The Real Life Horrors of the DREDGE | Dead by Daylight Lore Deep Dive

[@meowkittymeowmeow2786]

I feel like they could do a Dredge lore tome by having a series of short snippets from the townspeople making up the Dredge itself

[@Kind_Reaper]

I hope this soon becomes a reality

[@irontarkus6515]

I sorta agree about how the base dredge design isn't as scary as it could be, the new very rare outfit it got is nothing short of nightmare fuel for me. If you haven't seen it yet, you should look at it

[@PixelBush]

I LOVE the dolls outfit. It really goes ham in a way the original design just doesn't in my opinion.

[@campbellmackintosh6446]

@@PixelBush definitely, It has separate animations and sounds too which is so exciting to see, I am impressed by the dredge, it really is different

[@HB-fq9nn]

@@PixelBush Btw, when the Dredge falls off of a ledge and hits the ground, you see it’s entire body collapse, and then reassemble itself. It’s so cool to see!

[@tavinprice2310]

@@PixelBush I bought that chapter, saw the skin, then proceeded to go walk back to my local Family Dollar and buy another card just to buy this absolute 10/10 skin

[@Sarah-qx4vz]

Seeing the baby arm on the base design was disturbing But I have an 8 month old

[@emmargue675]

I’m only at 6:30. However, i think you have a misunderstanding of what the dredge is. It’s not a something else inhabiting another’s body; it’s the shadow. The bodies are just a display of the corpses that it has consumed. That’s why in the mori the survivor gets swallowed by the darkness. It literally is shadow given form.

[@MaxiDerFuchsgeist]

I was looking for a comment like this, I'm not the only one who thinks the same😁

[@FookMi69]

Jim Jones was such a terrifying man. I remember doing research on him and hearing the mass suicide that he and his cult committed. Its unbelievable how evil he really was.

[@Sarah-qx4vz]

Everyone that is familiar with cults knows all about that incident. He’s the most infamous cult leader.

[@GuardiaCompagnia]

@Golf Whiskey theres a difference between being stupid and gullible, plus stupid people dont deserve to die lmfao

[@LarryWater]

I’m glad only stupid people died.

[@Cure_Hana]

I remember watching a documentary that interviewed a handful of survivors who actually managed to escape Jonestown right before the massacre. They explained their own experiences with the cult and how they slowly began to notice Jim’s true colors cracking beneath the surface as he grew more paranoid about the US government coming after him. Even his own adopted son, Jim Jones Jr., decided that he had enough when he received a call during the massacre ordering him to take the cyanide he and his friends had on hand (they were out in a nearby village playing basketball), but instead chose to defy his father and continue living.

[@grenadesblows719]

I really like how they brought Otto stamper back and how he’s such a bastard, it makes what Herman did to him in his story seem like divine justice in a way the person who had all the community of the Fold in his palm of his hand. Is reduced to an glorified experiment for someone else to toy with. Just found it cool is all :))

[@joyfulleader5075]

He played and tormented people like his personal toy and Herman turned him exactly into that. Karma at its finest

[@drivernephi7494]

I had a mini stroke reading you’re comment

[@alexanderhood8993]

​@@joyfulleader5075 not only that but it's possible doctor was possibly trying to recreate the dredge by subjecting his mentor to the same treatment he subject people of the fold to as apart of his experiments he is recreating his mentor experiments by using his mentor as a test subjects.

[@diabolicalpotate]

I wonder how much of the Dredge's design is limited by the requirements of DBD hitboxes and things such as needing to predictably use flashlights, minimise unwanted bodyblocking with models etc. They probably need to keep some linearity in the killer design for them to feel 'fair' and might not have been able to go super outlandish because of this. That's just wondering out loud though. It sets a nice start for non human killers and I hope we see more of them!

[@pvmchrisy]

They should have added the flashlight hit box random across his body every game and you Havs to find witch head/part to aim at

[@sev1120]

Here's my personal ideas as to how Dredge's lore could be improved (and stamper's too): Have the Garden of Joy be the name of the town, not The Fold, and have the inhabitants be referred to as something like "the joyful" Stamper should have a reputation of philanthropy. Either that, or have it be disguised as an experiment on how a person will react in an environment without negative stimuli, which is then twisted by Stamper's true intentions Also inclufe your ideas of any negative thoughts being so criminalised crying children are taken from their parents and mourners are forced at gunpoint to smile, but make it more intense. The Dredge, to me, feels like a horror brought on by inevitability. So, have the children born in the garden be the first to take up arms for Stamper. They've been raised to believe he is always right, and they don't even know that emotions other than joy exist. So it'd be even more terrifying if the slaughter was done by people with a perpetual smile on their face. It foreshadows the doctor's disfigurement if you read the lore in chronological order, instead of release order.

[@kitnal4143]

For me the big reason why they didn't want to name the cult itself something cheesy like "the garden of joy" or name the cultists "joyfull" because it then leans a bit too much into a standard cult. By it simply being a town with only one rule, be happy, it allows the reader to not immediately think "oh, religious cult" and let's the themes of psychological repression and horde mentality take center stage first.

[@alexanderhood8993]

​@@kitnal4143which is strange since horde mentality and psychological repression is essentially what religions is when it come to evils commited in name of faith religious wars religious persecutions, inquisitions, witch and werewolf hunts, all of that is essentially punishing people for thoughtcrimes with religious police being a type of thoughtpolice. So it make no sense as why humanity don't look at religious cults and think of psychologically repression and horde mentality considering that is essentially what all religion and fight for culture values is essentially is culture police are also a thoughtpolice esssentially as well.

