Dishonored: Three-Game Selection

Dishonored

=== Setting ===
Dishonored takes place in the industrial city of Dunwall, where technology and otherworldly forces coexist. The city's design is modeled on London and Edinburgh between the late 1800s and the early 1900s. The capital of the Empire of the Isles, Dunwall is ruled by an oppressive regime that came to power following the assassination of the Empress and the kidnapping of her daughter. The city is a center for fishing and whaling; whale oil is a valuable resource which is needed to power the city. After a natural philosopher discovered that whale oil can be used as a fuel, the government used it to develop powerful weaponry, which in turn bred government corruption. The city is stricken with a plague spread by rats, which is killing the poor and isolating the rich. The infected, known as "weepers", cry blood and can become violent. The government uses the plague as an excuse to take or purge citizens as they wish. Order is maintained by the Tallboys, heavily armored officers on tall, mechanical legs, and districts are separated by barriers known as "Walls of Light", which are made of energy and disintegrate unauthorized people who try to cross them. A covert group of activists, the Loyalists, plots to overthrow the government and install the Empress's daughter as the new Empress.

Characters

The main character of Dishonored, whom the player controls, is Corvo Attano, the former bodyguard to Dunwall's Empress Jessamine Kaldwin (April Stewart). Corvo becomes an infamous assassin after he is framed for the empress's murder. He is skilled in stealth and combat, is armed with unusual gadgets, and possesses great supernatural powers. The game designers chose Corvo to remain silent so that players could project themselves onto the character. Corvo is aided by the Loyalists, led by Admiral Farley Havelock (John Slattery), and members: Piero Joplin (Brad Dourif)—an inventor who builds Corvo's mask and supplies him with gadgets; Treavor Pendleton (Derek Phillips)—a member of parliament; Samuel (Ryan Cutrona)—a commoner who ferries Corvo to and from his missions; Overseer Teague Martin (Joel Johnstone); and Callista Curnow (Lena Headey)—the caretaker for the Empress's daughter Young Lady Emily (Chloë Grace Moretz). Other characters include Granny Rags (Susan Sarandon)—a former aristocrat now blind and deranged after years of living on the streets; Daud (Michael Madsen)—leader of a group of assassins known as "the Whalers"; and Slackjaw (Al Rodrigo)—a gang leader. Carrie Fisher and Gregg Berger provide the voices of the loudspeakers found throughout the city relaying government propaganda.
The Outsider (Billy Lush) offers to help Corvo in his quest. Described as a mixture of God and the Devil, The Outsider imprints his mark on Corvo, imbuing him with magical abilities, and provides him with a mechanically altered human heart (April Stewart) that tells Corvo secrets. The Outsider also grants his mark, and special abilities, to other characters. Smith described the character as an amoral figure who grants abilities, but leaves the choice of how to use them up to the recipient.
Corvo's targets include the Lord Regent Hiram Burrows (Kristoffer Tabori)—the Empress's former spymaster who masterminded her death and framed Corvo, and now controls Dunwall; Burrows's lover Lady Boyle (Anna Graves)—an aristocrat funding the military; Lords Custis and Morgan Pendleton (Zach Hanks)—twins and members of Parliament; High Overseer Thaddeus Campbell (Daniel Hagen)—leader of the city's religious order; and Anton Sokolov (Roger Jackson)—a genius inventor responsible for the creation of many advanced technologies including the Wall of Light.

