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Mainwaring posted:I'm going to say something controversial here... I don't like the Abbott Medieval Landlord Kind Of A Dick, film at eleven! Yeah, whether or not the premise grabs you right off the bat (it does me, but I'm also a history nerd), in practice the world is so richly realized and the characters so fun that it'll draw you in. As an educated specialist in the employ of the ecclesiastical authorities, Andreas has more freedom to float around the social hierarchy and say and do things that might cause Problems for others, which makes him an excellent viewpoint for the player.
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Feb 28, 2023 14:28
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Mainwaring posted:I'm going to say something controversial here... I don't like the Abbott Yeah, he's much less nice than the Castello.
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Feb 28, 2023 15:04
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s__herzog posted:Part 2: Sheep This is, if anything, underselling St. Thomas Aquinas. He's probably the most influential thinker (certainly one of the most) in Catholicism, which, given the influence the church has had on the history of the world, probably makes him one of the most influential scholars, period. We actually just passed his feast day just a month ago - January 28th. His works are still required reading in the church in modern times.
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Feb 28, 2023 16:16
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idonotlikepeas posted:This is, if anything, underselling St. Thomas Aquinas. He's probably the most influential thinker (certainly one of the most) in Catholicism, which, given the influence the church has had on the history of the world, probably makes him one of the most influential scholars, period. We actually just passed his feast day just a month ago - January 28th. His works are still required reading in the church in modern times. I think these blurbs are written from an "in-story" perspective, that is from somebody who lived at the time of the game. At least that's the feeling I got. Because several other people were also undersold.
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Feb 28, 2023 16:39
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Oh, yeah, I'm not criticizing the game there. Just taking a moment to provide one of the few additional pieces of context I'm actually going to be able to.
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Feb 28, 2023 16:51
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I appreciate any amount of extra information people want to add to the glosses or other parts of the setting, so I feel less pressure to go back and pick on every little detail myself.
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Feb 28, 2023 17:23
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s__herzog posted:I appreciate any amount of extra information people want to add to the glosses or other parts of the setting, so I feel less pressure to go back and pick on every little detail myself. In which case, s__herzog posted:Peter Abelard Pierre Abelard was 35ish when he hosed a 15-17 year old girl, and after a series of unfortunate events turned that affair into a life-long source of self-flaggelation. Of these 2, Heloïse, who did not ask for anything past the actual "having sex with a celebrity" bit, is the much more interesting person, and is likely the source for some of the ideas that end up being recorded as Abelard's philosophy. We know of them primarily because of their letters, in which she repeatedly tells him off for wallowing in guilt over their affair, and then refuses to engage on the subject anymore and switches to stumping him with theology questions. Dude hosed her, got her pregnant, married her (in secret) and then absconded to become a monk, thus forcing her to become cloistered herself, and she still helped him with his homework for decades, while taking none of his poo poo. Heloïse! ...to be fair to Abelard, Heloïse might've been ok with the secrecy of marriage, he became a monk after being horrifically assaulted (and castrated), and being a nun was the only way for a woman to have an academic career at the time, so she was probably fine with the outcome. He's still a whiny dickweed about it all, especially in comparison to how she writes about the whole thing. As I understand it, Abelard's writings are mostly skipped today in favour of Aquinas, and Heloïse isn't generally considered to be a philosopher in her own right - yet Heloïse was the one that wrote about love, marriage and relationships in ways that late 20th century feminists would appreciate. They are more well known as a sordid tragedy of a love affair, so maybe the moral of the story is to destroy your letters where you argue about who forced sex upon whom, if you want people to remember you did some philosophy at some point.
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Feb 28, 2023 19:34
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The blurbs have to be quite brief and Aquinas was one where it felt particularly difficult to encompass his impact with examples (I guess I could have thrown in Summa Contra Gentiles and Summa Theologiae).
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Mar 1, 2023 01:47
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Oops, I was really tired when I finished last night's post and I accidentally left this absolute gem off the end. Going back to edit it in.
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Mar 1, 2023 02:47
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s__herzog posted:Oops, I was really tired when I finished last night's post and I accidentally left this absolute gem off the end. Going back to edit it in. Monk heist monk heist
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Mar 1, 2023 02:55
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rope kid posted:The blurbs have to be quite brief and Aquinas was one where it felt particularly difficult to encompass his impact with examples (I guess I could have thrown in Summa Contra Gentiles and Summa Theologiae). People could write, and have written entire books on a lot of the authors and concepts presented in this game. You could have had multiple pagefuls of text to explain each one, but nobody would have ever read them. The dialogue in the game itself actually provides additional context, too; the idea of combining the logic of Aristotle with the church's teachings isn't an unreasonable summary of Aquinas' work, and the Baron's dismissal of that work provides more data on it (and on him). Like I said before, I'm not criticizing; I would not relish being handed the task of summarizing the life of Thomas Aquinas in 1-2 sentences. (If you were going to mention something specific, I'd probably have leaned on Summa Theologiae, personally, since even though it was never finished, most people consider it his masterwork.)
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Mar 1, 2023 02:57
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Quorum posted:Monk heist monk heist Monk-y business? 
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Mar 1, 2023 03:20
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Yeah so I read the first update of this LP and immediately bought the game on Steam. It is Good.
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Mar 1, 2023 04:44
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Surprised no one mentioned this, but I thought I'd point out that the manuscript you rub out is the first paragraph of The Name of the Rose.Umberto Eco posted:In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was beginning with God and the duty of every faithful monk would be to repeat every day with chanting humility the one never-changing event whose incontrovertible truth can be asserted. But we see now through a glass darkly, and the truth, before it is revealed to all, face to face, we see in fragments (alas, how illegible) in the error of the world, so we must spell out its faithful signals even when they seem obscure to us and as if amalgamated with a will wholly bent on evil. petcarcharodon fucked around with this message at 12:15 on Mar 1, 2023 |
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Mar 1, 2023 12:10
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petcarcharodon posted:Surprised no one mentioned this, but I thought I'd point out that the manuscript you rub out is the first paragraph of The Name of the Rose. Well, that not ominous at all.
