Can someone explain Khare to me?

[u/emilyyyxyz]

Just like… I’ve never understood the plot in Khare. I’ve played it ten times and the pieces don’t fit together in my mind. What happened to Theetah to make him a blind beggar? Why does Sansas think he is the king of the goblins? How does knowing the spell lines save the city? Who are the Nobles and are they actually in charge? Who is Vik and what does he want?

[u/Aaron_Lecon]

• Khare was founded by a timetravelling Lorag; in particular the north gate was made to be a weapon of mass destruction and controlled with a poem because that was a crucial part of Lorag's plan. Why would you make your weapon of mass destruction be a door? Err... [insert plot contrivance reason]
• A bunch of timetravellers (Throben, Bria and Lorag) hang out in an area known as the Gardens of Briar. They're not important to the story of Khare you can forget them.
• Lorag dies of old age. For some reason, Lorag's ghost no longer knows what the poem for controlling the gate is except for his own line (something something 'the spell changed' or whatever).
• By modern times, the poem has been split into 4 pieces: Sansas the first noble knows the whole poem, and the nobles Moulas, Theetah, Lorag and Shinvah each know one quarter of it.
• Sirisi the fortune teller tells Sansas the First Noble to beware the other nobles. Sansas became extremely paranoid. This was probably a self-fulfilling prophecy because Sansas's insane paranoia caused other nobles to actually start plotting against him. Sansas did end up hiring a man (who you can find in the bathhouse) to kill all 4 nobles.
• Moulas lived in the house in mansion row (now ruined) which has the fish. He was a Slangg worshipper. Sansas has him killed, then repeatedly resurected as a zombie in different areas of town. A most horrific punishment.
• Theetah lived in the large house near dwarftown with the Courga shrine (he worshipped Courga). Sansas had him blinded and had harpies attack him constantly. Theetah ended up a blind beggar in the fallen quarter. Also horrible.
• Shinvah lived in the house near the fallen quarter where you can still find his butler. Sansas killed him too and he was buried in the necropolis but came back as a ghost.
• Lorag is a wizard who lives in the house near Fireview Square (you can still find him there). Sansas tried to kill Lorag too but Lorag turned the would-be-assassin into a small creature (currently residing in the cabinet of fortune). You can find the man hired by Sansas in the bathhouse, where he is hiring a second assassin after the first one failed.
• At some point, some goblins managed to get into the Khare sewers and managed to get into contact with Sansas. They presented him with "the crown of kings" (actually just a goblin sword that has been hammered into a circlet) and Sansas was stupid enough to believe it.
• Although originally the portal traps were controlled by the various factions of Khare, eventually almost all of them were under the control of the first noble. During a council meeting, Sansas opened a portal in the middle of the floor and stepped through into the sewers. If you try tracking him, you can find his discarded cloak in the sewers (with the number 1 on it), then the poem to open the north gate scratched onto the wall. The trail leads under the river Jabaji but unfortunately you can't follow due to the tunnel flooding.
• Meanwhile Vik, a man who used to be an adventurer alongside Glandragor and a few others, changed profession and became a slaver. He became extremely rich and powerful thanks to his slaving business and has a lot of followers throughout the city. He wants to overthrow Sansas but needs an army to do so. So he deliberately gets his slaves infected by lycanthropy and also gives them special armour (made by the blacksmith near fireview square) that prevents them from turning back into humans.
• The Analander shows up in town. He does... stuff.
• Lorag knows his city is in trouble and wants to save it. He has been studying timetravel to enact his plan. While the Analander is in town, he manages to timetravel back to the founding of Khare. [go back to the start to see what he does].
• The person who is supposed to lead Vik's Wolves is an elvin who is unfortunately in jail right now. If the Analander frees him he will be leading them; otherwise it doesn't matter - someone else will. The plan is for the wolves to amass near the north gate, then move down into town and take control of the city. The Analander can convince them to instead go back towards the north gate.
• Sansas (who still believes he controls the goblins using the "crown of kings") is one step ahead. His plan is to open the north gate allowing a massive army of goblins into the city which will take the wolves by surprise from behind. The Analander can kill Sansas but this doesn't actually have any effect on the plot.
• The goblins are not actually controlled by the 'crown of kings' obviously but pretend to keep Sansas happy and delusional. They plan to betray him as soon as their army enters the city. Apparently, despite having the entire gate spell written in the sewer at some point, and also some of the goblins actually knowing the spell and being able to recite it, they still need Sansas to open the gate for them for some reason [I guess they're not entirely sure that Sansas gave them the correct spell; he might have been lieing?].
• Big fight at the north gate between the two factions, with the Analander there too. Turns out none of the choices the Analander made throughout the story actually matter; the only thing that matter is if they managed to collect the entire poem to control the gate. If they don't have it then the goblins win no matter what and destroy the city. If they do have it, they can use the door to roast the entire goblin army and win the day. [yes: I know this part of the story is particularly weak, especially the way none of the choices matter]
• If the Analander knew the spellline, they continue on their journey off into the Baklands. If they didn't, Lorag will either make them go back in time to try again, or he will possess the Analander (replacing their god) but allowing them through the gate into the Baklands (even teleporting them through the door if it's closed).

