Hints at an older version of the game's storyline

Русская версия

This article will be edited/updated in the future if something else comes to light.

One of the early storylines of the game was seen in the game from the very first test teasers up to and including alpha 2 (though it was only echoed in that one).

There was indeed a devil present in the story and a traffic accident, but there was no Satanism or rituals involved. And what was happening wasn't just a dream in a coma.

I was told about this early version of the story by one of the game's developers (I was working on HNFP* at the time and getting in touch with some guys at Dynamic Pixels)

* Check out the "My Projects" item in this article about me (🩴🙃) to learn about this project. I've updated the text several times recently and continue to edit it periodically.

I can't tell you more than that, but I'll share a few things.

Le veau d’or est toujours debout

The song "Le veau d'or est toujours debout" from Gounod's opera, Faust (Act 2, Scene 3), which can be heard in these two videos:

Original lyrics:

Le veau d’or est toujours debout;
On encense sa puissance
On encense sa puissance
D’un bout du monde à l’autre bout!

Pour fêter l’infâme idole,
Rois et peuples confondus,
Au bruit sombre des écus
Dansent une ronde folle
Autour de son piédestal…
Autour de son piédestal?..

Et Satan conduit le bal!
Conduit le bal!
Et Satan conduit le bal!
Conduit le bal!

Le veau d’or est vainqueur des Dieux;
Dans sa gloire dérisoire
Dans sa gloire dérisoire
Le monstre abject insulte aux cieux!

Il contemple, ô race étrange!
A ses pieds le genre humain
Se ruant, le fer en main,
Dans le sang et dans la fange

Où brille l’ardent métal!..
Où brille l’ardent métal!..

Et Satan conduit le bal!
Conduit le bal!
Et Satan conduit le bal!
Conduit le bal!

Translation:

The golden calf is still standing
Its power is praised
Its power is praised
From one end of the world to the other!

To celebrate the infamous idol,
Kings and people alike,
To the dark sound of coins
Dance a wild round
Around its pedestal!
Around its pedestal!

And Satan leads the dance!
Leads the dance!
And Satan leads the dance!
Leads the dance!

The golden calf is victorious over the gods;
In its glory so ridiculous
In its glory so ridiculous
The abject monster insults the heavens!

It contemplates, oh strange rage!
At its feet the human race
Rushing, with iron in hand,
Into blood and mire

Where the fiery metal shines!
Where the fiery metal shines!

And Satan leads the dance!
Leads the dance!
And Satan leads the dance!
Leads the dance!

Book

Idol

The golden calf is present in the game as the image on the mug.

The Golden Calf was an idol worshiped by the Hebrews during the Exodus from Egypt in the 13th century B.C. and during the time of Jeroboam I, king of Israel, in the 10th century B.C.

Mentioned in Exodus 32 and 3 Kings 12 of the Old Testament, the worship of the Golden Calf is seen as the ultimate act of apostasy, the abandonment of the faith once professed.

This figure is probably a representation of the Egyptian bull god Apis in the earlier period and the Canaanite fertility god Baal in the latter period.

Paintings

Annushka

In my first video (about paintings) I told you that this painting was taken from real life. This is the painting "Annushka" by Alexander Starodubov.

Alexander depicted on his works the streets of the departing Moscow. The so-called Bulgakov's Moscow. In his works, there are references to the romance "The Master and Margarita".

Firstly, it is the very title of the painting, which may refer to the words of Voland*: "Annushka has already spilled oil", as well as to the streetcar Annushka.

* Satan (Voland) appears already in the first chapter of the book. According to Marietta Chudakova, The Master and Margarita was originally conceived as a novel about the devil, and as a result Voland plays a much more prominent role than Jeshua.

He is tall, dressed in a suit, carrying a cane with a poodle's head on its head, and resembles a modernized version of Mephistopheles. That too appeared to Faust with a poodle, albeit a live one. In Bulgakov's hero, the function of the court animal is performed by the cat Behemoth. Before the Ball, Voland suffers from a pain in his knee, left to him "in memory of a charming witch", with whom he met "in the year one thousand five hundred and seventy-one in the Brocken Mountains, at the Devil's Chair". And here it is worth recalling that the first legends about Dr. Faustus appeared in the XVI century, and the coven on Brocken (analog of the Slavic Bald Mountain) - just the place where Goethe's heroes met the ghost of Marguerite.