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Mar 1, 2023 13:58
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petcarcharodon posted:Surprised no one mentioned this, but I thought I'd point out that the manuscript you rub out is the first paragraph of The Name of the Rose. I just added this to the post (in a spoiler tag since the foreshadowing surely wasn't meant to be picked up by the majority of the audience).
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Mar 1, 2023 15:27
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Aw, missed the voting it seems... It's OK, I've played through this beginning sequence a lot (games like this have a special hold on me). But it is still kinda amusing that Thread Andreas is remarkably close to my first Andreas, except I went with Bookwork- somebody with Beatrice and Prester John in their heads hanging out has probably read a thing or two. The way this game handles language in particular is amazing; it is a game about... well, a lot of things, but it's partially about language- how people use it, and how it changes both in context and over time. With that in mind, a thing you might have noticed in these two updates is the distinct lack of period vocabulary- no thee or thou, no "forsooth" or "ewiss, no saying or doing things "marvelous well," etc. This is fine for a couple of reasons, and one of these is to remove the barrier such vocabulary would present- Andreas is in a unique position as has been stated to understand and influence his acquaintances and surroundings better than most would, and reading everyone as more or less sounding the same (with different fonts) facilitates that. Another reason, of course, being that the different stylized fonts is already a fairly big ask for players (the church members apparently speak in frakturs, for heavens sake), and the developers probably didn't want to make things too too hard to understand. And in the third place: look, none of these people are speaking English anyway, and I frankly think most period pieces would benefit from the use of modern language to make a point.
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Mar 1, 2023 20:31
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resurgam40 posted:Another reason, of course, being that the different stylized fonts is already a fairly big ask for players (the church members apparently speak in frakturs, for heavens sake), and the developers probably didn't want to make things too too hard to understand. The fonts are absurdly good, with several variations for each glyph that are randomly chosen to make the scripts look less repetitive. The actual font rendering is likewise fantastic: the animation of ink being filled in, the emulation different nib pressures for emphasis or just randomly applied for verisimilitude, the blotches and typo erasures, etc. It's possibly the only text-based game in existence where screenshots don't do it justice. Personally I'm very curious how it works on a technical level. SDF fonts + offset values + noise for boldness and color variations? Fonts with the dynamic features of handwriting aren't a trivial thing to program and design in any case.
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Mar 1, 2023 21:08
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Viola the Mad posted:Yeah so I read the first update of this LP and immediately bought the game on Steam. It is Good. Same. s__herzog posted:I just added this to the post (in a spoiler tag since the foreshadowing surely wasn't meant to be picked up by the majority of the audience). If a person has read (or seen the movie adaptation of) The Name of the Rose, the first 5 minutes of this game have all the necessary elements to be reminded of it, no matter one's ability to read Latin. The end of an era, a dying art, a sequestered library, some implied occult bullshit, a background theological schism, petty and suspicious monastic shenanigans... When you call it foreshadowing, do you mean the aesthetic vibes, or are you promising us a dead body in the sheep enclosure and murderous librarians afoot?
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Mar 1, 2023 21:15
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Viola the Mad posted:Yeah so I read the first update of this LP and immediately bought the game on Steam. It is Good. Same. It's been on my list since I saw it described/reviewed a couples months ago, but it took that first update to make me realise really what kind of game it is. I have to say that it probably would have been much more fun for me to just follow the LP instead, because it's so hard for me to not basically go re-exploring every single screen/conversation whenever something might have changed. I could tell I was ruining my own fun, but just following the story points/markers made me feel like I was missing out! But hey I get to enjoy the LP now anyway, so worked out fine.
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Mar 1, 2023 21:38
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Illustration Pentiment’s art is styled after a combination of colored 15th-16th century woodcuts and medieval manuscripts. Woodcuts are notable for their clear, often bold black outlines–you can only shave a piece of wood so thin before it breaks when you press it down on paper. There are also many extant colored woodcut prints from this period. The ink would be printed on a press, and then color would be painted on afterward. Stencils came into use for this purpose in the late 15th-century, which would make the coloring process faster and cheaper and thus make colored prints available to a wider audience, but the most detailed coloring was still done entirely by hand.  Illustration from Apocalipsis cu[m] figuris, Nuremburg: 1498, by Albrecht Dürer At the same time, color printing was in its infancy in the form of chiaroscuro prints, where two or three colors of ink would be used to produce an image with some shading. This technique was pioneered in Germany and Italy in the early 16th century; it doesn’t feature in Pentiment, but it was happening at the same time.  Saint Christopher: c. 1509, by Lucas Cranach the Elder It was only barely hinted at in the introduction, but it’s starting to become clearer from the dialogue at this point that this story is set in a period of major change in European history. We now identify this time as the transition from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern period, and Pentiment is set in a Medieval holdout that hasn’t quite given way to the new era. Baron Rothvogel says it plainly: there are not many double monasteries or functioning scriptoria remaining. By 1518, the production of manuscripts has been in decline for some time, in favor of printing, and monasteries are no longer a major factor in the advancement of arts and other studies. For context, here’s some of what’s happening in Europe and its sphere of influence in April, 1518:
Andreas and all of the characters under 50 at the beginning of the story belong to the first generations of the modern era, and they are clearly rendered in a woodcut style. However, all of the characters who are old at the beginning of the game belong to an earlier part of history, so they have characteristics of older art styles. Their linework uses a lot more hand-drawn ink (particularly the red), and they have spots of ink and paint worn away. Some of them have less realistic facial features and body proportions, as seen in a lot of earlier medieval art. Look at Ill Peter’s weird noodly arm and hand. He’s not disabled or weak; Jorg says he still works in the fields. That’s just how you might see a hand drawn in a medieval illustration.   Andreas is a modern person. Ill Peter is a medieval person. For a short period in history, they coexisted. Sources: https://artinprint.org/article/coloring-within-the-lines-the-use-of-stencil-in-early-woodcuts/ https://www.cooperhewitt.org/2018/06/11/a-renaissance-chiaroscuro-woodcut/ https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/heavenlycraft/heavenly-15th.html https://www.medievalists.net/2021/08/the-black-death-and-the-great-transition/
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Mar 2, 2023 03:37
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Viola the Mad posted:Yeah so I read the first update of this LP and immediately bought the game on Steam. It is Good. Red Mike posted:Same. Lokapala posted:Same. s__herzog, you are doing the Lord's work here.