[@P.H691]

When I saw the dredge, I was like “oh my god it is so ugly, I must have it!”

[@bench5236]

I like the name Greg. I shall call him that.

[@tylersullivan4446]

Greg likes to boogie

[@AliCatDarling]

So, I do have to argue that "The Fold" sounds too culty for anyone to believe people would join. There are plenty of cults that have/had names with such "THIS IS A CULT" energy and they still had tons of people join. Look at Heaven's Gate or Love Has Won. Cults thrive off of people who are looking for a place to belong, and names like The Fold, while extremely unsubtle, make people these vulnerable people feel like they're part of something special. And as far as naming after Otto's first name, I'm fairly certain that was a reference to David Koresh and the Branch Davidians.

[@VSPhotfries]

"Happy Science" is another good example. "Scientology" was literally formed after a bet about religion and is one of the most Culty things ever seen, and it's (relatively) HUGE. People absolutely fall for things waaaaay crazier than this story, and it being fictional it's easy to criticize the "obvious" things we already expect by the nature of the story as "predictable" when they're actually LESS crazy and on-the-nose than the real stuff. Apparently truth is indeed stranger than fiction to the point fiction has to strive to be "more real than real" for some folks. ...and admittedly, I am one of those folks, so I'm not tossing stones in a glass house. XD

[@kimberlyterasaki4843]

I am really fascinated by the dredge because I can’t wait to see how it will be narrated. The Dredge itself telling the story is unlikely but hearing from Stamper or the residents of the Garden is something I’d love to see.

[@melon-y9501]

if/when The Dredge gets tome lore, I'd imagine it'd be told through a really non-standard way, like snippets of different people telling their own stories. The Dredge is made up of lots of different people, so seeing lots of different stories and memories would be really cool.

[@seattlegirl14]

So, I'll agree with you over how hamfisted the lore is, but I will disagree with you over the Dredge's design. The very first time I saw "Greg", I visibly and verbally recoiled so hard, my partner asked if I was alright. I'm a hardcore horror fan. I'm used to the grotesque and the morbid; I'd even say I happily indulge in the brutal macabre of horror, and it takes a lot to get me to recoil as hard as I did when I saw the newest killer, and even more so to do so verbally. He(?) is the worst nightmare of adults and children, blended into one. But he's also a living nightmare, more so than our other resident dream demon. He moves like he's in a dream, and to know he's DBD's version of a boogeyman, made him even worse in my eyes. The Dredge is, in the best of my understanding, The Entity made flesh, stitched together with the partially decomposed, the freshly dead, and cloaked in the black fog. It shouldn't move how you expect, like a puppet or a golem. That would be too uncanny, too able to sympathize or replicate. It's not real, and yet, it is too painfully real; it is a paradox made brutal flesh. You could even argue that This Dredge, here in the Fog, is made of not just the bodies of the cultists of The Fold, but every survivor who never made it out of the match, every offering to the Entity taken from the hooks. The hands in the shadows could be those of your fallen teammates, the faces too familiar the one you watched get mori'ed three matches ago, before someone returned to the campfire.

[@GeneralGoosey]

I agree with the lack of subtlety, but as a "first intro" to the Dredge, it worked for me. It came across like a campfire story - whether accidentally or not, the roughness and heavyhandedness seemed to fit that. I actually think they have quite a lot of options for adding to the story now, and can easily soft-retcon "the Fold" as just the name the outside world knew it as.

[@Sutairu_Masuta]

I think it would be a better idea to claim that the bio here was written by Herman Carter as an interpretation of the story told to him by Stamper. Carter obviously knows the real role of the Fold and what it was supposed to be, but he's written the first part of it before meeting Stamper face-to-face and learning what really went on there, adding more details to his notes. It establishes that the excess of detail can be added by Carter who uses codenames instead of what the town was known as to the public.

[@eldoony]

The thing I like about the Dredge's dark mist is the fact that it feels like its actual 'mouth'. If not a mouth, a gateway for it to expose its limbs and body. From the long arms wielding with knifes and literally *Maurice* flopping out of it at the bottom, it adds both an element of mystery and also a threatening presence to Dredge. It infers that what we're seeing of it is potentially only a fraction of what it actually is. Considering the fact that it is made up of potentially hundreds of civilians of The Garden of Joy, it makes you wonder the actual scale of this creature - biological, but constructed.

[@sad-death]

The dredge is just the entity manifested

[@gamesforfun9492]

My thoughts exactly. With all the voices crying out and the many hands coming out of the darkness, I feel like the Dredge has the equivalent of the head and hand of a much larger body poking through a hole in reality. The Dredge doesn’t seem to have a mouth so all those cries of anguish must be coming from its “body” in the darkness.

[@Xmas-yg1lz]

@@sad-death It seems like it. Both feed on humans in many ways. The Dredge's Mori reveals claws that are similar to The Entity. Perhaps a variation of The Entity or a creature similar to it?

[@sad-death]

@@Xmas-yg1lz I feel like it's maybe like a child to the entity both are dark thoughts manifested both are eldritch beings of old. They are very much alike I honestly hope bhvr takes advantage of that aspect because it and The Shape are the literal boogeyman of DBD both unfeeling uncaring living off the lust of agony and despair.

