This article contains extensive SPOILERS for the entirety of Vagrant Story. Read on at your own peril!
Vagrant Story uses one of my favourite techniques of storytelling - it features a complete lack of exposition. It drops you into the middle of a confusing, multi-factional conflict, with secret alliances and betrayals, and expects you to keep up. Almost all of the plot is told through natural dialogue between characters, and it feels like you’re watching an elaborate Shakespearian play.
When I’ve written about other game’s stories, they’re usually framed as criticisms. Policenauts, for all its excellent explanations of technology, unravels at the seams when considering social or political implications. And I have severe problems with the main plot of Cave Story - It wavers drunkenly between cuteness and tragedy, and left me not caring about it one whit.
But with Vagrant Story, it's different. Simply put, it makes sense. The drama is all organically driven by the character’s conflict with one another. These characters are all deeply flawed individuals - some brutal, some cruel, some petty. This includes the player character, Ashley - he has a troubled past, and doesn’t know the right thing to do. The story is incredibly dense and confusing, but no-one acts sporadically or inconsistently - and the tone signalled by the haunting music persists throughout the entire game.
I don’t consider the plot of Vagrant Story to be a perfect masterpiece. Some of the dialogue is a bit iffy, there are a few too many superfluous characters (mostly in the Crimson Guard) and I find Sydney’s take on what constitutes morality far too simplistic. But even there, at least I can point it out as a problem with Sydney’s point of view. The characters stand by themselves, deeply flawed and deeply human. That alone elevates it above most video-game stories, and it's one I cherished experiencing.
However, at the conclusion of the game, so much is left vague and unanswered. A lot of what happens is purely implicit, with other pieces of its puzzle coming from extraneous material not found in the game. So here, to the best of my ability, is an explanation of the plot of Vagrant Story. I’ve relied on the wiki, the game, and the english translation of the Ultimania guide to help ground my understandings. Even then, I’ve had to make small leaps of logic (and faith) to connect the dots on a few occasions. This is my interpretation of the plot, the factions and the characters, not necessarily the definitive version.
Before I get into the meat of the story, I would first like to introduce the factions. These are the four major groups that conspire to understand and control the events of the game.
The Factions
Parliament - A shadowy group of figures whose identities are unknown. They’ve been in a long and silent struggle with Duke Bardorba, who though retired still wields heavy influence through unofficial channels. Their trump card over the Duke are the Valendia Knights of the Peace’s (VKP), Riskbreakers, government loyal elite assassins - think James Bond. Ashley Riot is the best and bravest of these Riskbreakers.
The Duke Bardorba - A man who ruled parliament for many years, he has now ostensibly retired. He still extends his tendrils of influence deep into parliament to control affairs, and is rumoured to have secret connections with the Mullenkamp cult. He eventually relies on ex-riskbreaker Rosencrantz to carry out a secret mission and has an even more elaborate plan in store for him.
Mullenkamp - Named after an ancient Priestess from 2000 years ago, the cult worships, studies and reveres the powers of the dark. The centre of their power is the city of Lea Monde, a haunted place that has a bleak history of death, destruction and magic. The cult is headed by Sydney Losstarot, a powerful and charismatic magical wielder of the dark.
The Crimson Blades - The militant wing of the Priesthood of St Iocus. The head of the order, Cardinal Batistum, seeks power and ultimately immortality. He orders his underling Romeo Guildenstern to study the nebulous force known only as the ‘Dark’. Romeo also delves into the secrets of Lea Monde and the renegade cult Mullenkamp to best understand how to acquire their powers. They are technically under the jurisdiction of parliament, but resent its control over them.
Vagrant Story begins with the Duke’s manor on fire and under attack, but let's rewind a bit and try to understand what led to that moment.
The Blood-Sin
The Duke used to wield the power of The Blood-Sin, a tattoo that acted as a key to unlock the powers of the dark. When his son, revealed at the end of the game to be Sydney, suffered a near fatal accident, the Duke passed on the tattoo to his son to save his life. In doing so, Sydney gained power over the Dark. An unintended side effect was the linking of their lives - if one of them were to die, the other would as well. In order to repay his father, Sydney vows to end the curse of Lea Monde. He founds the cult of Mullenkamp to help study the curse, and his father secretly funds it.