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Mar 2, 2023 04:36
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I honestly would buy it myself, if there was a Mac version.
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Mar 2, 2023 08:03
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Another thing that was important during that time and for that region is that in 1495, Emperor Maximilian proclaimed the Ewiger Landfriede ("Perpetual Peace"), which essentially curtailed the right of nobles to wage vendetta wars against each other. Maybe even more importantly, it established a system of imperial jurisdiction that played a big part in moving conflicts from the battlefield to the courtroom, although this wouldn't fully come to fruition until after the Thirty Years War; and lastly, it attempted to secure the execution of the Landfriede by setting up Reichskreise ("Imperial Circles") as an additional layer in the nascent imperial bureaucracy. The following centuries would show that those Circles were very disparate in how effective they were, however; some were highly active while others pretty much only existed on paper. I *think* that the Landfriede gets off-handedly mentioned somewhere in the game too, but I might be mistaken. Also what I think is also worth mentioning is that this time, i.e. the late 15th and early 16th century was a time where religious fervour was at an all-time high. It's no coincidence that Luther plopped up during that time, and also not that he proved as successful and consequential as it did. You can also see this before: The 15th century was full of religious strife (people tend to forget that Luther wasn't the first significant religious reformist; Jan Hus came a century before him and the Ultraqust/Hussite movement inspired by him was afaik the first legally recognised Christian denomination in Europe to exist besides Catholicism and Orthodoxy), people saw sinister portents wherever they went - there is a book commissioned by Emperor Maximilian in 1503 that is full of illustrations of strange comets, crosses suddenly appearing, beatific visions, blood raining from the heavens etc. Many people legit thought that the end of times was upon them! In retrospect this fervour was probably a reaction to great changes coming - s__herzog already posted about those - as well as the feeling of Christendom being threatened by outside forces, i.e. the Ottomans who in 1453 had conquered Constantinople and had annexed great swathes of Christian territory in south-western Europe since then, culminating in the (failed) siege of Vienna in 1529. Last but certainly not least: a great LP for a great game, thank you s__herzog! 
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Mar 2, 2023 09:57
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Part 3: Literal Nut With our new freedom, we’ll take a look around the abbey and meet all of the residents before we finally get to the scriptorium. First, let’s see if we can figure out why Mother Cecilia seemed hostile toward the baron.    Despite having no training in medicine or interest in Heavens & Earth, Andreas is observant enough to comment on various medicinal plants around the environment.  Sister Matilda and Sister Sophie are working in the garden. They both politely inform us that they’re not allowed to have idle conversations with men, so we let them be. We’ve got more important things to do in the garden, anyway.   We’ll see Mausfänger again later. Now let’s speak with the prioress.   God bless you, Mother Cecilia. Is there something I can help you with? What concern is it of yours? It just seemed unusual. The baron arrived to see the abbot and the scriptorium. It isn’t appropriate for the sisters to interact with men. As they need to, at my discretion. The baron is an important patron of the abbey, but there is no need for him to speak with the sisters. Or me. I see. That makes sense. Thank you, Mother Cecilia. Until later. Until then.There’s no one in the convent loquarium, but there’s a little historical note that deserves attention.  Hildegard of Bingen Saint Hildegard of Bingen was a Benedictine abbess, visionary, mystic, and prolific writer on a variety of subjects from theology to musical composition to medicine. I went to school for music, and Hildegard von Bingen stood out in my education as one of extremely few women composers included in the standard canon of European music, and definitely the earliest. At this point I’m going to skip the screenshots of walking between areas and just start teleporting to the next interesting location or conversation. We’ll be back and forth through all of these places enough throughout the game that you should get a pretty good idea of how they’re connected; there’s a map that I will show off when we have more options for places to go; and if someone would really love to see a screenshot series walking through the world, I can put that together later. So we leave the convent and stop by the shrine.  The shrine hosts a relic of St. Moritz (I think he was glossed earlier), who is a real legendary figure and the patron saint of (fictional) Tassing. You can google “hand reliquary” or visit a museum with a significant medieval European collection to see what this would look like. Relics of saints were big business in Europe for several hundred years, and many saints apparently grew a number of extra fingers, limbs, and possibly even heads for the sake of the various churches and towns that venerated them. This particular fictional relic will come up a few more times in the story, so we’ll talk about it more then. There are three nuns in the shrine who we can speak with. Sister Gertrude is much less shy about conversation than the two nuns in the garden were.   How goes your work in the scriptorium? Oh, then I guess you wouldn’t be interested in the saffron Agnes Steinauryn received yesterday. What? Saffron, really? Where’d you hear that? Sister Matilda saw her at the Albans’. Maybe you can convince Prior Ferenc to get some for your yellows. Hmm. Good to know. How’s Mausfänger? She’s around here somewhere, hopefully getting to the baby rabbits before Sister Matilda does. Until later, Sister Gertrude. Bless you, Andreas. Maybe I’ll see you by the shrine of Saint Satia one of these days.Saint Satia One of Tassing’s patron saints, Satia was a local pagan who converted to Christianity and miraculously aided Saint Moritz’s soldiers with food in the dead of winter. She was martyred for her actions. The tall nun in the middle, Sister Lijsbet, won’t talk to us. The last one on the right will.  Interesting detail: The monks and nuns use either peasant script, scribe’s script, or monastic script, according to their positions in the abbey and their education. Mother Cecilia, the prioress, uses monastic script, as does her assistant Sister Lijsbet. Sister Gertrude uses scribe’s script because she’s educated in medicine and herbalism. The other nuns that we’ve met use peasant script because they’re uneducated and may not be literate. We’ll see the same mix when we start meeting the monks.  