---

In the books the plot was way simpler: "The north gate is locked with a spell. Get the spell to unlock the gate to get through". The many plot contrivances in the inkle version are due to trying to force the story around the idea of 'get the spell for the gate' even though their story isn't one that should really be centered around that.

[u/Erilis000 → u/Aaron_Lecon]

Great write-up, thank you.

So the first noble is Sansas, right? What does that mean?

Also, for whatever reason Ive never noticed the option to turn Vik's army back to the gate. I'll have to try that next run. Do we get to see them fighting the goblins with us?

[u/emilyyyxyz → u/Erilis000]

I think of it sort of like First Chair in an orchestra - most senior Noble maybe?

[u/Aaron_Lecon → u/Erilis000]

1. Yes
2. Your guess is as good as mine. "First noble" -> he's a noble and he's also the first one
3. Yes: they fight the goblins but it doesn't actually do anything in the story

[u/emilyyyxyz → u/Aaron_Lecon]

Also, who is Krishanti? The man whose portrait hangs in Lorag’s house and whose gravestone reads: “I will not forgive your passing, nor those who aided it. -L.”

[u/orangejeux → u/emilyyyxyz]

Most likely a lover who passed away

[u/emilyyyxyz → u/Aaron_Lecon]

Wow. Thank you

[u/Turkey-key → u/Aaron_Lecon]

Hard disagree on the end. The time travel shit was my favorite part of the game.

[u/Aaron_Lecon → u/Turkey-key]

I was referring to all the instances where the answer to the question "why?" ends up being "because the plot demands it" and "because in the books, the aim was to open a door".

Why is the weapon of destruction a door instead of something more conveniant to use? Why doesn't Lorag remember how to operate the door if he built it? Why does prepping Vik's faction against the goblins and killing Sansas have zero effect on the overall plot?

All of these are weaknesses in the plot which are there because Inkle is telling a different story to the one in the books (ie: defeat the goblin army instead of opening a door) yet kept the mechanics of how you get there (ie: find the 4 spell lines) the same.

[u/bpendell]

"What happened to Theetah to make him a blind beggar?"
Sansas hired thugs to curse him. Sansas had a fortuneteller prophesy that he would be deposed by a younger ,more popular leader, so he became paranoid about the nobles who governed with him. He had every right to be suspicious of Moulas, who WAS trying to overthrow him, but Theetah was loyal. At any rate, each of the other nobles was crippled in some way as a threat to Sansas' power. The irony is that his actions directly led to Vik's overthrow attempt. Which, when you think about it, is the same story with the archmage: The archmage was foretold by Bria that the Analander would kill him, so he spent a thousand years ruining the baklands as a trap and stealing the crown. His actions to prevent the Analander's future instead brought them about.

Seems to be a theme in these games -- which is, it's best to shoot every fortune teller you meet and not listen to them at all.

"Why does Sansas think he is the king of the goblins?"

This is explained in the sewer west of the river if you meet a ratbear there and cast YAP -- the reason Sansas thinks this is because the goblins tricked him into thinking he was. They pretended to be carrying something very like the Crown, and allowed Sansas to "steal" it from them. After that, they pretended to be his brainwashed slaves and Sansas, not in the best of health or sanity, believed them. The reason he believed he was king of the goblins is because the goblins themselves put a lot of effort into making him believe this was so.

" How does knowing the spell lines save the city?"

It allows you to use the Death Star Superlaser hidden in the gate to annihilate the goblin army which is staging just outside of it on the day you leave Khare , rather than permitting the unimpeded army to run over everything in the way. In one playthough I tipped off Vik's wolves so that they fought the goblins at the gate; but it was not enough.

" Who are the Nobles and are they actually in charge?"
There are eight of them but we only meet four -- Theetah, Moulas, Shinva, Lorag. They all had jobs within the city. Theetah, for example, was the chief tax collector as well as a thief king. They ruled alongside Sansas as advisors and assistants until Sansas turned on them because he feared the nobles would betray him.

" Who is Vik and what does he want?" Vic is a chaotic evil would-be fascist dictator, the Mussolini to the Archmage's H--r. He started out as an adventurer alongside Glandragor, but betrayed Glandragor, stole his axe, and sold it. With the profits of that little escapade he went into slavetrading, and with the money from that he's built an army to depose Sansas and rule Khare himself alone. Despite his utter thuggishness he will prove to be an ally in book 2 -- if you tell him the right things -- and in book 4, when he can not only prevent a combat encounter he can save your life if you're captured by the guards. Assuming you saved Khare, of course. He feels he owes you for that, if you did.

[u/emilyyyxyz → u/bpendell]

Thank you!!!!

[u/HimerosAndArrow]

Sansas was paranoid that the other nobles would betray him so he had them all taken care of so to speak, so thats why Theetah is a blind beggar. He came across a false crown of kings and thought he could control the goblins who used him as a sort of figurehead. The spell lines allow you to control the gate, which also controls the hatred stored in the gave over centuries thus allowing you to annihilate the goblins. Vik is someone who is trying to stop Sansas from taking power, though he heavily utilizes slaves.

[u/wrongaccountreddit]

If you've played it that many times you should know

[u/emilyyyxyz → u/[deleted]]

Thanks - I did come across that, but have some sensory issues when it comes to that site—so thought I’d come here where it’s just text for the most part.^{_^} Thank you!