Before he can complete his research, however, disaster strikes. The Duke suffers a serious illness and becomes deathly ill. It's likely that he’ll die in a matter of weeks. Sydney has no hope of finding a cure to the curse in that time, and when his father dies so will he, leaving the Blood-Sin tattoo and all its dark power to corrupt whoever takes it. They have no choice - they must find someone new to carry the Blood-Sin.
Sydney thinks that the obvious candidate for the tattoo is his little brother, Joshua. He’s of the same bloodline, and is a young child. He would not use the power for nefarious ends because of his intrinsic innocence. While he was not a powerful figure, his bloodline would ensure he grows into one, like Sydney and the Duke before him. It's by far the most logical choice.
But the Duke has a weakness for Joshua. He’s already lost one son to the Blood-Sin, and wants his beloved second son to remain free of any evil curse. So he forbids Sydney to use Joshua as a vessel for the Blood-Sin. He becomes paralysed, unable to make a decision.
Sydney doesn’t want to wait until it's too late. He realises his father is acting irrationally, out of love, instead of what is best for the safety of the world. So he decides to take action. This is where the game truly begins.
The Duke’s Manor
Sydney gathers his followers and leads an attack on the Duke’s Manor. He tells them all, including his second in command John Hardin, that the key to unlock the secret power of Lea Monde is located there. Of course, the Blood-Sin tattoo on his back is the real key, but he wants to keep that a secret. The real mission is the kidnapping of Joshua, to take him to Lea Monde and pass the Blood-Sin onto him before his father and he dies.
The other two factions see this split between The Duke and Mullenkamp as an opportunity. The cardinal orders Romeo in to attack the Duke’s manor, to gather information. Parliament sends their best riskbreaker, Ashley Riot, in to assuage the situation and capture the head of Mullenkamp. The Crimson Blades attack the manor without authorisation from parliament, opening a window for Ashley to sneak in from the back. Ashley and Romeo tear through the meager Mullenkamp forces in their efforts to reach Sydney, but Ashley gets there first.
He shoots Sydney dead when he resists arrest, but is shocked when he stands up again, seeming only mildly injured. Sydney summons a wyvern to distract him while he flees. Before he leaves, Ashley overhears him telling John Hardin to take the kidnapped Joshua to Lea Monde. Ashley, after defeating the dragon, sets out in pursuit with his inexperienced inquisitor companion, Merlose, in tow. Romeo is too slow to encounter Sydney, but from his studies knows that he will be headed to Lea Monde, and leads his forces there immediately.
The Duke’s Private Residence
When the Duke learns of the attack, and that Sydney unveiled a wyvern, he immediately orders the execution of every servant in the house, even his own wife. The Duke is cold and ruthless, and he thinks the deaths of those people to preserve the secrets of the Blood-Sin are well worth it. He exposes his only weakness once more, in ordering the just decommissioned Rosencrantz to save his son Joshua.
Entrance to the City of Lea Monde
Ashley arrives at the entrance to the city, an abandoned wine cellar, with Merlose close behind him. The advanced agents sent by the VPK are dead. There are two dead soldiers of the Crimson Guard, ominously with no apparent wounds. Ashley once again heads in alone, not wanting the inexperienced Merlose to get in his way. Just as he disappears, Sydney emerges, and takes her prisoner. Shortly afterwards Rosencrantz follows in his shadow.
And thus, all the pieces are in place for the next act, in the city of Lea Monde.
At this point, I’m going to break from a linear recounting of the story. While 90% of the game takes place within these walls, most of it is drip feeding the above information to the player in a more natural way. Instead, we’re going to do a deep dive on the city itself and the characters involved, before returning to the end-game climax
You would be forgiven for assuming that Vagrant Story’s plot is centred on political drama, with all the different factions vying for control. But as these individuals reach Lea Monde, they become disassociated from their factions, for various reasons. Vagrant Story is a character drama - we leave their factions in the dust to better understand what motivates and defines these individuals, not examine the institutions to which they belong. Let’s begin with the city where their tales unravel: Lea Monde.
