rian was trying to convince Cadgan to be with Hector (because he knows that Hector remembers Cadgan's face), but Cadgan didn't show much interest, either out of denial, or because he genuinely doesn't know how to act in those situations.

4-- We can't forget that Rian changed physically, but Cadgan didn't. Hector remembers Cadgan's face but has never seen Rian's, so that's likely why Rian uses "I/me" all the time. It may be his way of affirming his individuality apart from Cadgan, and his desire for Hector to recognize him purely by personality.

5-- Last but not least: we don't know how the author views relationships, whether he sees them as traditional or open. The novel establishes that Cadgan and Rian are the same person, but also that they are different. So Hector loving both of them is, in theory, a polyamory relationship, just like Venom and Eddie with Anne. Maybe when the novel is finished, it'll end with Hector with just one of them... or both.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm not saying Rian is manipulative, but he is childish, throwing tantrums whenever Hector is involved. He's like the kid in the neighborhood who says "the ball is MINE and I decide when YOU play", except the difference is that Rian doesn't even realize he's holding the ball. The love Rian shows doesn't seem healthy anyway.

Yes, the story is very slow about revealing the truth of the demon. It feels like Resnick doesn't trust his companions, but we don't know how long Resnick has been part of Unit 57-H or how deep his relationships with them really are.

We are the demon of lust, we watch Resnick going about his daily life but can't interact with him directly. If someone discovered the existence of the demon, that could lead to someone trying to interact with us directly. So the secret will probably be kept a little longer for that reason.

I agree with you, it would be more interesting if someone found out the truth.

The novel seems to be fairly linear, so there probably won't be completely different routes for this, the secret will likely be revealed to a specific person, or to the whole unit at once, independently of your romantic route (Also romantic routes for Sam and Garrett, have not yet been developed)

As for the deadly sins, a lion for pride makes a lot of sense, and the giant wolf could be wrath. Honestly those two are pretty interchangeable when it comes to representing sins, both animals carry that weight naturally.

⚠️SPOILERS⚠️

You're right, everything here is just speculation, but Alon does explicitly state that humans are in a constant cycle of reincarnation. They just shatter and return as one of the six races, over and over. Luke could easily have gone through multiple cycles already:

"No matter how many Humans claw their way back into reincarnation, they always end up shattering themselves back into the six under the vastness of that power."
"There have been many Humans through history. Each of them, a World-changer. Each of them, shattered and forgotten once again."
"You were careful with your power. Respected and avoided it, like you should. And yet even you had weakened and almost perished from it when pushed against the wall."

And I really want to know more about Dawn. It's a feminine name, which would actually make her the first female character in the story. The Observer seems to had a complicated history with her, based on his tone, she seems to have been a serious obstacle to him at some point:

"You... I know you. You are Dawn's brother, aren't you?"
"It makes sense why you would try to fuck with me. You were always on their side, right?"

I'd love to learn more about Luke's family in general. The main story feels locked into the loop of the Skies Ablaze day, so maybe a spinoff could give us a look at Sansun and his father Tharros, or at least have them appear in one of Luke's memories. Though honestly, part of me just wants to see them show up at Shelter someday. Imagine his dad walking in, looking around, and going "look at you, taming all these dogs and having them worship your cock, I'm so proud of you, son" ... okay I'll stop there.

On a more serious note, I'd love to see more of the other races too. The "Reincarnation" ending already hints at how interesting it could be to follow Luke outside of Shelter, him living in the Saurian kingdom (Also, Luke says that is a beautiful place) for a while sounds like it'd be a great story on its own.

Lastly, yes, Alon's route isn't replayable, which is why I went through the game's files, collected all the scripts and merged them into a single file (it's not clean, since the scripts are sorted alphabetically and not by chapter order). I just feed it to Claude to scan for specific lines I remember. It makes it a lot easier to revisit the parts I want to explore more deeply.