[@SciMick]

The Dredge is one of my favorite lores rn because it's so out of the formula that feels refreshing, but I totally agree with the lack of subbletty. A tome exploring the point of view of a resident of the Garden of Joy could answer many of the problems in dregde's lore by showing why people joined the fold or how things changed for the worse once people were living there. Also, a text showing how a person felt his emotions and body contorting to be a part of The Dredge could be a new body and psychological horror never explored in DBD

[@justkaizer4]

Personally I find the names "ottomarians" and the "fold" to be more believable than you did. I think perhaps you are falling for an, admittedly nearly ubiquitous, fallacy. That smart people don't join cults because they would recognise how obviously culty they are. However cults strike at the vulnerable not necessarily the ignorant. I think "the fold" as a name is meant to evoke the phrase "welcome to the fold". It's supposed to illicit a shelter from the outside world, like jonestown was also supposed to be. Just my thoughts though. Great vid as always, you explain the lord well so that even people like me who don't play dbd at all can get invested in the stories.

[@richt7525]

"The fold" sounds like an edgy new department store or office building. I'm probably susceptible to falling into a cult someday, but i guarantee you it won't be called something like 'the fold'. It isn't merely culty, it's devoid of substance and extremely off-putting. As for the Ottomarians.... lol. Just lol. Amateurishly idiotic name. Where does the 'marian' bit come from? Makes them sound like some group of sea otter fanatics. It's a terrible name, all around. Laughably embarrassing, even.

[@skomolowski]

@@richt7525 You would be surprised how many stupid names made people happy to have it in history. Centurion means basically, and back then everyone knew that, the hundred guy. Because he leads a hundred people. I think you are smart enough to see how dumb cults are, but not enough to not look down on others. Remember, people fell for stuff like The Fold many, many times over with it being even more obvious. JWs being main example.

[@swashhustler1326]

Honestly as a more modern example you can look at Jared Leto's cult and his island of followers worshipping him as he dresses a little un-subtley jesus-like. And honestly I never really feel really good when people act all "oh cults are so easy to spot youd have to be stupid to not see an obvious cult" because those people more often than not tend to be more susceptible to cult manipulation tactics than they realize

[@richt7525]

@@skomolowski You're smart enough to know ppl fall for the dumbest things, but not enough to grasp what I was even talking about. Annoying when others presume to judge your intelligence, isn't it? I suppose we're equally condescending. 'Ottomarian' is a terribly stupid name. It isn't like 'centurion', which perfectly explains itself, it is instead utterly devoid of any logic whatsoever and was seemingly pulled out of a hat. In this case, a helmet. There's no dissuading my opinion there. Stupid name is stupid. And clunky. I said nothing about my opinions on cults whatsoever. But since you're projecting assumptions here, I'll share it anyway. They're an unfortunate reality, but hardly 'dumb'. Their prevalence proves how incredibly effective they are, though not as effective as most organized religions who utilize the same methodology on a grander scale with much more subtlety.

[@alexinfinite7142]

This is how I interpreted it.

[@Some90sSlasher]

I think the Dredge's lore is a decent campfire tale, where most lore is more or less a grim biography (or fanfiction)

[@MutatedAmerican]

He looks like Mara from the SMT series, and that image will never leave my head

[@amylegutki347]

Jim Jones attended Indiana University in Bloomington. Many years later, I also attended I I found out that I lived in the dorm room that had been Jim Jones’ dorm room. A housekeeper for our building had been at IU during the Jim Jones era and knew him. I was talking with her one day and she told me that my room had been Jones’ room about 25 or so years prior to me attending. Nothing more to the story except that it creeped me out for the rest of the year because the Jonestown Massacre had just happened like 7 or 8 years prior to me attending IU. So, it was still in our recent memories.

[@MrRuner45]

Know I'm late to the party, but I am so far a massive fan of how the Dredge turned out, both in design and in story. Design: This thing makes no sense, and I love it. It is clearly just an amalgamation thats bearly holding itself in place. It's movements in its flesh design, is heavy and "wet" (dont know how else to explain it) while in it's puppet form, it looks like it's static in a few places, as if it's trying to snap pieces together. It's not the most scary thing to look at, if it was static in the light, but in it's rightful elements it clearly has a commanding presence. Imagine you hear a loud bumb in your house, and you go to investigate. You hear creaks, cracks and scratching sounds coming from a walk in closet. You approach it slowly as the door slowly opens before you reach it. You *only* start seeing it's head after you've adjusted to the darkness. I would fucking run if I saw that! Story: I agree that it's more a story about Otto Stamper and his "fold". Which makes me wish we could have a Tome about what else Stamper has done. But what I REALLY like, is that the "Druanee" is only ever told as a ghost story. A ghost story Stamper has a "means" to combat, and the fold obliges (because of course they do) to get rid of this Druanee. Only at the end are we ever presented with this clearly primeval being. Something that seems so distant from everything that is the entity. Something *old* yet new. It was summoned through the cries of fear, pain, hate and Violence that the fold was suffering from. I think the Dredge is 10/10 in my opinion.

[@crimson1372]

I think its less of a fear of body horror or eldrich monsters, but darkness itself. Nectaphobia, the fear of darkness (Something i have) is where you fear what monsters may be in the darkness. Dredge fits that perfectly! He is darkness itself, and having body parts come out of like claws, arms, heads and many other things as well as the closets adds to this. And just like real nightmares, where in your nightmares you cant ever escape the monester thats in them, as they are always everywhere, same thing applies with his remant

[@lrgamer1224]

I think you’ve answered your own question. It’s animated like an organic creature because it is supposed to be. I don’t see it as an eldritch creature that manipulated the inhabitants of the Garden Of Joy but rather a creature that was born on the day the citizens mutilated each other. It is strongly implied that Otto stamper is responsible for the people missing. Then again I have only watched 4 minutes of your video so far so I don’t know if you will address these points later on.

