Palia's Dark Side: The Hidden Struggles of Kilima Village (Lore Analysis) 

I totally agree about how dark Palia is. We go and play in the sunshine, or the double moon shine, or underground even; but after a few times of talking with NPC's, I seriously became worried about who contributed to the lore in this game. Meaning, is every dev or lore writer chock full of post traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, facing a life of permanent disfigurement and guilt? (just to name a few). Then we have the only NPC who "appears" emotionally stable, but has this weird obsession with shiny stones, and no amount of fishing meditation restores the inner balance? And I do wish Kenyatta would leave off saying "Don't get murdered". I actually dreaded talking to Reth, because he never sleeps. Got enough real life people I'm propping up without getting involved in a game. Always listen to the NPC's first mutterings; it gives a big clue where they're going, or where they're coming from.

Poor Nai'o he has no self esteem. If you do the romance quest line with him he's always worried about the family having no money. He worries about his clothes having holes in them because they don't have money for new. He also comments on how he seems to not be able to do anything right. Chayne has some darkness when he talks about taking his path as a priest he says first he tried one branch and that didn't work out. He doesn't elaborate on why. The order is reminding me of the Catholic Church families would often send 3rd or 4th sons to serve in the church. And priests aren't allowed sexual relationships. I don't trust Subria either. I'm covering my buddy Zeki's back.

base on the fact that Tamala is able to use flow to stay young, I'm thinking that flow has the capability to alter time, which could contribute into the reasons why humans has re-appeared after the flow cataclysm prior.

I love that it's dark. Gives it depth. Makes me want to see what unravels down the road. After watching this I'll definitely be paying a bit more attention to the lore. Love it!

I agree with you on Delilah...ppl are too quick to jump to the worst conclusions smh she's a hardworkin mom

I think you on the right path about Sifuu wife being one of the beast in the wilderness, because Hassian said he was in reach to kill it but the look of the beast eyes made him some kind of way, so he didn’t kill it. Maybe deep down he felt a familiar sense about the beast. He even said he understood the beast in that moment. I think he may have come face to face with his second mom and didn’t realize it was her in beast form.

Eshe told me that Marrying Kenji was the sister's idea and Eshe went with it. Kenji told me the he liked Eshe back when they were kids and even proposed and showered her with gifts when courting her but it was a 1 sided love story. Eshe confessed to the sister and becomes her lover. But the family ( maybe even the sister herself) did not approve of Eshe( who is from a lower class lawyer family ) to marry the sister who is head of family. Sister told her to marry Kenji to ba part of the family and status but then shuffles them both off to a the far country side. We still dont know why the sister did that or even if the sister loves Eshe back and if she dose why still did she do that.

Thank you so much for this lore recap! I have ADHD and because there is no voiceover and there is a LOT to read, I tend to not pay attention at times and there is no history log, so I can't even go back and read what was said. So thank you!!!

My tinfoil hat theory is that Subira is only our enemy for now. Over the course of the story we might just be able to get her to defect, leading to an escalation in our conflict with the Order. But until then, she's guilty until proven innocent. Don't talk to wizard cops, kids.

I think Subira is innocent, but without YET knowing she's doing the bad guys' work, just like Zeki does for cartel, she does it for the Order, which is either just as bad as the cartel is or it IS the cartel, running it secretly. Subira is starting to realize she's a pawn for the bad guys thanks to our help and will love us so much for helping her free herself from the order and dismantle the cartel at the same time. Awesome video, you rock!

I know this video is older, but i just wanted to point out that on the surface Nai'o seems very average, and happy, with very minimum issues. However, when you think about it. When he talks about his path as a farmer, he doesnt seem sincerely happy (even mentions he wanted to be something else). This seems to me as if he "chose" his path as farmer to be a dutyful son, because Auni has zero interest in farm life. (Theres even several mentions as to how distant the brothers have become since deciding on his path). He also has a "perfect" complex. He is caring and considerate toward others, i would argue too caring and considerate, that he often loses himself in being worried he is not living up to his parents, brothers, or even "us" (the humans) interests. Imo, i think theres def. more to him than we have seen so far.

I am not sure about her yet, at first when she came into the village and used her magic to save Auni i was like "yes love her" but now it seems too good to be true.. she is really nice but i also think she might not be there for the reason we think she is. I want to trust her but I cant.. we shall see

I love how you talked about these characters, I laughed out loud several times. :D And the lore and characters are exactly the reason why I'm so obsessed with this game.