No, wait… it’s Master Maler. I thought you couldn’t see, Sister Margarete. During the day, I can see some colors. How did you know it was me? You and Brother Piero both smell of the pigments you use. But you’re taller, and you have another smell to you… like fish or… burned almonds. Well, I wouldn’t know. God has saved me from the temptations of beautiful men. You’ll just have to trust me then.  Have a good day, Sister Margarete. God bless you, Master Maler.Next location: the abbey church.  Entering the church, we hear a single singer practicing. If you enjoy Medieval/Renaissance music, you should consider buying the Pentiment soundtrack, checking out other works by Alkemie, and then looking into other recording artists in the early music community. Aside from a couple of special scenes, I don’t consider music a critical element of this game’s presentation, but if anyone wants me to lean on my actual academic background to talk a bit more about music from this part of history, please say the word and I’ll oblige. YouTube clip Spotify: Rüdeger’s Rehearsal  We can stop and say hello to the cantor, Brother Rüdeger, but he honestly doesn’t have anything interesting to say. We move on downstairs to the crypt.  Examining the structure in the crypt, Andreas notes that the foundations of the abbey were built over a thousand years ago during the Roman occupation, and remarks on some of the crypt’s more recent history.  At the far end of the crypt, there’s a particularly interesting piece of art.  You can click on a few parts of the sculpture and get fluff comments like “There must be something around here,” but you really just have to click on the key.   Now what.. ? There are nuns in the library right now, who would be extremely upset if Andreas popped up through their secret entrance, so the game won’t let you even try it. It goes without saying that this will be relevant later. Back to the church, we skip the tower stairs because there’s nothing to do up there. We need to have a conversation with this tiny Swiss man.  How’s the sacristy today, Brother Mathieu? The same as yesterday. Does my vocation seem silly to you, Master Maler? Then go in peace, friend, knowing that the abbey’s treasures are secure for another day. God be with you. Yes, Andreas? You can be such an rear end in a top hat to so many people in the game if you really want to. You can walk right up to the third most important person in the abbey, make fun of his job, and then just say “Give me my pay,” when you haven’t earned an advance and he doesn’t have any reason to cooperate with you. We’re not going that way, but I appreciate having the option. That isn’t part of the agreement you made with Father Gernot. You’ll be paid on the completion of each additional manuscript you illuminate, not before. Not without good reason. This abbey runs through mutual agreements, not haphazard payments. Breaking such contracts would cause undue trouble not only for Kiersau, but for Tassing as well.  What is this about, Andreas? … the Gertner’s [sic] failure to pay their taxes have [sic] reached even you, I see.I’m not usually super pedantic, but you gotta call out errors in a game that cares about words as much as this one. Very well. Do not ask this of me again, Andreas Maler.Mathieu escorts Andreas into the sacristy and takes down the strongbox full of coins.  Thank you, Brother Mathieu. Hmph. God bless you, Andreas.  Clara asked for money in plain words. We can hand it to her without being sneaky. First quest completed! You can actually walk all the way back to the village and deliver this right now, but there’s no reason to go to that much trouble. The sheep are still all over town so there’s nothing else to do over there. Right now, we have a few more monks to meet before we finally get to the scriptorium. First, the cloister.  Did I say that the art in Pentiment was based on European medieval manuscripts and Renaissance woodcuts? Well, there’s more! There’s also Brother Sebhat, demonstrating the manuscript style of 15th-century Ethiopia. Ethiopia has a unique history as the only significant Christian nation in Africa during the Middle Ages and one of two modern African countries that were never colonized by Europeans. Brother Sebhat! I am surprised to see you still here. As am I, but I will be leaving soon, returning to Rome. I and my bishop regret that we could not reciprocate Father Rodulf’s generosity earlier. He showed much kindness to our priests at the Council of Constance many, many years ago.Council of Constance Meeting of bishops that took place between 1414 and 1418 in the Diocese of Constance to end the Papal Schism. It was also notable for the condemnation and capture of the Bohemian theologian Jan Hus. Will you remain in Rome? That is up to my bishop, but I will miss these mountains in any case. You should travel to Ethiopia, Master Maler, and see the highlands. God has blessed my home with a wondrous beauty. I would love to… someday. I still need to return to Nuremberg and open my workshop. Yes, someday. Until then, if you are ever in Rome, I may still be around. By the way, if you have some time in the next few days, it would be nice to share a meal with you and some of the townsfolk. The townsfolk? I am accustomed to strange looks, especially in rural places, but I have had kind words with the baker and his wife. Oh, yes, the Albans, Ulrich and Grett. I offered to tell a story to the children and their mothers over a meal someday. Grett seemed excited about the idea, but I would be more comfortable if you were there as well. Yes, but I am a guest, and I am not bound by the Rule as they are.The Rule The Rule of Saint Benedict of Nursia is a book of instructions for monks living together under the guidance of an abbot. Written in the 6th century, the Rule provides the principles for living a monastic life. Father Gernot kindly allows me to come and go as I need to. Sometimes, politely asking questions before agreeing with people gets you some extra information with no downside. Thank you, Andreas. I look forward to it. God give you health.Brother Florian is working in the infirmary.  Brother Florian, how are you? The brothers and sisters are well, so I am well. Thank God. Andreas, have you spoken with Claus Drucker lately? Yes, quite recently. Why? I believe he may be receiving a medical text from Bologna soon. I’m quite interested in it.Bologna One of the largest cities in Italy, Bologna has been a center of the arts for centuries. It houses a well-known university which was home to both Dante and Petrarch. Can you read Italian? Ah, no. Little Italian, and my Latin is not as good as I would like. I was hoping Brother Piero could help me with it, if he has the time. I’m sure he will make time. He is a patient teacher. That he is. I will see you later, Andreas. Until then.We can meet three more monks, who don’t need their conversations written out.  Brother Lukas is cleaning fish in the kitchen. He says that working for the abbot and the prior is difficult because they’re super privileged and picky about everything they eat, and Brother Aedoc likes to complain about the fish (because he’s from Cornwall and fish is the only thing they eat there), but Brother Wojslav is kind to him.  