Probably Put Something Here If I Remember Lol

Theory: Ms Bittersweet/ Nectar, Coppelia's caregiver is the one who recruited Ms Butterfly to Lorentz, gave Ludwig the "honey" that cause his OBE, and also saved Diggers post 1.9 (I wont really touch on this one much but read the Manus garment description for that, I don't think the "sweet smelling lady could be anyone but her)

The main evidence is the purple hue in Ms Butterfly's story (left image) and Ms Bittersweet's nectar glass thing is purple also,

And in one of the SoS endings she tells Coppelia that the nectar is not tended for her, aware of its allure and potential danger, which might be what happened to Ludwig. Its also clear Ms Bittersweet doesn't have strong attachments to the Manus, since one of the endings she takes Coppelia away once it seems Lyra has lost interest in her. And it would make sense if she was a Lorentz member that getting Coppelia to join the suitcase eventually wouldn't be that hard.

Eagle's upgrade shows the passage of time, and roughly now its been 3 years for Vertin and Co, making her at least 18-19.

People have found Stranger's age as 19, again could be different as the info was datamined.

If the age correlates to the one we meet her at, and the small clip of her in the 3rd Anni vid was her around the start of her undergoing phototaxis,

AND a sprite of her in the foundation uniform roughly around 14,

and the knowledge from back in Chapter 1-2 Vertin was part of a bunch of kids experimented on by the Foundation for Storm immunity anti-bodies.

Andd that Vessel Ensoulement gave away to Phototaxis,

Could the both of them have been involved in similar experiements, if not the same one?

I did a thing

The attack on Foundation

I really like how the attack by the Manus was interwined with challenges to the Foundation's very ethos, especially on their policy of refugees. Having a greater focus on the problems of how the Foundation selects who survives to the next era does alot for the story as a whole. Spiritually, 3.7 has alot of the themes and plotlines that hark back to chapters 3-4 that are awesome. Having the Manus oppose not only an immediate attack but having them overwhelm the Foundation was also very good with the upgraded enemies and the new artifical soldiers seen from the pv.

Arcana

Her portrayal in this patch was crazy, I think its the best one so far. The patch does so well in showing how scary she is, both with the animated cgs and the constant reminder of "you can't fight her just run", it steps up the threat of her presence and leans into the unknowable horror of her just waltzing into the Foundation just to chat with the President. Also what do you mean she can control the flow of pnuema?? Control the flow of arcanum and essentially stop it?? That scene was so scary, knowing she can shut down arcane abilities, shut down Awakeneds and even artifical life like Recoleta gets affected. A perfect buildoff from her Afflatus changing powers in her boss fight in 1.9. Its also so scary her power over Naukita, making her lose control of her lower half since she was originally human. Overall love her keep tormenting the narrative queen.

Short mention on Lopera and Igor

While I did wish Lopera and Igor and the rest of the squad got time in this patch to fully deal with the ramifications of 2.2-2.8, I think its good none of it was rushed in this story, but we at least see glimpses of how the confrontation will likely go, with Lopera conflicted on her thoughts on Moldir and being put in the worst position of having to shelter with the Gyphfon legion and be potentially labelled as a traitor is an interesting angle I hope we see more of later.

Returning Cast and Cameos

DRUVIS GOT OUT OF THE BASEMENT. Its very nice to have her play a role in the story as the voice of reason, diplomacy and as one of the strongest combatants in Vertin's team. Additionally having her talk with Ms Stranger was also really good, building off Druvis' resolve from Chapter 3-4 and question the state of the Foundation and its hypocrisy. Its awesome we get to see the likes of Naukita, J, Recoleta, Logger, Lorentz and Marsha play a role in the story as well in that large cg interacting. Lorentz is always fun to see her get under people's skin, excited to see her in Global.

Ms Stranger

This patch does alot for Stranger, explaining the link between Vessel Ensoulment and Phototaxis and highlighting her conflict over having done alot of bad things to the cast in prior patches (I want a Nala or Argus scene with her eventually). Its also cool seeing their in action, infiltrating enemy lines with her i1 garment and taking on Prima (wdym Animus had kids). She also let us see another angle of the mask trial and acting as one of the first to properly reject it.

Okay the main one: Merel

I probably want to do a more indepth analysis but I think the story did extremely well in handling her reversal and the impact of it, but right now I think we need more of Rhainnon to truly flesh her out proper if Bluepoch wants to hammer home that shes her own person.