⚠️SPOILERS⚠️

Let's start with the short part: Cooper. In the crossover with "Demons Within", Thistle talks about Cooper with Resnick. Later, Cooper pulls out what looks like a bible or religious book and starts talking about Mother Earth, but since it's Resnick's POV, he gets lost in his own thoughts and stops listening. By the way, you need to play the first chapter of "Demons Within" to get the code for chapter two.

Now, the dream scene between "Luke?" and "Max?" is weird, but there's this line that stands out:

"Well, it's been like a thousand freaking years and I've been dying for one of those herbal coffees."

He seems to at least remember his life before the world broke. And since Luke can loop through time, what feels like a couple of years for the dogs could be hundreds of years for him, kind of like what the Observer tells Gunner after Alon's vision:

"To you it felt like no time passed at all… but to me… FUCK!!"

So when Luke says "a thousand years", it's genuinely unclear whether that's an expression, literal, or just his skewed perception of time.

There's also Alon's theory that humans shatter when they overuse their powers. According to him, Luke has been unusually careful, and maybe that's exactly why he lost his memories: as a way to protect himself from breaking apart.

In Alon's route, when he describes his vision of a future Luke:

"You talked about yourself. About the nature of our realm. About the Humans, the Monsters and us. How everything came to be. At least as much as you knew yourself."
"You were there when everything started and, as fate would have it, you were there to see the end too."

Luke never explicitly says he's thousands of years old, but the context makes it pretty clear he's been around longer than anyone else.

One last thing, the Observer recognizes Luke immediately and says:

"You... I know you. You are Dawn's brother, aren't you?"

And we're definitely not talking about his lion brother Sansun.

Oh yeah, I already replayed Alon’s route. English isn’t my native language, so there were some things that escaped me the first time I read it, but I still didn’t notice anything too major.

Aside from Luke, ever since the Third Howl I expected that he knew them in certain timelines or past lives, because he says he has lived for thousands of years. He also said Alon was important to him, but that he traded his memories of him for the power of Ablaze. At the same time, Moon seems to have met one of Alon’s past lives too, based on what Doom Moon says when he sees puppy Alon: “I forgive you.” That made me expect that Alon’s past self and Moon had some kind of connection at some point, but with Luke... isn't totally clear for me.

I know the dogs are dumb, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be curious, those things aren’t mutually exclusive. Aside from Luke and the Observer (and Alon, who learns things from Luke’s other timelines after tasting his blood), there doesn’t seem to be anyone else interested in the world itself. Like you said, they’re more focused on their own problems than on bigger questions.

I just don’t want everything in one big info dump explaining the whole world (but I also don’t want a vague ending like Soulcreek, where many things stay a mystery), especially since there’s only one Howl left: the final Fifth Howl. At the very least, I’d like complementary side stories that expand the lore a bit. Like the crossover with "Demons Within", in chapter two Cooper saying he is Mother Earth’s shepherd, which I found funny because “shepherd” translates to pastor in Spanish, and pastor can also mean a religious leader.

And about the music, I know there are some tracks that are really good. "Sic ’Em" and "White Wolf " definitely have a place in my playlist. I just meant that most of the soundtrack works very well in context, but it isn’t the kind of music that gets stuck in your head.

Like this? he posted this image on his twitter the past year, 

I started working on a redesign of Gunner as the Grey Wolp, for those who were curious about his canon look. This is how I imagine him at the age during Alon's tragic barkstory, but with his own weapon 🐺 Gonna work more on the details, and add some shine to the metal...

They cut relationship with the composer, so they remove their music, even from their youtube channel... I don't know whappened, people say that he was a horrible person.

There is not an scene with captain yet... the game is coded to fail the lust infusion on Resnick in that part. But... there is a combination of Sloth and Lust with the captain... I don't say anymore...

Something like this?

SPOILER...

Only Max, Luteus and Alon can remember Acri because they have a Luke's Ablaze cristal... Also, the shelter somehow prevent (or at least slowdown) memories from scape.

