Eternal

Narrative Depth and World-Building:

"Eternal" unfurls its narrative tapestry in a world where the tendrils of magic intertwine with political intrigue, forming a richly textured tableau. Within this expanse, cultures thrive, politics simmer, and characters navigate a maze of motives and desires. The narrative, a product of Endmaster's narrative acumen, captures the essence of immersive storytelling. This world breathes, the characters, multifaceted and layered, pulse with life. As players traverse through its labyrinthine paths, the tale adapts, branches, and sprouts like an ancient oak, offering a multitude of possible endings, each a testament to the player's choices.

Gameplay Mechanics and Choices:

Navigating "Eternal" is an exercise in thoughtful engagement. The role bestowed upon the player isn't a mere observer but a puppeteer pulling the strings of a protagonist's destiny. Choices, numerous and consequential, serve as the bricks that pave the player's journey. These decisions hold power, forging alliances or breeding enmity, shaping the fate of both the player character and the realm itself. "Eternal" revels in ethical ambiguity, inviting players to grapple with dilemmas that resonate long after reaching one of the many epilogues.

Emotional Impact and Character Development:

The emotional depth within "Eternal" is borne from Endmaster's masterful character crafting. Heroes and villains alike step onto the stage, each woven with motivations, flaws, and internal battles. These characters, intricately designed, evoke empathy, disdain, and everything in between. Emotion intertwines with the choices made, creating a tapestry of interlinked stories where the heartstrings of players are deftly pulled. The emotional engagement breathes life into the choices, imbuing them with significance that resonates profoundly.

Narrative Complexity and Replayability:

"Eternal" thrives within its intricacy, offering a myriad of paths that branch and diverge. The narrative, a labyrinth of threads, weaves a complex tapestry of intertwined destinies. The promise of alternate outcomes beckons, rendering each playthrough a voyage of discovery. The allure lies not only in the destination but in the multitude of journeys that lead there. The expansive network of storylines ensures that each iteration is a new adventure, and the labyrinthine narrative beckons explorers with the allure of hidden gems.

Writing Quality and Descriptive Power:

Endmaster's prose is a symphony of words, a brush that paints vivid landscapes within the theater of the mind. The textual descriptions are not mere vessels of information but conjurations that evoke sights, sounds, and sensations. The written words are a portal to worlds imagined, a testament to the transformative power of storytelling. The descriptive prowess adds depth to the experience, elevating it beyond mere reading to immersive participation.

Conclusion:

"Eternal" by Endmaster stands tall as an interactive fiction magnum opus, bridging the gap between player and protagonist, crafting connections through moral quandaries, and etching narratives that resonate. Its narrative symphony, character symposium, and the intricate dance of choices combine to forge an experience of enduring impact. The myriad of endings and labyrinthine paths invite players to explore with each replay, and the lingering emotional resonance testifies to its prowess as an interactive narrative.

Rating: 9.5/10

Pros:

-Complex and immersive narrative
-Profound character development
-Morally challenging choices
-Exquisite writing and descriptive artistry
-Expansive branching paths
Cons:

None worth noting; the game excels across all dimensions

What, no Casimir daddy incest romance option? 1/8

Ahem. Eternal is not only the title of this story, but also how long it took me to finish reading the entire thing. I started reading Eternal when the final version of the story was published, and, 9 years later, I have finally finished it. At this point, I don't just feel like I finished reading an entire book.

I feel like I just finished reading an entire book *series*.

The story is not without its flaws, in particular the numerous typos and dialogue line spacing harsher than Mistress's teaching methods, but they can be overlooked considering the epic scope and quality of the work. I also wish that we would have been able to meet and gotten to know young Cyrus, Talia, Brenda, Roldan, and the other Eternals before the Beg/Die/Struggle decision, so that we could have cared more about them later on.

Favorites: the Zana betrayal arc, Captain Gruz, the Casimir in Mortos arc, the Eternal Bliss with Alison ending, the epilogues (I made choices based on what I thought would be best for the Eternal, and, interestingly, ended up getting Epilogue #13 as my first epilogue, and the rest roughly in descending order, with #1 being last), baby throwing, and the peace with Brenda ending (I think that I really liked the peaceful endings for the Eternal because they balanced out well the brutality and bellicosity of the rest of the story).


Other thoughts:

You would think that the Eternal would have hired some bodyguards by now with how many times Mistress has snuck up on him.

We're going to need to add an Incest story tag.

This game really needs the Multiple Saves feature.

Eternal feels like it has the oldest protagonist of any story on CYS. I could really feel what it would be like to be an old person by the latter parts of many of the branches.

As usual, Endmaster is great at establishing a mood using dialogue.

This story has the rare protagonist with superpowers who feels relatable and not overpowered.

I, predictably, really enjoyed the warlord elements. I really wish there were more warlord stories on CYS.

General Recommendation: Highly highly recommended. This game is an absolute rollercoaster from start to finish, and leaves the reader deeply impacted.
Preview: As a supersoldier created by an empire beginning to spread itself too thin, what impact will your actions have on the future of the world?

=SPOILERS BELOW=

General notes:
Whether the player walks in knowing it or not, this game is ultimately about the Eternal’s quest for immortality. This can be achieved through creating a lasting impact on the world, writing some significant work, or in a few cases, actual immortality. I’ll go into more detail about how this concept is explored in each of the endings further down.
One thing this story does that I don’t think any other game really pulls of is following its protagonist from birth to death. This is something most games can’t do, for the obvious reason that it would take a really, really, long time to write (or review). Eternal does not balk at the challenge however, and presents the full scope of the Eternal’s life with both width and depth, with the epilogues each fully exploring the Eternal’s life from birth to death, and the existence of thirteen of them allowing it to do so with a large amount of variety. This is an incredibly immersive game with a staggeringly large amount of content.
It’s also one of the more thematically interesting of EndMaster’s works. Like Death Song, it tackles thought-provoking themes such as death, forms of immortality, and the various different impacts a life can have on the world around it, but exploring these themes across an epic 600k-word scope gives them added power and impact.
One thing that should be noted is that this can be a very dark game. Just about any horrible thing you can imagine happening to someone happens, and a lot of the time, it’s the player who’s doing it. If villain protagonists rub you the wrong way, you may want to approach this game with caution. That said, I’d still recommend reading it anways, as I tend to prefer moral protagonists but it didn’t prevent my enjoyment of this game.
Lastly, I’d like to give the disclaimer that this review is longer than it has any business being, and still can’t possibly have covered everything I have to say about this story. I’m sure that there’s some narrative insight I’ll think of five seconds after posting. It’s such an expansive game that it keeps you thinking about it for years after reading it, and no review can hope to do it justice.
You may think this game cannot possibly live up to the positive reviews and hype. It does. You’re given not one, but thirteen full-blown epics, each an excellently written rollercoaster of a ride.

Notes on the Eternal:
The Eternal is a good example of a lawful character done well, and explored in a variety of different dimensions. On the Savior, Patriot, and Couple paths he forges order out of the chaos left behind by the empire. On the Warrior path he immediately goes to find himself a new system. On the Bane path he commits himself to creating order by making Rask safer and instilling discipline in those he teaches to fight. On the struggle paths, obviously, he is committed to the forming of the empire and establishment of order over the world. Even on the shadow path, where his actions are the most chaotic, he expresses confusion at the shadow’s desire to simply be “free” and not conquer the empire once it falls, and is uncomfortable with the flexible hierarchy. When he leads the shadows he does so strictly and with purpose, and when he lives alone in the Survivor path, his life is still very structured.
The absence of stable mentor figures for the Eternal really has a strong effect on his personality on the struggle path. On the beg and die paths he has Gruz and Ebon, who, while they each have their own flaws, do have his best interests at heart and teach him genuine values. On the struggle path, he has only the emperor and Semra, both with whom he forms a strong bond, and who are each seeking to use him for their own ends in some way. A lot of the personality and emotional issues he picks up on this path can be traced to their influence. Though the Eternal gets more control over his emotions and fanaticism later in the path, it’s striking how emotionally driven he is in the beginnings of the struggle path. He has complete derision for anyone not unquestioningly serving the empire, and is more prone to dramatic and emotional reactions. He can be thrown off his game, such as by Semra’s remarks, and when he thinks the nickname (“sunshine”) the soldiers have for him implies a lack of respect. His later moving away from this unstable sensitivity can largely be traced to Alison’s influence. She’s one of the first emotionally stable figures in his life, and has a strong positive influence on his self-confidence and security, allowing him to grow into his own person. It’s probably for this reason that the emperor sees her as such a threat.
Probably the best-written sequence of the game is the section in the middle of the struggle path where the Eternal goes with the emperor to Mortos. At this point, the Eternal has firmly set himself with the emperor, choosing his loyalty and faith over his ambitions and doubts. Though he suspects that Semra is really telling the truth and the emperor intends to kill him, he has decided that if this is what the emperor says is best for the empire, then it’s his duty and privilege to see it through. This is a very powerful character moment and shows more than anything else the extent to which the Eternal is utterly dedicated to his cause. This dedication is in large part what allows him to remain a sympathetic character despite the atrocities he commits. He’ll kill and worse for the empire, but he’s not a hypocrite. He holds himself to the same standards as anyone, and is willing to make the same sacrifices, knowing exactly what they entail.
Also of note is the Eternal’s more personal dedication to the emperor. The father-son parallels are made especially explicit in this section, and Nicodemus calls out directly the intensity of the Eternal’s devotion to his father, as well as the tragedy of it, given that the emperor has only been using him. The reader is made to feel keenly the deeply mixed emotions the Eternal experiences at the emperor’s death, a whirlwind of grief, betrayal, confusion, and loss. When Nicodemus sends him home through the portal, he has no idea how to continue.
Of course, the story isn’t over here. The Eternal is still alive, and there’s still an empire to run. The next sequence shows how he comes to terms with what has just happened, through his changing attitude towards the next generation Eternals, his taking up of the emperor’s mantle, and more personally, his investigation into the emperor’s private affairs, and the judgements he makes about him. These judgements of the emperor’s shortsightedness cement the change that has taken place in the Eternal’s character in this section. He is no longer the blindly loyal soldier and son. He is now the emperor, and he IS the empire. From this point in the story forward, the Eternal retains his soldier’s mindset, but gains an added layer of craftiness and agency, a willingness to take risks and make choices (for example: restarting the eternal program) that he would have considered off-limits prior to this change.