Brother Wojslav is in the cellar. He asks Andreas about his living situation and chats a little about the Gertner family.  Brother Volkbert, in a white novice’s robe, is shoveling poo poo in the pig pen, and will only say hello. At long last, Andreas heads to the scriptorium to get some work done.    How is your morning going, Brother Guy? It’s fine. More contracts for the abbot. Which would you rather be making, contracts or manuscripts? I honestly don’t care, Andreas. As long as the abbot is impressed, he could have me write the first chapter of Genesis until Judgment Day. Does the abbot’s opinion mean that much to you? The abbot’s and the prior’s, both. You’re lucky. When you’re done with this, you’re going home. I’m never going to see Burgundy again. I need to make the best of the next forty years.Burgundy Powerful former duchy of eastern France that became a province in 1477. Known for its wine, art, monasteries, and courtly fashion. Then I’ll leave you to it. How are you feeling today, Brother Aedoc? Awe mill. “Awe mill”... that’s easy. “I am well.” Well done, my son. It is early. I will give you a harder one later. I look forward to all of your anagrams, Brother Aedoc. Literal nut. …ah, yes! Until then. Good morning, Brother Piero. Good to see you as well. I don’t like this weather. My bones ache. It means a storm is coming. Big Jorg Gertner says that if you live here ten or fifteen years, you can smell storms coming. Brother Aedoc has been here long enough that we can always smell him coming. Are you comparing yourself to a prophet, Brother Aedoc? I am comparing you to an impudent youth whom the Lord, in His ineffable wisdom, may choose to strike down!  I wonder if there are any consequences for pissing off Guy. I need no defense against the likes of you! God protects his faithful against the iniquitous! Well, everyone seems quite lively. I suppose that means Prior Ferenc is not overseeing us today. He was here, but then he heard Lorenz Rothvogel had arrived and he hurried out like a little mouse. Ferenc is so desperate to impress the abbot and nobles like Rothvogel. It’s pathetic. You feign kindness to father abbot and our prior only to speak about them like this behind their backs. It’s shameful.  I just realized that he will want to see his manuscript. How silly of me. Of course that’s why he’s visiting. Perhaps if you were younger and faster you wouldn’t need to worry so much about patrons’ visits. Rapscallion is the best background.   You’re the one mocking old men. What’s wrong with you? Anyway, what’s the problem? The baron is just one client. He has to wait like anyone else. Andreas, Baron Rothvogel is not like anyone else. He has powerful friends, including the Prince-Bishop of Freising.Prince-Bishop of Freising Religious and secular ruler of scattered territories in the Holy Roman Empire, including the lands containing Tassing and Kiersau Abbey. Kiersau is already… out of favor. Father abbot does not want to have to deal with more attention. Well, if Prior Ferenc isn’t here, I’m going to work on my masterpiece until he arrives. In der Maur A prominent family of the Swiss Confederacy and Austria. Andreas goes over to knock on the library door.  A book. The In der Maur manuscript, the book of hours.book of hours A type of illuminated manuscript that contains an abbreviated form of the prayers for the Divine Office in addition to other religious texts. Most are relatively plain, but wealthy patrons often commission lavish examples with elaborate illustrations.  Your hair looks messy today. Did you get enough sleep? I mean did you sleep alone, or… ? It would be nice to have something to think about during divine reading.divine reading Lectio divina is the thoughtful reading of and meditation on scripture. The practice leads to prayer and contemplation. It is a daily part of life in Benedictine communities.   Ugh. That’s all the way upstairs. Can’t you get by without it?  Escalating all the way to green text. She is really pissed. Sister Illuminata! Andreas needs a book and he’s being inappropriate with me.Sister Zdena leaves the window, and Sister Illuminata takes her place.    I didn’t think that you were. Sister Zdena has a poor attitude toward her vocation, the Rule, and, I suppose, the Ten Commandments.  In any case, I overheard you requesting the In der Maur manuscript. Here. Please return it promptly.Andreas takes the book and returns to his desk. Piero comes over to take a look.  Of course. Your opinion is always welcome.  The contrast of colors is also quite nice. Rich and beautiful on their own, but not overpowering the scene. It’s an excellent interpretation of someone else’s work. My son, you’re copying the illustration from the In der Maur manuscript almost exactly. So? What’s wrong with that? Haven’t I improved on it? Aesthetically, yes. It’s wonderful. But I feel you have not given much thought to what it represents. It’s… November. In November we show peasants leading the pigs into the forest to forage on acorns before the slaughter. Andreas, the peasants here are no longer allowed to forage acorns in the forest. Many great lords and abbots across the empire have forbidden it, even Father Gernot. What difference does it make? This is the way November is painted. But it is not the way November is. It’s most important to me that my clients are happy. They won’t pay me for truth.It’s starting to become quite apparent that art is just Andreas’s job, not something he feels great enthusiasm for. We’ll see if that changes over the course of the story, or if he has something more important to care about. Yes, but with God’s grace, this book of hours will outlive us all. What will it say to those who see it in a future generation, centuries beyond our comprehension. Some will gaze deep into your lines and paint to seek a deeper meaning. What will they find? But you need not listen to my opinions. They are just the thoughts of one old monk. There is no place for the monastic scriptoria anymore. In truth, this room is a place out of time. Some people, some places, have a difficult time letting go of the past. I am not among them. The creation of books, of art, is no longer the province of monasteries. So be it. More people will be able to write, more will be able to read and, in so doing, be brought to truth.   Ok, you can have this one.  My dude is so sensitive, he remembers everything. I have lived a long life and am happy to have served the Lord. When He calls for me, I am ready.Piero turns back to his desk, and everyone settles in to work for the rest of the morning. Time passes.  Next time: Mystery! Intrigue! Books! I'm not thrilled about some of the character portraits cropped from these scenes with dim lighting, but I don't currently have a save file far enough ahead to get everyone in better light. I'll fix that eventually. Characters We’ve covered the vast majority of character introductions for this act, so now I can post a whole bunch at once and then fill in the rest one at a time as the last few faces appear a little later.          
