Dead Soldiers Registry
- Template
- System
- Status
- Canon
1. Summary
The Dead Soldiers registry is accessible through Edmund's tablet using the Tab key. This registry includes Brazilian and American military personnel whose deaths are attributed to Edmund by a dedicated responsibility-assessment system. Indigenous individuals whose deaths are attributed to Edmund are recorded too, but identified differently (2.7 Indigenous Individuals).
2. Rules
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2.1 Responsibility Assessment
Both direct and indirect actions may contribute to responsibility.
Deaths for which Edmund is not considered responsible do not appear.
2.2 Automatic Recording
Eligible deaths are registered automatically.
Neither Brazilian nor American personnel need to carry collectible identity documents: a Brazilian soldier's dog tag, or the strange number on an American operator's uniform, is read where the body lies (see Active Identification), never collected.
An unidentified casualty initially appears as:
Unknown Soldier
2.3 Record Contents
The registry provides more than casualty identification.
When sufficient intelligence is available, individual records can reveal:
- Full name and age.
- Military affiliation.
- Operational assignment.
- Assigned patrol route, security position, or specific duty.
- Emergency deployment status, when applicable.
For example:
Ricardo Almeida — 28 years old
Assignment: Northern Access Road Patrol
Status: Deceased
A soldier deployed only as emergency reinforcement may instead have an assignment such as:
Emergency Response — Schwarzwald Incident
This information allows players to infer which operational responsibilities may have been left unattended.
However, intelligence may become outdated as military command redistributes personnel and fills vacancies.
2.4 Passive Identification — Hamish's Intelligence Network
Hamish has an external contact who provides information about military casualties and operational events.
After Edmund causes his first military casualty, Hamish introduces this intelligence channel.
When new information becomes available, Edmund's tablet receives a notification indicating that the Dead Soldiers registry has been updated.
The player does not need to initiate a conversation with Hamish.
Opening the tablet through Tab reveals the newly available information, including the deceased soldier's name, age, and other relevant information.
Unidentified casualties remain listed as Unknown Soldier until sufficient intelligence is obtained.
If Edmund conceals a body and nobody discovers the death, the associated entry may remain unidentified.
After Hamish's death, the same network keeps working: Edmund contacts Hamish's intelligence source directly.
2.5 Active Identification — Dog Tag Examination
Players who require information more urgently can examine a dead soldier's identification tags.
By approaching the body, Edmund can read the identification number engraved on the soldier's dog tag.
For example:
Military ID: 231567
Edmund transmits the number to Hamish, who uses his intelligence contact to request the corresponding personnel record; after Hamish's death, Edmund sends it to that contact himself.
After a short delay, the information is returned and automatically added to the Dead Soldiers registry.
This accelerated identification method can reveal a soldier's operational assignment before the normal intelligence update becomes available.
The dog tag does not need to become a collectible inventory item. Reading its identification number is sufficient.
American operators carry no dog tags. Each wears a strange number on his uniform instead; Edmund reads it and transmits it to Hamish in the same way.
2.6 Final Identification
At the end of the game, once Edmund has returned to the mansion, he obtains on his own, without Hamish, the complete information necessary to identify the remaining unknown casualties.
The final registry therefore reveals the identities of all military personnel whose deaths were attributed to Edmund.
2.7 Indigenous Individuals
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2.7.1 Equal Humanization
Schwarzwald's character identification system must treat Indigenous individuals with the same narrative significance as Brazilian and American military personnel.
Every individual has an identity rather than existing as an anonymous, disposable enemy.
However, the means of discovering that identity differs.
2.7.2 No Dog Tags
Indigenous individuals do not carry military dog tags.
Edmund cannot immediately obtain their identities through the same procedure used for soldiers.
Instead, identification depends on information reaching Hamish through his contacts.
2.7.3 FUNAI Records
Within the fictional narrative, the tribe has been extensively cataloged in restricted documentation maintained by Brazil's Indigenous affairs institution, FUNAI.
The government knows about the community even though its activities and history are classified.
The fictional records contain information capable of identifying individual tribal members.
These documents are not part of Schwarzwald's military experimentation program.
Hamish has a contact who can obtain relevant identification information.
2.7.4 Delayed Identification
When an Indigenous individual dies, identification is not necessarily immediate.
Other members of the tribe may eventually find the body and bring it back to the community.
Information concerning the death subsequently reaches Hamish's contact, who can consult the relevant records.
After a delay, Hamish provides the identification to Edmund.
The TAB interface can then present the individual's personal information.
The delay differentiates this process from direct identification through military dog tags.
Edmund cannot accelerate the Indigenous identification process manually.
2.7.5 World-State Connection
The identification system should respect the persistence and autonomous simulation of the environment.
The death occurs first.
The discovery of the body and the subsequent information exchange are later developments.
This preserves the impression that the tribe exists independently of Edmund and responds to events within its own community.
3. Player Feedback
When a soldier is killed, his identity reaches the player through the Dead Soldiers registry: Hamish's intelligence contact identifies him over time, or at once when the protagonist reads the number on his dog tag.
The registry reveals that the soldier was an individual with a name, age, and military assignment.
This can produce contextual reactions from the protagonist.
For example, after discovering that a soldier he killed was only nineteen years old, the protagonist might quietly say:
"Oh God... He was just a kid. Nineteen years old. He could've been my friend. What have I done?"
The reaction should be restrained and natural.
It does not require a cinematic sequence or a conventional morality-point system.
The scene's impact comes from the recognition that the soldier was an individual rather than an anonymous obstacle.
4. Interactions
The registry exposes the operational assignments that military command fills again over time. See: Systems › Military Threat Levels
Soldier and operator identities. See: Enemies › Brazilian Soldier. See: Enemies › American Operator
4.1 Tactical Consequences
The two identification methods create a deliberate gameplay tradeoff.
Passive identification is safer but depends on when information becomes available.
Active identification can provide information significantly sooner, but requires Edmund to approach and examine the body, potentially exposing himself to detection.
For example, Edmund may eliminate a soldier guarding an access road and identify him immediately through his dog tag. The resulting intelligence confirms that the deceased soldier was responsible for that road's patrol.
Edmund can then attempt to exploit the temporary absence before military command assigns a replacement.
The intelligence system does not guarantee that an area is safe. Other soldiers may move through it, and the operational situation can change at any time.
5. Persistence
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6. Design Principles
The registry is intended to humanize military casualties without imposing an explicit moral judgment on the player.
Brazilian soldiers are procedurally generated individuals; the 93 American operators are predefined individuals.
Every recorded death corresponds to a person with a distinct identity.
The game records the consequences and allows the player to interpret them.
7. Open Questions
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