Character notes:
Kane can go in a lot of different directions, but it never feels out of character. Early on, he’s characterized as quiet, but friendly and deeply loyal to his fellow Eternals. This loyalty is what allows Cyrus to turn him against the empire, and why he refuses to kill Edgar and the protagonist. He’s also always been more than a little unstable—shown by his killing of 3 soldiers early on one of the beg paths, his possession by a wendigo on the struggle path, and his general erratic behavior. Oddly, despite his physical brutality, he seems to be one of the more emotionally forgiving of the eternals, and retains player sympathy even on the paths where he becomes an antagonist, and on the path where he becomes possessed.
Edgar and the Eternal have a complex relationship. Though the Eternal’s attitude towards him is always somewhat wary, Edgar’s feelings range anywhere from hatred to faith to the need for approval. This is apparent in the Bane arc, where Edgar heeds the Eternal’s advice to stay away from Rask, and asks him to succeed him when he dies. It also shows in the Couple arc, where Edgar wants Brenda and the Eternal to join him, then becomes angry, then sad, when they refuse to do so. Despite their conflicts and lack of real interaction, Edgar looks up to the Eternal as a model of what an eternal should be, and still desperately wants to prove himself worthy of him. When the Eternal refuses to endorse his actions, it preys upon his insecurities.
Gruz is a really excellent character. In the struggle path the parallels of Semra and the emperor as the Eternal’s “mother” and “father” are made explicit, and I would argue that in the beg path, Gruz plays this role instead. He’s responsible for instilling in the Eternal a soldier’s mindset, as well as much of the inner strength and values he later relies on. Gruz is more than just a mentor figure, though. He’s an intelligent orc (a fun concept), and is loyal to his people. This loyalty ultimately leads him to betray the empire and become an antagonist, leading to one of the more emotionally impactful sequences in the game. The only complaint I have about Gruz is we don’t see enough of him. Most of what we learn of him we see through his lasting influence on the Eternal’s actions.
Ulivik is a lot of fun no matter when you read his path. He’s entertaining, funny, and it’s a joy to see him grow from an awkward child into a skilled and competent adult. It’s fitting that he ends up as an adventurer. However, it’s especially meaningful after you’ve read the Eternal’s hatred for the svelk on the struggle path. That he’s able to have a positive relationship with one here makes their friendship more touching. Ulivik is also important to the svelk from a meta standpoint. He’s the only svelk we meet that isn’t despicable in some way—in fact, he’s probably the most outright heroic characters in the story. This shows in his effect on the Eternal in the Bane path. His existence as the Eternal’s protege drives him to discover his aptitude for teaching combat to the Rask citizens, and care more about the people surrounding him, leading to what is widely acknowledged as the most clear-cut heroic ending in this game. Conversely, on the Savior arc, the Eternal’s deteriorating relationship with Ulivik shows his descent from the morality he’s reclaimed. Ulivik’s relationship with the Eternal on the Bane arc is one of the most touching in the game, especially in contrast with some of the other paths.
Warrick’s skill at stealth is his constant throughout the various branches. This skill is used to its fullest potential on the struggle path where he goes on the lead the Eyes, but it also shows on the beg path, where he works for the Felkan government. Warrick is a constant on all the paths. He has an even-keeled attitude, and remains friendly with the Eternal regardless of what happens.
Brenda always struck me as strong, but somewhat fragile, the mental equivalent of a glass cannon. Though she’s a good leader and adds expertise to any nation she joins, she’s incapable of standing on her own. Without the Eternal’s help her nation in Nalin is not as strong, and failing that she passively aligns herself with Edgar. In the paths where she doesn’t remarry, she’s unable to get her life back together and ends up committing suicide. It’s an interesting contrast, to see her be so competent as a tactician and the leader of a nation, but so vulnerable in other areas. That said, her relationship with the Eternal in the Nalin paths is among the more equal ones in the game. They’re both eternals, and fully understand what the other has been through. Though they have a lot of faith and trust in each other, it’s equal faith and trust, unlike some of the Eternal’s other relationships, such as with Dawn and Decena. It’s a true partnership, and the Eternal Couple ending is well named. One constant for Brenda is her connection to the other eternals. This shows in her marriage to Roldan, and later marriage to Warrick or the Eternal, it shows in her decision to join with Edgar and the eternal dominion, and it shows in the pride and connection she feels to the third generation eternals she trains on the struggle path. It’s interesting to see how this trait plays out across different branches.
Klemto has a lot of variety, and plays a very different role on the paths where he becomes important. Unfortunately, none of them turn out very well for him. He’s unable to protect his people in the Warrior path, and he’s REALLY unable to protect his people in the struggle paths. He’s fun to interact with, as he’s clever in his actions to protect his people, but also knows his limitations and is willing to deal with the empire however necessary, be it through force or diplomacy. It’s a shame his efforts don’t pan out in the long run. His attitude of “I’ll probably be remembered as a collaborator, but I’m fine with it as long as they live to keep telling the tale of Klemto the traitor long after I’m dead” is interesting.
Cyrus is a well-written character, who is generally annoying, but shows a few moments of further depth. He has a holier-than-thou attitude towards anyone who doesn’t worship Dendrin to his satisfaction, and his faith seems to be made up more of arrogance than loyalty, with his complete derision for unbelievers. However it’s clear that however arrogant, this faith is genuine, as is his desire to spread it. This is seen, for example, when he expresses sympathy for Kane and the eternals who did not join the shadows. It’s also seen when he surrenders authority to the Eternal once he believes it’s Dendrin’s will. Unfortunately, there are no epilogues where things end particularly well for both him and the Eternal, their personalities are both too oriented towards dominance to coexist peacefully. On the Terror arc he and the Eternal develop a stable working relationship, but only at the cost of Cyrus’s health and pride, and he ultimately commits suicide.
Dendrin is fun. He’s a trickster archetype, seeking entertainment and stimulation above anything else (much like the player in this respect). His disregard for his follower’s devotion makes him a loose cannon, the Eternal can never be quite sure of what Dendrin’s response to his actions will be, and is constantly uneasy with his standing with him. We get the best understanding of Dendrin in the Terror ending, where his origins are revealed, and the Eternal actually gets the better of him. One interesting thing about Dendrin is that the faith of his followers seems to bore him, and when the Eternal develops faith for him on the Messiah path, he begins to bore him too. It takes the conflict and rivalry of the Terror path to hold his interest.
Talia fills her role in the story, but she sometimes seems a little more one-dimensional than the Eternal’s other love interests. Part of this is due to her commitment to Dendrin; she believes in him unwaveringly and this extends to her having complete faith in the Eternal when he aligns himself with him. Though Talia and the Eternal have an equal relationship in terms of power dynamics, I never really saw that they had much in common. The Eternal has too many internal doubts going on to be fully committed to a relationship with someone whose faith is so strong. Initially, there’s not much to her personality beyond her faith, though in the Terror and Messiah paths, her guiding of the second generation of eternals gives her something more to care about. That said, as the Eternal never shares his inner doubts about Dendrin with her, the relationship never feels completely even. On the Survivor path their relationship is more honest, but still not completely balanced, as Talia’s goals can never be realized. Talia’s death on this path does a good job of showing the differences between the situation here and on the other shadow paths, and it’s a formative moment for the Eternal on this path. I like that Talia lives on some paths and dies on others, it gives the player agency.
Theo and Yvette play an important role as the highest ranking humans in the shadow order, and the most orthodox of its leaders. When the Eternal has them executed on the Terror path it shows the new direction he is taking the shadows in, as well as showing how his ruthlessness has increased, with him being willing to make an example of those who were once trusted allies. Yvette’s dislike of eternals is handled well, it doesn’t take the forefront until it becomes important. Their deaths on the Messiah path are in different circumstances, showing instead that the shadow order has become more belonging to the eternals than the humans. Theo says at one point that the days fighting the empire were happier for him, showing that the struggles of forming a new government post empire collapse present an entirely new kind of challenge.
Lena has her issues, but I think this makes her a better companion for the Eternal on the Survivor path than if she didn’t. The Eternal has a lot of issues here as well. He’s been grieving for his wife for over a decade, and unable to do anything with his life. A stable, emotionally mature companion would likely not be able to convince him to change in a positive way. Instead, the need to guide Lena and prevent her from making destructive mistakes is what gets him out of his stupor, to take positive action to help the people of Delerg. Even though he’s unable to save Lena, these actions lead to saving Tulla, to whom he’s able to commit more fully as a father figure and guide towards sounder decisions. He saves Tulla, and by extension, keeping hope alive for Delerg as she becomes a shadow. Tulla’s relationship with the Eternal is fun and wholesome. It’s nice to see a branch where he acts as a successful father figure and ultimately guides his protégée towards success without stifling her.
The emperor’s development over the course of the struggle path is done quite well. At the beginning of the work, the Eternal looks on him as a savior; due in part to his indoctrination, but also due to the sharp contrast between his education with the emperor and his education with Semra. Where Semra was cruel and domineering, the emperor is hospitable and treats the Eternal with genuine respect, earning his loyalty and affection far more than he could through fear. This image of the emperor as a trusted father figure is then masterfully deconstructed throughout the rest of the first half of the struggle path. The emperor can only maintain this demeanor when everything is going his way—when he loses control of a situation, he completely loses his cool. The Eternal watches him make tactical errors, associate with untrustworthy people, become increasingly paranoid and physically and emotionally unstable, and ultimately betray his trust in him. This plays out differently on the rule/serve paths. On the rule path, the Eternal identifies the emperor’s flaws before they come to a head, and confronts him. The emperor’s death at Jacob’s hands has a kind of poetic justice to it. On the serve path, the Eternal never lets go of his faith and love for the emperor, and follows him through to the bitter end, despite being plagued by internal doubts. Only after the emperor’s death can he begin to let go of his blindness towards him and see him for the fallible person he was. Nicodemus says as much after the emperor’s death.
Jacob Mol plays an interesting role. He’s basically the one doing the day-to-day running of the empire, and constantly gets harassed and threatened for it, not to mention the constant assassination attempts. It’s never completely clear why the emperor is so dissatisfied with his performance, though this dissatisfaction is probably to his detriment, as it drives the otherwise-loyal Jacob to seeking to betray him. His pride in the eternal program, particularly Roldan, helps characterize him. After the years of disregard he’s had to put up with, his final lines to the emperor and the scene where he kills him on the rule arc is quite satisfying.
Marik is a character I would have liked to see more of, but his limited role in the story makes sense, appearing more frequently would just dilute his appearances. With all the treachery in the empire’s central structure, it’s interesting to see a character stick by Casimir due to genuine friendship rather than opportunism. I always got the feeling that this friendship wasn’t completely mutual however, and that the emperor did not value Marik as much as he valued him.
Alison is great on just about every level. She’s fun and entertaining to read, her relationship with the Eternal is believable and realistic, and most importantly, she causes him to grow and change in positive ways rather than negative ones (as mentioned above). Though the Eternal enters unequal relationships in other parts of the game, his relationship with Alison is always completely even, with the mutual give and take one would expect from a healthy marriage. Unlike some of his other love interests, she never gets possessive. Beyond that, Alison is fun as a person. She has a real sense of humor that adds a lot to the story, and is legitimately competent at her job. She’s an emotionally stable person that the Eternal can rely on not to react in the violent ways many of the people around him will. She’s well-rounded as a person, with her own life and goals (she never has any plans of giving up soldering when she marries him), and the ability to stand up to him if need be. Alison and the Eternal just seem to fit together, as partners, without either compromising themselves for the other. It makes her death a real tragedy, and an incredibly important moment for the Eternal’s future development.
Eldolith never gets fully fleshed out, but that makes sense given her limited role in the story. The Eternal never sees her as her own person, only as an extension of her mother, which doesn’t end well for her. She’s mostly used narratively to show the Eternal’s ongoing fixation with Semra, and by extension, the svelk. Her actions betray deeper motivations however, such as her odd relationship with her mother.
It becomes increasingly clear over time that while Semra is inside the Eternal’s head, he is also very much inside hers, probably even more so. At the start of the game she’s in control, but as the Eternal develops healthy emotional skills and a relationship with Alison, Semra’s hangups about him become more and more apparent. He’s able to get over her, but she isn’t able to get over him. On the rule arc he’s able to separate himself enough from the situation to give her the emotional boost she needs, which she then takes seriously and clings on to. Her fate on the rule path is unexpected and raises interesting plotlines. Fittingly, on the one plotline where the Eternal does join with Semra, she ends up destroying him. Though her feelings for him are genuine in their own way, her nature is one of corruption and self-serving ambition, and she’s far too set in her ways to be changed by anything, let alone the Eternal. There can be never be any happy ending for the pair of them, and it’s good that the story doesn’t let that happen. On the endings where the Eternal successfully rules the empire, he never “defeats”Semra; simply growing as a person enough to live with the ambiguity. It’s only on the Harbinger path, where he loses absolutely everything else, that there is a resolution to their conflict.
Quintus does an excellent job of demonstrating why pining away for the good old days of totalitarianism is never a good idea. His romanticization of the past is all-too realistic, many people in the real world DO idolize totalitarianism in this way, imagining it to be more efficient and streamlined. Ultimately, however, it’s not. The empire was really only efficient because of the Eternal’s influence on it, what’s more, it was efficient at conquering, not at actually helping its people. When totalitarianism begins to make a comeback in the republic, it is successful and gaining support, but Quintus soon learns that he’s bitten off a lot more than he can chew. You don’t bring back the efficiency of authoritarianism without also bringing back its much uglier side, and Quintus’s ignoring this danger leads to his death, as he doesn’t measure up to the new standards he created. It further leads to the destruction of his nation as he knows it. Though Quintus’s concerns about the Nalin government’s inefficiency are legitimate, his solution to the problem is much worse.
Jennifer serves an important role on the relic path, but she doesn’t do it for me as a love interest for the Eternal Though she’s obviously intelligent and can take care of herself, this independence never translates to questioning the Eternal or allowing herself to grow separately from him. Though she seems to eventually get over her misguided crush on him, she later just reverts back to it as the empire grows more prosperous. The age gap is one of the main reasons I’m not fond of this relationship, the Eternal’s romances works best when he’s with someone who can stand on their own, otherwise he just ends up dominating their life to their detriment. Jennifer’s character does not benefit from his influence on her, and the lack of her ability to stand up to him, or even stand beside him, makes me not like her much as a partner for him. A point in her favor is that at the start of their relationship she’s not afraid of him and treats him as a human being rather than a symbol, which most of the other characters do, but this eventually devolves into simple hero worship as the path goes on. I’d like her much more if they were simply friends, or if Jennifer’s crush on him remained unrequited, because they worked in that respect. Jennifer’s intelligence allowed her to provide strategic insight without the hero worship she later develops. Instead of remaining one of the reasonable characters in this arc, Jennifer’s development tracks the reemergence of old empire ways of thinking; ending the story blindly devoted to the Eternal, despite him telling her his failings. In a lot of very significant ways, Jennifer at the story’s end resembles the Eternal’s devoted but emotionally unstable state at its beginning.
I like Batalimus, though I’m disappointed he commits suicide rather than working to fix the growing problems in the Nalin republic. Batalimus is an actual action-taking leader, like Quintus, but unlike Quintus, he’s not romanticizing the past or trying to hurt people to his own advantage. He puts all the problems with the empire’s structure very eloquently.
As the orcs and Gruz never quite have things work out for them in the other branches, it’s nice to see the Eternal form a good working relationship with Trog. Trog is clearly intelligent, probably more so than Flog though not as much as Gruz, and he represents how orc culture has changed since the cataclysm.
The change in Nicodemus’s character across the Harbinger path shows well the changes the Eternal has brought to the world. At Casimir’s initial incursion into Mortos, he is in control of the situation and determined to protect the world, and Casimir if he can, despite his bitterness. By the time the Eternal returns to claim the book for himself, his actions have caused Nicodemus to lose complete faith in humanity, and allow the Eternal to destroy the world. In this way he’s somewhat similar to Batalimus, disheartening him is the only way he is defeated.
Unsurprisingly, I disapprove of the romance between Decena and the Eternal. Unhealthy age gap, power dynamics, mentor relationship, etc. etc. I’ve already gone over these issues with the Eternal’s other younger love interests. Though I don’t like any of these romances, I think the one the Eternal has with Decena is the most even of them, as Decena is quite strong in her own right. She’s a powerful warrior, and can stand up to the Eternal when need be, which many of the Eternal’s other younger love interests don’t do. The fact that she takes over the empire after his death helps, they’re closer to being equal partners. That said, Decena’s devotion means she can never be quite the same partner to him that other characters like Alison and Brenda can, but she still can stand up to him better than Dawn or Jennifer. It also helps somewhat that this relationship starts extremely unhealthily, since there’s pretty much nowhere to go but up from where things begin. It makes their eventual more balanced relationship feel like progress when compared to the relationship’s earlier state. Unlike the other power imbalance relationships, the Eternal is fully aware that what he did to Decena was wrong, and is actively seeking to make amends. He directly apologizes to her more than once. This makes it more palatable. Decena as a character fills her role in the story well, providing a narrative parallel for the Eternal’s relationship with Semra, and bringing new kinds of conflict to the story, as the Eternal comes to grips with how to deal with the damage he’s inflicted on her, while also dealing with both of their current feelings for each other. Decena becomes more interesting as she grows older and becomes her own person. The time spent away from the Eternal is important to her development.
Elam is fun. I’ve always been fond of mad scientists, and it’s good that he plays an active role in the story as opposed to Marik’s more reclusive one.
Flevas helps round out his species as the only major sveld character in the game. His anger at the dryad’s pity, and loyalty to his people but placing of the blame on them, raises interesting questions about him. His bonding with the Eternal over their mutual hatred of svelk is amusing. It would have been nice to see more of him.

