So you have to run like a crazy person, in perma-d3 night mode, and there are still bear traps and mines everywhere to instantly end your run, AND you're playing the reporter.
Oh I've gotta see this.
Death of Innocence. Birth of A God. Let's Play Fear & Hunger 2: Termina!
Lore: The Gods Pt. 3
In this post we'll be taking a look at the Gods hitherto uncovered, as well as the Gods introduced within the game's endings. Obviously, there will be spoilers for the end of the game in this post, so if you have not seen it and want to avoid premature reveals, I'd recommend not scrolling down further.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Vinushka
A newly introduced Old God in Fear and Hunger 2, Vinushka is the God of nature and the son of Gro-Goroth and Sylvian. He was not mentioned in the first game, and it's not exactly clear if he was part of the verse concept the whole time or if Orange just wanted to expand the pantheon going forward, but regardless of his origins in writing he is a very important God in universe. Vinushka does not just represent nature, nature is an extension of Vinushka himself and all aspects of it are tied to his power. We can presume he has a somewhat tempestuous disposition in that case given how chaotic nature can be. There is something unique about Vinushka compared to the other Old Gods who have left the world: he's dead. As it turns out, industrialization is his weakness and human progress actually boxed him out of his own environment. As Enki recounts, Vinushka surprisingly lost this war against human progress, likely due to the combination of waning faith in him and belief in his anathema. Compared to the other Old God who has died, the God of The Depths, Vinushka is the only known Old God who has perished due to taking direct conflict with humanity. It perhaps stands as another testament to the power of the Old Gods that even in death without any replacement, Vinushka's power still persists and faith in him allows nature to continue on and you can still gain power by showing him favor. For the rest of the world's part, few know Vinushka is truly dead and the Vatican has done their best to censor all available bibles for Vinushka to hide this fact, as people's faith in his remnants seems to be the only thing keeping nature alive.
Beyond this, rapport with Vinushka gives a hodge-podge of abilities related to natural phenomena, with an emphasis on abilities related to trees, plant life and fire based abilities relating to combustion. The Owl Cultists found in the deep woods may be in service to Vinushka, given their naturalist life style. There is also Iki Turso, who has an ambiguous connection to Vinushka, but is waiting in vain for Vinushka's return to the world. Just for something that I think is a funny coincidence though I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a reference or not, the circumstances of Vinushka's death bear an amusing resemblance to the weakness of Captain Planet. Vinushka attempted to fight industrialization to preserve nature, and end up losing and dying to it since it was inherently his antithesis, much like how to good Captain is the ultimate weapon against pollution but is also cripplingly weak to it and can easily be disabled by it if struck pre-emptively.
Vitruvia
No picture available
Another God that technically exists in the verse of the game since time immemorial but wasn't mentioned until now is Vitruvia. Little is known about this particular deity, but it revealed she is a subordinate to Sylvian who created the design of humanity that Sylvian followed to then birth them into the world. Her dissatisfaction with the ultimate result of humans led to her possibly being the truth behind Alll-mer's ascension, using him as an attempt to create the perfect human, free of the flaws of her original design. Truthfully, there isn't any confirmation that Vitruvia is a bona fide Old God, but it is probably given that she pre-dates humanity and has abilities that persist into the modern day should you show her favor. This does indicate there is a hierarchy within the Old Gods, with the possibility there are yet more lesser figures without dedicated cults that still hold some sway in the modern era. Though the general public has little care for Vitruvia, she is an important deity in medical fields, with many practicing physicians having faith in her and espousing her teachings. Daan's ability to offer up organs to cure ailments and the Magna-Medicinal are rooted in a rapport with Vitruvia, and their may be even more medical related abilities involving her we have yet to see.
The Tainted One
An enigmatic New God introduced in Termina, they of course are the trader who gives us soul stone shards in exchange for severed heads. Who they are, what their backstory is, and why this is their function is left unexplained. You can ask about them at the realm of the New Gods in the first game, and their answer goes no further than that the Tainted One is indeed a New God and was a person born with a Tainted Soul. (Perhaps they led a life not that dissimilar to Marcoh) They must have some degree of influence to not be strictly confined to the Grand Hall, but that's about as far as we know about them at this point.
