What follows is bound to contain significant spoilers, for the Devotress scenario and the game in general.

I just finished playing through Pathologic (all 3 scenarios), and I've come to terms with not having every question answered conclusively, but I was hoping to learn a little bit more about the background of two characters - Lara and Julia - in the Devotress' scenario, in the same manner as her other adherents. I'm not sure if I might have missed some information, or if it just wasn't there to begin with.

In Lara's case, there was the debacle involving the attempted assassination of the General in the Bachelor's scenario. I thought that as the Devotress, that event would be the key to unlocking her past, but it seemed to have gone by unmentioned in that scenario. I noticed that on the last day the important NPC's talk (briefly) about their character's "branch"/plotline as one of their random voiced greetings, and Lara talks about meeting her father's murderer. Did that ever happen? Did I miss it? Or was the General the murderer (perhaps, by indirectly commanding Lara's father to a death in battle, assuming he was a soldier)? In which case, that could be the prompting behind her desire for revenge against the General.

Specifically, what bothers me is that, as the Devotress, I'm not clear on why Lara is a criminal and why she deserves to die - and the idea of sending her to her death, however honorable a death it may be, without knowing this makes me uncomfortable. Is she guilty just for attacking the General, or is there something else? I recall she mentioned on the last day something about looking at self-sacrifice as if it were a game, and as a personal challenge to see if she had the strength to go through with it. If I'm missing any important details, I would appreciate being filled in.

And then there's Julia. I'd like to know exactly what crime she committed. If I recall correctly, The Haruspicus confirmed that she is a criminal, but I'm still unclear on the details of her crime. She seems very intelligent. For some reason I entertained the idea that she could have been involved in some kind of highbrow financial scam or something. Maybe because she's constantly talking about her calculations. I dunno, I'm just shooting in the dark here.

As for the rest of the criminals, I feel the least remorse for Gryph and Anna, although I do like them as characters. And Anna's history with the Caravan is delightfully chilling. I'm also less than perfectly clear on the Saburovs' guilt. I was most decidedly not a fan of their overzealousness, and I could see Alexander sentencing innocent people to death in order to serve an illusion of justice, and for personal power gain - maybe that's it. As for Catherina, being a false prophet, she could have unknowingly(?) contributed to unnecessary panic which may have resulted in more lives lost. What was that about Julia being behind the whole scheme? Maybe that's related to her crime...

Anyway, if anyone's up for a discussion on these themes, I'd be delighted. I'm sure there are a lot of nuances I missed due to the patchy translation. Even so, I still consider it to have been a worthwhile gaming experience.

I haven't played the Devotress scenario yet, though I may break down and play it in the next couple of months.

Thanks very much for sharing your thoughts. I can't offer any answers but I will say:

- Julia is one of my favourite characters. I found her fascinating, enigmatic and tragic. She came to the town with the railroad company, when they were building the tracks, and then she stayed. Why, though? No-one (perhaps including her) seemed to know. I guess she was an architect/engineer and I'm sure she could have continued in a good career. But instead she shut herself away in 'Seine.' Why...? Perhaps her 'crime' is something to do with her part in bringing the railroad to town(?)

- The moment where I found out about Anna's past (with the caravan), was for me, one of the most brilliant points of Pathologic. I went from feeling somewhat sorry for her to... absolutely hating her. Great stuff

- Even in The Bachelor's scenario, there was a disappointing lack of resolution to that business with Lara's attempt to assassinate the General

Julia is not a criminal. Except for the fact that the whole bunch's ideology, the theoretical part of it, was created by her. Just for fun, that's why she did it. Quite cruel, in't it?

Lara is not a criminal either. She's just stuck in her memories thus leading a miserable life.

Thanks for your insights.

I never liked Julia as much as I wanted to, and I think it has to do with never quite understanding her motivations (or in some cases, what she was talking about). I mean, when she was introduced to me in the Bachelor's scenario as a woman of reason, I thought I'd like her and we'd really get along, but it didn't quite turn out that way. It's strange, because she seems quite morose, and I usually like that in a person. (I know, I'm twisted. )
Maybe. There was one conversation I had with the Haruspicus, while I was the Devotress, which implied that he knew her secrets, but he was less talkative about it than I would have liked. There was also a connection to Catherina mentioned, which ties in with what MorlokKate said. I think that may be the answer.
I've also entertained the possibility that the definition of "criminal" might need to be widened a bit. Whether or not she committed a crime, perhaps if she's just come to the point where she feels her fate is to embrace death, for whatever reasons she has, then that's sufficient. I may have been looking at things from too narrow a perspective.

I wasn't too clear on Ospina's "crime", either, although I didn't especially like her attitude throughout the game. But if she feels remorse for the chaos that ensued as a result of leading the uprising (presumably violent) among the Order, then I guess that's sufficient, too. Then again, she does seem all around vindictive (except where Burakh is concerned).
The translation may be bad, but I personally didn't find it to be significantly worse than the rest of the game - at least the worst parts of the rest of the game, like perhaps a few parts in the Bachelor's scenario (actually, my memory of it may be off, but I thought Catherina was even less coherent speaking to the Bachelor than to the Devotress - but then, I didn't know some of the things the Devotress knows then either). Frankly, I started to get used to the language of the town, as broken as it may be, and the awkward and sometimes completely nonsensical constructions almost became expected to the point that I stopped questioning them. But as elsewhere in the game, if you put in a little effort, you can extract the important meaning, if you're not too concerned about all the little nuances and details.

Anyway, I did have fun playing as the Devotress, and getting to see the town from yet another perspective. The scenario was difficult, though, between having to deal with a constantly ruined reputation, and having to make many difficult choices and moral decisions where there didn't seem to be any clear "right" answer. It was a challenge in a much different sense than most games attempt.

Thanks for the info. Yeah, after a while, you get completely used to the general style of the translation and the sentence structure becomes normal I will play the Devotress scenario soon. It's been too long since I was last in the Steppe.
Sounds good. When I played through the second time (as Burakh), I found the game much easier than with the Bachelor. Moral choices, though... That can be tough

Yeah, survival became progressively easier the more time I spent in town. I developed all these great skills for surviving, that I wished I'd had to start out with, but then again, learning how to survive (and facing the threat of not surviving) was all part of the excitement. As the Bachelor, I was frequently strapped for cash, and there were days when I thought I might not live to see the next dawn. Then as the Devotress, aside from her specific challenges, I found myself well enough off that I could afford a nice set of army duds by the end of the week!

But yes, the moral dilemmas really weighed on me through Klara's scenario.