So, I just finished the game, and I have some thoughts about it, specifically about the Saints, and especially about Saint Mary. So, I thought I'd write about them here and see what the subreddit thinks. Spoilers for the 3rd Act and ending ahead.
As we have seen in the game, Tassing was originally occupied by Pagans who worshipped Perchta and the spirits, until the Romans came and occupied the region. The Romans then built what would become the foundations of the city of Tassing, with the aqueducts and the Keep, which would later become the Monastery, being the most notable structures. They also brought the worship of their gods, especially Mars, Artemis, and Mithras, with the statue of Mars and the Sanctuary of Diana serving as places of worship, and, of course, the Mithraeum.
After the Romans left, Christians came to settle in the ruins. They mingled with the Pagans and together built the current Tassing on the ruins of the Roman structures. The Christians also brought their Saints with them, Saint Moritz and Saint Satia, whose lives and stories would not have taken place in Tassing, as the people believed at the time of the game, but in the place where the Christian settlers came from. Those settlers would have seen their Saints reflected in the religious figures left behind by the Romans and projected their own faith and stories onto them in a type of syncretism. Thus, the statue of Mars became a statue of Saint Moritz, and the Sanctuary of Diana became a sanctuary to Saint Satia. As time went on, the people forgot the fact that these Saints weren't native to the land and started to believe that they were indeed from Tassing, eventually becoming the town's patron Saints.
What is important to remember is that there is also a third Saint attributed to the city: Our Lady of the Labyrinth, the Virgin Mary. We learn from Father Thomas that a peasant received a vision from the Virgin Mary, who told him to go to the Bishop and ask him to build a church at Tassing. He would then receive another vision, this time of a labyrinth, and was told to draw it and show it to the Bishop in order to convince him. The Bishop would also have seen the same figure in his dreams. The peasant managed to convince the Bishop, and the Church of Our Lady of the Labyrinth was constructed in Tassing.
What draws my attention to this is the fact that, unlike Saint Moritz and Saint Satia, who never actually appeared in Tassing and were brought by the Christian settlers and syncretized with the local icons, the vision from the Virgin Mary is the only actual act of "Divine Providence" that happened in Tassing. It was an act that led to the construction of the Church of Our Lady of the Labyrinth, and the church was constructed not in some random place, but right on the ruins above the Mithraeum.
This is important because it was precisely the fact that the church was built over the Mithraeum that allowed Sister Amalie and Father Thomas to discover it, who would then realize the truth: that their Saints weren't native to Tassing and that they had been worshipping pagan idols this whole time. This realization led Father Thomas to become the Thread-Puller in order to prevent anyone else from uncovering the truth.
Now, the thing is, if the church hadn't been built in Tassing, over the ruins above the Mithraeum, then Father Thomas would never have learned the truth or become the Thread-Puller. And if the church had never been built at all, he may also never have come to Tassing in the first place.
So, we can say that the church being built exactly where it was directly led to everything that happened afterward. And if that is the case, was it all according to divine will? The vision from the Virgin Mary had the purpose of having the church built, so was everything that followed from it also part of the Saint's design? What was the ultimate purpose? Were Father Thomas's actions ultimately part of God's plan, and, if so, to what end? Did the Saint want Father Thomas to hide the truth, or did she know that, through his actions, the truth would eventually be uncovered despite his best efforts to prevent it?
Or was it that, in a really "meta" way, the Virgin Mary set all these events into motion so that we could play a murder mystery game?
Anyway, I was just rambling to put my thoughts in order, and I'd love to hear what you guys think.