The Radiating One
There is even less to say about this guy! Perhaps it's a meta-commentary on the lack of power of the New Gods in comparison to the Old that so little is known about them that no one has cared to document them in great detail past their initial reign. Regardless, he's another vendor type New God, trading decently useful accessories for the very rare rust colored pearls. He seems to have a dry and somewhat irreverent personality, which at least makes him stick out a bit more compared to the very stoic Tainted One. We can presume he had a Radiating Soul in life like Samarie has. Whether there's any connection with this remains to be seen.
The Heartless One
The sole secret super boss as of the most current version of the game, and a New God notable for not being named after a Soul. Very little is known about her, though she must of run afoul of something involving the Old Gods to have been imprisoned on the Rher dimension like we find her. Whether it was an attempt to take on an Old God or simply being banished by one of their cults is unknown. She has a very haughty and arrogant personality, as well as being very violent and forcing a duel on any hapless person who summons her. She provides some of the best equipment in the game, though since she's one of the strongest enemies in the game it runs to the classic trap of not necessarily being worth it to get that stuff from her. If she seems a little out of step with other characters in this game, that is because she's not technically made for Fear and Hunger. The Heartless One is a homage to Heartless Angel Ketsukei, a significant member of the Fear and Hunger community discord as well as a prominent beta tester for Termina. The Heartless Angel is a character in a game they are developing, and you can see a poster for it next to Cafe Renka on Shopping Street.
The Machine God
An ascended God, much like Alll-mer and The God of Fear and Hunger, borne from humanity's technological advancements. The Machine God is notable for being created purely through human instruments, being nursed in the womb of the Logic super computer. Technically speaking, there is an involvement from a New God figure as the project was highjacked by The Kaiser who is all but stated to be one of the New God forms of Le'garde from the first game, but The Kaiser himself had no involvement with the creation of the project and his campaign in the Second Great War seemed to be entirely motivated by getting the proper pieces for the Machine God in place. The final piece it needed was Olivia's sister, Reila, who ended being used as the vessel for the Machine God's ascension. Much like how the God of Fear and Hunger supplanted the God of The Depths, the Machine God seems to serve as a functional replacement for Vinushka, with technological advancement and industrialization having killed said God and ultimately leading to a brand new God to crop up in his place. Likely when a Fear and Hunger 3 is made, the Machine God will take a more prominent role in the lore of that game. (Orange has confirmed he wants the series to jump ahead time periods with each installment) As for some other random trivia, the Machine God's words in the ending do vary slightly if you are playing as Olivia, suggesting she retains at least some of Reila's memories. Her symbol is also based on the God of The Depth's inverted R symbol, being the standard letter back-to-back with the inverse. This contrasts with the God of Fear and Hunger's symbol, which has the two letters overlapping to form a stylized M, and probably connects to how the birth of one led to the creation of the other.
The Sulfur God
An extremely enigmatic God who is only loosely referenced throughout the whole game and is the focal point of Ending C. While there is information available about him within the game, all of it is buried in very specific interactions or a silly sidequest involving Black Kalev. He is considered to be a forgotten God, though as Per'kele demonstrates, he does have an extremely devoted following, with his small cult willing to go to great lengths to restore him to glory. As for his exact origins, The Man in Black explains that he is a by-product of Alll-mer's ascension, separating out his undesirable attributes and casting them down into the sulfuric pits to burn for eternity. Interestingly, due to his vague wording, it's not clear if the "evil" parts of Alll-mer were cast down into the pits. Given how in sharp contrast to Jesus Christ, Alll-mer was a vengeful warlord, it's not out of the question that the empathetic aspects of his personality were the parts he condemned and he ascended to his new world order as a functional anti-christ, right in line with this series' pitch black tone. Regardless, being cast into this world's equivalent of hell seems to have resulted in a malign figure in the modern era that is also rooted in bloodshed so it's not like him coming back at this point would be a good thing either. For awhile after the game first released, people interpreted Ending C as your character becoming the Vessel for the Sulfur God, but this interpretation has been disputed as of late as there is no clear confirmation of this and it's just as likely your character is witnessing the visage of the God in their dying moments. As for this God's implications for the entire series, as well as how far the cult stretches beyond Per'kele, all seem to be deliberately obscured to keep people guessing. There is a minor bit of elaboration on this God from O'ssa, and it's heavily implied that this God was the root of the ritual that killed the Von Dutch family, giving the Cult of Sulfur a connection to Daan, but we likely won't know more about this until future updates allow for us to learn more. As some additional fun trivia, his symbol is a modified version of the alchemical symbol for sulfur, merely having a second triangle added to the symbol.
