Visual Novel / Misericorde

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The year is 1483. The age of European expansion is on the horizon and the Renaissance is in full swing across Europe; but in England, the War of the Roses is in its final throes. Change is coming, but in one little convent in the north of the kingdom, everyone seems blissfully unaware. Everyone except Sister Catherine, a beloved nun and firebrand thinker who has just been murdered, seemingly by a visiting stable hand. The nuns unanimously dub him the killer, but in an isolated monastery with an already ghostly reputation, any one of the Sisters could be the killer—and Mother Superior is as stumped as anyone else as to if the stablehand is truly guilty.

As an Anchoress, Sister Hedwig took an oath to never leave her cell; to devote herself entirely to God and provide spiritual support to all who came to her door. But as the only Sister who couldn't possibly have committed the crime, she has a new mission: solve the case, before the bishop shutters the convent and the real killer goes unpunished. The Superior hasn't told everyone why Hedwig has suddenly joined the regular congregation, but something tells her most of these women know exactly what's going on. Who can she trust? Who is being honest, and who has their guard up—and why? Is the convent really haunted? Who killed Sister Catherine? And worst of all... is Hedwig next?

Misericorde is a Historical Detective Fiction Visual Novel developed by Xeecee of The Shrieking Shack. Lead by the anxious Sister Hedwig, the novel dabbles between different horror subgenres, drama, and even comedy, all focused on the struggles between isolation and identity that all of the nuns must face.

Volume One was released on March 24, 2023. Volume Two was released on December 30, 2024.

Misericorde contains examples of:

• all lowercase letters: Darcy's lines are written entirely in lowercase, sometimes without punctuation. Since everyone else's lines are written normally, this serves to emphasize Darcy's odd nature.
• Amen Break: Appears in the track "Bile Black".
• And Now for Someone Completely Different:
  • The prologue is a discussion between two unnamed men who are conspiring to overthrow the King of England. The rest of the visual novel is narrated by Hedwig, who has nothing to do with this conspiracy.
  • Finishing the game and checking the gallery unlocks a scene starring Alex, a new character from 1982 who meets a strange woman while boarding a plane to visit the UK.
• Angry Collar Grab: Eustace pins Hedwig to the cellar wall by her collar when she realizes the latter reneged on their deal. Hedwig does it in the same place when she realizes Angela wrecked the investigation out of spite.
• April Fools' Day: On April 1, 2025, the game's official account announced that the third entry in the trilogy would be "NUN LEFT ALIVE," an intense First-Person Shooter featuring Hedwig going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge through the abbey to secure justice for Catherine. For some reason, more information on this game has not been forthcoming.
• Artistic License – History: Aside from the anachronistic use of modern English speech patterns, the game is pretty historically accurate, but a few things slipped through the cracks:
  • The Superior mentions that the reason she's kept James locked up is that the diocese will want their "pound of flesh". This term is a reference to The Merchant of Venice, which was written a little over 100 years after the game takes place.
  • Darcy mentions that the abbey's garden grows squash, which are native to the Americas and wouldn't arrive in Europe until about 200 years after the game takes place.
  • When the sisters discuss sneaking into the pantry to grab some extra food, Eustace says they should be cautious about Darcy, since she gets "anal" about the abbey's food supply in the winter. This term is a reference to Freud's theory of psychosexual development, which he published his first writings on more than 400 years after the game takes place.
• Assassination Attempt: The game opens on a conversation about killing the King of England between a nobleman and his conspirator. In Volume Two, we learn that Jim was also planning to assassinate the Prime Minister, although his plan fell through due to a mole.
• Bait-and-Switch Accusation: Angela is cold to Hedwig from the moment the latter leaves her cell, which eventually angers Hedwig enough to ask why. Angela responds that it's because she knows why Hedwig was let out of her cell. Hedwig is prepared for her cover to be blown, but Angela goes on to say that it's clearly because the Superior is grooming Hedwig to take over her position, which Angela would normally be next in line for as Prioress.
• Be as Unhelpful as Possible: Hedwig runs into this a lot. Even sisters as generally good-natured as Charity have things they really don't want anyone finding out about.
• Berserk Button: The Mother Superior tolerates a lot from the sisters, but her anger finally erupts when Margaret accidentally breaks the portative organ and no one confesses.
• Bizarre Dream Rationalization: After Hedwig establishes that not all the sightings of the Beast possibly could have been Eustace, she tries to persuade Hedwig that the rest were hallucinations.
• Bookcase Passage: One of the casks of wine in the abbey's basement is empty and leads to a small secret chamber. It's an open secret among the sisters, who mainly use it to grab a late-night snack without being noticed by Darcy or Marta. It becomes a lot more relevant in 1982, when Tatiana shows it to Alex. In addition to a lot of cigarette butts and condom wrappers, they find the Thummim sword and Flora's mysterious painting of Katherine I, which is especially odd considering that the same painting was on the cover of Nun Left Alive.
• Boom, Headshot!: Jim takes out the Sinister Man this way in the 1982 plot.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Tatiana speaks directly to the player several times, including in the opening of Volume Two and when they find either of the secret scenes.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer:
  • Moira is so nice she can come across as The Pollyanna, but she's also the resident medical professional of the abbey and is knowledgeable (at least for the time period) and good at her job, having working as a surgeon previously.
  • Darcy is a Cloud Cuckoo Lander prone to silly and weird comments. Hedwig later notes that Darcy is a competent gardener, shepherd, and herbalist, and she also takes mystical religious visions seriously.
• Character Narrator: The bulk of the story takes place in 1482. Hedwig is narrating these events to an unnamed listener a year after the fact.
