- "Children of Ursus" is similar to Lord of the Flies. Both are stories about a group of teenagers stuck in an environment in which they end up fighting each other that seem to convey that human nature is fundamentally evil.
- The event also embodies elements of the Russian Revolution. The different students represent social classes. Rosa, the aristocracy, is incapable of keeping order which results in the nobles abusing their power over the inferior classes. Zima, the proletariat, fights for justice against the nobles but ends up causing harm as well. Istina, the intellectual, keeps reason and rationality yet lacks capability or resources, forcing her to ally with a group. Gummy, the commoners, did the least but suffered the most.
The references in multiple event stories
Observation shows that multiple event stories have references to real-life literature in them, mostly hidden in the NPC names.
- Mansfield Break - The Count of Monte Cristo (Domma's name was earlier translated to Duma of Dumas).
- Heart of Surging Flame - The Citadel (by A.J Cronin)
- Darknights Memoir - Dirty Hands (or 'Le Mains Sales' by Jean-Paul Sartre, featuring Hoederer as the main character)
- Walk in the Dust - The Waste Land (by T.S Eliot), elaborated on here
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The Curse of Kashchey
By the end of Chapter 8 and the end of Reunion Arc, one question may linger on players' minds: How could Kashchey be confident that Talulah will follow his path, even after she had rejected his idea right in front of him and stabbed him with her sword in defiance? The answer is because Talulah falls into Kashchey's verbal trap unwittingly, and the so-called "curse" acted as nothing more than reinforcement to Tallulah's break of faith.Since Talulah argues against Kashchey's idea that people are ungrateful, deceiving, selfish, and thus must be controlled through fear and force, she must naturally falls into another extreme: that everyone is a product of their circumstances - that there is a reason behind every action - that people are fundamentally good and thus deserves the freedom to choose. Unfortunately for Talulah, she would began her movement and struggle in Ursus, which is such a hellhole for the Infected that Kaschey - as an Ageless being who is as old as the nation itself - knew that sooner or later, he would be proven right. And even though Talulah is no naive idealist - she had tempered her expectations on people and knew that not everyone who joined her cause do so because they want to fight - even though Talulah managed to held on to her beliefs and ideals even after Alina's unjust death, in the end her fateful visit to a certain village proved Kaschey's point: that people can indeed be cruel and selfish without any good reason or justification, that they can kill and do evil to their fellows just because they can. And the moment Talulah believes that Kaschey might be right, that her faith in people's inherent goodness might be misplaced, her fate is sealed.
To further the point, the modern timeline in Chapter 8 parallels Tallulah's backstory. In one of the most well known M8-8 cutscenes, Kal'tsit told Doctor that despite Rhode Island's well-intentioned idea and moderate approach, those who lived in oppressed societies in destitute will prefer the radical Reunion idea to Rhodes Island's because violence is the language they grew up with and accustomed to, thus it is the only way they can express their thoughts. The moderate nature of Rhode Island also means that their neutrality is the only thing that keeps them from being eradicated by governments around the world who see their organization as a threat, and can only operate under the radar of everyone else's. Most importantly, Rhodse Island NEVER ever seeks revenge against the death of their colleagues because the path of vengeance will risk twisting their ideals to suit any potentially malicious action. Such as Dr. Atro in Wolunmonde, The 41 operators who give their life in Chernobog(Especially Ace and Scout), Outcast in chapter 9, and of course, Theresa's death, which Kal'tsit made her point that she want to know what happened that day rather than who killed her.
Rhodes Island, a pharmacological company?
Some might wonder how Rhodes Island can be considered a pharmacological company when they have access to a strong roster of operators used to be sent into battle. The contemporary use of pharmacology is to talk about physical drugs made in laboratories, it's hard to see a link.It actually makes sense if we employ the ancient meaning of pharmacology, pharmakon in ancient Greek. Plato had views on medecine that pre-dated Christianity and the distinction between the physical and the metaphysical. He had a perspective where the physical, the psychological and the political were closely intertwined and had to be taken into account when administering a remedy.
Rhodes Island going into battle makes sense if they have a perspective of seeing armed conflicts as diseases to be cured, even if it means shedding blood on the way to prevent further harm. The odd nature of originium as some kind of psycho-reactive material helps linking the merely physical to more abstract ills.