Can you be more specific? Are you asking how to get Alon route? in which part you are dying? (beware with the spoilers)

SPOILERS

Max doesn’t seem to have an ember in the first place. There’s even this line during the last battle in his route:

“Without using Arts or an Ember, Max empowers his allies by acting as the observer, the strategist, the commander, and the encourager all at once, just by the power of his expression.”

Primal Palm seems more like a physical technique than an ember. What Max really does is use music to encourage and support his allies.

Wow… I’m very impressed. This novel is peak, the story, the art, the music. The music isn’t super memorable, but it fits the story really well. I’ve never seen a novel that integrates action scenes this well, you can really feel the emotion. I really want to see how it ends.

But… there are some things that left me with questions (v0.47):

1. Why aren’t there any women?
   I only saw feminine pronouns once in the novel, and it was when referring to Mother Earth, who is kind of like a goddess. Even all background characters are male. Is there a reason for the absence of female characters? Maybe something similar to Soulcreek, with a virus that reduced the female population in this case? If there are no women, how are they born? I know it’s an MLM novel, but… you know, I expected at least some lore behind it.
   Now I’m thinking, if there aren’t women, then there aren’t hybrids either. Maybe they’re just born from Mother Earth… well, that’s just my theory.
2. Why are all the characters so horny?
   When I saw Rune’s jerk-off scene and his explanation, I thought sex would be related to mana (the power system of the novel), something like In Finite Space (where emotional bonds enhance the Aegis, and sex can reduce its damage, simple explanation, but still something).
   But no, the rest is just sex. I’m not complaining, I like it (top and bottom Rune are my favorites), and I read this kind of story for that too, but again, some lore would help, because as it is now, it feels more like a porn novel.
3. Is Alon’s route completed?
   Every main character’s route (Max, Burry, and Rune) has some kind of emotional bond with Luke… but what about Alon? In his route, he just says he finds Luke extremely hot… is that it? I hope the novel explores Alon’s feelings more deeply in future updates, because he’s one of my favorite characters.
4. How did the world shatter?
   At the moment, every character just accepts the current state of the world as it is. Nobody really questions it (like where humans came from, what those ruins are, or what the relics actually do). Burry used to be focused on seeking knowledge, but it feels like he just dropped that part of himself.
   What I’m trying to say is that there isn’t much buildup around the mystery of the world. Are we going to get a lore dump in future updates?

Kind of… but (SPOILERS):

Embers are basically manifestations of a character’s experiences, they represent who they are. If the person changes, the ember changes too (or maybe even disappears). Main characters' embers are also tied to their emotional bond with Luke.

• Burry (Amicus Dei):
  He can summon his brothers' memories as an ice wolf pack. He wants to preserve their memory and somehow bring them back. His bond with Luke is that Luke gives him a new sense of purpose. Also, Luke helped him to find his brothers.

• Rune (Howling Echoes):
  Through canine empathy, he projects Moon’s memories onto the person he sees as his savior (Luke). He wants to be saved, like a damsel in distress. His bond with Luke is pretty clear: Luke is his hero.

• Max (Primal Palm?):
  He doesn’t really have an offensive or defensive ember (honestly, I’m not even sure he has one), but his “power” is more supportive. He boosts and encourages others (when he used "primal palm" on Luke it triggered his mana vision for a moment). He just wants to keep everyone together. His bond with Luke is that Luke gave him a new life with friends.

• Alon (Dance with Wolves):
  He can move through shadows. It probably reflects his desire to be truly free and to stay hidden from the Observer. As long as the Observer exists, he’s never really free. His bond with Luke is still kinda unclear.

This also kinda ties into their final side sex scenes:

• Burry is into punishment/BDSM, probably because of guilt over what happened with his brothers (maybe even wanting to be eaten by them, like they did to Luke in the battle with Teak).
• Rune likes being submissive (weak), especially with someone stronger than him, he leans into the whole “saved by his hero” thing.
• Max is into orgies, which fits his whole “keep everyone together” mindset.
• Alon doesn’t really have a proper scene yet (the tavern one doesn’t really count).