• Chekhov's Party:
  • Hedwig's first night in the misericorde. Much of its length is dedicated to developing the sisters that haven't spoken to Hedwig as much beforehand, and it also sets up a few leads while seemingly tying up the mystery of the Beast with the reveal that it's a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax perpetrated by Eustace.
  • Catherine's wake contains a lot of information related to the sisters' motive and ability to commit the murder.
  • The party in the snow on Linbarrow Tor pays off various character arcs while sowing the seeds for the events that throw the investigation into turmoil at the end of Volume Two.
• Chess Motifs: Discussed. All the sisters frequently play chess with each other and make liberal use of chess metaphors, but Hedwig's never even seen a chessboard before and feels left out because she doesn't understand them.
• Cliffhanger:
  • Volume One ends with Hedwig and Flora narrowly escaping from a demonic figure. Flora is badly hurt from getting her leg crushed by a closing door, unresponsive, and possibly dead.
  • Volume Two similarly ends with Hedwig, after spending an indeterminate amount of time as an anchoress once again, being let out by the unknown figure she's been narrating the story to.
• Confess in Confidence: For years, Hedwig provided this service for the other sisters. It doesn't give her any clues, however, not least because she can't match any of their faces to the voices she heard.
• Content Warning:
  • In Volume One, the second thing that the player will see after they start a new game is a message warning them about the serious topics featured in the story.
  This story is set in a monastery in the 1400s. Characters will say, do, and believe unpleasant things.
  Violence, xenophobia, racism, sexism, and other serious topics are part of this story.
  • Volume Two contains a similar message, with an additional one for nudity which can be turned off in the options menu. It also advises anyone planning on streaming the game to be sure to take that option.
• Covert Pervert:
  • During her visit to the misericord, Hedwig finds out that Catherine was writing erotica with the sisters, including Charity, Margaret, Katherine, and Adela. Margaret and Charity explain that it's really not an uncommon practice among monks and nuns.
  • Hedwig herself discovers that she has an exhibitionist streak in Volume Two, and she takes several opportunities to go streaking when she thinks no one is watching.
  • Angela knows Hedwig finds her attractive underneath her frock, and uses exposure of her body as a reward for staying on task during the investigation.
• Dead Animal Warning: The Beast intimidates Hedwig by decapitating a goat with a Flaming Sword!
• Dead Guy on Display: The killer left Catherine's body lying in the middle of the cloister's courtyard, severed head in her hands, with the sword used to do the deed embedded in the earth next to her.
• Deadly Deferred Conversation: Of course, the conversation in which Catherine promises to discuss Medea with Hedwig is their last before the former is killed.
• Deliberately Monochrome: Apart from the title screen, which has a tiny bit of color, the entire game is rendered in black and white. The secret scenes avert this, being in full color.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: As befitting the time period and their location, the cast occasionally spouses common uncomfortable opinions of the time.
  • Katherine jokes that Catherine II despised most non-English countries, which no one blinks at.
  • Mother Superior's furious, homophobia-riddled rant against the other sisters is noticeably far more overt than the subtle bigotry. Before that, the Soup is arguably condescending to Margaret (one of the non-white nuns), not even knowing which country she's originally from.
  • At one point, the otherwise rather pleasant Bishop Richard casually says that "darker parts" of the world are more superstitious, which Mabel agrees with.
• Dictionary Opening: The game opens on the dictionary definition of "misericord." It lists all three definitions: the misericord that appears in the game, the footrest that can be found on seats in churches, and the type of dagger designed to kill people wearing armor.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Discussed when Hedwig pauses her story to recount the Biblical tale of Elisha, in which God sent two bears to slaughter forty-two children for the heinous crime of calling an old man "bald."
• Downer Ending: Volume Two does not leave off on a positive note. Flora and the new oblates are missing and presumed dead, the Superior is unambiguously dead, James is also dead, Katherine has been arrested, the village of Linbarrow has been overrun by the plague (with James' father falling victim to it), and Hedwig has exiled herself back to her cell to atone for failing to solve the mystery before anyone else got hurt.
• Double Standard: Violence, Child on Adult: Downplayed, since Adela is 20, but her stated intentions to beat up the much older Marta for ruining her sherry are Played for Laughs, whereas Marta's tendency to use physical discipline against Adela and Flora is treated as a legitimate reason for them to dislike her.
• Dramatic Unmask: When Hedwig splits the Beast's skull open with the Thummim sword, she finds James' face underneath, contorted in a final expression of terror.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: A few characters are mystics that experience visions. Catherine apparently did during her life, and Darcy continues to, even creating alchemical mixtures to bring them on. Hedwig also has a vision of God while visiting Linbarrow.
• Driving Question: Who killed Catherine, and why did they do it?
• Drone of Dread: Pops up in a couple of songs across the soundtrack, like "In Crisis" from Volume Two. They often play over Hedwig's solo explorations of the monastery, underscoring the constant danger she feels.
• Drowning My Sorrows: The Sisters all enjoy the wine that the Abbey makes, but Sister Katherine hits it pretty hard to deal with sadness over losing her old life and status.
• Dude, Not Funny!: In-Universe. When the nuns are making fun of Angela for her Absurd Phobia that a bear will attack her while she's on her way to the privy, she sarcastically apologizes for not wanting to be torn apart by a beast or a depraved murderer, noting that the latter has already happened. This completely kills the vibe, complete with Sudden Soundtrack Stop, and Angela awkwardly leaves a few moments later.
• Enemy Rising Behind: The Beast appears this way behind the Mother Superior at the end of Volume Two, fatally impaling her moments later.