Reflecting on the 3.x patch series its all been out "you can never be the same person who were before", "become the person you want to be, not what people want you to be" and I think very playable highlights these themes. Its been established as early as the Prologue reversed people never return to the way they are, then in 2.2 introduced properly Duncan'd people, reversed people can come back but are never the same. Honestly, the case of Merel was going to happen at some point, and Im glad its her.

3.7 is able to make her progression from 2.8 to now devastating, having everyone grow attached to the person she slowly becomes and grows into over the course of her appearances. By the very end of the current self Merel became someone who didn't run away and saved everyone, even if it was at the cost of herself. (Hey that scene was so tragic I borderline cried at it, ngl hits so much harder knowing her last words was begging not to disappear).

I think having so much time dedicated to seeing her grow and it to be robbed of it, then having Rhiannon appear soon after was ABSOLUTELY intentional. The whole tragdey of the Storm is that it doesn't outright kill people, it robs the current self and introduces them in different light, face and context. The special animation released alongside the patch drop shows this, we can't return to the person before and the Storm rubs it in our faces that yes, in essence and deep down this WAS the person we knew, but no longer. We have characters like Verity, Hummingbird and Ivan showing us no matter what at the current point in time reversed individuals cannot come back fully in the current moment. We have to sit with the knowledge of the past and are unable to do anything about it.

Merel argubly is the first character we get to know indepth prior to their reversal and return as Rhainnon, its no longer a second hand account by some like Verity who rides the Danube Dawn to say goodbye to the last traces of the Corvus she knew, its someone we get to know intimately before they get reversed.

I think the best thing Reverse does here is the absence of any closure, not for us, or any of the characters over Merel's reversal. Marsha nor Charon get to have their last goodbyes with her, and especially the latter since theres no body for Charon to bury. Matilda, Sonetto and Vertin only get to know the true Merel moments before shes reversed, and the last moment Merel experiences is the fruits of her labour and the knowledge she was just out of reach. Rhainnon is both the light at the end of the tunnel and the twist of the knife, her existence creates this lack of closure for the player; knowing its her in the suitcase and not Merel. And I think thats the beauty of it.

What I want at least is that Rhainnon appears more in 4.x, flesh her out more at the very least, I think her reveal could have benefitted from a similar situation to Kakania. Speaking in terms of CN, her fate at the end of 1.7 was ambiguious, it wouldn't be clear until 1.9 if she would survive. Maybe if Rhiannon was revealed in a patch after Merel's reversal it could hit even harder. Nevertheless I enjoyed what we got.

Other bits

Z becoming Acting Head of SPDM is such a nice progression of her character and means through actual change in the school, the full reveal of the President was something (I can't take the voice and face seriously), the leader of Pax House being called the philospher king is something I want to pick apart, the whole smoltin and smoletto section was crazy and the whole vertin going blind for a bit is so fascinating.

God the animated scenes with Arcana, Merel and Stranger are so good, love seeing them move around and stuff.

(I wanna know the lady with closed eyes with busted down the door, wanna know her deal)

Also the boss, THE BOSS GOING 3D is crazy, the perspective shifting with it really sells the scale of its stature.

Yeah thats mostly it.

Ye

(Reversing Merel and the next era starting on 1st April 1935 is so cruel oh my god)

I will try to go in chronological order yaya.

So immediately we get the SPDM tower exploding and its immunity broken, and its shown that 'doves' seem to be the source of the immunity: also early prediction the zone immunity was potentially created by the Pax House, who use doves as messengers. This is shown later but SPDM is a pretty big distance from what I assume is Foundation Headquarters, from the looks of the room Ms Stranger, Vertin and Sonetto are in looks similar to Madam Z's room with the big billboard.

Another thing is that we have a Storm happening, either called by Arcana herself or accelerated agains by the Manus to coincide with their attack on SPDM.

The Manus guy we see crush the tower dove isn't the same one Merel fights later in the trailer (see the mask design is very different and their hooded) and we get a closer look as the Manus enter SPDM, but I wanna predict these Manus guys are enhanced by Arcana new form, seemingly much stronger and durable than the regular grunts - gameplay wise maybe they are new variants of the og Manus enemies. The first SPDM teacher we see getting reversed likely was human.