In the early editions of the novel, Satan is called "Azazello" and "Veliar". However, the final name of the hero also refers us to the work of the German classic: in the chapter "Walpurgis Night" Mephistopheles is called "Junker Voland" (literally - "Mr. Devil"). The foreign origin ("perhaps a German", Ch. I) and the epigraph from Faust also leave no doubt about the genealogy of Bulgakov's character. At the same time, some researchers, among them philologist Boris Gasparov, draw parallels with Gounod's opera - a stage interpretation of Goethe's Faust. The musical leitmotif that constantly accompanies the novel's narrative leads scholars to this conclusion: among other things, Voland now and again hums arias intended for basses.

So, if the literary prototypes have been sorted out, philologists are still arguing about the real historical persons who could become Voland's prototypes. Marietta Chudakova identifies Bulgakov's Satan with Stalin. To this hypothesis researcher pushed the researcher painstaking work on drafts of the novel and communication with Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova, the widow of the writer. According to Chudakova, the images of Stalin and Voland interlocked after a telephone conversation with the "leader of the peoples", when the novelist, answering the insidiously asked question "Are we (the country? the government?) you completely bored?", said that he changed his mind to go abroad. The conversation with Stalin was favorable for Bulgakov: the unspoken ban on the staging of his plays was lifted, in the press stopped his harassment. At the same time, the writer himself to the end of his life blamed himself for cowardice and cowardice, and the new attitude to himself perceived as the result of a deal with the devil. In the light of this hypothesis, the Voland-Master line acquires autobiographical features.

Boris Gasparov, on the contrary, sees in Voland's image "famous foreigners" who visited young Soviet Russia, such as Herbert Wells, Lyon Feuchtwanger, and André Gide. Thus, the episode with the empty jacket writing resolutions is, according to the literary scholar, an allusion to H.G. Wells ("The Invisible Man").

It is quite possible that Bulgakov, while working on the image of Satan, really remembered both the sympathetic "progressive" foreigners to whom he wanted to escape before his conversation with Stalin, and the "leader of the peoples" himself. One way or another, his Voland turned out to be a very ambiguous figure. He responds to Margarita's requests and even carries out some of Jeshua's errands. Philologist Boris Sokolov called him the first devil in literature, who punishes for non-compliance with the commandments of Christ. And Archpriest Alexander Men denies Voland a satanic beginning at all:

"What kind of devil is he? He has normal moral concepts, he is not Varenukha, not Likhodeev - those are the devils, but he is normal".

I suppose the indirect reference to Voland through the painting is as much a hint to the devil in the HN story.

Let's get back to the references.

Secondly, this is the streetcar under the wheels of which Berlioz died when he slipped on spilled oil. It is possible that in Alpha 1 it was a streetcar that traveled along the tracks (as a reference), or it is just a coincidence.

Third, the spilled oil itself (at least I think it is; something similar can be seen in the author's other works), which is spilled next to the tracks.

Fourth, you can see something that looks like a Behemoth the Cat* in the painting.

* Behemoth the cat, a giant cat, despite all his antics, is perhaps the most charismatic character in the novel. His famous "I don't mess around, I don't touch anyone, I fix the primus" has gone viral, as have his other phrases about alcohol and Dostoevsky's immortality.

The image of a monster called "Behemoth" first appeared in the biblical Book of Job, and then firmly entered medieval legends. The same "History of Man's Intercourse with the Devil" by Mikhail Orlov, which Bulgakov studied while working on "The Master and Margarita", says: "This demon was depicted as a monster with an elephant's head, trunk, and tusks. His hands were of human style, and the huge belly, short tail and thick hind legs, like a hippopotamus, reminded of the name he bears". As we remember, the hero of the novel was also "as healthy as a hippopotamus", while his hands, according to Chudakova, were completely human: the cat could hold a shot glass, take or give money, fix the same primus.