In this post we'll be taking a look at the Gods hitherto uncovered, as well as the Gods introduced within the game's endings. Obviously, there will be spoilers for the end of the game in this post, so if you have not seen it and want to avoid premature reveals, I'd recommend not scrolling down further.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Vinushka
A newly introduced Old God in Fear and Hunger 2, Vinushka is the God of nature and the son of Gro-Goroth and Sylvian. He was not mentioned in the first game, and it's not exactly clear if he was part of the verse concept the whole time or if Orange just wanted to expand the pantheon going forward, but regardless of his origins in writing he is a very important God in universe. Vinushka does not just represent nature, nature is an extension of Vinushka himself and all aspects of it are tied to his power. We can presume he has a somewhat tempestuous disposition in that case given how chaotic nature can be. There is something unique about Vinushka compared to the other Old Gods who have left the world: he's dead. As it turns out, industrialization is his weakness and human progress actually boxed him out of his own environment. As Enki recounts, Vinushka surprisingly lost this war against human progress, likely due to the combination of waning faith in him and belief in his anathema. Compared to the other Old God who has died, the God of The Depths, Vinushka is the only known Old God who has perished due to taking direct conflict with humanity. It perhaps stands as another testament to the power of the Old Gods that even in death without any replacement, Vinushka's power still persists and faith in him allows nature to continue on and you can still gain power by showing him favor. For the rest of the world's part, few know Vinushka is truly dead and the Vatican has done their best to censor all available bibles for Vinushka to hide this fact, as people's faith in his remnants seems to be the only thing keeping nature alive.
Beyond this, rapport with Vinushka gives a hodge-podge of abilities related to natural phenomena, with an emphasis on abilities related to trees, plant life and fire based abilities relating to combustion. The Owl Cultists found in the deep woods may be in service to Vinushka, given their naturalist life style. There is also Iki Turso, who has an ambiguous connection to Vinushka, but is waiting in vain for Vinushka's return to the world. Just for something that I think is a funny coincidence though I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a reference or not, the circumstances of Vinushka's death bear an amusing resemblance to the weakness of Captain Planet. Vinushka attempted to fight industrialization to preserve nature, and end up losing and dying to it since it was inherently his antithesis, much like how to good Captain is the ultimate weapon against pollution but is also cripplingly weak to it and can easily be disabled by it if struck pre-emptively.
Vitruvia
No picture available
Another God that technically exists in the verse of the game since time immemorial but wasn't mentioned until now is Vitruvia. Little is known about this particular deity, but it revealed she is a subordinate to Sylvian who created the design of humanity that Sylvian followed to then birth them into the world. Her dissatisfaction with the ultimate result of humans led to her possibly being the truth behind Alll-mer's ascension, using him as an attempt to create the perfect human, free of the flaws of her original design. Truthfully, there isn't any confirmation that Vitruvia is a bona fide Old God, but it is probably given that she pre-dates humanity and has abilities that persist into the modern day should you show her favor. This does indicate there is a hierarchy within the Old Gods, with the possibility there are yet more lesser figures without dedicated cults that still hold some sway in the modern era. Though the general public has little care for Vitruvia, she is an important deity in medical fields, with many practicing physicians having faith in her and espousing her teachings. Daan's ability to offer up organs to cure ailments and the Magna-Medicinal are rooted in a rapport with Vitruvia, and their may be even more medical related abilities involving her we have yet to see.
The Tainted One
An enigmatic New God introduced in Termina, they of course are the trader who gives us soul stone shards in exchange for severed heads. Who they are, what their backstory is, and why this is their function is left unexplained. You can ask about them at the realm of the New Gods in the first game, and their answer goes no further than that the Tainted One is indeed a New God and was a person born with a Tainted Soul. (Perhaps they led a life not that dissimilar to Marcoh) They must have some degree of influence to not be strictly confined to the Grand Hall, but that's about as far as we know about them at this point.
