Enderal: Redefining What A Mod Can Be.

I believe the sequence with the burned corpses in the dream flower ending is meant to convey that the Prophet failed in the long term. One of the corpses is in a crib which harkens back to the story that Daddy gave about "setting fire to your sisters crib". The line he says after that, "the dead don't forget", is also relevant. It's all about how the Prophet can only truly succeed by shedding his ego and sacrificing himself to set an example for the future. The corpse in the crib resurrecting is the Veiled Woman telling you that you messed up, and in trying to have your cake and eating it too, you've shown that you still see yourself as a messianic figure who can save humanity. It's the same in the New World ending with the difference being that humanity will have to start over. If that interpretation were the case then it would further lend credence to the idea that the dream flower ending is truly not a dream.

It reminds me of the symbolism of the "hero" dying or disappearing after their purpose is fulfilled. Master Chief in Halo 3, Gordon Freeman in Half Life, Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, or even Jesus all disappeared when their work was done, although the latter two were because they actually recognized when to stop whilst the former two were kind of forced to disappear. It's better to let the Legend live on its own rather than milking the fanfare. Something which the modern entertainment industry could benefit from learning.

But that's just a theory...

I've played through Enderal a couple times and watched a couple longform videos on it, but this video really helped me finally actually understand the game and its themes.
Thanks for the video, gamer.

so basically Mass Effect but Jungian Medieval Fantasy

Absolutely did it justice. Your best work so far. Loved the philosophical and gnostic dives. U r criminally underrated.

Isnt the first skit literally just a Sseth ripoff

I have played this at least 40 time’s — I haven’t played many games, but this is easily my favourite

Bro this video is insane, such an excellent deep dive into the themes of this mod. So interesting how they put the answers in your face from the beginning but we choose to ignore it. Great mod, was definitely super depressed during and after it.

I am always taken aback by how philosophical a Skyrim mod can be. Are there any fallout mods of this caliber?

What is worth to be mentioned: Za'Rah, the Mercenary who accompanies you in the Rhalata Questline and is killed by Tharael is probably Lysia, Jespars old flame who was (Spoiler)



left behind with bandits by a frightened Jespar.
For one Jespar says that he never saw Lysia die when he ran away.
If you ask Lysia about her past she tells you about a traumatic incident in her past and that she traveled with someone else but something made them split up. Za'Rah talks about this other person dearly.
Za'Rah is not her real name but a made up name from I think Qui'Rah, where if I remember correctly Lysia and Jespar met.
We never get to know Za'Rah's real name because that son of a bitch Tharael kills her before the dialogue comes to it's conclusion.
There are even more clues that prove this including the story writer kinda approve this (I have no source on this one I heard it somewhere)
This is so bitter sweet.
Jespar lives (or dies) with the guilt of leaving Lysia behind, his once true love. He forgave himself because of the player, but he will always remember the guilt.
Lysia/Za'Rah was left behind by her true love and was "betrayed" only to meet the person who, without her knowledge, could let Jespar and her meet again and trusts this person with her tragic backstory only to from her perspective be "betrayed" again

Only one example for how almost no lovestory in this game ends happy

I apologize for my bad english I hope you could follow at least a bit xD

Edit: I found the video that covers most of the information I used made by Paradigm of Low for people who are interested ^^

I should note that Jespar is the only character in the entire game who tells the Prophet, "I love you." Even Calia doesn't say that after you romance her, but Jespar does.

I Never was quite fully convinced that the dreamflower ending to be real. But i have to say the way you put it did tip the scales in it being true.
Main problem that I had with it was always that scene that plays before with the burning corpse. it felt to ominious and violent to be something that heralds a good ending.
Initialy when I first finished it I considered this to be last parts of you lashing out against being suppressed and overtaken but I've wondered lately. The dreams is something that I considered as being part of the high ones. Their manipulation of you. My idea was that this was either always there (every cycle) or since the loss of predestination the high ones devised these dreams as a way to nudge the prophet into the direction they wanted.

With that said currently I would interpret it this way. Daddy, Mom and sister are all chared corpses now, cannot interact with you or influence you and by burning the cropse within the crib you sever your connection to them completely as now that you control the sea of eventuality you always end up in a reality where they cannot force you. The cropse getting up and screaming then is something I would say like the high ones trying one last time to do something to you and lashing out in anger but unable to harm you as you are metaphorically and physically in this case out of their reach.

Also since you burn the corpse it feels like there is something in there hinding about the fleshlessnes that I just dont see yet.
So the achivement What is reality anyway... doesnt seem to me to be like it is said earlier in the game as a hopeless sigh of helplessnes. It feels instead like a satisfied realization (a moment of lucidity if you will :-) that the high ones cannot win or loose as their reality of despair and destruction cannot come about anymore as causality and reality has no meaning for you since you are its master.