Lea Monde
Lea Monde is a city that’s a shadow of its former self. It was once a bustling metropolis, hosting 5000 people. At the heart of the city was religion, specifically the religion of the Dark. Its magic permeated the city and the people who lived there.
Some 25 years before the game starts, a catastrophic earthquake unleashed by parliament kills every man, woman and child in Lea Monde, ripping apart the landscape around the city - with the city remaining largely intact. The residual darkness of the city reanimates the dead souls into undead, and corrupts the beasts of the land into powerful new forms.
Lea Monde became a haunted place. Its darkness flows freely now, no longer controlled in any fashion. Anyone who stays too long in the city of Lea Monde could not help but be changed by its influence. Our cast of characters all grow in different ways through their exposure to the dark. The only way to control and channel the power is with the Blood Sin, the key to the city. The city functions as an elaborate grimoire, with text scraped deep upon its walls. Sydney currently holds the key, but he has to pass it on to someone before his death.
Rosencrantz
Rosencrantz worked with Ashley in the VKP, although Ashley has no memory of it. He was ordered to investigate Lea Monde, and while doing so makes acquaintances with both Mullenkamp and the Crimson Blades. The VKP removes him from their services after the incident at the Duke’s Manor, not trusting him. He goes to the Duke himself to report, and then embarks on a mission to Lea Monde to free Joshua. Rosencrantz has completely different intentions in mind, however.
Rosencrantz deeply resents the VKP, parliament, and anyone in a position of power. He feels he was used by those above him, only to be fired and dismissed from their services the moment his perceived usefulness ran out. So he seeks the Blood-Sin to upend the order of the world, to smash all those in power and bring revolution. He has no concern for creating a better world in its place, only to punish those who have wronged him.
He is jealous of Ashley’s power and dismissive of his child-like morality. He sees Romeo as just another hierarchical figure to be uprooted. And he intends to persuade Sydney to give him the Blood-Sin - or take if by force if necessary.
Romeo
Romeo has studied and acquired powers of the Dark under the direction of the cardinal. The Cardinal seeks immortality, and wants Romeo to act as his agent in securing it for him. But Romeo has no interest in passing those powers onto another, when he believes that he would do a far better job wielding those powers himself.
Romeo sees corruption everywhere. He sees it in other church members, he sees it in the parliament, he sees it in the merchants. He wishes to kill all those who he perceives as being leeches, and rule over mankind with an iron fist. He seeks to become a supreme dictator, believing that only through a fear of his power can he control mankind, and keep them on the righteous path.
He is powerful, and smart, cracking many of the mysteries of Lea Monde through deception and trickery. He learns the truth of the tattoo on Sydney’s back - it being the key to unlock Lea Monde’s powers. And he intends to gain access to them, no matter what it takes.
Ashley
Ashley Riot, the protagonist of the game, starts out like a sharpened knife - a lifeless tool. He has no friends, no family, no agenda, and no philosophy. His only goal is to execute his mission as well as possible. He’s a deadly hired killer, and that is all he is.
But as he makes his way through Lea Monde, that changes. The Dark flows into Ashley easily, finding an empty vessel to reside in. And both Sydney and Rosencrantz reveal to him the lies of his memory. His past is a complete fabrication, making the entire basis of his identity false. The only thing that defines him is his regret of the killing of innocents, whether they died by his hand or not.
Unlike Rosencrantz or Romeo, Ashley does not want the power that others are seeking. He starts off trying to capture Sydney, but as the falseness of his memories are revealed, he seems to only want to save Merlose. At one point Sydney literally offers him the power, and he shouts him down. His sense of self shattered, and with no interest in power, he can only follow the path before him and do what he think is right.