[@jaska8203]

- First truly monstrous killer - Demogorgon: aight imma head out

[@max-UH-million]

Bro I love jumpscaring survivors as dredge cause the last thing u expect is a canceled elden ring boss hopping out a window

[@BurgundyBurrito]

Realistic or not, the lack of subtlety and the clumsiness in the Dredge's lore makes it feel more like a campfire story than a real story, perfect for a character meant to be Behavior's answer to the boogeyman. I'm not saying it was on purpose, but it could be, and if it's not, I feel like it still works. They could definitely frame it like that in the future if they felt like it and it wouldn't seem out of place.

[@Joseph_Crawley]

People are aften very shocked at how much control a cult leader has. Everyone thinks "how could anyone allow that madness to happen" and the answer is rather frightening to most people- the human mind is surprisingly malleable. It's rather easy to manipulate someone, as well as a group, formulaic even. From the outside it's obvious and *lacks subtlety*, because you are on the outside looking in. When I first read the lore, I thought "Lovecraftian Jonestown" and didn't have to suspend any disbelief, when it came to how events let up to the final act that summoned a physical manifestation of the emotional darkness associated with a deranged cult. I understand your opinion is just that. A result of your own personal reality, the result of every experience leading up to you making the video. My experiences lead me to different conclusions, and I am very happy with the new killer.

[@thefluffyaj4119]

god I love the dredge to the point I immediately try to give a dredge a kill whenever I see one, they're my favorite. but I still agree with you, all of these concepts sound absolutely fantastic and the loss of potential is sad to me. I still really love the dredge for what it is but it absolutely could be better

[@hereshecomes-fallonme]

always love your content genuinely brightens up my day when i see that you've uploaded

[@CiaoChosi]

I absolutely adore this killer, specifically the design is just so unique and the story not focusing on one specific character since its a being created from the dead residents of the town from all the madness that had happened to em'.

[@bleachsanchoblastk]

The slow music heard on the tapes is the result of it having been recorded over a disco tape.

[@the_shadowphoenix]

Here's my answer to the Dredge's identity crisis. I believe that what bHVR has done with the Dredge is perfect. It is an eldritch monster. But it is also a physical creature. Allow me to explain. The Dredge is summoned, NOT CREATED, by the dark thoughts and actions of people. It's what it feasts on, sort of like Pennywise with fear. Your evil fuels it. When it is summoned, it is formless darkness appearing as fog. Because it is a supernatural monster, its body proportions are not limited to its actual size shown in game. It shows what it believes will terrify its victims. It is described in the lore to take the corpses and add them to itself in order to give itself a physical body. That's why it is fluid motion; it IS a physical creature, but it is also an eldritch force. It's a mix of the two. It's ultimately very unique. One more thing that I find absolutely fascinating about the Dredge is the skulls on its back. Very clearly, these are meant to be trophies and are sort of its way of "showing off" its kill count and scope, able to terrify new victims as they realize this monster understands exactly what it is doing and that it is not mindless at all. We can deduce it is not mindless due to the fact that it chooses to leave ONLY Otto alive when it could have very well just killed him. It's sort of its way of thanking Otto for summoning it to where it can feast. Not only that, the Dredge is smart enough to use Otto like a pawn in order to gain itself a more physical body so that it can kill more easily on its own rather than relying on other people to aid it. Where I'm curious, and where I'm hoping they explore in future lore, is how the Dredge got into the realm. I can't recall the lore describing how it is taken, but I could be wrong. It would be VERY interesting if the Dredge invaded the realm without being taken and the Entity has no idea how it got there. Using what we know about the Dredge's scope of power, it could very easily overpower the Entity because it could just feed off its evil to fuel its own power. The Dredge feels like a legitimate threat to everything in the realm, a being of pure evil and darkness, more so than even Myers, so corrupting that it sucks all light and hope from the air. An absolutely masterfully crafted killer.

[@firebird1038]

My take on the dredge's design is that they were trying to give this inhuman twisted creature fluid movements to hit an uncanny valley effect (The reverse of your example in the video because those are all humans acting in unhuman ways, this is a non-human creature acting with human grace). You know that the dredge is made up of people who committed mass suicide, and yet the fact that they move so smoothly starts to raise more terrifying questions about the creature, such as how such a creature can be so coordinated, is it a reflection on how cults create an ideal personality that it shapes members to fit into? Is the eldritch creature so comfortable puppeting others that it has complete smoothness of movement? does that mean this creature could completely operate a less complex human body? There is also a disturbing quality to see something so hulking and twisted moving with such fluidity and relative grace because it is so unexpected from the appearance. I think the Dredge's design becomes scarier the more you think about it.

[@dontlvang6369]

Ещё тьма его тела похожая на грациозное платье и одновременно пустоту смотря на которую ты испытываешь страх

[@BunkerBeast]

I personally find the movements of the Dredge to be quite disturbing. Because... it moves like a human would. It moves its head like it's using its using non-existent legs. It's non-attacking hand pumps and waves like it's sprinting. This thing that is definitely not human is trying to move like it is one...

[@Smoke.stardust]

the form it takes isnt the form it took in reality. he moves so fluently in the realm the trials take in because the entity gave them the abilities to do that.

[@boyzilla78productions]

If you think about it, the criticisms about the dredge made in this video may have indirectly predicted the unknown.