That's my two cents on the matter anyways. Im really glad the game is getting antention for it's lore since at realease I just dismissed it as a copy pasted Mass effect story but latern on I started seeing its uniquenes. Did you look up Paradigm of the Low during making of this video by the way, he has great videos on the subjects of Enderal lore.
Great video and i hope that when fully realesed you will do the Glemoril video. :-)

Also traps are gay

I also want to mention how much this mod seems inspired by Mass Effect. I've seen people raise the point that cycles of life and extinction aren't a concept unique to Mass Effect, but let's see: a crisis that threatens the current cycle is set in motion by beings that first appear incomprehensible, and then are revealed to be the joined consciousnesses of the previously harvested cycle. Current iteration of sentient life is unaware of the cycle and for a long time believes there was only one great civilization before them. When the current cycle is getting desperate, they discover blueprints for a device that could potentially save them, which works by releasing massive amounts of energy. They need a mystery item that will direct the energy, but it eludes them, due to a traitor. There's also this faction that believes the powerful beings are actually the next step in evolution, and impedes the progress of our protagonists (Yuslan and Coarek are both found in the person of the Illusive Man). I could probably go on, but these details are really sounding less and less like a "common recurring trope".

enderal is one of the best games i have ever played
yall need to try some

You're always releasing fire videos. Good work bro

Played this mod. Liked the gameplay(dungeon exploring and cleaning specifically) but was pretty dissapointed that there isn't much to do besides combat, plus as interesting story was - i found actual writing to be anachronistic and at times pretentious. Medieval themed characters talking like reddit's atheists just didn't sit right with me lol. Still mod was pretty fun to go through dungeons. I must admit i didn't finish it but i didn't get all the hype around the story. Its better than skyrim, but Skyrim isn't exactly a high bar. Plus i found it weird that characters quoted Mass Effect at some points, and made the same allusions to reapers as Mass Effect did. It just seemed so out of place.

huh... the people who are polyamorous and bisexual are called "Qyr" hmmmmmmm

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Dope. The musings on Jungian psychoanalysis caught my ear. Your understanding of how this theory applies to both Endreal and our lives as existential subjects was fascinating. This mod is a work of art and you've done justice to it.

I believe that traps, in fact, are not gay. As a fellow trap appreciator, I think all my brethren appreciates them the same way I do. We are not interested in the masculine bits. For example, I wouldn't suck a penis, no matter whose body it is attached. But even though a trap has a penis, it is not visible in the vision I see when I gaze upon a trap. All I see is pure, unadulterated femininity. An escapism, from the twisted perception of masculinity of this society. This person has shed, or in the process of shedding false tags on them. True freedom. A person, wanting to be perceived as a woman. Who are we to judge this labor? Who are we to call them that which they are not? To me, calling traps gay is utter foolishness. If I have yet to convince you in my cause, then I offer you another perspective. When fucking a trap, you don't just fuck another "man." This "man" is no more. You are fucking someone who gave up on their masculinity and accepts you as their "daddy." Could there be bigger manliness? You are so manly that other man give up on their masculinity to be together with you. If I still can't convince you, unfortunately all hope is gone for you.

Great review. Great mod. Thank you Cotho!

Based

Thank you Cotho for teaching me that traps may or may not be gay.

great bideo

I should watch American Psycho already.

People think I'm crazy when one of my top all-time RPGs is a Skyrim mod.

HYPE

hey cotho, i'm pretty sure unslaad HAS been fully released since v3.0.0, with the last journey update, you keep saying you're excited for it to come out in your videos so maybe you haven't realized, or maybe you're just waiting for glenmoril to be done to get the full picture, either way love your videos ♥

Lol i recognize that American Psyco bit. Also the SsethTzeentach inspiration. Good video though. Been watching your atuff since vigilant

Great video, although I have to admit I don't really get the Jordan Peterson joke at the start. "trap" is a slur and a transphobic idea, which works with the parody aspect of it as your taking tons of supplements, but I don't know it felt kinda strange and unclear in focus.
The raw meat weirdos I get the connection on, but everything else I don't really get.

why did u copy the beginning of sseths bloons td5 review almost word for word? lmao

Gg on hitting the algorithm bro

Oh boy 2 3/4 hours of mod review goodness. Strap in, its gonna be a long one

I consider the non-Dreamflower endings as different ways for your character to try to break the cycle, depending on what you believe is the correct course of action.

Catharsis is sacrificing your life right now to give the rest of the world a chance. They might succeed and save themselves, or cause the actual Cleansing if the Beacon always does it regardless of how you activate it - but at least they have a chance.

Brave New World is sacrificing the eternity of your life to preserve the knowledge you desperately lacked. The Aged Man lost hope and gave up a long time ago, the Black Guardian was a helpless observer and too prideful for his own good - and "Pride was my fall". Your purpose, on the other hand, is merely to spread the truth for the future cycles before it's too late. And maybe one of those mankinds will be successful.

Dreamflower ending is either having a long happy dream at the end of the world, or achieving the Catharsis ending while giving the High Ones the middle finger, depending on how clever you are.

Why do you take Zinc? Are you Zn deficient?

While I won’t be watching this video. I should say I loved enderal but unfortunately for god knows what reason a weird amount of lag suddenly appeared and on all my saves including new ones and won’t go away regardless of it being a new pc it seems. Though I hold out hope that it will be patched and I can run the game from start to finish without spoilers. Either way I am sure it’s another great video

Based Diogenes, putting the others in their place as usual.

Your reviews are always amazing and I always look forward to when you upload a new one.

Enderal one of my top 5 games and universes of all time.

2 games in the series so far man

And an offical book which is great

Intro so relatable literally me frfr

My favorite mod reviewer back at it again. Found you through your Vigilant review, keep it up man!

First