Setting notes:
One thing I like about this game is the way each region has its own distinct character. In many of the paths, particularly the beg and die paths, the region the Eternal settles in has a lot of influence over his personality.
Quala- Oddly, we probably learn the least about this area, since the Eternal is usually off conquering other places.
Rask- Rask is fun. There’s a lot going on that takes the plot in interesting directions, as does the independent mindset of its citizens. Rask is explored best on the Savior and Bane paths, where its harsh and fierce territory drives the Eternal towards valuing independence and freedom.
Nalin- An important area in the Beg path, particularly the parts where you join with Brenda. It’s a desertic fantasy province, with the trappings that come with this (kobolds, giant worms, etc.), but it has its own aspects that are explored later in the work. Nalin is explored best on the Patriot and Couple paths, where the Eternal becomes more of a leader in response to it’s relatively more civilized terrain.
Felkan Kingdom- On the Warrior path, the governmental structure here makes the Eternal fit into established structures and operate within a hierarchy.
Delerg- Clearly Delerg is the land of the shadows. It reaches its full power on the paths where the shadows are victorious and cast a spell of darkness over it, but even on the branches where the shadows are less successful, the land clearly has a lot of history with the religion and always has a wilder, untamed side to it.
Mortos- Mortos is a really foreign place, largely accessible only by portal, and the mystery surrounding it is communicated well through the text. Going to Mortos with the emperor, and then returning later without him helps show the changes in the Eternal’s character between these two points; with the emperor he is an apprentice, but he returns as a conqueror. Mortos’s inclusion in the Bane and Couple epilogues is nice. The necromancer community that inhabits it we never see much of, but what we do see is interesting, since they seem to be a mostly peaceful people who just want to be left alone. Certainly not the traditional world-conquering necromancer archetypes.
Nyttrus- Once again, the worldbuilding surrounding Nyttrus is strong, and gives the continent a unique feel.
Might make a fan map at some point.

