History VideoGame / TheForgottenCity

* GratuitousLatin: Once you go back in time, most of the Latin spoken to you by other characters is [[TranslationConvention translated into English]]. Notable exceptions are any [[PardonMyKlingon swear words]], and the greeting "salve," which is literally just Latin for hello.

* AnAesop: Fitting for a story invoking Greek, Roman, [[spoiler: Egyptian, and Sumerian]] myth, there are two big morals to the story: first, it is better to follow the spirit of the law rather than its exact wording. While order is nice and keeps things stable, it can quickly be turned into a powerful weapon against innocent people. Secondly, [[spoiler: utopia might be impossible due to human nature, but that isn't a bad thing. It's pointed out that though the God of the Underworld's city is ''technically'' a paradise thanks to the nominal existence of no crime, it's also a terrifying place to live where the innocent are abused by the powerful.]]
** There are two ways to peacefully persuade [[spoiler:Pluto that his enforcement of the Golden Rule will never lead to utopia]], both requiring a different approach and teaching him a different Aesop.
*** The first one is that people sometimes need things like violence and lying to protect themselves when things go poorly, else you end up with situations like [[spoiler:Iulia and Ulpius's debt bondage scam, or Sentius's kidnapping of his own daughter]]. Thus, the strict enforcement of pure peace under threat of annihilation is counterproductive to [[spoiler:the struggle towards utopia]]. The Aesop here is that evil people will always find a way to twist the rules in their favour, and that restricting a society in punishing these people does more harm than good.
*** The second one is that making mistakes is a core human trait that can never be eliminated because it's how we learn, grow and improve. As such, [[spoiler:destroying a society that has sinned instead of allowing it to correct itself prevents them from ever learning the right lesson from it.]] The Aesop here is that it is better to focus on learning from mistakes and becoming better as a result than to demand one makes none at all, which is impossible.

* BigBadDuumvirate: [[spoiler: The Arbiter and Jarl Metellus. The Arbiter is the Dwemer who has been enforcing the Draconian laws of the city while Metellus is violating the law in secret to rape Maisi nightly.]]

* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler:Everyone in the city is already dead, including you.]]

* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: Given that [[spoiler:Sentius needs to sacrifice himself to activate the time loop and he admits that he wasn't expecting to remember each loop, that means when it first began Sentius genuinely was trying to save the city and prevent the Golden Rule from being broken even if it meant imprisoning his daughter or sacrificing his own life. But after who knows how long reliving the same day over and over again, he's reached the point where he enjoys the current state of things and wants the loop to continue forever.]]