s__herzog fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Mar 7, 2023 |
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Mar 3, 2023 15:45
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quote:“I hope my cat kills the baby rabbits before someone tries to save them” Baby rabbits are ravenous and will take over and destroy your garden (and are also small, nimble and dumb enough to get past most things that'll keep a fully grown rabbit away). If you're intending to keep your garden whole, you're not going to be saving them, quite the opposite. Better for the cat to have its fill too so at least someone comes out on top. quote:Can you read Italian? I don't remember but I think this is one of the rarer font switch situations that also involves the character speaking in a different language (that then gets translated back to English after the text is scrubbed out)?
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Mar 3, 2023 17:10
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s__herzog posted:We’ve got more important things to do in the garden, anyway. Game of the Year.
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Mar 3, 2023 17:15
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Red Mike posted:Baby rabbits are ravenous and will take over and destroy your garden (and are also small, nimble and dumb enough to get past most things that'll keep a fully grown rabbit away). If you're intending to keep your garden whole, you're not going to be saving them, quite the opposite. Better for the cat to have its fill too so at least someone comes out on top. You're right, I wasn't thinking hard enough about the reality of gardening. Red Mike posted:I don't remember but I think this is one of the rarer font switch situations that also involves the character speaking in a different language (that then gets translated back to English after the text is scrubbed out)? Yes, this happens here if Andreas speaks Italian. Our Andreas knows some Dutch and French instead.
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Mar 3, 2023 17:17
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Ah, you have encountered the best character in the game. I was really impressed by the patting animations. It's a little thing, but look at how Andreas holds out his hand for Mausfänger to sniff before scratching her chin and head. Watch her tail and head positions, too. This is a very authentic set of cat interactions. s__herzog posted:
Oh, jeez, please lean on your actual academic background to talk a bit more about music from this part of history. When I got to this part of the game, I stopped just about where your screenshot is and waited for a minute, because I wanted to listen to the singing and was worried I might interrupt it by hitting an area transition or something.
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Mar 3, 2023 17:39
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s__herzog posted:Entering the church, we hear a single singer practicing. If you enjoy Medieval/Renaissance music, you should consider buying the Pentiment soundtrack, checking out other works by Alkemie, and then looking into other recording artists in the early music community. Aside from a couple of special scenes, I don’t consider music a critical element of this game’s presentation, but if anyone wants me to lean on my actual academic background to talk a bit more about music from this part of history, please say the word and I’ll oblige. Please do, this sounds super interesting!
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Mar 3, 2023 19:12
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Regardless of anything else we must absolutely take up Sebhat on his offer.
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Mar 3, 2023 19:45
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I agree re. Sebhat. I know there was no love lost between the Catholic See and Eastern Orthodoxy, but I would have thought Sebhat would have been of the Ethiopian Orthodoxy - would a priest from such a different background be so welcome in a Benedictine monastery?
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Mar 3, 2023 21:27
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I've only done superficial reading on the subject so far, but I get the impression that the Roman Catholic Church had a strong interest in being friendly to Ethiopians, particularly as potential allies against Muslim nations. There were quite a few Ethiopians traveling around Europe at this time, mostly based in Rome, where the pope specifically designated a church for the use of Coptic monks in the late 15th century: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santo_Stefano_degli_Abissini I'll definitely do some homework and talk about this a little bit more when we have a meal with Sebhat, and hopefully one or more other readers will have something to add.
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Mar 3, 2023 22:00
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Can I just say I'm loving all the stuff I'm learning from this LP? I'm also loving the cat. Best character so far. Please pet her at every opportunity.
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Mar 3, 2023 23:40
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I love Brother Guy's bio. "Generally regarded as kind of a sycophantic boot-licker. Father Gernot likes him." Also, Mausfänger means Mouse-Catcher. A very utilitarian name.
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Mar 4, 2023 20:55
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IthilionTheBrave posted:I'm also loving the cat. Best character so far. Please pet her at every opportunity. Pet every pettable animal in the game. Seriously, more games need to have petting options. Also, be nice to Sister Illuminata, she's the best.
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Mar 6, 2023 01:37
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Samovar posted:I agree re. Sebhat. it's a little stretch to place an ethiopian orthodox monk in an alpine benedictine abbey. but it's not entirely implausible and honestly it feels like a bit of a rebuttal to the controversy about the game kingdom come which had a little controversy about how it simply "wasn't historic" to have melanistic people or people of african heritage kicking around europe in this time period. people got all over the mediterranean world of course and it benefits the game and its depiction of the time period a bunch by having a character like sebhat in the story. it's like hey, organized christianity existed in africa for a long time and african people weren't entirely rare in medieval/early modern europe!
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Mar 6, 2023 23:05
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Three Ethiopian priests were at the Council of Constance 100 years before Pentiment takes place. So yes, it's unlikely, but this entire community is fictional and I'm the boss, applesauce.
