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The Aretak are the secondary antagonists of the 2002 Nintendo survival horror game Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. They are an army of monsters who serve the three Ancients named Chattur'gha, Ulyaoth and Xel'lotath. Depending on their alignment, they possess their own unique characteristics based on their strengths.
They were voiced by Richard Doyle, who also voiced Pious Augustus and Ulyaoth in the same game.
Biography[]
Zombies[]
| “ | Corpses! Lumbering, rotting cadavers! What contrivance could have wrought this... this... this abomination?! Diseased science? Blasphemous occult rituals? How can something so... so dead, yet be so alive?! And hungry! They lust for flesh! Human flesh! And feast upon all the sweetbreads a man has to offer! | „ |
| ~ Maximillian Roivas' autopsy on Mantorok's zombies. |
| “ | These wretched creatures, these flayed corpses! Wandering, decrepit soulless vessels, content to gnaw on human meat, to spill human blood. Even... even headless! Their hate for the living grew in propensity, flailing maniacally in their blood lust, killing anything close! | „ |
| ~ Maximillian Roivas' autopsy on Chattur'gha's zombies. |
| “ | Neither the embalming salve of their wrappings, nor the numbness of death could override the dominating madness that is Xel'lotath. Controlled, prodded into an existence by an incessant cacophony of voices, penetrating every level of their psyches, these corpses are coerced into life, ambling, moaning, SHRIEKING! | „ |
| ~ Maximillian Roivas' autopsy on Xel'lotath's zombies. |
| “ | Rotted from within, worried apart by the ravening fish and parasitic foetor of their sunken graves, these sunken zombies emerged, spilling their festering entrails and slopping fluids with each pain ridden step. Each step hoping to bring an end to their pain by spreading it to others! | „ |
| ~ Maximillian Roivas' autopsy on Ulyaoth's zombies. |
Zombies are human corpses reanimated by the Ancients through various methods. Unlike the other minions, zombies will recover and continue attacking the protagonist after being initially being beaten down. In addition, one of the zombie types is aligned with the corpse god named Mantorok, despite its opposition to the three Ancients, likely due to its weakening control over its minions as a result of the binding spell imposed onto it by Pious.
Zombies associated with Chattur'gha harbor a significant amount of muscular structures and are capable of regenerating limbs that were previously severed within seconds. Zombies aligned with Ulyaoth are reanimated from drowned victims and will build up a burst of energy with their contemporaries and explode once they have taken enough damage by the protagonist. Zombies affiliated with Xel'lotath are partially covered in wrappings in a similar manner to a mummy and possess phantom limbs in place of their severed ones that are capable of depleting the protagonist's sanity if hit.
Trappers[]
| “ | There are worlds beyond this one, worlds as we've never seen, nor can we. Our eyes do not open far enough. Try it. Try holding your eyes open. You can try holding them open as much as you want, but you'll never see. Never, ever see! The world beyond the veil, the Veil of Reality. It's there to protect us, from them: the Ancients, the Darkness that which we cannot understand, nor should we. Welcome to the oblivion of ignorance! For to have knowledge is to be damned! | „ |
| ~ Maximillian Roivas' autopsy on trappers. |
Trappers are small creatures capable of teleporting objects and individuals to another dimension. Despite being blind, they have enhanced hearing and will unleash a wave of energy that will transport the protagonist to their dimension if they get close enough. Inside the trapper's dimension, the protagonist can teleport to a series of platforms to recover their health, magic or sanity before heading to a portal leading back to the real world. Other than their appearances in accordance with the alignment of their Ancients, they have no special characteristics apart from each other.