Plot

After returning from a foreign voyage to seek aid with the deadly plague ravaging the city, Corvo Attano travels to the tower of Dunwall and meets with the Empress. After delivering a message, they are attacked by teleporting assassins led by Daud; they magically restrain Corvo, kill the Empress, and kidnap her daughter Emily. The Empress's Spymaster arrives and has Corvo imprisoned for her murder and Emily's abduction. Six months later, the Spymaster has seized control of Dunwall as Lord Regent. Interrogating Corvo, the Lord Regent confesses that he masterminded the assassination and framed Corvo. The following day, Corvo is due to be executed. A letter from Empire Loyalists is smuggled to Corvo and he is given the means to escape. Samuel ferries Corvo to the Hound Pits Pub to meet the Loyalists, led by Admiral Havelock.
While resting, Corvo is taken to a dream world where he meets the Outsider, who brands Corvo with his mark. Corvo is sent by the Loyalists to eliminate the conspirators behind the Lord Regent's plot, and the player is given the option to kill or otherwise neutralize the targets, the first of which is High Overseer Campbell. Corvo removes the High Overseer and discovers that Emily is being held in a brothel called the Golden Cat under the supervision of twins Custis and Morgan Pendleton. Corvo rescues Emily and eliminates the brothers. After returning to the pub, Emily is taken into the care of Callista to prepare her for becoming Empress, while Corvo is sent to abduct the genius scientist Sokolov, who is responsible for the Lord Regent's powerful technologies. Sokolov is taken to the pub for interrogation, under which he divulges the identity of the Lord Regent's financier, Lady Boyle. Corvo infiltrates Boyle's masquerade ball and disposes of her.
After returning to the pub, Havelock confirms they have done enough damage to move against the Lord Regent. Corvo infiltrates the tower of Dunwall and removes the Lord Regent from power. He learns that the Lord Regent intentionally imported the plague to decimate the lower classes of society, but it escalated out of his control. Corvo returns to the Hound Pits Pub, where the Loyalists celebrate their success. After sharing a drink, Corvo goes to his room and collapses. Upon waking, he learns that Samuel poisoned his drink at the behest of Havelock and his Loyalist allies Treavor Pendleton and Teague Martin, to prevent him from interfering in their plan to install Emily as Empress and rule through her. However, Samuel remained loyal to Corvo and, without the knowledge of the Loyalist conspirators, had given him a non-lethal dose of poison. Samuel sets Corvo adrift on the river and flees. When Corvo wakes, he is taken prisoner by Daud and his men, who intend to claim the bounty placed on Corvo's head by taking him back to the now Lord Regent Havelock.
Nonetheless, Corvo overcomes his new captors and defeats Daud and his assassins before going into the sewers. Corvo returns to the pub to find it overrun with guards and that Havelock has killed many of the Loyalists. He discovers where Havelock has taken Emily and can save Piero, Sokolov, and Callista. Corvo signals to Samuel, who ferries him to the former Lord Regent's lighthouse. He infiltrates the lighthouse and either subdues Pendleton and Martin or finds that Havelock has already killed them, ensuring the Loyalists' actions remain secret. Once finished with Havelock, Corvo may or may not rescue Emily. Havelock's journal reveals that he suspected that Emily is Corvo's daughter.
The ending varies depending upon the level of chaos the player has caused throughout the game. If Corvo saves Emily, she ascends the throne as Empress with Corvo at her side, and, if minimal chaos has been caused, a golden age dawns and the plague is overcome. After many decades, Corvo dies of natural causes, and Empress Emily Kaldwin I the Wise buries him beside Empress Jessamine. If much chaos is caused, the city remains in turmoil and is overrun with the plague. If Corvo fails to save Emily, Dunwall crumbles, and Corvo flees the city by ship.

Dishonored 2

=== Setting ===
The game takes place during the year 1851 in the Empire of the Isles, a union of four island nations under the rule of Empress Emily Kaldwin. While players begin and end the game in the capital city of Dunwall, much of the story takes place in the coastal city of Karnaca, a wealthy silver mining city and seat of power for the Duke of Serkonos, the southernmost region of the empire. Unlike Dunwall, which relies on whale oil for power, Karnaca is powered by wind turbines, though the winds coversely lead to frequent dust storms in the poorer districts of the city, especially the mining district. Additionally, while Dunwall's architecture and design is primarily influenced by Victorian-era London and Liverpool, Karnaka's aesthetic is inspired by various subtropical cities in the Mediterranean and the antebellum Deep South.
At the time the game begins, the extremist and corrupt Overseers of the Empire's state religion, the Abbey of the Everyman, are engaged in a violent conflict against the Howlers street gang for control of the populace, forcing the Grand Serkonan Guard, Karnaca's law enforcement and the Duke's personal bodyguards, erecting defensive barriers called Walls of Light in response to the disarray.

