Contents
Before you start playing
Hints
The Shadow of the Ramlord (SOTR) reuses Amnesia's hints system. In order for you to see these relevant hints, you need to make sure to enable it through the game's menu:
Don't worry, we block all hints from the base game so that you know each hint is relevant.
Experience
SOTR is not like other custom stories. We do not promise exciting gameplay or complex puzzles. The purpose of SOTR is to develop a world with a story. The more you pay attention to the story itself, the more value you'll gain from the mod.
If you are a let's player, we encourage you to experience the storytelling in full. Not paying attention to the story will most likely result in a very boring playthrough.
Setup
In order to install and play The Shadow of the Ramlord (SOTR), you require the following:
- A copy of Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Your Amnesia installation also requires a specific version in order for SOTR to function properly.
Checking if your copy is up to date
On Windows
- Make sure you have run the game at least once before.
After the first run of the game, Amnesia creates important configuration files that will allow you to verify whether or not your copy meets the requirement for SOTR to work as intended.
- The version of your game must be
1.4or later.
To see which version of Amnesia you are running, navigate to the following directory:
My Documents/Amnesia/Main
If you ran Amnesia at least once, you should find a hpl.log file in this directory.
You can open this file in a text editor of your choice. (For example by dragging it into an open Notepad window)
The first line of this file is your game's version.
On Linux
- Make sure you have run the game at least once before.
After the first run of the game, Amnesia creates important configuration files that will allow you to verify whether or not your copy meets the requirement for SOTR to work as intended.
- The version of your game must be
1.4or later.
To see which version of Amnesia you are running, navigate to the following directory:
~/.frictionalgames/Amnesia/Main
If you ran Amnesia at least once, you should find a hpl.log file in this directory.
You can open this file in a text editor of your choice.
The first line of this file is your game's version.
Installing SOTR
On Windows
On Windows, there are two ways of installing SOTR.
- Using the installer
The recommended way of installing SOTR is using our installer program.
The installer will attempt to locate your copy of Amnesia. If it finds more than one, it will let you decide which one to use.
If the installer fails to locate a copy, you will be prompted to select the path to your game manually.
If you downloaded the installer package, you first need to unzip the installer itself.
Should you need help with unzipping the package, see the To unzip (extract) files... section of this MS support article.
- Manual installation
When manually installing SOTR, you will download a .zip file containing the full custom story.
In order to install it, you need to unzip the contained shadow-of-the-ramlord folder into your Amnesia's custom_stories directory.
Where your Amnesia is installed depends on where you purchased your copy. For example Steam usually installs Amnesia into [YourDrive]/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Amnesia The Dark Descent
On Linux
On Linux, the only method of installation is manual.
Inside the .zip file you downloaded, is the full custom story. In order to install it, you need to place the shadow-of-the-ramlord folder inside your Amnesia's custom_stories folder.
If you purchased Amnesia through steam, the path to your custom_stories folder usually is: ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Amnesia The Dark Descent/custom_stories.
Starting SOTR
After you installed SOTR into your game, just run it and select the Custom Stories option from the main menu.
You should see the mod listed there.
Credits
- Glenn Winkelmann – Project Lead
- Petr "Spelos" Sedláček – Programming
- David Bodtcher – Voice Acting Johan Gray
- Michael Schwalbe – Voice Acting Anton Caecea
- Stephanie Tobin – Voice Acting Emilia Hall
- Frictional Weekly – Level Designer
- Nick Keil – Secondary Programmer
Special Thanks*
- (Here for the inception, presented great ideas, or did not see the project through.)