Horrors[]
| “ | Oh, the horror! The horror! A behemoth of hatred incarnate. What manner of creature is that? A ton of flesh and sinew wielding muscles thick as ropes strung onto claws that could crush stone and sever metal as though it were threshed wheat. Crushing, cutting, the walls shook with each step it took! Oh, the HORROR! An abomination! Its physiology remarkably abstract, no real organs or anything. It shouldn't work, but it did! And the mouths, those gnashing scythes of teeth. I tell you, it existed only to EAT! To consume! To gnaw! To bite! To devour! | „ |
| ~ Maximillian Roivas' autopsy on Chattur'gha's horrors. |
| “ | Eyes?! Rot their eyes! Their staring sees through your soul like looking through a window. And the lids, festooned with tiny, hook-like teeth that gape and gnash, it doesn't make sense! No anatomy would form like that! But it has! Was it natural? How could it be? Oh unholy beast, thou must be killed, lest you corrupt my world! Have at thee! Have at THEE! | „ |
| ~ Maximillian Roivas' autopsy on Xel'lotath's horrors. |
| “ | They have no eyes, but they can see, I tell you. No eyes! No! No eyes at all! But you can feel it looking at you! It stares through you, like looking through empty air, and you can feel it, raking your innards with their "touch!" The shiver of their senses combing your bowels through empty space! Oh horribleness! | „ |
| ~ Maximillian Roivas' autopsy on Ulyaoth's horrors. |
Horrors are giant ape-like creatures that have three large eyes/heads and possess a significant amount of physical and magical strength. Horrors generally attack with their claws and will deploy an electric bolt of magic against the player by stomping. They also have the ability to produce magical barriers, often as a means to prevent the protagonist from progressing.
Unlike the horrors aligned with Chattur'gha, the horrors aligned with Ulyaoth lack eyes and those aligned with Xel'lotath lack heads.
Bonethieves[]
| “ | They are amongst us! I know they would come after me, knew their devices, their depraved methods! Creatures wearing human skins as we wear clothes, to cover their hideousness from our eyes! So they might consort insidiously with our species, infiltrating, manipulating, playing us against each other, DAMN OUR EYES! WE ARE BLIND TO THEM! But I knew. Oh, yes! I knew! I knew they were there, plotting behind that door! One has to be careful. One must separate their heads from their bodies. And yes! Fire is the key to purge their souls from this earth, sending them whimpering to their masters in the beyond!!! | „ |
| ~ Maximillian Roivas' autopsy on Chattur'gha's bonethieves. |
| “ | The devils inside the servant's skulls were trying to kill me. They plotted behind doors locked and barred and planned the downfall of the human race! I took care of the ones around me, stopped their plans. There are others. I'm sure... Out there, manipulating us, secreting madness inside our very heads, while our souls are pushed into the corners of our skulls, watching as our hands do tasks that we have no control over! Oh, horrible, horrible things! We must purge them from our midst! Kill them all! Cut them! Burn them! It's the only way. I know. I've done it. It... works! | „ |
| ~ Maximillian Roivas' autopsy on Xel'lotath's bonethieves. |
| “ | They are so close their stench fills the air. You can smell them, I tell you. Somewhere between the spice of vanilla and the bitter sweetness of pustulent rot! Those creatures inhabit the bodies of men and women, exorcising the human soul and replacing it with their own putrid spirits. But they couldn't fool me! No! Not at all! I could smell them, you see. They were all around me. Dear god! All around! I knew what I had to do. They had to go. By blade and bullet, I had to get rid of them! Don't you understand?! Dear god, I had to do it! HAD to! You believe me, don't you? Don't you? | „ |
| ~ Maximillian Roivas' autopsy on Ulyaoth's bonethieves. |
Bonethieves are agile creatures with sharp bones at the end of their arms and have the ability to possess humans by burrowing into their bodies. They will lunge at the player and claw at their face with the goal of burrowing themselves into their bodies through their esophagus, forcing the player to shake them off. Once the player damages the human host enough, the bonethief will burst out of the host and battle the protagonist in an attempt to make another host.
Bonethieves aligned with Chattur'gha are slightly stronger and more aggressive than their other counterparts. In accordance with their alignments with Ulyaoth and Xel'lotath, bonethieves will also deplete the protagonist's magic and sanity as well as their health. Unlike those aligned with Chattur'gha and Ulyaoth, bonethieves associated with Xel'lotath lack heads and instead possess green spheres levitating in their space, making it more difficult to kill them.
Gatekeepers[]
Gatekeepers are winged creatures that have the ability to summon other minions by stunning the protagonist in place with its tail, typically zombies, trappers and horrors. Unlike other enemies, they will continuously drain the player's sanity at a consistent time. The player will have to target the gatekeeper as it unfolds its wings or from behind, due to its wings shielding itself.
Unlike gatekeepers aligned with Chattur'gha and Xel'lotath, those aligned with Ulyaoth lack eyes and they levitate in the absence of legs.