Onto the fight

The location is probably where Vertin and co tried to escape, its so nice to see their locations fully rendered in 3D

the Manus guy is really cool with how the eye switches sockets - the eye also is golden similar to Arcana's

So this bit is more speculation - but notice when the Manus guy partially restores themself note how we see a red stone or thing of sorts return to its head before the golden eye comes back. Now big speculation, what if this is the philospher's stone and these reinforced Manus enemies are actually a byproduct of FMN's work (food for thought)

Cool and awesome fight scene and Vernetto aura farming aside, its nice to see how Sonetto's fighting style is visualised, both her base attacks and ult.

The cameos

the full list is: Druvis, Lopera, Yemolai (Hound), Igor, Lorentz Butterfly, Sliverwing Eagle, Marsha, Naukita, Razor, J, Mr Apple, Regulus, Recoleta before we get the Manus side, and it seems the Manus is likely mounting a full scale attack on the Headquarters

DRUVIS PLEASE HAVE A LARGER ROLE IN THE STORY AND NOT JUST A SHORT CAMEO PLEASE ITS BEEN TWO YEARS

Hoping for a Lopera and Igor confrontation, since the both of them seem to be outside on the frontlines (probably expect some mention and cameo for Ptolmey and Moldir as well)

Still have no idea what to make of the alter Eagle right now

I can't believe Marsha upgrades from riding Death's horse to a literal chimera lets go (I think Senti might appear as a cameo to help out Marsha)

The Manus

the first two are from the 3.2 banquet and play a role in SoS

the next two are from 3.3 (probably a round two of the fight with Igor, maybe 'alongside' lopera

an unknown 'crying' woman - maybe this is 'Nectar' who Copelia mentions.

Final Bit

Da Cube - we know the cube only paritally worked for Igor, and the moment he defected form the Manus it stopped working, and in 3.3 gave it to Vertin. The fact that Igor as a mixed (correct if I'm wrong) arcantist who survived with the Cube maybe means Vertin will use it to save as many of SPDM from the Storm and the Manus

I really don't have anything to say much about Merel's limited form and stuff, maybe we get reversed beyond the 20th century, maybe this form is from the Blank Era, or something else. I really don't know.

Extra rambling

We still don't know whose the white haired person from the stream teaser which is interesting

Note Urd has not shown up once in the entire 3.x

I think SPDM's immunity is probably a lost cause, I don't think the fight in the PV will be successful and the backup dove is destroyed (or if they have a back up- back up dove somewhere)

Alright, the likely playables are Merel and Moth as hinted by the decoded disk from 3.6 and that both of them have been dispatched to SPDM/ the Foundation. I think Ludwig could also be playable since we get three playables usually at the end of patch chapters. Copelia also could be considered as a similar case to Semmelweis back in 1.9.

Some thoughts on the poster and title:

The patch title is On Another's Sorrow in reference to the poem of the same name by William Blake, a poem published as the last song of the 'Songs of Innocence' section where the poem focuses on human love and sympathy. The poem discusses the sympathy of God as well, that while God cannot be always present he can be seen through the compassion of others.

The extent of how much the patch title's reference impacts the story differ from patch to patch (1.7 being overt and deeply tied to the plot while 2.2 the reference is rather loose). The poem being the last one in a section about Innocence can tie to the death of innocence and childhood for SPDM, espeically Vertin. One for the poor kids who are gonna be subject to the Storm and Manus, and two SPDM was the sight of Vertin's loss of childhood in chapter 3. The poem discusses what the speaker believes are the truths about God and how God loves, either the 'God' figure may be Arcana herself. Again had to gauge how much the poem might be relevant.

Storywise:

Why SPDM? - Enigma brings up at the end of 3.6 how Storm Immune zones (Aperion and Antartrica) have strong belief systems or deity worship, SPDM argubly is where the Foundation reinforces its 'Peace for Mankind' dogma the most. At the end of 3.2 Vertin had returned to the Foundation and likely hasn't left for the Eastern Front (I think said Front and the rest of the Zeno/ Igor stuff will carry onto 4.x). The patch series is called 'Roots of the Tale' so likeihood its a full circle moment for Vertin to return to the source of both her trauma and the place she was made the timekeeper.

Concerning the poster summary - I don't know who the little white dove could be refering to, either Sonetto, Merel or Vertin maybe? I say Merel because we know shes been stationed there as reserve forces and that she formally studied at SPDM. There is also the implemation that the immunity of SPDM/ the Foundation is under threat as well. I guess we are due for another Storm.