Sydney
Sydney originally had a very simple plan - imprint the Blood-Sin on Joshua. He believes that only someone innocent with no interest in power can be a suitable vessel for the cursed tattoo. Power corrupts, and the absolute power of the Blood-Sin would corrupt whoever sought to use it absolutely. As the various factions converge on Lea Monde, however, he sees another possibility opening up to him.
While Joshua is pure, he's still very weak. Forcing him to take the Blood-Sin could have an unpredictable outcome, and may just result in someone stronger taking it off him. So he seeks to assess the strengths and weaknesses of those chasing him. Maybe, just maybe, one of them is a better carrier of the dark than his brother Joshua.
So he lays a merry chase for the people moving through the city, throwing traps and monsters in their wake. He questions their identities and motives, and forces them to become stronger, become better vessels for the dark they seek to control. Sydney deliberately escalates the difficulty of your encounters, to grow your strength without killing you. As the game enters its final act, he knows who is the best receptacle for the Blood Sin.
The Final Act
We cut first to Rosencrantz, strutting about, towering over a downed Sydney and Ashley, demanding he receive the Blood Sin. At this point, Sydney has decided though - Ashley is far and away the best candidate. He’s both strong and innocent. Sydney calls Rosencrantz a worm, dismissive of his beliefs. Rosencrantz moves to take the Blood-Sin by force, but Sydney shows how foolish and weak he is, moving deceptively fast to disarm him, before a summoned monster takes him out with a single blow. Sydney moves to confront Romeo, leaving Ashley to deal with the summoned monster before following him.
Romeo, having discovered the secret of the tattoo, demands the Blood-Sin so he can start the ritual and take power. Sydney also decries what he sees as Romeo’s evil beliefs, thinking they’ll lead to a dark tyranny over mankind. Sydney saves Hardin, Merlose and Joshua, but in the process is bested by Romeo, who cuts the Blood-Sin from Sydney’s back and ascends to the top of the cathedral to unlock the grimoire of Lea Monde.
Ashley catches up, defeating Romeo in a difficult fight, and wins the Blood-Sin for himself. His contact with the Dark deepens, and he seems to see his long-dead wife and child - although he still harbours doubts over whether they ever existed. Eventually, he decides that whatever his past was, it's what he does now that truly matters. So he shoulders the burden of the dark and resolves to not use it.
Epilogue
In the final scene, we see Sydney and the Duke reunited. Sydney places a dagger next to his father, who’s lying in bed. The Duke takes the dagger, and brings Sydney in for one final embrace - and stabs him, ending both their lives. Now that the Blood-Sin is secure in Ashley, they can both die at peace.
Ashley Riot watches from just outside the manor. He now begins a new stage in his life. He must hide from the law, and from all of civilisation, lest his powers corrupt those around him. He is the Vagrant, and that was his story.
Were Sydney and Duke right to entrust the power to control the world, and potentially end it, to a man with such a childlike view of morality? Both the Duke and Sydney demonstrated a frightening ability to act pragmatically over the course of the game in the protection of the Dark, but the Vagrant seems to lack that ability. Was he just the best pick of a bad bunch, or was he as perfect as Sydney claimed him to be?
Was Rosencrantz wrong to want to upend the world as he saw it? It seems that the world in which Vagrant Story takes place is a nasty and ugly one. Even accepting a degree of hyperbole from Romeo and Rosencrantz, at the very least it can be understood that the common people are downtrodden and abused by those in power. An outburst of Dark power may bring the world to its knees, but perhaps that what it needs - revolutions are always bloody.
Was John Hardin wrong to trust Sydney? Was Sydney’s manipulation of him justified? Was their relationship ultimately repaired by Sydney sacrificing himself to send Hardin to safety?
The greatest stories don’t tell you any easy answers to questions. They set the stage, let their characters go at one another and leave you with just the questions. And even after all my reading, I’m still thinking about what the answers might be.
For more in-depth analysis on Vagrant Story, you can listen to our podcast episode on the game where we get into plenty of arguments over the game’s story, gameplay, presentation and more!
The episode is available here:
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