[@Moghster6969]

Lmao😊

[@xxSandt21xx]

That Death Tape was easily the most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever listened to. I doubt I’ll ever be able to forget it

[@ctdaniels7049]

Jim Jones: I hate American capitalism! also Jim Jones: [creates a private prison]

[@themadgamer1217]

The sound cues are the scariest to me. Just gurgly and bubbly crud unnerves me with any kind of killer in this game. (I.e. the demogorgon’s sounds also give me indigestion, as well.) 😂 Anyways, when I opened up his lore tab, I thought I was gonna read something about the initial creation of an eldritch god that was connected to an ancient civilization like what Adiris was apart of, but no, I really did get an obvious mirror of the Jonestown massacre.

[@justuni3751]

Personally I'm really impressed with the Dredge, it made me decide to try playing it after not touching dbd in a few months and it has somehow reignited my enjoyment in the game. Plus I have to disagree with the appearance, I think the Dredge looks great, the idea that a supernatural being is capable of moving so smoothly to mimic a living being yet chooses to make this horrific body is fascinating to me, though I do like some of the idea's you mentioned, such as the bodies not being dead.

[@sagafinalem]

I like to think that BHVR took this advice into account when creating the Unknown.

[@puffpuffpassmako]

Theory: Dredge is the physical manifestation of dark thoughts and evil, so is pretty much invincible. BUT there is a way to destroy it. The only way to defeat the Dredge is destroy the town. The town is the Dredge's source of power. Nuking it or burning the place down would render it powerless and force it to dissipate. It would also free all the trapped souls within it

[@This-Username-Is-Taken]

In my opinion this is the best full chapter (map, killer an survivor) we have had since a lulaby for the dark

[@goodguygamer1795]

Your Videos are the best thing to sleep too. After watching it ofc 😅

[@rhyderleming5851]

I was willing to forgive the “I can’t tell if it’s an eldritch horror or a creature” because you said emphasis, but there are some problems if you think emerging from a mist is something a creature can do, we have a problem.

[@eadanime1741]

the only argument i can make for the smooth movement is actually player challenges (let me explain): players are used to smooth flowing movement, if the dredge movement is like a limp, players not only would have to work around what could arguably be an extra challenge, but also some players would constantly think its a glitch, do i think it would make him more dynamic with a limp, yes, but in terms of practicality, the smooth movement seems better in my mind for those reasons

[@rhyderleming5851]

Maybe we just have different priorities, but I think that accuracy comes before scare factor any day of the week.

[@valthonispaladine7999]

Stamper should have just named the island Culty McCultface.

[@greatbritton7202]

The dredge design should take a page or two of the design of the Huddle from Inside

[@JackMeriusTacktheritrix1]

I completely agree on your design statement, I think dredge looks cool, but it could have been so much better, wish it was more bodies and not just hands too

[@SOBEKCrocodileGod]

I personally love the design. It’s like what happens when you combine a Silent Hill monster with a Resident Evil boss. Also gives off Trevor Henderson vibes. Also the first killer who has me feeling paranoid when alone at night. Like that shit looks like something I’d see out the corner of my eye when getting a midnight snack.

[@comradecorvus8748]

The part of the lore where the cult members are deprived of sleep and becoming increasingly paranoid/agitated which leads to them tearing eachother apart really reminds me of a short animated film called The Backwater Gospel. It's very similar narratively and thematically, as well as having similar scenarios/plots, albeit with more overtly religious "subtext" and an old western theme. I'd highly recommend anyone reading to check it out.

[@gunhead7159]

I think the dredge is an illusion, something who's true form is unknown. It takes the greatest fears and nightmares of others and becomes them, and thematically would be different for everyone who sees it. I say this because of the few unique skins it has: Twisted Plaything (this is obvious, its dolls) Memory of Maurice (the twisted sight of a dead loved one) War is Hell (the fears of war) Unwanted Toy (illusions of a kids toys looking like monsters in the dark) At least that's the vibe I get from the character.

[@cthulhubecausewhynot1182]

Yup. The Dredge isn’t the limbs- Those are just things to scare those particular victims- It’s the pillar of darkness, or more specifically *whatever is inside of that pillar*

[@ReverendLondo]

Way to basically describe what they needed to do to come up with Unknown, lol

[@theslanderousgent4475]

Can we just talk about it now being canonised as being called Greg. Better name than a friend of mine gave it… The Drussy!

[@narcotic_soda8687]

Man I hope we get a Tome about Otto and his time at the Fold so that we can see things for ourself.

[@xxprototypexx5056]

Im sorry, but i completely disagree about the dredge being a puppet. The Dredge is supposed to be DBD's boogey man, and has a design similar to the reaper, hence the scythe like arm, the darkness covering it's body like a cloak, it's head shaped very much like an opened hood, and the fact that instead of straight killing you in the mori, it takes you into itself(The reaper has been known not to harm, but just take you). The puppet movements should be saved for a puppet like killer, not the dredge.

[@Mangalore620]

I kind of disagree with the movement thing about how it should be more jerky and puppet like the dredge. It kind of adds to it because you would think this thing wouldn’t move well and yet it’s so fast it’s almost a natural and how quick it is I think that looks like this could move like that and yet it does.

[@Flareono]

I really enjoy the Dredge’s gameplay personally and I really think that it’s lore is a great story (yeah it isn’t subtle but it’s crazy to know how real it is) however I can understand your opinion and agree that it could have been more scary

[@Seoul_Soldier]

The amalgamation of dolls outfit definitely gives me hope that the Dredge's skins will help flesh them out as nightmare fuel.