Species notes:
One thing I’ve noticed while reading this story is the variety of different fantasy species that show up, as well as the twists that exist on the more familiar ones. Many fantasy stories have humans spanning the entire globe with humanoid races merely having enclaves or regions. One thing I like about this game is that the humans tend to have their own regions as well, and the non-human races are quite widespread. It’s a more realistic depiction of a world with more than one intelligent species.
Kobolds- The kobolds have an interesting arc on the struggle paths, where they become devoted citizens of the empire. Given the empire’s somewhat xenophobic nature, it’s good to see the kobolds fully incorporated into its society.
Wendigos- The wendigos present an unusual challenge for the Eternal, an enemy that has to be defeated both mentally and physically. They’re brutal, but they’re also clever and devious and it makes them one of the more genuinely threatening enemies the Eternal faces, despite not being as organized or numerous. They’re even more subtly threatening when they’re possessing rabbits. They’re a clever concept, though I’m not sure how much of the lore behind them is taken from actual mythology.
Gnomes- I like that the gnomes have a major role in the plot here, as I think they’re a very underutilized fantasy race. Here, the gnomes have a lot of worldbuilding thrown into their history and role in the Felkan kingdom, and a lot of involvement in its politics. The role they play on the struggle arc is probably the most interesting, seeing how they’ve developed into a violent society in the rule arc, and the underground fortress they’ve built on the serve arc.
Shadows- Though a religious group and not a species, I think they belong in this section. The shadow religion and culture is quite interesting and in-depth. The cult’s politics are multifaceted and intriguing and can be approached from many angles, such as on the path where the Eternal remains loyal to the empire, and the one where he switches loyalties to the shadows. The shadows bear numerous similarities to the worshipers of Fel from Rogues, to the extent that one might suspect a connection between Dendrin and Fel. One thing that sticks out about the shadows is the loyalty and leniency they have with their own members. The talk about being a family isn’t just lip service, they really do have strong ties of loyalty to each other and are willing to forgive each other’s mistakes. The way their magic works is interesting too, with it being tied to an outside source rather than learned like the other magic in this setting. Shadow-based magic is always fun in games, and has lots of potential applications. One complaint I often have with stories with false religious orders, is that the members of said orders tend to abandon them immediately when shown evidence their god is false. In real life, religious faith is much, much stronger than this, and can easily rationalize or dismiss most threats to it. This is done well with the shadows—the player has the opportunity on multiple occasions to present them with evidence of Dendrin’s disinterest, but doing so does not lead to a mass rejection of him, it just makes people angry. This is more realistic. Deconstruction of Dendrin’s influence can only be done over the course of generations, such as in the Terror epilogue.
Derro- I quite like the take on “traditional” fantasy races elves and dwarves in this game. The altered names and traits hammers in to the player that this is not a typical friendly fantasy world, it’s much darker and more dangerous. The dwarves here aren’t just smaller humans, they’re completely alien, more so than any of the other races in the game. Their complete rejection of the surface and insanity are strong defining traits. Their position within the empire is also interesting; as they live underground, the emperor doesn’t seem to feel the need to conquer them, though that may be due to his friendship with Marik. We never learn much about the typical Derro, as the ones the Eternal interacts with are all outliers in some way.
Svelk- I tend to dislike “dark elves”, as they’re generally cliche and annoying and don’t add much to the stories they’re part of. That doesn’t happen in this game. The svelk are just as arrogant and insufferable as the typical fantasy dark elf, but this attitude is explicitly one they can’t actually back up. The svelk’s fallen position in the world gives them a motivation and position to work with the narrative rather than against it. Ulivik’s presence also helps them from falling into the “always evil” race trap, and shows the extent to which their arrogance is cultural.
Sveld- Another example of a typical fantasy race done well. Having the elves explicitly connected to fairies explains their inclination towards the wilderness. Having the “normal” elves be the offshoot is an interesting decision. Flevas helps a lot when it comes to rounding out this species. That said it would be nice to see more of the elves, they have an interesting history and role in the empire.
Children of Tor- The variety of fantasy races encountered in this world is one of its strengths. The Children of Tor being less commonly encountered in fantasy stories also helps meeting them here show that the empire is really pushing into new territory.

Path/ending notes:
It’s interesting that the choice that puts you on the path towards the Savior or Bane epilogues is framed as the choice to lie or not lie to Brenda. Here you’re choosing honesty vs. deception, and loyalty to your fellow eternals (not being willing to risk killing Brenda), or loyalty to your new home and friends. Fittingly, prioritizing Brenda and deception taints your loyalty to Rask. Even though you’re able to save it from the Eternal Dominion, you’re unable to prevent it from being forever changed, and restricting the freedom and independence that made it what it was. The Eternal never quite finds satisfaction in this ending, as he’s sacrificed the things that really made him happy in order to get there. Though the ending where Ulivik kills the Eternal is not part of this ending, their conversation shows eloquently and tragically the failures that lead the Eternal to this position. He never really winds up caring about Rask in this path, he’s simply going through the motions and isn’t too disappointed when Ulivik kills him. The Eternal achieves “immortality” on this path through his establishment of Kaplavisk, and ongoing reputation as the Savior of Rask.
The contrast between the Bane and Savior endings is that of passive deception, and genuine honestly. The Eternal really doesn’t care for his people or reputation on the Savior path, despite it being much more prestigious in name. On the Bane path, however, he develops a real attachment to Ulivik, and especially to Rask, its inhabitants, and its independence. He has something he really cares about, and people who care about him. It’s the most abjectly heroic the Eternal gets, and the epilogue is both one of the most touching, and one of the most positive for the world’s average citizens. Of note on the Bane path is the Eternal’s relationship with the truth. At several key moments you have the opportunity to lie, but choose not to, including the final choice. This shows the Eternal’s commitment to existing as he is for himself and no one else; something he doesn’t achieve on most paths. On the Eternal Bane path, the Eternal achieves immortality through his writings and legends of his deeds. I suspect the book’s popularity on Mortos is key to this, as the inhabitants really are immortal and aren’t going to forget him anytime soon.
The difference in the Eternal’s personality on the Rask and Warrior paths is immediate. The Eternal is very much a self-directed independent loner on the Rask path, who would balk at following orders. On the Felkan path, he is happy to do so, and more concerned with serving his country than directing himself. This is probably the only path on which the Eternal remains content in a subordinate position, even when he rises in rank he never becomes the leader of the Felkans. Klemto’s remark that the Eternal doesn’t know any better is telling. On this path especially, the Eternal is more of a force of nature than anything else. Interestingly, there are some similarities between the Eternal on this path and the Eternal Harbinger ending. In both cases, his true calling is war and conflict. While on the Bane path the decision to lie comes up repeatedly, on this path the decision to obey or take initiative comes up periodically. Despite the fact that the Eternal is now serving another kingdom, he still needs to take things upon himself in order to be effective. Though this initiative is effective, what happens to the Felkan Kingdom governmental structure under the Eternal’s influence is pretty tragic. Though they’re obviously better off with him than without him (especially when facing the Eternal Dominion), they’re forced to lose a lot of their leniency and peacefulness in order to survive. Though they never wind up being as bad as the empire, conditions and freedom for the average citizen do not improve, and certainly not for the gnomes. Klemto puts it well in his final scene. In this ending, he achieves immortality through his influence on the now-powerful Felkan Kingdom, and the legends that are told about him after his death.
In the beginning of the Nalin path, we see the Eternal and Brenda slowly forming a stable partnership, with her as a leader of the country, and him as a leader of the military. However, on the Eternal Patriot path, this partnership is destroyed before we have a chance to see what it could have turned into. Without Brenda’s mediating influence, the Eternal becomes angry and harsher, restricting freedom more, and making Nalin more like the empire. As such, he reverts to his old ways of thinking, only with Nalin as the focus. He’s focused on building a strong nation with a strong leader, and serving it as best he can. In this path, the empire never loses its hold over him, as shown through his dreams and actions, and his ultimate decision to carry on his nation through a fictional immortal “emperor”, as he might imagine the previous empire to have been. Though not as depressed as in Eternal Savior, he never finds real happiness on this path either, instead satisfying himself with carrying out his patriotic duty to the best of his ability. He achieves immortality here by instilling himself as a symbol of leadership for his newfound nation that will continue to “rule” through his various successors.
In the Savior, Warrior, and Patriot endings, the Eternal eventually finds himself on a quest to re-create the empire he has abandoned. Ulivik stops him from doing this on the Bane path, and it’s Brenda who stops him in Eternal Couple. Instead, the focus of the path is on not becoming like the empire. You refuse to join Edgar in his nation that oppresses ordinary citizens, and refuse to help Warrick, largely out of self-preservation, but it also prevents the new nation from becoming similarly expansionist. Nalin isn’t completely different obviously, there’s still work against dissidents and brutal policies, like destroying the towns infected with the plague. But among the nations that have survived the empire’s downfall, it manages to be fairer to its citizens than the ED, with the prospect of becoming more so in the future. Brenda’s presence is key to this, having a positive influence on the fate of this new nation, and being the thing that makes the Eternal happy with his life rather than merely committed. This is made especially clear in the ending, where Brenda outlives him. This is the only epilogue where the Eternal does not meet Gruz’s prediction that he’ll outlive everyone, and it’s a triumph rather than a tragedy. In this ending, he achieves immortality through his writings, Eternal Vigilance. I suspect the book’s popularity on Mortos is key to this, as the inhabitants really are immortal and aren’t going to forget him anytime soon.
Though not a true ending, the Emperor’s Shadow path is long enough that it deserves analysis. By the time the Eternal has the opportunity to betray the shadow guard, it’s too late for him to do so without great personal cost. On the path where he carries out the betrayal anyways, there can be no victory for him—doing so will require he sacrifice all his friends, everything he cares about, and ultimately his life. This path is, in a way, the truest continuation of the “die” choice. On this path the Eternal is committed to the empire to the exclusion of all else, refusing to beg for his life or struggle to avoid his fate, even knowing his actions will kill him. Like the initial choice to lie to Dendrin in order to live, in order to reach the true endings on the shadow path, the Eternal needs to choose life and happiness over service.
On the Terror path, the Eternal’s ultimate goal becomes to make the shadows independent of Dendrin. Rather than solidifying his faith as a priest to Dendrin as he does on the Messiah path, his goal here is instead to become his peer: Able to tap into the shadow realm at will. He succeeds in separating the shadows from reliance on Dendrin, changing the nature of the order in a much more long-term sense than any immediate defiance of Dendrin could accomplish (immediate attempts to separate the order from Dendrin end in failure, of course). Though it’s on the the Messiah path that the Eternal’s faith to Dendrin becomes legitimate, it’s on the Eternal Terror path that he personally becomes most like him. Dendrin himself points this out, saying that the Eternal is enjoying watching the chaos he is causing as the leader of the shadow assassins. When the Eternal first unleashes shadow magic on the orcs at Rask, it is out of the shared excitement he and Dendrin have to see what will happen, not out of faith, and the Eternal’s desires to be revered by the shadows are explicitly compared to Dendrin’s. Their conflict feels more like a rivalry or competition rather than genuine antagonism, however. Ultimately, the Eternal replaces Dendrin, both as a power source for the shadows, and as a leader figure. In this ending, he achieves immortality through this replacement of Dendrin, becoming revered in much the same way he once was.
On the Messiah path, we see the full scope of the Eternal’s journey from loyal empire soldier, to doubting follower with divided loyalties, to true believer and leader. The change is subtle, and comes not out of a desire for power or any genuine awe for Dendrin’s strength, but because the Eternal has reached a point in his life where he’s at a loss for where to go next, and is looking for genuine guidance. Approaching Dendrin open-handed allows him to connect to the shadow faith in a way that he can’t on other paths. The Eternal’s reaction to Cyrus’s appearance shows how he has changed. Rather than safely killing him as he would do on any other path, he tries to reach out and connect to him, placing his faith in Dendrin. Placing too much faith in Dendrin has its own dangers, however—preforming the ritual of ascension calls on the shadows to sacrifice everything they have worked for and are. To achieve victory on this path, the Eternal must still have his own skills of analysis, and rely primarily on his own decision-making. This is represented in the path’s outcome. Dendrin leaves the world, meaning the shadows now need to rely on the Eternal rather than him. The Eternal achieves immortality on this path by becoming an important religious figure, and by fusing with the shadow plane, and continuing to provide power for the shadows long after his death.
The Survivor path, by contrast, is much more intimate. The Terror and Messiah paths focus on shadow politics and making a mark on the world, but the Survivor path turns the focus inward to the Eternal’s personal struggles, and to the ability he has to touch the lives of others—specifically with Lena and Tulla. Another important point on this path (as stated by Lena) is that survival isn’t enough. Living to old age, going crazy, and dying as a hermit is not enough for a fulfilling life, you actually need to do something in the world. For the Eternal, that becomes helping Delerg and the new shadows. He needs to guide them, but he can’t become controlling, he needs to let them find their own path. When he tries to prevent them from accessing all the resources of the shadows, it drives a wedge between them. His challenge here is that of a parent; letting go, and allowing his ‘children’ to make their own decisions. He achieves immortality on this path through his renewal of the shadow order, and lasting influence on its spread, and through Dendrin’s final transformation.
The Destroyer and Hero paths bear a lot of similarities to the Warrior path: In both cases, the Eternal’s alignment with a government dedicated to serving the people turns it into an abjectly autocratic one. Though the Nalin republic was certainly bureaucratic and inefficient, it WAS serving its people and improving their quality of life. The Eternal, and a small minority of people that want totalitarianism completely change this structure with little input from the people. This arc is a very well-crafted demonstration of how democratic governments fall into totalitarianism; the Eternal drives the Nalin republic in this direction in a very calculated manner. Some of the elements the Eternal leverages to bring about this change feel like they have direct parallels to modern issues, though history does tend to repeat certain themes. The relic path abandons these political issues later on, instead focusing on the conquest and future of the empire in the same way the Paragon and Emperor paths do. The Destroyer ending is unusual among the endings in that it’s a fairly negative outcome: The empire is destroyed, its population decimated, and the Eternal dies alone. However, this game is not about a positive ending for the Eternal, it’s about making an impact on history, which he very much does here. In that way Eternal Destroyer is still one of the game’s thirteen epilogues, with the Eternal achieving immortality through the fanatical cult of personality that has grown up around his image. Fittingly, the image that is portrayed is one of ruin and destruction, which is what he has led the empire to (twice!).
Eternal Hero, by contrast has the Eternal become a beloved figure for his victory against the Xi, and in no small part due to Jennifer’s writings. This is a reputation which the Eternal himself thinks is undeserved, but it’s his legacy nonetheless, which is sort of the point of this ending—an unearned noble reputation. The empire is also in much better shape in this ending. The Eternal achieves immortality here through the continuation of the empire and by being elevated to mythical status.
The angle the Paragon and Emperor arcs approach immortality from is preserving the empire beyond the Eternal’s death. In these arcs, the Eternal is not satisfied with living a full life and passing the empire on to Decena, he wants to ensure its survival for centuries to come. This is a fitting conclusion to the story as it has been built up so far. All of the Eternal’s actions have been for the glory and expansion of the empire, and in order for all of this to mean anything, there has to be some way to ensure it will last after he is gone. In the Paragon arc, this is done through making the next generation of Eternals fertile. On this path, the Eternal recognizes that immortality of any kind is just putting off the same problem to a later date. Instead, he chooses to set up competent people in powerful positions to ensure that the empire is a fault-tolerant system that will not collapse with the death of one man (with limited success). This is done through Decena, and the next generation of Eternals. Another effect of this is the reemergence of magic, which had been dying in the world until the new eternals were imbued with innate magical abilities. In this arc, the Eternal achieves immortality by becoming the father of a race that eventually becomes the dominant race on the planet.
In the Emperor arc, the Eternal instead seeks to preserve his own lifespan, recognizing that his presence is largely keeping the empire together. It works, and in this epilogue the Eternal is actually able to preserve the empire far beyond any other epilogue. Of course, this comes at the cost of his physical body. As several characters note, combat has always been the one thing the Eternal really loves, and he loses this (along with all the friends he makes during his lifetime) when he becomes immortal. He recognizes this in the epilogue, when he chooses to end his life rather than continue into space with the empire. In this ending the Eternal achieves immortality not through the extension of his own lifespan, but through the solidification of the empire that this extension allowed him to create. His true immortality is in the empire’s continuation beyond the reaches of the planet.
The Harbinger arc has the most narrative craft given to it; the foundations of the Eternal’s arc and the plot’s outcome have been laid down since the very first page. This is most obvious with the repeated beg/die/struggle choice at the arc’s conclusion, which is a very clever way of bringing the story in a circle and showing how things have changed. It’s true of the Eternal’s entire character arc, however. He begins as an angry emotionally unstable servant of the empire and his “father”. He then grows into his own person with the help of Alison only to lose her. He commits himself to his father then loses him as well, and finally steps fully into the role of emperor that he really has been holding for years. He struggles with Decena to move past his personal issues surrounding the past, but loses her before any sort of closure can be reached. Then, he decides to hell with it, and throws himself into the quest for true immortality, regardless of the consequences it will have. The funny thing is, that while on many of the arcs (particularly the Paragon/Emperor arcs) he’s actively seeking some kind of immortality to preserve the empire, on this arc it’s not really clear why he’s doing it. He doesn’t seem to care about the empire’s future, since he’s willing to sacrifice so much of it as a means to an end. He’s just retreading in Casimir’s footsteps, seeking immortality through the book with brutal efficiency because he has no idea what else to do. By the time he actually opens a portal to the land of death, he’s been completely destroyed as a person, and has dragged the entire world down with him. The final scene with death is excellently done, as are all three of the final outcomes. The Eternal Bliss ending is excellently written and very emotionally impactful. Alison’s presence has been a continued influence on the Eternal even after her death, and their reunion is beautifully tragic and satisfying. That said, despite it being very well done, the most positive ending, and the canon ending, it’s not the most fitting one for me, that title falls to Eternal Harbinger. This is due in part to my view that the Eternal has always been more committed to war than to Alison (by a smidge), but more due to the fact that the Eternal only gets there on a technicality, because the death god decided he liked him. He didn’t earn his way to that ending, and he doesn’t deserve it, not after everything he’s done. The Harbinger ending, on the other hand, is something he’s been working towards, knowingly or not, his entire life. Throughout the game, many characters point out the Eternal’s love of war, including the Necromancer in the final scene. It’s the one constant throughout all the branches, no matter who he is or what his goals are, he loves war and conquest and is very good at it. He finds the simplicity of it refreshing, and when in his later years in several of the arcs he’s forced to give it up, he misses it keenly. Because of this, the Harbinger ending feels like the most complete and fitting capstone on the Eternal’s life out of all the endings in the game. The Harbinger ending is not positive—it calls on him to sacrifice everything he’s ever believed in in his life other than his love of combat, and it completely destroys him as a person. But it is the end destination on the road he’s chosen for himself, and feels deserved and the most narratively satisfying. The Eternal achieves immortality here by his ongoing service as a warrior for the death good, to the point where he no longer can conceive of ever having been anything else.

