Cinematics

Cinematics are one of the ways the story of Darkest Dungeon is told. There are currently three cinematics in the game.

Intro Cinematic
The Intro Cinematic plays when the game is loaded before the main menu. In this, the narrator, also called the Ancestor, writes a letter describing the events preceding the game. Below is a transcription.

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Ruin has come to our family.

You remember our venerable house, opulent and imperial, gazing proudly from its stoic perch above the moor.

''I lived all my years in that ancient rumor shadowed manor, fattened by decadence and luxury, and yet I began to tire of... conventional extravagance. Singular unsettling tales suggested the mansion itself was a gateway to some fabulous and unnameable power.'' ''With relic and ritual, I bent every effort towards the excavation and recovery of those long buried secrets, exhausting what remained of our family fortune on... swarthy workmen and... sturdy shovels.'' ''At last, in the salt soaked crags beneath the lowest foundations, we unearthed that damnable portal of antediluvian evil. Our every step unsettled the ancient earth, but we were in a realm of death and madness. In the end, I alone fled, laughing and wailing through those blackened arcades of antiquity. Until consciousness failed me.''

''You remember our venerable house, opulent and imperial, it is a festering abomination. I beg you, return home, claim your birthright and deliver our family from the ravenous clutching shadows of the Darkest Dungeon.'' __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Road Home
Road Home plays when a new file is started from the main menu. It pictures the travel to the Darkest Dungeon Estate through the Old Road. Following is a transcription:

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You will arrive along the old road.

''It winds with a troubling, serpent-like suggestion through the corrupted countryside, leading only, I fear, to ever more tenebrous places. There is a sickness in the ancient, pittened cobbles of the old road, and on its writhing path, you'll face viciousness, violence and perhaps, other damnably transcendent terrors.''

''So, steel yourself, and remember, there can be no bravery without madness. The old road will take you to hell, but, in that gaping abyss, we will find our redemption.'' __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The End
The End cinematic plays once you defeat the Heart of Darkness in the final dungeon. It describes how the defeat of the heart merely delays the inevitable downfall of the world and the cycle will simply repeat.

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Victory...

A hollow and ridiculous notion,

We were born with this thing, Made from it.

And we will be returned to it, in time.

A great family of man,

A profusion of errant flesh

Multiplying.

Swarming.

Living.

Dying. Until the stars align in their inexorable formation.

And what sleeps, Is aroused once more.

To hatch from this fragile shell of earth and rock, And bring our inescapable end...

So seek solace in your manner, Befitting your lineage.

And take up your nugatory vigil

Haunted forever by that sickening prose, Echoing through the infinite blackness of space and time.

"Ruin Has Come To Our Family"