The Dishonored Series as Environmental and Social Commentary
a passing resemblance to a whaling tool called the “ boarding knife . 14 ” National Geographic ’ s historical information on whaling describes boarding knives as “ long , sharp swords whose use was usually limited to the ship ’ s officers . Boarding knives were used to poke holes in blankets as the blubber reached the deck . A hook would go through the hole , and sailors would hoist the blanket as high as their ship ’ s mast ” ( n . p .). The otherwise unidentified cultists that The Outsider describes as killing him transform into the crew of a whaling vessel , the instrument of his rebirth and potential death at the hands of Billie Lurk , a tool used to strip blubber from carcass .
The second critical narrative clue provides a more direct link between The Outsider and a previous life as a creature of the deep . As is a hallmark of The Dishonored series , players always have at least two options for completing quest objectives , and one of those is always a nonlethal resolution . The game privileges nonlethal over lethal solutions , requiring critical thought and assessment of the environment and a full exploration of it . In Dishonored : The Death of The Outsider , the player embodying Billie can opt to either kill The Outsider , as her former mentor Daud pressures her to do , or save him . It becomes apparent when Billie finally reaches the place where The Outsider ’ s physical form lies trapped in the Void 15 that his fate has been terrible , confined between life and death . Billie comments of his state , “ But you ’ ve always been at the mercy of bad people , haven ’ t you ?” However
14 Pictures of boarding knives can be found here http :// americanhistory . si . edu / onthewater / collection / AG _ 026608 . html
15 While The Outsider can manifest a spirit form in the real world , he is otherwise trapped in the Void . The narrative hints that a different afterlife exists , the place , for example , to which Jessamine ’ s spirit is finally released , and that the Void is more of a prison for the souls trapped there than anything else .
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