[@rhyderleming5851]

6:00 so either make the body entirely unimportant, by having it break apart, (I think it can be a flesh golem and an eldritch horror) or completely do away with the entire idea of the dredge, it just doesn’t work

[@splattercombo]

to be fair to the lack of realism in the cult. that's how i felt to begin with, but thinking about it i've also read about plenty of cults that were balls to the wall with the most obvious culty language and yet people were taken in anyway. it's kind of an intellectual fallacy to point out how stupid and obviously cultish things are from the outside, because these things do happen in the real world with alarming regularity, but the people who are being manipulated and having some kind of need fulfilled will brush over those things or laugh them off until they become normalized. i think what would really benefit its lore is when it eventually gets a tome, a single entry on otto *building* the fold would do a lot. i don't think it has to have a lot of time dedicated to it, just an explanation of purposely taking in vulnerable people: sad people, lonely people, etc. an offhand comment from a potential member with otto laughing it off and/or explaining it away could do a lot to lend the implication of charisma to his character. i just think the issue is that the foundations need to be reinforced a little before the story can be properly explored rather than that it's fundamentally flawed in the rest of it.

[@pnwgirl4]

YES I have been waiting for this video since the chapter was announced! One of the most interesting killer lores in a while imo

[@ImaraRavenfire]

Honestly, I don't mind that they beat the idea of the people of the Garden being a cult into people's heads. Not everyone knows what a cult looks like from the inside or from the outside. Somehow, those folks have remained blissfully ignorant of the real world implications of it, but that's likely just me

[@cthulhubecausewhynot1182]

It’s also possible (And almost guaranteed) that it happened before Jonestown, which I think really cemented cults as something people thought about.

[@sylvievadimsky7515]

I personally didn’t mind the lore when I first read through it. It kind of reminded me of Lovecraftian stories, which are usually (in my experience) beating the reader over the head with how terrible it all is, usually with a main character who is oblivious to the end. Particularly, the Dredge’s story reminded me of “The Shadow Over Innsmouth,” which remains my favorite Lovecraft story. Sure, the much longer Lovecraft work has slightly more of a growing dread sort of feel, but something about The Fold and the “garden of joy” reminded me of that particular story.

[@FelixCattus]

As soon as the story turned the cult into killing a reporter I imediately remembered the jonestown incident

[@8-random258]

Idk if its me but the darkness on the bottom part of the Dredge is actually where all the body parts are being controlled like a puppet but not like a puppet with strings on it but rather like a Hand puppet way. Basically controlling the body parts but from the bottom instead of the middle or above.

[@monke7914]

I find it kinda funny that the story states that Otto banished the malthinkers, despite one of dredge's addons being the skull of a malthinker who was supposedly never seen again, obviously implying that Otto had them killed. It feels like there was a disconnect between the people on the writing team over how cruel they wanted Stamper to be because the story makes no mention of him having malthinkers killed to my knowledge. I love the Dredge, nobody can replace my favorite turkey boi, but I feel like his lore just doesn't fit DBD. Or more accurately, DBD doesn't fit his story. To cover such a complex and frankly horrifying topic as cults, you need to give it the time it deserves, not just a chapter of story.

[@cthulhubecausewhynot1182]

The malthinkers were “supposedly” banished. In reality Stamper had them killed, and was likely behind the disappearances and incidents leading up to the Dredge’s arrival. He did this intentionally.

[@imlivinginyourceiling]

can i just say that i think the spartan skin does quite well to lean into the "darkness in a cadaverous shell" concept, with the asymmetrical and extremely cobbled together look adorned by the most stereotypical depiction of darkness, a slack-jawed skull in an unfitting helmet

[@coffeeking9565]

what i like most about the dredge is that they are supposedly made up of multiple people who died on the island. If they really wanted to go for that aesthetic, it was a big missed opportunity that his add ons weren't more personal items and like you said, it could use more body horror elements.

[@vimtocat1741]

I think for me what makes the Dredge really good is how its lore gives a small hint on just how destructive the cults ideals of repression really were and for me the strongest point would have to be the voices you hear during Nightfall that sound like the tormented cries of the people Otto lead to their deaths and the chanting and screams when it attack or in general really give the impression of something chaotic in nature. I think the main changes I'd make though would be to add more on how the lack of sleep and constant paranoia really took a toll on their mind, maybe in a tome for either Dredge or Haddie we can see just how charismatic Otto actually was and if at that point the cult began to somewhat resent the situation they were in. Design wise I do feel like it needs a bit of a glow up as the first time I saw it's picture I thought it looked more like penis and and less like some horrid puppet of human remains. A good point of reference would be the Guardian from Evil Within 2 a literal monster that uses a body constructed from the dismembered corpses of women that were targeted by a serial killing photographer, the Guardian's design for me is one that gets more unnerving the more you analyse its appearance, that's what the Dredge could use. Maybe the tome could explore a new recruit into the fold and he/she gradually trusts Otto who takes the form a dear friend and paternal figure and over time he uses subtle forms of gaslighting and manipulation disguised as care and concern for the safety and wellbeing of this person using their lack of a stable role model since the people he brought in were troubled to give the act of an anchor they trust and soon begin to openly justify what we'd see as the worst of his crimes, such as forcibly ripping children from the arms of their mothers and fathers if cry or complain that they miss home or inflicting physical punishments such as Glasgow smiles and branding where all the citizens even the children are forced to inflict pain on a member who has been disgraced and flogged as a form of twisted penance to earn their "spot in the light" again. Maybe the oc who's perspective we see this through is a teacher made by Otto's security to read only indoctrination material that poisons their minds and possibly goes against it at first where they themselves are tortured and blamed for it and we see possible effects of Stockholm syndrome take effect on them as they so desperatly seek the validation of this man who they now see as their deliverer and are worn down to the point that they are just a shell of their former self.

