Come now, you haven't given us any time to change the set!
This entry contains potential spoilers for Pathologic 2. Read at your own risk. |
This entry contains potential spoilers for Pathologic 2. Read at your own risk.
Name |
Clara (Клара) |
Nickname |
Changeling (Самозванка) |
Faction |
Humbles |
Layer |
Nerves Pieces (Marble Nest) |
Status |
Alive |
Family |
Alexander Saburov (adoptive father) Katerina Saburova (adoptive mother) |
Voice | |
Russian Voice |
Maria Volkova |
English Voice |
Jessica McIntyre |
Clara — also known as the Changeling — is a mysterious young girl who claims to know how to create miracles. She is to be one of three playable characters, alongside the Bachelor and the Haruspex.
Description
“ | The Changeling is skin, this is about contact and caress, kinesthetic things... ...The Changeling’s overarching idea is contact as a means to create meaning, develop the world and bring peace to it... ...The Changeling talks... ...The Changeling: vapor + sideways vector. |
„ |
— [from the game’s design documents] |
Clara is a mysterious girl that can either heal or kill with her bare hands. For this power she is both revered and shunned, existing in a constant balancing act.
Background
It is unclear where exactly Clara came from. She appears to many as a thief, slipping in and out of places with ease. This is to be due to her self proclaimed sainthood, as she is said to be able to open any door as easily as she would cure the sick. Not all believe this, however, as the Bachelor openly wonders why a saintly girl would need a pocket full of lockpicks.[1] Some claim she is something more sinister - that she is the Sand Plague itself, walking around on borrowed feet. To many it appears as if there are two girls who call themselves Clara as she often appears in two places at once, or moves much too quickly for one lone girl.
Clara did appear to have a childhood, at least, as she claims in a pantomime that when she was six years old she fell in love with a kind boy named Matvey, though the Bachelor calls her a liar.[2]
Appearance
Clara has grey eyes and a red knit beanie on her head, which covers her baldness. She wears a tattered yellow shirt under a green and brown coat, and a tattered denim skirt. She wears fingerless brown gloves, mismatched socks, and chunky brown boots. A red knit scarf is wrapped around her, with fishbones that she calls "hooks" woven into it. She is very sickly looking, with a smile that is both sinister and childish.
Plot
Haruspex Route
Clara is first found in Lara's Shelter hungry and looking for bread to steal. As she is caught by the Haruspex she will tell him that he is prophesied to "spill rivers of blood" and urges him not to act, as anything he does would only cause harm. The Haruspex shoos her away and reports back to Lara Ravel. Lara insists on letting her be, eager to help a girl in need.
Prior to the Haruspex's arrival to Isidor Burakh's funeral Clara, alongside Grace, watches as the Earth rejects Isidor's body. She watches Grace grow distressed about the burial and, upon his arrival, informs the Haruspex that she suspects Grace would take Isidor's place if she could. She theorizes to the Haruspex that the Earth may be rejecting his father because though he tore the Town apart in order to heal it, he never got to stitch the wound he made closed. She disapproves of Isidor's surgical methods - and, by extension, the Haruspex's - claiming that she would have done it differently, claiming that she works not with meat, but with souls; feelings.
Though she did not personally know Isidor Burakh (as he was already dead by the time she arrived in the Town) she still comes to Isidor Burakh's House to pay her respects to the man. While inside she is confronted by the Haruspex who demands to know why she is in his father's home. She reveals that through talking to a number of Townsfolk she has come to find that Isidor was quite beloved by the Town, and she wishes to understand why people thought of him so highly. She asks the Haruspex is he is going to live in his fathers house to which the Haruspex responds that no, he will not. He doesn't want to live in the home where his father was murdered.
Clara is involved with the tidings of the Mistresses, claiming that one day maybe she will be one too. She is also involved with the games of children, appearing in Notkin's Soul-and-a-Half Fortress when Patches falls ill. If the Haruspex has a Shmowder on his person she will urge him not to use it as to those who are already weak it can kill them rather than heal them.[3]
She is temporarily adopted by the Saburov's[4], becoming the powerful daughter the pair had always wished for. Her stay in the Saburov household is short-lived as she leaves to protect them from crowds gathered around the Rod that believe she is the cause of the Plague. She appears to love and care for the two, asking the Haruspex to keep an eye on them - particularly Katerina Saburova.