The Radiating One
There is even less to say about this guy! Perhaps it's a meta-commentary on the lack of power of the New Gods in comparison to the Old that so little is known about them that no one has cared to document them in great detail past their initial reign. Regardless, he's another vendor type New God, trading decently useful accessories for the very rare rust colored pearls. He seems to have a dry and somewhat irreverent personality, which at least makes him stick out a bit more compared to the very stoic Tainted One. We can presume he had a Radiating Soul in life like Samarie has. Whether there's any connection with this remains to be seen.
The Heartless One
The sole secret super boss as of the most current version of the game, and a New God notable for not being named after a Soul. Very little is known about her, though she must of run afoul of something involving the Old Gods to have been imprisoned on the Rher dimension like we find her. Whether it was an attempt to take on an Old God or simply being banished by one of their cults is unknown. She has a very haughty and arrogant personality, as well as being very violent and forcing a duel on any hapless person who summons her. She provides some of the best equipment in the game, though since she's one of the strongest enemies in the game it runs to the classic trap of not necessarily being worth it to get that stuff from her. If she seems a little out of step with other characters in this game, that is because she's not technically made for Fear and Hunger. The Heartless One is a homage to Heartless Angel Ketsukei, a significant member of the Fear and Hunger community discord as well as a prominent beta tester for Termina. The Heartless Angel is a character in a game they are developing, and you can see a poster for it next to Cafe Renka on Shopping Street.
The Machine God
An ascended God, much like Alll-mer and The God of Fear and Hunger, borne from humanity's technological advancements. The Machine God is notable for being created purely through human instruments, being nursed in the womb of the Logic super computer. Technically speaking, there is an involvement from a New God figure as the project was highjacked by The Kaiser who is all but stated to be one of the New God forms of Le'garde from the first game, but The Kaiser himself had no involvement with the creation of the project and his campaign in the Second Great War seemed to be entirely motivated by getting the proper pieces for the Machine God in place. The final piece it needed was Olivia's sister, Reila, who ended being used as the vessel for the Machine God's ascension. Much like how the God of Fear and Hunger supplanted the God of The Depths, the Machine God seems to serve as a functional replacement for Vinushka, with technological advancement and industrialization having killed said God and ultimately leading to a brand new God to crop up in his place. Likely when a Fear and Hunger 3 is made, the Machine God will take a more prominent role in the lore of that game. (Orange has confirmed he wants the series to jump ahead time periods with each installment) As for some other random trivia, the Machine God's words in the ending do vary slightly if you are playing as Olivia, suggesting she retains at least some of Reila's memories. Her symbol is also based on the God of The Depth's inverted R symbol, being the standard letter back-to-back with the inverse. This contrasts with the God of Fear and Hunger's symbol, which has the two letters overlapping to form a stylized M, and probably connects to how the birth of one led to the creation of the other.
The Sulfur God
An extremely enigmatic God who is only loosely referenced throughout the whole game and is the focal point of Ending C. While there is information available about him within the game, all of it is buried in very specific interactions or a silly sidequest involving Black Kalev. He is considered to be a forgotten God, though as Per'kele demonstrates, he does have an extremely devoted following, with his small cult willing to go to great lengths to restore him to glory. As for his exact origins, The Man in Black explains that he is a by-product of Alll-mer's ascension, separating out his undesirable attributes and casting them down into the sulfuric pits to burn for eternity. Interestingly, due to his vague wording, it's not clear if the "evil" parts of Alll-mer were cast down into the pits. Given how in sharp contrast to Jesus Christ, Alll-mer was a vengeful warlord, it's not out of the question that the empathetic aspects of his personality were the parts he condemned and he ascended to his new world order as a functional anti-christ, right in line with this series' pitch black tone. Regardless, being cast into this world's equivalent of hell seems to have resulted in a malign figure in the modern era that is also rooted in bloodshed so it's not like him coming back at this point would be a good thing either. For awhile after the game first released, people interpreted Ending C as your character becoming the Vessel for the Sulfur God, but this interpretation has been disputed as of late as there is no clear confirmation of this and it's just as likely your character is witnessing the visage of the God in their dying moments. As for this God's implications for the entire series, as well as how far the cult stretches beyond Per'kele, all seem to be deliberately obscured to keep people guessing. There is a minor bit of elaboration on this God from O'ssa, and it's heavily implied that this God was the root of the ritual that killed the Von Dutch family, giving the Cult of Sulfur a connection to Daan, but we likely won't know more about this until future updates allow for us to learn more. As some additional fun trivia, his symbol is a modified version of the alchemical symbol for sulfur, merely having a second triangle added to the symbol.