• Eternal English: The nuns all speak with modern vocabulary and mannerisms. A notable exception is when Hedwig sings the song "Sumer is icumen in," whose lyrics are in period-accurate Middle English.
• Event-Based Character Portrait:
  • Sister Darcy is a mystic who occasionally witnesses religious visions. When she has one on screen, her portraits temporarily change to have white pupils, signaling that her sight is somewhere else.
  • There's a scene in Volume One where several sisters of Linbarrow Abbey spend the night drinking in the misericord. The teenaged Sister Flora is invited but she Can't Hold Her Liquor, and gains a new portrait with a woozy smile to represent her intoxicated delirium.
  • Later in the same event, Flora starts crying in front of the protagonist, Hedwig, and the mild-mannered Sister Margaret, saying that she never wanted to be a nun and hates living in the convent. When Hedwig interjects and says she can't mean it, Margaret briefly uses a unique portrait to glare at her with uncharacteristic venom.
  • At the end of the first volume, Sister Eustace, who has consistently opposed the murder investigation the game centers around, breaks out in Mirthless Laughter when confronting Hedwig, and her portrait gains an eerie grin to compliment it.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The nuns only refer to the Mother Superior by her title, and even the character biographies unlocked by beating the game don't mention her name. The bishop addresses her as Mabel near the end of Volume One.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • For all the nuns of Linbarrow get up to, they mostly try to keep Flora (the youngest oblate) out of it minus sharing wine on occasion. This is revealed to be because they practically raised Flora and didn't feel right involving her in the polyamory the older Sisters engage in. This was also one line Sister Catherine wasn't willing to cross, even though Flora had feelings for her. It alienated Flora from the congregation and she's wanted to leave ever since.
  • For most of Volumes 1 and 2, Angela is on bad terms with the rest of the congregation. Turns out she used to be closer with the Sisters, even having casual relationships with them. But then she found out Catherine had made Hedwig her new obsession and the Sisters started taking bets as to who would get to deflower the mysterious Anchoress. Angela was so put off by this she acted distant and hostile ever since.
• Everyone Is a Suspect: Everyone had opportunity to commit the crime, and the killer left no tracks. Catherine wasn't universally hated, but she got on everyone's bad side to some extent. This is why Eustace is so on edge about the investigation: accepting that James was the murderer, even though it's not true, is the only way not to aggravate the murderer that's guaranteed to be hiding among the congregation otherwise.
• Familiar Ruins: In 1982, most of Linbarrow Abbey is a burned-out wreck, but recognizable parts of the architecture still exist, most notably the cellar and its secret room.
• Faint in Shock: Hedwig faints upon learning that the reason Katherine can vouch for James not having murdered Catherine was because Katherine had been fucking him that night.
• Fiery Cover-Up: In late Volume Two, Eustace sets a fire in the sacristy to destroy evidence of a scapulimancy ritual that had taken place inside.
• Flaming Sword: The signature weapon of the demon that stalks the abbey.
• Foreboding Carcass: In Volume Two, everyone begins complaining of a terrible smell that lingers around the courtyard. After some investigation, Hedwig finds its source: the skinned corpse of the goat the Beast killed in Volume One. This is good news, since it means she wasn't hallucinating... but also bad news, since it means the demon really decapitated a goat in the upstairs hallway without leaving any blood or gore behind.
• Foregone Conclusion:
  • Hedwig is recounting the events of 1482 to someone else a year after they happened, so she, at least, is guaranteed to survive.
  • In Volume Two, when Alex and Tatiana visit Linbarrow, the building has sustained a fire. In the cellar, Tatiana shows Alex the Thummim sword and claims it's the one that was purportedly used to kill "the mother superior and the infirmerer."
• Framing Device: A year after the events of the game, Hedwig is telling the story to someone outside her cell. In the first two volumes, anyway.
• Futureshadowing: The fact that Hedwig is locked in her cell again and clearly deeply ashamed of her past self a year after the main plot allows the reader to draw some pretty significant conclusions about what happened in 1482 before Hedwig goes into specifics.
• Geometric Magic: Hedwig uncovers a magic circle carved within the walls behind her cell. Later on, James is found to have an identical one. Bishop Richard somehow recognizes it as material for a transportation spell.
• Ghost Story: In the misericorde, after all the sisters have gotten a little buzzed, they go around and each tell a ghost story. They're all pretty bad.
• Gratuitous Latin: In spades, but all the quotes are Bible verses and therefore simple enough to look up.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Averted. Adela is Spanish, but she only speaks the language when Marta (who's also Spanish) goads her into it.
• Guilty Until Someone Else Is Guilty: The Superior believes James is innocent, but refuses to let him out of the hospitalum cell anyway. In her words, the diocese will need their pound of flesh.
• He Knows Too Much: Eustace believes—or claims to believe—that Catherine was murdered for asking too many questions about whatever's going on at the abbey. She believes that Hedwig will meet the same fate if the latter keeps sticking her nose where it doesn't belong, hence why Eustace pulled that prank on Hedwig: it was an attempt to make Hedwig give up on the investigation.
• Hidden Depths: Several of the sisters are introduced with a single defining character trait but later revealed to be more complex:
  • Katherine is at first a kind of Cool Big Sis, as she is cocky, funny, and willing to stand up to authority. But after Hedwig talks to her in the misericord, we see that Katherine is actually quite sad. She was forced to enter the nunnery after being accused of murdering her husband, which she claims she didn't do, and her current lover is the prime suspect in Catherine's murder.