Characters

The main characters of Dishonored 2 that the player can control are Corvo Attano (Stephen Russell), a former bodyguard turned assassin and the main character of the previous game, and Emily Kaldwin (Erica Luttrell), Corvo's daughter and the former Empress of the Empire of the Isles. The game's main antagonists include Luca Abele (Vincent D'Onofrio), the new duke of Serkonos following the passing of his father Theodanis, and Delilah Copperspoon (Erin Cottrell), a witch and the antagonist of the previous game's downloadable content packs The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches, as well as the half-sister of Emily's deceased mother; promotional material from the special collector's edition of the game references her as Delilah Kaldwin.
Other characters in the game include Meagan Foster (Rosario Dawson), captain of the Dreadful Wale; Paolo (Pedro Pascal), leader of the Howler gang; Mindy Blanchard (Betsy Moore), Paolo's second-in-command; Mortimer Ramsey (Sam Rockwell), a corrupt officer of the Dunwall City Watch; Liam Byrne (Jamie Hector), the Vice Overseer of Karnaca who opposes the Howlers; Anton Sokolov (Roger L. Jackson), Dunwall's genius inventor; the Outsider (Robin Lord Taylor), the representational figure of the Void, an alternate dimension that grants supernatural abilities; and Jessamine Kaldwin (April Stewart), Emily Kaldwin's mother, whose spirit was trapped in The Heart.

Plot

Fifteen years after Corvo Attano restored Emily Kaldwin to the throne following the assassination of her mother, Dunwall has prospered under her reign. A serial killer known as "the Crown Killer" has been murdering Emily's enemies, leading many to believe that Emily and Corvo are responsible. During a ceremony in remembrance of Jessamine Kaldwin's assassination, Duke Luca Abele of Serkonos arrives with the witch Delilah Copperspoon. Delilah claims to be Jessamine's half-sister and the true heir to the throne. The Duke's men attack, killing Emily's men. The player then chooses whether to continue as Emily or Corvo, and the character not chosen is magically turned to stone by Delilah. The player escapes to the Dunwall docks, where Meagan Foster is waiting. Meagan was sent by Anton Sokolov to warn Emily and Corvo about the Duke's coup. They sail for Karnaca, where Delilah began her rise to power. During the voyage, the player is visited by the Outsider, who offers them supernatural powers and instructs them to stop Delilah.
Arriving in Karnaca, the player is tasked with rescuing Sokolov, who was kidnapped by the Crown Killer. Infiltrating Addermire Institute, where the Crown Killer is reportedly hiding out, the player discovers that the Crown Killer is the alter ego of Karnaca's Chief Alchemist, Alexandria Hypatia (Jessica Straus). Hypatia accidentally created the Crown Killer persona when she tested an experimental serum on herself, and the Duke then exploited this to frame Emily. The player either kills Hypatia or cures her condition.
Investigating Addermire, it is revealed that Sokolov was imprisoned by Kirin Jindosh (John Gegenhuber), the Duke's Grand Inventor. The player enters Jindosh's Clockwork Mansion, kills him or performs an electrical lobotomy on him, and frees Sokolov. Sokolov directs the player to eliminate Breanna Ashworth (Melendy Britt), the curator of the Royal Conservatory and witch working for Delilah. The player enters the Royal Conservatory and discovers that Ashworth brought Delilah back from the Void, after her defeat at the hands of Daud, the assassin who killed Emily's mother. Ashworth is either killed or has her powers removed.
With Delilah being too powerful to defeat conventionally, Sokolov suggests the player investigate the home of mining magnate Aramis Stilton (Richard Cansino). Upon entering Stilton's mansion, the player discovers that he had gone insane after witnessing Delilah's resurrection. With the aid of the Outsider, the player travels back in time and observes the Crown Killer, Jindosh, Ashworth, and the Duke pull Delilah from the Void. Afterward, Delilah siphons part of her soul into a statue, making her immortal.
The player invades the Duke's palace to eliminate him and retrieve Delilah's soul. After either killing the Duke or working with his body double to depose him, the player finds the statue and extracts Delilah's soul. The player then returns to Dunwall for a final confrontation with Delilah. After reuniting Delilah with her soul, the player may choose to kill Delilah or trick her into trapping herself inside her own painting.