I'd say that your spitballed theory has another point in its favor, then.
I also like the idea that Sulfur is the actual ascended god and All-Mer is the cast-off remnant, if only because All-Mer's symbol is ultimately a tiny part of Sulfur's, clipped and rotated. I don't think we have enough evidence to say for sure, though, given that Depths/F&H does have F&H being the more complex sigil than Depths, but also Depths was... dead before she came along. Didn't really get cast-off, given that. Meanwhile, Gro and Sylvian don't have any notable points in common with Vinushka's, so... who knows! It looks cool, anyways.
I also like the idea that Sulfur is the actual ascended god and All-Mer is the cast-off remnant, if only because All-Mer's symbol is ultimately a tiny part of Sulfur's, clipped and rotated. I don't think we have enough evidence to say for sure, though, given that Depths/F&H does have F&H being the more complex sigil than Depths, but also Depths was... dead before she came along. Didn't really get cast-off, given that. Meanwhile, Gro and Sylvian don't have any notable points in common with Vinushka's, so... who knows! It looks cool, anyways.
Vinushka occupies a very interesting place because he's actually the offspring of two Old Gods, so he didn't just exist nor is he an ascended form of humanity. It does make you wonder about the full implications of that, because he's clearly has power similar to that of Gro-Goroth and Sylvian given that they persist in spite of his death, yet he was still vulnerable enough to ACTUALLY be killed. By comparison, his parents just abandoned the Earth entirely, and even their mere traces are impossible to kill (Every fight with the remnant of an old God has some kind of text stating that the fight ended because it got bored of screwing with you.)
He does actually have a broad connection to his parents in terms of his abilities. Gro-Goroth represents destruction and Sylvian stands in for creation, while Vinushka embodies the tumultuous forces of nature. As much as he can provide, he can also destroy just as easily and having those capabilities in tandem and equal measure results in an extremely chaotic force. His symbol seems to be indicative of this chaos, looking like random scribblings at a glance but it does actually form a coherent picture when you trace the lines.
The Sulfur God is basically designed to get people to run wild with theories lol. You get just enough information teased to figure what he might be about, but it's so non-specific about what it really means that there's a ton of ways to take it. I really like your idea that the Sulfur God may be the true result of Vitruvia's design, I hadn't really considered that at all. It would certainly be an amusing meta aspect as Alll-mer is notoriously the crappiest God in this game in terms of abilities he gives you, and it'd be really sly if that's the case because he's not the truly powerful one between his two halves.
He does actually have a broad connection to his parents in terms of his abilities. Gro-Goroth represents destruction and Sylvian stands in for creation, while Vinushka embodies the tumultuous forces of nature. As much as he can provide, he can also destroy just as easily and having those capabilities in tandem and equal measure results in an extremely chaotic force. His symbol seems to be indicative of this chaos, looking like random scribblings at a glance but it does actually form a coherent picture when you trace the lines.
The Sulfur God is basically designed to get people to run wild with theories lol. You get just enough information teased to figure what he might be about, but it's so non-specific about what it really means that there's a ton of ways to take it. I really like your idea that the Sulfur God may be the true result of Vitruvia's design, I hadn't really considered that at all. It would certainly be an amusing meta aspect as Alll-mer is notoriously the crappiest God in this game in terms of abilities he gives you, and it'd be really sly if that's the case because he's not the truly powerful one between his two halves.
