Us About (Im)Mortality’

Lysiane Lasausse, University of Helsinki. @nordllys

https://twitter.com/MidAgesModGames/status/1279043050367524865

1 #MAMG20 The Viking & French Middle Ages historically had different visions of life and death. However, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and A Plague Tale: Innocence are here to show us that (im)mortality, redemption and the chase of eternality may be time-/spaceless pursuits.

2 #MAMG20 In #Hellblade, Pict warrior Senua is on a mission to recover Dillion's - her lover - soul from Viking hell, Helheim. Hela, the ruler of the realm, is the only one who can bring him back - a power borrowed from Norse mythology.

3 #MAMG20 Hela shows Senua that Dillion was not meant to be saved, and that she has to come to terms with his death, as well as her own trauma and psychosis. In Viking culture, death was unavoidable, and no one was supposed to come back (not even gods, see the story of Baldr).

4 #MAMG20 This contrasts with the setting of A Plague Tale: Innocence, set in 1348 France. Heroes Amicia and Hugo escape from the Inquisition to seek help for Hugo's illness, an evil power believed to be responsible for the hordes of plague rats taking over Aquitaine.

5 #MAMG20 Grand Inquisitor Vitalis Bénévent covets Hugo's powers to cure himself of The Bite (the plague). Mad with power, he also seeks to control the plague rats to establish a new world order and ascend to a god-like status. The church banishes him and the heroes defeat him.

6 #MAMG20 Although set in two different timelines and spaces, the stories of Hellblade and A Plague Tale bring forward the ancestral fear of death, and the race against human temporariness.

7 #MAMG20 Playing with the concepts of light and darkness, both games reverse these notions' roles. In Hellblade, Senua delves into the shadows of Hell to find a reason to keep fighting. She faces her own darkness, her illness, to begin grieving for her lost love.

8 #MAMG20 In A Plague Tale, the Catholic church, overtaken by Vitalis' lust for power, reminds us of the bloody history of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages. The game reminds us through religious zealotry and superstitions of the human propensity to turn to the dark side.

9 #MAMG20 Most importantly, these games bring us closer to the Middle Ages. As a historical period that is often portrayed as superstitious and in opposition to the intellectual Age of Enlightenment, modern culture tends to distance itself from this era.

10 #MAMG20 But these games establish a point of contact with this time period, to remind us that perhaps it is not, spiritually, as far as we’d like to believe. The light/dark, good/bad dichotomy is ever present, and the need for control over death is still a major concern.

11 #MAMG20 Medieval fears and superstitions around death still exist. These games appeal to our idea of medieval fantasy, but also bring the medieval concerns back to us: diseases, life after death... The underlying message is that we lack control over our mortal enemy.

12 #MAMG20 Perhaps these stories resonate with us, now more than ever, because of like the heroes of Hellblade and APTI, we keep fighting for our light to perhaps finally triumph over the darkness of death.