In regards to Delilah, Bedruu sleeps in the barn! Or at least spends all night in the barn. Maybe there is some marital issues there!

itamala s totally Mother Gothel

Wait, Zeki's second pair of ears is a flow-related incident?! 🤯 When does he talk about this? I've done all of his quests but he never said anything. Is it in Shepp dialog?

Gel has always given me a Edward Cullen vibes

From one dialogue with Cheyne, i gathered a small piece of darkness. He said there weren't many kids around him when he was a kid, likely because it's a form of Buddhism he's in. Monks cannot marry or engage in any form of passion, because they think passion is an illusion. He was likely lonely. He did make peace with this and is content now and enjoys the company of Auni. I love his character so much.

outside its just sunshine, cozy, full on positivity etc... but the deeper the story goes, its just... dark D: and i feel it'll be even darker than expected after official release.

The moment she wanted me to help investigate the illegal flow use I was like nooo you are going to make me rat out my loves but I need to be in your good side to protect them dammm nn yoooou

I'm gonna disagree with you on Subira. I think she's genuine, and that's what makes her so dangerous. She's like a paladin. She earnestly believes in doing the right thing--by the principles of the Order. She is truly motivated to do good, but her understanding of right and good differs because it's colored by the Order. She's so disarming because she genuinely cares, genuinely wants to help people. It's not a ploy, she really is like that. But her priorities differ, and she will do everything she does BECAUSE she believes it's the right thing to do. Honestly the best kind of antagonist IMHO

Love the way you explain things. I agree, Subira must have a dark mission and will stab us in the back at some point.

Just found this game and very Happy with the story and gameplay I'm getting for a free game.

I don't trust Subira any further than I could throw her at this point.

In the Inn, behind Ashura's desk with all the keys there is a portrait of a woman. I think this is an important little thing...

Yeesh.. i knew that there was something up but i didnt expect it to be that dark... i kinda like it

Great video!

thank you for telling the story

I don't trust Subira either... and I severely dislike Tamala, and she's the only one I've refused to max out. You're right, the backstories are painful and dark.

Dark side and Dark video. Digging it.

i too have the big sad lol but same i felt that

I'd love to see what you'd make out of My time at Portia, or My time at Sandrock. Those games have some pretty dark backstories too.

There is a dialogue with Eshe were she mentions being the daughter of a lawyer and that she wanted to do good things with Kenyara and that her marrying Kenli was Kenyara's Idea so they could work together and then Kenyara double crossed her afterwards. Wish I had taken some screen shots of it.

Every npc has some issue that gives an opportunity for positive dialog. Kenyatta is a rebellious teen and there are dialog opportunities that give "proper" advice. Yes! Eshe was in love with Kenyarra! I'm certain about it. But politics dictated she marry the eldest and heir. That's my theory, lol. I'm not seeing anywhere that someone would be out of line loving the same gender. Hassian has two mothers, the sage has two fathers. It's not unusual. Politics screws up everything.

I know I'm kinda late but I wanna add one thing, it seems Subira is trying to recruit Auni into the Order. The boy mentioned wanting to be part of the Order if you do your daily chats with him. And when you click on the gifts button, he would tell you what Subira wants as a gift which implies she spends time bug-catching with him.

Anyone else have the voice over completely cut out at 13:12?? Just when we were getting to the Hassian tea!

I would love for Subira to be an antagonist.

Eshe told me that marrying Kenji was Kenji sister's (idk name) idea and Eshe went with it, Kenji did like her when they were kids and tried to propose back then too. Short answer : Eshe married Kenji to be part of the family and status. Kenji's family( maybe even the sister herself) didnt accept Eshe (who is from a lower class lawyer family) to be with Kenji's sister. So what happend was that Eshe confessed her love and became lover to the sister but then marries the brother cuz she is not good enough to be with the head of the family.

Plz let us ride around on skateboards, they already have the models for it

You won’t hurt Nai’o by dating Kenyatta if you date both! At one point I got to suggest to her that we could all just be together, and she says she didn’t ask because she thought humans weren’t into that. So now I’m in a throuple. Although Hassian will always be number one, but they don’t have to know that. 😅

I have my doubts about that antagonist theory. I will leave you with all the lore bombs I recall from the daily small talk at LV3 and some LV4 quest spoilers in a reply.

