KAREL &  KURTIS’ life MISSION-v4c 2016

Exclusive Angel of Darkness documents from Murti Schofield, the writer of the game. Learn what happened after the end of the Angel of Darkness.

“Flectere si nequeo superos, acheronta movebo.”

If I cannot move the gods then I will stir up Hell.”

Oath sworn by Régis Limoux (Karel’s identity during the 1300’s to 1400’s) after being caught up in, and barely escaping, Eckhardt’s murderous treachery in destroying the First Cabal in 1368 and repeated in 1888 when Karel joins the Cabal as a being of human origins (though not quite of course).

 FINAL CONFRONTATION SCENE BETWEEN LARA, KURTIS AND KAREL.

What we witness is an epic Joseph Campbell moment of revelation for our heroine. Lara has a Road To Damascus moment of empathic understanding about Joachim Karel as he battles for survival and finally lies broken and dying.  This is the defeated King Lear, Chingachcook last of the Mohicans, the remorse-filled Othello, the crushed and dying Arthur, Beowulf expiring at the conclusion of his last great battle. It is the essence of every archetypal climactic moment of every great heroic saga. Nations will mourn. The Earth will weep. Dreams will wither and die. Nations will pause and become reconciled. Couch potatoes will choke on their TV dinners. (sob!)

Why? Well let’s see.

REVISITING THAT FINAL SCENE IN AOD

In the final confrontation between Lara and her AOD nemesis she has finally had her eyes opened to the nature of what this last Nephilim has been trying to do for his race. All we’ve ever been trying to do is survive.” He spoke the truth. She sees this now. In his terms and in light of what his race has suffered at the hands of a treacherous and violent humanity over the millennia his actions and methods are perfectly understandable. The realisation shocks Lara to the core especially as it throws an unattractive light on her own inflexible behaviour and limited perceptions. Humans, she is forced to admit, are barbaric and a deeply flawed race.

She has at last come to grasp what is going on here, the tragic grandeur of a lone survivor, last of his race fighting for the life of his near-extinct species.

In the last scene:

Lara, Kurtis and Karel have been battling it out and after a prolonged head to head slugfest the two ‘heroes’ gain the upper hand. They have managed to breach Karel’s defences and Kurtis has pressed home the advantage. Kurtis is proving the more indomitable and his rage is merciless.

With the full rallying of his considerable abilities and empowered by vengeful wrath he is taking the wounded Karel apart. Righteous fury consumes the young Lux Veritatis. This unholy creature, this embodiment of evil, this monstrous abomination will pay for the slaughter of his father and every LV adept and elder throughout history.

The intensity of Kurtis’ fury blinds him to everything except annihilation. And for the first time in her life Lara realises what this says about human nature, herself and a life spent in violence. She undergoes a total and profound cognitive shift and it nearly obliterates her.

Karel falls and Kurtis is about to deliver the final shattering blow when Lara intervenes attempting to spare Karel at the last moment. But things go wrong. The very air is being ripped apart by the colossal assault of etheric and physical violence. Lara herself is mortally wounded and despite her sacrifice Karel too has received his death blow. And he knows it. The two of them lie entangled in the wreckage of this last titanic battle with Kurtis standing over them stupefied by what has happened. He is still gripped by the battle-trance his body trembling from barely contained passions. He is totally unable to comprehend what Lara has done. He stares horrified, stunned and completely immobilised.

The crushed body of Karel stirs and the broken Nephilim peers up into Kurtis’ face, his eyes hooded by agony. His breathing is laboured but he manages to rally his thoughts and speaks,

“Son of Humanity I am finally dead. By your hand. Which is as it should be. All things end that do not transform and there can be no more transformations for me. You have seen to that.”

He spasms. A coughing fit shakes his broken frame. He groans. His head drops to the floor but he struggles to continue speaking,

“Some dreams may outlast our bodies even when they are dust and I have carried such a dream as might shake the world, young Lux Veritatis. Alas my dream will not survive the finality of ashes. It will die with me. But I have birthed a new thought, a hope – that something be salvaged from the destruction that our twin races have created. So I lay a charge on you.”

He raises an unsteady arm and holds it palm up in Kurtis’ direction as if offering a gift.

Kurtis cannot tear his gaze away from the dying Nephilim but is unable to speak. Confusion has robbed him of the ability to move or think. The Nephilim’s body is coming apart before his eyes. And yet Karel is hanging on. Karel raises his agonised face to peer directly at the young warrior and his words penetrate deep into Kurtis’ brain, directly, mind-to-mind.

“Son of Eve – return to the world. Remember your roots and rediscover your true self. Revive and remake the Lux Veritatis into what it was meant to be.  It was a noble endeavour once. Restore your Order to the light. Make of it a beacon instead of something rancorous and without grace. Then, for the sake of all races, something meaningful may be salvaged from all…this…”

His arm moves weakly to embrace the destruction around them including the inert form of Lara.

More dialogue – yatter, natter, yammer, banter – but the outcome is that Karel, last of his race, uses his remaining strength to drag Lara back from the pit, imparting the remaining dregs of his life force to her crushed body. Karel disintegrates into dust scattered by the hurricane that suddenly roars into existence.

Some time later Lara comes to …

…and from that point on begins to seriously examine the grave robber life she has pursued.

Kurtis returns to the salt plains of his birth in Utah to recover with the aid of his mother Marie Cornel-Heissturm. He needs to rethink and realign his life especially with regards the Lux Veritatis.

Lara goes back to the desert, to Putai, and goes into retreat, embracing the stillness and purifying simplicity of the furnace landscape. This part of her journey is finished. Another tale is ready to be told.

Solve et coagule. Dissolve/destroy and reform – alchemist’s axiom.

Karel: “We have committed crimes, each and every one of us. Repugnant, indefensible  crimes. Against nature and ourselves. Unforgivable.  Deplorable. And the price has been paid by endless generations of peoples. Entire races. What is left from this carnage? Nothing but the ashes of my people and the degradation of yours.”

“From this I go into the final darkness unremarked and unmourned.”

“Carry the dream. Pursue your true path.”

Karel of course is far too sinewy and resilient a cookie not to have planned ahead for all possible outcomes. The hurricane wind, far from scattering his constituent atoms to oblivion herded them to where they could be gathered and conveyed to a reinforced subterranean regeneration chamber. There, in a cryo-sarcophagus of ancient construction his physical components were painstakingly reconstituted and his regeneration proceeded according to his carefully laid plan. This guy thinks in centuries not from moment to moment like mere mortals.

From this sleeper state he will re-emerge revitalised, his shape shifter powers restored his dream undiminished. It is time for the next step in bringing the Golden Lion to Earth. First the long running Breeding Programme must be stepped up to create more Nephuman progeny. The Morgau youngling will be a good start. The path to fulfilling the Dream of Resurrection is going well.