In Faust, by the way, Mephistopheles' poodle is compared to a Behemoth: "I have brought the unclean under my vault! / Opened its mouth like a hippopotamus" (Boris Pasternak). Goethe thus reminded us that Hippo is a demon of gluttony, ready to swallow everything indiscriminately. Bulgakov's character devours everything he finds in Torgsin. And his behavior is the writer's irony over the visitors of the currency store, who seem to be possessed by the demon of gluttony. Philologists have repeatedly tried to find a real prototype of the image of Behemoth. Thus, Boris Sokolov suggested that Bulgakov placed not just anyone in the cat's skin, but one of Lenin's main supporters:

"The similarity with [Grigory] Zinoviev in the novel suddenly acquires a cat Behemoth - a favorite jester of Voland and the closest to Satan of the retinue of demons. Grigory Evseevich, who was fat and liked to eat, acquired cat-like features in his moustache and beard".

It is not difficult to guess that Voland, in Sokolov's version, was Lenin himself.

The hippopotamus in the Devil's retinue plays the role of a court jester. In the episode of Margarita's meeting before the Ball, Voland, angry at the werewolf cat, grumbles: "How long will this buffoonery under the bed go on? Come out, you bloody gans!". "Hans" here is a jester, a fool in the German manner, akin to our Ivanushka the Fool.

Black cats in medieval legends and author's literature often became companions of various unclean forces, but in his role as a jester Behemoth is original. As philologist Georgi Lesskis noticed, in some chapters, despite the tension of the action and gothic surroundings, the behavior, and lines of the cat-werewolf give the events almost Dickensian coziness.

Black cat (?) 1

May have been taken as one of the allusions to the Behemoth the Cat, but there is no confirmation of this.

Black cat (?) 2

May have been drawn as one of the allusions to the Behemoth the Cat, but there is no confirmation of this.

Jesus and Judas

The painting "Kiss Judas" by Mukhin Nikolai Alexandrovich. It was mistakenly considered as proof of a neighbor's twin or twin brother. Even now this version remains relevant, as in season 2 of HNWTRB appears Theodore's brother Franklin Peterson, and earlier in the house of Theodore on the wall could see a picture from the game. But the theory with his brother was disproved in an interview with a youtuber.

14:14

It is difficult to say what exactly these figures refer to. There is no unambiguous interpretation, and one can come across different versions. Below are some of them:

4 Kings 14:14.
And he took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house, and hostages, and returned to Samaria.

The Revelation of John the Evangelist / Chapter 14 And I looked, and behold a bright cloud, and upon the cloud sat one like unto the Son of Man; upon his head a crown of gold, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

Second book of Moses. Exodus, chapter 14. The Lord will fight for you, but you be still

Isaiah 14 verse 14 I will ascend to the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High

Fallen angel

In 2016, it was widely believed that we were being pointed to Lucifer (the fallen angel).

It was also said that this sign referred to Lucy's death and Theodore's words about her from the beginning:

But at that time there was no idea of the girl's death and the comparison of her fall with the flight of an angel. It may be a reference to this sign in the book, but I'm not sure.

All-seeing eye

666

Inscriptions

Peccatori

The inscription Peccatori (on the microwave door) is Italian for sinners.

Acedia

1

Acedia (ancient Greek ἀκηδία — negligence, carelessness, Latin acedia - despondency) is a theological term as well as a melancholic state in which a person sees no meaning in his or her own pursuits. Acedia is caused by loneliness and doubt about the meaningfulness of one's pursuits.

2

There is an ancient demon that early Christians considered one of the most deadly: Acedia. This spirit is not often spoken of. It is a demon that specializes in mediocrity and comfort. His goal is to make sure that we never progress in the spiritual life or achieve the greatness for which we were created. St. Thomas Aquinas defines Acedia as "sorrow for spiritual good." In other words, it is the laziness and sorrow that rises in the heart of man when he realizes his duty to become a saint. In other words, Acedia is the demon that whispers in our ear: "It's too difficult" or "Someone like you can never become a saint."

There are two main ways in which the demon Acedia immobilizes us. First, by dredging up sins from our past to make us ashamed and resentful. Acedia constantly reminds us of how we messed up in high school or college; all the deadly sins we committed and the stupid mistakes we made. Another weapon in his arsenal is to make us worry unnecessarily about future events.