[@savvythedivineyethuggable7493]

Speaking of monster killers, I want a sort of "monster survivor." We have all normal human survivors that looks strikingly similar. It's good that we got a greater monster killer, but killers already have visual variety. Survivors also need that outside of cosmetics. Any ideas from you?

[@greenbrickbox3392]

Good humanoid alien or good mutant vs their evil counterpart would make sense but it would need to be pulled off carefully to avoid ruining the mood of the game.

[@savvythedivineyethuggable7493]

@@greenbrickbox3392 I was thinking of a zombified werewolf invented by a child as his imaginary friend, but the kid "imagining" him was in a sort of Silent Hill situation. I have ideas for *killers* in general, but the only one that could really work with that is one that disguises itself as a casket, turned snail-lizard-like murder monster by a person who is grieving the lose of their recently grave-robbed grandfather. Maybe the chapter could be about how desires can have subconscious consequences for those around us, like subtly influencing our actions. Any other ideas?

[@aesiro1336]

Maybe there could be a lich killer and the survivor would be one of it's skeletons that just... didn't wanna kill people.

[@savvythedivineyethuggable7493]

@@aesiro1336 What if there was an Imp survivor, and the killer is an Ent.

[@aesiro1336]

@@savvythedivineyethuggable7493 I dunno, I just really want a lich in the game.

[@DianaHatter]

27:40 "a line of weird and wonderful new killers" The Unknown staring through the window:

[@xury12]

The dredge is definitely a creepypasta style creature. I think with a lot of these types of campfire stories there is a lot of potential for more monsterous killers. I agree with your assessment, I immediately thought the way you did, especially about the darkness was the real threat. If anything the mori animation supports this. However I think the developers don’t want to go that far as you’re explaining because despite all the mori animations the survivors bodies remain unharmed.

[@VirginStarrrrr]

Now that I see that you call the dredge "Greg" now makes me wanna call him Greg. Thank you pixel. This is just what I wanted

[@ethan1969]

I really like Dredge so far! Not my favorite killer ever, but zooming around with its locker power is so fun. Also that doll outfit is amazing, and the stuff of nightmares

[@Arthur-zb9eh]

Am I the only one who heard ‘Greg’ ever other time you say Dredge. Even the subtitles agree. It could be a good nickname for it.

[@Klausinator451]

Or "Reg" like, Reginald.

[@nihilsnake4017]

I love the Dredge’s very rare outfit (not the doll one) which isn’t out yet, it looks like something from Silent Hill

[@Legolas.T.Spencer]

So on the visual design, I don't see the issue, its not a puppet, it is a bodies on bodies type creature, but that darkness is also part of it. Its a collection of its victims, mentally & physically. I don't see why it would have to follow the tropes of similar creatures, that wouldn't enhance it, it would diminish it, take away abit of its uniqueness, & wouldn't make it inherently more scary. It being a physically unsound being that can move fluently , shows intelligent, & able to defend its self, while wanting nothing more then to add you to itself isn't scary to you?

[@newgwg]

What you’ve described here was all put into the unknown lol

[@NotThatGuy523]

Been waiting for this, I love this new killer and chapter as a whole. Love the content man keep up the good work!

[@Caitsaysthings]

thank you so much for mentioning fiddlesticks, ive been working on a fiddlesticks killer concept for awhile

[@penguinproductions8829]

I love the original idea. The fear and madness of a cult manifested into a creature. But having it be set up by the cult was a mistake in my opinion. I think it would have been better if Otto was simply indoctrinating new members into the vale, and caused them so much pain and paranoia that there was so much fear he summoned something he didn’t mean to, and now it has come to haunt him. By making Otto actually think that those on the island loved him, and that he loved them, could have given the story irony and give him a proper personality. I also think the map’s potential was squandered. The idea that the place was so utterly twisted that the entity had no way to make sense of it at all and was only able to take a twisted personification of what happened there is fantastic. And then you go on the map, and it’s nothing. Just random upside down rooms and weird architecture. It doesn’t even make sense for the lore. Why is the road being torn up? Did the dredge do it? If so, how did Otto stop people from suspecting anything? Why is there a train and motel? It was an island, with no need for a train or motel, since the story makes it seem everyone had their own homes. The Dredge and Otto could have been TERRIFYING. If only they properly described the terror he inflicted. The children killed, as evident by the baby hands and dolls on the dredge. Why not give us a list of casualties? These could be amazing stories for a Haddie and dredge tome, one eluding to what truly happened, and haddie’s exploring the island, seeing the aftermath, finding the bodies.

[@Coyotemooneyes]

Great video! Always love to hear your insights! I do want to make a slight clarification on the Jones Town massacre, not so much for you as for the viewers. People did very much protest Jim Jones's suggestion of mass suicide. On the full version of the death tapes, you can hear a woman, Christine Miller, arguing with him. To no avail, but she does very much try. Also the idea that everyone in Jonestown willingly committed suicide is a myth, in truth only a small percentage of them willingly drank after knowing the flavoraid would actually kill them. The cheering and applause you hear on the tapes is because most of them thought the whole thing was fake. Jones did that kind of thing literally all the time, staging fake mass suicide scenarios, and other group activities born out of extreme paranoia to "test" them. At the point of the death tapes, the members were exhausted from hard work and sleep deprivation, suffering from malnutrition, the extreme heat, and more than a few from being assaulted by Jones's personal guard of loyalists. They cheer because they think it's fake, because they just want to go home, because they want Jim Jones to just shut up. Once they started to realize this was the real thing, tragically mostly the parents of dying and dead children, mass panic broke out. On the later death tapes you can actually hear screaming and wailing. The majority of the dead were forcibly injected and fed with the poison by Jones's personal guard. Jonestown wasn't a mass suicide, it was a mass murder. And I always find it important to have that distinction, because often people seem to think of them Jonestown victims as "crazed cult members who were brainwashed and evil, killing even their own children". But most of them were just very normal people, rational people, who were taken advantage of, and abused, and ultimately killed for one man's ego trip.