Part 8 and the first Maso vid is out! Naturally I fumble the execution all over the place in this video, but I get phenomenally good luck at the moments where it really counts, balancing out to a pretty solid foundation for a Maso run by the end of the video. I do plan to cover everything unique to Maso mode, though since we're going for ending B there will be a couple things I can pass on. (Pretty much all of Deep Woods)
Part 9 is out! A landmark part for Maso mode, we start picking up skills and subsequently wrecking everything we run across. We do have a bit of a resource issue on our hands, but it will become a non-issue early into the next part and we can continue with the dominant strategy.
*Art by Goumonsha
In hindsight, I kind of regret shooting the Giant dead since we're not actually going to get to see it in battle naturally through the course of the Let's Play (future updates and what those bring notwithstanding). It was a bit of a necessary evil though since my luck for resources outside of equipment has been pretty awful this run, with pretty much the bare minimum amount of ammo I've needed and not much booze beyond the guaranteed pick ups. I may splice in footage of the fight from a previous Maso run I recorded with Levi, since who knows when the next update will happen and I can work Moonscorched Marcoh into a run.
Part 10 is up on Youtube and Maso mode has been completed! Managed to track down and gank the remaining bosses, and then had troubles and ease in the opposite parts of the final boss that I was expecting. Note that had I opted to collect a couple hemlocks and hit Per'kele with Condensed Hemlock, that would have guaranteed killed him in 2 turns and gave me time to set up for the next phase, but here's to the could have beens.
Now this will be the last video and possibly post for awhile, since the next major content update for this game currently has no ETA, though Orange has confirmed it's nearing completion. By all means though, if anything I did or any aspect of the game is confusing or unclear, then let me know and I can write up some more stuff to clear up certain things. Until the game is confirmed to not get anymore updates, you can essentially consider this let's play to be going into the indefinite future. I don't have any current plans to make additional videos for this game and I just want to work on other projects while we wait for the next update. If you're curious to see anything I couldn't cover in the let's play (and believe me it's quite a bit), I'm once again going to plug the Youtube channel NoCommentary, who has uploaded a slew videos on both games, covering basically every obscure event you could hope to see. Check them out!
NoCommentary's channel: https://www.youtube.com/@NoCommentary12
The concept of an extended deity like the God of Fear and Hunger gaining dominance is intriguing. Its engravement holding value in the long term adds a unique twist. This series provides a fertile ground for fan theories, blending concrete elements with unexplored facets, sparking imaginative narratives.free fire nameCullen wrote: ↑Fri May 12, 2023 12:46 pmAn extension of the God of Fear and Hunger asserting dominance is probably also her engravement being the only one worth much in the long run lol.
This series in general is a pretty good breeding ground for fan theories since it has enough concrete elements to tell an unbroken and easy to understand narrative, but at the same time there's enough background dressing and enough stuff left unexplored that it gets your imagination going a bit. I seldom do much theory crafting myself, and even I have ended up thinking about potential ways things are gonna go or just humoring off the wall ideas that are just barely plausible enough they could be true.
Haha, NicknameCullen wrote: ↑Sun May 14, 2023 3:43 pmI assure you it's the power of editing that made it seem that smooth lol. I had a serious "oh crap!" moment because I forgot August could only be killed on Day 2 and was worried the Moonless event locked me out of it. Almost scrapped the recording and started over, but my cooler head prevailed and I doubled checked a full ending guide that had fighting Moonless and killing August after in the route to make sure I didn't screw myself.
Editing magic at its finest!
That "oh crap!" feeling must've been intense, but kudos to your cooler head for saving the day. It's those heart-stopping moments that make gaming so memorable.It's a surprise nightmare before Christmas with a new upload for Fear & Hunger Termina! In this shorter edition, I just wanted to tie up some loose ends before the new update comes out, namely covering the remaining backstories we have yet to see and some newly discovered secrets. As well, I wanted to check out or at least discuss some of the skills I wasn't able to work into my previous playthroughs. The main reason I want to cover these things is that, while there is still no ETA for the next content update, what Orange has revealed shows that there is going to be some major mechanical changes. I wanted to get these things covered in a brief video before said update goes live, since otherwise they might look completely different going forward, and I'd like to archive as much as the version of the game that was as possible. Hope everyone has happy holidays and a Merry Christmas!