We thoroughly explore the world of Disco Elysium, its history, politics, its culture and its lore, and how they connect with the adventure of its protagonist
Note: reports marked as "Hunters of lore" contain spoilers of the saga and characters they talk about.
A man is prostrated on the ground in a ridiculous, half-naked position. The face on the cold marble and the ass in pomp. Beside him, pants that he probably took off not long before he fell unconscious, also empty liquor bottles, an aggressively discarded bed and on the other side, a broken window. The owner of this place will not like this.
This disastrous room is located inside the Whirling-in-Rags. A large hostel / cafeteria with the constant runrun of civilians occupying their tables, talking about their problems or escaping them, perhaps for lack of a better place to go. Accompanied by the never-negligible company of a drink, some turn around and make funny faces when they see the man appear in the place, they know who he is even if he doesn't know it.
A quiet instrumental music bathes the atmosphere. Its mundane, mediocre and selfless character seems to indicate that we are on any Monday in a daily place where nothing ever happens, but nothing is further from reality.
>> What's up? What is beyond this?
Outside the hostel / cafe? A small shopping area that saw better times. Cyclopean buildings separated from each other, as if they did not want to be part of the same unit. Most of this is in ruins. A small bookstore is the only thing that remains within a conglomerate of completely destroyed rooms. Its commercial activity is reduced, the place is practically deserted and its owner blames it on a strange curse. The place, however, seems quite desert in itself, without the need for any paranormal intervention.
To the north, beyond the bookstore, a small residential area looks like the worst slum in the world. A block of apartments separated from the commercial area, near a pier with hardly any fishing activity. The only ships he receives are from foreign companies, who come here to do business in which locals have little to say.
To the east, passing the Whirling-in-Rags, a demonstration is taking place. Port workers asking for a more decent salary … The same old story. A wall separates them from the union leader, who leans back in his luxurious upholstered armchair inside his office while stroking his supercharged belly. Meanwhile, south of the demonstration, following a clogged road, carriers are trapped in a row of vehicles that reach beyond Roy's pawn shop, fully operational despite their two daily customers. Some cannot afford to stop working.
>> Ok, but and beyond?
Beyond, to the west, in the middle of bloody terrors and wild vegetation, a thin layer of snow covers the surface. A shanty camp makes that ruinous and decaying commercial area look like a metropolis. The only civilized redoubt in a place without government where they send the elements. A group of inhabitants try to make their life, a simple life, or cross the site merely for work, wishing to be elsewhere.
Others have nowhere else to go, a small group of drunks left their true home a long time ago and now count their sorrows to any stranger among bottles of alcohol. Further north, an old Dolorian church continues to lavish an already forgotten religion. Its imposing facade gives way to a beautiful baroque interior that is already only used for strange physical experiments. A few hundred meters from the church, some young people plan to invade the place and turn it into a nightclub. Give a little life to a desolate place that seems forgotten by all.
>> I want to know more What is beyond?
Martinaisse, this is where we are. A small coastal town located north of the district of Jamrock, in the region known as West Revachol. The order and the law do not apply here, or at least not in a conventional manner. Revachol … before the capital of the world, now fallen out of favor and with brutal economic segregation.
The inhabitants of Martinaisse had the misfortune of ending up on the wrong side of the river, as were those of The Pox, Villalobos or Grand Couron, or those of any part of West Revachol. Condemned citizens. Leading business in decline, living unworthy lives. On the other side of the river there are beautiful residential areas, a fully functioning luxurious banking district and wealthy houses. No sign of it is visible here, it seems another world.
>> … There has to be something else. A better life.
Oh, there is more, much more. But all that the horizon seems to reveal in any direction is a vast ocean that reaches as far as the human eye goes and beyond. Islands and land areas scattered beyond the great archipelago of La Caillu in which we find ourselves. And in the end … Darkness, nothingness: The Pale. A strange fabric that defies physical laws, but that somehow unites the continents that make up the world.
From here, it is difficult to know to what extent life is better in these continents, away from Revachol, away from poverty, but of course it is different. This world has a strange and fascinating repertoire of races, cultures, technology, politics and economics. But there is something evocative in The Pale, something mysterious. We can't take our heads off him now that we know he exists.
Scientists have studied it, religious have tried to explain it, and some merchants and travelers have dared to travel through it, careful of the long-term physical and psychological effects of navigating through a place that should not exist. The Pale say those who have seen it firsthand that it is achromatic, that it does not smell like anything, that it does not know anything, that it is not formed by anything. Like a darkness that envelops the world and penetrates us.