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Mar 7, 2023 00:19
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rope kid posted:Three Ethiopian priests were at the Council of Constance 100 years before Pentiment takes place. So yes, it's unlikely, but this entire community is fictional and I'm the boss, applesauce. How much knowledge did you (or anyone that worked on the game really) have with 16th century Bavaria before making Pentiment and what was the research process like, if you dont mind
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Mar 7, 2023 00:48
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Part 4: Bibliophilia intensifies After a few hours of work, a bell rings to call the monks to prayer.   Terce Monastic hour corresponding to 9 A.M. One of the little hours of prayer, Terce precedes Mass and the chapter meeting. Too much talk. I must ask forgiveness for not honoring the Rule. Until later, Andreas. Until later.A moment after Piero leaves, Andreas drops a bowl of paint on the floor and bends down to clean it up. Just at that moment, Prior Ferenc rushes into the room, looking around with an anxious expression, and walks up to the open book on his lectern.  Ferenc quickly heads back out the door, and the moment the door closes, Sister Illuminata opens the library window.    Oh, I’m sorry, Sister Illuminata. I knocked a bowl of paint to the floor. But then Prior Ferenc came in, wrote in one of his books, slammed it closed, and left. He was in such a hurry, I don’t think he even noticed me. He was slamming books shut? Prior Ferenc should know better than that. Some of these manuscripts are quite delicate. I think he is on edge since Baron Rothvogel arrived early. Which is why books should not be taken out of the library unless it is necessary for divine reading or work in the scriptorium. Cronica Clara The “Clear Chronicle,” a history of the universe from creation to 1082. Written by the Irish monk Marianus Scotus. No. Anger is not an appropriate response for a nun. But the fact remains that you tricked me into giving you that book for no valid reason.  Cologne Large, powerful free imperial city on the river Rhine. It is a major hub for commerce between Italy and the Netherlands. It is also a popular site for pilgrims, as its cathedral contains relics of the Three Wise Men, represented as crowns on their arms. Fulda Town built around an old Benedictine abbey near the center of the empire. Fulda’s abbots are imperial princes and wield great power. Mainz Located on the Rhine river, Mainz is the home of the Archbishop of Mainz, an elector of the Holy Roman Empire and primas germaniae - the pope’s substitute north of the Alps. No, it’s not. Not unless it pertains to your work or the abbot permits it. Now, if you’ll excuse me… Wait, what’s all this fuss about Lorenz Rothvogel? Why is Prior Ferenc so nervous? Lorenz? I didn’t know you were familiar enough with the man to use his Christian name. Anyway, I haven’t dealt with him, personally, but the prior and father abbot have. I only know that he’s purchased a number of our most valuable manuscripts over the years. And he paid enough to help the abbey when we needed it. Like what? What did he buy? Hm. I can’t remember. You know, I have my own responsibilities to attend to. How about this, Andreas. If you help me recover some missing books, I’ll tell you what I know about the baron.  Where should I begin? Out there, where you and your cohort have carelessly strewn books around the scriptorium. I will tell you what books I’m looking for. Find them and return them to me. The first books are two volumes of the Aeneid.Aeneid A poetic epic telling the legend of Aeneas, a heroic Trojan who struggles to reconcile his personal desires with his destiny to found Rome. It was written in the 1st century BC by the Roman poet Virgil. Reddish covers. Fourteen inches by ten inches. Three inches thick. The combination of Law, Latinist, and Logician has cemented this as Andreas’s defining character trait in this playthrough, even though this particular choice doesn’t require any of those backgrounds. … what?   Reddish. Oh! I know the ones. They’re among Piero’s favorites. He keeps them by my desk. They are not his to keep.The books are visible on the bottom edge of the last screenshot. Clicking them brings us into the Aeneid.   Those volumes were old even when Piero started to make the copies. How long ago was that? Three years. The Aeneid is not one of my favorite stores, but I understand why it appeals to Piero.     I did not make you for a scholar of Roman poetry, Andreas. The words sit easily in my memory. I’m not sure why. Probably out of love rather than duty. Do you think Aeneas’ sense of duty appeals to Piero? We all have our vocations. Brother Piero takes his more seriously than most of the others in this abbey. You clearly take your chosen vocation seriously. Andreas, I didn’t have a choice in my vocation. Few women do.  Is it really that bad? Is being a woman that limiting? True. She knows her life better than I do… I appreciate that you understand how limited our roles and our choices truly are.  Like Dido, we ordinary women are merely tools in the tales of men. We can never be the protagonists of our own stories. No woman is exempt from that, from the empress to a nun. It is our lot. I suppose I understand now why you are not fond of the Aeneid. It’s fine poetry. For men. Now, the books, if you please.Fade back to the scriptorium.  Wretched Guerrin An Italian chivalric romance written by Andrea da Barberino in the early 15th century. The titular character rises from impoverished origins to go on heroic adventures and discover his noble parentage. Originally published as a manuscript, it enjoyed greater success as a printed book. I do not have the size in the ledger, but hopefully the description is enough. I know the one you’re talking about. Brother Aedoc was reading it.Again, we find the book and click it to enter its pages.   We don’t. It belongs to Amadea Rusco of Lugano. It’s a Venetian edition that’s quite valuable.Lugano Highly contested Swiss market town located in the southwestern Alps. The Dukes of Como and Milan fought for control over it until it was claimed by the Swiss Confederation in 1513. He loaned it to us five years ago. It was subsequently “lost” and the abbot has received three letters about it. I’ve certainly seen the brothers enjoying it. That book is not appropriate reading for Benedictine monks.  You forgot the best part! In the end, Guerrin learns he has royal blood, the son of a Duke! He reigns as a king and dies a pious hermit. What’s not to love? Benedictines should be dreaming of reconciliation with our Lord, not… lusty adventures! It’s not my place to reprimand anyone for reading stories, least of all, you, Andreas. Still, we must be on guard. Fantasy leads to temptation. Temptation has led to the downfall of many men. And women. Sometimes, yes. But books like this… it’s all the same type of fantasy, isn’t it? To die better than we are born. And what’s the problem with that? Why shouldn’t a peasant dream of being a king? “There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” We may be on in Christ, but we are not equal in this world. It isn’t this world you should be concerned with, Andreas. But… the book, Andreas. We must return it. Or would you like the abbot to receive a fourth letter?      