Ehn'Gha Guardians[]
| “ | They came from the darkness. Chittering, spider-like parasites, infesting the city, Ehn'Gha! EHN'GHA! They killed the city's inhabitants, using them for food, for slaves, for play. In the city's last, dark, doomed days, blood filled the waterways, drained upon the streets. A proud, mighty race, now nothing but gobbets of meat in the gutters! So it has been for eons. The guardians, those eternal parasites still swarm in that necropolis, feeding on those... those that live in ignorance many miles above... US! Damn you, listen to me! They feed on US! The Darkness! The Darkness comes! It will consume us all! We must... fight them! Or all is lost. | „ |
| ~ Maximillian Roivas' autopsy on Chattur'gha's guardians of Ehn'Gha. |
| “ | Oh, oh gibbering insanity wrought in flesh as though an artist had sculpted it! Created from nothing by their mistress, Xel'lotath, a canvas as grotesque as any! Their bodies made no sense! No heads, no organs! An empty husk devoid of the trappings of nature! But it walked! It sang! It shrieked! A mockery of reason, both natural and mental! A blasphemy from beyond the Veil! The veil has opened! And we should not see beyond!!! We... we weren't meant to. Never... ever meant to! Oh, give us the blessing of ignorance, the happiness of oblivion! Innocence can only be tainted, never returned! | „ |
| ~ Maximillian Roivas' autopsy on Xel'lotath's guardians of Ehn'Gha. |
| “ | Deep in those ancient caverns, a great city was lost. Long before we humans. Long, long before... The proud city of Ehn'Gha, decadent and trusting, and it was their downfall. When the Darkness came and the guardians slaughtered them, their existence was but a dying echo, shrieking from violated mouths, resounding within their homes, their tombs. If you stand alone, in one of those halls, quietly... ever so quietly, you can hear the cries of the people of Ehn'Gha, rent apart by the unseen claws of the guardians. Their echoes still linger, as do their souls. | „ |
| ~ Maximillian Roivas' autopsy on Ulyaoth's guardians of Ehn'Gha. |
Lesser guardians are magical creatures residing in the ruined city of Ehn'Gha, where they exterminated the city's original inhabitants. Unlike the other minions of the Ancients, they attack the player solely with magic. They will stay in one place, where they will summon minions, form barriers, and occasionally blast its enemies with a bolt of magic. Once the guardian is struck, it will fly about the place in the form of a magical speck of light and will strike the protagonist if they get too close during that state.
Black Guardians[]
The Black Guardian is a powerful giant tasked with protecting the artifact representing their lord's stronger rival under Pious' orders. It is tasked to guard said artifact at Oublie Cathedral in Amiens, France, where it requires a substantial amount of human meat to continue doing the job until the planets align.
It serves as a boss in the game, where it battles Peter Jacob and summons zombies against the player. As the guardian refills its magic, it will be rendered vulnerable to a harmful wave of magic initiated by Peter. After three stages, the guardian will be defeated and Peter will obtain the artifact.
Vampires[]
Vampires are humanoid creatures that are capable of sucking the blood of their victims through the open air. Once all the blood is removed, the zombified victim will behave as though they were possessed by a bonethief. Despite their differing appearances based on their opposing alignments, the vampires are virtually similar in behavior and characteristics. Once it is defeated by one of its enemies, the vampire will retreat to its lair and feed on an obelisk to refill its energy,
The vampire only appears in Edward Roivas' chapter, where it terrorizes the Roivas mansion by sucking the blood of Edward's servants. Edward battles the vampire several times until it drops a part of the key leading to the basement and Edward destroys the obelisk it relies on to sustain itself, giving him the opportunity to slay the beast.
Worms[]
Worms are giant tendril-like creatures that mainly appear in the Forbidden City. Though they do not attack the player, they will drain the protagonist's insanity and will retreat once they are attacked. Though a giant worm appears at Ehn'Gha and attacks Edward and Alex Roivas, this seems to be nothing more than a hallucination, as the worm disappears instantly after lunging at the player.
Trivia[]
- Though the minions are officially referred to as guardians of the Ancients, the name "Aretak" is in reference to the name of a spell used to summon a trapper, a zombie or a horror.
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 Villains
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Ancients Humans Aretak | ||