Characters / Dishonored The Outsider And The Void

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The Outsider

The Outsider

The one who walks here is all things. Cradle songs of comfort and bones gnawed by teeth.

Voiced by: Billy Lush (Dishonored, Daud DLC, Dishonored 2 reveal trailer), Robin Lord Taylor (Dishonored 2, Death of the Outsider)

Described as being a combination of God and the Devil, The Outsider is a sometimes-worshiped and sometimes-reviled (currently reviled) figure in the Isles and considered to be the source of all magic. He imbues Corvo with magic via a Power Tattoo near the beginning of the game, after Corvo escapes from prison.

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• Affably Evil: Whatever else he is, the Outsider certainly doesn't come off as a jerkass in his manner of speaking. He is neither a benevolent or malevolent god, and he actively opposes Delilah's threat to reorder reality.
• All-Powerful Bystander:
  • In the first-game. Besides handing out his Mark, the Outsider doesn't directly interfere on the plot. He gives people powers, but makes no attempt to control or make them use said powers in any specific ways. He is far more active in the Daud DLC and the sequel.
  • In the DLC he extends his involvement by giving Daud Delilah's name as a starting point. Otherwise he's content to let Daud figure it out and criticize how Daud used his gift, and taunt him with the retribution both of them know is coming in the form of Corvo.
  • In the second game. The Outsider seems to be incapable of directly dealing with and attacking Delilah (who has become part of him, and thus immortal and someone he cannot directly affect). He nonetheless opposes her and repeatedly tells Emily and Corvo how serious a threat she is. At the same time he sticks to his "minimal involvement" rules and avoids giving information to Emily or Corvo about the conspiracy. It's once they figure out the practical parts that he fills in the more esoteric and supernatural details. The only time that he directly aids the protagonists, besides when he offers his Mark and the Heart necessary to extract Delilah's spirit, is in Aramis Stilton's mansion, when he gives them the timepiece, because otherwise it'd be literally impossible for them to proceed further. Even when he's directly concerned, he favors having mortals act freely of their own will and work things out on their own.
• Ambiguously Evil:
  • Given that runes and charms with his markings on them give people nightmares and headaches, seem to attract the plague rats, and in several cases cause the possessor to outright spiral into self-destructive or murderous insanity, one can see where the Abbey is coming from when they say he's evil. He's rather giddy when he points out that the collapsing, corrupted empire simply needed Corvo's help to finally tear itself to pieces in the worst ending. In the best ending, he's more aloof - though he does make a point of saying a sincere farewell when Corvo reaches the end of his life. He seems to find the non-lethal fates (where Corvo inflicts poetic vengeance on his targets rather than simply killing them) more amusing than the alternatives, but it's unclear whether their suffering or the "poetic" aspect appeals to him more. What is clear is that he's genuinely shocked if Corvo doesn't abuse his powers; he firmly believes that Humans Are the Real Monsters, and that he's Seen It All. What entertains him most of all is Corvo acting contrary to his expectations.
    The Outsider: I've lived a long, long time, and these are the moments that I wait for.
  • The 'evil' part is downplayed in The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches. The Outsider's tone and words to Daud are more hostile than to Corvo, critical of his choice to kill the Empress and his newfound troubled conscience. Also worth noting that he sets the entire plot into motion so Daud can save Emily from Delilah. In fact, he's pretty benevolent, all things considered: his admittedly minimal involvement is the sole and only reason Daud gets involved with the Witches' plans. Had the Outsider not told Daud anything, no one would've been there to stop Delilah. On top of that, in setting Daud on this path, he offers Daud a chance to earn himself a bit of redemption for his earlier deeds.
  • In Dishonored 2, it's almost absent. While we still see bad stuff happen to people who use bone charms, and bloodflies and rats clearly are attracted to the charms, the Outsider himself is far more critical of the way things are in Karnaca, and how Corvo and Emily have not been paying attention to Serkonos while they were in power, allowing this to unfold. He still firmly points out that Humans Are the Real Monsters and seems more contemplative on if Corvo and Emily will learn from this, and pull Karnaca from the brink.