Specific notes:
-More than any of EndMaster’s games, the epilogues here have a clear arc to them. As such, I’ll be reading them in order, 1-13.
-Playing as a character who has completely swallowed the propaganda put out by the empire is interesting.
-The conversation at the start of the game is a good way to begin. It sets the tone and setting, but its deeper significance is completely meaningless to anyone who doesn’t already know what’s happening. Details like this give the game a lot of replay value, it’s only on the re-read that the player reads this scene and thinks “ohhh”.
-Dividing the empire’s background links into lies and truth is a good way to convey the information. Still not a huge fan of background links/cutscenes, but I think they work best in long novel-like games like this, where otherwise the player would have walls of text between every click.
-The “truth” section reveals information to the player on a need-to-know basis. The secrets surrounding the empires structure and origins are not revealed, but the player is given an accurate sense of the empire’s present condition.
-Having read this before, I’m left wondering what the hell the emperor was thinking leaving Semra in charge of the eternal program. Surely he could have foreseen the problems this would cause. Still, the mistake is in character, the emperor is repeatedly shown not to be as smart as he thinks he is.
-The choice between “beg” or “die” at the start of the game is probably better summarized as playing an extrovert verses playing an introvert.
-The opening scene with Semra does a good job setting the overall tone of the game. It gives an accurate portrayal of the Eternal’s earlier years, and is the standard against which everything afterwards is measured. Though the Eternal’s childhood is not dwelt on, it’s made clear that it was a very formative experience and the way it plays out strongly affects his personality in later years. This difference is seen most clearly on the beg/die/struggle paths, but there are many constants across all three that can be traced to this opening scene.
-More on the beg/die/struggle choice’s immediate effect: Beg drives the Eternal to put himself out there and be a soldier, die drives him to withdraw and calculate, struggle drives him to be intensely loyal and defiant. He hates Mistress, so he latches on to the emperor.
-From Gruz’s very first scene he differentiates himself from Semra as a much wiser and more well-balanced individual. The advice he gives the Eternal is practical and insightful, and he manages to undo some of the harmful mental conditioning Semra instilled in the eternals.
-The Eternal’s use of “Remember this” after Semra’s initial use of it is a good detail.
-Lol, “There’s no way the captain twisted his own head all the way around just by tripping and falling over.”
-Jacob being referred to as Mr. Mol on the beg path is a good way to show how his relationship with the Eternal is different.
-I like the way forts are used in this story, they’re often overlooked in many fantasy war games/stories.
-The differences between the Eternal’s relationship with Alison on the beg and struggle paths are striking. On the struggle path they have a more equal relationship and take the time to get to know each other personally. On the beg path, Alison is his superior and only looking for a physical relationship. As such, while they do become involved, they never connect personally in the same way. I think it probably has to do with the Eternal’s age at the time they meet, as well as the significant differences in his personality.
-The beg arc is unique for the feelings of fellowship the eternals have with each other (probably due to Gruz). Given the Eternal’s isolation on other paths, it’s nice to see him forming genuine and equal friendships.
-What little we learn of shadow politics on the beg arc is interesting. It seems Cyrus has seized a leadership position, but there’s a lot of dissent in the ranks.
-The foreshadowing of Gruz’s betrayal is well-done in the conflict with the orcs in Rask, as well as in his initial conversation with the eternals upon reunion (“best not to have you all in one place”).
-Choosing to set the confrontation with Gruz at a tavern reunion with old friends is a good choice and makes the conflict much more personal than a battle would be.
-The Eternal remarks on the suddenness of Gerald and Roldan’s deaths. Their deaths work well to convey the suddenness and chaos of the situation, as well as showing that epic people are often killed in mundane situations.
-By the time Gruz’s betrayal is revealed, the Eternal is too exhausted to have much of an emotional reaction. The betrayal has been foreshadowed enough through Gruz’s dialogue that it doesn’t need to be dwelt on, and the barebones description in the battle with Gruz has a much more effective emotional impact than any drawn-out conversation could. The conflict also is an important point on his path towards leaving the empire. With Gruz’s betrayal there’s yet another tie to the empire destroyed. This is a key factor in the Eternal’s eventual decision to leave the empire.
-As most of the new eternals are killed on the struggle path, it’s interesting to see how their implementation into the army plays out on the beg path.
-The Eternal’s growing disillusionment with the empire is built up slowly and believably, and when he deserts it doesn’t feel sudden.
-The initial scenes with the Eternal as a mercenary do a good job showing how his personality and situation have changed.
-Brenda’s derision for Warrick’s decision to join the Felkan army contrasts her marriage to him in the struggle arc. It’s a pity she never learns that he was compromised.
-Brenda’s comment “Even you couldn’t have prevented the empire from falling” is more poignant knowing that on some paths, he does.
-Edgar’s weaponization of the wendigos is interesting.
-Lol, “Not killing dissidents, it’s a radical idea, but you’re going to gamble on it.”
-The reunion scene between Ulivik and the Eternal at year 65 is endearingly grumpy, and their banter on the way to the wendigo forest is fun.
-Lol, “I always thought it was the misguided hope of finding lots of loot and the avoidance of a real job.” “That’s just a bonus.”
-The conflict with the killer wendigo rabbits is well done.
-The complete brutality of the ED and new generation of eternals is shown well with Kalah. It’s shown more subtly with Brenda, too, with her comments about not caring about the younger eternal’s ruthless behavior towards ordinary humans.
-The guard’s comments on the dagger the Eternal uses to kill Rissok are amusing.
-It’s fun to see where Flog has ended up in his moderate role on the mercenary paths.
-It’s interesting to see the Eternal’s reaction to the less totalitarian nature of the Felkan Kingdom, and the emphasis on technology and quality of life as advancement rather than conquest. His adjusting to the new political landscape (such as tensions with the gnomes) is interesting to see, especially as the idea of working with the Felkans is repugnant to him on other paths.
-Selling out Eckers seems a little underhanded. He didn’t really do anything wrong other than complain.
-The combat tactics on the Felkan arc are interesting, we have aerial combat with the gnolls, and much more militarily advanced combat with muskets and cannons.
-The Eternal’s influence on the soldiers under his command is interesting to see play out, as they become more competent but also more ruthless.
-Klemto’s remark that humans seem to have a tendency towards conquest is intriguing; it certainly fits with the humans we see in the story.
-Not sure how I feel about the relationship with Dawn. I like her, but the Eternal is her superior so there’s bound to be unhealthy power dynamics. She’s a little too loyal for it to be equal.
-It’s a pity that you wind up fighting Warrick regardless on the Felkan path. Things don’t seem to turn out well for Warrick regardless of what actions you take.
-The ending where you travel with Dawn is well done. It’s not an epilogue because the Eternal never makes history, but it’s good that this story has semi-positive endings where the Eternal lives his life without making history. It’s more realistic.
-The ending where you go into the desert with Brenda is well-written and offers insight into her character that we don’t get even on the official path.
-The policies of the new government you form in Nalin are interesting. Obviously there’s still a fair amount of the brutality of the empire, but Brenda and the Eternal are genuinely trying to rule the province for their citizen’s sake, and it shows. This makes for one of the more heroic endings with Eternal Couple, though not completely, as the rule can still be quite harsh.
-The scene where the Eternal makes it to the capital of the Eternal Dominion on the Patriot path and dies in the throne room is well-written, and shows how on this path he’s never released the loyalty to the empire he’s had since childhood.
-Though not as positive as many of the other endings, the Eternal Patriot epilogue is compelling and original. This is true of the original concept, as well as the long-term ending with his writings being uncovered. The scope is larger than many of the other endings.
-The scene where Edgar reunites with Brenda and the Eternal is well-written and does a good job showing how he has changed.
-Lol, “When in doubt, killing everyone has worked for you on several occasions in the past, no reason to change tactics now.”
-It makes sense that the Eternal has his most positive relationship with Edgar when serving with Brenda and as a fellow leader of a nation.
-I like that writing a book of propaganda can still lead to a relatively good ending. This is realistic; writing propaganda is more conducive to the stability of the nation than the truth. However, it’s the truth that makes history, and this is reflected in the placing of the epilogue.
-The scene where the Eternal receives a head wound and thinks he’s leading a unit in the empire is quite well-written. It’s nice to see attention like this devoted to death endings.
-The path where you work with Eldolith to attack the elves is interesting, as we get to see the Eternal interact with Eldolith without all the baggage on the struggle path. Obviously they don’t get along, but it’s less personal.
-The contrast between Gruz and Gray’s reaction to the eternals immediately pairing up to spar with each other shows well the differences between them. The differences in education are also telling; the shadows place more emphasis on learning and information, fittingly for an intelligence organization.
-The shadow’s role within the empire is interesting, and I don’t remember seeing similar situations in other works. Essentially, the shadows were a religious organization that was absorbed into the empires structure rather than wiped out. As such, though the the shadows serve the empire, they are more tight-knit and have their own agenda. I like the concept of the secret police being themselves against the empire, in many works, the secret police are self-serving and seek to increase their own station, but rarely are they outright working against the country they serve.
-Ebon’s reluctance to initiate the Eternal makes sense, even when he becomes loyal to the shadows, he never has the same disposition and fanaticism that they do; he’s always been more of a soldier type.
-Swearing to serve Dendrin as opposed to defying him is an important choice early in the shadow path, as it shows that the Eternal is no longer ambivalent about his own life. It’s essentially a retread of the beg-die choice, only this time, you need to choose to live in order to continue.
-I assume Ebon’s name is a reference to the color ebony.
-The Eternal’s isolation among the shadow guard on the shadow path is a strong contrast to the fellowship he develops on the beg path, and his physical isolation on the struggle path.
-The Eternal’s slow warming up to his fellow shadows is done well, with the references to his mission with Murk, and his being surprised to find he appreciates the feelings of fellowship and loyalty he’s begun to develop.
-Lol, “Yeah, I didn’t even need to lie at all.”
-Not sure why some of the shadows have theme names like “Dusk” and “Shade”, but the eternals and others like Draven have ordinary names.
-The Eternal’s relationship with Jacob on the emperor’s shadow path is a good contrast to his relationship with him on the struggle path. The Eternal is definitely Jacob’s subordinate on this path, and content to be so. On the struggle path, he becomes his peer, and eventually his superior. This is shown through how he refers to Jacob, as “Mr. Mol”.