Following the outbreak, Capella becomes obsessed with searching for her mother's memory. In some houses she hears a melody she says only her and her mother could known. She tells Clara of this. Though Clara searches she comes to the ultimate conclusion that it is not the spirit of the White Mistress and that there is no life after death - at least not in the way Capella hoped.[5]
Following the arrival of the Military to the Town Clara's powers disappear. She does not know why she cannot heal anymore and is distressed by the occurrence, having promised Alexander Block that she was capable of miracles. She will beg the Haruspex to lie on her behalf, urging that he cure a patient of the Sand Plague so that she does not seem untrustworthy. On the final day she has failed to heal once more, having become caught up in a shootout between the two bands of the Military. She can be found at their camp with her hands stained red with blood. Clara claims that she has healed 300 people during the epidemic before her powers disappeared.[6]
In the Diurnal Ending Clara can be found in both the Termitary and by the Cape. The Changeling in the Termitary will lament that her legs are failing, and berate the Haruspex for not realizing the scope of what he has done. The Clara in the Cape will have grown into her role, and is planning her future as a Mistress.
In the Nocturnal Ending one Clara takes her place as a Mistress atop the Polyhedron joining Grace, the Mistress of the Dead, and Taya Tycheek, the Mistress of Bulls. The other resides in the Abattoir, by the heart Chamber.
Pathologic: The Marble Nest
The Changeling does not appear in the Marble Nest, though she is noted as being alive.
Spoken Dialogue
Gallery
Changeling and the Bachelor
Changeling in the Shelter
Changeling in the Day 2 pantomime
Changeling in a dream
Changeling with local children
Changeling outside the Nutshell
Changeling at the Crowstone
Changeling awaiting the Inquisitor's arrival
Changeling with Alexander Block on Day 11
Changeling in the Diurnal Ending
Changeling in the Nocturnal Ending
Changeling in the Late Ending
Official Art
- RemakeClara3D 2.png
Changeling's remake 3D model
Animation Video
Notes
- In Pathologic 2 Clara's character design was changed to portray the duality of her nature better. Clara's lack of hair is to symbolize both religious initiation and a grave illness, "either a holy fool or a ringworm case", a saint who’s also the plague.[7]
- Her name is a tribute to Saint Clare of Assisi. [8]
- During the events of Day 11 the Changeling's hands become covered in blood. She will continue to have bloody hands in both the Late and Deal ending provided the Haruspex performed an action after the day roll at 7:30. If the Haruspex simply sleeps until the Late Ending the Changeling will have clean hands instead. The same happens to the Bachelor.
References
- ↑ It is said that Clara the Changeling, a thief girl who claims to be blessed, can open any door just as easily as she heals the sick, by laying on hands. Why are her pockets always filled with lockpicks then? - Bachelor Demo Marble Nest Touch detail for Lockpicks
- ↑ I fell in love for the first time when I was six. A kind boy with freckles. And you know, these days I… his name was Matvey. - Haruspex Route, Day 5 Pantomime
- ↑ "Not to mention they're terrible for your health! You know the only time people eat a pile of random pills? When they want to kill themselves! You don't even know what it's made of. Leave the boy alone. If you're so keen on poisoning someone, eat it yourself." - Haruspex Route, Day 3
- ↑ "Just something about her. You know me, I've got a keen intuition. Wouldn't have made it this far otherwise. I feel she's… not entirely human, even. The Saburovs took her in."
- ↑ Changeling: What do you want, Ripper? Are you trying to catch the White Mistress, too? It's futile, Burakh. She won't help anyone anymore. Won't save anyone.
Haruspex: Why are you here?/Haruspex: Was that you playing?
Changeling: I'm running the same errand you are. Looking for Mother Victoria. And getting paid handsomely for it, by the way. Are you? I am. So here I am, playing. Perhaps someone will respond. But it's futile. No one does. Well, you did, but what use do I have for a moron like you?
Haruspex: So it wasn't her soul…
Changeling: So it wasn't.
Haruspex …So there's no White Mistress anymore?
Changeling: So there isn't. In any shape or form. Did you really hope for something different? - ↑ "Over the course of… what, eleven days? Three hundred or so… I haven't counted. But today… today I couldn't heal anyone. I was late…" - Haruspex Route, Day 11
- ↑ Pathologic 2 Artbook
- ↑ Ice-pick Lodge AMA on Reddit