gruchen aachen notes

valentina is stated to be a living legend who existed for around two hundred years, according to the st. pavlov foundation. but based on what she says in the fourth ending of the series of dusks, that information is worth a little analysis.

these lines present a few options to infer how a beyond like valentina ages.

by human standard, one hundred years is more than a lifetime. for valentina, it's a blink, only “short a few years.” this statement reveals a few things:

valentina does not accumulate emotional maturity at a human rate. neither does her internal development fall in proportion with her chronological age.

she also doesn't seem to perceive long lifespans as meaningful or enriching. (despite valentina finding life and it's ways immensely enjoyable and finds death boring, she doesn't seem to hold weight to her own existence)

so for valentina, two hundred years of existence may feel like a couple of decades.

im not really sure what to infer from her words; “for the world, and for me... it isn't so much of a loss.” except maybe a massive underestimation of human lifespans, or boredom/exhaustion of continuous and persistent existence.

that's also in line with how other beyonds in the game seem to experience time. anjo nala and voyager for example, don't age biologically, don't perceive time linearly, and don't accumulate human-like maturity.

I–A Series of Dusks: Beyonds

In the beginning of the Series of Dusks, the main and singular objective that explains Semmelweis’ presence in the critical point of the 1914s Storm is the Beyond. Within the game's definition of a Beyond, the simplest description of them is that they’re simply not from this world. A being that doesn’t fall in this world’s categories of human, arcanist or awakened. The medium they draw power from doesn’t align with Arcanum, and is not properly defined within that system that we are so familiar with.

Circling back, the main plot points in the first chapter of ASoDs, “A Nightmare” is to find the Beyond. It’s rather easy to forget this detail, because the objective it’s so quickly derailed by finding Lorelei and Semmelweis’ condition.

The Foundation is in pursuance of a “living legend” Beyond vampire (once again, a more comprehensible definition for what Valentina is, by the Arcanum world standard) The Beyond proceeded to infect Semmelweis with the Beyond disease.

II–Within and Beyond

The relationship between Valentina and Semmelweis is a complex, layered array of obsession, discovery, and devotion. Let’s put it this way: The Beyond is interested in an Arcanist, so she infects her with the Beyond disease. There doesn’t seem to be a clear motive for her to do that, outside of pure interest and desire for closeness.

Note: Valentina's motive of wanting Semmelweis to join the Manus Vindictae lost its weight when she made it clear she wasn't going to force Semmelweis to join, or get in her way if she decided to seek help from Lorelei instead of her. It's also more apparent that this offer of joining the Manus mellowed out more into a genuine desire for companionship instead, in the Ultimate Joy.

The Beyond and the Infected–with the Beyond Disease. The first symptom of this disease (it is not actually a symptom; the word is merely used for lack of better phrasing) is the look Semmelweis is able to take in herself, thanks to Kakania.

There is no reflection present in Kakania’s mirror, but only when she truly looks inside is she able to see Bella, from within. It is always within. From the Depths, In the Shadow, The Mirrored Embrace. And this recurring theme surrounding Semmelweis makes sense!

Semmelweis’ journey is about survival and existence through self-discovery, making peace with all the imperfections, monstrousness, and ugliness from inside, no matter how potent and mind-consuming.

Semmelweis becoming Infected is a catalyst for her to truly look inside herself and begin that journey because being unable to see oneself in the real world’s natural circumstances that obey its laws– the reflection of oneself in a mirror or a lake, or the silhouette of your shadow– arises a lack of self-perception that forces one to overthink, that forces one to confront the question; “What am I?”

Valentina, on the other hand, is a Beyond who exists outside the laws of the world, a shadowless, liminal otherworldly being. Valentina’s an embodiment of chaotic, disastrous affection.

She drags Semmelweis to subsist in the same lawless state, removing all her natural anchors like shadow and reflection, forcing her to exist in Valentina’s own tunnel of projective obsession. The vampiric hunger that’s never satiated until she can remake Semmelweis into her own image. This makes Valentina dangerous; she acts on desire. Not reason, not strategy, not necessity, no thought process, just a mere irrational, “Why not?”

Semmelweis’ journey is that of self discovery, so that Valentina’s role becomes denying external intervention or distractions. She exists as a mirror, but only as the frame, as there’s no reflection on the surface. She forces Semmelweis to look inward because she doesn’t offer her an outward reflection (answer) to her dilemmas.

III—The Window

When you turn the name of the game mode; The Window to Other Worlds in your head, it becomes clear that it's meant to translate to an allegory of the Beyond and her perception from our world, and simultaneously, of the Infected and her consciousness of her inner self.

Valentina, shadowless spirit and irrational, represents the intrusion of chaotic desire that destabilizes identity from the outside. Semmelweis, infected and reflective, represents the painful yet necessary journey of survival through self-recognition, reconstructing identity from within.

In a metaphorical sense, a window and a mirror mean the same thing, because both of them have two sides. The onlooker, and their reflection. Inside, and outside. The Within, and Beyond.