The Labyrinth of History: Unraveling the Conspiracy in the Amnesia Games

In the world of the Amnesia games, each installment begins with a moment of awakening that is also a moment of erasure and disconnection. These games, set in different time periods and following different protagonists, all share a common theme of forgotten pasts and new beginnings. One fateful moment sets each character on a path of rediscovery, uncovering an ancient conspiracy that intertwines with documented places and events.

The first game, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, takes place in the mid-19th century and introduces us to a young man who finds himself in a secluded castle in Prussia. He receives a letter from his past self, urging him to murder the castle’s owner, Baron Alexander, while being hunted by a monstrous Shadow. In the second game, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, we meet Oswald Mandus, a meat factory owner in London in the late 19th century, who wakes up on New Year’s Eve to find his children missing. The third game, Amnesia: Justine, is a short standalone expansion that follows a young woman trapped in a brutal experiment. Finally, in Amnesia: Rebirth, the player assumes the role of Tasi Trianon, an engineering drafter in 1930s Algeria who wakes up in the desert after a plane crash, searching for her missing husband.

While the Amnesia games are created by different teams and have their unique storytelling choices, there is a sense of a master plan, a hidden narrative that connects them all. Thomas Grip, the co-founder and creative director of Frictional Games, the studio behind Amnesia, explains that the storytelling emerges from practical considerations and the interests of the project leaders. They gather historical events and figures, weaving them into the fabric of the game’s narrative.

The storytelling approach in Amnesia is often likened to Lovecraftian horror, drawing inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft’s cosmic horror tales. However, the games also take considerable influence from Umberto Eco’s novel, Foucault’s Pendulum, which tells the story of three intellectuals who become entangled in their own conspiracy. The Amnesia games share a similar fascination with connections and patterns, creating their own hidden order of history through fragments of letters, diaries, and mythological tales.

In Foucault’s Pendulum, the characters’ obsession with connections leads them to believe in their own conspiracy, blurring the line between reality and fiction. Similarly, the protagonists in the Amnesia games become twisted by their roles as gatherers and reconstructors of forgotten events. The series’ unique sanity systems, which affect the player character’s perception and control, can be seen as a consequence of over-connection. As the characters gather more information, their free agency and grasp on reality erode. They must learn to navigate the labyrinth of history while maintaining a calculated level of inattentiveness.

The Amnesia games also draw inspiration from historical figures like Heinrich Corneilus Agrippa, a 16th-century polymath and physician. Agrippa’s inclusion in the games, particularly in The Dark Descent, exemplifies the developers’ approach of twisting historical records into an occult conspiracy. The game’s protagonists, like Agrippa, straddle the line between science and mysticism, facing the consequences of their knowledge and actions.

Ultimately, the Amnesia games offer players a chance to revisit the past from a relatively neutral standpoint, navigating the mysteries and horrors that were once forgotten. As the player takes on the role of the protagonist’s future self, they have the power to uncover the truth and make choices that can correct past wrongs or perpetuate wickedness. It is a journey through history, where forgotten fragments are pieced together to shed light on a greater truth lurking beneath the surface.