• And I Must Scream: His true form is that of a partially petrified version of himself screaming from being sacrificed. Judging by his relieved reaction if Billie restores his humanity, being an avatar of the Void was a very unpleasant experience.
• Animal Motifs: He's associated with both whales and rats. Many writings tell of his true form as a Leviathan, and the bone charms and runes you use to upgrade your powers and speak to him are carved from whale bone. On the other hand, rats swarm towards runes and bone charms, and you can summon rats using his powers.
  • Hell, in the second game during his first appearance, a large whale appears right behind him and 'swims' on by as he speaks.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: A "representational" entity born of the Void's desire to perceive things, per Word of God. At 15 a poor human boy was merged with the Void, "spawning" what he is now.
• Arch-Enemy: Delilah is this to him. He goes out of his way, and directly appoints people to put a stop to her. Be they Daud, Corvo or Emily. The reason for this is that Delilah wants to become a god and usurp him, and he believes she would actively harm and damage existence itself.
• Big Bad: He's the primary villain of Dishonored: Death of the Outsider.
• Black Eyes of Evil: His solid black eyes are one of his most obviously inhuman aspects and while "evil" may be up for debate, his morality is unlike that of humans, and things with his mark, be they people or objects, tend to be unnerving and strange. He loses them at the end of Death of the Outsider, regardless of whether you choose to kill him or free him.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality:
  • The Outsider has been described as "amoral", having elements of both God and the Devil. He's more of an agent of fate than either good or evil. For instance, he gives a small boy the power to summon demonic rats, which the boy uses to slay some bullies. However, the boy is bitten by one of the rats and becomes infected with the plague, which he eventually dies from. On the other hand, if Corvo does not use his powers to kill, the Outsider compliments him for being intriguing. His sole motivation seems to be relieving his own boredom. The well-being of those he grants his Mark to really doesn't factor in at all.
  • Note that he does have an understanding of morality (he will regularly comment on the various crimes and atrocities done by Corvo or Daud's victim, often in a judgemental tone), but he is ultimately unconcerned about handing out punishment or rewards himself, more interested on the stance his chosen ones take on the issue. As per Harvey Smith, developer of Dishonored, The Outsider is motivated by plain curiosity and fascination; his chief interest is finding out what people who are given his powers do with them, what their choices and actions are.
  • In the sequel, the Outsider is firmly against the arrival of any malevolent deity and the aspirations to godhood by someone as unfit as Delilah Copperspoon, and he actively tells Corvo/Emily that they must oppose her before she becomes all-powerful. The one reason is that for all of his amorality and aloofness, the Outsider does value free will, the power of choice, and the ability to enact change, and Delilah's vision of the world would rob everyone of that.
• The Chessmaster:
  • Comes off as this when you realize the only reason the Empress was assassinated is due to the Outsider empowering her assassin. Then he empowers Corvo to assassinate the people who hired the assassin. In all fairness, he is stated to be simply an agent who empowers people to drive forward the fate of the world, for better or for worse.
  • Even more so in The Knife of Dunwall/The Brigmore Witches, where he's the one that sets Daud upon the path that leads him to save Emily from Delilah. Had he never clued in Daud by giving him Delilah's name, Daud would never have began searching for her and Delilah's plan would've succeeded without any opposition. The only reason Daud involves himself at all is because the Outsider makes him.
  • Of course, he has a major blindspot. The Outsider can see everything anyone might do, but he can never be certain what they will do. Presumably when he gave the mark to Delilah Copperspoon, he didn't think she would eventually use the power to crawl out of the Void stronger than ever, let alone attempt to become a God-Emperor.
    • This is actually his modus operandi: the only people who receive his mark are those who he has no idea what they will do with it. When Billie argues in Death of the Outsider that so many beggars and street urchins pray to him everyday for his gift, he essentially calls their calls boring.
• Create Your Own Villain: He gave the Outsider's Mark to Delilah, enabling her to start a murderous cannibalistic coven and become an aspiring tyrant, and then a usurping God-Emperor who apparently had a chance of toppling him. The Outsider goes out of his way to fix his mistake.