[@VSPhotfries]

THANK YOU! These sorts of things need all the context they can to be understood, and I applaud every effort to make sure people understand the truth of what is so often simplified to absurdity. This is the kind of thing normal, rational people are very much vulnerable to, but we keep reciting half-truths because nobody wants to admit they're actually at risk.

[@nathanweegee1212]

6:12 speaking of the abomination of Llanowar, it's flavor text is exactly this and added a whole lot of flavor!

[@nerdiboy5128]

I believe also that some enemies from Marvel comics in the 70's, particularly those featured against Man-Thing, count as grotesque body horror examples: Bi-Beast, Ehrthold, the Glob, Jody Choate, Mahaprlaya, Robert Hellsgaard, the Revenant, and so on. Pretty much any comic series that had an edge of horror, now that I think about it!

[@stratifacations8377]

what did you say at 0:21?

[@WyaldTalk]

Yiddish? Bro taking like he took a bit of sumn too hot

[@snapbaxtoytalk]

I love how humble and gracious you are with your opinions. Great content! 😄

[@DoctorCrescentMoon]

I think the animations are like that for the sake of visual clarity so you could know when you'll get hit and to give yourself a chance to use the flashlight and when the killer is doing actions

[@austinoakes3898]

Started looking for this video soon as I realized the chapter released today

[@dineez627]

The thumbnail question intrigues me. The answer is yes. I think true terror comes from not knowing what's in the dark watching you. The unknown of what's there and never being able to escape as it gets closer. Tons of ways media can capture this feeling but dbd is simply not it and will never be it.

[@henrysheridan9571]

Hey there! Here’s a thought from a game dev, I worked on spookys house of jump scares, Specimen 7 is related to Unit 731 but you can’t go to in depth of go to dark with it or a few things happen 1: you seem to on the nose and sound like the tradgey is the only defining trait and people get mad at you for it 2: it is so minor it isn’t even noticeable and you get yelled at for it Considering that some people could’ve lived through the Jonestown massacre it’s better to make is obvious 2: Writing a cult is HARD if I said “Yeah one guy took them to a place isolated and then brainwashed them all till they killed themselves/each other” I could be talking about almost every cult Overall the dredge is a good attempt, and great for a first shot But definitely needs to be better if they try something like that again

[@aesiro1336]

*+RESPECT*

[@xxprototypexx5056]

14:07 that auto-aim screwing you over actually hurt my soul. I can straight up feel the frustration you must have felt.

[@sirgumshoe9019]

I find playing the dredge more spooky then fighting it. Seeing all the fingers and geting out of lockers is quite spooky

[@nyelo6426]

"The Fold" and "Ottomarians" are very silly and on the nose but remember that Carmina's story had the "The Vack Label".

[@nyelo6426]

I edited this comment so many times because I can't fucking spell :)

[@trulybleak4163]

Honestly this game probably should have had an 18+ rating so they can actually dive into the genuine Horrors in horror instead of tiptoeing around it like they constantly do for some reason. I know the game is ready to M for Mature but honestly I don't think that's enough. I still feel like they hold back on the creativity & violence like how the demogorgon is not allowed to eat/rip people's fucking head off in his mori. Now I'm not saying they should go Ultraviolence & completely go Overkill with it, but if you're going to do it at least do it all the way. I just can't help but feel as if the game had an 18+ rating we could have actually gotten some genuinely horrific lore about the artist or dredge or any of the non-licensed characters instead of just them implying more awful shit.

[@Cosmo_raptor]

I feel like the Dredge sits on the inbetween of the flesh golem and puppet archetypes. The way I see it, the fused body parts (body, arms) are separate, but the Dredge can move them as if it were it's own limbs. Sort of like how Judgement in JJBA works by entering into someone's body to control them

[@secretlydadumbest7427]

I am so happy knowing I wasnt the only one who called him Greg from the second he was leaked

[@nerdiboy5128]

Or Clive Barker's "In The Hills, The Cities." That one's a classic! From the first volume of 'The Books of Blood,' I believe?

[@GulliasTurtle]

Dredge really does feel torn between 2 worlds. The boogy man and the cult monster. There is a really obvious design for the dredge here that I'm frankly annoyed Behavior missed. It should be smiling. It's the manifestation of a cult built around the horror of always being happy, the monster should be happy too. Image how much creepier and more effective Dredge would be if it was just the black mist and a big yellow smiley face floating after you.

[@themonkeyinmycloset]

I feel the same way about the artist. I love the concept of a murderous artist and a killer that uses crows. However the two tropes don't really match. Both of these would have been better as separate killers . Usually bhvr has a talent for mixing tropes together but when they do the things they're merging work with each other. For example the huntress is the fairy tale monster that kidnaps wayward children lost in the woods but she's also a classic ax murder that kills people who intrude into her forest. The two things work together but cult and the boogyman aren't similar tropes

[@GulliasTurtle]

@@themonkeyinmycloset 100%. There is a distinct lack of, for lack of a better phrase, going for it in Behavior's designs. Why isn't Artist a statue? Are they so married to their character rigs? They are monsters. Go for it!

[@dankdaze42069]

Not only is this the possibly least human looking but actually scary characters that's not licensed and is an original character but it's probably the best one out of them all