  • Margaret isn't merely The Stoic: she can play the lute well and has a deep connection to music, saying that hymns brought her into the faith. She's also familiar with the secret passages of Linbarrow Abbey, including the secret hidden symbol that may be an occult marking. And she subtly pressures Hedwig into tutoring Flora, perhaps out of a sense of protectiveness. Her father is the wealthy owner of a successful construction business, revealed when he's hired to build the abbey's clock tower.
  • Darcy comes off as a Cloud Cuckoolander before revealing herself as more of a Genius Ditz. In addition to her skills with gardening and animals, she takes her spiritual visions seriously and is understanding and empathetic when Hedwig explains her own vision to her later. During the barrel-breaking at Catherine's wake, Darcy wields the sword by the blade, which, as Eustace points out, is a real maneuver despite how it looks and proves very effective.
  • As the church's sacristan, Eustace has elements of the stereotypical Scary Librarian, but her relationship with Hedwig gets increasingly messy as the story progresses. She was very close to Catherine and was the one who discovered her body, which has left her traumatized. She deduces what Hedwig's real purpose in the Abbey is and also seems to know something about why Catherine was killed. And then there's the "hazing" Eustace performed with the armor and sword, which seriously scared and angered Hedwig, leading her to slap Eustace. Eustace eventually claims she wants Hedwig to stay safe but often clashes with her, even after they've supposedly made up.
  • Moira is more than just a Nice Girl. She's also good enough at chess to beat Adela and knows a lot about the Abbey's architecture, suggesting she's smarter than she seems, and in Volume 2, we learn she joined the Church after the death of the one boy she loved in part because it seemed to be more stable and enjoyable than the exhausting politicking her estranged father got up to. It's for this reason she dislikes the people of Linbarrow, since politics is why they ran Katherine out of town. She also has lots of hands-on surgical experience, and is a mild Stepford Smiler when it comes to all she has seen. This isn't even getting into how per Katherine I, she was part of a group of Linbarrow nuns led by Catherine II that was planning a murder.
  • Hedwig's first impression of Adela is as a Large Ham who's obsessed with chess. She also demonstrates to have a flair for the romantic in many senses, including fencing, erotica, and storytelling. And then there's her use of tarot cards, which she's skilled at reading.
  • Flora is a Deadpan Snarker and often complains about the Abbey, but after getting drunk, she confesses to being lonely. She cheers up when Hedwig tries to teach her about illustrating, and after her leg is broken, she spends time finishing a portrait of Katherine that was sent from the village.
  • Angela quickly establishes herself as The Friend Nobody Likes, as she's strict and mean. She wastes no time in assuming that the Mother Superior brought Hedwig out of her cell to take Angela's job. Even the Soup acknowledges how combative Angela is. However, by the end of Volume 1 Angela appears to be one of the few nuns to have a verifiable alibi, as she was with the Superior herself when Catherine's murder took place. She also takes on the role of co-investigator of the murder and tells Hedwig to report to her instead. In this same conversation, she brandishes a dagger and seems to threatens Hedwig, so it's safe to say that she's ambiguous at the very least. In Volume 2, she proves herself to be far more sympathetic towards Hedwig, if still rather stern, and at least claims to be frustrated with the way all the other nuns have chosen to sexualize her behind her back and start a crude game on who can bed her first. She and Hedwig form something of a romantic partnership together. Angela becomes aware of Hedwig's exhibitionist streak, and rewards her with peeks at her body if she stays on task during the investigation.
  • Charity comes off as light-hearted and silly at first, but it's revealed she's the oldest nun at the abbey, even older than the Mother Superior. As a result, she commands a lot of respect. When Flora goes missing, Charity immediately commands attention and organizes the others into a search party, with everyone immediately deferring to her. She and Marta are also old friends and have served together in various congregations.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: Near the end of Volume Two, when Hedwig realizes that Angela fingered Katherine to the Superior as revenge for her having sex with Adela, she slams Angela into a wall by her neck and tells her she never loved her.
• Hide the Evidence: On separate occasions, Hedwig thinks she might find a useful clue in the abbey's mail, Catherine's old chronicles, and the records of Darcy's prophecies. Each time, she has to ask Eustace for permission to see them, and each time, Eustace flatly denies her with no explanation. She also bans Hedwig from going into the stacks with the excuse that she might disrupt her system, evidently to conceal the library's bizarre disappearing shelves.
• Historical Longevity Joke: In the misericord, Katherine makes fun of Marta's age by saying that she probably witnessed the sinking of the White Ship, which happened in 1120.
• Holy Pipe Organ: Appears throughout the soundtrack. Some tracks even incorporate the signature drone of the portative organ, the kind Linbarrow has, which is produced by the constant movement of air through the bellows-powered instrument.
• History Repeats: In both the 1482 and 1982 plots, Linbarrow Abbey is at the periphery of an attempt to kill the ruler of England.
• Hope Spot: The penultimate chapter of Volume Two. Hedwig has finally managed to pin Eustace as the culprit to the Superior, and all the other nuns are convinced Hedwig's stopped poking around Catherine's death. They head out to the hills around the abbey and have a party where everyone seems to get along; even Angela and Flora seem to be enjoying themselves. Hedwig notes that it all feels Too Good to Be True, and the next chapter proves she's right.
• Hotter and Sexier: Volume Two. While the first volume certainly has references to sex in the dialogue, the second begins with a content warning that includes scenes of nudity and sexuality and the option to play with them censored. Sure enough, the uncensored version of Volume Two sees Hedwig get into multiple sexual encounters, including with Katherine, Angela, and Adela. All of these characters except for Adela also appear onscreen nude, although in Hedwig's case we see a creepy nude phantom figure of her, possibly falling more into Fan Disservice.