Our minds are consumed with worry about what hasn't happened: "What if my son grows up and gets in trouble?" "What if people find out what I did?" "What if I don't get the job I applied for?" "What if my spouse cheats on me?" "What if... What if... What if... What if..." We can spend hours trapped in our minds, wasting energy worrying about things that aren't even realistic. This mental gymnastics tires us mentally and spiritually, leading to exhaustion and irritability. But Acedia wasn't done yet. After tempting us with shame about our past or anxiety about the future, he offers an escape.

This escape can take many forms: technology, Netflix binges, social media, pornography, alcohol, drugs, careers... Acedia offers all of these as a means of healing our wounds, lack of self-esteem and fears. Eventually, we are left empty, returning to the thoughts we tried to avoid, and the cycle starts all over again. Some people remain trapped in this thinking for years, never truly maturing or progressing in their intellectual or spiritual lives. One final note about the demon Acedia: he will do everything in his power to make us comfortable.

In trying to prevent us from realizing our calling to holiness, he will work hard to convince us that there is nothing wrong with us just the way we are... no need to challenge or convert. It is the people who seek to improve, learn and change who are most dangerous to the rule of evil.

Stix

Nikita said that this inscription refers to mythology and the god of death (but he doesn't remember specifically) and that it was placed on the bottle for a reason.

He could be wrong about something. And I don't rule out that he could have misspelled Styx as well.

Excerpt from Wikipedia:

In Greek mythology, Styx (/ˈstɪks/; Ancient Greek: Στύξ [stýks]; lit. "Shuddering"), also called the River Styx, is a goddess and one of the rivers of the Greek Underworld. Her parents were the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, and she was the wife of the Titan Pallas and the mother of Zelus, Nike, Kratos, and Bia. She sided with Zeus in his war against the Titans, and because of this, to honor her, Zeus decreed that the solemn oaths of the gods be sworn by the water of Styx.

I also found an image with this inscription, which could be used as a basis for the lettering in the word Stix:

Hemera and Nyx: Exploring the Mythical Duo of Day and Night

Hemera and Nyx are prominent figures in Greek mythology, representing the contrasting forces of day and night. Hemera, often regarded as the personification of daylight, is said to be the daughter of Erebus and Nyx. However, other versions suggest that she may be the offspring of Cronos and Helios. Nyx, on the other hand, personifies the darkness of the night.

Their relationship is characterized by the fact that they are never present in the same house at the same time, as Hemera brings forth light while Nyx envelops everything in dark clouds.

And then there's this funny coincidence:

Avaritia

Avaritia is Latin for greed, avarice.

Ignobilium

The inscription IGNOBILIUM can be translated from Latin as Unclear, Vile (probably not an exact translation).

HITLER

HITLER lettering on the faces of children's cubes

Maternal remarks from a neighbor

Mate as profanity, which is considered a sin, could well have been intended as one way of hinting at this side of the story. The neighbor's swear words were in the game's files, and one of the phrases was used back in the prototype.

Ah, shit!
Ah, son of a Jesus! F**k!
Cock!
Come here, ya big f**k!
F**k! Shit!
F**k!
F**king c*nt!
Shit!

Media

Fat man

Here's what Nikita himself said about this Fat man:

Three monkeys

"Three Monkeys" is a stable composition of three monkey figures covering their eyes, ears, and mouth with their paws.

The three monkeys are believed to symbolize the idea of non-doing evil and detachment from the untrue. "If I see no evil, hear no evil, and say nothing about evil, I am protected from it."

On the art, however, the neighbor does the opposite. He looks through his hands like binoculars (looks for, sees evil), shouts (speaks of evil), listens (hears evil).

Devil

It is possible that this art may allude to Berlioz's head being severed by streetcar wheels. It's just a guess.

In the given artwork, Halloween may be a hint of Satan's ball.

Other

Missing Entity noticed the similarity between the bells ringing in the scene of the main character being buried alive in Hello Neighbor - Announcement Trailer ...

... and the bells ringing at the end of this soundtrack from the TV series based on the novel:

Could be an apophenia. Maybe a reference.

If you have any additional information that could help flesh out this article, please share it in the comments below the original GameJolt post.

I was planning to release a video about this on my channel, but for some reason I couldn't. So I had to do it this way.