A darkness penetrates Harrier Du Bois' mind every night, speaks to him, causes him painful and frightening visions. He is talking to you now. In this mediocre motel, the man lying on the floor, the one who is half-naked, the one with the empty alcohol bottles on the floor, wakes up … completely ignorant of the world around him.
Elysium
The reality in which we find ourselves is called Elysium. Some scholars refrain from calling it a planet or "world", since the existence of something like The Pale makes nomenclature difficult and puts into play forces that even the scientific is not able to explain.
The Pale accounts for no less than 72% of the known surface of Elysium, and works as a connective tissue that joins the different isolas that make up this world. Scientists in this universe speak of Elysium as a decentralized and dispersed mass with a disk shape and not spherical. The isolas, great continents surrounded by the most absolute nothing, shelter each civilization with their own cultures, architecture, economy and races. Its name comes from "Isolation" for how each of them is completely separated from the others.
There are seven known isolas: The powerful Mundi, the first isola discovered and called the "old, old world", place of some of the most prosperous nations; Seol, famous for its technology and its export trade abroad; the lonely Samara, with her communist government; Graad, the cradle of the revolution; the cold Katla, in which the tundra is the dominant ecosystem; Lilmara and finally, Insulinde.
Insulinde is the isola in which the entire adventure of Disco Elysium happens. Not very different from our land, it is mostly made up of water, and presents the largest body of water in the entire Elysium, known as the Insulin Ocean. The Insulíndico surrounds and bathes all the archipelagos and islands scattered throughout Insulinde. Without doubt one of the greatest discoveries in history and now a symbol of the isola. Navigation in Insulinde opened the doors to maritime commerce, intra-isolar travel and the exchange of cultures.
The archipelago of La Caillu stands as the most important of all Insulinde. Of course it is the largest but it is also the richest culturally and historically … in addition to the most turbulent. Inside, nothing less than Revachol.
But Revachol is insignificant in the global context of Elysium. A fragmented territory within an archipelago in a huge island surrounded by ocean, and that does not even represent 10% of the surface of this world covered with nothing. The great tragedy of Elysium is an even scarier than any revolution or armed conflict. The Pale is taking place, its presence is expanding and soon … nothing will cover everything. Any citizen will take this as a scientific conspiracy to scare the small worker, and any big businessman will see it as unnecessary alarmism, but it is yet to come, and no one, not even Harrier Du Bois, can do anything to avoid it.
The failed revolution, and the fall of Revachol
It is difficult to talk about Revachol without necessarily linking it to the tragic history of its decline, as a capital, as a city, and as a cultural symbol of Insulinde and Elysium.
It is necessary to clarify that we refer to Revachol interchangeably as a city and as a territory that houses within itself different cities and own areas. Revachol was founded 380 years before the events that take place in the game, known as "Dolorian Century." It was a time of prosperity and development for Insulinde in which Queen Irene La Navigateur of Sur-La-Clef, along with her right hand and adviser, the noble Dolores Dei, both from Mundi, discovered the island of Insulinde and with it all its islands and archipelagos.
Dolores Dei would become a very important woman in the history of Insulinde, discovering among other things the intraisolar trip and consequently the Insulinde isola. He was also one of the first philosophers and thinkers of Mundi and Elysium. For his discoveries and his humanistic work he was considered an Innocence (the highest religious figure) and crowned. Venerated for years, by the citizens and by the queen she served, seen with respect and even fear, by those suspicious of her tremendous influence. Years after his early death at the hands of one of the men at his service, he was still venerated almost as a martyr. The Dolorian Church was created around her, and her figure began to be associated with values such as goodness.
This Dolorian century was equivalent to our Renaissance. A time of great cultural expansion, religious fervor and great artistic work. The main value of Revachol commercially proved to be in the export of own materials and substances throughout its territory, from marble to cocaine. During all this time Revachol was considered a superpower, and its rulers became arrogant.
The decline of Revachol was with the Fillipian dynasty, beginning with the mandate of the son of Filippe II the Opulent. Nicknamed "The Squanderer", this prince was the economic ruin of Revachol, and the laughing stock in the eyes of his citizens. He wasted the finances of the territory, set up frivolous and failed companies … Not to mention that many looked suspiciously at their own genetics. The son of Filippe II was born deformed and likewise his son, Philip IV was born with congenital syphilis.
The next (and last) kings of Revachol could not save their territory from economic and political disaster. The penultimate king of Revachol: Guillaume the Lion, launched a strong military campaign with the intention of unifying the different dissident tribes, but this effort proved fruitless. They were too many years of political negligence, and the people and nearby nations were boiling. The revolution was ready to arrive.