WOW! and I was just going along playing the game..... OMG

You just sum up the average story in a dutch street.. thank you

It's actually darker than you think if you *really* stop and dive into some of the characters. My autistic hyperfocus sunk its claws into Hassian, Tamala, and Sifuu, and it's fucking heartbreaking. Tamala is straight up abusive. And I mean if you romance her she's abusive to you, and she's still behaving abusively towards Hassian by humiliating him and isolating him as best she can. She talks about him constantly (and never in anything but a demeaning way) and there's implications here and there that she's controlling chapaa's the mess with him or that she placed a quest item to embarrass him to the humans. Meanwhile we probably all figured out that Sifuu is an alcoholic but look at her bedroom. There's broken furniture, damage to the walls as though she's thrown drinks around, and the main part of the house is carefully maintained but in the exact same way as Hassian's room. He also strongly associates sleeping indoors (presumably at his mum's house) with sleeping badly and explicitly references this. There's plenty there to imply that Sifuu is an aggressive (if not abusive) drunk and/or that she's prone to intentional or accidental self injury while intoxicated (thus Hassian staying to look after her) and that he's maintaining the home in an attempt to hide how bad things really are. But it gets even darker the more you stop and think about it because, for several reasons, Hassian's pretty isolated and vulnerable to abuse, even though he's an adult now. We know from Taylin's letters that he's no older than 22 with 18-20 being more accurate (the letters were written 10 years ago and were very obviously written to a child, not a teenager). We also know from her letters that he was a proficient hunter even then, and we know from daily chats with Tamala that she lured Hassian to her bedroom the first time she met him. We also know it's common for teens and pre-teens to have jobs there, with Auni being what, 10-12? He's listed as a child not a teen and he's missing a tooth so assuming the biology is the same as for humans, yeah, 10-12, probably closer to 12 tho. So... yeah. Odds are she started her "relationship" with Hassian when he was under 18, and even if she didn't did I mention the bit where she's abusive? But even that gets worse when you remember it's just him and his mum, and she's alcoholic and pretty hypersexual. She knows Tamala broke his heart but that seems to be it. Does she even know the full extent of what happened between them? Does she know Tamala was abusive, or when or how it started? Did he hide it because he was scared his mum would go after Tamala and they'd be outcast again, or he'd lose another parent? Did he tell her but she was drunk and acted like catching the interest of a sexy older woman was a good thing? They're all plausible. *And it gets even worse* when you know Tamala fucks around with sleep and charm magic, and remember that Auni's "cursed" item was found in ruins near her house and they lured him into the woods in his sleep, or that a book with magic somehow finds its way into the library without Caleri noticing but in a way Auni can fine, or that she seemed eager to offer you her services until you told her you were there for Auni's charm, or that Najuma left the house in her sleep the night of Leta's death but doesn't remember doing it, or that she too found her way to the mines near Tamala's house, or when you realize Ashura and Sabine lived near Tamala until Sabine's death, or when you add in the theories of Tamala being/creating the elderwood beast.... There's seriously so much I could dive into with these folks but jfc it's so messed up.

Indeed Palia is not cozy.

Boy…. 👀 My character is dating Reth. He says “oh, you like bad boys.” 😉 lol made me blush fr 🤣

*That's* what she does with the potato? How did I miss that???? 😢

13:47 Totally not me getting one more reason to protect the lil Tsundere boi. I like how they wrote his character, but I kinda personally dislike his looks. I also love this representation of diversity in terms of Hassian's mothers. It's just a casual information you'll pick up at some point. It's exactly that what I'm looking forward to.

I just wanted to play cozy game 😭

I just started this game and already think Jil is a vampire lmao humm why would i the innocent one thing this lmao love this video

omg jel a vampire well i think he is hotter now

Is this game still going?

Am I doing something wrong? The Sibira storyline has come to a dead end for me. I got the furtniture recipes and made them and then nothing. There's been no mention of her since.

ok

Nowhere can you find Kenlis supposed sister...

Guess I just spoilered myself and kinda lost interest in the game because of it. Not what i had hoped for in this game tbh so... ehh. Off to find something else and abandon my acc. Not like that's hard with the boatload of annoying bugs that seemingly never get fixed (unless it has something to do with the real-money store, then they can suddenly push a quick fix even before christmas) and the _massive_ memory leak that'll eat up 64GB RAM for breakfast in a matter of 5-6 hours game runtime