• Creepy Monotone: Not robotic or unnatural, just disinterested. You can tell he's intrigued by something when his tone of voice actually varies. It doesn't happen often. This changes in the sequel with his new voice actor which gives him a more youthful and slightly more energetic voice, although he still maintains an even tone.
• The Corrupter: He gives people down on their luck the power to take revenge. Although he seems to prefer when people are more original than just feeding their enemies to the rats and finds the concept of mercy fascinating, but that's because he expected a bloodbath.
• Deadpan Snarker: Shades of this.
  The Outsider: [Sokolov] believes that there are specific words and acts that can compel me to appear before him. He searches old temples in Pandyssia and ruined subbasements in the Flooded district. He performs disgusting rituals beneath the Old Abbey. But if he really wants to see me, he could start by being a bit more interesting.
  The Outsider: (to Daud) I see everything. I see forever, and right now I see a man walking a tightrope over a sea of blood and filth. The Empress is dead, and the water's rising. You'd better hurry. You're running out of rope.
  The Outsider: Corvo, old friend, do I even have to say it? You've lost another Empress.
  The Outsider: I'm a friend of your father. From the bad old times.
• Deity of Human Origin: His backstory. He was a young human outcast who was, at the age of 15, subjected to a magic ritual in which he was merged in part with the Void to become a "being of insatiable curiosity about what people do when given power over others."
• Didn't See That Coming: The Outsider can see everything, all possible futures and possibilities, but he can never entirely predict human nature:
  • In the first game, he's quite surprised at some of your choices, especially if you take a pacifist route. He is absolutely taken aback if you spare Daud despite having every reason to kill him.
  • In the second game, he admits that he didn't expect Delilah Copperspoon to have escaped the Void after Daud trapped her. He notes that anyone else would have remained floating for all eternity, but someone of Delilah's will, determination, cunning and courage rejected that fate and emerged more powerful than ever with an eye to usurping the Outsider's own place in the Void — becoming the only known person to present a genuine threat to him.
  • In Death of the Outsider, he admits that while he can see almost all possible outcomes of all possible actions, he's completely blind to what happens in a future where he, for any reason, doesn't exist.
  The Outsider: What will it be like, to finally experience an ending? I see forever, and even I can't see that future.
• Dies Wide Open: He goes out this way, should Billie decide to kill him.
• Disappointed in You: The Outsider has low expectations to begin with, but even then he's considerably disappointed when people show no imagination in using his powers, as he expresses to Daud at the start of the DLC. In the sequel he expresses this to both Corvo and Emily, shrugging off their ruthless and cold actions as typical and unsurprising for humans.
• Dream Weaver: He has the power to visit people in their dreams and transport them to the Void to revive their respective life experiences, so much so that he chooses most of the individuals to whom donate his Mark in this way.
• Enigmatic Empowering Entity: He "gifts" select mortals with his powers for fairly vague purposes, mostly to see what potential chaos they can create.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: The only time in the game the Outsider is ever at a loss for words is if you spare Daud on a low chaos playthrough. Corvo's subversion of the basic human desire for revenge leaves him utterly stunned. He regains his composure pretty quickly and commends you for getting more and more interesting, but other comments indicate he believes that corruption is "the nature of man", not kindness.
• Figure It Out Yourself: His default MO. Especially in Dishonored 2, where despite being more closely involved with the events and invested in them, he doesn't give Corvo/Emily any info on the conspiracy or on how to beat Delilah, until absolutely necessary, or until the protagonist has themselves discovered the information, at which point he will elaborate on it.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: Theorized. In the Abbey's description he is not a physical being, but a tempting, corrupting immaterial spirit. However, Word of God says that he in fact does not change appearance, and looks almost the way he did when his life as a human was "interrupted". Death of the Outsider confirms this when the Outsider is returned to mortal life, in one of the endings, looking just like he did when he was alive.
• For the Lulz: He does some appallingly bad things as well as some good things, well in a sense anyway. Ultimately he just grants the powers and lets people do whatever they want with them seemingly because he's bored out of his skull being God. Good or bad don't seem to factor into it as much as 'interesting' for him to observe.