The Antecentennial Revolution happened at the beginning of the century in which the Elysium Disco adventure takes place. It began in the year ’02 in the island of Graad and extended to Revachol and Safre (which found its end in ’06). It was a revolutionary armed conflict in which nations rebelled against their governments with the intention of establishing a communist regime.
In Graad, Kras Mazod and his communist party began the revolution in response to a technological expansion truncated by the "chauvinist ties" of Revachol, and exacerbated by a plague that was being badly treated by the government. In Revachol, the bad government of the current dynasty had the population unhappy for years, and the beginning of the revolution in Graad was the incentive they needed. Communists and anarchists joined in what was called the ICM (Insulindian Citizens Militia), with the common goal of overthrowing the local government.
The revolution overthrew the government of Revachol and managed to establish the so-called Revachol Commune in ’06. Along the way the already formed Commune of Hsin-Yao in Safre was lost … but it was not the only defeat in a victory that would know little by little. The communists would soon be expelled by the force of the government they had imposed.
In the year ’08, bombs fell from the sky in Revachol. An alliance of foreign nations known as The Coalition ended the communist regime and imposed control over Revachol, which remained a Special Administrative Region, without its own government and which responded to the orders of the Coalition. By the end of the conflict, 40 million people had died.
The RCM, post-war and occupation police
For the year ’52, the lost plaque of Harrier Du Bois … that man lying on the floor of the mediocre motel and who has no idea of where he is or what his job is, has strong implications in Revachol.
The city of Revachol is already a territory occupied by the Coalition, without the capacity for self-government, without culture, and dedicated to forced labor for the benefit of another nation. To make matters worse, the transition to the Coalition government after the Revolution was not easy.
Almost two decades passed in which Revachol looked like the wild west, The Coalition and its INTERCOM army pursued communists scattered throughout the territory, and in the old capital began to dominate the bands, which in the absence of a proper government, controlled the territory behind INTERCOM and through pillage, fear and illegal trade. For ’21, in the east of the river a situation of stability was reached thanks to the reform of the banking district, creating a relatively quiet area inhabited by wealthy people.
Some of that came west of the river. With wealth came tourism and culture. Revachol, stalled after the war, began to absorb culture and technology from other places. Foreign music was popularized, such as Semanese's album, and technology such as radiocomputers, or programming languages such as the Orbis de Graad, was introduced, which allowed to start flirting with a local cultural industry, such as a failed video game development in last instance.
Political instability for more than two decades led to the formation of the RCM (Revachol Citizens Militia). A private local organization that acted with the approval of the Coalition government and whose purpose was to maintain order within Revachol. In other words, the RCM was instituted as the Revachol police. Although his authority was settled relatively quickly, he is often questioned by a good number of organizations and individuals. To begin with, the RCM is a private company in the free market of Revachol that was established by the foreign government, so it does not have a directly governmental jurisdiction that gives it credibility. On the other hand, the fact of having the approval of the Coalition makes many citizens doubt where the loyalty of the RCM really resides.
As a result, the RCM is ineffective, which does not help to establish confidence in it. The alcoholic, amnesic and unstable Harrier Du Bois (Harry, who we already began to know) that we have as the protagonist is just another bully in the eyes of the citizenship as many of his ex-officio colleagues are by the simple fact of forming Part of the militia. The RCM is not only the police in the eyes of the citizen of Revachol: it is an organization that has endowed itself with power in uncertain times, and that benefits from an ultra-capitalist infrastructure that crushes the little ones.
In Revachol, the police walk through streets full of bullet holes from an even recent war, having to turn a blind eye to certain conflicts and situations of doubtful legality so as not to break the free market infrastructure that controls the territory above Your own jurisdiction.
The morality of what is right and what is wrong is diffuse. It is impossible to escape politics in a world in which everything is political or has political implications. In the coastal city of Martinaisse, unionized workers take to the streets to ask for a higher salary and more presence within the company. In small businesses, employees have abusive schedules, and others make a living selling illegal substances that reach the hands of minors without any intermediary. None of this is illegal or problematic in the eyes of the Coalition government, completely detached from all this beyond maintaining administrative and economic control.
Revachol is perhaps one of the worst places in the world to start investigating a murder. By the time he regains consciousness, Harry will dress and leave that shattered room. You will go down the stairs to the main lobby. When some countrymen turn to see him and make funny faces, he will not remember his name, where he is or what he does there. Nor will he recognize his partner Kim Kitsuragi as one of his own when he sees him waiting for him at the entrance. But even in his complete state of ignorance he may agree on one thing: that corpse hanged in the courtyard, that which wears a strange military armor, that which is less than two streets away from an enraged demonstration of workers … that Corpse is bad news.