• Hypothetical Fight Debate: Hedwig's first luncheon with the other nuns devolves into a hypothetical debate about how many ducks it would take to overwhelm Eustace in a fight, with Eustace claiming that she could hold her own against infinite ducks indefinitely.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Among Linbarrow's official purposes is making wine, which the Sisters are all too happy to partake in during their off time. Hedwig notes that Katherine (who deep down is rather melancholy about her situation) seems drunk on wine a lot, and she also notices the smell lingering on the Superior's breath as the situation at Linbarrow gets worse.
• I Never Got Any Letters: This shows up a few times. On Hedwig's first day in the abbey, she learns that she was supposed to be getting letters from the villagers so that she could pray for their intentions, which Catherine was charged with delivering. Later on, when Margaret's father Crispin visits the abbey, he tells her that her mother hasn't been getting any of the letters she's sent.
• In-Series Nickname: Margaret (and a few of the others) calls the Mother Superior "Soup" for short, to the Superior's annoyance.
• Inside a Wall: There are passages between Linbarrow's walls as a consequence of its sloppy construction. Margaret knows the ins and outs of all of them, but the only one shown to the player is one behind Hedwig's cell with a magic circle etched into one of the walls.
• Interface Screw: There are a few, all involving the location display on the upper right.
  • When Hedwig confronts the Beast in the dormitory hallway, it displays "DANGER."
  • Whenever Hedwig comes back to her cell after leaving, it starts looping the message "STAY HOME SAFE PLACE" one word at a time.
  • In early Volume Two, Hedwig lies to Eustace that she's stopped her investigation, and it displays "LIAR" for the duration of that text box.
  • When Hedwig goes streaking through the abbey, the spelling of "Linbarrow Abbey" deteriorates to "Linbrow Abbey," then "Linby Abbey" and finally "Linb...o Abbey," while the smaller indicator displays nonsensical messages like "THE UM THE UH" and "HEE HEHEHE". Justified by Hedwig telling this part of the story drunk.
• In the Back: At the end of Volume Two, the Beast runs the Superior through from behind, killing her instantly.
• In Vino Veritas: Hedwig gets a better feeling for the personalities of multiple characters the first time she sees them drunk. Katherine explains her resentment of the villagers, Margaret her disappointment in her lack of talent, and Flora her profound sadness at a life she didn't choose.
• I Regret Nothing: Adela makes Hedwig feel awkward when she makes a pass at her during a picnic. Adela apologizes the next day, but when Hedwig criticizes her for her "sinful" acts, Adela firmly puts her in her place. Adela points out that she and all of the sisters do more work in God's name than anyone else, that the Bible says nothing about lesbianism, and that only God may judge her. Hedwig describes feeling "thoroughly rinsed" by her argument.
• It Was Here, I Swear!: In Volume Two, Hedwig is investigating the library and finds a mysterious area of empty bookshelves. When she brings Angela there to show her, however, the bookshelves have disappeared. Subverted when Hedwig tries to find them again and the pair realize that the empty bookshelves are in some kind of Pocket Dimension that can't be seen from the outside.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: Hedwig is consumed by guilt over all the lies and half-truths she has to tell her sisters to keep the investigation from falling apart.
• Last Chance to Quit: At the beginning of Volume Two, after Eustace has made her objections to the investigation known, she offers Hedwig a deal: Stop investigating for a week, see how things turn out, and they can have a truce. Hedwig agrees, but quickly comes up with a lame excuse to keep investigating anyway and gets found out.
• Like an Old Married Couple: Darcy and Eustace seem to have a disagreement the day that the Superior declares Jubilee, leading Moira to compare them to this. That turns out to be Not Hyperbole, as Hedwig discovers that evening that Darcy and Eustace are in a relationship, as they've made up by then and kiss passionately in front of her. Adela even explicitly says Eustace has been "courting" Darcy for a long time now.
• Literary Allusion Title: The subtitle of Volume Three, "What No Eye Has Seen," is taken from 1 Corinthians 2:9.
• Made of Incendium: Subverted on two counts. The Beast's sword spontaneously catching fire seems obviously magical, but when their true identity is revealed, they let slip that they pulled the trick off by dousing the sword in oil. Later, when Alex and Tatiana visit the burnt wreck of Linbarrow, Alex comments that it doesn't make any sense for a stone building to have burned down. Tatiana replies that it wasn't the stone that caught fire, but the wooden supports and plaster inside the walls. Once those went up in flames, being made of stone was rather a liability.
• Madness Mantra: In early Volume Two, Hedwig misleads Katherine II and Margaret about her reasons for asking about their whereabouts on the morning of Catherine I's death. Narrating, she comments that that was a lie and she is a liar, and then repeats "I am a liar" for about two full pages of text.
• Magic Is Evil: Hedwig adopts the Catholic Church's official position on witchcraft and assumes any magic is a trick of the devil, even something as small as a tarot reading.
• Magic Versus Religion: As Hedwig investigates the murder mystery at the core of the plot, it becomes increasingly clear that some kind of magic was involved. This only strengthens Hedwig's resolve, as Catholicism considers magic to be trickery of the devil, and she believes that her duty as a Catholic is to prevent its use.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
  • A major part of the story. Opinions about the supernatural vary among the sisters: Darcy is a believer, Margaret isn't sure, and Eustace, Angela, and the Mother Superior are all deeply skeptical. However, due to the time and setting of the story, the nuns all at least acknowledge the significance of spiritual visions. And then there's Hedwig's own visions. The image of the demonic knight is confirmed to be Eustace, but as of the end of Volume 1, the black goat has yet to be explained. Hedwig sees other strange and sinister things throughout the abbey, including figures that could be watching her, climaxing with an apparent encounter with a nightmarish face in the darkness that chases her and Flora. Hedwig also experiences what may be a spiritual vision from God while wandering the village.