• God Is Evil: The Abbey of the Everyman thinks so, at least - they despise the Outsider, but don't appear to recognize any other deity as being on his level. In reality, he's more... different than evil. The Outsider also tasks the player to help out the Overseers in Dishonored 2, noting about Liam Byrne that he's a honest preacher who is sincerely opposing Delilah, and that the player must protect the Abbey, as he sardonically notes, from "people like us".
• Greater-Scope Villain: Well, he's not really evil in the traditional sense of the word, but still, he's indirectly responsible for a lot of the bad things that happened to Corvo and Emily, because he gave his mark to Daud and Delilah, which makes him indirectly responsible for all the death and destruction that they've caused in the first and second games. He's also responsible for the existence of a few minor antagonists, like Granny Rags. Plus, a lot of people died or were driven insane simply by worshipping him, so...
• Humanity Ensues: At the end of Death of the Outsider, Billie can choose to turn the Outsider back into a mortal by convincing Daud's spirit that he deserves a chance at life.
• Humanoid Abomination: He looks like a pretty regular young man, complete with dirty clothes. If it weren't for the pitch-black eyes and the shadows and stars swirling around him, you might be tempted to think him just another ordinary human. It's not clear what he is, but it is clear that whatever he is, it's not quite right.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: More apparent in the first game than in the second game as he's quick to call out almost everyone for being horrible. Potentially due to being omnipresent, at least tangentially linked to linear time, and stuck watching the rat plague go on where thousands are dying and people are being even more horrible to one another than usual. That alone would put a damper on anyone's hope for humanity. By the second game, while he still isn't exactly humanity's biggest fan he does point out more genuinely decent people and acknowledges that many more at least have good motivations for doing bad things.
  • He makes more than one comment that strongly implies that he believes the "nature of man" to be cruel and corrupt. A nonlethal Corvo seems to incite his curiosity precisely because of this: Corvo is choosing, of his own free will, to act in complete opposition to everything the Outsider believes humans to be. The only time the Outsider is ever shown to be genuinely taken aback is if Corvo chooses to spare Daud. Regardless, it doesn't seem to change his opinion or even make him reconsider; rather, he indicates that he sees Corvo as the exception that proves the rule.
  • He doesn't have the attitude in the second game so much. He's even regretful mostly because he empowered Delilah, who ended up becoming a threat not only to the Empire but existence itself since she was on her way to godhood. In the second game he seems to lament the wasted potential and talent of the many targets you have to meet on your way, and how they use it for evil (Jindosh), waste their good fortune (Abele) or use a compelling Freudian Excuse to excuse and abet tyranny (Breanna Ashworth), and likewise feels the same about Delilah, who could have been a force of great brilliance and change but was driven to create what she imagined as a perfect and static world to worship her instead.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: Ultimately, the Outsider wants his ordeal as the Void's executor to end, be it through being returned to mortality as a human or death, so in a sense, it can be interpreted that his aiding of Billie despite knowing her intentions is to facilitate this goal.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: The Outsider is merely the dream-like apparition of a human boy trapped and frozen in the Void. What the Outsider truly wants is to be released from his prison and regain his humanity and complete his mortal life, since spending 4000 years watching generations of humanity come and go is apparently an experience that bothers him as time goes on. In Death of the Outsider, Billie remarks that despite knowing her and Daud's intentions to kill him, he openly comes in and helps them along the way, proving that he wants some kind of end, either death or loss of power.
• I Know Your True Name: He can be freed from the Void by whispering his true name to his body.
• It Amused Me: Seems to be his primary motivation for gifting people supernatural powers. He seems to enjoy seeing how people will use his 'gift' and watching the choices they make.
• Meaningful Name: He is The Outsider. He never directly influences anyone. He may give you powers, but he only watches from the outside.