The book, please.We bring the book back to the library.  A dark red cover. Eight inches high, five inches across, two inches thick. Last time, same process, click the book to open it.  Very good, please bring it here. What is this, anyway? What is this?   He literally cannot help it.   Three French bishops condemned the book. All copies were to be burned. Its author shared the same fate. What? Why? I don’t know, Andreas. It isn’t my place to question the judgment of one bishop, much less three. And before you ask, no. I haven’t read it, but I know it contains a dialogue between Love and Reason.The book in question is The Mirror of Simple Souls, written by Marguerite Porete in the early 14th century. It was associated with the loosely defined Heresy of the Free Spirit, involving the annihilation of individual souls and indistinguishable merging with God, without the intercession of the Church. So the book is dangerous… when did the bishops condemn it? I haven’t done much image manipulation since about 1998, and I have to say that very slow animations that occupy a large portion of the window are not super fun to GIF.  What?! Why? Why is it still here? Because Father Matthias loved books. All books. He didn’t want to see it destroyed.  It’s not my place to question the former abbot’s decision, but when Father Gernot learned it was in our possession, he wanted it destroyed. Mother Cecilia made a note of it in the inventory when she was the librarian. I do. So do Mother Cecilia and Father Gernot.  What?! Why not? What are you going to do with it? Give me that book or our deal is forfeit. I won’t tell you anything about Baron Rothvogel. I’ll be gone by the time Father Gernot asks about it, and if you like, you can say I stole it. I doubt he’ll make a fuss about me stealing a book he wanted destroyed. I don’t like this, Andreas. It feels wrong in my heart. First persuasion check of the game! We lost some points for (as it should be), but for this particular check, you just have to agree to be helpful in order to get on Illuminata’s good side. There is no RNG involved; either you earned enough points, or you didn’t. Some checks are very easy, some are very difficult, and it doesn’t clearly spell out the exact quantity of points required. I’m trusting you in this Andreas, against my better judgment. Don’t make me regret this. She may only have time to answer one question, so I should choose carefully… The baron is quite wealthy, quite educated, and he loves fine art. I think it’s clear why he enjoys your company. Most of his peers don’t share his passion for… modern thinking. Nor are they interested in art. You are a rare thing, Andreas Maler - an artist with a university education You may not be of high birth, but whatever the baron’s faults may be, he chooses to fraternize with common people. Sometimes with… unpleasant consequences? Yes, but I can’t say anything more than that. It was a tragic affair. No one at the abbey wanted to deal with it then, and certainly no one wants to dig up the past now. Should I be concerned for my safety, sister? I can’t say. I don’t know Baron Rothvogel much more than you do, Andreas. But there is an inherent danger to walking in the shadow of a powerful man. Just… be careful. Well, I must be off to Mass. Thank you again for your help, Andreas. What are you smiling about?  You are a strange man. Good day, Andreas. God be with you.For me, this sequence encapsulates the essence of Pentiment. It’s a brief historical look into specific real pieces of literature from the perspectives of people looking at the work with a Renaissance mindset. It reveals a lot about Andreas and Illuminata without using too many words. It shows printed pages, handwriting, and illustrations. It has an especially complex dialog tree with a huge set of conversation options for various backgrounds and multiple possible persuasion checks, and the last bit has real stakes on the plot, because (mild spoiler but not really) you will have a limited time to gather critical information later on, and Illuminata telling you about Baron Rothvogel’s history with the abbey makes it easier for you to pursue a couple of leads.  Andreas goes back to work on his masterpiece for a few hours, until the next bell rings.  Sext Monastic hour corresponding to noon. One of the little hours of prayer, followed by dinner. (the midday meal, which many of us would call “lunch”) I should see if Otto is around and still wants to eat with me. I think he’s working by the guest house below the abbey.Before we go to meet our friends for lunch, we have to do some snooping, because we love information and petty crimes and this is a pretty good intersection of those interests. What exactly was Ferenc doing in his book?  Clicking the book opens it.   Doctor of Theology Georg of Gran.     In any case, it’s a thorough commentary. Libra, Capricorn, Aries? All astrological symbols. What’s written below? Hm. Maybe I should have learned Greek at some point. I can’t make any sense of this. I suppose I’ll figure it out in due time, but I’ll copy this all down to reference later.Since all of the monks are in the chapter house for dinner, we can walk right into Prior Ferenc’s house without worrying about getting caught.  His door was unlocked, and he left his volvelle right out in the open. Let’s take a look at it.  Brings me back to 1990s PC games. I’ve seen these before, in astronomy and medical tracts. What’s this one for? Two wheels. The top wheel has Greek letters and holes cut out to reveal Latin letters underneath. And the outer edge of the lower wheel is divided into four sections, each bearing an elemental symbol. Ah, a quarter turn of the upper disc aligns a different elemental symbol with the top of the lower disc.   But these symbols aren’t the same. The elements don’t appear in the cipher and the astrological symbols aren’t on the volvelle… There has to be some connection between them that I’m missing. Sister Illuminata is in there most of the day. Perhaps I can find a way in after dark… And if all else fails, perhaps I could ask Werner Stolz. He lives off of the north commons. I have a sense he doesn’t like me much, but… I’ll find a way to get the information out of him.We’ve done all we can over here for now. Before lunch, we have one more stop to make.  The front door of the abbot’s house is locked, but the back door is open, so we can enter from the garden. And meet another very important character.  Next time: Lunch with Otto and Endris, just bros doing bro things.
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Mar 7, 2023 04:12
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