  • By the end of Volume 2, this still isn't entirely clear. There appears to be some sort of supernatural presence at work, as too many things (such as James escaping from his cell, the disappearing library shelves, or the nature of Tatiana) have no other explanation. Hedwig also finds evidence to suggest that Eustace may have summoned a spirit using scapulimancy. However, Hedwig's status as an Unreliable Narrator complicates matters, and it's still technically possible that James acted as the Beast and merely thought he was possessed.
• Meaningful Name: The sword that supposedly killed Catherine had the Hebrew letters for "Urim" carved into the blade, which Catherine did after discovering she had some Hebrew lineage. "Urim" and "Thummim" refer to objects used by High Priests to discern God's will. This fits since the other Sisters say that towards the end of her life, Catherine went mad and claimed she was having visions. The sword that the Beast wields is named "Thummim", meaning it's the companion of the other blade.
• Metafiction: As a work that wears the influence of Umineko: When They Cry on its sleeve, it's to be expected. Umineko, however, is commentary on detective fiction. Misericorde is Historical Detective Fiction, and what it chooses to discuss is the historical aspect.
• Mirthless Laughter:
  • Eustace breaks out in a laughing fit when confronting Hedwig at the end of Volume One, claiming it's funny she thinks there's anything she, a total outsider, could do to resolve the situation in the abbey. It turns to Cry Laughing as Eustace describes the process of cleaning up after her best friend's headless corpse, and then a grim quietness as she tells Hedwig to leave it alone.
  • Angela has a similar reaction to learning that James might be spared the gallows because he had been having sex with Katherine at the time of the murder.
• Musical Gag: The song "Each Day Here" frequently scores scenes of everyday life at the abbey and casual conversations in its halls. In Volume 2, when Hedwig and the others return from their fishing trip, it plays at double time as the Superior wrangles everyone to clean the place up before the new oblates arrive.
• Mysterious Past: Everyone in the convent has had some experiences they'd rather not discuss. Eustace even claims that the reason Hedwig became an anchoress is some kind of salacious secret, although Hedwig doesn't remember anything about it.
• Never Had a Birthday Party: The nuns eventually realize this about Hedwig and use the feast day of St. Cecilia as an excuse to throw her one.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Played with. Most of the cast has nothing but nice things to say about Catherine II, but it becomes clear that she wasn't often an easy person to get along with and some resentment still remains. Nonetheless, they miss her terribly.
• Never the Obvious Suspect: Eustace acts incredibly suspiciously even before she comes out and tells Hedwig that she's working against the investigation. She's the only one with access to the murder weapon, and seemingly dabbles in some kind of dark magic. In spite of all of this, it becomes clear that she's only being so adversarial to keep the abbey from splintering apart.
• Not So Above It All:
  • Hedwig has lived her entire life in her cell and read/copied nothing but Biblical scripture. Once outside, she discovers her fellow Sisters either aren't as devoted to God as she is, or are devoted in entirely different ways. In any case, the Sisters at Linbarrow Abbey sure love to curse, bicker, and party with big casks of wine in the cellar.
  • Hedwig herself, despite her much more pious and conservative outlook, isn't quite as holy as she tries to be: even ignoring how she starts to swear or verbally lash out over time, Angela notes that Hedwig has a rather lustful exhibitionist streak, perhaps *because* of the forbidden fruit angle.
  • For all her disdain for her oblates' morally loose (for the time) behavior, the Superior not only has a rather narrow and skeptical view of the supernatural, but also is prone to anger, swearing and at times excessive drinking. There's also the nature of her implied sexual relationship with the Bishop, which the other nuns drily joke about in Volume Two.
• Not What It Looks Like: After Hedwig ends up outside the monastery naked, Eustace finds her and accompanies her back inside, where they run into Angela. Both of them quickly realize the implication and try to explain the situation to Angela, who is not having it.
  Eustace: I know it sounds absurd —
  Angela: IT SOUNDS DERANGED!
• Nun Too Holy: Discussed and deconstructed. Almost the entire Linbarrow Monastery is filled with less than devout sisters, much to Hedwig's displeasure. Many of the nuns are implied to have been forced to the convent or chose the position out of a lack of better options. Adela is only there to supervise a batch of sherry being aged. There's no way someone of her worldliness and expertise would end up at Linbarrow otherwise. Eustace and Darcy are among the few to choose Linbarrow on purpose because they wanted to retire to the country.
• Off-Limits Room: Nobody but Hedwig is allowed to go into her cell, and the Superior holds the only key. All the stranger that things keep turning up in there without Hedwig bringing them in...
• Off with His Head!: Catherine was found decapitated, holding her own head. Katherine's late husband was killed the same way.
• Ominous Visual Glitch: Glitchy visual artifacts surround the eyes and mouth of the "barghest" sprite that appears in Margaret's ghost story.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. Katherine and Catherine were two different members of the convent and were forced to fight a chess match over who got labelled "Catherine II."
• One-Word Title: "Misericorde," after the room in monasteries where the Rule of St. Benedict is traditionally relaxed.
• Percussive Therapy: Around the middle of Volume Two, Margaret notices Hedwig seems stressed and invites her to blow off some steam by smashing old furniture with rocks.