- Slanderous – Level Detailer
- Ian Wiese – Writing Assistance
- Karba – Level Designer
- Jarod D’Camp – Lead Composer
- RadicalBatz – Level Detailer
- Nightfall – Lead Sound Designer
Play Testers
- HollowInside
- Seth
- TiMan
Story Synopsis
It is the late 18th Century. Johan Gray is a member of a secretive order; a fictional sect of the Church designated to the investigation of occult activity. His official title is Witchfinder. He is an experienced hunter of man and monster and has burnt at the stake of countless guilty and innocent. He investigates his cases with cold, calculated malice. Like the many Witchfinder’s before him, his task is to investigate and then root out cults, supernatural beings or dark entities/sects at any governing cost, including his life or sanity.
The events of our story take place after Johan receives a letter from Emilia Hall. She had recently married Anton Caecea in a very public, scandalous marriage arranged by Anton and her Father. She wrote to Johan with claims of occultism, necromancy and stark horrors in Caecea Manor. Convinced, Johan opts to investigate and potentially rescue Emilia – even if it means killing her.
Caecea is wrought with evidence of a prior ball having taken place, discovered to have occurred six months prior to our arrival. All of the guests were discovered to collude in the same cult, worshiping a being known as the Ramlord. Anton was aware of this fact and summoned them to a gallant ball only to poison their wine and bring their bodies down to the catacombs he’s built below. Evidently, some others were coerced into joining his cause as servants.
With at least the presence of a cult already revealed to Johan, he continues. We discover that Emilia has a profound knowledge of the occult herself but in a more healing, divine capacity. She leaves markers – shrines with memories or knowledge bound to them – for Johan. He utilizes many of these to further the story.
After entering the library and discussing with Emilia herself behind a locked door, we are tasked with completing a ritual she began to free her from an incantation. Johan discovers that Anton does, in fact, practice Necromancy when he encounters an enemy for the first time – one of the Servants, raised from the dead. Avoiding this creature, we complete the task for Emilia but find her gone. A marker placed outside on an unmarked grave reveals to us new truths.
Emilia was forced to sire a child for Anton almost immediately, evidently due to explicit instruction from the Ramlord itself. The first child miscarries, due to her intervention, and Anton is furious. He locks her in her room and plans with his cohorts about what to do next.
The solution was simple enough for Anton; try again. After leaving Emilia alone in Caecea for some time she discovers, once more, she is pregnant and decides to end her life in consequence. Not surprised, Anton returns and brings her back from the dead and removes her arms and legs to prevent escape. And in a horrifying, esoteric way the pregnancy continues.
The memories are too strong and Johan passes out. We awaken to find ourselves being tortured by an unseen person; Anton. He asks us how we came to find out his secret, reach the estate, pursue such a singular course. In essence, who our informant was. Johan refuses to cooperate and dies burning over a pyre.
He, too, is brought back to life. We awaken in a cell in the catacombs. Anton has found us sporting, and a good challenge. He lets us loose in his catacombs to discover the secrets that he has found. But Johan, ever vigilant in his task, seeks out holy water and salt -- two common items in the inventory of anyone wishing to banish what they summoned -- to complete a ritual of his own. He aims to purify the whole manor, rendering Anton powerless.
Anton himself, however, has taken his eye off us. He’s interrogating a former servant of his about being too close to Emilia. He confesses, in the end, that he is the one who smuggled the letter out for him addressed to Johan. Furious, Anton kills the man off screen, and charges to find Emilia. A distant cave in is heard, with an ominous, ethereal voice laughing throughout.
We find Anton is trapped under rock and beam, slowly dying. The Witchfinder and Necromancer exchange pointed words before Anton finally dies. With no recourse, Johan walks down a long hall to find Emilia’s dungeon. She beckons us inside into complete darkness.
Johan and Emilia talk in the pitch darkness for a few moments before she reveals the sounds of a baby crying. Johan proclaims that the baby must die, and a knife is heard unsheathed. Emilia agrees in solemn protest before the music fades us into credits.
Character Summary
Witchfinder Johan Gray
Johan Gray is the protagonist of our story. He is a veteran Witchfinder, a member of a secretive order of the Church designated for rooting out occult or supernatural situations while keeping the curtains drawn. Few, if any, know about them and their order dates back hundreds of years before the events of Ramlord.