So here's my theories so far:

Fall of SPDM and maybe the Foundation headquarters

Vertin full circle moment with Chapter 3 parallels (include Sonetto here as well)

Moth, Merel, Creius and Ludwig as potential NPC playables

Outcome of the Storm Protocol Bill - the chance of the Hawks winning

Arcana invading the Foundation

Potentially getting Urd's current whereabouts

Someone being fully restored after being reversed (either one of the Duncan'd, a previous individual coming back or someone new)

Starting off with 3.6 info (i should really do a summary of info from that first, though I want to pull info together before i forget)

Remainder:

The Doves (Constantine, Madam Z) (Laplace under Engima falls under here by the end)

The Hawks (Irinei, potentially Creius though I am not 100% sure yet)

Neutral (Vertin as of now)

The Bill to decide the control over the Foundation between the Doves and Hawks is the Storm Personnel Bill, which includes full martial law and the assimilation of organisations like Laplace (even Lorenz) into the foundation to fully commit to the war effort.

The reason why Laplace comes to a critical point to appoint a new Director, the Flood pretty much setback alot of the research Lapalce was doing, as well as losing Lucy (though I wager that was more of the Foundation's doing) lead to higher ups in the Foundation to view them as inadequate and pushed for more Foundation influence such as the multiple limitations and need for approval requests.

Its interesting that Constantine: one reveals the committee, or certain members of the board know about the Amber Rooms, and two chooses Engima as the new Director and to reveal certain details about the ensoulement. Again, reinforces that the Amber Rooms were Pax House/ Foundation higher ups and Zeno, Laplace did not have any involvement before. She also mentions the 'first stage', so the 'successful' test with Urd only likely concluded the tests in the Steppe, but not overall.

Moreover its established in 3.3 that the Hawks are also interested in info about ensoulement, attempting to use Vertin to gain more info by leveraging info on her mother. This is mostly me speculating that these two seemingly separate subplots are one in the same, that maybe a major deciding factor in who might win the bill is whichever side can successfully restore a Stormed person.

Going back to the ensoulement, I think we can say three individuals came close. To clarify, I would state the conditions are:

Restoring the physical body

Restoring the original personality (or ego)

Merging both the physical and the personality (or ego)

The three are:

Felicienne in 3.2 (went into the Depths of Myth, lost her body but a fragment of her ego was able to live on, unsuccessfully attempted to take over Brume but failed)

Ramona in 3.5 (Hummingbird's attempt to build on Roussea's idea from 3.2, used the Depths of Myths again to restore Teresita, her mentor and likely Ramona's pre-Stormed self, but it was fundamentally flawed due to Hummingbird's deteriorating mental state and only worked very briefly)

Urd in 3.3 (it was the only fully successful transfer, for only a few moments and only after 12 other failed tests)

Once again, I think by the end of the patch series we might meet a successful ensoulement of someone.

The commonality of the three above seem to be

the depths of myth as the medium to locate the human subconscious/ ego (the implication that all the reversed personalities might be all returned to the depths) - Ramona and Felcienne

A bond or connection is likely required (Hummingbird and Teresita, Vertin and Urd

A vessel requires an anchor point, object or location (the paintings for Ramona, the Amber Room for Urd, and the French Blue for Felicienne.

And it seems the fractions in the Foundation want monoploy over whoever is able to successfully do this, which then in turn will decide the Foundation's involvement in the war, whether the current negoitator or a fully realised standing army joining the war.

Final Question: Doesn't the Foundation already know about Urd? The Amber Rooms?

Info in the Foundation seems wildly inconsistent and on a need to know basis, for the Amber Room I theorise only the Pax House (highest authority) and selected Committee members are aware, as seen with SPDM the Foundation control exactly what infomation reaches who and when (though the random clerk knowing more than Vertin in 2.2 is still a question I have no answer to).

(Final bit: if Constantine is aware of the Amber Rooms, and by extension the Committee members like Irnrei are aware, does Madam Z know? Because that would be very tragic and fascinating to see play out if Vertin realises/ finds out Z had knowledge about her mom and withheld it from her. Though I think a more likely scenario is that Z is being kept in the dark.)