• Pre-Climax Climax: Toward the end of Volume Two, after Angela is spooked by the disappearing shelves in the library, she asks Hedwig if she wants to run away from the convent together. When Hedwig decides to stay, they agree to be each other's refuge against the darkness they've discovered and have sex.
• Prosthetic Limb Reveal: Happens shortly after Alex's introduction, as the narration nonchalantly mentions her taking her leg off and tossing it into the TSA bin. The agent is even impressed that Alex can hop on one leg through the metal detector without losing her balance.
• Public Bathhouse Scene: The abbey has one bath that's usually used by multiple sisters at a time. It's a source of consternation for Hedwig, who isn't used to spending time with others even when they're clothed, and the first time she's not able to clear out the bath before needing to use it leads to an excruciatingly awkward conversation with Moira and Eustace. Later on in Volume Two, she takes another bath alongside Angela, this time quite voluntarily.
• Pun-Based Title: Volume II presents an In-Universe example. The working title for Tatiana's manuscript about the Linbarrow murders is Nun Left Alive.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: At the end of the first day, Mother Superior loses patience with Hedwig and snaps at her to "Stop! Giving me! This insolence!" Each sentence is given its own page in the textbox to further emphasize her anger.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Subverted. Mother Superior is fairly easygoing and allows the nuns to enjoy far more pleasures than they would experience in a stricter convent. Hedwig's introduction to the plot kicks off largely because she recognizes something's fishy about Catherine's death and wants to investigate properly. However, it becomes clear that she hides immense resentment that her hands-off attitude isn't appreciated and she has little-to-no personal friendship with any of the women. Furthermore, Angela theorizes that Superior's recruitment of Hedwig has less to do with genuine concern and more with the hopes of impressing the bishop with a salacious investigation, granting herself a fancy promotion.
• Recurring Dreams: Hedwig has a recurring dream where she awakens in a desert, caught between two opposing armies. A few details change each time, and the reader is privy to many of these changes thanks to Hedwig's constant napping.
• Replay Mode: Once you finish the story for the first time, you unlock a chapter select, Sound Test, and a CG gallery. The secret scenes are hidden in the gallery, behind images that never actually appeared during the story.
• Running Away to Cry: On Hedwig's first day of work, Eustace snaps at her for asking too many questions about how Catherine I did things. With all the stress weighing on Hedwig at the moment, it's the straw that breaks the camel's back, and she runs into the library stacks sobbing.
• "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: Eustace's stint as the demonic knight. Part cruel prank, part scare tactic, all to make Hedwig stop asking questions and keep herself safe.
• Second Chapter Cliffhanger: The end of Volume Two.
• Seinfeldian Conversation: During Hedwig's first luncheon with the other sisters, Eustace mentions how she helped Darcy prepare the meal by killing the duck, which she does regularly. After explaining that she does this so Darcy—who raises, names, and loves the ducks—won't be saddened by its death, the conversation shifts to a hypothetical discussion about how many ducks it would take to beat Eustace in a fight, with Eustace eventually claiming that she could defeat an infinite number of ducks.
• Self-Imposed Exile: After inadvertently killing James at the end of Volume Two, Hedwig immediately halts the investigation and retreats to her cell, having completely lost confidence in herself. At least in there, she says, her sin can only hurt herself. She remains secluded there until someone breaks her out the subsequent year.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: A textual version in Volume Two. Although the narration describes Hedwig's lust and some of the quasi-sexual encounters she has, it jumps ahead for the most explicit scenes, such as when she has sex with Angela or her implied masturbation scene by the pond. Justified in that Hedwig is telling this story to someone.
• Serious Business:
  • Adela is very passionate about chess and has strong opinions about how it ought to be played. When Moira beats her using a strategy that Adela views as an affront to the game, Adela angrily flips the table over and goes on a heated rant about why that strategy is bad before challenging Moira to a rematch using "the rules of real chess".
  • In Volume 2, Darcy returns from the village of Linbarrow with none of her usual whimsy. She tells Hedwig that Linbarrow has fallen victim to the plague, half the people are dead, and the rest are dancing due to madness.
• Shout-Out: During one of the segments in 1982, Alex heads to a pub in Linbarrow and mentions seeing a guy with a vegetable pinned to his coat running around on the TV, referring to the Fifth Doctor.
• Socially Awkward Hero: Hedwig has spent most of her life in a tiny cell where her social interactions were limited to one-on-one conversations with the occasional anonymous visitor. As such, she doesn't take it well when Mother Superior forces her to come out of that cell and reintegrate with the congregation. She's timid, anxious, prone to stuttering, and suffers the occasional mood swing as the stress of her unfamiliar situation gets to her. Despite all this, she's doing her utmost to solve the mystery of Catherine's murder and prevent a potentially innocent man from facing execution.
• Spooky Painting: Hedwig has recurring nightmares about a painting of a woman with no mouth she notices in the cellar. She later learns that it's a painting of Katherine II by Flora, and finds it to look much better complete, but Katherine herself seems strangely disturbed by it and calls it a bad likeness. Some extremely strange circumstances surround the painting from then on, including Katherine's visit to the sacristy to correct it after the Superior blames her for killing Catherine I and its appearance on the cover of Tatiana's mysterious book.
• Stalker Shot: At first, the only way the Beast shows up is when Hedwig notices it ominously looming in the background.
• Stern Nun: Less prominent than one might expect given the setting, but the Superior, Marta, and especially Angela each fit this trope to some extent.
• Stress Vomit: Hedwig frequently pukes due to the stress and anxiety of being forced out of her comfortable solitude to investigate a murder.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Unrelated to the central mystery, but when the other nuns are grilling Eustace for information about the new oblates, she mistakenly says she knows nothing about "either" of them.