Endings

There are multiple endings based on whether the player caused high chaos by indiscriminate murder, or achieved low chaos by refraining from taking lives. These endings are also dependent on whom the player killed or spared, and which factions, if any, they sided with.
In the High Chaos ending, the player is faced with the choice of freeing Emily / Corvo from petrification or leaving them that way. If Emily is not left in stone, she becomes a vengeful empress and brutally purges Delilah's supporters. If Corvo leaves Emily petrified, he takes the throne for himself and becomes a brutal tyrant known as Emperor Corvo "the Black". Karnaca is either ruled by a new tyrant or collapses into anarchy and, if alive, Sokolov becomes a broken man after witnessing the perversion of his work, and is exiled to his home country.
In the Low Chaos ending, the player frees Emily / Corvo from their imprisonment. A council of representatives, or, optionally, Corvo, who can make himself the new Duke, takes charge in Karnaca and brings the city back from the brink. Emily becomes a fair and just ruler, reuniting the Empire. Sokolov, proud to see his work used for good, returns to his home country to spend his last days in comfort.
In either ending, if Meagan survives, she is revealed to be Billie Lurk and leaves to search for Daud, leading to Dishonored: Death of the Outsider.

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider

After the events of Dishonored 2, Emily Kaldwin is reinstated as empress and begins to salvage the Empire previously broken by Delilah's rule. Billie Lurk wakes aboard her ship, the Dreadful Wale, having a recurring nightmare regarding her right arm and eye. Billie has tracked down her old mentor Daud's whereabouts to a boxing club in Albarca Baths. She makes her way there, finding that the boxing club is run by a Void-worshiping cult called the Eyeless.
Billie witnesses Daud restrained by a device that cancels out his supernatural powers. She disables the device, freeing Daud. Daud is happy to see Billie and asks for her help in killing the Outsider, to which Billie agrees. On the Dreadful Wale, Daud explains that the Eyeless are in possession of a ritual knife that was originally used to create the Outsider thousands of years prior. Daud believes that the knife can be used to kill the Outsider. Billie is visited by the Outsider, who replaces her right arm and eye, granting her supernatural abilities.
Billie investigates the leadership of the Eyeless. She discovers that the knife is contained in a safety deposit box in Karnaca's largest bank, and steals the keys to the deposit box from the Eyeless' leaders. Billie infiltrates the bank and steals the knife, upon which the Outsider appears and reveals that Daud has died of natural causes aboard the Dreadful Wale, to her dismay. She returns to the ship and burns it down, cremating Daud's body.
Billie infiltrates the Royal Conservatory, where a former Eyeless leader had hidden important documents. They detail the location of a Void portal at an abandoned mine outside Karnaca. Billie travels to the mine, which is overseen and operated by the cult that created the Outsider. Billie learns from their notes that the Mark of the Outsider is actually his name, written in an esoteric script that only the dead can read. Billie makes her way to an artifact called "the Eye of the Dead God" and absorbs it, allowing her to safely enter the Void portal.
Inside the Void, Billie makes her way to the Ritual Hold, where the Outsider resides. There she finds him bound and immobile. Billie can then either return the Outsider to the mortal realm by having Daud's spirit pronounce his real name, or use the ritual knife to kill him. Either way, the Outsider is displaced, and Billie acknowledges that with the Outsider gone, the world will be changed, as there is no longer anybody who can decide who will receive the Void's power.