-The references to the destruction of Gloom and the orc uprising in Rask on the emperor’s shadow path are nice.
-I like the concept of the town Sinkhole.
-In Cyrus and the Eternal’s argument over which one is truly serving an uncaring master, they’re both right about the other. Cyrus serves a god who’s done absolutely nothing to help him or his people, and the Eternal serves an empires that sees him as nothing more than a tool. It’s interesting that they can recognize the effect of propaganda in indoctrination in each other, but not themselves.
-The assault on Gloom is the first appearance of the Derro in this game, and it’s an effective one. They’re a race the player has yet to encounter, and the first meeting with them is in a completely chaotic and unfamiliar situation.
-It’s interesting to see Gruz’s plan at Defiance succeed on the shadow path.
-The fate of the second generation eternals has a wide variety of outcomes. On the beg path they fulfill their intended purpose, but wind up uncontrollable and cruel. On the struggle path, nearly all of them are killed by Marik. On the die path, they fare somewhat better, with a couple of them surviving and joining the shadows, having Dendrin’s portal remove the violent tendencies.
-I like the titles of the informational links on the page where you choose to convert the new eternals—Diplomacy, Treachery, Brutality.
-Too bad the alliance with the orcs doesn’t last. I would have liked to see a positive outcome for Gruz and his people in one of the paths.
-Though the shadows want to see the empire fall, they clearly aren’t altruists. They’re not concerned about protecting the people they’re liberating, only creating chaos to destabilize the empire.
-The duplicity the Eternal must engage on in the shadow path path stands well in contrast to his predilection for straightforwardness on the Bane path, and beg path as a whole. He must lie while working for the empire amongst the shadows, and he needs to lie in order to keep the group together. The Survivor path, where he chooses honesty, has many similarities to the Bane path.
-With Edgar dead, Ackerson fills the power vacuum in Quala. It’s nice to see where he ends up on this path. The same is true of Galen.
-The Eternal’s feelings about Cyrus’s suicide are strongly mixed, like his relationship with him throughout the game. His suicide can in part be tied to the Eternal’s actions, but they did have a genuine respect for each other. The Eternal comes to no firm conclusions on the matter, leaving the reader to draw their own.
-If on the Terror path, the Eternal lets Dendrin bait him into exposing himself, things don’t end well. The shadows have always been devoted to Dendrin in name, regardless of his actual intervention, and attempts on the Eternal’s part to change that are short-sighted and doomed to failure. Instead, he must become like Dendrin; willing to rule from the shadows and allow things to play out as they will.
-The Eternal’s decision to have killed those he allowed to leave freely seems particularly duplicitous.
-Cyrus’s breakdown on the Messiah path shows the dangers of Dendrin’s lack of involvement. Cyrus is correct that his faith was always stronger, and that Dendrin’s preference for the Eternal is not equitable. Dendrin’s refusal to engage with his followers lead to this dissension in the ranks, and a loss of faith from someone who was otherwise completely dedicated.
-Staying in Rask leads to the defeat of the shadows, as the region and order are very much unsuited to each other. The shadows are far too committed and ordered, whereas the Raskians value their freedom more than anything else.
-Headcanon that the cabin Talia and the Eternal stay in in Rask on the Survivor path is the cabin Suzy and Jack stayed in after arriving in Rask.
-The shadow temple in Delerg is cool, especially on the Survivor path when The Eternal and Talia are approaching the ruins alone.
-It’s clear on the Terror and Messiah paths that the Eternal is the one holding the shadows together and coming up with the effective strategy. As such, when he leaves in the Survivor path, it’s only a few years before the empire recovers from its wounds and is able to wipe them out. Though Cyrus was a dedicated follower of Dendrin, he just wasn’t that good of a tactician. It would be interesting to see what would have happened had Talia stayed, as she was better at battle strategy than he was.
-On the paths where Edgar is dead, it’s fitting that Brenda doesn’t end up joining the new eternals, as she doesn’t have as strong a bond with the new generation. Instead, she winds up ruling Nalin, if not as effectively as with the Eternal’s help.
-The parallel’s between Lena’s survival and the Eternal’s survival are nice.
-There are a number of parallels between the Survivor and Bane paths, most clearly with the Eternal’s relative isolation and his mentor relationship with Ulivik and Lena respectively. The Eternal is much more emotionally damaged in the Survivor path, however.
-There’s something Robin-Hood-y about the Survivor path.
-I like hearing the Eternal state directly the power imbalances that would prevent him from getting together with Lena. On other paths (particularly with Decena) he ignores these issues.
-It’s nice to see the Eternal taking on a more heroic role in the Survivor arc. It’s one of the less morally ambiguous roles he takes in this work. It’s interesting that his more heroic roles on the Bane and Survivor paths seem to be paired with a somewhat grumpy and antisocial disposition.
-I like that the new generation of shadows are somewhat more mellow. It makes sense given their origins, and prevents Tulla’s conversion from creating unneeded conflict.
-Lol, “I can just see the holy wars now!”
-It’s interesting that Dendrin only sticks around on the Survivor path, where the shadows undergo a complete change to their structure. Certainly it’s a big enough change to keep him interested.
-The Survivor epilogue is quite well-written and one of the more touching ones.
-On the struggle path, the Eternal’s devotion to the empire is infectious. The struggle path was the first one I read, and as the empire prospers under his guidance, I genuinely did not notice the empire’s internal struggles and weaknesses until I read the beg and die paths.
-The difference in the Eternal’s training on the struggle path is immediately obvious. On the beg and die paths, he learns to trust his companions and mentors out of genuine loyalty, here it is only hatred of his mentor and loyalty to an unseen force that drives him. The antagonistic relationship between the Eternal and Semra is built up quickly and efficiently, so that the first fight between them really feels like the release of years of tension, despite occurring very early in the work.
-The first choice of the struggle path is an important one, we know the Eternal has a lot of rage, but he needs to be able to control it in order to succeed. In this path the abuse of his childhood will always make him emotionally vulnerable with Semra, but in other areas he learns to have a strong control over his emotions.
-Though in many ways the Eternal has had greater exposure to the world through Semra’s intense teaching, he’s oddly naive on this path. He’s been completely isolated from his peers and has had no contact with the outside world. His devotion to the emperor is less loyal, and more worshipful, and his desire to fight for the empire is quite eager.
-Finally seeing the emptor after his complete absence on the beg and die paths makes reading this scene more powerful than reading it for the first time reading the struggle path. His casual demeanor puts the Eternal off his game, but the authority with which he speaks to Jacob and the Eternal leaves no doubt about his position. His behavior signals to the player that he is more human than he would have his people believe, while still instilling the utmost loyalty and respect in the Eternal.
-The tonal difference between the informational link about the shadows on the die and struggle paths is good, it works with where the Eternal is getting this information from.
-The entire sequence depicting the Eternal’s education on this path is done quite well.
-The emperor’s comment that the most efficient types are the ones trying to bring you down is amusing. His comment about the people themselves being the most dangerous is also telling; though there are plenty of rebellions in this game, the empire generally manages to avoid a full-scale revolt from the regular people.
-The emperor’s hatred for gnomes revealed in the struggle path explains why he decides to invade the Felkan Kingdom in the other paths despite it being such a tactically poor decision with the internal problems with the shadows the empire is facing.
-The Eternal’s interaction with Gruz on this path shows well the difference in his personality.
-The emperor’s obsession with gnomes has a parallel in the hatred the Eternal develops for svelk. We can see this as early as him loosing his cool with Tyren.
-Murk’s death on the struggle path works well, especially as he remains unnamed.
-In some ways the Eternal’s dedication to the empire resembles the nature of Cyrus’s dedication to the shadows.
-Each of the three major paths begins will smaller-scale challenges where the player must learn the strategies they will need to survive on this branch. The more consequential narrative-based decisions come later, when the player has had time to settle in to the narrative.
-While the Eternal is raised around other Eternals in the beg and die paths, he’s quite isolated on the struggle path. As such, information and interactions with the other eternals feel special and rare.
-I like the role Gruz plays on the struggle path, it gives him variety.
-Learning that Semra is behind the gnoll issues the Felkans are facing is a surprise, but a clever one, and it makes sense.
-Lol, “Was that a joke?” “How the hell would I know, it’s not like I’ve ever made one before.”
-The emperor’s desire to protect the Eternal initially seems like fatherly affection, but really foreshadows his more sinister motivations.
-Already we can see the change Alison has had on the Eternal in his next battle meeting with Semra. He no longer feels the need to fall for her taunts.
-The Eternals description of why he finds Alison attractive is amusing and says a lot about him.
-The gnome’s home really is the most despicable thing to happen in this book, and I wish there was some way to play the struggle path and avoid it. It’s important to the narrative, and by playing this game the player accepts that they will be playing a villain protagonist, but as far as moral flexibility in protagonists go, I have my limits, and they stop here. The Eternal’s involvement here is really unforgivable, and even though he himself finds it despicable, he never takes action to prevent it, and he never attempts to make amends to the gnomes when he’s later in a position to do so.
-Hah, I didn’t know Kane was the first to call him harbinger.
-The absence of the Felkan heir is well done without too much attention being drawn to it.
-I tend not to go for romance in games, or stories in general, it just doesn’t interest me. The Eternal’s relationship with Alison, however, held my interest and I actively wanted them to stay together.
-In the moments before Roldan’s murder, we get a glimpse of what the Eternal’s “normal” life might have been like. He is relaxed and happy, attending the event with Alison and content in his service of the empire. This contentedness is then ripped away only moments later.
-Alison’s death relies on no cheap narrative tricks in order to emotionally affect the reader: It needs only the respect the story has built up for her and the understanding of what she and the Eternal mean to each other.
-The emperor’s choice to use Cyrus the revenant to carry out his assassinations seems odd. Why use someone who has no loyalty to him and raises questions about his origin?
-Cyrus’s comment about death being dark and filled with pain seems odd given what we later learn about the afterlife. Though Cyrus wasn’t exactly nice, he never did anything particularly heinous to merit a painful afterlife. At least, nothing worse than what Alison did working as a major for the empire, and she received a pleasant afterlife. My conclusion would be that being a revenant doesn’t actually summon the soul of the dead person, it just reanimates their corpse with the memories of their life. Cyrus’s final moments were certainly dark and filled with pain, so that’s probably what he remembers.