• Tarot Troubles: Adela pressures Hedwig into letting her read her fortune at Catherine's wake. She draws:
  • the inverted seven of cups for her past (a sign to stop living in fantasies of the past)
  • the inverted World for her present (representing her angst over the investigation and resulting self-seclusion)
  • the inverted queen of swords for her future (meaning that she must find inner strength to move forward)
  • When Hedwig asks the deck if its predictions are real or not, Adela draws the High Priestess, which she interprets more or less as "reply hazy, try again later".
• Those Two Guys: Several, in fact. Katherine and Margaret frequently get up to mischief together. Charity and Marta are the oldest nuns and also old friends, so they love to commiserate. And finally, Eustace is frequently helping Darcy with her tasks or experiments. That last one is extra justified when it's revealed in Volume 2 that they're in a relationship together.
• Til Murder Do Us Part: Possibly. Katherine is rumored to have murdered her husband before she became a nun. Katherine denies killing him when she relates the story to Hedwig, but Hedwig can't tell if the other woman is telling the truth. Katherine admits to Hedwig that she did, in fact, murder her husband in Volume Two.
• The Peeping Tom: Literally. One of Crispin's construction workers is named Thomas, and he's caught spying on the nuns in the bath.
• "The Reason I Suck" Speech: Hedwig has one of these after the credits of Volume Two, blaming her ineptitude and vulnerability to temptation for the investigation's failure.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: At the end of Volume One, Eustace confronts Hedwig in the garden, and attempts to get her to stop investigating Catherine's death by explaining the danger she's putting everyone else in. When that doesn't work, she lays into her with a withering tirade about her inexperience and naïveté.
• The Summation: Hedwig delivers one of these to the Superior and the Bishop after learning about the disappearing shelves, intending to pin the crime on Eustace. It doesn't work, and she ends up being very wrong.
• The Unintelligible: The Beast attempts to communicate with Hedwig at the end of Volume Two, but its speech is written in symbols that neither Hedwig nor the reader can understand. It's actually Wingdinglish, and what it says can be read here.
• The Voice: The only time that Catherine appears while still alive is when she's talking to Hedwig through the squint. Because of this, neither Hedwig nor the player ever get to see what she looks like. Even the character biographies unlocked by beating the game just represent Catherine with the image of a question mark. A CG of her corpse was present in a demo build but ultimately got Dummied Out.
• The Walls Have Eyes: A number of the background images have an eye hidden somewhere in them, including the barrels in the cellar, the stairs to the dorm hallway, and even one of Hedwig's dreams. Taken to its logical extreme after Hedwig kills James: the sky above the courtyard is replaced with a gigantic, plainly visible eye.
• To Absent Friends: Catherine has already been dead and buried for weeks by the time Hedwig joins the congregation, but Katherine eventually realizes that she never got a proper wake and organizes one in the cellar. There, the sisters all get plastered, tell their most unflattering stories of Catherine's life, and smash casks of sherry she helped prepare in an impromptu memorial.
• Tragic Keepsake: The copy of Medea Catherine wanted to give Hedwig eventually becomes one of these for her.
• Two-Person Pool Party: Angela initiates sex with Hedwig in the monastery's baths, but they're interrupted by a peeping Tom.
• Weapon Tombstone: The sword used to kill Catherine was found stuck into the ground next to her body, and the sisters decided to leave it out there and mark the site even though Catherine got a traditional grave as well. Hedwig finds the idea ghoulish when she's told about it, and the Superior agrees, asking Eustace to put it away halfway through Hedwig's first day out.
• We Gotta Stop Meeting Like This: Margaret uses this line multiple times when Hedwig runs into her causing mischief around the convent.
• Welcome Episode: Hedwig's first day in the abbey is spent introducing herself to all the other sisters.
• Wham Shot:
  • The Beast's appearance in the dorm hallway.
  • Flora's screaming face emerging from the darkness at the end of Volume One.
  • Tatiana showing up in the gallery.
  • Angela removing her heavy cloak to reveal she's naked underneath.
  • The Beast appearing behind the Superior in her office.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • The game opens on a vignette of a house call at a wealthy English noble's manor, where the noble and his guest talk about their plans to kill the King. These men and their plot have yet to directly figure in the story again.
  • Within Hedwig's first day out of her cell, she learns that she was supposed to be receiving the prayers of the villagers sealed in envelopes through her hagiograph for the entire time she was inside, and that Catherine was responsible for delivering them. She never follows this lead anywhere.
  • Shortly after joining the convent, Hedwig finds the copy of Medea Catherine mentioned wanting to give her on her pillow. Later, someone enters her cell and leaves the vomit-stained transcription of Matthew on her desk, which Hedwig threw out of her window the night she first saw the demon. These go largely unremarked on, save to accentuate Hedwig's frustration with her growing pile of unusable clues.
• "What X Would Want" Backfire: When Hedwig tries to stop Eustace from interfering with the investigation by saying Catherine would have wanted justice, she flips out, tearing into Hedwig for trying to take advantage of Catherine's memory and using it as an example of her tendency to meddle with things that are none of her business.
• Zany Scheme: When Hedwig brings Flora downstairs with a broken leg, she and several other nuns decide that the best course of action is to dust off the monastery's old smithy and reforge a piece of armor into a cast for the leg. It's hard-won, but by coming together, the nuns do manage it. When everyone filters out, however, Angela catches Hedwig and informs her that any sufficiently long piece of wood or metal they had lying around could have served the same purpose.