• Neutral No Longer: In Dishonored 2, the Outsider is far more pro-active and clearly on the side of the protagonist (not that it stops him from criticizing them and wondering if Corvo/Emily will learn from this experience and make the world better). He just firmly dislikes what Delilah is doing. His involvement is best seen by him giving the protagonist the time piece to time travel in the Stilton Manor - the only time in the game he manifests outside the Void. Without this particular involvement, the protagonist would've been unable to find how to break Delilah's immortality. He also notes that Delilah's tampering with the Void has made her part of him, and he doesn't like that.
• Offscreen Teleportation: He shows up in dreams, visions, and at shrines that people clandestinely erect in his name.
• The Omniscient: The Outsider seems aware of everything going on, and at one point will mention he can see every path a person's future can possibly take and demonstrate it by commenting on both fates you can inflict on Lady Boyle. However, this is played with a little. Even though he can see every choice you can make he doesn't seem to know for sure which one you will make. As already mentioned, Low Chaos Corvo surprises him constantly and can stun him speechless with the right actions.
  The Outsider: No one's watching Delilah now, except you. And me, of course. I see everything. I see forever.
• Pet the Dog:
  • He's normally perfectly content to allow those he's Marked to do whatever they like, including fight each other. There is one exception: he gives Daud the clue to find Delilah, in order to prevent her from possessing Emily. No explanation for this is given other than him just wanting her to stay safe.
  • Word of God states that he generally has a problem with powerful people that abuse the powerless, because he was powerless himself as a human. Many of his comments to Corvo, after his betrayal by the Loyalists and his assessment of his targets, have him speak in a disappointed tone about how people do bad things and never seem to learn from their mistakes.
• Prescience Is Predictable: He says he sees all paths a person's future can take, but he seems more interested in finding out which of them is chosen. Could explain his disinterest in appearing to Sokolov. He knows exactly how Sokolov would use his powers — studying them and trying to replicate them. The lack of uncertainty makes him uninteresting. It may also explain why he sends Piero dreams despite him also being a scientist: Piero is more a tester that makes a loose speculation and hopes it works out instead of properly studying it and making theories like Sokolov, thus keeping Piero at least interesting enough to have The Outsider interfere occassionally.
• Powers That Be: Rather than purely good or evil, The Outsider is merely seen as an agent of fate, interfering in lives that are pivotal to the world's destiny, for better or for worse.
• Power Tattoo: He appears fond of handing these out, though it's not clear why other than that the people he picks are "pivotal" to the fate of the world. A dark charity? Cruel amusement? To sow chaos? Who knows? The Outsider does not usually influence the people he grants the mark in any way; the choice of how to use the powers he gives them is up to the recipient, but he does only choose "special", interesting people for it.
• Prophet Eyes: In Death of the Outsider after he returns to his original mortal form in the Low Chaos ending, he has very striking grey eyes which highlight his mystical connection to the Void and reflect his former status as something akin to an oracle.
• Really 700 Years Old: In the "mercy" ending of "Death of the Outsider", the Outsider is Brought Down to Normal and becomes fully human again, leaving him as an ordinary man with 4,000 years of all the knowledge of the universe in his head. Billie is curious about what kind of life such a person will find in the world.
• Red Right Hand: His black eyes and his shadowy/starry aura.
• The Scapegoat: The Abbey blames all human failings on corruption from him and the Void. In truth, he has almost nothing to do with any of it; even if he's behind the witches and bone-charms (which is ambiguous), he never makes anyone do anything. He is in fact disappointed when people give in to revenge and other baser instincts. In Death of the Outsider, it is revealed that the highest-ranking members of the Abbey know that he is not the source of all evil, and are worried that they will lose all their power if he dies and they can no longer blame him for everything.
• Spell My Name with a "The": He's never referred to as 'Outsider'. It's always 'The Outsider'.
• Super-Empowering:
  • Rather than directly manipulate the world, he prefers giving people he finds interesting powers and seeing what they'll do. Notably, while Bone Charms do seem to work for everyone, the Runes are only really useful to those touched by the Outsider. Everyone else sort of goes insane.