Responding immediately to the letter that Emilia Hall smuggled out of Caecea, he undertakes the journey and brings with him the devices he’ll need to investigate and banish the madness.
His personality is stern, stoic and often frigid. Throughout the narrative, his will is almost entirely unbending, and his singular focus is ending the Necromancer’s reign in Caecea and freeing Emilia by any means required. He is well educated, calmly spoken, adeptly talented at his craft and is an equal challenge to Anton and his malignant schemes.
Baroness Emilia Hall
Emilia Hall is a woman possessed by the visual world around her. She is a painter and dancer, famous for her many illustrations now shown across Caecea, as well as her adoration of royal balls and their opulence. She would revel at both private and public venues, and sell her works across many galleries.
It is when she reaches the age of twenty that she is told of her marriage to a local baron, Anton Caecea. Her own father sold her to him, undoubtedly due to the affiliation both men possess to the cult of the Ramlord. At Caecea, Anton feigns a life of normalcy which slowly begins to disintegrate around her until only a vestigial shell remains, as to deceive the public eye. The reality is that after less than a year with her newly beloved, she is involved deeply in his Necromantic proclivities.
A pregnancy originally assumed innocuous, ends in stillbirth due to her physical termination of it. She suspected that Anton was corrupt, and did not want to raise a child in the cold and distant manner. After a small period of time, and during a final state ball, she smuggled out a letter requesting the Witchfinder’s intervention as she suspects Necromancy among other malignant things of her husband. Anton, furious at the death of their first child, then abandons both her and Caecea for months on end. Without a means to escape, or company, or food, she resolves to kill herself rather than live as a shadow in an empty manor.
However, this was part of Anton’s plan to manipulate her further. He brings her back from the dead, whereupon she is deeply tortured and scarred and is both visibly and mentally different. And to her continued horror, she is assaulted and another pregnancy -- purely in the occult, as they are both now inhuman -- happens. She is chained up in the deepest catacombs, as to not kill this second child.
Despite the frailty of her situation, she is strong-willed and focused on survival by any means. At the end, when Johan suggests he must kill the crying child in her arms, she allows him to do so, showing her determination in not allowing the evil around her to be victorious.
Necromancer Anton Caecea
Anton Caecea is the Baron of Caecea Manor. He is the ruler of a few holdings and sees himself as a fledgling player in the royal court he so wishes to dominate. Whereas the local politicians would scramble for favor or influence, Anton instead took to courting the most sinister and malignant sources. He would entertain delegations of sorcerers, mystics, acolytes, and pagans. But before long he receives a delegation from far away who surmise that he is failing in bringing back their deity, the Ramlord. They suggest a physical avatar is required -- a son, that the Ramlord may embody.
As a villain, his purpose is to stand opposite of Johan at all odds, and do what he can to deliver upon the world the incarnation of the Ramlord that has been asked of him, in return of untold power and might in his political climate. While he dies in the narrative due to his own hubris, we come to learn that his mission was ultimately one of many. His arc is one of controlled evil towards utter madness, by the conclusion and his untimely demise.
Behind the Scenes
SOTR - Cut Baronness scare
This scare was supposed to be included with the mod, but we decided to cut it due to time and staff constraints. At that time, you would be able to see Emilia in a ghost form throughout the story. Well, at least you now get a sneak peek at what Emilia might have looked like.
SOTR - Programming timelapse
Here's a timelapse near the end of development, where the lead programmer is refining the Overlook Library and writing the API docs. This is a fair representation of what programming for SOTR usually was like.
SOTR - Git repository visualization
When developing the custom story, we used a source control system called git using git we were able to share changes with each other and make sure we don't lose any changes. The following video is a visualization of our Repository from December 2018 till the release. Each "blast" of a character is one of our members committing a change to the project. That could be as small as changing a line of code, or as big as reworking a whole map.