Currently the key battle is being fought in the East, along the Black Sea and Baltic Sea, we likely might see Vertin and co progress further to the Eastern Front, or: The XIII (plus Senti), maybe Zeno or new characters since its unlikely they probably would send the timekeeper into the heart of the war effort.

The Cube or 'Boon' given to Igor in 2.8 is made of the some material as the Eye of Comala (the Dice Aleph has in 2.6) - it only grants a singular person Storm Immunity.

The Amber Room Experiments:

The was a collaboration between Foundation Committee and Zeno to experiment on Duncan'd people via 'Vessel Ensoulment. These tests began after the Second Storm once the Foundation realised that people who got Stormed returned slightly different, that certain people no longer matched their offical records.

(Note that this project took place some time after the Changling/ Greenlake experiments)

Igor was tasked to bring in reversed people to the facility to the Amber Room

He then reveals that by the Sixth Storm they actually already found Urd by this time, however by the order of the Pax House this info remained classified to everyone. During the 7th and 8th Storms (the prologue and chapter 2 ones) something happened to Urd and she escaped. Due to the secrecy of the project they were able to locate her.

Igor calls the Amber Room the "Pax House's Arrogance"

(this bit is weird to describe specfically but) Vertin walks into the white room and meets with Urd. Not Dores or any of the other iterations, but Pre-Storm Urd: it seems the 13th test on her for this 'Vessel Ensoulment' as far as I could understand 'synced' the times the experiment started and Vertin entered, creating a small temporal space that not only allowed Vertin to meet Urd in a period after the 6th Storm, but temporarily restore Urd to her original self (in future I will call this one 'Prime Urd' for clarification).

The test is trigged by the fuckass marble chair (though I have no idea why the white chair is also found in Sao Paulo)

The Amber Room basically got sent to the 'future' (current 3.0 1920) and it was a few minutes for Urd, it was actually hours for Vertin.

There were around 44 people who were tested on in this facility, and Igor is directly responsible for abducting these people and sending them here. Afterwards they were "longer themselves" and became little more than a husk.

The Battle of 1999

The final battle before the First Storm took place in Kazakhstan, where Igor and Urd were working together, and she stopped the space-time ritual the Manus tried to conduct, leading to the First Flood and Storm. Vertin at this time was already sent to SPDM. Again the mentioning of blurry memories is also present as Igor is also unable to fully recall the aftermath

Zeno and Foundation collaborations:

Igor tells us that the connections between the Foundation and Zeno runs deep, including alot of morally questionable experiments like the Changling and Amber Room. That exposing these connections may result in fracturing their relationship entirely, preventing any arrest on Igor by either fraction.

Ok those are the two main lore dumps so the rest below will be theorising from this info:

3.3 Explains why after Chapter 4 Vertin is tasked to find Urd: I think its very concidental that Urd escapes around the 7 and 8th Storms, which are the Prologue and Chapter 2 ones respectively. Igor also notes that due to the secrecy of the project they lack manpower to hunt Urd down. So Vertin is now tasked to find her, with the knowledge that the Foundation may still want to test on her, which is probably why she lies about finding any info on Urd at the end of the patch.

Immortality, Revival and Vessel Ensoulment: Ensoulment refers in religious and philosphical terms when a human or being receives a soul, and its usually believed to happen when an embryo becomes a fetus for example. In certain religious the soul is considered a part of reincarnation and is pre-existing. I think one way to interpret 'Vessel Ensoulment' as the Amber Room tests wanted is the aim to imbue the 'Vessel' (the reversed person) with the 'Soul' (the original person pre-Storm). The patch series overall has been placing greater emphasis on immortality and duncan'd people, and my current theory is that by the end of the patch series we get actually get to see someone reverted to their Pre-Stormed self.

Other speculations:

Vertin is now stuck in a position that even if she wants to find her mother, the fear that the Foundation might do something to her put Vertin between located her or hiding her from the Foundations eyes.

Igor likely appearing to aid in the future: His playability is on the lines of 'allied to the Timekeeper' and not necessarily joining her team for obvious reasons. Either end of the patch series or the next main story patch we might see him again.

Possibility of meeting Prime Urd: I kinda hope we get more flashbacks or even meet her in the future, currently she hasn't made an appearance since 2.8 so I'm excited to see whatever new iteration of her's will look like.

The Hawks getting greater importance: the political situation in the Foundation is in the background currently but I think the eventual climax of this subplot might led to another Chapter 3-4