  • It's also sort of his Origin Story as well. The creature we know as the Outsider is ultimately an "avatar" or "figure" of the Void. Born three thousand years before "the Great Burning" (the first year of the Empire's calendar), as a young outcast boy of fifteen he somehow merged with part of the Void.
• Supporting Protagonist: The Outsider is the only character to appear in all three released games and expansion packs, making him the central figure and driving character of the entire story. In Dishonored 1 he has the most lines of dialogue and narrates the closing scenes of the game. Most of the lore, mystery, and gameplay depends on his powers and abilities and those he chooses to empower, and his death or depowerment in Death of the Outsider marks the End of an Age for the series.
• Terms of Endangerment: "My dear Corvo", in the trailer; Daud he refers to with some amusement as "my old friend". He's not exactly malicious, but he's definitely not benign.
• Time Abyss: He looks young, but he's very, very old, having existed for millennia and seen the rise and fall of civilizations. He remarks upon the one before the Empire of the Isles, which has been gone for long enough that most aren't aware it ever existed; he's unmoved or even mildly bored during most of the plot, giving the impression that he's already Seen It All; and the one time he seems surprised, he outright says that he's "lived a long, long time". The Heart describes his dwelling-place as "the end of all things, and the beginning". It's unlikely that time as humans perceive it has any meaning to the Outsider.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In the second game in Low Chaos interactions with Emily and Corvo, he is a good deal softer and less creepy than he was with Corvo in the first game. Rather than float off a few inches off the ground and look aloof, he moves around and interacts with them less as a god-and-supplicant and more as near-equals. The Outsider even reveals his origin to them, a privilege not many have ever known.
• Troll: There's no other description for his reaction after reuniting with Corvo in the second game:
  The Outsider: (appears out of thin air) Corvo, old friend! Do I even need to say it? You've lost another Empress!
• The Unfought: At the end of Death of the Outsider, his petrified echo is encountered by Billie and she's simply given a choice to release or kill him. Billie even lampshades this, as she was clearly expecting to have to fight an omnipotent god at the end of her quest.
• Was Once a Man: Part of being a Deity of Human Origin.
• What You Are in the Dark: Since he was himself powerless as a human and subjected to a lot of abuse, he is very curious about how people who are suddenly given power over others behave themselves and what choices they make.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The Outsider was really an unwilling sacrificial lamb to the Void by a Cult whose only form of contact to the outside world was to give people his mark along the powers that come with it, and let them carry out their chaotic and destructive desires. When Billie Lurk finally sees The Outsider's true form, a petrified boy in constant agony, her view of him can go from an uncaring monster to an unfortunate victim who never wanted to become this.

The Void

Outside the world you know is a world beyond. It is a place with a will, a will without a body, an infinite nowhere that shifts and changes erratically. It hungers for a shape, for the concrete, and so it latches on to events and locales that echo across the world, recreating images of the earthly, and yearning to morph into something more real.

—Dishonored Roleplaying Game

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• Blue-and-Orange Morality: While it is stated to have a will of its own, any intelligence it possesses seems to be utterly alien to human psychology.
• Eldritch Location: It appears to be an endless sky-blue nothingness with twisted and frozen pieces of normal reality floating within it. Gravity there is odd and water doesn't flow the way you'd expect it to, nor do lights cast normal colours. The Heart describes it as untouched by time so neither seconds nor centuries pass, and it is visited by the dreaming and dying alike. In the second game, the Outsider explains that it is not exactly a place; it exists in every person. It's not so much another dimension as the space between dimensions. The way it seems to appear when characters dream and the description by Corvo of it being a place of endless cold makes it reminiscent of H. P. Lovecraft's plateau of Leng, which at various times is likened to a planet on the borderlands between dreams and dimensions.
• Genius Loci: Word of God and the tabletop game confirm that the Void does in fact have a mind and a will, though not one that can really be understood by humans.

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