-Brenda’s recurring antagonism towards Warrick is interesting, especially considering their later marriage on the struggle path.
-Kane’s final scene is well written.
-Despite his insistence otherwise, the Eternal clearly IS defensive about being replaced by a new generation of Eternals, and later admits as much on the emperor path.
-The Eternal’s doubts about the emperor’s fittingness to lead and his own ambitions are brought up a few times, making the opportunity to betray the emperor not seem out of place when it arrives. However, it still does not feel as narratively right as choosing to remain by his side, as the Eternal’s patriotic and familial loyalties have always taken precedence.
-The confrontation with Jacob and Semra is well written.
-It’s fitting that when the Eternal links with Semra in the rule arc, he doesn’t get a full view of her secrets. They don’t develop as complex a relationship on this path.
-Too bad the Eternal kills the dudes who find his comatose body. They were just guys.
-The idea of the Eternal being transported the the future is original and has a lot of narrative potential. I wish there were options the player could pursue other than simply trying to re-create the empire, but the path as it exists is well written and there’s only so many plotlines a story of this size can explore.
-The Eternal is naturally quite shocked to learn what has happened to him. His culture shock at learning about the republic is amusing. It becomes less amusing as he becomes increasingly serious in his pursuit of rebuilding the empire.
-The emergence of the Red Caps makes a lot of sense for the gnomes in light of everything that has happened to them. With the genocide they’ve faced, it makes sense that they’d be forced to adopt a militant and violent mindset in order to defend themselves.
-The Eternal’s discovery of Brenda and eventually Warrick’s fate does a good job tying this second half of the game in with the first.
-It’s nice to see where the orcs have wound up after all this time. I imagine the Floggers tribe are named after Flog.
-The detour to Rask with the eyes is a good way to show how the world has changed, and to develop the personal relationship between Jennifer and the Eternal, as well as addressing his considering retirement. It’s nice to see what Warrick got up to after the cataclysm.
-The acquit threat on the relic path brings variety to the path, this is a threat unlike anything the Eternal faces on any other branch.
-The threats on the latter half of each struggle path are, in general, more exotic than the ones on the other branches. This makes sense in-universe, as the empire is expanding beyond familiar territory. It also makes sense from a narrative perspective, as these branches are pushing the boundaries of the Eternal’s prior characterization and experience.
-The Eternal healing himself on both struggle paths is an important marker in the storyline, and adds consequence to the paths, with him dying at a younger age as a result. This is a kind of cost for the more epic scale of the struggle plotlines.
-Hallucination Alison killing the hell out of hallucination Semra is fun and a good character moment.
-Too bad things don’t work out with Jennifer’s husband. It sounds like they were well-matched, and the Eternal’s musings on the subject correctly point out all the reasons that their relationship had issues.
-The state of technology in the world makes much of the combat on the struggle arc more interesting. The use of guns and airships shows that technology really is developing, rather than being in the common fantasy state of medieval stasis. It’s nice to see a fantasy story told in a not completely traditional fantasy world.
-Telis the flying city is cool and leads to an unconventional fight sequence.
-Marik’s journal from the relic arc is amusing. “Must remember to take this journal with me. This is good stuff.”
-The Eternal getting rid of Semra’s dagger is a good moment.
-It’s interesting that while the propaganda book you have the opportunity to write on the Couple path does not lead to a positive ending, Jennifer’s propaganda book(s) do.
-The Destroyer ending bears some similarities to the Patriot ending.
-Seems odd that NOBODY but Jennifer would have thought to test the plague on humans.
-The Eternal’s decision to pursue the recreation of the empire on this path makes sense considering his last decision before his entombment: He chose to rule, not serve, and to take over the empire. Though it took 500 years longer than planned, he pursues this goal with dedication once he reemerges.
-Who would have thought so much strategy went into baby throwing?
-Interesting that the aquatic threat is said to have come from the shadow temple. Surely Dendrin would have left the world long ago?
-Batalimus can only be defeated with words, making him a unique foe on this path.
-As always, the emperor completely loses his cool when put under pressure by Nicodemus and the rest of Mortos.
-The scene where the Eternal laughs after learning of his origins is an excellent character moment, marking the shift from servant to emperor, and showing him finally letting go of his blind loyalty to the emperor.
-The disappearance of mages, both in this story and in Rogues is interesting. It doesn’t seem to be due to any of the empire’s actions, as this trend continues in the relic path without the empire’s influence. I wonder what’s causing the change.
-What the Eternal does with Decena’s training is pretty despicable. Yeah, he has his own serious issues that are causing this behavior, but he of all people should know how unhealthy mentor relationships can screw people up. He does know this, in fact, he just doesn’t seem to have the willpower to do anything about it.
-I like that the origin of the second generation Eternal’s weird behavior is explained in this path. Though the Eternal says that Decena is an exception to this mental toll, I suspect Decena really was affected by the time in the tanks. Though she isn’t cruel like many of the second generation eternals, she’s certainly a little unbalanced.
-Putting Brenda in charge of the new eternals is a good idea. She’s quite even-keeled and a good mentor. It’s also good that the Eternal has learned he’s a shit mentor. (In the struggle paths at least, he’s a good mentor to Ulivik and Tulla on the beg and die paths. Probably Semra’s fault, since on both of those paths he had stable mentor figures during his childhood.)
-The battle with the Children of Tor is well done.
-Once again, there’s an odd contrast between the Eternal’s behavior towards Decena and his later ability to recognize exactly why what he did was so unhealthy.
-Brenda’s forgiveness of Warrick seems to be traceable directly to her training of the new eternals. This makes sense, as she’s gained a senes of connection to them that she lost when Roldan died.
-The Eternal’s torture of Eldolith is pretty much purely spiteful, as is his treatment of the svelk as a whole. It bears a strong resemblance to Casimir’s hangups about the gnomes.
-Lol, “Hello Mr. Emperor”. Zana’s first meeting the emperor is amusing given what they both later learn about each other.
-The sorcerer king’s intro characterizes him well as powerful, but foppish and clearly over his head.
-One must wonder if Zelvix and Velzix are the same demon, or merely cousins of some sort. EDIT: Ah, he talks about a brother biting off more than he can chew. Mystery solved.
-Though the Eternal is being honest when he says he doesn’t fear death, Semra is correct that he’s very concerned with his legacy, what will happen to the empire after he dies. Especially in the earlier parts of his reign, he’s pretty much holding it together through sheer force of will.
-The conflict with Zelvix in Nakos is a good mix of external conflict and internal conflict. On the Paragon/Emperor paths it’s the Eternal’s final encounter with Semra and solidifies his relationship with Decena. On the Harbinger path, it’s the event that makes him decide he needs to pursue immortality to preserve the empire, and Decena’s death is a major catalyst in his actions.
-“The woman has serious daddy issues.” “Don’t we all?” “Alison didn’t.” The Eternal is right here, of himself and this three love interests on this path (Semra, Alison, and Decena) Alison was the only one without major personal issues.
-Zelvix’s attempts at getting in their heads are almost laughably bad. I imagine the mind-influencing magic he’s using makes it more effective.
-In the Paragon/Emperor arc, the Eternal and Semra’s final encounter is one of words rather than violence. It’s the closest to an understanding that the pair comes to, and a fairly accurate one. The Eternal is able to honestly examine his own feelings and flaws, and this finally convinces Semra that there can’t be anything between them.
-Honestly, the people of Nakos are probably better off with the empire than demon lord/slavery advocate Mortimer.
-The appearance of dragons is done well, and it’s nice to see their destructive power taken to its full potential.
-Brenda’s approval of Decena’s relationship with the Eternal is unsurprising given her views on how Eternals should stick together.
-Zana’s betrayal is doubly foreshadowed by the sabotage of the storm earlier in the story, where it’s shown that Elam is not the most thorough in selecting engineers.
-I like the rapport that the Eternal, Decena, Brenda, and Warrick develop on the Paragon/Emperor path. It often feels like the four of them are genuine friends, something that eludes the Eternal for most of the struggle paths.
-I wish that there was some less extreme choice between killing Zana and allowing her to run the project. The obvious solution seems to be to remove Zana from the project and launch an investigation, rather than just killing her on Decena’s hunch.
-Lol, “You came and killed my entire family!” “Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?”
-Also annoying that the player doesn’t get a choice about destroying New Dessel. Seems clear that the gnomes weren’t involved.
-It’s a pity that the fertile eternals end up behaving xenophobically in the Paragon ending. I like that at least the kobolds make out.
-Decena’s death on the Harbinger path marks the Eternal’s final transformation from loyal empire soldier to immortality seeking emperor. With her death, he’s released his chances for happiness in life, and is now purely driven towards revenge. The increase in craft he gained after the emperor’s death increases again, and from here on out he’s willing to make more compromising decisions and take riskier and riskier actions to reach his goal.
-The Eternal’s glee at the test subject’s description of Mortos does a good job showing how he’s changed and his current attitudes.
-Interesting that the svelk are the ones to most effectively oppose the Eternal when he invades Mortos.
-The empire’s most glaring structural issue is probably the lack of formal succession procedures. It’s why it collapses into chaos after the Eternal’s death on most branches.
-The Eternal’s invigoration from being on Mortos shows his moving towards necromancy.
-The fact that people are willing to follow the Eternal to Mortos and go along with his later construction of the pyramid shows more than anything how powerful a grip he has over the empire.
-The Eternal calling upon the later generation eternals as their father to drain them of life mirrors his own experiences on Mortos with Casimir. What’s interesting is that when it was the Eternal on that end, he viewed his sacrifice to the emperor as necessary and justified. Now that he’s the one doing the draining, he just thinks of them as fools who let themselves be used. He no longer values the loyalty he used to have.
-Semra’s silence in her fight with the Eternal after he’s claimed the book says a lot. She’s finished with their weird antagonistic relationship, she just wants him dead.
-The grueling and long nature of the ritual helps make the scene feel powerful and dangerous.
-The Necromancer’s appearance at the end of the Harbinger path is exactly as epic as it should be. He is now a death god and destroyer of countless worlds, but still manages to remain familiar as the narrator of Necromancer. The reference doesn’t dominate the scene however, and the focus is kept where it should be, on the Eternal, and his impending final choice.
-Lol, “I suppose I haven’t really been a good guy.”
-It’s good that the obliteration of gnome souls is treated as the atrocity it is.
-Lol, “See, now you’re just embarrassing yourself.”
-The final scene where the Eternal kills Semra is well done.
-The variety of mini-paths available in the early part of the struggle arc is nice.

Grammar
Generally good, there are a number of typos.
Mastery of Language
Better for this story than many of EndMaster’s others, though there are still some sentence structure issues in places. There’s more variety in structure.

Branching
Excellent. There are 13 full paths, which is impressive in a game of this size. The branching occurs at the beginning, middle, and end of the story, which allows for a lot of variety.

Player Options/fair choice
Good in places, poor in others. Sometimes the consequences of actions are well-foreshadowed, other times the outcomes seem random. Player options are limited as this is a “story” storygame, but since this is stated up front it’s not a problem.
The decisions that lead to branching paths are well-represented for the most part. The beg/die/struggle choice at the beginning is an accurate representation of the paths. The major branching choice in the beg path has the Eternal directly decide what he wants to do next, and the two branching choices later on that path make sense in context. The split between the Terror and Messiah endings represents well the true meaning of the decision with the options presented, and the choice that leads to the Survivor ending makes sense. The rule/serve choice is representative. The consequences of accepting or not accepting Jessica’s help make sense. Choosing to help Decena or Semra does not represent the real choice, which is to seek immortality on Mortos or not, but the consequence of the action are logical at least.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:
I got Eternal Paragon the first time I played, which I still think is the best ending. Eternal Bane is close, however, as the morality of the protagonist and positive impact on the world matters to me, despite the plot and narrator not being quite as epic. I played the beg path next and got Eternal Couple followed by Eternal Bane, then played the die path and got executed by the empire after hunting down all the shadows. When I played the true shadow path, I got Eternal Survivor.
The best endings I would say are Eternal Paragon, Eternal Bane, Eternal Survivor, and Eternal Couple. Eternal Harbinger is the most narratively satisfying. Eternal Savior is probably the worst.
I’d be curious to know the word count for each major branch. The beg and die branches I each got through in a day, but the struggle branch took the better part of two days.
Let anyone who wants to claim that the choice-based format does not have as much value as linear stories first read this; it’s an incredibly powerful work showing how examining a character’s life across a variety of possibilities and outcomes can create a whole that is far greater than the sum of its parts. The full story here can only be fully appreciated when all the branches have been read.
Anyways, this is probably top 5 in the ranking of my favorite works of fiction of all time. This is a legitimately awing piece of work, for its length and complexity, sheer entertainment value, and literary merit and complexity.

CONCLUSION: Holy fucking shit.

After reading the pure, the vile, the deadly, I've spent the last 2 months rereading every page of every story game Endmaster created. Of course you have to finish up with "Eternal"
Its probably the 3rd or 4th time I finished but the first time I rated due to the fact that the first couple were before I was a member.

Normally the game plan to make sure I hit every path, good or bad, is to click the top link until I have to hit back and go to the opposite link.

I almost hate I did it this way due to the fact that I think I enjoyed the path of soldier (shadow or grunt) more than the Emperor path. That or everything was just getting blurry from reading a couple months straight.

With all the different arcs I almost feel like two of the other Eternals could have their own stories. Granted anything Endmaster ever post is a much read and of highest quality and enjoyment, I think that a Kane or Warrick story arcs could be a very enjoyably read.

The only way this story could've been any better is if you had full control over a couple of the Eternals and their actions would affect the game outside of Francis' actions. How is the overall war affected in the event that Kanes battles with wendigos go differently, does that change a certain aspect when you get transferred back to the main character.

Granted I've only seen these sort of actions in 1 story game I can recall off the top of my head, but just a thought.

But anyways,...complete... every page of every friggin EM story and I don't regret one word read

Ive played most paths in this one, if not all. I made an account just for this review. This is something special. I hope someday Endmaster gets more recognition because even if the editing or proofreading isn't always great playing through this shows you how thoroughly he thought these plots through. That's a gift. I read a full novel about every week, I have no business being torn up by some guys interactive fiction piece from a decade ago. And, yet, several of these paths have brought tears to my eyes.

There is the eternal survivor, whose twisted, worn path through absolute despair was hard to read at times. But his eventual determination to bring about a new generation was inspiring and uplifting. Its not canon, but I have the image of his last moments slumped against the gravestone of Talia in the old Temple, a contented smile on his face. No one can take that from me.

The end of the Harbinger path destroyed me. Its not a "epilogue" ending but Eternal Bliss is the only ending I can accept. I guess in my mind the Eternal was lost the second he lost Alison. The empire, the immortality, to my perception, it was all to fill a hole that could never be filled.

The soldier path is the simplest, but I will hold a candle for joining with Brenda and flinging the light of the Empire into the future. "Eternal Couple" was a fitting name, and both of them finding comfort in each other later in life was sweet.

At this point its not like the author needs more praise, but I was affected enough by these stories to say something. Keep on with all this, Im reading everything on this site now. May your words find the speed of the wind.

-- Some internet asshole

How horribbly, tragically, human.

I stopped reading after the first page. Too many bad words :(

Good

Owch, i didnt even read like most of it an was just skimming through the story lol

wow

here to research an computer science assignment